It's payday! I do always love me a payday. I know. Incorrect grammer. Anyway, there are decisions to be made and they are not directly related to payday.

I bought a pair of pants and a top from JC Penney a few days ago. We thought we were attending a baptism this weekend. Turns out the date has changed and we can't attend on the rescheduled date. I rarely dress up, so I need to decide whether to return the items or not. I paid $34.22 with tax for the two items. It is possible that something will come up in the next several weeks where dressy could be nice, but not necessary. So, I need to decide. Thoughts?

I'm going with two neighbor ladies to check out a gym this morning. Our membership expired this week, so I'm in the market for a new one. I will need to decide on that soon.

I have been told not to look at our bank accounts until my birthday. My husband has been shopping and doesn't want me know the amount spent or where he shopped. Ugh! Do you know how hard it is NOT to look at your bank account? It is hard!! It's even harder when it is payday and I should be paying bills. Help. I think I'm going to go crazy.

We are traveling this weekend and expect to spend a few dollars. Oh...but we are celebrating our birthday's with extended family, so cash and gifts will be exchanged. Yipee!!

I hope your payday is more fun than mine. I'm sure it will be since you can actually look at your bank account!! Enjoy.

I made an easy repair yesterday. And it was inexpensive. $3.12 to be exact!!

When we closed our front door, I could see daylight coming in at the top and sides. Obviously, air from outside was coming in as well. Last winter we attempted to add some weather stripping. It didn't work. We rigged up an adjustable shower curtain rod between the door and the wall across from the door to push the door in closer to the weather stripping. It helped, but it didn't get all the areas sealed up.

The truth is the shower rod is tacky and annoying. It is probably an inconvenience and a hazard if there was a fire!!

This week I evaluated the door again. The original weather stripping is attached underneath wood. In order to remove the original weather stripping, nails and boards would need to be removed. If anything is damaged in the process...more money for wood and paint. Ugh!

I began my removing the foam weather stripping that I placed NEXT to the original weather stripping last year. I bought more foam weather stripping ($3.12 remember!) that was slightly wider by 1/4 inch and thicker by 1/8 inch. I put this new foam weather stripping UNDER the original weather stripping. As a result the new foam weather stripping simply pushes the original out farther so that it can make contact with the door and create a seal.

Guess what? No light is showing AND no air is blowing in. Yipee!!

Here are pictures:

The home equity loan should be paid off in February or March of 2010. I'm really looking forward to it, primarily because of our new plan!

We will start funding our girls college accounts again after a little more than a year off. The remaining extra funds will go to increase our emergency fund by $5000. I expect to complete that by the end of May 2010.

Once, the EF hits $15,000 I'm going to divide our extra funds towards paying off our van loan (did you know I had one?), adding smaller amounts to the emergency fund and saving for a truck!

I'll be giving you lots more information about these goals as they are happen. I know you like that kind of thing!

Deployment is getting closer. As a result there will be some extra government cash to help us realize those goals. Yipee for that. Of course, that's the ONLY positive thing about deployment. Emotionally it is a huge drag.

In saving for our taxes and homeowner's insurance, I've come upon a snag. It's my error really.

I told the bank with our money market account to pull money from our regular savings account with our primary bank. Um...we don't have a savings account with our primary bank!! Opps.

I have to go through a few extra hoops. I now need the bank to confirm the account that I do want them to pull this escrow money from. They are going to give us those nifty small deposits that you have to verify. So, sometime next week everything should be up and running!

Remember, we deleted the escrow account with our mortgage? Here's the breakdown of how we will save for our own homeowners insurance and county taxes:

$1361.00 March Taxes
$1361.00 September Taxes
$658.47 Homeowner's Insurance (October)
---------
$3380.47 Annual Total
$281.71 Monthly Savings

I have simply rounded the amount up to $285. I have set up a monthly draft to our money market account where I will save this money until needed. Obviously, if taxes or insurance go up significantly, I will be short. However, since this money will be sitting with our emergency fund there will always be extra money available if needed. I also plan to stay on top of any tax changes or increases in homeowners insurance and adjust the draft when necessary.

