Trying hard not to be a slave to the lenders.

I am off today and tomorrow and I just want to veg out and rest. I'd been feeling a bit run down lately (as if I was getting a cold or flu). I am now doing home instruction at $30 an hour after work. I don't know yet for how long, but I'll take whatever I can get.

It looks like we'll meet our savings goal of $50K by the end of the year or so I hope (I don't include the summer fund). We have quite a few expenses coming up; son's college tuition for the spring semester and books and I have to pay for two graduate courses myself and of course Christmas. I've officially exceeded the amount of credits allotted for reimburement. I'm beginning to think of 2010 goals. I'm sure there will be home improvements, more savings, a possible vacation and the big one, paying down our mortgage.

Have a great day!

These are the things I think I'm doing right financially.

>Save 25% of our monthly income.
>No credit card balances
>Contribute to a 403B at work
>Save for home repairs
>Prepare most meals at home
>Shop around for staples and personal items (most times)
>Groom dog in between groomer's visits
>Help parents out a bit financially
>Pay $200 a month extra on mortgage principal
>I have a Roth IRA
>Have not used the equity on our home
>Save for trips and summer fund

Things I need to work on:

Contribute the full amount allowed on Roth IRA

Sometimes I get lazy and spend more on prepackaged food than I really should.

Contribute a little more to 403B

Save a bit more for my children's education.

I'm sure there is more, but the bell is about to ring for my next class.

How about you?

These are somethings I do in preparation to the work week:

>Prepared 7 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. They are in the freezer (just grab and bag for my son's lunch). He alternates between pb and J and half of a large bagel with cream cheese and one day of buying lunch at school.

>bagged cookies and set aside nutri-grain bars.

>prepared 4 breakfast sandwiches (egg, cheese and half a slice of ham) on Arnold's Best multi-grain sandwich thins. Heat in the microwave for 35 seconds. This has been very useful for me because it helps me avoid the temptation to stop at McDonalds for a breakfast sandwich on my way to work.

>Prepared a batch of chicken and tuna salad for lunches.

>Prepared a batch of pancake mix. Shake and pour and my son can have them for breakfast.

I also make 2 extra servings every night for dinner. We alternate between leftovers and sandwiches for lunch. I also marinate or prepare any meat I will be making for Monday's dinner since its the only day of the work week I feel more inclined to eat out.

So far I've only spent a dollar buying a snacks at work in two months. I was craving something salty and I only had 100 calorie snacks stored at work.

We eat out twice a week but it's take-out, usually Pizza or Chinese food. I treat the boys to McDonald's once a week, even though we should do Subway instead (it's healthier).

All of this takes me about 40 minutes to prepare but it saves me a lot of time and money!

I was recently approved for an increase in the salary guide at work which will probably net me about $125.00 a month. A colleague at work commented that I can probably put that money towards a car payment. We are not planning on a new car yet for I drive a 2001 Suzuki GV XL7 in great condition and only has 53,000 miles. My husband works very hard at keeping our cars in good shape. It got me thinking though, people struggle often times financially, because they can only think of what they can get as opposed to becoming excited about saving any surplus. I used to think that way too, but not any more. I regret not telling her that I want to save that money in case something unexpected happens. Anyway, I'm really excited about my progress in increasing my earning potential at work. I'm hoping to complete my Master in the Spring, which will mean closed $7100 salary increase.

Recently, I scored some deals for ink for my home printer online. I decided that I had to prepare beforehand for ink shortages, which usually leads to running to Staples and paying top dollar for color and black ink. I spent a total of $54.48 after a $5 coupon for 2 color and 2 blank cartridges. We thought of replacing this old Lexmark (came with the PC in a bundle) with something more economical but I have to do some research on my best options. I want to be an informed buyer.

