May 2012 Weddings
mancila60
mod
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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.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Let's do Money Monday
Seems we have all been spending money a little bit lately so here's your chance to tell us about it OR discuss ways to save or to ask any money related questions you would like answers to.
Re: Let's do Money Monday
Right now I'm in no position to spend any extra money on fun stuff so I try to stick to a weekly budget which includes:
gas ($40), groceries ($50), coffee ($25), whichever bills are due ($ varies), and about $30 to spend on going out to eat one night with H.
As for savings, it's not happening at the moment, but H and I, over the past 3 years have saved about $30K to use towards a house, which I'm really proud of us for doing in such a short amount of time.
Hopefully after Christmas, we can get back into saving $ weekly and keep adding to that $ for the future.
Missing Our July Sparkler
BFP#1-11/12/12, MMC 1/16/13-baby stopped growing @ 9wks, found out at 13wks, D&E 1/25/13
BFP#2-4/23/13 EDD-01/02/14 baby BOY born 12/31/13 Michael Cameron
OMG I know, seriously!!!
Missing Our July Sparkler
BFP#1-11/12/12, MMC 1/16/13-baby stopped growing @ 9wks, found out at 13wks, D&E 1/25/13
BFP#2-4/23/13 EDD-01/02/14 baby BOY born 12/31/13 Michael Cameron
I'm currently beyond frustrated with our lack of ability to save anything.. we're pretty much living month to month and barely making it. We woudn't be if it wasn't for the fact that i sold a quarter section of farmland this spring.
H owns a construction company with his best friend... so money can be sporatic at best sometimes. Top it off with the fact that they didn't work last winter (lesson learned, not doing that again) and they got screwed first thing this spring with a couple jobs, we have had very little income this year. I make "okay" money... but not nearly enough to cover all of our bills. From march-the end of august, the only way our mortgage got paid was because i sold that land.
H and his friend have only been doing this for a couple years, and the first few are definitely the hardest.. but man.. it HAS to get better. They finally seem to be out of the hole they were in this spring.. but it took this long. Hopefully next year goes better and we're able to save more.
Everything we paid for for the wedding we did cash... we managed to save a lot for the wedding.. so it's frustrating to know that this year is sucking so bad! I'd like to start trying to save $100.00 a month. but we gotta get out from under my credit card debt, which isn't that bad.. but still... and be able to make our monthly payments with no problem first...
I don't typically "budget" for things.. but i always know how much money we have and don't have and what we can afford ie/ recreation wise/clothes/extras/suppers out.
H and I have been doing really good lately. We already had our money set up to be able to pay off like 2 bills this year and then the rest next year without touching our savings. However when MIL passed away she left H and BIL a significant amount of money. By significant I mean once split both of them would end up with $70K give or take some. That did include life insurance and checking, savings, bonds, etc. So we haven't actually gotten all of it yet but a little over half.
Anyways so we decided to pay off all our bills now instead of waiting just so it would reflect better on our credit and also to eliminate some headaches for us. We have spent quite a bit of that with putting a down payment on me a new car and getting some things we wanted for us. We still have a pretty big savings and money still coming in and of course our paychecks. We aren't sure what we are saving for just yet but we know it is there if we need it.
I'm really happy with how things are going money-wise! DH and I went a little crazy on the wedding - with the HM it came to just under $50k. We had help from our families but we still ended up with about $20k of debt for the wedding because we had used all of our savings for the house. We have about another $20k in debt which is my student loans, my car and a pool loan.
We made a plan together (I used to be a financial advisor so my budgeting skills are pretty sweet) and we'll be debt-free in two years. We make good money but it's still a big cut in our fun-money. The only thing we'll owe is the mortgage... but our two cars, the wedding, my student loans, our pool, everything will be paid on October 2014. I'm really excited about that. It's easing my baby fever, knowing we could be talking about TTC in two years when everything is paid off
H and I bought our house in May 2011, and we actually received the $8K incentive! Throughout the entire home-buying process, no one mentioned that this incentive had continued (we were told it stopped in 2010), so it was a happy surprise when it came time for this year's taxes!
