Debt-free By 33's Personal Finance Blog

This weekend, my cheerleaders had their competition. I was determined not to spend any of my own money, so I packed snacks for the day, and treated myself (it was 7 am on a Saturday...) to Starbucks using a gift card I had lying around. Unfortunately, I ended up leaving my lunch bag at the venue. It had been a gift for Employee Appreciation Day a few years back and has served me well since I've started packing lunches. Fortunately, Employee Appreciation Day just passed last Friday. My company had decided to divvy up all the free swag lying around rather than get new stuff, so different projects received different things. My project was not slated to get the lunch bags (which I knew because I had helped make the bags). So imagine my surprise this morning, when I found both a lunch bag and cooler on my desk in addition to the gift bag! Now I have a sparkly new lunch bag and a second cooler. We haven't used the cooler yet, but I imagine it will come in handy when we go hiking when the weather warms up.

Below are my budgets for my own account and our joint account:

My Account
BOA Savings: 25
Capital One Savings: 30
Netflix: 9
Insurance: 84
BOA CC: 0
Navient Loans: 175
Amazon CC: Closed!!
ACS Loan: 170
Phone: 157
Wells Fargo: 50
Target: 0
Food/Gas: 100
Chase Freedom CC: 226.47
Chase Slate CC: 330
NFL Points CC: 70
Apartment*: 1400

Our Account:
Rent: 1650
Electric: 140
Gas: 80
Verizon: 127
Couch: 150
Groceries: 300
Entertainment 75
Misc: 0
Pets: 200

The apartment under my account is my contribution to our account. For the CC's, Freedom will be paid off, and Slate will only have about a $500 remaining balance.

This is my first time posting about our account. SO and I use a joint account to cover all apartment and cohabitation expenses. I contribute $1400 monthly to this account. SO's contribution varies based on his job. Using the minimum amount for SO, we have a $500 deficit in our overall budget. While his income is still leveling out, I'm fairly confident that that deficit will be covered by his additional contributions the majority of months. For months in which it is not, we have a buffer in our account, as well as several categories I can forgo to keep us within budget. Below is our spending for February. Budgeted amounts are in parentheses.

Rent (inc. trash, H20, pet fees, parking): 1411.66 (1650)
Gas: 77.13 (80)
Electric: 116.16 (140)
Verizon (Internet, cable, phone): 126.36 (126.36)
Groceries: 387.11 (300)
Entertainment: 0 (0)
Miscellaneous: 105 (0)
Couch: 150 (150)
Pets: 410.97 (200)

I previously did not have an Entertainment category. We've decided moving forward to include this as our grocery overage is mostly due to 3 times eating out. Since eating out is more fun for us, I've added a $75 entertainment budget beginning in March. Our miscellaneous spending is for a BJ's membership, reimbursements to my Jan. spending, and an account fee (only charged if our minimum balance is below $1500...shouldn't happen anymore). We budget $200 to DD and DC since we do not have pet insurance. My thought is this money would just grow and we'd have it for emergencies. Poor DD had such an emergency this month, so that's the overage there. The couch is on 0% financing until Feb of next year. The goal is to have it paid by Nov.

Drumroll, please! This time I also put the budgeted amount in parentheses, so I could see how I stacked up against it.

Joint Account - 1400 (1400)
Savings (BOA) - 25 (25)
Savings (Cap. One) - 30 (30)
Insurance - 84 (84)
Phone - 164 (158)
ACS Loan - 170 (170)
Wells Fargo Loan - 50 (50)
Mariner Loan - 100 (100)
Navient Loans - 152 (175)
BOA CC - 197 (165)
Target CC - 207 (207)
Amazon CC - 403 (150)
Chase Freedom CC - 500 (25)
Chase Slate CC - 135 (25)
NFL Points CC - 50 (45)
Netflix - 8 (9)
Food - 54.76 (50)
Gas - 69.64 (50)
Clothing - 0 (0)
Bank Fees - 35 (0)
Pets - 75 (0)
Car - 0 (0)
Misc - 117.49 (0)
Entertainment - 75 (0)

One thing I'm taking away from this is that I need to start allocating money for miscellaneous expenses and a little to entertainment. My miscellaneous spending consisted of a one-off charity expense, a trial of HelloFresh subscription service, Valentine's Day, and Dietbet. My entertainment spending was groupons for the upcoming pet expo and a Mardi Gras king cake.

My February spending totals for both myself and our joint account are forthcoming, but today, I thought I'd evaluate how my goals are going.

