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Archive for April, 2009

Survived the dentist!

April 20th, 2009 at 09:28 pm

I went to the dentist this afternoon -- no cavities! I was a little nervous, because we have moved twice in the past two years, and dental check-ups got lost in the shuffle. I had a lot of cavities when I was younger and am very nervous about going to the dentist anyway, and I worried that not having seen the dentist in a couple of years meant that I was going to need to get some work done. Which would also be expensive. But, nothing needs to be done! (I just need to be sure to floss more regularly...Frown)

I set up my next six-month appointment as I was leaving. I'm not giving myself any reason to put off the next appointment! Preventative care is less expensive in the long run, and easier on my nerves as well...

Lesson learned and student loans

April 18th, 2009 at 02:36 pm

On Wednesday I posted about how I sent in my check to the tax man but was waiting for my husband's paycheck in order to have enough in the account to cover the bill. I said that I wasn't *too* worried about it, because I thought with all the checks coming in around the 15th, it would take the government a few days to get everything deposited.

Well, I mailed the check on Tuesday afternoon (like 4 pm!), deposited my husband's paycheck on Thursday morning, and the check to the tax man cleared on Thursday night. Whew! That was a close one. So let this be a lesson for me -- don't try to float a check to the government. (Thanks for the warning, ME2!)

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With payday, we also scheduled our monthly payments on my husband's student loans. Well, I should say 'he' scheduled the payments, because even though we have joined our finances (joint accounts, etc), he insists that payments on his loans come from his paycheck. He says he wants to be the one to pay them off.

Anyway, right now he has a balance of $2905.43, and is currently making payments of $500 a month on it. After this month's payment hits next week, the balance should be under $2500! (I will add this to my sidebar to keep track of it, so I can watch the balance decrease.)

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Also, yesterday was the five year anniversary of when we started dating. How time has flown! Every day I a realize how lucky I am to have him in my life. (Sorry for the cheesiness Smile)

Obsessive much?

April 16th, 2009 at 03:30 am

So I pounced on my husband when he got home from work -- "Did you remember to pick up your paycheck?!?" See, I mailed a check to the federal government yesterday and we don't actually have the money in the checking account to cover it. So I want to get his paycheck deposited ASAP tomorrow.

To be honest, it probably doesn't matter. I get paid by direct deposit on Friday, and the chance that the Treasury Department gets our check and deposits it before then is pretty slim. I just really hate the idea of there being a check floating around out there without the cash to back it up. (And I'm pretty sure that if you bounce a check with the federal government, they are not too happy about it!)

(The other thing I get obsessed about is when I write a check to someone and it takes them FOREVER to deposit it, so that every time I check my account online it looks like I have more money that I actually do. Sometimes that leads me to make bad choices...)

Home sick

April 15th, 2009 at 03:11 pm

Argh! I have so much to do today, but instead I am home with a migraine and my brain is hardly working. My plan is to rest until noon, and then try to work from home during the afternoon. I was able to push some of my to do list over to tomorrow (which means tomorrow will be a doozy), but at least that lightens the load a little bit today. Argh!

Taxes are done!

April 15th, 2009 at 02:36 am

I mailed off the taxes this afternoon. I have a tendency to always wait until the last minute! We owe the federal government $900, but are getting back $250 from one state and $20 from the other (we moved during last year.) Also, this is hopefully the last time we have to file in more than one state for a very long time Smile

Now that taxes are done, I get to tackle Flex receipts. That is the plan for this coming weekend. One of these days I will become more on top of things...

Lunch Ideas?

April 10th, 2009 at 02:37 pm

So far we are doing pretty well with our goal to spend less money on eating out. We succumbed to temptation twice last weekend, but other than that we have stuck to our meal plan for dinner every night.

The one place where I am really having trouble is lunch. The problem is that I am not really a sandwich type of girl. I just don't like them. Actually, I do like them, but the ones that I like are the super-involved ones that take a lot of time (and are expensive) to make. Which means that even if I bring a sandwich to work, I am still pretty tempted to get a piece of pizza or a sandwich from the deli, or something else to eat.

(Yes, I will gobble up a sandwich from the deli, but my homemade sandwich isn't appealing to me.)

I wish I could be like my husband, who can eat PBJ for days on end. But I have accepted that that isn't going to work for me. What I'm looking for is lunch ideas that aren't sandwiches. I've had some luck taking in pasta salad or tabbouleh (a bulgar salad) or something like that. I am hoping you guys have some ideas along those lines that you'd be willing to share. Something that I can make a big batch of on Sunday afternoon and that's not too expensive.

Thanks in advance Smile

April Goals and Roth IRAs

April 4th, 2009 at 05:05 pm

I have two main goals for April:

(1) Set up an escrow account -- I opened this account yesterday morning and already transfered in the first contribution. (I love adding something to my to do list and then checking it off right away, so CHECK!)

(2) Get our restaurant spending under control. We started using the envelope system for groceries last month, and I was amazed at how much less we spent! But our eating out expenses are out of control! In fact, I am ashamed by the amount of money we have spent on dining the past few months. Last month we both did some traveling, which contributed, but we still spent *way* more than is necessary. So much that I am embarrassed to write down the actual number! Our goal for eating out this month is $200. (I would eventually like to get this lower, but baby steps...) The good news is that (with the exception of a business dinner for me), we have been able to keep to our meal plan this entire week. So we do have more self-control that I originally thought!

I have a lot of other goals I'd like to pursue, but I think I'll be better able to tackle them one at a time, so I will save them for another month.

In other news, my husband and I finished fully funding both of our 2008 Roths this morning, and it feels good to have that taken care of. It was sad to see the balance of our savings account decrease so substantially, but I know the money has moved on to a better place!