Caoineag's Personal Finance Blog

Paid off the credit card that bought our couch today. Its so weird to be back to paying multiple cards off. It was 0% interest but was small so worth paying off to avoid the hassle.

Technically we have 4 cards with balances now, none of them charging interest, but 2 are about to become 1 and the other 2 are going to be paid off as soon as possible (depends on when hubby gets a job).

Fortunately, DH has accumulated an additional 110 hours of pto so at his current hour rate, almost a month of pay.

This means that even if he doesn't get a job immediately, the debt won't be increasing and will keep going down despite living on one income. Something very comforting about that.

We are still moving ahead with all of the repairs we have scheduled, its just easier to get them done now and we aren't in any danger of being unable to pay for things.

I have to say, I am very grateful that we have always kept expenses down. We may have overdone the splurging in the past but we never locked ourselves into a position we couldn't get out of.

Oh and an update on my frugal month. We have done very well. The 25th of this month is when it ends and we still have $50 of food money, 1/3 of our gas money and due to a weird billing choice, $70 left of utility money. This means we spent less than half of what we spent last month on food and we even did the same for spending on the house.

Since I am a big fan of gradual reductions since otherwise I freak out and overindulge, I am extremely pleased at how easy it was to cut back down. I still need to cut some more, but baby steps work best for me and that was one heck of a baby step.

My DH turned in his 2 week notice so hopefully no more nightmares and our stress level should go down. This also means (since he doesn't have a firm job offer in hand) that I am switching to cash preservation until he has a new job.

I am actually going to do it in two stages. He has 3 potential contract jobs through headhunters starting March 1 so until that date passes with no job in hand, I will keep contributing to my Roth IRA. If none of those pan out, I will turn the contributions off and switch to a full bare bones budget to keep the debt at a minimum. At that level, we can last indefinitely which is handy in today's economy.

Now you all know why I wanted a cheap mortgage :P

He has a job interview this Wednesday and another one will be probably be scheduled for this week as well (another reason its easier to quit now, employer's get cranky when you start needing multiple days off at the last minute).

I am actually surprised at the number of job openings in his field. You would think that with all the layoffs in the mortgage industry there wouldn't be so many new openings.

I will keep you updated as things occur but I will probably be a bit quieter than usual till I know where we are finally at.

Got the bid from the handyman and it was a little high for our comfort (not that he's overcharging, I just think we underestimated the amount of time involved). Asked him to rebid without the attic to see if that will get it low enough.

If the second bid is low enough, we will have him fix all the ventilation in the house so that will finally be finished.

So we have already spent over 10k on this house and that is before hiring anyone to do work. Wow. I knew it would add up, I just didn't think we would have all this accomplished this soon.

Unfortunately this cuts into our reserves. I hate pushing things this tight but we need that ventilation finished.

On a positive note, the Sears Card is being paid in full so now we actually own all of our appliances. :P I still haven't decided whether to pay the couch off in full this month or next but I think March might be safer cashflow wise.

We would have had enough by my earlier calculations but DH isn't very good at estimating debt and has twice underestimated his cards by nearly $200. As a result, he is getting rid of all the cards from his wallet except our main paid in full credit card which I can always see online.

Originally we were going to pass the budget over to him when things calmed down to help him learn budgeting a bit better but he really has no interest so I am going to keep control of the budget. Its kind of weird because he doesn't really like to buy himself a lot so you would think that he would be better with the budgeting then the person who likes to buy things but it doesn't work that way. Because I have always had things I wanted to buy, I have always done calculations to see when I can afford things. He just buys when he wants to buy but then has buyer's remorse.

Who would have thought that the spender in the relationship would be better at budgeting? My big issue with budgeting is that he doesn't really want or need an allowance but he does need splurge money for when he finally does decide he wants something. I need an allowance.

Right now I am feeling guilty because what he wants is a rather expensive trike and we would need to get 2 so we could ride together but we really can't afford it this year. He's okay with that but originally he was supposed to get it this year. We both agreed house repairs needed to come first. I need to come up with someway that his wants don't get backburnered like that ever again because its not fair for me to be able to get things and him not to.

Anyways, I am just thinking out loud at the moment and I am sure I will come up with some way to get them this year, I just need to play with the numbers and pray he gets a new job sometime soon.

Mainly because I was never one of those persons that could maintain their stress level. I have also come to the conclusion that we will deal with things as they come since I can't predict the future.

