Holiday Spending

We kept holiday spending down even more this year than last. That means that we did not get to get each other anything even remotely costly or frivelous, but I don't really want a whole bunch of more crap anyway. My mind is just not on "things" these days. I am over materialism. I guess when you become a domesticated responsible household head your priorities completely change. Stuff's not important anymore. Your future and the people you want to be in it are.

I re-did the household budget so that S can totally quit his job in January. I decided I don't even want him to work part-time. It's tight but with temporarily reducing my retirement contribution, picking up the maximum hours at Job #2, and saving on gas and entertainment expenses, we can do it. And we're supposed to go to trial in February anyway so after trial we'll be getting child support from the whore and then finances will really be gravy!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 Weeks Until...

S gets to go part/time at his current job. This is b/c I want him concentrating on the police academy. In order to do this, I am going to take Dave Ramsey's advice and TEMPORARILY reduce my retirement contributions at work. I'm currently putting away 9%. For the 5 months S is in the academy I think I'll go down to either 2 or 3%--I don't want to entirely cut it out b/c I simply can't stomach the thought. But that's the best plan we can think of.

Good X-mas Shopping Idea for the Baby

While at the Chirren's Museum on Friday, we stopped, as always, into the gift shop. They had a lot of great little gifts in the $1, $3, etc. price range. Educational, interesting stuff. So I think that's where we'll do the bulk of X-mas shopping for the baby. The budget for her gifts this year is quite low, even lower than last year. Hey, I'm spending $30K on a custody battle for her, so that's the best gift she could ever ask for in her entire life. SERIOUSLY.

I Can't Wait to Shop At...

...10,000 Villages! My fellow board member is having a fundraising night there where the store is giving her non-profit org. a percentage of the sales. I bought X-mas presents there last year for my aunt, cousin, and girlfriend. While I was there I lusted after the jewelry sets, but bought none b/c I couldn't afford it. This year I can probably afford to buy myself a couple of sets. I waited a whole year so it's time! The shopping night is Dec. 10. Ohhh, I can't wait. And this is shopping for a good cause at its best!

X-mas

So our X-mas budget is tighter than ever this year. This is b/c we are saving, saving, saving $ in preparation for S to go to school full-time in January. I have some creative ideas for gift-giving this year fo' sho'. S said he just wants 5 cards from me that will let him out of any future arguments we have! I'm hesitant b/c what if there are true issues that we need to discuss? He can just cash in one of his cards to shut me up! This needs further thought, I would say!

Interest Earned at ING, Emigrant

I am serious. I can't believe how fast the interest earned at the online savings banks is getting racked up. I put $1000 into an account over at Emigrant a month ago and it's already earned over $3. I'm telling you, that's way better than any bank's savings account rate!

$100 Saved

I hate lawyers. I found a $100 error on the bill we got from the amicus atty. He says he came to do an in-home visit with us back in November. NOT! I called his office and called them on their bullshit and they reduced the bill by $200. God, you really have to be vigilant in this day and age so people don't fuck with you and take your hard-earned money.

SOLD! On ING and Emigrant Direct

I have accounts at both of these places, and I only started them last month. I'm sold! The interest you earn on them is so much more than the local bank!!! Whatta deal. I've put S's school fund over there, 1/2 of our property taxes fund, and some of the EF. Next I'll start funds for: a future vacation, income taxes, and a future laptop computer.

F*** the CC's

I have had it with fretting about these stupid things. S is going to be starting the police academy in January. So I need to save as much $$$ as possible so that we are not living on Ramen for 5 months until he finishes in May and gets a good job. So F*** the CC's. They'll get paid minimally and that's FINE. Dave Ramsey, as well-intentioned as he is, has brainwashed me a little to the extreme, so much so that I can't even enjoy life at all sometimes. The CC's will get paid in good time and I don't give a shit b/c fortunately the interest rates are low and the custody battle needs to get fought and won! And meanwhile, I need to stop being so damn neurotic about it all b/c my life is truly suffering sometimes. I've got good retirement contributions and low CC interest rates. So there.

When, not if, We Have The Dough

A miscellaneous "I'd like to..." wants list:

1. Buy some jewelry. A ruby ring, an emerald ring, pearl sets. Nothing offensive, just some nice new tasteful jewelry.
2. Replace the blue carpeting in our entire upstairs. Since S hates bare floors in bedrooms, replace it with a nice Berber.
3. Re-surface the floor in the upstairs bathroom with ? Some kind of nice tile.
4. Re-paint the master bedroom. That olive green has got to go!
   
5. Install a hot tub out on the patio. (S's idea.)
   
6. Get a new gun for patrol duty. Not that Esteban isn't a good reliable one, but he's so used and looks it. I want a newer, nicer, pretty version of Esteban.
7. Tint the windows of my car, Blue Lou.
8. Go on a nice vacation or possibly a cruise with S.
9. Buy a laptop w/Internet.
10. Get us each an IPOD (I guess, is that still the near-future of listening to music?)
11. Get a new queen-size bed and mattress. (Right now we sleep on just a double which can be a little tight for 6'3" S, but I think King's are too big. Queen size is just right!)
12. 
    

Budget Redo

I sent in the paperwork to have my retirement contribution upped another .02%. But I'm not starting it until the end of this month so I can have 2 good higher paychecks now that we got our annual .03% raise to put towards CC's and savings. So I spent a good amount of the day redoing the budget.

Also, I have decided that somehow we are going to have to send S to get some schooling. I just don't think he'll get a decent career without some college hours. He can't even join a local police dept. as a cadet in the academy until he has at least 60 college hours. And he probably won't get any financial aid other than loans b/c of my salary, so I opened up an Emigrant.com account today that will serve as the S education fund. In order to fund this I have cut in half the payments to one of our CC's--but it's a CC that has 0% interest until Sept. 2008. I figure by that time S will be out of school and employed with a higher salary so we can tackle that CC by then with full gusto!

