Caoineag's Personal Finance Blog

I want to get all the clothing arranged. We went from 2 large closets to 3 little closets. I have bought an extender rod so I have 2 rows of rods in one of the closets so shirts can go there.

I also would like to sort all of the electronic cords and get my home network set up this weekend. This could range from simple to complex. At least I know the settings for my game consoles but I am not sure about the dsl modem's settings (used to have cable).

After that, I should be able to relax and just tidy up a little. So glad we have the majority of the work done now. Still need to paint the hallway, paint the bedroom and finish a doorway but that can wait till later in January when DH will have a week off to work on things.

I swear I am going to take some time this weekend and relax. It will be good for me.

Usually not a problem for me in short doses. Give me a crisis, I deal with it and come up with the best resolution possible.

Long term though? Ugg...Between everything that can go wrong going severely wrong and one of my coworkers leaving and my husband being sick of his job and our finances being the tightest they ever have been due to all the things going on in our lives...

I feel like crawling into a corner and refusing to come out. I need to remember that I am entitled to a moment of relaxation. Its okay to stop and breathe. I have always had an issue with internalizing stress and the winter holiday season is always my least favorite to begin with. On Wednesday, when I was home alone, I had this blank lost look in my eyes because I didn't know what to do with a mostly free day. This is a bad sign for me.

When my coworker is gone in a couple of days, some of the stress will let up tremendously (we are basically helping her transition). DH will take a course in the spring to help his resume when job hunting and I am down to simply organizing the house. Hopefully this will be enough to get me through the rest of winter. Oh and I need to start exercising again. Weight training and cardio are the best stress relievers. I have got to get my focus back and stop the little voice in my head from telling me what a total failure I am. It's just not healthy.

We finished painting the library and moved the bookcases and the 6ft fishtank in. We also managed to build a kitchen hutch using the freestanding elfa parts from the container store, rearranged the living room, got some dishes washed and the kitchen a little more organized. We did spend Christmas day and Sunday afternoon being lazy.

Finally got the December credit card bill and they moved the payment up one day. Ouch. Did a 0% balance transfer for the amount we can't cover which is actually quite small considering the next day (and normal due date) was payday. *Sigh*. I swear this all will get paid off very quickly once we aren't paying for both places and buying the initial items needed for the house. I really hadn't counted on none of the appliances being functional but such is life.

However, other than needing 2 short ethernet cords, we really don't need anything else for the house. We have finally made it through the list of essentials. We want an elliptical but I am thinking that can wait till next fall when everything is paid off and we have some excess play money. Working on the house should be keeping us mostly in shape.

I am reviewing my roth contributions to see how well I can balance our retirement contributions with our debt payoff then house repairs fund. I am thinking I can at least double what I am currently at without really upsetting my cash flow. This would put us at 11.8% which is much lower than my original goal but does allow us to factor in major house repairs such as a bathroom remodel and new casement windows. Important given that this is a fixer upper which needs a lot of fixing. At least we only have a 15 year mortgage which means the cash gets freed up fairly quickly. We will get there eventually...

Through February we will have mortgage and rent, 2 electric bills and 2 water/sewer bills.

Starting in March

Short term savings 75
IRA 200
CC#1 100
Student Loan 194
Electric/gas 100
Water 50
Car Insurance 66
PITI 1288
Gas 80
Internet 48
TV 38
Phone 70
Netflix 15
Groceries 300
Out to Eat and Fun Money 400
401(k) is pre tax up to matching

Expense Total 3024
Income Total 4800

Obviously there is a big difference there and we plan to save it so that our EF fund can go to a min of 5k at all times and to pay for all the repairs needed on the house. We are also using that money to pay off all the remaining 0% credit cards (there are 3 of these).

What this means is that besides paying off the credit cards, we will have a little less than 17k at the beginning of Jan 2010. Obviously some of this will get spent on the house. The rest will be used to max out the 2 Roth's and fill up the EF fund. DH plans on getting a new job next year sometime so I want as much flexibility in savings as possible.

If things go smoother than planned, then we can go back to the original plan of maxing out the 401(k) at his new place to up our retirement savings. Especially since I suspect any new position would entail a raise. My big issue is that if he really wants to switch jobs this year, I really want a decent EF in place. We have too much work on the house to do to be surviving just on my income.

And he is definitely in need of a job change. He wakes up dreading going to work and that is not healthy. Obviously that 17k assumes full employment all along so chances are we will end up with much less which is why I am trying to keep as much cash on hand as possible. Hopefully his job hunt goes well and he can find a new one prior to quitting his old. If not, I suspect that by fall he would need to quit and just job hunt.

