Well, since Merch has gotten the ball rolling, and with others joining in on the fun, I thought I would do my June update and mid-year goals assessment.

As far as my goals on the side bar--
1.Hubby is still job hunting and it is going slow. Financially we are doing fairly well, all things considering. He will find something but it is just going to take some time.
2. I paid off credit card ($97), personal loan to Mom ($303), made a small medical bill payment ($24.42) and made a collection payment ($150.00). So that means I paid off $574.42--57% of my goal!!
3. Still sitting at 26 lb weight loss. I plan on getting back to the gym starting next week.
4. I have opened the Roth accounts but they have not yet been funded.
5. We had the plumber come replace the leaky faucet near the deck, so we plan on starting the demo tonight and will hopefully be able to get the boards replaced this weekend.

I feel like we have made some good progress so far. I am planning on coming up with new goals for the next quarter but will have to give that a little thought.

I start my new job on Monday and am looking forward to getting done with my training (3 weeks) and jumping in to my new auditing position. It will be a transition, no doubt, but I am up for the challenge. Benefits will kick in at 60 days, so only 2 more Cobra payments!

Well, I decided to accept the job offer from my former employer. The benefits are too good to pass up and with hubby still job hunting, the benefits are a major plus. I am excited but was dreading telling my current boss. He made me feel guilty for a day or so, which made work this week very depressing, but he is over it now. I will miss him but am excited about this new opportunity.

On the financial front, I received the reimbursement check from the auto carrier covering my auto accident I had in 2006. So it is in the bank and waiting disbursment. $1000 will go to the EF to get that started. $600 is going toward rebuilding our back deck that is rotting under our feet. The rest will just sit for a while and we will decide later what we want to do with it. My stimulus check for $1800 is set to be mailed on 6/27 and we will sit on that until I figure out how I want to disperse it. I get paid tomorrow, hubby just got 2 weeks of unemployment check so I have to sit down and pay bills tomorrow.

We are supposed to go over to my sister's tonight for a cook out and swimming. Hubby and the kids will go over in the late afternoon and I will meet them there after work.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

A previous supervisor of mine has been trying to get me to come to work for her for about 3 years--I keep declining because it is about 10 extra miles a day commute from what I do now. But, with hubby being unemployed and us losing all of our decent benefits we have had for the past 10 years, I am actually considering it. She has awesome health/dental/vision insurance and 401k, cafeteria plans, etc. I have no benefits or sick/vacation time where I am at now (very small employer). It makes me nervous to think of a job change. I am doing the pros/cons list right now and will post it later. She is a great person to work for and I enjoyed the 5 years that we worked together, which would be a big plus.

This would also allow hubby to lower (somewhat) his needs as far as employment goes. He would love to find a telecommute position so that he could work from the house and we could forgo daycare ($570 per month). Plus, he has had a blast being home with the kids. He has spent the past 12 years of our marriage in jobs that require him to work long hours and be on-call often. He has never had this much time with his kids and he is loving it. Although I do think he is ready to find something "professional" to do.

Well, all in all the May totals were good. We are starting June with a balance forward of $1066.85. I have a check due me today from my part time job which will add another $445.00. Then I get paid from my full time job on Friday $1079. This week's payment priorities are mortgage ($1247) and utility bills (water $87 and electricity $195). So I am feeling confident--today anyway.

Hubby's job hunt has stalled--he sent out another 3 applications and resumes but hasn't gotten any interview requests. The tech field has totally dried up around here, at least in his area of expertise. His unemployment payments are coming in timely and are helping out nicely ($378 per week) but it would be nice to have something steady. We are managing pretty well right now, all things considered and I am proud that we have been able to really focus on the financial situation. The lay-off caused us to really analyze what was important and what we were wasting money on. We have the budget wittled down and though there are still areas that could be improved, I am impressed at how easily we are adjusting to the sudden "one income" situation. Things could definitely have been worse.

Well, I have decided that with the current financial situation (hubby's layoff) that I prefer to make short term goals. So I am making a plan for the next two weeks to finish out May in the black (hopefully).

Projected income:
1.5/19 Hub Unemployment $378
2.5/23 Me FT job $982.00
3.5/27 Hub Unemployment $378
4.5/31 Me PT Job $404.00
5.Refund check Ins $459.00
Total $2601.00

Right now, my biggest worry is the payment for our COBRA insurance, which is due 6/1 and will be $1996.00. We will probably be able to squeak by, but it definitely doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. Hub has decided to look for a part time job (he can work a certain number of hours a week and not lose is unemployment money). We will see what happens.

Hubby's old supervisor (from 1 year back) called yesterday and asked if he is still looking for a job. He said the place he is at now is hiring and had hub send over his resume. Old supervisor says the pay is about $5K less than he was making when he got laid off but the benefits are really good, which would make up the difference. I am hopeful for this. He had two emails from places he sent out to yesterday expressing interest. We will see what happens.

