I'm sorry; I try not to be controversial in places where it might be problematic.

But I just came back from a "bachelor party" for two male friends having a commitment ceremony next week. These are two friends who are moral, upright, religious and kind on all counts, and compeletely in love with one another (for the past 5 years). Yet family members who have supported them being together are having a problem with them having a commitment ceremony.

These familial haters keep bringing up the Bible or God, thinking the two lines of the Bible condeming homosexuality are somehow more powerful than the dozens of lines condemning shellfish and poly-cotton blends. I just don't get it.

I get having an opinion of something; I happen to think that eating, killing or using for entertainment an animal is just as wrong as eating, killing, or using for entertainment a human. But I realize I may not have all the answers where that is concerned, so I still love people who do such things to animals.

Basically, unless you kill or harm a human being deliberately, I will at least respect your basic nature. I can't believe these friends have to face so much petty judgment from these family members, who have taken a huge step interpreting God's will (where they've freely assumed other parts of the Bible are just dated per the era they were written in). I can't believe they'd take such a risk with the love of their sons/brothers.

Their loss, though. I will love these men their whole lives, feeling fortunate that I met them and know them.

Sorry again, but I just had to vent. This is so wrong.

CJ

I just retotaled my monthly budget because one of my regular payments went down. (I'll still pay extra on it; that's how it got lowered. But I do like to see my base budget.)

It hit a nice round number (with the help of rounding up every bill amount, of course): $4300. There are three adults in my household. $1040 is for groceries and other household expenses, $1892 for mortgage and association dues (including all utilities and cable TV), $141 goes to phone and internet for all three of us, and the rest ($1227) goes to debt (credit card, personal loan and student loans).

I know I could cut down a few other things, but if I just get rid of my straight-up debt, just think! $1227 a month left over to save, pay down my mortgage, up my 401(k), etc. That gives me even more impetus to push ahead, even if it takes years.

CJ

Well, I was looking at my budget projection for the next month and a half, and I had about a $480 surplus. Now, that accounts for some fun stuff that's planned, such as tickets to a music show, anniversary celebration, niece visit and friends' wedding expenses, but it doesn't count at all for spending money. Sometimes my little household goes around with little or no spending money, and we all know credit cards are only for budgeted items and emergencies, so we just don't often make impulse purchases. But it's nice to be able to do that, so I thought, I'll withdraw half that surplus and distribute it equally, $80 for each of us, and just tell the others it has to last them a couple weeks, but who knows? If there are no unexpected expenses, they might get some more.

Then AS called and said she'd had to go to the eye doctor, dentist and pharmacy today. I went back in and voila, $200 more gone to medical expenses! LOL, glad I didn't take out the full surplus or anything! I talked to AS, and she has some more expenses coming up, but we'll be able to plan for them. Plus, she'll be able to cover some of this eventually with flex spending.

Soo, I decided to still distribute the money I took out of the bank, but to let AS & NT know to hang onto some of it--don't know when we'll have some more spending money.

All in all, the budget is tight, but balanced. And I can always put some of my own share of the spending money back in if I need to; but I've got other places I can cut back if needed. Here it is, spending money already withdrawn (and much abridged):
Balance 7/5: $448.92

Bills & Expenses 7/1-7/15: $481.84

$32.92 SHORT

Income 7/15-7/31: 3271.21
Bills & Expenses 7/15-7/31: $2754.67

$483.62 LEFT OVER

Paychecks & Income 8/1-8/15: $2405.32
Bills & Expenses 8/1-8/15: $2839

$49.94 LEFT OVER

Not too shabby, and this plans for some extra pay-ins to principal debt!

Sigh...having a slow point at work and wish I had something to report about my 1099 + 555 Plan, but I won't be paying any bills or having any extra money to pay anything down until Friday. I don't know what NT's paycheck will look like, but I'm hoping it's over $400. Then I'll put $200 toward debt, $200 toward upcoming summer expenses (weddings, visits, anniversaries), and any little bit left over will be fun money to distribute evenly between the three of us.

