Banker Gurl's More Bang For Your Buck!

I'M BACK!
I'm back from Mexico! We had a great time. Got to see cliff divers, go kayaking and parasailing and put in 6 hrs a day every day on the beach/in the ocean. I was nervous about gaining weight since I have been trying really hard to lose (lost 12 so far) and I know food is always a challenge for me on vaca.....but I didn't gain any weight, I was eating a lot of yummy mexican and seafood, but with so much walking and swimming it will be ok. We took $600 for spending and still had some left, yeah! My Mom is still in Mexico so we left out remaining pesos with her to convert before she comes back. We had about $3000 pesos left, so about $260 America I think. Have not decided what to do with that money yet.....??? My Mom was super generous, she paid for all 6 of us (me, DH, my 2 bros, my SIL and little bros friend) for flight, seperate hotel rooms for 8 nights, nearly all food, transportation and entertainment. The only things we paid for was some food if we were on our own and souvenirs. We also went down to the casino there, but came out ahead there too. Now I need to go lay in some aloe vera!

My little bro (19 y/o) was not so lucky on the trip. He lost $70 pesos in the ocean because he forgot he had money in his swim shorts, got arrested in Mexico for being drunk in public so he had to pay $300 pesos for that and then on the way home from the airport he got a speeding ticket. He still had a fun trip, but he really can not afford to be paying fines every other day for stupid behavior....

It is nice to be home and sleep in your own bed. The beds in our hotel were really hard.....so I looked under the mattress and no wonder they are so hard. The thin mattress are on slabs of concrete instead of on springs! Aww! It was ok when you were sleeping but then I would be really sore when I got up....or maybe that was just cause I was so sumburnt! I did really good on not getting burnt until the day before I left and then I burnt the carp out of my feet and legs....bummer.....

So now....back to the real world! We got back on Sunday but I have just been soooo worn out since then I had not had a chance to get on here....you know how they say "You need a vacation from your vacation!" Yup thats me! I was back to work on Monday and am getting back in the swing of things, but I think all that sun fried my brain. I will post the new BL results, mortgage for April and savings updates this weekend.

Thanks everyone for reading!

Current Total = $9065
+$450 Bonus to Home Maintenance Fund
+$50.00 to EF from payday
+$50.00 to vacation from payday
New Total = $9615.00
Closing in on getting to 10K.....AGAIN!

Well readers my Mexico trip is upon us! We leave in 2 days so I will be MIA for a week. We have $600 for spending money and are hoping to bring back $100-$200. I have never been to Mexico so it should e a lot of fun. I am ready for a margarita and some fun in the sun!

Happy Savings!

When I had my wisdom teeth out they asked for the payment up front, and said medical would probably not cover it. (I do not have dental) So I paid the $1500 OOP and hoped that maybe some of it would be covered.....but even if some of it was "covered" I would still have to pay for it in full since I have a $3200 family deductible that has to be met before my insurance covers anything. I had to call and remind the oral surgery office to submit the claim, but finally a month later it got processed.....and they covered the whole amount towards my deductible! I am so pumped! I knew I would have to pay for the whole thing regardless, but since it went towards my deductible instead of being not covered that helps us a lot because we have a lot of medical expenses and we will meet our deductible, now we have $1500 less to meet. Now we are down to only $700 left on the deductible for the year. So instead of having to pay our $3200 deductible PLUS $1500 for my teeth, we only have to pay the $3200! So doing a happy dance today because in a weird way we saved $1500!

Seems my last post got cut off for some reason and I did not notice....so here is the rest of the previous post:

Next month is our last $25 payment on our 0% interest TV, so I set the Home Maintenance account up today and also set up a $25 a month auto deposit starting in April so we continue to have that $25 going to something and not disappearing. It's not much, but it's something, and that plus my bonus will be a good start. So that account will be used for when we need a new washer/dryer, new dish washer, bathroom remodel, and other home improvements.