When doing this calculation, it is important to run down the balances each month to make sure there is enough money in the account when the first payment will be due. If it is short, then you need to start your account with at least that amount, or divide it over several months prior to the first payment. Run through the full year to make sure you won't have a month where you are short on funds for the payment.

Automated savings is the only way to go!! It is so easy. Record and go.

There are only two months left of 2009. Have you accomplished your goals for the year? If not, can you still wrap them up?

I looked at our goals that are on the side bar. We are most definitely on track to save 15% for retirement. It helps that that the goal was automated!!

The home equity loan began 2009 with a balance of $13,999. Our first goal was to pay off $7,000. We did that!! A few months into the year we thought we could get ambitious and pay the whole thing off. It is very clear that we will not get there with the cash we have or expect to have available. Right now, I think we can get the loan under $4,000. Which means we will have paid over $10,000 in debt off this year.

We did pay for our Disney World vacation in cash!! Yipee. So fun. And the ONLY way to go on vacation. Trust me.

We also paid for our daughter's braces in cash. On some level we knew she would need braces, but we didn't have this in our plan at the beginning of the year. She's only had them on for two months and there are no lingering bills just straighter teeth!

We made zero college contributions. This is a little disappointing because the market was low at the beginning of the year and has rebounded, so it would have been a good year to be investing. So be it. We will contribute in 2010...once we have that HEL paid off.

To wrap up. The final two months of 2009 will consist of saving for retirement and paying another $1925 in principal towards the home equity loan. In order to do that we have to make conscious spending decisions during the holidays.

What are your financial plans and goals for the last two months of 2009?

Remember how we canceled the escrow account on our mortgage? Of course you do! The remaining funds, $404.34, were returned to us. I found the check in the mail yesterday. We had received a statement the day before from the mortgage company that indicated it wouldn't be sent for another 3 weeks! I was a little surprised that it arrived earlier. No complaints here. It is our money after all!!

My Global Test Market rewards check finally arrived yesterday, too. It was for $50!! Nice.

All that money is safely sitting in our account...waiting to be designated. Right now, I'm in a hoarding money mode. I've been feeling a bit uneasy about money. I'm not expecting a job layoff, of course, but want to bump up our slush fund so we don't feel so pinched each payday. Once I feel a little more in control, I'll be hitting that home equity loan a little more.

I took care of it yesterday. I emailed Bank of America and confirmed that we did indeed like to delete our escrow account. They emailed back within a couple of hours that it was complete and a check with our escrow balance is on its way!!

As of November 1st, we will only send Bank of America our mortgage payment consisting of interest and principal. That will be strange!!

The escrow check will be for $404.34 which is just under the amount they would needed as a buffer or low balance amount. I may find something to do with that money. Maybe the home equity loan?

I will begin setting aside $281 per month to account for taxes and insurance right away. The first payment I need to make is not until March 2010!

I feel very confident this will work well for us. I plan to set up email reminders for the taxes since I will only be billed once a year for those.

I recently inquired with our mortgage lender about handling our own escrow. Their answer: Yes!

The primary loan is for less than 80% of the homes value, so I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before!

So...should I do it?

I do our own escrow for things like auto insurance, registrations and life insurance, so I know how to save ahead. It works really well.

I would not need to escrow the same amount as the mortgage company because I have our own emergency fund to dip into should something increase drastically. Right now they need a cushion of 16.6% of my total escrow to cover increases. I would also be able to earn interest on this money!!

Any disadvantages that anyone can think of? Let me hear what you think.

I ended up with a no spend day yesterday with my Mom. She bought my lunch, bought ingredients for dinner and picked up the tab for a couple items at the health food store (items I intended to purchase).

