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2010 Goals

Debt
-Continue to live debt free other then mortgage
-Pay mortgage down from $138K to $130K or less

Savings
*Emergency Fund
-Go from $2775 to $5000 ($2225)
*Vacation Fund
-Go from $820 to $2600 ($1780)
*Anniversary Cruise
-Go from $2000 to $3000 ($1000)
*MN trip
-Go from $50 to $1000 ($950)
*Checking Cushion
-$750 to $1300 ($550)
*HSA
-Go from $0 to $3000 ($3000)

Retirement
*401K (3%)
-Go from $8200 to $9000 ($800)
*ROTH IRA (10%)
-Go from $1620 to $4000 ($2380)
*403B (10%) ($2400 est)
-Not sure on amounts, but continue to contribute 10% of DH income

Totals Goals
*Total mortgage paydown $8000
*Total savings added $9505
*Total retirement added $5580
**Total money added to net worth $23085
Wow that is about 1/3 of our total income, so we would have to be VERY vigilent to reach these goals! But I am ready to go and will knock them out 1 by 1!

To Do list of bills:
1) Hot tub repair bill $750 - Paid $250
2) Wisdom teeth removal $143.60 - Still waiting for bill
3) Dr bill #1 $141.10 - Paid off
4) Dr bill #2 $59.40 - Paid off
5) Dr bill #3 $94.50 - Paid off

I got my end of the year filing all done. I keep a temporary file with folders for all of the bills, paystubs etc through out the year. Then at the end of the year I move everything into a permanent file that hold 3-4 years of statements. I like to keep everything very organized and easy to find. There will be no digging through shoeboxes looking for old statments in my future!

Current Total = $8060.00
+$50.00 to the EF from payday
+$50.00 to Vacation fund from payday
+$70.00 ING from payday
+$35.00 Even out deposit
-$140.00 Monthly ROTH IRA contribution
New Total = $8125.00
YEAH!

My employer cut the employer match for 401K from 50% up to 6% to 50% up to 3% for 2010. So I am cutting my contribution from 6% to 3% and moving the 3% difference to my ROTH IRA. Yesterday was my last payday of 2010, and it was very slow at work so I got the 401K updated. Then I went to my ING and changed my autodeposit from $70 every 2 weeks to $100 every 2 weeks. All ready to go for 2010!

I just found this fun show on CNBC called "Til debt do us part". It is about a debt couselor that comes into homes and helps couples get their finances in order with challenges on reducing debt and bringing in more income. Kind of like Nanny 911 only for out of control finances instead of out of control kids. I love watching shows like this to find little tips and tricks for budgeting!

Current Total = $8040.00
+$3.82 EF CD Interest
+$16.18 Even out balance
New Total = $8060.00

I like the idea of the $20 challenge though I don't really understand the $20 part of it.....but I would like to start my own challenge towards $20K in nonretirement savings.

Current = $7987.06
+10.00 Rebate from UV Vodka
+42.94 Even out balance
New Total = $8040.00

This is our total non retirement savings, including amounts that are already ear marked for purchases/trips.....so I know the balance will be going up and down, but hopefully an overall trend of UP! First I would like to get the total savings to $20K and then move to getting just the EF to $20K.
DH has a check from his great grandma for $200 for xmas.....I am trying to get him to let me put it in savings....but is his check so he can use it for what he wants, we will see what he decides!

To Do list of bills:
1) Hot tub repair bill $750
2) Wisdom teeth removal $143.60
3) Dr bill #1 $141.10
4) Dr bill #2 $59.40
5) Dr bill #3 $94.50

The only bill we have received is the hot tub. I will pay that once this CC statement cuts on Dec 27th. Still waiting on the medical and dental bills, if I do not receive them by the first of the year I will need to call and make sure that they are sending them out.

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

Glad to be back down 4lbs. Hopefully next weigh in I will start going in the right direction more speedily!

