Budget Percentage 2013 Update

May 21, 2013 · Filed under Budget, Debt, Finances

Ooh I’m excited about this pie chart update! I posted about one of my favorite money related shows ‘Til Debt Do Us Part’ on CNBC with Gail Vaz-Oxlade, and her budget guidelines. I haven’t watched the show in forever, and without paid TV, I likely won’t for awhile, but at least she has a blog.

My 2012 pie chart can be found here. Our transportation was out of control thanks to a car payment and gas costs. Life expenses were high due to childcare, and food. The guidelines for creating a budget are below, the numbers in black are Gail’s recommendation, the numbers in red are my 2012 percentages.

  • 35% Housing Costs 25%
  • 15% Transportation Costs 24%
  • 25% Life Expenses 34%
  • 10% Savings 10%
  • 15% Debt Repayment 7%

Not bad, not great. Always room for improvement. Even if it is very, very slow improvement. I’m going to go through each category this time. Gives me something to look back on when I do yearly updates. Here’s where we currently stand for 2013…

piechart2013

HOUSING Includes: Mortgage, Insurance, Property Taxes, Equity Loan, Utilities. Only a 1% change, this is attributed to lower utility costs and property taxes. This will change next year, when our property taxes double.  I expect this category to +/- 2% at any given time due to utilities.

TRANSPORTATION Includes: Car Payments, Insurance, Gas, Maintenance. This was the biggest change for us. By getting rid of gas guzzler vehicles and downsizing to a Honda Civic, we’re saving over $270 in gas, possibly more! We also paid off our other car, which saves another $315 per month. Cut our transportation budget in half!

LIFE EXPENSES Includes: Food, Childcare, Internet, Television, Entertainment, Cellphones, Vacations, etc. Despite canceling television, and cutting back on food costs, life expenses went up. My original pie chart includes childcare, but part-time. My son is now enrolled full-time. Big price increase with that, so that’s why this category went up.  This won’t go down much until 2015, if he attends public school.

SAVINGS I had no idea we were putting 16% of our take home pay into savings. Never feels like that much! I’d like to get a comfortable cushion built up in the next few months, then bring savings down to 10% and apply the difference to debt repayment.

DEBT REPAYMENT Progress! We increased our debt repayment by a whopping 3%! This definitely needs to go up though. At least 15%.  Especially if I want to be on track to pay off credit cards this year, which I’m not confidant will happen.

A lot has changed in the last year. I’m happy with the progress we’ve made.   My focus will be life expenses, particularly food (as always) and debt repayment.  As well as bringing in extra income, which has admittedly been slacking the last couple of months for various reasons.  Sometimes I just get tired, busy, or overwhelmed.   Or sick, which is the common theme for 2013 it seems.  Time management and personal motivation are lacking lately.

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Good Riddance Directv

May 17, 2013 · Filed under Bad Service, Budget

TVdrama

I’ve mentioned many, many times that I wanted to cancel our Directv subscription, but we were stuck in a 2 year contract that wasn’t set to expire until October 2013. It seemed like every month there was a price increase for equipment or packages, or they were changing the channels per package and telling you to upgrade to continue receiving the channels you currently have. Nice. I love how when you sign an agreement for services, you are required to fulfill your end, but the big companies don’t have to.

Effective the week of April 1, 2013, the OWN Network (Oprah Winfrey Network) will only be available on base packages of CHOICE and above. OWN is also scheduled to be launched in High Definition later this Spring. To continue enjoying OWN Network, upgrade to the CHOICE base package or above and gain channels like Cooking Channel, TV One, ESPNU, Nicktoons, Science, NFL Network, IFC and more.

Yeah I watch OWN! For Lisa Ling’s ‘Our America’ – love her – not Oprah. There are also network disputes that often left us without popular channels for weeks at a time. No credit for that, so we were paying for channels we weren’t receiving. After calling and finding out that it would cost us $20 for each month left in our contract, we opted to hold off a few extra months.

When the renovation began, our main box and DVR was disconnected, and we were without any Directv service anywhere else in the house. We didn’t even notice it to be honest. We streamed Netflix and watched Hulu. We discussed canceling, but the topic was once again forgotten. Then I received another email from Directv on April 30th. Another price increase!

Effective May 16, 2013, the DIRECTV PROTECTION PLAN will increase by $2 per month to $7.99. We’re sure you’ll agree that it’s a small price to pay for these great new benefits.

I know, it’s just $2 a month. But no, I do not agree it’s a small price to pay…their “protection plan” is a joke and mandatory if you use their DVR’s. We’ve had to get our DVR replaced twice because it quit working.  As a result of two replacements, we were basically labeled as “problem customers” and we no longer “allowed” to speak with the regular customer services reps. Instead our trouble tickets were automatically ‘escalated’ to a manager for review. That’s not a good thing. The managers may or may not ever return your calls, and when they do, they imply that you damaged the unit. Not the case, it’s an internal hardware problem, even the techs that were sent out admitted they’ve had nothing but trouble with Directv’s equipment.

