PNW Mama's Personal Finance Blog

We are now down to $8,500.....feels good!

We are really hacking this thing down.

Gotta get it paid off soon.

DH is in talks with me for a new car possible sometime next year

That is for another post.....blech!

Today is DD1's 20th birthday! Hard to beleive she is leaving her "teens" behind.

We went down to her college on Saturday and took her out to lunch and ice cream. Also brought her presents down. It was weird because this was the first year (ever) we didn't have a family party. It just didn't work out this year. She didn't take her car this semester to college and her boyfriend had something else so they couldn't drive up here. No matter, we had a nice time anyway. Family just sent her gifts to her. It is always fun to get that kind of stuff in the mail isn't it?

DD2 had plans both Friday and Saturday night so it was a bit late as I had to drive her and pick her up.

DH was not feeling well most of the weekend and ended up going to bed at 7:30 on Saturday night

Sunday was spent catching up on housework, laundry and grocercy shopping. Made a lovely roast chicken for dinner.

Tonight DD2 has an away soccer game so after we drop her off, dh and I are meeting mil for a quick bite to eat and then she is coming to the game with us..

I took today off from work as I still have a ton of vacation time to burn. I have several more days in the near future planned off too. Spent some time with my mom....we had coffee, did some "craft" shopping and she treated me to lunch.

It is a beautful day here today and should be a great night for soccer though a bit nippy.

All in all, a very nice 3 day weekend.

Back to "reality" tomorrow

To find that our property taxes went down this year.

Not by a lot...approximately $100 but hey....$100 bucks is $100 bucks right?

Also, if we pay in full, we get a small discount....approximately $100 so we will definately do that....savings account will take the hit for that.

We don't have an escrow, just pay our taxes and homeowners insurance on our own. We are pretty disciplined and save throughout the year, but just the same, it's no fun taking that money out that's for sure!

Taxes are due by Nov 1st.

24 years ago today I married my DH.

We took in a movie yesterday and tonight we are heading to Red Lobster with DD2. My parents gave us a $50 gift certificate and I also have a coupon so hopefully that should cover us all.

Movie was seen with $2.00 of each ticket with a coupon from our Entertainment book. We went to a matinee so they were only $6.00 each. We also split a popcorn and soda. DH went in to use the restroom and found $5.00 on the floor! He later used $2.50 to treat me to my favorite coffee drink since he picked the movie two times in a row. I didn't mind....movie was pretty good...actually anything with Hugh Jackman in it is pretty good

I was really pleased today with the items I was able to get for free....around here, we do not have a CVS and it is very hard to get really super good deals alot of the time. We only have 1 grocery store that doubles 4 coupons per week which is Safeway but I don't shop there because they are so expensive.

I have a ton of vacation time to use so I took today off. I planned my shopping stops out before I met my sister for lunch. I was able to get all of the items except for 1 which both stores I went to were out of that item.

Here are the items I got:

1 dozen eggs from Target
1 liter of Dr Pepper Ten
1/2 gallon ice cream from Safeway
1 Schick Hydro Razor
1 package Idahoan potatoes
1 travel size body wash from Bath and Body Works

I also took advantage of a promo they were having at Bath and Body Works. They had a buy 3 get 3 free. In addition to the travel size free coupon I had, I also had a coupon for 20% off the entire order, plus a gift card that still had $8.20 on it. I ended up getting 6 full size items for $17.40. Not bad! I am saving 3 of the items for dd2 for Christmas and keeping 3 for myself

and turned the heat on. Our beautiful Fall weather has taken a break and turned to yucky clouds and rain. It has been chilly here the past week (in the high 50's) and the house was at 67 so DH decided to turn on the heat.

We have a programable thermostat and it is set to 59 at bedtime and when we are away for the day and at 69 when we are home.

It is suppose to warm up a bit so hopefully we won't be using the heat much over the next few weeks.

DH and I finally went and got our passports done last Friday. Gosh! It was expensive. DH had to replace his since he can't find it. We have torn the house apart and also checked the safety deposit box. We have no idea where it is. In the end, he may have ended up having to replace it anyway since is was approximately 15 years old. Not sure if it was actually expired or not but they said it probably shouldn't slow it down much if at all.

I know he had it on the last cruise we went on in 2004 but now it is nowhere to be found. At that time, you weren't required to have a passport for a cruise so I just used a certified copy of my birth certificate. Of course, now, you need it for any travel outside the states.

Feels good to get it done but I had no idea it would be so much. $110 each and then $25 each to the city for handling/sending it in. Yikes!

