I realize that we’re almost two months into 2013, but I’d still like to go over our 2012 goals and recap how we did. I also need to set up some 2013 goals!

1. Set up a savings account for the baby. We opened a savings account with ING (now Capital One 360) for the baby a few months after she was born.  We put any birthday/gift money into it for her.  I need to research 529 plans and see if that is something we’d like to do.

2. Figure out life insurance. We have some life insurance though Mr. Money’s employer but should probably look into getting more.

3. Change beneficiaries.  Did this!  It was very easy once we got the baby’s social security number.

4. Make more money blogging/working from home. Looking back, this was quite a lofty goal.  I mainly focused on taking care of my high needs baby while trying to keep the house clean.  It was a little crazy.  Although I didn’t quite achieve this goal, I don’t feel one ounce of guilt about it.  I am doing what I love and couldn’t be happier.  I did watch my friend’s 10 month old daughter for a few weeks for her and it was nuts.  I did make a little extra money though.

5. Stay debt free. Yay! No new debt.

6. Finish up all house projects that need to be done. Ha. Who didn’t see this one coming?!  I can’t get any house projects done with my crazy baby.  :)  I did manage to paint our bathroom though!

7. Learn to relax and not worry so darn much. Having a baby really makes you stop and think about what really is important.  2012 was the best year of my life, and I would do it all over again in a second!  I can’t wait to watch Penny learn and grow over the years!

I do need to work on our 2013 goals and figure out what we want to accomplish.  I’m looking forward to great things!

Obviously, with Mr. Money unemployed, we’re adopting a bare bones budget.  Here’s our budget and what we’ve done so far:

Mortgage- $793.00 (Can’t change this)
Escrow- $220.00 (Can’t change this)
Gas & Electric- $140.00- Since we budget this ourselves, we currently have a surplus.  If things get really bad I can use up all the money in our electricity account and start contributing again when Mr. Money has a job.  I’ve started line-drying all the clothes and we’ve turned the thermostat down a little.  Hopefully those two things will help.
Car Insurance- $92.00- I can shop around for quotes but since we bundle our homeowners insurance with it, I don’t know how much cheaper I can get it.
Groceries- $300.00 I cut this a lot, and it makes me sad.  I am hoping we can actually make it on $300 a  month for groceries.
Cell Phone- $43.00- Mr. Money is going to take over my phone since he’s losing his company phone.  I’ll go without until I get a prepaid.
Cable, Phone, Internet- $145.00- I’m going to call to see if we can get it cheaper.  I have to have a home phone and we need the internet so Mr. Money can search for a job.
Gas- $150.00- We cut this a lot since there isn’t a need to drive every day.
Retirement- put on hold
Savings- put on hold
Health Insurance- $240.00- we have to pay this all ourselves now each month.
Dogs- $70.00
Water Bill- $22.00

I won’t lie, I’m really scared right now.  Hopefully he will be able to start collecting unemployment soon. He had three interviews with one company last Monday but hasn’t heard anything back yet  I think I’ll be less stressed once I know we’ll have some money coming in.  I’m still trying to come up with some ideas of things I can do from home to bring in money.

It seems as though everything I can think of is already being done or just not a good idea.

I’m hoping Mr. Money will line up a good paying job with benefits soon. The unknown is so scary!

Do you see anything in our budget you think I should change?

We’re exactly three months away from Christmas.  Yikes.  I’m already planning because this is my first Christmas as a stay-at-home mom, and my lack of income is going to make it more interesting to purchase Christmas gifts.  I’m sure we’ll be fine though, and it will just spur me to be more creative.  Here are some things I’m working on to make our Christmas season a good one without over spending!

1. Make gifts. This is an obvious.  I need to get a move on this because if I’m going to knit things, it is going to take time.  And with an 8 month old baby, I’m going to have to find time first!  My plan is to knit a ton of dish cloths while I’m riding in the car and when I have some down time.  I think that will be the easiest.  I’d also like to knit some socks for people and maybe some new cute things for Penny.

2. Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a great way to make a little extra money for me.  What I do is use the search engine every time I need to search for something, and when I accumulate enough Swagbucks I cash them in for $5 Amazon gift cards. I am banking them right now to buy Christmas presents.  I think I may also get some Target gift cards so I can do some shopping in person!  I make sure to do some of the easy things to earn more Swagbucks too.  Sign up and start earning.

3. Doing an activity versus purchasing items for people. One of my best friends has two girls and we were discussing Christmas and how it’s going to be different this year.  We decided that instead of exchanging gifts (since our girls are going to get tons of things from other people any way) we’re going to do a special outing or make a nice dinner and spend time together.  That will be very enjoyable, and will save us each money and clutter.

4. Stashing away a little extra cash whenever I’ve got it. $20 here and there adds up, and I’ve been taking $20 from each paycheck for months now and saving that in our Christmas fund.  Also, when I sell things on Craigslist or online, I separate that money and save it for Christmas.

Have you started thinking about Christmas yet?

For the past 5 months I’ve been a stay at home mom.  There are a lot of things that I’ve noticed over these past few months about our money spending habits.  Before I quit my job, Mr. Money and I enjoyed eating out frequently.  It was our hobby I guess.  Well, after we had the baby we’d find ourselves so tired that we’d grab take out or just go out for dinner.  Looking over our budget and bank balance, I’ve realized that’s got to change.  We just can’t afford to go out to eat like we used to and still be able to meet our savings goals and stay on budget.  I’m going to make a conscious effort to meal plan a bit better and make sure that we aren’t just being lazy when we go out to eat.  Maybe it would help to have a set night to go out to dinner?

I get the moving itch every few weeks or so.  It is hard having a baby and not being around family!  The reason is probably not what most people assume: I don’t feel overwhelmed taking care of the baby.  I prefer to be the one taking care of her.  I just feel like my family is missing out on watching her grow up and that makes me sad.  Sometimes I dream about Mr. Money finding a new job in Michigan, us selling our house and buying a new one up there with a few acres to grow food and have animals.  That would be fabulous.

We’ve got a nice garden growing this year, and that is thanks to Mr. Money. I can’t wait to be able to eat the yummy veggies right from our backyard. We’ve got squash, green beans, watermelon, tomatoes, red raspberries, carrots, beets, swiss chard, and broccoli growing.  Yay!

I am really enjoying not working outside of the home.  I feel like this was just meant to be and I am happier than I have ever been.  It is worth every sacrifice!

For 2012, I wanted to come up with a more accurate budget, seeing that our baby would be born this year and hopefully we’ll be able to control our spending without worrying too much about it. I figured if I budget better, then I’ll hopefully be less stressed about where our money is going. Of course, I’ve also decided I’m not going to be so darn hard on myself because I’ll have a baby and have no clue how that’s going to impact our budget. If it costs us more money than I anticipated, then it does, and I’ll adjust our budget accordingly.

Here’s our 2012 budget:

• Mortgage- $793.19
• Escrow- $215.00
• Energy- $150.00
• Car insurance- $88.00
• Verizon- $40.00
• Cable, phone, internet- $125.00
• Food- $350.00
• Retirement- $100.00
• House Stuff- $50.00
• Gas- $200.00

Some notes:

The mortgage is just principal and interest.  I used to round the payment up to $800 or so, until I found out that the extra money that I was paying was being applied to the next month’s payment!  Talk about annoying.  To make additional principal payments, I have to mail a separate check to a certain address.  What a pain.

We escrow our taxes and insurance ourselves.  We refinanced our mortgage to a home equity loan a few years ago, and the bank will not escrow for us.  We have a separate escrow account with ING.

The reason our energy category is a flat $150 each month is because we budget for irregular expenses by transferring that amount into a separate account each month.

The Verizon bill includes just my cell phone, as Mr. Money has a phone paid by work.

The car insurance went down a little since last year because the cars are older and so are we!

