It’s been so long…

Happy New Year! Yes, it has been that long since I wrote a blog post! This is my official first post of the new year. It’s a shame, I know! I just took a glance at the goals I created for myself for 2017. While the first three still are in the works, I have shifted focus on #4. I no longer am working to pay off my mortgage early. This is a dramatic shift from what this blog has been about. My entire blogging presence has mostly been consumed with one financial goal: kill the mortgage! Ever since November, I have been re-evaluating life and finally have realized: I have no idea what my long-term plan is. Here are few factors I am dealing with:

1. Husband’s job – in his 10+ years working at his company, he’s seen layoffs happen often. We are both realistic that at some point, his time may come. He is predicting that he has about 5-10 years with the company, but it could be more or less. I like to think in worst case scenarios; in 2021, he could lose his job. Or he could work at that company until he retires.
2. My job – My position in grant-funded and ends June 2022. There is a slight chance it will be renewed, but most of us are thinking it wont be. Thus, I am out of a job in 2022. I would love to be able to shift to freelancing at that point.
3. I really want to move. I’ve tried to pray and journal a way this feeling, but it is not going anywhere. Either I embrace it or continue to fight this feeling every day. I am leaning towards a new home. Whether we sell our current home or use it as a rental property is another layer of complexity.
4. My kids are going to attend college in 8 and 11 years, with one year overlap. They could get scholarships or we could end up with 100% of their cost. Of course we always have the choice of whether to pay or not. But it is something we have decided we value and that we are going to at least give them some funds for college.

Here’s what we are currently doing mostly by default:

1. Husband – contributes 10% of his income to a retirement account along with 5% from his employer
2. Me – contributes 7% of my income to a 401K which is matched by my employer. I also contribute $25 each month to a Roth IRA
3. House – we are currently paying on a 15 year mortgage with a 2.8% interest rate. We are also saving 100% of my paychecks for a down payment on a new home. We currently have $14K saved of the $90K we need.
4. College funds: We are contributing $25 a month for each child.

So there you have it! More information that you ever needed to know about our financial situation. One of the things I love about blogging is feedback! What grade would you give us?  What would you do if you were me?

No Spend November: Week 1 in Review

I can’t believe we are a week into November. I swear it was just the first! If you have been following along, you know that 1) I am trying to save $10K by 12/31/2016 and 2) I am doing a “No Spend November” challenge. Here is a quick review on how its been going so far:

Step 1: I created a zero-based budget along with my husband. We actually sat down and discussed all the expenses we had for the month. This was the first time we had done this and I found it very productive. Unfortunately, we missed one critical expense and medical expenses have already exceeded the budget.

Step 2: At the beginning of the month, I withdrew $600 and divided up the cash into the following envelops:

1. Food $200
2. Eating out $60
3. Household supplies $40
4. Kids other $40
5. Husband Spending $200
6. Wife fun money $20
7. Charity $40

Step 3: Create a weekly meal plan and grocery shop weekly. So far, I’ve gone over my allotted budget for food spending. I have found it extremely difficult to purchase with in the budget I gave myself. I am thinking about increasing my 15 day budget from $200 to $300 since I have to buy vegan, gluten free items that are pretty pricey.

Step 4: Eat leftovers and try for a zero wasted food. I was disappointed to have to throw out rotten lettuce, grapes and bread last week.  However, I did eat pumpkin puree with kidney beans for lunch one day. Yeah…one for team!

Step 5 and 7: Spending fast: buy only needs; buy used/second hand.  This has been going well. The only wants I have purchased have been food related. Overall, my food expenses has been the hardest to curtail.

Step 6: Use coupons/discounted gift cards –I successfully brought two $25 gift cards from Raise for $33. I’ve used both and they have worked. I am excited to incorporate discounted gift cards more in my life.

Step 8: Goal: 15 no spending days. Last week, I had 4 no spending which means I had more days that I didn’t spend money than I did! Yes! We are going to make it this month.

How are your goals going?

New Month, New Goals: No Spend November

In order to achieve my scary goal of putting $10,000 towards my mortgage, I have to save at least $1,211 in November. My husband decided to join me on this effort after much convincing. In order to be successful in reaching this goal, I have come up with a set of guidelines to help us save money. 

