Lil' mama's Personal Finance Blog

We took our boys to get their pictures done on Friday. We were only going to go and do the $8 package so we would have pictures to send to family. Well they took such cute pictures that we wanted to get more than just one pose. We ended up getting a 20x24 mounted and framed wall collage, a cd with all the pictures plus the copyright so we can print pictures anywhere, and 12 full sheets, including 2 calenders and 2 collages, all for $330. They lady did give us a discount though. She took $100 off the wall mount, $30 off the cd, and then 25% off our whole order, and she didn't charge us the $80 for the collages. However, I still felt guilty spending that much money just on pictures, no matter how adorable.
We decided instead of buying family christmas presents, we would send them pictures instead. Both my family and his were fine with this and since we had budgeted $300 for presents, it pretty much equalled out.

Well while I was feeling guilty about spending so much money, I figured we get ourselves into these situations by keeping too much money in out checkings. I like to keep an extra $1000 or so in case something comes up, or they decide to cut hubbys hours all of a sudden but it seems like we tend to use it by eating out or buying clothes or something for the house. I decided to start only keeping $100 extra in checkings and then if something comes up put it on our emergency c.c. and pay it off at the beginning of the month with extra income for that month. Hubby agreed this was a good idea.

Earlier this year we bought all new stainless steel appliances at best buy with their 18 month no interest credit card. We have until next December to pay it off but we are hoping to pay it off sooner so we can start paying down our Suv because hubbys work car is about to give out and we don't want 2 car payments if we can help it. Well we took $500 from our checkings and put it towards our best buy card. This left us with $150 in checkings after paying for the pictures. I know we wont dig into our savings for misc. expenses but we will only if hubby's winter hours get cut and we need it to pay bills with. However, I think by puttin excess money to the credit card, we will be able to stop "wasting" money on things that aren't necessities. My in-laws are suppose to pay us back $100 of the $800 they borrowed from us on Wed. and I will put that to the c.c. too. Wish us luck sticking to this plan and not going back to our old ways!

We took the boys to our halloween festival this weekend. Our 2 1/2 yr.old had a blast. We took him last year and he refused to go on the rides. This year he couldn't get on them fast enough. He is obsessed with cars and thought it was so cool that they had car rides and he was able to go on them all by himself. However it was a bit pricier than we thought. We had to pay $3 each to get in, except for the baby. But then you had to buy tickets to go on the rides, which were $1 each but it took 3 tickets foe each ride. We were there for about an hour and spent close to $40. I can't imagine how expensive things will be once the little one is old enough to do stuff. They also had carnival games but they were $5 a game so we passed on those. The only good thing is that the proceeds went to autism and my son had so much fun that it was a good treat for him.

We also made our last payment to our student loan tis month which will free up $50 a month.

We did the fha streamline program this month and our interest rate went from 6% to 5.25% and we will save $115.00 a month.Right now we are putting all our extra money in the bank because my hubby is in construction and it always slows down this time of year. Last winter he went down to 35 hrs. a week for 4 whole months, from Dec. to march. When spring rolls around and we know hubbys hours will be stable again, then we will work hard to pay off our best buy c.c. before the interest rate goes up.

Well my hubbys work car needed some work done to it. We've known for a while but we thought we would just wear it out and then buy a new one at the end of the year. My hubby dreams of having a brand new truck. We have decided though that we don't really want another car payment since his car is paid off. We have decided to pay my suv off first and then in 3 or 4 years get a truck. As much as he wants one, he really hates having extra bills. So we took the car to the auto shop on Sat. and they put a new axle on, did an alignment, and one new tire. The total came to $411.08. We now need to go chane all the fluids, spark plugs, oil, and air filter which they said would be about $600. Since we've done a lot of extra spending and lending these past few months our checkings is about maxed out so we had to use our savings for the $411. luckily when i went to check our mail that day we had a $190 surplus check from our escrow account which i will put back in our savings. Next month we get an extra paycheck since it's a 5 wk. month. I will use $220 to put in our savings so we'll be back to where we were and then use the rest to pad our checkings again. We use our checkings for paying bills, entertainment, extras, and emergencies. My hubby will also get his quarterly profit sharing check and we will use that to finish the car repairs. Anyways, i am very glad hubby brought up the subject of holding on to his car so he won't feel like it's my fault he didn't get his truck. I would much rather spend $1000 on repairs than $15,000 on a new truck and worry about another bill.

