We Spend Too Much...

Argh...I'm not even sure what our numbers are at the moment. With the cat emergency, and the windows, and the iPad I bought...I'm all muddled up. I'm afraid to look at my credit card statement. That's bad, I know.

On the positive side of things, I'm done my course, so I'm going to look into ways to make a little extra money. Also, I was able to set up our loan for our windows so that I can pay extra on it online, very easily. I like that. I already made a $500 payment (from our long-term emergency fund), to knock the interest down.

Need a Bigger Emergency Fund

I don't think $1000 is gonna cut it. Too many emergencies cost more than that. Case in point? A situation tailor-made for using the emergency fund--my kitty was sick and I had to take him to the emergency vet one night last week. That little trip cost me over $700, and it didn't solve (or even actually find) the source of the problem. Then yesterday, I noticed a red hole beside his bum, so I took him to my regular clinic, and it turned out he needed surgery to remove the abscess. They did that yesterday (he's fine, but he doesn't like his cone), and that cost me over $600. So just like that, more than our emergency fund has gone poof. *sigh*

Oh Dear...

We went to a home show the other weekend, and now we're getting new windows. Oops. However, we need them, and it will be SO nice to get rid of the crappy ones we've got now! It's going to cost us a pretty penny, though, as we're getting the best windows we can (they have a lifetime warranty on all the important bits...what's not to love?). We're replacing four--the ones in the kitchen, living room, our bedroom, and spare bedroom. Pretty much all of the upstairs ones except for the bathroom and one kitchen window. I'd like to do the other kitchen window, too, but it was already expensive enough and we got a deal for doing 4, so we went with 4. I'd also like to do the bathroom window (heck, I'd like to do the whole house!), but my husband says we can't do that until we renovate the bathroom. Something about rot.

So, we have to finance the windows, because they're going to cost us $12,500. I'm uncomfortable with taking on that much debt (especially because we're financing it over 10 years, because the payment is so manageable), but I'm trying to look at it as an investment. Not only will it increase the value of our house, but it should cut our heating costs. We lose a LOT of heat through the windows. I can feel a draft from the living room window even though it doesn't open. Besides, the house needs quite a few renovations, and it's nice to finally be doing something inside the house. I'm actually really excited about it. Just not the cost. Although I feel a bit more pressure to try to make money somehow.

Anyway, I thought I'd finally do an update post. So last time, our numbers were:

1. pay off my credit card-$170.12
2. replace $708.25 of my personal savings
3. increase short-term emergency fund to $2500 (so $1500 to go)
4. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $5186.19, so $14,813.81 left to go)
5. pay off mortgage (as of January 28, our balance is sitting at $95,053.57)

And now:

1. pay off my credit card-$170.11
2. replace $460.76 of my personal savings.
3. increase short-term emergency fund to $2500 (so $1500 to go)
4. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $4276.15, so $15,723.85 left to go)
5. pay off mortgage (as of March 11, our balance will be sitting at $94,694.78)

I did finally send off our insurance forms for reimbursement for medical expenses, so I'm just waiting for that to pay off my credit card. Also, for some reason the bank gave me back a penny, so that's why it's different by 1 cent.

For my personal savings, it felt to me like I wasn't really able to add much to it. There was a bit of interest, a bit from extra money we had after the bills were paid (but not more than $100, I didn't think), a cheque for $22.08 from Co-op (a grocery store that sends you a cheque every year if you spend enough there), a bit from having too much (if such a thing is possible) left in the account where I squirrel away money for our yearly expenses...I think that's about it. I guess it added up.

I think the increase to the short-term emergency fund is on hold for now. It doesn't seem as important in light of the other things we've got going on, although maybe I'll start sticking $25 a paycheque in there or something.

The long-term emergency fund has gone down because I took our window deposit out of it. And that's why the short-term savings doesn't seem as important--I'd much rather replenish this one as soon as possible. On top of that, we want to do balloon payments for (at least) the first two payments of our loan, to cut the interest down quickly. There is no penalty for paying it early (that would have been a deal-breaker for me). So that will mean we need to save more. Less eating out, I guess! Which is okay because my friend and I are trying a gluten-elimination diet for a month, to see if we feel better afterward. So I wouldn't know what to eat at a restaurant, anyway.

To Update or Not to Update?

I want to do an update post, but my husband gets paid on Friday, so I'm thinking maybe I should wait. But I don't really know how much of a difference it will make.

Some quick things:

• we got our new mortgage statement, and it turns out that we owe a few hundred dollars more than I thought. Could be worse, I guess.
• I thought we'd have to pay taxes this year (for the first time ever!), but when I claimed the Management course I'm taking, we'll actually get a few hundred dollars back, so that's good. I'm just waiting to see how much he's paid in group insurance premiums, and maybe we can claim a little bit more. I don't think so, though, but I want to make sure.
• my husband won $332 in the payday pool at work, which I'm thinking I'll put directly in our long-term emergency savings so that it doesn't just disappear. He likes this idea, as well.
• we're planning to get new windows, and that means $$$. We might make it up eventually in heating costs, though. Our current windows are pure crap.
• I'm stressed about my cat, because I suspect (oh hell--I know) that his teeth are bad and he'll need them pulled. This will also cost $$$, not to mention he will NOT approve. We got the other one's teeth done last year, and it cost about $2500 all together. But I don't want my baby to be in pain.