This spring he plans on doing a self study to get a certificate that will make him more marketable so hopefully that will get him out into summer. I just hope he takes his time and finds a job he likes instead of settling like he did when he took this job.

Ah the saga of the narrow stairs. Would not fit the old bed frame nor would it fit the 6 ft fish tank. The old bed frame was entireley due to not having the instructions nor having actually put it together ourselves so didn't know how to get it apart. Grr.. we of course figured it out after we demolished the bed frame.

Fortunately with the fish tank I made DH and I use the stand for practice. No way, no how. 5ft would have been possible but not 6ft. Fortunately the house is old and well made so we have quite a few places we can set the tank up without risk of breaking the floor.

We managed to finish tearing out the library doorway and even started the first layer of plaster. We are going to need wire mesh though for the top of the doorway due to a large gap between wood pieces. The trim has been hammered in so we can plaster where the new trim doesn't hide the defects from the old trim. The ceiling is painted (had already been plastered) and the ceiling fan is up in the library as well.

We put on the new toilet seat so no more worries about the toilet seat potentially cutting someone (it was old and heavily damaged). We also pulled up the small section of self-adhesive linoleum tiles in the hallway off the beautiful hardwood floor underneath. It needs a quick scrubbing but its mostly cleaned up and not even sticky.

I work two days this week and only three next week so the next two weekends should develop even bigger changes. We managed to spend $200 on stuff but the good news is that the spending is finally starting to slow down.

Oh, we did manage to find a couch. Its being delivered Wednesday and its a nice recliner type. It will be nice on those rare days that we want to read all day to not be uncomfortable.Its $676 on a 6 month no interest finance account (as mentioned before, cash flow is scary through mid-February but perfectly fine thereafter so March and April is the payoff of debt months).

Now if I really want to make things go smoothly, I just need to make sure the library is ready for paint by tomorrow and then paint tomorrow so all the furniture can move in on Wednesday, lol. But no big deal if we don't, our living room is huge so can hold alot.

Wednesday will be nice since I will be trapt at the house and so will be able to clean it up. Maybe I will even set up my home network so everything has internet access again.

So we were estimating our taxes and my DH to help me with this, grabs todays paystub offline and sends it to me. It seems that my estimation of his income was off by about 10k for the gross. As, once upon a time, this was more than I made in a year, failing to notice this is rather remarkable to me.

Part of the issue is that he has a 401(k) and the other part is that he actually pays money for his medical and other benefits. He also has been gaining income so quickly that last year's income is no predictor of the this years.

I have to say though, this is a little weird for me. My family at one point was living on less than 23k. Heck, when we first got married, we were living on 20k. We just brought in 87k and I already know that next year another 3.5k can be added to my side of the equation. Mind you, he will be getting some schooling in next year and may switch jobs but the likelihood of his income going down isn't very high without some serious unemployment time. And for that matter, my job is fairly secure and my job prospects are good as well.

It just seems bizarre to me that we have done this well for ourselves. I suppose its not as big an issue for my DH because his family has always been very successful but I am used to being the poor relations (no, no one ever treated me poorly, I just was definitely the poorest person I knew).

Even to this day, I can tell the people who grew up with money versus people like me by what they say and how they react to certain things. I am pretty sure I have even met more than a few self-made millionaires (I work in estate planning) who have shared my shock at something that was said. Once you have that background, it just kind of stays with you that you could always survive at that level again if you had to.

Sorry for the musing, every once in awhile I look back at where I have come from and the journey here and wonder how the heck I made it. Since I don't know a lot of people personally with the same background (or rather that made it after the same background), this is really the only place I can muse about it.

Finally figured out that means every other month in this context. Technically it can mean that or twice per month so I was a little surprised that they used that particular word.

Its my water bill and I only know that means every other month because there was a sample bill to sneak a peek at. It seems a little random to me but another coworker has theirs every quarter so what the heck.

Its my only bill that isn't monthly or yearly. Go figure.

It tooks some effort but we got all of the critical items done this weekend, managed to go to a party and still watched movies on Sunday.

Much happier than last week. Tonight I will make manicotti for supper and work on a few little projects.

Maybe I can figure out how to organize the new place or paint the ceiling in the one room.

I can't wait for the holiday weekends so that we can get the bigger projects done.

Which is good because I have a lot of things left to do.