On Thursday I got a text message from Discover that said to call their fraud unit. We had been out of state last weekend so I thought it was regarding that and that they were just making sure that was us using the cards out of state. So I called in and was told that my husbands card was being used in FL! Definitely not us (wish I was in FL, but am far, far away from any sunshine!). The card had only been used once for $200 at a grocery store, and somehow that had a card made because the Discover rep said that the card was physically swiped there I said how could that be, we both have our cards in our wallets, and he said that the technology that thieves have now, if they get your name and CC number they can make their own cards! YIKES! So the rep immidiatley canceled the card and took the bogus charge off of our bill. We will get a new card in a few days and they will continue to monitor transactions coming in for additional fraudulent charges. Bad situation, but so happy with Discover that they notified us right away and took care of everything!

I finally finished Christmas shopping, I dont remember ever waiting this long to finish.....but with the OT project I have really not been feeling much like shopping.
Here is the final tally:

Husband - DONE! $100 on a watch and other misc gifts

Mom - DONE! Went in with my little bro and got her a bike on black Friday $25

Dad - DONE! Card table and chairs $24

Brother #1 - DONE! Cubs memorbilia $22

Brother #2 - DONE! DVD for $5,and $10 GC

Sister-in-Law - DONE! Margarita Shaker and Hand Juicer - $18 total!

Uncle - DONE! NFL Shop Steelers Hat that I got for FREE for sending in bottle caps from Mountain Dew bottles

Cousin - DONE! Book from Barnes and Noble.com, I bought a used version that said status "new" and used a GC that I had won at work, total cost $6.74, plus a Dr. Scholls "Love my Sole" pack $8.67.

Friend #1 - DONE! Book from B&N again, and used another GC, total cost $11.07

Friend #2 - DONE! Book from Target on sale $9.84

Friend #3 - DONE! DVD $5

MIL - DONE! Season of Ally Mcbeal $30

FIL - DONE! Sweater $25

SIL #2 - DVD $5 and $10 GC

DH's Grandma - DONE! Womans Vest $32


Total Christmas Budget = $400.00
$342 spent on 15 people!
15 people done out of 15
So I came in $58 under budget, but this does not include presents for me, and we usually spend about $100 a piece on each other. Overall I am happy with that though...and just soooo happy to be done!

I got a free $10 coupon for Kohls - spend $10 get $10 off. I found tanktops on sale for $4.99 each (regularily $12.00 a piece) since 2 of them only comes to $9.98 before tax I had to get 3 to get the $10 off. So they ended up being $5.27 total for 3 tanktops - that's only $1.75 per tanktop, and a savings of $31.01! I am excited and now I have some new cute clothes for Mexico.

Well I finally finished up my Chrismas Shopping and I had a $5 off a $75 purchase at Target coupon so was able to use that when I bought $100 worth of gifts for my husband.

Week Three
Pounds Lost this week = +2
Total pounds lost = 2
% weight loss = 1.10%
Place = 4th out of 6 people

We were out of town for 4 days, and then the night before the weigh in I pigged out on pizza....bad girl! So all things considered I am ok with the 2 lb gain, I think it could have been MUCH worse! Time to get back on the wagon.

Regular Savings:
Emergency Fund $2660
Anniversary Cruise $1900
Cushion $700
Vacation 2010 $665
Mexico $50
HRA $0
MN Trip $0 - Spent
King Mattress $750 - Complete
Big Screen TV $425 - Complete
Total Regular Savings = $7150

Retirement Savings:
Roth IRA $1490
Rollover IRA $1700
401K $8100
403B $6000
Total Retirement Savings = $17290

