Banker Gurl's More Bang For Your Buck!

Week Five
Pounds Lost this week = +.2
Total pounds lost = 5.4
% weight loss = 2.94%
Place = 2nd out of 7 people

Used my free Vickie's underwear card today, the free pair is priced at $11.50. Then I had a coupon for Bath'n'Body Works. I don't usually shop there either cause I always have a lot of lotion that I get for gifts, but one of the coupons was a really good deal. I had 2 coupons, one for "Buy any item, get one lotion free up to $12" and one for "Spend $30 and get $10 off". So I bought a $1.50 hand sanitizer that I can stick in with someone's Christmas present and got a free bottle of lotion, priced $10.50. The other coupon I left on the shelf for some other shopper to find and use. So I got undies, lotion and hand sanitizer, grand total was $1.59! Yeah! Also walked to the mall so no money on gas and DH found a penny on the way.

I got a P & G Brandsaver add in the mail today with $42 in coupons in it. Most are for products that we don't use, but there are a couple I will keep, and the rest I will put in the coupon box at work.

We also went to the casino yesterday with a friend and came home up $2! Ha ha! Always happy if we don't lose.

Current Balance $10,445.00
-$112.00 to Roth IRA
+$2.00 Even out Amount
+$10.00 to EF
+$10.00 to Home Improvement Account
New Balance $10,355.00

Our official trick or treater count was......344! Holy molies!

Luckily we were prepared from having over 300 last year as well so we did not run out of candy. I am going to bag up the rest and freeze it for next year.

Got another free coupon for Victoria Secret undies today. I believe this is my 6th free undies this year.
Also got a good sale on soup today. The grocery store had the large cans of Progresso Soup on sale for .99! They are normally $2.65 a piece, so I bought 30 cans and saved $49! Whoo hoo! I love Progresso and they are really good for lunch, especially in the winter. I like to have half a can for lunch, nice and light and cheap.

Current Balance $10,400.00
+$5.00 HSBC Savings
+$4.28 ING Interest
+$35.72 Even Out Amount
New Balance $10,445.00

My blog hit 50,000 hits today! Wow! Thanks everyone for reading. My hope is to share money saving tips and ideas, or at the very least be entertaining on a topic that can be boring (unless you're a dork like me!) THANKS AGAIN FOR READING!

Current Balance $10,170.00
-$28.00 to Roth IRA
+$78.00 to Retirement Hold Account
+25.00 to Home Maintenance Account
+$155.00 to EF for Payday
New Balance $10,400.00

Trying to get far, far away from $10K so we don't ever have to go under it again. We have to pay for our 0% loan for our King Mattress soon. It is due in February 2011, so I will mail in the payment in January to make sure it gets all taken care of before the interest charges. That payment is $750, so need to get above $10,750.00 for sure!

Week Four
Pounds Lost this week = +.4
Total pounds lost = 5.6
% weight loss = 3.06%
Place = 1st out of 7 people

I went up a tiny bit. I am disappointed because I worked my butt off this week at the gym. I mean.....CRAZY working out. Accidentally sweated on a lot of people at the gym.....sick but true....lol. Hopefully the work will show up next week. I am still in first place, but only by a little bit. Gonna stay away from the Halloween candy and run, run, run again. Hopefully my coworkers will be sneaking candy from their kids.

My husband and I are going to be Season 1-2 Jim and Pam from "The Office" for Halloween. I just bought a shirt for $1.25 and a skirt for $1.25 from Goodwill. They are very "Pammy". I already had a cardigan that I can wear with it, and Pam's Keds. Then I will style my long brown hair like Pams. For DH we can just wear a white dress shirt, black tie and slacks. He purposely let his hair get too long so he is all shaggy like Jim, and since he is blonde we got some wash out brown hair color to put in his hair. I have been telling him to practice his Jim faces. Total cost was $2.50 for my clothes (which I can wear again since they are just dress clothes) and $6.20 for DH for the hair dye. YEAH for cheap Halloween!
On the not so cheap side......Halloween Candy....UGH! We live on a very busy street for trick or treaters. Last year I did a tally sheet and we had over 300 kids! Awww! So this year we bought suckers as they seemed to be the cheapest candy, and I will be giving only one per kid. I hate to be cheap for candy, but with that many kids we have to. It still cost almost $30 for that candy. We will have to watch for sales after Halloween and maybe get some candy to freeze for next year.

