PNW Mama's Personal Finance Blog

We hit Costco today....we usually end up going there about every 6 weeks. They had a lot of good coupons (for once) so we took this opportunity to stock up on a few things....DH was paid on Friday and it was a full check with a few overtime hours. We will probably see the reduction on his next check from the time he had to take off at Christmas.

We used this opportunity to stock up on mainly cleaning supplies. I don't think I will have to buy these items for at least 3 months...hopefully more.

Sometimes you have to spend to save.

The $11.50 is the current "rebate" balance on our new Wells Fargo credit card. We only have one other credit card...Capital One of which we have no problems with. When we refinanced last year, Wells Fargo offered up their credit card. They give you 1% on every purchase and after you reach $25, it is credited to the principal balance of your mortgage. Since we don't do credit card rewards, this seemed ideal. We are moving back from Capital One and using the WF card when we charge something....why not, I say? Every bit helps! We are uncertain if we will keep Capital One. We don't carry credit card balance so I am not sure that we need 2. Just don't want our credit scores to take a hit if we cancel...currently we are around 850 for both of us. I wonder how much of a hit we would take? Any thoughts? The only reason I can think to keep it would be that the credit limit is a little over double what the WF card is.

Also, FINALLY getting rid of AOL to the tune of $17 a month...this has been on my list of things to do for far too long....DH finally got on me last night and asked me to switch to either yahoo or gmail. He will then cancel AOL saving us $17 a month. Should have done this sooner as there was really no reason not too other than the fact it seemed too daunting....in the end, it really wasn't. Again...every little bit helps!

I had a day off today as I needed to use 1 vacation day before 1/4/2013....we are allowed to carry over 40 hours of unused PTO to our anniversary date. Nice that it is not the new year instead. With the holidays and other co-workers schedules, today was the only day that worked....no big deal...I worked Monday, off Tuesday, worked Wednesday, off Thursday, and half day Friday...not a bad week

DH called from work today....it is his second day back after his company shut down for the holidays. It looks like some kind of time off and/or furloughs are going to happen. At this point it is not exactly clear when....could happen at the end of the month. He said they are talking about a week off every month through possibly April...it could end up being a couple of days every month. Hopefully we will hear soon.

Spending will definately be watched! Luckily with the holiday's over, we really don't have any needs (material wise that is). It was actually hard to come up with what was wanted and needed for Christmas presents when asked anyway.

We still plan on paying off my car in February....no question about that. What we send (extra) to DH's car will be discussed as we hear further information about any time off.

Can't remember the last time we had one of these! Yahoo!

Financial:

Pay off SUV loan of $1000. Should be able to accomplish by mid February.

Pay off Ford Focus loan: $6000.00.

Savings to $30,000

Pay before we leave: A trip to Washington DC this summer (July or Aug)

Increase DH's contribution to his 401K from 12% to 15%

I think these are all attainable....we will have to see what the early months bring in terms of DH's work....since work has been closed since 12/24, DH goes back tomorrow....who knows if and when they might announce a slow down....you never know with this company...it may not even happen at all.

More on personal goals in a seperate post

Happy New Year everyone!

DH and I are very excited for her...as well as she is! She will be working at a movie chain. She had paperwork and some training on Thursday and today (Friday) is her first day!

There are some perks too....when she see's a movie, she can get 1 person in free....we also found out that her manager decided that if your child is working on a particular day, the parents can get in free! She says that extra perk seems to really help the kids (high school I imagine) really focus and are great workers...she wants to thank the parents for being supportive....I've never met her, but I think I really like her She also gets a discount on concessions.

She also gave everyone 2 free guest passes....we hope to use these this weekend to see Les Meserables....with the 2 free passes, and DD2 being able to get one of us in free...DD1 can come with us.

Once she gets her first paycheck, we will go to the bank and have her open up a student account.