Financial
- Build emergency fund back to $1000 (I'm really slacking on this one...I do automatically put $30/mo to savings, but there are several savings accounts with only $15 going to the EF)
- Reduce credit cards (Major

progress!)
- Add savings categories (No progress...)
- Increase retirement savings to 10% (Will be done automatically to coincide with raises in June)
- Build $200 buffer in checking account (Done - 2/6)
- Build $1500 buffer in joint account (Our buffer is about $1300 right now)

Personal
- Lose 10% of my weight (I'm just over 6%!)
- Win at least 4 months of my dietbet (1 win, 1 loss)
- Adopt a puppy with SO (We're following a set of puppies who are about a month old.)
- Get dogs outside for more than an hour 4 times a week (Waiting for DD to heal/the weather to not suck...)
- Cook more from scratch (Doing great on this - note to self: this should be a future post)

Blogging
- Blog at least twice per week (Check!)
- Post monthly budget and month in review entries (Check...even if they're a little delayed...)
- Participate in one 'challenge' quarterly (Not sure about this one...I'm doing dietbets, but that's not an official challenge...)

There's definitely going to be some budget adjustments for SO and I's joint account. Although, I think we are doing one thing correctly. I have a $200 budget for the pets. Whatever is left after food/pet expenses each month will be put into the connected savings account specifically for the animals. Since we are just starting out, it hasn't built up to anything yet, but I definitely see the need for it. Last week, DD was playing in the snow when we noticed blood. We got him home, cleaned him up, and found a huge gash in his paw pad. By yesterday, it was still a wide-open gap, so I took him to the vet. It cost $245 and poor pup now has stitches in his paw. I'm working from home these next few days to ensure it stays bandaged as he likes to rip the bandages off. I hope it is able to close up and heal as DD is so bored.

Due to SO's large payment in the beginning of the month, we were able to comfortably cash flow it, but I did decide to contribute $100 that was going to go to a cc, so that it felt a little more even.

Last Friday was my last day with the babysitting family. I had planned to roll off at the beginning of Feb. and even tried quitting midway through. At least, it's finally over. I'm grateful for the experience as it allowed me to live rent-free for a year and a half. However, these past few weeks have really put a damper on the experience and I'm really glad it's now behind me.

The $400 I received as my last payment will be split between the Chase Slate and Chase Freedom cards.

I will go for a bit without a second job, but in March, I plan to follow up on a pt position at a cheer gym. Also, if the dance group asks me to return, I will do shows for that as well in the summer.

The title's a bit more dramatic than the actual situation, but with all the progress I've been making, this kind of irks me...

My office finally moved the water dispenser back to our side of the hall, but it's been out for about a month now. We had one 35-pk of bottles, but that ran out a few weeks ago. SO was kind enough to lend me his All Clear Camelbak (one of his Xmas gifts from me). It purifies the water for you in 1 minute. I've been using it at work regularly. But yesterday evening, I left it at cheerleading practice. So today, I don't have any water in the office. I could just be dehydrated all day, but it's very cold and I can feel my skin begging for water.

Long story short: I have to buy a bottle of water at the cafe downstairs.

It's really irksome because I actually have bottled water at my apartment. 2 seconds of forethought would have saved me $2 and a lot of self-scolding...

I just did a mini-assessment of my (and our) accounts, and I'm feeling pretty accomplished. Even though I went slightly over my alloted V-Day limit, I should have $14 left to send to a CC if I don't spend between now and Friday.

Thanks largely to my tax refund, I've paid off the Amazon, Target, and BOA cards. Chase Freedom only has $100 and Chase Slate has about $950. I anticipate fully paying off the Freedom and paying about $500 to the Slate card by the end of Feb.

SO's large check will go towards our $1500 buffer. I have to review the numbers a little more, but I believe the buffer will be fully funded. There is a $500 deficit between the minimum that we're putting in and the monthly budget I have set up. I base that number solely on what I know SO is able to contribute and not counting any additional contributions he may make. It's not so bad as there are definitely areas where we could cut back in leaner months. Starting with March, I'll share both my budget and our budget as I had to clear it with him whether he was okay with my sharing our finances (he's on board!).

It's going to be close, but it looks like I should be able to stick to our $300 grocery budget too which a huge plus considering we spent $560 last month!

Keep on keepin on...