No Spend November Rules

1. Create a zero-based budget – learn more here. I’ll share my budget in an upcoming post.
2. Use envelope system with cash only – I’ve created 7 envelops and stuffed them with cash for categories we overspend on: food, eating out, kids and charity. I also gave my husband and myself an allowance of spending money.
3. Create a weekly meal plan and grocery shop weekly – I have typically did two week meal plans, but I was overspend. I am going to try weekly and see if I have more success.
4. Eat leftovers and try for a zero wasted food – This is always a goal, but I am going to try to be especially vigilant this month
5. Spending fast: buy only needs – And no, Starbucks is not a need. 🙂
6. Use coupons/discounted gift cards – I am going to try using Raise and other sites to buy discounted cards to places I grocery shop at
7. Buy used or second hand – If I *have* to buy get something.
8. Goal: 15 no spending days – Since I didn’t accomplish this last month, I am trying again.
9. Get invited somewhere for Thanksgiving  – I am half joking about this one, but it would be cheaper to just bring a side and not have create an entire meal.

So that’s it. My eight (or nine) rules for the month of November. What are your goals for November?

No Spending Days

I challenged myself to have 15 days this month where I did not spend any money. I hoped that by placing this limit on myself, I would buy less and save more. I was hoping that I would use my credit card less and start building the habit of not swiping it for every little thing. Ten days ago, I had nine days where no money left my wallet. I was confident that this goal would be super easy to reach. 

Fast forward to today and I ambrealizing that I probably won’t hit the goal. I only had two no spending days since I last reported on this blog. For the rest of the days, random things just kept popping up! On Monday, I had to buy a book for my daughter’s class assignment. Another time it was annual fees for registering my car. I was thinking that I could not spend any money for the next 4 days, but I don’t see that happening realistically. We still have to buy some groceries and gas. I’d also like to have some Halloween candy available. 

I’m a little disappointed but am determined to have a month that this actually works! I am going to try again in November as part of my crazy plan to save $10k by the end of the year. I need to get more organized with my spending! That will be the sole focus for the month of November. 

Have you ever tracked how many days you spend money for a particular month?

My Big Scary Goal

A few days ago, I was still trying to explore how to make a principle only payment on my loan. When I poking around, I received an alert that I was on PayPlan and that an automatic payment was already scheduled. Say what now?! Per the website, PayPlan is a service that allows you to make automatic payments from your checking account. I distinctly recall declining to be placed on any draft plan. After a quick phone call, the customer service rep informed me that I was indeed on a PayPlan and that my first payment would automatically draft on the 4th of December from my savings account. I had so many questions: 1) How am I on a plan I didn’t sign up for? 2) How did the bank get my savings account number and decide to use that account? 3) What would have happened if I didn’t stalk my bank and an automatic payment was drafted even though I already made a December payment? Their response, “So, you changed your mind and want to remove yourself from this plan?” No, I didn’t change my mind. This bank decided that it was going use my personal assets to guarantee they get a monthly payment. And I am sure they would have charged fees if the money wasn’t there! Evil bank strikes again!

So now, I am even more motivated to pay this thing off! In looking at my finances, I think I can my a $10K principle only payment on it by December 1st! I know, that sounds impossible, but here are the numbers:

$1,366.00	December Mortgage – Since I already made a December payment, this should go completely to principle
$5,595.00	My paychecks – I have 5 paychecks between now and 12/31.
$1,190.00	Funds back from closing – I have already received these funds
$32.00	credit card rewards – I should be awarded these by 11/4
$443.00	escrow refund from old loan – I am still waiting on this, but they said I should get it in about 20 days
$1,004.00	Savings from husband’s November paychecks – This is the challenge!! Not sure if I can pull this off.
$370.00	Savings from husband’s December paychecks – Also potentially difficult
$10,000.00	Total

Technically, all I have to do is save $1374.00 from my husband’s paychecks to make this work! Can I do it? I hope so.

My brand new debt!

Refinancing is such a non-glamorous life event. Not that I would, but I cannot show it off like a new car or house. All I can do is stare at the loan and plot how to kill it. (That sounds sinister!) Immediately after I got final notice that the process was complete, I logged onto my bank’s online portal and there it was. Now every time I check my bank account balances (which is about 20x a day), I see the horrible number. Unfortunately with the refinance, I now owed more than $175K which was my first milestone I hit a few weeks back!

I decided to make a principal only payment using the funds dedicated for November mortgage payments. These funds were now “extra” since my first payment isn’t due until December. After spending about an hour trying to figure out how to easily do it, I came to the horrifying conclusion that there is no way to electronically transfer principal only payments to my mortgage. This almost had me in tears! One of the main reasons I refinanced was so I could make snowflake payments ($10-$15) on this loan whenever I wanted. The only option is to mail in a physical check each time! Evil bank strikes again!

Because the balance really bothered me (I know, I’m weird), I decided to go ahead and make December’s payment in October. Not only would I get my balance back under $175K, I could also see how the bank handles online monthly payments with additional principal. Using the online mortgage pay, I sent a payment of $1,940.78. With in 36 hours (which was a bit longer that I thought it should take), my new balance was reflected as: $173,843.98! Much better!