Today, I am in the process of making a list of bills to pay, in order of urgency, and income I have coming in. I have been calling around tracking down refund checks I am owed for various things. I wish the tax rebate would show up--it should have been here last week according to my calculation. But it hasn't shown up yet. I tried calling the IRS but that was a complete waste of 20 minutes of my life.

An upside to hubby being home during the day is that dishes and laundry are done everyday. Plus, he makes me lunch of sandwiches or leftovers and coffee everyday. I enjoy seeing him and DS at lunchtime everyday. I live close enough to work that I can go home at lunch.

I am really anxious for him to find work so that I can start making a dent in that medical debt and start beefing up the savings. I have all these great plans waiting to be executed--as soon as we can get out of "survival" mode.

Well, hubby received his first state unemployment payment since becoming "a man of leisure". State of Texas sends debit cards, not checks, and weekly amounts are direct deposited onto it each week. So that is helpful. I am still waiting on my stimulus payment, which I thought would be direct deposited last Friday but, alas, no sign of it. I have a $440 check coming from my part time job, so all in all, we are surviving. He sent out 6 more resumes today and hopefully will get some interviews from those.
In a related note, we thought we were going to have to take DD out of gymnastics until hubby found a new job (fees for classes are $135 per month for 4 hours a week). But, her coach, who has a 6 week old baby, traded me class fees for babysitting two days a week. So DD was able to continue with classes and helps me babysit the baby. A side benefit is that she is learning to "work" to get the things she wants. A good lesson I think.
I feel optimistic that things will be looking up for us soon.

Well, Happy Jan 3rd everyone. Hubby and I had a nice discussion last night about energy savings. We made a list of the things we want/need to accomplish in order to get more energy savings, both consumption savings (going greener) and therefore more financial savings. This we are concentrating on keeping the thermostat lower (programmable thermostat is set at 65 from 10 pm to 6 am, and 69 from 6 am to 7:30 am. it goes back to 65 during the day, until about 2:45 when it goes back up to 69 in time for daughter's return home from school. Hubby changed the filters this past weekend and we have replaced another 4 bulbs with new energy-eff compact flours. We have several more to go on this.

So we are concentrating on electricity this month, then on to water.

I finished the budget and "debt reductions" spreadsheets but have been tinkering with them the past few days. It all looks pretty good so far. This weekend is the first payday to log in, so I am looking forward to seeing how I will divide it out and fund everything.

Well, I have completed the new budget and have to say I am somewhat optimistic. I feel like we should be able to work with this. Hubby and I are still looking at a few categories where we can trim the expense--specifically on utilities-electric, cell phone, DSL, and satellite TV. We both get paid this weekend so I will be able to do the first funding of the categories. I cannot wait to be able to enter the info on my spreadsheet!!

I have also done a debt re-payment spreadsheet to include all the debts listed in my profile, with the exception of the mortgage. The way I have the mortgage set up (twice monthly auto-draft) I make an extra principal payment each year. I am going to leave this alone for 2008 and work on applying any extra funds to debt reduction and building up the EF.

I should get an additional deposit from my employer into my SEP IRA--maybe next month. When I get to $2500, I have to look at investing in something for the long term, as it is just in cash reserves now.

My short term goals are to work to stay on the new budget and continue finding ways to save--more no-spending days, find better deals, be a smarter consumer.

Happy New Year everyone$$$$$

So, I have a few "year-end" items I want to take care of. I need to get everything downloaded into Microsoft Money so I can get it catagorized. Also, the last week of the year I usually purge the file cabinet and get things in order so tax time will not be near-scary. I need to come up with my specific goals for 2008, which will generally focus on the big ones-savings, debt reduction, and budgeting--all of which I didn't get near as much accomplished this year as I had hoped.

All in all, I am excited about the prospect of the New Year.

So, today is payday. Hubby's check was already direct deposited and my 1/2 mortgage payment has been deducted. (I pay every other Friday which creates one extra payment per year toward principal.) I will get my check deposited today then I have a dividend check that should arrive today. I might possibly get a Christmas bonus check also (I got $500 last year, but it depends on how well the company has done this year--hopefully I will get one but I am not going to totally count on it.)

We have several gifts left to buy--we just have not had the time. We are more than half done and have done well with the Christmas budget. We never over-spend on our 2 kids and my hubby and I do not buy for each other. His parents are deceased and he is an only child, and my family draws names (so we will have 2 people to buy for). The only other gifts we buy are for the neice and nephews. We usually do pretty well on the budget at Christmas because there is not a ton on our list. We should be able to knock this out tomorrow.

I have to sit down and figure bills tonight and then make my grocery list--the Christmas Meal with my family is at my house this year. We are doing a brunch--everyone brings a dish and we will do the main dishes. Should be fun. I want to try to get a gingerbread house kit for the kids to do as an activity, but I will need to see what I can get on sale.