Monday accountability post

hoffse · May 2015

We're late!

1. How MM was your weekend?

2. Any progress toward goals?

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20?

bridejl · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend? My weekend was pretty spendy. $55 at the beer garden with friends Friday, $15-20 ish (I don't remember exactly) on lawn maintenance/bird seed, $364 shopping on Sunday. I went shopping with my mom who is loaded with coupons, so I did get deals and bought many items. I'm 25 and in the time of my life where in the last couple years I've given away my high school/college items that don't fit or aren't age-appropriate anymore, and I don't go shopping often so when I do, the total looks bad. Good thing May is a 3-paycheck month

2. Any progress toward goals? Yes! Last week we applied our tax returns to H's student loans. Took out a nice chunk and is helping us toward the goal of paying them off by December.

3.
If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words,
what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20? When we were applying for our mortgage, I wish we would have taken a closer look at the PMI calculations. The lender said we'd only be paying it for 2 years. LOL, it's almost 2 years and we're not close to losing the PMI.

hoffse · May 2015

1. Mine was spendy, but it was budgeted for. I went to Nashville for a bachelorette party. Luckily the bride doesn't really drink, so I spent less than planned. Other than that, gas to get to Nashville was about $60 and we spent around $120 on groceries. H didn't really leave the house - he just cleaned.... everything! Including the attic and the garage. I couldn't believe it!

Side-note: apparently Nashville has become ridiculously popular for bachelorettes. It was crazy - we probably saw over 100 bachelorette groups. I wish we had tried to count!

2. Had a couple quotes on our kitchen, and I think we're going to take the plunge! It's not the most MM-decision ever, but whatever. I don't really care. We were going to do it at some point in the next 12 months anyway, and one of the quotes promised 1) custom cabinets + granite + built-in hutch in our breakfast nook and 2) a 5-day renovation timeline. I thought that sounded too good to be true, but I've checked references, and everybody swears by the timeline and their work product. Apparently they get everything lined up to go ahead of time, and then they do an HGTV-esque crash of your kitchen. They start on a Monday morning and you can be back in your kitchen Friday evening. They line up one kitchen per week and just get it done. Sold.

They were squarely within the budget we were contemplating, so we're close to signing on the dotted line. Just working out a few details. They weren't the lowest bid, but they also weren't the highest. And the timeline is worth a lot to us.

3. If I could have a MM do-over, it would be our trip to London! I wasn't travel hacking back then, and we really did spend more on that trip than was necessary.

lifeonthehill · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend? Good. We overspent but were able to spend some time together which he needed now that we are TTC

2. Any progress toward goals? $75 towards my fall semester! Only $425 to go.

3.
If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? I wouldn't go to college after high school. I am thankful for the experience and of course meeting H but it cost 11k and I have no credits to show for it. Bad idea.

AW: I JUST COMPLETED MY FIRST YEAR OF COLLEGE!

als1982 · May 2015

1. Pretty good! Pretty low key weekend, but we did take my mom out for dinner on Saturday night since we'll be gone on Mother's Day, $70 better spent on time together than flowers! Otherwise, a $25 first birthday gift and $15 beer/wine for the weekend.

2. Awesome! Another $1,000 to my student loan this week, making the total less than a thousand!! I am so ready to have it gone and then move on to killing H's monster loan.

3. I wish I would have spent less on apartments/rent before buying my house. $1,000 for a one bedroom in a LCOL city? Dumb. I should have been saving more instead.

Mustard76 · May 2015

1. Pretty spendy. My mom is in town, and I took her shopping for Mother's Day. None of her clothes fit properly anymore, so I was happy to do it. We also went to lunch once and spent more on groceries than we usually would. Tomorrow is H's birthday, too, so we'll probably go out for dinner.

2. Neither of us got paid this past week, so just $100 to my student loan. Just chipping away bit by bit.

3. I wouldn't have gone to a private university. State school all the way. I feel like I missed out on so much of the "college experience" because I was working my tail off waiting tables, bar tending, and working retail all at the same time, just to pay my tuition. All to have graduated with a shitload in student loans. I worked so many more hours then than I do now as a professional. I'm grateful for all my work experience, and it taught me to work hard for the things I want, but I still wish I had the chance to just be a college student for awhile, since you only get to do it once.

simplyelise · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend? Good! We were both down and out with colds, so just $85 on groceries

2. Any progress toward goals? $1000 towards SL.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20?

I'm trying to think of something big, but having trouble. Most of my bad decisions have been of the spending a little bit here and there. The first thing that's coming to mind is spending money on a kickstarter when I was grossing 24k and didn't have the room to spend at all. Just emblematic of my type of spending problem when I wasn't MM.

