Layout:
Home > Month 8.5

Month 8.5

May 18th, 2010 at 02:50 am

Well, I've been a little out of the loop on here the last few months. Lots of life changes going on. We've made another trip back to VA to help my mother-in-law get ready for her move to Texas, we've continued homeschooling, and the biggest surprise is that we are going to have another baby! Our fourth and definitely last child will be born this November. As far as we know baby is healthy thus far. We should find out whether it's a boy or girl on June 11th, as long as he/she is willing to cooperate. With three girls already it's going to be interesting to find out if it's going to be a house full of little girls or whether my husband will have some company in the male department.

Here is an update on the financial side:

Emergency Fund: We depleted quite a bit of this with the travels to VA over the last few months. There is still roughly $3000 left.

Other Savings:
College Funds: $14,110
TSP $16,290
Roth IRA (me) $7,992

Total (including Emergency Fund) $41,392

That's it so far. I've made a few adjustments as far as contributions. We've up'd the TSP contributions to $486 per month and starting next month my IRA contributions will be $320 per month. One of the reasons we increased the TSP is to lower our taxable income because the money I've earned this year working has been as an independent contractor so we are trying to lower our taxable income.

I would like to set aside half of what I earn this summer towards the Emergency Fund as well. Hopefully this will happen.

Where the debt stands:

Credit Cards $1212
Sallie Mae $12,314
Dept. of Ed. $39,619
Cars $28,582
Total $81,727

My husband got a small bonus this month which helped push things along a little.

Another change is my sister has come to live with us. She will be 30 tomorrow. She has some learning disabilities and unemployed for the last 7 months. She lives with our parents but has come to stay with us and we are hoping she will find a job soon and in the fall we are going to try a few classes at the community college for her. She had one interview at Target last week and wasn't offered a job. We are turning in a few other applications tomorrow, hopefully with some better luck!

I haven't been working these last few months but I start back up the first week of June. I should have a job until the end of summer. I will pay my sister to watch our kids during this time which will hopefully help her and me.

We've enrolled our older two girls in a local charter school for the fall. With a new baby coming I'm afraid I won't be able to devote the time to homeschooling that I would like too. We've also decided to save on the cost of preschool for our three year old this fall and just keep her home. I did find one program that was $60 a month for one day (3 hours) that we may do. I'm just ready to be done with this. I know we have a long way to go but it feels good to be making some progress.

Anyways, enough rambling for now. I'm hoping to have a new budget posted in June and would love some feedback.

6 Responses to “Month 8.5”

  1. Purple Flower's Says:
    1274147663

    Congrats!

  2. Analise Says:
    1274150657

    Wonderful news! Congratulations.

    I was very impressed with your progress on debt reduction since last September (side bar)... more than $20,000 with what your reported today. Yipee!

  3. leahb Says:
    1274157211

    It just feels slow going sometimes... when the number is SO big. It is nice to see the little things add up. I just really hope the rest of the year has no more "surprises"

  4. Ima saver Says:
    1274209064

    Congratulations on the new baby!

  5. Jerry Says:
    1275060139

    Nice going, and congratulations on the new little one... I hope you have a smooth and restful pregnancy. We are about to have our second baby here in the next week or so (unless she goes past due, like our daughter did!), and it definitely leads to some recalculations and adjustments. You are kind to let your family stay with you, and I hope that this gives her some insurance of stability while she finds work and gets school started.
    Jerry

  6. Leah Says:
    1275094625

    Thanks Jerry and congratulations to you too!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]