Done Dirt Cheap

Net worth update; Hybrid tax credits

2006-06-12T12:41:00.000-06:00

We had a pretty good month in May, increasing our net worth by about $1500. My car had another month of negative depreciation, my guess is because of gas prices and the fuel efficiency of my Vibe (number 10, baby!, and most efficient in its class (small wagon)).

Speaking of fuel efficiency, you know what perturbs me? If I were to purchase my vehicle all over again in 2006, I would receive no benefit from the government in the form of a tax credit. But for some reason, even though it is LESS efficient than the Vibe, they are rewarding those who purchase the Lexus hybrid with a $2200 credit. That's crap. :Þ

HSA Questions

2006-05-11T11:54:00.000-06:00

I was discussing HSAs with my manager yesterday because we were trying to sort out all of the various benefits our company gives regarding medical reimbursements.

The HSA account offered by our health insurance comes with a $3 monthly maintenance fee. My employer agreed to pay the fee for everyone who opted for the HDHP+HSA. But, I know that the annual contribution limit for your HSA is the amount of your deductible, $1100 in my case, and in order to reach that max I’m having money taken from my paycheck each month. My employer than sends that money along with an additional $3 to the bank. Does anyone know if that additional $3 a month will go against me for that limit? Will I still end up with $36 less in my account at the end of the year?

I’ve read that I can open an HSA at any bank, as long as I can prove my enrollment in an HDHP. Does anybody know where I can find a no-monthly-fee bank for my HSA?

My First Stock Purchase

2006-05-10T12:17:00.000-06:00

I made my first stock purchase on Sunday. I bought 500 shares of Meridell Potato Company (symbol: MPC) at 15. It climbed up to 21 briefly on Tuesday, but today it’s back down to 19. All of the stock market strategy sites say I should buy and hold, wait until it climbs into the 60s or 70s before I cash out.

I figured I should diversify, so Tuesday I bought 500 shares of Kau-Kau Farm (KAUF), also at 15. It’s been down and back up to 15. Once again, I’ll use a buy and hold strategy. Hmmm, these are both agricultural commodities, perhaps I should think about diversifying into tech stocks.

How can you get in on this action? Register at neopets.com.

Yes, I’m a big nerd. I started playing at Neopets about 4 years ago. Just a couple weeks ago I finally made my goal of having 5 million neopoints (NP) in the bank (earning 11.5% compounded daily!), so I decided that I’d start investing in the Neopian stock market with my extra dough.

I think Neopets would be a great place to start teaching kids about money. What I’ve mentioned here, basic stock market trading, saving money, and compound interest, are just a few things. There’s also The Money Tree, which you can donate items or NP to, which could turn into a lesson about charitable giving. You can also set up your own store and buy and sell items for profit.

There’s another way to make NP: earning them while playing games. This is my favorite way to make them, mostly because I enjoy the cute little Flash games. A few years ago I was chatting with the college buddy that introduced me to the website about the different ways to get NP, and how I felt like I was in a different social class because I “worked” for my NP by playing games (the proletariat), but there were a lot of very successful players that bought items for cheap and resold them in their shops. I called them the “merchant class”.

Who knew that at the time I was discovering for myself Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrants? In Neopia, I definitely like being an E. I dabbled a little in S. I can’t really think of a way in game to be a B, but I think there are outside networks where this works. And now I’m dabbling in I with my stock purchases.

I guess I’m just a big kid when it comes to my entertainment choices. I’m also just a big kid when it comes to finances. We can still learn at any age, right?

The Wedding: Money Well Spent

2006-05-10T11:48:00.000-06:00

So yeah, there were a few things my mom piddled away money on, but there were a few things that were well worth the expense.

The Venue

The country club was a package deal, included all rentals, catering and beverages. For an additional fee, we’d get use of the gazebo for the ceremony. I hadn’t seen the place since I attended a Bat Mitzvah there when I was 13, but I told my mom to go ahead and book it when I fell in love with their menu. Not only was the brunch menu cheaper than dinner, but brunch/breakfast is my favorite meal! The food was awesome, the grounds were beautiful, and everyone had a great time.

The Band

Three words: I hate DJs. My mom knows a guy who is in an eight-piece band and they were great (and pretty cheap). Eight pieces turned out to be a little loud for the size of the room, but it wasn’t too bad. He did a great job with our first dance (Georgia on my Mind), and even played the hora for Hobie’s side of the family. Hobie’s mom was also able to use their keyboard and sing us two lovely songs (she’s a professional singer/musician).

The Harpist

This was my mom’s idea for ceremony music, and it was beautiful.

The Horse-Drawn Carriage

Because we had the ceremony and reception at the same place, there wasn’t a need for limo transportation, so Mom said that was enough justification for splurging for the carriage. It brought my Dad and I out from under the club around to the gazebo, and then after the ceremony Hobie and I got in and took a little ride together. After the dress, it was the second-most complimented thing to me by the guests.