Wulfgar · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend: Paid cash for everything. I keep on getting surprised at how the cost of groceries have been going up. What I could get for $100 a year ago is now around $120. I did buy $20 in flowers for our front yard.

2. Any progress towards goals: will make another credit card payment of roughly $200 soon.

3. MM "do-over": Out of all of my stupid mistakes, my worse was marrying my ex-wife then letting her talk me into living over 90 minutes away from where I was going to be going to college and later work. I lost so much money in that relationship that I am just now getting back on track 13 years after it ended. It didn't help that I had 3 more years of college left when we got divorced.

Xstatic3333 · May 2015

1. Good! $25 at friend's birthday (under budget), $45 on post-half marathon brunch (over but worth it), $65 on groceries/bath products.

2. $125 to savings tomorrow! $150 more Friday! It's stupid how excited I am about such minimal progress, but it means we're finally turning things around.

3. I would have spent less on clothes and makeup in college and right after and saved instead. Now I'm so low maintenance that it's hard to look back on those times.

kmurphy2131 · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend?

Good! $15 for a yoga class saturday morning, and pizza saturday night (I think 40ish, it was out of H's personal spending money). Sunday $10 on a couple groceries to carry us until I shop wednesday, and $7 at starbucks.

2. Any progress toward goals?

Nope. I pay everything at the end of the month. but staying on track with the budget means we will meet our goals.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20?

Private college! What a mistake. I loved my time there and had great experiences but it was just too expensive. I did get my bachelors and doctorate in 6 years though so that would have been harder if not impossible if I went elsewhere. I guess you win some you lose some.

vlagrl29 · May 2015

1 - good. we spent $100 on flowers that we planted yesterday, $25 at the ballpark on friday, $8 on pizza yesterday and around $20 at lowes yesterday.

2 - $138 in savings and and $138 in retirement

3 - My first marriage - I was 25 and really loved him but I really should have known that was not going to end well. I don't regret being with him. I was young and love felt differently than it does now. I didn't nearly care about my needs as much as I do now. Really it was probably the best life lesson I've ever had in many ways. Everything works out as it should.

AprilZ81 · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend? Not great. We went to see the Avengers and DH decided to buy the tickets for 3D Imax which was double the ticket price of a regular showing. We did have a $25 gift card and that helped but still. He just doesn't think things through sometimes. We also went out to dinner after the movie and out to a late lunch/early dinner on Sunday after running errands. Our entertainment budget is running low already, but next weekend we are visiting DH's parents and if we go out they always pay. Sunday we had to buy a new Keurig, we found a model on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond and we had a 20% off coupon but it was still unbudgeted. We then went to Costco for 2 things and walked out with four new exterior lighting fixtures that were super cheap ($37 each) and totally my style. I've not added up the damage but nothing was a total splurge, we do need new exterior lights.

2. Any progress toward goals? Status quo here.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20? Don't get me wrong, I love our house and I love our kitchen remodel but with me out of work I wish we weren't spending so much of our current income on housing (mortgage, HELOC and utilities).

@hoffse I'm going to be uber jealous (and maybe cry) if you can do a complete kitchen remodel in 5 days (ours was almost 2 months from Day 1 of demo). If you are doing a new tile floor make sure they are leaving enough time for the tile to set properly before they do the grout. It needs to harden 24 hours I think before doing the grout. Be sure to post pictures of before, during and after!!!

abrewer5 · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend? Not too bad. Friday went to the new Avengers movie H and I are big nerds, but we had a gift card. H bought dinner that night (we don't combine finances). Saturday went with my sister to pick up my new fur nephew. He's adorable. $10 on lunch and $40 at Petsmart, I really can't help myself around animals. Sunday went the outlets with my cousin $20 on lunch, $50 on clothes for H, $20 gas.