So since we had that "surprise" $2000 from the casino trip to put into the EF I decided to let DH decide what to do with my bonus from work. I will find out the exact amount tomorrow but I think it will be about $500 after taxes and 401K contributions. I told DH he can decide to put it wherever he wants....EF, remodel bathroom, future vacation, or buy a new laptop (his died a few months ago, so we have been sharing mine) were the options we talked about.
Last night he surprised me when he told me he had decided that we should set up a seperate ING account for Home Maintenance with my bonus. He is so smart

Current Total = $6860.00
+$1.00 King Mattress Interest
+$4.00 Even Out Amount
+$50.00 to EF from payday
+$50.00 to vacation from payday
+100.00 to Anniversary Cruise
+$2000.00 Casino Win!
New Total = $9065.00

We are back from our weekend trip to MN. It was soooo much fun.....and my husband was super lucky!
My aunts family goes every year to stay at the casino in Mahnomen and gets a block of rooms. We have gone the last few years and always have a great time. This year DH and myself brought one of his friends with to gamble with him and met a bunch of my family there. Right after we got to the casino I was up at the room getting ice for our cooler (cheaper for drinks!) and DH and his friend were gambling in the casino. Well they called me and told me to come down to the casino right away. So I run down there, thinking they must have won $100-$200......I get there and they are playing a penny machine(that is usually all we play) and betting .40 cents and they won $1064.00!!!!! WHAT! OMG! I was soooooo excited! I still can't believe they only bet .40 and they won so much. So I tell them don't touch that machine (it was called Virtual Golf) I want to go get the camera. I run (yes I was actually running) up to the room to get the camera and while I am doing that they start playing on the machine next to the one that they just won on (another Virtual Golf machine).....by the time I get back (maybe 5 min later)they have gotten the bonus on this game betting .40 cents and won another $200! So crazy! So in about 15 min they won $1200 which they split, so $600 for DH right after we get to the casino. Later that same night my husband was playing by himself betting .90 cents on a different penny machine (Black Knight) and won $400. So needless to say our trip was paid for and then some. We took $1200 out of savings to pay for room for 2 nights, gas, food and gamblng (we love to gamble!) and came home with $2000! WHOO HOO! So I put that whole $2000 into the EF. Very happy to come back ahead and had a wonderful trip!

Found out today my 2009 4th quarter bonus is a little over $700. It will be paid out next week, so I will be sending that to the EF. It will probably be about $500 after taxes and 401K contribution is taken out. But that will be a nice boost to the EF.

DH got $250 from his parents/grandparents for his Birthday. He is taking some with on our mini vaca this weekend and he told me today if he brings some back he wants to put it towards the mortgage. I knew there was a reason I liked him! LOL

Oh and also I got those FREE phones in the mail today. I am happy with them so far, they are cute and small. I put it on the "TO DO" list for DH to get them activated and ready to go.

Week Sixteen
Pounds Lost this week = 0
Total pounds lost = 11
% weight loss = 6.08%
Place = 1st out of 6 people

YEAH! I won! I am so excited! The person that got 2nd lost 10lbs so it was very close with us two. I am proud of myself for keeping that weight loss from last week. So I won the prize then of $60. Normally I would do something responsible with my winnings like put it in savings. But we are going out of town this weekend for a casino weekend with family so I am going to treat myself for my hard work and take it with to play.

I checked with my coworkers and they want to do another BL starting next week already. This time 8 people have signed up instead of 6, so that will be $80 up for grabs. Guess I better enjoy my weekend off of BL before next week!

DH has been in need of a new phone for some time, his volume control doesn't work very well and it is all scratched up. But we hate to pay for phones when you can just wait and get your phone for cheap/free. So we waited it out. I called today and found out only DH's phone is eligible for the upgrade and I need to wait till the end of April. BUT when I talked to the rep he said that they had a sale today only and we could actually get 2 phones for FREE! We don't even have to do the rebate thing, they are instant rebate so we didn't have to pay anything at all. Plus we should get the phones in 3 days. I really don't NEED a new phone right now, but I figured I would just keep my phone which is still in good condition so we have an extra one in case one is lost or broken before our next upgrade. Of course this strategy only works if you are not obsessed with getting the newest/flashiest phone and you have to be patient till you are eligible. We have never paid more the $3 for a phone, as long as I can use it for phone calls, texting and taking pics I am good. Love getting Free stuff!

Current Total = $6600.00
+$3.90 February savings interest
+$116.10 Even Out Amount
-$112.00 Transfer to ROTH IRA
+$50.00 to EF from payday(3/5)
+$50.00 to vacation from payday(3/5)
+$100.00 to Roth IRA hold account
+$50.00 Discover Cash back reward
+$2.00 Even out Amount
New Total = $6860.00

I went in to have my wisdom teeth check up appt today. Doc says everything looks good and got my stiches out. Also no charge for the follow up so that was good too.

So it is March 3 and we have had 0 NSDs. Fuel on the 1st Bar on the 2nd and Groceris on the 3rd........gonna need to work on this more.
On the plus side we have 3 NEO days under our belt!

