Moneycents Personal Finance Blog

I have to start being very frugal again starting this month until I get the credit cards paid off.
DH and I purchased a home in Florida and the start up cost is quite expensive. It should start to flatten out by December. It is taking a real rearrangement of the budget but it is doable. First we have stopped buying isolated stocks. I will continue with my sharebuilder account but I cut the amount in half, as to what I was contributing. Adding to savings will not happen until January. The wood flooring for the house has been put on hold. I am back to cooking dinner every night and making lunch and breakfast as well as clipping coupons. I am still selling books on half.com and retuning cans and bottles for the deposit money. I will have to start thinking more creatively again in other saving areas.

I have tomatoe plants this year and I didn't even plant them. I just kind of forgot. Then I walked outside the other day and in the planters that I used last year, I saw 3 tomatoe plants growing and they seem to be doing quite well. Now that they are there I am caging them and giving them some miracle grow and some more topsoil. What a pleasant surprise. We have some other things growing in some other containers too...I think one might be a pumkin, the leaves are enormous. My husband had a lot of success with his seeds this year. He was able to take the seeds from the plants last year and cultivate them during the spring. At the end of May he transplanted them outside and they are doing great. He planted Dalia's, Marigolds and Impatients. Some of the plants that we brought indoors after they bloomed last year are also doing well. We have geraniums and impatients that are quite a few years old. Very happy with our free plants.

My bank balance is at zero again. This is a good and not so good thing. Good b/c the money was spent wisely. Not so good b/c it took a long time to save and I have to start all over again.
The money was spent on a down payment for a home in Florida. Hubby and I figured while the prices were low that now would be a good time to buy. We also took into account the very low mortgage rates. We purchased a very nice home in an area that will greatly appreciate in the future. We don't plan on really living in it for about ten years. In that amount of time we hope to make extra payments on the mortgage, without penalty and have the house paid off in about 12 years. By that time my husband and I will be retired. We will spend 6 months in Fl and 6 months in NY. We should have our primary home paid off in about 5 years. That will give us some breathing room.

WE also have had to shell out about 5,000.00 to get our pool fixed. I have to say that was money well spent too. The pool has never looked better and already we have gotten so much use out of it.

My projects with the home improvements have been progressing but very slowly. Still waiting on the hard wood floors.

Starting July 1st I am going to put myself on a very strict financial budget and get myself back on track again with the savings. It's kind of weird, I'm so happy about the house but I also feel guilty about spending the money to get the house.

Right now pretty much everything is on auto pilot. Savings, Stocks, Ira's etc.
I have been doing my best at continuing to use coupons and shopping for the best prices around. Still selling books on Half.com. Cooking more vs. eating out. I don't know if that will change when the nicer weather gets here. Still visiting the thrift shops for deals. I can see some of this(frugalness) is seeping into my daughter. She always looks for a coupon now, no matter what it is. She also likes to save her money and is also beginning to see what a real savings is vs. a big waste. DD is also more enclined to recycle these days than ever before. Hubby too.
I do have some large expenses lurking around in the near future. The first is to repair and istall the wood flooring in my home. Pool repair and some landscaping projects. I'm hoping to get a tax return and use it for these projects.
My doggies have been good, very healthy I haven't had them to the Vet in a while. That alone is quite a savings.
Oh, I was able to recycle and old cell phone to someone who needed a phone b/c they lost theirs and couldn't afford to replace theirs.
My Kiva loans are doing well. Two of the three loans I made are almost paid up. Once they are paid in full I am going to increase the amount I loan. Last year I loaned 300.00 this year I will increase it to 500.00. I feel very good about this. I am helping people by enabling them to help themselves.
On the down side, I have been watching my IRA dwindle down to about 15% of what it was, before the down cycle. I'm hoping that things will pick up again in the summer and around the presidential elections. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I have been following the same principles as I have from last year and I am happy to say that except for a few transgressions, minding my money and wasting less has become a way of life for me. I guess this is why I haven't been journaling much. It is not new to me any more and I feel, if I write I am just repeating myself and being monotonous. I do like keeping track of my progress on the side bar.

