Well, that and the CRAZY amount of prep work required for a new person. Seriously, it’s a little overwhelming.

I’m in the process of getting things back to normal and adjusting our budget to account for our new addition. We’ve been re-evaluating our expenses and cutting them down as much as possible to increase our bottom line and increase our savings. In the last 8 months, we have cut our monthly expenses by over $1000. Some of that is from paying off debts, and some of it is from finding ways to save on our regular monthly bills. I am excited to share it and hopefully others can save some money, too!

I was looking at our budget in Quicken, and comparing our spending to our one income budget. Our spending was in line, all of our bills had been paid or scheduled, and we had one more paycheck coming in for February.

Then I looked at the forecast for the next 3 months. This shows a nice little graph of what your bank account balance is projected to be based on expected income and expenses.

Our balance was forecasted into the negative. I freaked out. Sheer panic. How can that be? I have reviewed this budget over and over and, while it is tight, we should not be going into the negative.

After determining that Quicken was a piece of garbage, and vowing to try another budgeting software, I saw something little in the corner. Something that said “Extra Monthly Expenses”. A value that should have been zero, but instead was listed at $3800.

Oops.

Due to some user error, the software was projecting an extra $3800 to be taken out of my bank account every month. No wonder it had projected into the negative.

So, Quicken, this is my public apology. I will no longer blame you for errors that are clearly my fault. And I will vow to double check all my numbers before I freak out and think that our new budget is going to bankrupt us.

I bought a huge packet of bone-in chicken breasts for $0.99/lb yesterday and they’re cooking in the Crockpot as I type. I plan to use them for a few meals this week to help stretch our grocery dollars.

Monday: Roasted Chicken & Veggies

Tuesday: Italian subs OR Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

Wednesday: Chicken Enchiladas

Thursday: Kielbasa & Potatoes

Friday: Buffalo Chicken Wraps & Sweet Potato Fries

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Valentine’s Day Dinner! Scallops Au Gratin & Ravioli

For more inspiration, check out the menu plans at OrgJunkie.com.

By that I mean, I finally set up my student loans to auto deduct the monthly payment from my checking account. I graduated in December 2004. So for the past 5 years, I have been logging in every month and manually initiating the payments.

Which is a pain in the butt.

The problem is I have a lousy memory. I can remember to pay the bill, but it takes 10 days to process the auto payment. By the time I log in to pay the bill, there isn’t 10 days left until the due date. Then after it’s paid, I completely forget about it for the next month.

Rinse & repeat for 5 years.

I’m ashamed to admit this because, aside from being much more convenient, enrolling in automatic payments makes me eligible for a 0.25% reduction in my interest rate. My current interest rate is 4.75%. Based on some rough calculations, the reduction in interest will save me a little over $3/month. Over the remainder of the loan, I will save about $385.

I would say that is worth the 5 minutes it took to sign up.

Have you been procrastinating on something that could save you time and money? DO IT NOW!

As part of our 2010 goals, we have decided to pay for all our bills and expenses using just one income. Part of this is to up the intensity of saving for a down payment, but I also want to see if we can do it. Somewhere down the line we’d like to have kids, and to have the option of a parent staying at home would be wonderful. I don’t yet know how all that is going to go, but I like the freedom of having flexibility.

When I made a budget for 2009, our expenses were greater than one income alone. Since then, three major things have happened that that make it possible to even endeavor to live on one income:

1. That one income increased. Thanks, raises!

2. We paid off car loan #1. That $404/mo took a good bite out of out budget.

3. We have a (small) emergency fund. Although I want to save all of my income for the time being, it’s nice to have that backup to work with in case we need it.

In 2009, I also noticed that we started to get a little complacent. It was our first year without any credit card debt since 2004. It was easy to spend more on eating out, lunches, fun money… everything, really. We were out of credit card debt! Look at all the money!

Please won't you save us from all the money?

(Bonus points if you get that reference)

We ended up wasting more than we should have. Now, I don’t regret enjoying ourselves, but we lost the drive to get a great deal – on our expenses, on our bills, at the grocery store. Living on one income is going to force that drive back.

On Friday I submitted the paperwork to change my direct deposit to our House Fund. It should take effect in February - and then here we go!

Photo from Aqua Teen Central.

Another year, another new set of goals. Some are familiar, things that for one reason or another didn’t get accomplished last year. Others are new things we want to try and accomplish.

