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Vet Expense & More

September 20th, 2016 at 09:49 pm

One of our kitties isn't feeling so well. GI imbalance the vet says. I did get my first visit free, but a test and meds cost me $80.92 today. I don't like that she isn't doing well or that I had to spend money, but that is how it goes. Will try to have this expense come from this pay period and avoid pulling what I put aside for savings a few days ago.

Yesterday was spendy. I bought some goodies to send in a care package and then mailed two packages. I wasn't exactly looking to spend more than $15 on the gifts, but ended up finding a few more items for another $15. Not a big deal really, and I don't have any regrets. It just all added up fast!

I sold an item on eBay. Look like I will net about $6. I almost gave up on that item even selling, so that was a nice surprise!

School Expenses

September 1st, 2016 at 07:54 pm

I've already mentioned how my daughter needed to buy a specific dress online for her choir class. That was $85.50. It may need to be altered too, so that adds to the cost. She also spent $114 on art supplies for her two drawing classes. I reimbursed her for those expenses since I will be able to claim those as required supplies for classes with the American Opportunity Credit.

My high school daughter came home with the picture order form. I do always buy these, but buy the smallest package that will provide the grandparents and a few aunts a picture. With tax I paid $37. Next up, the yearbook. They go all out at this high school with colored and glossy pages. I think the advisor is probably doing a disservice by allowing the yearbook kids to pick all the bells and whistles. It only make the yearbook an option to fewer kids. We have always bought them, and I did ask if my daughter felt she needed it and the answer was yes. I paid $68 plus tax for the yearbook. And finally, she needs a new academy shirt for the engineering program they have at school. That is another $28. I did also pay the Junior class dues of $35 which go primarily towards prom. At least I'm almost positive I will not have prom expenses, as she isn't interested in going.

I realize some of these expenses are not required, so I'm definitely not complaining. It just amazing how much stuff they throw at you at the beginning of the year.

End of Budget

August 30th, 2016 at 12:36 am

$43.70. That is how much we have left of our budget until payday on Thursday. Our checking account still has $8K in it, so we aren't broke!

I did spend about $25 today at Walmart. Not a fan, but it is close, so we end up there occasionally. I bought a large umbrella, package of pens, composition notebook, ant bait (ants in my kitchen...not a fan!!) and a soda.

I also wrote the first check to the school for $35. Each grade pays dues. They are higher for Juniors and Seniors because of prom. Dues were only $5 last year and I think all the students get a spirit t shirt with the money. My daughter doesn't plan to go to prom. It's just not her type of things. But we pay what we owe. She can't even get a locker assigned until she brings in the money!

My older daughter had to buy a specific dress for her choir class this year. Dress, plus scarf and shipping was $85!!! She will wear it three times. I did tell her she should ask around if anyone from a previous class had one to sell, but she either didn't OR couldn't find anyone her size. Maybe she can sell hers next semester. I do get to count it towards required class expenses when figuring our taxes, so that helps a little.

The plan is to make the next two days no spend days! I feel pretty confident we can do it.

Band Spending and More

August 27th, 2016 at 05:10 am

We are in the midst of marching band season for my youngest daughter. Well, oldest daughter is also, but she's out of town. We pay $7 each to get into every football game we attend. Tonight we also bought food and drinks. We spent $8.50 on four beverages, nachos and a hotdog. It was hot! We may have been able to skip a couple beverages if the weather was cooler.

I did a little clothes spending yesterday. I need a few new pairs of panties. I have a favorite brand and style, and I don't buy them very frequently. I also browsed the clearance racks and found a pair of capris in my new size (yea, for weight loss). I bought them plus four pairs of panties for $30 at Kohl's. I did have a 30% off coupon so that helped quite a bit. I was willing to spend $30 on three pairs of underwear before I walked in, but I walked out with an extra pair and the capris for that amount. Very happy!

My husband is helping his friend move tomorrow. This is actually the couple that let him stay with them for three months in their apartment before the rest of us moved out here. They offered their space for free! We will always be grateful. We definitely want to help payback that generosity in any way we can.

We have $300 left until payday. I think we can make it!

