No Money for You

Yesterday a mild (4-6 inch) snowstorm hit our area. As I was layering up to do the first round of shoveling there was a knock on the door. In the year and a bit we've lived here we've never gotten a "Can I shovel/weed/etc knock." My husband bemoans the how unindustrious the kids in the neighborhood are, thinking back to the money making snowstorms of his childhood.

Generally I like shoveling snow, but this is our 4th shovelable* snow this season. And the season goes until about April.

So a guy knocks, offering to shovel once yesterday and then come again in the morning to take care of the overnight snow. He asked for $15 for the first day and $10 for the next.

We pooled our cash and came up with $16. The huz was doing an airport run last night and was supposed to get cash on his way home. This morning he hadn't gone for cash before the guy left, but the bank is 10 minutes away so he figured he would be back before the guy was done.

The guy shoveling and his fiancee finished up pretty quickly. She showed me which house they would be moving to and said they'd stop back later. The she thanked me profusely, letting me know that the money they earned today would pay for their Christmas dinner.

After 30 minutes and I called the huz to make sure he's not stuck in the snow. Apparently folks in our neighborhood like cash for the holidays- he'd been to five different places (including 2 banks with multiple ATMs) and every ATM was out of cash. I suggested cash back at a store which was finally successful.

I'm glad that our shoveling duties for the moment are done. I'm happier that our laziness may have made the season a little brighter for a neighborhood family.

*Less than 3 inches and we only shovel the walkway

A Thoughtful Thank You

A while back a friend of a friend had her first baby. Based on the past year that's nothing spectacular (other than that whole miracle of life thing). Without thinking hard I can name more than a dozen babies of friends and coworkers that made their appearance in 2009.

This one was a little different though. She didn't plan to get pregnant. She wasn't sure that she even wanted to be a mom. But she's also one of those people who loves those in her life wholeheartedly. When the friend we share has needed help she's always been there- laughing, cursing an ex, or calling in others when a little support was needed. I saw her last May on my trip east. We celebrated our friend's accomplishment, and though she was 6 months pregnant she went out of our way to make our friend and her parents comfortable.

I added two more baby hats to the pile I was knitting and crocheted a little blanket. It was nothing fancy, just sending her and her new baby a little love for their journey together.

Fast forward to yesterday. Going through the mail that piled up when your mailbox* was stuck, I pulled out anything handwritten. Amidst the Christmas cards was an envelope from this mom. Now in general I'm pretty laid back about thank you notes. She sent a text and then a picture msg with the baby wearing one of the hats, so I wasn't expecting anything. Inside was a nice note saying thanks for the items & support for her little family. This was nice, some would even say expected.

What I wasn't expected was a restaurant.com gift certificate. This new single mama took the time to go online, look through restaurants in my town, and choose one that she thought I would like.

All in all I thought it was a sweet and thoughtful way to say thanks. I may even steal the idea.

*Despite living in a single family house we have one of those units on the corner where everyone has a tiny slot.

How to spend way too much money at the grocery store

A) Go hungry
B) Go with an informal list
C) Don't stick to said list
D) Bring no coupons
E) Go as a snow storm approaches or as snow falls from the sky

For extra credit:
F) Repeat 12 hours later.

Student Loan Surprise x2

Last Friday I took the day off to use some of my use it or loose it time. I missed my early December net worth calculations (time just got away from me) and decided to catch up. I logged into all of the accounts, plugging balances into Excel and noting the progress we've made. The mortgage was looking good. The Prius is pretty close to our year end goal. Then I logged into my student loan account.

A while back I wrote about getting my interest rate reduced .25% by setting up auto debit payments. Each month I make sure that a few days ahead of the 3rd (my payment day) the cash is in my ING checking account. Each month the funds get pulled out without incident. Until December. On the 3rd the funds were happily sitting there. I scheduled some transfers for other things on the 4th and moved on with my life.

You see where this is going right?

