A Diamond Ring

I told S the only thing I want for Xmas (for reasons that are way too complicated to get into here) is a "real" diamond ring, since all he got me before we got married was a little diamond promise ring. I did the leg work, went online and looked at rings on websites, went to stores and tried some on, hunted for the deals, and found what I believe to be the best deal right now. I found a beautiful 1-carat ring that was "originally" well into the 4 figures--almost $1,200!!! (Though Kay Jewelers has the same ring for almost $1,500.) Well it was reduced well into the 3 figures!!! On top of that it was reduced further as an in-store purchase this week! On top of all that, I had a 15% off coupon!!! S picked up the ring last night before the sale ended this week and I can't say which I had more fun looking at, the ring or the receipt! The thrill and art of the deal! And here it is:

Budget Help with Low Gas Prices

Last night I saw gas for $1.47. It is $1.49 by our house. Lord, I know we are in a recession--and have been for the past 12 months at least--but these low gas prices are really, really assisting us and our budget. I have lowered the gas budget through Christmas and they are saying these prices will continue to stay low awhile longer through the new year.

I have to take the car in tomorrow to possibly get it fixed. It's making a weird noise underneath, could be suspension, shocks, axle, I don't know. So the budget will be able to now support the cost for this as well as a good chuck of our +$200 shortage for property taxes due Jan. 31.

Spending $ to Save $

The other day S bought a $25 Starbux card membership which entitles him to a 15% discount for the rest of his life. If this is true, then the $25 was a great investment, as much $ as he spends at Starbux! It will surely pay for itself inside of a month!

On a lesser scale, I paid $1 for a coupon book from Boston Market. I already used the 1st coupon this week and saved $3 and change. I love BM b/c it is some of the healthiest "fast" food you can get!

BTW gas has been $1.59 near my house for almost 2 weeks now. With the recession now in full swing hopefully gas prices will stay low for awhile longer. I was thinking they'd shoot back up before T-giving; I was wrong. Now my new prediction is right before X-mas, but I hope not.

Net Worth is Down

I use Net Worth IQ to track my net worth every month. It has been depressing the last few months thanks to the economy. Although I am making decent headway in paying down our debts my net worth keeps sinking due to losing thousands in my retirement accounts. Still, it's a cool website and it's neat to check your monthly archives and track your financial progress in the world.

A Little Bit of Shopping

While I avoid "Black Friday" like the plague that it metaphorically is, I did get out on Saturday and did my part to boost the economy (snort!). I had to go to Target for toilet paper, but since the damn parking lot was so packed I was forced to park near the Old Navy. However, needing new jeans anyway (my size 2's and 4's truthfully no longer fit me anymore and I need to quit pretending they do!) I thought I'd peek inside and see what kinds of excellent deals these stores were supposedly running. Well, I ended up buying a pair of jeans for $9.99, 4 shirts for $5 each, 2 lacy camisole shirts for $5 each, and 2 cardigans for work for $10 each. Yep, that was not a bad deal at all!

$800 on average? I don't THINK so.

They say the average U.S. family spends roughly $800 on holiday gifts. The recommendation is to spend no more than 1% of your annual income on your holiday gifts. I spend waaaaayyy less than that. Part of it is b/c I am a great bargain shopper; part of it is b/c S and I simply do not really spend very much $ on each other or the baby, considering; and part of it is b/c I do not have that many people to buy for in the first place. I really only buy for me, S, the baby, 1 aunt, 1 uncle, 1 cousin, and my mom, though her present counts as a combination b-day/Xmas present (she is NOT big on holidays anyway). Lately 2 small kids belonging to my aunt's granddaughter have been added to the list as well, since we spent Xmas Day at her house last year. Sometimes I'll get something for 1-2 friends, depending on if I'll see them right around the holidays. So less than 10-11 people, that's not too bad! And that's how I like it.

Gas Prices and Debt Free Friends

Today gas is $1.74 near my house. Praise Jesus. This is SO helping our household budget. Please God please let this keep up until after the holidays.

One of my dear friends and her hubby are going to be debt free before this year is out! I am so excited for them, although I can't help but point out that they make well into the 6 figures. Still, they've been working hard and it shows.

