Plan for the Rest of 2010

*October-Will receive a payment of around $1k for contracting work done a couple months ago. Put this straight to the car loan. In addition to this, pay $800 extra to the car loan.
*November-If DH gets his bonus, put this into savings (also, remember to change DH's withholding so he actually sees more than half of the bonus). Pay $800 extra to car loan.
*December-Pay off car loan. Use DH's extra paycheck to cover Christmas shopping expenses. End the year with $1500 in savings. Have EVERYTHING ready for the baby.

Consumer Debt Free by November 2011?

I was playing around with Bankrate's debt pay down calculator yesterday, and it looks we just might have ALL of our consumer debt gone by November of 2011. This requires us to pay $800 extra EVERY month to it. $800 is a stretch some months, other months not so much. It just depends on how much overtime DH has, what project I am working on, and how much we are spending elsewhere.
I am going to be honest. DH and I spend WAY too much on vacations, eating out, and gifts. For our week long cruise we went on this year, our 3 day beach trip with my mom, and our 5 day beach trip, we spent about $3700. Yeah, that could have more than knocked out a credit card! Even as I write this though, I just can't say I regret doing it. We had a fantastic time on our cruise, and it was our last big vacation for a while with just the two of us. I have a lot of great memories from it, and I would definitely do it all over again. The cruise is where about $2500 of our vacation money was spent. The two beach trips were much more frugal and again, we had a blast both times. Next year, I am setting the annual budget at $2000. This can pay for a 5 day cruise and a beach trip.
Anyway, here is the budget I am looking at from October 2010 to November 2011.

Mortgage	855
Power	129
TV/Internet	133
Phone (includes my Dad's line)	90
Car Minimum	285
Citi Minimum	150
BOA Minimum	100
Sallie Mae Student Loan	100
Wells Fargo Student Loan	130
DH Student Loan	129
Food	400
Gas	140
Eat out	100
Vacation	167
Gifts	150
Fun	100
Misc.	150
Extra to debt	800
IRA for Me	129
Life Insurance	15
Water Bill	20
Campus Loan	80
Car Insurance.	95
	4447

I don't think I forgot anything. We've just got to stick to the numbers, and I have to be faithful about tracking everything.

Maternity Shopping

Well, I had to break down this week and get some maternity clothes. I had been getting by just fine with summer sundresses since it is still in the 90's here, but next week, it is dropping down to the low 70's during the day. I know cold weather is right around the corner. I had already gotten two pairs of jeans and a few sweaters on sale earlier in the summer, so I have some things. I bought a pair of black pants, a black dress, two long sleeved shirts, two camisoles, leggings, and a pair of maternity jeans online at Target for $126. I am pretty extremely happy with what I got. Everything is very flattering and looks great, but I still have room to grow. I am ready for fall and even winter now!
I hadn't anticipated spending that money this week, so DH and I are trying to cut back and postpone some other expenses just so everything balances like we want it to. I still think we'll stay within our budget allotment this month.

Net Worth

DH and I now have a net worth of -$3600. It looks like we are going to be able to meet our goal of having a positive net worth this year! YAY! I just added up our retirement totals, and we are at $23,600. Hmm. Not as bad as it could be, but it could definitely be better. It looks good on me, since I am only 23, but not so good for DH, who is 27. Right now, we contribute 10 percent of DH's salary (between $5500 and $6000 a year), get a $600 match from his company, and put $1400 a year into a ROTH IRA for me. Like I said, not horrible, not great. We are contributing more into his plan right now since it helps us tax wise to get that deduction. Our goal is to increase his contributions by 1 percent a year until he is maxed out at 15 percent of his salary. Once we get the car and credit cards paid off or at least down, we'll increase my IRA contributions as well so I am maxing it out. I am not sure when I will return to a traditional job. I guess it depends on how contracting goes, how DH's job is going, and how well DH and I like me working from home. There are just too many variables to know for sure right now.

Balance transfers almost done!

So far, I have gotten the Chase card and $2000 from DH's Boa card transferred to the zero percent interest card. I am still waiting on my Bank of America card to be done with and the credit union card. When all is said is done, we'll just have the new Citi card, my car loan, and DH's Bank of America to make payments on. I talked to DH, and we are going to focus on paying off my car once and for all. Once that is completed, we'll work on tackling the Bank of America card. I would love to have my car paid off by the end of this year. The balance is right at $4100. I know we are going to pay $500 this week with DH's check to it, so that will bring it to $3600ish. To pay it off in three months, we'll need to put a little over $1200 a month to it. I think that is doable, especially if we can get our spending reigned in like it needs to be.
The EF is at $200 right now, which is just pathetic! We still need to work on getting this up to at least $1500. I would prefer it to be more, obviously, but I think $1500 is a good place to start.

Changes

DH received a balance transfer offer this week for 0 percent until September 2011. I am thanking our lucky stars for this, considering some of our interest rates are 16 flipping percent now. He took the offer, and we are transferring my Bank of America, the credit union card, Chase, and part of his Bank of America card to it. Once I get everything finalized, I'll have to post a new update and format.
Things have gone pretty well this week financially. We only ate out one time, and we spent $10 on a pizza. DH needed a new hard hat for work, and I found the one he has to have for $30 instead of the $45 it normally is. My laptop charger started blowing sparks yesterday, but I found a new one for $13. DH also decided we needed to skip the football game this year, which I am very proud of him for. I know he really wanted to go, but he said we could see it even better from home, for less, which is true!
One thing I need to address in our budget is the randomness of my contract payments. I always receive what I am owed, but it isn't always on a specific date. I think I just need to reschedule when I pay some things. Maybe use the first paychecks of the month for bills and necessities, while using the payments in the second half of the month for extra debt pay down, savings, or any extras.

