The first release of the online debt calculator is ready for users. The idea is that you don’t need to download a debt reduction spreadsheet or some external program, you can visualize your debt destruction right in your web browser. Debts can be reordered by dragging them around in the list, you can see what happens when you add extra monthly payments, reorder debts using the debt snowball method of smallest balance, and more.  Full instructions are in the sidebar next to the debt calculator.

With that said, I am looking for feedback. I am poised and ready to add new features, but I wanted to make sure that I had an idea worth pursing and figure out how users want to use it.  I am looking for all types of feedback.  Enhancements, bugs, and I even welcome negativity.  If this isn’t something that isn’t helpful or useful, I want to stop devoting time to it as soon as possible.  Use the simple feedback form on the calculator’s sidebar or publicly share your feedback by using the ‘Feedback and Support’ tab in the bottom right hand corner.

A picture is worth a thousand of my words, so here goes…and here is the debt calculator link again.

Original content from The Happy Rock: Debt Calculator Released and Ready For Users

I procrastinated filling taxes this year again…no big deal.  Late filing seems to be common practice for those of us who usually owe money each year.  The pain came when I received word that we need to file for extension and pay DOUBLE the normal amount to the fed and the state.   I was shocked.  I saved and paid quarterlies the same as I did the last five years and we got killed worse than normal.  Now I am trying to figure out what happened and recover.

A Little History

Every since we got married we have owed thousands of dollars in taxes each year.  The only times we haven’t owed are tax years when we were able to claim the adoption tax credit(a beautiful thing). The main ‘problem’ is that The Rockette has worked full or part time since we got married and from what I can see the tax code tends to not be as helpful to married couples with dual incomes.

The Rockette now works part-time as a consultant which means we are responsible for paying quarterly taxes.  The same holds true for my internet income streams.   Like previous years I paid less in quarterly taxes, because I would rather keep my money for as long as possible rather than overpay and let the government hold without having to pay interest.    It’s purely principle, not necessarily a wise personal finance decision.  It gives me a false sense of power in a situation were I am powerless.

Skip Forward To The First Year Without A Mortgage

This year is our first full year of being 100% debt free and renters. This means we lost our mortgage interest and property tax deductions.   Ouch!  I hadn’t really thought about the tax consequences, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for that loss to cause a doubling of our tax bill.

Ready for Pain

The lucky part is that we are ready to handle the pain.  We had already saved normally, so we had half of the bill sitting in a ’2010 taxes’ account in ING.  The rest of the pain was minimized by the hard work we put into become debt free and having an emergency fund.   Because of that, the tax bill became a nuisance rather than a catastrophe.  In the past this would have  thrown our life and finances into a tailspin.  It will take a little while to replace the money the emergency fund, but that is nothing compared to the damage and stress it would have done to us 6 or 7 seven years ago.

Listen To The CPA

One of the benefits of a of having a CPA is I will receive an adjusted quarterly schedule when my taxes are finished that will take this into account and factor in a new child.  If I had of followed the CPA’s recommended schedule this year, we would have been almost in line with were we expected to be.   I need to start fully trusting the CPA rather than still trying to partially follow my hacked together plan of years past.

Thanks to the emergency fund, we can learn and move on.  I have bigger and better things to worry about!  I am ready to start my next web project which you will hear about in the future.

Original content from The Happy Rock: The Pain Of Taxes Without A Mortgage

The title is over the top, but I am pretty excited.   I can’t call The Happy Rock revitalized until I actually start posting and investing in the community again, but that is my honest desire.  The blog has been languishing for almost two years, but now I am refreshed and ready to start taking action towards my goal.  A site rewrite was planned for a while and I finally pushed through it.

Why Did I Do It?

TheHappyRock.com

I had a few offers to sell The Happy Rock, but I choose to revamp The Happy Rock instead. I wasn’t ready to let it go even though writing is something of a battle for me.  I also  was unhappy letting it stay the meager personal finance blog it was.  I didn’t make sense to keep the site out of nostalgia, it had to be a part of the new places I want to go. As much as I love helping people destroy their debt, I also know that there are a lot of people stuck in the same place I have been for the last two years.   Stuck not quite happy with where our decisions(or lack of decisions) are taking us.  Stuck knowing that there is more to life, but trapped on the couch without action.  I just needed to gain some new habits, perspective, accountability, learning, mentoring, prayer, and a few swift kicks in the butt.   The Happy Rock will now exist to not only help people create financial freedom in their lives , but also to learn how to use that freedom to accomplish big things.   The expanded purpose allows me to be more authentic and connected to the material; I am on that exact journey.  I will begin to share were that journey is going and how I am taking action to get there in the coming months.

