February 3, 2009

What to do with budgetary surplus: another bailout?

The truck sold. What’s next?

Well, I’m pretty sure that the sale price didn’t come close to breaking even against the amount of money I’ve expended on the truck payments since last July, I’m not even checking, but it did cover the lump pay-off sum of $2356, with some cash to spare.

The question is: what do I do with that “extra” money?

My first reaction was to kick that money over to pay off the family car. It’s just about the right amount to pay it off, and would remove one more loan from the family resources. (That car is currently my parents’ responsibility, and not under my name.) It would free up cash flow about 7 months earlier than expected.

My second reaction was to put it in the emergency fund because I’m neurotically squirreling money away.

My third reaction was to leave it in the expenses fund because that’s where the money came from in the first place, and I’m a BIG fan of paying myself back.

Lastly, there’s a hybrid option. I could give them some partial assistance monthly, depending on how much they need to break even between my mom’s (piddling) disability money and my dad’s erratic income. By my calculations, it appears that they should only be running short a hundred or so each month until April. At that time, another monthly obligation falls off the balance sheet, and they should be fine with regards to the few debts I don’t pay for them.

As much as my gut reaction is just to pay it all off, I don’t want to nip this budding sense of responsibility that my dad’s developing. I want to encourage him to work with me because I’m just not up for ANY more shenanigans.

Thoughts?

January 8, 2009

Better than a punch in the arm

Guess the no-bonus unlove was some sort of mistake. Corporate will be cutting a new one and sending it out to me in the amount of ….. not very much!

I’m not complaining, nor am I surprised that it’s only going to be $300. It’s not even being called a bonus, it’s marked as a Holiday Gift.

Guess I’m just bemused. We’ve been “spoiled” in the past by the generous bonuses, and they were all instrumental in my progress through the years, but my budget never hinged on them. (Thank goodness!)

Hah, it just occurred to me that it’s so small that I don’t even have to worry about how this impacts the tax planning. Every cloud and silver lining, right?

Anyway, it’ll probably go right into the emergency fund, that’ll be nice.

December 26, 2008

Interesting, no bonus?

Here’s hoping it’s just the USPS that doesn’t love me, because if my coworkers got bonus check love and I won’t/didn’t, that would be stinky.

I didn’t expect anyone would receive bonuses, actually, but I’d be more peeved if they rewarded half the staff and not the other half. Yes, I’d feel the same way if I got one and a couple of my staff didn’t.

J. Money got bonus love this year, hope anyone who could have reasonably expected to receive one, did as well!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and is ready for the new year!

July 16, 2008

First hundred down!

*arms raised in victory* I have reached my first milestone: my first hundred dollars earned for my House Down Payment Fund! The money hasn’t quite reached my account yet, so I’m pre-celebrating but I’m really really excited. These haven’t been easy months, and it’s so nice to be able to have reached one goal without sacrificing another one.

It actually feels like I’ve made progress despite all the other obstacles in way, nibbling away bits and edges of my salary, and that’s always good for morale around here.

The next hundred will now be cycled to my Travel Fund, and the next fifty after that will be for the Suit/Clothing Fund. I might add a Laptop Fund, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, and I don’t want to dilute this source too much. Obviously, as Blunt Money just pointed out, saving IS addicting.

May 21, 2008

First house fund deposit!

My first payouts were received this weekend, and I’ve transferred $33.50 to my house fund. How exciting! I think I’m going to alternate payments between the travel and house fund, in increments of $100. It was only appropriate that the first payout go towards the house since the travel fund has been established and funded.

I just have to keep creating little bits of income to ‘flake into those accounts. I love the feeling of progress!

May 19, 2008

*snf* It’s done ….

My Vanguard contribution has been knocked down to the minimum allowed: $12.50/check. Awww man. Now I’m sad. But, this will improve cash flow, and actually, increase the total amount that is considered 5% of my check when payroll calculates my matched contributions, so this could increase my matched money by a little bit. That’s not bad. We’ll see if that’s how it works out.

May 9, 2008

Yay Money!

The $600 is in the BANK.

I’m super excited to chop that up into the categories I’ve finally settled on. In combination with my remaining $4800 once intended for tax payment, I have $5400 to “play” with.

$2000 will go to the emergency fund. I don’t have quite six months’ worth of expenses in there, so it’s going to be e-fund’s e-fund. I’d rather not kick up the bar to 20k yet, I’d like to enjoy having a full goal bar for a little longer.
$1250 goes to auto maintenance.
$1250 goes to auto insurance. This feels like a windfall. I usually use “put together” (ie: reimbursements, etc.) money for the insurance because I was having trouble squeezing any more money out of the paycheck. Now I have a nice cushion!
That leaves $900. $200 goes to my expense fund because work refused to reimburse me for something they’d promised to, and given the climate these days, I’m sure I won’t be able to force it out of them. Oh well.

$700 is now intended for ME!!! I struggled with this, but I’ve been trying to learn to how to live for me at least a little bit, and letting myself have 13% of a “windfall” isn’t the end of the world. The bulk of it is going towards being really responsible, after all.

$300 was earmarked for Con, of which $92 is already spent, so I’ll have up to $200 in gas and spending money for 5 days.

The other $400 will be my travel fund for the year. I could take a trip to Phoenix (tickets are approx. $140), I could go to Oregon (use an award ticket and have a wee bit of spending money), and then maybe even get in another trip to New York (again, use an award ticket, have a little transportation and spending money). That would definitely be the end of all that money, but it’d be fantastic! I have over 150 vacation hours accumulated, and will stop accruing soon, I might as well plan to have some fun and clear my head.

I’m thinking of other trips I wish I could squeeze in: BF’s family invited me on their two weeks to Cancun and backpacking in Belize. (Backpacking! In Belize!!) A coworker’s going to a timeshare in Hawaii for two weeks, I just pay for food and transportation. (Hawaii!!)

But, $400 doesn’t stretch THAT far.

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