Tag Archives: budget

Budget updates!

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So, we’ve had 9 no spend days, so very good. 

Then payday ,today, got cash for gas, and Costco. Did pretty well only $100 for food, but non food we splurged and bought some potting soil, a pot for the sweet potatoes, new pillows ,we needed. I got a t shirt,$10 and B got a nice dress shirt $20. So I’ll have to figure non food out if my food money, but I think it was good. Also put $100 in Santa, and $100 in savings.

B has changed our w4 so it will be less deductions and therefore more federal,tax taken out. We cannot have a repeat of this next year. So that’s going to affect our take home too. Oh well, it’s always something.

Found out a old acquaintance died recently of brain cancer. I guess she went all over, including Mexico , looking for cures. I don’t know, as a cancer survivor and patient, I think there’s a time to let go. But, who am I to say.

Also, everyone, March is multiple myeloma awareness month, so support someone with Myeloma, say hi, or help out. You can even make donations to the leukemia and lymphoma society. (LLS )!

Not a low spend day!

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Ha, no low spend today. but I am counting the last few days of December so, I’m at 5 no spend days. But, today was trader joes , winco, Joanne’s, and finally Costco. 

When I shop like this  I get home and tally my areas, food, non food, wine, cat food, household. Not sure where it all is yet, as I haven’t done it. 

Woke up with my right leg, bothering me, doesn’t seem like a clot or anything, but it’s still bothering me. I don’t remember doing anything unusual yesterday so? Humm , I’ll just have to see how it is tomorrow . 

Everyone is out tonight so I’ll have a salad, and some chicken salad I bought at Costco . Watch some T he Good Wife, and then read.

i still need to call my doctor about my blood work, but I’m too tired to do it today. 

I’ll try and catch up with the house after I rest. 

Window washing!

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Walked yesterday, 3 miles . Yeah, so it was more than my usual.

today, I’m washing the outside windows. The Flylady zone is the outside entry so I had gone to Home Depot the other day and bought that windex spray that you put on a hose. I’ve used it before and with very good results. 

I’m waiting for my revlimid delivery today, so I have to be here as it is signature required. Then I checked my LLS Account and it looks like my fax for the co pay didn’t go thru or got lost. So, I’m going to just mail it along with the insurance reinbursement. Sometimes these things are such a pain In the you know what.

Still tweaking budget numbers. It’s kinda depressing to read other blogs and their retirement accounts are 1 million, half a million. We have not much. Well, I guess we will see how it goes. 

Update on no/ low spend January

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ImageSo far, my goals are

1. 10 no spend days. Since today counts, I’ll have 9 more. I think this makes a big difference in the budget.

2. Keep groceries to $500 or less. December was over budget, so I need to do this. I have meals planned and am going to really try and have use pantry and freezer stuff.

3. Save $200 in savings and see if I can add an extra $100 to this. 

4. Submit my LLS insurance reimbursement, and put that money in my $52 week savings.

I think that’s it. We do have some extra bills this month, car tags for $300. I already paid the $200 so just $100 left on that.

we need propane but maybe I can hold off till February? Not sure.

keep tweeting the budget especially the non food items. B and I are going to Santa Barbara but we have 1 night paid for already, and he as some gift cards for food and gas. I will also use some of my $5 savings from 2013. It’s going to be money but it’s already budgeted as extra.

 

Being frugal, what does it mean ?

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http://www.frugalqueen.co.uk/2013/12/do-you-really-need-to-be-frugal.html

this is a great post by Froogs. She is an inspiration on being frugal and taking the risks to live more simply.

We have always been inspired to live simply. We were Quakers when we first married and live by many of the queries. We have lived mostly in small houses and even a trailer. But, we have not been wise with money. It’s taken really most of our lives to figure out money and now on the eve of retirement ( for my husband) we will still have a mortgage and will not be free from that. We now work with a budget and save some. But, it’s maybe it’s a bit of a little too late. But we’re determined to make the best of it. Because of my cancer, I can’t really work much, but I do love my little job and hope to continue it. I’m probably adding Velcade to the mix in the next few months so well see how that plays out.

Being frugal at this point is only buying what is necessary. We don’t buy fancy clothes, or house goods. We try and plan for the expenditures. This is the first year we maxed his 401k contributions. It added up but again maybe a little too little too late. But I’m an optimist and will keep plugging away into 2014.

January low/no spend with Carla !

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image

http://halfdozendaily.typepad.com/.a/6a016300f919ba970d01a3fa9e779f970b-p http://halfdozendaily.typepad.com/.a/6a016300f919ba970d01a3fa9e779f970b-pi

I’m joining Carla , over at halfdozendaily ,for a low spend January . So far my goals look like this:

  1. Get my 52 week saving sheet out and start that. Week one is $1, week 2, $2 and so forth.
  2. Turn in my $5 savings and put aside in savings. I should have $500 by December 31.
  3. start a new $5 savings envelope.
  4. Keep putting the small pay increase in B’s check over to savings. It’s about $80 a paycheck. I’ve done 2 months already.
  5. keep food budget under $500. This is always a challenge, but has gotten way better since I bought my freezer.
  6. we will need to buy propane and that’s $300. Minimum amount. This has to be done so the budget will take a bit of a hit.
  7. Aside from these savings that Ive already been doing, I’ll  just try and keep everything low spend. I’ve been keeping track of money spent in December ,so I’ll keep that up and try and have 10 no spend days.

