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..

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!

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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!