How NOT to save money on your wedding

2006-05-09T14:04:00.000-06:00

My mother gave me a very beautiful wedding, and she took so much of the planning burden off of my shoulders. I was so appreciative of that, that there were many issues where I “gave in” because not only was she holding the checkbook, but she was doing so much hard work in the planning.

But, she went a little overboard on some things (shh, don’t tell Dad). Here are some places where the budget went awry. Hey, your little girl only gets married once, right?

Weekly trips to Michael’s to “get ideas”.

I doubt Mom ever left the store with only ideas and not something in her shopping bag as well. She bought silk flowers, only to be told later by our florist that they are not representative of fresh flowers. She bought “practice petals” for our flower girl (I was told she never used them). She bought white accessories only to have to take them back later after I picked out an ivory gown. My mom is quite the shopper.

Going overboard with the favors.

We had ceramic heart ornaments with our names on them. We had full-size Hershey bars (with almonds) with custom wrappers. I think there were votive candleholders. And then of course the little place card holder/bell combos and the bubbles. I told my mom that people would need little plastic bags to bring home all the stuff they’d get. No, they just didn’t take them and she shipped them all out to me. I’m sure she got “ideas” for all of these things at Michael’s.

Buying an expensive figurine as the cake topper.

Personally, I think cake toppers are stupid. You don’t need a couple of figurines on top of the cake in order to understand that it’s a wedding cake. I think flowers or cool sugar designs are so much more pretty and classier than a little bride and groom. But my mom spent $240 on a Lladro bride and groom figurine (but it was on sale! she told me). And she did this before we picked out a cake. This thing is like 8 inches tall and the event planner told us it was too big and heavy to go on top of any cake. Plus, the cake we agreed on had a large sugar flower for the top. So the figurine stood next to the cake on the cake table. And now I own a Lladro. Something else I get to dust (or store).

Oy. The invitation debacle.

Instead of buying the invitations that I wanted online that would come exactly as I wanted them (navy card with silver lettering, for the most reasonable price I had seen), she insisted on buying them from a local wedding boutique. She got horrible customer service, and they were not what I wanted at all. They were ugly compared to what I pictured in my head as my perfect wedding invitation. Luckily, my guests don’t know what I was thinking and I suppose they were pretty in that regard. Even after the bad customer service, she still went back to that boutique for cocktail napkins (which turned out very nice) and:

The unity candle.

I am indifferent to the unity candle tradition, and generally I didn’t like the idea of things that would make the ceremony longer. But my mom really loves the idea and since we couldn’t do it outside during the ceremony we did it at the very beginning of the reception during the introduction of the families and the new couple. My mom actually used to make custom unity candles as gifts for marrying couples using the invitation and a photo, dipping it in wax to seal the decorations and then adding pearls and other decorations to it. They turn out very pretty. Well, now you can buy candles that come with an easy way to attach the invitation. The problem is, the invitation has to be portrait-oriented and mine was landscape. So Mom purchased a minimum order (25) of my invitation with the correct orientation just to have the one copy for the candle, at a cost of $125. I think we could have figured out a compromise on this one.

What a Racket!

2006-05-08T19:53:00.000-06:00

I need to get into the greeting card business. I just dropped $25 on cards for the mothers and grandmothers, ya know, just in case for some reason they forget I love them. I realize that there are less expensive ways to show I care, but this is just the way my family does it. I have this feeling that if I didn't get my grandmother some flowery expensive card that she would think I didn't do it right. I think I picked up the habit from my dad. He always felt obligated to buy the big, pretty card with all the scripty writing, too.

Frugal Fun with Friends

2006-05-08T13:56:00.000-06:00

You know how when you make spaghetti sauce you end up with leftovers for days? and days? Shortly after I decided that those leftovers would be last night’s dinner, I decided that there was plenty to share, too, so I called up some friends. I asked them to bring a salad, and we’d provide dinner, wine and dessert. The wine was a Christmas gift from my work, and dessert was a carrot cake I made from scratch earlier in the day. Everything was so much cheaper than it would have been if we had eaten out (like the four of us used to do all the time together).

After dinner, the guys played some computer games, and then after dessert we played a totally awesome, easy and fun game called “Apples to Apples”. The best part about this game (besides the laughs) is that there is no complicated set up, it’s just a few decks of cards, no pieces to lose.

Oh yeah, and my carrot cake was so delicious. I’m of the opinion that it’s hard to beat commercial pies and cakes. Like, it’s actually difficult and requires some amount of baking experience to get a better flavor and texture than store bought desserts. I’ve made half a dozen blueberry pies with pre-made pie crust and only one came out how I wanted it. Who knows how much I’d screw it up if I tried to do my own crust.

