Couple Money

Keeping an Eye on Our Food Budget

Elle — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:34:32 +0000

Yesterday I mention in our monthly review that we really went over our food budget for the month. We use Mint to track our accounts and for January here was the total for food related expenses -> $767.17.

As I was writing the review and looking at the numbers, I knew I’d have to cover how this happened. When I told my husband how much it was, he seemed surprised as well.

I started by looking at all of the transactions with Mint since it pulls the data from all of our accounts. I’m happy to say a few of the charges were mislabeled, meaning our expenses were just a tad lower. However, we still had a big food bill balance.

Eating Out – Fast & Furious Edition

We did go out quite a bit with our friends and family last month. The dinners themselves weren’t expensive; we just went went out frequently and treat some of our loved a few times. Taking someone out for dinner is fun for us, so we continue doing that, but not so close together. Perhaps we can try and schedule these meals as special events for once or twice a month.

Our focus for February will be preparing meals and friends over – we’ve gotten a few more recipes under our belt that we’d like to try out with a small group.

Groceries- Failing to Plan Meant Planning to Fail (Budget-wise)

We made quite a few trips (8 total) for groceries this month. The total for grocery shopping last month’s grocery run came out to $454.55.

Most of the trips were to the Food Lion right around the corner, where I grabbed items as needed (plus a bit since I already there….). We did picked up some staples that we needed, but more often than not I didn’t bring a grocery list.

The Costco trip was during the last weekend when we had a dear friend and several members of our family over to hang with us and see our baby girl. Instead of going out, we decided to eat in and have a family cook out dinner (good idea!). We grabbed food for the dinner plus a bit (bad idea!) That one trip set us back $158.80.

I think the lesson learned for us is to create a shopping list for all of our trips. Spur of the moment shopping lead to bloated buys and it upped our grocery bills quite a bit.

Thoughts on Your Family’s Food Budget

I’d like to hear about your family’s food budget and how you keep it under control. How did you do with your food spending last month? Did you stay within the budget or did you go over? What’s your family’s average for groceries each month? How much do you spend on eating out?

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Net Worth Review: January 2012

Elle — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:58:40 +0000

First month of this year is already over! It’s time for me to examine last month’s finances and see how it’s affected our net worth.

The purpose of the net worth reviews is to give us a regular system to look at our accounts, see what’s changed, and analyze what went well and what we need to work on. Of course we’d love to see the numbers increase, but the review is more about the how and the why behind the numbers.

Our Spending Habits in January

We burned through money last month and not in a good way! An expected expense that affected our numbers was the fourth quarter taxes I paid last month, but that doesn’t cover all the spending.

Here are our 3 biggest family related expenses last month as calculated by Mint:

Housing (Mortgage, Escrow, HOA, etc): $1,185.75
Food (Groceries & Eating Out): $767.17
Bills (Utilities, etc): $358.92

Whoa – as you can see we have gone way over budget with food last month! While I know some of it is due to taking family and friends out for dinner a few times, there’s also some sloppy spending in there. I’ll go through all of our transactions tonight and put a post up about it when I’m finished.

It looks like I’ll need to set up a Mint alert on our food spending for the next month or so to keep expenses reasonable.

Checking & Savings

We dipped below our checking buffer, which is never good. Now we have to rebuild our buffer and build up savings for some upcoming expenses. This month we already had a refinance expense paid – we had a good faith deposit.

Retirement Accounts

Things are pretty quiet with these accounts, I was happy to see an uptick on our balances. Pretty much everything is automated with our contributions. We’re focusing on long term goals with our investing. We’re not planning on making any changes to our retirement contributions right now – just continuing at the pace we’ve been going.

Cars and Auto Expenses

Our cars are still moving and no repairs this month (yay!). I did have to get an oil change for the weekend trip and the mechanic gave me an estimate on some work that needs to be done with the Jetta. For now we’re hoping it last us until we can get the car replacement fund funded Gasoline was more than normal as we drove to the mountains.

In case you’re wondering how I calculate the vehicles’ values, I used Kelly Blue Book. Every quarter I’ll update the values to account for depreciation.

Student Loans

Nothing exciting to report here. It’s the same old, same old. We have one student loan between us. Right now we’re continuing with the automatic monthly withdrawals for the student loan payments. This gives us a slight discount on the interest rate as an added bonus. It’s been relatively easy to keep up with them; we just confirm payments have been made each month from our joint checking.

House and Mortgage

This week has been busy as we started the refinancing process. that means we’ve had to gather our financial paperwork for the last couple of years and share it with our future lender. A

Here’s where we stand today with the mortgage:

Total Loan Amount: $107,844.58
Interest Rate: 5.00%
Loan Term: 30 years, fixed rate

As part of our usual routine, our automated extra principal payment (now $175) was sent in on the 15th of the month. The appraiser is coming this week to check out the neighborhood and our place, so we should have an updated estimate for the house’s value shortly. Hopefully it’ll go well.