2. Any progress toward goals? Paid the regular bills, currently cash flowing my CC that I spent too much on. No longer carrying it with me.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20? There are SO MANY things, but the biggest on would be to save more. I wish I could back and start saving at least 50% of every pay check from the time I started I working when I was 15 until I bought my house. I really didn't have a good nest egg set up and never really focused on saving which has carried over to my adult. Trying to change MM habits is hard.

cbee817 · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend? Pretty good - groceries ($140) and it was DD#2's 3rd birthday. I swear she was just born- can't believe she's 3 already. It was a beautiful day and she did great (no meltdowns)- made $270 for her bank account!

2. Any progress toward goals? Yes- we added $2,500 to each of our Roth accounts for 2015 and $500 went to savings. We'll probably send $2,500 each to the girls' 529 plans in July, $3,000 each to our Roths in September, and another $2,500 each to the 529 plans in November (final total $21,000).

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20? It would probably be car related- we are really bad at negotiating so we're going to work on that when DH is getting his new car (hopefully this fall).

bmo88 · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend?

Really good! I worked a my consulting side hustle for 5 hours and made $75, while DH entered a poker tournament and profited $100.
We went to IHOP for brunch, but we had a coupon and for buy one get one free. So we ate for $10 for 2 people.
DH went Frisbee golfing (free) and I got caught up on reading/reviewed our finances (one of my favorite hobbies).
Last night though, we went out to eat with friends and spent $40 on drinks and dinner. Not terrible, but more than usual.

2. Any progress toward goals?

Yes and no. After reviewing our finances, we realized that we can usher more money toward debt and retirement. So, now the task is putting it into action and we should start doing that this upcoming weekend.
Finally mailed off all the paperwork for opening our Roth IRAs through Vanguard and I lowered my contribution to my employer 401k plan since there is no match. That will put me at contributing 18% to retirement and DH putting 11% toward retirement.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20?

Good question and a hard one. I am not sure. As we pay off our remaining $54,000 (down from $70,000 in August) in debt from student loans, car loan and our 2nd mortgage, I have moments where I wish we would have spent less in some areas. But honestly, I think we made the best decisions with the information available at the time. I think DH wishes he had started contributing to his retirement a bit sooner (he started at 25), but we are working toward making that up now.
I think we spent a pretty reasonable amount on our rings, wedding and honeymoon combined ($17,000 total, parents contributed $6,000--so we paid $9,000), but there are moments where we wish we had done a really small 10 person destination wedding/honeymoon and banked most of that money. However, we enjoyed the experiences and realize it's done and over with now.

hoffse · May 2015

AprilZ81 said:
1. How MM was your weekend? Not great. We went to see the Avengers and DH decided to buy the tickets for 3D Imax which was double the ticket price of a regular showing. We did have a $25 gift card and that helped but still. He just doesn't think things through sometimes. We also went out to dinner after the movie and out to a late lunch/early dinner on Sunday after running errands. Our entertainment budget is running low already, but next weekend we are visiting DH's parents and if we go out they always pay. Sunday we had to buy a new Keurig, we found a model on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond and we had a 20% off coupon but it was still unbudgeted. We then went to Costco for 2 things and walked out with four new exterior lighting fixtures that were super cheap ($37 each) and totally my style. I've not added up the damage but nothing was a total splurge, we do need new exterior lights.

2. Any progress toward goals? Status quo here.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20? Don't get me wrong, I love our house and I love our kitchen remodel but with me out of work I wish we weren't spending so much of our current income on housing (mortgage, HELOC and utilities).

@hoffse I'm going to be uber jealous (and maybe cry) if you can do a complete kitchen remodel in 5 days (ours was almost 2 months from Day 1 of demo). If you are doing a new tile floor make sure they are leaving enough time for the tile to set properly before they do the grout. It needs to harden 24 hours I think before doing the grout. Be sure to post pictures of before, during and after!!!

Our back room remodel took about a month, and all that happened was we had a wall moved, some new lights installed, and hardwoods put in. The hardwoods were the big thing, and that took 4 days. Just moving the wall and having lights installed took nearly a month. Our guy was cheap and did a great job, but he was sooooo slow. After living with that, I know we can't handle a long-term kitchen remodel, and that's one reason why we are willing to pay a bit more for this contractor. If they can actually do the bulk of it in 5 days, I will be beyond thrilled.