I've also been diligent about cooking at home and making sure that leftovers are eaten and not thrown away. The other day, I threw away food from the fridge and all I can think of how sad this was, considering there are so many people who are stuggling to provide for their families. It literaly made me sick to my stomach. I've also signed up to get free samples from various reputable companies and have been clipping coupons for things we eat. The money I save on these items, I put away to send to my parents (who are on a fixed income). I could not bear the thought of my parents doing without basic necessities when I can make some sort of contribution. My husband has been filling his mother's gas tank every weekend or gives her some cash. That's the least we can do.

It's a gloomy but colorful day in northern New Jersey! I have to do some shopping and begin writing a reflection paper for the last graduate class I took (Kinesthetic Classroom: Learning through Movement). Loved it!

Ok fellow bloggers, there you have my thoughts, bargains and ramblings. Have a great weekend!

Fall trees behind our backyard!

Got 3 hardy mums today at our local supermarket. They were 3 for $10 and I had a $2 coupon (courtesy of Ragu Sauce). I paid $8 for all three. Not bad!

My house decorated for Halloween and fall

An update on what's going on in my house on the money front.

>>Summer projects are done
deck
granite countertop
range hood

Summer fund was completely wiped out but everything was paid cash.

>>I took 2 graduate courses this summer and just finished the third course today. Tuition for all 3 courses will be reimbursed by my employer. I have a total of 3 courses left to finish my MA in Education. I'm on my own with these, since I'm only allotted 9 credits per every school year. These nine credits should cost me $2,900+ cost of staying at a hotel (I have to travel to Pennsylvania to take these courses).

>>The board of Education approved my salary guide movement retroactive to September ($1750 more per year). Reason? BA + 15 credits salary scale.

We are not doing any home repairs until next summer. I'll post tentative repairs sometime after January. In-ground oil tank removal is still pending.

Once we reach $50k mark with our savings we will increase the amount of extra mortgage principal substantially.
So far we've met our goal of sending an extra $200 to the mortgage principal every month.

I've been saving for two tentative trips and doing okay with it (see side bar)We've all agreed that Christmas will be very simple.

There you have it! Have a great and frugal week!

I'm so excited about the granite countertop and backsplash. We decided on full backsplash because I didn't want to deal with tiles and I'm glad we did. I'm including before and after pictures. We still need faceplates for the outlets and some plumbing supplies. What do you think? Total cost of granite= $4,350.00 (no credit cards used)\0/

Before




After


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Today is my 40th b-day! I got an Ipod Touch from my hubbie and a beautiful heart locket with 5 charms from my boys. The charms were carefully selected and they are: a heart which reads "my boys", my initial, my birthstone, a dog paw (I just adore dogs) and an apple which reads "special teacher". Later we'll go out to dinner. Our get together had to be cancelled do to the weather.

Our deck is completely finished! We'll have to wait until next summer to stain it. It's recommended that we allow a whole year of wet and drying cycles before stain it. The cost: approximately $2000.00. We saved whatever we could from the old deck. We paid cash for everything. What do you think?





Max relaxing!

Come September we will be living on a strict budget because it will enable us to make a dent on paying off our mortgage. I read something that inspired me today from one of my favorite websites (moneysavingmom.com). She wants to purchase a home by paying for it without taking a mortgage. She says that she is committed to her goals and works at them with gazelle-like passion to see them to fruition!

I have worked on our household budget and I want to share it with you.
All of our extra income will be going towards savings, retirement and mortgage principal. Just a note: the extra $1,600.00 comes from the money we collect from our rental property which is completely paid off. Suggestions welcomed!

P.S. Remember that I live in NJ and our property taxes are one of the highest in the nation.
OUR FAMILY BUDGET

MORTGAGE $1684.00 (includes $200 towards Principal)
PROPERTY TAXES #1 810.00
PROPERTY TAXES #2 302.00
HEATING OIL 300.00
TRIPLE PLAY 107.00
ELECTRICITY 95.00
WATER 30.00
SEWER BILL 30.00
MISCELLANEOUS 100.00
FOOD 400.00
CAR GAS 100.00
UMBRELLA INSURANCE 40.00
RENTAL HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE 220.00
CAR INSURANCE 232.00
BOILER AND TANK INS. 45.00
2008 GMC TRUCK 397.00
CREDIT CARDS 200.00
TUITION 600.00
SUMMER MONTHS FUND 550.00

TOTAL: $6,242.00
MONTHLY INCOME $7000.00
ADDITIONAL INCOME: $1,600.00

I have two weeks before I begin working again. I'm hoping we can finish the summer without using the $5000 I transfered from the summer fund to the money market account. I'm crossing my fingers.

