Bloom Where You Are Planted

Jumping the gun a tiny bit, but here is my net worth as of 7-31-11.



My car value continues to inexplicably creep up. Apparently, that made my home value jealous so it decided to creep up a tiny bit too.

My Roth at ING has now been folded into my Roth at Vanguard. Thanks to ImaSaver for alerting me to that $50 bonus.

My Betterment account is a taxable investment account. I have decided to go with a 40/60 stock/bond ratio. I am going to throw in just a little each month. I am counting these contributions as part of my regular savings contributions.

My credit card debt is now nicely consolidated at 0% until January 2013, so my plan is to pay in full no later than December 2012.

Nothing terribly earth-shattering here, I simply continue to plod along.

So in the past week, I have transferred 3 small chips to my mortgage. I had never done this before, I have always saved my chips to send with my next regular payment. I had thought the chips would be held in suspense and then applied on the 1st of the month. But look at this:

Date Description Amount Principal Balance
07/25/11 PRINCIPAL PMT ( Details) $0.81 $181,912.06
07/25/11 PRINCIPAL PMT ( Details) $6.72 $181,905.34
07/22/11 PRINCIPAL PMT ( Details) $9.00 $181,912.87
07/05/11 PAYMENT ( Details) $1,273.49 $181,921.87

Wells Fargo has been applying the chips directly to my balance. I expect the chips will not reduce the interest accrued in July. By rights, they shouldn't. I calculate I should be charged $795.91 of interest when I make my August payment. We will see if that is what happens.

In other riveting news, I have received my first Citi MC bill. It came a few days ago and is due early in August. I am not fond of the timing. I think I will go ahead and send them their minimum payment now (although I have already made my July credit card debt payments) and then in mid August, I will use bill pay to send them what I want to send them. The timing will be off, but if I send them their minimum now, I will be ahead of the game and it should turn out OK. I will have to keep an eye on it though, so that I don't have a billing period with 2 payments and then a billing period with none.

I applied and was approved for an Amex Blue yesterday. I have too many rewards cards with too many small point balances. I am going to work on getting my rewards up to cash out level, then close some of the cards. I won't close Chase Freedom (since 2004) or B of A (since 2003), but Discover and Sapphire can go. Then I will begin using Amex Blue. It pays 3% cash back on groceries and drug stores, 2% cash back on gasoline and department stores, 1% cash back on everything else. Not bad. I will have to get in the habit of charging my groceries.

Both balance transfer checks have now posted to my Citi MC account ($800 and $1300), as well as a $24 balance transfer fee for the $800 check. And that is all. Where is the $39 balance transfer fee for the $1300 check? Well, that is a really good question. I don't know quite what to make of this.

Update: My balance transfer fee has finally shown up, on 8/16/11!

My mortgage is owned by Wells Fargo, which is where I also do my banking. Therefore, I make my mortgage payment by logging on to my account and doing a transfer from checking to mortgage. Just for kicks, I went ahead today and transferred $9, specifying it is an additional principal payment. I just wanted to see how they will handle it. Will it just float around in suspense until I make my regular payment? I suspect that it will, but I would like to KNOW.

Last week, I received a gift card as a thank you gift from a client. It is a gift card to Olive Garden, which I love, but which will not help me at all with my weight loss. I have been contemplating selling it on plastic jungle and using the proceeds to chip at my mortgage. Is that tacky?

I have been reluctant to post this, as I suspect people will say "Yes, tacky, don't do it" and then if I do it anyway, how incredibly tacky will I be?

UPDATE: BF and I had dinner at Olive Garden Sunday evening. We split a shrimp appetizer which has 500 calories, and I ordered the apricot chicken served with steamed veggies which has 400 calories. Then we had salad and breadsticks, of course. (I would love to report that I skipped the breadsticks, but I ate two!) I did stick with water. I love Olive Garden's chicken scampi, yummmmm. But it has approximately 3 million calories so was out of the running. The apricot chicken was good. It was a nice meal out.

I just got paid $9 for a secret shop I did a few months ago, I plan to mortgage chip that. (No more credit card chipping, I will just stick with my Dec 2012 payoff schedule.)

