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Archive for September, 2009

September Networth and other updates

September 23rd, 2009 at 05:34 pm

Finished! No more changes on this month. Normally I do networth at the beginning of the month and just alter it as necessary but don't think I will be doing that for October, simply too much will be coming and going for even a beginning estimate. I hate it when I can't plan out my numbers Frown

I already flunked out of the no heat contest. We had a cold snap that dropped the house temperature. General rule of thumb in our house, if its 63 when we get home from work, the heat needs to be on.

Trying to get to normal

September 21st, 2009 at 05:52 pm

Its harder than it seems after a break in. I decided that instead of waiting, I would get the few items I need to feel normal in my house. The rule is, do I care if I have spent this money if tomorrow all my stolen goods are returned. I am also basing this off of what I can afford, not what the insurance will pay.

As a result, things do feel back to normal now. Obviously I haven't replaced everything but I have enough key items to feel like its my home and I can do things. I also have some security measures in place that can limit my losses if something like this happens again.

I figure my total costs before insurance to be $2500. This includes upgrading items that have reached obsolescence (most of which couldn't be replaced with exact even if I wanted to, not available anymore). Course if I tried to replace everything, it would be considerably more but I think I will be fine with this.

This may or may not set me back. There are a lot of items I will not be replacing so that cash value will be put towards what is replaced. (We have replacement cost insurance but if you don't replace, than its actual cash value).

Ah the joys.

A bad weekend but the week is slowly getting better

September 17th, 2009 at 02:49 pm

Probably the less I say about this the better but its definitely finance related. We were robbed over the weekend but our animals are safe, we are okay and the robbers weren't malicious or thorough.

I have spoken with the claim specialist and we are well covered so technically I should only have to pay the deductible and they will pay the rest, including actual replacement cost for anything bought within 180 days.

Obviously we will not be replacing everything. Some things we simply won't be able to find that fast and others we feel no need to get again. We will be upgrading 3 items when we go to replace (they were nearing the end of their lives anyway so we will be grateful for even just cash value).

We also intend to put security features into place before we start replacing things. Though to be fair, these robbers got in through an unlocked window. Ah the joys.

A year of spending

September 10th, 2009 at 03:12 pm

So for the first time ever, I took a look at a full year's worth of actual spending (always done monthly but never put it together or kept it around). So from August 2008- July 2009 the damage was 88k. Youch. Pure house repairs and tools to do house repairs was $26k of that.

The one positive note is that starting May 2009 you can see the spending dropping like a rock. That's when we finally got caught up with most of the expenses of owning this home. And its stayed at the new rate since then. So now house repairs is just part of the allowance budget (or the savings budget for the big projects).

DH finally sold the bikes

September 3rd, 2009 at 06:22 pm

So that is another $400 to add to the pot. September is looking to be a very good month for us thanks to the various extra sources of income and our regular budget (a shocking 4k rise).

Currently it looks like all debt will be gone in July but everyone knows how that is. It would be nice if we could accelerate it more but I suspect that is just dreaming. I am also wondering if I should leave this extra $400 out of the budget because hubby will want to Christmas (yes that is a ways away but I also don't expect a bonus this year so I have to save it out sometime).

We shall see how things work out. For now, we will simply not withdrawal our allowance for two weeks in a row to use up the cash on hand.