So the savings accounts we have now are:

1. Regular savings account for the EF
2. My credit union savings account for property taxes
3. S's credit union savings account for his car fund
4. Emigrant savings account for DH's education fund

I hope to be able to send him to school in January. That would be kick-ass!

COLA Raise yesterday

Every Sept. 1 we get a .03% cost of living raise at Job #1 (I doubt I'll get such a perk at Job #2!). Last year I took advantage of the extra $ to raise my retirement contribution. Now I will raise it again, but I'm not quite sure when exactly to do it or how many more percentage points to raise it up to. Basically I'm trying to decide if I should raise it another .02% or .03%. Also, I'm debating raising it next week, or waiting 1 pay period to do it.

I like the idea of raising it another .03% for lots of good reasons.

1. More retirement $ for me!
   
2. Lower taxes paid to Uncle Sam!
   
3. repeat the above ad nauseum as it is a wonderful, win-win situation for me.
   

However, lord knows if I only raised it another .02% I'd have some extra $ to apply towards our court case debts. Although, would I really have that much more $ b/c my tax bill would also not be as low? Plus, if my paycheck changes significantly lower I'll have to redo my entire budget.

What I will probably do is raise it another .02% and wait to do it until the middle of the month. That is b/c I would enjoy 1 big paycheck which I will use to make a big payment to one of my CC's. Psychologically, it will be good for me.

Chocolate Milk went up a whopping .50 cents!

What is the deal?! Yogurt already went up .02 cents, and now chocolate milk is up .50! So I didn't buy any the other night. Nestle's chocolate milk was already a deal at our local HEB and was always $2.99, whereas it was usually $3.19 or more at Kroger. But now that it's at $3.49 at the HEB I don't know that we need it anymore. By not buying it I have to send a message to the grocers, or the distributors, or whoever the message needs to be sent to that there is no call for choc. milk to go up by that much, that fast.

Pretty Good Week Financially Speaking

I got 2 fabulous dresses for the wedding next week for a STEAL with double discounts and coupons; got free dinner on Thursday night at work; S's paycheck was outstanding thanks to his hard work; and today he is at Comedy Defensive Driving which will help our monthly household budget once that additional car insurance discount kicks in.

I'm also checking out a different p/t job that is slightly more $ but is located a LOT closer to the house. As an added bonus, apparently you can set your own hours! This would be so wonderful if it works out, as now I'd be able to plan my work weekends around when we have the baby.

I'm thinking about getting one of those Brita filters for my house and for little brother's. He needs to stop spending $ on buying water from the grocery store. Oh my God, I cannot imagine much more of a waste of $. But I hear the Brita makes your water taste better, and I can buy some with my many coupons and credit-card rebate gift card that I have at Bed Bath and Beyond. For the record, I have always always always drank tap water and I see no problem with it.

If it ain't one thing it's another

Well, S called me to tell me that he needs 2 new tires if his vehicle is to pass inspection. Wonderful. I said he could get them once his job fixes their payroll screw-up from yesterday and pays him the rest of the $ they owe him!

I went to the cheap school-uniform store at lunch to buy the baby a few school clothes. I thought the $1.99 tops were way-cheap looking and almost threadbare! So I sprung for the $3.99 tops. I may be frugal but I'm not cheap!

Fighting for our money

We are currently trying to get our $ back from those who owe us!!! S's paycheck today was much smaller than he'd anticipated, and when research was done we found out that his job screwed up and owe him. So today he's fighting with them to get the rest of his $.

Also, I'm still trying to get my discount at State Farm, those incompetents. I have made 2 phone calls. Satisfaction WILL be mine!

More defensive driving

I signed S up for defensive driving at the Laff Spot so our car insurance will go down some more! Meanwhile, I had to call our insurance co. b/c they still have not given me my rightful discount! Incompetents. Still, once these discounts kick in they will really help with the monthly budget.

$7 in the checking account

...and fighting with S about $$$. I confiscated his debit card last night, also his gas card. He is going to go to a CASH ONLY system from now on. I hate to do it to him, but he leaves me no choice since he is uninterested in details and minutiae of the household budget, even though it is posted on the fridge. Let's see how he likes budgeting since now he will be forced to budget his cash week by week.

Car and Money Woes

S says that God will provide, and I guess that's true but man, times is hard. Another $365 gone to car repairs today and the problem apparently still isn't fixed. I gotta send our lawyer a check tomorrow for $245 in preparation for our hearing on Aug. 27th, and on Friday she needs another $2500. Thursday the baby will get $600+ of dental work. Still, Friday we will get S's first full check from his new job, but until then I have no idea how to budget b/c we don't know how much it'll be since his assembler job is commission-based.

Since things are so bleak right now, I actually did spend a little $ to cheer us all up. I got some things for a pretty good deal on Amazon.com. A couple of CD's I just had to have, a CD for the baby, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Vol.'s 1-3 for me and S. I'm paying for these with my salary from Job #2 so I do not touch the main household budget.

Our babysitter is having major car troubles too, and that bums me out as well. If only we had 2 extra vehicles lying around, one for her and one for S.

Vending Machines are for Chumps

Seriously, if you ever use a vending machine, you are a dolt. The markups in those things are like, 50-75% at least! I've noticed at my jobs that the ones using them are frequently the low-paid non-professionals. Coincidence that they're low-paid? I think not. Anyway, I did use a vending machine today for the 1st time in years. Normally I just buy all kinds of snacks and sodas to keep at home so S will have what he needs on hand at all times and never be tempted by the vending machines. (I'm not, never have been, and never will be a snacker, like he and the baby are.) But today S and the baby were here at my Job #2 in the back where the vending machines are, and the baby wanted some animal crackers. I happened to have .50 cents in my pocket and figured, what the hell, so I got 'em. I was in the mood for animal crackers anyway!

