Weekly Accountability Post

smbenevides1989 · January 2014

I saw no one started this yesterday, and we haven't had one since Christmas, so I thought I would start it this week.

1. How MM was your weekend?

2. Any progress towards your goals?

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?

smbenevides1989 · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend?

Not bad. I stayed within budget for groceries, and I started buying things for my DD's birthday party (which is budgeted). I did buy a shelving unit and a casserole set that was not budgeted for, but will pay it off next month.

2. Any progress towards your goals?

I paid off a 6 credit cards last month, and we are on track to pay off one of the largest CCs this month.

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?

I would take a 2-3 week trip to see Venice, Rome, - anything in Greece and Italy pretty much. I would just fly and stay in a place every few days so I can experience it all.

cbee817 · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend?

Good- the weather hasn't been great (We're in a state of emergency today) so we didn't really leave the house except to get groceries. We also got $100 in TRU gift cards for the girls (late x-mas gift arrived) so we'll be able to use those for something fun for them.

2. Any progress towards your goals?

We met with DH's 403b provider and they're working on putting a package together for us to look at. They offer 529 plans and other things that might be useful down the road. DH has had a few snow/cold days so he's been getting some of our small house repairs completed. We also added a new goal- once we get our tax return, we'll open an account at a local credit union and put all bonuses, grants, tax returns, any unexpected $ into it to start a vacation fund. We're planning a Disneyworld/Disney cruise trip for February 2017 (Girls will be 6.5 and almost 5.. should be a great time to go) and we're hoping to take them to Hawaii and London when they're older.

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?

We would buy a RV and take the girls x-country once they're older (probably 8 and 10).. stay on the road for 4-6 weeks and travel all over the US.

If it was just a DH and me vacation, NYC in the spring and stay at a really nice hotel.. go out for great dinners, shopping, and see a show. We can't be away from the girls for very long- miss them too much.

brij2006 · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend? Not too bad. Got groceries (budgeted), but I did stop at Kmart to shop because they're closing in 5 days. So everything was 50-90% off. I bought $70 worth of stuff for $27. Not too shabby, but it was $27 of stuff we didn't really need.

2. Any progress towards your goals? We have everything in one account and ready to write the checks to pay off 4 student loans. However, we're waiting till the refinance on our house goes through before we clean everything out and only have $1k in our savings.
Also just submitted the applications for our term life insurance. Once those are accepted, then we will be cancelling our whole life policies.

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go? If money wasn't an option, I would become a professional traveler. Never ever be at home, and would travel the world. Spend a month in Australia and New Zealand. Then spend another 2 months backpacking through Europe.

Xstatic3333 · January 2014

Thanks for starting this! I thought of it yesterday but work was crazy.

1. Our weekend was very MM. We went out using a gift certificate, and went slightly over but stayed within our budget overall. That all went out the window, however, when we were offered the opportunity to buy face-value tickets for Saturday's Patriots game. An NFL playoff game is a bucket-list item for me, and Tom Brady won't be playing well for too much longer, so we went with it. We are borrowing from our short-term savings and will repay ourselves next paycheck.

2. No major progress this week; my dive class that was supposed to be some extra income was cancelled due to low enrollment. We did have some more good talks about our overall goals and getting on the same page, however. H really wants to buy a house within two years. A lot of our friends have FHA loans, and that is very tempting to him, but with us looking at a minimum of 200,000 for a starter home I'm just not comfortable with having that little equity. So, we've decided to prioritize our home savings (making slightly above-minimum debt payments but nothing crazy) and push to get a 10% DP as soon as we can. We also will continue to save for travel; we are about two years off from TTC and I want to have one more trip (after the one in May) before we have a LO. Its tough; I'm really not excited about buying a home so quickly but it does make sense in our situation. H is a few years older than me and the last of his friends to be renting, and I think that's what is making him feel the time pressure. Renting really doesn't bother me at all; part of me would rather wait until our future LO is in school and I'll definitely be able to work FT before plunging into a mortgage.