Another Sale

August 13th, 2016 at 02:42 pm

I sold another item on eBay. Net profit $6.74. Less stuff, more money! I will put this in savings.

I've been motivated by my daughter going back to school to sell some things, just to help offset costs. In no way does it cover the cost, but every little bit helps!

I need to get on the ball and get more listed. Tuition and housing are due September 12. I have yet to calculate total bill, but I'm thinking at least $9K for the semester.

Early Retirement Thoughts

July 31st, 2016 at 03:43 pm

This probably won't be a well thought out post, but I just need to write out some thoughts. We have seven years until my husband can retire from the Army with a paycheck starting immediately. He will be 54. I will be 51.

According to military retirement calculators his retirement pay before taxes would be $4,572 per month or $54,863 per year. So, theoretically, our goal should be to have expenses less than $4,572 per month. At least if we didn't want to pull any money from our retirement savings. I'm pretty sure we could live on less than this, even while doing some traveling.

If he can get into a particular position in the next two years, he may be willing to continue to work until 60 for the Army. Which gee, at that point, isn't really early retirement! I'm not sure he cares, he does like to be busy. The retirement check would be $8746 per month or $104,959 per year. That's less than he makes now, but not by much.

One issue for me in thinking about retirement is our living situation. We have around $40K that came from selling two homes. Thus enough for 20% down on a $200,000 home. I would be fine buying a home in that price range or less. We are currently renting, so we are not building any equity. I can tell our savings has increased in the last six months, by around $7K. I think this is better than if we owned a home.

Honestly, I'd love to buy a house with cash at the time we retire. Of course, that feels overwhelming to think about when we only have $40K specifically set aside as house money. If I were to make that happen, I need to be much more diligent about saving cash to make it happen. It's not that I'm unwilling, I'm just not sure what I'm aiming for. I think we would move back to the midwest, which is where family is and likely both of our daughter's will be (although one never knows on that for sure).

We are currently in the middle of paying for college for our daughter's. We have some savings. Scholarships have been helpful so far. And we have the Post 911 GI bill that I expect will cover half the cost of each of them to attend college. The best case scenario is that they leave college with zero loans. Worse case is they leave college with one years worth of loans. Our oldest is going to be a sophomore this year in college. Our youngest is going to be a junior in high school. Thus they should both be out of college at the time my husband would retire at the earliest.

I feel we are currently living in a home with too much space for our needs and we are paying too much as a result. The home is 2800 sq ft, four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, two living areas, two dining areas, a kitchen, screened in porch, and very large yard. We pay $1800 per month in rent, which is the going rate for this size property. We are not overpaying for the property itself, but probably paying more because we have a home larger than our needs. Most of the time it's just three of us living here, with two cats. Smile We could probably move elsewhere in the area, but I know that is disruptive to our daughter. It also costs some money to move, even in town.

Another thought I have, that may or may not be related to retiring early is buying rental property. Specifically, thinking about buying a home in the college town our daughter lives in so that she could live there rather than a dorm. Not sure if this would involve roommates or not. We wouldn't be living in that town thus as owners, that could be an issue. Although, our daughter would likely learn some things about home ownership through the process.

We max out our Roth IRAs, and put 10% in the tax deferred TSP. We would save 15% on taxes if we put that Roth money into IRAs instead, yet, I'm not sure that is really smart if we would want to use that money in early retirement. That would be $1650 in our pockets each that could go towards the saving for a home. I know we could easily save $1000 a month, which is $12,000 a year. In 7 years time, that would be at least $84K, preferably more if invested.

Again...random thoughts. I would really like to simplify overall and have some clear financial goals going forward. We save what we can for retirement and college, but I've been lazy about the plan for the next seven years. If I want to make something happen we need to start making it a focus. I don't want to only have $40K set aside in seven years for a home.

Feel free to chime in with thoughts or questions. I don't have all the answers yet.

One Way Ticket

July 26th, 2016 at 03:20 pm

I just bought our daughter a one way ticket back to her college town. She leaves in about two weeks! So sad to see her go. Although she is super ready to get back to her friends and her routine.