A Whole Bunch of Job Applications

So I got responses from 2 places I sent resumes out to. They want me to take the next step and fill out their online applications. And I have an interview on Monday for a p/t job that pays $28/hour! Here is the comparison with my current p/t job:

Current p/t job:

• $18+/hour, 32 hours/month
• Tuesday night, 5-9
• Every other Saturday, 8-5
• Leave Job #1 at 4:15-ish to make it here by 5 on Tuesdays

Other p/t job:

• $28/hour, 30 hours/month
• Tuesday AND Thursday night, 5-9
• Every other Sat., only from 10-1
• Leave Job #1 at 4pm on the dot to make it there by 5 on Tues. and Thurs.
• Would have to buy EZ-Tag for use on the Beltway, but that would be paid for and then some with the new salary!

So there's a lot more to consider with the other p/t job. Meanwhile, I am currently not as pissed off at Job #1 as I have been so I'm not sure I want to leave just yet. And if I get called for some of these interviews I'll have to prepare a razzle/dazzle 'em presentation and I am sooooo tired these days... Still, there is one job where the salary is so good I wouldn't even need a p/t job at all anymore! Lots to consider these days.

It only took 2 weeks, but...

I finally finished the online defensive driving course! It was a little anticlimactic when I took the final exam. I thought it was going to be hard, but even after a week of not even seeing the material my score was 90%. It probably helps that I'm a cop. And have a brilliant mind! I can't wait to see what kind of $ I'm going to start saving on insurance. Lord knows I need a break these days.

I've decided a good round # to build up the EF to would be $3,000. Then I might begin to relax a little. S started his new job today; that really should be a significant amount of extra funds. Of course, it's gonna be tight here for about 3 weeks until he gets his 1st paycheck. But the money from the skin care classes I teach should start to roll in slowly. I've already decided that 1/2 is going to savings and the other 1/2 is going to CC bills. Initially I'd wanted 100% to go to savings, but I am obsessed with getting the CC totals down to 4 digits again, even if only temporarily.

Yet Another CC

So I applied for and got yet another CC, this one a Disney Visa with the Little Mermaid on it. Of course they want to give me more CC's, I charge and pay a lot of $ on the ones I've got already! Everybody wants a piece of me! So as much as I hated to do it, I got another one b/c the 0% interest rates are going to be expiring soon on 2 of my 4 CC's and we've got lots more legal bills to come. So if I have to use CC's to finance this court battle, then at least I can do as much as possible on 0% interest for a year.

S and I had a long conversation today about our financial future. I am still trying to get him on the same page as I, philosophically speaking. For example, last night we drove through Taco Cabinet, and instead of getting the $4.99 nachos, he got the $3.99 nachos. Then he wanted a Coke. I pointed out that we had Coke at home (which I buy at the grocery store so he won't waste money on ripoff vending machines) and he said he liked TC's ice and that he was already saving $1 by not ordering the other nachos! I retorted, as long as we're saving $1, let's save $2!!! We argued for a minute but of course, I won. I had to remind him today that both of us are sacrificing and we need to continue sacrificing until our debt is paid off.

BTW, I did another spreadsheet to see when that might be. According to my calculations and best estimate, provided we get custody of the baby and the whore starts paying us $350/month child support here very soon, we should have our CC's/custody battle paid off totally by Jan. 2009, possibly even Dec. 2008. I reminded S that will happen ONLY if we continue to sacrifice and live the lifestyle we are living currently: no extravaganzes, no vacations, clipping coupons, etc.

Probable upswing on the money front

So S says he is starting this new job in 2 Mondays. This right after he got a raise at his current job! But he says this allowed him to negotiate a match, so he will definitely be making more $ no matter what. I am so happy about this but I am also so tired of this S-job saga I am too exhausted to really feel very happy. If that makes any sense.

He's been working real hard lately, and his check yesterday was about $300 more than we thought it would be, even with missing all this work due to court. Plus I made an extra $100 this week from the 2 skin care classes at the public Library. I want to keep the CC bills as low as possible and keep chipping away at them--we don't use them at all anymore except for legal bills. But I am also scared of our EF not being enough, so I think I'll split 1/2 of all extra $ into CC's and the EF.

Exhibit 1: Why I won't be selling plasma again

No matter how desperate I get. I'd rather take 10 years to pay off the CC's than go through that again.

10% off your auto insurance

I'm currently taking an online defensive driving course in the attempt to save 10% on my auto insurance. It's sloooooowww going and the website will not let you do anything else, like try to surf anywhere while you're waiting for the page to finish at its own pace. Also, it keeps testing you to verify that you are who you say you are! My expectation is that I'll be done sometime next week. But even though the class is $40 it should save me a couple of hundred dollars over the next couple of years! Worth it!

Even I have my standards

So I went shopping at Ross last night to look for new leather pumps for work. Man, that place is chaotic! I did find a cute skirt for work and a great t-shirt for the baby (it reads "Daddy's Girl" over and over) at good prices, but when I got to the shoe section, holy moly. There was no way in hell I was about to spend a shitload of my precious time going through that mess. See, places like Ross and Marshalls are frequented by people looking for a deal, like poor people and frugal penny-pinchers like myself. In order to find these deals they dig and dig and mess the whole system up. Keeping clothes and shoes in size order or even correct section is a joke and losing battle there. So I took one glance at the FUBAR shoe section and said, "I'm outta here" and went to JC Penney, where I found my shoes in a peaceful and non-chaotic setting.

Then I went next door to Target to get necessary household items with my $25 gift card. I spent $24.92. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me with a Target gift card, where I am left with literally cents left on it! You better believe I'm gonna use that 8 cents next time, too!

