Goals & Results for 2009

1. Find a job in accounting (new career field) and study for the CPA exam. Well, I have a tax-season job at H&R Block, and I've passed 3 of the 4 CPA exams. Still need a "real" job, but I've made definite progress.

2. Work to further develop my Money & Happiness class. I did this a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped.

3. Lose weight. Alas, no. I did lose weight the very beginning of the year, but I've put it back on again during the past month that Henry has required daily radiation treatments. Start all over again. At least it was stable most of the year.

4. Have at least $10K in savings (ideally $12K) by September 1. Well, I actually got it up to $12K by June...and then all the big expenses started coming: Henry's medical bills, major car repairs, and my CPA exam & preparation fees. I'd hoped to be able to have a cushion to live off of, but right now my credit card bills exceed the amount I have in savings, so I'm in debt for the first time in 15 years (not counting the mortgage) and terribly fearful of going deeper before I land a real, self-supporting job.


Goals for 2010
1. Finish the CPA exam and the EA exam. Find a real self-supporting accounting job.

2. Continue regular exercise with an eye towards weight loss. I walked 285 fitness miles in 2009...hoping to increase this to 365 in 2010. Also need to add in strength training at least twice weekly.

3. I will focus on eating fewer prepared foods and smaller portions with an eye to both losing weight and trimming my food budget.

4. Do my own "happiness project" to combat the depressive tendencies that come with long-term unemployment.

Better late than never.

Here are my goals from 2008 with a report on how I fared.

1. Continue to save 15% of earnings (ideally 20%). To do this, I will make special effort this year towards cutting food costs. Not able to do so. I had a major pay cut that occurred in Sept, 2007, and most of my savings from 2007 were from the beginning of that year. At my current income, my expenses match my earnings, and I have not been able to save, nor have I done a good job on cutting expenses, other than sporadically.

2. For 2008 only, put most of that towards short-term savings (CD ladder) to give myself sufficient liquidity during a career change.
Jan 1, 2008 cash balance: $8023
Mar 31, 2008 balance: $8200
June 30, 2008 balance: $8606
Jan 1, 2009 cash balance: $7785 (I had a $1000 home repair back in July)

3. Do everything possible to make that career change happen! Planning to do an internship this summer and apply for jobs in the fall. Although I'm not a traditional college student, that's what the market is geared for, so I expect the career changeover to occur in June 2009. I am set with employment until then (phew!) I did not do the internship (couldn't manage that and completing the coursework simultaneously) but I completed 3 classes for credit and audited a fourth, completing my accounting degree. My paycheck continues through August, and I am getting serious about the job hunt now.

4. Continue paying extra on the mortgage. Goal is to cut my payoff date down to 22 years total (age 67) or ideally 20 (age 65).
Jan 1, 2008 balance: $89,300.
Mar 31, 2008 balance: $89,000
Jun 30, 2008 balance: $88,560
Jan 1, 2009 balance: $87,500

5. Continue investing for retirement--at least 1 million. Goal is to get there by no later than age 65, ideally age 60. Currently I'm on track to do so, as long as I can (1) earn an average of 8%/year on my retirement savings and (2) get some contributions towards my retirement from my employer.
balance 1/1/08: $127K
balance 6/30/08: $121K (market drop)
Balance: 1/1/09: $99K (market drop)

6. Nonfinancial goals: Lost at least 15% of my weight, exercise daily, and maintain at least a semblance of a social life. Well, I lost weight, gained weight, and lost weight to end the year 3 pounds below where I started. I did ok at exercising regularly, though not daily, until sometime into November. Social life was pretty minimal but I did see my boyfriend once a week, had friends visit from out of town twice, and had about one get-together with friends a month, so at least the minimal semblance of a social life was maintained.

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My goals for 2009 are listed under author info. The main goal is to finally make the jump to a new career. Pretty much everything else is secondary. I'm also working on losing weight--I joined Weight Watchers right after Thanksgiving and have taken off 12 pounds so far. I'll have to keep up the exercise to keep losing, and by eating fewer calories, I'll eat less and eat out less often, so that will help keep food costs in check.