Weekend to do list

Get Emissions Certificate for new car
Get Bill of Sale from seller of car
Fax Bill of Sale to insurance
Wait for internet repairman
Get 8'-10' washing machine hoses
Do laundry
Finish unpacking
Move 125g down narrow stairs into basement
Move headboard down narrow stairs into basement
Do dishes
Finish bringing stuff over from apartment
Paint ceiling in library
Hang ceiling fan in library
Rip out door frame in library
Nail in painted trim in library
Finish spackling library
Buy curtains for kitchen
Buy microwave
Take trash out of the house
Buy a couch that fits through a 35" door

Theoretically I can get this done in one weekend. In reality, given how things have been going, I will consider myself well pleased if I get through half of it.

The must haves are the microwave, trash, washing machine hoses and unpacking.

I am ready to go hide in a little corner and refuse to interact with the world. I am getting tired of trouble shooting every single thing. Can't just one thing work without complication? Okay, that's unfair, but I have had a lot of things take unexpected directions lately.

I am one of those people who always plans defensively and am rather fond of Murphy's Law because it means I am always early and always prepared for problems. Unfortunately, you can only have so many potential problems become actual problems when you begin to wonder what is up.

House buying - built in extra time because I was afraid of a last minute problem scotching the deal. Problem came up but built in time saved the day.

Painting - built in extra time for repair, it took that time and then some

Moving - gave us an extra day then we normally have when we move and while we got all the big things moved, still have a few minor items and managed to forget food and cookwares.

Microwave - lost by UPS, kept an eye on it and got my refund.

Technicians - every single one has run well over their alloted time except for the DirectTV guy who just showed up at the end of his time but was quick. Aka, lots of time eaten up in waiting and watching other people work.

Moving van - company overcharged me by well over $100, am currently fighting this.

Car insurance - took much longer than it should have because we didn't have auto insurance before (course not, we didn't have a car)but finally got the right quote.

Washer Machine - water hoses are too short. Need to go get extensions or longer ones.

There was more but I have blocked the painful memories. :P

Okay, I feel better now. I am just getting tired of delegating potential problems to certain nights of the week so that I can solve one problem at a time. Thank goodness I bought a car so that I am more flexible on getting places.

*Wince* Most of the kitchen ventilation hoods cost more than my actual gas stove.

I don't have cabinets above my stove, just the nonworking ceiling vent fan. I am grateful the holes are already cut and the ductwork is there but I wasn't quite expecting the wall canopy part to be quite so outrageous. They start at $500 (loud end) and go into the multiple thousands range.

The one I like is $1400 (well, normally $1700 but I found the one site selling it cheaper). Course I need one in black since there isn't any stainless steel anywhere in my kitchen. Nice, quiet, multiple speeds and it costs more than I just paid for my new to me car. :P Can you tell what I care more about?

Really, just how loud is 20-30 sones vs 6 sones? Because its a $900 difference in price. Yuck.

It will have to wait till March though. We can cashflow it then. On a positive note though I priced putting in bathroom ventilation along with new roof vents and that is cheaper than the kitchen ventilation hood. Much cheaper even though that one will include labor (I refuse to cut up my own roof, I just don't think I am qualified).

Its a good thing the windows don't need to be replaced immediately because its going to be a year or two with all the other projects needed.

Did I mention we still need to save up for a complete bathroom remodel? The plumber confirmed that the bathtub was simply installed wrong instead of there being serious structural damage (good news) except this means some very untalented homeowners remodeled the bathroom without regard to basic standards that are even listed in home improvement websites (this is where you start wondering what else they did wrong and how much mold is hiding in there thanks to the lack of ventilation). Needless to say, we are saving up for a complete overhaul. Tear it down to the basic structure and rebuild.

So my 2009 goals.

Save up for and install a kitchen range hood

Save up for and install a bathroom vent fan and roof vents (the bathroom vent fan can vent through the roof vents)

Get new windows priced so I have some idea of how much is needed

Keep enough money in savings in case the furnace dies (should hopefully last another 5-10 years but its best to plan for surprises) or the roof needs to be replaced (again, we should have at least 5 years but best not to gamble).

Start saving for a bathroom overhaul (betting on 2010 for the actual remodel).

I am sure I am missing something but I can always add that later.

I never had a move not go according to my schedule until now. It just seems like anything that can be delayed, has been delayed. We managed to move all the big stuff this weekend which was great but managed not to move our food and our cookwares. The microwave has been lost in transit so we are still awaiting news aka we can't cook with that either. Grr...

We did get the new to us car today so we will be able to go grab our food and a few other essentials we forgot. This weekend we spent $200 on the moving van and another $200 on random items for the house. I also think we still have one more $200 run in our future for miscellaneous items. *Sigh*

The dog seems to have finally accepted the new house and we seem to have finished with waiting for people to show up and fix or install things.