We visited the new sculpture garden. It's so new they just took the fence down yesterday morning! The grand opening is on Sunday. I think the whole family will want to go then. I love free art. Oops, I did spend $0.75 to park my car. I guess I did spend money yesterday!!

Today, I have school activities to help with and a walk scheduled with a friend. I think today will be another no spend day! That will make 4 days if you are counting.

We still have $350 in our checking account. Payday is 8 days away. I'm positive we would have far less if DH hadn't traveled this month. There are still things to buy...groceries, gas, and a few fall clothing items for the girls. It's just nice to be in a good place!!

I did make it through yesterday with out spending. In fact, I found a way to put a few dollars back in my pocket!

I turned in our cans and bottles to get our deposit money back. Yep, I live in one of those states where you pay a deposit at the time of purchase. So, I turned in $3.60 worth of bottles and cans. Yipee! Money in my pocket.

I checked our bank accounts today. We earned a mere $0.13 in interest on one of our checking accounts. They did reimburse us for $3.00 worth of ATM fees, too. Nice to have that money back!

Update: Turns out the sparkle fairy did not make a return visit, even though she knows my Mom is coming to visit today! Hmm. Sparkle fairy needs to get her act together! (Oh, if you don't know about the sparkle fairy, see the previous post)

Two years ago, I signed a contract to rent to own a flute for my daughter. I also purchased the rental and maintenence agreement, which came in handy several times.

I recently contacted the music store to confirm the remaining payments. I just couldn't read my copy of the agreement. My inquiry prompted them to offer me a discount, if I would pay the account in full!

Instead of 5 more payments that would equal about $179, I will pay them $111 next week. A nice surprise savings of $68! My daughter will finally own her own flute, which she has been looking forward to.

By renting to own the instrument, I did pay more than if I had paid for the instrument in full at the beginning of lessons. At the time, $750 seemed like so much money to lay out for an instrument my daughter had not even begun to play. I didn't know if she would practice, or even like playing it! The rental contract allowed us an out at any point in time. We could have simply returned the instrument and be free of future monthly obligations. Turns out she loved the flute! And she plays it so well.

It is what it is. Now I'll have a little more cash in my pocket each month!!

It's four days until payday and we have $67 in our checking account. I might need a few food items and one daughter needs an item for school.

Sometimes I feel that we are living paycheck to paycheck. But we aren't. We have cash, some of it just isn't set aside for spending. I hope to make this a very low spend weekend.

The good news, the last two days have been no spend days. Yipee!!

I'm seeing signs of abundance!! Yipee.

The first sign is in the form of tomatoes. Usually, I just walk to the garden when I need a tomato and pick a few. Last night, I went out for an onion and realized there are lots of tomatoes ready...and some that were ready last week (oops!). I came in with 31 tomatoes. It's been a good year!! I also picked three cups of cherry tomatoes. Now I have to figure out how I want to use them.

The second sign of abundance is our retirement accounts. We have reached a new high of just over $90K! We were close to this a year and half ago, but you know how things went. If the stock market hadn't tanked I'm sure we would be over $100K by now. I think we are doing pretty well considering, we only had $25K in 2003!

What signs of abundance do you see in your life?

We've made it to payday! We spent pretty much every last dollar we had allocated towards spending this month. In fact, I had to dip into some of our extra cash for kleenex, since our youngest daughter caught a cold! Poor baby.

We did a really good job of holding out and waiting to spend only when necessary. I had a list of things that we could wait to buy. They included paper towels, trash bags, my haircut, razor blades, and bar soap.

Today, I'm writing a check for the first round of school pictures. I picked a package that is $17. The cheapest was $12. I decided to spend an extra $5 to be able to give another 5 people pictures. I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

The good news: after paying bills we should have $915 to allocate towards braces! I'll update the ticker when I actually get that money into the emergency fund.

