Time to Fire Our Accountant

I was annoyed when I noticed DW had forgotten all our tax paperwork this morning.  I had finally gotten the final documents together and she was supposed to mail it today. I took it to work with me, planning to get it all sorted and mailed out from my office. 

I was about to fold the documents into an envelope but wanted to make a note of the final return amount.  I noticed our bank routing and accounting number didn’t look right.  I checked it against my check book and it didn’t match at all.  At first I thought it was someone else’s checking number but realized the last 9 of my supposed account number was my social security number. WTH! I scheduled an appointment with her at 3:30 today to get it fixed, but I am seriously concerned there are other errors on here that I can’t detect.

This isn’t the first issue we have had with our accountant.  In previous posts I have explained that we are still waiting on almost $3,000 dollars of our 2013 return.  It was surrounding our Adoption tax credit so initially I thought it was issues with a particular document (which had been a HUGE issue in our 2010 taxes) and I just resent the particular document. When it was denied again I called the IRS and spent 3 hours on the phone before getting ahold of a nice lady (didn’t know the IRS hired nice people) who explained that it wasn’t the document that was causing the issues but there was something wrong with the numbers entered.  I brought this to our accountant who claimed all the numbers were correct and it was the document that was the issue, so we refaxed said document to the IRS.  When it was denied for the 3^rd time, the IRS was nice enough to respond with a detailed letter of exactly what the numbers issue was.  I brought this to our accountant once again and she said that since her system doesn’t note it as a required field that it shouldn’t be necessary and the IRS was being picky.  She took no accountability or even considered the thought that her ‘system’ could be wrong. It sounds to be that if the IRS tax form instructions say a certain number needs to be entered, IT SHOULD. 

Once I get our 2013 & 2014 taxes I am cutting ties with our accountant.  I have paid almost $1000.00 over the past 2 years to this firm and all I have gotten is a HUGE headache.



It's going....

I am hiding from our foster care home licensor at the local library. DW is at the house giving her the tour.  I spent all weekend and several hours today cleaning and triple checking to make sure we meet all requirements so I have no worries there.  Just the idea of walking someone around my house to inspect and judge my home sends my anxiety through the roof.  I had hoped to be out of the house before she stopped by but I was waiting FOREVER for our ancient laptop to boot up so I could email our budget to myself so I could work at it on the library.  She was pulling it while I was heading out the door and I lied and said I had an appointment.  I am such a dork. 


I got another email from my bank saying our funds were low. I panicked once again because I had been watching the numbers so closely.  Come to find out that we haven't received the auto deposit from one of my side jobs. I was so sure I got the funds on the 23rd of each month. I went and checked my paid confirmation emails I receive before they deposit and realize that while I get the emails on the evening of the 23rd, I usually get paid on the 24th.  IRL life I am seriously considered a detailed orientated person, why do I keep missing this stuff.  Most of the bills had cleared except a credit card I had been working to get current (so the important bill of course) it was set-up to auto pay today, I am hoping they will process it today and it will hit the bank along with my paycheck tomorrow.


DW and I discussed her trip to California in November.  Her friend is going in for major surgery and asked for DW to be there for the surgery, the inpatient recovery and then to drive her home.  Friend is also paying for hotel, food, gas etc.  I originally had though this would be for a week but with the dates of surgery, how long friend is in recovery and then the drive back from the Big City to the Small City she lives in, we are looking at 11 days. 11 DAYS!!!! The longest I have been alone with the kids was 6 days and than was when we only had 5 kids and DD1 was still living at home to help out. 

I can't say no, thought the small selfish part of me wants to. DW promised to help find ways to make the 10 days she is gone easier.  She also promised not to bitch when Lil Sis and I go on our annual sister weekend (2 nights) in September.  Since almost all expenses are paid I gave her a budget of $200.00 for food and souvenirs for the kiddos. I know Friend said she would pay for all food, but Friend is going to be spending several days recovering from major surgery and I would rather DW pay for her own food then to be in a situation to have to ask for funds.  I told DW that while we were budgeting $200.00 it would be nice if she didn't try to spend it all. I allotted another $100.00 for the trip for emergency expenses.  One more thing for me to stress over......

Tax Return

Had an appointment with or accountant today to do out 2014 taxes.  We are getting more than I expected which is AWESOME! After taking out the accountants fee we are looking at little more than $8,800. Here is how I plan to spend it:

- Pay off our Capital One card
- Fund our E-fund to $2,000
- Deposit $2,000 into our 'Savings'
- Auto/Household repairs and replacements we have been holding off on.
- Split the rest between Car loan and a splurge expense.

I am not expecting my refund until May since they always find something wrong with how our accountant processes the adoption tax credit.  I mean we are still waiting for some of our refund from 2013.

I have two financial habit goals in regards to my refund:

1.  Don't spend it until it is deposited: In previous tax seasons I would find out the expected deposit date would be and then start spending money I didn't have expecting the refund to cover it. Last year that messed up in a bad way when our refund was less than expected.

