a guppy and her money

Ok, so we're STILL trying to muddle through all the unforseen bills and get back on track with finances. Obviously it's been a major adjustment now with a baby, but I'm starting to get it under control. As of right now we've got an extra 520 a month. We really have 770 coming in but 250 a month just hangs out in our savings waiting for the oil/school/xmas bills to come knocking. It's a decent amount but I'm used to the 1200-250=950 that we had before...

So I've been racking my brain with how to come up with the difference...A ha! Working for the state, I have an incremental raise coming up in January that I had forgotten about. So there's $50 a month more right there. Then my escrow payment SHOULD go back down 100 dollars a month (barring any major changes in taxes). Then once that student loan is gone (anywhere April - June I'm guessing) that's an additional $165. Plus another incremental raise in July which should be smaller, maybe $40 a month?? So if all this comes to pass (a very big IF, but we can be hopeful!) that's an extra 345 a month by next July!! WOOHOO!! Not quite where we were at before, but CLOSE!

Plus there's that whole issue of my husbands salary...he is horribly underpaid for being an Asst Manager but he still doesn't have his college degree and the industry is doing poorly and he can't jump ship and go to another company. So he's brought up a raise multiple times to his boss who agrees with him but says the "higher ups" won't allow a raise in this economy. So blahh, who the heck knows if he's ever going to get a raise, but there's always a slim chance that they'll come through and that'll help us out as well. I guess we'll see. For now I need to beef up the savings because it's been decimated and get on that student loan payoff. It's down to 7k!!

So I've heard about the Chase Sapphire but I'm just not sure I can make the 3,000 needed in 3 months to get the bonus. I just signed up for the Chase Freedom card..charge 500 over 3 months and you get 200 cash back. This should be super easy, so now I'm wondering if there are any others out there???

We haven't even paid off the last of our debt but I'm dreaming about future financial goals. Ahh, such a dork.

I plan to have the student loan paid off at the end of march if there are no hiccups. But of course, I know there will be some issues I'm sure, so as long as it's done and gone by summer I'm content.

But WHAT TO DO NEXT?! I know we'd like to have a half bath on the main floor of our house. It would increase value and make life with a baby (well, toddler at that point) MUCH easier. We've got an idea of where and how and a vague idea of what it might cost, so I guess that's our next plan of attack???

Or maybe to pay down the rental? Or the house? Or take more vacations and then just SAVE the rest? Ughhh, it was so much easier when we had tons of credit cards and car loans and student loans. Any extra money we threw at those without a thought. HAH, I guess this is a good problem to have!

I'll admit I'm being more spendy than usual. I need to stop it fast. Now that I'm back at work I'm justifying spending on things because I feel like I've "earned" it plus I'm EXHAUSTED and eating out is so much easier than a home cooked meal. Dangerous mindset, I know. I've got to get to the supermarket today and quit it with all this extraneous BS.

My mom needs to get $600 back to me (a convoluted story in regards to our rental and a loan) but ultimately, that money is for whatever we want. I plan to put it directly on my student loan, bringing the balance to right around 7k (would be exciting to see the 6 number though!)

Anyway, the point of this entry was to ask how the heck couples who aren't on top of their finances handle having children?! My husband and I had about 1k surplus a month before gianna and THANK GOD we did because now between daycare and diapers, food, and everything else we spend ~550 month. I know couples in debt up to their eyeballs before the kids and can't imagine what they're going to do when the little one arrives. All I can say is I'm thankful I got on the straight and narrow before our girly came. We don't have nearly as much at the end of the month as we used to, but it's enough to keep hammering away at the last of our debts and from there the sky's the limit! Woohoo!

Week and a half in Florida and now it's back to the real world :/. Payment hit to the student loan, so now it's down to -7610! I'm super excited to have the loan paid off in 2012 and start coming up with new financial goals!!

Ok, so I start back full-time June 27th..and then I'm going for a week long vacation starting July 4th. I timed that well, right? :P

So here's the deal...money is atrocious. We had saved up quite a bit of money (over 10k) before I went out on maternity leave but emergencies hit like they always do and we plowed through it all and then some in the last 8 months.

