Almost There!

We only have $2,727.81 left to reach our emergency fund goal of $10,000!  So I’m going to spend the next 2 months throwing everything extra at it so we can relax knowing whatever happens we have a great emergency back-up.  I figure I can put in at least $1,390 this month and the remaining $1337.81 next month, though those figures don’t include interest earned or the automatic monthly savings.  From there I’ll take all the money, other than what’s already been set up to automatically go into the emergency fund account, and throw it at the debt.

That’s about $1390 per month extra over the regular payments made!

• That means the credit card will be paid off in 2 1/2 months.  September 2010-November 2010
  
• Next I can start paying down the Heloc.  I should be able to get it down to around $32,600 (estimating) before my student loans become due.  December 2010-September 2011
• Then I’ll throw everything at the student loans (after I consolidate them) before returning to the Heloc.   October 2011-January 2013

Hopefully those dates are an overstatement. I’d love to be down to a Heloc and Mortgage payment only before 2013!  I’m not including that I’ll actually have more money to put towards the debt as I pay things off.  The regular credit card payment will be gone and added to the Heloc.  As the Heloc gets paid down, the interest payment will lower and so I’ll actually have more to put towards the student loans when they become due.

Of course this is still all wishful thinking assuming nothing major happens over this time period to negate these plans.  Though I could also find more money here and there, which may reduce the payoff times.  It all depends on the “What If’s”! *sigh*

Regardless, the emergency fund is the quickest and easiest item to take care of first!  I think I’ll go see if I can come up with some more money!

Good Money Day!

And I didn’t even make any!  But I’ve been moving money all over the place today, and did so good at the grocery store that I’ll have to go back and buy some more!

Grocery shopping went so well that I bought 71 items and was $43.58 below my $200 budget!  I also saved $52.85 in store savings and $6.58 in coupons.  So I’m ready to go back to the store this weekend to pick up some additional food for the pantry and freezer.  I already bought some of these today, but we go through them a lot.  Tomorrow I’ll pick up:

• 4 bags of shredded cheese on sale 2/$4.00 — I bought 4 of them today and put 3 in the freezer.  These 4 will also go in the freezer.
• 2 bags of frozen tenderloins on sale for $5.99 — I bought 4 bags today and I already had 2 bags left from the last shopping trip.  These extra 2 bags will be a nice addition to the freezer!
• 1 bag of 80 frozen meatballs $6.99 — I bought 1 today and another will give me 2.
• 2 jars salsa $1.99 each — I bought 2 jars today.  Great for spicing up a meal!
• 1 bag of rice — I bought a 5 lb. bag today on sale for $2.59…another 5 lb. bag would be terrific!  We go through a lot of rice!
• 1 canister of stuffing — I bought 1 today and will add another.
• 4 bags frozen veggies $1.29-$1.69 each –  I bought 7 bags of frozen veggies today.  Some are used for cooking in meals and others are used for sides…good to have some extras.

After this trip I’d like to see how long everything I bought and have on hand will last.  I’m going to make up as many menu plans as I can and stretch the food we have other than quick trips for milk, bread, fresh veggies, etc.

In addition to the shopping trip, I also transferred some money around.  I paid $400 extra towards our credit card debt and I transferred $400 extra into our emergency fund.  In 4-5 months we should have our emergency fund up to the $10,000 goal and our credit card paid in full.  We’ll still be using our credit card (I’m not opposed to them, but the balance was too high at this time), though the need for it other than “use, then pay off” will be lessening now that I’m almost done with school (only 2 more terms!).  In regards to the emergency fund, we should be over $7,000 before the next pay period!

Financial Info in Sidebar!

I’ve added some financial info in the sidebar! Here are some of the things I have and have not put in it.

I have included:

• the initial amount owed, the current amount owed, the goal, and the percentage of completion for our mortgage, truck loan, student loans, and heloc;
• the actual amount saved, the goal, and the percentage saved to reach the goal for our emergency fund and retirement accounts;
• the amount I have in our “Loan Payoff” account to use towards paying off debt;
• the initial net worth (beginning 4/22/2010), the current net worth, and the percentage of change either up or down.

I have not included:

• the credit card information (note: while we do have to pay it off, we won’t be canceling it…the total will never be above $5,000 and most likely will begin to be paid off each month once the card is initially paid off);
• our actual paycheck amounts;
• any other savings and checking account information (I may talk about them from time to time, but won’t actually disclose exactly how much we have or don’t have in them…if I create a new one to use for a specific purpose, then I may or may not disclose that at a later time).

I hope to encourage others to pay down their debt along with increasing their savings by showing our progress.  We’re not the worst off there is, but at the same time it could always be better!  We’ve always been very careful with our lending and spending practices.  We are frugal where we need to be without being cheap and depriving ourselves.  We don’t mind spending a little more money on something if we know it’s better quality and will last, but we’re also looking for a bargain when we can.