I don't know if you guys get these but where I live we can buy these coupon books for $20 and you get 3 free oil changes but $10-$15 on most auto services plus $20 off if you spend over $100. Besides the $90 we saved on oil changes we also saved:$20 for spending $100, $15 off alignment, and then $15 off each fluid; trans., brakes, radiator, and power steering. So this $20 coupon book just saved us $185. Not bad!

We seemed to spend a lot of money this weekend but we got great deals on everything we did buy.

We needed a new coffee table because the one we have is a large square table but with a 2 year old running around and another getting ready to crawl, it feels like an accident waiting to happen with the sharp corners. We found a large square leather ottoman style table which is kind of plush so the kids can run into it and not get hurt, plus it will still look really nice in our living room. The four squares on top can actually flip over and become serving trays on the other side, which is perfect becuase dh likes to eat in the living room and he can't get the top of the table messy any more. It was originally $449 but we were able to talk the manager down to $269 which felt like a steal. After buying that hubby wanted to start looking at entertainment centers and new couches, although we don't need them. When we first got married, neither of us had Any furniture, so everything we own is less than 4 years old and still looks like new. Instead we just settled for a few new throw pillows for the couch to help blend in the table with our sectional.

We also went to old navy and got the kiddies some winter clothes. For $75 we got; 5 pair of pants, 2 sip up hoodie swaetshirts, and 6 long sleeve shirts.The little one is such a chunker, at 3 months old he is already wearing 12 month clothes. I also needed some new jeans because I am now a size 2 instead of a 0 after having my 2nd baby and the only place I an ever find jeans to fit well is at American Eagle. They had a sale for buy one get one 1/2 off and they gave me a 10% coupon. I was able to get 2 pair of jeans for $57.

The kids next door were saleing entertainment books for their school, and we bought one more for the kids than from the need of the coupons but there were a lot of buy 1 get 1 free deals for restaurants. We ate out for breakfast once and then the next day we went to dinner. Both times we spent less than $20 for all of us, including a 15% tip. My 2 oldest doesn't eat much, so he usually shares with me and hubby because he never eats his meal if we get his own, it just gets wasted.

Also, we asked in-laws if they had any extra money to pay us back any yet and they said no, that they were behind on utility bills and what not. Dh said if they don't pay us back in full, then he doesn't ever want to loan them more money because he just doesn't understand where their money goes and is starting to feel a bit used.

These past few weekends have been a bit pricey and it wasn't even because of any needs, mainly just wants.

We bought a down comforter from Macy's for $140. We saw the super duper $900 one from the hotel collection and fell in love with it but we could never imagine paying that much, so we tried to find one just like it but cheaper and we did but it was still almost $500. Well one of the workers said to come back tomorrow because they had a one day sale going on andso we did and it was down to $140 so we grabbed it while we could. I really love it but it is the most expensive blanket I have ever bought.

That same weekend my mother-in-law called crying that they didn't have money for their house payment and asked us for money.So her house payment is $500 but she wanted extra for other bills and asked us for $800, which we ended up giving her.Now my father-in-law was laid off at the beginning of the year and can't seem to find another job but he still gets $450/week for unemployment and they only have a house payment and no car payments or c.c. bills. However, they are bad with money and are ALWAYS broke and asking for money. We usually say we don't have the money to help but every once in a while they get it frm us and they are always getting money from his two brothers, who are single with no kids but they are so used to it, they expect it and get mad when they don't get it. When my mother-in-law asked she told me well your brother gave me money two days ago but i thought he would give me more for the house payment so i already spent that money and now i'm late on my payment and it's all his fault. now does that sound a bit ungrateful? I don't mind helping if they really needed it but I feel like they should have enough money to pay their bills but depend on their kids to give them money so they just blow their money on who knows what. This is a monthly thing though, them saying they have no money to pay bills, or they go and visit one of their kids or take a trip and then call and ask for gas money to get home cause their broke. I just get frustrated with them and money.Is it right to keep helping or should we just try to cut them off, which would lead to a lot of resentment on my in-laws side?

