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Obviously our year didn't go as planned at all with losing the twins, but here is a check in on our financial goals. Considering all we have been through this year, I really think we did pretty darn good.

2018 Goals

Savings
-Pay in cash for Vegas trip - Goal met!
-Keep savings at/above $5K by end of year - Goal met! Savings was at $13K at the end of the year!

Debt
-Mom Loan #2 (From $17,327.47 to $10,410.84) - Goal not met as we purchased a new vehicle so we would have enough room for the babies and the dogs, we added the loan for the truck to the Mom Loan.
-Store...
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$657.16 paid off in the last 2 weeks!!!

Celebrations for this update:
-$657.16 paid off in the last 2 weeks!!
-Store Loan went under the next $1000 mark!
-Total Debt went under the next $1000 mark for the 4th update in a row!!


Student Loan $0
Payback Savings $0
David's Bridal $0
Scheel's Card $0
Total Rewards $0
LOC - US Bank $0
Ring Iddeal $0
Best Buy $0
HELOC $0
Store Loan $3,960.05
Mom Loan #2/#3 $36,001.96
MO Mortgage $81,400.00
My Mortgage $145,550.00
Our...
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Things I did well in 2018:
- reduced home spending
- reduced cell phone bill
- reduced gardening/wildlife expenditures
- reduced restaurant meals
- reduced massages (only 2 this year)
- reduced clothing expenditures
- reduced social/fitness spending
- reduced music/books/apps spending
- reduced spending on hobbies
- quadrupled Roth IRA contributions
- spent money on a therapist/meds with HSA
- increased HSA to contribute max in 2019

Unexpected 2018 expenses:
-...
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I used the Paycheck City website yesterday to determine my husband's net paycheck. His base pay has increased by $204.43 per month. The housing allowance (BAH) has also increased by $117 per month. I would be really thrilled about this, but because we live on a military installation, the property management company gets the full increase for housing. This isn't a surprise, but a bit of an annoyance. We are committed here for 12 months, and we are open to looking into other options...
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Paid my mortgage today bringing the balance to $114,564.53.

Escrow/EF savings is still automatic so our weekly $75 was deposited. I am thankful that even during tough times I can still continue to save something. Once we are back on track it would be nice to up that weekly deposit to $100. If this ordeal has shown me anything it is that we need a bigger emergency fund.

I found out that I did in fact get the large web design job I was hoping for. I will be paid $2,000 and...
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My cousin and her son came up and spent three days with me at New Year's. It was fun, and I love her dearly. She has a heart of gold. However, she has zero control over money. She "tries" to be frugal. In the end whatever she saves on one thing, she spends on another. I bought pizza as planned and a "retirement fund" cute bank at the antique store which was a whole $2.12 after discounts. She bought doughnuts, Chinese, Chick Fil A, and something for her son and herself at the three...
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Yesterday was a no-spend day.

I made a batch of granola, and I finished putting away all the Christmas stuff, at the same time reorganizing the big closet that contains it.

I went to the library and checked out two new books to read, both "most wanted" so I only have a week -- no renewals. But I already read almost half of one of them -- the new Reacher book, "Past Tense." The other is Kate Atkinson's "Transcription."

I also watched the thriller "Bird Box" on Netflix,...
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Continuing to stay busy to try to keep myself sane. Lucky for me I like being busy and productive. I got my Christmas decorations down today which was good, it’s one of my least favorite jobs but MO was out of town coaching basketball so it was a good time to tackle it. Hoping to take a relaxing hot shower and go to bed early.

I cleaned my office on New Years Eve including dusting and sweeping. Purged a lot of paper and random junk that was cluttering my desk. I got...
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12/31/2018 Net Worth: $515,242. Down about 20k from last year due to market losses.

Debt on 12/31/2018: $91,282. Of this, $55,975 was mortgage debt.

As of the new year, of course there's been another mortgage payment, getting the balance to $55,600 (I always throw a little extra at it to get the balance to an even number). I'm going to throw another $600 at it from savings this week to get to $55k. I'm still confident that I can pay this off by the beginning of 2026,...
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I have a lot of work to do in the next month to plan for 2019. I thought I'd make myself a list here, so I don't forget anything. Maybe it will help you think of things you need to look at in your budget planning.

Figure out new paycheck amount (I use Paycheckcity.com)

Consider new Roth IRA contribution amounts in budget planning. My husband turns 50 this year, so he qualifies for the catch up limit.

