Decisions, Decisions

Hubby has made it through his 90 day probationary period at his new job with a great review from his boss.  This means that it’s time to make some decisions about the newly available (to us) 401K.  It also means deciding if we should change his W-4 exemptions.  So I did some research.

I began by pulling up hubby’s last pay stub so I’ll have a foundation to go by.  I also did some searching around the internet for help in calculating all the different options and I found a wonderful website that did everything I was looking for!  Paycheck City has free calculators to figure out your W-4, and/or your paycheck based on hourly or salary wages.  I was very happy with the find!

Note: I double checked the W-4 exemptions with the withholding calculator on the IRS website and they matched.  The IRS gives you a bit more information like estimated taxes and refunds, but they both work to figure out the exemptions.  I also checked our last pay stub to the paycheck calculator.  It matched up — figuring out the federal taxes, social security, and medicare deductions exactly!

I wanted to see how much we would “lose” in take home pay depending on various options.  I started with keeping the current exemptions (5), then changed the 401K deductions starting at 5% and working my way up to 10% to get an idea of what our final paycheck would be.  I also wanted to see what our tax savings would be in each scenario.  In the end, I was pretty sure I wanted to have 10% deducted towards the 401K, but knew we could probably do better with the final paycheck amount.  That’s when I checked the withholding calculators.

They both came up with 8 exemptions so I recalculated the 10% 401K deduction with 8 exemptions.  I’m very pleased with the results!  We’ll only be losing $192.38 every pay period — $384.76 per month (we get paid twice a month in equal amounts) — or $4,617.12 per year!  Since the company matches up to 5%, then we’ll earn $11,250.00 per year in his 401K.  That’s like a gain of $6,632.88 per year!

Needless to say, I’ll have just under $200 less each pay period to save in our emergency fund or pay off debt, but the overall savings will far exceed that!  What a great boost to the retirement savings!

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!

Points and Cash Balances

I’ve added some new information into my sidebar listing cash and points earned from online sources.  It includes the current amounts earned, the totals earned, and how long I’ve been a member for the following sites:

• Inbox Dollars
• Send Earnings
• Ebates
• MyPoints

If you are interested in joining any of these, all referrals can be found under the Referrals tab either at the top of my blog or on the top of the sidebar.  MyPoints is the only one that does not have a referral link.  For some reason they only allow referrals through the use of email requests or Facebook.

Has anyone else been signed up with any or all of these?  What has been your experience with them?

Library Trip

I went to the public library in town again for the first time in a long time.  It’s not that I don’t like to read…I LOVE to read!  But I didn’t have much time to read a bunch of books that didn’t revolve around school.  Now that I’m on summer break, I have some time.

So I went a little crazy with picking up books on a bunch of the subjects I’m interested in…I ended up having to stop because my bag was getting too heavy, though I did have books for the boys in there, too!  I’ll pick up where I left off the next time I go in 2 weeks.

These are the books I picked up:

• Love by Design by Nora Roberts — Two books in it and one of the few I haven’t read yet.
• The Real Estate Investing Answer Book by Denise L. Evans, Attorney at Law — Looks like lots of great information.  I’ve been wanting to buy some rental properties for a long time…it’s a long-term goal of mine for future retirement income.  I can’t afford another home right now (never count on it having a tenant that will pay the mortgage…things happen so you should be able to afford another mortgage payment on your own just in case…it’s called being smart), but it never hurts to start the learning process.
• Write From Life by Meg Files – Looked like a pretty interesting book…I have a ton of writing books, some good, some I should probably get rid of, but this one looks like one I may need to buy to refer back to again and again.
• Money Still Doesn’t Grow on Trees by Neale S. Godfrey — This is actually a Young Adult book found in the teen section.  I want to look through it and see if I can find some interesting tidbits that could get my 8- and 11-year-olds more in tune with saving and understanding money better.
• eBay Quick Steps by John Cronan and Carole Matthews — I’ve used Half.com to sell items plenty of times, but I’m still on the fence about eBay…especially regarding the shipping part…I get so hung up on that!  I have a ton of things I would love to sell on eBay, so I thought I’d see if this book could give me the answers that would make me feel more comfortable with the entire process.  I would love to get rid of more stuff and make some money in the process!

Also, my boys got some books while we were there.  My 11-year-old already had a library card.  He decided to get two books about the plague…he keeps on touching us with the books and saying we now have the plague…silly boy!  We got my 8-year-old his first library card.  He got some movies (Fantasia, Fantasia 2000, and Science & Seasons) and one book — Life: Our Century In Pictures.  He really likes looking at past events.

If I find anything extremely interesting in these books, then I’ll write about it!

What are you reading?

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!