4. I'm with PP; I would be a professional traveller if I could! Someday, I hope to go to New Zealand with H. I was lucky to have a week there while studying abroad in Australia in college, and I honestly can't think of anywhere I'd rather go than back to NZ with him. I would also love to go to Thailand. I'd spend a week diving in the south, see Bangkok, and then travel in the north of the country to see the jungles and temples.

jessica490 · January 2014

How MM was your weekend?

Very MM. We pretty much stayed in except for $33 gas, $47 Petsmart dog grooming, and $63 Famous Footwear for shoes for H's school.

Total- $143.

Any progress towards our goals?

Yes, tomorrow we plan to start putting money back into our e-fund, house DP and vacay fund. We've gotten a little off track in the month of December.

If money wasn't an option, what type of vacay would you take?

H and I would definitley do a 2 week cruise on Royal Carribbeans Oasis with a balcony!

CuriousKiddosMama · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend? Expensive, but we planned for it. We went to Dallas to watch the FCS championship game. We planned for a $500 trip, but only spent $300 including food and hotel for 2 nights, so it wasn't really that bad. DH ended up pretty much eating/drinking for free at the pep rally and tailgating so that probably saved us a bunch.

2. Any progress towards your goals? Yes- our car is almost paid off- about 2 more months and we should be finished with it. It helps that we get a 'bonus' pay check this month.

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?
Around the world trip, seriously like everywhere. Europe, Australia, Russia, Egypt, Germany, France, England- you get the picture, it would be a long trip.

smbenevides1989 · January 2014

Xstatic3333 said:

Thanks for starting this! I thought of it yesterday but work was crazy.

1. Our weekend was very MM. We went out using a gift certificate, and went slightly over but stayed within our budget overall. That all went out the window, however, when we were offered the opportunity to buy face-value tickets for Saturday's Patriots game. An NFL playoff game is a bucket-list item for me, and Tom Brady won't be playing well for too much longer, so we went with it. We are borrowing from our short-term savings and will repay ourselves next paycheck.

2. No major progress this week; my dive class that was supposed to be some extra income was cancelled due to low enrollment. We did have some more good talks about our overall goals and getting on the same page, however. H really wants to buy a house within two years. A lot of our friends have FHA loans, and that is very tempting to him, but with us looking at a minimum of 200,000 for a starter home I'm just not comfortable with having that little equity. So, we've decided to prioritize our home savings (making slightly above-minimum debt payments but nothing crazy) and push to get a 10% DP as soon as we can. We also will continue to save for travel; we are about two years off from TTC and I want to have one more trip (after the one in May) before we have a LO. Its tough; I'm really not excited about buying a home so quickly but it does make sense in our situation. H is a few years older than me and the last of his friends to be renting, and I think that's what is making him feel the time pressure. Renting really doesn't bother me at all; part of me would rather wait until our future LO is in school and I'll definitely be able to work FT before plunging into a mortgage.

4. I'm with PP; I would be a professional traveller if I could! Someday, I hope to go to New Zealand with H. I was lucky to have a week there while studying abroad in Australia in college, and I honestly can't think of anywhere I'd rather go than back to NZ with him. I would also love to go to Thailand. I'd spend a week diving in the south, see Bangkok, and then travel in the north of the country to see the jungles and temples.

Np!

H and I have been looking into buying/building and I have been looking into mortgages. I have looked into MassHousing Loans, and if you make less than 95,000 (more or less) and you are looking to purchase a 1 family home for less than 417,000, you can be qualified for that type of loan in Bristol County. You only need 3.5% down, but of course you can place more, and need to have good credit. It's also called a No-MI loan. I'm still doing research on it, but a lot of lenders take care of these type of loans. If you are fixer upper type people, they also have refurbishing loans for homeowners to be able to buy and fix up their home (with licensed contractors) and you move in once they complete the big work. Not sure if I helped or made things worse lol but check into it.