Had the handyman come take a look at our projects, he will have a bid to me today so at least we will get everything vital fixed soon.

Spoke with my friend who I helped to get established out here. Haven't chatted in about 1 month because I have been missing in action and she has been busy. She is doing well and has almost paid off her second credit card. Very proud of her.

Waiting for my Wamu now Chase statement to arrive. Need it for my credit card number so I can transfer the balance to a 0% till October deal. This will also get me down to just one card. This will be my first time since I ran up the debt that it would all fit on once card.

I am still on budget this month which is amazing given how nuts we had gone the past 3 months. Maybe getting back to a normal budget won't be so hard after all.

We are still spending copious amounts on the house though. Not as much as in the past but between the mortar guy and the handyman, there is another couple k to spend just this month. Fortunately that should finish off the majority of the house. Unfortunately, we still have yardwork ahead of us and that is not cheap.

We still need to clean out the old apartment, its practically a joke at this point because we have been putting it off for so long. Will probably work on it a bit this weekend.

Need to remember sometime this weekend to breathe. Our weekends of work are killing us.

Oh, still keeping up on the running. Its been working well. We are running the majority of the time now. Finally heard my husband panting at the end of the last run burst last night so I know he is getting a workout as well.

The pugs are doing well. Spencer is still the hyper one and probably always will be but he is learning quickly what is expected of him so its been a smooth transition. Its weird having an animal testing boundaries again though, lol.

DH knows someone at the place he is interviewing with so he is going to ask her to use her influence to help him get the new job. They are former coworkers so he knows she will be an enthusiastic reference (one of his coworkers gave him the number so he could harass her).

All and all, just plugging along, waiting for all the news to break.

Finally got my first full water and sewer bill. It was $25 for 60 days. Come to find out our average gallon per day per person was 33 gallons. Not bad. I agree with their assessment though that water usage goes up in the summer. Even though we plan to plant low water plants, we still have to water for the initial planting and we will wash the car at home once its warm enough that I can't justify the car wash.

However I consider this excellent news because I was budgeting $100 for 60 days. Obviously their set up fees are far more expensive than their water fees since my first (partial) bill was $50.

DH is starting to sound like I did the week before I quit my job (3 years ago, not a recent thing). I keep crunching the numbers to see how I can keep the damage to a minimum. Hopefully Tuesday brings good news on the job interview he had.

Its complicated because on one hand, if I know this is going to be a long term unemployment, I would stop all the retirement savings and drop to minimum payments on the debt. On the other hand, since I don't know, I am still keeping those up.

The debt repayment isn't really a big deal since I can always run the debt back up if I had to in a worse case scenario. Retirement savings are a bigger deal since they can't be accessed once paid out. This right here is why I eventually want to have an EF that covers a year of salary. Unfortunately, we haven't reached that point yet.

Without adjusting the budget, I can make it out til June 1st. But if I adjusted the budget immediately, we could make it another 3 months. Grrr, so hard to predict.

Course, the reality is that we could technically go indefinitely without his income, we just would have no retirement savings, no debt repayment (just minimums) and no fun. But I really shouldn't be complaining because at least we could survive. There is a lot of people who can't. Doesn't make this situation any less stressful though...

I haven't blown the budget yet but another weekend like the last and I will. We definitely are trying to finish up the major jobs on the house this month so house repairs are still sucking up a lot of money.

On a positive note, we managed to get our new countertop installed and the spot for the sink carved out. Next time I have to buy a kitchen sink (should be never, but who knows) I will make sure it doesn't have weird notches in the underside that stick out. Why on earth would I need to clamp a granite composite sink into place? Haven't they heard of silicon which I have to use anyways to seal the edge? Because of the "custom" fit, that sink can't so much as move a millimeter, lol.

Tonight we will finish screwing in the hardware and securing the countertop. Probably next weekend I will fix the wall around the countertop (think plaster and paint, they badly abused the wall for no good reason). Once its all finished, I will post before and after photos.

I think next weekend though I will take more time to relax. This working on all weekend on the house is beginning to get old. We need down time...

Budget

Savings $75
Roth IRA $300 (raised from $200)
Student Loan $194
Car Insurance $65
CC#1 $100
CC#2 $1000
Electric/gas $150
PITI $1288
TV/Internet $86
Gas $100
Food $600 (all together and far less)
Phone $70
Water $50
Misc Items $100

This is based on my salary and DH's projected income if he gets the job he is looking at or another one at the same level. It gives me something to work with anyways. I also have a budget (not bare bones) that we will default to if he ends up with no income. The current EF level would let us live on that budget for about 7 months.

