This month is a bit different in that I have credit card charges for gasoline and groceries, plus I withdrew cash at the end of the month for 2 weeks of gasoline and groceries.

Withdrawing cash for my personal allowance is not new, but I did decide to increase it beyond what I had originally budgeted.

May was brutal for extra expenses around here. Since I use rewards cards as much as possible, I won't have to fork over the money until June. I skipped budgeted savings and instead sent every penny possible to credit cards, in effect prepaying June's bills. I shouldn't need to touch GS Savings (emergency fund) at all, but WF savings (curveball fund) will be hit hard.

Rent - BF pitched in an extra $200 to help with the new hot water heater.

Groceries - An amazing coincidence.

Utilities - J's cell phone carrier (Republic Wireless) charged me on the 1st and 31st, so an extra $29.95.

Everything Else - Car repairs came in at $1266.82, new hot water heater totaled $847.81, car registration for J was $115.00, new puppy expenses paid by me were $104.82. May was also a big graduation and birthday month in my extended family, so another $133.76 was spent there. Medical co-pays were $64.08.

I'm almost afraid to put it in words, but I am hoping June holds no unexpected expenses.

Everything else this month included 138.00 for income taxes, 123.64 for medical, 36.86 for J's oil change, a new purse and wallet, and several dinners out.

I received a nice bonus and so tucked some extra money into my traditional IRA and my E fund.

I have a girlfriend who is the accounting manager of a small manufacturing company located in a nearby small town. She gave me a heads up that they will be hiring several entry-level employees for the factory soon. She gave the h.r. person J's name, and J has applied to the temp agency they use. Fingers crossed that J will have a full-time job soon.

I need to have some things done around the house. I had two shingles blow off in the last storm, so I want a roofer to replace them and take a look. My house was built in 1991 and the roof is original. I want to price some stamped concrete work for the backyard. In the front yard, I have a hedge which is just out of control. I allowed it to grow up and swallow two small trees. The hedge made a lovely barrier between us and the crazy neighbor. Now that he is gone, I feel the space would be better utilized as a parking space. We think we can handle the hedge and tree removal ourselves. If not, I will hire someone. To pour the concrete pad, I will definitely hire someone.

So, these expenses are going to slow down my E fund progress. I am going to try to pay for these expenses without resorting to debt. I really love having no debt other than the mortgage, and I really want to keep it that way.

Have you Saving Advice peeps heard about this?

Not too shabby.

I'm very glad to be back to tracking my spending closely. Getting away from it makes overspending even easier. Here is my budget report:



Wages: A bit short because I budget based on 11 day pay periods. However, the occasional 10 day and 12 day pay periods do happen.

Rent: I agreed with SB that he would not pay rent on 1/5 as he had one last set of utility bills at his house to pay.

Other: Includes my state income tax refund, part-time job income, credit card rewards, and interest income.

Mortgage: January's mortgage payment was made in December.

Groceries: We supplemented meals heavily with what was already in the pantry. Sweet!

Utilities: I paid my gas bill twice. It used to be due around the 15th, but now is due on the 7th. In January, the first business day was the 4th. That did not leave much time for the electronic payment to arrive on time. I decided to pay a second time in January, so I don't have to worry about that happening again.

Savings: Happy to be over budget on savings.

Car payment: Happy to be over budget on car payment.

Cash Allowance: Trimmed it because I knew I was over elsewhere.

Gasoline: Has gone up now that J has a part-time job in a nearby town. However, J is now saving for his own car insurance. Recently, he got a friend to teach him how to change his brake pads as they needed changing. He paid for the parts himself. What a good kid.

Everything Else: $822 is for car insurance. $596.08 is for medical co-pays. If not for those, I would have come in at budget.

All in all, I am pleased with my spending for January. Since my car is now paid in full, I will re-direct that $350 into savings. Extra bits of income will also be re-directed into savings.

So here is my updated zero based budget.



I am very excited to have a budgeted amount for extra principal to my car loan. And of course, I will continue to throw income from my second job, credit card rewards, and anything else I can scare up towards it.

I am contributing $400 per month to my Simple IRA. My zbb is based on my net pay, so there is no line item for Simple IRA contributions.

So the last of my money transferred in and I have now been repaid in full. Oh, that feels good.

I have been working on my written budget, as I am getting back to tracking my spending each and every month. I really fell off the wagon with that. The budget is mostly done, but I will wait to see my paycheck before I finalize. This will be my first paycheck since changing my withholding and Simple IRA contribution amounts.

My budget is getting leaner. Child support has ended (good-bye $433 per month). My PITI payment has jumped to $1194.16, an increase of $113.52.

I am still paying J's car expenses for now. He had a job interview last week but did not get the job. He is still looking.