Total Savings = $24,440
Up $1370 from last month

Current Goal - Mexico $800

We are going on a trip to Mexico in March....I am very excited!! My Mom is actually flying myself, my 2 brothers and our spouses/significant others there and paying for our hotel and most of our food as well. This is not normal "Mom" behavior at all.......but my Grandpa passed away this last year.....and a very large portion of his estate went bu-bye between inheritance tax, lawyer fees....blah blah blah.....my parents are well off and now my Mom is thinking she would rather enjoy her money with her kids before she is gone and it goes to the government. So all we need to come up with is some food/drinking money and souvenir/shopping money and any other entertainment we might do tours or something. I am thinking $800ish for 2 people should be more then enough for a week of drinking margaritas on the beach! There is also a casino there so we may do that too. So we have till March to start a new account and save it up. We are at $50 and Friday it should go up a lot as it is bonus time at work.

Coupon time at Target again - I didn't need any of this right now, but it is all stuff I will use, so wanted to use my coupons up before they expire.
Checked all the prices against the brand name, but generic was better sale for everything, and the coupons I had were for Target brand.

$1.50 off toilet paper
$1.50 off Laundry detergent
$1 off Disinfectant wipes
$1 off Dishwasher soap
$1 off Puffs
$.75 off dryer sheets
$.75 off tampons

Also bought batteries - on sale $2.10 off
Saved almost $12 on house hold products we will use.

So on top of the $800 in car repairs, $400 in medical bills, $100 in dental bills (estimated), and Christmas shopping.......now our hottub stoppped working and will cost at least $600 to fix. Bummed. If we don't fix it now it would freeze and be completely ruined....so I guess we need to come up with that money too now. Whine whine whine......hoping 2010 will bring a few less unexpected bills.

Mortgage for December

Balance $138,970.00
+$564.57 Interest
+$381.65 Escrow
-$1322.08 Regular Payment
-$594.14 Principle Payment
New Balance $138,000.00

Additional Principle Payments 2009 = $3806.10
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....September 2013...3 years + 9 months ahead of schedule!

Week Two
Pounds Lost this week = 2
Total pounds lost = 4
% weight loss = 2.20%
Place = 1st out of 6 people

I am happy to report a 2lb weight loss even with Thanksgiving in there! Awesome! My coworkers did well too, several of them lost 2 lbs and one even lost 4 this week! Stiff competition, but will keep me going! So I am pretty worried about this next week, we are going out of town for 4 days.....and you know what that means...fast food, fast food, fast food...UGH! I am mentally preparing myself though and have conciously decided I need to make good choices and not just eat what I want because we are out of town. Besides McDonalds and lots of other fast food places have salads and other healthy options now, so there are options for me.....I just have to make myself choose them!

A friend recently moved and when she was packing up her pantry she ended up throwing away 2 full garbage bags of food that was expired. I like to think that I am pretty good at keeping my pantry and other cupboards well organized and try not to let anything expire, but after hearing about how much she had to throw away I decided that I better go through and reorganize to make sure we are not wasting money by letting food go bad. I had 3 main areas to go through, lazy susan, baking cupboard, and pantry. We are big fans of stock piling, so we do have a lot of items stocked up. I have a magnetic marker board on the side of my fridge, so as I went threw each cupbaord I would write the header on the marker board, and underneath the header I wrote the names of items we need to use up sooner then later so that they don't expire. The lazy susan I had a box of pasta salad and a box if augratin potatoes that needed to be used up. Then I did the baking cupboard. We don't bake a ton, but have a lot of mixes, spices, frosting etc. I wrote down all the mixes we have had for over a year. We even made some Lemon Poppy seed muffins today to start using them up. We also put a Jello mold from that cupboard into the rummage sale box and put all of the sugar (brown, powdered and regular) into the chest freezer. Then I did the pantry, had to throw away one bottle of marinade dressing that was too old. And had one can of fruit cocktail and one can of beans that need to be used up soon so they went on the list. We also have a large supply of ranch, kethup, marinades and salsas (bought bulk when it was on good sale) so I put all of those in order in the pantry of which needs to be used first. So all in all I actually only had to throw one item away, and I have sooooo much more room in my cupboards now since everything was taken out and put back in a more organized way. The whole project only took about 30 minutes.

