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Pondering A Thought

July 4th, 2020 at 02:12 pm

Happy Independence Day!

Over a year ago we bought our daughter a used Subaru to drive. She had her license two years prior, but never had a need for her own vehicle. The purchase price was around $11K and it has a been a really great car so far. We put $3K down and she used the proceeds from a UTMA account she had which was maybe $3400. I'm being lazy, I don't remember all the exact numbers.

We did take out a small loan ($5,700 at 5.75%!) because we did end up buying a more expensive vehicle than we originally planned. The cars we found we could buy for cash, were just not good to buy for a young person living across the country from parents, at least in our minds. The loan was to help bridge the gap so that she could take over payments when she got a job, and at the same time get some credit in her name. She is still looking for a full time job in her field, but has an internship that increased her hours recently.

We are pondering paying off the balance of the car which is owned jointly between her and my husband. The balance is $4,293, with three years left. We have so much cash and now earning very low interest rates. We would then have her pay us back with interest. I'm thinking 3% interest, and we are open to a longer payment term if she wants. A lesson in how that changes the payment and the total interest she pays would be good I think. The vehicle would be owned jointly until the loan is paid back.

I will be running the numbers and offering her a proposal. I think she can start making the payments even on her low income since she is currently staying with my parents. Such an interesting time we are in.

POP Contributions June 2020

July 1st, 2020 at 03:01 pm

Contributions to our Pot of Possibilities (POP) for June!

Paycheck 6/1 $260
Paycheck 6/15 $260
Oldest Allowance $100
Total Interest $92.85
US Bank $12.32
Chase Rewards $17.87
Amex Rewards $51.39
Discover Rewards $0.37
USAA ATM refund 3.50

June Total $798.30

YTD Total $4,593.16
New Big Goal Total $76,677.09

Potentially could have included an Army Travel payment made to us this month which was over $1000, but for now we are holding it seperate for some potential expenses. I may reconsider however!

June 2020 Interest Income

July 1st, 2020 at 12:35 pm

It's time to report interest income. Interest rates are far lower, and we lost a great rate when a recent CD matured.

FNBO $27.20
NFCU $65.43
USAA $0.22
Total $92.85

That's about $70 less than last month. Interesting times. The good times don't always last do they? However, we are very grateful for what we do have.

These funds have been added to our Pot of Possibilities!

Rewards Redemption

June 21st, 2020 at 02:53 pm

It's the time of the month where I redeem credit card rewards and add them to our Pot of Possibilities!

I redeemed the following:
US Bank Visa $12.32
American Express $51.39
Chase Freedom $17.87
Total $81.58

Our US Bank Rewards will drop next month by about $8 since I will no longer use for our cell phone bill. We have been able to use a credit card to pay our rent the last three months, as the office staff has waived the associated fees since they are not working on site.

I decided a couple months ago to stop messing around with Swagbucks. It is a bit of a time suck, although I did limit the time I spent on it. I decided I do not support their advertising content, that I am clicking on to raise it's prevalence to the public. I can find other ethical ways to bring in another $300 a year. It was a good run of bringing in some cash however and I am thankful for the times it helped us out.

Everything seems up for review these days!

Army Travel Payment

June 17th, 2020 at 07:00 pm

My husband returned home on Saturday from his three week trip. I'm very glad to have him home once again!

He has submitted his travel claim voucher and it is waiting approval. Hopefully we will have funds by Friday or very early next week. The portion coming to us is $2,066.58, which is per diem and mileage. He spent $927.07 in a three week period. So after paying those charges off we are left with $1,139.51.

A nice little windfall that is tempting to spend on a few things we have been talking about for awhile. Of course, I do like the idea of putting some or all into our Pot of Possibilities, which if we do put some there, will be reported at the end of the month.

Making Financial Changes

June 16th, 2020 at 03:27 pm

Yesterday, I switched our cell phone plan to their lowest cost unlimited plan, which ended up saving us about $22 a month. I did have to switch to paying our bill with our checking account. I had been using our US Bank Credit card to receive 5% back, however the math still worked in our favor to switch. I think I had seen this offer before, but the math didn't seem to add up in our favor. I'm wondering if something else changed or if I just didn't do the math right last time!

