Financial Review: June

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It is hard to believe we are in July already! The month of June flew past and since May was spend money hand over fist month, we declared June no spend month. The idea was simply to get back on track with our goal of becoming debt free and to see if we could last a month without spending on unnecessary things. We weren’t 100% successful but overall we did extremely well.

I managed to get a FREE haircut (except tip) and FREE brow arch (except tip), which I was very excited about. (If anyone can score free highlights for me I’d love to hear how!) I also spent $10 at Old Navy on the $2 tank top sale. We bought the nicer patio umbrella at Rite Aid that was $7.49 after coupon. So we spent $17.49 extra but I returned a prior purchase of $16.92 so technically it was almost a wash.

Now we are back on track for July and we are 73% of the way to our goal of 6 months expenses in savings. Although we follow Dave Ramsey, we personally don’t feel comfortable with just $1000 in savings. Considering our electric bill alone was $687 this month, we rearranged the baby steps and are saving 6 months and then we will pay off the last bit of my student loan.

I also finally got in gear and opened an ING account for our newborn. We take all the cash gifts she gets from relatives throughout the year and it all goes directly into her college account.

We are on track to have the fully funded emergency account by October 1st. If we stay on track we will have the last bit of my student loans paid off in April and we will be completely debt free except the house.

And how about you? We are halfway through the year already- are you on track with your goals? Hearing about your progress always keeps me motivated!

Financial Update: June Grocery Challenge

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No Spend Challenge: Mid Month Update

Month in Review: Financial Goals

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Last month we got hit with a big bill that prevented us from adding anything to our savings account and this month it still feels like the unexpected keeps on coming.

We had more little expenses that added up fast with car registration, hospital bills (from having a healthy baby girl), we spent $200 on an emergency breast pump (don’t ask), not to mention starting our mini renovation and the list goes on and on. We normally budget $100 for miscellaneous expenses and this month all those little things added up to $1300! OUCH! Since we moved to California a year ago, I am still amazed at how expensive the cost of living is here. Even with moderate usage, our utility bills alone can get as high as $500 in the summer. We also have a pool for the first time and had no idea how expensive it would be to maintain.

I know some people are able to pay cash for a home (Money Saving Mom is a great example of this) and I always hear people on Dave’s show that are debt free including the house- I wonder if this is possible in a super high cost of living area like CA?

The good news is we paid cash for everything and we had fully expected this month to be a financial challenge and we were prepared. I am amazed at how much we were able to add to savings even with the extra expenses.

So we are now 66% of the way to our goal of 6 months of expenses in savings. I am extremely anxious to finish this so we can start tackling the last student loan. Once that is finished we will be totally debt free except the house.

To get ourselves back on track after a lot of spending in May, we have declared June no spend month. We have done no spend months in the past as a way to start fresh and refocus on our goals and it has always been effective for us. So for June we intend to eliminate all extra spending entirely. We will have our regular monthly bills, gas and grocery budget and the only “extra” will be a haircut for my husband.

If you are curious about doing your own No Spend month -check out Amy’s No Spend Challenge. I will keep you posted weekly with our progress- we have a lot of graduations, birthdays etc.. coming up so it should be interesting to see if we can stay on track.

Month in Review: Grocery Budget

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This month we went over our $140 budget again. I have not been much of an example the last 2 months but honestly I am not that upset about it.

We were officially over $71.71 however I had $27.95 in rebates which I add back into the budget
making us $43.95 over. This month, I included a lot of extras in the grocery budget- postage, (2) printer ink refills, expensive carpet cleaner, diapers for the new baby, 3 large cans of formula and 2 jugs of ready to feed formula. This is quite a bit for $43.95! We also had a few medications and supplies I needed after the baby was born which are included in the $43 amount.

I fully expected to need to increase the budget in the event that we had to supplement with formula as it is a big drain on the budget. So overall I am happy with how the month turned out. We still have a very full pantry and I am hoping we have enough diapers for both little ladies to make it through June.

I am going to continue with $140/month or $35/wk into June and see what happens. I expect to spend about $15/week on formula now so I want to see how far I can stretch our dollars. Plus we have been eating a lot more convenience foods in the last few weeks of my pregnancy so I want to add a lot more fresh produce back in. We will likely need to increase the budget to $50/week but I will see how things go and make the decision in July.

While our financial goals and budget are extremely important to me, we also try to be flexible as life happens. I am happy to adjust our spending according to our family’s needs and a healthy pregnancy was the most important thing in May. It was also important to me to be very prepared for baby- with lots of wipes, diapers etc.. and I am pleased I got some incredible deals this month (here, here, & here).

How did your month go? I’d love to hear what your budget is and how you are progressing with your goals!

Financial Recap: April

Month in Review: Grocery Budget

Townhall for Hope- free event 4/23

You have heard me talk about Dave Ramsey here and here. We are big followers of his program and are diligently working to become debt free.