But this cake I made yesterday was fantastic. For those who want to know, it’s the recipe from Joy of Cooking.

April Net Worth Update

2006-05-06T13:40:00.000-06:00

In April, we saw a not-too-shabby increase in our net worth of $1633 to a negative $5577. I’m proud to say that we paid $572 above our minimum payments to our debt. I had originally budgeted an acceleration of only $300 a month, but it looks like we’ll easily be able to do $500 for now (we may start saving up for plane tickets to visit family a little later).

May got off to a slow start because we had a nice night out on the town last weekend (charges hadn’t hit the credit cards until Monday) that cost $189, but we sure had fun. We’ve cut back a lot on eating out, and we certainly don’t go out for drinks and go to comedy clubs very often, so it was nice to splurge a little. I suppose we made up for it by winning $140 playing poker Thursday night. ;)

Blogs, weddings, and saving

2006-05-05T10:47:00.000-06:00

First off, let me just say that I LOVE pfblogs.org. Months ago, I thought for sure that I would eventually get sick of reading about personal finance, but I haven’t. Pfblogs.org has allowed me to find some really great blogs with awesome stories to tell. Although the blogs that spout out generic advice several times a day are helpful and well-written, it’s the daily chronicles of staying frugal or attaining goals or struggling with speedbumps on the road to wealth that I really love to read about.

There are some drawbacks, though. You know you read too many personal finance blogs when you start having dreams about how you came across Debt Hater’s business storefront while driving around town one day, decided to check it out, and find out that you went to preschool together.

But I digress. I found a really awesome new blog called Dual Income No Kids that I can really relate to. I love their posts on how they funded their wedding, and it’s basically the same formula no matter how much you need to save. My parents paid for most of our wedding, but I still had to save up about $2000 for various things like plane tickets, Hobie’s ring, gifts, and bridal accessories.

Here’s what I did:
Direct deposit into ING account.
Cut down on some vices like eating out and poker.
Stop acceleration of debt repayment and allocate that extra money to savings.
Put all extra money into savings (like cash back rewards, gifts, and any poker winnings).
Pay for everything in cash. No new debt!

I can’t go into any more detail because I think it’s just that simple. When someone asks me, “How do you save money?” my best response is, “Don’t spend it.”

And now, post-wedding, we’re following all the same rules except instead of funneling all the money into a savings account, it’s going into our debt snowball.

We are flush in cash

2006-04-07T08:42:00.000-06:00

When I created our new budget last month, I must have put a lot more wiggle room in it than we needed. All the first-half-of-the-month bills are paid, and the second-half bills will be easily taken care of by next week's paychecks, so here I sit thinking, "There's no way we'll spend $900 on groceries, gas, and entertainment between now and next Friday."

Hobie and I both got raises recently, accounting for about $200 extra a month. I guess we're just used to having less money each month, and we haven't changed our habits at all.

So I think I'll be sending another couple hundred bucks to the Debt Snowball this weekend.

This feels really good.

Change that + to -

2006-04-03T14:43:00.000-06:00

I've updated my net worth to our net worth over on NetworthIQ, and basically, I went from a positive $7200 net worth as a single gal to a negative $7200 net worth as a married woman. The overall picture isn't as bad as I thought it would be, and we should be back in black by the end of 2006, maybe sooner if we keep on task.

2006 Goals Update

2006-03-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

Merge finances with Mike.

I've added him to my bank account, and when his direct deposit is switched, he can close down his old account. I've added him as an authorized user to my Citi Dividend card so we can earn 5% on all the gas he buys. I still need to add him as a joint owner of my savings accounts at ING and HSBC.

Pay off personal loan to Dad.

This will be complete as soon as he cashes the check.

Pay off Discover card.

I transferred this to a new Citi Simplicity card at 0% for 12 months, but after the next statement closing I will transfer about half of our wedding gifts out of HSBC to pay off most of it (leaving $2k as our mini emergency fund). This will leave about $200 which I will pay off by the end of April.

Increase net worth by $10,000.

I increased my single-person net worth by an amazing $4778 during January and February, but I will be starting over again with a combined married-people net worth with Hobie on March 31. So I am revising this goal to "Increase combined net worth by $7500 between March 31 and December 31."

Read one non-fiction book per month.

So far I have read four non-fiction books:

A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
Your Money or Your Life, Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson
Debt-Proof Living, Mary M. Hunt

Read at least five additional books, fiction

I have read one fiction book, George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows, and am about 100 pages into Frank Herbert's Dune. Yes, I'm a nerd, but I do read a lot of books that aren't sci-fi or fantasy, too. You'll see. :)

I'm semi-famous!

2006-03-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe it. My NetworthIQ was highlighted in Kara McGuire's very first Ka-Blog! post for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. As soon as I read my handle I shreiked and jumped up to go tell Hobie! He was fairly confused. He's not very interested in blogs, unless they're about poker.