We also went and got a playstation 3 because that was something that hubby really wanted. I feel like paying $500 for the system and a few games is way too expensive, but I had a hard time saying no because he hardly gets anything for himself, plus it's something he can play with our little ones. We were going to get the wii but he wanted the ps3 instead because it has blu ray and you can't play movies with the wii, so we would have had to buy the wii plus a blue ray dvd since we used to play movies with our xbox, that is so old they don't even sale the games any more.

On top of all this we also got our first dr. bill from the hospital for $1513.

I lose my insurance at the end of this month since i'm not working enough hours to keep it, so we have tried to do all our dental work before it ended. we will still have hubbys but it only covers 80% and with both it would cover everything. Well hubby still needs to get a bridge and I have two cavities and a cleaning still to go but we explained to the dentist about our insurance and he said he would only charge us they 80% from our insurance and we wouldn't have to pay any more out of pocket. I am so glad we found this dentist becuase he was so nice about the insurance, most wouldn't wave the other 20%, plus he does great work and doesn't hurt you. After my husband got his wisdom teeth out, he was fine by that night and eating as if nothing happened!

Well after talking to the insurance companies and reprossessing some claims it looks like I met my $6000 deductible. With my husbands job, if you meet your deductible, then they refund you the money which means I can now use that money to pay the medical bills as they come in and I don't have to use any money out of our savings. This is such a relief and a huge weight off my shoulders.

So we returned from our vacation on Saturday and everyone had a great time. We took the kids to Monterey and the beach for the first time. My oldest had such a blast and didn't want to come in from the water but the little one didn't like the sun or the wind too much. Lucily he slept almost the whole time but we had to hold me A LOT. Luckily with my parents and sister with us we had 3 extra sets of hands to help with the kids so everything went very smoothly. We came in way under budget. We planned to spend $1200 and only spent $700 for the whole trip which was really awesome. Most of it though is thanks to my parents. They paid for some of our dinners out and when we were at my moms she always cooked for us...which was just as good as eating out. When you cook every night it is so nice to have some one else doing the cooking, plus it always seems to taste better when your mama makes it. We didn't go out as much as we thought, instead we had friends and family come visit us at my moms house which was just as fun. Me and hubby had wanted to spend a day by ourselves but the little one didn't let that happen.I am breastfeeding him and he refused to take a bottle and would just cry and cry until I held him. However, it did save us a few hundred dollars by not going out of town. Well with the extra money we used $300 of it on groceries when we got home because our cabinets were bare since we were trying to save grocery money before we left for our vacation. We should be stocked up for a month now besides milk, eggs, and fresh fruit. We also sent flowers and chocolate to my parents as a thank you for all their help, which cost about $50. So overall it was a wonderful vacation and we are already starting to plan one for next summer.

So tomorrow we are leaving on our 9 day vacation to california to visit family. It will be the first time my hubby has taken a whole week off in four years so he is very excited for a much needed break. We've budgeted $1200 for this vacation and hopefully we can stick to it. We were going to use $2000 but with all these med bills we decided to cut it down a little and instead of taking it out of savings I just saved all of dh's overtime and bonus check. We are staying with my parents for most of the trip so we don't have to pay for lodging. We are going to spend a few days in Monterey so the little ones can see the ocean for the first time, but my parents are going with us and were generous enough to pay for our hotel room along with theirs. I figure we'll spend about $300 on gas as its an 8 hour drive from vegas to northern cali and then we'll need gas to get to monterey and back, and for any driving in town. Then about $100-$200 on entertainment.We want to take the kids on a boat ride in monterey plus we are giong to spend a day taking them to the zoo. Most of our budget will go to eating out. We have already made plans to eat out with my two sisters and their dh's one night and another we are going out with my best friend to meet her new fiance. Plus dh and i would like to go out alone one night and then the 3 days we are visiting monterey/ocean we will have to eat out and we would like to take my parents out to a nice dinner since they paid for our hotel room. I am going to take a notebook and keep track of our spending so we don't go crazy and go wayyy over budget without even realizing it! Anyways i am so excited to get out of town but must now spend the rest of the day cleaning and packing.

