The weather was gorgeous this weekend so we spent most of it outside cleaning up the yard. On Sat, we went to the park and spent hours there on the walking trails and stuff... DH got a bit sunburned even. Then on Sun, we celebrated Earth Day at a local zoo - planted some pine seedlings in our yard - and really worked on spiffying up our house. Looks really good! So, all in all, a weekend of little money out and a lot of satisfaction in... just the way it should be!

On the financial side of things, I need to send in our deposit for the landscape work we need done. It's going to cost nearly $11k and we have put down 25% with the remainder due at the end of the project. It won't be scheduled until June which is a bummer but oh well... once we get back from Disney, we'll be jumping right into the landscaping project... should be a busy time for us this summer. We did get our federal refund back on Friday so that will help us in funding the 25% deposit. The rest of the money will be from liquidating our mutual funds (non-retirement) so let's hope the stock market continues on its upswing throughout the next month or so.

We had last week off of work for Spring Break. After cleaning and painting all week, I don't believe our house has ever looked so tidy! DH decided that it was time for him to make his biggest purchase ever... he bought a 55" projection Sony TV for $1800. Yes, he saved up his money for it, but it sure does hurt me to know that money is now gone.

Financially, we are hanging on alright. We are still able to pay extra on our mortgage and car loan as planned. The trip to Disney is also coming along. Today I found out that the one credit card we use actually has free SeaWorld tickets available (rewards program) so that will be nice to put toward our vacation. I usually get gift cards to restaurants but this time tickets to SeaWorld will do just fine. It's great to get the "freebies" without paying the credit card company a dime of interest!

I wish we could save more but with the vacation around the corner, that's where we are funneling our extra cash. Oh, well... gotta live a little.

It’s been too long since I’ve posted but I’ve been so busy…. Midterms at school, Budget season at work, doing our taxes, etc. etc. etc… so here’s a catch-up for what’s been going on lately.

1. I aced my midterms! By golly, I have no idea how I did it but I won’t question the grades I received!
2. Taxes: I want to check them over again, but I finally got around to doing the first “rough” draft. I try to aim at paying a little back each year to Uncle Sam, but this year we’ll be getting about $1500 back. This is due to us being able to deduct moving expenses and my school tuition – things that I really didn’t plan on.
3. Plans on our Disney trip are coming along. I have to send in the money for the condo soon though – yuck.
4. Tomorrow is payday and with that I have to write a lot of checks that I’ve been holding back on…these are definitely “unusual” bills that don’t happen each month: $642 for the first summer school session. $600 for the Disney condo. $960 for our propane tank getting filled up. For a total of $2,202 out the door! Crap.
5. April is the month that I might receive a $5,000 raise at work. I say “might” because when I was hired a year ago, my boss told me that her norm was to give employees a $5,000 raise on their one year anniversary month. And, I know she sticks to that philosophy since 3 other people did get their $5,000 within this past year since I’ve been here. I’m excited to think that this will come about! If I get the raise and with the expected normal cost of living increase we’ll be getting for the new fiscal year, I should be making over $60,000. I do get my premiums on healthcare and dental insurance paid by my employer so my "salary" really will be around $65,000. For a 31 year old, that’s not too shabby, is it!?

Well, I just don't think we will be able to save for the Disney trip without cutting back on fully funding our Roths, unfortunately. Yes, I'm willing to reduce our Roth contributions back to $50 each per month for the next 6 months and putting that amount into our Disney savings account. That would bring us up to around $3500 for Disney which is what we'll plan on budgeting. Then we'll pick back up the Roth contributions. We just have to go to Disney this year (based on promises and other factors) for the kids and if we continue trying to save for the trip and fully fund the Roths, it just won't work.

I just got back from a conference and while there, I won a Hoover Windtunnel! I was so excited because now I don't have to drag our one vacuum up and down 3 flights of stairs! This will be so handy. I also had the winning ticket they drew for a $1,000 cash prize! I only came home with $250 though because the 4 of us at the table agreed to split the winnings if any one of us had the ticket (to increase our odds of winning at least something)... who would have thought that they would draw out MY ticket from the box of hundreds of tickets! But, no problem. I took my $250 out of the pot and smiled. Too bad I didn't win the grand prize though! It was a trip to Italy and that sure would've been nice!

Advice, please...

I usually do our taxes myself each year. However, 2006 was full of activity so now I'm not sure... what do you guys think?

