I just remembered to check our money market account for the interest we earned in July. Only $4.62. Last month we received around $10 or $11, but we have moved much of our cash out of this account so that we can earn 10% in the SDP. The interest is compounded quarterly on that account so I won't see that accrued interest until the end of Septemeber.

Emergency Fund Goal Balance: $2,521.98

The goal is coming along and is still on track. Remember we will sell a car for $2500 in the next couple of months that will get deposited towards this goal. Yipee!!

Today was payday. The bills are paid!

I have added $215 to our emergency fund goal. Our new balance is $2517.36. I expect a little interest to be earned and added tomorrow.

I also made a huge $1,200 payment towards the principal balance on our van loan. The new balance is $13,656!! We are under $14K now. That makes me happy. I would love to see this loan under $10K soon. Maybe by October.

I love goal progress don't you?

It looks like we will have $27 extra in the budget each month for awhile. DH's life insurance premium is refunded while he's in the combat zone. I'm thinking I will put this towards my youngest's flute rental payment that will start soon.

I returned an item to Target today that equaled $27.55. It's nice to have that money back! I do think the next week could be spendy. I have to buy food for a family gathering, start some school supply shopping as I see good deals, as well as get hair cuts for all of us.

It is good to remember there is a time for saving and a time for spending!

As I planned, I deposited $215 to our emergency fund goal today. The new goal balance is: $2302.36.

This goal is definitely on track! I expect that our car will get sold in August to our neice putting our emergency fund goal over $5K.

When I first started this goal, I was putting every last dollar towards the goal. And it seemed there weren't too many dollars to find. Recently, I switched to simply commiting a set dollar amount per pay period. It seems to be working much better!

I'm looking forward to payday. I can make an emergency fund addition! The regular van payment hits. There should also be some extra for an extra principal payment. I could actually figure it all out today, but I'm going to wait. I have quite a few projects that need my attention today. It will be a good day to stay inside and stay cool with the heat index heading for 105 degrees.

One benefit of serving in a combat zone is the opportunity to invest money at 10% interest. Compounded quarterly. Oh. There is a limit of $10,000. Turns out we have that.

Today, DH made our first deposit of $7,000. There are some limits on how much you can put in at a time. However, next week when payday comes around again we can put in the remaining $3K. So the money will be in there right away earning some very nice interest until he comes home.

For any one else in the military that wants to know about this benefit, it is called the SDP, or Savings Deposit Program. Most finance offices can get you information.

I plan on adding the interest earned on this account to our emergency fund goal! Of course, you'll only hear about it once a quarter.

A couple of months ago, I made homemade laundry detergent. You can read about it

here. Yesterday, I made another batch. The two gallons lasted us nearly two months! Personally, I think it works just as good as anything else I've used.

The three ingredients are: washing soda, borax, and bar soap, like fels naptha. I bought two bars of soap and the two boxes of washing soda and borax for $9.73 including tax. These ingredients should last my family at least a year!!

The soap does not suds in the washer, but it does clean the clothes. I think my washer is cleaner because it doesn't have the sticky residue other detergents leave behind.

My next project will be to make homemade dishwasher detergent. Citric acid is one of the ingredients and I have just ordered that online. Once I make it, I will post the recipe I used and my results.

I like making these homemade cleaners for the cost savings and the environmental impact. All three items I bought for the laundry detergent come in packaging made of paper or cardbord. No plastic!! And they are easily recycleable. Love it.

Yipee!! I'm adding to our emergency fund goal. I plan to add $215 twice per month. Today I'm adding this regular addition plus the small amount of interest earned on our money market in the amount of $10.73.

New Funds: $225.73
New Balance: $2087.36

Finally over the $2K mark!!

I'm reposting this since there is so much blog spam right now:

Shall we all post our progress on our 2010 Financial Goals? The year is half over!

1) Max out our Roth IRA's = $10,000
On autopilot!

2) Save 7% of basic pay in TSP
On autopilot!