I may close the US Bank credit card if I can figure out if another one of our credit cards gives 5% back on internet. I think one of them does. That will be the only charge going to that card, so I'm interested in consolidating if I can and still be getting decent cash back.

We also get Disney+ for one year for signing up for our new cell plan. We will use it I'm sure, but I wasn't wanting to add another streaming service when it first came out. The value of that is $6.99 per month, so definitely a nice bonus.

The other financial change is setting up some new Certificates of Deposits. I'm not thrilled with the rates as they have fallen. But I we have a lot of cash on hand and I have to have it earning something! I opened one for $25K, and will probably open a second one in a week or two for a similar amount. We decided we didn't want the a large $50K CD, as the interest rate doesn't benefit us. Instead we will have two $25K CDs, as a way to keep our options open a bit. I locked one today for 1.25% with Navy Federal. I unfortunately missed their last 'special rate'.

I started a batch of sauerkraut yesterday(first time ever) and today I began working on growing a batch of sourdough starter (also my first time). We all can grow and learn anything at any time.

Have you found a service to change or stop recently? Have you ever made any fermented food?

April 2020 Big Goal Progress

May 1st, 2020 at 02:51 pm

We make automatic deposits to our money market savings account each pay period! For nearly a year I had been directing extra funds to paying ourselves back for the downpayment on our daughter's car. This month I can add those to the Big Goal progress!

April Big Goal Additions
Paycheck 4/1 $260
Paycheck 4/15 $260
Total Interest $156.31
US Bank $12.33
Chase Rewards $3.35
Amex Rewards $66.92
Swagbucks (Paypal) $10
Ebay Sales $7.46
Utility Refund $35.18
April Total $811.55

YTD Total $2,880.99
New Big Goal Total $74,964.92

Goal is $200,000. We are at 37.48% of goal. I celebrate every deposit and every milestone on the way there!

April 2020 Interest Income

May 1st, 2020 at 02:38 pm

I'm a little frustrated as I thought I could open a new NFCU CD and add to it. I did apply to start it off with a $1000 that we have there, but now I find out that I was wrong. We cannot add to this particular CD. I'm going to try to cancel it as it is still in the application process. Worse case we have a small CD! I just like all things neat and tidy, but at least it would be earning more than it had been.

Here's the interest we earned on our cash savings last month:

FNBO $33.83
NFCU $122.32
USAA $0.16
Total $156.31

All interest is saved towards our Big Goal.

Tuition Refund and More

May 1st, 2020 at 02:30 pm

The VA finally made their payment for our oldest daughter's tuition this semester. She had 18 days of benefits. The school usually estimates the amount they expect to receive and bills us for the remainder. This semester they underestimated the amount by over $1000! The actual amount they were off by was $1,129.72.

We have received that money back in our checking account, along with her refund of her parking permit which was $94. Her housing refund was $953.79. In total she has received $2,177.51. This is such good news, since she did take out loans this last year totalling $5,500. That will be a significant amount to put towards the balance. It is interesting how things work out sometimes.

She has had one interview, by Zoom, but the person interviewing seemed to be giving advice than trying to hire, specifically telling her she didn't have enough experience. So odd, as you would think the interviewer could read that this is a college graduate. She probably has more experience than some new graphic design grads, as she has been working on campus doing design for four years and has almost completed a year long internship. Of course, there are more experience people who have been in the workforce for awhile. Just still odd she even had the interview in the first place! I know she will find her path and a job eventually. She is blessed that both her part time jobs are allowing her to continue until she finds full time work.

My husband should know very soon if he is on the promotion list. It would be shocking if he was not. Last year we were hopefully, but knew it would be ahead of schedule. This year he would have to be failing considerably on all metrics to not get the promotion. It's simply his year to be promoted if that makes sense. We don't know how quickly it will be effective with all that is going on, but hopefully sooner than later.

Pending Stimulus and More

April 14th, 2020 at 02:30 pm

The stimulus money is pending in our account. We are getting $2,400. Our children are over 17, so we do not get, nor do we need the extra $500 per child. We do not even need the $2,400.