The nice thing about the above budget is that it doesn't cut into the EF but does allow us to pay off the credit cards by October. This probably means no new windows until next year but such is life. Everything else at least will have been taken care of on the house so that is minor.

and probably the last one I will ever get from the federal government, lol. So payment in full for our couch, our appliances and our kitchen stuff which was all on 0% interest credit cards.

Once that is done, we will have about $2700 to add to the EF fund and 2 last credit cards with approximately ~9k. It amazes me that I am having a hard time paying off the last 10k of debt. Its almost like having gotten this close, we just want to spend. I am sure the purchase of a house at this juncture had nothing to do with that difficulty. :P

DH wants us each to have the ability to spend $150 so that we don't feel deprived. Is it sad that I am just going to count mine towards the cost of the handyman who is going to fix things for me? I just want the odd jobs done and we seem to be getting further and further behind (maybe because we keep adding projects, lol).

DH though should at minimum buy himself a charcoal grill because he has been wanting one ever since we moved into an apartment complex that wouldn't let us have one (used to own one).

Ok, as promised, here are some pictures of my pugs. The fawn is the newly adopted (previously mauled) pug and the black is our sweety that we have had for close to three years.





Aren't they just adorable? The black one follows the fawn one around everywhere and they are constantly playing in between naps.

So my frugal month (started 1/26) is going well despite the fact that we ate out a lot with the acquisition of a new pug and with my DH having a job interview on Monday night. Weekends are still our major spend time but we haven't needed as much groceries so that helps to offset the expense.

Course what will be really interesting is that we are going to have a half of our week off fall in our frugal month so I can imagine how that will turn out. During our week off we will be getting some tuckpointing (mortar repair) done on our home which we have been quoted $475 for (hurray, thought it would be worse) and we need to finish up the apartment and the kitchen. Ah the joys of home ownership. Its a good thing we enjoy this stuff.

Oh, on a very positive note, we paid our last rent payment this weekend so now it will just be the last couple of utility payments.

On Saturday, we met with a coworker of DH's to introduce our two pugs. The coworker's pug had been mauled by another of their pugs about a year ago and ever since they have had to keep all the pugs mostly crated to avoid a repeat.

DH and I had already discussed the possibility of adopting said mauled pug if things went well (we were going to dogsit the mauled one while they went on vacation). But we obviously hadn't been the only one thinking about it. Coworker brought it up when we were walking them together. She admired how well trained our pug was and how well both pugs got along. Mauled pug had issues with other dogs for obvious reasons, hence this get to know each other visit before the vacation.

Visit goes so well that she asks if we would mind keeping him for the night. They are currently moving into a new house and would have had to crate them if mauled pug was around. We keep him and the next day she checks in with us and we tell her he can just permanently stay if she wants. So she will be calling tonight to discuss things but said she can't think of a better home for him.

So we now have 2 pugs. The mauled pug has managed in that time to teach our pug to make noise when they play and our pug has taught the mauled pug how to box. Its hilarious. Mauled pug is a natural dominant which is what probably caused the mauling by the other dominant but our pug is the ultimate submissive so our pug just follows where the other one leads.

The two areas that need work are learning to walk on a leash and learning to share toys. Both are progressing very well. Helps that he thinks that humans are the center of the universe. The toys are partially helped by the fact that our pug won't try and fight him for it but backs away if he gets the least cranky about it. So he is learning just from our pug that he doesn't have to fight for anything. Long ago when I had a wolf hybrid and a lab mutt, we had a much harder time teaching share than this.

On Sunday, DH got called by a headhunter and asked to do an interview for a full time contract position of 6-9 months. Its an excellent opportunity for DH and he has the interview tonight.

We even managed to go and collect some more stuff from the old apartment. Wow, I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

just cut hours to 35 per week and reduced bonuses. He thinks despite that, they will need to do another layoff in a month or two. I told him, well you could always hope they lay you off next time. Sadly, this would be good news for him because he hates his work environment. I do think I will make sure we don't agressively pay off things so we can have a decent sized EF at all times. We will still be able to pay off the majority though. Ah the joys. At least we never expanded our lifestyle to use up his extra income. That would have been painful.