SmrBrd2012 · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend?

It was okay. We went bowling on Friday and out to dinner and a movie with friends on Saturday so that added up, but we did use some $ we got from Christmas towards it. Sunday we didn't do anything.

2. Any progress towards your goals?
Eh..not really...other than that I finished up our December spending sheet and figured out we saved more than $500 more than I thought we would considering Christmas gifts and voluntarily paying $500 down on H's SL. Hooray!

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?
If money wasn't an option, I don't think I'd ever come back home! Places at the top of my list include Machu Picchu, New Zealand, and Greece and Italy.

emily1004 · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend?
Very good due to the fact we've pretty much been snowed in since Saturday. We have not spent a penny.
2. Any progress towards your goals?
We are house hunting, but we've been looking of more than a year. We live in a very "in-demand" town and inventory in our price range is almost nonexistent. (Tiny houses, huge price tags but we want a little space!) The more we wait the more we can save for a bigger DP but prices keep going up. I refuse to do anything less than 20%.
3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?
Bora Bora for a month.

Xstatic3333 · January 2014

Thanks, @smbenevides1989! It looks like we do qualify if we buy in MA (we're also interested in RI). I'd really feel more comfortable, though, if we can get the 10% together for a conventional loan. We'll both be working on "soft money" for most of our careers, so losing PMI and gaining equity quick is key for us in case the worst should happen. It does seem line a good FHA alternative, though. Do you know what the PMI policy is? The website is not super informative.

On a side note, this board is giving me home price envy for other parts of the country! Perhaps you can sympathize?

SmrBrd2012 · January 2014

@smbenevides1989 and @xstatic3333

I'm a fellow Masshole...

I can sure sympathize with housing costs. It's really frustrating. There's barely anything out there right now and our price range is limited as it is. I'm trying to scrape up at least 10% as well but I think there are conventional loans that you can qualify for less...We got pre-qualified with ~7%. Not sure if this depends on credit score or what....

smbenevides1989 · January 2014

@Xstatic3333 From looking around, the no-MI has no PMI, but I'm not sure of the other one. I think if you ask a lender they will give you a better insight. I can sympathize on the home price envy!!

Xstatic3333 · January 2014

@SmrBrd2012, I did hear rumors of a "conventional 95" from Fannie Mae, but also heard they were rarely offered. Our credit's good, so I guess that could be an option. 5% is easy, but 10-20 is so tough. Honestly, I believe in the value of waiting until you have 20% but know very few people who have actually done it.

SmrBrd2012 · January 2014

Agreed. I would LOVE to save 20% and was 100% on board with it at first, but it would be about 2 more years of saving, given housing prices around here, which we just aren't prepared to do. We want to start TTC once we own and I really don't want to wait another 3 years to do so. We are almost at 10% though which is a good chunk of change.

vlagrl29 · January 2014

I always have a hard time thinking back about what we spent on the weekends. Friday night we stayed in. I had a spa day on friday that was budgeted for and when I got home I was too relaxed to do much anything else. Saturday we spent $13 on pizza for the football game at our house and about $35 in tailgating food. Sunday we also spent at home because it had snowed

Great money weekend.

Didn't put any extra money this weekend in the efund but will get back on it this next week as I booked 3 gigs in the last week or so.

I would absolutely without a doubt go back to hawaii and never come back home

smbenevides1989 · January 2014

I can do 10%, but I definitely cannot do 20% unless I wanna stay home for the next 5 years, and I agree with you guys about the 20%. But what sucks is that the market has really crappy homes - I wouldn't mind putting my own work in my home.

emily1004 · January 2014

smbenevides1989 said:

I can do 10%, but I definitely cannot do 20% unless I wanna stay home for the next 5 years, and I agree with you guys about the 20%. But what sucks is that the market has really crappy homes - I wouldn't mind putting my own work in my home.

