My Weekly Money Check-Up

Hi there! Happy Monday :o) I hope your week is off to a great start. Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on our tax payment. As I shared, we mailed in one of our 2 tax payments due. I'll make another payment this week to the IRS.

2. Today I am thankful for my health. Recently my Grandfather's health took a turn for the worse (kind of expected at his old age, but still sad) and this past week an old family friend passed away. These events put things in perspective and really make you appreciate what you do have. I'm thankful to be in good health!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was sat on our porch reading and taking in the view and feeling the warm sunshine on me. It was very relaxing and free!

4. I will consider this week a success if I finish a good amount of packing. Unfortunately we haven't secured our apartment yet but I'm hopeful that will happen sometime this week. In the meantime, I'm trying to motivate myself to get some packing done! I don't want to wait until the last minute and stress out about it, so I'm trying to be proactive and get as much done as we can beforehand. We'll see how that goes this week!

5. My signature accessory is a fake pair of diamond stud earrings. I am a minimalist when it comes to accessories. Most days I only wear my wedding rings and this matching pair of earrings. Nothing too exciting...

Have a great week!

Taxes... one down, one big one to go!

So today we paid our state taxes off! $1,794. Done. The check is sent in and this bad memory is behind us! I felt good writing the check out and dropping the envelope in the mail. Now we're focused on paying off the IRS. I can only imagine how good that one is gonna feel! It's going to take a little longer to get that one in since it's $5,272. I plan to send in what we can before the 18th and then our stretchhhh goal is to pay the remainder with my last check this month on the 29th. However, that may be challenging with our upcoming move (and the costs associated with that) so luckily we have some time since our grace period takes us until the beginning of June.

I'm hoping this good feeling continues and we stay motivated to follow our budget and continue to pay things off! Now that we have an end date (December 2012) there is some light at the end of the tunnel.


Lesson Learned : Don't mess around with your tax withholdings, it's not worth it! You'll probably end up owing later...

2012

It's official! We've set the date. "What date?" you ask. The date we are GOING to be out of credit card debt by! I'd love to say we'll be completely out of debt, but our focus has really been on our looming credit card debt (since the interest rates are high) and we haven't really focused on our car loan.... yet! We'll get there. For sure. But with an interest rate under 1%, we're not too worried about that one just yet.

We started with about $40K on our credit cards and if all of my budgeting is correct and if we stay the course, we'll be completely out of credit card debt by December 2012! There are a some assumptions in here (that our bills don't increase significantly, that we both maintain our current incomes, and a few others) but I did build a slight buffer in there and I truly believe that we will be celebrating that New Year's Eve in style! (And by "in style" I don't mean in an expensive fashion, I just mean popping a bottle of $4 Andre champagne and toasting how great it feels to be out of debt! Then in 2013, we'll tackle that damn car loan and bulking up our savings for a future home! Ahhhh, I love having goals to work towards.

99 cent store anyone?

So, we did a first this past weekend... we bought our groceries at the local 99 cent store! I had budgeted $50 for food for the hubby and I for the week. I knew that $50 wouldn't get us too far at our normal grocery store, so I decided to give this place a try. A co-worker mentioned that she lives on a very small income by getting her groceries here. At first, I thought it was kind of a crazy idea - but once I entered the store and saw that I could purchase items that I normally buy for $3-$4 (for only 99 cents) I was sold!

I couldn't believe the items they had there : lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, bread, milk, soda, pasta etc! I almost took a picture to show you guys. I was so proud of what we got for $35! I'm certain it would have easily cost us double if not close to triple what we paid if we went to a regular grocery store.

I'm not saying it's for everyone and they don't have the greatest selection, but I'd recommend you check out what they do have. If you can save some money shopping here, it's worth looking into. Happy shopping!

Good Idea : Look for less expensive places to buy groceries... you may be pleasantly surprised!

Question : Where do you shop to cut corners? Have you tried to buy food from a non-traditional grocery store?

My Weekly Money Check-Up and Updates...

Hi! I'm baaaaack! The past few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster. My husband got the new job only a few miles from our house and we thought, "Great! This is really going to change things for us for the better." Well, it threw us a big curve ball! Although being closer to our current apartment is awesome for him, it totally screwed up our carpooling commute. His hours are 6:30am - 3:30pm, whereas mine are 8am - 5pm. His job is North and mine is South. There was no way we were going to be able to continue carpooling together.