The ticket cost me $250. I wish I could have bought it last week when prices were closer to $190! We just didn't have the dates confirmed at that time. I'll watch and see if it changes in the next 24 hours and attempt to change if it goes lower.

I was attempting to redeem our American Express rewards for gift cards today. I got some message that we need to call to complete order. This is on my husband's account, so I'm going to have to have him call when he is able. Maybe it's because it is for over $500 worth of cards? I did all the extra confirmation to confirm it was us. Who knows! Just a big frustrating. ETA: Well, American Express called us not long after to indicating fraud on the account. Then we called them back, since we don't give personal information when we receive a call like that. But really there was no fraud, they were just making sure the redemption was legit. So all the gift cards are on their way here.

Sold a Textbook

July 13th, 2016 at 01:10 pm

I received notification that my daughter's textbook that we listed on Half.com has sold. We will net $36 on the sale. I don't know off hand how much we spent on it. At least double. This was one of those cases where renting wasn't an option.

And we have discovered that renting isn't always the most economical. She rented a music book this past semester for about $14. Turns out the same book will be needed for the next music class. She could have bought the book for just an extra $0.18! This is a case where I didn't have access to that information or knowledge and she didn't read the receipt, let alone consider the option. We are all learning as we go through this college process!

We are starting to buy more things for her dorm. She is rooming alone this year, so we are buying rugs, and a microwave that her roommate brought last year. Overall, I think it is still less expensive than year one. Smile

Sold

July 13th, 2016 at 12:36 am

Since the market was high again, I made a point to transfer the full amount of my oldest daughter's educational savings account to a money market account. We are likely to use most of the funds for this upcoming school year. I should have taken the money out much sooner, but it was difficult to pull it all when I knew the market was down. It's now safe from market swings.

We still have our younger daughter's ESA invested in the market, but she still has two years before college, and since we don't know what scholarship she will receive we will leave it for now.

Two Checks and More

July 9th, 2016 at 08:22 pm

Snowflakes in the mail today! Both were made out to me from the same legal settlement. Each check is worth $19.17. I'm putting this $38 in our savings account, since there is no debt to pay off.

I've been doing a lot of reading about minimalism and simple living. I'm feeling inspired to keep things as simple as possible, including finances. This will likely entail closing several credit cards and consolidating a few more investment accounts.

I've been perusing rentals in the area knowing that in less than two years we will likely move out of our current rental that is costing us $1800 a month, to something smaller, and hopefully less expensive. I came across a couple condo closer to post that had three bedrooms, 2 baths, about 1500 sq ft. One was for rent at about $950 a month. The other was for sale for $79,000. We could sure live cheap if we bought that, it's just a matter of finding a buyer. They seem few and far between around this town.

Do you feel your finances and your life are as simple as you would like them?

Kohls Fraud

July 5th, 2016 at 09:57 pm

This would be the second time that someone has used my Kohls.com account to buy things and charge them to my Kohl's card. Ugh! After talking to the fraud department, that account (in which they changed the email address) has been cancelled. I put a password on my card (that I have to take off each time I want to use the card). I had one on there before, but forgot to put it back on one time apparently! I do have noted that I took it off.

This is prompting me to clean up our credit cards that we have open. I think we have several that are unnecessary to keep any longer. I haven't quite firmed up which ones, but this is a must do project. I also need to clean out a lot credit card mailing junk from my desk as well while I'm in the process.

Our youngest daughter just turned 16. (Not interested in learning to drive yet, so no insurance changes yet). She received checks in the mail and it made me think we need to get her set up with a checking account now, so she can get used to handling that before she leaves for college. We did this a little late with our oldest daughter (although she's done just fine).

I did make a small change to our Verizon cell phone bill. I changed us from the Large data plan to the Medium. We have used over 3GB in the past, but not very often. This will save us about $12 a month. I have notifications set up if we get close to the 3GB. I'm still not sure if Ting is right for us. I would love to make it work, but I'm still not convinced.

It's super hot and humid where we live. I can only imagine the electric bill. Although the water bill is getting a small break because of the rain we have had.