Seems like everyone else had roastbeef today!

Ugh....lots of money out the door today.

Mortgage: $961

Credit Card: $750 (pd in full)

Deposit down on dd2's club soccer $200

I also had our travel agent charge $1000 to towards our cruise in April. That won't hit the credit card until next due date though.

I got paid on Wed and dh gets paid on Friday. I hate it when we get paid the same week. DH gets paid every other Friday...never changes. I on the otherhand, get paid on the 15th and either the 30th or 31st. It is usually fine but I like it much better when we are paid on opposite weeks....kind of like getting paid every week. Makes the cash flow much better.

Our high school does registration through the mail. Sure beats having to stand in line with hundreds of other people. Anyway, fee's this year ended up being about $60.00. That is with my credit of $12.66 from my scrip account. Quick breakdown:

$3.00 mandatory student fee (whatever)
$15 ASB sticker (gets into all games)
$10 for an elective
$45 yearbook (price goes up later)

I also had to pay $175 for soccer. That price keeps going up every year. Will also pay for soccer pictures when that comes up. Shouldn't be more than $25 or so.

School pictures will be another $25 to $30 which will be taken the first or second day of school....whatever period their Language Arts class ends up being. I say either 1st or 2nd day because our school has even classes one day and odd the next.

Please don't throw rotten tomatoes at me for buying pictures....I know they don't scream frugal but I love them anyway!

Didn't have to buy too many school supplies either...just some pencils, highlighters, paper, notebooks, and 2 binders. All were purchased on sale and/or with a coupon.

Almost done school clothes shopping too....just have a few more things to get. We usually don't buy too much to start with since it is still warm around here in September and into early October. That way we can save some shopping for warm clothes a bit later in the year and the selection seems a bit better.

It's still summer here in my neck of the woods as school for dd2 doesn't start until after Labor Day. We will be sending dd1 off to her second year of college this Saturday and classes start on the 29th.

We have had a pretty low key summer. Haven't done much since we have our big cruise coming up in April.

We did take two trips to Seattle for dd2's club soccer team. That was fun. First trip we hit Pike's Market one day and the zoo the next. Had great weather so that was a plus. Second trip didn't have time to do much. We ended up watching the World Cup as a team between games. I had forgotten how much I hate Seattle traffic....ugh it is horrific!

Dh and I managed a 2 day trip to the beach. It was lot's of fun and we had great weather. We were able to explore a part of the coast we haven't spent much time on.

We have done some local things too...hit the big Portland Saturday Market downtown a couple of times, went to our local zoo, and have seen many movies. We are planning on hitting the state fair on Sunday. We are bringing dd2 and one of her friends. That will probably be it for our summer adventures.

Kids have had an ok summer too. DD1 went on 2 short road trips with friends, some movies, a concert, and a weekend at the lake with her boyfriends family. DD2 had 3 soccer tournaments, a week at a lake resort with her best friends family, movies,soccer camp, and a day trip to a water park. They also came along with us to the local zoo and market.

So, all in all a pretty decent if low key summer...nothing wrong with that. We try to balance the expensive vacations with low key ones at least every other year if not more. Now that dd1 is in college, I doubt we will have many if anymore family vacations for a long time.

I am so ready for Fall and school to start. Really ready to get back into a routine. I find I am much more focused on everything when in a routine and not the lazy days of summer.

Making good progress on the suv loan. I miscalculated and thought a month ago we were below $10k....turns out now we are at $9500...not sure what I was thinking. Anyway, feels good to be under that $10k mark. Still sending $500 a month to Ford even though there are a few tight weeks here and there.

I guess that's about it for now. Good night all!

Are we headed for another recession? There was an article in our paper the other day that it looks as if we are headed that way. Personally, I am not sure I ever really believed we came out of the last one.

I know "the numbers" said we had but I can't imagine that people that lost their jobs and haven't been able to find a new one would believe it either.

Unlike myself who has been extremely fortunate and blessed to receive a raise every year (even 2%), dh's company does not give raises every year. I was happy to hear it was going to be 4%....definately higher than what I thought. I figured 2 or 3%. We will take 2% and add to his 401K. I am thinking we will also add the other 2% to the automatic transfer from checking to savings.

To the suv loan! I believe we are now down to $10,000 even. Some months it is a bit tough but we are commited to getting that loan paid off. We are so far ahead on the loan now that it feels good to know if we ever needed to skip some payments we could. It's nice having that cushion!