The student loan people didn't pull things until the 4th. At a low moment in the transfers (there were multiple in and out) the student loan people try to get their money. But it wasn't not there. At this point I abandon updating the spreadsheet and get on the phone.

While holding for an agent and then holding for her supervisor (when talking to me about my money you can't sound like my 15 yr old cousin) I poked around on their site. Then I found surprise #2- the happy surprise. After 24 on time payments my interest rate will fall 1%. I don't have to ask or do anything. I just start saving money.

I was worried that surprise 1 would jeopardize surprise 2. That night I paid the amount due ($88 instead of the $315.99 we usually pay), and a $15 insufficient funds fee. Tuesday the page online with the info about the interest rate dropping move from 20 to 21 on time payments. I think they're one of those places where you're on time within 15 days of the due date. Not that I'll be taking advantage again.

The final bit of student loan news comes from 2 extra payments. Above I mentioned the monthly payment vs the amount due. Right before I started this extra payment thing my mom sent in an extra payment for my birthday or something. As an aside, I love that she knows paying off debts is so important to me and will send funds to debt instead of sending my something I don't need. Back to the student loan- the company that manages my loan is one of those irritating places where if you want to make an extra principal payment you have to include a note and mail it to a special address. Mom didn't do this so each month they collect more than they need and sit it in a 'bucket' until there's a full payment and then forward the date.

I think the 'bucket' thing is bs, so I only paid them what was due and sent the rest as an extra principal payment. They actually got 2 checks because earlier in the week I wrote out a check to kill my 4th loan. Loans 1-3 have balances in the $7,000-8,000 range. Loan 4 has a balance of $270. Though it shouldn't, loan 4 really really bugs me. Earlier in the fall during a financial talk I said I wanted to pay off this little loan because it bugs me. My husband shook head at my crazy but said he was fine with it.

So we should start the new year with the student loan $500 lighter and by the end of the first quarter the interst should be lower.

Use it or Loose it

I'm off today. Not because it's a good time at work, or I have plans to do something fun. I'm up against a vacation hour deadline. The larger nonprofit that I work for decided that we can no longer accrue paid time off with no cap at the start of the fiscal year. By the start of next fiscal year we can have a max of 80 hours. Each quarter the max we can accrue goes down to ease us towards 80.

As of Thanksgiving I had 7.5 days to take. On top of the 2 days we get for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and the half day we get after the company luncheon*. The catch is if I am over the limit I don't accrue anything in January.

I have to check again but I think I'm within 10 hours. I'm going to go in and leave when I'm ready next week. Any left over hours will be donated to the employee leave bank. I'm also going to spend these days off planning the 11 days I need to take during the first quarter of 2010. There may also be a few check requests for work.

*Does anyone under the age of 60 use this word? I felt really really old typing it there.
**Again with the words my grandma would use.

Does time ever slip away from you? In the midst of all of the post Thanksgiving posts there were some new worth updates. That's a pretty good indicator of the beginning of the month, but it still didn't click.

Now some random thought:
Work was hectic but I'm working on letting go a bit. I have scheduled 1.5 days each holiday week and still have to take 34 hours of vacation between now and then. Yesterday was one of those slow start days so I just took an hour. I'm going to take a little time each day and try to make the few hours I'm there each day really count.

Robbery is expensive. Tomorrow I'll submit our almost full insurance claim. Everything's been replaced so far. All that's left is painting the door to meet HOA standards. That won't happen until spring unless we get a heat wave going. We're dealing with some arctic conditions that are just crazy (we hit the high temp at 4 am). According to the guys at the home improvement store I need a 50 degree day to do a good job. I haven't done the final math, but we're well over $3,000 to replace things. Our deductible is $500 and then there's the stuff that insurance won't cover.

I started a pottery class this week. It's a small group that seems interesting and I'm happy to have another creative outlet. The class is by our city's Parks & Recreation department and comes out to $4/night. The only problem is coming up with what I want to make. I walked in with no ideas and didn't love my first project. Just one more excuse to spend way too much time on Etsy- if you don't know and like hand made things click with caution.