3) Pay off home equity loan
Completed March 11, 2010!

4) Save money for college = $3,340
On autopilot, as of March 2010

5) Add money to emergency fund = $7,000
Currently at $1,861.63 and adding $430 per month for the next 6 months. I will add cash from the sale of our car when that happens, too. This goal is on track!!

6) Pay off van beginning balance = $19,444
Current balance is $16,823.47. So far we have not made extra payments but hope to make a major dent in this loan by the end of the year.

7) Convert IRA's to Roth IRA's
Complete!

Overall, I'd say we are doing great. Some items are complete, many will be taken care of automatically, and only two major ones to focus on.

How are your 2010 financial (and non financial) goals coming along?

Shall we all post our progress on our 2010 Financial Goals? The year is almost half over!

1) Max out our Roth IRA's = $10,000
On autopilot!

2) Save 7% of basic pay in TSP
On autopilot!

3) Pay off home equity loan
Completed March 11, 2010!

4) Save money for college = $3,340
On autopilot, as of March 2010

5) Add money to emergency fund = $7,000
Currently at $1,861.63 and adding $430 per month for the next 6 months. I will add cash from the sale of our car when that happens, too. This goal is on track!!

6) Pay off van beginning balance = $19,444
Current balance is $16,823.47. So far we have not made extra payments but hope to make a major dent in this loan by the end of the year.

7) Convert IRA's to Roth IRA's
Complete!

Overall, I'd say we are doing great. Some items are complete, many will be taken care of automatically, and only two major ones to focus on.

How are your 2010 financial (and non financial) goals coming along?

I did find out how much DH's paycheck will be next week. We are getting $533.73 more than we usually do. No complaints here.

I now need to figure out what the plan is for that money and the other extra we usually have at the beginning of the month. I believe a big portion will go to finish paying ourselves back for the painting we did on the house. After that, I have about $471.

I'm planning on contributing $430 to the EF goal each month, which I could split in half and make a contribution each pay period. That would be $215 this week, leaving $256 to decide if I hold for a little extra cushion or send to the van loan.

Decisions, decisions. I need to think through what expenses I might have coming up for the first two weeks of July that might require those extra funds.

If you or someone you know is a deployed service member with children and in the reserves or national guard of any branch, please check out this

website. This non profit organization provides grants for extracurricular activities up to $500 per child.

I'm in the processing of filling out an application for my girls. They will be taking dance and tumbling in the fall costing us about $800 for the two of them. It would be wonderful to have all or a portion of those fees paid for. They sacrifice quite a bit in order for their father to serve our country.

My understanding is that checks are processed pretty quickly and sent directly to the organization. I will report back about our experience once the funds have been paid.

I converted more money from DH's Rollover IRA to a Roth. $5,650 to be exact, bringing our total conversion amount for 2010 to $18,882.

This year is the perfect year to get most of our Rollover money converted to Roth's because most of our income will be tax free because of the deployment. We have another $5K that is eligible to be converted, but I'm electing to do that in 2011.

Finally after a couple of months of nearly zero progress on our emergency fund I was able to add $430 today.

New Balance: $1861.63

My plan going forward is to add $430 each month for the next 6 months of the year. This will push us to $4,441.63. Sometime late summer or fall we will sell our car for $2500. (This is a planned sale to our neice.) This puts us about $60 shy of our goal, but I expect with interest earnigs to meet the $7K by the end of 2010!

All of our other extra funds will go towards paying off the van loan. I'm looking forward to that!

We are behind on our goals. It is a bit frustrating. I know by the end of the year we will be close to meeting them, but it is hard not to see progress. Right now, I'm seeing the most progress on the van loan simply because I'm making our regular payments!

We have plans to sell our car to a relative as soon as August for $2500. That money will go to our emergency fund goal. If I count that right now, we would have close to $4000 of the $7000 that is our goal. I would need to put about $430 towards that goal each month, for 7 months, to meet the goal by the end of the year. That is definitely possible with the cash that will be coming in from deployment.