Week One
Pounds Lost = 2
% weight loss = 1.10%
Place = 2nd out of 6 people

So just last week we paid $360 for a new battery and new brake pads for DHs car. Now he has been having all these electrical problems so sometimes his car does not start because the security system thinks something is wrong and won't let the car start.....so we took it back in, and they called today and said it will be $400! Yikes and that is after the $360 from last week......ugh! Plus we have been spending more then usual month with Xmas presents and BD presents. We are going out of town soon and that will be more moolah for our mini vacation......And I need to renew my passport which is another $75.....luckily we have an EF to cover this, but just frustrated at the money that seems to be flying out the window right now!

Free diaper from Pampers
Free Dove shampoo and conditioner samples

Also won $200 at the casino which will all go towards the Jan principle payment on the mortgage.

Saturday was a very expensive day.....
Pair of jeans and TP $32
2 Christmas presents $37
Oil changes for 2 cars, plus new wiperblades on one $60
Milk and Eggs $5
Burger King $5
Service on DHs car, new brake pads for both brakes and new battery $360
So about $500 - UGH
Everything was necessities - except for the Burger King. Still hard to spend that much in one day though....

Here is our current retirement contributions:

Me
6% to 401K
3% to 401K (from employer)
6% to ROTH IRA


DH
10% to 403B
10% to 403B (from employer)

Balances
401K $8300
ROTH IRA $1300
Rollover IRA $1700
403B $6400
(403B is estimated balance, we only get statement once a year)

I try to bump my own retirement up 2% per year. It definitely gets harder to move it up as time goes on. Right now I am contributing 12% (plus 3% from my employer). But this next year my employer contribution will go down to 1.5%. So I think I will change to :

Me
3% to 401K
1.5% to 401K (from employer)
11% to ROTH IRA

So that will get me up to 14% (15.5% if you count employer contribution) - I am trying to keep moving mine up till DH and I are both at 20% and then move each of us up a little each year.

Up until now I had not felt any direct impact from the economy. Prices here had remained stable, employers always have "help wanted" signs up, and new business and resteraunts are constantly being built and opened. The only thing that I have noticed is that there are a LOT of "for sale" signs on homes. A LOT! But that really does not effect me at this time, we are already home owners, and if the price of our home goes up/down does not matter to me because we have a fixed mortgage and plan on staying in this house for a loooooooong time. Probably will not move until the kids are moved out, and well we don't even have any kids yet, soooo I'd say we have about 20 years for the price of our home to recover if it does go down.
But this last week the recession finally came knocking. My employer laid off roughly 600 people nationwide(only 5 from my location, thankfully I am still employed). Our bonuses have been estimated to be much lower, and our company matched 401K has been lowered. They were matching 50% up to your contribution of 6% and that was lowered to 50% up to your contribution of 3%. Of course I was taking full advantage of this and contributing 6%, so as of 2010 I will lower my contribution to the 3% and find somewhere else to invest the other 3%.

Free in the mail today
-Fischer Price Princess Movie on DVD
Not sure what I am going to do with that yet...probably put in the rummage sale.

Good news! They extended the OT project till the end of 2009! YEAH! Since we can work 10 OT hours a week that is 70 potential OT hours for me! AWESOME-O! ALready have 22 in.....keep on trucking!

Myself and five of my coworkers are doing a mini "Biggest Loser" competition. I am excited to compete and hope to do well. It runs for 3 months and the entry fee is $10, so winner gets $60!! WHoo hoo! Obviously there are lots of financial benefits to losing weight, the $60 is just a little bonus! So my goal is to lose 20 lbs, that would be about 7 lbs a month. The competition ends in Feb, and we are going to Mexico in March, so that would be great if I could be done 20 lbs or more. Since this is financially related I will post my updates here once a week.