2006 events-

1099-S Sold house (lived in for 4 years)
Bought new house
1098 Mortgage interest for 2 houses
1099-DIV
1098-T (paid for grad school in Dec for Spring semester start in Jan 2007)
1099-R rolled over 401-K plans to IRAs
1098-INT
DH has 2 W-2's
I have 3 W-2's
DH has a 1099 from a part-time job
Childcare statements
Property tax statements

So, does any of that above look like I should have a "professional" do it or is it something I can handle myself. I usually use TaxAct and know that it should work fine but I'm wary that with all the things that we did, selling a house, rolling over the 401k, etc. that I might miss something.

People automatically assume sometimes that because I have a finance degree that I should know taxes automatically... uh, NOPE. Taxes are such a foreign creature to me and that's the one area that I am so unfamiliar with. So you CPAs out there, please help... should I go seek out the nearest H&R Block and pay $400 or do it myself for the cost of a few headaches?

As Dave Ramsey coins, Murphy might be paying us a visit soon... DH is in an "interim" position which means that his contract is up this summer and the position may or may not be his after that. It's being held for an individual who took a year's leave of absence to go do an internship... he should be returning, unless an opening comes up for him in his new administrative field, so the possiblity of DH not having his job is likely... I'd say there really is a 50/50 chance of it going either way.

I guess I will need to stop my contributions to our Roths and start putting that money away in a short-term savings account which I really don't want to do but will have to, I guess. I'm feeling so "ho hum" about things right now.

As we all are busy in this day and time, I ask myself what was going through my mind when I signed up for starting my MBA courses? Last night really brought everything into the light. I had such a hectic day at work - didn't stop one moment to breathe... meeting after meeting, boss asking so much from me, etc. etc. etc. I had to stay late at work so DH had dinner ready and had already eaten with the kids, which was nice, but the kitchen was a mess. He was sitting on the couch watching tv with them. I ate and then cleaned up the kitchen. Then I had to take my first quiz for one of my classes. That took an hour and since I had never done an online test before, I was so nervous throughout the quiz... then I had to give the kids baths - DH was still watching tv. After bath and story time, the kids went to bed. I went back online to participate in a discussion for my other online class. After studying a bit, I had to do the laundry that was piling up - as DH was still watching tv...it was well after midnight before I got to bed.... exhausted. I felt depressed as I was going to sleep - felt like I had so much to do and not enough time for any of it. I cannot stand the idea of making anything less than perfect grades in school and it bothers me so that in my statistics class, the professor isn't doing a thing to actually "teach" the subject. He only tells us when the quizzes are due. We haven't had any one real lecture or anything. Now, my other class is totally different. So far, the professor for that one has been A+ since day one... so, I'm not as worried about that class. But, I just know that I'll fail statistics! Have any of you ever tried to learn something like that on your own from just a mere textbook? I just can't do it. Then at work, I have so much to do that I don't feel like I can get anything done. And at home, DH usually is a great help but last night, all he wanted to do was veg out in front of the tv which just urked me to no end. I know we all have those days where we want to do nothing but sit around, but couldn't he see my stress? Well, yes, I think he could but didn't feel that he wasn't doing anything wrong. After watching tv all night, he went to bed before me and that made me mad too so I ended up sleeping the guest room! Oh, and you know what he said to me this morning... "Sorry you were in a bad mood last night." I could've killed him!

I think I have just too much on my plate taking 2 classes... but it's too late now. I'll just have to muddle my way through it all. Oh, and you know the worst thing about all of this? It's that I don't have time to do what I'm really passionate about and that is tinkering with my own finances! Geez.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Ok, I admit... I like shoes and purses. However, I rarely spend more than $20 for either at a time. So, I have a collection of cheap shoes and purses.

At the beginning of the month, I had purchased a pair of shoes that were $50. I thought they were perfect. I got them home and waited a day or two and decided that was just too much money to spend on shoes. So, last night, I returned the shoes and got my $50 back... it felt good!

This is the reason I only shop at stores that have a good return policy. I tend to buy and return quite a bit --- you know, satisfy the urge to buy - look at it a day or two - then return the sucker and get your money back. And, YES, I keep all my receipts for everything I buy. I have receipts dating back to the year 2000!

I did it... just changed our systemmatic monthly contribution from $100 to $333.33 for both DH and myself to meet the $4k limit. We'll have to cut elsewhere for this to work, but we can do it. I will, however, count this additional $467 extra each month toward my original $500 per month savings goal I had established anyway... so it won't be so bad.

