Money Matters
cbee817
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
1. How MM was your weekend?
2. Any progress toward goals?
3. If you are getting 3 paychecks this month, do you build it into your monthly budget or use it for something extra?
Re: Monday Accountability
2. Any progress toward goals? $3k went to Roth for 2016, taxes are done (owe the feds, return from the state), and we reached over $200k in retirement this week.
3. If you are getting 3 paychecks this month, do you build it into your monthly budget or use it for something extra?
We try to split it out (in the past we would use it for extra student loan payments or to cushion savings) but we now have a lot of bills due at the beginning of the month. It'll go to the mortgage, car payment, and 3 credit cards. I am getting a small bonus from work and our state return in mid-April so that will go to the vacation fund.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Decent. $20 on groceries, $18 on donuts for our company, $65 from my fun money to pay for the arcade on Saturday night, $12 on dinner at Panera last night.
2. Any progress toward goals?
Yes! 2016 Roth IRAs fully funded. Taxes done and we are getting a refund but my fine tuning helped keep it from being as large as the last two years. Friday my company paid a bonus!!! Bonus is not guaranteed and the amount can vary so I don't include it in budgeting. I'll use it to pay for our vacation and some of it can fund our 2017 Roths which I plan to do soon; now that I know the bonus amount I can be confident in where our 2017 income total range will be.
3. If you are getting 3 paychecks this month, do you build it into your monthly budget or use it for something extra?
N/A for me this month. But to answer the question when I do get extra pays they are not built into the budget. They provide buffer to help meet our goals and/or we may splurge a little more in those months.
2. No progress until H starts collecting a pay check!
3. Our three paycheck months are June and December, which is perfect for Christmas. In June I also get a PTO payout (I usually sell 80 hours) and put those extra amounts to whatever goal we've set, which this year will be the mortgage.
2. I was able to push an extra $1,065 from my husband's OT pay into our savings account. Poor guy was so tired this winter but the snow duty pay has been really awesome. Hopefully that's our last one for the season though!
3. I have a 5 check month because I'm weekly, but husband's 3 check month isn't until June (he must be the opposite week of you other biweekly folks). I usually just leave them as a buffer in our checking account since I don't like to use savings for misc. big bills (such as this month's dentist appointment, new car battery, electrical work, etc) if I can help it.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Pretty MM. Spent $11 on clothes for DD at a mom sale. That's it.
H also went into work Sunday morning so we'll have 5 hours of overtime for that as well which will be nice.
2. Any progress toward goals?
Our goals have been on hold this month and next. We have so much to get done and finish buying before baby gets here. So we've been plugging away at cash flowing all of that.
3. If you are getting 3 paychecks this month, do you build it into your monthly budget or use it for something extra?
Really, more paychecks just means more weeks of expenses. So an extra week of daycare, etc. So we are using any extra to cushion the expenses we've had this month and will have next month.
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
1. How MM was your weekend? It was pretty good. $7 on pizza for lunch on Saturday, $10 at a bar on Saturday night, and $75 on groceries.
2. Any progress toward goals? Tax returns are finally finished and ready to file. We ended up with a good-sized refund this year due to the way withholdings worked on one of my bonuses last year, so we will be getting some extra money in April.
3. If you are getting 3 paychecks this month, do you build it into your monthly budget or use it for something extra? DH is getting an extra check, I am not, since we are on opposite bi-weekly pay periods. We don't really build the extra checks into the budget, we are normally lucky that they always seem to coincide with one of our vacations or the holidays, so we usually use them towards those things. This one is no different, it will pay for a long weekend away we are taking.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Alas, it was a "repair weekend". On Friday, my H and our plumber went to one of our rental houses to unclog a drain and replace the stoppers on two toilets. That "flushed away" $180, haha. On Saturday, we went to meet an appliance repairman for another rental unit. We ended buying a $200 "new" used washing machine with a 30-day warranty. AND our tenant called us the next day that it is not working correctly. Meh.
On the really bright side. We finally got the bill from our electrician for the duplex we finished. We were expecting it to be $2500-$3,000. It was only $1100!!! Major score! I've rarely been that excited to write an $1100 check, lol.
No personal expenses, other than for mystery shops, which I'll get reimbursed for.
2. Any progress toward goals?
Paid my HELOC down $2000 and my 'cc debt down $1150.
3. If you are getting 3 paychecks this month, do you build it into your monthly budget or use it for something extra?
My f/t job doesn't pay bi-weekly. My p/t job USED to, but this Friday will be the last paycheck that way and the last "extra" week. Starting April 15th, they're going to paydays on the 1st and the 15th. I've always used my "extra" payday to pay down either my HELOC or my 'ccs. So nothing too exciting, lol. Just an extra nudge to paying down debt.
2. We've been able to continue saving steadily. Watching my insurance website, however, it looks like the midwife I've been seeing all pregnancy was declared "out of network" for my delivery and we may owe $1,000 for her services that I don't think we should. Hoping to be able to get it cleared up. We also started researching 529 plans and finished up our tax paperwork.
3. The way my maternity leave works will cause me to miss out on a "bonus paycheck" month, since I'll be using my state's maternity leave program that month. H's bonus will come in June. When we get them, we generally do use them for something "extra." H's this year will pay for our summer vacation, a low-key beach rental on the Cape.
1. How MM was your weekend? It was kind of spendy, but weekends tend to be because it's when we have time to run errands. $10 for brunch with the girls, $45 on tickets for my cousin's high school musical, for us, my parents and grandma (my mom purchased tickets for our local high school's musical, so we are even), $2.xx on goodies at World Market, $78 on groceries, $67 on a new coffee maker (needed a bigger one) and dress shoes for H (used $10 Kohl's cash + 30% off). Side note, we looked at undershirts for H at Kohl's, and omg they are ridiculous...$40 for 5 or 6 shirts?!?
$6.29 at Joann's for craft paint, to paint picture frames - I bought the frame set from Wayfair for $71.99, but there are unsightly cracks in some of the frames and the white color of the frames appear more yellow-ish next to the white matting, so I decided to return them. Initiated the return process with Wayfair, and they issued the credit to my CC but said to donate or trash the frames (no need to return). So now that they are technically free, I'm going to attempt to fix the frames with wood putty and craft paint. I feel kind of guilty about it, but I did intend to send them back, so it's not like I intentionally manipulated the system or anything.
2. Any progress toward goals? No
3. If you are getting 3 paychecks this month, do you build it into your monthly budget or use it for something extra? We don't build it into the monthly budget, but we are a little more lenient on spending during 3 paycheck months, although much of the 'extra' spending is on items we need/would buy anyway. Just feels less guilt-ridden lol. I'd like to donate a chunk of the surplus from this month to the capital improvement fund at church but I still need to discuss it with H. The rest will probably go to savings.
Last year we bought a coat tree with bench from Wayfair. There was some damage to part of it (even though the box looked fine). My H tried to initiate a return and Wayfair said they were really sorry for the inconvenience and told us not to try to ship it back (pretty bulky) and sent us a brand new one. We were pleasantly surprised with the customer service!!