My mortgage is coming down nicely.
The two extra principle payments made last year, were a really big boost. Now for the first time, money going to the principle exceeds the money being paid towards the interest.YIPEE!


The stock market on the other hand is a big mess. How a few greedy SO and SO's have disrupted our whole economy and the lives of so many is really scarey!!! Isn't there such a thing as a regulatory commission to over see misteps such as these? Or do these people turn a blind eye for their cut of the money, while a whole nation suffers from their greed? If their was someone paying attention and not so greedy I don't think this mess would have ever occurred, I am not in the financial field and from the beginning of these exotic mortgage schemes I new there would be a painful ending. Logically, it just could not have worked...Now it is up to us to pick up the slack, with higher taxes for all to compensate for the errors of just a few, while those few walk away with multimillion dollar benefit packages and no conscience.
Why aren't they made to pay for their errors? Or is this just the american way of doing business ???
I am still investing in the market because I do believe that things will turn around eventually.

It's been a busy January. We have been in contact with the people for the cabin and it is now a sore subject. We are no longer building a cabin. When we got right down to the constructiion of the home it was just way too expensive. The kit was affordable but we had no idea of the expense of putting it together. The total would have come to 436,000.00 and that price was just for the shell. It did not iclude the kitchen , bathrooms or flooring on the main level of the home. I was just so surprised. I figured with housing the way it is today that we could have gotten a decent quote but no way! So the project is on hold until we reach a new plan for the property. We will probably go wtih a stick frame house.

As you can see my savings account went way down. That is b/c I purchased a bunch of stock on the down turn. It will be fun growing it again. Now that we are not building a home it frees us up quite a bit.

My health insurance company is going out of business after 14 years of being with the plan. I received a letter from them that I would have to start looking for a new insurance provider. As of December 31st I ahve not had insurance and have been busy scrambling around trying to find a decent contract that was similiar to what we had. I found one today and enrolled. I am hoping that we will be enrolled for the beginning of February. I went with the Oxford group which is good b/c my doctors are in the plan as well as my hospital.

1. Cash goal 68,000.
2. Sharebuilder account 12,600.00
3. IRA 4,000.00
4. Stocks 25,000.00
5. Make extra payments toward principal on mortgage.
Happy New Year!

Now that the year is coming to a close I have to say that this year I have been especially mindful of my savings. For a full year I have kept an eye on my spending and have watched my savings grow. Overall it has been a very good year and I hope that it continues. My setbacks have been very minor and I have been able to recoup any and all losses. Most of my projects have been completed well with in budget. The only outstanding project remaining is to get the wood floors for my home.

The cabin purchase is on hold indefinately at the moment. The kit price came in fine but the builders estimates put us way over the top of our budget. So, for now we are forgoing this opportuinity and will continue saving.

My plans for the new year are pretty similiar to the goals that I had set this past year. I hope to be able to stay on track.

I have been reading increasing information on starting kid's with their own Roth IRA accounts so that at a young age they can definately benefit from long term return. It didn't even occur to me two years ago that I would be one of the few people around my area to open a Roth IRA account for my daughter. I guess that the ah ha moment just occurred to me to do it and it just made so much sense(Parents open bank accounts all the time for their kid's so why not an IRA).
My reasoning for doing this is, my daughter was and still is in college and has a small part time job which barely covers her living expenses. So, I just thought that it would be a good idea to just get her started. I don't fund her account to the max every year. I put in just about what she earns in a year. I will keep putting money in until she is able to fund her Roth IRA herself. Thereby taking full advantage of her age and her retirement date. She should be able to accumulat a nice sum by then.

We are waiting for the materials cost of the kit. We should have the quote by this week. Next step is to go to the general contractor and get his quote so that we can apply for a construction loan. I'm a little nervous b/c I have heard that the lending standards have become so tight. We are putting 25% down and we already own the property. I am currenty trying to get my credit score into the 800-850 range so that I look really good on paper in preparation for the loan. Keeping my fingers crossed!

