Changes will be happening here in the next year. Primarily our living situation. My husband isn't even home from deployment, but we expect him to be going to school this summer. We are just waiting on orders. This is considered a permanent move from the military's stand point. The school is for about four months and from there he will then need to move to his next assignment. Wherever that is! We don't know yet. However, that secret location is where we will all end up in 2012.

Do you know what this does to me from a financial standpoint? I'm going crazy thinking of paying for two households for at least 5 months, but up to 10. We still have to buy DH a vehicle just to get to and from work once he returns. I wondering if we should finance more of the vehicle than planned just to have cash for maintaining two households. Decisions. Decisions.

We could move with him at the same time to school and then to the next location. Our consideration is the girls. My oldest will be a 9th grader and the youngest a 6th grader starting middle school. I don't think they should have to move twice in a school year. Once will be enough.

I do feel fortunate to have the cash to pay for two households, but it isn't really how I want to spend our extra funds, ya know? Stay tuned there will be more to this saga at some point.

I have added an additional $1,172 to our truck savings. This includes the $200 I saved from our no spend month in March.

New Balance: $8,528
Yipee!!

Oh, and if you read my earlier post about the Today Show....April Fool's. My husband will return in April, but we will not be announcing the reunion on national television. Sorry!

I'm off to go shopping. One month is plenty for no spending!!

My husband will be home later this month. Yipee!!

Turns out that the Today Show is looking to feature military family reunions and our family was asked to participate. Who doesn't want a free trip to New York City? Stay tuned and I'll let you know the day we will be featured.

The birthday is over. We had Subway for dinner, and Cold Stone Creamery cupcakes for dessert. All very yummy. I spent $30.86. My sister was here, so that was dinner for four and there are two cupcakes left over.

I also had to run to the store for a card (not necessary) and coffee (necessary). I thought I needed mayo, too. When I went to put away the new mayo jar I opened I found another one in the fridge nearly full. Darn!

Balance Forward: $508.41
Gift Purchase: (9.53)
Cash Gift (50.00)
Prescription (22.00)
Grocery Purchase (69.00)
Previous Balance: $357.88

Birthday Eats (30.86)
Grocery Purchases (6.66)
New Balance: $320.36

I expect I'll need fuel either today or sometime this weekend. I also saw a very good deal on Betty Crocker pizza crusts (4 for $1). We use these quite often, so I think I'll buy 12. Super Target charges over $1 for each one, so you can see why I'm drawn to this deal.

Actually, I haven't literally wrapped the gifts yet, but I wrapped up the shopping! I got some pretty good deals on things she wanted and she is getting $50 in cash for her own spending fun.

I have promised her Subway for dinner and cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery. Two favorites of hers! I expect those to cost about $35 later in the week.

Today I need to pick up a prescription as well as a few grocery items. It's a spending day for sure, but all necessities!

Balance Forward: $$508.41

Gift Purchase: (9.53)
Cash Gift (50.00)
New Balance: $448.88

The girls and I took care of two of our neighbor's cats for 10 days. We live just down the block and had to feed them twice a day, play with them and clean out their litter box. We received payment tonight of $50!

Even though March is a no spend month, I think we will plan to do something together this weekend with the money. A movie, a restaurant meal? Maybe we'll wait until the weekend following so it won't be March. What do you think? Should we wait? Or go for it?

I did end up with one expense yesterday. A health item I decided I needed before the end of the month. Cost $5.06.

My parents are visiting for the weekend. My mom is bringing some food. I'm making us homemade pizza for dinner tonight with items already on hand. We will probably eat out for lunch tomorrow to celebrate my oldest daughter's upcoming birthday. It will be their treat. We are visiting a free museum, too. I think I might get away without spending any money until Sunday. It's been a good spring break with minimal expenses. I noticed I still have quite a bit of fuel left in the van that I hope can make it through most of next week. Yipee!!

Beginning Balance: 457.89
Groupon Purchase: (15.00)
Grocery Purchase: (45.59)
Fuel Purchase: (54.49)
Grocery Purchase: (24.13)
Ebay Birthday Purchase: (3.65)
Toaster Purchase: (26.37)
Grocery Purchase: (19.37)
iHerb Purchase: (1.68)
Grocery Purchase: (4.62)
Gift Purchases (19.36)
Grocery Purchase (34.93)
Account Interest $0.07
Cat Food Purchase: (28.61)
Fuel Purchase: (52.21)
Coffee Purchase: (4.99)
Addition of Funds: $500.00
Grocery Purchase: (83.55)
Ebay Purchase: (0.94)
Previous Balance: $538.47

Health Purchase: (5.06)
New Balance: $533.41

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our Irish family to you!

