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November 12, 2011, at 6:00 am If you're new to BFS, please subscribe to my RSS feed. It shows me a vote of support and keeps me motivated to keep your attention. If you have any questions or comments for me, please contact me and I'll get back to you asap. Thanks for visiting! Weekly Updates
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This week was extremely busy. I am not sure if word-of-mouth just went on hyperdrive or what, but I now have more than 135 client sites on my ad business referral list and 76 joint emails to run. Yay and holy moly all at once! I am sticking to my new hours of about 9am-6pm Mondays-Fridays, 9pm-11pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and a few hours as needed during the weekend. So I am not going bonkers yet. I also don’t seem to be falling into the self employment trap of having no life or taking no showers. Overall, I’m still all Crystal and basically clean over here. 
My Favorite Posts this Week
Guest Posts at BFS
Thank you!
I Staff Write at…
Giveaways
Blog Carnivals
If you are hosting a carnival that includes Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, please email me so I can include it in my roundup. Thanks!
Top 5 Referring Sites to BFS from Last Week:
- Get Rich Slowly
- Broke Professionals
- Yakezie
- Free Money Finance
- Deneil Merritt
Feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to add a few more blogs to my regular reading list or at least give a shout-out for great posts or contests.
As always, thanks to all the bloggers that teach me something new every day. Thanks to all my commenters for making this blog the community I want it to be. Thanks to all my lurkers too. 
I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as me!
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November 11, 2011, at 6:00 am
As I declared here recently, my husband and I have made the new goal to pay off our home by the end of 2013. What I didn’t say is that my personal goal is to really kill off the mortgage by the end of 2012 (we bought our house in 2007). No matter what, paying it off early for us means making extra payments towards principal.
The First Problem
Making a principal payment should be pretty simple, right? Nope. At least not with Chase. They made the monthly payment incredibly easy – that $900 payment is taken care of automatically without fail with $515 going towards our regular payment and $385 going towards the principal of the loan. BUT, I have to babysit any other principal payments or they screw it all up!
I mentioned the first fiasco before…I tried to make an additional principal payment of $900 after we refinanced since they skipped a month while the new mortgage was being set up so we decided to pay it anyway, but all towards principal. Well, that didn’t happen. They took the extra $900 as an early payment instead. I called twice about it, but it wasn’t corrected, and I finally just blew it off and waited for our automatic payments to catch up. We invested the extra $900 instead.
My Most Recent Experience
Well, if I am serious about our new pay off goal, I knew I’d be making additional principal payments and couldn’t blow it off. So I drove to a Chase bank, asked how to make a pure principal payment, withdrew $7000 as they requested, and applied it as an extra principal payment. But when I checked the balance when I got home, the $7000 was withdrawn from our checking account, but there was no credit to our mortgage account. So I called and was told not to worry, the extra payment would take 2-3 days to show up, but it would be applied as of the day I did it.
Okay, so I wait 3 business days, login to my account online again, and see that the $7000 payment is indeed there but it hasn’t been applied to anything! It’s just sitting there like $7000 in cash on the sidelines! So I call again, explain the problem, and am told that the rep is submitting a work order to have the payment applied to principal as I originally requested and it would be applied retroactively as well.
I logged in 2 days later and woot – the payment has finally been applied and it is dated correctly! Yay!
Why I am Still Annoyed
Great, my payment is finally right. But why did I have to babysit it to make sure? Why bother driving to the bank if they can’t do something like this correctly the first time? I would have done it online, but they said that would mess up the automatic payment thing we already are participating in. Grrrr… I am worried that I will be babysitting every extra payment I plan to make each month, but at least it is pushing me harder than ever to get this house paid off!
But the key part to this post is – be persistent when it comes to your money. Be stubborn. Be politely aggressive. Because no one cares about your finances more than you do. It’s a lesson I’ve learned a hundred times, but it is worth repeating. I blew off crappy service before and was never happy about it. Not again.
Have you ever had to really dig in money-wise for any reason? Ever babysit a payment or something similar?
November 10, 2011, at 6:00 am
If you are a fellow blogger or simply a reader with a question or great topic to write about, please send them my way! I try to post daily here at BFS with Tuesdays and Thursdays being prime spots for guest posts and reader questions. I’m all out!
So, if you are worried your idea will suck, blow that off. Seriously, you are getting in your own way. And if you think you have to have a blog to write something for BFS, nope. Consider this your chance to be a star to the 500 plus people that check in here every day!
Just write your best 500 plus word post or type out your question and send it my way! My email is budgetingfunstuff *at* gmail *dot* com. Thanks!
November 9, 2011, at 6:00 am
I have made the conscious decision to spend more of my life on things I love so I will have as few regrets as possible when I look back on my life. The only problem with this new frame of mind is that the things I love take time – like hanging out with friends and family, taking weekend trips to visit friends in other states, and throwing a potluck and going to a Renaissance Festival in the same weekend.