The New York Times featured an article on this yesterday. The five rules cited in the article were
1. Investing is simple (use index funds);
2. It still may be worth paying for help;
3. Peers may know more than professionals (example web sites cited; Savings Advice would qualify but wasn't among the examples);
4. Everything can (and should) be automated (bill paying & investing);
5. Have the talk (with your parents & children to ensure everyone can be taken care of).

I have seen some other good summary posts on blogs in the past--e.g. the "five index card" post at The Simple Dollar blog and the "Three principles of Personal Finance" at mint.com.

Inspired by these, I decided to come up with my own. I posted them at my own site at fiscal-fitness.blogspot.com/--you can go there directly by clicking on Fiscal Fitness Professional under "Sites I enjoy".

What are your rules?

Well, March was a spendy month; I spent about double what I spent in February (gulp). Much of the addtional spending was justified but still I hate to see so much variability--and I *really* hate it when my spending for the month surpasses my income for the month, even with the tax refund.

Extra spending was as follows:

$600 another expensive vet trip for Henry and his allergies
$165 getting a broken tooth fixed at the dentist
$500 buying the beginnings of a new professional wardrobe as I prepare to transition from academia into the corporate world
$200 in professional expenses (books, software)
$100 stocking up on wine, beer, sodas and extra food for a party
another $200 in extra food expenses--not that the food was wasted, but that it was eaten out or bought prepared, thus unnecessarily expensive
$82 to buy 200 "forever" stamps before the price increases on May 12
$132 prepaying an extra month early on my home gas bill--they changed the date the bill was due and refused to change it back, and I really like to pay my bill immediately after my monthly paycheck arrives and not a week before it arrives, so I decided to get a month ahead to avoid any late fees.
$90 extra prepayment on the mortgage to get it down to 89K.

As so often happens, financial and weight control go together--I slacked off a lot on exercise during March, and gained back 2 pounds. Still down about 7 from the end of last year, but I can feel those two pounds.

So the goal for April is another personal "challenge" month to see how close I can keep my monthly total spending to about $2000. No "extras" this month (unless I get a job interview, in which case I still need a professional pair of shoes), and I need to start back shopping more at Aldi's and Giant, much as I hate them, rather than at my beloved Wegmans. And I pulled out the pricebook I put together two years ago--time to update it since the last time I used it was in 2006. Should be interesting to see how food prices have changed in that time.

And it's a challenge month for health, too--I've joined an online "April Boot Camp" challenge on Leslie Sansone's walk club board, the goal of which is to lose 8 pounds during April. So I'll tighten up and refocus on fitness, too. I just started another round of "First Strides," the local women's walking/running program (that was another $40 out the door); those two workouts a week with other people (in addition to the two mornings a week I walk with my friend Anne) should help keep me from slacking off).

My February Challenge was to do a "fiscal fast," minimizing extras and sticking to spending on monthly bills, food, fuel, and medical emergencies. Total goal for spending was $2000.

On the one hand, I overspent my budget by about 10%, so that the total spending for February was about 2200. And yes, about 200 worth of expenses could have been either postponed (most of them) or avoided (a few of them), but only $5 is spending I regret. And on the other hand, that $2200 is the lowest monthly spending in quite a while, as my monthly spending for 2006-2007 has averaged over $3000.

Spending included 10 no-spend days--more of them in the first half of the month. The second half I ate out more (but had lower grocery expenses) as midterms at school kept me busy (busy for teachers as well as for students!) (note that by "eating out" I mean grabbing a sandwich or bowl of chili at a fast food restaurant and not a full-sit down meal at a real restaurant, of which I had only two, one after doing a 24-hour fast for a medical test, and one after seeing a play (for $5 each) with my sweetie as our belated valentine's celebration.

This month I'm going for a monthly total spending of $2700--still a cut but not nearly as much because I anticipate car repair and veterinary expenses, plus I need to buy at least one nice job interview outfit since I will be looking for a summer internship and getting ready for "real" job interviews come the fall.

My February Challenge is doing a "fiscal fast," minimizing extras and sticking to spending on monthly bills, food, fuel, and medical emergencies.

This week was so-so. I *did* have two more no-spend days (and I expect tomorrow to be another, as I'm planning not to leave the house and to spend minimal time on the internet), so that's 4 so far. If tomorrow is indeed another NSD, I'll be batting .500 as far as NSDs go, which is pretty good for me.