Debt Repayment and Savings Plans

As we get closer to my husband’s start date for his new job, I’ve been getting ready to deal with the finances once again.  More specifically paying off the debt and saving more money–something I’ve had to essentially put off while he was out of work.

Now I have almost $20,000 more to work with and I’m really excited about it!

First, here’s a rundown of what we owe:

• Hubby’s truck loan: $3, 311.07 (we actually have this paid through June)
• Credit card: $4,708.21 (yes, we only have one!)
• Heloc: $46,579.21
• Mortgage: $106,982.24
• TOTAL = $161,580.73

I am also going to have student loans added to this, but they will be deferred until about November 2011.  So I will not be adding them until then.  As you’ll soon see in my plan, they are already included, though I don’t know the amount as yet.  I will also be consolidating them right after I graduate.

Our net worth is currently $163,361.08 with $56,895.43 of it in combined retirement accounts.  The new 401k will be added after the probation period in three months.  I’m hoping to save 10% from his paychecks so with the 5% match we’ll be saving 15%!  We’ll have to see in three months how that will work out, but my goal is to not go below 7-8%.

Even though we’ll be making $20,000 more than his last job, I know we won’t actually see all of that money.  I based my plan on $15,000 extra a year, or $1250 per month, until I actually see the checks and can make a more precise plan.

The Plan (subject to change based on actual paychecks):

• I’ll be splitting the extra in half so $625/month or $7500/year per half.  Half will go directly into savings and the other half will go towards paying extra debt.
• I will continue to use the old paycheck amount (with a small increase) to pay the bills as I normally did and then use this as extra.  For example, at one time I was paying $300 on the Heloc.  When the rates came down I continued to pay the $300, but I’d pay an evened out amount to the heloc (if payment was $105.89, then I’d pay $110) and use the rest ($190) to pay down the truck loan (in addition to its regular payment).  I’ll continue to do that, but also add this extra money to paying the debt off.
• I still have extra money from hubby being out of work that I normally would not keep in the account I have it in.  As soon as he gets his first paycheck, I’ll be taking that entire amount I have left and pay off the truck loan! Then I can change the auto insurance on his truck to match my car (paid off prior to buying the truck), which will save us more money!
• I’ll then start my plan with the debt & savings money on his 2nd check (the first will only be for 2 days).  Half will go directly to the emergency fund and half will go towards the credit card until the card is paid off.
• After the credit card is paid in full, then I’ll switch to the Heloc and pay down as much as I can until my student loans begin.  Then I’ll switch to them until they are paid off before going back to the Heloc.
• Eventually I would LOVE to have the mortgage also paid in full!

In addition to this I am still hoping to be able to purchase the lot next door to us.  Crossing fingers it will still be available and at a reasonable price when we are ready to purchase.  Eventually I would like to expand the house, but that will be a long time from now.  The first step would be getting the lot before someone buys it and builds a duplex!  Yikes!

During the first three months, we’ll also be living pretty much as we have while hubby was not working…bare minimum with minor splurges.  That way we can save even more in case something doesn’t work out with the job.  I’d like it if we were in a better position than we were in before if he lost his job again!

Does anyone else have a plan to pay off debt and/or save more money?

Meal Planning Mom

I need to do this!  A mom in Texas with 4 boys had a grocery bill that was getting totally out of control.  I can believe it!  I have problems with having only 2 boys!  I couldn’t imagine what a grocery bill would look like with 4 of them!

So she decided to make a meal plan for every single dinner for an entire year!

She also individually packaged all her food in her freezer and dated them so she could pull it out quickly for the meal it is meant for.

This is something I have tried before, but on a much smaller scale.  My meal plans were only for 2 weeks at a time.  And while the meal plans themselves were great, actually planning the meal plan was time-consuming and tedious.

So I end up stopping something that in the end puts less stress on me at dinner and saves us a boat load of money at the grocery store!

Since seeing this video though, I think she is on to something because she only has to do that tedious and time-consuming job once a year instead of every two weeks!  She may still have to go grocery shopping here and there for basic necessities, or to pick up ingredients for this week’s meals that she does not have, but she basically has everything she needs for a year of dinners!

After the big grocery shopping I’ve done, I know there are some things I need to do with the food in the freezer.  I need to make a list and divide out some of the big packages.  I might as well start making a longer meal plan while I’m at it!

I’ll tell you how it goes when I actually get to it!  LOL!

Here is the link to the video profiling this woman and her meal plans.  I think the most amazing feat is how she can cook and slice vegetables while holding her son!

Texas Mom Plans Every Dinner for a Year

Does anyone else plan their meals?  What works and doesn’t work for you?

Orthodontist News

My 8-year-old son had his first consultation with the orthodontist today.  Normally it’s a little early to start going to the orthodontist, but in his case it’s right on time.