We haven't unpacked all the boxes or rearranged everything. We haven't hooked up the washer machine. We haven't even figured out what to do about the kitchen vent yet.

I did decide yesterday not to seek an early release on the lease. I am going to need the full time at the rate we are going.

I have done this too many times to count. I think we are going to be tight, I do the math and I confirm it. Then a couple of days later, I do the math or look at a number again and realize that I have double counted a big payment.

Which inevitably means we won't have a budget crunch. Not in the slightest. This time my mistake was a $1156 payment. Since I get nervous below a thousand, I thought things would be tight.

I think I was so convinced that we blew through a lot of money on the house that I didn't double check the rather large bill amount which was way off. There is a big difference between $3500-4000 and $2500.

Which is good because using the bad numbers, we were going to be tight when buying a cheap car off of someone I know. Yup, we are paying cash for a reliable beater since we don't currently own a car. Still will use mass transit for commuting but now we won't have to rent cars for weekends or have to wait till the weekend to drive somewhere.

I am still going to see how stingy we can be through the months of December, January and February. I would like to replenish our emergency funds as soon as possible. Its just nice knowing that we didn't spend as outrageously as I had feared.

This is what the house has cost so far

Sears: $4034.23

Linen N Things: $585.28

Lowes: $778.48

Home Depot: $815.90

Walmart: $205.30

Amazon: $431.42

Plumber: $345.00

Here is where I list what I spent money on and where I saved money. First the positive.

Lowes: $60 in coupons used

Home Depot: $50 gift certificate from realtor used

Sears: shopped sales, clearances and the outlet store

LinenNThings: Nothing under 30% off was bought (and yes we made sure they didn't just jack the price up to put it on sale)

Walmart: Got what we could here because it was cheaper than any other place.

Amazon: I was picky about the microwave, needed one that doubled as a convection oven and was reliable. They were the cheapest. By combining this purchase with a cheaper stove, saved about $400-700 overall (Double ovens on freestanding gas stoves are expensive).

Plumber: First quote was $1600. Second was from a guy who actually knew what he was doing AND was cheaper.

Now, what I bought.

High efficiency steam washer, refrigerator with french doors and bottom freezer, gas stove with 5 burners and convection oven, microwave that can act as a convection oven, trim (to replace badly mistreated trim), tools for both inside and outside, queen bed set because our current bed will not fit in the bedroom (turning our king into a basement guest bedroom), paint, primer and painting tools, curtains and curtain hardware (we have more windows than walls seriously but at least we never have to turn lights on until its dark out), door locks and door handles (outside doors), radon test kit, etc.

AKA, lots. I now have a 10% coupon for Lowe's good through 1/15/2009. Of course. But I am sure we will find a use for it.

So a little less than $7200. I suppose that's not actually bad considering. Wait till we price out replacing the casement windows with new casement windows.

Oh, I also got the first electric and gas bill for the house. 9 days cost $23 plus $64 that the previous owners didn't pay (no worries, I expected that and was grateful it was so little). I suspect part of that was the gas water heater having to heat up all the new cold water pumping through it. The house water has been turned off a couple of times in the past month. At this rate, the house will be cheaper than our current place for double the space. I will reserve judgment till after I see the first water bill.

This weekend we are finally moving in. Once we are in I think the little projects will be easier to accomplish.

Must be that time of year. For some reason, each January just towards the end I have a cash crunch. Its not that we don't have enough money because when January is over we always have excess, its simply the way things fall. This year its being caused by the expected but unknown at the time expenses of buying a new house.

What it really means is that we have to delay my DH's upping of the 401(k) contribution from its current level to 30%+ til February instead of doing it in January. In February/March we will pay off the last of the credit cards and for the first time in a while be credit card debt free!

Which of course means that the next couple of months are going to be obnoxious financially. I am not a patient person and I have to wait 3 months to pay everything off and figure out my true expenses since the transition period is the most expensive (we have rent through February and a mortgage payment starting January and don't forget duplicate utilities).

To even figure out when the cash crunch would hit since I knew we were due for one, I had to create a timeline of when things were due and when we got paid. Course all of this is moot if we manage to get bonuses this year but I don't count on them, especially in a year when the firm is trying to figure out its budget and the husband's company already did layoffs in the middle of its busy season.