This Month’s Goals

So January was big fat no with updating our wills and picking out guardians for our baby girl. On the plus side with this refinance we have to talk to our insurance agent anyways, so I’ll mention that we’ll want to increase our policy coverage and see what he comes back with for premium prices.

Monthly Summary

Now that everything has been summarized, it’s time to look at the numbers. Here’s our net worth from the spreadsheet:

Net Worth (as of January 31, 2012): $72,412.30 (+$413.22)

Not great – we’ll have to work hard this month to get that back up. Expect some posts looking at how we can improve over the next week or so.

Your Net Worth Update

I shared our progress; now I’d love to hear from you. How are you doing with your finances?

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Superbowl Weekend – Go Giants!

Elle — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:36:11 +0000

Superbowl is coming up in a few hours and my husband is rushing home to make in time to catch the whole game. We just spent the weekend on the Western side of North Carolina relaxing with friends who live in the mountains.

If you’re looking for a way to recharge without going broke try camping out by the Blue Ridge Pkwy. The Smoky Mountains are absoutley beautiful (best time to go for pictures is when the leaves change in October).

This is our second time in the area and even though it was a bit chiller than I’d like, we still got explore and see some towns around there.

For the Big Game we’re going low key this time and staying in. My husband is making nachos and I’m preparing some wings. As you probably already figured we’re rooting for the Giants to win.

Couple Money Around the Web

Besides writing here on Couple Money I contribute at other sites as well:

Go Banking Rates->TurboTax Vs. H&R Block: Which Tax Preparation Software Comes Out on Top?since tax season is here, I’ve been getting requests to cover how to get taxes done. I complied a list of options for readers interested in finding what’s best for them.
Go Banking Rates->Tips for Tackling Your Taxes as a CoupleContinuing on the topic of taxes, I thought sharing some tax tips would be helpful for newlyweds.
Green Panda Treehouse->A Personal Story of Risk TakenOver at GPT, I’m in the middle of series on investing, not just in the markets, but also in yourself. I share my little leap of faith when I became self-employed.
In a Nutshell->Should You Pay Off Debt First or Save? Personal Finance is such a tricky thing – it’s hardly just about money. We tend to make decision that make us feel good and/or safe. When we try to build our finances it usually means working hard to combat our emotional fears with rationality. Paying debt vs saving is a fun topic to look at as each family have different needs and fears.

Please let me know what you think on those posts’ sites.

Personal Finance Posts to Catch Up On

If you have some free time this weekend and want some tips and information for your finances, be sure to read some of these wonderful posts.

Tips for Planning your Wedding on a Budget via Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
Hate Your Bank? It Could Be Your Fault via So Over Debt
IS TWITTER A TIME WASTER? via Barbra Friedberg
I Earned HOW Much Last Year? The 6-Figure Mistake on My 1099 Form via Len Penzo
Why Facebook’s IPO Shouldn’t Excite You via Larry Swedroe
How to Clean Up a Portfolio via Oblivious Investor
16 Part-Time Jobs with Benefits via PT Money

Please have a wonderful weekend with your family!

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Home Budgeting and Finance for 2012

Elle — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Working out a solid home budget is an important part of getting your finances in shape for 2012. While most people have a noble goal of getting out debt, they don’t always put together an accurate home budget. It’s easy to input the expenses for a home mortgage and car payment. But there are other very important expenses that are often neglected.

Annual Memberships

Trying to pay for an annual membership in one lump sum can leave your budget hurting when the time comes. Soften the blow and simplify your life by making this a monthly expense. Add up all of your annual memberships to come up with a grand total. Divide that by twelve and you have the amount that should be set aside every month. Be religious about putting this to side to avoid being short when the renewal hits your mailbox.

Property Insurance

Most mortgage companies require that the property insurance is escrowed along with the property taxes. If yours does not, however, then you must carry the property insurance on your own. This is not a negotiable expense that can be paid or not based on how the month is going. It is just as important as your grocery budget and the rent payment. You can make it more affordable by choosing a higher deductible, but you should make sure that you are covered and that the payments are made on time every month.

Vacations

All work and no play will make you crazy, but vacations are expensive. Try to also set aside a monthly amount to cover a vacation. It will allow you to pay cash when the time comes, and you can start planning something early to build the excitement.

Holidays and Special Occasions

You know that it’s easier to shop for those holiday presents throughout the year, but most people don’t set aside money for it. Create a little slush fund just for gifts. Start by sitting down and adding up how much money you spend on presents throughout the year. Include little items you buy for co-workers and friends. Determine the monthly amount and then create a little slush fund just for these occasions.

Home Repairs

Most people don’t put this in a budget because it’s not a regular expense. But when something breaks, you are going to have to pay to have it fixed or replaced. It’s hard to determine how much you should allow for repairs. You can start by considering how much money you spent last year on various repairs and then dividing that by twelve. You can also simply set aside twenty or thirty dollars a month and adjust that amount at the end of the year. If you have older cars, you might want to set aside a little more.

Back to School

Parents with kids going to school for the first time are often shocked at the high cost of back to school. You can easily drop between fifty and a hundred dollars on each child’s school supplies, and that doesn’t count the cost of new clothes and shoes for the year. This can leave you scrambling when August rolls around, or sending your children off to the first day of school without their basic school supplies. You also have expenses throughout the year for class pictures, extra-curricular activities and field trips. Take the sting out of these events by setting aside some funds every month.

Property Taxes

The tax man cometh; and you need to have the funds ready to make the payment. Cash rewards and other perks will arrive without the companies withholding any taxes, but you will still have to claim them as income and pay the taxes at the end of the year. Any time you receive extra money that was not taxed, pull out ten percent and put it in a separate account. Property taxes that are not escrowed through a mortgage payment must be covered. Many a home has been lost to the government because the property taxes were not paid in full. Set up a savings account for the property taxes, and make monthly payments into that account.

Thoughts on Budgeting for Home Expenses

Home budgeting doesn’t have to be difficult. Taking control of your finances with a solid budget can help you create a better financial situation for yourself. You can create slush funds to handle life’s little surprises. You can also turn all of those annual expenses that are so painful into monthly ones that you barely notice.

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TurboTax Review: Home & Business (Plus Giveaway!)

Elle — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:45:21 +0000

Filing Our Taxes Online with TurboTax

We’ve been using TurboTax to handle our family’s tax needs for the last couple of years and we’ve been very happy with them. Last year I used the online filing option and it was perfect for us. We could login to account work from where ever we were and continue our tax filings at our convenience.

Easy to Use; Easy to File

Since we’ve used turboTax before, when we logged into our account to get our taxes started, the program already had much of our basic information (such as name, address, and jobs) in. It was a matter of adjusting some details, the biggest one was becoming parents last year.

I’ve found TurboTax extremely easy to use with its interview approach to getting information in for your taxes. It’s a completely guided walk through - the questions were clear and getting the data entered was quick

Getting the Paperwork in Was a Snap

With having to get our family’s taxes done along with my LLC, some may think it took a lot of time to get the numbers into the program, but it was a snap with TurboTax. As we receive the paperwork, I enter into the system, including:

W-2s from your job(s)
1099-DIV: Dividends
1099-INT: Interest Income
1099-MISC: Miscellaneous Income

Most of our expected forms have already came in, but I’m still waiting on a couple more 1099s to arrive so we can finish it up. Once we complete our federal, TurboTax can easily transfer our information from the federal tax return to my state’s return.

TurboTax Scours To Find Tax Deductions and Credit You Qualify For

TurboTax really combs through the all the possible deductions and credits for your return including your house, family, cars, charitable donations, medical expenses, college and education, and more.

Tax deductions reduce your taxable income, not the tax burden that you owe. Tax credits lower your tax bill.

TurboTax’s Live Community – A Resource Worth Checking Out

Turbo Tax did a great job creating and managing the Live Community. Live Community is a wonderful resource that allows you to get the answer you need on many common tax questions. Tax experts are moderators, checking to make sure the answers are correct so you’re given up to date information.

We had to use it a couple of years ago when we were looking to take the homeowners’ tax credit. It was so easy to find our answer and we were able to go ahead and file properly.

Which Turbo Tax Edition Fits You?

While Home & Business is the best fit for us, it isn’t the online edition TurboTax has available. Here are some quick descriptions to help you decide on which edition will fit your needs.

Free Edition: If you have a very simple tax return to file, TurboTax Free Edition is the way to go.
Deluxe: Many people will find this a suitable option to take care of their tax deductions and credits for families and homeowners.
Premier: This edition is designed for those who have numerous investments or if you own rental properties.
Home & Business: Entrepreneurs with either sole proprietor, consultant, contractor or single-owner LLC business will find this edition more than capable of handling their business.
Business: If you have a corporation, partnership or multi-member LLC, TurboTax can help you optimize your tax return.

We’ve been happy with TurboTax and how easy it is for us to file using their services.

2012 TurboTax Deluxe Giveaway

Now to the best part – Couple Money would like you to file your federal taxes for free. I am giving away 2 copies of TurboTax Deluxe Online. Enter the giveaway to win one of the copies (if you win, the code will be emailed to you)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The contest ends February 9, 2012 (11:59 PM Eastern). I’ll be drawing the winners on February 10, 2012 and will contact them. I need a valid email so I can contact you if you’re one of them. If chosen, please claim your prize by Monday February 13, 2012.

Disclaimer: I’m paying for my own tax preparation and the giveaway copies are provided by TurboTax, so if you win, please tweet them a thank you I’m also a contributing blogger at TurboTax, so please check them out to see if they can help you with your taxes this year.

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