Thrift-o-rama

As I mentioned earlier, my last big freelance project for the year ended yesterday and I don't have anything lined up. At first, I was freaking out, but now that I've decided to just be zen about it, I had a nice day. The MIL left this morning (she was watching the Bean so I could work) and I've spent the day cleaning and doing laundry and puttering around the house in my jammies. The hubby took the bean out hiking in the nice weather.

My friend did sucker me into being a jewelry model at an art gallery during an open house from 4 to 7 (not looking forward to it. I don't like people staring at me!), but other than that, it's been a good day.

I know it's only cleaning, but it feels nice, like I'm getting my house (in my brain and my physical house) in order after a month of chaos.

Well, I am a few days away from the end of my biggest and most lucrative freelance contract for the year, and I am a bit nervous that I don't have anything lined up. I have tried to put some ideas and feelers out there, but I don't have any bites yet. I was really upset about this over the weekend, but I think I have come to a sort of decision to help me work through the anxiety.

The last three years have been a whirlwind. After the hurricane we were on super auto pilot as far as getting jobs and a house and cleaning up our financial New Orleans mess. I guess you could say we were in financial survival mode. Then, in the past two years I had the long illnesses ad deaths of my grandmother, grandfather, and my own dad just this past July. Then, of course, the birth of our own baby Bean 6 months ago. it's been just a whirlwind for three straight years, and I've done everything I could for my family and to make sure we didn't go over a cliff financially.

The point? Well, I was stressing out about not having worked lined up and I started to think that maybe that was a blessing. Maybe it's time I had some down time, and started taking care of myself. Find a yoga class, do a juice cleanse to clear out any junk in my body, and maybe just BE, here and now.

So yes, Now I am finally looking forward to my time off and the end of this gig. The work will come. it will work out. But first, it's time I attended to some of my own needs for the first time in three years, and started tending to my health and well-being a bit.

A while back I bought some National City stock because the price was too temptingly low to pass up. Now, they a being acquired by PNC bank and NCC shareholders will get 0.0392 shares of PNC common stock for each share of National City.

I sold 100 shares of National City last week, for a small profit of $75. I still own 100 shares, so it looks like I will be getting a paltry 3.92 shares of NCC, worth about $175. That's about half what I paid for the 100 shares. Oh well. You can't win them all.

Geesh. Today was payday and all the money is gone already, sent to this or that bill. The checking account balance is much lower than I like it to be and we still have two MORE weeks til next payday!

This has been an expensive month. On top of normal bills, we have had my in-laws in town since Sept. 29, two more mouths to feed and entertain. I have had the added expense of lunch and parking so I can do a month-long freelance project, and, the county fair, the pumpkin show, and this weekend, my best friend is coming to town to visit.

We also had to pay $307 for tree trimming after a major storm, and $500 to paint the house (still under budget, but still).

I love October. It's my favorite month, but it leaves me feeling like my bank accounts are like a dish drainer.

Hubby just told me that the companies that we host back-up servers for in our basement have decided to stop paying. Great.

We pay $460 a month for the T-1 line to host the servers, and they paid us a total of $800/month for the service we provided.

Looks like it's done, but we still have to pay for the T-1 line until Feb., thanks to our contract. I'm pretty sour about it, as this figured into our monthly savings goals, and now I have an extra $460 a month in bills that won't be covered.

I may ask the company if we can terminate the T-1 contract early. If the fee is cheaper than carrying the line, it just makes more sense.

My $300 check came today. $150 will go to savings and $75 will go to the student loan, and $75 to the tiki fund.

I added $10.84 in Web site sales profits to the tiki fund today, and I will post profits from an Amazon book sale tomorrow.

Also, I put $200 in Beaner's college fund, so I'm $100 away from the goal for the year.

I sent some invoices out for freelance work today, to the tune of about $2800. I also finished about $100 more of freelance work today. If all goes well, of that $2900:
$1450 will go to savings
$450 will go to the vacation fund
$500 will go to extra on the student loan
$500 will go to the tiki fund

I'm expecting the first check, for $300, sometime this week. The $100 check (it will likely be for more) in two weeks, and the $2500 check by mid-November.