I just look forward to the next 3 months being over. We will be moved out of the apartment, moved into the house, free of all the credit cards and able to build a really decent emergency and house fund for the first time ever (unless you count the house down payment but fortunately we were able to use that for the house and not an emergency).

I think I will have to wait till March to decide my 2009 goals because everything will have settled down by then. Probably will include saving like mad for expected house expenditures like windows and venting in the kitchen and bath, lol.

I don't have all the numbers to post but I will probably post what we spent on the house once it slows down. I do know that we have broke the 4k mark if you include appliances.

For those who asked, I will post before and after photos once I have them. The wall and trim repairs and painting is taking a very long time. We slept, ate, and worked on the house for the previous 3 days and we only have 1 room finished for all that effort (biggest room in the house though so that is something).

I decided to try sponge painting and decided that I can't stand it. So the walls are getting repainted back to the base color. Fortunately that won't take too long (2 hour max) but its still obnoxious.

3 people working 3 days straight on one house. Ugg. Fortunately we have another 2 long holiday weekends to really work on the house so that things can get fixed up.

Which is good, we are going to need it.

$800 in tools and supplies
$1162 for a scratch and dent LG Steamwasher (now with more scratches and dents, see below)
$899 for a gas stove w/ 5 burners and a convection oven
$700 for a queen bed set

Amazing how many things you find you need when you start trying to fix things up. Wait till we start adding in the repair bills.

The washer was fun. We have a narrow stair well. It was just not going to fit down there. So we did an impromptu deconstruction of the wood paneling and discovered another 3-5 inches of space. We managed to walk/drop it down the stairs, one step at a time since it still wouldn't fit with a dolly. We will see how well it survived the beating after the water gets turned on. (Oh yeah, did I mention the previous owners hadn't warned us that they had turned the water off after inspection, lovely.)

We will be taking the doors off our fridge to get it into the kitchen, not too bad since its designed for that so its easy. It is very bad that we have to do that for the old fridge though. Its full of mold and smells like it. Ugg. We also added a few new dents to the fridge thanks to it being awkwardly large. Ah well, at least its in, it was fairly cheap and what I wanted.

Discovered that the trim in the bedroom and library is horribly trashed, decided to fully replace it since we are going to be painting and patching anyways. Since the trim has been abused, its very easy to get off with a prybar but that is one more new expense. Ahh we always knew this place would nickel and dime us.

The weekend wasn't long enough. We had enough time to trash the place and no time to put it back together again. Too much shopping for things we needed, like a functioning stove and washer and the tools to fix the place up.

Friday after turkey day, we have the stove, the water guy, and the plumbing guy all coming so we are hoping to get more projects finished while we wait patiently for them. Feel free to laugh now.

We have the apartment until February. We are going to need it at this rate. So glad we gave ourselves enough time to accomplish things. We both have 3 extended weekends coming up during the holidays and DH has a full week of vacation to burn through in first quarter so we have time coming up in which to do the work.

but fortunately my realtor was willing to do whatever it takes to close such as begging her husband to get out of bed early this morning and go into the cold and cut bars of my windows.

Backing up a little, last night we got the all clear on the loan, 20 minutes later we were told we weren't going to be able to close until the security bars on the windows were removed. With a mere 5 days before the drop dead date, that wasn't good.

A flurry of phone calls and the sellers claim they will take care of the bars that night. I am in shock. These are the people who couldn't even sign the first contract on time. But hey, if they say they will....they didn't.

Realtor does a flurry of calls this morning, no one knows anything. She yanks her loving and very tolerant husband out of bed and has him accompany her to the house. The bars are still on. They begin work, more calls and emails ensue as people search desperately for the appraiser to confirm their removal and fortunately all is cleared with a mere 1 1/2 hours before closing.

All said and done, closing was the easiest and least stressful part of the day.

Both realtors saw the value of not trying to wait till the drop dead date. This is why I am always early and always prepare for potential complications. Life is less stressful if complications have time to be worked out.

Needless to say, we made sure to grab a thank you card and some gift certificates to a restaurant we know they go to alot. Funny part was, she had a card ready for us with a gift certificate to home depot. She takes very good care of her clients.

My net worth is down 5k thanks to the purchase but its worth it to have a place of our own. Hurray!

So we got the last of the all clears we needed from our mortgage company and now they are just rushing to have all the paperwork finished in time for the closing tomorrow. Because we are doing a short sale, it can take the short sale bank 24 hours to approve the closing. Grrr.

Hopefully we have their signature by this weekend so we can get started on the house. If not, we will have to wait until Monday to take possession (which basically means not till Thursday which is our first day off next week and is also Thanksgiving Day).