We have not made any decisions on this money. I think I'm waiting to see how this plays out a bit. I do think it will get spent in some form or another, which is the point. I have quite a few ideas of things we could invest in to make us more self reliant, but may need to help our daughter or some nieces and nephews.

Our oldest daughter is close to freaking out about graduation and not finding a job. Job postings are minimal. She is looking in multiple states. There is one that is more local that I really want her to get. No word on that yet, and I could see it be a situation where they may be on a hiring freeze. She does have an internship that started back up this week online. She was asked when she graduates and when she said in a couple weeks, he said she can stay on after graduation until she finds another job. That would be really great, although if they go back to in person, could create a housing issue. As it is now she is living 45 minutes away from work with my parents, but they still might work for her. This organization is also in a hiring freeze, so not being able to replace her would be noticeable. This organization also paid her four weeks when they closed down and she didn't work at all.❤️

March 2020 Interest Income

April 1st, 2020 at 03:15 pm

And interest rates begin to fall...

FNBO Direct is at 1% APR as of this writing.
NFCU is our certificate with a 3.20% APR until June 10, 2020.
We can add money to this one.

I will be looking for the right combination of certificates for this volatile time, currently seeing new ones at NFCU for 12 and 18 months for 1.65%. If I can add more money later, I may open one of these. May open one regardless if we can add. Just makes my decision easier! Will do more research soon.

Here's the interest we earned on our cash savings last month:

FNBO $46.95
NFCU $126.06
USAA $0.13
Total $173.11

All interest was saved towards our Big Goal.

Interesting Times

March 29th, 2020 at 02:07 am

It is so interesting to see the contrast of these times we are in. My husband is actually working more now...a home deployment of sorts. I don't even get the mission and even he says it seems off and strange. But we are both thankful he has a job, when so many do not.

Stimulus money. Absolutely do not need it. At least in the short term. If we are on the edge of a depression who knows what we might need. I pray the everyone can go back to work very, very soon. I did have the thought tonight that buying a generator might finally be a good investment. We ponder one every hurricane season, but never pull the trigger. We have only been without power about 32 hours at the most and maybe only twice. Not pleasant, but not dire either. But then I go back to donating the money too.

Waiting to see about dorm room refunds. One daughter will get one, the other daughter's school is still figuring it out I guess. No money has been received yet. The oldest should probably put it on her small student loan, but then I wonder how long it will take her to get a job in this economy.

Dave Ramsey always says if you see a storm you stockpile cash, until the storm clears. I then wonder if I have been saving towards the Big Goal for a whole other reason! Of course, there was no way to know this was upon us. But I do have a pretty interesting intuition about things. I'm really trying to hear what it is telling me.

The loving kindness meditation I happened on this week was:
May You Be Well
May You Be Happy
May You Be Peaceful
May You Be Loved

Take care of you! We as humans are strong and resilient!

Big Savings Goal: January 2020

February 2nd, 2020 at 10:10 pm

As mentioned earlier this month I have increased the amount we save automatically each pay period going forward to create at least an additional $2,020 in 2020! In the future this will be $260 per pay period.

January Big Goal Additions
Paycheck 1/1 $175
Paycheck 1/15 $200
Extra contribution $125
Total Interest $183.99
Total Contribution $683.99

YTD Total $683.99
New Big Goal Total $72,767.92

Oh, how I would love to to get to $100k! We will just keep plugging along.

October 2019 Interest Earned

November 5th, 2019 at 01:01 pm

Here's the interest we earned on our cash savings last month:

FNBO $63.76
NFCU $124.73
USAA $0.03
Total $188.52

This money is saved towards our Big Goal. I will update that in another post. I think back to when we earned very small amounts of interest each month. I never once used that interest to pay debt, it has always been saved. It's a great habit that I am glad we established!

Are you tracking your interest? Do you save it or spend it?

Welcome Back!

October 1st, 2019 at 05:56 pm

Well, it seems the site may be up, but posts only updated through mid April 2019. I haven't looked around much to see what is missing.