The magazine buyer guy got me down to $30 for both magazines. He says he'll meet me tonight to make the buy. It's still a good deal for both me and him.

Finally, I have decided to go sell plasma. I found a place not too terribly far from the house and they're open on Saturday. I'll make $30 which is good money, in my book! I hope to go a couple of times a month, but we'll see.

$1 off? You bet!

After an hour debating with myself whether or not to take the car out to lunch today b/c it's good for my mental health although bad for the pocketbook, I finally decided to do the responsible thing and just walk across the street to the hospital for lunch, even though I'm getting tired of the food over there. I was rewarded by being asked to do a cafeteria survey and get $1 off my lunch! Good decision on my part!

I'm only gonna make an extra $500 this summer with the skin care classes I teach at the public library. I guess that's ok even though one summer I made over $700. It will ALL go into the savings, or EF, account. None of it will go towards paying extra on the CC's b/c I've got those at a low interest rate for now and with S being so iffy about his next job these days, I surely don't want to starve.

Money strategizing

There's going to be a lot of it going on in the next few weeks due to S starting a new job this Thursday--and he says he still hasn't decided if he's going into new car sales or used car sales. He says he may not get his first paycheck for a month. The good news is I've done a few things to give us a cushion so we don't starve to death or have to touch the EF, which I do NOT want to do, especially after having to cut into it a little for S's dental work last week.

• One of our friends gave me a $20 bill for the baby at her b-day party on Sunday. You think she's getting it? Ha! She already got $10 from my mom and aunt/cousin and that's plenty for her. Especially when you consider all the $ we're already spending on her in terms of the court case. Sorry to be so blunt but I need that $20 more than she does right now. It'll go to buy groceries for the household, which includes her.
• I got a guy interested in buying those 2 gun magazines for $40. That'll be more $ for household expenses. I managed to get the posting re-posted on craigslist by being a little more vague on the title.
• I got a $25 Target card from one of my rewards credit cards. Will come in very handy right now for household items.

The bad news is I do have to go buy a new pair of shoes which I'll do tomorrow while S is at the Weird Al Yankovic concert (free ticket from his friend, who's also going). Ross, here I come! I hope they have good quality leather shoes there. Plus S has to get some pants altered for starting his new job. No more jeans for him, it'll be slacks and ties now.

I actually am starting to consider selling plasma. I did it once in college. I don't mind the experience at all, I just don't want to be around a bunch of seedy types.

Damn, I need new shoes AND tires

I have broken 2 pairs of shoes in one week. 1 pair was just an inexpensive pair of sandals that I'm sure I got from Payless years ago since that is where I buy all my sandals. The other pair was a pair of black, velvet flats that I've had for YEARS. I will wait to replace the sandals--after all, I've got plenty of other Payless sandals to wear--but I do need to buy another pair of leather black pumps for work. I gotta do it soon b/c I want to wear them to court next week, too.

Today S is supposed to be buying me 2 new tires. NTB wanted to sell me some for $125 and S says he got Discount Tires to beat their price, at $100 and change. This is a bad time for us to be buying tires, but I suppose I do need them.

I can't believe that S and I spend all of our FSA funds already and it's only mid-year. S just had more maladies that needed to be treated than I thought! Next year I will definitely max out that FSA account so we can get even more of a tax break.

I'm just glad gas prices are down a tiny bit. As much as I'm getting tired of walking to the hospital to get lunch these days, I'd rather do that than fire up the car and waste gas driving somewhere nearby. It would be better if I could brown-bag it more often but since I'm so exhausted these days and am having such a hard time waking up in the a.m. I just can't deal with making lunch. I always eat dinner home if I have lunch out anyway so it evens out for me.

Craigslist is getting on my nerves

They keep pulling off my gun stuff I'm trying to sell. I'm trying to sell 2 magazines for $40 and that's not even on their list of prohibited items and they still pulled it! Jerks. I'm going to repost it on Monday.

I did, however, make $30 selling my old Cingular cell phone last night. Thank goodness, b/c we need all kinds of extra $ right now so that $30 came just in the nick of time. It will pay for the baby's b-day cake for her party tomorrow at least with change left over.

In other news, I'm a little excited to see that I started a good thread on the msn.money message board. I wanted to know where other people in their 30's are when it comes to retirement. I just bluntly asked, how old are you, how much you got saved so far, and how much do you put towards retirement per year? Most of the responses depressed me in the sense that I'm much further behind than other 30-ish yo's. (Of course, I doubt any of them are librarians making librarian salaries.) I was way ahead of a couple of folks though. We all agreed we are all probably in the minority as far as saving. I know several of my friends have almost no retirement and no savings, and seem to only be concerned with buying clothes, cars, toys, etc. Looks like I'm definitely going to have to up my retirement contribution again here in Sept. for sure! I'm at 7% now, and I'm going to bite the bullet and stick it up to 10%. Although it sounds scary, it's for my own good! And it's less for the taxman to take, too!

Depressed about money but still fighting the good fight

Our legal bills and costs continue to devour us. However, I did make some extra spending cash this weekend by selling 3 boxes of .45 ammo for $25. I managed to get 3 inquiries before craigslist pulled my posting (who knew ammo was a prohibited sale item?) and this one guy came and picked it up on Saturday, which was awesome. I also found white drapes for the house (we got in trouble with the HOA for our blue drapes, which have been up for almost a year) from this lady found on craigslist, and she sold me 5 white drapes for an incredible $8!!! Awesome!!!

