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Black Friday Eve

Today is Black Friday Eve. It’s the day when people gather around the table and gorge in preparation for the mighty battle to

Black Friday shoppers at Walmart — Ick! Who thinks this is fun?

come on the fields of Wal-Mart.

We won’t be participating this year. My wife got laid off 3 weeks ago and I started a new job on Monday. The new job has a 2 week delay between pay period and pay check, so I won’t see a check until the middle of December.

We aren’t hurting but we are tapping into our savings to bridge the gap to paycheck #1. I just transferred $1200 to cover the gap. With that, the money we have to cover things not in our regular budget is $36. You can’t go too crazy on Black Friday with $36.

That isn’t draining our savings. We took some, but not all of it.

It isn’t raiding our Christmas present fund.

It isn’t taking money out of the braces fund.

Or any other fund.

This isn’t pain and we won’t be tasting poverty for Christmas. We just have to de-prioritize blind consumerism for the holidays.

Instead, we’ll sleep in a bit, then cuddle with a couple of little girls who will want to watch something horrible like Horseland first thing in the morning. We’ll follow that up with a leisurely breakfast, maybe a walk around the neighborhood pond and Thanksgiving-A-Day-Late with my wife’s family.

And a bit of remodeling and repair work on our rental property whenever my Dad can drag himself out of bed and come over.

It will be a good day and shouldn’t cost a cent. That’s what I’m thankful for.

Net Worth Update

Misc

Time to update my net worth. Here are the highlights:

We paid off the Tahoe we bought last fall, but the value of my Pacifica fell $5,000 since April. That made me sad.

In August, we had $1000 worth of car repairs and $5500 for braces. We had most of the money saved for braces, but had to juggle some savings accounts around to cover it. We didn’t have enough money in our car repair fund to cover the repairs. Between the two, we beat up our credit card a bit more than usual last month. I’m not happy about it, but I’m confident we’ll catch up this month. My current goal is to get that paid off by the end of September. If I do, I should be able to avoid paying any interest on the balance.

All in all, it’s not bad progress. Our assets dropped $171.61, but our liabilities dropped $10,931.13, so our net worth is up $10,000. You won’t catch me complaining about that.

What’s going to happen in the future? We’re going to remodel both of our bathrooms this winter. We’re hoping to buy a pony before spring.

I’m excited to see our budget evolve over the next few months.

My wife is working and my kids are all in school. With the way our schedules work, we’ve pulled the youngest two out of daycare, so that expense is gone. And there are a couple of other things in the works that I’ll be sharing when they are finalized. If things progress the way they are looking, we’re going to spend the winter living off of my income, and saving her’s. That makes me feel like putting on an ant costume and kicking grasshopper’s butt all over town.

Missing Money

Finance

Last week, I checked my credit card account only to discover I was over budget by nearly $1000.

What.

The.

Heck?

It threw me into a bit of a panic. How could we possibly have spent an extra grand without knowing it?

We didn’t buy new furniture. We didn’t buy new computers. We didn’t buy a new car. We didn’t take any trips.

Oh, wait.

I did take a trip. I went to work headquarters for three days. That’s about a $500 mileage allowance, plus three days of restaurant meals.

I forgot to file my expense report.

That’s where my money went.

Somehow, in all of life’s wonderful hustle, I neglected to ask my company for the almost $1000 they owe me. That’s an oversight, for sure.

Luckily, we keep that much padding in our other accounts, so I don’t have to pay interest on that money, but still.

That’s my money and I forgot about it.

I’m so not happy with myself.

What’s worse, is that even though I figured out the problem last week, I still haven’t gotten that expense report filed.

It’s not procrastination, I swear. I’ve just been absentminded and keep forgetting to do it. Right now, I’ve got “EXPENSE REPORT” written on my whiteboard to remind me to file it.

Cuz I’m going to do it tomorrow.

Five Signs You Don’t Need That

Finance

Everybody occasionally buys things they don’t need, from DVDs to luxury cars. There are signs that what you’re buy may not be an actual necessity.