2. Stick to the plan: I know where I want my money to go and I need to follow through with it.  Knowing I have a lump some coming my way I would start spending more then budgeted.  A lunch, a household purchase, splurging on groceries, a Costco run.  When I finally sit down to allocate funds hundreds of dollars I had planned to put towards debt have magically disappeared.

What are your plans with your tax refund?

A Heaping of Finance With a Side of Rant.

So news on the money front is mostly positive:

-          I found $135.00 dollars!! I apparently was paying a month in advance on one of my bills. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I am not really in a place to do that right now.

-          I found another bill for $123.00.  With the found money I am still ahead $8.00 instead of in the hole for $123.00

-          My paycheck will be $23.00 more than expected!

-          I received an email from my bank that I was ‘Below the amount I want”. I checked my account and saw my available balance at -7.65. I panicked because I had been working so hard to stay within our means.  I clicked on my account and gave a sigh of relief. I still had a balance of $12.55. Apparently a bill that auto-pays on the 20^th, hits my account on pending status the day before so that it processes on the 20^th.  So while I can’t access the $12.55 today at least I have no overdraft charges.  Thank goodness tomorrow is payday.

-          I researched all of our utility bills to make sure I got the correct billing dates. Most of our utilities are every 2-3 months, so while I would pay them before the next bill came I would still incur late fees as it was still past the due date.

o   Found out that our gas bill is actually monthly not every two months. I was getting confused why I was always late when I felt like I was paying them all the time. Perfect example of how out of touch I was with our finances since I have been paying this gas company for 2 years and just realized it was monthly.

o   While I was staggering the utilities bills so that I wasn’t paying them all in one month ($643.00 in the winter months), I realized that all bills were due on the same month. Eventually I will get to the point where I will budget a portion to save on months I don’t have the majority of the utilities due and just set it aside for when it is due, but I am not quite there yet.

On a non-financial side rant, I had a meeting with the school district regarding DS2.  He was moved to a specialty school 30 miles away in January to help address his high level of medical/mental/behavioral/educational needs. I wasn’t included in the decision making regarding what school he went to but was PROMISED it would meet his needs.  Within a week it was quickly discovered his needs are more than they were prepared for. I finally was able to connect with an education advocate and was told about specialty schools which are part of local hospitals.  I talked with them and they seem like a great fit.  I was able to convince everyone else on the decision making team that this would be the best move for DS2 but the director of special of education for the school district isn’t on board (I think it has more to do with the cost of these schools that whether he needs the extra care).  She is now stating we need all these assessments before we can make a move even though these weren’t required for the first move. 

I think these assessments will be beneficial for DS2 but I am frustrated that:

1.       I had asked for these assessments about 8 times over the past year and was told they were either not necessary or we wouldn’t get enough information out of them to warrant the amount of stress these tests would have on DS2.

2.       That these assessments magically became requirements when the district realized they were being backed into a corner. And why was this requirement waved for the first move?

3.        If these were requirements, why didn’t she inform us at the meeting two weeks ago when we started discussing moving him? We could be two weeks into the process by now instead of just NOW starting the 2 month process.  



Discussion

After I had finished updating the budget/register, DW and I came together so I could show her, for the first time, what our budget looks like and how it all works.  By ‘came together’ I mean I found a rare moment when no kids were around and she was sitting down so I grabbed the laptop and sat in her lap so she couldn’t get up. 

DW was gracious enough about her captivity and listened as I explained our budget and even asked questions. When I was finished she admitted that 90% of what I said made no sense to her so we both agreed that DW really has NO head for numbers.  With that out in the open DW said the most wonderful thing, “Since numbers are not my thing, what can I DO to make our budget successful.”  DANG, I sure picked a good one.

Never one to be unprepared, I had a list of areas I could use her help and we discussed each. 

• Become more attune to what is takes/costs to run a household.
• Ask any competent ‘head or household’ how much toilet paper is in the house and when they expect to have to buy dish soap again and they will probably be able to tell you. In my house, I expect to be in Toilet Paper Crisis level 2 but Friday evening and the dish soap will last about 6-8 weeks as long as DS3 doesn’t attempt to do dishes… or bathe the dog…..or try to make the kitchen floor a slip and slide again….I digress.  I have a constant tally in my head of household necessities and upcoming costs and budget accordingly. But I can’t remember everything.  I need DW to pay attention and let me know when household staples are low, NOT OUT.  I need her to tell me when her oil change is coming up and not let me discover it when I borrow the Big Car and see the oil should have been done 600 miles ago. This would help us stay on budget and not have so many surprise costs.
• Search for the Savings
• I am constantly thinking about and implementing new things to help us save money. It isn’t always successful but I try. I need DW to get on board with this and try to come up with some ideas as well.   
• Don’t just ask, help plan
• This is probably my biggest pet peeve.  Any big purchase or event in our family gets researched, planned and funded by me. It is exhausting and sometimes I just give up on being prepared and we spend willy-nilly.  Currently we either come up with ideas together or she will ask if we could do something and then off she goes secure in knowing I will figure it out. It was decided that since I like the numbers I will find ways to fund these but she needs to help figure out the costs, logistics and come up with ideas to save money. She agreed to help with this and we have several events we need to plan for:
• a family trip to the zoo (May)
• A solo trip DW is taking to visit a friend in California (Airfare, lodging and most activities are paid for by said friend.) (November)
• DS1 summer camp (June/July)
• Family Day (It replaced adoption anniversary celebrations and is a day for all of us to celebrate being a family, even if temporarily)  (October)
• Camping Trip (August)
• Out of State Wedding (August)
• Sister Vacation (Little sister and I try to get out of town once a year together, last trip was to San Fran so this year is going to be a short and cheap staycation.) (Whenever)

