Money Matters
jessica490
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Monday Accountability
1. How MM was your weekend?
2. Any progress towards goals?
3. What spring-time things are you most excitied about?
Re: Monday Accountability
1. An unexpected expensive weekend. $30 pizza hut, $50 to sister, $400 plumber
2. We've listed our condo for sale! $790 to house DP
3. The warm sun, green grass, and longer daylight! Oh and our cruise in May!
1. How MM was your weekend? Pretty good- groceries ($148), clothes for the girls ($50), birthday gift for niece ($28), gas ($26).
2. Any progress towards goals? Taxes are filed- $1,982 will go to our vacation fund from Feds and State. That'll put the account over $7,000 which is great. We're also officially below $100,000 on our mortgage- fun to go from 6 digits to only 5.
3. What spring-time things are you most excited about? Everything!- sun, going for walks with the girls, gardening, time outside.
1. Meh. $150 on groceries. $40 on eating out plus beer for him and wine for me. We did have an unexpected plumbing expense, costing us about $300, which was a bit of a buzz kill.
2. We hit the $50,000 mark on our retirement savings. We're still behind where we want to be, but that feels like a small milestone.
3. We're going on a big vacay and cruise in May too! In addition to that, I'm looking forward to getting back outside for walks and working in the yard.
1. How MM was your weekend? Pretty good actually. We had Chipotle for dinner Friday night, we went to a hockey game on Saturday night (tickets were part of our ticket package and already paid for) then went to the grocery store. DH spent about $100 at Home Depot on a few things to finish up the bar package.
2. Any progress towards goals? Goals are on hold pending a new job for me. (see posts about "Best Laid Plans" and "Cutting our Budget was Hard") We are currently operating mainly in emergency mode.
3. What spring-time things are you most excitied about? I'm so ready for spring and warm weather. I'm done with the below freezing temps and snow.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Good. A tank of gas for each car and $6 in groceries, all budgeted.
2. Any progress towards goals?
$100 more to student loans and DH got an informal job offer. Hoping he will start in the next couple weeks.
3. What spring-time things are you most excited about?
We've got a great park right across from our apartment with a 1 mile track around a lake. I'm really looking forward to being able to head over there in the evenings to run/walk when we don't want to trek across town to the gym.
1. How MM was your weekend?
It was OK.
Friday $13-dog food (dog has a consult to discuss diet changes to manage her allergies on friday, I didn't want to commit to a big bag of food)
Saturday- $30-tickets to a show my friend Choreographed, $25 for drinks after
Sunday-$100 groceries
2. Any progress towards goals?
none right now...we opperate on a $0 budget, we'll see what's left at the end of the month. H wants to go back to his Karate training, tuiton is $130 a month, I felt terrible telling him I didn't feel comfortable with it, but we did just decide for him to go back to school.
3. What spring-time things are you most excitied about?
Gardening! so excited! my garden is currently burried in 2 ft of snow, but I'm planning to take inventory of my seed stash this week and see what seeds I have left from past years that I can get to sprout before I go buying more.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Good. I worked pretty much non-stop this weekend, so we didn't spend any unbudgeted money. We broke even on groceries because I exchanged our Costco reward certificate, so we didn't spend anything on that. $140 at Home Depot for the last bits of our back room remodel and canned light installation. $3 at Chick fil a with coupons. $52 for a shower gift for my BFF. $27 on gas.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Our state tax refund from the amended return I filed in January showed up! So that's $460 sent to savings. Also, all of the credit cards we have applied for to maximize travel rewards showed up, and I'm working on getting those squared away for points.
3. What spring-time things are you most excitied about?
Tornadoes! Ha - not. Just being warm will be a huge improvement. I really need it to be 70 degrees and sunny outside.
My first Monday accountability post!
1. Weekend was good (mostly thanks to the snow which kept us home for most of it). $20 wine on Friday night, $114 on groceries, $50 on gas.
2. Paid $1400 to CC - it is the lowest balance it's been in a long time - finally making some headway and feeling good about getting rid of them.