Our kitchen currently has hardwoods. They are going to change the layout of the cabinets a bit, so they will need to patch in our floors after the fact (our current floors don't run under the cabinets). I do think the flooring bit will take longer than the 5-day timeline, but that shouldn't really affect our use of the kitchen. He has promised new cabinets, countertops, sink, backsplash, electric, appliances, etc. in place by Friday evening. If that is done, then we will have a functional kitchen by then. It won't even affect Friday pizza night!

The trade off is that we won't be able to get on their schedule until August or September. They are just backed up with work. But I mean.... I would rather wait a few months with the kitchen we have and only be out 5 days during the remodel process instead of having it start earlier but take several weeks to complete. Besides, it gives us time to shop around and also increase our savings a bit.

I honestly don't know why more contractors don't structure their business this way. It sounds like these guys are just crazy busy with work, and I think most people would be willing to pay a little more for that kind of timeline (I know we are).

vlagrl29 · May 2015

Xstatic3333 said:
1. Good! $25 at friend's birthday (under budget), $45 on post-half marathon brunch (over but worth it), $65 on groceries/bath products.

2. $125 to savings tomorrow! $150 more Friday! It's stupid how excited I am about such minimal progress, but it means we're finally turning things around.

3. I would have spent less on clothes and makeup in college and right after and saved instead. Now I'm so low maintenance that it's hard to look back on those times.

I did the same thing too. I would buy chanel foundation and nars cleanser and toner and even a couple chanel eyeshadows. I was in college too. I would buy clothes that weren't always on sale. I don't remember coupons being as big as they are now or if they were I never noticed but with the online apps you can always find coupons now. Now I'm using Neutrogena facial cleanser and toner and the only brand name product I still use is clinique foundation. LOL

dragonstarjk · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend? Not too bad! Friday night went to a nice dinner w/ a friend, but we had a gift card so only spent $10 on the tip. Saturday-$50 for a gift card for Mother's Day, $100 for groceries; Sunday-$5 for chips and queso. I did order a few things from Amazon that we've been wanting that weren't entirely budgeted for, but came out of our shopping account. That account is now empty so we need to re-fund it.

2. Any progress toward goals? Sold several items from my baking business since I have decided to close business in June; I'm not sure of the exact total since my mom is selling the items for me, but I think it's around $200. That will probably be split between the shopping fund and the vacation fund.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20? Buying a car in 2007 that I wasn't really crazy about, and then using a home refinance to pay off the car loan. Rolling that amount into our house payment was really dumb. It's long over with now, but I think we would be about two years closer to having our house paid off if we hadn't tacked on another $15K. And I no longer own the car.

formerlyGDaisy09 · May 2015

1. It was a little spendy, but not terrible. Stock-up trip to BJ's $145, Grocery Store $50, Ice Cream $6. We got a bunch of stuff at Home Depot, but that was all on a store credit from returning a bunch of stuff a while ago.

2. some money sent to savings, waiting on some reimbursements so I don't short myself later this month.

3. I think our apartment before we bought our house was a bit of a mistake, we could have rented something for just a little bit more in town and wouldn't have been spending $400 a month on gasoline (we were 25 miles outside of town, worked opposite hours so carpooling wasn't an option) so we were each filling our tanks once a week.

smbenevides1989 · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend?

Not bad considering. $33 on movie tickets, $20 on popcorn and soda, $110 on groceries, $29 on baby stuff, $80 for a year's worth of contacts/copayment, and $32 for car parts.

2. Any progress toward goals?

Just continuing to save every extra dollar we make.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20?

It would definitely be the savings/spending when I was younger. I spent like crazy, and my credit card statements showed that. I wish I saved more than I did. I would be swimming with savings...

blondie42107 · May 2015

1. How MM was your weekend?
Pretty good. $100 on groceries, $60 on gas, $50 on lawn/garden supplies.

2. Any progress toward goals?
Nothing yet. Too early in the month.

3. If you could have one MM "do-over," what would it be? In other words, what decision would you make differently since hindsight is 20-20?
This is a hard one. Probably saving more when I got out of college although I didn't rack up debt. Otherwise probably refinancing our home sooner. Interest rates were higher when we bought our house. We love our house however it's not our forever home. Sometimes we wish we would have bought a different house that could have been our forever.

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