It feels good to be flush with cash...even if it is only for a few days!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we changed our homeowner's insurance deductible. Specifically, we increased it to $1000. It seems we will most likely get a refund. If I'm reading our online statement correctly, the refund will be equal to $68.53!!

That is money I can use towards those braces!! Things did go well today. She's in minimal pain with Advil every four hours. Our orthodontist even called to see how she is doing!! I wasn't expecting that. He even offered his home phone number which I took down. I love this guy!! He's one of those people that you can tell really loves his work. We should all be so lucky.

I completed a Pinecone survey today, so I expect so see an additional $3 in our bank account soon. Our checking account has about $35 left until Monday. So, we hope to have a very limited spending weekend. I think we can do it!!

Once payday arrives, I have to buy new jazz shoes for one daughter and a leotard for the other. Turns out they both grew over the summer!!

We are making changes to our homeowner's insurance policy. We have decided to increase our deductible to $1000, up from $500.

When I first inquired it appreared this change would save us $59.70. In the meantime, we received our renewal notice effective in October. The notice stated the renewal premium would be $717.99!! Whoa, that is an increase of $143.60 from the previous year.

I inquired again about the premium at the time of renewal for a $1000 deductible policy. It would be $658.47. So, even though our insurance premium is going up, it is now going up less since we have switch to a higher deductible policy.

Final increase per year: $84.08. That's about $7 per month. I think we can handle that!!

Just a week to go until payday.

I think we are doing pretty well with a little over $115 left in the checking account. I've been to the grocery store. I stocked up on meat. I'm sure there may be a run or two needed for a couple items, as usual. I have enough gas to get around, but my husband may need to fill up once.

It would be nice to end the week with a little extra...to help pay for those braces!! My daughter will have them put on Friday. The day I will pay for them in full. Scary.

My fingers are crossed for some excess cash!!

There's something about the kids going back to school on Monday that makes me want to go shopping! I know. Crazy.

So, instead of thinking of the things I want to shop for I need to refocus. I'm going to focus on free tasks that I can do around the house.

Honestly, I have a fair amount of cleaning and tidying up around the house I could do. Here's a few things that come to mind:

clean kitchen cupboards (inside & out)
clean refrigerator
dust all blinds in house
pull out bush on side of house
make tote bags out of fabric remnants
clean bathroom drawers
put pool away for winter
sweep out garage & organize
scrounge for items to sell or donate
weed out file cabinent
wash windows (inside & out)
clean clothes washer
good cleaning of dryer vent
caulk windows, if I have extra caulk

Okay, that's enough...I'm tired just thinking about it. I really plan to get myself back to the gym and work on free projects around the house. They need to be done at some point, might as well do them while it's nice. Since, I won't be in the stores, I should save some money!!

-------

I did get that rodent bedding returned today. Only spent $11 to get my youngest daughter's hair cut...she needed it!

Here's a cute one! My husband called this afternoon, but hung up before I could get to the phone. I waited for him to call back. So, I called him. He was calling to see if he could spend money on a snack! He knows I'm trying to save as many pennies as possible with the braces looming up ahead. He hung up because he decided he wasn't really hungry. Of course, if he is really hungry he should get some food, right? I don't want my man starving!!

I just feel like writing a bit about a few recent financial happenings.

Turns out that the auto maintenence bill from yesterday was $220.17. The battery replacement was $24 plus $15 in labor. The oil change was $19.49. Those are the only things we NEEDED. The tranmission fluid flush at $150 was not a necessity. But what's done is done, right?

Yesterday was a zero spend day. I always like those! Today, I spent about $18 on pop, ice cream, jello and pudding. Can you tell someone in the house has tender teeth this evening?

We have discovered that a cheaper pine bedding works pretty well for our mice and hamster. The pine stuff is $6.50 compared to $26 for the same amount of premium paper fiber stuff! Guess what? I have a brand new bag of that premium stuff to return!! Tomorrow, I will have $27.55(tax included) more in our checking account. I sure wish I had tried the stuff a year ago. Oh, well what's done is done.

