Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!

A touch early 'cause I never make it to midnight.  Too old for that stuff :)

2012 goal: Put $4000 into my Roth.  Done!  Woohoo!

2013 goal: Put $4500 into my Roth.

I was hoping to aim higher in 2013 but I would also like to put the windows in this year, and who knows what will happen with the whole cliff situation.  Best wishes to all!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Dividends

I love this time of year.  Aside from all of the Christmas cheer and feasting, there are dividends!  For me anyway :)  My yearly (and quarterly) dividends come.. almost like a Christmas present to myself.  Growing slowly but surely each year..

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 25.6%  (Down .2%)
Roth 2012 - 88.3%  (Up 8.9%)
Pay back savings - plumbing - 9%  (Up 3.5%)

 Tires goal is gone, one way or another :)  I actually didn't need tires just yet, probably not for another year.  Someone made a big goof.  At least, I hope that's what it was, an outright lie would just make me angry.  

The student loan is slipping backwards because of the gap between payments..  I must have paid early a couple of times and now I'm backing off for a bit.

Finally a bit of progress on paying back savings and some decent progress on my Roth, I'm gonna get there yet this year.  It is a good spot to be in.  And in another month I'll have to make a concerted effort to decide on new goals for next year.  How time flies!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 25.8%  (Up 1.1%)
Roth 2012 - 79.4%  (Up 5%)
Pay back savings - plumbing - 5.5%  (-)
Tires - 0%

I was hoping for better this month.  Oh well.  I'm planning on putting the tires on this month so I should be knocking that goal out one way or the other, ha :)  That third pay check should come in handy for that.  There is also a wedding this month that could get costly but so far I'm planning on skipping the hotel/dog boarding experience so that will make it easier in the finances department.

I did treat myself to a toy.  The Nexus 7 just price dropped when they rolled out some new models so I picked up one of those.  I haven't played too much but so far I'm loving it.  Somewhere between an iPad and a Kindle.  So far I'm just playing games but I will be exploring the eReading side also.  

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 24.7%  (Up .5%)
Roth 2012 - 74.4%  (Up 9.7%)
Pay back savings - plumbing - 5.5%  (Up 2.1%)
Tires - 0%

It's been a pretty good month.  I'm just a hair behind on Roth contributions for 2012.  I was hoping to put more into savings but it didn't happen.  I had as much of a vacation as I will have this year, this month.  It was great but it did eat into the money I would have sent to savings :)  Next month looks to be a 3 pay check month so I'm hoping to get further.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 24.2% (Down .2%)
Roth 2012 - 64.7% (Up 3.4%)
Pay back savings - disability insurance - Done!  Woohoo!
Pay back savings - plumbing - 3.4%
Tires - 0%

I slacked off on the Roth contributions and skipped a payment on the student loan (I was ahead a month or two) so that I could concentrate for a moment on my savings.  I don't think I'll continue that trend.  I'm thinking back to normal Roth contributions and whatever's left can go to savings.  I do have some purchases to make in September, a chair for the living room and an opportunity came up to have help refinishing my hardwood in the office.  It looks like I can get most of that out of my monthly cash flow so hopefully no impact on funding the Roth.  While I hate to spend the cash right now, I'm super exciting because these items have been on the list for a few years and it will be nice to have them taken care of.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 24.4% (Up .4%)
Roth 2012 - 61.3% (Up 9.2%)
Pay back savings - share from CSA - done!  Woohoo!
Pay back savings - disability insurance - 41.3%
Pay back savings - plumbing - 0%
Tires - 0%

Ouch, it was a painful month.  Started with a call to the garage door man to fix my ailing garage door.. followed by a call to the plumber to replace a 35 year old water heater (heh) and a leaky faucet that may have been even older.  That resulted in a call to the city who brought out their ditch witch.  And ended with a call to someone to patch the hole left by the plumber.  At least I think that's the end.  The bills are just starting to trickle in and I'm sort of in the dark as to if there will be a present from the city.  So I raided my house savings account and may have to snitch some more.

The troubling spot for me is always whether to pause my Roth funding to replace the $$ I used because I have this limited window to make 2012 contributions.  On the other hand I don't want to get in the habit of take-take-take from savings and never stopping to put it back.  I think I must push pause on the Roth at least for a bit and go back to cash savings.

So that's where I'm at.  I was literally just thinking of a do-it-yourself refinishing the hardwoods in the office but that's another couple of hundred I don't need to spend right now.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Beans

In my quest to cook more and eat less highly processed food, beans have become a new favorite.  Not only are they nutritious but pretty inexpensive.  But if you buy them in a can you'll have some "bonus" items thrown in - salt, sugar, etc.  Those are the last things I need :)  But cooking dry beans on the stove was not appealing.  Then I found my answer - beans in a crock pot. 

Fix it and forget it.  Before you go to bed, rinse the dry beans well and put them in the crock pot, but don't turn the crock pot on.  When you wake up in the morning, rinse the beans again.  Turn the crock pot on - low takes around 8 hours and high takes around 4 hours.  Come back to beans that are ready for your favorite recipe!  I like to prepare extra beans and put a can's worth - cup and a half - into the freezer.  This means I usually have my favorites on hand ready to go.. garbanzo, pinto, black, lima.  Yum.

Back to the inexpensive part.  A pound of dry beans is around $1.00 to $1.50 depending on type.  A bag is equal to about 4 cans worth of beans.  Crock pots are one of the most efficient items in the home so you're using next to no electricity to cook them.