I'm sick of fake news. I don't care about celebrities sleeping around. Or who they're dating. Also, CNN for the love of all that is newsworthy man up and move on.

Hope your holiday seasons have started well!

He's Finally Got It

Today we're finally getting around to replacing my stolen laptop. My husband requested that I check the Black Friday adds before we head to the store tonight. We'd discussed doing the Black Friday thing though I like my bed and generally don't think the deals are worth the crowds.

Anywho, I ask where I should check and he names 2 big box stores and another kinda local option. He starts to mention Wally World, then stops himself and says "wait, no matter how good the deal is you don't want to buy it there right?" I agreed and we moved on. Doesn't seem like much but three years ago there would have been a long drawn out discussion. Today he just take it and move on.

Utility Escrow

Budgeting for utilities can be frustrating, especially in places that have 4 distinct seasons. The increase in winter bills comes when many are also paying for holiday gifts. In our case it's also when my husband's checks take a 2-3 month nosedive. I also wanted a better handle on how much money it takes to run our household month to month.

Last spring I set a utility escrow sub account at ING to help work in this problem. I pulled our last 7 bills (we'd only live in the house 7 months) and did some math to figure out what our average would be. If you have all 12 months just add them up and divide by 12. I was missing spring/summer months, so I took the one summer month I had, multiplied it by 6 and then added the winter month and divided it all by 12. Based on our apartment bills and our lack of AC use I knew that the spring/summer months would be about the same.

To automate the process I added a formula to our spending spreadsheet in Excel. It's set up to take our annual number ($125) and subtract the monthly bill amount that I was already plugging in. At least once a month I spend a few minutes transferring money to/from ING, so this transfer just got added to the mix. Once our bills exceed the annual average I'll pull the money we've been setting aside to pay the difference.

Mmmm

This morning I had 2 slices of No-Time Bread that I made last night with some butter and peach freezer jam that I made this summer. Followed by some knitting and Hulu time. Perfect start to a lazy day.

The Wall

Last night I got home and collapsed on the couch. After a bit I made it up to bed, watched some TV and promptly fell asleep at 8. I'd told my husband not to let me sleep more than an hour, in hopes of getting up and doing something. Looking back that was a pipe dream. He woke me up and got some dinner. We talked for a bit and then he fell out so I played online for a bit. I fell asleep by midnight and slept for almost 11 hours. Today I'm sneezy and stuffy and otherwise relegated to the couch.

I guess getting up early (6:45ish) to do the 30 Day Shred, work stuff, and going out 3 nights during the week was too much. Body, I've taken note. Okay, now no more of this being sick stuff.

One of my responsibilities at work is to run a scholarship program for our constituents. I've been deep in the weeds of application review for the past few days. One strange thing I've noticed- a lot of people don't have their own checks.

More than 15% of the applications were accompanied with money orders or checks in another name. There was another group (15% or so)of applicants whose employers sponsored their application fee.

Another one of my responsibilities is to provide work related trainings for our constituents. After seeing all of this I want to provide some personal financial literacy trainings. It doesn't fit at all with our mission (or funding) but I feel that the lack of personal checking accounts is indicative of other issues our constituents face.

Random

We seem to be on an ebb and flow cycle with drama, with waves crashing in every 2 weeks. A few things happened at the Mr.'s job yesterday that put into question his ability to be there long term. I told him he needs to do what will make him happy, but not jumping without a parachute(new job). I like the company he's currently with and thought it would be a good long term fit, but if they're going to play games it's not worth the drama.

In other news after waking up from my summer depression I've managed to pack on more pounds than I'm happy with. I've always been overweight, but I just hit a wall. More importantly, I can't do things I like to do without getting winded. I'm doing the 30 Day Shred. This morning was day 2 and I can't pull myself off of the couch because I hurt even though I'm about to be late for work.