The emergency fund goal is really our first goal, even though a part of me really wants to get going on that van loan debt. I just need to face the fact that the loan won't be paid off by the end of 2010, but early 2011.

Well, just writing it out makes me feel better. We are so blessed to be able to make such great progress on these goals in such a short period of time. I need to remember that, right?

Two vehicles. And now only one driver for awhile. It's really hard to drive two cars, when you don't really like the other one! It is the one we are selling to my neice later this summer. She's working hard to save her money for the car.

In the meantime, I notified our insurance company that only one of us needs to be insured for now. I received a $22 credit. Obviously, an extra driver doesn't add too much to the premium! I just paid for six months in April. Once we sell the car the premium will drop much more, at least until we replace it.

We earned a pathetic $12.11 on our money market account last month. I am adding this to the emergency fund goal.

New Balance: $1,431.63

We are paying quite a few big bills in cash this month so there likely won't be any additions to this goal in June.

With my husband away, I only filled up the gas tank once in 27 days! I didn't check how many miles that equated to, but it was between 200 and 300.

So it looks like we will be spending about $40-45 on fuel each month for the next year. That is nice!! We are probably saving around $100 each month because he isn't driving to work daily.

1) DH will be home this weekend on a 4 day pass. It's likely the last time I'll see him before they fly out. It sounds nice, right? Well, it is an emotional mixed bag. With all the training, I've had too many goodbyes this year already.

2) I was able to reduce my gym membership while DH is away from $73 to $49. They offered to reduce it while he is away. Very nice!

3) I had to start on some prescription medications, which will cost $22 per month. Makes the gym membership savings about a wash.

4) Our painters are finally prepping our house for painting. We had too much rain over the last couple weeks, so things have been delayed. Gives me more time to come up with cash!!

5) My youngest daughter is going to play flute next year in fifth grade. I will rent to own the instrument at about $35 per month. This will begin in September.

6) End of month payday arrives early on Friday! Of course, that just means that money has to last longer.

I know it may not seem like it from my posts, but I am still working on our emergency fund goal. We are getting our house painted, which wasn't originally a 2010 goal! So, right now, I'm collecting funds for that project before focusing again on the emergency fund.

I would likely have at least $1000 to add, if it were not for the painting. Ah, wouldn't that be nice to add to my sidebar? But, the house painting comes first. If they ever get started! It has been power washed, but it has been raining off and on the last week, so they haven't shown up. Maybe this week!

I think once much of the extra deployment money starts flowing in we will see more progess on our goals!! I'm looking forward to that.

I'm only adding the small amount of interest earned in the month of April to our emergency fund goal. The amount $11.52. New total $1,419.52.

Since April was spendy due to our many before deployment projects and the purchasing of an airline ticket, I was able to save $293 from yesterday's paycheck. Oh and it was a smaller paycheck by about $225. I'm going to save that money for the house painting.

Happy May Day!!

My neighbor decided to make her own laundry detergent on Earth Day. She loves it! She made a kit of ingredients for me to make my own batch.

The batch will make two gallons of detergent. I think she said the cost per load is $0.07! She didn't say how much the ingredients were but they had to be fairly inexpensive.

Here's the recipe that I plan to mix up this weekend:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap
1/2 c. washing soda
1/2 c. borax powder

You will also need a small bucket approximately, 2 gallons in size. I purchased mine yesterday with a lid at Home Depot for about $5. I sure don't want this stuff to spill!

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Add soap mixture and stir. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours to gel. Use 1/2 cup detergent per load of laundry.

This recipe is from this

website. I'll let you know how I like it soon!

We made a deal tonight with our out of town relatives. We will sell them our Ford Taurus for $2500 in October of this year. I think we would get less as a trade in, but more if we sold it privately to a stranger. So we met in the middle! Good for us. Good for them.