A Few Things

June 9th, 2016 at 02:36 am

I'm loving watermelon right now!! So good for you and tasty. Smile

My youngest daughter is out of school for the summer, but starts band camp next week, and then her online German class! She is going to be busy...hopefully not too busy, so we can still get to Washington DC in July.

I got a class action claim check in the mail from Tom's of Maine for $30.59! Wow, I sure wasn't expecting that! But I did know just what to do with it. I deposited into our savings account right away!

My husband's tablet (Samsung Galaxy)stopped responding to touch commands a few weeks ago. We decided to research if it was a part we could buy and replace ourselves. The answer is yes! We actually bought two screen digitizers at $21.99 each. The second one works!! The first screen digitizer was just a bit hard to reattach and after we did it didn't work quite right. And then to top it off we cracked the screen. But those errors did help us get it just perfect the second time. So for less than $44 we were able to fix something that would have cost us around $400 to replace new. My husband is super happy to have it back!!

It seems that class action claim check helped cover some of our costs! I like that. Smile

$493

June 2nd, 2016 at 05:41 pm

Today was the wisdom teeth removal surgery for my oldest daughter. Despite being very nervous, she did great...although I nearly fainted as I was leaving the exam room. I'm fine though too. I probably didn't eat enough before going with her. Smile

Cost was $493. I set that money aside yesterday when I was paying bills. So I can pay that off the credit card as soon as it posts.

I also picked up three prescriptions for her at CVS. With our insurance, they came to just over $10. I doubt she will take all of them, so it is good they didn't cost much. While I was there, an elderly woman was picking up an inhaler. It didn't seem to be covered under her insurance. She paid $72 out of pocket. She was originally waiting to pay with a $20 bill, but then had to write a check. I just wonder if there was some confusion on her insurance. Hard to know for sure.

Whew...

May 16th, 2016 at 02:57 am

It was a long week, but awesome as well.

My college daughter is home for the summer. It is great to see her. Smile It's fun to hear my daughter's laughing together especially.

My parents were here and ended up leaving a day early. Since they drove 20 hours to get here, they are taking advantage of the trip back to stop at some 'must see' places on their way back. They decided a head start would give them a little more time to enjoy those places before they have to be home.

This is really the first time I've lived so far from my parents. And while I've seen them three other times in the last ten months, this had been the longest stretch and it was hard to say goodbye. I was a little surprised at this!

The week was a bit spendy with more groceries purchased, admission to a botanical garden, extra gas needed for driving around, and we did a quick stock up of cleaning and toiletry items for my daughter so my parents can drive it back and have it stored for when my daughter arrives back to her dorm. And I decluttered a few items to send back as well. A couple for the dorm room and several toys for my newest nieces (my sister and her husband adopted a nine year old girl and now her younger sister is about to be placed with them with the plan to adopt! )

The Week Ahead

May 9th, 2016 at 12:34 pm

My parents are driving my college daughter home and they all arrive late today. And my parents stay for a week! I went grocery shopping with only plans for six specific meals. We spent over $200! That did include some cat food and cleaning products, but mostly food. I bought a lot of veggies!!

I'm sure there will be a little eating out and I know my mom enjoys cooking so will help me make a plan and a run to the store if we need more food for meals.

I lost 1.6 pounds this last week. That is 29% of my first month's goal. I think I will do pretty well this week despite my parents being here. They are willing to eat healthy and probably do a better job of it that I do! They also like to get out and walk, so I have some places we can check out to get some exercise in!

Oh in other news, I spent over $20 yesterday at Micheal's craft store for a diorama project for my sophomore daughter. She needed to depict a biome, or a large ecosystem. She was required to put in trees, plants and animals. One of the things she couldn't do was 'print' pictures as representations of these. They could use clay and paper. It was also suggested to go to Dollar Tree to buy plastic animals. (We tried that and found none). So we bought three plastic animals from Micheal's for $5 each!!! Since we used hot glue, I think it will peel off and we can return them. I'm sure there were other ways we could have made it less expensive, but our options were limited by availability and time. I think the teacher is out of line to limit how the biome is depicted, particularly if the child has limited resources! We have the money, others don't.