The Design Mechanics

As you can see I removed most of the clutter and trimmed down to the bare necessities.   I don’t want the purpose and focus on the blog to get watered down by cheesy sidebar widgets or obnoxious ads.    Most of the advertisements are removed or tucked away.   Adsense only shows to traffic that comes from search engines. There are a few text links in the footer that may eventually be on the way out and only a few organic affiliate links left.    The Happy Rock income has taken a hit, but I honestly believe that the journey to bigger things starts by challenging yourself to make long term decisions not ones geared for the here and now.

The main goal of the redesign was to make the site much more user friendly and content focused for regular readers(who generally don’t click ads), while still offering search visitors the choices they were after. I still have a few things to update, but I wanted to start moving rather than wait until it’s perfect to forge ahead.

I coded the site myself and enlisted a graphic designer friend to help with the artistic side of things. The graphic designer created the header, helped me with the colors and fonts, and created the beautiful widget around the slider on the main page. If you are interested in connecting with him, shoot him an email -> Josh Street.

The site is developed on the Thesis Theme for WordPress*. I am excited to be stepping up to a wordpress framework to be able to leverage all the speed, search engine optimization, and overall excellent theme design that someone else had to learn and code.   I used a the ThesisFolio skin as inspiration and a place to start.  I coded the rest by hand and even had to figure out javascript and jquery along the way.  I will detail the plugins and other nuisances I used to accomplish my goals in another post.  Needless to say, it was a fun and motivating experience.

Now the real fun begins, taking action towards bigger goals and posting again.

Drop a comment and let me know what you think of the new design and how you connect(or don’t connect) with the new vision?

* = Affiliate link

Original content from The Happy Rock: The Happy Rock Redesigned, Repurposed, Revamped, Reimagined, and Revitalized

I have been listening and reading through A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life(affilaite link), and in it Donald Miller provides a very simple framework for thinking about your life: your life is a story.

The basic premise is that the same rules apply to your life as they do to stories.  The stuff that makes a good story makes a good life.  If your life feels boring then the story that you are telling is probably boring. Nobody sets out to tell a boring story, they often just happen because we aren’t intentionally trying to tell a good one. The idea is to live a page turner.

A simple question that really helped me gauge where I am at in my story is “what would the back cover of the ‘Your Life, the DVD’ say?

This is what I came up with for mine:

From food stamps and a young but devoted mother, Frank “The Happy Rock” successfully navigates a turbulent childhood into college where he meets his wonderful wife.  Together they conquer $70,000 in debt, get good jobs, and create a beautiful life for their two children.  You never know what kind of action his days will bring as he attempts to have patience with his children and tries not make his wife mad at him. Tune in to watch as he earns money and buys stuff.  Will he make it? Will he survive?

I know that doesn’t speak to how blessed my life is right now(it really is), but it is true to how I feel and yet still accurate at the same time.  As I look back at my life as though it were a story it was a real page turner.   Being born to a young mother and addict father, escaping poverty into the middle class, moving from isolation into marriage, and journeying from selfishness into parenthood is the stuff of good stories.  It didn’t feel like it at the time, but somehow that part of the story now reads like best seller.

When I look at where the story is heading now, the picture is much less engaging.   We ‘made it’, but the irony is that’s the problem. My wife and I have pretty much the freedom, money, and skills to do most anything we want, yet our life consists of Target, Netflix, Gardening, and going to the park.   Don’t get me wrong, it is a good life, but it isn’t one that keeps you on the edge of your seat.   There is virtually no conflict, no plot twists, and no chance of failure.  It isn’t a page turner and it certainly isn’t sending the message I want to my boys.

One motivating part about framing your life as a story, is that you are the author.  You get to change the storyline. In life you can’t change what happened, but you get full control over where the story is going.  The question is: What are the new story lines that you want to tell?

I would love to hear what everyone else thinks about their story lines?

Original content from The Happy Rock: Your Life Is A Story, So What Does The Back Of Your DVD Say?

Anyone who checks in regularly can tell that things have been shriveling around here for months.  I know it is not out of the ordinary for a blog to disappear into the internet graveyard with barely a whimper, but I still really like this blog and thought things needed a little bit of an explanation.