So basically we're sitting at approx 4,800 in cc debt. 3,000 of that is for the used car we had to buy once someone hit and totalled T's car. There were a few other small emergencies that hit but nothing worth complaining about now. We should get 1,350 for his car back which will bring things down to -3,500. Bleck.

I'm redeeming savings bonds from my grandfather which will total 17,250. The idea is to payoff the credit card and put the rest on my student loan. I'll have approximately 5-6k on the student loan that we can aggresively pay off in 8months or so? That's my current plan of attack. It'll be really exciting to be debt free (aside from home and rental property) during 2012.

So yeah, aside from the number crunching I'm trying to deal with going back to work. My hours are really good though (7-3) so I'll still have a lot of daytime hours with her which is nice. My mom will be watching her 3 days out of the week and then she'll be at a daycare 2 days (my friend from work has her son in there too and Loves it which is good.) So we'll see...it's going to be hard tho and I'm hoping I don't have a meltdown between now and Monday. :/

Financially...well, I really don't want to go there. Still out part-time maternity leave until the end of June and loving every minute of it.

I did want to update on my non-financial goal: weight loss! I am down 35 lbs since my start in early February. Down 60 lbs from right before giving birth. Woohoo! Still 15-20lbs from my realistic goal weight of 130-135 but I'm gonna get there!!

Oh and baby girl is 6.5 months now!! Time is going way too fast!!

Well, all my baby weight is gone. Now for that other THIRTY-FIVE pounds I put on before I got pregnant.

I'm definitely making progress but my biggest problem is patience. I seem to lack it completely when it comes to weight loss and finances. I want my debts gone instantaneously and I want to magically return to my college weight in one month when there's been years of bad eating habits. Blahhhh...but I'm trying to be better about making mini-goals so that way I can celebrate a little on my way to success!

I need to hit my next mini weight goal by April 9th. I think that one's going to be (relatively) easy if I keep up at the same pace, but still, I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Financial mini-goal is to start setting aside moneys for our Florida trip in July. T wants new tires before we road trip it down there.

Here we go - wish me luck!!

Things are moving along ok for the most part. Baby girl is enjoying her time with my mom while I've been working part-time. Work seems resigned to let me continue part-time for as long as the rules allow (Should be til end of June). Money seems to be going out faster than it's coming in lately. My escrow went up by almost a hundred dollars a month for this year and then I've been paying my moms good friend to watch our girly for an hour and a half each day I work (while my mom is at her morning job), plus there's the gas to get back and forth to my parents to pick her up. So that's about 100 + 180 + 100 = 380 more a month that I never really accounted for. Eep - that's the first time I really added it up. No wonder the money doesn't seem to be flowing like it was!

Luckily we've kept our weekend money down. It seems T is on board now with the diet too. I think our mini trip to Florida in July and the fact that I've started losing has spurred him on! Yay! So yeah, eating out isn't as enjoyable when there's not so many options. And if you're only going to eat a crummy salad, I'd much rather spend a ton less and eat an awesome one I've made at home. So, yep, not dining out so much has greatly helped use some of that weekend money to the bills mentioned above. Annnnd yep, that's about it.

Life is good in general. I've always been a generally happy person but I never realized how content I'd feel becoming a mother. I never was much into material things, but becoming a mom really solidified that I don't give a sh*t about things anymore. As long as I've got T and my girly, everything is a-ok!

Oh, and I forgot. So maybe this is a little bit of a superficial indulgence, but a few years ago I had my nose pierced with a tiny diamond stud and I absolutely loved it but the job at the time didn't approve so I took it out. Well last weekend I went and got it done again. Woohoo!! I'll have to post pictures at some point. Maybe when I lose a few more pounds. Yah, that sounds good :P.

So yep, looks like T's car has a bad alternator. I can't really complain because that car is a champ. Bought it for 2k three years ago at 120(?)k miles. T's put 80k or so on it in those years and it's required next to no maintenance (except for when it was stolen and some parts stripped, but that's another story..). We've really been so lucky, but I need to make sure we beef up our savings so when that day comes for a new to us car we are prepared.