I thought I had my summer expenses pretty much figured out, but I just realized I have a 10-year anniversary coming up in late July and a niece coming to visit in August (I never see her, so I want to make it fun). So I have to see what I can do to come up with extra money, because I don't want to derail my payoff plan before it even starts! I have some time to figure it out, luckily.

Now that I've joined this site, I enjoy thinking of all the things I do that are free, or save money.
- I've been really good about my spending money; I gave myself $60 about three weeks ago, and I still have $16 left! That means I only spent about $2 a day on average.
- Last night, NT & I went to the mall and got a new power supply ($70 value) for our computer free, because we were still under warranty.
- I'm getting a coffeemaker, a pound of coffee and a box of filters for only $16, and AS is going to put our old one to use at her office. I just have to call the coffee company after I get it to cancel our "membership." I've done it before so I know it'll be no big deal.
- We're going to sell back one of AS's old textbooks for $19.
- I harvested some more peas, and some tiny carrots and onions, from my community garden.
- I'm gathering up store receipts that have anything slightly medical on them; I have a ton of flex spending left that I need to use, and I can get reimbursed for things like Tums and aspirin. So far I've got about $23 worth of receipts.

Maybe I'll try to sell some used books to the bookstore this weekend or something. Also, I already have money allocated for a rental car in July, but I bet I could find a better deal before then. I'd love to have money set aside for all summer festivities before they happen, so I can enjoy them guilt-free.

CJ

I did go ahead and deposit the loan check that I got approved for. (Thank you for the advice!) As soon as it clears (probably tomorrow) I'll pay off some higher-interest debts, reconfigure my monthly bills & budget, and see if there's now room to put some extra money toward principal on some of my debts.

I realized today that NT will probably get Wed. July 4 off without pay, since he's just a temp. I don't think his temp agency gives paid holidays and I know his temporary assignment won't. But I hadn't factored any of his income into our budget yet, so it's not too big of a disappointment.
CJ

One thing I really like about other people's blogs is how they document all the small money triumphs. So I thought I should list some good things that have happened to us this week:
-$6 refund check for recalled product came in the mail, along with coupon for free bottle of mouthwash.
-Coupon for free 2-liter of soda came in the mail.
-AS got a small raise; should mean about $40 per month if we're lucky!
-I asked both NT and AS if they needed any more spending money (I'd given them $80 apiece 10 days ago) and they both had almost half left and agreed to try and stretch that for another week! They're really getting behind this saving-money thing.
-Picked a small bag of lettuce and some peas; our first harvest from our community plot! Made a salad with today's lunch and some lettuce left over for sandwiches tomorrow. Free veggies taste good!
-Detected some unauthorized charges on one of our check cards; got them taken off and card canceled with no trouble!

Maybe once I understand more about the $20 challenge idea, I can put stuff like this toward that. Still reading and trying to figure it out: Do you keep a separate bank account? Stuff it in your mattress? :-)

CJ

I got approved for a personal loan that will roll three other debts with high interest into one loan with an OK (8.99%) interest rate. No fee for taking the loan, the payments will be $60-$80 less than the three together are now, and it has fixed payments and fixed interest and pays off in 60 months, with no penalty for early prepayment. Moving debt around didn't work when I wasn't serious about paying it off, but now that I am, this should help me pay more off, faster.

If it still seems like a good idea on Monday, I'll probably do it.

CJ

Thought I'd share my main money-management tactic: I keep an unsent e-mail in my draft folder of my Yahoo account, and check my checking account online daily. I list my current balance, list all the income and debits I expect for the month (in half-month groups), and see whether I'm ahead or behind.

NT's income is irregular as he's a temp, so his money is surprise bonus money, and we use some for spending, some for paying down debt. AS and I have regular paychecks twice a month.

