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.
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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.
The good and the bad of 2014
I'm sure we've all had a crazy year so:
1. What were the positives
2. What were the negatives/not so good
Re: The good and the bad of 2014
1.We were able to lower some bills/expenses
We were able to save a lot of money this year towards our mortg prin/house DP
My April vacation with my family was awesome!
I picked up a PT job, while H has been doing OT for more $$
My dad made it through his skin cancer (lets hope it stays that way)
Overall no big family drama with my relatives
My favorite grandma turned 95!
2. We had some extra dog expenses with his health issues $$$$
H not getting along so well with his family so we haven't seen them since July (they are at least talking now
Just sick and tired of condo life.....
Great idea for a post!
1. What were the positives
-Finally finishing my thesis and graduating with my M.A.
- Running my first two half marathons
- Celebrating our first year wedding anniversary
- My first trip to Philadelphia
- Other trips to New Orleans, Memphis, Asheville, and the beach
- New patio completed!
- Finally starting to save, since I no longer have to pay for grad school (I was paying out of pocket)
- Finding this board with you lovely ladies!!!!
2. What were the negatives/not so good
- Needing a new roof
- FIL having a heart attack, but he is OK now
1. What were the positives
-DEBT FREE!
- 10k E-Fund saved! (well not officially until midnight when H gets his paycheck but I am counting it,)
-Cruise to Grand Cayman and Jamaica
-Christmas with H and his moms family in Florida for 7 days was amazing.
-Paid for a two semesters in cash and got pretty great grades the first one.
-Both of us are healthy with good jobs
-Moved up TTC until June!
-Met all of our financial goals for the year
2. What were the negatives/not so good
-H and I struggle with arguing and feeling ungrateful. We talked it out a month ago and are trying to be better.
-Realizing my mom has no savings for retirement. =/
-The school denied us the $100 we wanted to sticky tile over the rusted laminate in our kitchen. Still bitter about our crappy floors being over looked and a new deck being built for a new faculty member because he can't comfortably fit his family of 7 on the old one.
- Blew a tire and ruined another one recently. Thank god we can put winter one on and save the money for new ones in the spring.
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
The Good:
-Graduated with my Associate's degree in Business. Now working on my Bachelor's.
-Took a 5-year anniversary trip to Hawaii that we saved for for two years, and paid all in cash! It was the trip of a lifetime.
-Adopted a new dog in November
-Started an exercise program that has finally stuck!
-Got the promotion I worked really hard for. Pay raise doesn't go into effect until March though.
The Bad:
-Our older dog passed away in January, which was really, really hard on us
-H hasn't gotten a raise in three years and is starting to get burnt out. Really hoping that will change in 2015.
I guess it's a good sign that I can't think of any other bad things! 2014 was good to us
1. What were the positives
- Getting pregnant!
- Ending the year with $30k of our $71k in debt shaded in. Hellz yeah!
2. What were the negatives/not so good
- My grandma passing away. We were very very close.
- Having a scare with the pregnancy and not knowing whether or not my body was going to continue to carry baby.
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
Neat idea for a post.
The roses:
* Bought a minivan with cash.
* Had an anniversary trip in Hawaii with DH - my parents watched our 3 kiddles.
* The 3 kids have been healthy and safe. And, so have we.
* DH's airline had its best year in its entire history - we're gonna get a nice profit sharing check.
* Using my Redcard and Target Cartwheel, I've saved a few hundred dollars on our groceries and other odds and ends.
* My sister is expecting her first baby!
* My parents are retiring and bought a house 20 minutes from us. We've never had family this close before.
The Thorns:
* The sedan died, which forced our hand to buy the minivan 5-6 months early, which drained our savings significantly.
* Grandpa had his kidney and ureter removed. Then, in October he had the second ureter removed and a new one made from a part of his small intestine. He spent 8 weeks in the hospital due to complications. He is on dialysis now. He's 87. It's not looking favorable.
* My old neighbor had a miscarriage and just found out yesterday. Her D&C is today - on her DH's birthday.
1. What were the positives
H and I both received substantial promotions at work.
Trips to Orlando, Las Vegas, Boston and a cruise to Spain, Portugal, Morocco.
Made some serious headway on our debt and savings, increasing retirement contributions to 15% and cutting my student loan debt in half.
2. What were the negatives/not so good
I love, love, LOVE my job, where I work and what I do, but over the last year most of my mentors moved to other organizations. I miss having colleagues I trust to confide in and seek advice from. Plus, my co-workers who are about the same age as me aren't MM and I have trouble connecting with them because our lives are so different. (Ex. I don't shop or dress like they do, and am never in the know on the "newest/best" restaurants and bars, etc.) So, I guess what I'm saying is right now my 9 to 5 feels pretty lonely. But, again my job itself is amazing, so I should really count my blessings.
Slowly declining health of my living grandparents. It's sad and hard to watch.
buying a new house in a neighborhood with friendly neighbors, lots of kids, and super close to a great school.
starting my direct sales business
DH was home for the whole year (no offshore time)
DS turned one, started to walk and is now all over the place. Love watching him grow.
The bad:
going back into debt for the new house.
DH will be offshore a ton next year, since he was home all year this year to prep for a huge project.
and we learned yesterday that his company may not be giving bonuses for 2014 because they don't know what oil is going to do this year. So I'm annoyed with that because the company made a huge profit this last year, and has a bonus formula they came up with 2 years ago that they still haven't followed, but I'm trying to balance that with being happy that they are hopefully not going to be laying off anybody because they should have more than enough to keep everybody on by not paying bonuses. Unfortunately this may mean no new deck this year, unless we can squeeze it out of our budget. Job for today- look at how we can save that extra quickly.