Needless to say, that was the last straw. The $2 that broke the camel’s back if you will. I made the call and canceled Directv on May 8th. Just in time to avoid our next billing cycle. It cost me $89.97 to break our contract. Not bad, since one month of their service cost us more than that.  Of course the rep attempted to persuade me to stay, even tried to up-sell a higher package, but never once offered a discount; I was amused.

Right now we’re enjoying Netflix for $7.99/month and Hulu, which I caved in and upgraded to a Plus account for $7.99/month so we can stream it over the Xbox and Roku. Roku is another device we’re using for television, but I’m not familiar with it enough to review it yet. I can say it was $79 for the box, with no monthly fee’s.  Overall we’re just fine without television service, and it’s another unnecessary expense cut from the budget!

Slowly getting our monthly expenses under control.  Woohoo!  Now if Directv would stop calling me trying to get me sign up again, life would be less expensive and more peaceful!  Averaging 4 phone calls a week now.  Annoying.

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Georgia’s New Rip Off Title Tax {RANT!}

May 15, 2013 · Filed under Bad Service, Budget, Car, Rant

newcivic

The lovely state of Georgia passed a new law pertaining to vehicle registrations, title transfers, etc for 2013. Instead of paying a smaller amount every year by your birthday, you’re now required to pay a lump sum when registering a vehicle. This lump sum is 6.5% of the vehicles fair market value. Many people think this is great, and saves them money. It’s completely the opposite. Why else would a broke state make that move? Do you seriously think the state wants people to save money and spend less? Ha!

Before we purchased the 2002 Honda Civic, we did our research by checking KBB.com and checking out ads on Craigslist. In ‘Excellent’ condition, this year and model is worth around $3800. Ours is considered ‘Fair’ condition due to it’s history of accidents with the previous owner, and slight body damage. That comes to $2750. The state of Georgia has the fair market value of my vehicles as $4855. WHAT! I immediately spoke up, told the lady no way was that correct. She told me that I was welcome to file an appeal, but couldn’t do so until after I paid in full. How nice. I paid my $351.18 registration, plus tag fee, and a $48 late fee (WTF) and walked next door to appeal the value.

Before this new law went into effect, I would have paid $39.87. Based on the amount I paid Monday, I’d have to keep the Civic for 9 years for this “one time tax” to save me a dime. So no, there is no real savings with this tax law. I believe the statistics show people keep vehicles for an average of 3 years. In that case, the state is pocketing a lot more cash, since you’ll have to register all future vehicles. It’s a rip off tax, no matter how the state tries to spin it.

kbbcivic

The appeal went smoothly enough, minus the clerks nasty attitude when she realized why I was there. She argued with me, then asked in a very condescending tone “do you even have a bill of sale?” complete with an eye roll. Oh hon, you don’t even know how prepared I come when there’s paperwork involved. Whipped the mofo out of my bag and got a very displeased “oh” in response. The clerk reluctantly pulled up KBB and sure enough, I was right on the money with my numbers. She said she was willing to go down to $2700 and I accepted. Dropped off my appeal paperwork back at the tag office and now I await my refund of $215!!! Let’s see how long that takes to show up!

If you’re in Georgia, do your research, and pay close attention to the vehicle values they are taxing you on! Thankfully my CRV is still yearly since I purchased it in 2005, but if I chose to convert to the “one time payment” it would be $595. I don’t think so.   Oh and by the way, your bill of sale has absolutely nothing to do with your tax fee, they don’t care what you paid for the car, so having a bill of sale at $500 won’t help you for a vehicle valued at $4000 by the state.

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Vacation!

May 13, 2013 · Filed under Budget, Deals, Goals, Life, Travel

One of my ‘big’ yearly goals is to go on a family vacation. We haven’t been on a vacation since I was pregnant with our son in 2009. A brief getaway would be nice. When my cousins save-the-date notice arrived for her summer wedding in Florida, I assumed we’d turn that into our vacation. I checked out VRBO.com for rentals, which is my vacation planning go-to site. Renting condos or homes is significantly cheaper than a hotel room if you’re staying for 5 or more nights. If you split the house rental among family and/or friends, it’s an even better deal. Unfortunately we couldn’t get my family on board with planning and after months of getting the runaround said screw it.

Snapshot of Bermuda I took from our last cruise in 2007.

Snapshot of Bermuda I took from our last cruise in 2007.

