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Archive for February, 2018

Glad I waited!

February 26th, 2018 at 01:05 pm

So, in my ever-frustrating mushy-brainedness, I did forget that I set our fence payment to come from my account. Since I modified my direct deposit amounts, this shouldn't happen in the future because I don't have a lot of extra in my personal bank account now. I adjusted it to where I have enough to pay my personal bills each month and not much leftover.

I've decided to focus mostly on debt repayment. As far as the EF goes, I only have the $3400 right now. The goal is to get it to $5k by baby time. (Side note: I know this amount is not nearly enough, but it covers more than a month's worth of expenses, so I figure it's a start while we get some of the other things paid down.) I started looking at the numbers, but need to do more forecasting. I think we can free up an additional $300-400/mo by paying some things down, so the focus will primarily be there. We will split extra money with 75% going to debt repayment and 25% to savings.

It's amazing how much money you 'find' when you start buckling down...

Another one down...probably

February 23rd, 2018 at 02:45 pm

With my recent PTO payout, I paid a little extra to various debts. However, I'm almost positive I miscalculated and have an extra $423! I'm going to wait until midweek next week to make sure that my mushy brain didn't accidentally not account for something. However, I checked several times and am almost positive that that money is available. (I'm also the person who wore slippers out of the house the other morning. Luckily, I only drove up my street before I realized I wasn't actually wearing shoes.)

With that, I will be paying off the $305 balance on my NFL Points card and putting the remainder into savings.

I also adjusted my direct deposits amounts to send $125 more to our main account each paycheck. I now contribute $2800/mo to our joint expenses. DH's contributions are variable, but at least $2k/mo. Percentage-wise, DH contributes significantly more of his paycheck since he didn't have any debt before we got married other than his car.

Even though we make decent money, I'd always felt like we were drowning. Looking at my forecasts though, this is the first time in a long time that I feel good about where we're headed. *Knock on all the wood...*

One question that has been on my mind, should I reduce all debt payments to the minimum to build our joint account back to living on last month's income before the baby comes? I feel like our budgeting would be smoother if we could get back there, but I'm not sure if the focus should be on that or paying off as much debt as possible to maximize our future disposable income.

News Upon News

February 22nd, 2018 at 08:54 pm

I've been swamped...the reason? We're expecting!

Now, that it's actually happened, DH and I buckled down into panic mode to make sure we can properly afford this. I think it all seemed like a distant pipe dream, and I seriously regret not doing it sooner, but we can only look forward.

Here's where we're at so far:

1) Paid off Mariner Finance personal loan...So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye!
2) Sent our tax return straight to savings - $3200 and counting
3) Used PTO payout to pay down some other debt. From my calculations, I should be pay able to pay several things down/off by June. (Baby is due shortly after that.) The payoffs add up to several hundred extra dollars a month.
4) Discussed maternity leave with work.
5) Began accumulating baby things - My dad and stepmom gifted us a crib with changing table, we bought a discount Ikea dressed for $120, and we have clothes covered for the first year due to a few resale lots and hand-me-downs from my friend's almost 1 yr old son. Friends have committed to loaning/giving us the following: infant seat/stroller, bassinet, swing, and probably more that I'm forgetting. These same wonderful people also provided my maternity wardrobe, so no costs there.
6) Furnished upstairs: we have a fireplace area that is currently unfurnished. Our fall to-do list includes getting the fireplace working, so we were debating furniture to be able to use the space. Luckily, DH's dad is a home contractor. One of his clients gave him a newer furniture set. They're keeping that one and asked if we'd like their current living room set. Voila! Living room furniture. It's old and outdated, but at this point, we'll take it!
7) We do need to some prep to get the nursery ready, but FIL will take care of that for us.

DH took on out of town work since it has more hours and per diem. He's also working any and all overtime. Any and all extra money is currently being split between savings and debt. Is this a good plan? Should it all be one place or another?

P.S. As I typed it all out, I realize how fortunate we are. Could we better off? Most definitely, but we have a good support system and were able to avoid most new-parent expenses.

P.P.S. We still miss our dog like crazy. Two days after we lost him, we saw our little boy for the first time.