Friday Financials 3/7/14

This has been a super busy week. I had a work trip for three days, two nights. I left on Tuesday morning and got back yesterday afternoon. When I saw Baby G in the swing in his daycare room, he smiled at me right away. I almost started crying when I picked him up. It's crazy how I can miss a little baby the most when he doesn't even talk yet. Y handled everything well when I was gone but he definitely missed me. It always feels good to be appreciated.

I charged my room on my Amex Blue because I will request the last $200 in credit from signing up for that card. I will still be reimbursed the full amount from my company. I will also be reimbursed for mileage so I will be able to put away a bit into savings.

I went to the store to pick up my gun last weekend. I instead opted to take a gift card for the same value, $323. We bought snowshoes and a life jacket for Baby G. I still have $130 left on the card that I will likely use for a new bathing suit or clothes.

I was in the top group for sales so management took us out to a fancy dinner. I had a delicious filet and a couple martinis. I was feeling pretty good:). I also received a $1000 gift card that can be redeemed at many different stores.  I would like to use it towards our new front porch.

We priced out a composite front porch/deck last weekend at Menards. It was $3600. I didn't like the color options they had though. Y wants a two tone colored deck but I don't know. Since he picked out most of the finishings for our house and I love how it looks, I should just trust him. Y will likely build the deck himself.

This post is a little convoluted but I'm just going to publish it. I've went back to it 4-5 times already.

Lowering Monthly Bills

I have three variable bills and I set out to lower all of them this month. Electricity, cell phones/internet, and DirectTV were all on my list.

I have been whining the last couple months about our sky high electric bill of $270. When I got it last month, it was around $270 again, roughly about a hundred bucks higher than I thought it should be. I flipped out and told my husband to shut off the space heater in the garage. He told me that wasn't the problem...until he figured out the cost and it was about $100 a month for that stupid heater. I also started using the sleep timer on the TV in our bedroom. We have been very diligent about turning off lights and using the dishwasher less. I'm hoping that we can get our bill below $160 a month.

Regarding our cell phone bill, this was the easy one. I received a text from our provider, AT&T, that we could change to a different family plan. This should save us about $40 a month for more data usage. We use our cell phones as hotspots for our home internet. I have seen other people switching to Ting to save a boatload of money but that's not an option where we live. We need to stick with either AT&T or Verizon as they are the only two with good coverage here. I'm hoping our new cell phone plan will be around $120 a month with taxes.

The DirectTv bill was a bit harder to lower. It was $73 but went up to $83 last month. I call them about every 6 months to get it lowered. The first lady was very helpful and told me that since I had been out of my contract for 2 years, I could come back in as a new customer and get the promotion rate of $34.99 for the base package. I was pretty happy with this deal. I just needed to be transferred to somebody else to implement it. I was transferred twice before I got the lady who would "help" me. She told me I was ineligible for that promotion but she would lower my bill by $5 and give me something I didn't want at no charge. After trying to understand why I couldn't get the promotion package, she actually said, "What more do you want? I'm offering to lower your bill." I was pissed. I hung up and Y called back. They gave him a one year promotion price of $63 per month for everything we have now.

I'm pretty happy with my results but I will have to see what the actual bills come in at.

I Won a Gun!!!

This past Friday I went to a benefit for a local nursing home. I left about 15 minutes before the end because I needed to get home to feed Baby G.

I guess that they called my ticket number for a Remington 870 shotgun right afterwards. Woohoo!!!

Careful What You Wish For

Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. I wanted to carpool with Y and it looks like we will be carpooling all this next week. His pickup broke down when he was almost to work on Friday. I guess the spark plug shot out if the engine. It will be at least $100 to fix but might be much more. Sigh...

I'm super annoyed this morning. BIL came over to hang out with Y last night. He stayed over and urinated on our couch. Really? I looked it up online and baking soda is supposed to work well to clean it. I told Y that he is cleaning it up.

I need to change around my mood this morning because I don't want to ruin my whole Sunday.

New Deck?

We would like to get our savings accounts built up a bit and then I would like to save for our covered deck. I want to do synthetic decking in a tan to match our trim, garage doors and soffit. I don't know how much it will cost, maybe around $10-12,000. I think we will hire this project done as we want it perfect.

I don't know much about decking materials so we will have to research that.

Does anyone have any helpful deck advice?

Post Presidents Day Post

Both Y and I were off yesterday due to Presidents Day so we bundled up both kiddos and took them outside. Lil Punk held Baby G in her lap and we pulled them around the yard in her sled. Baby G just laid there and opened his eyes once in awhile but the sun was really bright. It was 32 here yesterday and felt like spring. One can only hope that spring is right around the corner.

We also had to break down and buy propane. We purchased 200 gallons at 2.95 a gallon. There is a $20 discount for paying cash in the next 3 days so I will drop that payment of $590 off today. I wish we could've waited for a better propane price but we only had 6% left in our 1000 gallon tank.

We set a grocery budget of $400 for this month and I'm determined to stick with it. After picking up a few things yesterday, we have $64 left for the month. We will make it. Y seems to be on board also.

Daycare is going up. For both kids, it will be $1055 a month. They're so expensive and so worth it. The cost of daycare sure does put a damper on having another one though. Daycare will go down to $800 a month in September when Lil Punk starts school. Both kids go to a Catholic church daycare and Lil Punk attends preschool there. They want to meet with us to discuss her going to school there next year. I already enrolled her in public kindergarten. The schools in our area are very good so I don't see the point in paying for private school.

I'm still feeding Baby G at lunch during the week. I love this. Its made the transition of going back to work so much easier. I still pump twice a day at work though. We have a mothers' lounge where I can go. My employer is very accommodating, especially because I never talked to anybody about pumping. For the record, its the law that I can pump so I don't need to ask for permission.

I hope everybody had a nice holiday and have a fabulous week!

My Husband's Spending

My last few posts have had a bitchy undertone about my husband so I thought I would do a separate post on it.

We've been together for almost 14 years, married for almost 10. Y has matured considerably in that time with respect to finances but is still the generous guy I met. When we met, he was cooking at a restaurant and didn't make a lot of money but he freely spent. That is, until he didn't have any more. He would spend all of his money on me, himself, whatever. One of my favorite memories of Y is when I stopped at a convenience store so he could buy smokes. It was bitterly cold, like 40 below. He came out with a cappuccino for me because "I looked cold." But he didn't have enough money for both so I had to buy him smokes later. It's the thought, right?

Y was generous when we were dating and is still that way. He doesn't put a ton of thought into money and doesn't stress about it like I do. He has the attitude that it will all work out. I like that he is giving and generous. He would literally give somebody his last ten bucks.

We share similar long term goals which has helped us achieve what we have. We both agree that its important to have money in savings and to live on less than what we make. We prefer to keep our debt to a minimum because you never know what will happen. However, we disagree more on the day to day spending.

I knew going into our marriage that we wouldn't always agree on financial matters. I'm actually ok with that. If I was with somebody just like me, life would be boring. I like being with somebody who is more of a free spirit with money. I like having a generous husband (even if its our money).

My only complaint is when we need to cut back and he's much slower to do that than me. We're still working on that...

Is your mate just like you with regard to finances?