Had a wonderful, low-key weekend. SO had to work all day Saturday, so he made me breakfast (using all groveries we had), and had it set up with a single red rose, a bottle of wine, and a really sweet card. He also pointed out that $20 was hard to stick to, and he only had $1.94 left for chocolate, so I would have to wait until the sales on Sunday

I got his stuff on Saturday. I ended up overspending by $4.50 ($20 is really hard to stick to...). I bought him a card, printed out two pictures, and got a small bottle of Maker's Mark whisky. I told him he could go over by that amount, so I received a box of my favorite Girl Scout cookies: Tagalongs.

On Sunday, we went to dinner at his parents' house. We brought DC for them to meet. They all adored her. His parents sent us home with food. Between that and all of our leftovers, we're good through today. I'm going to try and make it through the week without groceries as we're well over half our monthly grocery budget of $300 and still have half a month.

I decided what I'm going to spend my $20 on. I made bang bang shrimp pasta earlier this week and SO loved it. He loved it so much that he requested that be his meal Saturday evening. On Sunday evening, he will cook steaks and stuffed baked potatoes (I plan to work out extra hard Sunday so I can enjoy the heck out that meal!). Since it's supposed to be frigid Sunday, we will be having brunch with SO's family and then probably spend the day indoors with the fur babies enjoying a How I Met Your Mother marathon. (I introduced him to the show and am waiting to watch the last season with him. We're on season 4 right now.)

My $20 will actually got towards next year's gift. I saw online that someone had written 365 notes to their SO categorized into memories, reasons they love them, and quotes/lyrics. I'm going to get a big jar and post-it notes and start this on Valentine's Day. It's inexpensive and something that he will (hopefully) treasure.

For this year, I will get a card and put my crafting skills to use. For the first 2 months or so that we dated, I wrote in a diary about our dates, how I felt, etc. I let him read it shortly after we moved in together and he loved going back over that time together. I'm going to bind those pages together in a mini-notebook, probably with some pictures thrown in.

Got my tax refund in today and immediately made progress towards getting the credit cards paid off:

Kohl's - 0 (CLOSED)
Target - 0
Bank of America - 0 (Transferred 1000 to the NFL Points card and paid off the rest)
Chase Freedom - 84.36
Chase Slate - 939.33 remaining
Total Rewards - 0 (CLOSED)
NFL Points - 5783.45 (2 balance transfers)
Amazon - 0 (Will be closing once the final payment posts)

I will use the money from babysitting to finish off the Chase card and beef up the e-fund. At the last minute, I decided to use the tax money all towards the cards, but I do want to make some progress on the e-fund.

Well, this was certainly eye-opening. A couple of things I took away from this:

1) I spend a lot more in general than I think I am.
2) The grocery budget needs a lot of work. (I had thought we were doing so well with eating at home...)

This is painful to share, but here's January's spending:

Savings (BOA) - 25
Savings (Cap. One) - 30
Insurance - 84
Phone - 159
ACS Loan - 170
Wells Fargo Loan - 50
Mariner Loan - 100
Navient Loans - 152
BOA CC - 175
Target CC - 46
Amazon CC - 25
Chase Freedom CC - 125
Chase Slate CC - 25
NFL Points CC - 50
Netflix - 8
Food - 554.63
Gas - 49
Clothing - 7
Bank Fees - 10
Pets - 923.41 (Pet fee for apt., DC's set-up & adoption fees, vet visits for DD and DC)
Car - 639 (New tires and oil change)
Misc - 425 (Furniture incl. delivery tips, family loan)
Entertainment - 12.50

One last note: A lot of the pet, furniture, and food spending went on CCs. SO and I agreed that once he started receiving regular paychecks (beginning in Feb.), he would help pay those things off. He's getting a rather large paycheck Friday which we will decide together how to best allocate to everything.

Snafu asked about my V-day plans which coincidentally go with one of my goals. SO and I decided to do a sort of joint big gift towards our health. He gave me his fit bit and we'll replace it with a smart watch for him which he'll pay for. He's definitely the flowers type, so I asked that we limit a small token of appreciation to 20 bucks. I haven't decided what I'll do for him, but since he's working, I'll probably put my 20 to making him a special dinner.

The fit bit has helped enormously with my awareness. I was really upset about missing my first goal, but since using it, I have been consistently dropping .3-.5 lbs a day. I'm less than 3 lbs. from my goal and feeling great about my chances to get there.