This is the cheapest fitness endeavor I've ever started. I'm wearing old sneaks, exercising in my living room in gear I wouldn't wear to the gym, not driving anywhere to work out, and best of all the routine is free via On Demand. I'll let you all know how it works out.

Finally, have you heard of Groupon? It's a group coupon based on your home city. To keep with my desire to get in shape I've bought 2 fitness groupons- a punch card for classes I've been wanting to try and another punch card to a different gym for free workouts. Usually there are a minimum of people who have to purchase before the deal works (ie at least 10 before the deal is on) but they work in my city daily. I have quite a few friends that love it so I thought I'd share.

*the groupon link is a referral link. I was in a fog through most of the summer FCC stuff, but there it is.

Big Spender

Today we spent a lot of money. A lot. A combination of replacing things that were stolen (largely reimbursable by insurance), my quest for the house to look like we've lived here more than 2 months, and a store closing.


We left the house for breakfast, lamps, furniture looking, and replacing Ipods. The breakfast wait was ridiculously long so we put our names on the list and went in search of lamps. Right now on his side of the bed there's a lamp he's had from college. Mine is empty. The lamp store was closed when we got there so we decided to replace the game systems that got stolen. That took up the majority of our wait and we headed back to the restaurant. It's the kind of place that I would wait an hour for a table. It's just that good.


The rest of the plan was West Elm to look at dinning tables and the store for Ipods. That is until we saw a going out of business sign for a garden store that I love. I wrote about an overpriced couch that they had and I loved in the spring. We walked in and my husband and I, who can never agree on ANYTHING when it comes to decor both instantly liked a table. Our unwritten rule is that when this happens (pending available funds) we buy it. End of story.


We visited one store for Ipods but didn't like their warranty so we kept going. At this point I he left with a friend to take the tables home and I returned to the garden store. Let's just say other than seeds I should be set at garden start up time. The new door needed a bigger sweep so I made one more stop before coming home. To top it all off, after a short break at home we went to another store and purchased new Ipods.


I don't have the receipts in front of me right now, but my mental calculator is putting the damage at around $2,000.

The corresponding accounts (and soon to come insurance checks) cover all of it, but outside of buying cars, the house, and paying tuition I can't remember the last time I spent that much in one day.

The Inconsiderate Theives

In the second half of summer I started wishing for fall. This summer was rough on multiple levels and I hoped the change of season, the change of light, temperature and smell would somehow change the trajectory of our luck, karma, or whatever you want to call it.

That's a bit melodramatic. But it's been a crazy few months. The cherry on top was our house being burglarized earlier this week. Things were taken in 2's. Toys that could fit in a book bag, and mysteriously 2 pans.

To get in they broke the glass in our front door, leaving a softball sized hole. Further compromising the security of our house. Sending cold air in or warm air out. On the eve of a 2 day storm that brought us 15 inches of snow. In case you're wondering, getting a door replaced in the middle of a major snow storm- not so easy.

This post has been the most down I've been about the whole thing. In the grand scheme of things it's not that bad. My husband and I are safe. My engagement ring, the piece of jewelery I'm most sentimental about, was in the house and it was not taken. Neither were 2 credit cards that weren't put away. The three external hard drives that back up each of our personal laptops and my work laptop (which had a virus a few weeks back) were all left. Did I mention that we're both OK?

That afternoon we got to hang out with a CSI who drives around in an awesome van. I even got to direct a few places to look for fingerprints. So far the insurance process has been positive. In the end we'll get to go on a guilt free mini shopping spree. Shopping that will be (based on our insurance agent's explanation) fully funded by something other than our bank accounts.* The double paned cardboard I've fashioned around the whole are working surprisingly well even if it looks totally ghetto.

So all in all, it could have been much worse. There are a million ways that this could have gone differently. I've gotten really good at looking for silver linings. But seriously, who throws a rock through a window the day before a snowstorm? It's just rude.

*Though I guess we're just getting back the premiums we've been paying in.