We had a lovely Christmas and now are back in the swing of things. Everyone seemed happy with what was given and received. We still have another Christmas gathering to attend on New Years Day. DH's sister decided that this year she was opting out of Christmas on Christmas and wanted to get together with the family after. Her mom (my mil) puts alot of pressure on her to make the perfect holiday and this year she had had enough. She has decided that in the future, she will host Christmas on Christmas Eve and whoever can make it can come and celebrate. Works for me. We also decided that on some years, I can host. Also works for me

I had a 4 1/2 day weekend but so glad tomorrow is Friday. I have had a cruddy cold going on almost 2 weeks now and I am really ready to be over this. My co-worker I share my office space was nice enough to gift me with that for Christmas...lol. Now DH has it and has been thanking me profusely...lol...NOT

Friday (as always) was a 1/2 day at work...around 1:30, 3 other co-workers and I delivered gifts and food to a family we adopted for Christmas...they were so excited! It was so nice making the holiday a little brighter for a family in need. Saturday was spent finishing up the Christmas shopping...Sunday was grocery shopping and housework. Monday, Dh, the girls and myself along with my parents went to Olive Garden for dinner...we came home and opened gifts (DH, the girls and myself). On Tuesday, we went to my mom's for brunch and did Christmas with my parents and sister. Brother and his wife were not there as they are not speaking to us. We had DH's mom and brother over for dinner a bit later. I didn't want them both to be alone for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since SIL opted out of both of those days. A nice time was had by all.

So I am back to work but DH is off until the 2nd.

Been thinking alot about goals...personal and financial. Hope to post those soon.

Laying low, trying to get rid of the crud....hope it ends soon!

As I mentioned in a previous post, DH's work is having a shutdown from the 24th through the 1st. We are not sure what will happen in the first quarter of the year...rumblings are happening that business will be slow.

So, we are preparing a bit for a possible furlough.....my bonus check of $1400 went directly into the savings account. DH's $750 bonus that will come sometime in January will also go into savings.

I have been slowing stocking up on things....mainly toiletries....we do not have a CVS so those awesome deals people get, well, they just don't happen here. However, I have been keeping my eye out for sales and when they happen, if I have a coupon, I am buying things such as bodywash, toothpaste, make-up, toothbruhes and the like. This way, if anything does happen, we will not have to run to the store if we run out of something like that. Spending can be kept to a minimum. I always have a small stockpile of these things, but it will be nice to have a bit extra just in case.

And hey, if it doesn't happen, well, all the better...we will still be able to use that stockpile...it certainly won't go to waste

Today was our office Christmas party....we also received our bonus's....I was really happy and excited to receive $1400! $200 more than last year.

Our festivities were dampened by the tragedy in CT. I am in just such disbelief. You may have heard about the shooting in the mall in Portland, earlier this week? That's one of "my" malls. A day later, my great newphew's high school (across the river in the Vancouver WA area) went into lockdown due to a gun scare.

I can hardly watch the news or read the articles on the internet...it just makes me so sad.

That is how much we owe on DH's new car that was purchased in March....I sent a large payment last month to DH's car loan and thought we would be under $6K....well....guess I was close!

Only 2 more payments on the SUV loan and we are done! Can't wait for that day.

Then we hit DH's big time (as long as things are well with his work). We will at least, send $350 which is still more than the actual payment, but hope to send $500.

I blogged a while back about rumors at DH's work. So far, it appears some of it may be true. For the immediate, they are having a shut-down from the 24th through the 1st. DH will be paid for the 24th and 25th, and also the 1st as holiday pay. He is planning on taking only 1 vacation day (the 31st) and unpaid the rest. He wants to hold onto his vacation, in case there are lay-off's...that way they have to pay that out to him if he was let go. There are also rumors of a slow down for the 1st and 2nd quarters of next year. No idea if there will be furlough's and/or lay-off's. For now, we wait. To be honest, I am not too worried at this point. You may wonder why? Well, we have a very healthy emergency fund. We are 2 payments away from paying my car off (Yay!)and we are ahead on payments for DH's car. Plus, he would get unemployment. With my paycheck, we would be just fine.

In other news, our office Christmas party is on Friday...fingers crossed for a bonus! The past 2 years it has been $1200.00....of course, anything is nice.