I inquired with our homeowner's insurance about increasing our deductible to $1000. For some reason, it's been at $500 since we moved. We would save $59.60. Per year. That is less than $5/month. Of course, I don't want to over pay when I do have the cash on hand, but I'm torn about what to do. Thoughts, anyone?

I received our tax bill two days ago and taxes are going up $86 per year. I think this is what prompted me to inquire about the insurance deductible. Maybe I should increase it. My net increase to the house payment would only be $26.40/year!!

Hmmm...decisions, decisions. Thanks for tuning in to my brain again!

I have no idea if this is good timing or not, but I moved $3,000 of my husband's Rollover IRA money out of cash and into an existing fund.

I wanted to do it yesterday, but I needed to confirm with him that he was okay with it. He told me he was fine with it, but by then the market had closed for the day.

There's more money invested in cash, but we decided to dollar cost average the money back in over the next several months. That way I don't have to time the market. I wish I would have started doing it several months ago. That would have been great! However, the market is still down significantly from where it was last year at this time. Really, we are way too young to have much, if any, retirement money sitting in cash.

I called the orthodontist today to inquire about a discount for paying in full. They have one. It's 5% on the balance after the insurance makes their payment.

In our case, we would get 5% off $3,781. That's $189.05.

I can't decide what to do. I really wanted to focus on the home equity loan. It has an interest rate of 7.25%. My goal of finishing this by the end of the year is stressing me out. My plan puts us on a very tight budget, especially when I put payments to the orthodontist in the mix.

I can afford to pay the regular payments to the home equity loan and orthodontist with no problem. For that I am extremely grateful. It's when I start making a plan for paying them off early, even by the end of the year that I start getting very anxious.

I need to come up with a plan that will make me less anxious, but still bring progress to our goals.

I've been notified by our utility company that our monthly budget billing payment is going down! They bill us for electric and gas.

Instead of $127/month, our new amount will be $110. A savings of $17/month, or $204/year!

Lower bills always make me happy.

Unfortunately, the water bill came yesterday and made me sad. The bill covered 40 days rather than the usual 30 because of a coversion to a new computer system. The total $93. Yikes! Last month it was around $60, and in months that we don't water the lawn it is closer to $50.

I wish it would rain!

It's time to make a decision regarding retirement investing. We have some of our retirement sitting in cash. Technically, about 20% of our total retirement.

This was due to a 401K rollover. We had a hard time deciding which fund to invest it in at the time. So, we put it in cash. We talked about it once in awhile, but we never did anything. Then the market took a dive and it didn't feel right to jump into the market. It felt better to have that money at least earning some interest.

But it appears the market is recovering, and it is time to get that money invested at still relatively lower prices. Of course, we still need to decide where to put it.

Out of all personal finance decisions, this is the one I like the least. There are so many funds and types of funds. It's overwhelming. I overthink the decision and then can't make one. I've worked for a mutual fund company, so I've been trained to read the prospectus. It actually does help narrow it down, but it takes time.

Any advice or tips, so I don't keep stumbling over myself?

Normally I would take all the extra funds and throw them on the home equity loan. I love doing that.

But, you see, there are clouds on the horizon. It just might rain. In the form of braces and eyeglasses. Technically, I should have been saving for these all along.

But...that's not how we roll around here. Generally, we bring in enough 'extra' each month to handle larger expenses when they come in.

Usually, this is a good time of year to get glasses. Last year, I paid about $50 for my oldest daughter. Our insurance covers the eye exam and then I look for a good deal on frames. She's going to want contacts soon, too. We'll see.

The braces. We have an appointment on Wednesday. I have about $1100 left of insurance coverage on those. I'm sure it will cost more than that, don't you? Most likely, I'll pay those off over time. Orthodontists are nice people...they don't charge interest!! My younger daughter might luck out and not need braces at all. Wouldn't that be nice?