I met with the health/weight doctor today and guess what?! 1 week down and 7.6 lbs GONE!! I was totally shocked. I was hoping for like 2-3 lbs, but it goes to show how much my body doesn't like being at this weight. 30 more lbs til I feel sorta normal. Blahh, If only I had caught this problem sooner. Oh well, at least I'm doing something about it now. For anyone who's wondering, I think it's sort of a modified South Beach diet he's got me on. Lean proteins, no pasta, no bread, lotsa veggies (and somehow I've stuck with it!) I previously had thought a week without bread and I would've died of heartache!

Financially wise everythings pluggin along just fine. The alternator throws a mini wrench in things, but T says it shouldn't cost much and he'll do all the labor himself. Love that my husband is halfway decent with cars!

So I hate to say it but about the time we started getting smart with our finances, I really let my health go. There's no real reason for that (except maybe I can't handle focusing on too many things?? haha who knows).

So yesterday I went to a weight management/health doctor and he checked out my latest bloodwork and we did a weigh-in and ran my BMI and all that jazz. The numbers were scary. My entire life I've always been 5-10lbs over my ideal weight but I learned to love my body. In college I even shed those pounds but my work-out/eating regime was unsustainable and so I ended up back where I had always been. No biggie.

...Then I got married.

So, yeah. It's been horrendous for the past few years and I think I've finally hit my breaking point. And I think I really truly am ready because I've actually said it out loud to a few people and now I'm posting it here. You know you feel the pressure when you've told people and you know they're going to watch and scrutinize you from afar haha. Plus I have this doctor I'm meeting with regularly that'll hold me accountable. It costs about 10 dollars out of pocket a visit which initially I was annoyed about and thought about scrapping the whole thing. But really, that 10 bucks is worth if it keeps me accountable and helps me achieve my weight loss goals. So yeah, wish me luck!

I really need to get back to the financial posts!! Too many off topic things for a financial blogging site!! :P

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

So for anyone who doesn't read me regularly I am on part-time maternity leave til hopefully June. Because of that, our crazy debt snowball is on hold until I'm back at work full-time.

But here's the latest numbers I found that were inspiring so I need to post them so we stay motivated!!

Est. debt at it's worst (2007??): 305,100
Total Debt June '08: 298,510
Total Debt June '09: 288,930
Total Debt June '10: 281,835
Current Total Debt: 274,770

There was lots of car mishaps and refinancing (yes, we rolled the costs in the loan which isn't ideal..) thrown in there, but we consistently have paid down each year and it feels so good to be moving in the right direction.

Even with not putting anything additional to debt, 1k automatically goes on principal between both our mortgages each month so that helps while we're currently just treading water otherwise!

Ok! Time for work. 7-12 then I see my baby!

I took up crocheting 2 weeks ago (I probably crocheted for a few months in college 5 or so years back) and I've been going crazy making stuff. Check out my latest creations and let me know what you think!

Evil Bunny:



Baby Girl and Mr. Octopus, cup of tea, and silly monster ball!



I'm excited to have a new and relatively cheap hobby!

Realized I couldn't upload my picture...Wondering if anyone else is having this problem too?

My super duper spreadsheet has failed me. Or more accurately, I failed myself since there was quite a bit of human error involved! Bahh!

I never added in the $300 dollars a weekend that I always allow for, so when this weekend was over I tallied up in my head that we had only spent 200 or so. I was excited to transfer the rest to savings except when I pull up my bank account online and my spreadsheet there wasn't anything to move because I had actually never even had that 300 dollars to begin with! My line item for weekend didnt exist and so now it's like I lost that money! Not sure if that made sense at all to anyone, but I guarantee you that money is gone :/. So now I hope to make up for it by having a cheapy weekend this next one coming up! We'll see..

To express my frustration at this situation, I crocheted an angry evil bunny. See below. :P

On a positive note, baby girl is being a perfect angel today!

Today was a bit better. Mama had an ok day at work, and there wasn't a huge accident on the interstate so it made picking up G much more bearable without the insane hours spent on the road. My mother was sweet as anything and made me lunch when I came through the door. Her afternoon work was cancelled so she didn't have to rush off right away so it was nice to sit and talk and relax. She knows I had a rough day yesterday and tried to allay my fears about this transition to working mom and I do feel a bit better. For now I need to enjoy this flexible schedule I have. I'm currently only working 3 days a week for 5 hours a day so I certainly need to calm down and relax and enjoy the situation as it is for now. I left a comment on my previous post thanking everyone for their kind words. It really means a lot that I've met such caring people on a financial site.