I hate to count my eggs before they are in my bank account, but I want to have this on record so I don't forget what I am supposed to do with it when the check comes!

I should have posted these with the entry about painting, but oh well. Here goes!

Before:


After:

I added $5.46 to the tiki fund today. I sold two toys on my web site and after costs, mailing, etc. that is the profit.

I also sold 100 shares of National City today for $3.00 a share. I profited $115 on that sale, after all brokerage fees are accounted for. Normally I don't hold short term, but I thought I would take a chance. And, because it was held in my IRA, I don't have to pay taxes on the profit. At least not yet. That's a wrap for today!

Phew. It was a long hard weekend, but it's finished. the house is painted and it looks great. We primed (with rollers, because our free sprayer leaked) on Saturday, then got wise and rented a power sprayer and finished painting on Sunday. Mom came over and cooked cheeseburgers on the grill for my rag-tag painting crew ( a resigned hubby who hates painting, my sister, and my in-laws. I worked the sprayer.)

With tool rentals and paint, it still cost us only about $500 to paint the house, about $2,000 less than our cheapest professional bid.

I figure I'll use that $2,000 to build a beautiful patio next year.

Doing it yourself is so much more satisfying than paying a pro. I love my house even more after every project I do.

Yep, this is the big weekend. I am painting the outside of my house. yes, I am doing it myself because it's a one story ranch and I like to paint, so why not? It'll save me a lot of money to do it myself. I estimate in the neighborhood of $2,000 saved versus hiring someone.

I rented a power washer last weekend for $74, so the house is nice and clean and ready to go.

I'm excited. Of course, I am still a little sore from helping my sister paint her house two weeks ago! But, hers was a ranch but had higher gables than mine. Mine shouldn't require schlepping up and down a ladder.

My Tiki Challenge got a mention on the TikiTalk blog. sniff. Makes me warm and fuzzy on the inside.

I readjusted some of the yearly savings goals. I am now diverting what should have gone into the stock brokerage account into the regular savings account. I have already put $2500 into the brokerage this year, so I m satisfied with that. And, seeing as I have already put another $11k into the market since all of is nonsense took root, I'm comfortable diverting funds to the EF for a while.

So, another $1,000 will hopefully be added to the savings account instead of the brokerage account this year.

All of this market nonsense also has me focused on our one debt: My student loan. We have viewed it basically as a nonentity, but now having that one debt and a $300 monthly payment for it is really bothering me, so I am planning to try extra hard to knock some principal off of that and come up with a pay-off plan.

I do have a $300 freelance check coming soon, and the plan now is to put 1/2 into savings and the other half toward the student loan. But we'll see. Plans change.

Before the came to visit, the in-laws said they wanted to talk to us about their financial situation. Well, they did and it wasn't even close to what I expected.

They own a rental property right next door to their own house. It was my hubby's grandpa's house, and when he died, they had an emotional attachment to the house and didn't want to let it go. So... they turned it into a rental.

They told us they were done being landlords and they asked us to take over all the rental house responsibilities, repairs, tenant management. etc.

The rental house is 1000 miles from where we live, yet right next door to his parents.

I understand that they are not the right personality types to be landlords. They like to micromanage, and every small thing that happens in their life is considered a crisis. Not really conducive to letting other people live their lives the way they want in a house you own and live next door to.

We straight out told them Hell NO. With a new baby, and me not working full time. no way. We have no problems being a landlord, but we do have a problem being an absentee landlord, especially on a house we live so far from and that wasn't purchased based on its ability to make money, but only because of an emotional attachment.

If we had done it, it would have been a nightmare for us. Hiring and paying a property manager and paying the real estate taxes would have eaten up any money it made. Plus, his parents would constantly be calling us telling us to deal with this or that about the tenant or this or that should be done around the house, etc. and I really have a strained enough relationship with them without throwing that in.

I'm glad the hubby and I agree that this is a no go.

I am just going to stop checking the market and my portfolio stock prices. It's just too stressful.

