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 Post
1. How MM was your weekend?
2. Any progress towards goals?
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today?
Re: Monday Accountability Post
1. How MM was your weekend?
Friday-$0 Painted deck
Saturday-$52 cash for gym clothes, but $ was from consignment shop sales
$17 grocery store items (cash). Friends over for dinner
Sunday-$0 painted deck
2. Any progress towards goals?
Nothing to report
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today?
I'd say we are doing pretty well for having no consumer debt or student loans, and only a mortgage and car lease. We've been able to sock away $ to build our house DP fund, as well as e-fund and we continue to build those everytime we get paid bi-weekly. It almost feel like we are able to save one one of our paychecks on payday which we never used to be able to do before. We've also been able to increase our 401K contributions every year even though we have a little catching up to do on H's. I'm close to having 1X yearly salary in mine at age 31/32 so I think I'm ok. It could always be more, but I am pretty happy with where we are at
1. How MM was your weekend? Ehh...We only made one purchase but it was a biggie. DH surprised me by going out and buying us some bikes. Apparently he's been saving up money to surprise me so it was a sweet gesture. That purchase came to $830 for the 2 bikes + Accessories, but he had most of it saved up. On the plus side we actually spent time together and I really enjoyed learning how to ride and I can see us spending a lot of our weekend time together biking, so that will be a free thing to occupy our weekends.
2. Any progress towards goals? Put away an extra $300 towards our vacation fund this weekend. Can't wait until our trip to Disney in a few months!
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today? There are certain things that I know I could improve on, but we're not doing too bad. I think purchasing a house has actually put us in a great position financially. Our mortgage is so much lower than what we were paying in rent (about half the cost, including utilities!) so it's freed up a lot of our income that we can put towards retirement and other things (like saving up money to buy some land and build our forever home). So many of our friends are struggling financially and we're so lucky that we were able to get out of that rut.
1. How MM was your weekend?
It was spendy, with certain things within budget, while others were outside our budget. We will be paying it off sooner than later though.
2. Any progress towards goals?
I was able to put away $700 towards our debt payoff account. Once we have the right amount of funds, I will be paying off the debts.
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today?
From last year, most definitely. This time last year, DH was working through a temp agency while we were trying to pay the last bills of our wedding. We were making less than $13/hour each and our debt was accumulating. This year, we have been able to afford getting DH a newish car, pay off all of our lingering debt, save up for trips that we have been wanting to go on, and finally make the financial decision to add another little one to our family. I's an amazing feeling to know that our credit score jumped significantly in the last year, and that we are able to get preapproved for a mortgage. I never thought that would happen this quickly.
1. How MM was your weekend? Really good- groceries ($147). We spent a lot of time outside and we had a block party on Saturday.
2. Any progress towards goals? Nothing really new- DH is done with school on Thursday so we'll order the new siding this weekend. He has a list of "To do" things for the exterior this summer. The girls will only go to day care 3 days/week for July and August- it'll keep them in their routine and give DH a chance to get things done around the house. Plus it'll save us some $.
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today? I do. We (me 32, DH 31) own a house that will be paid off by 2025 (at the latest), have 2 paid off cars, no SL or CC debt. DH is a state employee and will get a really good pension, has a 403B set up, and a Roth IRA. I have a 401K, small pension from work (I'm anticipating a buy out on that in the next 5-10 years), and a Roth IRA. Both girls have a 529 plan set up for college. We have a 9 month emergency fund which would include the girls staying in day care full time. We also have a vacation fund set up so we can take the girls on a lot of trips as they get older. We're in a little bit of a holding pattern right now- once the girls are out of day care, we'll have $1,700/month extra to allocate to our financial goals. Otherwise, I feel like we're doing really well and I'm happy with our progress so far.
1. How MM was your weekend?
I'm really not happy with the $ we spent in the last few days because it was all pretty unnecessary except for the groceries ($50). Saturday we spent $60 on a comedy show and drinks. Didn't realize our Coronas would be over $8 each until the bill came. Hooray for living in a really expensive city. Sunday H's parents gave us tix to go to a Phantom Gourmet event but we had to pay for all the food/parking there so that was about $70 since we paid for SIL as well. On Thursday we also went to a concert so that involved dinner and drinks during the show too...(~$100)
2. Any progress towards goals?
We scheduled our closing/signing time for our condo and reserved a moving truck. We are saving $ by not hiring movers. I imagine this cost cutting technique won't be worth it but on the bright side we don't really have THAT much stuff that's accumulated in our tiny apartment and we have a friend helping us out.
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today?