Have a great week...not sure how much I'll be around SA. Smile

Low Key Mother's Day

May 8th, 2016 at 02:53 pm

I'm a mom, yet I find Mother's Day odd and contrived. Sure I like to be acknowledged, but it doesn't need to be a specific day. I've decided to ban myself from Facebook today. It's too annoying for some reason.

I did receive a Mother's Day card from my youngest daughter. My husband bought the card. She wrote some very nice words, but said it was awkward. I told her I get it. I feel the same way about acknowledging my own mother who is terrific and I love very much. I will see her tomorrow and she will get a card from me. I think I'm also going to buy some flowers to have at our home for the week she is here. I think we will both enjoy them!

That's it an exchange of cards...that is enough for me. I know that my girls love and appreciate me. I guess gifts must not be my love language.

More on Diet Bet

May 3rd, 2016 at 05:03 pm

I don't have the winnings of my Diet Bet yet, but I can't wait to find out!! And I'll probably count it as a snowflake when it arrives, so I will be sure to share.

I did sign up for another Diet Bet yesterday. It's a Transformer (which is six months). I did pay up front, which gives you the sixth month free, and paid $125. I do have 14 days to change my mind, but I really need to lose the 10% of my weight and then some, so I do think this will keep me going. And now, I want to win my $125 back and more!!

I did write a little more about what I did during the last Diet Bet on my

Text is Organized Friends blog and Link is http://bit.ly/1Y5CWfJ
Organized Friends blog, if you would like to read about it.

So now I'm back to talking about finances!

I wrote two checks today for graduation gifts. They are each getting $25. I'm also going to take out $40 cash later today for a couple that is getting married. I figured checks written to a couple can get complicated when they are first married. So cash it is!

I realized I have two more graduations to acknowledge later in the month. So I need to buy more $1 cards. One will get $25, and the other $50. I'm trying to be consistent with what I give based on relationships. Not that anyone else is keeping track! I've been giving $50 to those who are children of my husband's brothers and sisters. Smile And $25 goes to children of cousins or friends.

I hope to get my snowflake totals together from April and post those tomorrow! Smile

Band Fundraising

April 20th, 2016 at 01:24 pm

My daughter's band is fundraising this weekend with a BBQ plate fundraiser. I've purchased five of the ten tickets ($8 each, so $40) they wanted each child to sell. Three for us, and two that my parents would buy if they lived here to eat the BBQ. I've donated about $5 worth of cookies and loaned out two tables, two coolers and a crockpot. I'm also volunteering my time on Friday morning to assist.

We can no longer fundraise through my husband's work due to ethical reasons. And I'm fine with that. However, we don't know anyone else, besides band parents to sell to! This is where I feel much more strongly about being able to just donate cash, or skip the fundraising and just charge us our portion of the costs to participate. Last year we paid $250 plus the cost of shoes for her to participate in band. Apparently, this year is going to be more expensive because of more props, oh and they bought new uniforms (although I think those are paid for).

What I wonder is will I end up paying more out of pocket with or without participating in the fundraiser? I will probably never know.

Fundraising is a strange beast.

College Investment Thoughts

April 16th, 2016 at 04:17 pm

Our youngest daughter has $23K invested for college and we are still adding to it. We expect to put in another $5500 before she turns 18 in just over 2 years.

I'm getting concerned we have too much invested. Of course, I don't know that for sure. It's just based on how well things are going with our older daughter cost wise.

If we have cash leftover from our older daughter in her Education Savings account we can roll it to our youngest daughter, thus she will have even more money!

If we have too much money invested and go to withdraw it, we will have a penalty of 10%. I was thinking of changing the last amount of contributions for our daughter to our Roth IRA accounts. Actually, I would increase my husband's TSP retirement contributions which would lower our taxable income. We already maximize the Roth IRAs thus why I would put the money in the TSP. If we needed to withdraw that college money I would take it from the Roth IRAs since contributions are always available tax and penalty free.