We have received the preliminary drawings for our cabin and have also retained a general contractor for the building of the cabin. I'm waiting to hear what the material quote will be. I should be hearing something this week.
After, I receive this quote then I have to go to the contractor and find out how much it will cost to get the kit together and build the cabin. My husband and I would like the home to be in turn key condition b/c neither one of us is very handy when it comes to carpentry.
I am very excited about this and I am also worried.
From what I have ben hearing, the lending standards have become much tighter and there are only a few places that deal with these types of construction loans.
We intend on putting 25% down and we already own the property that the home will sit on. Right now I am trying to figure out how to get my credit score to the 800-850 range so that I will look really good on paper when I go to apply.

A Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I started my Christmas shopping online this past weekend. I found quite a few good deals and used some coupons. I love getting a jump on things. I hate waiting until last minute. I already received all of the items and I didn't pay a dime for shipping.

This weekend I will be meeting with the log cabin people to develope a floor plan and cost for the cabin. I'm kind of excited and kind of nervous. It is such a huge obligation for the next 10 years of mortgage payments. As my husband says better to do it now before we get too old. I guess he's right but it doesn't make me feel any less nervous.

I bought more stock this month and I am happy with my purchase.

Happy Halloween!

I know that I have mentioned in the past that I have my free checking and savings with WAMU. The savings account is great! I get 5% interest with no minimum balance. The other thing that I like about WAMU is that I have their credit card and some of the features of that card is when you go online you are able to get your credit score free of charge. The credit score is updated once a month. You only get the score and it alternates between the credit agencies. This month my score was generated by Transunion. If you want a detailed explanation of the score, they give you the option to purchase it, right on the same page.

What I find hard to understand...is that my score goes up and down. From 730-760. Without me doing a thing. For instance I have not carried a balance on a single credit card for over a year. Or for that matter have taken out any type of loan. I haven't been late on any payments. So why should my score change at all? For example the begining of last year my score was the highest it had ever been 765 then it droped to the 740's. Meanwhile my savings account had increased and my mortgage was going down???
I just can't understand how they arrive at their numbers.

I would like to get my score even higher by the end of the year b/c I will be taking out a builders loan for the cabin I intend on building. I would love to qualify for a great interset rate at that time.

I haven't written much lately b/c there really isn't much to say. i have been doing pretty well with the saving. I haven't been spending too much so that's good. I'm just following the same path, it has become a habit now, so that is what I mean by nothing new.

Today marked the end of the 3rd quarter for the year. I think that I am ahead of last year in the savings department. But I will not know for sure until 12/31/07. That is day when hubby and I go over al the investments and savings for the year and set our goals for the new year. We started this New Years tradition about 3 years ago. We look forward to it very much. We actually make a day of it and afterwards have a nice celbration.

The only thing that I know of that will affect next year is building the cabin. Which for now is still on hold until we can get septic and building permits. To tell the truth I am a little scared about taking on such a huge expense at this time. But my husband and I are not getting any younger and we want to do this before we get too old and no one wants to loan us money. We will be putting down a large down payment and that will be coming out of savings(nervous). We will also be making smaller payments for stuff such as building plans and 10% down for the kit. I am just wondering if we will like the place so much that we will make that our permanent home and sell this house? The taxes and the cost of living would be so much cheaper.

On another note, I have tried the paperback swap and it is a really nice site to trade books. It is very easy to use and the members are very friendly.

This weekend will be a big spend weekend. I am taking my Dad upstate for a wedding. My Dad is the kind of person that likes to keep his hands in his pockets if you know what I mean . So I will be paying for almost everything. I don't really know this side of the family so when he asked if I would take him I was hesitant but then said sure. He never goes anywhere. Anyway that is how I am spending my weekend.

Stock market is back up again and so are the funds. Just trying to play catch up with the bills since vacation. It ususally takes me a while. And for some reason September is always a big bill month.

In other news our new employees just got a 2.00/ hr raise today. Needless to say they were very happy about that.

Extra payment was applied to the mortgage this month. New total=169,534.00.

So, all in all, things are looking up.