I *did* buy a couple of unplanned extras. Both were not really unplanned, but not planned for this month. I was called up on Monday and asked by the Dean of the Evening College to supervise an independent study class for a student (which will bring in over $600 more income this term). The class I am supervising for her is one that I am not otherwise teaching this term. I taught it last term. A new video very relevant to the class appeared in January, and I decided at that time to buy it the next time I taught the course; but until this week, I thought that wouldn't be until next January. In addition, I replaced a copy of another videotape I use which was wearing out with a DVD of the same, since both purchases were from ABC video. So that was an unplanned $65 in unreimbursed business expenses.

Then today at the grocery store, I fell prey to the sale bug and bought two pretty glass carafes and a new coffee mug, for $13. These had been on the "to buy" list so were not totally impulse expenses, just taking advantage of the sale.

I did end up spending $130 at the grocery store, so I'm going to do my best to have that last two weeks if I can and skip my regular grocery shopping trip next weekend.

Finally, this week my local public library decided to charge me full price for a book I'd borrowed, as they said it was "too damaged" to go into circulation. I got a lecture from Miss Priss the librarian on the phone and was relieved not to have another one when I went in to pay the fine. I was thinking that I must have written in the book more than I thought, but no. Yes, I KNOW one is not supposed to write in library books--I'm a librarian's daughter. My mother and I used to fight about my habit of writing in books. I do minimize this for library books. (And I frankly I cannot understand people who can read nonfiction books and get involved with them *without* writing in them. Reading a book is like having a conversation with the author, and one has to record one's own side, is my view. Just like "an empty desk is a sign of an empty mind," an unmarked page of a nonfiction book is a sign that the reader was not involved in the reading, IMHO. But really, I DO limit my extensive conversations to books I own.) The "writing all over the book" turned out to be approximately 8 pen dots, lines, and exclamation points marking key passages, and one 6-word annotation pointing to another book on the same issue which also appeared last month (the book in question was Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food," which I am just as happy to own, and the book I referred to was Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories," which Pollan eventually mentions, about 25 pages after the point at which I first found it relevant. Personally, I am happy when a link to a related reference is posted.) Anyways, that ended up costing me $30.50, for the book, the processing fee, and late fees for a couple of other books I was not allowed to renew earlier this week because of the charge.

Despite the couple of extra expenses, it's still looking as though I'll come in under $2000 in total expenses easily (current projection is for $1825 total), just so long as the pets stay well and no other crisis emerges.

I also got another $25 reward certificate from amazon.com if the spending bug really hits.

As far as my other major goal for the year, I've lost 9 pounds so far. I've been keeping track of my miles walked, both for exercise and otherwise, via a pedometer. To date, I've walked 170 miles so far this year, 74 aerobic miles and 96 other. Much better than I was doing in 2007!

My challenge to myself for February is a minimal-spend month. All the bills will get paid, of course, and I'll eat and buy gasoline to get to work as usual, and if I run out of household supplies like paper towels or light bulbs, I will replace them, and if I or the furkids needs any medical attention, that will be taken care of. Also, February is Valentines Day and I'll buy my sweetie a valentine and some chocolate, but that's to be the limit of my discretionary spending. No books or DVDs or clothing or tools or gadgets or garden supplies or new supplements at the health food store or restaurant meals (though grabbing a salad or sandwich at the convenience store when I forget to bring my lunch, as I occasionally do, is allowed), and (as usual) no going out to the movies or other entertainment (though I'm not cancelling the Netflix account). I'm also hoping that it will be a low pet-bill month, too--I *think* I have enough food in stock to keep Henry the Hungry Hound fed for the month, though the cats are almost out of food. Without these additional expenditures, I'm hoping to bring the monthly total in under $2000, which would be a real achievement (haven't done it since August 2006). If successful, that will compensate for January's extra expenses and allow me to make progress towards my savings goal for the year.

I'll do this now, since I get busy during the week. Also, I started my fitness and diet plan on Dec 27, so it really IS a month.

So far: 7 pounds down (about 3% of my weight). I've exercised all but 5 days since starting. Food spending was about 10% lower than last year's monthly average; I should do even better in February, when I won't have out-of-town company coming to buy for. I ended up buying food [bagels & cream cheese, tortilla chips] that the visitor didn't eat and which I just gave away to my boyfriend because it's not on my health plan right now.