So those are all the items we discussed. I am feeling really confident about our success.



Important Update

After a long and intense discussion with DW tonight we have come to an important decision that I would like to share with you all.  DW doesn’t complain or ask for much so when she does I try to accommodate.  That being said the following changes are officially being made to my blog:

“DW no longer stands for Dear Wife as previously states, but stands for Darkwing Duck”

Thank you, and good night.

SIDENOTE:  After this conversation DW (aka Darkwing duck) asked if I was going to blog this and I said I would.  Then she asked me if I was going to blog that she had asked if I was going to blog this and I said yes again.



Car batteries, Plungers and Paychecks

My car wouldn’t start this morning.  I had this moment of pure panic that something was seriously wrong with the car and could physically hear my budget falling to pieces.  Then I looked up saw that the overhead light was stuck in the on position.  PHEW, just the battery. 

Problem was, my car was in the garage and we couldn’t get the car out of park to push it out.  DW was agitated and kept kicking me out of the car to try new things while I was trying to Google the issue and refer to the car manual.  On top of that DS3 was losing his preverbal  $hit because we had locked him out of the garage and chained the front door so we could figure this out without have to chase after him (there were people in the house with him, he just wanted to be with us).  So every 2 minutes DW was either interrupting my research to try something new, ranting about how we were going to have to call a tow truck or I was running into the house to stop DS3 from finding a way to reach the chain on the front door. 

By the end of the 45 minute ordeal I locked all the kitchen stools, the step ladder, and the bathroom stepping stools from both the first and second floor bathroom into the first floor bathroom to get DS3 to STAY INSIDE.  DS1 was inside eating breakfast and I kept asking him to keep DS3 from opening the front door, but apparently that meant yelling “DS3 STOP!, Don’t do that DS3” without actually leaving his cereal bowl to stop him. Ugh!

I finally was able to find the correct section in manual on how to get the car in neutral and we were good to go.  Right as I got my car jumped DS3 runs out the front door.  With all the ‘easy’ options to unlock the front chain locked away, he had to get creative.  He used his sister's baby doll high chair and a toilet plunger to reach the chain……I need to get some Lysol spray on my way home.

Why do I post this on my financial blog! The whole ordeal meant I was 1.5 hours late for work. Since I have to be home by 2:30pm for DS2 bus, this means I am short 1.5 more hours on my paycheck. Grr…



Sleep Deprivation

I am on about 3 hours of sleep and I have a deep understanding about how sleep deprivation can be a torture technique.  DS3 has had DW up and down since 1:30 am this morning with a stomach bug. Poor little guy.

I was really trying to move things around to have a full 40 hours for this week. I had enough PTO to cover the meeting I have for DS3 on Thursday but those hours are going to taking care of a sick kiddo.  DW and I are both behind at work so I worked 6am to 9am and then came home to relieve DW so she can head into to work. 

I finally scheduled a time with our accountant on Saturday to get our taxes done.  Last year was the first year I didn’t do our taxes because we had several weird things going on.  We had an adoption, inheritance, cashing out of an IRA, unemployment, and DW’s previous employer had fled the country so we had no W2 and had to submit copies of checks clearing our account as proof of income.  This year is easier but DW and I will be filing taxes together for the first time, we have roll over from our adoption from 2013 plus a new adoption for 2014. I am going to pay attention to how our accountant processes our taxes as I expect we will have more adoption roll over for our 2015 taxes, and should be able to do it myself next year. That will save us a couple hundred dollars.

DW and I stayed up late last night going over the blog I posted yesterday.  She is agreement about the steps we need to take.  She then proceeded to tell me that she had been telling me all along that we needed to budget better for certain things.  My gut reaction was to get angry because besides complaining that I couldn’t magically make money appear into our bank account, DW’s input into are budget has been about ZERO.  Whatever ‘thoughts’ she had on the budget were never actually said out loud TO ME.  DW rarely is open to talking about money so I wasn’t going to make it worse but getting into an argument. I bit my tongue and moved on.