I have done our household budget into August 2009. S and I will not be totally debt free until early to mid 2010. But come August we'll be sitting a hell of a lot prettier than we are now, thanks to my personal finance strategies. (Patting myself big-time on the back.)

The Holidays Are Coming

I bought my 1st 3 Xmas gifts today: 1 for Mudflap, 1 for S, and 1 for me! They were bought online, so no tax and no gas money spent going shopping. This year our holiday budget is once again completely part of our household budget, meaning nothing will be bought on credit and once the holidays are over, we are completely DONE for the year with no loose ends to wrap up on anything.

I have to say something about these lower gas prices: they have completely saved our ass. I paid $1.79 for gas today in Pasadena. I have been able to lower our weekly gas budget by 50% and again, being able to do so has allowed us to not worry about the holidays as well as keep a regular schedule with our marriage counselor, since my FSA was all spent up in October. Now any medical expenses beyond that are just having to be paid "full price" for, unfortunately.

HOWEVER--I have only lowered our weekly gas budget through December b/c I fear that once the holidays get closer, gas prices will shoot back up. If this does not happen, then we will be sitting even more pretty as the New Year starts, which we will also need b/c I got our property tax bill last week and come its due date of Jan. 31, we will be a couple of hundred bucks short so any gains we make in December will only go to help our property tax situation. And if gas prices do shoot back up like I'm fearing they might, then it's in the budget and planned for.

Money and Mental Health

This is actually a positive post about the effects money has on your mental health. It is so true on so many different levels that money does not buy happiness, etc. etc. But not having to worry so much about money lately has really relieved a lot of stress in my life. 2 Fridays ago when traffic was backed up so much that I was going to be late to pick up the baby at school, I jumped onto the toll road and, although that cost $3, I didn't worry about it like I used to. And yes, I do think that $3 is a lot of money. But I finally had it to spare.

I will admit that this recent dental cost of $835 has been a big blow, but I did some creative things in order to pay for it. (See below post.) I just cannot have money being one of the things to constantly worry about anymore.

Even today, when I saw that I have lost about $10,000 in one of my retirement accounts. I refuse to worry. There are bear markets and there are bull markets, and I'm 30 years yet away from retirement.

This is what an Emergency Fund is for

I just had gum surgery, which cost $835 freakin' dollars.

Although I am terrified to touch our EF, which according to the Dave Ramsey plan is "only" $1,000 anyway, I am going to take $100 out of the EF to pay for this surgery. The remaining funds used to pay for the remainder are:

$100--reduced Mastercard payment
$100--reduced Discover card payment
$100--borrow from Ma
$200--take from other savings account which was created by a 0% credit card advance
$235--covered by funds from regular budget

And now, I have completely spent my annual FSA, which was only $1,500 and the maximum allowed contribution by my work. And it's only October. Still, I hope those $1,500 pre-tax dollars make a difference come April 15.

Another Decision Made

I have decided that, on top of all our other stressors in life (S's ongoing career/job search, still dealing with the aftermath of the custody battle) that if I can ease up on at least the financial stresses that will do us a world of good. I have decided that instead of putting $1,000 towards the credit cards each month, I will ease up and aim for a ballpark of more like $800-900, thereby freeing up some funds so I don't feel so panicked when we want to do something nice like have a romantic dinner out together. Or buy some new clothes. Or go see a movie that's not a matinee. B/c right now we almost NEVER do those things, and it's reflecting on our marriage.

I appreciate Dave Ramsey's "gazelle-intense" approach to paying down debt, but most of the folks he counsels have done stupid stuff with their money. All we did was try to win a custody battle so the baby could have a much better life with us. And we don't need to add insult to injury upon ourselves by struggling so much with $. Finally, I was smart enough to get most of the remaining debt--$11K out of $20K remaining--at fixed low-interest, at APR's of 6.99 and 4.99%. And the rest is currently at 1.9-0%, yes to expire next year but I'll deal with it at that time, now now. So I need to quit beating up on myself and making our lives miserable.

Ouch.

One of my retirement accounts has gone down over $1,300 thanks to the latest economic FUBAR. Fortunately, I am far away from retirement and there's no need to panic. And today I am glad beyond words that the bullshit bailout has been defeated.