The baby's b-day is tomorrow and her party at Chuck E. Cheese is on Sunday. S and I need to go get her a few presents. Target was his suggestion and I said ok, but that we can only afford to get her like 3-4 things and that is it. I do need to find her a cute little wallet though, b/c I told her that once she turned 5 we were going to give her an allowance. I want to teach her about money and I don't want to hear anymore "I want, I want." From now on my response will be, "Oh, you do, huh? Where's your money? Better start saving!!!" She'll get $5 every 2 weeks, or $10/month. $1 will go to the church, $3 will go to savings, and she'll have $6 to spend. I think that's more than fair. I might even up it to $4/savings, $5/spend.

Can't believe our electric bill :-)

But I am definitely not complaining here, I am praising it! $33 and change!!! Not freakin' bad, and very fortunately timely due to S's $400 dental bill today. His so-called mother also sent $100 to him, so I did not have to transfer as much as I thought I'd have to from the EF. Thank the Lord. And we didn't spend too much extra $ this holiday weekend either. Just a couple of meals out and gas expenses and some provisions for the beach, which we can use at our pool all summer too. Hey, they were from Dollar General, so there.

I am going to continue unplugging appliances while we're gone during the day and doing laundry at late hours of the night. It works!

Got paid today--all spent

I think I might have to cut back on the CC payments next month, to my great disappointment. The strategy always has been to totally ignore the monthly minimum payments and put every spare dime over on them so that we can pay as we go as much as is humanly possible on this custody battle. But with S starting a new job next Thursday I'm worried that we'll go 3 weeks w/out getting his 1st paycheck, as that is usually how it works when you start a new job. So that we don't starve to death (b/c I already am having to tap into the EF in order to pay for his $400+ dental bill he's going to have next week and REFUSE to tap into it anymore!!!) I'm going to pay just a little bit over the CC minimums, instead of hundreds of dollars over like I've been doing. Psychologically, I can't do just the minimums b/c I have a huge mental block about doing that that will make me feel like the biggest loser in the world.

At least I can feel good about keeping the legal bills on only 2 CC's now. I have 4 that I could potentially use but it's so much easier just to keep track of 2 CC's.

Good news re: S's credit score

I got a disturbing email yesterday saying that a certain building was broken into and some computers were stolen that contained our ID info on them, so to watch out. I pulled my credit report again, which I had already done about a month ago. While I was there I figured I'd pull S's too and see what his score is. Good news for him! His score seems to be going up due to some good accounts he has. The good accounts are b/c of me. I put him on my CC's even before we got married to help him out and it seems to be working. He's still got a ways to go until his score is in the "good" rating, but it definitely could be a lot worse!

Not that I wish to put a lot of weight into credit scores b/c I worship at the altar of Dave Ramsey, who has a zero FICO score b/c he has no debt yet is a millionaire. But we're a ways from being in Dave Ramsey land so until then we have to play this bullshit credit score game.

Buying rims sucks

S apparently needs new rims on his car b/c the stock ones one there are "bad" and he's gotten 2 mystery flat tires in the past few months. I posted the issue to the msn money boards and got a variety of opinions. S and I even discussed selling his car, Charlie Murphy. But in the end, I think what we'll do is just bite the bullet (there's a lot of biting of bullets going on in my life these days!) and hopefully he can get these rims at Discount Tire for $99 each, or $400. That is really going to cut into our EF though.

I decided to implement an automatic savings system recently of $20 automatically deposited into my savings account every Friday. We'll see how it goes and if I like it. I'm hoping I won't even notice and by the end of the year I'll have another $560 or more in the EF.

These gas prices suck

Unfortunately, there's not too much I can do about my driving habits. I've considered taking the bus to work but I can barely wake up in time to drag my ass in by 9:30 anyway, plus the bus is $2.00 r/t and I'll have more laundry to do due to the sweaty clothes I'll have waiting in the sun. One concession I have made is that I'm walking across the street to the hospital to get lunch more often instead of getting in my car and doing nearby drive-through. Which is what I did today, and was rewarded by running into little brother outside, so we had lunch together.

Oil changes

I finally got my oil changed today, at over 1,000 miles over. I can't help it man, I drove 700 miles in one weekend last month! I wish there was more I could do to help alleviate these rising gas prices but unfortunately I do a hell of a lot of driving in order to pick up the baby, go to Job #2, take my mom to the Dr., etc. But I digress, as I am wont to do!

I decided to splurge and go to Jiffy Lube, as I found a $5.00 off coupon on their website. I hadn't been there in 23,000 miles (they told me today) b/c I've been going to the grimy corner convenience store/grease monkey mechanics that charge $16.95 for oil changes. But I thought me and my car could use a little splurge, plus JL fills your fluids, checks tire pressure, washes the windows and vacuums, which corner grease monkey does not do. Still, the final price was $27.99. Ouch! Is JL really worth it? I guess... but only every 23,000 miles.

The latest goings-on in my money brain

My new fave magazine is Money. I began reading it yesterday in a clinic waiting room, and now have a stack here with me at Job #2. I like it b/c it's written in real user-friendly language, although it also seems to be kind of on a low level--maybe that's b/c since Personal Finance and Money Management has become my hobby/obsession I've learned so much in the past year it's hard for me to find new ideas or get exciting new revelations.

One personal revelation I made in the past couple of days is that I do need to open up yet another savings account, in addition to the 2 I already have. When I opened up a 2nd checking account back in December they asked me if I wanted to open a savings account with them and I declined, saying I didn't want to have too many accounts to keep track of. Well, now I think it's best that I open a 3rd savings account. Here's what the plan is:

1. Account #1 is the EF at my primary bank. I've done what Dave Ramsey suggests and have $1000 over there (actually it's currently $1056) to be left alone, no matter what! (Well, except an emergency, duh.)
2. Account #2 is at the credit union. This is strictly for property taxes and I deposit a faithful amount over there every single month, no matter what! I over-deposit just a little bit due to property appraisal increases, which did happen to us this year.
3. So Account #3 would be for the following: since 4 out of 5 responses on the msn money boards told me that to renew our home warranty would be a ripoff and that I should self-insure instead, I would put funds in this account for home repair/maintenance issues. I'm thinking an amount around $500-600 would be good to start with. I've also been thinking we need to put some funds away for "fun" items, like gifts, b-days, vacations, etc. and this would be a good place to hide that stuff too.