So thanks for the mention and keep an eye out for March's new "merged" update.

2006-03-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm now a married woman! And this net worth update was the last one as a single entity. Hobie and I have decided to jump right in and merge our finances (completing one of my 2006 goals). We added him to my bank account and he'll go ahead and close his down when he gets his direct deposit transferred over. This will be so much easier than asking him for a rent check every month, and now he can look manly and pay at the restaurant every time because it's all the same pot.

I'll be creating a new NetworthIQ profile that will include both of our assets and *sigh* liabilities. The unfortunate part of this merger is that I'm back to having a negative net worth, because he's bringing in a $19k student loan and no real assets to speak of to the marriage. The debt is technically all his, but we're treating everything as "ours" because if we focus our efforts together we'll be able to tackle these debts faster.

I love how on-board Hobie is with the plan, and he didn't even read The Total Money Makeover. He's even more excited about it than I am. We've made our budget, we've got $2000 in the bank (yay for wedding gifts!) and we're ready to roll!

Save 15% or more on your car insurance - Get married!

2006-02-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

I submitted the change to my car insurance company this week to reflect the change that Hobie and I will be married next week. I got $80 credited to my account for the remaining four months of the premium!

So yes, even though we've been living together for a year and a half, come 11 am next Saturday we will suddenly become much more responsible drivers. Who'd've guessed?

Just another reason why married people build more wealth than singles.

What's in Your Wallet?

2006-02-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm a sheep. I wanted to jump on the meme-wagon and share with everyone what I carry in my wallet. Thanks to Cap for starting all the fun.

I carry a canvas Jansport bifold wallet that I bought in college at the college bookstore sidewalk sale. It's held together pretty well for the last six or seven years, and I can just throw it in the wash when it gets smelly.

Like Clutter2Cash I'm not a "purse-carrying" kind of gal, except in the literal, non-euphemistic kind of way. I just throw everything I need for work into my laptop backpack, and on weekends I'm wearing jeans so my wallet fits nicely into my right butt pocket. Because I carry it back there I try to keep it as slim as possible. As I have no cash at the moment, it's working out quite well. It gets difficult to keep it slim when I'm winning at poker. :)

The contents:
Colorado Driver License
US Bank check card
Citi Dividend Platinum Select Mastercard
Swipey keycard thingy for work
Health insurance card
Social Security card*
Family doctor's business card
Noodles & Co. punch card

* I know, I know. I shouldn't be carrying this with me. Hopefully I can find a place to put this at home. It's a wonder I'm still on my original copy.

Some things you may think are missing:
Auto insurance card - that stays in the car, because when else am I going to need it?
Costco club card - this should be in the car, because we can't go to Costco without the car, but right now it's on the kitchen counter
Supermarket loyalty cards - Unfortunately, there are no Publixes in Colorado, so I was forced to get these when I moved here. King Soopers' is on my keychain, and Safeway lets us key in our phone number.
Gift cards - These are in a special gift card box at home. We only take them out when we plan a shopping trip. Hobie and I are not spontaneous shoppers.

Gonna be debt-free

2006-02-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

Sometime last fall (I think it was in November) I took an old gift card, a coupon, and myself to a Borders bookstore to find a good personal finance book. I started reading pf blogs last summer, and began tracking my net worth in August, and now I wanted a tome of knowledge that would answer some of those hard questions, like "How do I balance paying off debt with saving for a down payment on a home and saving for retirement?"

I sat in that bookstore for over an hour skimming many books. So many of them were written as if the reader already had a home and a mortgage. But there was one... the book that I knew was perfect as soon as I read that little paragraph in Chapter 8. This was the only book to tell me when I was supposed to save for a downpayment if I'm already carrying a lot of debt.

You see, it's part of Baby Step 3. In fact, Dave Ramsey calls it step 3(b). That's right, according to The Total Money Makeover, I'm not supposed to buy a house until all my debt is gone! Outta here! Otherwise, I'm "inviting Murphy into the spare bedroom."

I really liked what Dave had to say. I still believed some of the debt myths he debunked, and I loved the society he imagines when all of us become debt-free. His emphasis on focused intensity jibed with me; it all just made sense.

So right after the wedding (actually before since I'll be using my entire tax refund to help pay off my first debt), Hobie and I will jump into the debt snowball, using our wedding gifts as our baby emergency fund.

By conservative estimates, our debt-free date will be in June 2009. We'll be rid of my debts by February 2008 (six months before my 30th birthday, my original goal), and his student loan bill (his only debt, now at about $19k) will be the last thing to go.

I have no problem renting while waiting out the process. In fact, we're looking into moving to a cheaper place so maybe we can get the snowball going a little faster. Plus, we've already cancelled our land line (we both have cells) and our cable.

