NDChic'sCents

Tax Refund: Yay!!!!!

2012-02-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

We did our taxes last night and if you remember I was worried because I had put our numbers into TurboTax and it showed me owing $29 for federal. Well, I'm happy to report that it was wrong! We're getting back $1444 for federal and $132 for state. I'm so happy and relieved that we aren't going to have to pay in. That money can go straight to our house fund.

Also, it is nice knowing that the taxes are done. We just need to sign one more item and our accountant will fax it to us for a signature. We paid $200 for our accountant to do our taxes. After doing a dry run through TurboTax, I would say that the $200 was well spent. I would recommend that everybody use an accountant. They have so much more knowledge of our tax system that they usually more than pay for themselves.

Have you done your taxes yet? Were you surprised by the outcome?

Mortgage Update--Feb 2012

2012-02-26T14:37:00.000-08:00

I received our latest mortgage statement yesterday. Our mortgage sits at $35,323 and that is after the March 1st payment has been made. I've wrote before about how I want our mortgage to be gone before we start building our house. We have $31,700 in savings and $10,500 in stocks that we plan to liquidate. That would leave us about $6900 if we would pay off our mortgage right now. Ideally, we would like to have about $20-30,000 in savings by the time we build.

I have no idea if that is realistic or not. It really depends on what kind of commission checks I see in the next few months and if we could get a tax refund or not. I will know in 2 days about the tax refund. Meanwhile, we need to live as frugally as possible and save as much as we can. Easier said than done!

Saturday Random Thoughts

2012-02-25T15:39:00.000-08:00

Last night I completely prepared for doing our taxes on Tuesday. I'm a little nervous because when I did a dry run with Turbo Tax I ended up owing money on our taxes. I was hoping to get a big fat tax refund but I can only do what I can with our information.

This weekend I had a few things that I wanted to do:
Prepare for taxes--Done!
Send in money for my employee with return (finally got this figured out)--Done!
Clean out car--still need to do.
Clean house--still working on this but its much better,
Clean out Lil Punk's room and box up old toys
Menu plan for the week
Spend time with Lil Punk--poor little girl is sick today

Y and I have been arguing yesterday and today. He just doesn't get that I want/need more help around the house, both with picking up and with Lil Punk. It gets frustrating on my end.

My friend wanted us to go to The Home Show today but we couldn't because Lil Punk isn't feeling good. I'm watching The Celebrity Apprentice and its cool that I was just in New York and I can actually identify some places that I see on the show.

Happy Saturday! What do you have going on?

NYC Recap

2012-02-21T19:30:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for your supportive comments!

I think that I ended up spending around $700 on my trip but we did some amazing things while there. We went to a Cabaret show at the Carlyle. We saw Chicago. We were going to see The Book of Mormon but it was $460 per ticket. Um, no thanks. I did the Hop On Hop Off bus through downtown and uptown. We had a drink on the 48th floor of the Mariott. The bar rotates so we got to see the entire city at night. That was $46 including tip. I saw Times Square and it is so much like I thought but better. I got my haircut and it is kind of growing on me. I took the subway. The only other time I've taken the subway was in Korea and its much easier to navigate when the directions are in English. LOL! I went shopping in Soho and ate at a few real NYC delicatessens. I saw St. Paul's Cathedral and Ground Zero.

Overall, it was a very cool experience. I'm glad that I did it but I would never trade my life for living there. I missed Lil Punk so much and it was so wonderful to see her yesterday. I realized that I'm not materialistic and my life is full of wonderful things where I live including my family, job, and my home.

Have you ever went on vacation and had fun but realized that you are so appreciative of how your life really is?

OMG! So Much Money Spent!

2012-02-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

I'm doing a quick blogpost from my sister's place in Manhattan. It's so freakin' expensive here and it just doesn't slow down. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I actually spent $95 yesterday on a haircut and tip. It looks cute but I'm not sure if that cute.