I did a little looking while writing the post though. It turns out for both ESA and 529 plans, extra funds that can be contributed to having received a tax free scholarship can be with withdrawn and the penalty waived! Thus far my oldest daughter does have a large tax free scholarship that would easily help her withdraw and excess tax free.

Since this could be the case for our youngest daughter, I'm going to leave it be for now and just continue as planned. If anyone has any other thoughts though let me know. Smile

Housing Deposit

April 8th, 2016 at 02:44 pm

Yesterday, my oldest daughter reminded me we needed to pay the final housing deposit for next year. It's $200. The best part is I already had that money set aside because I knew it was coming. She is going to have a single room next year. Sounds expensive doesn't it? It is just because it is dorm housing and it isn't because the price difference is relatively small.

As a returning student living in the same dorm she is eligible for a discount of $342. With her 7 day meal plan included we will pay $10,704. If she doubled up, with the same meal plan, we would pay $10,104, which is a savings of $600. In the end, after the discount her single room will be $10,280. The difference between the double vs single is then only $176. We decided that the extra $176 is worth it for a single room. She loves her sleep and often goes to be before 10pm, she will sleep so much better without a roommate making noise or being frustrated by the lights still being on.

This past year housing was our biggest expense because nearly 90% of tuition and books were covered by scholarships. We used our own cash and money saved in her ESA account to cover those remaining expenses.

Next year, we plan to use my husband's Post 911 GI Bill to cover all tuition and most of the housing. We will need to pay for the housing up front, but we will receive a monthly housing allowance while she is in class. That housing allowance is $1080 per month. It is prorated, so will equal about 4 months worth of housing, or around $4320 per semester.

In the end we will have some costs to pay out of pocket, but we expect these will be manageable. We are extremely grateful (and amazed) at how well we have been able to manage the costs of college.

I definitely encourage all families expect children to go to college to save something! You won't regret it. And of course, help your child be the best they can be by taking challenging classes, participating in something extracurricular, study if needed for ACT or SAT, and put in some volunteer time. It does pay off!

Honda is Awesome! (Check For Recalls)

April 7th, 2016 at 01:44 pm

We found out recently that my husband's Honda Ridgeline is part of the air bag recall. We received a letter with notification and indication that the parts won't be available until this summer.

Last week my husband went into the dealership for an oil change and some other services. Honda offered to hold the truck in their lot until the repair can be made. In exchange they offered a rental car. We talked it over and decided it was worth it to take them up on the offer. If we didn't and something happened we would definitely regret it. In fact, a 17 year old girl was just killed by a Honda airbag this week in Texas. She went to my friends' daughter's school.

So my husband is now driving a bright red Jeep, until the repairs are made. All of this is of no cost to us. I'm just hoping the Jeep gets better gas mileage. Smile

So I think Honda is definitely doing the right thing in regards to handling this recall with an abundance of caution. I encourage anyone with a Honda to check if your vehicle is on the recall list for the airbags. The website is

Text is here. and Link is http://owners.honda.com/service-maintenance/recalls
here.

The Cost of Wisdom Teeth Removal

March 21st, 2016 at 08:36 pm

I took our daughter to her oral surgeon consult today. She is all good to have have all four wisdom teeth removed, with an appointment in early June. I also got the estimate for our portion of the cost. The full cost agreed between insurance and the surgeon is $1,408. Our portion is $588.40, which is about 42%. I did notice that the sedation is covered at 50%, rather than 60%, so I think that adjusts our portion higher than the expected 40%.

I had to pay $95 in order to hold the consultation appointment. That fee is applied to our portion. So if the costs stay the same our final bill due will be $493.40. I can definitely handle that!

Per our estimate of charges, the Usual Customary and Reasonable charge for this same procedure is $2,230. I was willing to pay that much if it came to it, but it seems we won't need to.

Do you have your wisdom teeth or did you have them removed at some point?

February No Spend: Free Entertainment

February 7th, 2016 at 04:57 pm

On Friday night my husband mentioned that a movie I want to see (Bridge of Spies) is now available to rent on Amazon. I reminded him that it was a low spend month and that I did not put any money in the entertainment budget. I also reminded him it would still be available in March and we have a lot of other free options of movies to watch with our Prime and Netflix memberships. We found another option that interested us for free.