Making Changes

Through my own experiences over the past 1.5 months and the financial experiences I have read on other financial blog, I have learned some valuable financial lessons.  I was so set on getting debt paid off tomorrow I ignored common sense.  I planned for no real emergency fund and I was completely unrealistic with how much it costs to raise a family of our size.  Here are some reality checks and changes we need to make.

1.  Emergency Fund:  We need to have an emergency fund set aside for unexpected costs/bills.  My dream goal is $5,000 but my initial goal will be $2,000.00.  I don’t want to put debt pay off completely on hold, so I will pay minimums on all debt but add $100.00 additional to Capital One.  The rest goes to savings until we have $2,000.00. Once that is completed I am thinking we will split extra funds 50/50 towards debt and savings until we hit the $5,000 mark.
2. Gazelle Intense: I am never going to be Gazelle intense.  While I want our focus to be getting out of debt I am not going to do that at the price of what is important to us. First being our kids, our financial senselessness has meant they get so few of the opportunities they deserve and that is going to stop. Second is going to be our love of giving.  We don’t attend church so we do not tithe, but in previous years DW and I have been generous to friends and charities.  We miss being able to do that and I really want for that to continue, within financial reason of course.   
3. Savings: The ‘Savings’ portion of our budget was set up to make sure money was set aside funds for holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays. I put an estimate of what I want to spend on each and then made sure our monthly allotment would cover these.  I want to add extracurricular activities for all the kids as well as summer camp for DS1.
4. Tax Return – I expect our tax return to be around $5,000 - $7,000.  My original goal was to throw that all at debt.  After some thinking I decided to distribute the funds differently.  My first priority is to make sure our $2,000 emergency fund is done. We have some home/car TODO items that need to be taken care of which I am expecting to be around $1,000- $1,500 dollars.  I will probably be putting a few hundred dollars into our ‘savings’ as I have added several other expenses to it and seeing as I contributed nothing to savings in January and February it will need a little help to make 2015’s goals. Whatever is left over will go to our car loan.  While our first debt pay off goal is the Capital One card, I have been getting anxious that our big car isn’t going to last much longer and want to get it paid off ASAP.
5. Budget Reality Check – Just because I only want $100.00 in ‘other’ expenses each month, doesn’t mean Murphy will listen.  When I see how much is left over after each month I get depressed so I get creative and start lowering our budget in areas they really shouldn’t be lowered.  Then I get myself in a financial pickle and it is my own dang fault.  I am going to update the budget to make it match our reality.

So what does that mean for March? Originally I had anticipated making a very large payment on the Capital One card but that is going to have to wait. I am going to pay all of our minimums, pay our ‘Savings’ account, pay an additional $100.00 to our Capital One card and whatever is left over is going into the Emergency Fund.  Wish me luck!



Should be sleeping...

I should be sleeping but I am blogging again...it is an addiction. I am either reading blogs, thinking about a blog post I could write or actually blogging.

My weekend was average, had its good points and bad points.  We had my younger five, the girl who spends weekends and holidays with us (blog name NG) and while DD1 wasn't at the house we felt per presence (aka drama) via text and phone calls.

Spending wise I did awful. My grocery bill was 205 dollars which makes me crazy over budget. The good news is I was realistic with what we needed for the week and that is right on par with what I budgeted weekly starting in March. We also ate out to the tune of $40.00. There we some other expenses which I haven't tallied up but it doesn't look good for the second part of February. 

I received some news today about the a close family friend. I have known him since I was 9 years old. I baby sat his kids and his oldest is actually marrying a friend I went to highschool with and was my first roommate.  He was just diagnosed with cancer and is really depressed. Lil Sister and I talked and we plan to get together and write him a light hearted letter about our fun times together and hopefully cheer him up.

You are probably wondering why I am posting this info on a debt blog. I want to send him something with the letter, like an edible arrangement, and to send something (inspirational book) to the eldest daughter who I am very close to. On the outside it would seem like an excessive expense and before 2 years ago I would have agreed with you. But two years ago my mother died

My mom didn't want to let anyone know how sick she was and isolated herself from friends, so much so that most didn't know she was ill until they had found out she had passed. My mother was so depressed and lonely and I know that if someone had taken the time and small expense to do something special for her it would have made such a difference.  

I want to send a gift to the oldest daughter because this news has brought up a lot of my own grief. You can't really understand the grief of losing a family member until it happens to you. Friends send me their condolences via social media and text and a few came to the services but the two acts of kindness that really stuck with me were those that were unexpected and above and beyond. The first was a high school classmate who I hadn't seen in 12 years who came to the service. He never even meet my mother but came to pay his respects.  The 2nd was my therapist, she bought me a orchid.  They were such small things and they touched my heart with warmth when it was being suffocated by grief. I promised myself that going forward o would do that for others, I would be the one to go that extra bit. So far I have failed miserably but I have my chance, and it is worth the extra time and expense.