Drinks are ridiculously expensive. Food is expensive but I expected that. I cannot get a grip on my finances here. It's insane.

I think that I've spent around $500 in spending money here, maybe around $600. I will try to do a more thorough recap when I get home.

It's been fun here but I'm so ready to go home tomorrow and see Lil Punk. I love my very zen life.

What do you think? Should I be embarrassed about how much money I've spent? Is this ordinary or ridiculous for NYC?

I was Tagged!

2012-02-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

1. What is one thing that brings you joy that requires money?
This is a hard one. I really like eating lunch out and travelling.
2. What would your ideal retirement be like?
Playing bingo, having a lake cabin, travelling, playing and spoiling my grandchildren.
3. Do you use a mac, windows or a linux based computer?
A really freakin' old PC. I'm not up on computer lingo. I call IT a lot at work.
4. What got you into blogging?
I pretty much hated my job and needed an outlet while I was at work. Plus, I really love talking and sharing finances and it just not all that appropriate in the real world.
5. Do you love your current job?
Yup! I feel very blessed.
6. Do you have any pets?
No, but I would love an outdoor cat. It could live comfortably in our barn. Y is allergic to cats.
7. What is the most important thing to you on earth?
My daughter and being a good parent to her.
8. What is one thing that you miss that has either entirely disappeared or is slowly disappearing because of technology?
Talking on the phone. Having a good chat with a friend is not the same as texting or checking out their Facebook page. I'm still not back on FB either.
9. Do you think the recession is still a valid argument for people not doing something about their financial situation?
Um, not sure how to answer this. If people are making excuses, no. If they're looking for a job and not able to find one, yeah, we are still in a recession and I feel for them. The biggest way to feel like a piece of crap is to keep looking for a job and not getting anywhere.
10. How do you start your day?
By pressing snooze multiple times, getting up to fetch a Diet Dew and taking a shower.
11. What is one skill you dream of learning?
Hmmm....surfing, I think. That would be really cool.

Guest Post: Rafiki: Patience with Saving

2012-02-10T22:07:00.000-08:00

This is a guest post from my fellow blogger Rafiki. I have been reading his blog for over a year and I enjoy his wit and determination. I will be doing a guest post for him in the near future but I'm kind of a bad (and busy) blogging friend and haven't gotten that far.

Saving money? Hard. Managing time? Being in a relationship? Hard. Raising a child? Hard. Getting a degree? Hard. Finding a job? Hard. Starting a business? Hard.

Learning and having patience? Extra Hard.

The truth is though, the answer to those first seven questions and many more questions in life can be easily changed from 'hard' to 'can be hard' and then further changed to an easy if you can learn and use the skill mentioned in the last question.

That skill is Patience and in today's fast paced world it is even more rare to find and even harder to learn and use.

To achieve anything it takes time and the cold truth has always been time waits on no man. As true as the saying is, it doesn't mean that we must have everything instantaneously or with amazon prime 2 day shipping. A little patience and you can use you free super saver shipping which can save you money and get the same results.

Without patience you can set yourself up for some major disappointment. Disappointment can bring a tonne of bad waves on your day to day life and activities. For example, suppose you were waiting on something to be delivered, it was scheduled to arrive at 3 pm. You wake up in the morning all excited and can't wait for 3 pm to come. You don't know what to do to get the time to pass but there is so much you can do and should be doing, instead of focusing on those other things, your mind is occupied with your package that should be arriving at 3pm. You fill your entire morning and afternoon doing unconstructive stuff, browsing the internet reviewing your package, tracking the shipment to make sure it is on time to arrive, playing solitaire, dozing off, watching useless TV, and basically doing anything mindless you can find to do to pass the time. 3 pm comes and you find out your item won't be arriving on time or today even for that matter because of unforeseen circumstances. You fall into a slump because of the disappointment and you don't know what to do, you had your entire day planned out on receiving this package and once received you had all intentions of filling the rest of the day with said package. Upon not receiving it, you are at a lost now for what to do, not only did you not receive your package, you lost an entire day and now you are in no mood to do anything else but sulk in disappointment.(based on a true recent experience mildly altered)