This is a blatant plug for Morningstar's Investing Classroom. Some remarks I read today got me to wondering....people know about this fabulous, free resource, right?

Morningstar is an independent company which rates stocks, bonds, mutual funds, investing companies, etc. Morningstar's star-rating is often quoted in other financial publications and many products with high star ratings will include that honor in their advertising. Morningstar has a number of highly regarded financial writers on staff, with a wealth of archived articles available.

Anyone can have a basic Morningstar membership, though registration is required. There is also a premium membership available requiring a fee. Your basic membership gives you access to a wealth of information, including the highly regarded Investing Classroom. Each "class" is a short article followed by a couple of multiple choice questions. There are very basic topics covered, as well as some more "meaty" topics. I personally found it very, very helpful and beneficial when I was first learning about investing.

Beginning in August, this will be my new zero based budget:



My credit card debt is now all at 0.0% until January 2013. If I pay $128 per month, it will be paid in full December 2012. This is fine with me and I don't feel I need to pay it off any faster.

I have been gaining weight lately, so.... I joined another gym. No initiation fee, no contract, $25 per month. Also, I joined Nutrisystem. It costs $300 per month, so I have increased my food budget.

To help compensate for these new costs, I have cut my cash allowance by $40. Sometimes I save up cash from my allowance and treat myself to a mani or pedi. I have decided to stop those for now, and therefore can afford a cut.

I have been concerned that my traditional IRA isn't growing enough, so I will begin contributing $50 per month. That will help a little. Not a whole lot, but a little.

After all the dust from the above settles, I had a bit of cash to bump up my monthly savings.

So here it is, my re-re-re-re-rearrranged budget.

My Bank of America credit card is now charging me 7.24%. It seems that all of my extra payments were applied to the debt that is at 1.99% until September, not the part that was at 1.99% until June. I thought that was no longer allowed, but it is allowed because it was all at 1.99% at the time the extra payments were made. So the remaining balance is now being charged 7.24%. What is a girl to do? Well, I did a balance transfer of the last $800 to Citi today. There is a 3% fee and I am at 0.0% until January 2013.

I called Discover and learned that I am at 0.0% until July 25th, then the rate will be going to 14.99%. I did a balance transfer of the last $1300 to Citi today under the same terms.

That's $2163 and 18 months to pay it off before more interest is charged. So that is just what I am going to do.

Over the weekend, I received my new Chase Sapphire card. My offer was 50,000 bonus pts if I spend at least 3k in the first 3 months. My boyfriend bought his trailer today, it came to $2600ish. That means I only have to spend $400 in the next 3 months. With gas so high, that will be no problem.

Edit: Just for the record, I am not financing the trailer for BF. He will be paying in full when the bill arrives. This is merely a devious plot to rack up reward points.

I just emailed Chase using the suggested script from My Money Blog, asking that they extend the 100,000 bonus pts offer to me. They don't have to, so we will see if they are willing or not.

At any rate, I will have at least $250 cash for my trouble ($500 split with BF).

Thanks again, Monkey Mama!!

Update: Got a response already. The answer is no, I will not be getting the extra 50,000 pts. Further, the rep said they will be reversing the extra bonus pts already awarded to other customers! Here is the actual response:

Dear xxxxx,

I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your e-mail regarding the sign up bonus offer inquiry on your Chase Sapphire account ending in xxxx.

I would first like to take this opportunity to personally thank you for choosing Chase to handle your account. As per the offer on your account, you will receive 50,000 Chase Sapphire bonus points after spending $3,000.00 in purchases within 93 days of account open date. These points will post to your account within one to two billing cycles.

The 100,000 bonus point?s offer was made through a small direct mail test and is non-transferable. The Offer Code and Invitation Number included in the mailing can only be applied to the recipient?s account. If you are not listed as the addressee of the mailing, we will be unable to apply the offer to your account. I understand you may be disappointed and I am sincerely sorry for any confusion.
Please know that we will consider reviewing the terms of other offers you receive in the future. We are aware of unintended card member manage to earn extra points and we are going to reverse those points in the near future.