The New Red Huffy

Picture a 4 year tearing the wrapping paper from a brand new bike on Christmas morning.  He jumps for joy and hugs anyone in sight.  He rushes out  and spends some time learning how to ride.  He is grateful for the training wheels as he totters around for the first few months.  He spends the next year riding his bike everywhere.  He can’t walk out the door without trying to convince his parents to let him go for a little ride.  It is even cute watching him try and convince people who have no interest in biking how great it is.

Gradually though the circumstances begin to change.  He gets older and bigger.   The bike starts to get a little rusty and just doesn’t fit as well as before.  New toys, friends, hobbies, and responsibilities enter into the picture and in a few years the bike just sits around and collects rust.  He occasionally watches kids on their bikes zoom down the street laughing, doing cool tricks, and getting air of sweet jumps, but it only moves him to lament rather than to action.

Eventually one spring Thursday his dad puts the bike out to the curb for donation pickup.  The son sees the bike in its sad shape and all the memories come rushing back.   He argues with his dad to keep the bike, but his father knows that it will just be right back in the shed.  Dad lovingly suggests three options.  They could take the next few weekends and work on a special father and son project together where they would clean the rust off the bike, replace some parts, and take off the training wheels. The bike would then be ready to be useful for the next few years.  The other options are to give the bike to someone who would love it like he used too or let it rust away in a landfill in Topeka.

That is where I am at.  A lot has changed since I started this blog. I have become 100% debt, adopted two children, sold a house and moved, finished my MBA and grown quit a bit.    Things look much different than they did three years ago and I am asking much different questions in my life:

• Three years ago we were fanatic about getting out of debt and were a few months away from kicking $70,000 of debt to the curb.   Early on I was eager to write about debt reduction and those type of thoughts swirled around in my head constantly.  After the debt was gone and I had an emergency fund, I had a hard time writing about that stuff with a fresh perspective.  Now, money isn’t an issue.  It is amazing how much things looks different with absolutely no debt, 1.5 salaries, and safety cash.  You are free to move wherever you want or take whatever job regardless of pay.  You can start asking the Why questions of life rather than being stuck on the How questions like how to I make more money or get out of debt.  It is an awesome yet uncomfortable place to be.

• Before I was asking how do I create a successful blog and make some money off of it, but now my question is what purpose is the blog serving in my life and in yours. I was more focused on gaining readers, not losing readers, making money, and trying to “figure out blogging”.    I don’t feel that is authentic enough anymore.  It doesn’t really connect with where I am in my journey and it doesn’t connect me to people on similar journey’s.  Before I was around motivated folks in my MBA program and other debt destroyers that helped encourage me to stick with it.  Once they were gone and I moved on but I didn’t forge any relationships for the next stage in my journey.

• My Christian faith is the thing I think about most and I barely ever mentioned it.   The blog was meant to help people out of debt, but it really only ended up being something I wanted to succeed at. Fear of alienating people and losing readers kept me from including it in the discussion in any meaningful way.  I was probably scared, who knows, but I often wanted to connect with people on that level.  This blog was my primary means of expression and pouring my energy and heart into money and life hacks just to create a semi-successful blog is not an authentic experience.  Articles weren’t designed to connect with people they are created to be ‘successful’.  That is passion draining rather than inspiring for me.
• I haven’t posted anything meaningful in months and I don’t think I haven’t gotten a single email asking about why.    I don’t say that to make you feel guilty or conger up pity, but the sad fact is that I wrote OK articles but I wasn’t connecting with anyone.   Now I feel a drawn towards forming deeper and more meaningful relationships.   I want people to matter.  Not in a distant 3rd person way that let’s me execute my plan to be comfortable and safe without ever having to really get involved.    Detached, very comfortable, and debt free isn’t enough.  It is time to figure out how to get my hands dirty and face some fears.

Now don’t read this wrong, I am very grateful for the paths that have led to this point.  I thank the readers for stopping by and being a part of things. The experience I gained is invaluable and it is was a blast most of time.   The question is…now what?    Do I clean off the rust and change things so that they can meet the demands of the next stage of life’s journey or do I take all the growth and knowledge and pure it into bigger and better things?   I leaning towards tailoring the blog’s direction to be more authentic and true to my journey and away from being aimed to please Sitemeter and Google.  I just don’t know exactly what that looks like…

Original content from The Happy Rock: What’s Happened To The Happy Rock?

Seen Avatar yet?