I know it will be worth it in the long run to get rid of this debt now while we are still young.

I'm back

2006-02-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a few months since I've posted here, but that doesn't mean I've given up on my financial goals. I've just been busy, and I'm not good at writing regularly.

The biggest news is that the wedding is this month! February 25, just 3 weeks and 3 days away. I'm very ready for it, and I'm looking forward to it being over so Hobie and I can return to the simple life.

The other big news is my net worth hit $5000 in January! That's more than 100% increase over December. I did do a pretty good job of saving and not spending, but over a quarter of that was my employer's deposit into my HSA, and another big chunk of the increase was due to more up-to-the-minute accounting now that I'm using Quicken. Still, that's huge, and it's a huge first step in my goal to raise my net worth by $10,000 in 2006 (total $12,500).

Speaking of goals, my other goals for 2006 are:

Pay off the loan to my dad.
Pay off the Discover Card.
Read one non-fiction book each month, and at least as many fiction and other books.
Merge finances with Hobie.

So for those who are keeping track, I increased my net worth in the first month of 2006 by 109%, which exceeded my monthly goal by 225%!

Saving Spree Conclusion

2005-11-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

My saving spree seems to have worked somewhat. My net worth increased $441 from 9/29-10/28/05. And that's even with a large wedding purchase (airline tix), a bad month for the 403(b), and a rapidly decreasing in value automobile (we're putting 2000+ miles on it each month).

I did cheat a bit more than I should have on my rules. Like how I played poker again last weekend. And made $550 (not included in net worth calculations). So in this case, cheaters do prosper. :) But I did establish one very good habit - staying in for lunch. I even got my fiancé on board and we are eating out for dinner significantly less than September and before. Now we're even trying to replicate our favorite Thai dishes at home, and had some initial luck with a basic peanut sauce.

So I have $1600 of expenses left for the wedding, $400 saved up already, and about 3 months to save the remaining $1200. My poker winnings are going toward a "poker fund" or mini-bankroll so I don't have to feel guilty next time I play, and toward Christmas presents. I'm doing okay.

Saving on Winter Heating

2005-10-27T11:28:00.000-06:00

How do Hobie and I keep our winter gas bill down? We never turn on the heat! Well, I can't say never, but it's rare. I have a rule that if it gets to be 59° or below in the apartment, I turn on the heat. This doesn't happen too often, if we keep the windows closed. See, the other night I didn't realize that it was going to dip below freezing, but we had the windows open because we do like to sleep in a cold room. But if it's cold in the morning, I just don't want to get out of bed, and even when I finally do, I move awful slow. So the next morning I closed the windows and turned on the heat for a few minutes just to nudge it up above 60°. Since then we've had gorgeous weather with nights in the 40s and days in the 60s so the temperature in the apartment has been perfect. Even with cold nights, our apartment will warm up quite a bit due to all of our windows being large and facing south.

I've started entering the last year's utility bills in a spreadsheet so I can make some comparisons to how much we're spending this year. We'll see how we do.

Citi Dividends

2005-10-27T11:20:00.000-06:00

When I logged into citicards.com to check on my recent card activity, I noticed an offer for 5% cash back at department stores through Christmas. I don't plan on buying too many gifts from department stores, but because I'm not yet near my $300 limit on cash back for this year and I'll be doing some shopping for wedding things at department stores, I figured I'd sign up.

I find it interesting that I had to "activate" the offer. It makes me suspicious, but that could be just a general mistrust of credit card companies. I hope it works out and that I get the cash back they promise.

Another update

2005-10-19T12:54:00.000-06:00

I broke another rule. I went out to eat twice last weekend. Once Friday night, and then I bought barbecue for Hobie and I to eat while watching Saturday's football game. Well, at least it was cheap. I spent about $27 total for both meals.

This week's shopping trip was also a little pricey, about $104, the first time I've spent over the century mark at the grocery store in a long time (and I go less than once a week). There were some non-grocery items on there that I could have bought for less at Target, but didn't want to make the extra trip. We did get lots of food and even bought some new things to try to get us out of our dinner rut. I shouldn't need to go to the store again until the next payday.

I still haven't eaten out for lunch at work. I'm being very good there. That usually costs me an additional $4-10 a week, depending on how many times I go out and where we go.

But the exciting news of the week is I got killer fares for our plane tickets for the week of the wedding. I spent only $36 more for both tickets than what I budgeted for my one ticket! Once again, my savings account will be hit hard this month but that's one more big ticket expense paid for and off my mind.

Saving Spree update

2005-10-14T10:11:00.000-06:00

I'm doing okay on my saving spree. Not good, not great, but okay. Not bad either, I think.