3. Being outside! We have 2 girls, 4y/o and 10 months, and we have major cabin fever. It's tough to take the older one outside when it's too cold for the baby.
1. How MM was your weekend? $70 on cat related items. We went $20 over because we were able to get a good deal on a 22lb of cat food our store is finally carrying and we got a tub to store some of it in so we can keep the bag airtight and not allow the remaining food to go stale. We wont need cat food for 4+ months now!
2. Any progress towards goals? We met part 1 of our "new(to us)car" goal! $7,500! Now We have to take a break and save up $3k for my fall semester.
3. What spring-time things are you most excited about? I love watching the students finally able to enjoy the campus again. Which reminds me I should probably budget for some sunscreen for the boys this year. Last year by the end of the first nice week they were all stuck in bed with terrible sun burns.
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
Not bad. $98 on groceries and randoms. $35 cat food. $160 car seat upgrade - not fully planned but will cash flow.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Not really. My schedule at work will be changing next month (returning to my permanent hours after working additional hours the past six months) - it's a mixed blessing. Extra money is nice but I miss the extra time with my family! Once we adjust we'll probably review the budget again.
3. What spring-time things are you most excitied about?
Everything! I'm so tired of winter, snow and frigid temps!
1. How MM was your weekend? Not too bad, went to BJs and spent $175 on bulk items that we needed (not really budgeted, used my extra money from my pay). Spent $100 on other groceries (budgeted). Finally, spent between us $15 on raffle tickets at the night at the races that MW's grandfather runs.
2. Any progress towards goals? Not yet, planning on doing $200 towards my CC this week.
3. What spring-time things are you most excitied about? Since we are doing our roof I am going to have to limit my flowers this year by the house.
Pretty good! DH was working both days and we had another snowstorm so that eliminated a lot of temptation to go out and spend. Ended up spending $104 on groceries (which zeroed out last month's grocery budget), $36 on filling my gas tank and $3.50 on a latte at the grocery store (guilty pleasure!)
2. Any progress towards goals?
We haven't spent our entertainment money in weeks so that's good, but we have a couple of big trips coming up so that will deplete fast. Luckily we spread the plane tickets/hotel reservations out over the past few months. Being a bridesmaid/matron of honor from across the country is hard on the budget!! I wish more bridesmaids offered to split costs for the bridal shower but I don't want my BFF to go without so I'll bite the bullet. Unfortunately that means goal savings are going to be postponed until next month :-(
3. What spring-time things are you most excited about?
Warm weather!! We have over 4ft of snow covering my garden beds right now and I am sooo sick of shoveling. I just want to be able to run outside with my dog, start hiking again and enjoy the sunshine doing simple things like gardening and barbeques!
1. How MM was your weekend?
The first of the month is usually the spendiest.
Friday: $4.99 movie on On Demand;
Saturday: $190 in groceries, clothing, and wipes
Sunday: $0
2. Any progress towards goals?
More tax money came in, so I have it all earmarked to pay off most of the debt. I just have less than $3000 (one credit card) left and I can start chucking all my extra money into our DP. Feels like a dream. I was also able to up my 401K to match my company at 5% (it was at 3%). And I deposited $72 from extra funds into our savings. We actually stuck to our guns and made sure we didn't overspend what we took home and placed all our extra money into our savings.This is such a big deal for us.
3. What spring-time things are you most excited about?
Warm weather! I can't wait to start gardening, taking trips to the shore to walk, and enjoy the warm weather on the porch with the kids.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Eh. Went out for lunch and bought a couple of small things on Sat ($30) but on Sunday we had the in-laws over and spent $100 on take-out. It was for 6 people, but yikes I wasn't planning on spending that much.
2. Any progress towards goals?
We've been saving a really good amount if we were in our normal situation, however, come September, we'll be paying $1300 extra in monthly childcare and ~$250 in May for insurance for baby which is really going to hit us hard. We will be lucky if we break even.
3. What spring-time things are you most excitied about?
Umm I'm excited about ANYTHING involving spring at this point. I was excited about the 40 degree (rainy) day yesterday and I'm really exciting that there are two 50 degree days in our forecast this coming week.