I'm an emotional wreck. I went to my first day at work yesterday and I don't know if I can do it again today. I don't want to be there. I'm crying day and night (when I'm not in the office) and I feel like I have no support. T feels guilty and so he just shuts down. None of my friends have kids so I have no one to confide in. All I have is my mother who's watching my girl when I'm at work and it's so hard. Why does everything fall to the women?? My husband is hardly impacted at all; he drops off the baby on his way to work. My mom has changed her entire schedule to care for her. I then have to drive out 45 min after work to pick her up and then another 45 min home. I end up doing double duty, because I'll work then take care of the baby then take care of the house and it's too much. I know my husband will say he'll help and then after a couple days he'll forget. I'm sure he's probably accustomed to how things were in his house. His mother took care of the house. But you know what?! She was a stay at home mom and she could. I can't do everything and I don't want to. My mother wants to move closer for a number of reasons but also so that I don't have this insane drive every day but my Dad is stubborn and refuses to budge. He doesn't seem to have any compassion. They are financially in a very poor place so it's not even like my mom could come out here and rent an apartment during the week if she wanted and space is tight in my house or I'd ask her to stay here during the week while she watches the baby. I just don't know what to do. I don't want to work but I have to and the only one who's helping me is my mother. I'm so freaking sad it's unreal. I don't understand what I did so wrong in my life to be in this position that I can't stay home with my baby...

Sorry I'm being so melodramatic. I just have no one to talk to.

So today was the day I started back at work. Hopefully I can stretch out part-time work for the next 5 months, but we'll see...

I told T I would wake up with him to get the baby changed and fed while he got ready (I live closeby to work so I had time to do what I needed once they left). When I was feeding her and looking down at my little girl I started bawling. A full on, not at all pretty cry and when it was time for them to leave together (so my husband could bring her to my mothers house) I was a total wreck.

I held it together at work but then had to battle insane traffic (2 hrs to get to my mothers house) before I got to see my baby again.

Such a difficult day. And I have to do it all over again tomorrow :/

I hope this gets easier...

So my MIL has this huuuuge issue with pacifiers. I've read up on them and what I've seen is there is a risk of ear infections and down the line if your baby is using them past 3 years old it might cause dental issues.

Sometimes my baby gets really fussy and she loves to stick her hands in her mouth to soothe herself but hasn't quite figured out how to do it (or maybe it's just that her fingers are still too small). So for maybe 30mins a day I'll use a pacifier to calm her down and keep my sanity.

What is your experience with pacifiers? Did you not use them? At what age did you quit using them? Did you experience any dental issues?

My mother tells me I both sucked my thumb and used pacifiers when I was little and I've had no dental issues. I have a feeling that if they were so detrimental you wouldnt see such widespread use of them and whole walls filled with them at baby stores.

Please weigh in!!!

So since our little one has been around we are not eating out hardly as much and it feels GREAT. I never realized how much money we were spending on food on the weekends, but we've easily covered all the diapers/formula/baby expenses by cutting down on eating out. How exciting!!

So T tells me the other day that he might get a raise!

His review is this month and it's been brought to his attention recently that even though he is assistant manager, there were multiple people working underneath him that were making either the same or more. He confronted his boss about this and his boss said he would look into it. He's since made the case to his boss that T deserves to be paid more. So when T gets his review by the end of this month we should find out how much more that might be. How exciting!!

look at my little chunkette! :P

At 10 weeks she weighed 12.5lbs but the doctor wasnt concerned. Says she's perfectly healthy and "some babies just like to eat!" Guess she gets that from her mama haha.

oky doky, back to the housework. :P

Just stopped in to update the sidebar. Slowly but surely our debts are going down. Part of me is really dreading going back to work part-time (will start full-time again at the end of June) and being away from baby girl, but the other part of me is excited to start moving ahead with financial goals again.

Yep yep, that's all.

So while on maternity leave there's certain things I promised myself I'd accomplish. I had hopes of becoming a bonafide cook and being able to make a few scrumptious dinners for my family. So far the only thing I can make well EVERY time without fail is lasagna. Suppose it's good that I can make ONE delicious meal, but it's a little discouraging that I'm not the super chef I expected after 6 weeks at this. Ohhhh well, I guess it's going to take some time!