Its good to get things done. Finished doing my taxes and submitted them. Everyone this year was really good about getting the forms to me unlike 2 years ago when I was still getting items in March and April.

Lost 2 lbs and 1/2 inch at my waist and a 1/4 at my hips. Discovered yesterday that 23 is still warm enough to go running outside but I need a headband for my poor ears. Now I will never have an excuse to avoid exercising in the winter again. Did ice my knees after the run and they are doing extremely well now so may start doing that on a regular basis.

Its day 3 of my frugal month and I am not having any issues with not eating out (very shocking to me) but its also not the weekend which is when I spend the most. Unfortunately I have plans to go out with a friend this friday. Not sure where we are going or what we are doing but I am sure it will involve money. Ah well, we had these plans before I decided to turn this month frugal so I will just have to make do.

Which is good because we spent more money on the house. Patience just doesn't seem like a virtue I possess. So instead of getting a reward when I finish my frugal month, I already have my reward and now need to simply do it. *sigh*

On a positive note, we found a much cheaper sink for the bathroom and we have everything for finishing off the kitchen. We spent the weekend getting the bathroom sink hooked up and now we have a sink that doesn't overhang the tub and the toilet. It also has storage space underneath so no more clutter.

We have the new countertop cut but not installed. That will probably be next weekend. We still haven't cleaned out the old apartment either. May need to talk to DH and see if we can take some days off so we can get that done. We are down to our final month with the apartment.

I received my water rebate for the HE washer and a rebate from my homeowner's for getting my car insurance with them which was very nice.

To start the frugal month out right I am going to see how many days in a row I can go without eating out. Even though eating out is allowed, we will save more if we keep it at a minimum.

I would like to be extremely cheap for the month of February. No purchases and very little on food. I think it will help me become conscious again about spending money which I seemed to have lost thanks to the house purchase.

Here is where you realize how pathetic I am. I need a reward to be this good for a month. Something to give me a good reason for doing it. So, I am thinking a new kitchen countertop, just a laminate premade piece like what we have but less atrocious.

The kitchen will NOT be remodeled for at least ten years and the lime green countertop with bleach stains while functional is hideous. It will cost about $100 for this piece. I only get this if I do no purchases AND get the food under $500. Its not a need, what we have is functional but it would be nice to not have to flinch when we walk into the kitchen.

Originally I wanted to replace the sink in the bathroom with this decent $200 18 inch wide vanity that actually has storage space but realized by the time I added in the vessal and a new faucet, that would defeat the whole exercise.

This is something far more economical and while we would eventually be replacing this as well (and everything I have done so far has been avoiding any need for redoing), its also a cheap luxury. It also would be a reward for my dear husband so that he didn't have to look at the lime green countertop when he does dishes or cooks. So maybe he will help me with the challenge.

I figure I can even start this challenge next week for the food portion.

So we use very little electricity in my household, we mostly use gas. Gas water heater, gas stove and a gas furnace.

Water heater is brand new and fairly efficient, no need to replace that. Stove is as efficient as a gas stove can be so that is also not an issue. But that gas furnace. Its probably a 65% AFUE. Its a 20 year old furnace that is purring along quite nicely so no immediate need to replace.

Which is good, because despite the fact that it is obviously a gas hog, I have other energy efficiency issues. I have windows with old rubber insulation that is so warped by age that they don't close (I am tempted to go out there and see if ripping the rubber off would actually let them fully close. We even have extra weather stripping from our doors...) and I have an attic that needs quite a bit of insulation added to what is currently up there.

I imagine that insulating the attic will be the cheapest job (and will change the heat loss of the house for sizing the furnace) and the windows will be the most expensive (and will also change heat loss for sizing of the furnace).

Attic insulation needs to wait on the range hood, bathroom vent and roof vents (for ease) AND for us to make sure all the holes are sealed (because otherwise you will never find them).

The one thing I have going for me is that my home is solid brick. I am really glad that I have a whole spring, summer and fall coming up to get all the attic jobs done. Especially, since I suspect it may be another year before we get to the windows...Maybe I should turn the thermostat down to 60, hmmm....

Here is the old light.



As you can see, it has a rather large hole burned into it. What you don't see is that it didn't actually fit into the space so they took the top off of it.



Here is what we replaced it with. FYI, ours is not plastic.



I am thinking the 100 watt cfl might be overkill, it shines like a beacon in the dark,but you can see.