Yesterday was a no spend day. I expect today to be the same. It is warm here and we will head out for a bike ride before the rain arrives tomorrow.

I played around with my online bank account and was able to add visibility to accounts at other banks. I also realized I can catagorize transactions, thus showing me exactly where our money goes each month. It must be similar to mint.com. I like the simplicity of it! Very exciting for me as a math nerd. I'm curious. Does your bank offer this? Do you use it? Has it helped you?

Sunday. Zero spending!

We ate from the cupboards and refrigerator. The snacks are near zero. But not quite.

We watched a movie on netflix. Played with our cats. Visted the neighbor cats twice. The girls played wii. I did some organizing in the basement: broke down boxes for recycling, and put away pictures.

It's spring break week here, so I expect today to be more of the same. It is a bit warmer, so maybe a walk on the trails later.

Tomorrow is payday and we will venture out for groceries. Might hit a free museum exhibit.

In the last two days we have spent $4.62 for a few fill in groceries. I can be a little bad at planning the right amount. For example pasta sauce, would have been fine, but I did have two extra mouths to feed this past weekend. One of the girls really liked the sauce...thus it is now gone.

Beginning Balance: 457.89
Groupon Purchase: (15.00)
Grocery Purchase: (45.59)
Fuel Purchase: (54.49)
Grocery Purchase: (24.13)
Ebay Purchase: (3.65)
Toaster Purchase: (26.37)
Grocery Purchase: (19.37)
iHerb Purchase: (1.68)
Previous Balance: $267.61

Grocery Purchase: (4.62)
New Balance: $262.99

I'm very pleased with this week so far. It is going to be a very nice day Friday, and I think I will use that day to be out birthday shopping for my daughter. I'm hoping to be able to use some coupons to reduce the cost of the gifts she wants.

I'm here to write to you about more spending during my no spend month. Odd isn't it.

I bought my daughter a used copy of Wii Music on ebay and used my $9 paypal balance, which was from Pinecone surveys, to pay for most of it. The remainder, $3.65, was deducted from the checking account.

Beginning Balance: 457.89
Groupon Purchase: (15.00)
Grocery Purchase: (45.59)
Fuel Purchase: (54.49)
Grocery Purchase: (24.13)
Previous Balance: $318.68

Ebay Purchase: (3.65)
New Balance: $315.03

My youngest daughter needed a new folder for school. It turns out I had two in the house she could choose from. No money spent there. She is also having a friend (maybe 2) spend the night tonight. We'll have the pasta we already planned for dinner. And we have several options for breakfast. I'm not buying anything extra because we have company.

Here's looking forward to a no spend weekend!!

I am thinking of attempting a no spend month for March. Has anyone done this before? I have read several blogs where people have.

Obviously a no spend month would still allow for paying bills, buying food and other necessities. Since I would be attempting this in March, I would also have to allow for my daughter's birthday gifts, a special dinner and treat. Luckily she is outgrowing the need for parties.

It seems like a good month to do this after coming off a very expensive month with all the eating out we did. It is my last full month without DH in the house, so I would have complete control over spending.

We will definitely have to get a little creative over spring break with free activities. We already want to visit our local art museum which has free admission. A warm week would allow for some outside walks.

I agreed that my girls are allowed to use their money to buy wants for themselves. I won't allow them to pitch in for wants for the family.

Thoughts, ideas? Anyone want to join me in the month of March?

I booked a four night vacation to Las Vegas for DH and I. We've never been. DH really wants to go. I'm just okay with it. I will have fun wherever if we are together though. We are looking at it as our honeymoon and 15 year anniversary trip all rolled into one.

I'm hoping for a total less than $1500. So far we are under $900 with hotel and airfare. I have to pay for the airfare now and one night hotel deposit.

We ate out a lot in the last two weeks. A fair amount was takeout, because we were sick and didn't feel like cooking or getting to the grocery store. I also didn't have a plan for our meals while DH was home. That was not a good idea.

In two weeks we spent $282.88 on dining out, takeout, fast food, coffee, and donuts. We did not eat out everyday thankfully. I'm pretty sure I gained weight. I haven't had the guts to check the scale yet.

It was all paid with cash. It shouldn't really cause too much of a problem with any of the goals. Although, I might look back in two months and think so.

I'm so glad this is not our normal food spending plan.

Well, it was hard to leave completely from SA. Did you notice I still commented on some blogs? DH did spend a fair amount of time watching TV, which I rarely do. It was great to have him home, except that we were both sick a good portion of the time. I thought it was a cold, but now I think it was a mild respiratory flu! Yuck. We are very close to the deployment being over, so I'll get to announce he is back home for good soon.