The cable, phone, and internet may get changed this year.  It seems like that’s a high amount for that.  I’m thinking about switching our phone to something like a Magic Jack since I really like having a home phone, and maybe dropping the cable.

I don’t know if the food budget is a reasonable amount our not.  Guess we’ll see after a few months!

We’ll have to really start saving for retirement ourselves, as I won’t be participating in my 401k plan at work, and Mr. Money’s employer doesn’t offer any retirement savings plan.  I’m sure we’ll figure it out.

The house stuff we’ll have to play it by ear with. We’ve done a lot of work to the house over the past five years, so we’re not anticipating any huge expenses like new flooring, etc.  I would like new counter tops and flooring in my kitchen, but that’s not a necessity so we’ll have to see about that.

Gas will go down from our monthly expenses since I won’t be commuting to work and back every day. Yay!  This might be too much budgeted, but who knows at this point!

Of course, I won’t know how this budget works for us until I’m actually staying at home with the baby.  I’m just glad we’ve got a general idea of where we’d like our money to go.  I feel like there are a few categories I’ve forgotten, but it’s a flexible budget, so that’s okay!

Have you budgeted for 2012?

2012 is already here, and I’m a little behind on our financial and life goals.  I’m a little uncertain about what I should aim for, as we’re going to have a brand new baby and will have to adjust to the new expenses and life with a child.  My goals this year will be attainable (I hope!) and I am crossing my fingers for the best year ever.  It certainly will be interesting and a lot different than past years!  Here are some of the goals I’d like for us to accomplish:

1. Set up a savings account for the baby. The baby has not even been born yet and already has a stash of money.  I’m going to open a custodian savings account for the benefit of the baby.  I will also have to research 529 plans in case that’s the way we want to go.  I’m thinking it would be easier just to open the UTMA (Uniform Transfer to Minors) account and wait until the money accumulates and then go from there.  We’ll see.

2.  Figure out life insurance. I had life insurance through my employer, but I’m not too sure what’s happening with it since I’m leaving the bank.  That’s something that we really need to address, especially with the new baby coming.

3. Change beneficiaries. I’ve got various family members listed as beneficiaries on our retirement plans and life insurance, but I would like to change it to the baby.

4. Make more money blogging/working from home.  I’d like to be able to contribute financially to our household as much as I can.  In addition to blogging and writing, I can shoot photography if I have time.  Of course, this all depends on the baby, as that’s my first priority.  I’d like to stay at home for at least the first three years of the baby’s life, and it would be awesome if I could make enough money freelancing to do so.

5. Stay debt free.  This was on last year’s goals as well, but I think it’s important enough to stay on this year’s.  I will have to say, if there was a good reason that we needed to borrow money, I probably would do it.  I don’t think debt is the worst thing in the world as long as you’re responsible and borrow money for the right reasons.  Mr. Money’s not going to get the 2012 Mustang he wanted for instance, but if we needed to take out a loan, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.  I’m going to do my best to avoid it, though!

6. Finish up all house projects that need to be done.  We need to repaint the cement on our porches, paint the shed, figure out what to do with the dining room flooring, and redo our master bath.  I’m going to do as much as I can to make the house look really good this year.  We’ve done a lot, but I feel like there’s still so much more to do.  These projects shouldn’t cost a ton of money.

7. Learn to relax and not worry so darn much.  One of my best friends gave me some great advice when it comes to money.  What’s the point of having a ton of cash in the bank if you are miserable?  I’m not going to worry about saving every penny where I can like I used to.  I want to be happy.

What are your 2012 goals?

At the beginning of 2011, I set some financial and life goals for myself and Mr. Money. Here’s how 2011 played out for us:

1. Keep up with the clutter and declutter 365 items from our house this year. SUCCESS.

I know I decluttered and donated a lot more than 365 items from our house this year.

2. Pay at least $3,000 down on the principal of our mortgage. FAIL. We did pay off $2679 off our mortgage prinicpal, so I think that’s pretty good!  Our extra money this year went to our savings account.  Honestly, I’m not too concerned with paying down our mortgage aggressively at this point.  We’ve got other priorities.  I do wish our mortgage balance was lower, but we can chip away at it.

