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Home > Archive: September, 2012

Archive for September, 2012

My Intentions

September 21st, 2012 at 05:27 pm

I received $44.91 today in my Paypal account, for secret shops I did 2 months ago. I have already transferred it to Mini E-Fund. I have not received any repayment from daughter this month, nor any reimbursement from ex-h for J's summer camp last July.

I decided not to completely drain CurveBall in order to pay Chase Freedom in full. Instead, I drew it down to 1k, then did a balance transfer from Citi MC for the rest. The terms of this most recent transfer are 0% with a 3% balance transfer fee. This will increase my Citi MC balance up to approximately 1.7k, 1.6k after I send them their $100 payment.

In each of the past 2 years, I have received a Christmas bonus of $1,750. If that happens again this year, I will pay Citi MC in full and end the year with my savings too low, but no credit card debt. I will have an additional $100 per month to use towards re-building my cash accounts. It also means I will not hit my 3k Roth goal for 2012. I will have contributed 2.1k to Roth and nothing to traditional. But, I am ready to be D-O-N-E with credit card debt.

Fastforwarding to next April 15th, between overtime and my tax season bonus, I should net 4k and change. I guesstimate my income tax returns to total a 1k refund. The first $3,200 will go to my traditional and Roth IRAs. Along with my $150 per month automatic transfer to Roth, that will max them for 2013. The rest of the tax season money will go to savings.

Right now, when I buy groceries, I swipe my debit card. I also have in my wallet a Wells Fargo credit card which earns a 1% rebate towards my mortgage. I think I am going to switch to swiping the credit card instead, then transfer funds when I get home. By adding the extra step of transferring funds, I can accumulate points towards a $25 mortgage chip. I should average two such chips a year. I am online checking my balance all the time anyway, so it is not much effort to transfer funds from checking to my linked credit card. And mortgage chips do not hurt my feelings. Smile

It is just me again at work today. The senior partner does not work on Fridays. Our receptionist is still out, and the temporary one we had over the summer went back to school a month ago. The other staff accountant is part-time. She was been coming in every day to help (she and I have to absorb the receptionist's duties) but had no work at all today to do. Fridays are slow, so it seemed silly for her to come in just to answer a phone call every hour or two. Plus, while I do have work to do, I am pretty current on everything, so nothing is pressing. I told her I could manage fine, there was no need for her to come in too. Well, the junior partner cracked his tooth last night. He came in at 8, called his dentist, and the dentist said come on down. So, he left and doesn't think he will be back today. He told me to close at noon if I wanted. That sounds like a plan to me. Smile

A Tsunami of 10 Day Paychecks

September 8th, 2012 at 06:55 pm

I am paid by the hour, kind of. I am paid for 8 hours per day. I am not paid extra when I work more than 8 hours (except during tax season), and I am not docked when I work less than 8 hours (including our half-day Fridays all summer long.)

Most pay periods are for 11 work days. There is the occasional 12 day (hoorah!) and 10 day (boo!) pay period.

I budget based on 11 day pay periods. So if there is extra pay or less pay, it impacts my checking account cushion, but not my budget.

I have recently enjoyed a 12 day paycheck. However, I am about to experience three 10 day paychecks, in a row. This is unprecedented in my little world. And more to the point, this shortfall is going to have to come from somewhere.

I have just received my Visa bill, ridiculously large this month (car insurance, emergency vet bill, and new lap top in addition to regular charges). I had been thinking I would pull from CurveBall to cover it. Along with my budgeted $420 CurveBall deposit in September plus the $400 + utilities I would normally pay that would just about cover it. But wait, this assumes I receive the income I have budgeted, and I am not going to receive the full amount of income.

Bleah! I do not want to transfer a single additional cent to Citi MC, but this is what I am facing.

August 2012 Budget Report

September 2nd, 2012 at 12:46 am



So it's going OK without Mint. I am finding Wells Fargo's budgeting tool to be less than ideal. It has preset categories, and you cannot edit them or add new ones. You cannot split a single transaction into more than one category. And you cannot import any transactions from any account which is not a Wells Fargo account. So I'm not going to be using it. Instead, I just used Excel and entered all of my cleared transactions into my spreadsheet (I summed them in the column to the right of what you see here). I had to do this for both my checking account and my Chase Freedom Visa.

I changed my "Visa Allowance/Everything Else" combo to "Gasoline/Everything Else". They still total $600.

August was so ugly. "Everything Else" includes $623 for the emergency vet bill, $558 for my car insurance, $406 for my new laptop, $110 for J's yearbook, student ID card, & gym clothes, $71 to file my small claims suit and have the defendent served, and $47 in medical copays.

I am starting September with an almost full tank of gas.

My office was closed yesterday too, so I am enjoying a nice 4 day weekend. Smile

Yesterday I went to get my eyebrows done. It had been 2 months and it was time. I have a girlfriend who has 2 small children and we just don't get together like we used to before she had children. We go together to be threaded and use the time to catch up. She reminded me that the last time we went, she didn't have any cash and so I paid for both of us. I had forgotten that. So, she paid for me yesterday. So far, my cash allowance which must last until next payday 9/14 is still untouched.

On Friday, my paycheck was for 12 days. I was pleased, until I looked at the calendar and saw both of my next paychecks will be for 10 days.

Also on Friday, I did a wallet sweep and added $15 to Mini E-Fund.

My daughter texted me yesterday saying money will be tight this month, so was it OK if she repaid me another $120 instead of the remaining $240. I agreed. That will go into Mini E-Fund and then it will be back to $500. I believe I will begin adding my small deposits to E Fund.

Tuesday is my daughter's 22nd birthday. I will be taking her out to lunch on Monday to a mid-Eastern restaurant. They serve the most delicious sun-dried tomato hummus, as well as a chicken dish made with saffron and grilled veggies. That is what I will be having. Smile

August 2012 Net Worth

September 2nd, 2012 at 12:42 am

Debt is down. Smile
Cash is up. Smile
Investments are up. Smile
Home Zestimate is down. Frown