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2012 goals progress report

March 18th, 2012 at 02:48 pm

Now is usually the time people start to give up on their New Years resolutions. Not the fabulous people of SA!

In a personal bid to stay focused and on track, I'm tallying up the year's progress. So far, we've:

Knocked $1661.56 off the car loan balance. Very exciting. Hope to pay if off by the end of the year. We may get a tax refund, and if so, 50 percent will go to the car loan balance.

Knocked $2647.83 off the mortgage balance. Good, but I sure do wish it was more. I miss being mortgage free. Each monthly payment knocks about $800 off the principal, and while I'm focusing on eliminating the car loan, I am trying to send some tiny extra bits to the mortgage as well.

We've logged $1200 in credit card signing bonuses. $625 went to savings, and the rest to Amazon.com gift cards, and a Home Depot card we used to buy a chest freezer. Not too shabby!

We've saved $8450, although most of this was from an annual bonus, rather than thourgh tried and true effort. We are putting $150 per paycheck into savings, but lately money has been moving in and out of savings to cover big expenses. I'm trying to keep the balance going up, even if it's just by a small amount, it's just been hard! I think I have also been so zealous on debt repayment that I've made the checking account razor thin.

The kids 529 contributions are on auto pilot, $200 per month per kid. No changes there. It's slow and steady wins the race. I want to put away more for them, but with the giant childcare bills so I can work, it's been hard. BY next year, when DS1 starts kindergarten, we should have more to dedicate to college savings.

In other goals,
I've lost two pounds, put myself out there to new freelance clients (won 1, lost 1), and we've been socializing more. All that is good. A lot of areas still need work (like I need to try to shop smarter and keep a lid on everyday spending--and NEVER let hubby do the grocery shopping!). Overall though, not too bad for mid-March.

How are you guys doing??

Another postive day

July 3rd, 2011 at 06:15 pm

It's amazing how much sunnier my outlook is without all of this house stress. I had yet another lovely 24 hours focusing on the house we live in. Yesterday, I organized, and sorted (for donation or otherwise) the stuff in the basement laundry area. It now looks clean and clear.

I also started on the garage. I posted several freebies on craigslist. A double jogging stroller and a car seat, and two rugs we don't have space for in these houses. All needed to be seriously cleaned, and it wasn't worth the energy for me to do it. Within two hours of posting, all was taken.

I have at least three big boxes headed for the thrift store later this week.

I just sold our old reel mower for $20 as well, so that went into the home improvement piggy bank. We now have enough in the piggy bank from craigslist, recycling cans, and birthday money that hubby and I can buy the new platform bed frame we've been eyeballing. And maybe a little something else.

So, the house is a little bit cleaner and the piggy bank a little bit fuller. What a way to kick off the weekend!

We're heading to a BBQ at my sister's soon. It's funny. I am a serial party thrower. She rarely has parties, so she is freaking out about everything. It's cute. I guess she didn't realize how much work it is!

The transfers for the mortgage pay-down are scheduled for Tuesday ($118,000), and the $2500 to savings is scheduled as well.

I've also already set up some appointments for estimates for the work we need to have done on this place. I have about $8,000 in sale proceeds set aside for these projects. Any left over will go to the other goals.

It's weird. This round of stuff (a tree removed, new gutters, more attic insulation,) and other than that, the house only needs decorating. Considering I spent the last five years fixing up a house that needed major things every year, this feels too easy!

Happy news

January 6th, 2011 at 09:58 pm

Hubby has been a nervous wreck the last couple of days. When I told him we hadn't received a statement for his 401k in two years, he automatically began to think the worst. Symptom of our generation, I suppose. We Gen Xers lost money in the dot.com bust, the housing bust AND the great recession. Doesn't make you optimistic about the future.

Anyway, I told him just to call HR and ask how we can get a statement. He avoided it all day out of fear and dread. He just came up with the password, etc. for me to look at the digital statement and make changes to our allocations, etc.

The good news? I had estimated we had $66,000 for our net worth statement. We have a little more than $151,000. And, his company match is more generous than I thought, matching 100 percent up to the first 6 percent. (We exceed that, so we're getting all of our match).

That was a huge pleasant surprise.

Also, I sold one of the kids' unused toy storage racks on Craigslist today for $20. That went into the $20 challenge piggy bank.