So...for now the nearly $700 in extra funds I have will sit in the checking account. Waiting for instructions.

We made it to payday with $9.12 left to spare. Yipee!!

I'm so proud of us. DH and I worked as a team, not to spend more than was available. We even traded cars for a day to make it happen. I love it!

My husband's paycheck is now sitting in our checking account. However, the funds are already dwindling. He filled his car up with fuel this morning. And he took $50 in cash out. The fuel didn't surprise me, but the cash did. I think he took out an allowance. We had a discussion last month about all his small expenditures that I have to enter and keep track of. It gets tedious. So, I think maybe it's his allowance. Funny...we never did come up with an amount or a true agreement on what the plan was. I'll have to talk to him about that.

And, the account will dwindle more after I go grocery shopping. I have planned the meals for one week and made a list. I even found a few coupons for items I need to buy.

We did make it through yesterday without spending a dime. Yipee!

Today...may require a mini run to the store. I'm completely out of liquid dish soap. I have zero left. It feels like we are low on snacks. I will probably buy some crackers and cheese. And, while I'm there, I'll pick up a gallon of milk. I promise I won't buy anything else!!

The plan for payday. I need to repay one of my accounts for the dance/tumbling lessons. After that I should have at least $400 to put towards the home equity loan, but I'm going to wait until next payday to send the money in. The reason? I like to hoard cash in times of uncertainty. Right now, I'm not certain how much braces, school supplies and possible glasses are going to cost me. Oh, and DH is having some dental work in September that may not be covered by our insurance.

P.S. I didn't get ANY organizing done yesterday. I'll try again today!

Some of you may remember that I bought a piano over a year ago, so my daughter could take lessons. Well, for numerous reasons, that did not happen. Now, she's not interested. At all.

So, I listed the piano on craigslist this past Sunday. I just sold it for $300. The man just left. Yipee!!

For now, I'm going to hold on to the cash. There are school expenses coming up and my checking account cushion is lower than I would prefer. But, this may mean some extra cash towards the home equity loan at some point.

I also received the other MySurvey check in the mail today. It was for $10.

If anyone is keeping track, did you notice that I seem to have had about $360 come into my life in the past week? Crazy, but good.

we could cut back our budget more. We are actually in a pretty good place, where we have 25% of our net income available to spend or save outside of retirement and other obligations. But, if we had to these are things I would cut out of our spending:

cell phones
alcohol
caller id/call waiting/voicemail
unlimited long distance
newspaper
netflix
automatic car washes
gifts and birthday parties
I'd put the rodents up for adoption(bedding is costly!)
our 2nd gym membership (less than $100/yr)
birthday/christmas cards
movie theatre tickets
dinners out (rare as it is)

Okay, those are a few off the top of my list. All of that might bring an extra $250/month. Depending one's financial situation, these items can make a big difference to a budget. I'd cut all of these before I cut into my retirement contributions.

Although, not likely, I would sell our van since it does have a loan payment. I would buy a clunker with cash on hand.

My list will be different than yours because there are some things I don't buy that you might...like cable television. I can't cut out convenience/prepackaged foods since I rarely buy those either.

What could you cut, if you had to?

Still no air conditioning for the last 8 days! In case anyone doesn't realize, that in the midwest in July that NEVER happens. Ever.

It has been so cool, that swimming outside is not pleasant either. Today, I took them to an indoor pool, with a buy 1 admission, get 1 free. I didn't want to swim, so it cost me $4 to get them in. Good thing it was cheap, they wanted to leave after an hour!! What? Kids not wanting to swim? I have never heard of such a thing!

-------

We are signing up for dance and tumbling lessons this afternoon. For 9 months of entertainment, education and exercise, I will pay $742. I may have to buy jazz shoes for one daughter, but I think the old ones still fit for now! Same goes for the leotards.