3. Travel to somewhere fun and exciting.  SUCCESS? We took a trip to Colorado when I was around 20 weeks pregnant.  It was our last trip as just the two of us.  I really wish we had gone to Hawaii last year for our fifth anniversary, but I was a tightwad and didn’t do it.  Oh well.  The nice thing is that we saved money by not going, allowing me more flexibility to be a stay at home mom.

4. Get knocked up. SUCCESS. I am most proud of this goal, as we’ve been trying to have a baby for quite some time.  We are really excited to welcome our baby in 2012.

5. Live on one salary. SUCCESS.  We did successfully manage to live off Mr. Money’s income.  My income did pay for health insurance and retirement savings, so we didn’t factor that into the equation.  I’m okay with that.

6. Make more money from side hustles. SUCCESS? I did make money blogging this year, although it wasn’t enough for me to quit my day job.  I’m hoping 2012 provides more money making opportunities from home for me.  Of course, I’m going to not stress about it because I’ll have a new baby.

7. Stay debt free! SUCCESS! We did stay consumer debt free this year, and only have our mortgage debt.  It feels like in the past few months we’ve been spending money like crazy, but we’ve saved for this, so it’s okay.

For 2012, I’m going to make some realistic financial goals.  I have no clue how our budget will be affected by the baby, but I’ve decided that I’m not going to be too hard on myself.  What’s the point of having tons of cash in the bank if my life is miserable?  I’m going to do my best to find a nice balance in 2012 between budgeting and living life.  I’m anticipating it to be the best year of my life ever, so that’s a positive start!

I need to decide what to make our 2012 goals and come up with a new budget for after the baby is born. Fun!

Overall, I’m happy with the way we spent 2011.  I’m very thankful we didn’t have any huge expenses (well, minus paying for the baby’s birth ) and that we were healthy and happy throughout most of the year.  I feel very blessed, and am sure that feeling will stick with me throughout the next year!

Happy New Year!

On Friday night, Mr. Money and I sat down and went over our budget.  We’ve gotten a little lax over the past few months to say the least.  I totaled up our monthly spending for the month of August (since we weren’t on vacation at all that month) and it was pretty surprising.  After viewing the totals on some of the categories I wanted to throw up.  However, that isn’t really very productive, so we decided to be a little more strict with our budgeting and try to work a little more at staying in line.  It will help us reach our goals, and enable me to stay at home with the baby.

Because I’m crazy, and I think it will help keep me accountable if I post the actual numbers of our variable expenses here, I’m going to do it.  Feel free to shame me if you want; I deserve it.

Groceries, including household items= 371.76
Clothing (work shoes for Mr. Money)= 42.39
Gas= 298.20
Eating Out= 369.95

I wasn’t too surprised about the grocery category, because we try to buy grass fed local beef and other meats from a farm close to our house, as well as purchasing many organic items. I knew that our grocery total was going to be more than I wanted it, but there’s little I can do unless I want to compromise the quality of food I’m eating. With me being pregnant, that’s not something I really want to do.

The eating out part of our spending? Is completely ridiculous and I can’t believe that we let ourselves spend that much on eating out. I know part of the problem was that I was still experiencing “morning sickness” and when I had a craving for something that actually sounded pretty good, we indulged. Apparently I had a lot of cravings during the month!

We’ve decided to cut back on the expenses that we can control. Of course, the fixed expenses we have we don’t really have much wiggle room, so we’ll have to leave those how they are.  Here’s what we’re proposing for the new budget:

Food= $350
Dogs= $20
Netflix= $8
XM= $25
Gas= $300 (I’d like to make this lower)
Eating out= $120
Retirement=$50

Here are some of the things that I know we’ve been slacking on, causing us to spend so much money: not meal planning, not having things for lunches for me, and being lazy.  I guess it all boils down to being lazy.    I have now realized that I can’t afford to be lazy, so I’ve got to change.