If DH can make it to the end of year with no sick time, he will receive a bonus sometime in January of $750....this is to reward people for not calling in sick...years ago, if you had all of your 80 hours (different than vacation)saved, you would receive the equivilant of 2 weeks pay...those days are gone, but again, anything extra sure is nice.

For now, these checks will go into savings....if everything ends up ok, DH and I will be planning a trip to Washington DC next year...that money will go towards that, and should help offset the cost.

DD2 had her semi-winter formal this past Saturday night....we gave her a budget of $100....this covered:

$39 dress
$25 tickets
$23 shoes
$8 boutineer
$3 earrings
$2 nail poish

I sprung for the "formal" pics at the highschool...$22 and her boyfriend paid for dinner. Another "last" in our household and I am mourning the days gone by....DH and I also headed out to dinner with another couple who's daughter also attended the dance with her boyfriend.....this girl does not go to our highschool, but is dating one of DD2's and her boyfriends friend....since they live about 30 min from us, they asked if we wanted to have dinner since they were coming out our way....of course we said yes! I've only seen my friend once since club soccer ended in the Spring (that's how we met). The husbands get along well so we had a great time....well worth an evening out.

DH and I also hit Costco to the tune of $183...stuff we all needed...well...except for the M & M's

We also hit Kohl's.....Got DD2 a fragrance set she wanted and I got 2 pairs of much needed jeans....we had a coupon for 20% off and if you spent $100, 25% off....well the total came to $99.73 and Kohl's was nice enough to give us the 25%! We also had $15 in Kohl's cash.

DD2 had her soccer banquet on Sunday night at a local restaurant....MUCH better than last years's AWFUL dinner at the country club....coach paid (out of team funds) for the girl's dinner and beverages and we adults and any other family members had to pay $12, plus our drinks....I spent $14 total for a much better dinner than last year...very well worth it!

We also went shopping at Fred Meyer's for the family my office adopted for Christmas....again had some great coupons....I've talked about the employee discount card my parents have, and that they let me use it whenever I want....Fred Meyer occasionally sends out a pass where you can save like an associate....it is the same discount employee's and retiree's of the company. We were able to get some good deals with the pass and also the coupons they had in the paper....even though the pass is expired now, I am hoping to get my parent's card and head back to get a few more things. It's a great feeling to be able to help a family in need...their greatest wish? Things to stay warm.....our office will definately help this family to have a brighter holiday season!

DH and I went out today and ran a few errands. We headed to Kohl's as we had a 15% off coupon. He had a leftover gift card from his b-day in Aug so he put that towards a new pair of jeans. I got a sweater and we also purchased a Vera Wang "Princess" perfume set for DD1 for Christmas....it was on sale and we were also able to use the 15% off coupon on that too.

We then headed to Fred Meyer and got DD1 a pair of yoga pants that was on her wish list. We got a terrific deal! Originally $38.00....40% off sale, 20% off employee discount card (from my mom) and an extra 15% off coupon from the paper....ended up paying $16.18....not too bad I say!

Until the SUV loan is paid off!

I sent $500 to the SUV loan which means we have only 3 more payments until it is paid off! About a year ago, we decided to double up on the payment so we could get it paid off sooner. I am so happy we have been able to keep this up. This means the loan will be paid off in under 3 years.

When DH bought a new car in March, it became even more important to get the SUV loan paid off.

I also sent $1400 to his car loan yesterday which will bring our balance just under $6000.

As soon as my car is paid off, we will be sending at least $500 on his, more if possible.

We have decided to just continue to pay the $500 we have been paying on the SUV loan and just pay it off in Feb 2013.

This still puts us paying the loan off in under 3 years.

Due to some rumours at DH's work (possible slow down/shut down over Christmas), we think it is best to hang onto the cash and just continue as normal. It would have been nice to start the year off with only 1 debt left, but that's ok....I think we have done pretty good so far.

If I end up getting a good Christmas bonus as I have in the past, we may consider putting that towards the loan. It wouldn't completely pay it off, but it would be close. Our office has gone through some changes this past summer, so we are not sure what to expect as far as a bonus. Hoping it will be the same as last year ($1200), but not going to put the cart before the horse.