Networth + Debt Reduction Payoffs

Since typing my last post I've been updating our household and my personal money spreadsheet. The household one is usually in progress because I track bill payments there. I hadn't updated my spreadsheet, networth IQ, or my sidebars since August.

What a difference 2 months makes.

The efund is up 7%.
End of PMI is down 3%
The Prius down 11%

My net worth is up 119.41%

It's good to know that our autopilot is working

Auto Pilot

When I posted a month ago I thought I was ready to jump back into blogging. Now I realize that it wasn't so. A combination of auto pilot, boredom, and no time kept me away.


Auto-Pilot
I've finally found a system that I like. We're still doing the 80% to the household 20% for fun/hobbies split. My husband is in his high earning season, the perfect time for us to move to paying everything from his portion of the household money. His check has been paying the mortgage, Prius payment, utilities, insurance escrow and household credit card bill. Some of his check has also gone into what I have named the 'low months fund.' This fund will balance the upcoming months when my husband's checks take a dive. My check is going to the emergency fund, extra car payments, and another new ING sub account, house savings.

The new house savings account is for things like furniture, that are too expensive to just add to a month. Though we've live in our house for more than a year with the exception of my nightstand and 2 bookcases we haven't purchased any furniture since going from small condo. I've been the one holding back on spending but I think this gives us a responsible way to put funds aside to make out house more inviting. On my short list-dining table, sofa, outdoor table.

Boredom
Maybe boredom isn't the right word. I'm just not as excited as I once was about personal finance. Amongst my friends I'm still the pf nerd, answering questions and making suggestions. When I started this blog I'd get ideas while driving around and a lack of posts usually indicated a lack of time to type them up. I haven't been getting the ideas. I scroll through my reader regularly but I have more than 600 articles hanging out. This morning I cut a few mega blogs that post multiple times a day.

Also contributing to the boredom- no matter what I do out next financial goal is at least a year off. Our current debts (Prius, my brain aka student loans, house) are all more than $20,000. I have interim goals (Prius @ $20,000 by beginning of 2010), but they're just not as exciting.

Lack of time
I've been working at the museum every weekend, in addition to the 45-50 hours I put in at my daytime gig. The temperatures have dropped, yesterday was our 3rd light snow this season, meaning my need to create has exploded. Currently I have 2 scarves and a kitchen mat in progress. This weekend I sewed 2 cosmetic bags for my new purse. The cue of projects is long and the time to work on them is short.

That's where I am this month. I may be back later this week, but maybe not. I hope you're doing well.

Welcome Fall

This week fall blew in, brisk and rainy. Usually this would cause me to grumble, but for the first time in my life I'm so ready for the new season to begin. My 27th summer officially sucked. I've been sitting here trying to find a more mature word for it, but sucked is a pretty good fit.

I've started to find my feet again in the last week. I'm excited again about work, my favorite friend in this city is recovering well at home, and my house isn't a wreck. This week I cooked as many meals as I ate out. The fall chill also has me excited about a few new knitting projects. In short I'm intersted in things and have the energy to do them.

The only flaw with fall so far is wardrobe. Logic tells me I wore clothes to work last fall. But looking through my closet laundry baskets I can't for the life of me figure it out. I'm thinking 2-3 light weight sweaters and/or long sleeve shirts, a pair of pants, and tights should round out what I already have. And boots. Cute, flat (or flat-ish) boots. I have 2 pairs of boots with heels that I almost never wear because they aren't much more than cute. I also have a pair of good snow boots. The kind of boots you that are warm and comfy when a part of your job involves standing on playgrounds in the mountains for 30-50 minutes at a time. For my current desk job they're just clunky and ugly.

With the clothes, and everything else, I'm working on balance. I've eased up on some of the money saving efforts and working outside of work. I'm spending more time (or at least trying to) doing the things that make me happy. When it comes to spending money on clothes and/or getting our house decorated I think about our goals, what I need in the long run, and how far off track wants will throw us. Not that we're headed deep into the spending woods. It's more like stopping to smell (and maybe pick) a few flowers just off of the trail.