I'm looking forward to doing some more financial posts soon, since our federal refund is scheduled to post this Friday. And then, payday, is just around the corner, too!

DH is coming home on R&R any day....so if I'm not around as much you will know why. I'm sure I will still get on to make updates to our savings and my weight loss. Fingers crossed I lose more weight this week. The workouts have been minimal.

I think all of you SA Bloggers are awesome. You are doing wonderful and amazing things to make your financial picture brighter. Keep up the good work and take it one day at a time!

It's a snow day here in Iowa. I think we probably got at least five inches and it blew around and drifted.

It was nice to wake up with my neighbor already working on my driveway with his big snowblower. I have a snowblower, and have used it on some of the last storms, but it does still take awhile to move large drifts. It is nice that I don't have to go out. If I don't go out, I don't spend money!!

The only bad thing about the storm. I didn't set out the trash and recycleables for pickup this morning. I thought it would be delayed. Nope. I missed them both. It is okay, we don't accumulate too much trash. The recycleables will be another two weeks before pickup and likely an overflowing bin by then. It is what it is, right?

I lost 2.6 pounds in my first week counting calories. It wasn't too bad for the first week. I'm being very gentle with myself this time around. I want to establish better eating habits, not just starve myself to a thin weight. I made a salad last night with bulgar wheat, which I have never made before. It was pretty good.

Often many of us focus on paying down debt, or saving all our hard earned dollars that we foget to share with others. My 13 year old daughter had an assignment to 'do something nice for a stranger' this week. Her idea was to take some of her own coins (ones she's specifically found on the ground herself) and toss them back on the ground for someone else to find.

I had to go to Target, so that is where she chose to complete the task. She was very discreet. The next day she had to share this with her class. One boy thought it was 'so cool'. After they all shared they voted on the best one. Her idea and and one other boy tied for the week. By the way that boy, helped a disabled person take their groceries to their car.

The same day I walked past a coinstar machine at Walmart. I stopped with my youngest daughter to check it out. We did not have coins. I turns out you can donate your coins to charity at these locations. I think I will encourage them to take some of their loose change there for donation.

Today I received an email from the American Red Cross encouraging monthly donations. Apparently, $12 a month provides 2 blankets for disaster victims. That seems reasonable. We donated last year two different times, but I think I'm willing to make the donation monthly.

Are you sharing?

It's been ten years since I first purchased life insurance and it is now time to increase my premium. I have a $250,000 policy. I've been paying $295 per year. It has increased to $675! Yikes. I know I'm older now and much more likely to die (I'm only 38).

Honestly, I probably need more insurance. I probably need to shop around, too. Today, I'm not in the mood. And do you know that I should probably lose 30 plus pounds to even get a better rate? And...I really hate having my blood drawn. I realize not good reasons to avoid the life insurance shopping.

The rate is probably fair. I will renew and pay the new premium when it comes due. I will shop around sometime this year for a new rate. Really.

I accomplished everything on the list yesterday. Well one could always clean more. And I might.

In additon to yesterday's list, I took down the outside holiday lights and all decorations except tree and lights. Right. No ornaments are left on. Tomorrow it will be down until next year.

Today, since my guests have postponed their trip here because of ice, I will list a few more year end tasks to accomplish.

1)Clean out baskets of paper near my desk.

2)Write thank you notes.

3)Bake chocolate chip bars(because the diet starts in three days).

4)Write and send card to my husband.

5)Mend two items.

6)Okay...more cleaning. Vacuum lower level.

7)After the market closes today...record investment balances! At least they will be up from last year.

Enjoy the day and the beginnings of a new year!

I think I mentioned some of our goals in November, but here they are again in a little more detail.

1) Save maximum in Roth IRA's = $10,000
2) Save 9% of basic pay in TSP
3) Save for college = $4,000
4) Pay off van loan, beginning balance = $1,643
5) Save truck downpayment = $12,000
6) Save cash for two vacations
7) Evaluate possible Roth conversion

The contribution to the TSP is up 2% from 2010 because of the reduction in payroll taxes. The college contribution is increased because we expect to save the full year. However, I will need to open 529 accounts for the girls. We are currently in Coverdale Educational Savings accounts and the maximum has been reduced to $500 per year beginning in 2011. That is not enough for us.

The payoff on the van will be easy considering how well we have done so far. I hope to pay it off by mid January!! Then we'll save for about 4 months towards a new to us truck. Then we'll save for vacations to take place in the middle of the year.

It should be fun to see what 2011 brings! Tell me what goals you have for next year.

All the snow everyone else is getting missed me. And I'm thankful. Everyday of winter that goes by where I don't have to shovel snow is good for me since I'd have to do the scooping myself. I do have a snowblower, but I'm not a big fan of it. It would be really nice if it could at least until after Christmas traveling. Wishful thinking. One can wish right?