I updated my payoff plan as well. With the new refinance, I have already hit several other milestones due to my lower interest rate. It feels a bit like I am cheating though. At some point, I will redo the whole chart, but for now it looks like I am really making progress!

Happy Friday and happy savings!

Pantry Challenge or not…

Supposedly I am completing a pantry challenge. I set this goal simply as: complete a pantry challenge – reduce my grocery bill by cooking and eating what we have. Here and there I’ve been making a few meals with random ingredients, but overall the items in my pantry have not influenced my meals. This weekend, I spent $331.99 in groceries. Does that seem like reduced grocery spending to you? Well, its not! Our typical budget for each bimonthly paycheck is $350 for two adults and two kids, one who eats a mostly vegan, gluten-free diet due to allergies. We typically try for natural and organic items if we can afford it.

After I spent what seemed like an enormous amount on groceries, I realized I forgot to buy sugar. I tried to convince myself that I didn’t “need” sugar, but I failed to convince myself. I decided to return some items to the grocery store and pick up sugar and baking power. This would also give me a little more wiggle room if I need to pick up some additional items later in the month. As I went through all my purchases, I realized I brought more groceries that I really needed! I even meal planned! Not sure where I went wrong, but I still have much to learn in this area. It is definitely awkward to return groceries but most stores allow for it. I got a few odd looks as I held up the line (not my fault that customer services closed at 7pm and it was 7:16pm). The cashier examined my receipt very closely for what seemed like 5 minutes. But in the end I received $22.81 back. With that money, I brought the items I needed. My husband got four sweet potatoes free that were leftovers from a camping trip he attended this weekend. I was able to make this delicious southern sweet potato bread adapted from this recipe!

Since I didn’t use any additional money, I am counting this as a “no spending day”. 9 down, 6 to go!

 

Mid-Month Review

We are 15 days in to October. How are you doing with your goals for this month? Here’s my progress:

Completed:

1. Declutter my inbox – Goal: Remove myself from 25 email lists. – done!
2. Donate or put away one box of clothing away – done!
3. Make a decision about refinance my mortgage – done! stay tuned!
4. Create next set of financial goals for 2017 – completed
5. Track down $25 gift card from phone company – yes, and spent it!
6. Complete doctors visits: eye doctor and primary care – done
7. Give up coffee – haven’t drank any this month!

In process:

1. Complete a pantry challenge – Still working on it, but its going well.
2. Organize and declutter the kids’ toys – books, clothes and toys have been decluttered. I just need to organize them.
3. Track daily spending  and have 15 days of no spending – 10/10 – I spent $5.36 on bananas and bread for the week. 10/11, 10/12 and 10/13 were all no spending days. Yesterday I spent $20.00 on childcare, $66.90 on school lunches for 3 weeks, $135 on a conference registration and $8.29 at a cafe. My “no spending days” are now at 8 total! 7 more to go. I can do this!

Needs serious attention!

1. Work out 15 days – I’ve worked out 2 days this month. I need to seriously kick it into gear if I want make this goal.
2. Drink 64 ounces of water a day – Ha! Not even close. I should have probably started with a baby goal like 24 oz!
3. Monitor my blood pressure daily – I was doing fine but then I misplaced the monitor some how. I need to find it and start back
4. Lose 5 lbs – Yeah…not even!

To try and achieve all of my goals, I’m going to create a daily checklist or find a good app! What will you be doing different for the rest of the month to achieve your goals?

Refinance or Not: A tale of two banks

Yup, I am talking about my mortgage again! Here’s a little tale of the two banks competing  (in my head at least) for my home loan needs. I am currently relationship is “Bank WTH”. Since I became debt free except the mortgage, I started re-examining this loan. Earlier this year, I decided take advantage of the Home Affordable Refinance Program and do away with the adjustable interest rate I had. I ended up with a decent rate: 4.25% for 20 years. Click here for a little more about that. Since then, I have gone back and forth about how I should pay this off. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you’ve seen me waver back and forth regarding how to pay it off early: 5 year, 7 year or 10 year goals. You’ve also seen me contemplate refinancing it.

Here’s what I hate about my current company:

1. They misplaced a $8,000 payment I tried to make. Yeah…
2. They then charged me $7 and a $25 late fee once I had the payment reversed from my bank. They have waived the $25 after I called to complain.
3. They thought I mailed in a $7 mortgage payment and I had to call them and have them manually apply it to the random $7 I owe for them losing my money.
4. They only apply extra mortgage payments once a month. Any additionally payments I make are placed into an account and applied once a month so they get more interest out of me.
5. The only way to make extra payments is either to mail in a check for them to erroneously apply to my account, pay $7 for a third party company or schedule electronic funds transfer for a set amount each month.

