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Friday, October 31, 2008

October Wrap Up & November Goals

October was better than I thought it would be. The economy obviously had an effect on our assets and we discovered we are more strapped than we thought as far as take home pay. We can’t really afford a lot of extra money right now with Christmas and the Landmark Forum coming up.


We have decided to go to our credit union tomorrow to get a home equity line of credit and pay off the personal loan we have (with the same credit union) and all of our credit card debt. This will decrease our minimum payment expenditure by around $500. It will be nice to keep more of our money every month where we can decide to do what we want with it. More on this plan later.


September Employer Income (EI) – $4,017.31 (as normal)

October Employer Income (EI) - $4,043.53 (as normal - Chris is hourly so his fluctuates a bit)

September Other Income (OI) - $0

October Other Income (OI) - $110 (massage & craigslist) – increase of $110

September Assets - $13,583.31 (decrease of 1% from August)

October Assets - $12,244.35 (decrease of 9% - we finished out the month better than we thought we would at least)


October Goals - maintain EI (slight increase) and increase OI by 4% to $125 (increased to $110) and Assets by 3% to $13990.80 (we all know what happened here).


November Goals - Pay off personal loan and credit cards with line of credit. Maintain EI and increase OI to $125 and maintain assets. Save money for LF and buy most Christmas gifts.


Food budget may have to be revamped to $500 but I won’t make any major decisions about that until the New Year.


September Groceries – $496.00 - 124% of budget

October Groceries - $495.76 - 123% of budget (down 1%)


November Goal - $400


We did better with coffee than we thought we would but eating out went up. Entertainment and Crafts were at zero so that was nice.


September Fun Money - $323.33 – 8% of employer income (goal 7%)

Eating Out $51.86 (16% of fun money)

Coffee $104.25 (32% of fun money)

Entertainment $26.49 (8% of fun money)

Crafts $45.27 (14% of fun money)


October Fun Money – $292.87 - 7% of employer income (goal 7%) – goal met

Eating Out $93.11 (23% of fun money) – increase of 7%

Coffee $98.37 (24% of fun money) – decrease of 8%

Entertainment $0.00 (0% of fun money) – decrease of 8%

Crafts $31.39 (less than 0% of fun money) – decrease of 14%


November Goal – 7%


Planned meals out this month were one and we went way over that. It was the hubs Birthday and we did use a gift card for that but our tip came from the checking account. That was not the only meal out this month either. I would like to reduce eating out for November to twice.


We bought two DVD’s at full price however we had budgeted for it and this is one thing we cannot live without.


Coffee – what can I say – it’s addicting. We at least spent less than last month and I would really like to keep that coffee budget to twice per week for November.


We did buy some Halloween decorations on the credit card which was really a weakness we recognize. Christmas stuff that needs to be made should not cost a lot (I hope).


We were only able to pay minimum payments on our debt rounded up to the next dollar. With three birthdays this month a lot of the extra money that would have gone to debt went to gifts and food for celebrations. I still owe the hubs his gift. Ug!


September Loans – $723 - 100% of budget

October Loans - $705 – 100% of budget

September Credit Cards – 228.49$ - 100% of budget

October Credit Cards - $214 – 100% of budget

September Extra Debt – 0% (we were strapped)

October Extra Debt – 0$ (should be able to with home equity loan and debt minimum payment reduction)

September Total Debt Balance - $37,350.62 – ($9,157.52 cc’s & $28,193.10 loan’s)

October Total Debt Balance - $38,421.33 – ($10,624.16 cc’s & $27,797.17 loan’s) increase in credit card debt to 67% of total available credit and decrease in loans by $480.69. Don’t have totals for interest paid yet due to billing cycle.


November Goals – Loans $15,748.63, Credit Cards $10,624.16 - Total $26,372.79


November Total Debt Balance Goal $37,425.33 (not including interest and decreased minimum payment outlay)


Savings really didn't get much money. In fact this next month I will need to take some money out in order to cash out some stock I have.


September Short Term Emergency Fund (STEF) – 0% (goal $3,000)

October Short Term Emergency Fund (STEF) – 0% (goal $3,000)

September Long Term Emergency Fund (LTEF) – 0% (goal $10,000)

October Long Term Emergency Fund (LTEF) – 0% (goal $10,000)

September Vacation Fund (VF) – $ 1006.06 34% (goal $3,000)

October Vacation Fund (VF) – $1008.31 34% (goal $3,000)


November goals: STEF $232 (Landmark Forum), LTEF - $0 and VF - $0


This month was a little harder for us but I am proud that we didn’t fall off the wagon as bad as I thought we did.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Coffee is a weakness for me too. Yum, especially when it's getting colder out.