It's a nice system because I go in daily and change the balance, then delete items that have come through, or add items for upcoming income or debits that I've just found out about. I have a general budget document that I keep as well, but this one gives me a more specific idea of where we are, because it factors in the unpredictable stuff.

Here's a sample of what my "number crunch" looks like right now:

Balance 6/22: $1589.86
Pending check card auth: 108.21
(SIMONDELIVERS.COM INC $99.23
AMAZON.COM $8.98)
Available balance = $1481.65

June 16-30 upcoming debits:
$60 spending money
$20 for farmers market
$19 for Nat'l Geographic
$450 for Wii plus accessories
28th: Comcast $45.95
American Express $372
16th-30th: Groceries $161.03
keep $350 for next month
= $1477.98

$3.67 LEFT OVER

July 1-15 upcoming income:
$6 Agent blue refund
6/29 CJ paycheck $1362.32
7/1 parking rental $75
7/5 AS paycheck $938.32
Add back in $350 from last month
= $2731.64 + 3.67 = $2735.31

July 1-15 upcoming debits:
1st: Citimortgage $1356.97
2nd: Firstmark $71
4th: NT Bus Pass $76
5th: Association dues $520.97
6th: Reserve Line $89
9th: Netflix $10.70
14th: Barber (for all 3 of us) $60
1st-15th: Groceries $440
Gift for friends' wedding: $100
= $2724.64

$10.67 LEFT OVER

July 16-31 upcoming income:
7/16 CJ paycheck $1362.32
7/19 AS paycheck $938.32
= 2300.78 + 10.67 = 2311.45

July 16-31 upcoming debits:
15th: T-Mobile $95
Bremer $95
16th: Capital One $564
21st: Rental car for friends wedding: $190
24th: Barber $60
28th: Comcast $46
American Express $366
misc household $100
16th-31st: Groceries $440
keep $350 for next month
= $2306

$5.45 LEFT OVER

Looks like we're cutting it kind of close, I know, but NT gets some kind of money every Friday that's not factored in until we get it. Today's was just enough to break us even for the next month, but next Friday's will be a lot bigger because he worked full-time this week. But we don't know how much, so I haven't put it on.

CJ

I got my family on the straight and narrow sometime in mid-March. Didn't have time to estimate my debt then, just needed us to cut some spending and come up with a workable paycheck-to-paycheck budget, fast. But in mid-May I finally sat down and counted up our* debt. Not pretty, but best to know.

Debt as of 5/24/07:
Credit card:
RL: 2,766 (pays off $25/mo)
CO: 19,218 (pays off $420/mo)
AE: 18,819 (pays off $340/mo)
----------
Total credit card debt: 40,803

SM: 16,129 (deferred; AS in school)
FM: 3,489 (pays off $55/mo)
DL: 12,500 (deferred; AS in school)
----------
Total student loan debt: 32,118

Home loans:
CM: 184,559 (pays off $280/mo)
BM: 10,288 (no $ to principal)
Dad: 7,000 (not paying regularly)
----------
Total home debt: 201,847

Total debt: $274,768

*Disclaimer: This is just me and AS. Third person in our household, NT, just joined eight months ago from another country. I haven't yet asked him for his exact debt, but I do know it's part mortgage (don't know how much - $60K?) and part credit card (fairly substantial - $10K-$20K I'd guess, and he's got it on a 0% card). He's renting his foreign property and using the proceeds + tax refund to pay the mortgage and his minimum credit card bills. Sooo, eventually I'll need to wrap my head around his stuff, but at least he's building home equity, keeping on top of bills, paying off some debt and not paying any interest. It doesn't affect our lives directly, so I'm tuning it out for the time being. More on this at some point!

Greetings! I need to check out some other blogs on this site to figure out the best way to do this, but I thought I should post something just to get started. It's funny, I'm now the third of all three people in my household to have started a blog for the first time this month! Leave it to me to have the most boring and dorky (although not to me, and apparently I've found some like-minded people on this site). I look forward to sharing the minutiae of my financial life with anyone who will listen (or read).
CJ