Lots of money going out this month.

Starting out with DD'2 16th b-day. Spent about $100 on her gifts. She also had 3 friends over to celebrate. Part of the cost for the food was for myself, dh, and dd1. Got gourmet cupcakes $19.50 (coupon used), pizza $30.00 (Pizza Hut special) and a movie for 4, $32.00 (used Regal Entertainment coupons). We are also having a family potluck on Sunday so that will be low cost.

DD2 has a 4 day soccer tournament coming up the 25th. We will be heading out of town for 3 or 4 nights. We were hoping to avoid a hotel stay Friday night but it turns out their first game is at 8:00am on Saturday. Since it is a 2 1/2 hr drive we will have to drive up and stay Friday night. What really gets me is that for these out of town tournaments is that they force you to stay in hotels they have arranged.(The club that is putting on the tournament that is) The girls room together so theirs is a shared cost there, plus dh and my room, and we all have to split the cost of the coaches room. Is it bad to hope that only 1 of the coaches will come Plus it is a lot of meals out. We will have to see what is planned for that. Usually they like the team to eat together and do activities together. I am ok with eating together as long as we are not eating at spendy places every day. I know I am not the only one who feels that way. We won't have dd1 as she will be working Monday through Friday and won't be coming with us. We will have to see what kind of activities are planned as we only have 1 game a day Sat, Sun and Mon and depending on how we do, possibly Tuesday. We will be in South Seattle so a trip into town and the waterfront may be in the works.

We are ok with all of this though....playing club sports comes with a price....literally but we have made many friends over the years and lots of memories and we feel it is an investment in our kids. Well worth it (most of the time) in our opinion. It's not for everyone but it works for us

I also forgot to mention that we also booked our cruise! We are starting to pay for it now so when the time comes it will be all paid for. We have paid the $600 deposit, $80 in gratuities, and also travel insurance. After some summer expenses are over, we will have her run through more on the card so it will be fully paid for by the time we leave, including shore excursions which you can book online and pay for in advance. Just hoping we can get some good airfare!

A couple of exciting happenings in our household yesterday and today.

Yesterday day was DD2's 16th birthday....wow does time go fast! Took her out to dinner at Red Robin for a special treat. This weekend will be taking her, her boyfriend, best friend, and possibly one more friend to a movie and then back to our house for pizza and "gourmet" cupcakes. The 19th we will have a family celebration potluck style. Spent a bit on her gifts but we are going to end up taking one back. Got her a fancy dancy curling/flat iron but she doesn't care for it so we will exchange for something else. It was one of the rather expensive ones but hey....you only turn 16 once right? And in our house hair is very important Also got her a $25 gift card to Ulta so she can go buy things that I won't like super expensive hair and make up products

Today DD1 found out she got a job she had applied for. It it through the YMCA for summer day camps....totally up her alley being the sports nut she is. It's been a bit of a process....application and letter sent, job closed on the 22nd of May. Had to wait until the following week to see if she would even get an interview. Finally interviewed on June 4th...short one on one interview and then it was mostly group activities....everyone had to teach a "camp" type game and they all had to participate. Waiting all week to see if she got it. Got the e-mail this evening. They will have training from the 20th to the 23rd and then the weekly camps start on the 27th. She is available all summer so hopefully she will get called every week. Not exactly sure how it works, just that the more available and flexible you are the more weeks you will work. It's also great because it pays a bit more than minimum wage which is $8.50 here in Oregon. The hours are perfect....8:30 to 2:30 Mon thru Fri. She has been applying around town and may keep doing so to see if she can get something a couple of nights a week or maybe on the weekend. It's great also because the camps run right until the last week of August. She goes back to college on the 28th of Aug.

It's a happy night here in our house.

Is going to go up, up, up. DD1 is home for the summer.....she is home for 3 months and now I will have to get used to shopping and cooking for 4 again. It is funny how you adjust once one is gone. Main thing I can see increasing is cereal. She and DH are big cereal eaters.....myself and dd2....not so much. I expect to go through more bread, milk, and lunch type items too. Need to get on the bandwagon and really plan meals and shopping a bit better.

I have noticed the last few months that the Sunday coupon inserts have not been that great....at least for food type items. I am finding it harder and harder to consistenly get really good deals. I notice every 3rd or 4th shopping trip I tend to do really well. That is when I seem to get a "good" insert of coupons and I use them all at once and have great savings for that particular trip.

I guess we will see what the future holds....wish me luck!

Managed to send another $500 to our car loan. This brings the new balance to $11,000.