Aside from the fact that it has been blizzarding here all night and day and I had to have a nice stranger push my car into my work parking lot.......aside from the that I had a fabulous day! I was nominated for and won an award at work! They go around and let the people who were nominated know that they were nominated, then like 10 min later they announce the winner over the intercom.....so you don't really have time to digest that you were nominated before you find out who won. So I was super surprised and excited! It is a very prestigious award at my employer. I won $300 and get the "good" parking spots for all of Nov, Dec and Jan! The Parking spot is probably worth more then the $300 considering the horrible weather we are having. Since I won the Level 1 award, I am now in the running for the Level 2 award, which is a national competition. If I win Level 2, I win $1000 and get flown with a guest to the Level 2 celebration (last year was in Orlando!). And if I win Level 3 (which would be like the craziest thing ever!) I win $5000 and me and a guest get flown on a vacation (I think of my choice, but not positive on it). So I am very happy and proud to have been nominated and won. I worked very, very hard on the project that I was nominated for.
So now the big question is.......What to do with my $300?! They gave it to me today in the form of American Express Gift Checks, so i can use it anywhere, or I can cash them and use the cash. I am NOT going to put it in savings, I am NOT going to take it to the casino, and I am NOT going to put it against the mortgage. I am going to get myself something FUN! Not sure what yet, and am open to suggestions! I'm thinking maybe I should wait till after Christmas to see what I still want after then...... Happy Hump Day!

We use our Discover Card for everything....and I mean EVERYTHING. All daily purchases like fuel, groceries, gifts, going out to eat, vacations and household supplies. As well as monthly bills like our cell phone bill, water bill, utilities bill and gym membership. The only thing we don't put on the Discover is the electricity and the mortgage since they don't accept credit cards. We always pay the balance in full every month, have been doing so since I got a credit card when I was 18, 8 years ago.
So every other month or so we get $50 is Discover Rewards for Free. You can use them for cash, a credit to your bill, or you can get Partner Rewards. Partner Rewards are when you use your balance to get a gift card with a bonus amount. Example would be: You use $45 of your balance and they send you a $50 gift card to Applebees. So the $45 is free cause it is your Discover Reward, and $5 bonus for choosing the gift card option.
Normally I always get the cash automatically deposited into our savings account. But next month we are going to a wedding out of state and will be staying at a Best Western hotel. So I checked the list and Best Western is one of their vendor partners. So I used $45 in rewards and got a $50 gift card for the Best Western which will cover almost our whole hotel bill. Yeah!
I love Discover, they are so convenient, great website and I enjoy their rewards!

Wow it is that time again! This year has flown by!
Time to plan out the gifts....

Husband - I know what I am getting him, but it is a big surprise and don't want to post it just in case he happens to read my blog.....unlikely, but just in case!
Mom - She said she wants a $250 photo scanner thingy....we usually spend about $20 - $30 a person, so I am thinking maybe I will give her a gift card to put towards that?
Dad - Don't know......as usual
Brother #1 - Two games for his Wii, $30
Brother #2 - Hmmmm......
Sister-in-Law - Twightlight movie, $17
Uncle - Something Steelers
Cousin - I should be able to just walk around Target and find something she would like
MIL, FIL, SIL #2 and DH's Grandma - DH is in charge of, but probably $20-$30 a piece.