See, so Accounts #1 and #2 are sacred, to never be touched. It's time I got an easily-accessible Account #3 for misc. necessary and short-term stuff.

I also need to start putting a regular amount each month (I can do $50, would rather do $100) into S's savings account at the credit union which I opened for him after we got married just so he'd be a member too. I think he's got all of $40 over there! Like I said, it's for membership purposes only! This would be the fund for when we need to buy him a "new" car sometime in the near future. But yeah, we do need to start getting on that now.

All these accounts are just what I need to keep the various EF's and misc. funds separate. I just feel it's too dangerous (for me) to have one big extra fund that holds all the savings. I like categories and classifications; after all, I am a librarian. Every dollar its place and purpose!

Home Warranty: To Renew or Not?

So we got our Home Warranty renewal in the mail. When we bought the house almost a year ago, it was a gift from the seller. So now we are looking at the prices for 1st time. The renewal fee, for one year, is $425. Plus, every time we use the warranty service, which has been 3 times so far in the past year, we still have to pay a service fee of $60 each time.

S and I discussed it, and we're leaning towards NOT renewing the home warranty. I figure I can put that $425 into savings, and if anything breaks down--washer, dryer, fridge, etc.--we can just buy a used one off of craigslist.

Now that I'm registered on msn money boards, I might pose the question there. They're an opinionated group but I have learned from their own experiences!

Asked another question, got validated

I suspected I'm doing the absolute best I can, but I posted my situation on the msn boards. (My sitch: possibly as much as $25K in CC debt due to nasty custody battle; working 2 jobs; finished Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 1 but will be stuck for years on Baby Step 2 and need to get to Step 3.) I got a couple of responses that said to keep doing what I'm doing. Also, I was validated in my suspicion that as much as I love Dave, I just cannot follow his plan 100%. The comment was that the important thing was that I have a plan, and not just financially flounder around aimlessly. And I do have a plan! It may only be MY made-up, customized plan, but so far it's the best I can do.

I'm just concerned that DH will need another car here in the next year or 2. I would love for his $2500 1994 Mitsubishi to last several more years, but we've already spent at least another $1500 on repairs since we got the car last summer. His next car I'd like for him to move up into the $4000-4500 range, which means I need to start saving now, even while paying down the CC bills. Dave does not advocate this, but then again, he also advocates suspending your 401K contributions until you get out of debt, which horrifies me! I follow David Bach in that area, and pay my damn self first! Like I've said before, you cannot beat the concept of compound interest. It's about the best, most reliable deal out there!!!

Ask a question, get an answer

I finally, at long last, registered on msn. so I could ask a question on the msn money boards that I read so faithfully. And I got some good answers immediately! Don't bother looking for me over there, BTW, I made up an email and username that is totally unidentifiable with me, even if you know me well (it has to do with my grandfather's middle name!). Anyway, the question was: if I have several 0% CC's, and I refuse to pay a $175 cancellation fee with Cingular, can the totally non-related CC's penalize me and cancel the 0% APR for jacking Cingular around? The answer: Yes! Yikes. I guess I better pay Cingular's unfair extortion fee.

DH was frustrated at work today and needs to see a dentist soon. I told him we better get him an appt. before he quits so he can use his health insurance. He said he was thinking of just quitting this week and starting at Toyota next week. I told him he can't do that, that we need his salary for the next 4 days. He realized that yes, we do, although he wasn't happy about hearing it. Hey, I'm just the messenger I had to remind him! I also frequently have to remind him, hey you think I want to be working 2 jobs???

Ways I Got Ahead This Week

1. Sold a Mary Kay lipstick to a coworker; that paid for my meal last night at the Hard Rock!
2. Won a $50 gift card to Outback Steakhouse, yum.
3. Won an H&R Block tax USB which came in the mail, yay!
4. Got free lunch today at a meeting.

Not bad for a week. Now if S can just get his job situation fixed--and he applied for several jobs yesterday as well as me applying for 2 online for him--then we'll be doing a whole lot better. Becuase I think our lawyer's going to need another $1500 from us this month. God, the credit card bill lines on my Excel spreadsheet are depressing. Just when I get us paid down to 4 digits, or under the $10,000 mark, another legal fee comes up, putting us back into 5 digits. It's like climbing a damn hill of sand! :-(

Trying to raise S's salary

They already lied to him for the 4th time and it appears they will NOT be moving him to motorcycle sales after all. So I demanded that he demand a raise from them. He says they refused. So I found some City jobs he might be interested in. I am going to make him go downtown on Monday when he's off and apply for some. I already applied for one of them online for him!

I wish we could finish up his Bachelor's degree. I believe he has around 15-20 college hours or so. But I don't know how we would pay for that.

Yesterday while driving to Lufkin TX

I listened to more of David Bach's Start Late, Finish Rich on CD. I'm almost done. He has given me some great ideas. The latest one is the thought of starting my own business??? Jilly has done it. But where do my talents lie? Well, I'm a librarian and a peace officer. I think it sounds like a lot of fun to be a private investigator. Lord knows I've done tons of snooping on certain people already (our enemies like the whore and her accomplices, even her lawyer). Seriously, I've found out where they all have lived in their lives, how much their houses are worth, who they've been married to, etc. I enjoy being a detective and doing research.

More thought needs to go into this for sure. The sad thing is that should I pursue this avenue, I will no longer be allowed to be a cop. But... but.

