Amanda is a personal financial planner turned stay-at-home mom. She wrangles a feisty toddler, an adorable newborn, and a closet full of excuses for not sticking to her family’s budget.
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...I hate to go and leave this pretty sight!
Well Club Mom is officially closing its doors, so this is my last post at this domain. I do plan to start the Naked Ledger back up again at: http://mandajuice.typepad.com/nakedledger/. The site is in need of a redesign and potentially a re-focusing as well. I promise to come back in 2008, but it might take me a few weeks to get going again. So look for me there! And Happy New Year!
I've been shopping like a mad woman these past few days trying to get everything mailed out in time. I just sat down and added up how much we've spent on gift cards alone and it's already over $300, which doesn't include a single gift for the immediate family. We're spending around $500 on the two kids (combined, not each!) plus what Dave and I are spending on each other. It's going to be a big Christmas (at least for our wallets!).
I have our bank accounts set up in the best way I could figure out to help us stick to our budget. I have 100% of Dave's paycheck and any/all of my income sent to our "main" checking account. From there I send various amounts to other institutions to cover our expenses.
Twice a month, I have $900 sent from the main account to our "discretionary" account and that's what we use to fund the budget I discuss here (food, dining out, etc). It's also the account that links up to our debit/mastercards. I find this to be easier because I can tell how well we're sticking to our budget by simply looking at the bank balance. Whatever's left is how much I (should) have left to spend.
I have these transfers set up automatically and I generally don't have trouble with them. A certain amount goes to the credit union for our car payments, another amount to the kids college funds, some to our money market account and then, of course, the transfer to the discretionary fund, which, as luck has it, is at the EXACT SAME BANK as the "main" account.
So for whatever inexplicable butt-main reason, Dave was paid on Friday and I assumed, since I've had it set up this way for months, that $900 went to our discretionary account on FRIDAY. And, as of today, it still hasn't transferred. The account is showing up as overdrawn, even though technically everything that happens over the weekend doesn't clear until Monday, including the (delayed!) transfer.
I have no doubt that I'll easily be able to talk my way out of any overdraft charges, but the whole thing still chaps my hide. Why would the transfer NOT show up as pending until Monday when all the rest of our spending does?
Co-pay for same-day-clinic visit: $20
Co-pay for same-day-clinic visit, two days later: $20 (plus another $20 for baby sister)
Co-pay for emergency room visit: $100
Co-pay for prescription: $10
Having good health insurance? PRICELESS
Remember the rug that didn't work in the family room?
I packed it all back up and lugged it, painfully, to the post office, where I learned it would cost me over $50 to have it mailed back to FLOR. Uh, NO WAY! I'm way too cheap for that, so I decided to try it in the living room. I think it worked out just fine:
I've done a lot of spending lately, but I've been way too busy to have even half a clue where the money has all disappeared to. I'm hoping to get back on track, but December is always crazy...
First off, thanks for all your support! I've decided to go ahead and just continue this blog at its own domain, www.nakedledger.com. Look for it there beginning in January.
Secondly, our spending it seriously off the hook right now. By Sunday night, I realized I'd been to Target at least once a day for about four days in a row and I had yet to leave without spending at least $100. This cannot be a good thing. I'm already freaking out about our Visa bill. January is going to be a lean month.
Third, we're having a Christmas party on Saturday. I promised everyone dinner and I'm expecting at least a dozen adults and almost that many kids. Here's what I'm thinking of cooking:
Various pre-made appetizers (mini-quiche, mushroom turnovers, etc)
Chips and dip
Veggie tray
Cheese and crackers tray
Crab dip in a sourdough bread bowl (I'll make two of these since it always goes fast)
Meatballs with either red sauce or IKEA swedish sauce (Italian recipe I've used before)
Caesar salad
Large shell pasta with alfredo sauce (mostly for the kids, but the adults like it too)
Cold broccoli salad
It feels like I need some other "main course" type dish or more veggies, but I will have limited oven space and I don't want to have to do any cooking (aside from tossing the salad and heating stuff up) after my guests arrive. Any ideas? Am I missing something obvious?
For drinks, we're having beer and wine, juice for the kids, and pomegranate martinis. For dessert I'm making a couple of bundt cakes and serving them with coffee. The kids will be decorating sugar cookies on the kitchen table during the party, so they might not eat any food at all.
So I obviously totally blew the NaBloPoMo thing for this blog. I just couldn't keep up and I've spent a lot of money this month. We went over our regular discretionary budget by at least $250. I attribute most of that to the fact that we bought a lot of food for Thanksgiving and then again two days later when I had my family over.
We've also done a lot of Christmas spending, including everything we're doing to decorate the house for our first Christmas here. It's going to be extra expensive this year, but hopefully we won't have to add too much in the coming years. I'm definitely doing more one-time-expense shopping than I ever thought possible.
So. Question for you! Club Mom has decided to shut it doors at the end of the year and that means I don't know what to do with this blog. Should I keep it going on its own domain (nakedledger.com, which I already have registered)? Let it die? Or maybe change it a little. I really miss doing the personal finance Q&A's, so I'm tempted to go back to that again. What says you?
It's been a few days and we've been out shopping quite a bit. I'll be back in tomorrow with a report of all the damage...
Happy Thanksgiving! We aren't going to spend any money today since we're staying close to home. Hope you're enjoying a lovely holiday and that all your recipes turn out fabulously delicious!
Today's spending:
| Fred Meyer | $20.81 | Last-minute groceries |
| Target | $118.46 | Gifts, groceries, household |
| Target | $2.16 | Hot dog enjoyed while shopping |
| Cash | $20.00 | Cash toward care package for the troops |