Because of this I’d say we are now comfortable, though we’ve had to go through some uncomfortable times to get here.  We never would have survived my husband losing his job twice in 3 years if we didn’t properly plan and manage both our savings and debt.  Especially since I quit working in 2004 and have no plans to go back to work for quite a few more years!

Questions are welcome, though I may reply with a “too personal!” response, if needed.

No Paycheck

My husband’s new job pays them on the 8th and 22nd of every month (unless it falls on a weekend or holiday).  So we thought we would get a check on the 8th for the first two days he worked, then get a full paycheck on the 22nd.

Apparently not!

Instead we’ll be getting a full paycheck on the 22nd only.  Usually paychecks cover the two weeks prior to the payday week, but not here.  The paycheck for the 8th of each month is from the 16th to the end of the month.  The paycheck for the 22nd is from the 1st to the 15th.  Since he started on April 1st, then he gets his first full paycheck on April 22nd.

We’ll be spending more of the funds we left in our checking account to use while he was out of work, but the paycheck will more than make up for it in the end.  I’m actually happy that it works out this way!  Now I don’t have to fix my MoneyDance program to reflect a 2-day paycheck, then turn around two weeks later and fix it for a normal, 2-week paycheck.  Less work for me is always good!

I’ve already started to transfer money around within my checking account to make my MoneyDance program look more like it does when hubby is working.  We stopped doing a lot of things during his time off that we did normally…now we have to get back into those things again.  This is what I’ve done so far:

• I placed $200 into the “miscellaneous” account.  This is the extra we leave in the account in case we run over any given month.
• I placed $200 into the “medical” account.  I use this for anything I have to pay out of pocket over what we have left in hubby’s HSA.  I will be contributing to this every pay period.
• I transferred what was in my “roundup from checking” account to my online emergency fund.  I usually round up all my purchases, then transfer it all at the end of every month.  I stopped this when hubby lost his job.  I’ll be starting it up again on the 22nd.
• I’ve prepared the payment stubs for the next 9 payments of hubby’s truck loan.  The money left to pay off the truck is now less than the amount owed so I’ll be paying what I can, then taking care of the remainder in the next several months.

There’s not much else I can do until the first paycheck, then I’ll have a ton of planning to do!

Hubby Got a Job!

For anyone that does not know, my husband was laid off from his job in December (he was actually let go in October, but was considered a non-working employee until December).  Thankfully, we are well-prepared people!  We have very little expenses and have saved enough of a buffer to be fine for up to a year with unemployment benefits filling in the gaps.

But we don’t have to worry about that anymore!

And do you know the best part?  He didn’t even apply for this job! He received a call from their HR person asking him if he was still available.  She apparently found his resume on Monster.com and thought he would be a good candidate for the position.  She immediately set up an interview for yesterday morning.  So he went in, talked to the guy, and that afternoon he received a call from the HR person with a job offer!

I am so happy that I’m going to have him out of my house! I mean, I’m so happy for him!  LOL!

This really is a great opportunity for him and our family.  We were doing so well with him out of work that I still have enough to pay off his truck when he gets his first paycheck.  We’ve also increased our emergency fund (I didn’t even touch it)!

He’ll be a programmer with a government contractor and his start date is April 1st, so he has a couple of weeks to just relax or get some errands/chores done.  He will have to do some traveling, but not much, except at first.  We’ll find out the schedule for that later.

The best parts are the pay and the benefits!  He has always been working for way under the median income for his job and the area.  Finally he is going to be paid for what he does!  That’s over a $20,000 a year increase!  We don’t really need all that extra so I’ll be socking it away into savings and paying off debt!  Woohoo!!!!

The benefits are just as awesome!

For health care it’s:

• about $72 per pay period for family coverage
• no copays
• they pay 80%, we pay 20% over deductible, though they do contradict themselves on this because they also say that once the deductible is paid, then we are only responsible for 10% (perhaps one is for in-network and one is for out-of-network…either way works for me!)
• and they pay 100% of deductible!

The dental is:

• about $12 per pay period for family coverage
• they pay 80%, we pay 20% (of course that depends on in-network and out-of-network, and the type of work needed.  Sometimes they pay more!)

There are more benefits, but those are the most important right now.  We still need to find out if the insurance starts immediately or if we need to keep COBRA for a while longer.  The 401K is after 3 months and they match 5%.  The life insurance is paid 100% by them!

I’m anxious for him to go back to work…I know he is, too!  But I’m also anxious to see how much I can pay off and save now that he’s making more money than we need!  I was already paying the debt off early with $20K less so I can only imagine how quickly I can get rid of it now!