A friend of mine brought up taking her family on a cruise, and asked if we’d be interested. My first response was HA! You’re funny! We’ve been on two cruises, they were both awful, and I swore I’d never get on another boat again. A couple of weeks passed and with the growing tension in my family over this Florida trip, the idea of a cruise didn’t seem so bad after all. I talked with my friend some more and got the details. After a bit of discussion, the husband and I agreed to go for it.

We’re officially booked for a five night cruise to the Bahamas this fall. Specifically Half Moon Cay and Nassau. I am excited. I’m even more excited, because the kid will be with us, and experiencing things with a child is completely different than just by yourself. Things are new and exciting and it’s amazing to see him take things in.  (Kind of like how the aquarium sucked for us in 2006, but going back with him was a blast.)

Before booking we went back and forth about the type of room we wanted. On our last cruise, we had an interior room, meaning no windows. This isn’t bad, but it really messed with us as far as day/night. We wanted a balcony, but after figuring out a deal with a cruise rep, it didn’t make sense to upgrade. Plus the kid will be 3 at the time of the cruise.  For now we have a very cautious non-climber child, but who knows what kind of mischief he’ll be into then.

Since we’re going with friends, we were able to get a deal by booking multiple rooms. They are a family of 5, but the rooms are only meant for 4 people. As a result, for booking purposes only, the rep recommended just adding the 5th member to our bill. That’s why some numbers are crossed out below.

cruisecost

Instead of paying in full I paid a deposit. I initially wanted to keep cash in the bank until the renovation is completed, after that we’d get it taken care of.  Instead I’ll be putting all my extra income (etsy!) towards it.  That way vacation costs shouldn’t affect our normal budget at all!  $1247.72 for a family of 3 to go on a 5 night cruise to the Bahamas doesn’t seem so bad!  This price also includes the mandatory gratuity you’re charged for.

We still have to figure out the trip to Florida for my cousin’s wedding, but we’ll just make it a weekend trip. I imagine we’ll get a regular hotel room and rent a car. I don’t want to risk any car problems on a 9 hour drive!

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Childcare Choices

May 9, 2013 · Filed under Service, The Kid

school

Back in February, Kris posted an entry about childcare. Explaining/defending her choices behind hiring a nanny for her two boys. I immediately connected with this entry, because we get a lot of flack about our choice in childcare from friends and family members. I meant to write about it sooner, but it slipped my mind. Then recently a friend of mine mentioned putting her son in Pre-K and asked if I was going to do the same. It’s free with the lottery, but there’s only a certain number of openings.  I think she was a bit surprised when I told her no, he will stay in his current daycare/school until kindergarten.

I never thought I’d have to even consider child care. When my son was born I was lucky enough to have a flexible work schedule. I stayed home with him during the day and did what I could from home for work. When my husband got home from work around 3pm, I’d go into the office for a few hours. On Fridays my mother would watch my son, and I’d have a full day at the office. This schedule was convenient, but exhausting. Not to mention the guilt trips family will put on you for watching your kid, even if it was their offer in the first place. Eventually we made some drastic life changes and moved 45 minutes away, making the work from home schedule impossible.

Our son is now enrolled in a private group home childcare center. It’s a private residential home run by a husband and wife, and the entire full basement is converted into a school. They are able to accept up to 18 kids, ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. The going rate is $195 per week for full time students, or $45 per day for part-time. I know compared to other areas of the country, this sounds like a bargain, but in our area, it’s very expensive. In fact I pay more for childcare than my boss pays to have his son in a private school. Hell, it’s more than my mortgage. At the time we could only afford three days a week. After awhile you just get use to the new expense and it doesn’t seem like such a burden anymore. He now attends full-time.

Most home daycares are $75-$100 per week. Most centers are $125 per week for infants, and $80 per week for older children (2 and up.) There are plenty of these options around us, and yes I looked into them. I set up appointments and went on tours. None of them felt right. You’d walk into a room with 10 infants and it’s being run by a 16 year old??!! No thanks. It just didn’t sit well with me. The places weren’t very structured. I wanted more for my son, something more school-like, than babysitter-like. Finally after some googling, I came across a private home childcare center. Just from the pictures on the website I fell in love.

I firmly believe that childcare is one of those “get what you pay for” services. I want my son in a safe, fun, loving, and educational environment. I want there to be a low ratio of kids per teacher. I always find it fascinating that people have to justify their choices in childcare and that people constantly criticize their choices. First of all, it’s my child, and secondly, I’m paying the bill – not you. It’s really no one’s business, but people still love to give their 2 cents.

People also assume we’re looking forward to saving our $800/month when he begins kindergarten, but there again is the assumption we’ll be sending him to public schools. Right now, that’s up in the air. The public schools are crap, the private schools are religious. I did find out there’s a Montessori school in our town, and if we go that route, it’s only $700/month. Either way, the cost of childcare has prepared us for future school choices, and I’m thankful for those options.

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