Why don't you think you can save 20%? All it takes is preparing a very strict budget and little discipline. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can!

SmrBrd2012 · January 2014

@emily1004

It really depends on salary and current homes...MA has a HCOL with REALLY old and outdated houses, especially near Boston where all the jobs are. It's also really difficult to find cheap rentals when trying to save up. H and I are saving like crazy but it is still not enough to have 20% in a realistic time frame.

smbenevides1989 · January 2014

smbenevides1989 said:

I can do 10%, but I definitely cannot do 20% unless I wanna stay home for the next 5 years, and I agree with you guys about the 20%. But what sucks is that the market has really crappy homes - I wouldn't mind putting my own work in my home.

Why don't you think you can save 20%? All it takes is preparing a very strict budget and little discipline. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can!

I probably could do it, but that's $50,000+ in our area, and that means being home for 3-5 years. I love being home, but with looking to expand our family and not enough room to do it, I don't think I could save the 20% in 2 years.

Belthil · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend?

It was really good. With the weather being as cold as it has been I spent the weekend inside while H worked. Bought a few groceries but they were budgeted for.

This past week our TV decided that it's to old to work consistently so H and I started playing around with the budget to see if we could save enough to get a new TV before ours died. We went to a fundraiser on NYE and ended up winning a new TV so our budget doesn't need to be touched!

2. Any progress towards your goals?

Yep, I've finally been approved to work in my chosen career. I'm meeting up with the owner of the clinic I'll be working in this week to hash out final details and figure out when I'm starting.

H and I sat down with a financial planner to figure out a plan of attack for my SLs and retirement savings.

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?

Everywhere, I've traveled much more extensively than H has so I love leave for a year and travel with him. Currently I'm leaning towards warmer climates as it's freezing here.

emily1004 · January 2014

SmrBrd2012 said:

@emily1004

It really depends on salary and current homes...MA has a HCOL with REALLY old and outdated houses, especially near Boston where all the jobs are. It's also really difficult to find cheap rentals when trying to save up. H and I are saving like crazy but it is still not enough to have 20% in a realistic time frame.

I know all about crappy outdated homes. Good homes in our area are 500K-1M. I mean no disrespect but what's wrong with waiting a little bit? I don't know how old you are but I'm 33, no kids and yet to buy our first home.

SmrBrd2012 · January 2014

@emily1004

No disrespect taken! There's nothing wrong with waiting. Its a personal choice for everyone. We've already been saving for a year and the PMI will be negligible compared to what we are already tossing out each month at rent. I personally want to start having kids by around 30 and don't want to be renting when we do ttc which doesn't leave me much time. We are also in a really crappy complex right now but its the cheapest we can find while we save, so in that way, we are motivated to buy sooner rather than later. Just boils down to personal choice

hoffse · January 2014

1) My weekend was pretty MM because I was feeling too lazy and forlorn (H went back to school on Friday) to go anywhere. I think I spent $13 on groceries and that was it.

2) No real progress on my goals this week. I start my new job right after MLK day, so I'm just working on winding down my work here and getting ready to start there. I'm also trying not to spend much until I get a paycheck from them and know exactly what I'm looking at.

3) I would do two things: first, a three-month cruise around the world on one of those swanky cruise ships where all excursions, spa treatments, etc. are included. They cost about $20K per person when you can snag a sale. But you literally get to circumnavigate the globe. And being 100% honest here, a cruise around the world is on my bucket list. If H and I can save enough for retirement, we will totally do this.

The other thing I would do is a slow trek through Europe. I added it up once, and all the places I want to see over there equal something like a year and a half of traveling. I have an art history degree, so Europe is like cultural overload for me. H is actually a dual citizen (he has an EU passport), so we would have an easier time than most Americans if we wanted to buy property over there. We've talked about buying a condo in Europe and doing 6 months there, 6 months here (probably in FL) when we retire.