Anyone have some SIMPLE delicious recipes for me to try???

Not actually the mortgage, but the escrow that we pay monthly with our mortgage payment is going up. Turns out that when we refinanced last year, normally some of the taxes for the first year are included in the closing costs. Evidently something was left out so we are 900 short! So now our mortgage payments are going to increase in 2011 unless we can come up with that money. Since I'm still out on maternity leave I don't feel like parting with that money from savings for the time being, so we'll just pay it out every month instead and they'll reevaluate in 2012. Bummer!

Otherwise, things are going well. Baby girl is getting bigger and bigger by the day. She's probably at 11lbs by now and nearly 7 weeks old. It's going too fast!

Besides the mortgage debacle, finances are on track. We saved quite a bit on Christmas by buying from my mom's "store" for some family members and so I'm able to earmark the leftover for oil. Past years we always kept the temp around 66 in the house and me and T worked full time so we'd keep it lower during the day and our bill was never much. Now that I'm home all day and keeping the house at 70 with a newborn, I'm sure this years bills will be through the roof and we'll need that extra money!

Still on maternity leave and loving every minute of it! Baby girl is fussy today but I finally put her down and now have a moment to myself. The christmas tree is up and thankfully I don't have to do lights because it's got fiber optics already in it which saves me some time. I havent started on ornaments but hopefully I do some of that before T comes home so I've got some progress to show him.

I've updated my sidebar to show my goals for 2011. Half of the year is a wash since I'll only be working part-time and we'll use that money to keep afloat until I go back full-time. Once I'm back fully in July, our money will be going to my student loan. I'm hoping to have a 15k balance before the end of the year. The following year we'll hit it hard and be able to have it almost totally gone which is exciting! Ok, back to laundry.

Almost forgot. Here's the picture of my girl!

Little baby Gianna was born on Sunday. 7lbs 4 oz and mama and daddy couldn't be any happier.

So T keeps thinking this baby is going to SAVE us money. As it is, we spend about $300 a weekend on entertainment/food/household items/etc. His thought process is once the baby gets here we'll most likely forego all restaurant outings for a while and will be spending lots of time with family which costs nothing except the gas to get there. I keep trying to drive home the point that while that's true, babies cost money! He doesn't seem to think past formula and diapers and when I said I might be breastfeeding and not doing formula he thought that really drove his point home. I was going to wager some sort of bet but for right now I'll just sit tight and hope that he's right (even though I fear he is terribly, terribly wrong!) :P

Kitty has been snuggling up to me moreso the last few days. Can't determine if it's because it's getting colder and she wants body warmth, or she senses these are her last days before baby comes and she wants to get a little more lovin' in! :P

Savings keeps dipping lower. The oil bill is going out tomorrow but hopefully we've seen most of the car expenses. Travis still needs to buy two tires, but we might be able to float that with weekend money. He was talking with him mom about the situation and evidently she wants to help us out because she feels bad about the timing of all this. So who knows, we might end up getting a few hundred (??) which would be very generous.

On a side note, I was adding up all our payments that go out each month directly on principal, and between my student loan ($45), rental ($235), and house ($685), that's over a 1k in debt GONE each month! That's before prepaying anything which is super exciting! Woohoo!

Cost to tow stolen/stripped car to impoud lot and pay for storage: $375
Cost to tow stolen/stripped car back home: $50
Price of new parts: $325
Labor: Hopefully $0 if T can do it all...
Total: $750 (Yipes.)

Then yesterday I come home to see they've delivered oil. Last year we used $800 dollars worth and I forgot they never came back late in the season to top it off. Still figured it couldn't be THAT much... Bill so far this season: $640. (Double Yipes.)

Savings is currently at 5,500. Haven't decided if I want to pay the oil bill this pay period. Probably should get it over with, but I'm too scared to see our savings dip below 5k when I could be going out on maternity leave any day now. I guess it doesn't really matter, it's going to have to get paid at some point. Bleck.

On the baby front: I went in for my 39 week appointment yesterday and still not dilated. She's up to 7.5 lbs though! When's this baby going to want to come out?!