I will still have it sitting in the driveway for the next 6 months, but at least we have a plan. I guess they would probably like it if I drove it around once in awhile! I should make a weekly date to drive it for ice cream.

Hmm...can I put this towards my Ebay Challenge money? If so, I don't have to sell one more thing to meet my $100 per month average. No. I will continue the challenge and keep the car sale out of it!

The money will definitely go towards the emergency fund goal. That will help quite a bit considering I'm about to dip into the 'new' emergency money to fund part of the house painting.

An emergency fund is an important financial building block. It may be hard to know where to find the money when you are living paycheck to paycheck. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1) Stop a service, such as cable, caller id, lawn servicce and save the money you would have spent.

2) Save all your coins, or a specific type of bill. Several on this site save $1 bills.

3) Sell your used cds, books and cell phones online for cash.

4) Have a garage sale!

5) Save birthday or holiday cash gifts you recieve.

6) Get a part time job or make cash providing services to others, such as lawn mowing or babysitting.

7) Sell something 'big'! Your motorcycle, boat, camper, car or collectibles.

8) Simply pick a dollar amount to save each pay period and have it automatically deposited into your savings account.

9) Save your tax refund!

10) Change your tax withholding and save the increase in your paycheck.

There are many more ways to find extra cash to fund an emergency fund. Take a look at your own situation and see how much you can come up with these ideas as well as your own and get started today!

I've paid the bills and have $345 to add to our emergency fund goal! It was a bit difficult to find the funds, but round them up I did.

The money comes from DH's travel reimbursement, an anniversary gift, extra funds in our general escrow account, a couple small rebates and survey checks.

There has been quite a bit of spending here primarily for my husband's deployment needs as well as a few small home projects we are finishing up. I'm looking forward to the finances getting back in order soon, so I can really get things moving forward!

Emergency Fund Goal Balance: $1,408

I've written several times recently about emergency funds and how critical one is to a financial plan. So, if you have decided to get one started you might wonder where to put it, right?

My biggest tip in this area: keep the money seperate. Do not comingle it with your regular checking account or with the paycheck funds you just cashed. Why? Because you will spend it, especially, if this is a new thing for you.

Keeping the money seperate makes dipping into the money a conscious choice and decision. You have to think about withdrawing it, or writing a check on the account. So often in our society we spend without thinking. The time it takes to locate your emergency fund stash, the checkbook for it or even the account's ATM card will provide a little space to decide if this is a purchase for you.

If you don't even have $1 for your emergency fund, I highly suggest accumlating your first several hundred in cash. Then keep the cash in a locked box, under the mattress, frozen in ice, or give it to a trusted friend to hold. This may be a little risky to keep it in cash, but I feel it is riskier not to have an emergency fund.

Once you get a good sum (at least $500) together, consider opening a simple savings account at your local bank. There are also banks online which you can link to your local checking account. Don't worry about the interest rate in the beginning. Rates are really low right now. Once you get used to holding an emergency fund you can shop around for better rates.

Don't forget! Keep your emergency funds seperate.

I seem to be on emergency fund kick lately. Yes, we are working on adding to ours! I also want to keep the topic in the forefront for new readers as well since I strongly feel it is an important foundation.

Technically, we didn't have emergency funds before we were married. Our first one began from cash wedding gifts. My parents gave us $1000. Truth be told we didn't really need anything after all the other gifts. So we saved it. Initially, we didn't even call it an emergency fund.

It seems that we didn't have lots of wants starting out. We worked a lot. We paid off failed business debt and student loans. When we would get a cash gift, tax refund or other unexpected money, we saved it. I mean just because someone gives you $25 doesn't mean you have to buy something, right?

We also used to save all of our change. DH had lots of change. We would collect it in a cottage cheese container and take it to the bank for deposit in our savings account. Often the total was $25 to $30. This was nearly every month. Truth be told we use our debit card now and have an online bank, so coin collecting is in our past.