Nothing special going on in the savings department. A lot of bills this month. More than the basic bills I pay every month. Professional license fees ,DD's Life Insurance, Malprctice insurance,Upstates schools taxes and so on. It certainly has not been a good month for savings. On top of the huge financial gift we gave to my husband's daughter for her wedding. It is time to play some serious catch up. I also have to pay my brothers something for all the work they did on my house while we were away. The end of this month is the end of the third quarter for this year already and I think we are way behind last year in our savings. I know right off the bat we are 16,000.00 behind instead of ahead. Hopefully we will be able to recoup that and then some by the end of the year. Here's to hoping!

While I was away I finally had the ceiling repaired. What a difference. My driveway also got a facelift with a new black top seal coating. I was so pleasantly suprised when I got home . All this work was done by my brothers while they wre babysitting my dogs. They didn't ask for any money but when I get the bills for this month straightend out they will certainly get paid. They also threw in a few extra's like washing and detailing dh's car and doing some landscaping around the house. Now the only thing left on the to do list for this year is to get the wood floors done. That will be a major and expensive job. I have one very large great room that has carpet over a cement slab and I want it replaced with hardwood flooring not laminate. Then my living room and dining room need the wood floors refinished. So, I think this week I will get a few numbers and call for estimates. I intend to pull up the carpeting and move the furniture myself, saving myself a few dollars in the process.

Vacation was great! Went to St. John and stayed at a very nice resort. The place was just beautiful and well maintained. Everything was very pricey. To try to save some money we ate only breakfast and dinner and skipped lunch. At dinner we only had water with our meals. We took a few excursions which cost big bucks but when it comes to scuba,snorkeling and fishing in the waters around the islands there is nothing like it. So it is a justified expense.

My stepdaughter's wedding on St. Thomas was okay. It was very hot and on the beach. She had about 50 people there. Mostly family and a few close friends of the bride and groom. Her gown was beautiful. And everyone behaved themselves(big potential for words and fists to be thrown). We gave her a very large cash gift. For which we have not heard a thank you from as of yet. I guess she thinks easy come easy go. Who knows? I'm just glad it is over!!!! Life returns back to normal.

Back at work and things are slow again. I hope it picks up next week when we are back on regular schedule.

For me, the advice I would give is to do whatever you can do yourself and not pay someone to do it for you.Such as mow your own lawn, wash your own car, clean your own home, do your own garening,clean your own pool. Wash your own dogs. Grow your own veggies when you can. Mind your own money unless you absolutely can't. Always sign your own checks. Always make sure your are getting what you paid for. Pay your cc's off every month. Always try to find the best price on what ever it is you are purchasing. Try eating at home more. There are many others but these are the one's that came to mind right away.

Put money into my share builder account. Saved the rest in cash. Boy when you think the market can't get any worse, it does.
Cashed some bottles in today. 2.00 worth.
Picked some more fresh tomatoes. Made all meals at home. Gas is down around here 2.89/gallon.
DD leaves tomorrow to go to Chicago with her boyfriend. She got a great deal on her hotel. Right in the center of downtown Chicago, 89.00/night. She used travel ticker. I just hope her room is nice for that price. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Sold a total of 4 books on Half.com today. Mowed my own grass. Shopped for and made my own meals. Washed my own clothes and ironed them. And took my two nephews to the ocean. That's what I did today to save money. Oh! and went to work.

It was a beautiful day here on Long Island. Went to the beach with DD( used my empire pass) and it was perfect. The weather was great no bugs and not too crowded. We had a good time. Had pizza for dinner and picked up a movie from The Red Box.

Started my walking routine again in hopes that I will be losing a few pounds before the wedding. I know, the pizza is not a diet food. But it sure tasted good. I am still at 160 maybe I will lose something this week. One can hope.

Unable to save anything this week due to paying alot of the regular bills. Sold one of the two books that I had on Half.com. Not much else going on around here. Just working and watching all the rain.