It has been a super busy week and a busy weekend too. It has been one of those weeks where I was feeling a little bit sad.

DD1 turned 21 on the 24th
DD2 had her last regular season soccer game of high school on Thursday and this past Tuesday was her last home game (it was also senior night where they honor the seniors on the team with a ceremony before the game starts).

Several milestones in our lives (and the girls too), it was just making me reflect!

I had a laundry list of things to do and managed to accomplish most of it! Paperwork and appointment type stuff I had been putting off. Gald to have gotten most of it done.

Had the 2 soccer games this past week, a visit to the vet with the cat, and we hosted our family for lunch today for DD1's b-day. We are taking DD1 out to dinner tonight at Olive Garden for a b-day celebration. We told her she could pick where she wanted to go and she wants to try and italian margarita there, so that was her pick..they are super tasty!

My sister and I are headed out of town (2 hours away) on Sunday to see yet another Cirque show. We are going to the 1:00 showing so we will be back hopefully before dark. She conned me into going saying she would drive. Since we both have a bucket list of sorts to see every Cirque show, this gets us one step closer to our goal...lol

The house is clean, but the laundry is not. Might try to work on that tonight when we get back from dinner. I also need to find time to go to the grocery store. My Sunday is shot as I will be gone most of the day.

That's life and what's going on around here!

We are now down to $2000. We would really like to pay this off by the end of the year.

This would mean sending $1000 for Nov and Dec. It is going to be tight but I think we can do it.

It would be so nice to go into the new year and be able to attack DH's car loan.

I think the goal for that would be to start sending at least $500 to that or possibly more since we won't have my loan any longer.

Fingers crossed we can do it!

We headed to Vegas this past Monday at dark o'clock and arrived home on Wed night. We had a great time!

Took in some of the sights of the strip and saw two shows....Mystere by Cirque du Soleil and Jersey Boys. I have seen 4 other Cirque shows and just love them. DH had never seen one and I am happy to say he really enjoyed it. The one I really wanted to see was "O" but they are "dark" on Mon or Tues. We also took in Jersey Boys which was fantastic!

Happy to say we didn't buy any thing except food. Food was VERY expensive though....it kind of surprised me just how expensive it was. I know we were in a tourist spot and all, but again, prices were high!

Our 25th anniversary was on Tuesday. We did splurge and have a nice dinner after the show. It was probably the most expensive dinner we have ever had, but it was worth it....I think 25 years is worthy of a celebration

Had to do the order for dd2's cap, gown, and tassel order on Monday night as it was due on Tuesday.

Total for all 3: $48.95

Also ordered announcements and name cards.

With the shipping they charge it all came to $117.30 (cap, gown, tassel, announcements, and name cards)

Still haven't turned the heat on! Usually by this time of year it is on. We have had the most glorious and beautiful summer and fall this year. Kind of makes up for last year when we had about 2 weeks of sun! Lol Seriously though, it has been beautiful here all summer and into the fall....mostly mid 80's over the summer, with a couple of weeks of 90's...we usually turn the a/c on if it is going to be 85 or above.

It has been in the mid 70's here the past few weeks and sunny days, every day.

Mornings are a bit chilly, but the warm days seem to keep the house at a comfortable temperature.

The weather is suppose to change by Friday, so we will see how long we last!

September was a busy and spendy month. October looks to be the same. It will be nice to skip the October house payment as the refi closed at the end of Sept.

The big Sept expenses were:

$2100 to pre-pay property taxes for closing
$1300 for drainage work in the yard
$1000 to the SUV loan...so close to paying it off

October is bringing a very busy schedule and money will be spent. Here is what is on tap:

Oct 15th-17th Vegas! For our 25th anniversary...we already took the anniversary cruise in April but thought it would be fun to be somewhere on our actual anniversary (the 16th)...we found a great deal through SW Airlines for airfare and hotel. We will be staying at Paris....very excited...we have only been to Vegas once....when our kids were 4 and 7 1/2, we drove to Vegas and spent 4 nights there and had a blast...we are excited to go back and see how much it has changed. We booked 2 shows to see....Mystere by Cirque du Soleil (my pick) and Jersey Boys (dh's pick). For the most part, we plan to keep it low key and just sightsee...no real spending...we are also not gamblers to no temptation there. Just hoping for good weather.