WEEKEND!!

It's the WEEKEND!!! Woot Woot!!!

Some weeks I am on top of things and taking charge of life and some weeks I am just trying to not become an alcoholic....this week I had DW hide the liquor cabinet key.  Taking a page from Mysti from Digging Out of Our Mess, I thought I would do my own version of Good/Bad/Ugly but adding my own category.

So here is this weeks Good/Bad/Ugly/Funny

GOOD

- Finally received payment for the side job and it was $50.00 more than I had expected. Yay!
- My Lil Sis came over and dyed my hair so I don't look old any more. I dye my hair red but I have naturally blonde hair so when it starts growing out I look like I am going completely grey. Then we went to Barnes and Nobles (our crack) and spend a few hours catching up and laughing so hard we cried. I really needed that.
- DW seems to be recovering fairly well from all of her recent illnesses and injuries.
- The new baby gate seems to be a success and we haven't had any puppy accidents.
- My Dad is finally back from his annual month in Hawaii and I get to see him today. I so missed him. 
- Garbage was picked up today, one week reprieve.

BAD
- Our water bill seems to be getting obscenely high. My budgeted amount, which I determined by looking at our bill from this time last year, was about $75.00 off. 
- Our English Mastiff probably has an ear infection.  We are going to try some ear cleaner we have but I think a vet visit is in our future.
- My Dad just came back from his annual month in Hawaii and I am feeling slightly bitter that I am so far away from EVER being that financial stable and independent.
- Stayed up way to late last night and when I finally settled into bed DS2 walked into my room to he report that he just threw up....I will never be able to eat pot roast again. 

UGLY
- We are over $550.00 over budget so far this month and we still have 19 days to go.
- At 2pm yesterday DW had to get a $200.00 payday loan so we could pick up prescriptions and get some basic groceries. At 9:30pm I got the email confirmation that my side job was being deposited. If we had been able to hold off for a few hours we would have been able to avoid the $30.00 payday fee.
- Just noticed a huge dent and scratch on the passenger side of my car.  We had a feeling it happened when DD1 borrowed our car a few weeks ago and confirmed this with the person she was driving with.  DD1 is refusing to take responsibility and said it didn't happen even though we have a witness. Drama ensued.  Damage is mostly cosmetic and not worth the $500.00 deductible to get fixed but it definitely devalues my car.

FUNNY
-  DW's alarm song is "Wild Thing". One morning it went off and DW turned it off right after it sang "Wild thing" and then I heard DS3, who I didn't know had crawled into our bed, sing "Your make my heart sing." 
- DW and I are true nerds but our loyalties differ. I adore Star Trek and DW loves Star Wars.  Since our children come to us as toddlers or older we don't get the name our kids, but when we adopt we change their middle names.  When DS3 was adopted we changed his middle name to Jean-Luc Skywalker. Today I realized how perfectly it fit as he was running around with a Darth Vader mask while shooting a Star Trek phaser at imaginary bad guys.
- Our English Mastiff had awful gas last night and ran 3 people out of the chair she was laying next too. All of us were squeezed onto the couch trying to get as far way from her butt as possible.

So that was our week at House of Sense. How was your week?

Can I go hide now?

Nothing of significants happened financially today.

Haven't received payment confirmation from my side job.

Haven't received any notification from the IRS in regards to the $2700 they owe ME from 2013.

Haven't heard anything about the subsidy increase for DS2, but I have a gut feeling that is going to be denied.

If we don't get the side job payment by Saturday DW is going to have the get a small payday loan to tied us over until payday on the 20th. I am having a hard time dealing with that but I don't know what else to do.

On a completely non-financial related note I am really frustrated with DD1. She got herself into a bind of her own making and wants our help. We aren't able to help as we logistically can not make it work with work, appointments and prior commitments in regards to our other 5 children. On Monday I explained in great detail why we couldn't make it work and told her she needed to find an alternative option. 

When I reiterated our inability to help again today, she turned to DW and started lying that I had promised her I would help.  DW and I always verify with each other anything DD1 says so when her lie didn't work she for pissed.  Now DD1 is on a rampage and is telling everyone how mad about how I had lied to her and how I making things harder on her. 

I try to not to let this stuff get to me.  My oldest daughter suffered a lot of trauma before she came to live with us at 13.   Per the State she is an adult at 18 and we literally got not stop her from the making the unsafe choices she is prone to. When the those choices started putting the other kids in our home at imminent risk we had to ask her to leave. Since she doesn't seem to have the ability to take personal responsibility for anything, DW and I have become to scapegoat.

It is depressing and it hurts but what can you do?

Irony

So I was talking to my therapist a few weeks ago about making a budget to get out of debt. My therapist had read that per Susan Orman you should plan about 10% of your income for "other expenses". I laughed out loud because the idea of incurring $700.00 of other expenses in a month sounded ridiculous.