I’m guessing a lot of you have since it has earned over $700,000,000 at the domestic box office which makes it the number one movie of all time.  It’s also nominated for 9 academy awards, if you’re into that sort of thing. Personally I think it will win quite a few (Best Picture, and all the techie ones).

But when adjusted for inflation Avatar is only the 15th highest earning movie of all time (I say “only” like it’s a bad thing or something).  According to those figures, Gone With The Wind is the number one money maker of all time.

Which makes total sense since everything was much cheaper back in the day. I remember my grandparents filling me with stories of how they were able to spend all Saturday at the movies for only a nickel.  Now we’re lucky to get out of there without spending $20 – 30 (with popcorn).

This is basically the extent of my knowledge of inflation.  :)

But this example illustrates the point well.  I went to a 3-D showing of Avatar and had to pay $13 each for Mrs DD & I to take in the show.  When my Grandpa took my Grandma to Gone with the Wind he probably only had to spend a couple bucks.  Lucky guy!

In other Gone With The Wind news—A theater in my hometown was the first theater to screen Gone with the Wind in the whole state of South Dakota. They make a pretty big deal about it.  This same theater has been restored to a playhouse which shows movies in the winter.

It’s a pretty cool theater.

So cool in fact that they host the showings of a local short film competition that I have partaken in for the past few years.  You get a weekend to make a movie with a randomly drawn genre and certain other requirements: Line of dialog, a prop, and a character.

This year the genre was Hollywood mash-up which is like “Movie A meets Movie B”.  Our team ended up with having to make a film based on the idea of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” meets “The Bourne Identity“.  The other requirements were: Line = “I swear…”  Prop = a newspaper, Character = JT, a former child star.

Below is what we came up with.  It’s no box office champ, but it was the “runner-up” in the Best Technical category:

Frankly DD, I don’t give a damn!

OK, so this post wasn’t really about inflation, I just wanted an excuse to show my film.  To make it up to you I’ll also offer up 10 Oscar picks that are sure to be wrong:

• Best Picture – Avatar
• Best Directer - Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
• Best Actor – Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
• Best Actress – Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
• Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
• Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique (Precious)
• Animated film – Up
• Adapted Screenplay –  Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)
• Original Screenplay - Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
• Foreign Film – The White Ribbon

Until next time,

-DD

P.S. My favorite film of the year was “A Serious Man” by the Coen Brothers, but I don’t think it’ll win anything.

Original content from The Happy Rock: When is #1 not #1? When inflation says so.

This past weekend my family said “Goodbye to Summer” and “Hello to Fall” (Not just because we turned on the heat for the first time either).

In what is becoming a yearly family tradition we took a hiking trip in a state park which allowed us to enjoy some beautiful fall foilage.   I understand that in some parts of the country it is no big deal to look at trees, but here in the northern plains it is.  Such a big deal in fact, that we are willing to drive 90 min (one way) to get there.

As a kid, my family also did this.  We would join up with my uncle’s family and have a fun-filled day hiking through the woods, finding snakes, collecting leaves, and trying to cross the stream without falling in (My cousin would fall in every year).

The best part of the trip was that we’d get to go to Ike’s Chicken Shack afterwoods.  It was a buffet, but it also had a zoo, an arcade, and a old-time movie theater(3 Stooges, Laurel & Hardy).

Add all of this up and it made for a super fun day full of wonderful memories!

So of course I’d like to treat my family to the same kind of fun.  Sadly Ike’s closed down a while ago, but the hiking trail is alive and well.  So for the last couple of years we’ve been packing up and hitting the road on the first weekend of October.

This year we added a picnic to the mix and the kids were SUPER EXCITED! Who would’ve thought a thermos full of tomato soup and some stale crackers could garner such feelings?

I’m glad they were extra excited.  Because the weather wasn’t ideal.  It was cool and there were off an on light rain showers all day.  But we didn’t let that stop us.  In fact the foul weather kept the crowds away (yes, we get crowds in South Dakota) so we practically had the place to ourselves.

It was great!

It was a little early to catch the full beauty of leaves changing color, but that didn’t stop our good time.   My wife took some super fun photos (something that you can never have enough of) of the kids & I pretending to explore a hidden jungle while on the lookout for dangerous creatures.

It didn’t even bother us when our picnic got rained on.  In fact we took a vote and declared that we’re going to do this every year.  Of course that means every year until the kids get too cool to hang out with their parents.

But that’s not all…

Our “fall family weekend” wasn’t over yet though.  The next day we went to a pumpkin patch that our town puts on.  We heard about it before, but never went.  Boy were we missing out!