Now, this isn't a surprise anymore than Christmas is on Dec. 25 each year... we always get paid on Dec 20 and then our next paycheck doesn't come in until Jan 31... makes for a very long month! So although we are aware of the long gap in time between paychecks, it still hurts. We're only on Jan 15 and it stinks. Mostly I get bored because I've already done what I need to with our money (i.e. sending some to savings, paying off the car loan, etc.) and I can't do anymore until we get paid again. Oh, well...

Ok, help me out here...I just put together my entire payment history for a certain car loan that we just paid off last year... I did this out of curiosity to see how much we saved in paying off the loan early...

background -
got a car loan in Oct 03 in the amount of $12,105.97 at 4.75%, with an projected interest total of $1,198.68 after 48months.

Paid off the car loan in Jul 06 (33 months later). I looked at all my payments throughout the time and the total I paid in interest is actually $1,054.48 which means I only saved $144.20 by paying off this loan 15 months early. How can the savings be that little? There were no prepayment penalties or anything like that. I just can't believe that we didn't save more money than that. The average interest charged each month amounted to about $32 so shouldn't I have saved around $32 x 15 months worth of interest (or $480)?

I might be confusing myself on this one!

I keep statments forever... but just now took the time to actually compile them into a useful summary tool. We currently contribute our max of 6% to our employer's retirement system (which is matched at 7.14% of our pay) and just started our Roth IRAs with monthly additions of $100 each.

As of Dec 2006...

DH:
Employer retirement balance = $24,691
Rollover IRA = $8,528
Roth IRA = $423
Total DH retirement funds = $33,642

Me:
Employer retirement balance = $18,071
Rollover IRA = $22,952
Roth IRA = $423
Total ME retirement funds = $41,446

We each also have about $200 in a traditional IRA at our local bank but I usually don't count those as they are trivial amounts and we don't contribute to those any longer...

So, for a grand total of over $75k, I'm pretty happy with this at our ages being in our early 30's. This can be compared to 3 years ago as of Dec. 2003, our total for retirement only amounted to around $41k. That's basically saying that with contributions and earnings, we're putting in over $11k per year into our retirement... that's good, right?

I would really like to save more than this but right now, I'm putting any extra cash into paying off our last car loan, building our emergency fund, and paying for my grad school.

For those experts out there... let me know if you don't think this is actually a good amount that we have so far... what should our target be?

Love it! It started snowing about 11am yesterday and didn't stop until about 8pm or so. The kids got to go sledding and we had loads of fun. Of course, they get the day off from school today to enjoy it again... yippee for snow (we love snow).

Because I had to get sleds as we didn't have any, I had to spend $20 at WalMart and then another $4 to ship out an ebay package... not a bad spending day yesterday.

Drum roll.... yes, finally... a No-Spend day in our household. These are far and in-between but yesterday, we spent... count them.... zero, nada, nothing! We ate leftovers for dinner and didn't go out shopping or anything.

Now I wonder... it will be interesting to see if we spend free-nilly for 7 days and then we chill on the 8th as a pattern... hummm.

Ok, guys. Now, that's an eye opener... I have been tracking our spending for years now but not really down to the day - more for monthly budgeting... but for the first 7 days in 2007, we've spent out over $500 in stuff! No wonder we live paycheck to paycheck. I could justify that some were for groceries and doctor visits, etc, but bottom line picture is that we spend, spend, spend too easily...Sure, we have not accrued any debt in years, but our savings hasn't grown and this is exactly why. All our discretionary income goes out the door so quickly. Time to take 2 steps back and revisit how we can cut back on the unnecessary spending so that our savings can grow faster. What a wake up call!

Ok, yesterday's spending recap is just with DH paying $20 copay at the doctor and then another $5 at a store for books.

I got my syllabus, schedules, etc. for my classes. I skimmed through them last night and we'll just have to see how things work out. I hope signing up for 2 classes wasn't a mistake - especially since one of those classes is a statistics type course - yuck.

I just saw the "Super Size Me" show that you all are talking about and I am seriously rethinking our lifestyle too. We are victim to too much processed foods in our family. Even if it's not eating physically at the fast food joints, it's feeding the kids nuggets from the freezer, etc. I spoke with DH about it this morning and we agree that we need to get our family in our better health. Baby steps - as with any major change - is needed so we are going to start with cutting out the sodas for us, the grownups, and cutting out the ketchup for the kids. I know this sounds trivial, but you'd be surprised by the amount of sodas we drink and the amount of ketchup the kids put on everything...Then once we overcome those vices, we'll start another step of getting to eating better and healthier foods.