Dinner with DS was really great! We had a very nice time and it is so good to see him doing so well for himself. His apartment is very cute and he has it decorated so nicely. He has recently been collecting antiques. His newest purchase was an old victrola. It is such a beautiful piece of furniture. Other than his antiques he lives very frugally. Even the antiques he does buy he gets them from thrift stores or give aways and ebay.

I am so pissed at myself. Today I went to pay my bills on billpay gathered them all up and as I was paying them realized that one of the bills to the cc company was due yesterday. God, I can't stand those late fees...which by the way will be more than what I put on the CC. It just kills me. I should be more careful but for some reason I had it in my head that all the bills were due around the same time.
I thought I had a good system but I have to do better.

Purchased some shares today of AT&T,Kraft Foods and Pfizer. Put two books up on half.com.

As a money saving idea and b/c I was fed up with the high prices of tomatoes I decided to grow my own tomatoe plants this summer, along with green peppers and eggplant. I used a container garden for these plants. The tomatoes have been fantastic. I bought a starter pack of seedlings with 6 different plants in May. Now I have cherry, grape, Roma, beefsteak, early girl and I can't remember the last one. Everyday I have plenty to bring in the house and I am starting to have enough to start giving away. The peppers were a disappointment. But the eggplants are a suprise. I didn't think that they would grow. So long as the bugs don't get to them I think they wil do very well. The outlay for all these fresh veggies was about 20.00. I had to buy alot of potting soil at the start to fill the containers. It's funny b/c everyone is involved in taking care of them now. They love the fresh vegetables and it was fun watching them grow.

I started receiving repayments to my Kiva account. This makes me very happy!

Tonight, we are meeting our son in the city for dinner. He has been so busy we haven't seen him in a while. He wants us to try this restaurant near his house that he thinks is great. DD and I will be taking the train into Queens and meeting hubby and son at the train station. Should be fun.

This week was a good savings week. Finally! Cooked most meals at home and didn't do any unnecessary spending. I really can't remeber going to any stores this week other than Walmart and Costco. And I didn't buy much while I was there. Just necessities.

The girls are on their best behavior at work . Hubby promised them if they keep up the good work he will give them a raise in 2 weeks time.

This past July our forbearance for our mortgage was swept into our principle. So, when I get the mortgage statement this month I should notice a significant drop in the balance. We pay our mortgage every 2 weeks instead of once a month.

We are going to the property this weekend to meet the contractor and to ask him to perc the land, from there we will drill for water and then site the house. If all goes well we should be getting our builders permit soon after.

Well, the girls showed up for work today. I was really suprised to see them. I was all prepared to work solo today.

I picked up our tickets from the travel agent today. We are going to St. Thomas for my husbands oldest daughters wedding. Not too thrilled about going. The last time the flight was horrible, we had such severe turbulence all the way there. A lot of people on the plane got sick. I also don't get along with my step daughter...not at all. We are like oil and vinegar. She had a real dislike for me from day one and that is the way it continued, even though I met her Dad 2 years after her parents divorced. I have tried to make amends several times and I got slapped in the face for making the effort. I am only going to this wedding for my husband who doesn't want to go alone. We aren't even staying on the same island we are going to stay on St. John. My husband doesn't get along with his ex. So he wanted to be as far away from her as possible. Other than the one day that we have to attend the wedding the rest of the time there we will be on a much needed vacation. You may be asking why does she have to get married in St. Thomas? Well, we asked ourselves the same question and her answer was she didn't want to have the same old cookie cutter wedding. At the same time she didn't care how much it excluded the people that couldn't fly or afford to hop on a plane. Or how much it is costing the people who are traveling and staying there. Anyway, enough about the wedding. Just had to vent a little there.

I got a scare today with my share builder account. They stated that I was (-) in my account and I new I plenty to cover the trade that I made on Friday in my checking account. So, I called them directly and they said it was b/c I used the express purchase option when buying on Friday and that money has to be in a money market account b/c it gets withdrawn immediately which I didn't know. So I had to trransfer funds. It was only for 1.40 but I didn't know what it was b/f I spoke to a customer service rep. I thought I had really screwed up my account. Well I'll just chalk it up to a learning experience.