Your satisfaction is important to us and I sincerely value your business. If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center.

Thank you,

xxxxx

Well, credit card debt is up due to my class. Home value hits yet another new low.

More of my endless budget tweaking.

The results are in. Here is how I did:



With 2 extra people in the house, my grocery spending was way over budget.

Cash allowance was over due to a planned outing this coming weekend.

This morning over breakfast, I was telling my boyfriend about the Chase Sapphire deal, about the possible DOUBLE deal, and lamenting that I didn't know about the offer before I paid for my review class. BF says, well, I am buying that utility trailer soon. Eureka, I thought, I have known BF has been shopping for a utility trailer to use in his small business. He went to the website of the place he was planning on buying from and they take Visa! So I applied for Chase Sapphire this morning. If I am approved, I will split the points with BF as I couldn't have spent 3k in 3 months without his help.

So now I just have to wait and see if I am approved or not.

Thanks to Monkey Mama for alerting us to this deal!

I paid all the rest of my bills for June. I will need some more grocery money, but that is it. I had $2,244.36 left in my checking account. I like to keep $1,500 sitting there, and I still have $400 earmarked for my planter, but that still leaves me with some extra. So, I transferred $100 off to my CurveBall savings account. This was over and above what I had budgeted!

I had budgeted $373 for credit card debt. I paid $65 to Discover (my new debt for my CPA review class) which left $308 for B of A Visa. I added the $20 rewards check I received last week and paid them $328. My balance is down to $897.11. Yay!

The cost of my class was $3,065. I paid $65 last week. Since then, I have received $1,532.50 from work to pay for half the class. I transferred $32.50 to CurveBall and sent Discover $1,500. This leaves a balance of $1,500 on Discover.

Right now, the rate on Discover is 0.0% but that will not last forever. I think I may focus on Discover to get it paid down as much as possible before the rate goes up. I'm really not sure what the regular rate is, but I am reasonably certain I don't want to pay it.

My ex-husband says he will have to pay his share of summer camp over the next few months. I said OK, but in truth I find this very annoying. Our son went to this camp last year and it was a great experience for him. We agreed last July we would send him again this July. Last November we talked about it again, still both agreeing that we would send son to camp this July. Then when May rolls around and it is time to register and pay, he has no money set aside for camp and I get to pay the whole thing and wait to be reimbursed. Mind you, my ex-husband makes significantly more money than I do. The entire cost is $465, making his half $232.50. He had 10 months from July to May to set it aside, that is only $23.25 per month. If I can plan ahead and have the money ready to go on my salary, I don't see why he can't do it on his. How I look forward to the day I no longer have to deal with ex-husband at all.

I have racked up another $20 in rewards from Chase, so I ordered a check today. Another nice little chip out of my debt.

My son-in-law is finishing up his service in the US Army. He and my daughter plan to move right back here. My daughter asked today if I would cosign for them to rent an apartment. Don't worry, I said no. They will be staying here for a short time while they look for an apartment. I will be glad to have them nearby, but don't want them living with me. They are married adults and need to make their own way, for their own good.

I have been doing a lot of window shopping in garden centers and taking long walks around the neighborhood, scrutinizing my neighbors' yards. I have decided I am going to buy 3 simple trellises and stake star jasmine to them. This will be done along the side of my house. I am going to purchase some agapanthus, some ornamental grasses, and some osteospermum.

While digging around in my rocks, I have discovered that I have a lot of sprinkler pipe buried shallowly under my front window. For this reason, I am not going to remove rocks and plant things in the ground right under the window. Instead, I am going to put some sort of rectangular wooden planter on top of the rocks and plant geraniums inside.

It is going to be several hundred dollars, but I will stick to my new lower budget of $400. I have to, I already sent the other $300 off towards credit card debt.

Speaking of, the interest posted yesterday. It was $1.50, the minimum finance charge. I thought that my rate was going up, but it must have gone down instead. I am not going to argue.