I love my kids and all, but I am so glad to see tomorrow come when they are back in school. They need the structure and I need the break. Isn't it strange to look forward to going back to work? But then again, I always knew that I could not be a SAHM - not that I wouldn't love it, but I don't think the kids would get much benefit out of it. I'm glad they are going to be in school again where they can get their minds working in different ways away from the Disney Channel.

Today's spending was just for lunch out with the kids. Oh, and DH did spend some money sending out packages from his ebay sales... all in all, lunch was $11 and post office of about $40. School for me starts on Friday and I'm getting anxious. I'm doing the distance education on-line thing and I have yet to see my classes listed under my profile. But, I'm told to wait it out and that it will be there... got my first textbook today - oh, what joy awaits me as I flip through it and see such exciting material (sarcasm thrown in here). I'm signed up for 2 classes and still working full-time ... hope all will work out.

Well, for accountability purposes, I'm on here to report our spending for the day... not a pretty picture but anyway... had family offer to babysit the kids so DH and I went out shopping and to a nice dinner. Here's a recap:

DH dentist visit: $54
2 pairs of shoes for me: $84
1 pair of shoes for DH: $24
DVDs/CDs for DH: $35
Returned a couple of items: -$31 back
Dinner: $10

So, total for the day is about $176 (Eeek)! But we did use some gift cards and did return a few items so it could have been much worse. Most importantly, DH and I had a nice date night and enjoyed a very nice dinner. I might take one of my shoes back but am not sure just yet. It's so hard for me to find pumps that fit (I'm a size 5 or 5.5) so when I do see some, I tend to grab them up regardless of price. I have to dress nice for work and haven't had a decent pair of basic black pumps in years.

Tomorrow is a workday in which DH will be taking the kids to work with him... this means that we'll have to take them out to lunch to give them a break from the mundane - but it'll be fast food and shouldn't cost more than $12 or so. Hopefully, that will be all that we'll need to spend tomorrow - will report in then. I can't wait until the kids go back to school on Thurs... then we'll be back on our regular schedule. I like schedules.

Oh, and over dinner, DH and I agreed to lose 10 pounds each by March. As incentives, he will not spend any of his saved money (for big purchases) until he loses his 10 lbs and I will not be able to get any concert souvenirs at the Josh Groban concert we are going to in March. Josh is my favorite artist and I snatched tickets to his March show when they came available. Now, if I want an overpriced gaudy concert t-shirt, I'll have to lose my 10 lbs first... wish us luck.

Ok, I admit, I was a little sad to see 2006 end. 2006 was a great year for our family... I can only hope that 2007 will be just the same. I'm going to be more accountable to myself via my blog about our daily spending, so each day I'll try to recap the previous day's spending.

Jan 1 - spent about $10 for an iPod accessory for DH (alternative would've been $35+). He got the thing for Christmas and he loves it. So, $10 off in the starting gates for the New Year. I guess it could've been much worse. I did get a PineCone check in the mail for $5 so that helps to offset the $10 a bit.

We got our Jan pay back on Dec. 20 so Jan is always a long month for us without getting a paycheck (next one is Jan 31). We have our annual life insurance premiums due in Jan so that's about $750 out the door for the monthly budget. I can't wait until we get paid again! Christmas ate up a lot of our funds but we had a great Holiday so I can't complain. I was thinking that we haven't added to any kind of credit card debt in nearly 5+ years ... wow! We do charge most everything but have been able to pay that balance off each month - I think that's an accomplishment to note and to remind myself of every once in a while.

I'm thinking about starting the $20 challenge like many of you have done for the New Year. I'm hesitant because I just don't know if I will be able to keep it up and I hate failure - so best to avoid the potential, if you know what I mean. I wish I could save money like Ima and maybe Monkey's idea of a cash basis is the way I should go. When you accumulate your money in the challenge, do you just have it sitting in a separate account? I would want to use any extra found money to pay down my remaining car loan which has a current balance of around $7500. It just seems like it might be a bit much to keep up with this and that... not that I mind as I'm consumed by our personal finance but just another thing to muddle all my spreadsheets. Will keep thinking about it, though.