Let's add patience to the above scenario and see what could have been. You had an entire day you could have planned out constructively. From the time you woke up, after having breakfast, you could have sat down and reflected on the day before and maybe even your week. You could have then come up with an action plan for the day, is there anything you need to do like laundry? After you have sorted out your to do list, you could have started on it right away, if there wasn't much on it, you have time to work on a few side projects, your blog, writing some job applications, practicing some essay writing for an upcoming english test, constructive reading, things that will benefit you in the long run. By the time you look around it would have been 3 pm and if the package had arrived you would have already have spent an already constructive day and can feel good to waste as much time as you want doing what you must with your new package. If it hadn't arrived you would already be patient enough to wait for it. Your mind would be at ease and you can properly plan the rest of your day, heck, it could be a blessing in disguise because you now have time to do other things you didn't plan on. If you so choose, you could even just relax and enjoy a little TV or doing some mindless stuff. The bottom line is that you wouldn't have wasted your

Patience can bring blessing to a lot of other stuff you do in life as well, a few examples are:

You could save up for an item you want with the possibility of getting it at a cheaper price later because of a price drop or finding it somewhere else or you could buy it on credit and end up paying way more than necessary for said item.

You can take some time, but some ingredients and make a homemade meal, saving money and more than likely getting a much healthier and tastier meal or you can go buy some fast food.

You could wash your clothes and hang them on a line to air dry which would either save you some electricity or save you a trip to the laundry or you could go with using your own washer/dryer or going to the laundry and lose out on some savings.

An extra $100 may seem impossible to find in your budget but if you can find just $10 a month to put aside, at the end of one year you would have $120. It isn't tough, it just requires patience.

There is another saying, 'good things come to those who wait'. This is also a true statement, just by waiting something beautiful or good can happen. This post also reminds me of the marshmallow test I read about on a few blogs before which was a study on delayed gratification which in turn, requires patience.

A lot can be achieved with a little patience, an oak tree doesn't grow in a day, the Great Wall of China wasn't built in a day and the Roman Empire wasn't achieved in a day.

Be patient, persevere and you can achieve success along with greatness in anything you set out to do. I am going to end with a link to a song that was stuck in my head the entire time writing this post. That song is from Sesame Street and is entitled, 'It's a long hard road'. I enjoyed Sesame Street as a child and it seems it has never left me.

Patience is a virtue.

Huge Mortgage Payment Made!!

2012-02-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

I made a huge mortgage payment today in the amount of $13,150 to principal. That brings our mortgage down to just over $35,000. We have about $28,500 in savings and over $12,000 in stocks. That means that we have enough to pay off our mortgage. I'm going to wait for a little bit because I want to keep enough in savings for an emergency if needed.

I calculate that we will need at least $20,000 in savings and our mortgage gone before we can build. I will really have to save every bit I can. Going to New York City will not help this at all but I'm still going and I'm going to have fun.

We are starting to get so close to building. We're still waiting to hear back on an estimate to build. Y revised our building plan to around 1900 square feet. We want a rambler with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I'm so excited!

This crappy house we're living in will be gone :)

Feb 2012 Menu Plan & Random Updates

2012-02-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

I've been so super busy this week with work. It's been awesome! Y has been picking up and dropping Lil Punk off to help me out so I could work late and get stuff done. Y and I made a menu plan last night so we wouldn't have to get groceries until our next payday on the 15th.

Today- Pork Loin, potatoes, veggies
Superbowl Sunday--Bruschetta (I'm bringing this to my in-laws house, there will be other food)
Monday--tacos
Tuesday--Homemade chili pizza (never made it before, this is Y's idea)
Wednesday--Mac 'n' Cheese with Brats
Thursday--spaghetti
Friday--pork chops with rice
Saturday--Bacon pasta toss (this is supposed to be prosciutto but I'm using bacon)
Sunday--homemade gnocchi
Monday--tuna melts
Tuesday--not sure, random

I also actually wrote down everything that we need for lunches, snacks, breakfast and drinks. I'm hoping to spend less than $100.