Let's see, last week I went to Super Target to check out their clothing, and I found a pair of khaki trousers, a basic black sweater, and a blue long sleeve t-shirt (good for layering and sooooo comfy) that I purchased along with our weekly groceries. I was able to escape only $125 poorer. I don't think I did so bad, even though the t-shirt was an impulse purchase. But I know I'll get a lot of use out of it. I already have.

I did cave and play poker last Thursday night, but luckily I came out $50 ahead. If I were really disciplined, I would have put it in savings right away, but instead I took it with me on my Mary Kay retreat and ended up buying $40 worth of raffle tickets for some Broncos football tickets, which I didn't win. But it was for a good cause and all the proceeds went to the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation.

Speaking of the retreat, it was a lot of fun and very inspirational, so it was a good re-investment of the small amount of profit I've taken from the business so far. Two meals were included, our group ate breakfast in our room both mornings, and my one dinner out last week was when we went to dinner Saturday night. As a bonus, that meal will be tax-deductible because it was business travel! We got stuck in the snowstorm coming home, so I ended up having to buy lunch on the road, a few bucks for a sandwich at the gas station. Overall, I did well this weekend not spending money. I even resisted ice cream! Can you believe it?

I've been very good about not eating out for lunch at work, and I've been a good girl and not bought any Mountain Dew from the snack machine, either. Apparently we're not buying enough out of the machine anyway, so they're taking away that temptation on Monday.

As for October birthdays and gifts, I haven't spent any money yet because I had cards hidden away in my filing cabinet and I still looking for a gift for my brother. I was almost over the guilt of not buying a housewarming gift for a friend at work, but then I remembered how much Hobie ate at her party and now I'm feeling guilty again. Next time I'm at Safeway, I'll pick up a gift card.

So I wasn't able to "save" any money this pay period (aka move extra money to ING) besides the $170 originally, but I didn't spend any of next week's money either. I totally broke even. And like I said, today's paycheck is a little smaller because of the shorter pay period, so I'll need all of next week's money then.

I've opened up an HSBC online savings account to get the $35 reward and the better interest rate. So I guess I did "save" a little.

The plan from here is the same. I will follow the same rules, and this time no poker. I mean it. And today I'll transfer an additional $100 to ING as my usual "pay yourself first" maneuver. Looks like I will end October with $500 more in savings then when I began. Guess where that's going to go? Probably airline tickets for the wedding. So what if all this money I'm saving is going to be spent? I'm developing good habits for the future.

October Saving Spree

2005-10-04T12:07:00.000-06:00

I have decided that this month I will go on a 28-day Saving Spree à la Savvy Saver, starting yesterday, 10/3, ending on 10/31. That's actually 29 days total, all the better.

Here are my rules:

1. No lunches out.
2. One dinner out per week.
3. Designated wedding expense purchases are okay.
4. No snacks or sodas from the vending machine.
5. $75 budget for gifts and birthday cards (October is a busy month).
6. No poker. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. I don't want October to be a losing month, so the best way to accomplish that is to not play. I normally count any losses as an "entertainment expense", but during a Saving Spree I will be cutting back on that whole category.

There is one issue I don't know exactly how I'm going to approach. I want some new work clothes, especially now that the weather is changing (finally!) and capris won't cut it. I ruined my khakis when I leaned up against some wet paint, and all of my other slacks are several years old and have *gasp!* tapered legs. What I'm going to do for now is organize my closet and take an inventory of what I do and do not wear, and I'm going to try my best to get the paint off the seat of my khakis. If I don't buy new clothes in October, I'll just buy them in November, which isn't the point of the Spree. I'll take a trip to Target and Lane Bryant and see if there's anything even worth trying on.

I got some "extra" money this weekend, so I made a transfer of $170 to ING. I netted $85 playing poker this weekend, I got some cash back from Citibank, and the rest is my net raise from my 9/30 paycheck that isn't auto-deposited.

This will be tough but it needs to be done, especially because this month is one of those wacky months where I get a smaller paycheck on the 14th and then have to wait 17 days until my next normal-sized paycheck. Ah, the perils of being an hourly employee.

2005-10-03T16:01:00.000-06:00

Check out the Carnival of Debt Reduction #3 over at Free Money Finance. I'm on it this week, as I submitted the post on My Debt.

I was hoping to get some readers at my site, and I'm pleased to already have my first real non-spam comment!

Also of interest is the Carnival of Personal Finance #16, a much broader topic with links spanning debt to saving to banking to investing etc.

I hope everyone's week is starting out well! I know I had a great weekend and it has really put me in a brighter mood this Monday.

My Net Worth

2005-09-29T14:33:00.000-06:00

I started tracking my net worth in August. At first I was terribly excited and squeeing all over the place because I figured that for the first time since graduating college I had a positive net worth. Then I remembered that pesky loan my dad gave me and shrank up. But the outlook was good; I was down only $148.