Hope everyone's 2007 is starting up with a great financial bang. Here's to a great successful, paying down debt, building up savings year for all of us!!

I finally tallied up my total spending on Christmas this year... it came out to be about $1,000 - not bad considering we have a fairly large family and this does include buying for co-workers, etc. We spent about $225 of that amount just for our kids (Santa gifts and everything) so I don't think we did too bad at all.

I found out that DH's parents got him an iPod for Christmas... he'll be so excited as that was exactly what he wanted. His mom was hesitant in getting it for him but I talked her into it. I asked for a digital camera (ours is about 8 years old and doesn't hold a charge anymore) from my parents but I doubt that I'll get one. They don't normally buy me what I want each year for some reason. I never expect too much from my side of the family but that's okay. I was able to send my sister $100 cash to help buy diapers/formula, etc. She has 2 kids 10months apart and the oldest is just one year old! I know money is very tight for them. She was very grateful. Of course, I still bought them gifts for Christmas morning. I like being able to send them some cash when I can as I feel fortunate to have a good job and so forth - their finances are horrible and I wish I could set them straight but they only let me in so far concerning all that. So, giving my sis a few dollars here and there is what I consider my "charity" giving throughout the year... that's why I don't donate to real charities much. If anything, it's my way of giving to my niece and nephew too.

DH and I have so much to be thankful for this year. In 2006, we picked up our family and moved 4 hours back toward our parents' homes. We sold our house, bought a new house, both started new jobs, the kids started a new school, got rid of all credit card debt, paid off a car loan, and with all that, everything went so smoothly. This is so different than a lady I work with... this past year, her dad, with whom she was very close to, passed on, her husband got diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery, both her vehicles don't run very well, and her back is killing her. Her year was anything but spectacular. So, I do not take our good fortune for granted at all.

I hope all of you can think of things to be thankful for that happened in 2006. I listed out our goals for 2007 in the right column and I can only hope that next year will go as smoothly as this past year... Here's to having a super 2007!

*received $5 PineCone check
*received $20 gift card to local restaurant from the bank that our company deals with - nice surprise
*DH received $5 gift certificate to a fast food restaurant from one of his students
*got paid travel reimbursement of $40

And, DH's parents are taking us out to dinner tonight for his birthday... yeah!

Savings Update for 12/21/06:
DisneyWorld fund $ 603.76
Emergency fund $1,080.23
DH's fund (2nd job income and ebay sales) $1,831.56

Upcoming items: I have to order books to start class in Jan. Can get them on Amazon for much cheaper than the bookstore but will still add up to around $150. Life insurance premiums for the new year will be due in Jan/Feb which is $772 total due. Ugh. Yes, I get a discount for paying the annual amount vs. a monthly payment schedule but it sure does hurt to pay it each year.

Today is a good day because:

1. ... it is DH's birthday.

2. ... it is payday for DH and myself.

3. ... DH got his yearly bonus (see last post).

4. ... we had our Christmas party at work - lots of good food!

5. ... my DD did great in her school play.

6. ... it's only 5 more days until Christmas and I'm finally done Christmas shopping!

Ok, I'm pretty Type A when it comes to anything financial. I have paystubs for both me and DH dating back 12+ years. As we both work in the public sector field, we get a bonus annually after 10 years of employment. I recently realized that DH was supposed to start getting his bonus this year. In reviewing the paystub file and and calculating his years of service, I realized that he was actually supposed to start getting the bonus last year... so long story short, because I raised questions with the payroll dept, DH now is getting this year's bonus tomorrow and cross your fingers that he'll get last year's bonus soon... He was with a different employer last year so there is a bit of a delay in trying to sort out their mess... all in all, he should NET out about $1,000... not a ton of money but a nice amount. When I told DH all this, he got so excited that this extra money is coming. He made sure to verify that it was HIS money, to do what HE wants, and I agreed. I don't mind giving this money to him as sometimes it helps the mind to have money of your own... He's doing so much better this month curbing his personal spending so I'm proud of him. He's starting to save for something - not decided yet as to what - so I'm sure he'll deposit this money into that account and let it sit for a while until he decides what to do with it.

So, it does pay to keep up with things. DH doesn't and if I didn't, then we'd be out a well-deserved bonus.

