Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I am drunk on love for my readers

I have to say, you are amazing people.  Seriously, you all made me feel so much better with your supportive comments about my secret shame.  And you had really wonderful suggestions and philosophies about money and saving.  Since you were all so receptive to the details, I wanted to add a couple more things based on the comments I received:

~  I do have student loans, 28k in fact, but I don't consider them debt (more an investment) because my masters degree is why I have the job I have today.  Also, I only pay 1.6% interest and it's a tax write-off.  I do want to pay it down faster, though, I would love my $200 a month back! 

~  Shaun has a car payment, but he should hopefully have it paid off early next year.  If we can curb the spending, it could maybe be paid this year.  How wonderful would that be!  

~  I already have 15% of my paychecks direct-deposited into a money market account for saving purposes.  Unfortunately, it is a 'checking account' so I can pay bills out of the account.  Guess what I've been doing the last few months?  That will stop. 

~  I also have $100 a month automatically going into a Roth IRA.  I like that I can't touch it, and I will probably increase the amount after seeing how I do with a tighter budget.  I actually have an Ameriprise Financial Advisor, but we haven't had a meeting in awhile - I think that also contributed to my spending spree. 

~  And finally, I did make one more larger purchase last week that I will be posting about soon.  It is sort of my last hurrah before 'shopping celibacy' starts.  I'm also going to start doing a budget breakdown for my projects so you can see how much I really spend on my rooms.  I hate it when you see a gorgeous room redo and then figure out it cost 5k to create the look.   

Thanks again for all the advice, and here's to success with your New Year's resolutions as well! 

6 comments:

  1. I feel ya. My students loans are much higher than that (law school ya know) but I do consider mine debt. They irritate me. I hate them. I could have a beach house if I didn't have them. I do have a lot of wasteful spending though, especially Starbucks. Ohhhh love the 'bucks! Thanks for the post. We can go on our wasteful spending/ debt reduction projects together.

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  2. Well, Sara, I don't know you in real life, but you prompted me to do an audit of our household spending... TODAY. I haven't done one since 2007 and it was definitely an eye opener. The hubs and I just had a great chat over dinner about the necessity of RockBand drums and waterproof riding boots. We're right there with you in this struggle! (Although we will be proceeding with painting our MBR a very similar shade to the blue you chose for yours...)

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  3. We started taking cash out to use for specific categories and that has really helped us curb our spending in problem areas (like eating out). If you do start budgeting, don't be too hard on yourself at first-- it can take a few months to figure out realistic numbers to use. If you make an unrealistic budget, you'll be less likely to stick with it.

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  4. I think it is great to have an employer that allows automatic deductions from your pay cheque. I get money taken off for an RRSP (like your 401K) and also to buy company stock (big IT company). My cheque has been like that so long I don't even realize it is being deducted. What you don't have, you can't spend.

    I got budget software today so I can track where my money goes.

    Thanks for your previous post Sara.

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  5. oh student loans... we could pay another mortgage with how much we pay in student loans, no joke.

    seems like you are on a good track though. i think it will be interesting to see your project budget breakdowns. i've thought about starting to do that too.

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  6. I talked with my husband last night about your post, and it made us start thinking more about what we spend money on, and that's good! Thank you! But I'm with you... I am not thrifty when it comes to shopping (house stuff, clothes, vacations, etc.), and I never have been. I'm trying to work on that, but there are some things that I am willing to fork it over for, so don't worry... you're not alone! :)

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Thanks so much for reading....your comments mean a lot to me!
Sara