I am still sick but doing better. Sinus infection turned into bronchitis and now on my third antibiotic and have a referral to an ENT on Monday. Should be loads of fun!
Okay, warning! This video is a little gross. But if you don't want to ruin your love of lemons in your water at restaurants then, well, don't watch the video. Sorry but I had to share this one. I found it on the blog Wise Bread.
I have been sick for the past week and also had internet problems that I didn't really feel like dealing with. I am now on the mend and hopefully I have made my last call to my DSL provider for a while. But it may be a week before I can catch up on everything so I will continue this next week. Thanks!
The January budget held up good. Before I did a budget I thought about what did I want to spend on a few categories like food and household stuff. We decided $500 for each for the month. I took out $500 cash for each and put them in their own envelopes and guess what? We spent only $350 on the food category and $325 on the household category. That blew my mind. But what really got me was looking back in Quicken to see what we averaged per month last year. We spent and average of over $700 per month on food last year. And over $1000 a month on household stuff (this category includes things like dog food and meds, the new rug in our front room, tools and fixing the lawnmower). It could just be a fluke. February might not be as good. In fact I know it wont be as good. I just bought some vitamins that I only buy every few months and I will be making a run to Whole Foods to buy my special gluten free bread. This might be a $500 month. We are well stocked though and feel like if we really want to stick to a $500 limit it shouldn't be a problem. It might mean a few creative meals though!
We were also talking about what to do with the "extra" money left over at the end of the month. The two options we came up with were to roll it over to the next month or put all the extra into an extra spending fund. (I think the TV is on the way out - You can't really read anything printed in small writing anymore and it takes about 15 seconds to "come on" when you turn it on. I'm thinking we will need a new one in about a year) If we roll it over then we really aren't keeping to spending the same every month. I dont want to get used to splurging just because there is extra. So we are going to go with hording the extra to spend on something that we need/want that is not in the budget and to have a plan for the extra. No spur of the moment buys. So all in all I think January was productive financially.
I also got all our retirement/college accounts organized and on Quicken. I had lost passwords and account numbers changed and I just had not bothered to get it all together. Now its all straightened out. Turns out I had made many deposits that had been sitting there in cash for the past year. I hadn't bought any mutual funds with them yet. So now I am slowly buying funds so the money isnt just sitting there. I will also be opening a high(er) interest savings account with an online bank so my savings will make more than the 0.71% it makes now. Duh!! I will give more details about that when I get it done this weekend.
Now to exercise. Well lets just say I'm doing a lot better than I was before which was nearly nothing, but I know I could do better. It really is hard to make time when you are falling asleep before 9pm. I don't like to choose between exercise and reading with Logan. I should be able to do both but sometimes is doesn't work out.
I knew it all along. Just because I didn't do anything about it doesn't mean anything. Maybe I was trying to keep a secret! Well there, my secrets out and now I have to actually do it. It was on the news even! Charlie Gibson said so on ABC News. Just in case you don't believe me here is the article about it.
Even though I haven't done much the past few days, I have at least been consistent and found time to do something. And I only counted real exercise and not vacuuming. Well time to go to bed. Maybe I will do 11 minutes tomorrow!
It's been a great week! Charles finished his second week at his new job at Byrne Metals, Corp. He works in the shop, bending and cutting sheet metal into parts for buildings. We got his first paycheck and he sold the 1999 Toyota Corolla for $500. I also got paid so it was a good day toward our financial goals. When this month is over I will look at how we did sticking to our budget. So far it is looking good.
As for getting organized, we are making a good effort to declutter. If you look at what is gone by weight then I think we are well on our way by getting rid of the car! To keep it we would have had to spend about $700 next month on registration, inspection, tires, windshield and of course insurance. Now there is less stuff covering our very muddy driveway (it rained all last week!).
And today I started my exercise log. I am putting it on a Google calendar and you can see my progress (or lack of) by clicking on the link at the side. I thought about what would be the best way to stick to an exercise routine. Well nothing like public accountability.
I hope everyone is doing well. We are glad to have our first mostly dry and warmer day (60 degrees for the high). Yeah!
You may be considered ordinary by some, but you're far from boring. You elevate the mood of any discussion, and people miss you when you're not around. You are secretly very dominant and powerful. Most can only take you in small doses.
