What the heck, Target?

I've just confirmed with my friend Katie, the hottest Target Store Manager in Wisconsin, that the amazing Target Home Design Event is not happening in stores this year.  This may be old news to some of you, but I was disappointed and thought I'd share my pain with you all.  She said that last year it didn't sell well until everything went on clearance.  Well, of course!  Everyone waits for the sales, don't they?  Anywho, my need for new home items has the SADS but my wallet has the SMILES about this news.  It is still happening on Target.com, though - so get out there and save 10% on purchases of $100 or more, with free shipping on some of the items, too.  I will just sit this one out as I'm trying to honor my spending resolution.  Boo!   

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! 

Apparently I'm not thrifty

I don't normally talk about "the money" on this site, but I have a big problem that may impact the projects that I document on the blog, so I think you deserve the dirty details.  It's also that time of year for resolutions, so without further ado: 

The problem:  I'm a waster.  A money waster.  A big-time, celebrities-going-bankrupt-after-appearing-on-CRIBS money waster.  A couple weeks ago, I casually clicked on the 'Spend Analyzer' feature on my Discover card website, and immediately yelled "HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING, that's a lot of monies!!!"  It was the Monday before Christmas, you see.  Then I downloaded all the year's transactions from my other credit cards and bank accounts I use for purchases, and was HORRIFIED!  Completely disgusted, I added all of our checking and credit card accounts to the free online budgeting tool Mint to see how we did as a couple.  IT WAS SHOCKING!  I spent over one third of my after-tax income on frivolous retail purchases.  And thanks to me, we also spent over one third of our combined take-home pay on just these categories:

General Shopping - clothing stores, speciality stores, places like Target, Kohls, TJ Maxx.
Home Furnishings and Minor Improvements - Menards, Home Depot, Pottery Barn, Overstock.com, Etsy, eBay, and any purchases I tagged as 'home' items.  
Eating out  - together, we spent about 2k on eating out last year, or $166 a month.  We also spent $4500 at grocery stores, which means we're drinking too much booze because two people don't need to spend almost $400 a month on groceries.  (Groceries are not included in the '1/3 of our income' figure, either!)
Cash (ATM Transactions) - $1700!!  Where did all that money go?

The bad news:  We have added next to nothing from our paychecks to our savings accounts for the entire year.  This is probably because our nice big tax return (which included a $7500 homebuyer tax credit) gave us a sense of security and a fat savings account.  We could've paid cash for a new car with the money we spent on 'things.'  What a sickening feeling. 

The good news:  We both contribute alot to our 401k (I've put in 12% for years) and have CDs/money market accounts that don't ever get touched.  We do have savings in place already.  We are not in debt, every credit card and bill is paid in full every month, so we're not necessarily living beyond our means and definitely aren't paying any interest.  In fact, we earned TONS of rewards on our credit cards.  We have a pretty house, and I have lots of nice outfits.....hey, I gotta make myself feel better somehow!  

Why it happened:  It's totally my fault.  I was excited about the house, and went all 'Shopaholic Takes Wisconsin' decorating it.  I also let the blog be an excuse to buy many things that I shouldn't have.  Combine these things with my hardwired-since-birth need to buy clothes constantly, and you've got a serious spending problem.  We also love to drink $10 bottles of wine every week, watch premium cable channels, and go out to dinner.  Oh yeah, and we bought a $3,000 mattress, so that didn't help the bottom line, either.

The resolution(s):  To give myself a monthly budget of 'fun money' that I can use for whatever I want....and when it's gone, it's gone.  To HOLY-COW-STOP-BUYING-CLOTHES because I have an entire room devoted to my clothes and only 1/3 of them will fit in there...I'm like a Midwestern, un-glamorous Mariah Carey.  To stop overspending to get that 'perfect look' seen on other blogs.  To be more like thrifty goddess Kasey* and stick to a budget that helps me put dollars into savings, not into more Etsy pillows and Pottery Barn rugs.  To challenge myself to do things more cheaply.  To save for a new vehicle because mine is almost 6 years old and won't last forever.  To use Mint to closely track our spending throughout the year to avoid this suprise at the end of 2010. 

So tell me....how many of you are shocked when you tally up your spending at the end of the year??  Please tell me I'm not alone!

* ps Kasey, I hope you can still respect me now that I've proven to be a 'money loser!'    

This is what $3,000 looks like

Our Tempur-pedic mattress was delivered today, it all it's rock-hard glory:

What does $3,000 smell like?  Well, it's less 'Chanel' and more 'chemical spill.'  Let's hope it airs out soon.  Also, check out my old mattress looking ashamed in the hallway:

Yes, old mattress.  You should be ashamed.  I will review this massive purchase after we get a couple nights sleep on it.  You know, when it softens up and doesn't smell like a latex factory.   