Latest Credit Report

Today I got 2 free credit reports and paid for one score. I didn't want to pay to get all the scores, so I just got one. It seems to be right at average, or in the "Prime" category. Personally, I think it should be higher! I've got so much damn credit these days (over $40K in credit cards alone) that I don't even use and haven't made a late payment in years now that I do online banking and check everything everyday. Still, that's just one score out of 3.

The big problem is that stupid timeshare I let foreclose which has to be one of the biggest financial mistakes of my life--buying the damn thing, not letting it foreclose. I was fine with letting it foreclose but it has dinged my credit rating a little bit, that's for sure.

The big credit card's new monthly minimum is...

$287/month! Ha! I scoff at that. I put hundreds more than that on the credit cards every month. I redid the budget today, as I do every time something significant happens financially. This week I learned the next amounts our lawyer is going to need from us, and when. She said she'll probably need to collect about $1500 sometime in May, and $2500 from us right before we go to trial in November. And God knows how much the actual trial is going to cost us. But if her hourly rate is $195/hour, and we're in court 8 hours a day, and the trial lasts a week, then at least $7800???

I decided S should go back into car sales, although only assholes seem to work in car sales. But he was good at it when he did it before and will definitely make more $ there. So I sent off 2 emails on his behalf to the HR's at 2 local dealerships. More to follow as soon as I identify more--foreign cars preferred.

I felt like calling into the Dave Ramsey show today and asking how to keep your spirits up when you are stuck in a vicious, never-ending cycle of his Step 2 (paying down your debts) b/c I've got Step 1 ($1,000 in savings) done. My problem is unique though, b/c it's all due to the custody battle. I have a feeling he'd say I'm doing everything right--debts on low-interest cards, paying waaaaaayyy more than the minimums, got a high-paying 2nd job, etc. The real problem is getting S's salary up. We're working on it. Sigh.

I did see in the newspaper today though, that although home appraisals are up (as ours is), property taxes will still be slightly lower next year! Awesome! I'm putting more away in the credit union b/c I assumed the tax bill would be a little higher! I'm going to keep putting away the same amount regardless.

Ways I Save Money

All money blogs seem to have a similar list; I'll do mine by category:

Cars:

• Dave Ramsey says don't buy a car that costs more than 50% of your annual salary. I bought a good used car that cost about 28% of mine.
• Put my homeowner's insurance on with my car insurance company. My car insurance went down by about $30/month, pretty much paying for the homeowner's insurance!
• Stopped getting oil changes at Jiffy Lube and now go to the guy on the corner who charges $16.95.
• Drive 55-60 mph on the freeway.
• Regular maintenance, regular maintenance, regular maintenance!
• Only use the air conditioner in the middle of summer! I'm always so cold I would probably win the award for Texan Who Uses AC the Least.
• Pled poverty to the guy at NTB when I had a flat last summer and negotiated a discount on tires.

Home:

• Most financial gurus say you can afford a house that costs no more than 3X your annual salary. S and I bought a house that only cost about $19,000 more than our annual salaries. (And actually, now that I'm working 2 jobs, it now costs only $10,000 more than our incomes!)
• Bought a townhouse/condo-type thing. Saves on lawnwork and insurance! (Yeah, the HOA fee is a bitch, but we're still coming out ahead.)
• HOA fee covers basic cable, water, landscaping, trash pickup, and exterior insurance. So we do not have to worry about turning off the water when we shower like other penny-pinching bloggers I hear about!
• We are located behind several gates, making us pretty hard to get to! Security-wise, I feel in a better position than folks who live in houses and have just a flimsy door and window between them and the bad guys.

Work:

• Best thing I ever did: get a Master's Degree! Sure I went into debt to the tune of $25K-ish for it but those student loans were paid off IN FULL last summer right before we bought the house. So the Master's means I make a decent wage (although much less than most industries that require a Master's Degree!!!).
• Got a 2nd, part-time job that pays over $18/hour thanks to the Master's Degree.
• Worked my ass off to get a Texas Peace Officer's license meaning I have a secure, well-paying 2nd career should I ever need one.
• Learned how to teach skin care so I have yet another source of occasional income, which I do for teen programs at the local public libraries.
• Final source of income: occasional bass player when needed, although that hasn't happened much lately. But it used to provide all my walking around money when I gigged several times/month!

Entertainment:

• Use coupons as much as is humanly possible for groceries, eating out, shopping, movies, etc. My mom gives me all the coupons from her Sunday paper and recently I was lucky enough to get one of those Entertainment Coupon Books free from a friend!
  
• Joined email clubs for restaurants, movie theaters, etc. so they send you coupons and special deals.
• When seeing movies, catch matinees. When eating out, make sure it's usually lunch.
• Since S absolutely needs his movies (he really does medicate with video therapy), joined both Blockbuster online and Netflix, but only at the lower levels.
• For the baby, got memberships to the zoo and the children's museum. They have paid for themselves many, many times over!
• Use the public library. I rarely ever buy books and the few ones I do buy are from Half Price Books.
• Cut out drinking alcohol almost completely. Also smoking my little tasty vanilla cigars.
  
• Stopped going out to see live music all the time (well, getting married and becoming a mom will do that to you).

Taxes:

• Never, ever get a refund thereby using my own money throughout the year, thank you very much, to pay down high-interest credit card bills.
• Participate in a Flexible Spending Account for medical expenses.
• Put more away for retirement every year consistently. Still trying to get to David Bach's magic number of 12.5%! I'll be there soon!

Miscellaneous:

• Had a wedding that cost under $2,500 total. For everything, including the dress!
• Speaking of which, registered for quality items we really needed for the house, such as sheets, bakeware, crockpot, and toaster oven. And received them. No frivelous things like ice cream machines or cupcake stands for us.
  
• Only get my hair cut 2-3 times/year.
• Don't ever go into any stores besides grocery, dollar stores, and Target only occasionally. Why even tempt myself?
• Grocery shop at HEB instead of Kroger or, God forbid, Randalls! For one example, Kroger likes to advertise that their brand-name chocolate milk is "on sale" for $3.19 when it's ALWAYS only $2.99 at HEB! What kind of fool they take me for???
• Do my own nails and hair color.
• Buy (and sell) used items off Craigslist (especially stuff for the baby).
• Never pay full price for anything.
• Never use vending machines. (I've noticed where I work--both jobs--it's always the lower-paid employees who use them. Coincidence?)
  
• Changed cell phone plans to a cheaper one.
  
• Usually buy generic although some items you just have to get the name brand such as: Fritos, Nestle Chocolate Milk, and Raisin Bran. Also a certain topical medicine that the generic version of gave me a bad allergic reaction!
  
• Stay healthy: no drinking or smoking, exercising by running for free in the park, and getting lots of sleep no matter what.
  

The new numbers on contributing 3% more

Ok, the truth is that I'm horrible at math. This is bad when one of your obsessions is money management. But all I can do is try harder and keep listening to the experts and things should fall into place. For example, today I got my first paycheck after upping my retirement contribution another 3%. I had no idea what my takehome pay would be after I did that, but knew it was still a good decision to make. Here's the best picture I can figure out, which I deduced by doing basic arithmetic (percentages make me sweat):

These figures are per paycheck and rounded

New retirement contribution: $55 more than before.
New withdrawal amount for taxes: $8 less.
My new takehome pay: $47 less.

Ok, I can deal fine with having $93-94 less a month. Especially if it helps lower my tax bill next year (I'll be sending the KGB I mean the IRS $737 this weekend) and my retirement account continues to compound, compound, compound!!! At the age of 34, I definitely need to be getting to David Bach's recommendation of 12.5% asap.

One thing I'm definitely going to have to do next year is up the amount of our FSA! I budgeted $750 this year for medical expenses for me and DH, and I thought even that amount would be a stretch. I figured I'd supplement it with bandaids and Benadryl and the like at the end of the year if necessary. Well, it's only April and we've already spent $497, leaving only $252 and change left for 2007! Next year the baby will be living with us full-time and so her medical expenses will count as well so I don't see why I shouldn't just max out the FSA contribution, whatever it is. That'll help the tax bill too!

Now that I've transferred that $7,000 custody battle/credit card amount over to a card with 6.9% interest, I'll be paying off the Discover card by the time its 0% interest deal runs out in September! I'm going to go ahead and start using the Discover card to buy gas again now that there's room on it, and pay off the amount each month thereby getting rewards back at 5%. Too bad I can't trust DH with the Discover card and it had to be confiscated. He uses only the Valero card and debit card to get gas now, and Valero gets paid off in full each month. I just wish he could use the Discover card to help with rewards, but he just is not disciplined or observant enough to play the credit card game. Oh well, at least he is not offended at my confiscating his cards, and agrees it is more trouble than it's worth for him to have them!

It's a wise man who does what he can to prevent fights with the (smarter) wife. This is definitely NOT a Latino/Hispanic philosophy but DH is white (and wise about things like this) so I lucked out.

Reasons behind starting this blog

Right now I'm reading Michelle Singletary's book, 7 Mantras for a Richer Life. Ok, well, I'm listening to it on CD, but still. Anyway, I got to thinking about how there are personal finance blogs for just about every demographic: young professionals, baby boomers, married couples, GLBT folks, single parents, black women, etc. etc. but I have not yet seen any of these that are run by Hispanic/Latinos or from our point of view.

If you look in the cookbook section of any public library, it is astounding to see how many books are there and how many shelves it takes to hold all these cookbooks. Yet more and more cookbooks keep getting published year after year, month after month. Same thing with talk shows, it seems there's always room for more talk shows. So surely there is room for one more personal finance blog!

So, what is the Hispanic/Latino/a point of view when it comes to personal finance? Ha! Good question. I'm no expert, seeing as how assimilated I am, but there are some observations I've made. Generally it seems that we tend to be bad with money--just like all the other racial/ethnic groups in existence, right?--and we don't seem to want to trust banks. However, I have also observed that lots of our immigrants, illegal or otherwise, have an amazing capacity for working and saving money in order to send it back to family in the home country. (Of course, they do this by living 12 to a one-bedroom apartment.) But then you have people like my maternal grandfather, who is 91 and lives comfortably, or at least comfortably enough that he really doesn't need to worry about money. He and my deceased grandmother, who was a housewife, were able to accomplish this even while raising 4 children by never owning a car and never taking vacations, among other strategies. I'll address some of these strategies and how they've influenced me--and worked for me!--in future posts.

So just as Michelle Singletary quotes her "Big Mama", I'll attempt to personalize the world of personal finance/money management for any lost Latino/a/Hispanic souls out there. Maybe some of them will do a search on Google Blogs, like I did, and find me. I sure don't have all the answers, but after a year of faithfully listening to Dave Ramsey's radio show and reading a couple of dozen personal finance books and checking in every single day to my fellow money bloggers and other websites, I've learned a hell of a lot! At the same time, I'll outline my ongoing-money war and battles lost and won.

For example:
Money saved today: almost $4 in coupons last night at the grocery store (and no, I don't buy crap I don't need just b/c I have a coupon for it). Also saved $12 by buying advance tix to I-fest instead of at the gate.

And: Still trying to get DH to consider his job/career options so he can start making decent wages. Called my jailer friend who is going to call DH tomorrow and tell him that working in the jail is not as bad as it sounds!

Finally: Still posting items to sell on craigslist. No word yet, but depending on the item sometimes these things take time.