He was born with a cleft palate, which was fixed at 10 months old.  Even with that we still do not know if his teeth problems are due to the cleft palate, or if he is just unlucky enough to have these problems that need to be corrected so young.

He has several issues, some of which will not actually be fixed until phase 2 when he is a teenager.

Right now phase 1 will include:

• a spacer attached to bands around two of his top teeth that will be used to stretch his palate.  This is needed to fix the left side of his teeth, which have one type of a crossbite, where he has an underbite.  He could have this in for up to 6 months!
• a couple of weeks to a month after the spacer goes in, he’ll need to have some braces attached to the top four front teeth.  He has a few issues that this will need to correct.  The first is a gap in his front teeth.  The second is a different type of crossbite, where his teeth meet and not overlap.  The third issue is an adult tooth that we are waiting to come in that is coming in sideways will need to be turned around.

If more of his adult teeth come in during the treatment, then she said we could fit in a correction for them as well and not have to deal with it later.  He does have an area where we had a baby tooth pulled out (we had three teeth pulled in the back when he was 5 years old due to problems with them) and apparently there is an adult tooth missing where that baby tooth was that we didn’t know about until now.  She said that may not be a problem in his case and she can use that space.  He has a lot of teeth up top that are coming in on top of each other.

So now what are the next steps and how much is all this going to cost?

I didn’t want him to have to deal with the rest of 2nd grade and new braces all at the same time.  I’ve requested to have the spacer put in after he gets out of school for the summer so he has some time to get used to it and we can help him with cleaning around the appliance in his mouth.  Plus we’ll need to turn the spacer once a day for the first couple of weeks to slowly stretch out the palate and it’ll be easier to do with him at home.  We have to keep an eye on his palate and make sure it doesn’t tear where he had his surgery.  It shouldn’t be an issue because the doctor that performed the cleft palate surgery did a tremendous job with very little scar tissue, but she said to watch just in case.

He’ll be going in on May 31st for the records appointment.  That’s where they put a file together on him, take an extra x-ray, put bands around two of his teeth that the spacer will fit into, and make an impression of his teeth so they can have the spacer made.

Oh and they’ll need a $400 deposit that day to get everything started.

Depending on the insurance we have at the time, we should get it back.  The cost of phase 1 is $1500.  Our current insurance will pay for everything.  Assuming we have this insurance at the time.  We’ll have to see what happens in May!  Regardless, I’m not worried about the cost right now.  The important thing is that my son gets this taken care of before it’s more difficult to fix later.

At least they have a payment plan/financing if our insurance falls through in any way!

The spacer should be ready to put in around June 14th.  Everything else is a wait and see from there!  It’s really going to depend on how well his palate stretches and how quickly the remaining adult teeth come in.

Is anyone else dealing with braces with their children?

I Saved So Much Money!

I went to the grocery store today and saved a bundle!  I spent a bundle, too, but I saved the most I’ve ever saved at the grocery store!

$105.23!

I can barely believe that I saved that much!

Out of that I actually got $67.04 worth of free food due to buy one, get one free deals.  I really love Publix’s BOGO Free deals!  Sometimes they don’t always have items I use, but this week there was a ton!

In addition, Kellogg’s cereal was 50% off just for this weekend!  I bought 5 boxes and in addition had 2 coupons: one for $1.00 and one for $0.70.  The total cost for the 5 boxes was $8.65 or 1.73 per box!

I saved $12.10 on the cereal!

Overall I spent $268.80, but saved $3.25 in coupons with the other $101.98 saved in free food and other sales.

What was your best shopping savings?

More Money!

Who doesn’t enjoy getting more money?  Especially since we don’t have a lot coming in right now due to my husband’s job loss!

Well we seem to be doing pretty good since he lost his job!  Even though we know it won’t last forever, but right now it’s nice!

We just received a refund check we were expecting from a procedure hubby had last year, which we paid for in advance thinking insurance wouldn’t cover it.

Turns out they put in the wrong codes and it was covered 100%!

That’s a check for over $1400!  We received it earlier this week.

Then out of the blue we get a statement in the mail today from hubby’s former company saying they direct deposited over $1600!

They gave him a bonus!

I guess it was because he had worked the entire year and so he was on record as being employed for last year’s bonus money.

I think they feel guilty about laying people off because they were known as a company that rarely, if ever, let anyone go!

Earlier this year they put $1125 into our HSA account!  That’s been paying for COBRA benefits…at least for a while.  They gave us a $40 gift card to Publix for Christmas.  And the severance pay at the end of last year/beginning of this year was very generous!

Yep…it’s guilt!

We’ll take more if they want to give it to us…LOL…it extends how long we can go without my husband working and makes us feel more comfortable!