Are we smart or crazy?

Last night, Shaun and I dropped 3k on a Tempur-pedic 'DeluxeBed' queen mattress set.  It is two steps above the bottom of the line, and a few steps below the 'top' bed, so it's right in the middle of the pack.  Now, after the purchase, I'm seeing all kinds of bad reviews about Tempur mattresses online.  And I'm sweating about it, literally.  The biggest complaints are that you get really hot while sleeping on it because of the way it cradles you, and that after a couple years the material sags and gets really soft underneath you, and the company won't honor the warranty unless there is a visible dip when you're NOT laying on it.  Do any of you have a Tempur-pedic, and what has your experience been?  Did anyone go for the organic latex mattress that John and Sherry at Young House Love picked out from Savvy Rest?  I must say that the only reason we would ever drop this kind of money on a mattress is because we were in absolute heaven when we tested out the Tempur-pedic mattress at the store.  For about 30 minutes we monopolized the display bed.  No joke.  He is a side sleeper, and I am a back sleeper, but both of us felt like we were being cradled in Salma Hayak's cleavage a cloud.  We were rolling around exclaiming things like, "Oh man, turn this way!"  "I know, it's so awesome!"  "Ahhh, I feel like I'm in heaven!"  "I feel like I'm floating on air!"  "This mattress set is the same price as our entire patio project!"  "I know, we're crazy!"  "We'll take it, oh and throw in two of these $100 pillows, too!" 

I figured, why would we spend 3k on a patio we will only be able to use three months out of the year, but not spend the same amount on something we will sleep on every night for the next 15+ years? 

Ugh, it is a ton of cash.  So now, I'm having buyers remorse and wondering if I should cancel this order before it gets delivered next Friday.  Please help me if you have any insight/opinions on the merits of Tempur-pedic!!

Public Service Announcement

What gets me through my constant house projects?  Is it gallons of coffee?  The love of peeling paint off my fingers?  A constant fear of having an ugly house?  An egotistical need to be the best?  NAY, new music on my iPod is what I need to get through boring un-glamorous projects.  Which is why I stalk Amazon.com's MP3 section daily for FREE albums and songs.  I get so much good tunage for free just by checking it every day.  Well, today they started offering a little freebie that can be used on any MP3, not just specific albums and songs.  If you go here and enter this promo code before Nov 30th, you will get three bones to use on music!  Yayah!

MP34FREE

You're welcome.

Worth their weight in wool

While I was taking clutter from the living room and dumping it in the dining room cleaning up the living room for new pictures this weekend, I was overwhelmed with love for my rug, and decided to do a post on how awesome it is.  In reading other people's blogs, I understand that a rug is one of the most maddening elements of a room.  It can make it or break it.  It has to be perfect, but can also be the cost of a mortgage payment.  I hear you.  I knew right when we put an offer in on our house that I wanted, nay, NEEDED, the Pottery Barn zebra rug for our living room.  I agonized over the price, but my mom convinced me to buy the 8x10 - for $633 including tax - immediately upon closing because her wool rugs are still going strong after 10 years.  When we finally got the living room all arranged, I was in love.  I love looking at the soft pile getting fluffed up while vacuuming (with my amazing 30 year old vacuum) and marveling that a year later it still looks new.  

Many people balk at the price of wool rugs, but let me tell you...IT IS SO WORTH IT.

My cats have puked on this rug countless times (do they purposely head for the rugs, or what?) and you can't see one spot.  When it happens, I spray on my Woolite Oxy Clean, scrub gently with a brush, and hum a happy tune because I know it will clean up like a dream.  Every. Time.  Thanks to my mom's advice, I only buy wool when I purchase room-size rugs.  So here's my rug reasoning:

Fibers - Wool pile will 'bounce back' after a good scrubbing, lots of foot traffic, and general wear.  Synthetic fiber rugs are stain resistant and offer more vibrant colors than wool, but a cheaper synthetic pile will mat down over time.  Wool rugs are softer and 'springier' under your feet - and they stay that way for decades if regularily cleaned and vacuumed. 

Damage - Wool rugs can handle loops being pulled out better than synthetic rugs.  You snip off the yarn and immediately, you can't tell where it came from.  Well-made wool rugs are packed tight and stand up to losing threads here and there.  Many synthetics can look 'bald' when this happens too often.  Also, my cat peed a few separate times on my dining room rug (a horrible ongoing problem in itself) and it still looks great after an extensive remedy that included soaking it with urine-off and blotting it dry for days. 