So far this month out "other expenses" have totaled about $550.00 and we have about 3 weeks left. Karma is a B***h.

Never ends

I am so tired of writing posts about the hits are budget is taking. Why won't it stop?

I budgeted for one Doctor's office and one prescription refill for DW this month. So far she has gone to the Doctor's 3 times and filled 7 prescriptions. DW is pretty good about asking for generic or alternatives to keep medication costs down, but we are still looking at about $125 in prescriptions and $75.00 in copays.

None of these Doctor’s visits were optional and I put no blame on DW for having to pay for these, but I just wish we would get a little break.

I did call my side job about the invoice I sent. My contact said everything was processed on his end and if I don't see deposit on my end within 2 weeks to let him know. 2 weeks!!! That is ridiculous!!! If I don't get the funds by Friday we are officially screwed.

I am feeling drained by the utter failure of our February budget. I have been listening to Dave Ramsey's podcast to try to get some inspiration but it hasn't been helping. I need to read some other financial blogs when I get home from work, they do a lot more to inspire me than a multi-millionaire sitting in a cushy studio thousands of miles away.

Just want to post.

Nothing of real significance to blog about but I just downloaded the blogger app to my phone and wanted to check it out.

I have been doing some mindless spending over the past few days which sucks. The damage is a little over $20.00 dollars which isn't a lot but since I haven't gotten confirmation of payment from my side job it is a really stupid move on my part.

$1.41 - I bought a song on iTunes that has been in my head for weeks. Instantly regreted it which is progress.

$1.10 - This wasn't actually me but DS2. He was downloading Mine Craft onto my user ID and accidentally ordered a texture  pack. I will have to find a way to block in game spending.

$12.50 - I went to a direct sale party for Damsel in Defense at a friends house. I totally didn't plan on spending a dime, I swear!! But they had amazing Kubaton keychains. I have several evening appointments for myself and the kids and in the winter we are walking back to our car in the dark. I usually hold my car key in between my knuckles in case someone approaches us but this will give us more protection. I am hosting a party in April so I can get a stun gun and mace.

$7.90 - Well it was more like $5.00 as I did buy something we legitimately needed. I took DD1 to the grocery store so she could do some shopping. I blame it on the 4 hours of sleep, the late hour, being in the middle of Aunt Flo's visit and having a "I feel neglected day" because I left there with a bag of Cheetos, mini Oreos and a bottle of diet coke I didn't need.

I am hoping to go through the rest of the week without any stupid spending. Keep your fingers crossed.

Chicken

I am being a chicken.  With all the unexpected expenses the past week  I have been avoiding balancing the check book and budget as I was to afraid to see the damage.  I finally put on my big girl panties and balanced everything this afternoon.

With over $350.00 in surprise expenses, DW and I had discussed about getting another payday loan as we have NO cash reserves right now.  DW's boss over heard and suggested we check out the Bank of DW's Work. She heard they had zero interest loans with fabulous payback options. LOL! So she loaned us the money we needed and we are paying it back $50.00 a paycheck.

With the loan, our heads are above water but just barely. Not because we spent outside of our budget (besides those surprises) but I haven't gotten payment from a side job I invoiced on the 2nd.  They usually have a crazy quick turn around but since the payment was higher than usual the invoice has to get supervisor approval which causes delay. I didn't think about this when I budgeted this income for the first part of the month.

Until I get the money we have $155.00 until the 20th with an outstanding garbage bill of $123.00 to pay. The garbage bill was schedule to be paid the second part of the month but I got a call that it needed to be paid ASAP to avoid cancellation of services. We are going to have to hold off on paying the garbage bill until the I get the side job funds which means we may have no garbage pick up on Wednesday. That would SUCK because with the size of our household are garbage and recycle are always over flowing come pick-up day.

I hate that we have put ourselves in this position but I knew it was going to be a tough few months. We have spent to many years fudging around with our finances and it is going to take time to get us back in order.

Lesson Learned

I learned a valuable lesson this week that more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better quality. Case in point, our baby gate fiasco.  Over the past 5 years I have spent $100s of dollars on baby gates.  I tried all different sizes, price ranges and styles but would stay away from the super cheap ones cause in my mind if they are that cheap the would be useless.

Are previous $120.00 baby gate bit the dust within 6 months. Are youngest was at the age a baby gate wasn't as necessary so we just took it off and left the stairs open.  Then the dogs boycotted using the backyard to pee and poo and thought the second floor was a better location. I was desperate for something to block the stairs and went out and bought a cheap gate for under $20.00.  BEST GATE I HAVE EVER USED!!!  It fits the stairs perfectly and though it took me a few hour to figure out (it was operator stupidity and not because it was all that difficult) it is crazy easy to open and close.  Even my 3 year old can easily take if off and put it back on the stairs. 

So, in conclusion something doesn't have to be expensive to be efficient. 