In terms of savings goals, I haven't saved *anything* so far--in fact, I overspent in January--$220 on exercise DVDs and equipment and new walking shoes, an unexpeced $500 vet bill (well, not totally unexpected, as Henry ends up with about 4 of these per year; just not expected this month); over $200 in textbooks for the school term, and $116 for a new 3 handset phone system when my old cordless phone died. Some months are like that. Everything was put on the credit card, which I pay off in full each month. My goal for the next month, however, is to limit expenditures to basic bills, food, gasoline, and any emergency medical/vet bills that arise--in other words, I'll eliminate discretionary spending other than that which I routinely get billed for (the $19/month gym fee; the minimum $5.23 most basic Netflix subscription) and see if I can thereby catch up on my planned savings.

The other big goal for the month is working towards the career change. I've got a big hurdle in the next 2.5 weeks: I finished last semester with an incomplete in a critical course, and now have just 2.5 weeks left to complete two exams and the papers. I wasn't able to focus on working on this last month when I found my job unexpectedly up in the air, and the past week, I've been feeling on the verge of a cold and end up going to bed early each night rather than studying. I'm going to be pretty frantic until my Feb 16th deadline.

While I do take advantage of the free annual credit reports you can get from the three reporting agencies. those reports don't tell you the actual FICO score. I haven't seen my FICO score since I bought my house two years ago, so today I decided to check up on what it was. I paid for a report from one of the agencies (of course, I checked online and found a promotional code so that I paid $12.76 for the report rather than $15.95), and my score is 770. That's within 20 points of where it was two years ago. I was surprised to note that one "negative" factor on my report is that my oldest account is only 8 years old--the report said that people in the top category have accounts that are 19 years old. I've certainly had credit for more than 19 years, but I guess I've changed banks as I've moved bewteen California, Michigan, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. Eight years ago is the time of my last inter-state move, so I guess that makes sense.

Another slightly negative factor is that I've applied for credit recently. My mortgage company offered me a card that gives me 1% back on my mortgage, so I applied for and received that. I figure that, in the long run, that's worth more than getting myself free gifts on Amazon.com (since my current rewards card is from Amazon). I did just yesterday decide to redeem about $125 of the $225 in rewards certificates I've earned this year.

While I was checking my account status, I noticed the Chase Freedom account banner. While the Amazon.com card gives me 3% back on amazon.com purchases and 1% back on everything else, the Freedom card gives you 3% back on your top three categories of spending each month, whatever they are and whereever they were spent. Additionally, it allows you to redeem that $ back either as points that you can exchange for gifts, OR as cash back. After thinking about it, I decided that by getting cash back and then sending in that amount in extra mortgage payments, I would be able to put even more extra towards the mortgage, so I decided to apply for that card as well. I'll cancel the amazon.com card when it comes so as not to have too many credit card accounts outstanding. I *was* going to cancel another VISA card I have until I realized that it is the oldest card in my wallet, two years older than any other. I may cancel that too, eventually. The additional credit card application may lower my score some temporarily, but I have no plans in the immediate future to apply for a loan, so a temporary lowering should not make much difference.

In honor of the new year, I'm renaming my blog to Fiscal Fitness. This not only reflects that two of my main goals for the year are to improve my finances *and* my fitness, but it also reflects my intention to make some additional entries to another blog I maintain under the same name at blogspot (see links). While this is my personal blog, the other one reflects my professional interests.

Income after deductions for taxes, health insurance contribution, & retirement contribution: $44,473 (38,210 from my full-time job, 3718 from part-time work, 1244 income tax return, 1000 gifts from Mom, 301 in survey income and rebates. I need to do better planning to get less of an income tax return; I’m a relatively new home owner, so I’m still having to adjust my tax planning for the extra deduction I get for mortgage interest payments.

Expenses:

Mortgage & PITI (property insurance & property taxes): $9240. This includes $575 in mortgage prepayments.