Have you heard about Betterment? It is a newish company, they offer taxable investment accounts with very low minimums. They have two investment funds, both made of ETFs, one is treasury bonds and the other is stocks. You choose your allocation between the funds in increments of 10%, anywhere from 100% stocks / 0% bonds to 0% stocks / 100% bonds. The minimum to open an account is $10. There are no fees other than the underlying fund expense ratio of .9%.

InBox Dollars has an offer for Betterment. InBox Dollars will pay you $1 to open an account, Betterment will pay you a bonus of $20 to open an account. Yesterday, I opened an account with $10.

I don't have any specific plans for the account at this moment, I just wanted my free $21. I think I will just keep the account open awhile and think about it.

Yesterday I decided to cap my EF at exactly 3 months take home pay (for now) and start building up a CurveBall fund, for items such as vehicle repairs, home repairs, etc. I want to keep the EF for dire emergencies ONLY.

Several months ago, I opened a savings account and called it "Personal Expenses" and had started depositing any leftover money from my Cash Allowance, to be dipped into for those sort of expenses as needed. Great in theory, except, I didn't use it when I did need more cash. So I renamed the account "CurveBall" and will add to it instead of to EF (Main savings).

So here are my various savings accounts:

1. EF - kept at Ally Bank, balance $9,075.00

2. Vacation Fund - kept at Ally Bank, balance $3,174.55.

3. CurveBall Fund - kept at Ally Bank, balance $102.21

4. Piddly Fund - kept at Wells Fargo, balance $377.96. This is the account into which I deposit the change in my wallet about every 2 weeks. I have been doing this for years. Usually, I use the money for something fun for my family. However, right now I am thinking I need to just hang onto it.

5. Membership Account - my credit union, balance $5.06. This account is required to be open in order to be a member at my credit union.

6. Checking Account - kept at Wells Fargo, balance currently $2,266.41. Yesterday I paid every bill I have on hand, so there are only a few left to be paid for June. So far in June, I have not received any paychecks. I like to live on last month's salary and have a cushion. My planter money is also here ($400, I sent $300 off to B of A Visa yesterday). In August, my car insurance policy will run out and I will pay another 6 month premium out of the extra in my checking account. Another reason why I like to let it build up.

7. Betterment Account - $10.00

I signed up for my review course not knowing if I would be reimbursed or not. I was sort of hoping I would be, but I need the course either way, so I signed up. I used my Discover card (just a few days before Monkey Mama posted about that GREAT Chase Sapphire card deal, bummer!) for the purchase and have just been waiting to hear. The course is a bit over 3k. Today I learned that my employer will reimburse me for half now, and then if/when I pass they will reimburse me the other half. If I choose to leave them within 3 years after passing, I will have to repay the second half.

It is very generous, they don't have to pay a single cent, I know I am very lucky. They have really treated me very well since day one. (I've been there close to 6 years now.)

So in the meantime, I have more credit card debt to try to pay off.

I made my mortgage payment yesterday, the minimum amount due only. I'm not going to prepay my mortgage at all at this time. I enjoy whittling it down, but the credit card debt is more pressing. I want it GONE.

So with a little nip here and a little tuck there, I plan to send $373 towards my credit card debt this month. Also, since my planter plans have changed, I am going to send $300 of the $700 I have set aside. The remaining $400 is probably still more than I really need, but I don't want to cut it too close. Hopefully by next month the planter will be DONE and I can send off the rest of the planter money.

This is how May went. In general, I am pleased with my spending.

"Everything Else" this month was son's graduation outfit, field trip, and summer camp. Ex-husband is supposed to reimburse me for half of summer camp. To date, I have not had any trouble collecting from him. However, I haven't seen the camp money yet.

Here is my monthly update. My car value has gone up again! I suppose it must be supply and demand at work. Gas prices have gone up, so fuel efficient cars are in demand. Not that it matters much as I intend to keep my car for many years to come.

Also, my home value inched up! What a good little house. I sure would like to see some more of that.

My credit card debt is lower, as previously reported.

I make my monthly retirement contributions but they have little impact. Its good old market gyrations that impact my current value, for better or worse.
Overall, not whole lot different than last month.

All in all, I have no complaints.