That's it for now. More later.

I Need Catchier Titles

But I can't think of any. *sigh* "Beginning of February Update" just doesn't really have that je ne sais quoi, you know? Oh well.

Last time:

1. pay off my credit card-$346.31 (approx.)
2. replace $1031.17 of my personal savings
3. increase short-term emergency fund to $2500 (so $1500 to go)
4. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $5177.40, so $14,822.60 left to go)
5. pay off mortgage (as of January 14, our balance is sitting at $95,290.11)

This time:

1. pay off my credit card-$170.12
2. replace $708.25 of my personal savings
3. increase short-term emergency fund to $2500 (so $1500 to go)
4. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $5186.19, so $14,813.81 left to go)
5. pay off mortgage (as of January 28, our balance is sitting at $95,053.57)

My credit card will be paid off when I get reimbursed for my medical expenses. I just have to stop procrastinating, get the forms ready (i.e. in the envelope), and mail them away. But anyway, while I still owe that amount, there's not much I can do about it until I get reimbursed, so I just moved on to the next item on the list.

I feel a bit ambivalent about the increase to the short-term emergency savings account, but I really think it will be beneficial. I just don't want to do it, haha.

I'm just guessing on the mortgage at this point. I think it's pretty accurate, at least as far as extrapolating last year's statement. But I hope we get this year's statement soon!

I just have to talk about the amazing deal I got through Groupon. They had sent me a $10 off coupon if I bought something before February something-or-other, and one of the deals that came my way was Sunday brunch, for two people, at my second-favourite brunch spot, for $20! With the $10 off coupon, it only cost me $10, until I bought another one later because it was SUCH a good deal. Usually, brunch at that place is $20 per person (and that seems to have gone down...I swear it was $24 for awhile there). I was so excited about that, I just had to share!

Progress...

Last time:

1. pay off my credit card-$741.27 (approx.)
2. replace $1031.17 of my personal savings
3. increase short-term emergency fund to $2500 (so $1500 to go)
4. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $5177.40, so $14,822.60 left to go)
5. pay off mortgage (as of December 31, our balance is sitting at $95,526.50)

And this time:

1. pay off my credit card-$346.31 (approx.)
2. replace $1031.17 of my personal savings
3. increase short-term emergency fund to $2500 (so $1500 to go)
4. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $5177.40, so $14,822.60 left to go)
5. pay off mortgage (as of January 14, our balance is sitting at $95,290.11)

Once I get my interest payment (around the end of the month, so not too much longer), and get reimbursed for some medical expenses (which I have yet to mail), my credit card should be paid off. Yay! Then I can work on getting my savings back to where they should be.

My husband didn't get paid as much as I thought for the last two pay periods. I thought he'd get quite a bit because he did a fair bit of overtime, but he also got out half a day early on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so I guess that counteracted it. At least this pay period had a little extra (just not as much as I thought).

I'm guessing on the mortgage, but I think it's accurate as far as extrapolating the statement we had. I figured that the principal payment went up by $0.15 every two weeks, so I used that. I think we should get the new statement around the beginning of February, so hopefully I'm right and I can see how accurate it actually is. I hope if it's not accurate, the actual amount is in our favour, and that we owe less than I thought instead of more!

New Year Update!

In my pre-Christmas update, our numbers looked like this:

1. replace $1267.44 of my personal savings
2. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $5170.67, so $14,829.33 left to go)
3. pay off mortgage (as of December 3, our balance is sitting at $95,998.83--I missed the November 19 mortgage update)

And for right now, they look like this:

1. pay off my credit card-$741.27 (approx.)
2. replace $1031.17 of my personal savings
3. increase short-term emergency fund to $2500 (so $1500 to go)
4. save $20,000 for long-term emergency fund (we currently have $5177.40, so $14822.60 left to go)
5. pay off mortgage (as of December 31, our balance is sitting at $95,526.50)

I don't think it will take me that long to pay off my credit card, just because I'm expecting an interest payment at the end of January. Plus, I think my husband's paycheque will be more than I planned for, due to his raise, which I haven't got all figured out yet, and overtime he worked over New Year's. I have made a few changes to our goals. I figured new year, new goals. They're similar, though. I've long thought that we'd be better off with more in our short-term emergency savings, so I asked my husband what he thought would be a good amount, and he suggested $2500. I think that will do until we have all of our long-term emergency savings built up.

As for our mortgage, the last entry in the statement we got last year is for December 31, 2010. So I don't know what our mortgage amount will be now, until we get our next statement. I have no idea when we received it last year. I suppose I could extrapolate.