Our Govt. is Full of Pinheads and Assholes

As soon as I can, I'm giving some $ to the Libertarian Party.

Skittish

I'm skittish even though S is now working. I'm skittish b/c his latest job is still up in the air for some reasons and we are still waiting to see where he will land on a more permanent basis. Even though I should pay off 1 of my CC's I want to hold onto my extra savings b/c I'm just so skittish! I've got an extra $1,000 I could and should apply to debt repayment, but I just can't make the move yet until I know more about what's going to happen to us, financially-speaking.

Raises

So a couple of months ago I asked Job #1 for a 10% raise. I had a page-long document with evidence outlining why I deserve such a raise including attachments such as unsolicited emails from clients saying how amazing I was. They came back with a 5% raise. We get a 3% raise automatically every Sept. 1. At first I was a little put out b/c really all they gave me was an additional 2% raise and then they're also making me wait until Sept. 1 to get it. I'm still a little put out but it's ok... for now.

Then last night I was at Job #2 and we got paid yesterday so my paycheck was in my box. The amount seemed a little high, and upon closer inspection I saw that my hourly rate had gone up and no one had even told me. Calculations revealed that I got an 8% raise!!! Oh... nice. And MUCH needed since S still has not been hired anywhere yet.

Definitely Stressed

I redid the budget today, again pushing back a possible date that S starts to bring home a paycheck. I am supposedly getting a 5% raise, as opposed to our annual 3% raise b/c I raised a fuss about getting a better raise this year, starting Sept. 1 and I wanted to use it to open a Roth IRA but now that doesn't look like it's going to happen then after all. Right now there are so many variables to guess at that it's hard to do any real financial planning.

• IF S gets hired in August by one of the agencies he's already interviewed at, then we will be sitting pretty.
  
• But if he doesn't get hired, then IF he starts the process to join our Reserves and takes the test on Aug. 9, it could take him a couple of months to get fully hired on, so we'll be sitting pretty in... late September? October? Possibly November? Jesus, that's a long time.
  
• And IF he still is not working anywhere in September, I am going to be withdrawing all kinds of money from savings and I'm so scared to do that. It might be better just to quit over-contributing to the CC payments temporarily, but that hurts me psychologically. Which is the worst pain?
  

I Had a Revelation

...from reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It is this:

The Poor acquire liabilities.
The Rich acquire assets.

Think about this. If you get it, it should blow your mind.

I've also come to believe with every fiber of my being the following statement:

It doesn't matter how much money you make. It matters how much money you keep.

$2300 "Saved"

So we only paid $1700 for the plain white wrapper, leaving us $2300 from our budget of $4K. I can actually breathe a little easier now. With the leftover funds we'll take care of some essential and even a couple of fun things on the car that need taking care of. A huge chunk of the rest will go to the Visa card, whose 1.9% APR is expiring this month so that's timely indeed. And then we still have some funds leftover to play with, which is why I'm breathing a little easier--things are not so tight right now and it hasn't been that way in a long, long time. We also got our stimulus check last night, right on time just as the KGB I mean IRS promised, and a big bulk of that's going to the Visa card as well. The rest will go into savings so we are firmly back to Step 2 of Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps, where we'll remain for the next 1 1/2-2 years. But at least it's all on low, low interest!!!

Plan For Getting A New (Used) Car ASAP

The only thing within my power is to do the following: use one of the checks from my Discover card with a promotional APR of 1.9% until April 2009 (and initial 3% fee) to do so. I've told S we can do not a penny over $4000 for a used car. That will make my monthly payments around $150, perhaps a little more or less. By April 2009 S should definitely have a job!!! By then the whole amount should be close to paid off, even with the other credit card charges, which are as follows:

DISCLAIMER/REMINDER: Roughly 99.9% of the below charges are LEGAL FEES due to the custody battle.

Visa #1: $3300 @ 1.9% APR until June 23, 2008. I am going to fork over as much extra as possible this month (IRS Stimulus, Summer Job $, assorted extras) and when the APR expires on this month the balance should be closer to a nicer $500-600.