I had about given up! Some of us have been connecting by email and Facebook to figure out a new plan. More work to do to figure out where our rendezvous point is if the site goes down permanently.

I had made a financial blog on Blogger quite a while back, called Our Money Blog. I put some posts up that may have even been duplicates from here. But over time I stopped. Today, I posted a revival post.

I'm just going to send you

Text is there and Link is https://ourmoneyblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-end-of-saving-advice-starting-over.html
there for an update on our interest, big goal and down payment repayment goals...check out how I was able to recreate the starting points without this blog available to help!

Random Money Updates

March 27th, 2019 at 03:57 pm

Spring break with the girls was wonderful! We had a good balance of relaxing, which they really needed and getting out to explore some things. We did several free things and had dinner out twice, so we easily spent under $150 for those kinds of things. Our grocery bill went up slightly, but that's to be expected.

I found a quarter out back in the alley when I was talking to a neighbor. I love finding cash on the ground!

I'm working on my next $25 Amazon or Paypal redemption with Swagbucks. I really just try to complete the To Do List on the left hand side of the home page. I try the surveys, but I'm not always successful, so as to not waste any more time, I do skip that one. I think Rose asked in another post about how to do it. I would suggest following Swagbucks Swaggernauts on FB for tips and pointers. There is definitely a learning curve. I have found a free malware extension on my computer helps with the junk that can come from using the site.

We received our $10 Visa rebate card in the mail from NAPA for the battery we purchased a couple months back. I plan to use it out shopping. I will then add $10 cash to the Big Goal.

I've redeemed some credit card cash back rewards and will update with a total for March when I report how much progress we made on our Big Goal this month.

We need to already be thinking about airline tickets for May! We will likely go back to the Midwest to help move our daughter's out and help our oldest daughter buy her first car. She is likely going to be staying back there this summer to take a class and get a job or internship. Lots of activity around here and spending.

I have three items I need to sell. Two should be able to go on eBay and the other should go up on a local sales page. I rarely do eBay any more since my main motivation was usually to sell outgrown clothes and toys. I saw a YouTube video the other day though that reminded me of how it is possible to buy items at garage sales and resell them for more. Something I might try and see if it keeps me interested. Clearly more work than finding items in my house!

Please excuse my random thoughts!

February Big Goal Progress

March 2nd, 2019 at 02:23 pm

In January, I wrote that I would try to update our Big Goal progress each month. I nearly forgot until I went looking for our interest earned in January because I needed it for my previous post. We'll see if I can remember all year long!

$350.00 ($175 from each paycheck, two per month)
_$66.71 American Express CC Rewards
_$48.94 Discover Cash Back
_$51.06 FNBO Interest Earned
$113.87 NFCU Interest Earned
__$0.01 USAA Interest
__$5.00 Class Action Rebate
_$25.00 Swagbucks
__$6.00 Pinecone Surveys
$200.00 Fuel Savings*

_$866.59 February Big Goal Total
$1,576.04 2019 YTD

$62,311.59 Previous Big Goal Balance
$63,178.18 New Big Goal Balance

31.59% of $200,000 Goal

*I'm calling this fuel savings as we are not using nearly as much fuel in our vehicles while living on base. In our last place we could easily have spent $200 more per month.

February Interest Earned

March 2nd, 2019 at 01:56 pm

February was the first full month that our 3.25% CD was in effect. The interest earned is reflected in the total.

FNBO $51.06
NFCU $113.87
Total $164.93

To compare, in January we earned $147.20. Higher interest rates do make a difference!

All interest earned is added to our Big Goal.

January Interest Earned and Savings

February 1st, 2019 at 03:33 pm

In January we earned a nice amount of interest on our savings. We always save all interest, even when we were paying on debt. Although back then our interest earned was piddly!

$66.07 FNBO Direct
$81.13 Navy Federal CU
$147.20 Total interest earned

In December our total was $118.73. We have increased our monthly interest by $28.47 because we moved a large amount of cash from one bank earning 2.15% to a CD at the other bank earning 3.2%. At about $150/month, we are on schedule to save $1,800 in interest this year.