Oct 23rd....DD2's senior night for varsity soccer.

Oct 24th....DD1's 21st b-day! Gifts still to be purchased.

Oct 27th...family b-day party for DD1

Oct 28th....another Cirque show with my sister

DD2 also brought home the catalogue for senior stuff...cap and gown and such....have to go through that this weekend as it is due back Tuesday.

We have nothing planned this weekend so it will be nice to relax and catch up!

Finally!

Actually, all we had to do was sign the paper to close the credit line and bring in the cashier's check for the property taxes.

We weren't going to close the credit line, but, US Bank wanted $250 to keep it open...basically to sign a piece of paper (the subordination) and lower it.... can you believe it? I bet you can! Yes, to sign one piece of paper and lower our available credit costs $250...ugh.

So we asked mortgage guy if we could get a credit line through Wells Fargo and he said yes....for no charge.

So that is what we are going to do....DH tried to get US Bank to waive the fee but they would not budge...stinkers!

This was done on Thursday afternoon and should close today....will be nice to be able to skip Oct's payment....we had a spendy Sept!

Oh the saga continues.

I called our mortgage guy at 8:00 to confirmed he received dh's email and voice mail.

He said he did....I then mentioned that it was too bad we couldn't just lower our credit limit if that would take care of the issue we were having....well guess what?

No problem...that is what we did last time...it is called a subordination (not subrogation...I knew that wasn't what it was called...just couldn't remember)!

So he says that apparently the credit line didn't show up on our credit report so he didn't even know we had it anymore....sounds like even he didn't know it would be in the papers from the title company (or so he says)....I do remember that when we refinanced a few years ago, the same thing happened.

So, I certainly don't mind it being lowered....we definately do not need as much as it is....we are totally fine with it being lowered....all of about $6000 lol, but we are not going to put the effort out to go to the bank and lower it even more.

He is going to have his assistant work on getting that paper to us to sign and hopefully we can "re-close" in approximately a week.

I also confirmed that the interest rate is going to be the ORIGINAL amount he quoted and that those fee's that somehow ended up on our side of the paper will be removed and the only thing showing that we had to pay for was the appraisal and credit report. I also requested he let me know the amount we need for property taxes so I can have the certified check at the time of closing this time.

No more surprises please! Let's just get this done

Yep.....we are

About 3 months ago, we decided to refinance to a 15 year fixed....we contact the mortgage guy we used before at Wells Fargo.

It was suppose to be a no fee (except appraisal) refinance at 3.5%.

So on Friday, when we went to sign papers....there were several problems that left us extremely annoyed.

The first one was that there were some fee's that "accidentally" got put on....he said something to the effect that they were put on accidentally and we would receive a credit and then a check.

The second problem was that I was told on Thursday, that since we are within 60 days of property taxes being due (in our state they are due Nov 15th), we would have to bring money to closing (approx $2100)Now, I get why they do it...basically then our taxes wouldn't be due in Nov, they would be paying them in Oct when they are certified....they also collect 115% to adjust (in case they go up from the previous year)and we receive back any overage, but since we had already made house payments, it wasn't the full amount....again, no problem, we have the money, but to be told the day before was rather irritating...on top of that, when they asked me how we were paying (on Friday at 4:00) I was like....uh a check?? No can do, it must be a cashiers check...again never told this...so I am told I can do it Monday which means I would have to leave work early...I get off at 4:15 Monday through Thursday, but in order to get to the bank in time and do all that I would need to leave early as there is not a branch close enough to do it on my lunch or anything.