On Saturday evening, we decided to go explore the post my husband works on. We were looking for a training exercise we could view. We found one of the spots, but it seems we may have been on the opposite end for the best view. We did get to see a very pretty sunset while we waited. We will try again another time they have this exercise on a weekend. At least it was free!!

After we returned home from our adventure we ate dinner and opened up our newest board game, Ticket to Ride. It looked like I was winning, but in the end our daughter won. She was super excited! That is a very fun game. I may see if she wants to play again today. Smile

We will watch the Super Bowl tonight. I'm not a big NFL team follower, but these big games are pretty fun...especially with some great commercials mixed in. Will you watch the Super Bowl?

Spring Break Airline Ticket

January 27th, 2016 at 08:16 pm

I just purchased my daughter's airline ticket to come home for spring break and her birthday in late March. The charge round trip was $361. This is about 10% less than the last time I looked. Flight times are okay. We've found that we like her flying Southwest and through St. Louis which is a little smaller airport, so gates are super easy to find. The best part is I had $429 in our vacation fund to cover it!

We have offered to fly my mother in law and a niece (who has never flown) to visit us in April or May. I need to start watch fares and see if I can find something really great. We don't have the money set aside for this yet, but that is a goal for February. We also know with my husband's mother in her 80's (although in great health) it is okay to take out of savings if needed.

In other news, my youngest daughter has a very small cavity (her first). We opted to wait a few weeks so she wouldn't miss school. Sounds like it will only take 40 minutes at the most. And our out of pocket cost only $19. Smile

I have a friend arriving today. Dinner is ready and I'm looking forward to lots of fun catching up!!

Getting Prepared for Filing Taxes

January 24th, 2016 at 03:19 pm

First, we never lost power during the storm. For that, I am extremely grateful. We have been inside our home for two days in order to stay safe. I'm definitely ready to get out today! Roads here are clear. Trees still have a little ice, but the dusting of snow has melted. We managed not to spend any money those two days either!

Today, the plan is to get out to get groceries for the rest of January, so back to spending. I'm adding toilet paper, cat food and litter, and laundry detergent to the list. This is an attempt to be be stocked up during the month of February since we are attempting a low spend (no spend) month.

I did just order a water filter for our fridge on Amazon. I used the balance of my Amazon gift card ($3.98) and Discover cash back ($2.52). I only paid $10.45 out of pocket.

I'm close to redeeming for Bing Rewards and Swagbucks again. I will use those $30 in February to get more filters for our vehicles. We realized we are a bit overdue for cabin and engine filters.

I cashed in 1650 MyPoints this morning for a Subway gift card. I will send it to my oldest daughter when it arrives. Hopefully, a gift in her Valentine's card. This will be the second gift card I have redeemed in the last 2.5 months with MyPoints. I have given both to my daughter. It's an easy way to give her a few extra surprises in the mail.

Oh, I guess I was suppose to write about taxes! Almost forgot. We have my husband's W2 forms, the new 1095 (health care), our mortgage interest statement, and a several other 1099s. I'm still waiting on the form from the university showing money we paid. Once that arrives I think we will be ready to start filing taxes. I will likely use FreeTaxUSA again. It seems to work for me.

Have you started your tax return? Do you have all the documents you need? Are you doing a no spend month this year? Have you redeemed any credit card rewards or points from another program recently?

We Still Have Power

January 22nd, 2016 at 04:26 pm

Around our area it is just raining. But it is freezing to things. The roads appear okay from the window and I see people driving out there. We are staying in regardless.

The longer it rains and the the thicker the ice, the bigger cause of concern. I believe winds are suppose to pick up later, which isn't good.

I'm going to go get my workout on our treadmill done, before any potential outage occurs! It won't work if there is no power.

No store spending today, but there may be a little online spending. We need a new filter for the fridge, and my husband said his headphones stopped working. It's always something it seems.

