Random Money Stuff

Just a bunch of financial things without enough for a whole post......

*  April 1st Net Worth is DOWN $3842.66 from March 1st's Net Worth.  This is mainly due to A-less than stellar stock market gains and B-we bought a car for cash.

*  Comparing our net worth(I don't count the house)with 2014 April 1st's figures we are UP $89,985.59 from this same time last year.  Two thirds of that gain is because of the retirement accounts.

*  Though we are doing well saving, personally I am still not happy with our savings rate.  Working off of straight income from Hubs, last year we saved 29+% of our net income.  So far in 2015 the savings rate is 28+%.

Who are these people who say they save 70% of their income?!?  How is this possible without either sleeping in a tent and eating Alpo.....no, not even Alpo as that's pricey.....Gravy Train!?

Where can I find someone to pay me for just being an awesome human being? ;-)

*  It looks like we will spend every nickel of Hubs bonus this year.  Between the new to-us car, having the bathroom work done and various trips we are taking this year that need funding, the bonus monies will be tapped out.  Last year by comparison we banked almost half of the bonus. 
I suppose 2015 is not a great bonus year but at least he got a bonus so I should be grateful.....and I AM!

*  I have saved $25.50 in change so far in 2015 in my Sealed Pot Challenge.  Pitiful.....

I also have received $19 in rebates and 4 Vouchers for 12-packs of Coke in the mail.  I don't hardly even drink Coke anymore!  I'd love to see more food/toiletries rebates come down the pike but since the recession "ended" 4 years ago companies just aren't putting rebating opportunities out there. sigh

*  Hubs has now decided that he will retire in 3 years and not 2 years.  This makes things a bit easier since College Boy will graduate in 3 years as well.  He still needs medical insurance until he graduates and finds a j-o-b and I don't believe Hubs retiree medical can cover him once Hubs retires.

While having Hubs retire is a good thing it still scares me.  I know we will be fine financially but retirement will be a big change financially and in other ways too.  It's something we've been working toward for so long I am having anxiety at it really being almost here.

I must say, if you/your spouse has a good paying job and has finally worked their way up the pay ladder it's kinda hard to let go of those nice regular paychecks even if you know you have enough(or will have enough)to live on after the salary ends.  8-)


Sluggy
 

This Week....Frugalness, Money & Wisdom

We got a second car insurance refund last week.
$234.71 back in my wallet?
Why thankyouverymuch!

Hubs took last week off from work and we went away for 4 nights to the beach.  With both weekends that made 9 Days of "togetherness".
I have discovered on this week off how long I can be constantly side-by-side with Hubs before I just can't stand it any longer.
It was on Day 8.
What in the world will I do when he retires and is here in the house fulltime? lolz

That trip to DC in May, where I had to pay $75 for the conference dinner?  The organization still hadn't cashed the check as of Oct.
Upon inquiring we found out that the President of the organization holding the conference decided to comp all the meals for attending spouses as well as members.
$75 back in my wallet?
Why thankyouverymuchagain!!

As of Thursday we have cut the TV cable.
Goodbye $110+ a month for cable and internet.
Hello $40 a month for just internet.
I don't know if we will survive this drastic measure but I do know that having it disconnected on Thursday was VERY bad timing.
Project Runway's season finale was Thursday.
So I have to wait until tonight to watch it online.
Ugh.
But for a savings of $70 a month I will be OK with it.
Give me strength to survive not being able to watch PR All-Stars beginning next week though!

I made Halupki, otherwise known as Stuffed Cabbage Rolls this week.
Having lived here in the Polka Belt of Pennsylvania for the past 14 years I don't know why I never made this dish before.

Hubs had 3, I had 1 and we still have 10 left.
Instead of ground beef I used ground turkey with the ground pork in these to be a bit healthier.

I also have about half of the filling I made up left too, so I'll tuck that away in the freezer and make more another time and/or add some more ingredients to make it Mexican(chili powder, cumin and green chilles)and make enchiladas with it instead.
I spent approx. $9.25 for all ingredients and if I buy another head of cabbage I can make another 14.
Or I can turn the filling into Enchiladas with ingredients I have here already.

Between the leftover halupki, chicken Marsala, meatloaf and side dish of butternut squash & apples, I think the rest of the new planned meals on this week's menu will move to next week at this point.

I went to Target and did the Kleenex/Viva Deal on Thursday.
1 X 4 pack of Kleenex and 1 X 8 pack of Viva paper towels=$14.78-$4.25 in Qs=$10.53-$5 free Target gift card I had=$5.53 OOP......making each item come out to less than .50¢ each.
And I received another $5 Target gift card for buying these 2 items so it truly was only $5.53.
Not "almost free" like Rite-Aid but a good buy and we needed both tissues and paper towels so I am good with it.

I need to get my butt into gear and list a few things on eBay this weekend.  There is a short window of opportunity for Christmas on there after all and I don't want to miss it.  Hopefully I can rehome a few items using that platform and add a few coins to our savings.

October is a 3 paycheck month for us....yay!
I finished paying all the month's bills yesterday and if we don't spend anymore cash this month(besides what I've already taken out of the bank)we will have saved in total for the year just $400 short of the $24K goal.
Plus, unless the train goes flying off the tracks in November and December, I should be able to throw another $1K or so at the challenge in overage from those months.  But then again, December DOES mean gluttonous Christmas spending and then real estate taxes come due in January........
It IS always something, isn't it?  '-)

We just had to re-enroll in our healthcare.  Since we've got it all set up in the plan we are in finally, we are sticking with the same plan for 2015.  When you have ongoing medical needs and use DME it's just easier not to be switching around every year.
We have 5 paychecks, thus 5 more deposits from said paychecks for this year into our HSA before the $4K deductible kicks in again on Jan 1st.  This means we'll have just shy of $1.8K in the HSA that wasn't used this year, which can be put toward our high deductible plan.....so we'll only have to lay out about $2K in new money before we see any benefit from our insurance.  That will be nice for a change.
I swear having to fork over almost $300 for 1 bottle of pills(what they cost before we satisfy our deductible for the year)is about enough to make me swallow my tongue.

Sluggy
 

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