Our emergency fund did receive an inheritence windfall 5 years into our marriage after my father in law died. Yes, we did spend some of the money for a new furnace and carpet. The rest is still sitting in our emergency fund.

Actually, many of the emergency fund details are a bit fuzzy now. We have had one for 14 years and almost take it for granted. It has saved the day a few times: car repairs and deductible for a roof. Since I know several people without one, I know we are better financially for having saved that first $1000 gift.

Oh, by the way, it is our 14th Anniversary today!!

I'm feeling pretty confident that we have a plan to pay for at least four out of eight years of college. I researched the new Post 911 GI Bill. It appears that my husband is eligible. I will have him call to confirm.

The Post 911 GI Bill provides 36 months (I'm guessing this is equal to 4 years at 9 months each) of tuition and fees at any college or university up to the in state maximum. It also provides $1000 annually for books. And housing in some cases. If my husband were to get his master's degree, the housing wouldn't apply since we already receive it.

The cool thing about the bill is that the service member can transfer any number of months to their spouse and dependent children up to the 36 months. In our case divide them evenly to our girls with 18 months each! Or one thought that pops into my mind, use the benefits for our older daughter and save only for our youngest daughter since we have more time. Or the opposite, pay for the first since tuition may be lower than for the second. Hmm.

I'm not clear if the housing would apply to the girls, but I think that it might. Wow! I'm blown away at how much easier this makes paying for college seem. Instead of trying to pay half of their college, we might luck out and be able to pay for most of it, with the help of this new bill of course.

It's nice to think the girls will see benefit from their dad's hard work and service in a very tangible way. A college education.

Yesterday was a day of refunds. I returned a Land's End shirt to Sears, it was bigger than the marked tagged. I received $10.18 back.

I had a refund, rebate really, from an item I purchased over the holidays. This resulted in $5.00!

And the smallest refund, I've ever received by check arrived yesterday from the lender of our home equity loan. A big whopping $0.35! A stamp costs more.

All of this money ($15.53) will be part of our next emergency fund deposit, since we all know little amounts add up.

Have you received a very small refund? What do you do with money like this?

The saga of my best friend and her financial situation continues, unfortunately. I share to vent, use her as an example of what not to do, and for those us who have it together to find a some understanding and compassion.

This is the friend with bats in the attic...third time in three years. Technically, they do not have the funds to remove them. However, they have decided to open a credit card to pay for the $2,000 extensive repair. They cut up their cards a few months ago, when the took out a 401K loan to pay off their debt. Right now the friend doesn't know how she will make the payment. Yikes!!

To make matters worse, she called me last night to tell me that they did some van repairs to the tune of $1200. I assume also put on the credit card. There were many things in need of repair, but they only did the critical ones. She said she broke down, flipped out at work. She is beside herself with despair. She does not have the money.

As my title suggests, they have no emergency fund. They never have. They so need one for times like this. I know I have said this before, but I truly believe an emergency fund is the building block to financial freedom. It doesn't even have to be a big one to start with. Dave Ramsey suggests $1000 to start. I'm in agreement. It's a good start to changing the behavior from spending every last penny to saving a little for the unexpected. My friend and her husband need to change their behavior. Fast!

Luckily, I am seeing signs that she is willing to make some changes. She declined to send her daughter to an out of state camp, which would have cost $800. She has put a bug in her husband's ear to get a part time job (she already has one). She also wants them to consider selling their fifth wheel camper which they purchased three years ago for cheap. They actually could make a profit on it! (Side note: even though the camper was cheap, they had to trade in a one year old truck for a larger truck that could handle the load. Ugh!)

The new credit card statement changes have really opened her eyes to the amount of interest they are paying. I was actually a bit shocked that this was new information to her. I obviously take knowledge about compound interest for granted. Oops!

She is sharing her frustrations, but not exactly asking for help. I so would love to get my hands on their financial particulars and work out a plan for them. I really would. I'm sure I would learn quite a bit, too.