May Wrap-Up & June Goals

May Wrap-Up

I'm disappointed with May's progress. I received my Stimulus Rebate and yes I put mostly all of it in my savings account, but it was to replace money that I had previously spent. Therefore I didn't use it to boost my savings. I used it to bail myself out. I barely put any of my excess funds toward debt repayment. I can't say that Mother's Day or my eldest daughter's birthday were the reasons for my lack of progress. I spent a lot of money eating out in May. That's senseless because I had $44 left in my grocery budget. I'm seriously going to start sinking if I don't get my act together. So in June I'm going to try something different. I'm going to post my June Goals here and hopefully at the end of June I'll have accomplished them all.

June Goals

1. Do not charge more than $100 on my credit card.
2. Save at least $28 in my money games.
3. Replace the $79.13 that I owe my Christmas Fund.
4. Save at least $49.39 toward repaying my mom for my previous car.
5. Save at least $6.87 in my ING account.
6. Pay at least $150 extra on my car note.
7. Don't go over budget on my youngest daughter's birthday.
8. Lose 8 pounds!
9. Take a lunch at least 2 days each week.

Wish me luck!

March Wrap-Up

Part-time Gig

Nothing manifested. My old job never got back to me about working 2 hours in the afterschool program and I'm not one to push. My brother still hasn't brought the information on this real estate thing he wants to do. I've already reminded him, but I think he has a lot on his plate right now.

Bank Accounts

I finally got all my automatic deposits and withdrawls re-routed to my WAMU account and I closed my PICU accounts. The fees were killing me and the branch is too far from home. It was perfect when I worked around the corner, but lately it's been more of a burden to maintain those accounts.

I need to call Flagstar because everytime I log in to check on my CD the APY is different. Of course it's lower because of the economy, but it should lock in the day I open the account and remain the same until the account matures. The rate was 3.86% the day I opened the account and now they are showing it as 3.51%.

Spring Break

Today is the last day of our Spring Break. The girls and I spent four days and three nights at a hotel. I took $450 from my Birthday fund to pay for it and $100 from my checking padding and I put another $100 on my credit card. I booked the rooms on Priceline so they were about $75/night. The food is what killed me. I need to budget for it next time. I also need to set limits on how much we can spend on each meal. My plan is to pay back this money from my Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate.

Money Games

I used some of last month's $49 to pay my $30 fee for the homebuyers program I joined. This month I didn't do as good. I only saved $28. Honestly I look at any savings as a victory, considering my not too distant past.

Mom Car Loan

I finally came up with a plan to pay my mom back for my previous car. Instead of putting all my extra money into paying off my current car, I'm going to put a little aside for her. I'm only going to put either a full months car payment of $308.68 or a half months car payment of $154.34 toward my car. Anything over those increments is going to repay my mom. I know it sounds confusing. Let's say I have $360 for debt repayment. I'll put $308.68 toward my current car and the remaining $51.32 toward my mom. If I have $500 then I'll put $463.02 toward my car (1.5 months) and the remaining $36.98 toward repaying my mom.