It’s not a real pumpkin patch, but still really fun. Let me explain:

1000 pumpkins are shipped to the fairgrounds.  Then different local groups team up and set up games and events for the kids to do (story time, face painting, train rides).  Of course, the main attraction is that they get to pick out a pumpkin and decorate it.

Did I mention, that it’s FREE!

We had so much fun that we decided that we’d try to combine these two fun fall activities every year.  The best part is other than a $6 park fee and a half-tank of gas, this was a pretty cheap weekend.

Which makes sense, most traditions usually are affordable.  It’s all the other stuff that costs money.

And what do we remember? The traditions!

Last holiday season I mentioned some of my family’s Chistmas traditions or at least the ones we’d like to have.  Well, we’re always looking for some more, so imagine my gratitude when a couple of weeks ago REAL SIMPLE had an article with some fun suggestions for new family traditions.  Here are the ones that my wife and I thought that we’d try out to see if they stick:

• Happy Half-Birthday  Celebrate a half-birthday with hamburgers and hot dogs sliced in half, half-filled glasses of soda, and a half-chocolate/half-vanilla cake. In the middle of the party, belt out “Happy Birthday,” but stop singing halfway through the song.
• First Snow Festival
  The first snowfall of the year merits a warm bowl of “melting snowman soup” (potato soup with mini carrot noses and olives or peas for eyes).
• Thanksgiving Turkey Parade
  After hours of waiting (hungrily), announce your bird’s grand entrance with a parade. March the turkey through the house, with your eager young guests trailing behind. Musical pots and pans optional but encouraged.
• Santa’s Toy Swap
  Along with cookies and milk, leave old toys under the tree on Christmas Eve for Santa to take back to the North Pole, where his elves can repair them for other children.

While all of these sound fun, the one we’re really excited to try is the Santa Toy Swap.  As mention earlier, my kids have too many toys, this sounds like a great way to “thin the herd.”

How about you?  What are some of your fun family traditions?   Any off the wall ones?

Until next time,

-DD

Original content from The Happy Rock: Frugal Family Traditions

It seems like I start off every one of these posts by saying I can’t believe how fast time is flying, BUT I REALLY CAN’T!

I think the cool and wet summer we had screwed up my inner clock.  It is still waiting for the 4th of July.  Oh well…

As some of you know, I track my family’s monthly expenses, and what follows is the tally for September:

• $840.39 – Mortgage
• $759.20 – Health Insurance
• $614.50 – Daycare
• $400.00 – Preschool
• $399.22 – Groceries
• $169.82 – Landscaping
• $150.00 – Student Loan
• $134.01 – Tennis
• $111.76 – Electricity
• $111.47 – Vehicle Registration
• $103.72 – Phone & Internet
• $93.64 – Dinning Out
• $92.00 – Events (Film Fest, & Bazaar)
• $87.47 – Gas
• $76.00 – Medical
• $74.19 – Shoes
• $66.18 – Dog
• $60.01 – Household Misc
• $57.98 – Kids Care
• $53.32 – Utilities
• $28.62 – Beauty Products
• $22.26 – Dance Class
• $19.50 – Donations
• $4.77 –  Gift

For a grand total of $4530.03. Yikes, and I thought last month was bad.

Biggest Budget Busters:

1. $614.50 – Daycare – “Just when I thought I was out…they pulled me back in.” I know what you’re saying, “DD, I thought your daycare closed in June?”  It did, this is the final bill…that I’ve been forgetting to pay.  So this should be the last time that I pay for daycare.
2. $169.82 – Landscaping – Four years ago or so, we had some professional landscaping done.  A nice brick patio was put in.  It was really slick.  But The landscaper convinced my wife that we should put in a sandbox in this empty spot between the house & garage.   Why not right?  I’ll tell you why not, all the neighborhood cats treated it as their litter box.  We finally bricked it over ourselves.  It doesn’t look nearly as slick as the professional job, but at least that area doesn’t smell like cat poop anymore.
3. $134.01 – Tennis – I really should include the $74  I spent on shoes too, because that was for my new tennis shoes.  I was surprised at this high of a total, until I remembered what it was for: a tournament(came in 2nd) indoor league (3 months) and some new balls.  This will be a big part of my entertainment/exercise for the next 3 months, so I guess it’s not too bad.