Blogger Nurse-On-Fire was the first to plant the seed in my head that there might be better companies out there. Recently, I was in our main institution where we do most of our banking “Bank Bae” and the teller said, “Have you thought about refinancing with us?” I told her that I had not and I was content in my bad relationship with Bank WTH. She was like, “At least have one of our people call you and review what we can offer”. I agreed and sure enough, I received a call with a promise of a rate of 2.875%.

I still wasn’t convinced and turned to my trusty readers who for the most part were like, “Step away from the refinance”. Since then, I have been going back and forth with Bank Bae trying to make my mind up. I finally made a list of the determining factors that would have to be in place for me to refinance:

• Increased monthly payments – the new loan could not be more than $50 more than my current loan. My budget is already tight; no need adding extra stress.
• Flexibility  – if I was to lose my job or have an unexpected change in our expenses, would I still have the flexibility to stop extra payments. Wiggle room is important since Murphy’s law is a real thing. (as pointed out by Ernie and Pamela)
  3. Loan amount – the refinance loan amount they presented to me was $180,000 when my current mortgage balance is around $170,500. That makes no sense. (thank you MindfulMinimalism for seeing that).
  4. Amount of money saved – A refinance has to save me money in the long run. If closing costs are more than what I will save by the lower interest rate, it is not worth it. I need to save at least $2,000-$3,000 for it to be worth it.
  5. Extending payoff date – By no means can this new loan take me longer to pay off! That’s the whole point! Pay it off early. (great advice by Pamela and Feisty Froggy!)

The only reader who was like “Do it!” was Mary. So…what do I think I did? Vote in the comments #teamBankWTH if I am staying with my current bank or #teamMary if I am refinancing.

10.7 thru 10.9 – Fails and Wins

My no spending four day streak ended with a ridiculous days of spending this weekend. While some of it couldn’t have been avoid, it quickly added up. Friday, October 7th Spending Debacle of 2016:

1. $15 copay at my primary care physician. This was important! My doctor said I have extreme anemia and need to triple my iron in take. She suspects that is why I am always tired. Need!
2. $25.28 gas – this was a need and actually I used my groceries gas rewards to get $.80 off per gallon
3. $17.06 – Post office – I mail a package to my in-laws with some items they left with us. It was great to get the items out of the house, but this could have waited. I’m going to put this in the need/want category.
4. $6.73 – medicated cream for my son’s skin. This was a debatable purchase. We’ve tried so many different lotions and position on him! I didn’t need to get it, but his skin has been pretty awful looking lately.
5. $21.47 – book store to get a required reading for my daughter’s English class. The school library has a copy of the book she could have checked out, but I wanted her to get a jump start on reading it over fall break. My son also begged me to get a book and caved when he promised me he would go through his books and would only keep the “books with big boy pages”. So a quasi-need mixed with a want.
6. $42.64 – Health food store. I picked up some fish oil for my son’s skin, iron pills for me (although I had enough to last the week) and some cooking oil. I’d say again needs/want. Definitely needed cooking oil.
7. $158.38  – Target. This is where it all fell apart. What did I buy: two sleeping bags for a camping trip next weekend, hats and gloves for the kids, pajamas for my son (who has outgrown all of his pairs), flashlights, a gift for birthday party my son was attending on Sunday and some more creams for my son. I just now realized that I had a $5 coupon I forgot to use! Darnit! Some redeeming  factors: I did use the $35 in giftcard and I returned $43.76 of stuff the next day when we decided that my husband and son only would go camping. I am beginning to see a pattern. Quasi-needs strikes again.

Yikes! That’s pretty bad. But then Saturday happened. My daughter had a soccer tournament and we had time to kill between games. Instead of driving home, we decided to kill time at a local mall. Bad idea alert! Never kill time a mall:

1. We ate out! Luckily my husband had a giftcard that we used for our lunch meal, so I am not counting that.
2. $26.91 – Sporting goods shop where we brought Adidas flip flops for my daughter because she only had her cleats and it was hard to walk around.
3. $75.43 –  Sporting goods shop – this time we brought more camping gear for the boys. Quasi-need since we technically don’t “need” to attend the camp.
4. $7.99 – Ice cream because we were kill time! It was delicious though.
5. My husband also spent: $4.40 and $58.10 on books he may or may not actually read.

Sunday technically could be a considered a no-spending day for me. Maybe. While I didn’t use the credit card or any money I personally had on me, we went out to breakfast to cheer my daughter up after a hard loss in the tournament. My husband used cash he had in his wallet to pay for the meal. I need a win in all this, so I am going to take it. Day #5 of no spending!

The good news is that my son (and daughter) made good on his promise and sorted through their books. They came up with quite a lot to sell/donate.

How was your weekend?