Bring on Fall!

We are back from vacation, and I am happy to say we stuck to our vacation budget within $20! We had gorgeous weather, and it was a nice trip all around. DH thought he saw a shark about 30 feet from where we were swimming in the ocean, so that was kind of scary! DH got paid this week, so I have a new update.

		Start	29-Aug
Sallie Mae		12762	12055
Wells Fargo		11700	10958
Campus Loan		8250	7357
Chase 2		2300	1333
Credit Union Card		700	680
BOA		9300	8780
BOA 2		1833	2191
Car Loan		7875	4150
Chase 3		1710	0
Chase		2353	0
Car Loan 2		2090	0
Target		149	0
DH School		376	0
Capital One		376	0
		61774	47504

We are at $14,270 paid off, so we are moving in the right direction again. Everything but BOA went down from our last update. I feel like I am getting back into my 'dedication to financial improvement' mindset. I looked up some easy recipes to try next week to continue to reduce how much we spend on eating out. DH surprised me today. He said that instead of having the yard seeded and plugged this year (which would have cost about $300), he would just spread some grass seed himself (about $60). DH is a picky man when it comes to the yard, so I wasn't expecting this, but it definitely pleases me.
Fall is a kind of pricey time for us, in the entertainment sector at least. We normally go to a pro football game, the fair, a haunted house, the pumpkin patch, and go camping in the mountains. I just love fall and like to enjoy all the fall activities. I've set some money aside to compensate for this and paid for somethings already (like some camping expenses), and if we cut back out eating out like I want to, this will make things even better.
Here are the upcoming expenses we have for September:
Painting supplies for the baby's room-September 3rd-$50
Camping stuff: September 11th: (stuff for smores, firewood, batteries for gear):$30
Football game: September 18th: $2oo (I know, I know! This is pretty expensive, but DH really enjoys it. He doesn't ask for much, so when he does, I try to make it happen, if I can).
Haunted house tickets: not sure of date, they normally go sale the end of Sept.):$59
Grass seed:$60
Total:$399

A pricey month! All of this is budgeted for, so I still feel like we can make some progress on our debt. No work yet about DH's bonus, but I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Vacation Time!

DH and I are leaving to go on vacation tomorrow! I am so excited. Everything is pretty much packed, but I need to finish a little house cleaning. It is just crazy to think that next time we go, a baby will be coming with us! We want to keep all spending for this trip at $300 (gas, eating out, groceries, fun) or under. We should be able to do this pretty easily and hopefully come back with some left over.
DH will hopefully be getting a bonus of $1K in the next month or so. It is certain yet, but I really hope he gets it! It would certainly give us a nice boost. Here is what we want to do in the next couple months (by November 1st).
*Have $2K saved in emergency fund
*Pay off Chase once and for all
*Pay for those pesky home expenses in cash
Three little things that all sound relatively simple. Let's hope sticking with them is as simple as it sounds!

Baby Spending

I have to admit, before I got pregnant, I made myself a budget for baby things and swore I would stick to it. DH and I saved the money up. I am about 5 months pregnant, and we have spent every dime of the baby fund, but for the most part, I think we are okay and have pretty much stuck to budget (for the most part).
$400 of our baby fund went to medical bills, which was what the insurance company told us it would be. The doctor is paid through the delivery of the baby in January. Any additional bills should be minimal, thankfully. Talking to the insurance company really helped me understand what would be covered and what would not be covered.
My mom bought our crib and changing table for us, which I really appreciated! That cut down a lot of the nursery expense for us. DH and I have spent about $250 on things for the baby. We got an awesome pack n play for $110, spent $35 on a baby mattress, $60 on baby bedding and room decor, and about $45 on clothes and random things like bibs and toys. We have a bunch of other things that were either passed down or gifted to us. We have a stroller, car seat, base for the car seat, two diaper bags, a baby monitor, a bunch of bottles, some sleep sacks, a tummy time mat, baby towels and washclothes, shampoo and soap, a variety of clothes, bibs, random toys, and some blankets. I think we are in pretty good shape. I have my shower in October, and we'll probably get the rest of what we need from that.
I have to admit, it's hard not to go overboard. I love to get things for this baby, and he isn't even here yet. DH has discovered that they make baby clothes with his favorite sports team on it, and he pretty much wants every piece he has seen, LOL. I know I'll only be pregnant with our first child once, so I want us to get to enjoy this time, but within reason.
The things I can think of that I still need:
Pacifiers:$15
2 Waterproof Mattress Cover:$20
Waterproof pads:$20
Sheet for pack and play:$10
Bottle nipples:$15
Burp clothes:$12
Sound machine:$20
Thermometer/Medical Kit:$25
Baby bath tub:$20

Not too bad. We also have a huge box of size 2 diapers and a huge box of size 3 diapers. I found a killer deal on Amazon and got something like 440 diapers for $36. We're getting there!

Getting Back on Track

Okay, so my plan is to get things back on track by October 1st. I am giving us a month and a half to reign in the spending and get our debt going back down again. Why so long? Well, we are going on vacation on the 21st for 5 days. We will be having about $500 worth of household expenses in September. We have the cash budgeted for this, thankfully, but this can mean little progress in the meantime. We also want to get the baby room painted and decorated. At my last doctor's appointment, we found out we are having a little boy! I am so excited.
I just want to make sure that our debt does not go up and that it gets moving in the correct direction again. When the baby comes in January, I know that will probably throw my contracting schedule all to heck for a while (not that I'm complaining! Sounds like an awesome trade off to me!), so I really need to do more now to compensate for it.
I know we all have set backs, but I just have had no reason to have a set back. My set back was caused by just plain old overspending. At least it's something relatively easy for us to correct.

Blogger Slackingness

Wow, I have reached a new height of blogger slacking. It has been over two weeks since I last blogged, and even longer since I have posted a debt paydown update, or any kind of financial update.
I don't know what my issue has been lately, financially. I just feel kind of apathetic, which I have no business feeling, since I still have a ton of debt to paydown. I don't want our debt to go up, but I have not been monitoring our spending at all lately. Of course, all the bills are paid on time, but I just feel like I am doing the bare minimum right now, financially. I need to get out this mindset and get focused again.
First things first, a debt paydown update:

		Start	15-Aug
Sallie Mae		12762	12055
Wells Fargo		11700	11005
Campus Loan		8250	7393
Chase 2		2300	1340
Credit Union Card		700	680
BOA		9300	9094
BOA 2		1833	2152
Car Loan		7875	4313
Chase 3		1710	0
Chase		2353	0
Car Loan 2		2090	0
Target		149	0
DH School		376	0
Capital One		376	0
		61774	48032

This is not good. We have officially gone in the wrong direction. There has been no emergency that caused this. We just had some irregular expenses that I overlooked, we have been eating out A LOT, and we have been spending money left and right on extras that we don't really need. This has to stop immediately.

Our savings is up to $678, so that is a small victory, even though we needed to add way more than that. Blah. Just blah.