Keep Calm

This post may make you think differently, but usually I am overly optimistic person.  This week, not so much.  Yesterday's post gave you the rundown of the big stuff that have been dinging our budget, but today it is the little stuff that is making me want to pull my hair out.

This morning started with a trip to Hair Masters.  I finally got the okay to cut DD2's hair from the social worker.  I had originally thought the damage wasn't to bad and with some clever blending we wouldn't lose to much length but I was wrong. They had to cut A LOT and the social worker is going to not be happy with me.  We aren't suppose to cut foster children's hair without the birth parents permission but both of her parents are, how should I put this, not really "available" to give permission so the social worker just said to go for it. But this is when I told her it shouldn't be to drastic of a change. $17.00 with tip.

After that expense, I came home to DW getting ready to pick up DS1's new mattress.  I thought it was going to cost us $50.00 but it was actually $60.00, then as DW was getting tarps for in case she had to tie one to the roof of the van and she couldn't find the twine so she had to go buy some (she ended up not even needing it).

In preparation for the foster care inspection I am going to carpet clean the house.  The second floor really needs it as the dogs are boycotting the rain and are sneaking upstairs to pee and poo all over the place. Seriously, I carpet clean and go upstairs to more accidents a few minutes later.  Bottle spray and a rag aren't enough to really deep clean the stains so it smells pretty bad.  I caved and bought a cheap ($18.00) baby gate yesterday.  Imagine my surprise when I head up the stairs to find the baby gate leaning against the wall and NOT the stairs.  After that revelation I went upstairs to find a few my accidents to clean up.  I go to pull out the carpet cleaner and low and behold we are out.  There is another $10.00 I hadn't planned on spending. If I had KNOWN we were out I would have budgeted for it with out grocery budget but NOBODY TOLD ME!!

To top it all off when DS3 went to open one of the drawers on our kitchen island and the whole front face of the drawer came off.  Just clattered too the floor. W...T...F.   So DW is now running to the store for carpet cleaner, wood glue and directions to buy me chocolate.

It's 1pm, not much more can go wrong, right?

Tsunami

I swear every time I try to get our financial house in order it all falls to pieces. This time is no exception.

It started on Tuesday with my tire blowing on my way to a important team meeting for DS2 at his specialty school 30 miles from town.  A long tow and two new tires not in the budget...

Then I get a text message for DD1 in desperate in need of some financial help and then shortly after that she wanted the futon DS1 currently sleeps on as her living situation changed and she is now sleeping on the floor (DD1 is 18 and doesn't currently live with us, long story that deserves its own entire blog). The futon is hers but we had DS1 using it since he took over our daughter's old room until we could afford a new bed for him.

Already being crazy over budget,  I would normally set up a make shift bed (DS1 would love it) until the beginning of March when I could afford something but unfortunately we have a foster care license renewal inspection next week and they will look down on one of our kids sleeping on the floor regardless if he is legally mine or not.

Then the foster parent's of DD2's birth brother invited her and two other kids over all Saturday for a joint birthday party for birth brother and his foster brother.  They actually invited to take all 5 of the little ones off our hands but due to high special needs we decided to keep DS2 and DS3 home. While I GREATLY appreciate 10 hours with 3 kids free, it is two birthday gifts not in the budget.

And finally the cost associated with the foster care inspection.  Nothing ridiculous, everything we need to get done is fairly cheap by itself but it all adds up. I should have budgets for this better but I didn't.

The worst part of all of this is that it is only February 6th and we are already $400.00 over budget!!

On a positive note Roommate bought me Cold Stone ice cream so wallowing in self-pity while stuffing my face was banana caramel crunch was ABSOLUTELY FREE!!

$0.27

$0.27……That is my bank balance until our new budget cycle starts on 02/05/2015.  While we are short on a few novelties we are accustom to until payday, we have plenty of gas and food so the world will surely not end.

While I might get all depressed that we only have $0.27 in our bank account, we finished out January with every single bill being paid.  I can’t tell you that last time that has happened.  It feels great!! 

To save ourselves almost $215.00 in interest payments I decided to pay off our two new debts the first part of February.  The total payment will be $1015.00 dollars. OUCH!!!!  I normally split our bills evenly over the two pay periods but I pushed everything over to the second part of the month to accommodate this large debt payment but that still leaves us with very little to live on. 

If I only had food and gas to worry about we would be okay but we don’t have enough with Doctor co-pay’s, prescription costs, a baby shower gift, and Valentine’s Day to contend with.   I finally caved in and asked our daycare provider if we could change out payment schedule a little bit.  We normally pay $530.00 on the 5^th and 20^th of each month but asked if we could change it to $400 and $660.00.   That relieves the pressure a bit. 