We have put up our holiday decorations. We actually had my husband direct where he wanted a couple of ornaments to be hung on the tree when we talked on Skype today. It was nice to have him participate even in a small way.

I'm very close to having Christmas shopping done. Maybe another $20 worth of gifts to buy. I had to buy Christmas lights today. The ones that worked last year would only light up 2/3 of the bulbs. I tried changing fuses with no luck. The cost $7. We are about to make another run to Target...fingers crossed I can keep the spending low there.

Later today, I'm getting a deal on an item I saw on craigslist. The item is usually close to $100, but this person is selling it for $50, nearly new still in the box! The item is for someone on my Christmas list...who sometimes reads the blog.

Just happy to be getting a deal and wanted to share. If I remember I'll disclose the item after the holidays.

Check out craigslist for deals in your area. Some are new! You help out the person selling the item get some needed cash and declutter their home. Win. Win.

I've just read that ESA's or Coverdale Savings Accounts are going to revert back to a limit of $500 per year investment limit in 2011, unless Congress makes changes. We have been saving in ESA's. So...now we have to make changes.

I liked the flexibility of the ESA, but it looks that most of our money will now need to go to a 529 plan. With having it in a state plan, it just seems frustrating if we move from state to state while we are saving. Have to give the state tax deduction back...at least I think that is what I read. For now, I think I'll just leave the ESA money where it is and start anew.

We also have UGMA accounts for our girls which we have not regularly been investing in. I guess I need to consider it all.

Anyone have thoughts or ideas for me?

This post is just some of my thoughts about next years goals. Things are iffy since we could be moving. The income will stay the same. The expenses could change.

We will continue to save at least 15% towards retirement.
We will contribute to our daughters college funds.
We will pay off the van very early in 2011!!
We will pay a large percentage in cash for a new to us truck.
Then...we pay off the small loan on the truck. If there is one.
And we will go on a couple's vacation and a family vacation with cash!
I will also look into converting some more rollover money to Roth Ira's.
I need to consider more to the emergency fund.
If we don't move, I need to look into refinancing or at least pay extra on the mortgage.

I'll round out all those goals out later with numbers.

I'm finally done sewing the costume! Princess Daisy will get to dress up for our party on Friday and beg for candy on Saturday. (Umm...Halloween is different here.)



The things we mothers do for our children huh?

Now the party spending begins. I'm really trying to keep the costs down, but things add up. Luckily many of them can be used again. I'm also providing dinner for the group. It will be lots of fun and we are all looking forward to it.

Okay, an update is needed. I am almost done with the Princess Daisy costume. I just need to hem the bottom. But I'm too tired tonight to do a good job.

Today I did very little because I realized my girls needed to stay home for a head lice treatment! Ugh!! Sounds easy, but lots of combing. They both have very long hair. Of course, I had to wash bedding, too. Luckily, one of them was caught VERY early it seems. The other...not so much. I think I missed diagnosing it over the weekend. I thought it was just a dry scalp. She has that too, but it interferred in understanding the itchy problem.

So...nothing financial, except buying head lice treatments! We are approaching payday and I expect to make another large payment on the van loan!!

We made an out of town trip this weekend. As a result I spent some money. Gas, snacks, food for the event we attended and money for Princess Daisy's wig!

Now that I'm back, the sewing contines on the Princess Daisy costume. I am getting closer to finishing, but I bet I need several more hours. Until you see the completed costume pictures, you'll know where I am.

Sewing!

I'm sewing a princess daisy (from Mario Kart) costumef from Mario Kart for my daughter. We couldn't find one that even exists premade...so I winging it by sewing from a 99 cent pattern and sale fabric. I think I spent less than $10 total. However the hours that I spent on this costume are crazy!! I feel like I have been working on it for days and I'm not done yet.

I'll post a picture when it is complete. I can say it has kept me from browsing garage sales or surfing the net or spending too much money!

In case you are curious about what the plan is after the van loan is paid off, here's the scoop. We are saving as much cash as possible to purchase DH a vehicle. It seems likely it will be a truck. Hopefully, we can find a great deal on used and take out a very small loan.

From there our plans are a bit up in the air. We may be moving, or not. We need to keep cash available for a move. If it appears the move is further away, then we would pay off the small truck loan (if we have one). After that, I would really need to evaluate. College will be getting closer for our oldest. Overall, the goal will simply be to keep improving our financial situation, through saving, investing and mortgage paydown (if we have one at the next location).

I know. It's a bit vague. It even bothers me a bit. So it goes as a military family. I will just do the best we can with what we know at the time.