It feels good to see that balance going down, down, down!

My oldest dd is in college about 1 to 1 1/2hrs away(depending on traffic).

She FINALLY received a phone call for an interview for a hostess position at a local steakhouse about a mile from home. She has been applying for jobs constantly for the past month or so hoping to find work for the summer. We were so excited!

Only problem? They wanted to interview her today at 3:30....ok...that works with her schedule but sucks to have to drive that far just for an interview. So home she comes....she gets to the interview and is there for about 2 minutes before the girl tells her "we don't hire only for the summer". Really? You KNEW where she was driving from (from the phone conversation), KNEW from her application that she is a current college student! And she had the stupidity to ask her if she was going to commute! She then said "oh I guess I should have asked you about that" (her location she meant)

DD called me at work in tears. I got home and she just started crying. I felt so bad. She drove all that way and had to put gas in her tank (we are now almost a $4.00/gallon). On top of that, she was going to stay for dinner so she didn't have to drive back in rush hour traffic and then ended up having to leave soon after I got home because she had to get back to school by 7:00 for somethiing to do with housing next year. She is also going to miss dinner at school because the dining hall will be closed by the time she gets there so I loaded her up with snacks.

Oh....I am just so angry....you can bet we won't be going to that place to eat....EVER!

Sorry for the rant....just had to vent!

Had been holding steady for a while now. On my way home from work I noticed several stations have hit $3.93

I just realized it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted.

We have been doing really well since we implemented the "low spend". The only money spent (other than regular bills, gas, groceries) has been on a few new clothes. I bought myself 2 new shirts 2 weeks ago. Our local Fred Meyer (Kroger) had a coupon for an extra 20% off clothing, plus I had my rewards coupon for 20% off 2 items of clothing that needed to be used before 4/23. Combined with both items being on sale, I got quite the bargain! Took dd2 2 weeks ago and got 4 shirts at Pac Sun for $42. We headed out today to look for a few more Spring clothing items and ended up at Payless Shoes and Old Navy. Had a 20% off shoes purchase and $10 off if you spent $50 at Old Navy. Was able to purchase dd 2 pairs of sandals and myself 1 pair of shoes (for work) and spent $54.00. Spent $42 at Old Navy on some Spring/Summer shirts for the 2 of us and got 6 items. She needs a few pairs of shorts but after that she should be pretty well set.

Oh, I almost forgot...dh bought new tires for his car and had it aligned. I guess you could call that a necessity He got a $100 rebate which he has already filed. Also received 2 free oil changes as they told him the car would only be there for about 2 hours and it ended up being there almost all day. He wasn't happy about that. He was going to need new tires anyway....I thought he was going to wait until summer but he found a pretty good deal so what could I say....he has to get work

So all in all, I would say we are doing well.

Hopefully we can keep at it!

But definately going to try for a low spend month.

We spent alot of money last month and had a pretty big MasterCard bill. I did pay it off in full though but things are going to be tight this month since we are implementing our "new to us" way of living.

We are going to see how we can work it so we can "live" off of dh's paychecks and put mine towards savings and paying off my suv.

I am going to be more conscience when I go to the store and really think before I buy.

We will also cut out any spending for "stuff"

We will still have an "eating out" and "entertainment" allotment but once it's gone....it's gone!

Let it begin!

Yikes! That was at $3.64. I was almost on "E"....my mileage counter said I had approx 30 miles to go until empty. I usually never let it go below 50 (when the reminder comes on) but I was visting my grandmother today and hopped on the freeway home. I was sure I could make it to my area to fill up but didn't want to take the chance I would run out on the freeway so I hopped off and found a station on my way home taking surface streets........how accurate are those things anyway? $3.64 wasn't too bad considering I have seen stations at $3.79. This should last me until at least next Saturday. I have been filling up on Sunday's but dd2 has a soccer game next Saturday on the other side of town....at least 25 to 30 miles each way will probably put a dent in it and force me to fill on Saturday instead.

DH came up with the brilliant idea. Have no idea where it came from....really out of the blue....but I am on board and willing to try.

He is wondering if we can "live" off of his paychecks and put one and at least part of mine totally to savings and get my vehicle paid off soon.

I think we can do it. But I think it will be harder for him. On his 4 days off in row (every other weekend) we tend to spend money like crazy. He is always wanting to go out and look around ect and we tend to eat out more.....truthfully...I think he gets bored and wants to get out of the house.