Ran some quick errands today and got some amazing deals.
First I got bags of frozen chicken breast for 50% off, limit 2. Also Progresso soups $1 per can s got 10 of those. I see that sale frequently, but it really is a good deal for very yummy and healthy soup.
I had another free coupon for VS undies. This is the 2nd free pair i have gotten in a month and I NEVER shop there?! But free undies I will take, so picked those up for free, reg price $8.50.
Lastly DH got a coupon for $5 towards a $5 or more purchase from Famous Footwear. We have gotten these in the past also and try to find cheap shoes or socks that we can get for free since we have no need to spend any money with these coupons. Well we found some $5 shoes in the womens, but nothing that I would have wanted and could not find any sock packs for around $5-$6 so we ended up buying some boys sport cleets. They were regular $45, on clearance for $5, so we did not have to pay anything! We do not have any kids, but we can sell the cleet in our rummage sale. Brand new $45 cleets still in the box I am sure we can get at least $5 - $10. Feel like we did really good with the free shoes and free undies!

Week Fifteen
Pounds Lost this week = 6
Total pounds lost = 11
% weight loss = 6.08%
Place = 1st out of 6 people

YES! I have taken the lead with just one week to go! Having my wisdom teeth helped a LOT! So I am super excited. The person in 2nd is at 4% lost. So I think if I keep my weight loss at 11lbs or higher I will win. Have to try really hard to not pig out for a week.

We have 2 vacations this month but in between those we are going to try to not eat out and also have no spend days. We tried to not eat out in Feb and we did HORRIBLE...so trying again!

We want to do 19 NEO days (that would be everyday we are not on vacation) and 14 NSDs.

We put our heated blanket away today. We keep our heat VERY low all winter (around 55 degrees) and use the heated blanket to help at night. I love it! It's a lot cheaper to use the electricity of keeping the blanket on for about 8 hrs then to keep an entire house heated to an "optimum level" 24/7. According to the weather report we should only have a few more really cold nights so should be able to wear warm enough clothes and cuddle enough to keep cozy!
I also cleaned my bedroom (4 socks under the bed, guess it's been awhile since I cleaned under there!) I pulled 3 pairs of pants, 1 skirt and 1 jean skirt and marked them and put them in the rummage sale box. I have so much more that I could put in the rummage sale because a lot of my clothes are too small....but since I am working on losing weight I am not ready to part with them all yet. But the items I pulled I would probably not want to wear even if they did fit. So at least my closet is a little lighter!

Regular Savings:
Emergency Fund $1280
Anniversary Cruise $2200
Cushion $820
Vacation 2010 $1230
HSA $520
MN Trip $1200 - Complete
Mexico $600 - Complete
King Mattress $750 - Complete
Big Screen TV $425 - Complete
Total Regular Savings = $9025

Retirement Savings:
Roth IRA $2010
Rollover IRA $1490
401K $8900
403B $7850
Total Retirement Savings = $20250

Total Savings = $29,275
Down $325 from last month due to medical/dental expenses.

Current Goal - EF $5000

Spent:
$655 from HSA
$1500 Wisdom Teeth

Mortgage for March

Balance $136,150.00
+$553.11 Interest
+$345.57 Escrow
-$1286.00 Regular Payment
-$487.68 Principle Payment
New Balance $135,275.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $1573.97
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....September 2014...4 years and 6 months ahead of schedule!

Current Total = $10250.00
+$3.97 EF CD Interest
+$1.03 Even out amount
+$45.00 To get to next $100 level
+$50.00 to EF from payday
+$50.00 to vacation from payday
-$140.00 to ROTH IRA
-$1500.00 Wisdom Teeth
-$1000.00 Cover larger then usual CC bill
-$1160.00 MN Trip
New Total = $6600.00

Soooooo suddenly the halfway mark is far away. Bummer!! Spending got out of control the last month and so we had a larger then usual CC bill (we pay our balance in full each month), and then of course the wisdom teeth. I took the money for the MN trip out already as well, but the trip is not for a few more weeks, just getting my ducks in a row for that. So full steam ahead again....hopefully this time we will be able to go up, up, up instead of up, up, down!

Week Fourteen
Pounds Lost this week = +1
Total pounds lost = 5
% weight loss = 2.76%
Place = 2nd out of 6 people

2 weeks to go! Today at home I was down 8lbs.....I am hoping by the time we way in next week I will be down a total of 10-11.

To answer some of the questions regarding the wisdom teeth removal.
Yes I did go to an oral surgeon. They put in an IV for anesthesia, then said ok in about a minute you will fall asleep, I said Ok, and then I woke up in recovery! It was crazy how fast and effective the anesthesia was!