My Plan
But, I have a plan. I have successfully cut back my work hours to about 10 hours a day Monday-Friday, so I have Friday evenings to Sunday night pretty clear. I am going to utilize every weekend I can to make lasting memories. I also will be taking at least 2 full weeks off every year and hopefully my clients will understand. Don’t worry though, I would be giving at least 2 months advance notice of those weeks off. Lastly, I have started participating in evening activities to help my weeks be full of life too.
My Week Day Evening Fun
Every Monday night for the past few months, my husband and I have driven to poker night with his uncle’s poker group. Hanging out with that group is a lot of fun since they are crass and funny and you never have to watch what you say. It really is a bunch of fun to hang out, make really awful jokes, eat junk food, and never risk more than $10-$15 a night. In fact, I think I am up $8 now for the year, hahaha.
My other weekly activity is our bowling league on Thursday nights. My husband talked me and his parents into joining. We suck. No really. We really suck. But we don’t wallow in that too much. Every week, I am a bipolar bowler – 110 one game and 150 another – I just can’t seem to figure out if I am good or not. My husband is much more consistent with his 170 plus average but even he has his 145 game days and we just shake our head. Honestly, I feel sorry for our 5th player, who had never met us before and probably thought we had the chance to win something. But we joke around, mock each other, and vent about our weeks. Although people do not seem to appreciate it when I vent – in the public’s mind, I am self employed and should be happy all of the time. Bah humbug on that, hehehe.
My Normal Weekends
Other than the friends I’ve made online, I don’t talk to many others until the weekend when we all have a couple of days off. I usually spend Friday night with my closest friends. Saturdays are when we have potlucks or get a group together for an activity like the movies or a ghost tour of downtown Houston or something like that. Sundays are usually spent watching football, catching up with blogging, or fitting in some fun with the Renaissance Festival lately.
My Planned Weekends
My big change lately is that my husband and I decided that on weekends when not much is going on, we are going to do something extra fun. We have a gambling trip planned with friends at the end of the month – we’re all piling into a car or rented SUV to head over to Louisiana. In late December, we hang out with board gamers at a convention in Houston for 4 days straight. Lastly, I am now planning a weekend trip to California in January to visit a blogging buddy and just hang out.
In short, I don’t want to waste any precious time anymore. What’s the use of working 50-60 hour weeks if you don’t spend the rest of the time on something we enjoy? I’m not advocating wasting money, but I am a believer of budgeting in fun money for just these occasions. I figure if we continue saving 40%-50% of our money regularly, we will not regret spending the 15%-20% that we end up putting aside for trips and hobbies.
What do you think? Are you successfully maximizing the time you have?
November 8, 2011, at 6:00 am
The following is a guest post by YFS from yourfinancessimplified.com. If you want relevant, witty and easy to follow financial guidance subscribe to his newsletter by clicking here! And yes, YFS guest posted last week too – that’s what happens when you send me posts – consider this a call to arms to fellow bloggers!
Is it your turn to cook the Thanksgiving dinner this year? Maybe it is your responsibility every year to cook this large dinner. If you have a large family, it can be quite expensive to cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner. Last year, the average Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people cost about $44. (http://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-11-2010/save_money_on_thanksgiving_dinner.html) Even if you have a small family, you might be interested in reducing your Thanksgiving dinner costs, and many people tend to overspend when it comes to preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. The following are a few tips that you can use to have a fun, affordable Thanksgiving dinner.
1. Buy Stuff Early
So many components of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner can be bought days, weeks or even months ahead of time. Canned goods such as cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie filling last for years, and you can start buying them before Thanksgiving. Some stuffing mixes also last for a very long time. By buying some stuff early, you can help spread out the cost over a few months.
2. Put Your Family to Work
Ask family members to bring a dish to the Thanksgiving dinner, and this will help you to reduce costs. If you have enough family members or if people can bring more than one dish, you might just have to cook the turkey and the stuffing.
3. Use Coupons and Promotions
Check your paper for coupons especially during November. Stores want to sell their Thanksgiving related goods, and you can often get pretty good deals on certain brands if you take the time to look for the coupons. You can also find coupons online at websites like www.couponsuzy.com. Some stores run promotions for things like free turkeys or hams around Thanksgiving. Your local paper is a good place to find information about promotions like this.
4. Try the Local Grocery
Sometimes your local grocery will have better deals, especially around the holidays, than the big box grocery stores like Super Wal-Mart and Kroger. This isn’t always the case, but it is worth it to take a shopping trip to the local supermarket. Even if you do not find that the savings are much different, you’re supporting local business.
5. Go Veggie
This does not necessarily mean that you need to break out the tofurkey, but having more vegetarian side dishes can reduce your Thanksgiving dinner costs. Meat prices are high, and most of your dinner costs will go into buying meat. So, if you normally have a ham and a turkey every Thanksgiving, why don’t you just try turkey this year?