A while back I posted that my husband opted out of the health insurance at work because I carry health insurance and don't have to contribute any money towards it and he does. He will get a total of $720 a month for declining it and we decided that at least this year we will put that money towards bringing down the principal of our mortgage, which is $245,000.

A week from today, I'll join the big 40 club and we're having a small gathering on my birthday. The deck is coming along nicely and I'll post pics when it's all done. I think the total bill for that will be $2000. Oh... guess what? The property taxes on our rental property went from $4100 to $3,026. The local government reassessed all of the town properties resulting in a decrease. That was sweet. It's been an expensive weekend, but I can't complaint.

I've been on Weight Watchers for almost 7 weeks now. I've lost about 15 pounds so far. I'm also trying to eliminate meat from my diet and eat more of a plant-based diet.

I'm taking a wellness class and I want to learn more about becoming a vegetarian. Any vegeterians out there with any helpful web links to learn more about it? Thanks!

I had to pay my son's fall semester tuition today. I could've paid online, but we had to submit proof of health insurance, otherwise the college would have charged an extra $93. As I stood in line to pay the bill, I could not help but to feel empowered that I could pay for this bill without going into debt. Yes, we could easily live beyond our means and believe me I have moments in which I want to spent money without thinking things through. Saving will continue to be a priority and acquiring debt will continue to be scrutinized in our home. I just to have to share this with you.

I have small projects I tackle everyday in my quest to live a simpler life. Today I conquered my linen closet. I've attached pictures (I forgot to take a before picture).

The white bag is the stuff I'm giving to the goodwill. There was only one blanket I could not part with. It's an ET blanket, the first matching bed set we'd ever had from 1982.




I'm also re-reading Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Revisited. I've come to realize that I have not been serious enough about paying off the mortgage and more of our extra money should go towards paying this debt, which we pay over $10,000 in interest a year. I'm also going to make a priority to maxed out my contributions to my Roth IRA. We have one year's worth of an emergency fund, but I would really like to have 18 months worth. I know that I'm probably overly ambitious, but I think that with effort my husband can accomplish these goals.

This has been a productive summer. I've read two books and watched 2 movies I'd been wanting to watch. You know, I'm on this simplicity kick and I've gotten rid of a lot of junk. Last night, I put all of our insurance policies declarations and income tax papers in the safe. They were all scattered in different places. I'm also trying to economize by getting quotes from different insurance companies to see if I can get them lower. I hope I can!! We are soon combining three bills (cable, internet and phone).

About my line of credit:

Two years ago we opened a line of credit for $100,000, but have never used it. I can keep it open, but it's costing us money because we had to up our coverage for homeowners insurance policy. Today I will discuss this with my husband and will have to make a decision on whether we should close or keep open. What would you do if you were me?

Have a good day!

I got my property tax bill for 2009-2010 and I'm officially paying over $8000 a year ($8,103 to be exact). Usually this bill comes mid-August, giving me the chance to start pay for it mid-Setpember when I'm actually working again, but no such luck this time. The bill is now due mid-August. I had to pull $2058 (quaterly amount) out of my summer fund to pay for it, as well as $2,390 to pay the credit card I charged the tuition for the 2 graduate courses I've taken this summer. So yeap, tapping into the money market account is going to be certain. Oh well!

I hope you are all having a good weekend!

P.S. My nephew (my sister's son), who is in boot camp in Kentucky will be stationed in Alaska at the completion of his training. A Florida boy in Alaska!

