thrifty thursday

bluedaisyus

well, it's the first thursday of the month and that means it's time for thrifty thursday. so...what's one thing you're feeling good about money-wise, and one thing you're feeling not-so-good about?

if anyone else has a specific question, throw it out there!

Two*True

Feeling Good About - paying for TTC.  I just got reimbursed through my FSA and work HRA for our three vial of swimmers.  My work paid for 2 of them! :-)  Because of our insurance we haven't had a strain on our budget these past two cycles and I'm thankful for that.  I'm also feeling good about my decision to have a new roof put on my property.  I'm not excited about the cost, but I like the way K and I sorted through all the options together.

Not Feeling Good About - The cost of the roof in the sense that it's adding another montly bill to my plate.  But other than that the rest of the bills are still starting to dwindle and my budget plan seems to be working.

2brides

Good:  We are paying our new nanny less than what we pay our current nanny (who has accrued annual bonuses for 3 years.)

Bad: That exact difference is going to pay for preschool.

Sigh.

bluedaisyus

well, we've got some interesting things happening. the city is going to be doing some improvements in our area and have to take up some of our trees and dig up along part of our yard, so we got a pretty big chunk of money from them for that. it sucks to lose the trees, but the money couldn't have come at a better time. we're going to pay off the one credit care we have with a balance, which will be awesome. we do have one other thing we're thinking about doing, but we'll still have some money left over to add to our efund either way, which is comforting.

i'm a bit worried about making sure we're as prepared as we can be when the baby comes. we will be taking time off work obviously, but her job doesn't have paid maternity and i'm not eligible since the baby won't be considered my child--although i have over 10 weeks of leave time saved up so i will be able to be off with pay for quite a while. she has some vacation time, but not enough for the whole leave. she's looking into whether she has maternity coverage under her short term disability and we've got a decent efund, but it's still stressful.

ctbride08

Bad: Cost of TTC and foster prep. Its brutal, especially since we (as of yet) have nothing to show for it. 

Good: The fact that we planned well for the expenses of TTC and are doing a great job modifying our spending in other areas to accomodate the extra monthly costs. 

To do:

- look into refinancing our house

- shop around for the most budget friendly hotel for our anniversary trip to Chicago

- get pregnant

ssg73

My good is bitter sweet since it is that S sold her motorcycle yesterday.  Weboth knew it had to happen but she loved the bike and only had it for 2 years.The monwy will really help when I am on maternity leave but it was a sad day all the same.  The good news is that a friend of a friend bought it so we know it is going to a good home.  She posted it on face book and sold it in l think under 5 min.  We will have visitation and it is going to a nice lesbian so we couldn't ask for more.

Bad: S still has no job on the horizon.  She sends out resumes but there is really nothing out there.  At least MA unemployment is pretty good and we can pay our bills with my income.  I just hope that something comes along soon.  It is getting a bit stressful.

Duchess1

The good:Since both girls are high needs they qualify for a higher rate. This means we can continue to spoil them without worrying too much LOL! Seriously though, it means LMC can get all the specialized care she needs, even if we decide to pay OOP for better providers. That makes me feel so much better.

The bad: Our dumb like a box of rocks social worker keeps forgetting to do the paperwork for LMC who needs it the most. UGH.

mandykatie

Good Thing:  I just had my annual evaluation and got an "exceeds", so I'll get the highest raise possible (not that its all that much).

Bad Thing:  I just got my financial aid award and it is $500 per semester.  Um... my tuition alone is over $2000 per semester, and spring semester I won't be able to work AT ALL (student teaching)... I think my financial aid just ran out.  There has to be a limit, right?  I've reached it.  I have no idea how we're going to pay for tuition and books.  No.Idea.

Mrs._F

I just created a new page in our budget spreadsheet - Minnimum Savings Goal for each month. I figured out the minnimum we would need to put into savings each month to end up where we want to be next spring, which is when we are planning to buy a house.  So each month I record what we actually put in savings, and then adjust the minnimum goal for the remaining months accordingly.

I did this because I was tired of getting so stressed about unexpected/unbudgeted expenses.  Even just the little things like - we both need new work shoes, or "can we afford to go that concert" were stressing me.  With every expense I'd think - is this taking away from our down-payment (or from our ttc money)?  So now I'll be able to see - "Okay, if we go to that concert, that means $X that doesn't go into savings next month - will we still meet the minnimum savings goal?"

The goal will always be to more in savings than the minnimum, but this way we can kind of look into the future and see how much we can really spend on unbudgeted items without jeopardizing that down payment we want to have.  I'm loving it, and it's really helping with my money stress.

JoySeattle

The good: I got an extra paycheck from the teaching assistant position that I forgot I would get due to the late payment system from my university. I just got hired for an August birth, so I have some money on the horizon. The owner of the dog that attacked our Kai made the first $100 payment toward the $355 vet bill. (I was bracing to get nothing, so anything is great.)

The bad: We just booked out anniversary hotel (we got a good deal though) and our trip to OK in October. Luckily for the hotel we're driving and it's not that far and for the October trip we're staying with C's brother, SIL and our niece (free) and it's business related so I can write some of it off on my taxes.

I'm also stressing about the housing market, to do list and options for moving, needing to increase our e-fund and savings for "maternity leave."

berriesnpie

Good: We're finally planning our anniversary trip, for next month. Being slackers seems to have paid off, because lodging is way cheaper than we expected.

Bad: our electricity bill has been getting out of control. It's double what the bill was last year. We've been cutting like crazy, with no impact, so I think our landlord is the culprit. He's been using the basement a lot and that room is connected to our bill. It's just supposed to be for storage and the cost is built into our rent. I'm not sure what to do.

cookiemonster03

good: we paid for our hotel for the pre/post cruise with points and are using coaching $ (there's not tons) for vacation expenses, so nothing out of savings.

bad: we just dropped a bundle cutting down a dying tree in the front yard. sigh!

thiswillbe

The Good:  A few months back I set up 4 automatic savings accounts with ING (baby, house, car, other). We have a set amount pulled out of our joint account every week that goes into each of those accounts. I am really happy that this is (so far) working for us. I don't even think of the money on a regular basis, and it is starting to add up. That's nice to see!

The Bad:  We put ttc expenses on a specific credit card (to get points) and have been paying it off each month. Except last month, when we had to leave a little balance. Now this month we need to pay that balance plus this month's expenses. One of our ING funds is specifically for ttc/baby stuff, and while I'd really rather not have to spend that money right now, I may not have much of a choice.

The Ugly: Sylvia's tuition bill for the past several semesters just came. I nearly choked when I saw the total. UGH.