spending, spending, spending

So I am in the process of buying a bed from Craigslist, and I am also taking a short trip this month. This means I'll barely be saving anything. It's stressing me out a bit. Or at least is weighing on my mind. I'm going to try to cut back in other areas. I saw a vase for $300 that I was about to buy and then realized that I probably should not. Same with a pair of shoes for $120. I guess I will just delay.

My most favorite time of the year

. . . is approaching. It's a time when my income increases. First, just like last year, I got a credit for my gas bill. I should not have to pay a gas bill for several months starting from August. On the income side, I will have paid all of my social security tax probably by the end of next month. So my paychecks in September, October, November and December are bigger than the rest of the year. This year I've been paying $756 a month in SS tax. That is an enormous amount of $ to have added to a paycheck. This is like Christmas, Easter and my birthday all wrapped into one. And then the best part of all (hopefully) is getting our bonus paid in December. Our business seems to be doing okay this year, so hopefully it will be comparable to last year's.

Midyear Budget Update

I've gotten around to doing my midyear budget update. The most interesting thing is to compare it to last year.

Luckily, I'm about $16,500 ahead this year. The big difference is school. No more school loans! That does not, however, include the cost of my new furniture ($4,000) and the new healthcare costs (still figuring out how much I'm actually going to end up paying).

This is where I am ahead of last year:
Rent (slightly less; I paid more the first few months of last year)
Groceries
Phone (no phone bill; saved about $500 so far this year)
Charity (this expense will even out in the end)
Gifts and Entertainment
and slightly ahead in Personal Care, Fees, Restaurants (miraculously)

I have spent thousands more this year so far on Travel and Clothing. Clothing is catchup spending from years of not buying anything. Travel might end up being not too far ahead, as I took my big trip earlier in the year this year than last. Of course I'm tempted to take another big trip this year, but have been fighting myself on this. Am planning a mini-break to Montreal later this month with my friend, so that has to be my last getaway for this year if I want to keep my travel costs reasonable.

Overall, I have so much more wiggle room without the massive school bill that even my $4,000 furniture does not make a substantial difference. School debt sucks.

Money in, Money out

I was going to do my midyear budget update, so I can compare it against last year's and try to make myself feel like I'm not reeaally spending so much more this year, haha. However, I realized its hard to keep track of my expenses right now. I still download my Mint transactions every month and categorize them in an Excel grid. But even in my not very active balance sheet there are certain expenses that make things more complicated. These fall into a few categories:
1. Work-reimbursed expenses: I always have $ outstanding that work owes me. Usually at least a few thousand dollars.
2. Health care: This year this is complicated. I pay for my care, and then for $1250 worth, my company reimburses me. For $1,000, it comes from my FSA. Also, right now I've got a $600 claim that just got denied. I have to call on Monday and figure out why they are not covering it. I think I needed preapproval (despite being told I didnt), so that could be a very costly mistake.
3. New furniture: Right now this is an off-balance sheet expense. I'm just recording my monthly minimum payments of $42. For same reason I am carrying this on a card for six months, I don't want to put it on the balance sheet!

Next week I should have a better understanding of what part of healthcare is still outstanding and in two weeks I should get a new expense report. Of course I already have work travel between then, so I'll rack up more expenses.

Overall, I know that I've spent a lot more on clothes, health care, furniture (4,000 more!) and possibly travel than last year. But I think my quality of life is better and I'm feeling more balanced.

Net Worth

So I did my quarterly net worth update. It's not pretty. I feel like saying, "But it's not my fault!"Because I saved a bunch of cash, but my investments dropped a lot. So in the end, I ended up 6K higher than last quarter. That's a lot of $, I know, but not compared to the amount that I usually saved. Oh well, onwards and hopefully upwards. I will focus on being grateful for what I have and have managed to save so far.

Can't get enough of high interest checking

So I have some extra cash sitting around. Right now, it is not earning any interest. While inflation is low, it is still slowly losing its value by not earning interest or returns. I did put some of the extra cash in my IRA, but I'm maxed out for last year and this year for contributions. So I can't stash any more there. I wish I could of course. I also want to keep this liquid and don't really have the stomach to invest it in the market. So I came up with a solution. I already have a high interest checking account through one bank. I earn I think 3.26% on up to 25K. So I found another institution that is offering this type of account where you don't have to be a resident of that bank's state. That's pretty rare, as most of these are limited to residents of the bank's state. I just opened the account on Friday. Now I will gather up my spare cash and deposit it in the account. Then I'll get one of my direct deposits switched to this account. I'll sign up for estatements (of course) and then all I have to do is make 12 signature transactions a month. I already have to make 10 for my other card. That's a lot of transactions. But I'll basically stop using my credit cards and just use these bank cards for all purchases. I try to charge everything anyway so I can keep track of all purchases, so I'm optimistic that I'll earn the interest each month.

Spending all my money

When I first started writing (i think about a year ago now) I never would have envisioned that I would be writing about all the big purchases I am making! That said, I am happy to be doing so. Today I bought bedroom furniture. As the man put it in the store, "big girl furniture."I am so happy that I did so. I've never bought furniture. I have a bed w/out a headboard, a hand me down dresser that I dragged out of my grandmom's attic, an Ikea night stand from college and some sort of canvas tent contraption for an armoire. I've had all of these items since the beginning of time.
So, I'm happy that I was able to buy something nice for myself and that I don't feel guilty about spending the money.

That said, I tried to look for pieces of Craigslist, but got tired of waiting for the specific ones I wanted to come up. So full-price it is. I did open a store credit card and have six months with minimum payments at zero percent interest. I vaguely remember reading that these types of deals are bad for your credit score as they are counted as a cash advance or some such thing, but frankly I don't care. My score is in the 800s. Even if it goes down 100 points, I'll still be fine.