I deducted 200 bucks from my paycheck and budgeted it based on that. There is officially a $200 buffer in my account that I will just ignore for future budgeting. I have not had time to call yet, but I will this weekend about having the overdraft fee waived.

My emergency fund will be at $500 once my tax refund goes through. That money will also help significantly with goal 2 to reduce my credit cards. If all goes well this month, I will be able to pay off four of them and only have two left.

For several months, I've been trying to figure out how to use 3 gifts card with $2 or less. They've just been sitting in my wallet. Yesterday, after some googling, I found that I could purchase e-gift cards for Amazon and credit them to my account. I now have about 5 bucks sitting on my account for whenever I next need something from Amazon and less clutter in my wallet!

I'm getting a larger than normal refund which is nice considering I had two extra jobs and was worried I may actually owe money. My refund will 1253 for both federal and state returns.

I've already allocated it to the following: 500 to rebuilding EF, 500 to reduce Chase Slate, and the remainder will be fun money which I may split between our anniversary trip and spending.

I have wanted a FitBit for awhile, but SO recently loaned me his indefinitely. We're thinking we'll pitch in on a smart watch for him reset the FitBit for me to have.

I had planned to work on the credit cards before anything else, but I just messed up. A few weeks ago, I wrote a check for DC's adoption. Normally, I'm good about tracking those things, but with all the stress of these last few weeks, it totally slipped my mind. So this morning, when my bank account was -86, I naturally freaked out. I have 45 in my linked savings and will get cash out of my other savings to cover the remaining difference, but the damage is already done as the check hit yesterday and they've already charged the overdraft fee ($35). This completely changes my February budget.

My new priority is the $200 buffer which I will take from Friday's paycheck. It means some of the cards may not get paid in full this month. No interest is accruing on one of them, so that will be my last priority.I will certainly still try to have all 3 paid, as I will be babysitting for half the month. I also plan to do my taxes this week, so depending on if/when I get a refund, that will help as well.

I haven't added up the January spending yet, but I do know I still have work to do. I also lost my first month of my 6-month dietbet. Not the greatest start, but I am 1/6 of my way to my 10% goal...

This is random, but I so enjoy looking at this February on a calendar because it is exactly 4 Sun-Sat weeks. Below is my February budget:

BOA Savings: 25
Capital One Savings: 30
Netflix: 9
Insurance: 84
BOA CC: 165
Navient Loans: 175
Amazon CC: 150
ACS Loan: 170
Phone: 158
Wells Fargo: 50
Target: 207
Food/Gas: 100
Chase Freedom CC: 25
Chase Slate CC: 25
NFL Points CC: 45
Apartment*: 1400

If all goes well, Target, Amazon, and BOA CCs will all be paid off completely. I will then close Amazon and put the BOA away.

*I keep SO and I's joint budget separate from my own. If he's okay with me sharing, I will post that budget in a separate post. The line here is my contribution to that account which covers rent, utilities, the couch, pets, and our groceries.

On the way in this morning, it was seriously cold and I really, really wanted a Croissanwich from BK. Then, I remembered that SO sweetly packed my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The bagel would be warm, and my office has free hot chocolate as an extra warming treat, so I avoided stopping. It occurred to me that life is a series of small, but smart, choices and that's what adds up to a lifestyle change!

On a side note, this also helps with my Dietbet goal. I'm pretty sure I'll make it, but my weight goes up 3-4 lbs. during the day, so it's pretty hard to tell. (My first round goal is 4.4 lbs.) This morning, I was 135.6; I need to reach 134.4. Over these next few days, I will weigh in every morning and if it hasn't gone down .3 lbs., then I will need to start my day with a workout. If it's where it needs to be, then I get an extra hour of sleep

I posted a review about my experience at the vet on Yelp. They reached out to me today and have credited the remainder of the office visit back to me. Since they reached out to me and made it right, I've decided to give them a second chance as SO's pets have all gone here their entire lives. SO will be taking DC in this Thursday.

I'm not liking all the spending this month, but this has been an abnormal month with DD and DC joining us and SO's income not quite leveling out yet. Hopefully, in the coming months, I'll see some real progress on some of my goals.

I so long for the days when money stays in my bank account for more than a day. Half of my paycheck immediately went to our joint account. With the remaining half, I paid several credit cards and loans. I have about $60 in my account left to cover any gas/miscellaneous spending for the next 15 days. Looking at my schedule, I don't foresee any spending needs other than gas which won't be until near the end of that timeframe. I've pretty much cut out all eating out/random spending. The only thing we will really be spending on is the occasional pantry supplement for meals and supplies for DC (who comes home today!!!). These types of expenses come out of the joint account.