I am just INSANLY happy that February is a short month and I know having those two debts paid off will really help boost both DW and I’s drive at sticking to a budget.  The past few days have been hard for us as DW struggles to completely understand what “We have $0.27 in the bank” means. She doesn’t quite understand that $0.27 will not transform magically into $27.00 when she is low on gas or out of cigarettes and then just have to deal and/or plan accordingly.    The past two mornings have ended with us being kind of snotty about it to each other.

 In February budget drastically cuts down on our cigarette budgets in hopes to help us save money and possibly quit smoking.  I plan to use my funds to get an e-cigarette as I have success with quitting using those before.  DW I think will probably just spend all the money on cigarettes at her normal pace and then will lose it when she is out as planning ahead isn’t her strong point…that should be interesting.

Fun with Low Funds

With so many children of various ages, finding fun activities that won't break the bank can be hard.  Because there are so many of us it doesn't take much to make it a party.

DOLLAR STORE: This place is a huge resource for us.  The always have decorations, toys and candies for every holiday and event. And of course with everything being dollar I can really make each holiday special without to much expense.

GOFOBO: This is an amazing website if you enjoy going to the movies but can't afford the high ticket prices.  They offer free pre-screenings of new movies before they are released for ABSOLUTELY FREE. We have seen Book of Life, How to Train a Dragon 2, American Sniper, Wedding Ringer, Kingsman, SpongeBob out of Water, Alexander and terrible Horrible Very Bad Day, and several others.  You can usually get to free screening tickets per account so for the kids movies Roommate and I each print tickets and rotate taking 2 kids. They don't seem to care if we bring outside food at the pre-screenings so I hit our friendly local Dollar Store for snacks. 

There are few drawbacks. It is first come first serve on seating so plan on getting there an hour early and even sooner for the big name movies. We arrived 1.5 hours early for Enders Gamer and still didn't get in. The Theaters are usually closer the big cities.  We live about 20 minutes for the city center so it isn't all that far but isn't as convenient as the 4 theaters close by.  While all the kids movies are scheduled on the weekends,  most movies are scheduled during the week at 7pm which is hard when I have to be at work at 6am the next morning. 

INBOXDOLLAR:  This is a website that pays you money for viewing advertisements and for completing surveys. Unlike most survey sites that pay you in gift cards or magazine subscriptions, you actually get CASH!! You have to take it in $30.00 intervals.  Once you make you first $30.00 they increase how much you make on certain categories so you make the $30.00 faster.  These funds are allocated to a certain event, right now all funds are being saved for a lunch and movie theater outing for the entire family which is about a $150.00 event.

GROUPON/AMAZON LOCAL: I use these sights for when I have expected expenses such as oil changes or dog grooming  I usually save 50% off the going rates.  We also watch these sites for our favorite restaurants or date nights on a budget.  Since we don't throw birthday parties for our kids (We have so many a celebration at home is a party), I try to do special events with them one on one.  I have found deals for pony rides, High Tea for kids, and ceramic painting deals for their special day. Also they are really good on offering deals for local events such as renaissance fairs, state fairs, and local museums which makes it more affordable for us.

And because I am watching the Super Bowl as I type this. GO SEAHAWKS!!!!!

The Extras

I have been trying to find ways to decrease our output and increase our input of funds.  We already work two main jobs plus a couple of side jobs, so I knew another job wouldn’t be an option. I found a few areas in which I neglected to follow-up on which could mean several hundred dollars more a month to help the monthly budget.

1.        Mileage - One of job duties for one of my side jobs has be driving on errands several times a week.  They reimburse mileage but the errands were usually really close to my house or if they were in another town I usually incorporated personal errands as well so I never bothered filling out the mileage reimbursement forms.

This month, I have finding myself driving 60 miles round trip several times so I decided to fill out the expense report. I am being reimbursed $285.00!!!! Now this is an unusually high driving month so for giggles I entered an estimate of what I drive most months and there is well over $100.00 a month I have been missing out on.  Going forward, I don’t care how short a distance, If I am driving on company business I am going to be reimbursed.

2.       Babysitting – Shortly after Roommate moved in, we started a monthly rent deduction of $80.00 a month so that she would watch the kids for us every Monday while DW and I attended a meeting.  When the meetings changed to every other week, we kept the deduction at $80.00 in hopes that we could make the alternate week a ‘Date Night’.   The meetings have since ended so I spoke with Roommate about changing this to $40.00 so we still had a few times a month for date nights.  Yay for $40.00 extra a month.

3.       Subsidy – We are trying to get the monthly subsidy we receive from the state for DS2 increased for several months now. In theory, if a child has a high level of special needs the state is suppose to provider a higher subsidy.  I have had 20 kids over the past 6 years and I have never asked  for an increased level but over the past 8 months DS2 special needs have increased 10 fold.  When I realized that the income lost due missing work for meetings/appointments/behavioral issues cause by DS2's special needs exceeded the monthly subsidy we received each month, I decided I needed to really push for an increase. 

I should hopefully hear in the next few weeks on whether this is going to happen or not.