I am not buying for friends this year, last year it was hard to get together and it didn't seem very important in the end. But I do have one new person to buy for which is my Godson! He should be easy of course since he will only be 6 months then and anything he can drool on should work.

Week Three
Pounds Lost this week = 2
Total pounds lost = 6
% weight loss = 3.27%
Place = 1st out of 7 people

Whoo hooo - Keep on going down. DH is out of town this week, which is good cause then he is not here to cook naughty things for me to eat, but bad cause then no one is here and I can pig out. LOL Trying to be good by myself. Going to a movie and chinese tonight with a friend, but other then that should be a good eater and gym goer!

Current Balance $10,155.00
+$15.00 HSBC Interest
New Balance $10,170.00

I underestimated the interest in my HSBC account so adding that in now. Up up and away!

My budget for Matron of Honor is $500.00
Bridesmaid Dress = $216.00
Shoes = FREE
Jewelry = FREE
Transportation = None
Lodging/Hotel = None

The Brides Mom told her today that she would be paying for our shoes and the jewelry so that is good. The wedding is in town so no hotel or transportation costs. Still need to pay for gifts, parties and hair.

So I thought we we going to get a check from our old Escrow account for about $1300, but instead I got a check for $17.00 So I called them yesterday and they said the $1300 was used in the payoff of our loan, and she will send me the breakdown of the payoff. So that was a bummer cause I had assumed we would be getting those funds back. Oh well, nothing lost I guess. We also still have not received the amortization schedule that we had requested from our new mortgage lender, so called them and requested it again.

Week Two
Pounds Lost this week = +1.6
Total pounds lost = 4
% weight loss = 2.18%
Place = 1st out of 7 people


Darn I went up a little. Still down 4lbs though and still no pop for 16 days......I want a pop REALLY bad today though! UGH....

Current Balance $7,760.00
+$1.09 CD Interest
+$75.00 to Retirement Hold Account
+$100.00 to Anniversary Cruise Account
+$1987.20 Refund from New Mortgage
+17.49 Refund from Old Mortgage
+$214.22 Even Out Amount
New Balance $10,155.00

YEAH over $10K!!! So halfway to $20K and we are just gonna keep going up! I got the check for the $17.49 from my old mortgage company today......from what I can tell I should be getting a check for $1381.51...??? So I am hoping I am not all confused, cause I really thought we were supposed to get that refunded from our Escrow Account. I will call the bank tomorrow and find out what is going on with that.

At the beginning of 2010 my employer lowered the 401K match from matching 50% up to 6%, down to matching 50% up to 3%. So back when they had changed that I lowered my 401K contribution from 6% down to 3% and moved the difference over to my ROTH IRA. Well they just sent out an email that effective 10/15/10 we will be getting the match moved back up to 6% again. Yeah for FREE money! So today I went in and moved by contribution back up to 6% for the 401K, and lowered my autodeposit with ING from $100 per paycheck to $75 per paycheck. Right now I am contributing 13% to retirement, plus the 3% from my employer = 16%. I am happy with that at 26 and will keep moving it up tiny percentage point by tiny percentage point!

Current Balance $7,835.00
-$112.00 Transfer to Roth IRA
+$25.00 To New Car Account
+$12.00 to Retirement hold account
New Balance $7,760.00

We finally signed the papers today so we are officially at 3.75% for 15 years! The mortgage provider also gave us a $25 giftcard to a local resteraunt for refinancing with them. After we signed the papers they gave us our copies.......but they didn't give us an amortization schedule....so I asked if we could have one and the mortgage guy was all surprised....he was like "Oh you want that?" UMMMM YES! Guess I am a big weirdo for wanting to know where we are at on our payoff. So he is going to mail me an amortization schedule because they didn't even have one there. PUMPED!

Week One
Pounds Lost this week = 5.6!
Total pounds lost = 5.6
% weight loss = 3.05%
Place = 1st out of 7 people

YEAH! I am so excited about the first week! It went awesome and I am well ahead of everyone else already. My goal for next weeks weigh in is 2.8lbs which would get me below the next 5lb marker.