Cost - Some people think it's crazy to spend $600+ on a room-sized rug, but I say you get what you pay for.  I went the cheap route for the guest room, I got a sythetic rug for $100 and it's dropping threads like crazy and just generally isn't holding up.  And we don't even use that room!  Now, I only buy wool and if I want it brand new, I pay the $600 dollars.  I particularily love Pottery Barn's rugs because they are extremely high quality for the price, and they have beautiful colors and patterns.  If you think the price is high, do some research and it will start to look like a screaming bargain!  My dining room rug was a PB 8x10 purchased gently used on eBay, and I am so pleased with it.  I paid $240 including shipping, which was a steal for the size.  I have also found high quality wool rugs at TJ Maxx/Homegoods for a fraction of this price, but I wouldn't buy cheaper priced wool online unless I was familiar with the quality.

Pads - I never buy expensive rug pads, I go to TJ Maxx or Homegoods and pay about $20 for an 8x10 rubber non-slip pad.  The key is to get the rubber pads with the TIGHT weave, not the ones with the big spaces in between.  You don't need the $60+ rug pads the stores try to sell you, the rubber ones work just fine and won't ruin hardwoods. 

Care - I vacuum all the time because I have two cats, but even without the cats, I would vacuum at least weekly to keep the pile lifted and fresh.  Wool rugs will shed for awhile after you buy them, but the high quality rugs won't shed as much as cheaper ones do. 

Bottom line - I view rugs as an investment, and I'm willing to pay more for one that will last and look beautiful until I am ready for a new look.  I am not saying there aren't some very nice synthetic rugs out there, there definitely are, but they will not be cheap either.  Your rugs will be walked on, spilled on, crushed, and abused.  Spend the money now instead of replacing it in a couple years!  Please note that if I was going for a very trendy look that I knew I wouldn't want forever, I would most certainly pick out a cheaper Olefin or Poly rug and just give it away when I was ready for a change.  But for the most part, my rugs are a long term commitment! 

**And yes, my fingers are crossed that I don't hate animal prints in a couple years!**

   

One smaller mortgage payment, please

My last post gave you all the hairy details of our house aquisition last June.  This one is all about the way we worked the system like the Gosselins got a great deal on a refinance this year. 

Last year we refinished the living room/entry floor, removed miles of wallpaper, painted, painted some more, cleaned up the yard and added paneling to the dining room.  Even with all that, the place was looking pretty rough in January, and this was for a reason.  We wanted to get a city assessor in here to lower our assessment, and the soonest this could be done was the first of the year.  So...we left things looking like this to plead our case that the house was not 'worth' what we were paying taxes on:

 

Do you like how I hung a picture up to distract from the wallpaper that is still on the upper walls in the stairway?

Before this, I actually used to have a bunch of pages from the Victoria's Secret catalog taped on this wall because I thought seeing Adriana Lima in lacy panties would distract Shaun from my 'wallpaper picking'.  He thought it was stupid to pick off little pieces of wallpaper here and there because it made the house look worse, he wanted to wait until we were ready to do the entire project.  You can sort of see my handiwork in this picture:

         

My 'lingerie artwork' was up for a housewarming party we had, everyone thought it was hilarious.  Anyway, our plan to keep the house looking dumpy for the assessor worked, he lowered our assessment by 26k in April!  That would translate to a $566 annual savings if property tax rates remain the same this year, which I know isn't happening.  We will see what we've saved soon.   

After the city assessor left in January, we knew we were going to try to refinance because rates had dropped so much.  This meant we had three months to un-dumpify the house substantially to raise our value enough to avoid the dreaded PMI.  Our plan was:

Finish removing wallpaper in entry, stairs and upper hallway areas.

Prime, paint these areas including trim. 

Refinish stairs.

Change out light fixtures in entry, upstairs bath, downstairs bath.

Completely redo downstairs bath.

Stage the upstairs hall.
Stage the master bedroom and guest bedroom.

Stage the living room, dining room and two attached sunporches.

Pray that our city assessment didn't get lowered until after the refinance!

Happily, everything worked out and the credit union we worked with received the inspection report stating that the house was worth 20k more than our new 'lowered' city assessment, and 35k more than we purchased the house for last June!  Pretty sweet in the bad housing market, if I do say so myself.  We now pay $200 less per month after securing a 4.875 interest rate and eliminating the PMI we had been paying.  Plus, our property taxes will go down because we were proactive in getting our assessment lowered while we still had a chance.  Since we escrow, this means that hopefully next year our total payment will be even lower.  And our closing costs were only $1200 so we have already recouped those costs from our lower payments.  Woot! 

In closing, please check out this hilarious photo I took when we first saw the house.  This is the upstairs linen closet containing a bottle of olive oil, and a can of WD-40 for all your bathroom oiling needs:

                       

Other weird stuff the previous owners left here: a single (dirty) men's suit hanging in the master bedroom closet and a clean but taped-shut-like-it's-dirty diaper in the guest room closet. Wha??

