Money Matters
als1982
member
Dear Community,
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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.
Weekly accountability.
1. How MM was your weekend?
2. Any progress toward goals?
3. I'm having a total Monday - anyone have a suggestion for a GTKY question?!
2. Any progress toward goals?
3. I'm having a total Monday - anyone have a suggestion for a GTKY question?!
HeartlandHustle | Personal Finance and Betterment Blog
Re: Weekly accountability.
2. Any progress toward goals? Just the usual - I love getting paid weekly and having automatic transfer set up. I just get to see our savings slowly build. For life goals we finally picked a paint color for the hallway/stairs and the painters should be here this week! I painted the rest of the house myself, but DH convinced me to cut myself a break and pay someone else to balance a ladder on the stairs. I might take a personal day to stay home while they paint and get in my relaxing day.
3. I'm having a total Monday - anyone have a suggestion for a GTKY question?! If we're using the back to school shopping question I've got nothing. I'm not allowed in Target or anywhere else that sells stationary this time of year or else I get caught up in the sales and buy 47 million notebooks. I love notebooks.
2) One of my goals for August is to get all of our credit cards on the same billing cycle so they close on the same day (at the very end of the month) and then they are paid the next day instead of waiting until the following month like we usually do. We are going to try to have a light month to accomplish that, and so far we are on track. It did mean that some of our cards stayed open longer than usual while everything was getting caught up to close on the same day.
We used to do it this way and then stopped at some point last year when we were doing a bunch of sign-up bonuses. We want to get back to it because H has an easier time conceptualizing our spending if it's arranged this way.
We are also making good progress in getting life insurance increased and separate disability insurance policies set up. I have a list of stuff called "boring things to do before I turn 30," so those should be off the list pretty soon.
I also increased tax withholdings because it looks like my H's year-end bonus is going to be a lot higher than last year.
3) Our state does a sales tax holiday in early August each year. I think the one for 2016 is actually next weekend. Anyway, we try to take advantage of that to stock up on things like socks, underwear, white shirts, etc. The stores usually run pretty good sales at the same time too, since they know the tax-free weekend draws out a lot of shoppers. Our sales tax rate is 8-10%, so the tax-free weekend is a significant savings!
H and I had a taste for brats. I noticed Aldi had some with an expiration coming up so I held off on buying them until the day we planned to eat them (Sunday--when I was going to be by Aldi anyway since it is right next to my gym) and I got them 50% off.
2. Yes we made progress on goals. I had a loose goal of $5K in spare room rental income for 2016. We got a $675 reservation during the week. Adding that to the 3 reservations we have over the next 2 months we will be at our goal by the end of Sept if not before.
3. We don't have anyone in school so no shopping for supplies but I like to keep an eye on sales. Sometimes there a good deals on clothes or bed and bath stuff. We use twin XL sheets for our split king bed and when those sheets need to be replaced I'm sure back to school season will be the time to do it.
2. Any progress toward goals? On the other hand, we paid off my car!!! So that goal is complete!
3. No, we don't have kids, although like @hoffse we sometimes take advantage of our state's tax free holiday weekend. Our sales tax rate is usually 7% as long as we stay outside of Atlanta. Our tax free weekend was this past weekend and since we didn't have a need for any new socks or shirts or anything at the moment we chose to avoid the crowds instead.
2. $200 to the house account and $200 to savings. I also checked my 401(k) for the first time in months and I am really pleased with my decision, that put a nice cherry on top of the weekend.
3. The only back to school shopping we do is for office supplies. Pens and notebooks and stuff. We don't go crazy, but it's the only time of year we buy anything like that.
2. Yes!! We put $7010.10 toward H's student loan! We are going to stretch to pay off the rest this month, but if not, it'll be no more Nelnet by September!!!
3. Great question, but not really applicable for us as DINKs.
2. Nothing, we get paid this week, but we paid off the last of the big cc bills so we can start saving more. Paid my car taxes...still waiting on H's.
3. We don't have kids so we don't do any back to school shopping...not even for ourselves.
2. Any progress toward goals? Nothing financial- bathroom is coming along, everything is sanded and primed. Paint goes on Wednesday and we can start tiling soon.
3. Do you do back to school shopping and if yes what is your strategy?
Yes we do- DD#1 gets a list of supplies from school and that's all taken care of at Target. She loves picking out her supplies and it's not too bad for the year ($32). She has a LLBean backpack and we've already gotten a 2nd one- they have lifetime warranties and her hook to hang it on ripped out. Just a call to Customer service and they ship out a new one and we ship back the old one. Her sneakers are all set- first pair of laces on zappos (on super sale so we bought the next size too). She will need new clothes/winter coat/boots/gloves because she's growing like a weed. Fortunately, her birthday is coming up and she usually gets a bunch of clothes from family. Otherwise, we'll go to old navy, target, kohl's for the bulk of her things. DD#2 doesn't get much new except for footwear and a few special items- mostly hand-me-downs from DD#1 while we can still get away with it.
2. No, not a paycheck week. We're approaching 2 weeks on the patio and they STILL aren't done. Hopefully they'll finish it up today so we can then start on the concrete work, and the other landscaping items.
3. No kids, so not really. Might buy some pens or something if I see a good price. I also forgot about back to school and went to Target last week, and ended up being very annoyed LOL!
2. It's a non-paycheck week so I'll be working on fine-tuning the August budget, which is pretty dominated by more expenses for the same wedding. Alterations, hair, nails, a gift, oh my! Not expecting to make any progress this month.
3. No kids yet and not a teacher so not really.
1. How MM was your weekend? Not bad. Friday $10 at Panera for lunch. Saturday returned stuff to target so +$46 and then bought some stuff for $25, Chick Fil A $10. Sunday nothing! Went to dinner with my sister and BIL but they treated since I picked up the tab the past two times.
2. Any progress toward goals? Not a pay week so no.
3. GTKY - I LOVE office supplies. It's a weird love but I always end up buying something during back to school time for my office. Even if it's just pens and notebooks. I need to try to stay away this year. No kids, so I don't have to worry about them.
2 - nothing this week
3 - tax free weekend is this weekend for us. We will get DDs school supplies this weekend. As far as clothes are concerned we are going to wait until September because its still summer so I honestly don't see her wearing fall clothes until end of September. I usually find coupons and sales at places like Childrens Place, Old Navy, and Kohls.
1. Called my plumber to fix a kitchen sink leak at one of my rental homes. Not sure the damage on that yet. Probably around $100.
Returned $300 worth of stuff to Home Depot. Just extra items not used from our rehab. Bought $130 worth of more stuff. Net gain of $170ish.
Had a different tenant move into our 4-bedroom unit. Collected $80 for her portion of rent. Housing Assistance will make up the difference in the next 2-4 weeks.
Saturday was a crazy, busy day! Finally bought lunch for myself and H at 3:00. $11.40 at McD.
2. My major progress was (finally) getting my rehab duplex fully rented out. The rehab took longer than expected. Finding a great tenant took a bit longer than expected. But it's so nice to finally start having money COME in for that house instead of money going out!
Last week was a non-pay week, but I was still able to pay my HELOC down $400 with some money leftover in my checking account.
3. No kids, so no back-to-school shopping, per se. But (I think) this coming weekend is the "no tax" weekend. Which is a lie. It is only no state sales tax, but Orleans Parish would NEVER let go of even a morsel of their sales tax. So, a 5% sales tax instead of a 10% one. Thanks for the reminder. I need to think about if I want to pull the trigger on a few large purchases.