Financial Accounting

Website Recommendation:

I don't quite remember when I started putting my financial life on my blog, but, it seems to help me when I have to report to the world wide web how I spent my money lately. First, I have to share an awesome new website I just found called www.mint.com. It is so very cool. You link to all your online accounts, including your savings and checking accounts and credit cards. You can even link to your investment accounts. Pretty much any financial thing you do can be all in one spot right their on mint.com. Then there are tons of little features you can play with. You can set a budget, you can get email alerts when you're about to overdraw your accounts, you can look at nifty little pie charts and bar graphs and visually see where all your money is going. I just signed up now, and one of my credit cards did not go through, but they set it up so you can alert them of the issue and they will try to take care of the problem. There are not any really obvious ads on the page either, but there are links to financial institutions for the purpose of investing and such, which I think is where they get their funding. Overall I found it to be very user friendly and helpful.

Our Latest Financial Successes:

I've been watching my niece, Lyric, almost full time. It will be full time, but we have started out a little slower then that at first, which is good because the kids are still getting used to spending so much time together. Watching Lyric is bringing in a little extra cash for us, and it is really helping us out. Lyric is no problem to watch at all, and she even naps :-) The only problem is Owen learning appropriate social behavior, but that is getting better as time goes on, and it's not really a "problem" since he needs to learn this anyway. So, one of my plans for making more money has come to fruition and is working out just great. Also, James has been able to work lots of overtime lately and this has been reflected quite nicely in his checks. I really feel like we have a little breathing room financially for the first time in years. Which I guess is a little odd since we are in the middle of a national financial crisis. That fact reminds me to keep my eye on the ball, which is gathering savings and paying down debt.

We opened a new credit card at our credit union and transferred most of the balances to it. We then payed off two of our existing cards and closed the accounts. We now have two cards, one that holds our large balance that we are slowly trying to pay off, and one that holds a small balance that we use for online purchases. All other cards have been closed out and canceled. Our big balance card is right alongside our other accounts through our online banking so I can pay any extra to it whenever possible. Also, there is a credit union location in the same building James works in, so whenever we have extra money James just brings it in and deposits it into the credit card. We've made so much progress lately that we have payed off everything we charged during the great financial disaster in September. So all unexpected medical bills, and cat vet bills have been payed off (and the cat is doing quite well, so apparently it was money well spent).

Another way we are saving lots of money is that I stopped buying organic :-( I know, I'm getting soggier and soggier aren't I? I really like organic food and I think it is beneficial to our health and well being. However, it is expensive and I simply can't justify the expense right now. I didn't actually realize how expensive it was until I gave it up, and we are saving a couple hundred dollars a month. It's one of the first things I will return to doing once our debt is payed off, but for now we've really got to put that money into our debt.

Our Latest Financial Disasters:

Our Jetta, that chronically broken down piece of German engineering, is yet again in need of repair. Two estimates came in at $1100.00 and $1700.00. But, our Brother-in-Law tells us he can do it for a few hundred, so we are obviously going that route. Initially we had decided to simply sell the Jetta under priced and buy a used car with that money and our tax return this spring. But, since we can get it fixed for cheaper, we are going that route, because it is a huge hassle to get a child into a 2-door car (since we would need to go down to one car until spring and our other car is a 2-door Cavalier). We are still selling the Jetta come spring, but at least we will have two cars to drive until then, and the car seat can be in the 4-door which is so much easier.

Our other financial disaster this month is Christmas. I hate calling Christmas a "financial disaster", and it's not really because it isn't unexpected and if we would ever get our act together we would actually save up for it, but it is a lot of added expense. Even though I try not to get too into the consumerism aspect of the holiday, it is still fun to buy gifts, and gifts cost money. So do freshly cut Christmas trees, and wreaths, and ornaments, and candy canes, and lights. We reuse as much as possible from last year, but we are still gathering our Christmas supplies up from a lifetime of no Christmas, so we are still spending a bit of money on the basics. This year we decided to do one expensive gift for each member of our family plus a few smaller less expensive gifts. James told me very specifically what he wants, so he is all shopped for. Owen is all shopped for as well, except for one item at Ikea that hasn't been in stock. James' family is all shopped for, but mine is not yet. Since we were raised as JW's and most of our family are still in the religion, we have few people to shop for. We also buy for the dice game with the relatives, but we can also re-gift, and buy thrift stuff for that, so that's not a huge expense. It looks like we'll have a Christmas debt this year that will take a couple months to pay off, but I suppose that is pretty typical. This year we are buying less for Owen then last year, because last year he just got way too much. We also realized that everyone else buys him stuff too, so there is really no need for us to go all overboard with it.

In Conclusion:

We are doing pretty good at playing catch up. We can adequately clean up the mess once disaster strikes, given a few months time to get back on our feet. The problem is, we wont ever get ahead this way. Our life follows this pattern: We plug along trying to pay off debt. We make a small amount of headway. We are faced with an unexpected large expense. The headway we made is erased. We lament, "why us? Why can't we just get ahead?" We are determined to persevere, and start plugging away at our new debt. We pay down the new expense and get to the point where we are now getting ready to pay off that old debt. But wait, then an unexpected large expense occurs once again! And we are back where we started and the cycle continues. I guess we just have to try harder. After Christmas, and after we fix the Jetta, I am determined to persever and pay off our debt...