So the repair bill for the car was not $200 like I imagined it would be but $1000. Ouch. Two catalytic converters going bad at the same time. At least they come with an 8 year warranty now...

At first I thought it was a rip off. Then I went online and found the retail price of the parts, yuck. They really are that expensive. Frankly as a mechanics daughter, I am surprised labor was as cheap as it was.

We were told our struts are leaking as well so we should get them fixed at some point. Another $1200 when we get around to that. After that though, the mechanic is pretty sure we are good for another 100k+ so that is something (car is currently over 330k).

Its actually remarkable how quiet the car is now...

Oh this weekend we spent money. Nothing like the past but we still should have spent nothing instead of what we did.

Bought some used video games for me, some study books for DH and a few more project odds and ends for the house.

We didn't really accomplish much, though DH did make a wooden container for the compost pile.

He has the next two days off so he is getting the car fixed and waiting for the mortar guy today. Hopefully tomorrow he will either work on the house or collect stuff from the apartment. Both are long overdue at this point.

We are still accumulating debt at this point. February will be the last of the double bills and March will be in the all clear but I am more than a little nervous about DH's job hunting. The sooner he finds a new one the better so I can begin to set up a new budget and know what I am working with. We have decided not to hand over control of the finances to him right now because he has too many things on his plate as it is.

I am still keeping all the debt at 0% and trying to slow the drain on money but its difficult with everything up in the air.

So a focus on a few positives. I have gotten us back to eating healthy and taking meals to work. I have a feeling that this week we will see the full force of that because we won't eat supper out (we have food prepared and things to eat).

This is the first time that I have successfully got us to include salads in our meals on a regular basis (we love them but they do take effort). We are back to making our artisan bread on a regular basis and we are back to making the majority of items from scratch. The only thing that concerns me is that we may have to increase the grocery budget because we seem to be spending $100 on each grocery run (1x per week). Course that may just be because we let things get too depleted.

Oh I have also learned how to make chicken broth from scratch which is much simpler than I thought so I can use that as a base for my veggie soup mix which is actually filling. I normally don't eat soup because I want to eat again soon after but this stuff, a mere 2 cups and I can forget about food for 7 hours.

Now that I have the food portion under control, I might start having budget control again. General rule with me is I can only change one bad habit at a time.

Since out to eat food is a large portion of our budget, getting that under control will help our finances immensely. Then I can work on the rest.

Hubby has begun applying to jobs and headhunter organizations. He is also studying for the first actuary test to expand his options. He says that doing this has helped make the nightmares go away so that is a step in the right direction. To help him be more comfortable with any pay cuts, I have pointed out that even full time with a temp agency would be more than enough to keep us on track at our current budgeting levels.

This year we will be getting back the majority of the first time buyer's credit. A very good thing for us because we will use that to replenish the ef and pay off the credit cards.

This weekend I want us to start cleaning the old apartment so that sometime in February we can do the inspection and give back the keys.

Because of all the stress, I am currently fighting the urge to go shopping for used video games. Not sure I will win that one but will try and keep the cost down if I do go. I have two games to finish so I will try to wait until then to buy any new ones. This technique has actually worked for most of the past year (had a lot of unfinished games) but I am literally down to only 2 now so we shall see.

We have been majorly over budget for the past 3 months thanks to the upheaval of a new house so February will be all about getting back on track. The only 2 projects that are a huge priority is the kitchen vent (bought already, just need to get it installed properly) and new windows before next winter(current ones are badly damaged and unable to fully close, don't ask to see my heating bill...) Thanks to the weather here, heating is really only an issue for another month and then next winter. So we will see what we can save up for and do.

I am really looking forward to seeing the debt disappear. While it was best to get the house now, that last 10k just needs to go.

My husband is reaching that point with his job where he has frequent nightmares about it, not exactly a healthy position to be in. Would love for him to hold out to June (decent EF and no credit cards at that point) but we will see what happens.

When I was at that point, I didn't last very long and was lucky that I had another position mostly lined up. I ended up being unemployed for only two weeks. But somehow I think he might have a longer hunt. He seriously job hunted for a little bit and that never panned out.

Fortunately, we can get by on just my income. If he holds out till June, I am all for him quitting outright and taking his time so he can recover from the burn out. My big issue is that I want the debt gone and the ef replenished in case something goes wrong.