I'm just going to keep forging ahead on savings and wait for the upswing.

After the hubby and I were left scratching our heads yesterday after the 777 point drop, we woke up today with a new plan. Well, an old plan really.

Yesterday, we didn't know what to do. We weren't going to be dumb enough to sell stock and seal our losses. But we wondered if we should be tightening our belt more and stocking up on our cash reserves. Or, if we should be buying more stock. We just didn't know.

Hubby and I decided to stick with our original investment plan. Several months ago we had discussed a plan to eventually get out of individual stocks and into all Vanguard mutual funds. We based our portfolio on some of those in the "Lazy Person's Guide to Investing" (A great book, by the way).

"When I woke up today I thought, what better time than now to buy some more Vanguard mutual funds?"

Cruising through our accounts, I realized we had $10,900 in cash in various accounts. Just sitting there. I have no idea why. I guess with the Baby Bean we forgot about it and just left it there to earn like no interest.

So, I bought mutual funds on the cheap today.

Our portfolio is a 10 Vanguard fund model, for maximum diversification. large cap, small cap, international, emerging, and bonds, basically.

Today, we diversified with some VIVAX, VISVX and NAESX. (All funds we had planned to buy but hadn't yet.)

I guess, in times of turmoil, sometimes the best plan is no change of plans at all.

I am usually Ok when t he stock market tanks, because I view it as an opportunity to buy stocks for cheap. But today, on top of everything else? even the hubby and I were asking, "Well, should we do something?" Start hoarding more cash? Buy more stocks, What? For once, we had absolutely no answer. What are you planning to do?

The stock I bought for cheap wasn't cheap enough. I was up 40 percent last week, and I am don 50 percent today. Oh well! The price is down to about $1.44 a share. So what did I do? I just put in an order for 100 more shares. I'm willing to risk another $150 on 100 more shares. What the hell right? Market dips = stocks on sale!

I also bought 100 shares of Sallie Mae. I'd been waiting for them to dip to $10 a share and today they did. Down from $60 a share last year!

My money pit- the used hot tub I bought on Craigslist. FINALLY works. after 1 year and almost $2400 extra spent on electrical wiring and repairs I am FINALLY going to get to sit in it tonight. And the weather is perfect. It's nice to finally have a payoff for the outlay of wasted cash!

The hubby and I rarely get much time together these days, thanks to work and the bean but last night we had a nice cheap faux date. We broke out the air popcorn popper, got some free DVDs from the library, and stayed up late watching movies together, snuggling on the bean bag chair. it was nice, and it was cheap!

Also, I looked at one of the bars that was for sale today. Definitely NOT the right one for me. It was a nice, cheap building, but it wasn't right for me. It would be a great neighborhood Cheers-y place, but not a Polynesian Tiki Palace!

I was talking to the hubby about this blog post:

Finding those two bars for sale has really been a kick in the pants. It's true that chance favors the prepared, and it's time to REALLY get prepared so that when my dream tiki bar location goes on sale, I will be ready to jump on it.

So, I'm revamping the savings strategy and the tiki bar fund strategy.

From now on, any money I make from jobs or freelance will be divided as follows:
50 percent to the family savings account
25 percent to extra on the student loan
25 percent to the tiki fund

My goal is to save $40k to start the bar and buy a building, without significantly impacting my family's finances.

This new system will allow me to compile the money faster, while still padding the savings account and paying off our one debt. It will allow me to save without hurting the family money and while getting ahead.

All of this is predicated on us accomplishing the overall savings goals
outlined on my sidebar.

For instance, if we haven't met our goals for IRAs, 529 contributions, etc., then no deal, and the money will flow to those first, and to the tiki last.

I have about $1150 in the tiki fund this year. Obviously way short of the goal, but as this was the first year, it was more of an experiment to see what could be done by saving little bits. And all of that money came from money I made not from my usual line of work.

I think this new system will also motivate me to track down more freelance money and more odd jobs. It may even help me get my photo business up and running, as that pays well.

Motivation has a cascading effect: the more I make for the tiki fund, the more I am making for my family. What better motivation is that?