So for September, even though I have no net additions to my savings account, my net worth went up by almost $300, due mostly to contributions to my 403(b). I now have a positive net worth!

Go check it out at NetWorthIQ.

*Note: I have not included my personal business debt or assets. I may include them at end-of-year but for right now it's hard to track. I may also be able to track them easily if I ever buy Money or Quicken.

My Debt

2005-09-28T15:11:00.000-06:00

Uh…

*nervous laughter*

Perhaps I’m in denial?

I feel guilty that I haven’t mentioned my debt yet, when I’ve been talking about all this spending and saving. So here goes…

Hi. My name is PKThunder, and I have about $19,000 of debt.

I feel better now. I think the reason that I hadn’t mentioned it already is because it’s not terribly stress-inducing debt. It’s either good debt in the form of a student loan, or “stable” debt in the form of a monthly car payment, or it’s business debt, offset by the pile of inventory in my home office. But it’s still debt, and here are the details:

Business credit card: $2,284
Car Loan: $11,893
Student Loan: $3,378
Family member Loan: $1,485
Total: $19,041

So what’s my plan? Well, my dream is to be debt-free by my 30^th birthday (less than three years away). There is a good possibility that it happens sooner. It depends on how much more important I place starting a Roth IRA and saving for a down payment on a home.

In the meantime, there is the wedding. I’ve decided to pay just my regular monthly payments on these loans until after the wedding, with the exception of the loan from my dad, but that’s just an additional $12 a month to make it a more “round” number.

I feel like I should be doing more with the debt, but as the wedding date approaches, I know there will be more and more things I’ll need to pay for and I don’t want additional debt because of it.

When March comes, it will be full-speed ahead! Because the non-credit card loans are within .05% of each other, I’ve decided to do the smallest-balance-first snowball method. The business credit card will be handled separately, of course, and I will be making payments on that as I make sales/profits. Then once my inventory is paid off, I can start paying myself!

Writing this out makes me feel better about my plan and my reasons for waiting to accelerate the debt reduction. For now I must keep my spending low, and any money still left in my savings account after the wedding will be proof that I’ve been doing a good job.

Change Jar

2005-09-27T09:03:00.000-06:00

Hobie and I have been saving all of our spare change in a jar for about a year now, and this past weekend we took it to the bank to cash it in. We had already decided months ago that we were going to spend this money frivolously, and now we had just about $124 to blow. And what is Hobie's and my favorite guilty pleasure? Eating out!

So we went to Starbucks and Einstein Bros. for breakfast (very suburban!), and had a delicious dinner at The Melting Pot Saturday night. Here’s a helpful hint for those wanting to stretch your frivolous, blow-it-all-in-a-weekend money: Go to The Melting Pot late at night and ask for the Good Night Delight Special. We got all four courses (cheese, salad, entrée, and chocolate) plus a bottle of wine for $59 plus tax and tip, saving over $22.

We were going to save the remainder for a sushi dinner, but I had been having a hankering for Chili’s and I found out that yesterday they were donating 100% of their profits to St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital, so we went there instead. We’ll have sushi some other time.

And in wedding plans news…

We are now going to have a mini-honeymoon at Walt Disney World. My parents joined the Disney Vacation Club this year and have offered some of their “points” for us to stay a few nights at the resort and have a little fun and relaxation before we get back to the daily grind. This is now very affordable for us, as we will only have to pay for meals, gas and whatever activities we decide to do. Maybe by then we’ll have enough saved up in our change jar to have a fancy dinner somewhere in Disney.

Found money!

2005-09-26T16:02:00.000-06:00

While researching Citi's new college rewards card (mtvU Platinum Visa, tantalizing because of it's generous rewards for restaurants, etc.), I started to wonder about what rewards are offered with my old Citibank Platinum Select, paid off and unused for 2.5 years. I logged in online and found 1801 points waiting for me! I can redeem those for a $10 gift card at any of several retailers.

I doubt I'm getting anything better than 1 point per dollar spent on that card, and these points will be expiring soon (only good for 3 years, I believe), so I won't bother trying to save up for the more points-efficient $50 gift card for 5000 points.

But dude! Free $10! Now I just have to decide if I want gas, or lattes or new clothes or something else entirely.

PS - you must be enrolled as a college student to qualify for the mtvU Visa. Boo. :(

2005-09-16T12:01:00.000-06:00

Hobie's ring arrived yesterday, and it fits! Whew! I was a bit worried because he has such a big size and the company I ordered from cannot size it or replace it, only offer me the opportunity to buy another size at half price. I also had it engraved, which means I couldn't return it at all if it wasn't right. But everything's great, and I don't have to worry about it anymore. It's a pretty big hunk of gold. I'm impressed. I might have it appraised.