Getting Ready for Jonas

January 21st, 2016 at 09:56 pm

It seems the state we live in now is going to get hit by Jonas, the winter storm. We are actually on the edge of it, which means ice in the form of sleet and freezing rain are most likely.

I think the entire state is shutting down starting tonight. The post my husband works on is going to be closed tomorrow(I found out first from Facebook). And school has been cancelled too. And for the record it is forty degrees and sunny at the moment. No precipitation is falling in our location. Seems so early to make these decisions. Weather can and does change right?

So we have food here, but my husband is going to grab some nuts, canned tuna, and bottled water just in case there is a power outage. We do have plenty of bread and peanut butter too.

Who else is going to be impacted by Jonas?

Some Spending

January 8th, 2016 at 07:17 pm

My daughter had her first flute lesson with her new teacher on Wednesday. Of course, new books were suggested. We purchased them and got 20% off because we take lessons there at the store. Out of pocket was about $24.

I had to pick up a couple things at Walmart. Tortillas, salt and three boxes of tissues. Spent about $7.

I also bought deodorant and a photo storage box (two different locations) and spent another $7.

My husband is taking his dress uniform into the dry cleaner tonight, so well have some money spent there when they are ready.

We have plans to go out to dinner tonight. Last night college daughter is home until spring break. We will end up spending a little on gas tomorrow to get her to the airport (she's flying out of one about 1.5 hours away).

I did tell my husband about the no spend month planned for February. He said he doesn't spend much money, yet he has spent at least $140 on things specific to him since the beginning of the year. I'm not saying these weren't needs or okay to buy, but that IS spending!! He does seem on board. I think we may have to be specific about what we aren't spending money on (entertainment, alcohol) and what we are. More on that once we discuss it further.

Changed Withholding and More

January 5th, 2016 at 05:38 pm

We had changed the withholding on my husband's pay late in the year to account for overpaying. We have now changed it back to 8 for the coming year. It will go into effect for January 15 pay. The net check will be lower, but it is still higher than it had been before. It may still put us on target to pay around $400 each year, but that I can deal with.

I also remembered that we had put extra funds in my daughter's Educational Savings account (ESA) early last year and dropped our Roth IRA payments initially. By April we increased them to make sure we got the maximum funds in by year end. It worked well, but it means we now have $167 each month in our favor to budget with.

Along with a small pay increase, we actually have another $336 more each month to work with in 2016. I'm thinking I just need to funnel it away and not think to specifically what it needs to go for. By year end that would amount to $4032. I'd really like to make sure we are still adding to our savings, particularly now that we don't have a mortgage. I would pay that down if we did. Smile

In other news, I took my daughter to the dentist today. All good. We have known that she will need her wisdom teeth pulled. We have set into motion a plan to make that happen. We have a consult over spring break with the oral surgeon. We had to pay $95 to even make the appointment, but it will be applied to any costs we incur. We expect the oral surgeon will want to remove all four wisdom teeth, and will have that done in the summer when she is home on break. That will give us time to monitor her for any complications. I think our insurance will cover most of the cost of oral surgery, but I will be attempting to get more information on that soon so I can plan. Checked and our insurance covers 40% up to $1300, so we will definitely have some costs.

Do you need to change your paycheck withholding now that it is a new year? It's a good time to calculate what you might need it to be. The IRS has a withholding calculator on their website. Have you paid for wisdom teeth removal? What did you pay?

Free Admission

January 2nd, 2016 at 10:23 pm

We took a quick trip to our local botanical garden today. It was sunny and 51 degrees here, so it was an enjoyable quick walk. I really enjoy being in a climate where plants are still blooming in January.
We have a membership to our garden, so admission was free today.



I'm looking forward to going back again soon. And definitely would like to go back in the spring. They are building a meditation garden that I can't wait to experience!!

We have been at home today otherwise. So no out of pocket spending. We still have food in the house for dinner. The girls are having pasta. My husband and I are having shrimp cocktail. We bought it for New Year's, but with all the other food we had it was just too much!

We have all of our Christmas decorations put away, and have avoided buying anything new that would be on clearance. The truth is we don't need any new items to celebrate. We have plenty of gift bags, tissue and wrap for another year.


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