I think the decisions we are making now will make us well off in the near future. We will have a very low mortgage payment. We both have pretty secure jobs and are in fields that have plenty of opportunities to move around if laid off, I paid off all my SL loan debt a few years ago, we have no consumer debt...We live well within our means. That being said, we definitely aren't in the most ideal situation. H still has a good amount of SL debt, we have a small car loan, and we will need another car in the near future. Overpaying on our debts is very manageable on our income though.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Great. Filled the gas tank for $39 and took my sister out for a drink $19.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Not really. I got a new job working with the housekeeping department which will add nearly $1,250 to our income this summer
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today?
I think we have cut back on everything we are able to cut back on but it is looking like we can't afford school full time in the fall for me so right now I am disappointed.
We are doing the best with what we have but we need to make more money before we can feel more stable.
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
1. How MM was your weekend? Not fantastic, but most of it was at least budgeted for. $40 for dinner out Friday (which we don't do as often now that my youngest is eating a full meal to herself) $80 for a birthday gift for my son, $100 for paint and misc for the kitchen (paid with gift cards though), $4 Redbox because we had our movie an extra day, $120 for groceries (way over what I budgeted for the week, but DH and I are starting the 21 Day Fix program and I bought a ton of produce) $35 for pizza for us and my parents that were helping us with the kitchen yesterday. So... $379. Really the only thing that wasn't budgeted for though was the pizza and redbox which isn't too bad I guess.
2. Any progress towards goals? Not really. I was able to transfer some money to savings since it was payday week. Some progress on finishing our kitchen remodel though, which is huge because we've been working on electrical for weeks.3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today? This is tough, we aren't doing great as far as savings and could contribute more to retirement. But we have a 5 year plan that should put us in a better position. We are able to pay for all of our house projects in cash, we then should be able to sell for somewhere between 25-40k (minus realtor/closing costs) and we will downsize and save at least $600 a month on our mortgage. In 3-4 years I will go back to work when my kids are both in school which will be pretty significant even if I'm not making much or it's only part time.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Not very. Went to visit Foodie Friends in Columbus this weekend so splurged on some delicious food.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Posted some stuff to sell and made arrangements to meet up with a few people this week for transactions. That money is going directly into savings at this point and every little bit counts. Also, the more I sell the less I have to move, so there's some actual motivation there.
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today?
This is a double edged sword for me. I don't have a house, which I would be way more excited about. But I am contributing 12% to retirement and have since day one of working. I also only have my car and student loans as debt right now so that is exciting. My goal is to have my car paid off and a positive net worth by age 30 which is next September. I'm proud of myself and think I'm doing better than I ever have, but I'm just not there yet as of right now.
1. How MM was your weekend? Not too bad but not good. Went to my 25th High School reunion and back, total of 4 hours of driving. The two drinks that I had wasn't too bad and paid cash, it was the gas that was really expensive. Got my annual eye exam and contacts ordered so that hit hard since I only had $180 left on my health spending account. Also, told my wife that for our anniversary she could "steal" $200 from our one savings account to get maternity clothes.
2. Any progress towards goals? Not yet, still need to make my next payment on my credit card.
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today? We are a lot better off than a lot of people, but considering that I have been making "decent" money for only about 2 years after roughly 5 years of barely making enough for our critical bills we are doing better. I am still at the lower end of my career path since this current company is the first since I got my degree that I fit into and is paying me engineering wages versus drafting wages. Looking into the future, since I want to put our children into Catholic schools and we will continue to pay my MIL for watching our children we will be "tight" for the next 18 years.
Hello! Long-time lurker here, thought this would be a good opportunity to dive in!!
1. How MM was your weekend? Meh. I worked Friday night and from 8 a.m. Saturday until 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, so I didn't have an opportunity to spend much! H and I did have a $40 brunch on Sunday, but that still keeps us under our $100 entertainment budget, so it wasn't terrible.
2. Any progress towards goals? Not this week! Our debt payments, savings and retirement all come out of H's paycheck which he receives once a month on the last day of the month.
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today? Fair to good. Good: We put away about 15% in retirement, have a mortgage that we can finance on one of our salaries, drive paid for "beaters" (2000 Accord and 2001 Corolla - which we LOVE!!), and my student loan is nearly gone. Fair: H's student loan is a little more overwhelming, and we had to put about $7,000 on our credit card for a new HVAC "surprise" in May that fell the same month we had already contracted to have our house painted (paid cash for that). Fortunately, we should have the credit card paid off by August!
Eh. $128 for groceries. About $60 gas.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Not really... Just reviewing our goals and being more detailed.
3. Do you think you are doing well financially in your life as of today?
Yes. We still have some debt but we know what we make and where our money goes. We have plans, goals and dreams and have a good game plan for working towards them!