Visa #2: $4500 @ 0% APR until May 2009. Paying the minimum on this b/c, once again, S should definitely be employed by the time this promotional APR runs out.

Visa #3: $5360 @ 0% APR until September 2008. Some of the funds from Visa #2 will be used to pay a bunch on this account in September. Right now the funds are in an ING online savings account earning interest until then.

MasterCard: $8300 @ 6.9% APR until the balance is paid off. That's about the best deal you can get, even better than some banks will loan at.

So a Discover Card check charge will be, including the 3% fee, $4120. Although actually, I'm going to have to do closer to $5500, bringing the new Discover Card balance to $5665. This is b/c there are even more legal fees coming up, including mediation, additional payments to our lawyer, and a payment to the amicus attorney. Once again, 1.9% APR until 4/09 is about the best deal I'm gonna get.

The other night I said to someone that the custody battle is the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Financially AND otherwise, that is the God-honest truth.

Vacation All Paid For

S and I were in South Padre last Thursday-Sunday and the whole thing was paid for in cash. It was a nice feeling to come back home and not have to think about the credit card bills piling up in a month or so!

One lesson learned though, when bidding on Priceline, bid the lowest, most insulting offer you can think of. My boss here at Job #2 just told me when he went there last year they paid $39 for a $200 hotel room. I paid way too much for our room at the Travelodge!

Next time we go down there, I fully expect for our financial situation to be so excellent that we can afford to rent a jet ski and even parasail!

Money Saving Tips of the Week

Sign up for all birthday clubs at your favorite restaurants. They send great b-day coupons!

Split cotton balls in 2. (Buy the big ones.)

Water down liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner. It all still works great.

Get as many free meals as you can at work. For example, I've gotten 2 free lunches already this week and I'll get fed all day Sat. at the HHC Board retreat.

Buy coupon books from charitable organizations. Then you get coupons for all kinds of good stuff (I mostly use the restaurant/food ones) and you get a tax write-off.

Work an extra job in the evening instead of watching TV.

When I Have $, I'm Giving It Away

Seriously, one of the things I fantasize about when we are out of debt and have $ is who I'm going to give my money to. My high school-HSPVA, my college-UNT, reputable charities, artists, and poor musicians!!! I was so sad that this past weekend I did not have any $ to buy a CD from the Carolina Chocolate Drops at I-fest. I was so tempted, but I had only budgeted $20 for the day for me and the baby to spend there, and we needed drinks in order to stay hydrated. I also let her ride 2 rides b/c that was my thanking her for sticking it out with me at a long I-fest day. And that took care of all the $ for the day.

But someday we will have lots of money b/c we're sticking to my plan and my budget and like Dave Ramsey says, right now we are living like no one else (i.e., not spending money for every little want) so someday we can live like no one else (i.e., b/c of our discipline now we will someday have the money to spend on every little want!).

Sometimes, If You Charge More, They Will Pay

This summer I upped my price for my Teen Skin Care Classes at the public libraries from last year's $75 per class to this year's $80 per class. I figured I'd get booked for slightly less classes but still earn around the same amount of $. Less work, same pay, right? WRONG. This summer I am booked for more classes than ever: a whopping 13. Damn! So although I'm going to be busier than ever this summer I am going to earn more than ever. An extra $1,040 definitely will help, especially this summer since we aren't sure when S will get a job. I can continue to support the household until he does, but I'd like it to be sooner than later b/c I want to get my retirement contributions back on track.

PO'd at Comcast and Vince McMahon

Damn! Wrestlemania cost $63 fuckin' dollars last night! S's buddies who said they'd be over to watch and incidentally, chip in for the cost didn't show. So it was just him and me watching it. S swears he will not order anymore PPV's unless people are guaranteed to show up and help out with the cost. I said that was all up to him. None of my friends are into wrestling at all.

$1400 made from Craigslist

I have made close to $1400 from selling items on Craigslist and will make another $10 tonight or tomorrow selling a huge bag of lincoln logs the baby does not want to play with anymore. Well, $750 of that total was my faithful gun Woodrow, but still. That's a good amount of $ made in the past 2 years selling shit around the house.