This weekend will definitely be low-spend as I will be spending most of it getting acquainted with DC and the rest of the time giving DD attention.

I took DD (for me, this will be dear dog) to the vet this past weekend. There's nothing wrong with him, but he was due for his annual check-up and I figured it'd be nice for the new vet to get to know him (he did also end up needing a vaccine). I was a bit ticked as the receptionist told me there was a coupon online for a free first visit. However, they ended up charging me for the visit. When I pointed it out, they only credited me 21 bucks of the 108. I asked why it wasn't applied to the office visit ($58), and she said something about the vaccine. However, the vaccine was still $30. I think they used the coupon to cover the cheapest item which was the nail trim ($19). Accounting for tax, that seems like that's where the 21 came from. I really wish I were better at speaking up in situations like that as I am really regretting not pushing for the $58 to be credited back.

In other pet news, I don't believe I've ever mentioned DC (dear cat) before. In addition to DD and the (future) puppy, SO and I have decided to get a cat. After several conversations, we thought it best to bring in DC first. DD has been up here about a week and is settling in pretty well, so we've started looking at cats and have found one we really like. We took DD to Petco the other day to look at her, and she seemed really curious about him, but not aggressive. When we took DD away, she was very playful interacting with us. Thursday, we will be meeting her outside of the cage (without DD), and at that time, we will decide whether to bring her home. SO's family gave him some gently used cat items, and my coworker is generously donating things as well, so hopefully expenses won't be too bad.

As previously mentioned, all pet expenses are shared between SO and I and will come out of our joint account.

There is such a thing as a free lunch! We're being treated today for our work on the re-appraisal. SO actually packed me lunch this morning, but my pb&j with frozen bananas will have to wait until tomorrow.

This Saturday, we are throwing an impromptu housewarming party. It will probably be about 10 people. Any suggestions on frugal, delicious servings? SO mentioned a couple of his friends will probably bring something along, but I feel like we should have some sort of entree/food available as his friends always feed us full meals when they have us over.

...on the dietbet goal.

With the crappy weather and my insane schedule, I haven't had any time for workouts. Since my weekends are free, I'm going to double my workouts/intensity in the hopes of kickstarting my weight loss. Fortunately, it's only 3 lbs. to go, but I'm not as far along as I'd like to be.

I've been pretty proud on the financial/food goals. We've eaten out less than 5 times since moving in. And I'm staying the course with budget. I did notice I'm filling up more than I usually do, but since it's so cheap. It's coming out to spending about the same amount.

A lot of my posts haven't really laid out my plans for debt reduction, so I thought I'd give a little rundown of my credit card situation...

As I mentioned before, the whole churn thing is not for me, and in doing that, I ended up in a bit of mess.

I currently have the following cards open:
Kohl's - 0
Target - 156 remaining (Just paid the last statement balance of $45)
Bank of America - 1033.88 remaining (Just paid the last statement balance of $174.11)
Chase Freedom - 4665.94 (4500 is awaiting a balance transfer to NFL Points)
Chase Slate - 989.33 remaining (Just paid an extra $100)
Total Rewards - 0
NFL Points - 0 (Will be increased once balance transfers go through)
Amazon - 256 (I will pay this off this weekend with my babysitting money and close it right after.)

I've already started the process to close Kohl's and Total Rewards. I will pay the remainder of my babysitting money (an expected 400) to BOA and then transfer the remaining balance to the NFL Points card. At that point, I will put the BOA card away for good (I don't want to close it as that is my longest card.). In February, I will pay off the Target and Chase Freedom cards completely. Those I am also keeping, but will refrain from using until I get a handle on paying off the balances in full again. After that, it's extra payments to Chase Slate until paid (goal is May) and then closing that one. And then extra payments to NFL Points which will be paid in full and closed by March 2016 (well before the no interest period is up).

We messed up Technically, it was SO, but we're in this together, so I'll say we. To be fair, it was an honest mistake. Apparently, Navy Federal has two account numbers. On NYE, he set up the rent and Verizon payments. He used the account number listed on our bank statement. Yesterday, we found out our rent payment was returned and since it was now past the 5th, we also owed late fees in addition to the insufficient funds fee. The account number on our check is different from the one on the statement... We immediately called Verizon to see if we could back that payment out before it got returned, but we were unfortunately too late. Verizon wouldn't do anything about the insufficient funds fee (20), but I was able to resubmit the payment in time to avoid late charges as it was due yesterday. I spoke to the apartment manager yesterday and he said he'd see about getting each of the charges halved (it was $40 for the returned payment and $212 late fee). As of yesterday, the returned payment fee was halved. I'm not sure if that means they won't be reducing the late fee or if they're waiting for my payment to clear first/still deciding. I'll follow up with it in another day or so.