Budget 2014

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imageI’m pretty close to our budget for 2014. The thing that we need to do is be sure to budget in for home repairs and maintenance and non food items. That’s where we tend to over spend. Most of our bills are fixed so I know those amounts. Our monthly out go is still too high for retirement. Not sure how this will play out in the next five years. I may or may not be here. But with the new drugs that are out, I’m hoping to be. I would love to pay off our second and then work on the first mortgage. But, thats not happening anytime soon. I guess we’ll have to make decisions on those in the next few years.

Im going to use cash envelopes for a few months till were back on track with some areas, such as clothing. Usually I just sort of fit clothing in. We don’t buy a lot of clothes, but when we do it’s easy to spend $100 or more. So I’m budgeting for that. Also, we have car tags in January.

I’m using my YNAB budget again too. Since I can’t use it on my iPad, I have to use my daughters netbook . I’m going to see if I can buy it from her so I have it up when I need it. She has 2 other computers so she doesn’t use it. It’s an okay program. I’m more of a pencil and paper budgeter( is that a word)???.

so, I work today and I’m sure it will be slow. Also, I need to call optumrx  for my revlimid refill.

So have a great day! How’s your budget looking for 2014?

Wednesday budget day

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So, it’s a pay week and I’m working on the budget. Our last big yearly expense is house insurance. The bill showed up yesterday. So I’ll go to AAA today. Then what I want to do is schedule out all our sinking funds for next year. We really haven’t saved anything in the last few months. It’s all been house expenses, etc. now with Xmas here, we need to stop and start seriously savings. I’m thinking a separate account, or something like my 52 week savings or the $5 savings, both of which I’ve done pretty good. The 52 week savings was up to $900, then with my sister here, I used that cash instead of checking or savings. So I’m ok with that. It’s down some so I’ll work on that next and see if I can’t reach the final goal by January which is @ $1300.

I’m off today to do a little shopping at the regular store, and then a few errands. I feel pretty good this morning compared to the last 2 days.

July mini goals

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imageHopefully we’ll be back on track with the budget. We had to B’ s tires to the tune of $584, and his car service at$393. But that’s done and was part of what we budgeted his bonus for. We also had to propane at $300. So, the bonus covered those things but not too much savings. We managed $50 to Santa fund which is good because you can’t touch it.

I think it’s just being realistic with what we can do. There’s only so much money and so many bills. We have everything to basics so there’s not  much to trim. I will ask Z to pay his cell phone$40, now that he’s working. S will need to start paying once she gets a pay check again.

So mini goals financial and otherwise :

  • Keep walking everyday, (I’m on day 36)
  • Put another$50 in Santa
  • Pay another $100 to the dentist, almost done!
  • Put $300 in sinking funds
  • Send off my LLS form for insurance refund. This is the fantastic leukemia and lymphoma society grant program. It is a wonderful organization, I get my portion of my husbands insurance paid by them.
  • Go to a museum with B
  • go to a new restaurant with B
  • Camping in Tahoe for 2 nights to make up for the rained out trip. I think it’s just going to end up the 2 of us, as both S and Z have work.
  • Be emotionally prepared to have to go back on chemo drugs. I get my zometa infusion this month( a bone strengthener that all myeloma patients do). Also, after my blood tests I’ve decided if it goes up even .01 I will tell him in August we’ll start. I think it helps to write this as a goal, as less of an impact when it happens.
  • Keep doing menus.
  • cook some batch cooking for freezer( this has been great)!
  • Be okay with budget being less than what I hoped it would be, in other words, I thought we’d have saved more money 😦

so, that’s it for now !

Hot, very hot!

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It is so hot herein Northern California . On my drive home from the library, my car registered 102. That’s hot. In our small house we have 2 window air conditioners. Yes, I use them when it’s this hot. We do turn them off at night though. This is suppose to continue till Friday. Ugh! I do not do well in hot weather.

On a happier note, yesterday was my day 30 of walking everyday. I’m starting today to do month two. My motto has been just walk. So if I did one round in the park(.5) or 3 I did it. So I’m very excited.

Haven’t worked out the budget yet, but B’s tires were a whopping $584. So $84 over budget.

I’ll work on posting goals and budget tomorrow.

On another note, one of the myeloma specialists on the myeloma beacon responded to my question of should I start back on drugs. Basically he said since it is a trend he would be leaning going back on. So, I’ve decided that if my numbers go up again, I will ask to go back on revlimid and dex in August. I just think waiting is not an option if it goes up again. It’s harder to get numbers to go down if they’re going up. 😦