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.