Here are five signs you should put that back:

You’re buying that sweater or video game for the endorphin hit, you’re shopping for the addictive high not to fill an actual need. It’s a habit that’s as hard to break as smoking, if not harder. You can’t, after all, stop shopping altogether.
You already have one. Or 10. A relative can’t turn down a sale and she buys for life. She regularly buys 3 of whatever useful gadget is available on the shopping channel. Her house has turned into a sad story of compulsive hoarding.
The rationalizations for your purchase include “It’s cool” or “My friends all have one.” If you are buying something just for the bragging rights, it has become an ego purchase, which is something to avoid. The insidious part of an ego purchase is that you have to keep topping your last purchase and the last purchase of your social circle, or the purchases lose value. It’s a vicious circle.
It doesn’t have a “place”. Where are you going to put it? Is it going to go in the corner, or is there a drawer or shelf it can live on. If there’s no play to consider “away”, you’re just buying clutter. If you must have it, go home and toss, sell, or donate 2 things to make room. If possible, do that before you actually by the new toy. If it’s important, you’ll come back for it.
You didn’t know you needed it 10 minutes ago. If you actually need it, it’s on your list, right? Impulse purchases have been the biggest budget-killer in my house. That’s why we use Alice for the household goods. If we don’t see the it, we can’t throw it in the cart at the last minute. We no longer shop with the debit card, so we have to watch what we buy. It’s embarrassing to have to undo a purchase at the checkout because I didn’t bring enough cash.

What did I miss?

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-30

Misc

Bad. My 3yr old knows how the Nationwide commercial ends…including the agent's name. Too much TV. #
RT @MoneyCrashers: Money Crashers 2010 New Year Giveaway Bash – $9,100 in Cash and Amazing Prizes http://bt.io/DZMa #
Watching the horrible offspring of Rube Goldberg and the Grim Reaper: The Final Destination. #
Here's hoping the franchise is dead: #TheFinalDestination #
Wow. Win7 has the ability to auto-hibernate in the middle of installing updates. So much for doing that when I leave for the day. #
This is horribly true: Spending Other People's Money by @thefinancebuff http://is.gd/75Xv2 #
RT @hughdeburgh: "You can end half your troubles immediately by no longer permitting people to tell you what you want." ~ Vernon Howard #
RT @BSimple: The most important thing about goals is having one. Geoffry F. Abert #
RT @fcn: "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." — Winston Churchill #
RT @FrugalYankee: FRUGAL TIP: Who knew? Cold water & salt will get rid of onion smell on hands. More @ http://bit.ly/WkZsm #
Please take a moment and vote for me. (4 Ways to Flog the Inner Impulse Shopper) http://su.pr/2flOLY #
RT @mymoneyshrugged: #SOTU 2011 budget freeze "like announcing a diet after winning a pie-eating contest" (Michael Steel). (via @LesLafave) #
RT @FrugalBonVivant: $2 – $25 gift certificates from Restaurant.com (promo code BONUS) http://bit.ly/9mMjLR #
A fully-skilled clone would be helpful this week. #
@krystalatwork What do you value more, the groom's friendship or the bride's lack of it?Her feelings won't change if you stay home.His might in reply to krystalatwork #
I ♥ RetailMeNot.com – simply retweet for the chance to win an Apple iPad from @retailmenot – http://bit.ly/retailmenot #
Did a baseline test for February's 30 Day Project: 20 pushups in a set. Not great, but not terrible. Only need to add 80 to that nxt month #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-27

Misc

I tried to avoid it. I really did, but I’m still getting a much bigger refund than anticipated. #
Did 100 pushups this morning–in 1 set. New goal: Perfect form by the end of the month. #
RT @BudgetsAreSexy: Carnival of Personal Finance is live 🙂 DOLLAR DOODLE theme: http://tinyurl.com/ykldt7q (haha…) #
Hosting my first carnival tomorrow. Up too late tonight. #
Woot! My boy won his wreslting match! Proud daddy. #
The Get Home Card is a prepaid emergency transportation card. http://su.pr/329U6L #
Real hourly wage calculator. http://su.pr/1jV4W6 #
Took my envelope budget out in cash, including a stack of $2s. That shouldn’t fluster the bank teller. #

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