Layout:
Home > Page: 2

Viewing the 'Uncategorized' Category

Expensive Weekend and Savings update

December 1st, 2008 at 11:24 pm

Well this was an expensive last few days. Thanksgiving was great, got together with family and had fun. Ate too much for lunch and didn't eat dinner. Started cleaning the carpet Thursday night.

Friday I worked for 20 min and got paid for 8 hours of time. woohoo. Came home and finished cleaning the carpets. Actually did them all twice and they are cleaner then when the professionals came in. We went and bought a bunch of board games as Target had them all on sale, will have to add some cash to the coupon savings for the $25 I saved on the board games.

Saturday was pretty un eventfull. We bought a new mat for inside the door of our apartment as the carpet is extremely light in color and stains easily. I cut it to fit perfect and not a moment too soon as we got snow yesterday. Got my monthly massage also.

Yesterday was pretty boring as we went window shopping for a new bedroom sheets, comforter set.

I'm selling my fish room and sold a tank and some accessories for $100 and just got a $150 payment in the mail for some fish to be shipped, actually about $50 will be for the shipping. Friday I drive up to Milwaukee to deliver some fish at a tune of about $350, decided to take a day off of work as I will make more on delivering fish.

Contemplating buying a high end tank setup for my planted tanks as it will be my one and only tank but not 100% if I will or not. Lots of thinking to do on this one.

Rent is due this week by the 5th and it will be tight, got my check and will get another check tomorrow the wife did some clients today as well and she gets paid on Friday, so by this weekend I should have all of Decembers bills paid. Setting up the new insurance is setting us back a bit as we have to pay 2 months up front as I don't want to draing the saving to pay all at once.

Craig

Ate too much...

November 28th, 2008 at 04:23 am

Well today was a small spend day. Spent $4.22 on my trip to see family for the holidays. Ate way too much today but oh well guess I don't do it often, the 2 pieces of pumpkin pie was great. 15 people were there all together and the sink drain decided to clog and flood the kitchen. Easy fix since half of us work construction.

On another note my wine guy gave me a bottle of wine $33 at his cost as after the tasting class I helped sell a few bottles with one of them being $90 bottle of wine. I also helped setup and tear down for the event. Great to be friends with the shop owner.

Working tomorrow only about an hours worth of work but the boss said he was going to pay me for 8 hours as I'm the only one showing up, horray for me.

Had to order hay for my wifes rabbits today 50 lbs for $69.98 shipped which will alst 3 months for 3 rabbits but is much better than $12 a bag locally for 1.5 lbs.

Just finished cleaning the carpets in half the apartment, thanks to my mom it was free as she has a Kirby vacuum and has the carpet cleaner attachment, plus she gave me a gallon bottle of cleaner. Carpet looks better then the professionals did when we moved in. I will probably do it once more tomorrow as it won't take long and to make sure it is really clean.

Hope is having a great day. Need to update savings totals this weekend.

Craig

More to savings...

November 25th, 2008 at 03:32 am

Well got my check today and will be putting $300 of my $369.28 into savings. I will be updating my totals later in the week.

We spent around $150 on groceries this weekend but should have enough meals for 3 weeks almost. It is our challenge to not go to the store for 3 weeks except for some fresh produce if needed.

Meet with the Insurance guy tonight and will be switching as soon as my policies expire in December. Renters will go from $296 year to $105 year and our car insurance will go from $93.48 to $74.24 month. I may add the Umbrella policy as it will bring my liability total to 1 million dollars and will only add $3 a month to my insurance.

Going to travel a bit on Thanksgiving so I will probably use one extra tank of gas. Also talked to the parents tonite and they aren't doing any gift exchange for christmas, thank you finally. Sorry no a grinch but I think christmas is too commercialized now a days.

This will bring my November savings to just of $1000 for all my accounts. Feels great to be saving again.

Craig

New Ink and some survey questions.

November 22nd, 2008 at 09:20 pm

Well I went and bought a new ink cartridge for the printer today. Been out for a few weeks now as I don't use it alot but wanted to start printing out coupons again. Anyone have any good links for coupons? I've been using coupons.com but they didn't have alot to choose from this time around.

On another topic I would like to get involved with doing some surveys in my free internet surfing time. Where should I start looking for good ones to do?

Total spent today was $24.86 for my Ink and a adapter for a set of lights that I have. Also the wife and I will be filling both vehicles today at $1.79 gallon.

Looks like I will have another $300-350 to put in savings come Monday which would be nice.

Also I noticed since that I started blogging more that I find it easier to save money. We (wife and I) find that instead of going out to spend money we just transfer some to the savings as its the same as spending to us.

Have a great weekend.

Craig

Money in and money out.

November 21st, 2008 at 10:04 pm

Got done early today as it was cold wind chill at 1. Wife and I went down and got her check and deposited it and went walking in the mall. Had a treat of Whitey's Ice cream 2 cones were 4.13. As we were walking around we each got a chair massage. I got 20min and she got 10 min as that is what they recommended for each of us cost was $42 but I will save $60 as I canceled my appointment for tomorrow which would have cost me $95 with tip for an hour and a half. Came back in to town and rented some movies for the weekend at a cost of $9.52 for 4 movies as I had a get one free from Blockbuster. I prefer Blockbuster as I don't have to pay any late fees with them as soemtiems it will take more then the rented time to watch them all or if I want to see one of them again. Transfer $145 to savings accounts and added $60 in cash. Also wrote out the check for my Osteopath appointment next week for $80 and we still have a little over $350 in the bank for groceries and gas for the week. Will probably use one extra tank of gas this week for travel for thanks giving. I will get a check on Monday from work and we should be able to save all of it to savings as well.