I am also thinking of going on a "seriously trimming down the consumption" kick for me and the hubby. We seem to spend a lot of money but not really buy anything substantial, so it's time to slow the leak.

Boy, I am feeling the burn of inspiration.

I found two bars for sale, both include the building and the liquor license. One is $224k, the other $130k. The second is what I want, with rentals above to pay the note. These are very inexpensive, so I am doing a drive by later to check out the areas. The $224k one would work, but doesn't have rentals, so isn't quite what I am looking for. (Both would save big bucks on getting the license and not having to buy all the bar equipment).

My plan is to open the bar in five years, but it can't hurt to start looking now so I can identify a good deal when I see one.

several months ago I noticed that two Ohio bank stock prices had plummeted to $3 or $4 a share. I know these banks, and I was convinced that this was really a rock bottom price, so I bought several hundred shares.

I looked today, and on one stock I am up $539, basically doubling my original investment. And on the second, I am up $174, or about 50 percent on my original investment.

I know, you don't really win until you sell. But I paid so little for these stocks, that I feel comfortable hanging on. I am sure they will be back up to $22 or so a share in a year or two...

The stock market seems scary right now, but we do need to stop and think about it as a giant clearance sale for stocks. Now is the time to buy.

Finally, we are slowly getting back on track with savings. The padding is reemerging in the checking account and finally I've been able to resume transfers into the savings account and the online brokerage account. We really fell off the bandwagon in July, when my dad died, and after paying for a roof and other unexpected expenses since then, it seemed like we'd never get it together.

Well, the grocery challenge wasn't too bad. We finished $11 over budget for the month. Not too bad considering our goal was to cut food expenses by 25 percent AND we had an unexpected week-long power outage that wiped out all the food in our freezer and fridge.

Today is the day my hubby and I look forward to all year: the 25 cent book sale at the local fairgrounds. It's very exciting. We love books and we love a bargain!

We bought 53 romance novels for the MIL, and about 39 books for ourselves. Most were for me, as I collect vintage craft books for the ideas. $23 spent. Not bad.

Then, we took the bean to the park, where he had his first ride in a swing. He loved it. Then, as he napped, the honey and I ate out at one of our favorite restaurants. And the bill only came to $11, for more food than we could eat.

It has been a good day and it's only 1 p.m.

I am about to go work out in the yard. I'm digging giant flower beds and landscaping the front yard, which became a neighborhood joke last summer when some sink holes magically appeared in the sod. It's going to look nice one of these days, I promise! The neighbors just shake their heads.

The hubby also made $1,000 in extra money working during Hurricane Gustav, so that money will go into savings to replace some of the $7200 we spent on a roof last month.

It feels good to finally be back on track.

Has anyone had any luck using UPromise? I have about $1.38 in the account and I opened it 2 years ago. hardly seems worth it. I also tried to link it to my bean's 529 plan but my state's plan was not listed as an option, so I am wondering if there is any way, should the balance go up, to get the money out.

Despite losing all of our freezer and fridge food in a 4 day power outage, it looks like we might actually meet the grocery challenge this month.

My goal was to reduce my grocery bill by 25 percent, to $715.47 a month. Which is about $238.53 less a month than we had spent on groceries and eating out each month in the past 4 months.

Yes, I know that's a huge food bill for two people and a 5 month old.

From August 20 to Sept. 20 is the first month of the challenge. So far we have spent $622.19 on food. That leaves us $93.28 left until Saturday.

We just might make it!

The long-term goal is to reduce the bill by 50 percent, to about $500 or less a month.

I'm thinking of applying for a part-time bartending gig. It'd be two nights a week. Probably the same nights. This would get me out of the house and provide some fun money to put toward the student loan and the tiki fund.

But, it might be rough working two 12-hour days then waking up and taking care of the bean, and it would take some schedule rearranging to make sure I get there on time for my shifts.

The hubby is against the idea. Not sure why. He says we don't NEED the money. I say we can use it.

Not sure what to do yet, but the window of opportunity is closing.