Sometimes I feel.....

Like such a witch. I am generally a friendly, decently nice person most of the time, but boy, when I don't like someone, I REALLY don't like someone. DH's druggie brother was married to this absolute b*tch from 2007-2008. Seriously, this chick was the most opinionated, mean, my way or the highway type person I had ever met. When they split up, I was so glad that she was gone.
She came into town this past weekend, and she and my MIL went out to eat, which is fine. They had always gotten along pretty good, and they had stayed friends when she and DH's brother split up. However, now my MIL is saying how we need to invite her to my baby shower, have her help us decorate, blah, blah, blah. I HATE this girl. Absolutely hate her. I don't want anything to do with her, and I certainly do not want her snide, opinionated comments when I am trying to celebrate the arrival of my baby boy. I REALLY don't know what my MIL is thinking with this one, considering she KNOWS we do not get along.
On the financial side of things, I just plain out suck lately. I'm spending too much and not working enough. DH and I went camping, which should have been a cheap weekend since we had already paid for the campsite. We wound up spending $60 in 2 days on fast food while gone! Seriously?! I am disgusted with us!
I told DH we are starting over fresh tomorrow. He is grilling tenderloin tomorrow for dinner to get us started on the right foot. We have got to buckle down if we are ever going to get our debt going down again. Argh!

So disappointed in myself!

Well, I was all gung ho about getting back on track about a week ago. A few days ago, I was in a horrid mood and what do I do? I go shopping to try and improve that bad mood. I would up spending $213! Seriously!? I know better than this. I came home with a couple toys for baby boy, a baby wrap so I can wear little man around the house, a Scooba, and two Christmas presents for DH. I did do good with what I got for the money, but still. DH is a lot easier on me than I am on myself.
DH and I have done better with eating out, which we've been working on for a while now. It's just a constant struggle for us, but I think we are getting better. I really need to start tracking my spending again more faithfully.
We had a good Labor day weekend. Saturday, we went boating and fishing with DH's cousin. We had gorgeous weather for it. Sunday, we got baby boy's room painted. We went over budget by $30 for this because we had to do THREE coats of paint for it to look nice. It's done though and looks pretty good, and I will get a rebate back for the paint. Monday, we went swimming and fishing again, and got some cleaning done around the house. All in all a very nice weekend.
I should have an update tomorrow or early next week. DH gets paid tomorrow night, I get paid next Friday. I should get that large contract payment early October, and I am soooo looking forward to that! It will really help boost our savings up.

I think I am addicted to Walgreens

Walgreens has had some killer deals this week. I have finally gotten their coupon rules down and gotten the hang of 'rolling' the register rewards from transaction to transaction. They also have Pepsi 2 liter products on sale for $1 each, and when you buy two, you get a free Red Box rental. This is just awesome, since my DH loves the Redbox.
For about $20.50 out of pocket (including sales tax in this. We get charged sales tax on the price of the product, not what we pay for it) or $13.5 when you factor in the Register Rewards I still have to spend, I have gotten:
3 Packages of the Walgreens tampons
4 Carmex lip balms
2 Carmex lotions
2 Soft Soap female body washes
4 Ivory Spring Mens body washes
1 Colgate toothpaste
4 2 liters of Diet Pepsi
I have gotten two free Red Box Rentals, and I still have $7 in Register Rewards to use.
I am getting a nice little stash. My dad is coming over Sunday, and I am giving him some body wash, lotion, lip balm, and deodorant from my growing stash. He lives on a pretty tight budget, so it's nice to be able to help him out by giving him some of the things he needs.

I am tired!

This has been a crazy week so far! I am pleased though, I have done a good job sticking with my cleaning routine and contracting schedule. DH and I have eaten dinner at home every night this week, which is a small miracle for us. It has taken a couple of months, but I think I have really gotten into the swing of working from home. I just feel like I am in a good routine that really works for me. Hopefully, I can keep in the swing of things once the baby comes. For me, the key to keeping a clean house is doing a little bit every day. I also do bigger things on certain days. On a daily basis, I:
*Do the dishes
*Vacuum furniture (with 4 cats and a pooch, this is definitely a daily must!)
*Run the Roomba vacuum cleaner (okay, this is cheating, but the Roomba is awesome! We will never be without one again.)
*Wipe down the kitchen and bathroom counters
*Dust living room tables (glass tables that show every finger and paw print)
*Do one load of laundry (much easier for me than doing it all on one day)
*Pick up and put up stuff, as needed
On.....
Mondays:Wipe down kitchen cabinets, back splash, and clean appliances
Tuesdays:Dust the whole house
Wednesday: Clean and mop both bathrooms
Thursday: Mop whole house, besides bathrooms
As long as I stick to my routine, the house cleaning is easy. DH has a few things he does, but he tends to do bigger things that need to be done on a weekly basis (yard work, guinea pig cage, scrubbing litter box. etc.)
We bought DH's grass seed the other day, for a total of $80. It was a little more than I estimated, by about $20, but at least it is paid for. DH is going to seed at the end of the month. I am going Friday to get the paint for baby boy's room. I need to check and see what painting supplies we already have so I don't double buy. The paint we want has a rebate, so that will help keep the costs down too.