Consider costs we can cut or reduce, specifically auto and renters...
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I'd typed out a giant rant post explaining all of the issues around insurance, but deleted it. The short version is that we've been dealing with this for about a month now. We'd thought we'd gotten to a resolution several times only to find some new thing messed up. As of yesterday, we were once again dropped from insurance effective 12/30 with no notification. As of this morning, it's been handled and we still have one likely impossible hurdle resulting in about a month and a...
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Yesterday I spent $40 at Sam's for dishwasher pods, fabric softener sheets, bread and fruit bars. Then I went to PetSmart, where I spent $43 on cat food and fish food. On to Aldi, where I spent $5 on snacks to keep in the car. This is my new strategy with the boys -- a bag of assorted snacks in the car, to keep them from bugging me to go to McDonalds or Steak N Shake. They're still in Florida, and won't go back to school till Monday, but I'll be ready for them!

Variables...
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This may be more of a weekly thing, but I'm going to informally try this.

Day 1 was a no spend day.

Day 2 spending included the following: Electric ($367.71 - this is actually two months' bills. I completely missed a payment in all of the craziness, so I just caught it all up); Debt ($264.35 - 2 credit card bills. I forget about the Lowe's CC because it's a set $210 every month. The remaining payment is the balance transfer at 0 %.); Eating Out ($15.70+tip; yesterday was...
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So far 2 no spend days and one no car day. Considering I taxi miss 16 around everywhere all the time, having no car days are pretty awesome.

The other day I bought, it was something I needed and was meant to get before the end of the year, but I've included it in 2019 spending anyway and that money will be covered in tomorrow's pay.

I've done sums and worked out I need a minimum of $80 a ftn plus half of some money coming in July to make my mortgage goal of under 100k by...
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My friend is coming over from the US in feb for a 3 month visit...to say I am excited is beyond belief...and we are paying for the tickets...but they are getting so expensive due to the exchange rates...but worth the price...I am trying to stay on budget while she is here so we will see what happens so far everything with the budget is going well and all bills are paid and savings have started...can't wait till our next payday....
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They were having a 20% off plus free shipping deal on Vitamin Shoppe today so I went ahead and reordered my vitamins. We were out of Vitamin D (without soy) almost and we take a lot during the winter months here due to SADS. I ordered 6 bottles of it, 2 bottles of Vitamin A (without soy), 2 bottles of fish oil (that does not have polysorbate-80 in it), and a big bottle of Vitamin C (without soy). I spent $123.08 after the discount was applied. I should be set for some time...
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We have a Big Goal to save $200,000 to buy our next home, or at least a major portion of our next home in about five years time. This post is an accounting of what contributions we made in 2018 and where we are in our goal progress.

We saved all interest towards the Big Goal, $131/month direct deposited from my husband's paycheck, $216 each month that accounted for his 2018 raise, all snowflakes, gift money, military reimbursements for travel including a big one for our move....
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Current Balance $12,895.00
+$125.00 FB Sales
+$50.00 MO Payday to Our Savings (1/4)
+$3.18 Cap360 Interest
+$56.82 Even Out Amount
+$6.22 Local Savings Interest
+$3.78 Even Out Amount
+.03 GC Interest
+$4.97 Even Out Amount
Balance $13,020.00

Local Savings $5230.00
GC Savings $1315.00
Capital 360 Savings (US) $3050.00
Capital 360 Savings (Mom Loan Payback Account)$1075.00
Capital 360 Savings (Rental Deposit Account #1)$850.00
Capital 360 Savings (Rental Deposit...
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Wow, it's so cold in my house this morning! I've been keeping my radiators turned off, because it's been so warm, but the temperature must have dropped outside. All the radiators are on again.

Yesterday was a no-spend day. My major work of the day was taking down Christmas decorations. I got everything done except for taking the lights off the tree and dismantling the tree. This morning I am enjoying one last morning with the lights shining.

I also made an awesome beef...
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A couple days late, but I wanted to write out all our year end financial numbers.

Cash/Liquid Savings:

$590 Animal Fund
$690 Escrow Fund
$1,000 EF
$1,205 Car Fund

$3,486 Total Liquid Savings

Retirement:

$16,930 DH's 401K
$3,400 DH's IRA
$8,630 My IRA

$28,960 Total Retirement

Liabilities:

-$114,713 Mortgage
-$6,818 Home CC #1
-$5,542 Home CC #2

-$127,073 Total Liabilities / -$12,360 Non-Mortgage Debt

Our retirement accounts actually went down this year despite contributions, due to the bad market.

Our mortgage and debt went way up because of the home remodel.

Goal is to be back to no non-mortgage debt by April 2020. But it would be REALLY amazing to pay off the credits cards by the end of the year... We'll see. It would be tough, especially since we are missing the entire month of January pay from husband.
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