As I’ve mentioned before, I like to set high goals for myself and make them something we really have to strive for. It helps me to grow when we have to really work to accomplish them. So without further ado, here are the financial goals we hope to accomplish in 2010:

1. Save $30,000 for a down payment. We got sidetracked last year, and had to raid our house fund to help pay taxes and a business loan. At the end of the day, it was inconsequential, as we couldn’t sell our house anyway without taking a huge hit. The housing market is still awful, but it has been improving (slightly). We want to be ready to move as soon as we can – which means having the down payment ready.

2. Live on one income. This wasn’t even feasible in last year’s budget. We were close, but the car loans put us over the edge to use some of what I make as well. I will be switching my direct deposit to our savings account soon, and then living on one paycheck will commence. This will also help a lot with goal #1!

3. Earn $3000 on the side. This past September, I took part in an Earn More Challenge and worked to earn extra money on the side. I enjoyed it so much that I want to challenge myself to earn more this year. Any money counts – eBay, Craigslist, ad revenue – as long as it’s not from our employers. I want to earn 10% of our down payment goal on the side to speed up the process.

4. Pay off Car Loan #2. We made some significant progress this year towards this goal, and we are now over halfway to having this last car loan paid off. If we continued making our regularly scheduled payments, we would pay it off around the end of 2011. I want it gone before the end of 2010.

5. Develop and stick to a blogging schedule. As much fun as it is to post sporadically, it’s confusing to me and annoying to readers. I don’t plan on having a post for every day, but I think a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule would work out very nicely. I also want to play around with the blog design to something more individual.

I am very excited for 2010 – there is a lot of promise this year. I hope good things are on the horizon for everyone in 2010!

Save a down payment. FAIL. We started to save one, then had to use the cash to pay off some of the debt from my husband’s old company. Then we discovered we can’t sell our house and decided to focus on other goals. The down payment will be a big focus for 2010.

Open a 401(k) for my husband. SUCCESS! We opened the account in February and have about $9600 in it now. I’m excited to be saving for our future.

Pay off car loan #1. SUCCESS! In October we said sayonara to Car Loan #1. We then got so jazzed up by it that we paid off half of Car Loan #2!

Build the emergency fund to $10,000. FAIL. We have increased our emergency fund to $3100, which is much better than the $60 we had at the beginning of the year, but far short of the $10,000 we wanted. We are still contributing to this fund, but it’s not really a priority right now.

Prepare taxes by the end of February. FAIL. We filed at the last minute. Again. Maybe in 2010?

So 2009 was pretty good, but certainly not amazing. We made some progress and had a little fun along the way. Here’s to a new year!

At the beginning of 2009, our primary goal was to save a down payment for a house. We got sidetracked and lost sight of this goal, then completely derailed when we learned that our home’s value has dropped considerably.

In the meantime, we have made strides towards paying off more debt, including a new business loan and one of our car loans. We then made the decision to work on paying off the final car loan, and have paid off half of Car Loan #2.

Since then, we’ve been talking about finances and our goals for 2010 (Coming Soon!). My husband’s main goal is the same - live closer to work. He pointed out that even if we save for a down payment and still can’t sell our house, we can always redirect the money to pay off the car.

So. Back to saving for a house.

Last year, we were aiming for $20,000 for a down payment. I am now thinking we’ll need $30,000. We’ll see how it goes, but that’s the number I’m aiming for. All debt payments will be the minimum payments, and all extra money goes directly into the house fund. If we work hard at this and stay focused, I think we can have our down payment by fall 2010.

Unless we change our minds again.

This week’s menu will take advantage of some fabulous kitchen Christmas gifts - a new Crockpot, an immersion blender, a cast iron skillet & a pasta maker! I love cooking and I’m excited to try out my new toys. Plus, kitchen tools are a frugal choice because they allow you to cook more at home and save money!

Monday: Turkey Tacos

Tuesday: Chicken Pasta Bake

Wednesday: Glazed Ham & Asparagus Soup

Thursday: New Year’s Eve Party

Friday: Chicken Soup

Saturday: Ham & Cheese Fritatta (breakfast); Family Christmas Party

Sunday: Homemade pasta

I freaked myself out with the payment, though. I scheduled the payment on a Sunday for the following Monday. The payment was to be completely processed and applied by Wednesday, which I completely forgot.

On Tuesday, I logged in to check my new balance, and saw… nothing. No change in balance, no payment pending.

So I second guessed myself. I did a lot of financial things on Sunday, and maybe I only thought I had scheduled a payment. Surely the payment would show up by now. Or show in the pending payments. Or something.

I was about to reschedule the payment when I decided to call my lender and ask them if their system showed a pending payment. They told me there was no payment pending in their system either.

Luckily, I checked one more place on the website and finally discovered where it mentioned my pending payment. I felt pretty dumb, but nowhere near as dumb as if I had paid twice as much!