Gallery wall for cheapskates

In my last post you caught a glimpse of my upstairs hallway.  Back in March when we were looking into refinancing our less-than-8-month-old mortgage to get a one of those sub-5% rates, we were on a mission to clean up the interior of our house for an inspection.  More to come on that later.... 

We had finished the downstairs bath, stairway, and carpet removal right before our refinance in early April.  In the middle of all that work I needed to paint this hallway (Behr Antique White) and all the trim to make the house look clean and worth some big bucks.  I would come home from work on my 1 hr lunch break, throw on old clothes and paint for 45 minutes then swipe at my sweaty pits with a towel get dressed and go back to work.  It was dedication, people.  What took so long was the **8** doorways in this hall that all needed to be sanded, primed, and painted.  You can see here that I've only done the trim, not the doors themselves.  Patience is a virtue.  Painting all this trim was one of the only times I cursed having a home with five bedrooms.  Here is a progress picture:

After the painting was completed, I also knew that we had to put something on the walls in here to make it feel more 'finished.'  I had envisioned a small gallery wall of sorts, so I went to Kohls when they had all their frames 55% off and bought four matching gallery frames, to create this look:

It was a small thing, but I feel it dressed it up for when the inspector walked through.  I wanted to display black and white photos, but I didn't want to just go buy some.  I wanted photos that were a conversation piece and FREE.  So I did some googling and found a few websites that had amazing old photos of Milwaukee and my home city of Racine.  Some of the sites charged for prints and downloads, but others had free ones.  I saved the images I liked to my computer and printed them out on photo paper.  A closer look:

            

The quality isn't superb, but they are old photos so you can't really tell.  I also printed them a smaller 4x6 size so they weren't pixelated or stretched.  All of the pictures are dated from 1880s - 1930s and are taken of various areas in downtown Milwaukee.   Some of the ones I used on my wall are:

The Pabst Theater (which is still there and is the fourth-oldest continuously operating theater in the United States) with city hall (which is also still there and was the tallest building in the country from 1895 - 1899) in the background:

View down East Water Street from Wisconsin Avenue (1885):

                                      

Pabst Theatre again from bridge (1935):

The rest of these I haven't used, but I love them and may come up with other projects to use them in the future.  I may also purchase some prints in a larger size to support the Wisconsin Historical Society website. 
A coal wagon and pedestrians downtown (1904):

                          

All the newsboys waiting outside the Milwaukee Journal building on 4th street (1920):

                          

A bunch of little tough guys chillin on a corner (undated):

                          

Wisconsin Avenue from the west bank of the Milwaukee River. The Pabst Building is on the left (1912):

This is a hysterical photo from 1905.  Check out the look on the ladies faces as the two men at the bottom of the steps tip their hats to them.  The caption says this is Mrs. Joseph Smith and her family.  Love that porch!!

   
 Oh yeah, and here is the other side of the hallway:

As you can see, we have one of those little 'phone nooks' that I have no idea what to do with.  Right now it holds a drawing Shaun did for me while he was on a fabulous vacation without me years ago.  He will never live that one down.  Any ideas?

Want vs. Need

This economy is rough. It's also rough to see all the potential in your home and not really be able to do much to see it fulfilled. If I had my way, I would spend all my time shopping for the perfect accessories and furniture to make my 'nest' as beautiful as possible. Even when you are thrifty and DIYing projects instead of buying them premade, it adds up. The city I live in is burdened by a horrible 17.1% unemployment rate that is only getting worse. We are losing car dealerships, manufacturing jobs and retail stores left and right. It is a very worrisome problem and makes me want to hold on to every last penny. Especially since I work at one of the city's largest employers that is also seeing a very hard time financially.

As I was going through my house pictures trying to figure out what to post about next, I realized that I have a ton to post about, but I just felt that none of my other rooms were 'good enough' to put out here. Meaning the rooms are fine, but there are so many other 'things' I wanted to buy for them before they went on display. Wall art, mirrors, new lighting, curtains, pillows, etc. This is a struggle I have been dealing with for awhile. My most recent credit card bill had made me realize that it is time to just work with what I have and be glad for what I have. No matter what eyecandy I see on the house blogs out there, I have to be proud of what we've done to our place even if it isn't going to be featured in a magazine anytime soon.
Here is a picture that sums up American's constant need for change nicely:

This is a scary basement room with dozens of gallons of paint that the previous owners left for us (there were more cans stashed in the cabinets).  All of the cans were over three years old, and many of them were full and seemed untouched.  90% of the gallons were tinted strange colors and in sheens that we couldn't use, so we had to add our own dozen (plus) cans to this stash.  Since we moved in, we have been systematically hardening and throwing away the cans they left here.  It is sad, and a waste.  Not to mention horrible for the environment.     
How do you learn to be happy with what you have?