Of course, I decide to do this right before Christmas!  And then after Christmas, I’ll be quitting my job, and then we’ll be having the baby!  It’s more necessary now than ever, so I’m going to have to suck it up and not have any excuses.  Any freelancing income I get will have to be used for monthly expenses, but I’m happy with that.  If it needs to be done, it needs to be done.

Have you ever realized you’ve gone way over budget and had to change it?  Any advice for me?

I feel like my financial life is so boring right now.  Don’t take that the wrong way, though.  I am totally happy with the way things are going now because it’s low stress.  There are definitely areas where we could improve our money situation, and we need to sit down and talk about what our goals are.  One of my biggest budget busters has always been eating out, and that continues to be where more money than I’d like from our budget goes.  It’s just so easy to eat out, and when something sounds good and you don’t have the ingredients to make it, that’s when we end up giving in.

Meal planning definitely helps, but there are sometimes when it’s just overwhelming to deal with and I end up putting it off and then it never gets done.  How frustrating.  I should come up with a list of 30 or so meals that we enjoy and then rotate those weekly.  It’s not like we’re always eating different things anyway.

We’re continuing to save money, but aimlessly, and that’s okay.  I don’t have to have concrete goals of where our money needs to go.  I can decide that later.

I’ve always been a worrier, and it seems that takes so much energy out of me that I’ve got to relax.  I can’t worry about everything, and it’s not like worrying does anything productive anyway.  Going with the flow instead of resisting has been key for me.  I try harder to not say that I’m opposed to something because you never know what opportunities you’ll miss if you take on that attitude.  Instead, I try to think along the lines that if something came up, we’d come to a conclusion that would work best for our family.

How’s your money situation?

This past week I spent time up in Michigan with my family.  I drove there, and of course had to stop a few times to get gas.  There were a few things I noticed over the different places I observed gas prices.  For one, it was cheaper to buy gas when I left on Saturday, May 28 in the South versus anywhere else I saw.  While in Michigan over the week, I noticed the gas prices jumping to $4.19 a gallon! Ridiculous.  I thought gas prices were supposed to go down.

Another thing I hate about getting gas in Michigan is that there’s a different price for cash versus credit.  Where I live, this option does not exist, and I am so glad!  I use a gas rewards credit card to earn money back on each gas purchase, so when there’s a difference of ten cents a gallon less when you pay cash, it kills me!  I can’t help but think I could be getting the gas cheaper if I was strictly paying cash.  Of course, if I calculate it, my 4% back on gas purchases at $4.19 a gallon is a 16 cent rebate, so I’m still six cents ahead when I use my credit card.

I understand why merchants give a discount for paying cash (or stick it to the people who pay with credit cards!): credit card processing fees.  Merchants have to pay a credit card processor a certain percentage of each transaction that is charged at their store.  When customers pay cash, the merchant doesn’t have to pay any fees to anyone and the cash is immediately available to them to use.  Sometimes credit card processors wait days to make the funds available to the merchants, making it harder for them to operate their businesses.

While I do hate the fact that there’s a price difference for paying cash versus credit at the pump, I understand the reasoning behind it.  I also think there are many people who are far too lazy to get out of their cars to go pay for their gas.  Plus, if they’re anything like me, they hardly ever have cash on them!  I don’t carry more than $20-$40 on me at all times because if I have cash, I’ll spend it.  I wouldn’t have the $60 on me that it probably would take to fill up my tank.

Another tricky thing I noticed when I went to get gas at one gas station is that they switched the location of the cheapest gas.  I always get whatever grade is the cheapest, and it’s normally the very last one on the left.  When I went to get gas, I grabbed the last pump on the left and then looked at it.  It was actually the middle grade!  Had I not been paying attention, I would have gotten the more expensive gas!  That kind of irked me.

I hate when gas prices fluctuate like they have been.  I wish they would just stay around one price so we wouldn’t have to worry that we won’t be able to afford gas in the near future.

Have you noticed gas stations doing weird things like the cash versus credit discount? What angers you about the gas prices lately?