I love to have a new purse at the start of summer and winter. Of course, I love to have a new matching wallet as well. (I have a thing about my purse and wallet matching.) I don't buy expensive bags, (think Kohl's, not Coach) but even so, a cute purse and wallet can set you back $70 or so.

Last week, I took son to Kohl's to buy a nice shirt and pants for his graduation. The new summer purses were in. I must have looked at every one, and saw several that I would have loved to take home. I was still carrying my winter purse, and it was hgh time to switch to a summer purse anyway. I was soooo tempted.

Well, I resisted! As soon as we got home, I pulled out my purse storage bin and chose last summer's new purse and wallet, moved my things in, and put the winter purse and wallet in the storage bin. There, I have my "new" summer purse.

My son graduated from 8th grade on Friday! Where does the time go? He is a great kid, I am so proud of him. Friday he had 3 friends over and I picked up take and bake pizza for them. Yesterday he had 2 different friends over who spent the night. My Mom and BF were here too and we had a BBQ in son's honor. This morning the boys are up and busy.

Son and BF and I worked on the planter some more yesterday. I have decided I don't want to deal with Craig's List ad people any longer. I'm just keeping all the rocks. I can pile them higher in the center and move some more to the back yard. One corner of my yard is completely shaded by trees planted in neighbors' yards (one behind me, two on the side of me). Nothing ever grows in that corner but weeds, so filling it in with rocks will be an improvement.

I'm going with low maintenance plants. I have been offered some free starts from pink and purple geraniums (those are my favorite flower colors). I have always had great luck with geraniums and the price is right. I have also been offered some of these from BF's yard:



I would also like to get some alyssum to fill in between plants. I can get some starts from my Mom's yard.

So far, I have not spent a single cent on my planter makeover. I will need to buy some fertilizer and mulch, and may need to buy some plants to finish. But it is shaping up to cost much, much less than the $700 I had set aside. Whatever is not spent on the planter will go towards credit card debt.

I hope I am happy with the results when this is all done.

I deleted my Craigslist ad after receiving 20 or so responses. The first person who responded was supposed to come Sunday but called and said no, he would come Monday. Yesterday (Monday) he texted me about 4 that he was on his way (I had told him twice I don't get home earlier than 5:30). When I got home, he wasn't there and no rocks had been taken. I texted him at 6 to ask if he was still coming. He texted back that he hadn't brought tools with him and hadn't realized he would need tools to load the rocks. (Did he imagine the rocks would voluntarily jump into his truck bed?) I asked if he wanted the rocks and he did not respond, so I assume that means no. I have emailed the second person who replied to my ad, will see how that goes.

Now I am thinking, maybe I will remove the rocks from the areas I want to plant bushes and flowers and just leave the rest. I won't need to buy pavers and sand, and it will be much less work. So the planter would be a capital C of plants, the inside part would be rocks. It wouldn't look as I had envisioned, but it would still look much better than it did.

Yesterday my son, my nephew, my mom and myself hauled many wheelbarrow and wagon loads of rocks from my front planter to my back yard (I intend to use them in one corner of the yard to keep weeds down). We could all see that there are more rocks in the planter than are needed in the back. We had not moved even half of them and the area was getting full. My mom remarked "I bet a lot of people would love to have these rocks." Isn't she brilliant?

So I came inside and posted a "free rocks" ad on Craigslist. I had 4 responses within 30 minutes. I called the first person. He is coming by tomorrow evening to take some rocks home. I will see how that goes, then contact the second person if I still have rocks in the planter.

I took these pics today of my front yard, which is just awful. My project this year is the large rectangular planter. A previous homeowner saw fit to fill it in with river rocks. They are piled too high and spill out on the sidewalk constantly. My first year here, I bought some lavender and some lamb's ear and planted it, deciding to see what would happen. As you can see, this is what happened!





The lavender has long since died, the lamb's ear is scraggly and uneven. I have sprayed the weeds, so they just need to be pulled out. My plan is to remove several inches of rocks, put in sand in the center, good soil along the edges, fill in the center with pavers, and plant some low maintenance things along the edges. I picked up a book at the library called "Low Maintenance California Gardening". I hope to do this as inexpensively as possible.