Thank God I'm a LEO

A local tax preparer is doing all returns for cops for only $39. S said we needed a pro to look at our return since my TurboTax draft said we owe the KGB I mean IRS over $2600!!! We went this past Saturday and he managed to knock it down to $2200 and change. His fee is $175 but again we paid him only $39. Lots of $ saved there, all b/c I'm a cop. Wow.

Now, time to change my W-4. Stat!

The Roth IRA

I've gotta open up one of these things...and so should you! Once S graduates in May and gets his job, we are both going to open up Roth's. I am going to leave my retirement contribution low at Job #1--say at around the 3% level--and contribute the rest to a Roth. Learn about it. Know it. Do it. Love it!

I Think I'm Gonna Be Sick

I did the first draft of our taxes. It appears that we are going to owe over $2,600. I can't fucking believe it. Last year we only owed $700 and change. We worked our asses off last year and made a lot more $ so I guess that's what the difference is, no matter that I contributed a ton more to my retirement and we paid property taxes and we had lots of mortgage interest that was all deductible. Incredible. Almost makes me want to vote Republican (lower taxes, less government). I want to puke.

10% Off at Target

With our Target Red card we get a 10% off shopping spree every time we charge $1,000. This has happened twice in the year+ we've had the card. The trick, you see, is to PAY OFF the card after you make a charge so you do not incur finance charges. I am always careful to do exactly that. Only then is this a halfway good deal.

Big Bucks

S and I have finally received all our W4's. Together we both made a lot of $ last year, or at least what in my opinion is a lot of $. I certainly made more than I've ever made due to all my jobs! Once S graduates from the police academy in May and gets a good-paying job, we should really be sitting pretty, even with all the custody battle debt. When I get down about $ I just have to try and remember that.

Found Money

I recently came into some money through a most fortuitous way. You could say a relative gave me an advance on my inheritance! Anyway, this is so wonderful and so timely. S and I can breathe a little easier now. Half of it I'm putting away for next year's property taxes. Another portion is going into savings, natch. Another portion will go to a credit card, and finally I have a little bit left over to do something fun with. Because you have to have balance in life!

Credit Card Limits

Oh, the irony. The more credit I use, the more they give me. I currently have 5 CC's and the only reason I have that many is b/c of the custody battle. BCB (before custody battle) I only had ONE CC! Anyway, once I started charging a bunch of lawyer's fees to my one CC--b/c S and I had no other earthly way to pay for them--CC offers started popping up left and right. My bank didn't even ask me if I wanted a CC, they just opened the account and sent me a card one day! That pissed me off at first, but then I realized it could come in handy on occasion.

So once I had these 5 CC's established, I believe my total credit limit on all 5 was in the neighborhood of about $22,000. Over the past year and half, the credit limits keep creeping up and up and now I have a whopping total credit limit of about $59,000!!! (Of which I am currently using only $18,100! So this also helps my FICO score, but who cares.) Damn! No wonder people get in trouble with these CC's! They see you spending and want you to continue to spend. No, they encourage you to spend. It makes them money hand over fist collecting interest charges. Duh!

The only good thing about having these 5 CC's is that each of them is constantly vying for my attention and my business. So they send me these great balance transfer offers and these checks I can write for nice low APR percentages and I have used those to make the high cost of the custody battle as painless as is humanly possible. Most of the custody battle costs are being paid off at low rates of anywhere from 0% to 5.99%, so that's the best deal I could strategize with our limited resources and options.

Cash Only

We are trying to live cash-only. I had to confiscate S's debit card from him b/c he is just too careless with it. He just doesn't think, so it's just safer for him not to have it and he agrees. We each get $40 per week for our allowance, which includes lunch money. We've also allotted $50 per week for household "miscellaneous" which includes entertainment and misc. expenses. This week S went through his $40 in 3 days: too much Starbucks! I still have $30 left from mine and it's already time for the new allowance tomorrow!!! That's b/c I eat at home. I wonder if S is just hopeless when it comes to budgeting. I tell you what, if he wants a bigger allowance he better make more $. But he will, once he finished his schooling in May and gets a real job with a real paycheck with real benefits. Lord, I cannot wait.