We did a great job with extra savings this month. We only spent $31 on fuel for our vehicles. I think we both need to fill up soon! We saved toward the Big Goal as planned, but also since we were under budget we have added $545.05 to our emergency fund.

I've decided for 2019, continue the Big Goal saving with $350 a month ($175 each paycheck), add in credit card rewards and other snowflake money and interest earned. Any extra we save is going to our emergency fund. I think there are some expense we will incur in 2019 that are hard to anticipate the amount, so any extra cash saved will be helpful. I'd rather money from those come from what we have stashed and marked as EF money, than from our BIg Goal money.

Here's to a great year of saving!

Figured Out 2019 Net Paycheck

January 4th, 2019 at 03:28 pm

I used the Paycheck City website yesterday to determine my husband's net paycheck. His base pay has increased by $204.43 per month. The housing allowance (BAH) has also increased by $117 per month. I would be really thrilled about this, but because we live on a military installation, the property management company gets the full increase for housing. This isn't a surprise, but a bit of an annoyance. We are committed here for 12 months, and we are open to looking into other options after that.

All the taxes went up accordingly ($29.90/mo), we added a family vision plan ($36.55/mo), and my husband's retirement plan contribution increased ($22.49/mo). This means of the $204.43 increase the remaining $115.49 is ours to keep when the paycheck is deposited. This will end up being split evenly each pay period, about $57.75 twice per month.

For the last two years I have literally saved my husband's pay increases for the Big Goal. In 2017, the amount was $131. I had that money sent directly from his paycheck to our Navy Federal CU account. In 2018, the amount was $216, which I manually set aside in our checking account toward the goal. Amazingly I remembered each pay period. I can't say I really liked how tedious that was.

So I see it as we have two choices. We can have the full amount transferred from his paycheck automatically OR have the full amount (divided by 2) transferred to one of our savings accounts twice per month. I may go with the latter because that would get the money into our account faster earning interest. I really failed to have any of last years raise earning interest, so that alone will be an approvement.

Next steps...I need to stop the current transfer from my husband's paycheck. As of January 15, I need to set up a transfer of half the amount ($231.50) to one of our savings accounts twice per month. This alone will guarantee $5,556 will be saved towards the Big Goal for 2019.

If you received a raise or had other changes to your paycheck for 2019, have you calculated what you expect your net amount to be? Do you use Paycheckcity or some other calculator? Share in the comments!

Big Goal Savings: April

May 2nd, 2018 at 12:26 am

After writing my two previous posts about interest earned and snowflakes saved in April, I wondered to myself how much we had saved in total to our Big Goal this month.

Interest $101.24
Snowflakes $209.20
2017 Raise $131.00
2018 Raise $216.00
April Big Goal Savings $657.44

Not every month is as fruitful for snowflakes, but if we could save this every month, we would save nearly $7,900 per year. That's not chump change!

If we didn't have college expenses, we could definitely save even more, but we are committed to the least amount of student loans as possible. So far we are on track with zero! Smile

Big Goal Savings: April

May 2nd, 2018 at 12:25 am

After writing my two previous posts about interest earned and snowflakes saved in April, I wondered to myself how much we had saved in total to our Big Goal this month.

Interest $101.24
Snowflakes $209.20
2017 Raise $131.00
2018 Raise $216.00
April Big Goal Savings $657.44

Not every month is as fruitful for snowflakes, but if we could save this every month, we would save nearly $7,900 per year. That's not chump change!

If we didn't have college expenses, we could definitely save even more, but we are committed to the least amount of student loans as possible. So far we are on track with zero! Smile

April Interest

May 1st, 2018 at 11:43 pm

We had a CD earning 2% that matured about a week ago. Luckily, we had another CD paying the same amount that we were able to roll the balance and accumulated interest into. That one matures in June. I hope at that time an even better rate is available.

In total our accounts earned $101.24 in the month of April.