He could probably get another job in his current field because he has contacts but I am betting he is just burned out on the field. Poor man, this really has gone on too long. I just wish it wasn't the most absolute worst time to be job hunting because its not going to help his ego to be turned down alot.

I told him that if he becomes a house husband, I want 3 course meals. The rest I couldn't care less about but that is what it is going to take to keep me from eating out. :P

Buying the house really messed up our cooking schedule. So we are currently trying to get back in the habit. I seem to have mostly cured myself of eating out at work but supper still needs some work. Good news is that more salad and homemade artisan bread has been making it into the rotation (I really only like artisan bread and that is because its crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside).

We have a new porch light to put up to replace the one they left us that has a nice large burned out hole in it (too high of a wattage bulb is not a good thing). It hangs down instead of standing up which is good because the current one nearly touches the roof (aka, doesn't really fit in that spot).

We still need to clean the old apartment and I think that may be a project for the upcoming weekend. Fortunately this weekend I did manage to sort our clothes. 1 bag to throw away, 1 bag to goodwill. Yikes that is alot. Other than the cords sitting next to the TV (still haven't hooked the Wii up), the new house is mostly cleaned up and organized. Finally.

I dragged my DH out this weekend for a beginning run (think mostly walking with some running) and figure we will do that 2x per week to avoid giving myself stress fractures (again). I am also going to push for us to do weight training 2x per week as well. The lack of exercise for the past 2 1/2 months is killing me (no walking a 1/2 hour per day every day doesn't count) and may be contributing to my wanting to eat out all the time (both act as stress relievers). Since neither of these activities require new equipment (well, we did by non-summer workout clothes but that is multi-use and needed), we can just do it and not have to worry about the money for it.

The items that were required were shoes for him (since he hadn't bought any in the past year) and some workout clothes that weren't shorts and tank tops, lol. I was able to get my stuff at Ross but we had to pay a little more for his since Ross didn't have anything in his size (a normal problem, small is a very popular size for the guys).

Its a good thing I restart my budget every month because January was again over budget. Not, surprisingly, for out to eat food or groceries though, just house stuff and clothes. That has got to be a first for me, food under budget and household stuff over budget.

The original one I wanted was $1400 (6 sones) but I finally found one that is only 11 sones and $470. Previously, everything I found in that price range was 30 sones which is the equivalent of a helicopter in your house.

We have the guy who does tuck pointing coming over the 19th (I think, still waiting to hear when) to do the estimate so at least that is under way. He does historical matching so this way our bricks won't be damaged by new mortar.

Now we just need to find someone to do roof vents. I was told by the home inspector that we should be able to get that done for about $400 so we will probably get that done soon so we can install bathroom ventilation using one of the vents.

This weekends accomplishments need to include the sorting of clothing (get rid of old stuff and organize current stuff), the painting of trim in the library and finishing hooking up my wii and organizing the cords on my home entertainment set up. If I manage to accomplish that, I will be very happy.

I would also like to start planning out our front garden because March 23 begins our planting season here and that front yard is a bit rough at the moment. Wayside Gardens has me drooling :P Such beautiful drought resistant plants.

You can eat in every day, eating the same thing over again without any problems.

I, despite being a size 4, have no will power when it comes to food. If I want to eat out, I will. If I try to ignore a craving it will last for two weeks until I give in. I eat very healthy things and very unhealthy things. I never can eat anything more than a couple times and if I manage to force myself to choke it down more, I won't eat it for another couple months or years.

If I was obese, people would tell me to join overeaters anonymous. Because I am thin, they just comment on the amount and frequency of my eating as an eccentricity.

We can make greek foods, morrocan foods, french and italian foods. We make homemade artisan bread and do many foods from scratch. Still I love to eat out. What the heck is wrong with me? What is it about junk food or simply food made by someone else that makes it so attractive.

There has got to be a way to control my obsession with food. Maybe I need more calories in the homemade stuff so I don't crave the junk?

This is why I try to remember to always take my time before spending money. I want an elliptical and a treadmill.

Up until househunting (November), I regularly went to a gym 3 times per week. In the winter, the main draw was the elliptical since I have weights at home. Found both on sale today. Wanted to get them. I could even have done them with no cost financing BUT I would be spending $3500. Talked to DH, we decided we were going to do it tonight and then I started making a list of all the housing projects that we need to accomplish.