So this past week I did something I have been putting off. I enrolled in a CPA review course.

Why have I been putting it off? A couple of reasons. The first reason is that the last one started 1 week after I graduated. After 5 years of working full-time and going to school at night, I wanted a break longer than 1 week. The second reason is that I am nervous. I'm worried I won't be able to pass.

To be honest, I like what I do right now, and am unsure I really want to be a CPA. However, it seems foolish to stop at this point. Also, my two bosses want me to take it and pass. They have both been very supportive of my educational goals, and a few years ago volunteered to start paying my tuition. Maybe I just have performance anxiety.

So I am starting the course June 11th. It is from 8 - 5 on Saturdays, and will take until the end of October. Doesn't that sound like fun?

If I do become a CPA, my earning potential will shoot way up. My intention is to avoid lifestyle creep and get myself in great financial shape.

Wish me luck with the course and that pesky exam!

I sent $800 to B of A Visa and $800 to my Roth; the rest is sitting in my checking account. I will have to pay my half of summer camp soon, so that is where it will go.

For the rest of the year, I have to contribute $100 per month to my Roth to hit my 3k goal for 2011. That shouldn't be a problem, so I am pleased to be on track with that.

My B of A Visa billing cycle closed yesterday. I just logged on to view the statement, and I see that I was charged $2.46 in interest this month. I expect it to go up next month, as my "1.99% until July 2011" apparently ends after my May billing statement (???). I think that was the gist of the vague letter they sent me two months ago. My balance is down to $1779.61 and my minimum payment is down to $20. I'm glad, because in a pinch, $20 isn't too hard to cough up. Also, I'm glad I got the balance significantly lower before the 1.99% promo rate ends. My regular rate is variable, currently at 7.24%. So not too awful, but of course I would rather pay no interest at all! With my most recent budget revision, the balance will be gone by the end of the year.

My brother is supposed to show up sometime tonight, to visit our Mom for Mother's Day. I'm looking forward to catching up with him.

I brown bagged it 4 days this week, ate out 1 day. I had been slipping into my old habit of eating out every day, which I simply can't afford. But 1 day? Sure, I can swing that. That money comes out of my "cash allowance" budget category.

This morning over breakfast, I browsed last Saturday's newspaper. I spotted a fairly new house for sale for 67k. It is cute and on a cul de sac. I nearly choked. The first thought that pops into my head is...I could pull 67k out of my IRA, pay cash for that house, then concentrate on repairing the damage to my nest egg.

But a quick check on Zillow revealed...undesireable area. Like put on your body armor to go out and check the mail undesireable.

But I do mull over the possibilities of buying another house for myself. If I bought a house for 120k, put 20% down, I'd have a mortgage half the size of what I have now. That's very appealing. The problem is my current house. What to do with it?

I have been a landlord in the past and it doesn't appeal much to me. Also, I bought the house to live in myself. I put in beautiful reddish wood laminate floors. I LOVE them, but they do require care and some common sense (wipe up spills immediately, do not drag furniture, hot glue small pads onto the bottoms of chair legs, etc.).

Or I could come up with 60k + selling costs in order to get out from under, thereby negating the advantage of buying an equivalent house at a lower price.

Or I could just let it go and allow my perfect credit to become history. This is not so appealing either.

And so, I do nothing but choke on my breakfast when I spy a cute house in the newspaper listed at 67k.

Perhaps the best solution is to cancel my newspaper subscription and stay off of Zillow.

This month's chips are:

1. $8.00 from Beezag
2. $2.43 from Lending Club
3. $27.02 from InBox Dollars
4. $13.06 budgeted chip

So does my little chart make sense to people? Last month Monkey Mama posted hers, and I noticed right off that hers is way more viewer friendly than mine. Not that I have amortization schedule envy, or anything.

Edit: Here are some headings, I hope it is more viewer friendly.

As you can see, I have tweeked my budget further. I have eliminated my medical co-pay category, and basically folded it into "Everything Else". I have trimmed a bit here and there, and have bumped up my credit card debt payment.