All interest is saved towards our Big Goal. Smile

Taxes Filed & More

February 8th, 2018 at 10:15 pm

So finally, after many issues last month, I was able to log on to the free version of H&R Block to file our taxes. We are able to file free as military members through the Military One Source website. The filing was free for Federal and State. We owe $91 to the federal government, which is better than the expected $400 I had in mind. And we are exempt from state income tax in our state of legal residence, since they do not tax Active Duty Pay. I have already schedule payment from our checking account to take place on March 1st. I could have waited longer obviously, but I just want to get it done!

I think for now I will keep our withholding allowances at 9. Dido made me aware that there will be a $500 credit per dependent over age 17 beginning in 2018, so that reduces the tax owed by $1000. I may actually increase it later in the year, but I will wait until we know what the actual college expenses we pay are. Right now it could be as much as a $2500 American Opportunity tax credit and maybe $400 Lifetime Learning Credit. As it stands now, we will have $3918 withheld for 2018, and likely actual tax would be $6900. So we are in the right place with withholding.

And I can see that our next paycheck is higher due to the new withholding tables. The amount is $45.70 more per pay period or $91.40 per month. We were already getting an additional $63.15 per pay period due to my husband's raise. So since December we have $217 more in our pockets each month. And more going to retirement because of the raise! Can't complain about that.

In other news, I sold three more items on eBay in the last week. Not big money, but it all adds up. It goes to the Big Goal...as should that extra income above.

Taxes Filed & More

February 8th, 2018 at 10:15 pm

So finally, after many issues last month, I was able to log on to the free version of H&R Block to file our taxes. We are able to file free as military members through the Military One Source website. The filing was free for Federal and State. We owe $91 to the federal government, which is better than the expected $400 I had in mind. And we are exempt from state income tax in our state of legal residence, since they do not tax Active Duty Pay. I have already schedule payment from our checking account to take place on March 1st. I could have waited longer obviously, but I just want to get it done!

I think for now I will keep our withholding allowances at 9. Dido made me aware that there will be a $500 credit per dependent over age 17 beginning in 2018, so that reduces the tax owed by $1000. I may actually increase it later in the year, but I will wait until we know what the actual college expenses we pay are. Right now it could be as much as a $2500 American Opportunity tax credit and maybe $400 Lifetime Learning Credit. As it stands now, we will have $3918 withheld for 2018, and likely actual tax would be $6900. So we are in the right place with withholding.

And I can see that our next paycheck is higher due to the new withholding tables. The amount is $45.70 more per pay period or $91.40 per month. We were already getting an additional $63.15 per pay period due to my husband's raise. So since December we have $217 more in our pockets each month. And more going to retirement because of the raise! Can't complain about that.

In other news, I sold three more items on eBay in the last week. Not big money, but it all adds up. It goes to the Big Goal...as should that extra income above.

November Interest Earned

December 1st, 2017 at 04:48 pm

I totaled up the amount of interest earned on a money market account, a savings account and three CDs for the month of November. The amount earned was $84.77.

One account earns 1.15%
One CD matures at the end of the year and is earning 3%.
Two others are 2% and mature in April and June 2018.

If you hear of good CD rates at the end of the month, I'd will be interested to hear! Although, I'm just now remembering I may be able to roll that money in the 3% CD into one of the other ones. I will check that.

Christmas Spending & A Raise

November 21st, 2017 at 07:13 pm

I'm not nearly done Christmas shopping, although I have made a pretty good dent so far. Our budget for gifts is $600. I haven't even made the final savings deposit of $50 yet. That last one will cover the check we are likely to mail my mother in law so she can get what she wants. It's hard to buy for someone that is 82!

Spending so far is $225.68. This has primarily been gifts for my daughters and nieces. That means I have just $374.32. I do plan to stay at or under budget. I will say Swagbucks has come to my rescue this year to earn Amazon gift cards to get all the books my daughter's asked for. Retail on those would be $220. So far, I think I have spent just $40 for eight books, but I do have three more to buy.

I hope to share actual costs and what I bought after my shopping is complete. Any extra left over is going to the Big Goal!