If you have a pressure cooker you can also prepare them that way.  Beans can be cooked without soaking in as little as 20-40 minutes.  Enjoy!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 24% (Up .5%)
Roth 2012 - 52.1% (Up 9%)
Pay back savings - share from CSA - 52.7 (Up 16.3%)
Pay back savings - disability insurance - 0%
Tires - 0%

Cat's teeth needs have been covered by some of the third paycheck this month (yay!) but the goal has been replaced by a need for tires by winter.  I'm happy to note that I'm just a hair ahead of goal for Roth 2012.  Making slow and steady progress on the first very short term goal, which is good, because I'm enjoying my second "delivery" from the CSA.  I'm happy to report that it is working as I intended - veggies I would never willingly buy are being forced upon me.  Some things I would never buy that I've found a use for - spinach, radishes, beets.  Then there are some of my favorites like leaf lettuce, eggs, peas, strawberries.  Unfortunately I haven't yet found a use for green onions.  Maybe on the salad?  Hm.  It is a surprise every week so that is fun. 

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Wealth Accumulation

Every once in awhile I like to check my progress.  This relates back to the book, The Millionaire Next Door.  I enjoyed it, check it out if you haven't.  Last I checked you could get a copy dirt cheap on half.com (75 cents plus a few dollars for shipping).

So last time I checked in May 2010, I was at 27%.  Today I'm at 38.9%.  I'm making up ground :)

Oh, and the calculator if you would like to check your stats:
http://paymortgagecalculator.com/wealthy-calculator.php

Friday, June 1, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 23.5% (Up 1.1%)
Roth 2012 - 43.1% (Up 9%)
Pay back savings - share from CSA - 36.4 (Up 25.5%)
Pay back savings - disability insurance - 0%
Save for cat's teeth - 0%

Looks like the progress is holding steady.  I think last month I mentioned a new furry animal in my home.  She was since found to have an oral health issue.  The "good" news?  This kitty is taking her sweet time settling in so I have more time to scrounge up money for her.  The bad news is that it is likely very painful for her so the sooner it happens, the sooner her mouth feels better.  The vet asked us to wait a few weeks, possibly up to a few months, to let her settle in.  Even so with the other goals I might not get around to saving so I'll probably come up with it on the fly..lol.  At least it's a three pay check month in June :)  

I've been a little spendy lately.  June won't be much better with a couple of gift occasions in there.  But I figure at least my Roth is being filled for the year.  As long as I don't keep robbing my savings I'll be good.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 22.4% (Up .5%)
Roth 2012 - 34.1% (Up 12.2%)
Pay back savings - share from CSA - 10.9%
Pay back savings - disability insurance - 0%

 Roth is going well, pretty much right on target. I added two new goals because I yanked from savings twice in the past couple of weeks. The first was to buy a share from a CSA - community supported agriculture project. If you are not familiar with these, check them out. Basically I pay a fee to a local farmer before the season starts, then I get a share of whatever is produced from the farm. In this case, a good variety of veggies, some cage free eggs, and occasional "surprises" from other local vendors. The benefits are wonderful. The farmer I chose uses organic methods. Plus with a CSA you're generally getting the produce at the peak of freshness. And there's no energy wasted trucking veggies from Mexico or even across the country. What I'm hoping it will do for me is force me to eat a bigger quantity and variety of veggies, since my diet is a little lackluster in that department. That's the running joke in my family.. I'm the vegetarian that doesn't eat veggies.

The second is more straightforward. My once a year bill for disability insurance arrived. I'm not sure why it's always a surprise to me. It comes at the same time each year and I should be saving for it ahead but I never think of it.

I brought home a new cat this month - aka money sink hole..haha.  At least they're budget friendly in the beginning.  If you're ever in the market for a cat, check out your local humane society. For a slim $30, I have a spayed, vaccinated, microchipped cat that comes with a free exam at the area vet of my choosing (sort of, there's a big list to choose from but both vet clinics I use are on it :) ). That exam is $40-45 alone, and a microchip would be in the neighborhood of $25 even from a low cost event. And spaying? Pfft. Even a low cost clinic would charge $40-60. And 3 days after that my lovely dog started limping. I'm giving her a couple of days to get over it, in case it's a sprain, and then I'll check in with the vet. Hopefully there are no new goals in regards to fixing the dog. At this point I'd honestly not be surprised if it's Lymes. We'll see.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 21.9% (Up .5%)
Roth 2012 - 21.9% (Up 5.8%)

I should have a little more to put in my Roth from this month's paychecks but I'll see how the groceries come out tomorrow. The fence is done and paid for, woohoo!! The tax refunds covered it with just a bit to spare. I was hoping to use the leftovers to buy a new chair but instead, I just got a bill for my mortgage's escrow account which will apparently experience a shortage. Last year I got a check for three times the amount they are asking for now, since it was so well stocked. I'm baffled as to why they didn't keep some of that as padding. It's not even like my property taxes or insurance went up, so I'm not sure how they miscalculated so badly. Apart from the escrow miscalculations, I've had nothing but good experience with them (US Bank). So anyway, business as usual. No more house projects for now. About this time next year I think I'll start saving for windows..lol.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Monthly Update

Pay off student loan - 21.4% (Up .6%)
Roth 2012 - 16.1%

Since I skipped last month, that's actually two months worth of updates. Slow going huh? I'm plodding along. My tax refunds came in pretty well this year - $3300-ish between state and federal. I hope that covers the fence, because at this rate I won't have much cushion leftover if I want to hit my Roth goal this year. Fence estimate is coming next week so I'm crossing my fingers.