I wanted to give you an update on our summer fund and expenses. Well, a week ago I transfered $5,000 to the money market account from our summer fund. It left us us with $9,659 and as of today $8,288 remain. We finally got the paperwork for our inground oil tank removal and we figured out that we would have to use about $3800 of the summer fund. The good news is that there is a government fund that would reimbursed homeowners for the removal of these tanks if you have assets of less than $500,000 excluding your primary residence. So in total I think we can recuperate a minimum of $3,000(town permit and application fees are not returned). We will also need $2000 to replace the deck and next month we will have to pay our son's tuition for the fall semester which will run us about $2500 (books included). Oh, did I mentioned that when we get all of these things accomplished we'll have met three of our 2009 goals?

There it is, our summer fund is completely wiped out and inevitably I will have to use some of that money I transfered to the money market account. We decided that our vacation we'll just have to wait and I'm okay with that!

On another note, I'm doing pretty good with taking graduate courses in the summer. I just completed one class and I will begin the next one the 2nd week of August. I'm pretty excited because this means that I would go up in the salary scale at work ($1,750 more per year). Once I'm done with my Masters, the increase will be roughly $4000) \0/.

Okay, enough about me! Have a great day.

Tomorrow I will begin my third week on Weight Watchers. To date, I've lost 6 pounds. I've been able to resist a lot of food temptations and on that end I'm proud of myself. I've also struggle some days to continue eating the right foods. I'm now keeping a journal where I write everything I eat and my feelings for the day.

For me food is an addiction and all I can do is take it one day at time. I'll post my weight loss or gains (there will be weeks in which I will not lose but I may gain)every two weeks.

My husband helped me clean the basement of our home today (a finished basement that serves as a recreation room). I managed to toss a lot of junk and organized all of the storage space. Some stuff went to the garage sale pile, including a buckets full of Leggos, GameCube console with concrollers and about 10 games, GameBoys with games and other miscellaneous gaming stuff. We are hoping to have the garage sale next weekend and anything that does not sell will be thrown out or given to the goodwill.

Last night, I gathered all of the paperwork from the college I'm getting my Masters degree and put everything in a binder. My son saw me doing this and he wants to do the same with his college forms and correspondence. Tomorrow I'll tackle smaller a smaller task since I am completing another graduate course by Tuesday and I have to be there from 8:00 to 4:30.

I get this wonderful feeling now that I have less and less junk to store in my house. The less, the better!

Between last night and this morning I managed to put a lot of family pictures in albums. I collected all of my photo albums and my kids artwork I've collected throughout the years and put all of it in a suitcase in a closet near the front door. My reasoning for this is that it can be easily rolled out in case of a fire. Everything else can be replaced!

I'm slowly simplying my life by getting rid of unuseful things and it really feels great! I'm on week #2 following the Weight Watchcers Plan and I'm doing well.

We are currently shopping around for the materials to replace the backyard deck. I'll take before and after pics when we get started on that. We're also looking for a place to stay when we visit Ocean City, Maryland next month. We are hoping to book something by today.


Have a great weekend!

Just an update on my eating habit changes!I'm proud of myself! I attended a 4th of July picnic today and I'm proud to say that I was very good on eating healthier. I chose the fruit and veggies intead of chips and dip. I brought a boneless chicken breast with me to grill instead of eating a burger and I skipped dessert. I'm taking it a day out of time.

Yesterday I was comfronted with the possibility (more like a probability) of being a diabetic. I really have to come to terms with my weight problem (about 60 pounds over weight). To make matters worse my knees are starting to hurt a lot because of all of the excess weight. I have family history of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Last night, I allowed myself to cry about it and evaluated my relationship with food. I grew up poor, sharing everything I had with my 6 sibblings. My portion of the meals was one of the things I did not have to share with everybody else. I eat when I'm happy, when I'm bored, when I'm sad, etc. I realize that this is the area of my life where I feel out of control. I feel accomplished as a mother, as a wife and professionally, I feel I'm growing. Today I began taking baby steps in becoming a healthier person. I hope that I can share my trials and tribulations as well as victories with you because you are not judgemental. I need your support!