We spent the last 2 weeks discussing our options - taking the bus (which unfortunately doesn't go the full way, so he'd still have to walk 2+ miles), taking a taxi (not a great option at $26 PER DAY for a 6 mile ride!), riding a bike (we ended up purchasing a bike for $100 but after trying this one time my husband thought he may die). We realized that we really wanted to stay in our current apartment so we decided to try other options to make it work. Over the past 2 weeks we've bummed rides off our co-workers and tried to shift our work schedules, it just wasn't working. We looked into getting a car or a scooter, but they are so expensive and we'd really like to stay a one-car family for as long as we can. So, on the 31st we gave notice to our current property manager and decided we'd move South, closer to my job so that I could walk to work and my husband could take the car.

The weird thing about apartments in this area is that some of them go up in price at the end and beginning of the month, so if we try to arrange it so that we have another apartment lined up (as we always have in the past) we would end up paying more for our rent. It's about $1K more over the course of a year lease. Since we don't want to just throw money away we are taking a risk and playing their game... we're waiting until the middle of the month when historically they've offered the lowest rent for quick move in and we'll hopefully be able to snatch up a good deal. Rent will probably save us about $70 per month and our electricity should be lower since our place will be smaller. We'll also save on our gas since we'll be cutting our commute by about 100 miles per week. We really struggled with this decision but now that we made it, I'm feeling better about things. I'm really optimistic that we'll like this place (at least well enough to stay for a year while we pay off some debt) and maybe even longer, who knows?

I also received some wonderful news last week that my niece got the RA job! That will save us almost $600 per month! I was ecstatic when I found out. That can go directly to our debt.

So, all in all, the past few weeks have been kind of hectic but positive. I think that will continue through April until we're finally packed and settled in our new place. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get on here more often to check in and provide updates.

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up courtesy of My Pretty Pennies. She changed the second question recently and I like this one much better :) Feel free to join in with your own check up as well!

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on TAXES! Ugh, we continue to bank what we can to pay towards the $7K we owe in taxes. Unfortunately because we may have to come up with rent for our new place a little earlier than anticipated we may not be able to pay the full amount due by the 18th, so I called the IRS and was granted a 60 day delay to pay in full. I still plan to send what we can by the due date but it's nice to have a little extension if needed. The kind woman on the phone said she'd send a letter to us outlining the details. We'll see how much of a penalty will apply, hopefully it'll be minimal.

2. Today I am thankful for my job. As I look over our finances and the plan for the 2011 and 2012 to pay off our debt, I realize that without this job I'd be in really poor shape. I'm thankful for it today!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was sent out a couple of handmade cards to family and friends. Years back I had a hobby of scrapbooking and making cards and I love it when I can sit down and finally use them.

4. I will consider this week a success if I see the rent drop on the apartment that we're interested in. I will have peace of mind knowing that we have our new home lined up and ready for us to move in. Playing this waiting game is a bit unnerving to me!

5. The last dream I had was about an old friend from high school telling me that I will have a son named Matthew... strange. We had been trying to conceive in Jan & Feb but put it on hold for the time being. Wonder if that's a sign?

He got the job!!!

Just got the great news that my husband got the new job he interviewed for last week! Oh, I'm so happy for him. This couldn't have come at a better time for us. This will help us move faster on our debt repayment journey for sure! Not to mention it's closer to where we live and it's for a company that seems to be a step up from his previous one, so hopefully he'll be pretty happy there.

According to the owner they haven't had turnover in 6 years! From the sounds of it, people like it there and stay for a while. I hope that's the case for my hubby as well :)

Now if only the rest of March goes this great!

Happy Monday! I hope your week is off to a good start. Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies :)


1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a credit card payment. Yuck!

2. Today I feel optimistic towards money! My husband had his job interview last week and it went well. They asked him to come back in this afternoon. We'll see what comes out of that. If he does get the job, it probably won't be an hourly pay increase initially, but at least it'll be full time, which will increase his take home pay and make our lives a little easier. In addition, I have good news... my niece accepted the back-up RA position, so hopefully that will fall into place too and I won't have to re-budget that large payment in!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free/inexpensive thing I did last week that made me happy was sit on the beach for a few hours. My husband and I packed up our beach chairs, sunglasses and a blanket and went to the beach this weekend. Although it was a bit windy and cool, it was great to get out and enjoy the fresh air and take in the beautiful view!

4. I will consider this week a success if I continue to keep us on budget! As I mentioned in a post last week, we're really committed to paying our taxes in April and in order to do this we have to stay on our budget. We've been great for the past 2 weeks but I'm nervous about this weekend. It's my birthday and we have a free weekend away at a local hotel. I'm hoping we just enjoy the scenery and any free activities we can, rather than spend money we don't have to have fun.

5. My ancestors are English, Irish, Dutch, French, Indian and Lithuanian. Quite a mixed breed!