Last week I said I would try and not eat out at all until I went on vacation next month but I didn't make it. We went to my in-laws on Saturday, and my father-in-law got laid off about six months ago so their living off of unemployment, and they told us they didn't have much food in the house. So we went out and got food for all of us. However, that was the only time we ate out all weekend, which is much better than usual.

We did get hubby's quarterly bonus check on Friday which was $646.13. We used $100 towards getting our transmission flushed and an oil change and will use another $100 for our extra large electric bill and the rest will be added to our vacation.

I got another unexpected medical bill from when I was pregnant and the medical claim said we still owe $504.00. I am so glad we have a savings but all these bills are going to take a big bite out of it. We are thinking of cashing in my hubbys second week of vacation to help with some of the bills but were not sure if thats the best idea because it might be nice for him to have another week off later in the year.

On the bright side, when I talked to my mom, she told me she bought us a box of diapers and box of wipes from costco! That will get us through almost a whole month. Yay for mom!

So I got a claim from my secondary insurance for an ultrasound I had in May saying I still owed $109.75. However, I had the same exact claim from February that they had paid in full. I called to ask why I had to pay this one and they told me that someone had processed that first claim wrong and now I am responsible for paying for both. So I now have two $109.75 bills instead of just one. They also said that most of my other bills(i.e. hospital delivery, amnio test, doctor bill for delivery) won't be covered until I pay my outrageous $6000 deductible. They have paid for all my lab work though before I started paying my deductible so I don't know how they figure out what they pay and what they don't. With my first son I had they same primary insurance but a different secondary but everything was paid in FULL without usse having to pay so much as a penny.

I am going to try and not eat out at all from now until the end of the month. We tend to eat out quite a bit, at least twice a week. We used to be even worse and go out 4 to 5 times a week and we cut back to twice. If dinner isn't made when hubby gets home he always suggests ordering in or drive-thru and I usually agree if it means I don't have to cook. This means though that we usually spend a few hundred a month on eating out. I'm hoping to save as much money as I can though for our vacation in August because it would mean that much less I would have to take out o savings.

Well I used to wear a size 0 before I had my youngest son but I'm still a good 10 to 15 pds. over my usual weight(at least thats my guess, i haven't been on a scale yet), and now I am wearing a size 4. Needless to say, none of my clothes fit me now and since we are going on vacation in 3 weeks to California, I decided it was time to buy some clothes that fit.Also, we only have onesies for my son and I wanted to buy him some cute outfits for our trip so I went to Old Navy. I think I did good though. For $57.00 I got, 3 tops and 2 pair of shorts for myself and 3 tops and 2 pair of shorts for my son. Then we had to get my oldest son new shoes, which cost $35.00 for a pair of DC's and I went to Carter's and got 2 more outfits for the youngest for$12. By the time we got everyone showered and dressed both days it was almost noon, so we had to stop for lunch after we were done shopping which added another $30 to our spending.

We just had a beautiful little boy on May 29th but now I am anxious to get our insurance statements in to see how much we're going to have to pay in medical bills. We have two insurances but my secondary has a $6,000 deductible. So far all our bills have been totally covered bewtween the two insurances but they have all been small bills; no more than a couple hundred dollars. I'm really really hoping they will cover the big doctor and hospital bills too without having to pay the deductable but I really have no idea what they will do.

I'm a saver and my husband is a spender. Thankfully he realizes this and let's me stay in control of our money, otherwise we would be broke. He is very good about asking me before he makes any big purchases but he is always asking to buy something. It's hard to always say no to him, so sometimes I give in, even if it's something we don't really need. I wonder how much more we could save if my husband really got into saving money too?