As for the furniture, the mattress delivery was cancelled due to weather (not their fault, but still extremely frustrating...). Rescheduled delivery is tomorrow. But the awesome news, we invested in a couch (12 months 0% interest) and weren't expecting it for about a month, but I just received a call that it was in!!! Delivery is scheduled for Saturday. Payments for the couch are out of our joint account, and I plan to pay it off in 8 months just to be sure there are no residual amounts by the year mark.

So, by the start of next week, we should have our bed, couch, and my dog!!

Imagine this, you invest in a relatively cheap, but nice Ikea queen bed frame, build it the first night you move in...only to find out the mattress and box spring you have are a full. Bummer, but oh well. SO felt terrible about his mistake and realistically, the queen works better because I already have an 80 lb. lab and we're getting another dog down the road (and yes, they are/will be bed dogs). Keeping this in mind, we decided to look around for a nice, inexpensive queen mattress. We found one relatively quickly at the PX on his base. Under 400 for a Serta basic plush mattress. We went ahead and bought it and planned to pick it up the following week. Well, they had other plans. The PX called early the next week and said they wouldn't deliver the mattress as the only one left in stock was damaged. We could get a refund or put in for a transfer from another base. Transfer wait time? Two weeks (side note: the other base is less than an hour away...). After researching some other mattresses, we decided to just wait the two weeks. Since I was getting antsy, I called last week only to find out our mattress has been available (Thanks for the phone call guys!). SO has been working like crazy and has to be the one to get it, so he finally had some time on Sunday. I called several times last week to work out delivery times as they only deliver certain days. The final plan was for the warehouse to deliver it to the PX on Friday (their last delivery day), and we'd pick it up from there on Sunday. I call Sunday morning to verify it's there, and the guy's response: Uhhh...yeah...I see the email for delivery, but it doesn't look like it was actually done... He calls back a few minutes later with happy news: our mattress is in the PX and can be picked up. Crisis averted! ...Or so we thought. SO and his dad pick up the mattress. We get home, unload it, SO and his dad take the other one and tree to the trash bin, and his dad returns home. SO goes to put the bed together, and...

They gave us a full! About every cuss word imaginable went through my head...

After a very angry, but patient phone call, they are delivering our correct mattress first thing Tuesday (their first delivery day) and taking away this one. Until then, we are sleeping on a plastic wrapped mattress as the other one is already in the trash :/

Irrelevant, but prideful side notes: our heat is still off, we avoided the urge to just order pizza and eat our disappointment away, and tomorrow makes a month of pure bliss

In keeping up with my goals, here's my projected budget for January:

Joint Account: 1400
BOA Savings: 25
Capital One Savings: 30 (Divvied up through several accounts)
Netflix: 9
Insurance: 87
BOA CC: 175
Navient Student Loans: 155
Target CC: 200
Gas: 110
Food: 25
ACS Loan: 170
Phone: 159
Wells Fargo Loan: 50
Mariner Loan: 100
Chase Freedom CC: 45
Chase Slate CC: 25
NFL Points CC: 40
Amazon CC: 40

Ugghh...all those debts are painful to look at it. In January, I plan to close the Total Rewards and Kohls credit cards (both at 0 balance). BOA and Target will be paid off in full since those accumulate interest. The others will be a slow and steady race.

I also found out where both of my missing checks were, so those will be allocated to the pet fee for our apartment and my new tires. If there's any left, we may go ahead and do the Costco membership.

I also have 0 plans for the money from babysitting, so I plan to throw that straight at the credit cards. It'll be a couple hundred in December and about 400 in January.

Just a note on the food...I gave myself a bit of a budget, but the majority of our food spending will come out of the joint account.

I weighed in last night for my dietbet. I considered weighing in after NYE, but then I'm not holding myself accountable for food/drink consumption. This way, anything I add tonight will have to come off in addition to my 4 lb. goal.

Although this morning, my weight leveled out and I'm already a pound and a half down, so that's a good start.

I wish everyone a very safe and Happy New Year!!