So we are going to try it....not exactly sure how yet....still working on budgeting and allocating....like how much to spend each week for eating out/entertainment, groceries each week ect.....I mentioned envelopes....at least for a few categories and pulling out a specified amount of cash each week for groceries.

We are hoping to sit down this weekend and work it all out so we can start this in April.

I will report back with the final verdict!

Sent $1200 to the SUV loan. It cleared this morning so the new balance is $12,000.00....Yipee!

Ugh....I've been draggin these past couple of weeks....been super busy at work and with the time change and all I will be glad to see this Friday.

Financially things are back and forth....last Friday dh and I hit Costco...$257 later we left......Saturday we took a short road trip to vist dd1 at college...went to an Air/Space Museum but only got to see the Air part....Space part was closed due to a food and wine festival....it was nice though that the admission was discounted since part of it wasn't open but we sprung for the IMAX movie so all in all I am not sure it really saved us any money...had breakfast (just dh and I) and lunch out but used a BOGO coupon on both...for lunch dd and I just split the sandwich and shared the drink.....we are cheap like that We also hit the college student store before we left.....dropped $85 on a couple of sweatshirts (50% off) a t-shirt for me, hat for dh and a couple of bumper stickers. Sunday dh and I went to a movie....had a free movie ticket (Regal rewards) and a coupon for $2 from the Entertainment book for the second ticket.....did spring for popcorn and a water though....absolutely cannot resist the popcorn.....I know.....bad, but oh so good All in all, a very fun weekend alebeit a spendy one.

Work has been crazy busy these past few weeks.....we have been short staffed for various reasons....staff members kids sick...vacations....someone was moving....ect....ugh! I am just exhausted.

I am looking forward to this coming weekend....dd1 will be home from college for Spring Break....I am taking Monday and Tuesday off and am spending it with my girls....we will try to find some free or cheap stuff to do but mainly just spend time together.

My last paycheck was a 9 day one...I hate those...most are 11 days with a 10 or 12 day one thrown in there here and there....I am so glad dh gets paid every other Friday no matter what....mine are the 15th and the last business day of the month...either the 30th or 31st.

I have more to write but at this point I am just ready to sit down and relax...have a nice evening!

Ugh! Saw a station today at $3.65 for regular! Yuck! I've seen prices anywhere from $3.37 up to the $3.65.....average is around the $3.50's....

Federal tax refund was deposited on Tuesday the 1st....we weren't even expecting it until at least the 4th....that's ok by us.

Also, for some reason, thought the refund was $2000......turns out it was $2600! Woo Hoo! Over to the cruise fund it goes.

Yahoo! The dreaded FAFSA application is finally done. I had to start a new one as I had entered some info wrong on the previous one and somehow couldn't get it to change. It really didn't take that long and I had my tax return with all of the info. I am always scared though that somehow I have entered something wrong and they are going to come take me away for falsifying something inadvertently!

Gas prices are sharply rising in our area. One station today on my way home was $3.52 for regular.

Our taxes were filed last Friday and we should have our Federal return sometime betweeen March 4th and March 11th. I can't wait to get that money and put it in a fund for the anniversary cruise! That will be a huge start towards paying for that vacation in CASH. We owe $94 to the State and they will be receiving their money on April 18th and not a day sooner

I have a check for $65 to deposit tomorrow from my sister who owed me for concert tickets (Sarah McLaughlin who we saw earlier this month) I also need to check to find out exactly how much I spent on books for dd1 so I can reimburse myself....should be a little over $400 and that will need to go to the credit card which is due soon.

That's it from around here.....have a good night!

Went and had our taxes done today.....I was a bit nervous thinking we might owe.

Well, we do owe the state about 130.00....figures, we always seem to owe the state.

The big shocker? Getting $2000 back from the feds......all due to the American Opportunity Credit.....our tax lady said to thank dd1 who is in college....without her and her college status we would have owed approx $600.

So, yay for us....this will go towards opening a new account to start funding our 25th anniversary cruise next year.

Now that the taxes are done, FAFSA must be completed....that is on my agenda for tomorrow morning.....ugh

After that, dd2 and I leave for a day of soccer....tournament on the other side of town....games at 2:30 and 8:30.....really....8:30pm? I am ticked....we probably won't even be home until 10:30 or 11pm.....then to top it off, we have to be back out there Sunday at 11:00 for another game.....if they place 1st or 2nd they will play in the final on Monday....of course, I have to work and so does dh. I am sure there will be someone that can drive her there and back.....

Have a nice weekend everyone!