BF is accruing rent, but not actually paying it yet. No offers on the house yet either. BF did decide that we need lawn service as he doesn't have time to fiddle with it, and he is paying for that.

So, I have no choice but to re-jigger (is that a word?) my numbers.

I've gotten a bit lax about tracking my spending. I know it's been over, (waaaay over) and I just don't want to look! But as of June 1, I am back to tracking each dollar.

I'm not going to be able to pay my credit card bill in full this month. There have just been too many big expenses in the past few months. Big dental bills for both J and I (I have no dental insurance, J's new dental insurance is not accepted at our dentist), prom, senior trip, big car repair, and ouch-y high car insurance, all on top of everything else. They have ganged up and made a formidable enemy! I will be able to get away with paying no interest, which is a small comfort.

So, how am I adjusting my budget? Much as I hate to do it, I have eliminated the $50 extra car loan principal payment. I have trimmed CurveBall to $300, which is not enough. Further, I'm going to have to use it for credit card debt repayment for a bit.

I have trimmed my grocery budget from $550 to $500, which I'm not entirely certain I can do. That's groceries for me, J, two dogs, and general household supplies. MrsM180 and hubby buy their own groceries, and BF picks up some groceries. However, we really don't have a hands-off policy on general items. We tend to make enough dinner for everyone, regardless of who bought the groceries. And when it comes to milk, salad dressing, bread, we just share. When it comes to specialty items, we tend to ask the purchaser if it is OK to have some, but people mostly say "yes". I'm not going to tell someone who is hungry that they can't have my granola bar, or whatever.

So in short, I'm not real tickled, but it is what it is. For now, this is what it is.

I did get a raise as of July 1 (yay! ). After some tweaking, here is my new ZBB.



I have been able to bump up both CurveBall and Car savings account. I have reduced my mortgage payment to just the amount required.

There are some changes brewing on my horizon, and as a result I am changing some of my short-term goals.

What are the changes? I want to move, and I will be giving my son my car as a graduation present. So, I'm going to need some cash.

I spent more on vacation than planned (of course!), including a very unplanned repair bill for a rented ATV. My son was not seriously injured, so that was good. I have drained my vacation fund and tapped my curveball fund, but I continue to have no credit card debt.

I have renamed "vacation fund", its new name is "car fund". This will be to purchase my next car. I will not be taking another vacation until after my next car is bought and paid for.

I will no longer be chipping at my mortgage, but instead will be piling up all of the cash that I can.

Yesterday I received a rebate check for $6.67, as well as a payment from HauserNet for $4.25. I have added both to car fund. Combined with the $1.97 which was already there, I am up to $12.89. Not much of a car there yet.

I will be changing up my budget a bit. I will post that when I know if I got a raise on 7/1 or not. I won't know until next payday (7/15).

My plan once I have moved and gotten settled is to purchase a condo. Not sure yet if I will go for a 1 or 2 bedroom. Either way, I expect my total housing cost to be much, much lower than it is now.

Everything Else for January includes $266.05 in medical expenses and $35 for my driver's license renewal.

Yesterday I received $160 from my part-time job, which has gone off to E Fund. Inching ever closer to 2 months of take home pay.

My NFL rewards Visa statement closed yesterday. I had 10,550 rewards points available which I redeemed for a statement credit.

So, I had $1,408.15 sitting in checking with nothing due for the rest of the month. But, I have things going on. Namely, my new 6 month auto insurance premium (will be cancelling the old one with 3 months left, but still, that is 3 months out of pocket now), my new homeowner's insurance premium (will have to wait for refund from current company), the new vacuum cleaner I charged, the $75 gas cards charged at Staples (it will take up to 8 weeks to receive my $25 credit), and I am getting a 100k tune-up on the car today, which will be about $500. I don't have to cough up any of this money now, but it is only a matter of time.

Here is what I did:

$445.54 to NFL rewards Visa (balance less $105.50)
_280.44 to WF rewards Visa
__75.00 to American Express
___7.17 to CurveBall Fund

This left $600.00 in checking, so I am done.

Neither the WF nor AmEx statements have even closed yet, so the payments were VERY early.

Notice, I have ended up using my NFL rewards Visa sign-up bonus towards expenses instead of as a mortgage chip. I'm not thrilled about this, but keeping credit card debt out of my life is a higher priority.

Also, I have not sent much extra to CurveBall. But hopefully, I am making it possible to avoid dipping in next month.

I felt a bit of panic when CurveBall dipped down to $54 two months ago; it's offering more cushion now.

Well, I am still waiting for a State Farm agent to contact me "shortly". So this morning, I called my current homeowner's insurance agent. She is an Allstate agent, but my policy is with another company which they also write. I told the office I had a better quote but wanted to give them a chance to keep me. They quoted me $575 for the same coverage I have now ($912), just with yet another company. This is $120 lower than the State Farm quote! I said yes, the price works for me.