But at least its on track to close.

We have decided that before moving in, we want to paint the living room, hire a plumber for the plumbing issues, install a new gas stove and our new frig, correct the switch hot and neutral wires on 50% of our outlets and clean the place up a bit.

Don't even ask how much we plan on spending at Lowe's, we have a variety of tools that we don't currently own that we will need almost immediately. At least the holidays are coming up so we have a lot of mandatory time off in which to work on the house.

Yeah, I know you all know I am lying about the patient part. But that's okay, I shouldn't have to wait long.

The raise on the other hand is about 10.6% of my old salary so its very nice.
I was basically told I was invaluable and that they wanted to make sure I was happy here because they didn't want me to ever leave which was even nicer.

Normally all raises would go to savings but since we are going to max out the DH's 401(k), this will probably only go into short term savings (EF/house improvements fund).

So new house budget since our numbers are now more known except for utilities.

Savings1 $25
Roth IRA $150
Student Loan $193.6
Electric $120
Water & Sewer $70
Cable $62
Phone (2) $70
Groceries $300
Miscellaneous $800
PITI $1320
EF/HIF $1000

Our new loan disclosures show that both the upfront mortgage premium and the monthly pmi went significantly down thanks to it being a 15 year instead of a 30 year and that some of the closing costs were less as well.

After moving I also suspect that our miscellaneous category will go down since we won't be eating out as much. The convenience of 10 restaurants less than a block away is simply a terrible influence on us.

$330 for the home inspection
$99 for the sewer pipe inspection
$217 for clothes at one store
$76 for clothes for husband
$100 for clothes at another store
$64 for makeup
$36 for jewelry
$200 for curtains and curtain rods
$89 for groceries (including some Thanksgiving items)
$40 for books (cheap trip in my household)
$100 for out to eat meals

Youch. On the clothes, well, it was overdue and I only tend to buy in batches because I hate clothes shopping. Most of the items were very much on sale or it would have cost alot more. Jewelry, makeup and books have no excuse. As I don't traditionally wear any makeup, the makeup is an experiment. Everything else was a planned expense.

In the past, I have spent a lot more money on clothes because I didn't hit sales and would wait till I was desperate for clothes. I think I am improving on that but I still really hate to spend money on clothes.

I did have to force my husband to get 2 shirts he wanted because he seems to think its a crime for him to spend money on himself (this is the guy who waited until all his shirts had holes in the elbows before buying new dress shirts for work). So we went back to get them the next day while I still had a 20% discount on them (actually got 40% off thanks to a layaway special which was nice.)

Also, this was a 3 day weekend thanks to the home inspection. Blah, maybe I am becoming more of a saver than a spender, I really didn't enjoy parting with that much money and in the past I wouldn't have blinked an eye. What's especially weird is that I spent much less than I have in the past and it fits in the budget but it still gives me palpitations. I think part of that though is the fact that we will be spending so much on the house very soon.

Speaking of which, the inspection went well, we will have to spend less than we thought we would but we do need a new stove. The old one doesn't really work. I see the scratch and dent outlet center in our future.

and I am guessing I am the only one here that doesn't from the blogs I have been reading. We just fit it into our usual budget and call it good. I guess we just don't feel the need for as many items under the tree as other people. While we will decorate and will wrap gifts, they tend to just be the little items we would have bought eventually anyways.

My big issue with saving up for Christmas is that the more money available for Christmas, the more money gets spent. For example, one year I managed to get DH to agree to only using the Christmas bonuse from my small firm. I thought it would cut the spending. I underestimated the generosity of my employer. It was a very merry Christmas.

The thing is, we just don't need to be getting all that stuff at once. I tend to appreciate items more one at a time than in one big pile where it may take you a month or two to use everything.

I guess that we allow ourselves so much spend money throughout our day to day life that its not that big of a deal to have lots of Christmas presents. Not that I mind, I am glad we can get items as we want them.

However, I am the person that has been told all my life that I am not allowed to buy anything after October or anything in the month before and during my birthday. I don't tend to have a lot of items I want and I have a tendency to buy them when I want them. Maybe I am just a party pooper...

That said, I love the holidays. I love decorating for them, cooking for them and getting together with people I love. I even like to watch the holiday specials. I have even put holiday decorations on my gift lists so that people could buy me a little something (since some people really love to buy people things).

Course I am known for buying people things whenever I see something they would like so maybe I just don't like being restricted to shopping for a specific holiday. Ah well, I always knew I was a little strange. :P

This weekend we did a marathon window shopping session on house furniture. I suspect we will not be buying new furniture anytime soon because we are too picky and couldn't find anything we liked. :P I do eventually want a new or new to me couch that is more comfortable than our current one but I didn't see any winners.

We did pick up some items on our to buy list at Linen N Things close out sale. I really hope they are still around when we go to buy drapes and curtain rods but I doubt it. They are starting to look picked over.

Had my credit card freak out about my usage. No surprise that they didn't like me buying a frig but it was a surprise that they took a week to finally decline my card and never called me (I called them and they took care of it in about 10 minutes). First time I have had a card that didn't call me before declining when they suspected was fraud (did have one credit card that called me on every major purchase, sometimes while I was at the store, lol).

Monday of this week, all the inspections had to be rescheduled because the sellers decided they wanted to set up everything at the time we were supposed to be inspecting and we had to harass the mortgage company because they forgot that we wanted a 15 year mortgage instead of a 30 year mortgage. Better to have all this happen now rather than later.

This Friday we have the inspections so it should be quite the experience. After that, we get to call the mortgage company and get the appraisal in progress and then its just up to them to finish off the underwriting.

Now comes the mad rush. The short sale bank wants the closing to occur before the 24th. So, I have emailed a home inspector and we have applied for an insurance quote from a company my DH works with and DH is sending all the new information to our loan officer so we can finish the loan paperwork.

Once I know which day the home inspector can do I will set up the rooter guy to inspect the pipes at the end of that. DH will ask the loan officer about the survey and the title commitment since we aren't sure who is doing what. The email from the realtor implied she was handling title and we were handling the survey but I think the bank will actually do both so hence double checking. I think what it actually is that not all lenders do surveys and that the realtor is going to start talking with our loan officer.

We won't have time for any mistakes. We are telling the loan officer to shoot for closing the 21st so that we have an extra day in case something goes wrong. Not to mention that gives us an extra weekend in there to get things done on the house.

At this point there is still a couple of ways that this can all fall apart but we are hoping for the best and trying to make sure deadlines aren't an issue.

For the short sale approval, all that's left is for the VP of the bank involved to sign off or offer a counterproposal. Supposedly that is going to be happening this week (its already Thursday folks). Well its been a month already and we are finally getting antsy. We want this place and we are ready to get started.

Wish he would hurry up *grumble, grumble*.

We have been working towards the goal of owning our own home for 2 1/2 years now and we started with a -60k net worth so we are going to be extremely frustrated if we end up not getting this place and not finding anything else in the next couple of months so have to rent for another year. Yuck.

I have 2 appliances that I will want/need for the house we are buying, a washer(need) and a refrigerator (want). We decide that since we need to try and keep prices down, we need to see who sells what at what prices.

We went to Sears on Saturday to see what kind of deals they had. We discovered a lovely little section that is clearance because items are floor models that they don't want to have out anymore. Oh boy. The deals look decent and we decide that when its time to buy we need to come back. Then I see my frig, the one that on sale with rebates costs about $1500, the one I am never going to pay that much for so I probably will never own it. They had a model in black for $734. Needless to say my jaw dropped.

I think about it for 10 minutes. Discuss it with the hubby and I basically decide we can't afford to pass it up. Go back, grab the salesman and tell him we want to buy the frig. He walks over and actually flinches a little when he sees the price drop on it (glad to know that I wasn't the only one surprised by the price decrease).

No installed icemaker or water dispenser which is the only reason I can think of for the lower price (normally factory installed which drives me batty because I don't like those features, I consider them a waste of space). So he calls the manager over to discuss a warranty. I listen to the speel, I like what he is saying but in the back of my mind I am not willing to pay a fortune for a warranty.

He offers the 5 year warranty for $150 (free maintenance, parts, repair and replacement if repaired more than 4 times). Personally I consider that a steal because I have seen the repair bills for refrigerators and all it takes is once. I figured if I buy the warranty I will never need it which is better than not buying it and having it break in less than a year

So warranty, delivery, and frig for $1000. Very happy about that. Hopefully they will have a similar deal on a HE washer when I go back. And I am not going back till I have the house because I don't want the apartment that full of boxes, lol.

Only reason I got the frig is the deal and knowing that in my price bracket, none of the homes have a decent frig. So no matter what, I will be able to use my new frig and donate whatever one comes with the house to a local charity (they work but we always run out of space in our current frig, not to mention some of the awkward spacing issues).

This was a definite splurge. Not even remotely a necessity. And I must admit, I have no buyer's remorse. We have the cash for it and this was planned in our budget. I am still bouncy and thrilled with the purchase.

Oh and we also discovered that the kitchen does have a vent so we won't have to do anything to the kitchen immediately.

Which is good, because I plan on the washer and an electricity update for when we move in and the rest I want to hold off on until we have a nice large nest egg to cover any emergencies.

The house we are buying is a fixer upper. I already know certain items will need to be fixed. Both the bathroom and the kitchen lack any ventilation. The kitchen of course has a gas stove just to make life interesting. We are going to have to upgrade the electricity so I need to figure out what I want where eventually so I can do everything in stages without having to undo what I have previously done.

Course all of this could be moot. We could find out something horrendous about the house that makes it unlivable during inspection or the bank could decide they want to foreclose instead of sell. I am just the type who plans things out way too much, lol. But to be fair, taking into consideration everything that needs to be fixed is part of the house buying process.

We improved the net worth another 2k despite the down market (investing more than we have lost). Most of that is savings though we finally have enough for everything (technically, we both want about another 2 weeks to feel comfortable).

We have been brainstorming the most effective ways for upgrading the house where necessary. First we dreamed big and now I am figuring out how to be more realistic, lol. The cheaper method allows us to upgrade everything that matters except for the bathroom right off the bat. I am still trying to get that cheaper where possible without compromising on quality or ignoring something important.

Course all this may go out the window if the inspection turns up a nasty surprise that needs to be dealt with immediately so we shall see. Ah the joys.

I have a feeling that November is going to be a whirlwind...

I cleaned up the balconey this weekend and took apart the last fish tank that needed to be taken down before we move. With slightly more than a month to the move and a major holiday in between now and the move, I have been hesitant to pack too much. As a result, our packing has been low stress and unrushed.

We ate out a lot this weekend and I spent money on items that were not a necessity. I am rather ambivalent about that given that we have been aiming for only 20% of our budget being spent on wants and I am beginning to suspect that is a little too low to be sustainable. We have plenty of wiggle room to allow it to go higher so I think for now I won't worry about it and will just make sure to keep the overrun at a minimum.

We did price out some of the items we want for the new house and were pleasantly surprised on how low cost we could go on the home gym equipment without skimping on the items that matter to us.

We still have a week or two before we hear back about the short sale so we are still treading water there though my real estate agent did send me a no update yet email today.

Oh and one thing I have noticed. The best way to get my husband to serve me my sized portions of ice cream is ice cream cones. I have never been able to have a quart of ice cream last this long before, lol. Must remember to keep ice cream cones on hand in the future.

November 10th we will have all the money we need to close on the house and then some so no real need to track that anymore. Will probably switch to an emergency fund tracker since we will need to replenish that and just plain build up regular savings.

New Budget (when we get the house)
Savings 25
Roth IRA 416
Student Loan 193.6
House Payment 1233
Insurance and Taxes 200
Electricity 120
Water and Sewer 70
Credit Card (paid in full) 1318

On the Credit Card
Cable 62.11
Phone 71
Netflix 15
Bus Pass 70
Groceries,Out to Eat and Fun Money 1100

Remaining 424 would go into the EF.

This is a lot tighter budget then I am used to. 1, DH will be maxing out his 401(k) and 2, I will be maxing out my Roth IRA. That's not quite $1700 per month thanks to the tax advantages but ouch. Course what you aren't seeing is that we have been living on a much tighter budget than this, its just we had the illusion of more money because we were choosing to pay so much on the credit cards to get rid of them.

A big issue with this budget is electricity, garbage, water and sewer are a big question mark. I way overestimated electricity to cover garbage but electricity is the only bill I have ever paid when in a house (currently live in an apartment so I know what I pay now but that won't necessarily translate).

Actually electricity was cheaper in a house than an apartment so I am hoping it will go down but I am not holding my breath.

Another thing you will notice about the new budget is that it is one budget instead of two. My DH and I will be alternating control of the entire budget so that he can get an overall view of what we are spending. In the past I always made sure all excess income was in his wallet not mine because I didn't trust myself not to spend it. This resulted in him having one little bill and lots of free money. Hard to stay in budget if you see no reason to. This will give him the opportunity to see the big picture.

Hopefully this will eliminate the "what do you mean we spent twice we are supposed to, why didn't you tell me no?" situation since I am always the instigator of spending money but couldn't see his side of the equation in order to self regulate (he can't say no to me, trust me, I only think of this as a bad thing when it comes to our finances, I am spoilt and loving it).

Overall, I think we are doing pretty well but I am looking forward to March when everything has been switched over and all the chaos is over.