Monday money check in

[bk1]

Since these posts seem to be popular...


Anything you want to talk about?

Goals? Wins? Whines? Whatcha got?

[tacocat]

We'e doing a money class at church and part of it is tracking your spending for 30 days. I hope it gives us a good idea of where all our money is going and where we can cut back.

We're still planning on where to spend money on the house. I'm just scared to get started because we need to do a lot more than our budget allows and I don't want to pick the wrong projects.

[amaranth]

So I started using the YNAB free trial and I like some aspects of it, but not others. I'm used to Mint and so that's tripping me up. Like I don't understand how we mark each expense from the credit cards, but also paying off the credit cards. That's doubling up. And do I really have to mark each budget category every month? It seems so time intensive. Maybe I'm just not getting it.

[estrellita]

Set up the payment plan for my medical bills which helps my stress, lol. Hoping to throw some extra money at that soon. We're close to paying off the money we borrowed from my parents for the washer and dryer. Then my focus is the medical bills. Then paying off a student loan. Hopefully then we will have enough extra because we want to TTC #2 towards the end of this year or early next year. I'm nervous about the money but I think if we can stay focused we should be OK.

That said, we spent too much yesterday. Ugh. We went to Sam's and we can never leave there without spending over $100. We needed some things and in the long run it will save over buying things elsewhere but blah. I hate spending so much. We also went to Target and spent a good amount. But the nice thing is that I actually planned meals for the week, so hopefully that will help us not buy lunches and stuff this week!

[MrsMB]

I've been SUPER strict on my budget and spent $38 more on Stitchfix than planned last week. BUT I may not be using my babysitter budget this month....so I'm actually still in the black.

[MrsAggie]

I just got a $750 bill from my hospital stay. I also need to pay the hospital $2200 for my delivery very soon. And I'm not working. *sigh* I tried calling to see if they could bring the bill down at all and they said no.

[estrellita]

I'm sorry they wouldn't lower it MrsAggie medical bills suck!

[travelbug]

I just finalized all my insurance (dental, medical and optical) we have to re-enroll every six months. I hope I picked right for medical. It's so stressful. But my OOP to pay for all of it went down and I included hubby onto my dental so that will be more convenient having it all be on one instead of him on his own plan.

I've already noticed money saving in the new place by rent alone. Just waiting for the electrical bill even though I know what it'll be, seeing when it actually kicks in.

I need to call our car insurance place and see if we qualify for any new discounts just to check, since that's due in October!

Again, I love these posts!!!

[bk1]

I really need to take a good look at the last couple of months and see where our money has been going. I was working on that this weekend and getting a reality check.

Our grocery bill is way high to what I want it to be. I think it's because a) not realistic on how much it needs to be now and b) have been doing all of my shopping at Walmart so other things are getting categorized as groceries since I never split the receipts when tracking. I want to get back in the habit of going to Aldi's for staple products and be better about only buying groceries or going to a different store so my totals really match up with what I'm buying.

Our eating out isn't as bad as I thought it had been, but we do have room for improvement. Consistently meal planning would definitely help with that. 


We have been doing good about not spending as much. We have still been tight and I wasn't sure why so much (especially last month) until I added it up and we spent $629.28 on medical in July. At least we got G paid off and are already making payments to the OB so even though our medical bills won't be going down we'll have a chunk paid off before delivery. Afterwards I'll be able to set up a payment plan for less per month. 

[wanderingenough]

estrellita - suzv's post made me think...have you looked into supplemental health insurance for when you get pregnant next time (e.g. hospital indemnity, Aflac, etc.)? I was able to get it through my work prior to conceiving R (for a low monthly cost) and you get a nice lump sum for your hospital stay. It helped with those bills/time away from work. You generally have to enroll in the policy prior to getting pregnant (have it for 10 months or so) and obviously there is the risk you won't use it that year (if you have TTTC), but might be something to look into since you know it's in your plans.

[estrellita]

wanderingenough hmm, I've never thought of that! I wonder if that would potentially be better than maxing out my healthcare FSA? I already max out the DC one, so I wouldn't be losing the company match. I'm just hesitant to max that out when I'm not pregnant and don't know for SURE that I'd be having a baby before the cutoff for submitting claims. I don't want to lose out on it!

[estrellita]

I was also thinking of putting a certain amount in the FSA, then start putting money into a savings account for the hospital bill. Then I have less to worry about. I wouldn't get the tax cut but still better than taking on another payment plan for medical bills!

[wanderingenough]

estrellita - Yeah, like I said, there is some risk. I ended up having it for a couple years because of my MCs but it was only a few hundred over the course of a year, so it was worth the investment to me to have a bigger cushion on ML.