Tonight he is hosting a special event called Townhall for Hope. He will be discussing the economy, the recession, the housing market and much more. You can click here to find a FREE venue near you or just tune in to the Fox Business Channel to catch the entire 3 hr program. Dave will spend an hour answering questions and it should be an informative evening.

I listen to Dave’s tv show every night and his folksy approach to finances makes the hour pass really quickly. If you are struggling to get control of your finances, facing a lot of consumer debt or just want to try and do a little better I highly recommend getting on board with his program!

I suggest getting started by getting Dave’s book Total Money Makeover to learn about his debt free program and how to get started gaining control over your money. You can check his book out at the library or purchase it at Amazon here for $9 used and $14 new. (Do you have Swagbucks to cash in yet?)

Once you are on the program, his book Financial Peace Revisited is a great second step and can be purchased at Amazon for $7.73 used or $15 new by clicking here.

Do I have any readers that are on Dave’s program? I’d love to hear where you are at and if you plan to attend/watch the event tonight.

Finances: Our college savings plan

If you caught my post last month about our financial infrastructure, you know we have the bulk of our money in savings accounts at ING Direct. We love ING because it is so simple to use and offers interest rates that are a lot higher than a typical bank. Right now our ING savings accounts are at 1.5% as opposed to our Chase savings account that is at 0%! This time last year ING offered 4.5% interest on our savings account- which amounted to several hundred dollars a month. Your money is FDIC secured and you can set everything up and manage it online. No waiting in line at banks! Our accounts are linked to our checking account and we can transfer funds back and forth quickly.

1. Savings Account for Adriana
2. Property Taxes- we deposit money monthly and withdrawal when payments are due
3. Misc Account- this is currently serving as a home improvement fund. Before we had children it was our vacation account

As part of my monthly goals for April, we wanted to look into switching our daughter’s savings account to a 529 account. I am happy to say that ING provides that service! To find out more about the Education savings plan- click here and for regular savings accounts click here.

We are not contributing to our college accounts as we are still working on the debt snowball but we will be opening (2) 529 accounts at ING to deposit any monetary gifts our children get throughout the year.

If you have $250 to open your savings account, ING will pay you a $25 sign up bonus. The College Advantage 529 account only requires a $25 deposit. If you are happy with the service, you will receive $25 for every referral you generate to family and friends (up to $500 a year). This is a great bonus for something we would have done anyway.

Email me at myfrugaladventures at yahoo dot com for the referral code to get your $25 bonus.

Financial Check Up April is here!

I am happy to say unemployment has finally kicked in. We waited almost 3 months and finally got a retro check. The extra income from unemployment is certainly not paying the bills but we hope to put it all in the bank until I can go back to work.

So this month we have added back the extras we removed from the budget while we were waiting for unemployment- including $55/month for my daughters gymnastics lessons. We reduced the grocery budget in March to $30/week and it wasn’t as painful as I thought. I did have a hard time fitting in as much produce as I’d like so for April we are going to see how $35 works. I also want to stockpile a bit more in preparation for the baby and in preparation for all the house guests we will have.

So here is how we are progressing-

1. Save 6 months of expenses in Emergency Fund- 56% there!
Once that is complete we will attack the remaining balance of my grad school loans and then we will be debt free except the house.

2. Enroll in life insurance for me (my husband already has coverage)
We met with an agent and got a quote- we are going to get one other quote and will likely sign up soon.

3. Start cash only spending plan. We have tightened the budget so much this is really only needed for groceries. I went over my grocery budget by $7 in March due to having extra debits that hadn’t cleared the account. Hopefully cash will simplify things.

4. Pay cash for baby in May. My husband’s company just switched insurance carriers and we found out the max out of pocket for labor and delivery is $200. We had planned to pay $1500 so this is great news! We will be adding the extra money into our savings.

5. Pay cash for home renovation. We are planning to convert the loft/playroom into a 4th bedroom for our baby. We are estimating a few hundred dollars for materials and labor will be done by my husband and father. We are so focused on trying to fully fund our emergency account we don’t want to detract from that goal. I have decided April will be the month of Craiglist and I am hoping to sell several items we no longer need. This will be put into a separate account to fund this project and a few others we have planned.

6. Learn to CVS! I am thrilled that we will have CVS opening in late May. Finally! I am hoping we can go back down to $30/week once CVS is here.

7. Accumulate gift cards. I have started using Swagbucks and I am surprised at how quickly it is adding up! I hope to use these gift cards to do the majority of our holiday shopping this year. If you aren’t familiar with Swagbucks see my post here….

So that is about it. I am very pleased at the progress we are making on the Emergency Fund. We live in a very high cost of living so 6 months of expenses is quite a challenge.

How are you doing with your financial goals? I’d love to hear about your successes and setbacks!

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