The last time I did a savings update was in June...oops....need to be on top of this more!

As of October 1, 2010:

Regular Savings:
Emergency Fund $1005
Anniversary Cruise $2905
Home Maintanence $400
Cushion $1140
Vacation 2010 $350
Car $505
HSA $2150
MOH $500 - Complete
Laptop $600 - Complete
King Mattress $750 - Complete
Total Regular Savings = $10,305.00

Retirement Savings:
Roth IRA $2440
Rollover IRA $1250
401K $10800
403B $9200
Total Retirement Savings = $23,690.00

Total Savings = $33,995

Wow how do I always get so behind on my $20K updates??
Anyways......

Current Balance $7,255.00
+$500.00 from October's mortgage payment
+$80.00 Interest and even out amounts for savings
New Balance $7,835.00

You may remember a few months ago I was dumb and left my windows on my car open. Well it rained into my car and my radio/clock died. I finally got a new radio, $110 at Walmart, and my brother and his friend put it in for me, all I had to do was buy pizza for supper. Having no clock and no radio in your car for 2 months is torture and I am soooo happy to have it back!

DH got an extra duty at work, he will now be doing detention everyday for 45 mins after school. He gets paid seperatley for this and it is hourly based. So we decided to give DH half of the pay for fun money (he tells me he never has enough fun money ) and the other half we are going to set aside for seperate home projects/upgrades, our first goal is a new lawn mower as ours is on the fritz....it still works, but is definitely heading for a new life......
Oh and I also quit drinking pop and getting fast food breakfast last week, so I am going to take $20 a paycheck and save that for something fun for me.....like new clothes, or new bike, or new rollerblades.....hmmmmm

Since we are refinancing this month we don't have to make a payment on our mortgage. Our mortgage guy gave us 2 months off of payments since the paper work took so long to go through, so no payment needed for October and November. I have already put half of October's payment into savings and the rest I have sitting in checking to give us a little more flex for Christmas. Finally got our "official" EF account to $1K (we have over $7K in savings, but only $1K is "designated" as EF, though all of it would be used as EF if we needed it). We were also informed that the new mortgage company would be sending us a check for $1987.00, they always make sure they overestimate when they do refinances so when the numbers come back you get money back instead of having to pay more. So we have a check coming for almost $2K, plus $1300 November payment, plus $1300 surplus in our old escrow account that we will get a refund for. So that is roughly $4600 that we will have unexpectedly. I really want to put it against the new mortgage.......but I know that is not best for us right now. DH and I discussed it and are going to put the full $4600 in savings. That will get us to $12K in savings. We know that we will need at least one, if not two new to us cars in the next couple of years. We will drive our cars till they drop, but I do NOT want to have a car loan, especially when we are sending all of this extra money to the mortgage....it would be dumb to get a car loan at 6%+ when we have our mortgage at 3.75%. So we will save all of that money and just start right up again with the accelerated payments in December. Goal right now is for the balance to go down $1K a month, that would mean we will have 138 months left to pay, about 11.5 years. Then I would be 37! I am having a hard time not sending the money to the mortgage, I really don't want the amount of the loan to go up, but such is life. Closing costs and the over estimate will cause it to go up, but it will be better for us in the long run to keep the cash in savings. We will be so much more comfortable, and we will still be putting more into savings while we send extra payments to the house. Ok, I am done with my rambling now.

$130,950.00

No change since we don't have to make a payment this month due to the refinance.

Went grocery shopping today for lots of healthy foods and snacks to help me start of right! Got grapes, apples, bananas, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, baby carrots, yogurt, cottage cheese, skim milk, orange juice, crystal light, chicken breast to grill and halibut filet. Hoping that with all this yummy fresh and healthy food around I won't crave the naughty stuff so much.