The third and final issue was that they told us we had to close our credit line (through our bank). This happend the last time we did a refinance...we said no way so we were able to sign some paper (I think it is a subrogation or something) and were able to keep the line of credit. We were rather surprised as nothing had been said ahead of time. This time they said we couldn't keep it open as it has something to do with the value of the house, the amount of the credit line limit and 80% of something....it is a rather large credit line, which we haven't used in years, but we want to keep it open, just in case anything really bad happened...I certainly wouldn't mind lowering the limit at all though. We declined to sign the paper on Friday and figured we would work it out on Monday. Unfortunately, DH was 45 min late to signing due to getting out of work late and our mortgage guy had to leave due to a doctor's appt...he would have stayed the entire time, but we didn't count on DH being so late...anyway, DH called our mortgage guy on Sat and left him a message stating we were not going to close the line of credit....he called back when we were on an outing and left a message saying that was fine but they were going to raise our interest rate then.

So, I guess we will find out tomorrow if he can do anything...by anything, I mean let us keep our credit line and not rasie the rate. If not, we exercise our right to cancel.

Again, it's not that we don't understand why they want us to do it....it is the fact, that NONE of this was told to us ahead of time....extremely annoying to find out the day of signing...on a Friday at 4:00 no less. We have credit scores in the 800's, excellent payment history, and virtually no other debt, except the car loans which now total approx $11,000 total.

I wish he would have warned us this could have been a possibility from the start, or at least early on so we could have discussed it then...now we may be out $445 for the appraisal.

Bummed

We are officially at $2500 on the SUV loan.....since we are refinancing (signing today in fact), we get to skip Oct's mortgage payment....that will be going to the SUV loan......we are so close!

I sent $1000 payment to Ford towards the SUV loan. That will bring us down to $2500! Pretty excited about that! We have been steadily paying $500 a month towards that loan and we are almost there! It will be paid off for sure by December, if not November...we purchased the vehicle in May of 2010 at a no interest loan, so we are pretty happy with where we are now.

Then...we hit the Focus balance HARD....just like we did for the SUV.

Thanks for all of the sweet comments on DD2's senior pic....I think it's always fun to get a peek into each other's lives, but for privacy, I took the photo down.

As I mentioned in the original post, instead of going with one of the expensive "collections" she offered, we decided (as we did with DD1), to print our own. That way every family member can get their favorite pose and the size they want. We will however, take the cd to a somewhat quality printing place...probably Ritz as we did before. We were very happy with how DD1's turned out when we printed them there.

I must admit though, she did have some really cute offering's. But I think these days, it's pretty easy to be somewhat crafty on your own....especially with digital prints. She charges $40 an image, and we picked 7 for a total of $280.00 and we can do whatever we want with them. I am looking forward to putting together something really fun!

For dd2:

1) $75 high school soccer camp

2) $175 high school soccer participation fee

3) $25 parking permit

4) $56.80 out of pocket for school registration

a) $45 yearbook
b) $25 senior graduation fee
c) $15 asb card (gets in free to home games)
d) $3 student body fee

$88.00 minus the $31.20 I had in my scrip account left us with the balance of $56.80. I had hoped to do better last year with buying scrip but I wasn't so great with it....oh well...every bit helps!

There will be other related "senior" spending I am sure....cap and gown for sure and probably announcements (we will get a small package for that) I am sure once school starts we will be bombarded!

Until then, I will enjoy the calm

Sent $500 to the suv loan on 8/11/2012....new balance as reflected in the side bar is $3500. We have steadily been paying this down at $500 for quite a while now. We do plan on paying this off in Dec! At that time, we should owe $1500. We will send the regular $500 payment, plus the extra $1000 taken out of savings or with my Christmas bonus...then...it will be paid in full. I should add that this vehicle was purchased in May 2010 and is also a no interest loan.

We plan to hit DH's car loan very hard. I sent $750 on 8/17/2012 and that should take us down to just around $8000. Will need to wait for the statement as the interest rate is about 2% so I am not sure of the exact balance. We plan to sent at least $500 a month. We may possibly send even more as we have the extra cash.

I am excited! It will be nice to only be down to the 1 car loan and mortgage!