Yeah that cured me of wanting to spend that money. I am just going to have to teach myself how to run outside (already walk a lot aka 30 minutes a day at about 4mph outside, if I want to improve fitness, I need a lot more than that) which means I will have to accept looking like an idiot in public (main draw of not doing a gym and doing it at home instead, I hate exercising in front of other people).

Which also means I am going to need some winter gear. I think Ross has some of that for cheap though and I already got the shoes so that I won't hurt my feet (again, last time I learned to run, I overdid it and gave myself stress fractures. They have finally fully healed.)

A girl with Roseacea going outside to exercise in the winter ( and in the dark, maybe I should just give up on fitness till springtime). Gah. I hate not exercising. Maybe yoga and weight lifting until it warms up? Have I mentioned that I hate winter. So glad it doesn't stay bad out here all the time or I would go nuts.

*Sigh* I am so looking forward to the last of the debt being gone and my saving being replenished but for the next 2-3 years, we are not going to have any difficulty spending it as fast as we can save it.

That's okay, maybe next fall I will fit in the exercise equipment so that I don't have to worry about losing fitness over the winter time. Hopefully. It would be bad if I still couldn't justify it next fall. Maybe I will make hubby promise to make me buy it next fall no matter what. He hasn't even had a gym membership over the winter like I have and spring is rough for getting back in shape.

Ah well, financially and house wise we will be in better shape this fall (sort of, there are going to be projects to do for awhile).

Okay, so some of our photos from when we were looking to buy this place didn't turn out. Big windows full of light mean everything else looks dark in the photos. So the first photo is from after painting with the curtains in. Since the curtains are shut, it gives you a good idea how long our windows are. For height, this particular one is only 40 or so inches, the one on the other side of this room is 67 inches tall. Oh, this photo only includes maybe a quarter of the room.



Second shot is better at showing the true color. Believe it or not, we are glad we did such a dark color. Without it, the room would not ever be referred to as cozy (too large and too bright).



Third photo is of us tearing out the self adhesive lineoleum tiles. That took hours upon hours. Goo be gone did a fantastic job of getting the goo up afterwards though.



Fourth is of the yard. One of the fruit trees is in the photo. This is about half the yard.



This is another architechural detail I love. The linen closet behind is very handy as well. And yes, all the walls were very dirty before we moved in.



Last but not least. See the pretty hardwood floor. See the ugly blue paint splashed on the self adhesive tile. *Sigh* This is a typical example of the type of things we had to fix (and are still fixing).



Enjoy!

In penance for selfishly forgetting to put pictures up, here is a photo of the outside. It was raining freezing rain at the time but it will give you an idea of the outside. The rest of the photos are at home but I should be able to upload those tonight.

We will not pay enough mortgage interest to itemize, not even in the first year of paying our mortgage. Ah well, I guess I will just have DH send the IRS another $20 per paycheck to insure we don't have to pay interest on our taxes. We could do more but I am more than happy to take advantage of the free loan and just pay them at the end of the year.

I would love to be upset about this but on the other hand I am not paying money to save money so that is a good thing.

As of 2013 we will have 80% equity which is kind of neat since we only put 3.5% down and we had a fee wrapped in (mortgage insurance premium, which was weird because we didn't ask them to wrap it in). We pay an additional $27 per month until 2013 as a result. So final cost of mortgage insurance including the initial premium will be $2696.

I have to say, I consider it worth it. I love my house and am soo happy to be out of the apartment. But then, I am a natural spender so I would say that. :P

January 15 is the tight point and all the finances are set up for it. That's what I get for buying a car with cash and using the credit card I pay in full for every home improvement shopping trip in the month of December. The good news is that starting February 6th I can start paying off all of those 0% interest debts I have accumulated for the house.

CC#1 676 (couch) can be paid off in February

CC#2 4061 (old debt) can be paid off in March plus in March we will buy the ventilation for the kitchen and bath and pay for DH's class that he wants.

CC#3 2900 (appliances) can be paid off in May

CC#4 2434 (old debt) can be paid off in June (final card)

And January 2010 we can afford to either remodel our bathroom or replace our windows. (Probably will replace windows since that will help with the heat bill).

On a more personal note, the 2 long weekends have helped me recover from my stress freak out and I feel ready to face my life again.

As to my budget, because of the car making temptation more easily accessible, I will probably have to wait a couple of months to see what the eating out budget becomes. My goal is to get us eating all meals during the week at home and to eat out once per weekend day. We will see how that goes.