Here is how the bill broke down:
Evaluation $70
Extraction - Surgical $750 (3 teeth)
Extraction - Partial Bony $335 (1 tooth)
Antibiotics $45
Anesthesia $375
Pain Pills $6
Subtotal $1581
5% Discount for paying cash $79
Total $1507

So because 3 of the teeth were already out of the gum line that saved me some money because that was only $250 per tooth instead of $335 a tooth for teeth that are still under the gum line. Plus a little discount for paying cash.
Unfortunately I do not have dental insurance. I did ask them to submit it to my medical, I think the one tooth that was bony impacted, and possibly the anesthesia may be covered by medical.....I still would not get any money back because it would be going to my deductible, but at least that would reduce our deductible some. Will have to wait and see what happens with that part of it.
For now I am just making sure to keep up with the icing of the face and taking my meds. I would say the pain is minimal, more annoying then painful. Just happy to be done with it because they were REALLY killing me the last 2 weeks before I had them out!

So I am sitting here with the ice packs on my face.....I am so glad this is over! The total came to $1507 - with any luck my medical will cover some since one of the teeth was bony impacted. I will post for the $20K Challenge when I am more coherent to do the math!

We are getting very close to getting the PMI removed from our mortgage, which would give us an extra $67.20 a month to throw at the mortgage principle. I am trying to decide the best way to remove the PMI, here are the options:

1) LTV 80% - Estimated date we will reach is 9/1/10. We will have to send a request letter to our mortgage lender, and then pay for a new appraisal showing the value of the home has not gone down. Last time we had our home appraised for our refinance we had to pay $400 for the appraisal, so I would estimate the same cost for that.

2) LTV 78% - Estimated date we will reach is 01/1/11. If we wait till this date the PMI is supposed to automatically come off and so then we will not need to pay for the appraisal. But we would have to pay the $67.20 for 4 extra months ($268.80), and would lose a little ground on the mortage going down since we would not have the $67.20 to put towards principle for that 4 months.

I know it probably seems no brainer......#2 would save us about $130 since we wouldn't have to pay for the appraisal.....I think it is just a mental thing that I want that PMI gone asap! We will probabaly go with #2, but just seeing if there are any other thoughts out there. Also for anyone that is past the PMI, did it really come off automatically or did you have to call and make sure they got it done. Just thinking of past history, nothing seems to be as automatic as it is supposed to be..

Once the PMI is gone our "normal" extra payment will be over $500! It is so fun to watch it go down!

Current Total = $10150.00
+$50.00 to EF from payday
+$50.00 to vacation from payday
New Total = $10250.00

Current Total = $10530
+$50.00 to EF from payday
+$50.00 to vacation from payday
+100.00 to cruise account
+$1.11 King Mattress CD interest
+18.89 Even out deposit
-$600.00 MEXICO!
New Total = $10150.00

We don't leave for Mexico for another 4 weeks but I took the money out early because my Mom is actually going down to Mexico next week and she will take our money and exchange it at her bank in Mexico because you get a better exchange rate then at a US bank.
We are barely hanging above the $10K mark. Sadly we won't be above the $10K for long since we have our MN trip next month and that will be over $1000 coming out of savings....BUT we are hoping to bring some money home from both the Mexico and MN trips. Anything we bring back will go towards the EF, or towards the wisdom teeth depending on what shakes out with that.

I may have to have my wisdom teeth out.
I don't have dental insurance......so I am hoping that I will be able to file it under medical (usually if they are bony impacted then they are covered under medical) but I won't know the severity until tomorrow. I have to go in for an xray to find out exactly what is the verdict. I think I only need one out (it is cracked) but I guess I should just get them all out now......ugh.......

Week Thirteen
Pounds Lost this week = 2
Total pounds lost = 6
% weight loss = 3.31%
Place = 2nd out of 6 people

Only 3 weeks left! I really need to start pushing it now! The person that is in 1st is at 4.46% so it is going to be difficult to pull in front of them.

Week Twelve
Pounds Lost this week = 1
Total pounds lost = 4
% weight loss = 2.21%
Place = 2nd out of 6 people

So on Saurday I was down 7lbs at home.......then today I was only down 4 at work.....WTF..... I am happy that the numbers are still going slowly down at the "official" weigh ins.....but I was soooo excited to show off the 7lbs at work....still working hard on it, hitting the gym, shoveling etc.....Exactly one month till the end of the BL!