Food (Groceries & Eating Out): The books say 7616 (5963+1653), but it’s surely less—as much as 1500 less (2006 food expenses were 6152). The problem in my record-keeping this year is that my detailed records were lost when my last computer died in mid-July. I had to reconstruct my file from bank statements rather than receipts, and since I did a lot of buying at a warehouse store, toiletries, household supplies, clothing and even books got lumped in here—since I had no way to estimate actual expenses, I just categorized everything as groceries, the biggest expense at the warehouse store. Also, when I do ATM withdrawals, I also tend to list those as dining out expenses initially and go back and recategorize as I spend money, but all of those recategorizations got listed as food for January through July. All of that said, my food expenses are way too high.

Pets: $4032, most of that on Henry the Pricey & Priceless Hound, who suffers from several chronic illnesses and is on prescription food and several prescription meds for life, plus who requires about half a dozen vet visits per year. The two cats, Phoebe and Teddy, cost little in comparison—one vet visit per year, and food, kitty litter, and the occasional toy or treat. Between the two of them, there’s only ever been one vet visit for illness—knock on wood, as I hope it remains so. I also include money for bird food in here—I maintain two feeders by the windows for the amusement of myself and the kitties, and that costs about $5/week during the months when the plants are dormant.

Utilities: 3915 (gas heat 1841, electricity 462, phone, internet service, (basic) cable TV (package deal at 76/month for the three), water/sewer 315, trash 385)

Car: 2684 (about 600 on insurance and a thousand each on gasoline and maintenance & repairs, plus my first moving violation ticket ever, for running a stop sign I didn’t see.)

Business Expenses: 2616 (a new laptop computer and software for it (Office 2007, etc), lots of money trying to repair the last laptop, plus the usual array of books and videotapes I use in teaching, and some office supplies and postage.

Personal Care Expenses:2270 (clothing 1304, gym 445, toiletries, vitamins & supplements,521). I spent more than usual on clothing this year, as the only clothing I bought last year was a single pair of athletic shoes, and clothes were beginning to look raggedy and shoes to wear out, plus I gained 15 pounds (which I hope soon to lose) and some items did not fit.

Household: 1691. This includes handyman repairs, items for DIY repairs (that the boyfriend handles), small home appliances, furniture, gardening items, and supplies such as paper towels, light bulbs, and salt for the walks.

Entertainment (385), Gifts (266) & Charity (296): 947.

Health co-pays and disability insurance: 919 (there’s also 104/month health insurance contribution that gets taken out of my pay each month that I haven’t included here.)

Total Spending: $36,430 (compared to $38,653 in 2006. Biggest changes compared to last year are more in savings, less in taxes, more on food, less on pets (no major veterinary emergencies this year, thank god!), a bit more on utilities, clothing, and household; and this year, I didn’t have education expenses because those were picked up by the college.

Change in Net Worth in 2007: +8261 in short-term savings, +8739 in retirement accounts, -1796 decrease in home mortgage principal balance, -1000 loan from mom settled = +19,796 (plus the estimate of my home valuation on Zillow.com is up about 15,912, which I know is not a great estimate, but it’s what I have.)

My goal for next year is to cut down food expenses down to 5800. This is always a “spendy” category for me, as I buy a lot of food that is either pre-made or has a high labor margin—e.g., I buy a lot of pre-chopped veggies, and this past year, I bought a lot of pre-cooked chicken breasts—since that seems to make the difference between my cooking at home or not. Working a full-time job, a part-time job, AND going to school part-time, I do not have the time, energy, or inclination to cook, but I’m going to try to do a bit more so in 2008. I also expect business expenses to be lower, since the big one was buying a new computer this year. Ideally these two cuts will give me an additional 5% to put towards savings.

My financial goals for 2007 were to save 15% of my earnings and to use it to rebuild my emergency fund. Usually I put most of my savings towards retirement, as I have had no employer retirement contributions on my behalf since 2000, but this year, as a fairly new home owner, I felt that putting the savings into liquid accounts was vital.

Totals:
$7265 into short-term savings accounts (savings + laddered CDs)
720 into retirement accounts
530 additional principal payments on mortgage
=
$8515, which rounds to 15% of my gross earnings for the year

(The additional payments on mortgage represent future savings, as I have, in two years, cut 3.5 years and $13,885 in interest off my 30-year mortgage, so I feel justified in including it here, even though techinically the additional payments are an expense.)