Craig

Getting rid of the fleas and eating out.

November 20th, 2008 at 12:00 am

Well as planned the wife went and got Frontline for the 2 cats this morning. $27.92 with tax. Now to vacuum atleast 3 times a day for the next 3-4 days.

Ate out lunch today cost was $8.99 for chinese, salted nut roll and a soda.

Hope to get by with out more gas i nthe truck this week, will be close. Gas is down to $1.89 here today.

Still have $91.88 in the checking account. Anything left after I get the wifes check Saturday is going into savings.

Also I'm scheduled for a massage on Saturday. 1.5 hours worth woohoo. Wife is getting one also but is doing a trade with another therapist at her house.

Some spending and other things...

November 19th, 2008 at 01:13 pm

Well Yesterday morning I transfered $540 into various savings accounts, need to setup my sidebar one of these days. Yesterday was a small spend day as the wife needed gas and I paid for an upcoming wine class I plan to take on the 26th. I'm good friends with my wine guy so I like to stop and visit him as much as possible. Opened up a nice botle of wine for both of us to sample when I stopped. Also spent $13 on a bottle of Reisling to take home as I wasn't in my usual Shiraz mood. Also we loaned out the pet taxi to the neighbors when they moved as they were getting new cats from the shelter. Well our cats now have fleas. So once I get home I'm washing all the bedding, wife is going to grab some fela treatment for the cats and rabbits today (so there will be some unexpected spending.), I will also grab some carpet spray and vaccuum the whole house a few times.

Craig

Money in, Money out and some new goals

November 17th, 2008 at 02:24 am

Well it was a decent weekend. I presold some of my fish room so as soon as fish are gone guy will ceom get the tanks and equipment $320 up front. woohoo. I will come out ahead once all is sold.

For the spending this weekend we went to the mall in the next town and planned on eating at the chinese place there but it was closed fro remodeling. errr. SO we at at the Old Country Buffet. Food was great cost more than I had planned $16 for the wife and I, chinese is usually only $9 as we split a meal. The only other options were taco bell or arbys which I really don't like either. Our old neighbor called to get together kinda last minute as we were both free and we haven't seen her son in a few months and he wanted us to come over. $28 for pizza, soda, local paper but she paid me $13 for her and her 2 year olds son share. Took the cash and got quaters to do laundry and just got back from that.

Stopped at Walmart for groceries this morning as we were needing some of the paper goods and found my lunch meat $0.32 cheaper a package only $0.56 instead of $0.88 as compared to Hy-Vee, looks like I will be shopping there more. On;y got 1 thing that wasn't on my list. Total spent $154 and saved a few bucks with coupons. This will be breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next week and also stocked up on paper goods.

Got around to setting some goals now to figure out my sidebar so I can list them.

Saving Accounts ING and Emigrant Direct. How do I add sub folders for savings in ING I forgot how?

Here is what I am settign for sub accounts once I figure out how:

Coupons
Kayak- something I would love to have
Vacation 2009
Vacation 2010
Car Insurance
Renters Insurance
Wifes Massage Workshops

Emigrant will be for my Emergency Fund goal is $10000 hopefully by the begining of 2010.

Local Savings goal $1000 ($950 to go)
Checking acount $500 minimum ($400 to go)
Cash on Hand for emergencies $1000 ($1000 to go) cause ifhte powers out all the cash electronically won't do me any good.

Atleast it is a start.

Wow this is kind of long winded if you made it this far thanks for reading.

Craig

Saved lots of money today

November 13th, 2006 at 12:54 am

The wife and I needed to get a new table for the living room/ everything else room and got a great deal. After looking at 4-5 consignment shops and not finding anything we really fell in love with we stopped at Sofa Mart and got the following:

2 Metal and Glass End Tables Retail $318 set
2 Metal Lamps w/ square Shades Retail $166 set
1 Metal Vase with wrapped wire Retail $72
2 Urn w/ Silk Flowers Retail $127

We walked out paying $157.50 with tax for all of the above. The end tables have 2 glass shelves the bottom one on one was missing and everything else is perfect. They had everything clearanced out at $240 and we asked if we bought all of it what kind of deal we could have if we bought it all and he grabbed his calculator and told us $150 plus tax. Everything is so wonderful and was just what we were looking for. Now to talk to a local glass place about making me a replacement shelf. Well was a spend day but got out with $533 in savings from Sofa Mart. Smile Hope others did well today.

Craig

I'll be back to read the blogs later time for salsa dance class.

Its snow and Retirement Planning in one day!

November 10th, 2006 at 09:36 pm

Well the day started out down pouring rain, why I'm home, then switched to sleet now it great big snow flakes. Smile Got the paperwork to get mine and my wifes retirements going and to start a mutual fund. We're going with T. Rowe Price Retirement Funds 2030 for her and 2045 for me. Not sure on what mutual fund I will pick but looking at Prime Reserve. We will be starting with putting $50 ea a month into our funds, just a start till I get good hours again next year, winter makes it hard to do construction and she is just starting her own buisness. Hope to get the paperwork in the mail before Monday. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Craig

My Debt Reduction

November 7th, 2006 at 02:35 am

Well after toying with quicken again I plugged some numbers into their debt reduction planner and came up with this:

Amount $1250 month

3 Loans: 1 22.99% owe 7440 - Personal
2 7.5% owe 52000 - House
3 7.14% owe 6891 - Student Loan

If we follow Quickens debt strategy we can be out of debt by Mid 2012. I think I might try it out. We will have to tighten our belts some more but it would be great to own the house in less time than expected. Now to convince the wife it would be possible.

Craig


<< Newer EntriesOlder Entries >>