Biggest Budget Breakthroughs:

1. $400.00 – Preschool – This total will normally be $450/month.  But since my wife is taking the school pictures we got $50 knocked off our bill this month.  I hope the pictures turn out.  :)  Actually my wife is kicking herself for not asking for $100.  Live & learn.
2. $74.19 – Shoes – This might seem odd that I include this here while I complained about tennis up above.  Let me explain.  I normally spend a lot more on my tennis shoes than I did, so part of me (the part writing this right now) thinks I did a good job showing some restraint. So there.
3. $4.77 –  Gifts – On the same day we bought the bricks to cover up the litter box, my children were invited to a B-Day party.  One of their old daycare buddies was turning the big 04.  So  we settled on three Sesame Street activity books and didn’t break the bank.   

~Let’s do the Time Warp~

Last September we only spent $3,370.68.

Those were the days.  The big difference that caught my eye was that we didn’t have to cover our own health insurance premiums back then(didn’t start until Jan 09).   The tidbit that I found amusing was that much like this year, I was complaining about how much I spent on tennis.

Tennis – Actually this is for a 3 month membership in an indoor court.  Last year it was quite a bit more than this, but I played twice a week last winter, this year I’m playing once every other week.I’d say there wouldn’t be much expense in the category the rest of the year, but I just broke a string, so look for that next month.

I guess I have a twisted sense of humor because the amusing part of that is I only spent $55 on tennis last September.

Until next time,

-DD

Original content from The Happy Rock: DD’s Monthly Expenses – September 2009

The Writer’s Coin was the host for the 6th Carnival of Top PF Posts.   The carnival write-up includes carnival summary and a brief summary of each article.  Click through and check out the carnival.

For an easy voting reminder the voting widget is displayed below(RSS readers need to click through to the site to vote).

Also new this week is the “Share this poll” link on the bottom of the voting widget which is designed to provide simple access to any bloggers who want to show the poll in a post on their own site like I did. The purpose is to reward the best content with as much traffic as possible.

Original content from The Happy Rock: Cast Your Vote – Carnival of Top PF Post #6

Can you believe it’s June already?

Time is flying by.  As most of you know I track my family’s expenses. Here is the tally for May:

• $989.40 – Auto Repairs
• $830.00 – Mortgage
• $664.10 – Health Insurance
• $615.00 – Daycare
• $496.43 – Groceries
• $325.00 – Preschool Down Payment
• $305.52 – Household Misc
• $205.00 – Student Loan
• $179.59 – Shoes (new tennis shoes & summer kid shoes)
• $173.84 – Park & Rec Classes
• $168.95 – Electricity
• $167.94 – Contacts (6 months)
• $134.30 – Gas
• $124.23 – Gifts (Mother’s Day, Graduation, B-Days)
• $116.64 – Clothing
• $75.00 – Fun Kid stuff (Chucky Cheese, Zoo, Horse Races)
• $70.20 – Phone & Internet
• $61.91 – Dinning Out
• $57.93 – Dog Food
• $53.32 – Utilities (water, sewer, garbage)
• $51.99 – Tree
• $40.00 – Medical
• $4.00 – Powerball

Total Damage = $5910.29

I chuckle when I see this total. I figure it’s better to chuckle than to cry.

Last month I said I wanted to be around the $4000 level.  We were doing fine until mid month when the wheels fell off.  Then it got really bad when I had our van’s A/C fixed at the end of the month.

Biggest Budget Busters:

1. $989.40 – Auto Repairs – I’ve already went on about this long enough.  It’s just part of vehicle ownership.  At least I’ll be riding in comfort on those hot summer days.
2. $496.43 – Groceries – This looks bad, but about 40% of this is from a party we threw.  Every five years or so we throw a big backyard bash…You’re all invited in 2014 for the next one.
3. $305.52 – Household Misc – Last month I was asked what makes up “Household Misc”, I think I’ll break this out in it’s own post.

Biggest Budget Breakthroughs:

1. $325.00 – Preschool Down Payment – It may seem strange to put this in the breakthrough category, but I think in the long run this will end up saving us big time.  I’ll explain further in a future post.
2. $51.99 – Tree - Again, this is listed here because I’m looking forward to enjoying the future benefits of this for years to come.  I’m told that in 5 years our patio will have shade.
3. $4.00 Powerball – I didn’t win the grand prize, but I did triple my money ($12.00)
   

Even when you take out the van repair bill, it was still a very disappointing month.  But that’s the great thing about tracking your expenses…

Every month is a fresh start.

Until next time,

-DD

Original content from The Happy Rock: DD’s Monthly Expenses – May 2009