Possible Pay Cut

I've mentioned before that I work in the nonprofit sector. I (and my office) live and die based on the grants we receive. Our final grant came in last week, and while we were ecstatic about the total amount they cut salary. This was further complicated because our grant manager talked to me about it without looking at our file. She confirmed that we could use some funds for salary and then called to say no, no salary.

So right now 10% of my salary/benefits is hanging out there. A part of my thinks we could live with the cut and I could drop my hours accordingly. Then I remember that many weeks of the year I'm closer to 50 hours that 40 hours, so getting the job done on 36 would be comical. Then I think of an admin person that recently went full time. Though I also know that the difference in her full/part time hours doesn't equal 10% of mine.

Tomorrow, first thing, my boss and I are sitting down to get it figured out. Hopefully it will all go well, but given the choice this is not how I'd start the week.

The Inappropriate Magistrate

One day in July I was taking my usual highway to work. Only it was closer to 11. Blue skies, open road... do you see where this is going?

I was going fast (though not as fast as the man in blue said) and found myself in traffic 'night' court today. I say 'night' because it starts at 4:30. It was a pretty interesting cross section of our city, a little bit of everyone and with a fashion display that was just as interesting.

The setup is something like this: all of the people with our appointment time go into a somewhat sad looking courtroom, sitting in what would usually be the gallery. A bailiff calls roll, tells the men to remove hats, talks some more. The magistrate comes in, lets us know we can plead guilty/not guilty, going to real court if we plead not guilty. Plea bargains from the city attorney are also thrown in.

I promise I'm getting to a point.

So we sit and watch, listening to the charges, plea bargains, and sometimes stories of those that go before us. The judge calls a guy named JC up. Goes through the rigmarole and JC pleads guilty to the plea bargain. JC's full name is one of those names that sounds familiar in this town. A name of some big wig from before my time.

The judge asks JC if his father had the same name and he said no, his father was an EC as he starts to walk to the 'wait for the bailiff to hand you your bill bench.' The the magistrate, having distracted himself with his question, says 'Oh, Mr. JC, your fine is $201, though you look like you're pretty wealthy so that shouldn't be a problem for you.'

At this point my mouth literally fell open. Now Mr. JC, unlike 2/3 of the people in the courtroom, was dressed nicely. Guy's dress pants with a crease down the middle, polished dress shoes, a polo, and a pretty watch. His look reminded me of those offices where casual Friday requires dry clean only pants. So I guess when compared to the guy with paint splattered jeans with 5 holes, he looked like he has money.

But where on earth does a magistrate get the right to judge someones wealth? Especially in the current economy where we've learned that sometime the appearance of wealth is just that, an appearance. After my turn at the mike I sat beside JC. I gave him a look and he just shook his head. We shared our disbelief for a moment before he got called up for his payment slip.

I followed close behind, walking myself to the payment plan office. I didn't have my favorite cards with me, and if I'm going to be paying the city $200 I may as well get some airline miles out of it. I've also considerably slowed my roll, no matter how perfect the driving conditions may seem.

School Supply Challenge

It's that time of year again. Parents are counting down the days to their children being back in school. Millions of Kindergartners are getting ready to step on their first yellow school bus.* It's also a really expensive time of year for families. Back to school usually means new clothes and a long list of classroom supplies.



Back in the day I remember a notebook, paper, markers, glue, pens and pencils being on my list. Now lists include tissues, paper towels, hand sanitizer, baby wipes, storage baggies, pencils, sticky notes, band aids, dry erase markers and all sorts of other stuff to share in the classroom. That's in addition to the individual notebooks, pencils, erasers and folders. All of those things came from school supply lists for second and third graders at 3 schools in the school district where I live.



So my challenge. I'm going to take $20 and see what it can buy me over the next two weeks. The goal is as many school supplies for kids in my district as I can buy, using the back to school sales that have taken over the weekly circulars.



Care to join me?



*or city bus/train for the kids that grew up like me