Thrifty Thursday

Two*True

Updates? Worries? Thoughts?

 

QOTD - This time of year tends to be gift giving season (mother's day, father's day, graduations, baby shower, etc) - what are your money savvy gift giving habits? Any last minute Mother's Day ideas?

Duchess1

We have been spending way too much money on the girls. We had to buy everything so it's not like we spent it on frivolous stuff, it's just a lot. We still need things but are holding off for now.

QOTD: We try to stick to a budget but it doesn't always happen, especially for our moms. You can't skimp on mom :-)

Two*True

Budget wise things are going ok.  My tax refunds helped cover some unexpected expenses that otherwise would have had to go on credit cards.  I picked up a few shifts at a part-time job and will hopefully get more in June when the project starts back up. 

So far our TTC expenses have been far less than I expected.  The swimmers were already saved for so that was a relief.  The meds only cost me $50 total and we have 0 co-pays for RE visits.  I'm so thankful for insurance and hope going foward we'll be able to spend just the $50 a month on meds.

QOTD - We buy our mom's mother day's lotto tickets (tacky?).  However I also got my a pretty blue hand made bowl with some seasonings for different mixes and stuff.  It didn't cost a fortune and I know she'll use it.  As for other gifts - right now my co-workers and I are all going in on a baby stroller for another co-worker.  I'm doing the shopping so of course I'm looking for coupon codes and sales ;-)  For graduation gifts K and I try to use 'points' from ccs, bank accts, etc to get items for our nieces and nephews (itunes gift certs, messenger bags, etc).

bluedaisyus

we've got some interesting stuff on the money front. we're getting a big chunk of change from the city (they're putting an easement on our land for new sewer), which we'll be able to use to pay off our one credit card and we'll bank the rest for when the baby comes.

but i'm stressing about money. i'm just worried about making sure everything is good and in place for when the baby comes. this is normal, right?

for mother's day, we're planning on taking both of ours out for lunch on sunday--although we don't have all the logistics in place yet. we're not getting any gifts, though; we just do cards and spend some extra time with them. that's what they really want, anyway.

as far as other gifts, if we do gift cards we buy them at the grocery so we get the points on them for fuel points, and we always watch sales. we try to get things at discount or with coupons, too, to help save money.

2brides

Somehow our big refund is withering fast.  We both had to pay our life insurance annual premiums (whoo hoo) and pay the accountant (another whoo hoo.) We are going to get an estimate for some work on our house (replacing part of the subflooring in the master bath and tiling, replacing part of the garage door, and fixing an exterior door - nothing fun and exciting.) I am sure part will go to pay down/off L's credit card and pay for another semester of school for her. Sigh. It always goes somewhere - and no where fun.

 For Mother's Day we always send a joint Mothers/Fathers Day gift of a photo book of the boys from Dec-May (we do them 2x a year) and then something else.  This year I got them a gift certificate to a local theater so they can go see a production. I don't know what L is getting her mom - I think she might have forgotten about it! Oops.

jayangel

Our finances are finally starting to get back in order. I've started a new job that has great benefits so J has removed me from her insurance saving us about $200 per month. We plan to pay down if not pay off all our credit cards this month. This month we began having another unexpected bill which is my student loan we figured I wouldn't need to start paying it back until 6 months after my graduation but found out that since I did a consolidation payments are due immediately if I'm not enrolled at least half time. So after we pay off the cc our next goal is to start paying down both of our student loans.

QOTD: I guess the mother's day question doesn't really apply to us since for the last couple of years we haven't done much for mother's day. For my graduation we kept it simple and did lunch at an expensive restaurant that we actually had bogo coupons for. 

thiswillbe

I had temporarily misplaced my wallet the day we were supposed to pay for our IUI, so I ended up getting one of my unused credit cards out of "storage" to pay for it. It was a "why not" since we usually pay for big things like this with a card (to accrue points/rewards) then pay them off right away out of our regular checking account. The card was swiped for our $1k charge, and declined. I thought that was a little odd since the credit limit was $24k, but whatever. We used our debit card.

A week later I got a letter in the mail informing me that as a result of the attempted charge, the credit line on that account had been reduced from $24k to $1k. Apparently the reduction was because I hadn't used the card in over 6 months. What?!?! I just really don't get their logic.

Long story short, I hate Amex Blue. I am SO canceling that card as soon as I make sure it won't do anything bad to my FICO score (I don't think I need the history, but doesn't hurt to check; obviously it's not doing anything for my overall utilization at this point). I know I could argue it with Amex, but at this point I'd just rather ditch it altogether.

Oh, and that same week we got the first bill for the CC where we put the $6k owed to us by S's niece. Good times.

QOTD: Thanks for the reminder about Mother's Day-- I'd better get on that! As for other occasions-- I do try to buy things for people throughout the year when they are on sale, and then save them for the next occasion. I don't know how effective it is, money-wise, but it does keep me from rushing out to get a gift for X occasion at the last minute!