DH recently paid off his motorcycle, and I'll have my student loans paid off in about 2 more years then we'll be debt free other than my mortgage, but we have renters in that house, so they're essentially paying the mortgage for us.
As far as that $8k first time homebuyers credit.... I qualified and received that when I bought the house in Charlotte, but then when hubby and I were engaged, he received a great offer at a company he loved in Colorado. Once I moved out here I had only been in my house for 2 years, and the home has to be your permanant residence for 3 years otherwise you have to pay the $8k back.... sooo..... this next tax season we'll be paying uncle sam that $8k back. So yeah, that sucks. The good news is we have the money, but the last person I want to give that money to is the gub'ment. *ugh*
My BFP Chart Danger Love Blog
I HATE HATE HATE the fact that we are living mostly on credit right now...I never had any debt at all until 2 years ago when I took out student loans, because having a cashier job, while covering my expensese was A) unrewarding/boring and
I could never save. H also had no debt before we met.....
Then we bought a house. Which was fine because morgage is still far cheaper then renting was...however we had planned on me having a decent income when I finished school (supposidly jobs in my field start pretty good). The problems come in now....I am finished school (in May) and STILL don't have a job in my field...and H is going back to school for an apprenticeship which his work is paying for...but he wont be making full salery..and our basement was supposed to be rented out by the start of summer to help cover the ends....BUT 30000$ in loans and 3 months later it still isnt finished. (hopefully by the end of october), and I have to start paying my student loans back this month...so we are living on pure credit for 2 months...it scares the crap out of me....
SO mostly we are just trying to not spend ANYTHING that isnt 100% neccissary RIGHT now....which can get depressing...but hopefully in a couple months we will be in a better spot as H will get a raise at the end of his schooling and the basement will one day be rented out to help with finances and we can start paying stuff off again.
My Blog:Through My Eyes
DH and I make pretty good money. We have a mortgage and actually are refinancing and signing that paperwork on Thursday to actually pay off our house in 15 years (8 years sooner than the original loan!) WHOOP WHOOP!!!
I had no debt coming into our relationship as I didn't take out student loans but rather took as many classes as I could afford. I ended up taking a slightly longer time, but with graduating from both under-grad and grad with no debt I had a huge smile on my face! I am so grateful I did it that way even if it did take me longer.
DH on the other hand had debt from his divorce. Amazing how being married to the wrong person ended up being a pain in the right person's life! Anyway....we had that all paid off a couple of years into our relationship. But it was a long first few years - so I completely understand where you girls are coming from. We joke about it now our money situation then and now. We literally lived on mac-n-chez and refriend beans. Great combination!! Now we save about $1,200/month and still spend far too much on stupid things like going out to eat. We've also been together for 15 years, so I'm sure I'm older than most of you on here.
Hang in there, you all will get through the tough money times and come to a point in your life when you look back at this and laugh. Arguably, not right now! Do whatever you can to save and make your bill payments each month. I know it is so tough sometimes, but it will pay off eventually. Most importantly, be upfront with your H about the money situation.
I'm not really in any position to give advice, being as we just dropped 52K to buy a house with cash. LOL
But there is a sneaky trick to having a little extra cushion that I learned a long time ago. I only use whole numbers when balancing the checkbooks. If it's a purchase, I round up to the next dollar. If it's a deposit I round down to the next dollar. It adds up over time.
Sort of along the same note, neither H nor I use change. We always break a bill even if it's just for a penny. Every day we put the spare change in a jar and monthly take it to the coin machine at the credit union and deposit whatever it is into the savings account.
DH and I are very frugal. I think it works in our favor that we both are. We have a document which details all of our monthly bills, how much we make each month, and how much all of our total bills are. It is nice that we aren't living paycheck to paycheck and we have money left over each month that we just save.