Now that that is out of the way, we look at the other expenses. My mom sent me a check for $100 for "veil", so that counts toward my Additional Wedding Expenses (AWS). So that makes the current amount I need to save for this category $1900. If we count four months (Oct, Nov, Dec, and Jan), that will mean saving $475 a month. I can do that. I will do that.

My savings took a huge hit this month because Hobie and I bought ski gear and passes (something we've been talking about since last spring after giving it a try and renting gear last winter), but I will still have about $350 in it at the end of the month.

My dreams of a honeymoon I've put on hold again. I don't think that should be a priority right now. Hobie and I do want to travel more some day, but we can wait until we've got a stronger financial foundation (and more vacation time).

So I'm doing okay. I like knowing that even though I put over $1000 on the credit card this month, I'll be able to pay it off.

Hmmm... note to self: Now that we have jewelry and expensive sporting equipment in the house, not to mention Mary Kay inventory and electronics, maybe I should look into renter's insurance.

2005-09-09T12:52:00.000-06:00

I've purchased Hobie's wedding band through an online retailer for about $100 less than what I would have paid at Kay Jewelers. I charged it to my Citi card (to earn the cash back). Last week I moved a bunch of money into savings to anticipate this expense, and I figured I'd move it back in time for the charge to come due. But now I'm looking at my budget for the rest of the month, and if I can survive on $152 dollars between the Sept 15 and Sept 30 paydays, I won't have to tap into the savings. It can stay there and earn interest and be used for other wedding expenses.

Speaking of the wedding expenses, I went through and tried to think of all the expenses that I would need to pay for or pitch in, and I came up with a total of $2500, estimating high. Ouch. That's including the ring (at $500 est.), so really I have about $2000 left to go. This does not include the honeymoon. If I make it through the end of the month (and stick to the above plan), I will have $900 in the bank and 4 1/2 months to save up the remaining $1100.

Doesn't sound too bad, right? That's about $250 a month, and I already have $200 direct deposited to the savings each month from my paycheck. Except winter is expensive. First, there are the ski passes and equipment that Hobie and I want to buy this month. Then there are Christmas presents. And travelling to California to see Hobie's family for Christmas.

And then there is the honeymoon. I got it stuck in my head the past few days that I'd really like to take a cruise with Hobie the week after our wedding. We can go right out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, and we won't have to purchase additional plane tickets (as opposed to if we took our honeymoon later). We'll wait to see if we can get a deal and how we look going into the holidays.

2005-09-01T11:07:00.000-06:00

Argh. My "Additional Wedding Expenses" category just jumped up by a couple hundred dollars. On Monday night while Hobie and I were at Costco, I saw in their jewelry display the style of wedding band we both like for him. For $250 less than at Kay Jewelers. So we went back last night to get it, and we found out that they only carry it in size 10. Unfortunately, this style can't be resized, plus, adding three sizes to any ring is not a great idea anyway. So now it looks like I have to buy the more expensive ring, and put it on layaway. Well, I suppose if I were really disciplined, I'd save up in my savings account until I have the whole amount and earn a few cents interest before I have to pay. We'll see.

Goals

2005-08-31T15:26:00.000-06:00

Ah, yes, the most important part of any plan: GOALS.

I have several goals for my money. I still need to set up a time frame for each of them, get specifics for numbers, and lay out how to obtain them.

But for now, the big ones are (in somewhat chronological order):

1. Additional wedding expenses
2. Honeymoon
3. Emergency fund
4. Roth IRA
5. Down payment on a home

Saving

2005-08-31T15:04:00.000-06:00

All of the "Get Rich Slow and Steady" books and websites recommend paying yourself first if you intend on saving up large sums of money. Pay your savings account every month like you would a bill. Right now I'm struggling with whether I can follow the 60-20-10-10 method of income allocation and put a large chunk of my take-home pay into savings (roughly a quarter). The method is as such:

60% of take-home pay goes to necessary expenses
20% goes to retirement and other long-term savings
10% goes to short-term savings (emergency fund, etc.)
10% to "fun".

In the long-term savings category, I am currently saving 4% pre-tax in my 403(b) (max of employer match), so after tax I'd like to be saving 16%. Currently, I'm saving roughly 10% total (in my ING Direct Orange Savings account at 3.3% -- email me if you'd like a referral for a free $25).

I've worked out this "dream scenario" with my major budget categories in Excel, and it seems like it could work, with very little room for error. My regular budget, however, doesn't include categories for clothing, health care, gifts, etc., just one big one for "other", which is whatever is left over after all the other expenses are paid. So after taking out the cell phone, Netflix, and cable & internet from the "fun" category, I have $91 left, and this will have to be that "other" category from now on. Jeez. This will be tough.

So my plan for tomorrow:
Pay off credit card
Move an additional $120 to savings account
Start tracking all expenses to follow budget