I have the grocery list made up and I'll go shopping when Lil Punk wakes up. I also want to check out the library today. I've only been there once right away and I don't even have a library card. I need to quit buying books and this will be a good place to start.

I was so busy this week that I didn't even calculate my networth as of February 1st. We had a very rough January. I think that we were still able to save money in January but not as much as I had hoped.

I leave in less than 2 weeks for New York City. I'm so excited. I want to go to a Broadway show, not sure which one but probably the one about Mormons. I also want to eat sushi, Thai food, and see the Statue of Liberty. Ground Zero is also a possibility, not sure on this one. I have some reservations about it. I know that its an important piece of the US.

Y met with a builder this week and we're waiting on getting an estimate back. Our budget keeps creeping up. The mortgage rates have stayed low so that is very good.

Go Giants! Who are you rooting for? Do you watch for the game or the commercials? I do both.

Taxes Preview: Yikes!

2012-02-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

We have an appointment with our accountant February 28th. I couldn't wait that long and I had almost all of my paperwork so I went to TurboTax online. After putting in my information, it showed that we owed about $50 to state. While that may not seem alarming, we paid in over $5000 more in federal income tax than last year. We got a refund of about $1500 last year. I had more expenses last year but still. We were hoping for a refund in the amount of $4000 to $5000 range.

I know that the goal should be to not get a tax refund but I'm commissioned, meaning that some months I make a lot more money than other months. For the months that I make more commissions, I'm taxed like I'm making that amount the entire year. It's impossible to have it be completely even.

I'm really crossing my fingers that Turbo Tax was wrong, either missing something entirely or I entered something wrong. It is so nice that we have an accountant to double check everything and make sure that we are getting the most refund that we can get (or pay in the least amount possible.)

Has this happened to anybody else? You thought you were getting an awesome refund and found out the exact opposite?

Crossing my fingers this month :)

Feb 2011 Goals and Annual Goals

2012-01-29T14:04:00.000-08:00

I have a few goals for February. Here goes:

Have tax documents ready
File taxes--appt set for 2/28
Stick to $500 budget for NYC--I think I will do a separate post on this
Get house plans drawn up--If we don't get this in writing and as a goal, who knows how long we could put it off.
Make wellness check with doctor
Keep to grocery budget of $400

I also wrote down my annual goals but I never posted them on my blog. Here goes:

Financial:

Stop and stay not smoking
Pay off mortgage
Keep $30,000 in savings

Non-financial:

plant 2 apple trees
plant asparagus
plant vegetable garden
plant herb garden
Run at least a 5K
Go on a mini-vacation with family
Go on a solo vacation (NYC will count as this.)

LOL! You can tell that I was thinking about the summer and planting food when I made my non-financial goals.

Have you made goals for Feb?

Lazy Saturday

2012-01-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

I'm at home today with Lil Punk (she's sleeping now) and Y is at work until 6 tonight. We've had a lazy day, just hanging out and napping. It's the perfect Saturday for us. I wish that Y was here, too. Shiftwork kinda sucks.

Tonight, Y's best friend is coming over and we're going to watch the UFC match. We haven't seen him for quite awhile so it will be nice to hang out. We told Lil Punk that he was coming out tonight and she got all excited.

I'm making pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, and veggies. Should be good. I'm sure that Y will buy beer and we will have a good evening.

Its snowing pretty good now and it just reminds me of a wintery Saturday. What are you doing tonight?

Jan 2011 Menu Plan Update

2012-01-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

This has been the first time that I've really tried to stick to a menu plan and its going okay. We've made it 4 days and we've made 4 of the planned menu items, just not on the day that they were supposed to happen. On Tuesday, we had planned to have pork loin, potatoes and veggies. Y decided to make lasagna instead. Yesterday we were going to have spaghetti but Y made pork loin. We had chili today instead of tuna melts.