Xstatic3333 · January 2014

emily1004 said:

SmrBrd2012 said:

@emily1004

It really depends on salary and current homes...MA has a HCOL with REALLY old and outdated houses, especially near Boston where all the jobs are. It's also really difficult to find cheap rentals when trying to save up. H and I are saving like crazy but it is still not enough to have 20% in a realistic time frame.

I know all about crappy outdated homes. Good homes in our area are 500K-1M. I mean no disrespect but what's wrong with waiting a little bit? I don't know how old you are but I'm 33, no kids and yet to buy our first home.

I actually want to wait, and would have no issue TTC in our rental duplex, but am having a hard time getting H on board. It's hard to convince him that putting down less is wrong because I read it online when all of his friends have done FHA. 10% is our compromise. We're lucky to be in Worcester county, which is a cheaper area, and that we like old homes. Putting down less wouldn't bother me if we worked in a more stable field, but layoffs are always a threat for us.

lifeonthehill · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend?

What weekend? I worked the whole time! We spent nothing.

2. Any progress towards your goals?

No particular progress this week. Dying to get H's checks in the bank so we can put $2,250 into savings and be down to 4,750 left to put in savings.

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?
Travel cross country hitting as many states as we could and sleeping in hotels along the way!

lifeonthehill · January 2014

Double post. Sorry.

IAmSherlocked · January 2014

This is kind of a cool thread. Mind if a newbie joins in?

1. How MM was your weekend? Um, I think mine was pretty good, but I'm still working on getting a budget set up and everything. Let's see, I spent about $75 on groceries and another $40 on gas. Oh, and I guess I did spend $10 getting ice cream for my nephew and I.

Aside from that I pretty much just stayed home and caught up on some reading.

2. Any progress towards your goals? I just finished paying off my car loan (woot!), so that frees up some income for me, which I intend to put towards retirement/savings. I don't really have a goal for this year--maybe I should think of one!

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?

I would love to go and just take a ton of time to travel around Europe--like seriously spend a significant amount of time (months? years? forever?) exploring each little place that is on my bucket list.

Ducktale · January 2014

1. How MM was your weekend? Good! Just bought groceries and that's it's. some friends came over and brought pizzas, and then we hibernated. We did have a car repair today (damn -40 windchill!) so that stinks but it's only $300 so not the end of the world.
2. Any progress towards your goals? Put a chunk of change in our savings for future baby savings. Started my new job yesterday so looking forward to getting that bigger paycheck in a few weeks. We 're going to figure out life insurance this weekend.

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go? Ireland! Or just Europe in general. Next choice: Hawaii

Xstatic3333 · January 2014

RockyMountainGirl88 said:
This is kind of a cool thread. Mind if a newbie joins in?

1. How MM was your weekend? Um, I think mine was pretty good, but I'm still working on getting a budget set up and everything. Let's see, I spent about $75 on groceries and another $40 on gas. Oh, and I guess I did spend $10 getting ice cream for my nephew and I. Aside from that I pretty much just stayed home and caught up on some reading.

2. Any progress towards your goals? I just finished paying off my car loan (woot!), so that frees up some income for me, which I intend to put towards retirement/savings. I don't really have a goal for this year--maybe I should think of one!

3. QOTW: If money wasn't an option, what kind of vacation would you take/where would you go?
I would love to go and just take a ton of time to travel around Europe--like seriously spend a significant amount of time (months? years? forever?) exploring each little place that is on my bucket list.

All are welcome! Congrats on the car loan!

Wulfgar · January 2014

1. MM weekend was great, bought groceries and got gas out of my cash envelops. Had my company holiday party which was great, got an extra drink ticket and played black jack all night with my wife.

2. Started to rebuild our savings and looking towards paying off my credit card debt because of medical bills and MW's work laptop failed right after the new year.

3. I would travel the United States, Canada, and Europe. I may also travel to other places but not sure.

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