Meanwhile, my mortgage servicer disbursed $912 on 11/6 to pay the premium on my current policy. I am proceeding anyway. It just means more hoops. I will have to pay the new policy, then wait for my current policy to refund $912 to my impound account, then ask to be personally refunded the $575 . For $337, I feel it is worth the hassle.

I will instruct them to keep the $337 in my impound account as I know my property taxes are about to take a big jump. In addition to the infamous Prop 13 here in California, we also have Prop 8. Prop 8 says when property values fall, property tax assessments must fall too. But when values rise, they can jump up fast to where they would have been had values not fallen.

In the last few days, I have seen some listings and sales in my subdivision which make me feel very confident my property value has risen sharply in the last 6 months. While this is good news, it means my property tax bill is also going up.

I am home from my week long trek. We had a very nice time, seeing the sights and visiting family. I think my favorite part was the elephant seals lying on the beach near San Simeon. I have wanted to see them for a very long time, and finally had the chance.

I managed to scrape together an additional $81.23 for mortgage principal last month. Not bad.

I overspent $1617 for the month. My security cameras were $1590, so I am not displeased with my spending for the month. I also paid $330 to have all of the embroidering done on J's letterman jacket. If not for that, I would have come in under budget. But, it is always something, right?

Just after the 1st, my daughter paid $300 towards household expenses, which is what we have agreed. Yesterday, I received a check in the mail for $200 from my part-time job. With this recent infusion of $500, I was able to pay Visa for my security cameras without dipping into Vacation Fund. CurveBall is impoverished once again. But, everything is paid in full.

Oh, and utilities are so low because last month I ended up paying my water, sewer, garbage bill twice. So this month, I only owed $3.89.

I received $6 from PineCone and have already applied it to my mortgage. I find it so handy to have my mortgage and checking account at the same bank.

Also, I have decided to bump my mortgage payment up by $10 each month. I have already changed my automatic transfer.

Not as exciting as the snowflakes some of you have been accumulating lately, but I am happy to collect whatever flakes the wind blows my way.

I decided not to file the restraining order. This decision upset my mother, and I think she may rescind her offer to pay for the security cameras. If so, that is how it goes. I love her just the same.

"Everything Else" in July included 6 mo car insurance premium ($532), annual car registration ($130), smog certificate and oil change ($91) and J's letterman jacket ($182).



From the "Ad Choices" links along the top of the screen here on Saving Advice, I stumbled upon a free software download for "MoneyLine". I am going to give it a try for August and see how it goes.

Well, I am the happy recipient of a raise. Starting today, I am bringing home an additional $119 per month. What to do with it?

Well, my life insurance policy is increasing from $14 to $28 per month this month. I guess the insurance company knew about this raise before I did.

Last week, post-cruise, I stood on the scale. This made me very sad. So, I joined a gym. This particular gym is new to me. The monthly fee is $20. In addition, they have an annual fee each June which is $29. For this price, I can bring a guest with me each time I go at no additional charge. It can be the same guest each time or a wide array of different guests.

I bumped up my monthly Emergency Fund contribution from $60 to $118. I bumped up my monthly Vacation Fund contribution from $60 to $75. And finally, I bumped up "Everything Else" from $363 to $375. And just like that, my raise is spent.

I considered then rejected the idea of increasing my retirement account contributions. Between my regular monthly contributions, the additional contributions I make at bonus time, and my employer contributions, I am saving 15% of my gross. I feel that is adequate, so I should focus instead on my cash savings, which I feel are inadequate.

I also considered bumping up my mortgage payment, but rejected that idea also in favor of more cash.

As today was payday, I did a wallet sweep and sent $10 off to E fund.

Hausernet sent me a $.50 payment for February, so I sent that off to E fund as well.

J went to camp last week, I picked him up this past Saturday. The director made a point of telling me what a great kid he is, and that if cares to apply, he can have a spot as a counselor next year. That would mean he would go to camp for free. So, I am all done shelling out for summer camp. Yay!

I worked last Thursday and Friday at my part-time job, and collected my $200 check for June. That has already gone off to E fund. I am done with them for July and will bill another 7 hours. So far, this is working out just fine.

As you can see, it was not a good month, budget-wise.

So, this is how I did in May:



The overage in Everything Else is from my pergola cover, the second installment of J's camp, and a donation to the American Red Cross.

Groceries continue to be a challenge. My daughter and son-in-law arrived yesterday, and will be here until mid July. I expect groceries to continue to be a challenge. I know I can do better. And I'm just going to have to start.

So I got my April numbers together, and here is my April budget report.