I think that it might be best to plan a certain number of meals but leave it open on which day we make what. It is helpful to have a list posted in the kitchen of meals that we have everything for instead of wondering if we should make something and only having half the ingredients.

I think to make this work I need to loosen it up a little bit on which day we have what. I think that it will cut down on unnecessary grocery spending.

Lil Punk is using the potty all the time now. She still has accidents at daycare but we're working on that. If she goes the entire day at daycare without an accident, she gets to pick out a treat at the store on the way home. She usually gets string cheese so its not like she's getting candy to ruin her dinner. Cutting diapers out of the budget will free up about $60 or more per month. I can buy treats to see the end of that.

How do others do their menu plan? Do you just plan a certain number of meals and decide what to make that day? Or do you always stick to having what you wrote down on the menu plan?

Planning to Build Our House

2012-01-24T18:37:00.000-08:00

Y and I need to start looking at getting estimates to build our house. We have a tentative plan of a house drawn up that Y did. We definitely want that plan. We had wanted to wait until spring 2012 but if we can swing it, we might start building this summer, probably around August.

Y is off today so I told him to call a local builder that we’ve heard very good things about. Y called him and didn’t get an answer. He left him a message so I’m hoping that we hear back soon. I want to meet with them and have them draw up a real house plan. With that, we can have them do an estimate. We will likely take it to a few builders to get different estimates.

I am a little bit nervous because I don’t think that we’ll be able to afford the house that we want. I think that it will be out of our price range. The price range that we’re looking at is $200,000. That does not include the land as we will own that outright by the time we start building. That will also not include the well but probably will include a new septic. Y said that we need a new one and we might as well get a new one when we’re building compared to having problems with our current one a year down the road.

A part of me thinks that we can’t build the house we want for $200,000 but that is a fair bit of money. Many new houses cost less than that. Our first house was brand new and only cost $137,000 for a 2045 square foot bi-level home in town which included the lot. Y can do a majority of the plumbing and maybe wiring. We can also cut costs by doing our own painting. (I talked to Y about painting ourselves and he promptly vetoed that idea.)

I get so excited to actually thing about building our house. Any advice?

Feb. Menu Plan and Random Tidbits

2012-01-22T19:16:00.000-08:00

I've not been so good at menu planning because I like to decide what I'm going to have that day. I want to start menu planning so I'm better prepared with both grocery shopping and eating down some food in the pantry/freezer.

Monday--Black Bean Soup, I actually tried making this tonight in preparation and I might need to alter something. The beans are good but I threw away the broth because it was black and not very good, maybe Black Bean Tacos instead.

Tuesday--pork loin, potatoes, veg

Wednesday--spaghetti

Thursday--tuna melts with veggies

Friday--chili

Saturday--Pork Chops with rice and veggies, probably in the Crock Pot

Sunday--Lasagna

Monday--shrimp, garlic toast, veggies

January has been a very expensive month for us. Property taxes ($734), Annual life Insurance premium ($297.50), new fuel pump for Y's truck ($300) plus maybe labor for that if he can't do it himself, Propane ($1400), Plane ticket to New York ($343), where does it end?

I know that not all of the expenses are surprises but its just hard when they all hit in one month. We don't set a certain dollar amount for things like property taxes. It all just comes out of our monthly cash flow and savings.

I'm not sure where we will be sitting as far as a tax refund. We paid in about $5000 more in federal taxes this year and made about the same as last year but we don't have all the write-offs from my old job that we had last year. Either way, I much prefer not having to part with half my paycheck and not getting back as much of a tax refund.

Y's employer wasn't able to correct their HR screw up and didn't even apologize. They just said that it can't be fixed and that is how it is. It sucks but I'm not surprised that they can't fix it.

Happy Week to come! Let's make the most of it!

Propane Refill

2012-01-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

It got really cold here this week, down to 18 below without wind chill. We were getting low on propane so I called to have it refilled. It cost $1394 for 774 gallons. It was $1.80 per gallon. Not such a bad price considering it is January.

I really miss having natural gas. It is a much more efficient way to heat a house. Unfortunately, we live in the country and they don't have natural gas lines here. Oh well. You win some and you lose some.

How do you heat your home? Do you like your method?

Potty Training Tips??

2012-01-18T17:50:00.000-08:00

I am looking for any and all potty training tips. Lil Punk is to the point that she has worn underwear to daycare the last couple days but still has a couple accidents during the day.

Any and all suggestions and tips welcome!

Spendy Weekend

2012-01-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

I'm disappointed with this weekend. We needed to return a few Christmas presents and buy groceries. Needless to say, it added up more than I would have liked.

This is what we spent this weekend:

Gas 44.00
Drinks at Concert 15.00
Beer for Y 17.51
Groceries and razers 202.95
Miscellaneous spending 17.82
Computer speakers for Y 73.62

Total 370.90

The majority was for groceries. We spent $48 of the $202 at Sam's Club on soup and razers. The rest was spent today. We were out of almost everything. This should last us for the rest of the month but I will need to stop for milk and maybe produce.

HR Screwed Up!!

2012-01-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

The last 2 years, Y and I have flexed $6000, $5000 for dependent care flex (daycare) and $1000 for medical flex. Flexing refers to it going to a separate entity before tax. You then turn in your receipts and get your money back tax free. We had every intention of flexing for 2012 as it would probably save us at least $1000. Not sure since we can write off daycare but it is still a loss for us.

Last year we used the flex program through Y's employer. We assumed that it would be the same amount for 2012 because we didn't change anything or receive notification otherwise. We thought wrong! Apparently, they sent out 4 e-mails in November stating that all employees needed to reenroll for their flex benefits or they reverted to $0. We discovered this yesterday when his paycheck was almost $200 higher than normal.

Y called HR and they told him about the e-mails. They said that there wasn't anything that they could do. The best part is that after further investigation, they discovered that Y isn't on their company wide e-mail. We were upset about this. Y talked to his supervisor's boss and he is going to try to do something but I kind of doubt that anything will happen.

This is his company's screw up. The best part is that this isn't a small private company. They should definitely have their act together.

Has anything like this ever happened to you? How did you handle it?

New Airline Credit Card?

2012-01-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

I'm looking at booking my flight to New York in February. The flight will cost about $430 because I need to fly out of a smaller airport than a major hub. My sister lives in Manhattan. I'm not gonna lie; Sharon motivated me with seeing her pictures of her going to New York with her daughters.

If I book through American Airlines, I can get $100 off my flight if I get their credit card. The only con is that I'm not as crazy about the flight time. I would have to leave Lil Punk overnight at my friends house because Y is working and daycare wouldn't be open yet at the time that I need to leave. I talked to my friend and she said that she would love to have Lil Punk and she suggested that she stay overnight versus me dropping her off there at 4:30 am.

If I book through Delta Airlines, I can get $50 off my flight if I sign up for their credit card. This is a good discount but its just not as good as the American Airlines discount for their card.

Both cards have an annual fee but I would just cancel it within a year so I didn't have to pay the $85. I understand that the $85 is waived for the first year and is charged on your one year anniversary.

I know that this would be on my credit but my credit score is fantastic, over 800. It doesn't really matter when your credit score gets over 770 or 780. Sure it can go higher but you aren't going to get any better discounts or rates. I know this because I work at a bank. That being said, what would be the con for getting the card?

I've previously gotten quite a few credit cards for different perks and it has worked in my favor. I've received discounts and I don't keep a balance so I'm better off. I have the money to pay for this flight but I want the discount REALLY bad.

What do you think? Should I get an airline card for the discount?

When Personal Finance Blogs Become Commercial

2012-01-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

My pet peeve is when I really like a personal finance blog and the blogger decides to try making a lot of money from their blog. I can usually tell pretty quickly because the posts start to lose the personal aspect and become a guide for how to effectively manage money. They will start to have very generic posts on the best way to save money on travel, invest for retirement, etc.

I dislike it because I can find this stuff anywhere on the internet written by professionals. I can find it on MSN Money or Yahoo. I like personal finance blogs because I like the personal part of it. Yes, I'm interested to know how you will find the money to repair your broken down car. Will you pick up extra work, take it from savings, cash in retirement or put it on a credit card?

I can think of quite a few blogs that I've slowly stopped reading as they become commercial. I don't feel like I know the blogger anymore but they are still cranking out blogposts 3 times per week on random stuff that they are now experts in.

Can you tell when a personal finance blog is no longer personal? Am I the only one that is annoyed by this?

January 2012 Challenge Update

2012-01-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

I am doing awesome with our challenge for low/no spending for January. However, Y is not. He has spent $90 at Walmart in 4 different trips. The worst part is that he didn't even have an answer on what he bought. He blew it. So freakin' annoying.

I do need to remember that he has EQUAL say in our finances and I have spent more than $90 on things that he would consider frivolous. Grrr!

I Quit Smoking

2012-01-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

2012 is a year of changes for me. I am 3 days without a cigarette. Today was my first day back at work without smoking and I would be lying if I said that I didn't miss it. I liked smoking at lunch and after I dropped off Lil Punk in the morning.

It's a little bit embarrassing that I still smoked. I didn't mind if I was at the bar and somebody saw me smoking. However, I didn't want any of my co-workers to know or anybody else that I know professionally.

I will do it. And reward myself with a trip to New York City! More on that later...

Have you ever struggled with an addiction? Other than Facebook? LOL!

Happy New Year: No More Facebook

2012-01-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

I have contemplated quitting Facebook for a little while. I find that it has become a completely impersonal way to look into other's lives. I can be nosy and see what they are up to without actually talking to them. I also saw my estranged mother on there one day. I immediately blocked her from everything so she can't even search for me but I still felt that my privacy was invaded.

I saw a post on Facebook today to live your 2012 according to your priorities and not your habits. I thought about it and deactivated my Facebook account. I would not say that Facebook enriches my life at all. It is a huge time waster and something that really annoys Y.

If I change my mind, I can reactivate my account and everything will be the same.

Have you ever thought about quitting Facebook? Are you addicted? Does it add anything to your life?

December 2012 Budget Recap

2011-12-30T18:30:00.000-08:00




Income	Projected	Actual
Y 2nd	1125	1125.13
ND 2nd	1202	1310.67
Y 1st	1125	1125.1
ND 2nd	1202	4173.6
Flex	408	416.66
Reimbursements
Other

Total	5062	8151.16


Expenses
Fixed
Mortgage	430	500
Car	350	350
Life Ins.	122	122.31
D-TV	51	55.98
Electric	100	109.54
Phone	175	184.12
Student Loan	112.53	150
Daycare	550	459

Total	1890.53	1930.95

Variable
Gas	450	369.04
Groceries	450	599.73
Household	200	65.93
Y Fun	200	60
Gifts	250	366.2
clothing	120	49.99
ND fun	200	60
Beer	150	117.71
Entertainment	120
Misc.	300	259.74
Eating Out	120	57.2
Donations		27
Trash		104.14
Credit card		177.44
Total	2560	2314.12

Savings
Automatic	500	500
Other	500	3416.66

Total	1000	3916.66



Grand Total	5450.53	8161.73


Left Over	-388.53	-10.57

My budget goes from the paychecks at the end of the month to the next end of the month. We got paid today so we start over today with January's budget. We went over in the gift category but still had a good month. Thanks to my large commission check. The grocery category is high because we bought a half a pig.

Any helpful advice?