But my car is on it's last leg, so I will be getting one in the next several months which would be another payment, but we were getting by back when I was a sub teacher and now I am a lead teacher so I am making much more money... I will know for sure how much on Wednesday.
Home ownership is not in our near future, but we are okay with that.
Well, H and I have a combined ~$470,000 in student loan debt. Thank you dental school! Next time you think any young dentist/physician/surgeon must drive a Mercedes and have a Ducktales money room to swim in...keep in mind that this is the average debt load of someone coming off of many years of medical training.
That being said, we don't buy anything we can't afford and don't rack up any debt that isn't necessary. Besides our student loans, we have a mortgage and 8 more months of car payments on my car (but only because the interest rate is so low, it doesn't make any sense to pay it off early). Otherwise, we are debt free
We just met with our financial adviser a couple of weeks ago, and I feel good about how much we are saving for retirement. Our next big purchase will be a practice. Basically, just trying to live relatively frugal now so that we can reap the benefits later!
The ducktales reference just made my night! lol
H and I are actually (very surprisingly) on a spending spree right now. We bought a new washer and drier labor day weekend. H had one that has been in the house since around the 80s or so so it will lower our water bill and energy bill and I get a REAL cold/delicate cycle. Yay so excited!
Oh and we bought a new chandelier for the dining room- no more brass, wood accented, etched glass circa 1985 ickiness for me :-) polished nickel and lovely glass sconces soon.
Plus we have to repair the sprinkler and have a quote for painting the main floor of the house.
So basically we are taking H's house and turning it into our home. But we have all our cars paid off (though mine is getting up there), no education debt, and a 20 year mortgage. I'm paying for my masters as I can and we both work right now so it's easy. If we have a little one we'll have to re-eval though ;-)
This might sound strange but I love finding new ways to save money. I read up on it all the time and I love actually saving money. This new feeling just kicked in a few months ago but we are already seeing the benefits of it.
As for our debts, we have the typical mortage, student loans, car/truck payments, and credit cards. We make enough money so we aren't living paycheck to paycheck but also so that we can pay more on our debts a month while still covering all of our monthly bills. I'm on track to pay off a student loan this month, another one in December and to have my car paid off in November. H's truck will be paid for by this time next year as well as another student loan should be paid. We put roughly $100 a month into an actual savings account, I'm really weird with having to have at least $1000 in my checking account at all times so even though that money isn't needed for bills I still won't move it into savings... I know it's weird but some things you just can't help
Lately, we've become really, really frugal! We've started setting a grocery budget and keeping track while shopping. If we are getting close to the budget but not the end of our list, we re-evaluate our cart and see what we don't really need. Not only does it keep most of the junk food out of our house but it forces us to see that we typically buy for want and not for need.
I'm also a big fan of the envelope system which I got from my mother. I have quite a few envelopes in a fire safe box in our office labeled - water bill, Allison's wedding, Anniversary trip, Christmas. Each paycheck I put $20-30 in each envelope as part of our savings plan and this way the money is out of sight and out of mind. We pay our water bill every 3 months and it sneaks up on us sometimes so I've started putting away money each month so I'm not quite so surprised when we get the bill. This way the money doesn't come out of our checking account and I don't have to worry about it. My friend Allison is getting married in just over a year and I've already got roughly $200 saved for her wedding. At the rate I'm going now, I shouldn't have to pay anything out of pocket for her wedding and considering she lives 6 hours away it's going to cost quite a bit just in gas alone. Some people think it's dumb to keep that much money in the house but it works really well for us.
I do this too and did it before I even met H. So once we got joint accounts I made sure to let him know about my $1,000 rule. It works well for us and we also know we will never have a bounced check. I look at the first $1,000 as 0 so we basically never touch it. I am thinking about going up to $2,000 but we will see.