I think the President still needs to sign the Defense Authorization Act for this next fiscal year, but it looks like my husband is getting a raise. The best one in awhile. A 2.4% increase of his basic pay. That will amount to $200 per month. I probably should save this towards the Big Goal, too. Smile

$56 Extra Income & More

November 16th, 2017 at 02:36 pm

I mentioned a few days ago that my neighbor asked me to make 6 more key fobs. A few days later, she asked to add one more on. I was quick to get the work done and yesterday she paid me $56 for the work. This goes towards the Big Goal.

In my planning November planning for Christmas, I'm making a point to stock up on things around the home. When we were at the commissary, I bought dish soap, laundry detergent, parchment paper, ziplock bags, vitamins, toothpaste and bar soap. I want to be stocked up through the end of the year, so that the only shopping I need to do in December is for food. The more I can stay out of the stores in December the easier it is to keep to the Christmas budget. I did notice I need coffee filters and toilet bowl cleaner, so I will pick those up this week.

Yesterday was pay day. All credit cards were paid off in full. I put $42 in the birthday category of our budget, $50 in Christmas, $940 in college and tuition (normal amount is about $410), and $272 for insurances and auto tags. There was money added to our car maintenance fund. It was negative after a having some recent maintenance done. Now it's back to zero. There was about $200 left, and I just dropped it into the emergency fund category for now. May need it elsewhere later in the month, but we will try without.

I have three items on eBay that I'd like to see sell soon. May need to drop the prices a bit, but a little extra cash would be nice.

Just Under $20K to Go

November 4th, 2017 at 02:50 pm

Wow! The stock market is on fire. Our retirement accounts totaled just over $480K yesterday. We are getting closer to $500K...just under $20K to go. Of course, I know there could be a correction at some point, but I'd love it if the accounts could rise to $500K by the end of the year. Another 4% or so. We started the year with balances totaling $392K...so there has been very nice progress!

I tallied up our interest earned in October. We earned $95.28. Can't complain about more money!

Various Money Updates

October 7th, 2017 at 01:11 pm

I'm not sure why I haven't been posting! Everything is on auto pilot I guess. I have been around commenting and reading your blogs. I'll give you some various updates.

I did the first half of October's budget without my husband. I still have over $400 to allocate, so I will get him involved this weekend to figure those funds out. It seems like a lot of extra money for the first half of the month.

Retirement accounts are up big time with the recent stock market surge. Since January balances are up $80,000. That does include contributions. The more you have the bigger a 1% increase makes.

Interest earned on our cash in October was $92.04. Close to $100 a month in interest isn't anything to complain about. I did notice one bank increased their interest rate slightly (0.05%) again. We have $131 automatically deposited from my husband's paycheck to a savings account. I need to roll a couple months worth of those deposits into one of the CD's we have that is paying 2%.

My cell phone completely died on me this week. It is 3.5 years old, and some things have been failing so I've been working around them. In the meantime, I've switched my SIM card to my daughter's old cell phone. I have a VERY hard time deciding on phones. The newer ones Verizon offers seem so expensive!! I'm also debating moving to an iPhone since I have a Mac. Those are also expensive, but coming down a bit with the new release coming up. I would like the phone to have a good camera, too. I use it for my main camera. I have $195 in my cell phone replacement category and could easily find more money if I go with a more expensive phone.

I returned two pairs of shorts to Kohl's last week. That put $30 back in the budget which helped cover some new shoes we purchased for our older daughter.

We have saved quite a bit of money on high school football games recently. My husband and I have been volunteering in the concession stand for the band. This allows us to get in free (saves $14), and we get a free drink at the end which would cost us $4 if we have purchased. Last night even our daughter skipped buying anything to eat. Saving at least another $3. There have been four scheduled home games, and just one left. Overall savings is over $100. I wish we did this last year too. We will still have plenty of competition admissions this month, so the savings helps!

I've been purchasing some things recently too. It's part of my Getting Things Done series on my

Text is Organized Friends and Link is http://yourorganizedfriend.blogspot.com/
Organized Friends blog this month. Just yesterday I purchased two picture frames (both 50% off ) at Michael's for $29. This is something we have wanted to do for awhile, but I've put it off to avoid the spending. It feels good to get it done though. The amount spent is minor in comparison to our overall budget.

That's the money news!


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