Oh... and to make it saving related, buying healthy food is expensive but worth it and when I succeed at losing weight, I won't have to spend too much money going to the doctor for weight related illnesses.

Thank you for reading my entry!

My husband and I both carry health insurance through work. My husband had a chance to get a "buy back", a cash incentive for dropping his health insurance. I asked my husband to call the person in charge to find out details of the buy out. We were astounded and excited when we found out that employees opting out will get $360 per pay period ($720 a month). We signed the paperwork to opt out the insurance as of September. We have the same health insurance company (mine has better benefits). If I lose my job, he has the right to re-enrolled immediately. I have no plans for the money but to save it to cover som home repairs and my son's college tuition.

I'd been off work since last Friday and I must confess, I love having my summers off. It does however, take some planning and discipline to not have to work during these months. My husband is working 4 hours a day (good thing, it keeps him off my hair). I will have to tap into our summer fund soon because I have to pay insurance on our rental and tuition for one of the graduate courses I'm taking this summer (Hopefully, I will get reimbursed for it).

So far we've spent $100 in birthdays and graduation gifts. Not too bad, I think. Busy weekend, a birthday party tonight, Saturday lunch with friends and a high school graduation party on Sunday.

HAVE A GREAT AND BLESSED WEEKEND!

I'm officially done with work until September 2nd. We managed to save close to $14k for our summer fund. It seems like a lot money, but we have many things to fund for the summer (mortgage, college tuition and a deck to repair)and if there is any left by the end of August, we'll take a vacation. I'll post expenditures on the side bar for all of you to see.

Have a great summer (June has been a great wash out in northern NJ)!

Since we've accomplished our financial goals for 2009, I need to set some new ones to keep me on track. I want to see if we could have $5000 remaining on our summer fund money by September 1 (we begin working again then). I will transfer that money to our Money Market account to increase our bottom line. Hubby is hoping to get a summer camp run working 4 hours for 5 weeks this summer ($2800). I also want to start working on my personal goals, which I've neglected.

Have a great weekend!

Update

Job- I signed a contract for the 2009-2010 school year. I will be a tenured teacher then.

Education- I'm taking 2 graduate courses this summer. This will bring me to the BA + 15 in the salary guide which means a $1700 pay increase)

Finances- A few unexpected expenses but no major setbacks.

Son's tuition- $2000 due in August. He's taking two summer courses to make up for the two that he dropped (one in the fall, one in the Spring). I did not paid for those courses; I told him I only pay once. Any dropped courses are his responsibility, not mine.

Vacation- Still in the air; I'm not sure if I want to splurge on an all out vacation. I might take a mini-vacation and stay local.

Home improvements- Deck will be replaced and inground oil tank will be removed (there might be some government grants available).

I stayed home today, I'd been feeling a bit run down lately.

All savings goals have been met! I feel so accomplished today. It was not easy, but saving after a while becomes second nature. My husband and I are 10 months employees and our 2008-2009 contract year ends on June 30th. We have three more paychecks until then and any surplus will go into our various savings accounts. It helped that my husband received his retro check this pay period ($970) and his extra monthly income was a little over $700.

We're heading off to my son's Lacrosse game and a Holy Communion Party late afternoon.

Have wonderful and blessed weekend!

Pardon my ignorance, but can anyone tell me the math formula to determine how much of our income is being used to pay our mortgage every month? How much of our income should we be spending on the mortgage?

Thanks!

Today, we get a call from our heating oil provider telling us that we were 3 months in arrears. I told her there is no way and that I'd call her back when I gather my credit card statements (I paid this bill with it so that I can get Amazon certificates). I called her back and asked her if a credit of $596 was posted to my account. She said, "no". So I sent my husband to take the CC statement to her to make a copy of it and get to the bottom of it. She called back and told me that I should be hearing from her probably tomorrow. This whole thing got me thinking; ordinarily I'd just pay what the bill says I owe. I'd probably reason that I forgot to pay the bill last month. Well lesson learned, I'll check all of my bills for now on. People do make mistakes.