Everything Else included $300 for J's allowance and $370 to the IRS. If I exclude those, I did OK.

Apparently, I now have a part-time job. However, I am still not entirely certain. On Monday, the woman who called to ask me if I was interested called again to ask when I am meeting with "M" (person who has been issuing their financial statements) to discuss where he is leaving off. Mind you, I have never heard from M. I told her I have no meeting arranged with M. She replied in a confused tone "But, he hired you." I laughed and said "Oh, I did not know that." She laughed too. This sort of thing is very typical for this particular unorganized organization.

I am expecting to clear 4k on Monday from my bonus and over-time. I have it earmarked like this:

$1200 Roth
1700 CurveBall
400 E Fund
400 Vacation Fund
300 J's Annual Allowance

Now, if you take a peek to the left at my sidebar, you will notice CurveBall is sitting at just over $1200. However, I still need to pull out $600 for the vet bill charged to Visa, and $370 for the IRS. So while CurveBall is not anemic, it is also not so very flush. When the dust settles, it won't be a great deal larger than it is right now.

J's summer camp is coming up. The cost is $500. Last year, ex-h agreed to split it with me. However, I have not seen one red cent of his half. So, there is no point in pretending he will split it with me this year. He won't. If J goes, I will have to pay.

I think going away to summer camp is an important developmental experience for a teen or tween. But J has already been 3 times. So, he has had that experience.

He loves the camp. At his age, he is in a junior leadership role.

I have told J frankly that while I do have the money, I feel I may need the money for other things. I do discuss money and budgeting with J, and we talk about how you must cover your needs first, then you can think about things you just want with what is left over. We also talk about how some needs aren't a regular bill like the electric bill, but are things which come up from time to time, and so you need to plan ahead to cover them.

J was disappointed, but said "I understand, Mom". Then he mentioned his money (he has about $1400 in a mutual fund, about $300 in his savings account, plus his allowance is coming up). I said no, I didn't want him using his money for camp. Then he asked if he got a part-time job when school is over, did I think he would be able to earn enough in time to go to camp. I said maybe you could, see if you can find a job. So he plans to try.

Now, I think it would be great for him to have a part-time job. And I really am proud of his attitude. He is disappointed, but not sulky. He rarely asks for anything and he rarely complains. He really is a great kid.

I want to send him, but I am not sure I should part with the money. I could skip the Vacation Fund infusion. It takes me so long to save for a vacation that I am loathe to pass up this annual opportunity to give it a nice little boost.

He doesn't know I am still considering, as far as he knows, the matter is closed.

In other news, my trad IRA broke 130k today for the very first time.

Overall, not too bad.

I continue to overspend in Groceries (includes household supplies).

The cost of my car insurance and car maintenance/repair bill exceed the overage in Everything Else.

Months like this one show me, I still have so far to go. Way too much spending in "everything else". Of course, $600 was my HVAC repair. But even excluding that, it was too much. Where did it go? Mostly eating out (for convenience), which was totally unneccessary as we have plenty of groceries at home. J did get some new clothes (2 jeans, 4 tshirts), his first this entire school year. He got a new speedo for swim team. I bought him some things at Party City for spirit week. Face paint and green hair spray to be the joker. A red bandana with attached fake dredlocks for pirate day. (I figured that one will be great in the future for International Talk Like A Pirate Day, Halloween, and the occasional FSM event. Not so much for me, but for J or even BF.) I blame no one but myself.

I don't regret the J expenses at all, but because of those expenses, there shouldn't have been ANY meals out. To me, that is the point of having a discretionary category like "everything else".

Well, nothing to do but begin anew in February.

I have received my electric bill for February, and after I pay it I will have a credit balance of $504.51. February is the month they recalculate my "balanced bill pay" amount, and March is the first month I pay the new amount. I am expecting my monthly bill to drop at least $50. I will be able to trim a bit from my budget for utilities. I intend to add that amount to my automatic CurveBall transfer.

I am still waiting to receive payment from Second Spin. Looking forward to adding that to E Fund.

My wallet sweep last payday netted me $1 for E Fund. Just $1. I guess really, anything at all is a bonus because it is the unspent portion of my cash allowance. Nonetheless, I like to do a little better than that!

Tomorrow I will work a full day and bank some more OT hours. I'm looking forward to the work tomorrow, too. A client with 3 LLCs and some personally owned rental properties. I don't do her tax returns, but I get to do her accounting for the year. For some reason, I always look forward to doing her books. If I finish with her stuff before I have put in 8 hours, I have plenty of other work to choose from.

* The payroll tax holiday is over.
* My credit card debt is gone.
* My grocery budget is not high enough.
* I need a line item for Emergency Fund.
* I need a line item for Vacation Fund.

All of this adds up to budget adjustments. Here is my new monthly budget: