At the risk of sounding shallow and, well, completely irresponsible, I'm coming out with it: Over the last few days I put together the first budget for our family ever. This is a little pathetic as my husband and I have been married for four and a half years and our kids are almost four (no they're not bastards...I just got pregnant practically the day after we got married and they were born REALLY early) and we're just now getting this done. As I mentioned in my last blog, my husband is still with the same company, just accepted a new position. It was our hope that in spite of the pay cut his overall hours and stress would drop significantly. In reality, he gets paid half the money, works more and is more stressed. AWESOME!!!! That being said, it is what it is, and after multiple transfers from savings to checking last year it occurred to me we most definitely are spending more than is coming in. DUH!!!! Enter the budget.
I actually had a blast putting it together. Don't get me wrong, the end result ain't pretty, but I feel so much better knowing exactly what is coming in each month and exactly what is going out. I made this pretty little spread sheet in Excel and am now obsessed. We actually do a good job with the frivolous spending, but realized that there are a couple of areas that we can improve on. For one, Starbucks.
Let me just preface this by saying since having kids, Starbucks is my drug of choice. It's my crack. I go every single day (sometimes twice). "Hello, my name is Ann, and I'm addicted to chai." However, when you're spending nearly $300/month there, it's time for an intervention. I have to add that the $300 isn't just me, my husband goes every day too. And after hot chocolates here and there for the girls and breakfast for the four of us at least one day over the weekend, it adds up! So the REALISTIC (really important) goal is that I will only go once a day and I will no longer order food. Let's be honest, there's no way, unless of course I donated my kids to Salvation Army, that I could (translation: would want to) cut it out completely. This is doable. The other big ticket items are tuition and childcare while I'm in school.
Childcare alone is almost $2000/month. Ouch! It makes it hurt even more that I work for free. I'm currently a lowly intern with a monthly income of ZERO dollars. Double ouch! Anyway, as of now we pay for my tuition out of pocket but we're looking into the option of taking out a loan which if I'm not mistaken, is interest free until I graduate (or six months after). The goal would be to chip away a little bit while I'm still in school, even more over summers as I won't incur the same childcare costs, and pay off the balance quickly after graduation. We shall see, still need to look into it.
Another doozie is Comcast which seems to go up every few months. Time to give them a call and let them know I'm jumping ship unless...
The budget is definitely an eye opener. It feels so good to be on top of it though. And, if you haven't done yours yet (which I'm sure you all have as you're likely far less shallow and far more responsible than I) GET TO IT!!!!
I'm a mom of twins living in a suburban circus...and liking it, most of the time.
Friday, January 18, 2013
That Time of Year Again
It's that time of year again. I've been on winter break for six weeks now and the mind is idle. I'm bored. Which brings me back to my blog. I was just reading through old posts and really would like to keep up with this. Not expecting a miracle or anything, let's be real, I haven't written in a year, but, I would like to be a bit more present. That being said, there isn't a ton of time for catch up, but perhaps I should cover a few things that happened in the last 360 or so odd days since writing last.
Still in school and it's going well. I actually love it. I'm still struggling with the balance, but I'm close...closer than I've ever been and that feels good. Given that my winter breaks are so long my mind has a lot of time to wander though. I've been running many possibilities through my head and there are some things I need to take a look at. For one, school is frickin' expensive! In addition to tuition, day care expenses are nearly $2000/month. Plus there's books, parking, and the stupid toll road every time I go to campus (this actually is a life saver, not stupid at all, just costly). I need to figure out how we're going to keep swinging this for another two years. You would think I looked at this before starting, I guess I was a bit idealistic at the time!
I'm also feeling torn because I strive for balance between home life and school, but this snail's pace, part-time thing is killing me. During the academic year, all is well, but come winter break (two months) and summer vacation (over three) I can't help but feeling like it is a colossal waste of my time. I could knock out at least two classes during that five months. Sadly, my program doesn't offer any classes outside of the regular fall/spring semesters. I'm exploring taking classes online elsewhere and transferring them in so that I would be able to attend full time next year (minus the classes I transfer in) and knock it out in a year. Then I'd only get charged the onesie-twosie things one more time too. So annoying that I pay for collegiate athletics and construction fees over and over and over again. It adds up.
Could be an option to put off school next year and wait till the following year when the girls start kindergarten so that I could potentially pull off the full-time schedule without transferring any credit. Still don't know that that's plausible even with the girls in school...who knows?!!?!?!?
I've even been fantasizing about getting my real estate license reinstated. Sadly it's been expired for over three years now so I'd have to retake the exam. I've taken the classes and passed with no problem but that was five years ago. And, the woman at the Colorado Real Estate Commission kindly reminded me that those who attempt the exam without having taken the class recently only have a 20% pass rate. Odds aren't on my side.
Ultimately, I'll just keep plugging along, but holy hell, this is going to take me forever. I guess I'll just have to plan some fun things to do this summer to keep my mind off the fact that I have NOTHING going on.
In addition to school, the rest of my life is good. Here is a family photo taken in July. I know that's an eternity ago, but it's the most recent pic. with all of us so here you go: Ummm, okay, clearly been a while since blogging as I no longer know how to post pictures. Will add some next go 'round!
What else??? Will accepted a new job (within the same company) a little over a year ago and although the pay is MUCH less, he travels every other week and there is more stress...sounds like an awesome career move, right...we're now settled into the new routine. In a later post I'll talk more about the pay. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I just did our first budget over the last couple of days. What an eye opener! Let's just say there's some room for improvement...we're talking $300/month at Starbucks (cringe)!
Girls are good too. Almost four (in March). Much more to update on them, but again, that will have to come in a later post.
Well, that's all for now. It's great to be back and here's to a wonderful 2013!
Still in school and it's going well. I actually love it. I'm still struggling with the balance, but I'm close...closer than I've ever been and that feels good. Given that my winter breaks are so long my mind has a lot of time to wander though. I've been running many possibilities through my head and there are some things I need to take a look at. For one, school is frickin' expensive! In addition to tuition, day care expenses are nearly $2000/month. Plus there's books, parking, and the stupid toll road every time I go to campus (this actually is a life saver, not stupid at all, just costly). I need to figure out how we're going to keep swinging this for another two years. You would think I looked at this before starting, I guess I was a bit idealistic at the time!
I'm also feeling torn because I strive for balance between home life and school, but this snail's pace, part-time thing is killing me. During the academic year, all is well, but come winter break (two months) and summer vacation (over three) I can't help but feeling like it is a colossal waste of my time. I could knock out at least two classes during that five months. Sadly, my program doesn't offer any classes outside of the regular fall/spring semesters. I'm exploring taking classes online elsewhere and transferring them in so that I would be able to attend full time next year (minus the classes I transfer in) and knock it out in a year. Then I'd only get charged the onesie-twosie things one more time too. So annoying that I pay for collegiate athletics and construction fees over and over and over again. It adds up.
Could be an option to put off school next year and wait till the following year when the girls start kindergarten so that I could potentially pull off the full-time schedule without transferring any credit. Still don't know that that's plausible even with the girls in school...who knows?!!?!?!?
I've even been fantasizing about getting my real estate license reinstated. Sadly it's been expired for over three years now so I'd have to retake the exam. I've taken the classes and passed with no problem but that was five years ago. And, the woman at the Colorado Real Estate Commission kindly reminded me that those who attempt the exam without having taken the class recently only have a 20% pass rate. Odds aren't on my side.
Ultimately, I'll just keep plugging along, but holy hell, this is going to take me forever. I guess I'll just have to plan some fun things to do this summer to keep my mind off the fact that I have NOTHING going on.
In addition to school, the rest of my life is good. Here is a family photo taken in July. I know that's an eternity ago, but it's the most recent pic. with all of us so here you go: Ummm, okay, clearly been a while since blogging as I no longer know how to post pictures. Will add some next go 'round!
What else??? Will accepted a new job (within the same company) a little over a year ago and although the pay is MUCH less, he travels every other week and there is more stress...sounds like an awesome career move, right...we're now settled into the new routine. In a later post I'll talk more about the pay. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I just did our first budget over the last couple of days. What an eye opener! Let's just say there's some room for improvement...we're talking $300/month at Starbucks (cringe)!
Girls are good too. Almost four (in March). Much more to update on them, but again, that will have to come in a later post.
Well, that's all for now. It's great to be back and here's to a wonderful 2013!
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