It's a quiet night for me. I'm home alone with the kiddos, who so far only want to watch a movie and eat dinner on a blanket on the floor. I'm OK if they just want to veg out until bedtime. (Yep, they just asked me to put on another movie! )
Things have been going well, just not much to report on the financial front. One interesting thing is we seem to have more and more conversations about budgeting with various friends and acquaintances. At an alumni event, we were talking about our system and the other alums said they'd be interested if I hosted an event where I talked about it. So we'll see. I'll think about it even though I'm not good at public speaking.
AS wanted us to loan her mom some money. She asked about $800, I proposed $500 (which is what AS had left in her charitable giving fund from the WV windfall), and we settled at $700. (That also wiped out the $200 of my charitable giving that I'd been saving up to give to my college. We just got the first fundraising mailer of the annual drive this week. )
It bums me out because we've loaned and given money before and her situation never really improves permanently. In this case I was already reluctant, but especially enraged when I found out one of the reasons she was late on her rent was because she'd loaned her sister $500 and her sister wouldn't pay her back. (The sister, AS's aunt, and her husband make upwards of $200K, more than the three of us together and loads more than AS's mom.)
So, great, we're loaning money because someone who makes more than us foolishly borrowed money from a poor relation and couldn't pay it back. People. Come on.
Anyway, AS suggested to her mom that she consult me about setting up a budget. She PMed me on FB, I sent her my email address and she said she'd send me the details of her income and expenses. But she hasn't yet. So we'll see.
AS also told our downstairs neighbor, who is self-employed and hasn't paid or filed taxes in about three years, to get me to help him. He too has not approached me yet.
Another friend and her husband were talking at a party about how they save nothing and have no control of their finances. They're in their 40s and just got married (2nd marriage for at least one of them). Really cool people but you wonder what's going to happen to this generation that doesn't have the same safety net as previous generations, too much access to credit, and too little financial education. Hopefully I can help them sort it out a bit at some point!
My one friend I set up on spreadsheets similar to mine is still using them, over a year on! I'm so proud of her. I do still have access to the sheets and she asked me to help her with an issue recently, so I could see they were up to date. I couldn't help but notice that she still has about the same amount of debt as six months ago, but at least it isn't more, and her day-to-day budget is pretty under control. And she opened a Vanguard Roth that she puts a bit of money in on a regular basis. So that's kind of gratifying!
AS finally got some of the long-overdue freelance income, which was a relief; we hadn't had much spare money for a while. She's only been getting about $2K a month for the past few months, and a third of it goes to retirement/taxes and a third to the UK travel fund, so the rest has had to stretch.
With this latest influx I made up the shortage from going to the fair, paid for a delivery dinner night, and signed the kids up for swim classes again. I also sent AS and NT, who've both had big intense weeks, out for a date tonight. Hence being alone with the kids.
AS's teaching gig is going well. It's had its ups and downs but overall she seems to enjoy it. At least she's not terrified of the unknown anymore!
She also had an interview with a recruiter from the Fortune 500 company I mentioned in an earlier post. It sounds like an interesting job and one she could do, but on paper she's not at all qualified, so she's rather puzzled as to why they reached out. But, she sent her resume and some writing samples in anyway. We shall see. The salary is insane, high 90s to low 100s. Then again, if she's averaging $60K this year working about 2/3 time, it wouldn't be that big an HOURLY raise to make $90K working full time. But it would be a huge salary nonetheless. But none of us (including AS) is sure that a full-time corporate job is right for her. So we shall see!
We heard from our contractor that he hasn't heard from the city about the basement bathroom. He's going to follow up with them. We're kind of scared to spend the rest of our WV money until we know if anything needs to be done down there. I'm sure our contractor is eager to clear this up so he can get to work and get more of our money!
I've managed to send in all the October extra retirement money already, about $1450. I like staying a month ahead, but it makes me impatient, wondering when we'll be far enough ahead to put in the November amount. I just want to hurry up and max out our 2015 Roths. Once I do that I'll see if we're in a good enough place to put our retirement on autopilot and focus on other things.
We just heard from HMRC (the UK version of IRS) that we did get a late fee for turning in our 2014 taxes late. Jeez, we didn't even owe anything; they're harsh! It was 30 pounds and I had just enough in the UK checking account to pay it. This year we're going to try and file online; hopefully it works. The 2015 returns are due in early October, so we've got a reminder on the calendar to log in to their system Oct. 1 and make sure it works. If not, I can print out hard copies and hopefully get them in on time the old-fashioned way.
I guess that's about it. I've got some days off planned in October for various things, so I'm looking forward to that month. One is for my sister who's coming for a long weekend; another is for a long-weekend staycation with AS & NT (and the kids, though they'll be in school/daycare on the weekdays and have at least one sleepover with our downstairs neighbors).
We decided to have a Halloween party this year. We sent out the invite today, because with Halloween falling on a Saturday, I'm sure other people are pondering throwing parties. We want to get ours in front of people first! Lots of planning to do for that one, and it'll probably cost a fair bit of money for food, drinks, some decorations and some iTunes purchases.
I remember now that the weather is turning cool, I got rid of all clothing I didn't love. Now I have barely any slacks or sweaters. Methinks a trip to the discount outlet is in order this month or next! Probably I'll do it after AS receives more of the freelance money she's owed.
Quiet Friday night for me
September 12th, 2015 at 02:02 am
September 12th, 2015 at 03:18 am 1442024338
September 12th, 2015 at 03:52 am 1442026348
September 12th, 2015 at 06:07 am 1442034453
CB, I know! That's why I'm so proud of my one friend for at least keeping up with her spreadsheets and keeping her bank account in the black, and putting a bit away. I wish she'd stop using her CCs so that the amount never goes down, but at least the other parts are there.
September 12th, 2015 at 05:16 pm 1442074575
https://embassy-finder.com/united-kingdom_in_minneapolis_usa
I hope you'll consider hosting a info session about 'How Money Works' since so many people seem so bewildered when the money runs out before the month ends! Special kudos to friend who has stuck to the spreadsheet and for the most part put your suggestions into practice by contributing to ROTH and not maxing out CCs. I too find after 21 days of 'sacrifice' [no impulse buying & leaving CCs in fridge freezer] it's just too stressful for friends or DSIL to continue 'managing' their money. They go back to their familiar routine of fretting about how to pay the electric bill or come up with cash for DKs after school program. At least they no longer ask for loans to take them to payday. They seem to understand that I've given every dollar a 'job' and truly don't have $$$$ to give.
What fun to host a Halloween Party. It's become such a major event to allow adults to drop the facade for a few hours and play make believe.
September 13th, 2015 at 06:46 pm 1442166412