Thursday, August 14, 2014

Miscellaneous Stuff...Mostly Money

Just a mish-mosh of stuff......

*  I paid #2 Son's Fall school bill with cash.  I toyed with the idea of using the credit card to pay this bill and then paying off the c/c bill before any interest accrued.
Our c/c is in a rewards program so all those dollars on that card would have only earned me a $100 gift card.
Hey, $100 is $100 but since the college passes on the fee the c/c company charges to accept our payment to us(thanks a lot institute of higher learning!), it didn't make sense to pay $264 cash to "earn" $100.
Sigh.

*  Speaking of the Fall school bill--I used the 529 funds in the Vanguard account for #2 Son to cover this bill.  Luckily I remembered that August is a bad bad month historically for the stock market and I yanked the funds before the market took a nose dive about 2 weeks ago.  Saved myself $500 in funds we would have lost if we cashed it out later than I did!

*  Starting with September's regular bills I can start tracking how much our regular monthly expenses are going to go down since the last kid is outta the nest fulltime.  True, expenses will start to decrease mid August(next week)but full monthly bills won't come through until September.
I am anxious to see what our new "nut" will be.  8-)

*  I am happy about how we kept the college living expenses down by shopping from home(using what we already had)and waiting for sales and deals on items we had to purchase.  We could have spent less than we did(there is always room for improvement)but I can live with the results we achieved.

*  Hubs company has what they call a "market adjustment".  In order to keep valued employees from leaving, every few years they see what the going rate for the jobs their employees do are earning at other companies and if salaries have gone up elsewhere, they get a raise, so he did.
Of course after taxes it won't amount to much per week(enough for a cheap meal out...maybe)but it's something.

*  I continue to sell fabric on Etsy in drips and drabs.  A few sales a month is better than a poke in the eye, right?  ;-)   I received an email from another Etsy store owner today.  She has 2 store fronts....one selling baby clothing and another selling jewelry.  Said owner wants to trade me her items for my fabric.  Umm, I don't THINK so!  I want cash for my goods thankyouverymuch.

*  #2 Son has his last private flute lesson on Monday.  This has been a regular monthly expense for the last 2 years.  It's going away now....of course replacing it is college tuition.  Not much of a win there, huh? lolz

*  I topped $100 in revenue on Google for my blog so I should see a direct deposit by next month into my bank account.  Go me! 8-)))
Who says you can't make money blogging? lolz

*  We got the 1098 from oldest son's college concerning educational expenses paid in 2013 to said college in April...possible AFTER the tax filing date.  (Aren't schools, like employers suppose to get those out in late January?)
Anyway since we didn't claim oldest on the 2013 tax return, we gave this potential tax credit hunk of money to him to use on his return.  But he had already filed so now an amended return has to be filed....oh joy!   And since oldest son doesn't know how to do one, guess who gets to file out the return and figure this out?
Yep.
Yours Truly.
I got everything gathered and printed out so next week I'll attempt to tackle this chore.
Whatever did I do to deserve an encore round of Tax Filing Hell anyway??!!
I thought I was done for the year back in April......

*  As for my $24K Savings Challenge for the year--we are on track to meet that goal by the end of 2014.
However......I just got around to noting all the August bills and it's clear there will be NO excess monies to throw into that goal once all is paid this month.  I like to throw $2K(after taxes and all payroll deductions)per month into this goal.  But with paying for #2 Son's laptop for school, the bill for the nifty lime green chair(which was on this month's c/c bill)and all my spending put on the c/c for my road trip(some of which I need to tap into my 2013 Savings Challenge savings to cover), the August savings total will be nil.
bleh.
Not that this means we are in any money crisis(just the pretend one in my head!)but this month will be a wash.
We don't have these kind of months on a regular basis.....if we did, we'd have to totally rethink what we do with our money!  Now and again, things come up(or you bring about things coming up by spending money you don't usually spend) which throw you off the money tracks.  We have emergency funds up the wazoo so no worries.  It's just a momentary bump in the financial road.

How is your money holding up this month?

Sluggy

8 comments:

  1. I reached my $100 threshold for AdSense last month. Still waiting for that deposit to show up in my account. I'm seeing an ad on your blog for the Mambe pet blanket I just bought. How do they know I want another one? Heh heh.

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  2. Just keep thinking "lime green chair." That is how I get around remorse or brokeness. Of course, my joys are more like $5 worth, not a whole chair's worth of joy. Is that chair comfortable?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yah, I just have to go sit in the chair when I feel bad about spending the $, right?
      The chair is ok, but a bit long in the seat for my feet to touch the ground. I need an ottoman now for it. It never ends this having to spend money.......lol

      Delete
    2. slugmama,
      Just don't cry on the chair as you sit there feeling better about spending money. I love a chair that is long in the seat--front to back. Then, the chair hits halfway under my thigh. I must be a good six inches taller than you (maybe not), and chairs are always too tall for me. Yep, now you need an ottoman.

      Delete
  3. Where are the ads on your blog that pay you Googlemoney? I need to sign up for that!

    Peace <3
    Jay

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    Replies
    1. It's just not the ads that pay I think....if someone goes to another blog you get credit? I don't know.
      The ads on mine are just right above the blog archives on the right sidebar and there is one down below my posts.
      You won't be able to retire early or anything like that on the blog income but what the heck, right?

      Delete
    2. I forgot, I run AdBlock, so I turned it off, and viola'! There they are! Hey, any money is good money!

      Peace <3
      Jay

      Delete
  4. Yay for Google and happy clickers!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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