6. Decorations
If this is your first time hosting your family’s Thanksgiving dinner, you might feel like you need to go out and buy festive fall decorations. While cute decorations will certainly make your house look great, you shouldn’t have to spend too much money on them. First, you can try borrowing decorations from a friend or relative. Maybe they have some old decorations that they will not be using this year. Second, if you have kids, especially young ones, you can put them in charge of decorating for dinner. Check out this hand and feet turkeys – http://crafts.kaboose.com/hands-and-feet-turkey.html.
7. Eat Your Leftovers
Get creative with your Thanksgiving leftovers so that you will actually use everything before it goes bad. If you aren’t crazy about eating leftovers for a week, you can also send food home with your family. Check out these turkey leftover recipes – http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Meat-and-Poultry/Turkey/Leftovers/Top.aspx.
8. Don’t Overspend
Try not to overspend on Thanksgiving dinner. You want to know how many people are coming and cook for that many people. If you are new at cooking for large groups talk to friends and relatives who have done it before, and they can help you determine the right portion size for your dishes. You do not want to cook too much more than you need because then you’re stuck with a bunch of leftovers. And one last tip for saving money on your Thanksgiving dinner is to check your pantry before you shop. Sometimes you already have what you need.
Crystal’s Comments: We have been hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at our house for about 10 people for the past 3 years and it always ends up costing us about $50-$60 since we do splurge on ham AND turkey. Plus we make our own dressing from scratch, sweet potatoes, pineapple stuffing, and homemade apple pie. And as if that wasn’t enough, everyone else brings their favorite dish too…yay for potlucks!
November 7, 2011, at 6:00 am
20′s Finances is running a Dollar Challenge right now to nudge all of us to take a closer look at where our money goes every month. In order to participate, I am placing my percentages below for the 8 main categories listed. On December 3rd, Corey will be posting a summary post. This should be a lot of fun for financial voyeurs like me, lol. Here are my stats – since my income is so irregular, I’m basing this on our core budget of about $5000 a month and ignoring the excess that we end up throwing towards our mortgage, investments, and fun money accounts.
Housing – 14%
This is where I included our $515 mortgage and our utilities.
Transportation – 5%
This 5 cents per dollar covers our gas, basic maintenance, and toll road charges. Both of our cars are paid off which helps tremendously here.
Food – 10%
I know, we spend a lot on food for two people. We like eating out and eat at home based on our cravings, so we spend a bunch of money spoiling ourselves.
Insurance -10%
This amount includes our home owner’s insurance of about, property taxes, and our car insurance. The $5000 I am basing these numbers on is our take home pay after health insurance, taxes, and our other benefits.
Personal Care – 1%
Not a lot is included in this category for us. We don’t splurge much on clothing, so this is mainly prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines.
Entertainment – 16%
I’m including our fun money savings in this amount as well as our cell phones, cable, internet, Netflix, lawn care service, and our housekeeper.
Savings – 40%
We throw $400 towards our mortgage principal every month, invest in two Roth IRA’s, and pay ourselves for the car payments we no longer have to make.
Other – 4%
I am actually not 100% sure what this includes other than random cash and pop up expenses.
November 7, 2011, at 4:00 am
The following is a guest post.
New homeowners can protect themselves by being prepared for all of the expenses that exist when buying a house.
Budget for repair costs
Owning a home is a lot different than renting an apartment. There is no leasing office to call when something breaks in the house. You are responsible for all of the repairs yourself. You never know when a hot water heater will break or a pipe will burst. Home repair emergencies can put a major dent in a budget. That is why you need to start a savings account to cover any emergency repairs that might pop up. It is best to be prepared in the event of such an emergency by having some extra cash in the bank.
Budget for settlement costs
Some homebuyers make the mistake of failing to have enough money to cover all of the costs that go with settling on a home. They are caught off guard by all of the fees that have to be paid to close a home loan. They borrow money from family members, friends, and lenders to scrape up enough money to get into their home. If you want to keep yourself from falling into this predicament then you should estimate these costs before buying. An E-Mortgage Calculator like the one at www.emortgagecalculator.co.uk will give you a ballpark figure of how much cash you need to come up with to close your loan.
Budget for furniture
A lot of people spend every single dime that they have paying the down payment to purchase a home. They often find that they have to move into a house completely unfurnished. They use credit card debt to pay for the living room, bedroom, and dining room sets. The new homeowner not only has to pay mortgage payments but large credit card payments as well. In order to avoid falling into this trap, you should set aside some cash to pay for furniture for your new home. You do not have to buy all of your appliances at once. You can decorate one room at a time as you can afford it.
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DISCLAIMER I am not a professional or a financial advisor. BFS posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own financial decisions based on personal research or see a financial advisor.
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