Last night, I was wrapping up a lot of clothes to ship out that I sold on ebay... went upstairs to get more packing tape and saw my DH packing up one of his bigger collectible items. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he was getting it ready to ship out because he sold it on ebay.... now, mind you, my DH LOVED this particular item and it shocked me that he would let go of it. He got $900 for it which is a good price. He said that he loved the item but realized that he was the only one who did... ergo, no one else in our family would consider it an heirloom to pass on generations later sort of thing. So, to finance another bigger purchase, i.e. plasma tv or something like that, he decided to let this one item go. I was very proud of him.

Now, one collectible down, only 500 more to go... if he were to sell even half of what he owns, he could do so much more with that money. Of course, I don't know how much he'll let go of and everything he makes will be his to do with as he chooses, but I'm all for it!

As I posted before, I just got accepted to grad school. I spoke with my advisor just now, and it looks like I'll need 15 classes to get my MBA. I got some classes waived due to my undergrad program, but not as many as I would've liked...Based on current 2007-08 tuition rates, 15 classes would be an equivalent of $9,630 for the entire program. Of course, year after year, tuition goes up so it'll likely be more than that. At least I don't have to fork over the entire amount at once. I signed on for 2 classes for my first semester which is $1,284 due by Dec 20! Ick. That's going to blow my Dec budget a little as I really didn't think I was starting school until next summer so I didn't have it in my budget for Dec. Oh, well... we'll make due. I'm just a tad disappointed that I didn't get more credit than that for my undergrad work because I really wanted my MBA within a year... but I just don't think I could handle more than 2 classes a semester and work full time too. Darn.

What is everyone else getting for their boss and co-workers? I need ideas for my boss as well as the ladies that work for me.... help! I can't think of a thing... I don't want to do candles - that's just too generic. Maybe gift cards? This is my first year here and would like to get them something semi-special as I feel very fortunate to work with each of them... any ideas?

Ok, so at first I was ambitious at thinking that I could save an extra $750 each month in our regular savings account. Realistically, I think a more attainable, and therefore more achievable goal would be to reduce that to $500. I am already taking out $200 each month for Roth IRAs and another $50 each month for our mutual funds... so that's $250 in savings already each month. If we try for $500 on top of that to go just into a liquid savings account, I think that might be more doable. Just thinking out loud here...

Just got an email telling me that I've been accepted to grad school! I had missed the deadline to apply for the Spring 2007 semester so I had indicated that I wanted to start in the summer... but they are wanting me to start in the Spring. Yea! I'm stoked.

Well, to continue with DH's new car saga... I've finally convinced him to go with a used car. We found a car we both want but the dealer is asking way too much for it. Kelley Blue Book says the retail value is $16k and the dealer is asking $20k. Of course, we know that they always mark them up so that haggling can occur... but you think they'll come down $4k? We usually buy our used vehicles from CarMax where there is no haggling so we are unsure as to how much regular dealers will negotiate. Also, has anyone ever bought a car with a credit card? We have a credit card at a fixed 4.9% interest rate for purchases, zero balance that we'd rather put some of the expense on vs. getting a car loan, etc. We'll probably need to borrow $10k. Are dealers okay with buyers using credit cards? If we do end up borrowing the $10k, believe me, we'll have it paid off relatively soon as I don't like the idea of having anymore debt than necessary.

It's time to set those all important money goals...I've already sent off $174 extra for the Dec mortgage payment and $627 extra for the Dec auto loan payment. I've also transferred $550 into our e-fund savings account. So, just the first day of December and I've already "spent" $1,351 right off the bat. Depending on how well our Christmas shopping comes under budget, I'm sure I'll be able to put more money toward the car loan by the end of the month.

Ok, so goals for 2007 in order:

Continue paying $2,088 extra toward principal on mortgage (174/mo)
Pay off car loan bal of $8,300 (373/mo payment + 320 extra)
Save $9,000 to bring e-fund bal to $10,000 (750/mo)

That totals $1,244 extra each month on top of the "normal" budget expenditures like utilities, etc. I will need to work hard on this, but it's definitely attainable... especially since I'm expecting a $5,000 raise in April that I'm not considering at this time... and we (both DH and I) normally get standard cost of living increases in July. Of course there are a ton of variables that could pop up to veer us off track but we'll handle those as they come along.

DH and I have sort of come to an understanding based on our conversation last night. He said that it would be tough, but he's changed his mindset to first save for what he wants vs. going out and charging it and figuring out where the money comes from later... monumental statement coming from him. I just hope he's committed to it. It sure would help us out.

So far, so good!