Goals for 2008:
Continue to save at least 15% of earnings. I'd prefer to be able to save 20%, but I have at least one major house repair upcoming next year, so I doubt I'll achieve the more ambitious goal. It also depends on how much I earn. I'm in the middle of a career transition that I hope to complete by 2009, but, as of now, my income is certain only through August of 2008. I plan to do an internship in the new line of work over the summer, and I expect it to be paid, but I have no idea how much. I'm moderately sure I'll have my one year contract renewed--there's a strong probability of a half year, and a moderate probability of a full year, extension. I'll finally qualify for retirement contributions from my current employer starting in January (Hallelujah!), and those amount to 10% of salary. Because of the retirement boost, and because of the imminant career change and its uncertainties, as well as the need in the foreseeable (3 to 5-year) future for a new roof on the house and a replacement for my car, I'll continue to direct the bulk of my 15% savings towards the liquid accounts--I'm planning to put 6.5% into retirement and 8.5% into the savings fund (which includes emergency funds, a car replacement fund, and home maintenance funds in separate accounts, but I do shift money between these as needs dictate.)

I'll be making some additional pre-payments on the mortgage, probably $460, saving a few more months and $$ in future interest.

As for non-financial goals, those are mostly related to the career change: complete a summer internship, interview for jobs next fall, take 3-5 classes over the course of the year, and lose at least 20 pounds for my health, to fit into my job interview clothes, and so I feel better about myself. This will entail being very regular again about exercise, which I let lapse during the past year. I hope to maintain my relationships and a sense of life balance over the year as well, for sanity's sake, but this year the social goals take back seat as the career change nears the critical "switchover" point. Once I'm focused on one career rather than two, I definitely plan to spend much more time with friends and doing things that I enjoy such as taking art classes and traveling. One more year in the current career, and then a year where I make the switch, and by 2010, life (and income) should, I hope, be more stable than it has been during this long transitional decade (the last time I had a "permanent" job, that is, one with more than a one-year contract, was 1999).

Back around the beginning of the year, I got my first "rewards" credit card from Chase--their amazon.com credit card. It gives me 1% back on most purchases and 3% back on purchases made through amazon.com (I've spent $742 there so far this year). I put all my non-bill expenses on the card--about $1500 per month. After every $2500 put on the card, you get mailed a $25 gift certificate to use at amazon.com. I've earned 6 ($150) so far this year.

I saw some ads for the Chase Freedom card, and began to wonder if that would be a better deal--3% back on the top three places you spend each month--which for me would be grocery and pet expenses (about $800/month) and the third category would vary depending on whether there were car repairs or doctors bills, etc. I figure that if I'd been using the Freedom Card, I'd have earned $225 in gift certificates so far. The freedom card has a bit higher rate than the amazon.com card, but since I pay in full every month, that doesn't matter. I started the application process and have a form to complete and send back to them, but then I found yet another alternative deal.

The third alternative is through my mortgage company, which is offering a 1% rebate back that goes towards paying down the mortgage. Since it's 1% on everything, that's less on rewards--but nice to have it go directly towards paying down the mortgage.

I suppose the most advantageous thing to do would be to continue the application for the Chase card to get the 3% back, then take the rewards in cash, and send the cash reward to my mortgage company as an extra principal payment when it arrives. At the rate of $225 extra every 9 months, each payment knocks about 2 months off my $550 mortgage over the course of time. Keeping it up would knock off over 3 years off the mortgage and eventually saves over $12,000 in interest payments.

(I just learned how to calculate amortization schedules, so I've been having fun calculating alternative scenarios.)

I've been too busy to post much of late, but do check in periodically to see how the people I've gotten to know here are doing.

This summer isn't the crisis of last summer, when I had no paycheck and was trying to live off savings--but on the other hand, I'm trying to build up the emergency fund to prepare for a 23% drop in salary in September. I've got to cut expenses now so I don't go into debt then! And whatever I can save will go into the emergency fund.

The first month of summer has led to some overspending--which is typical of me. I get so busy the end of the term that I start eating out more, and I'm exhausted when vacation first begins, so it takes a while to get back into cooking. Actually, I only had a week of time off, since I'm teaching this summer (hence the summer income). And I'm taking a class. So I've spent money on books, a postponed home repair, a postponed vet visit for Henry, and 6 weeks' worth of training classes with a person to get me back into shape after having not exercised for a few months. After only two weeks the persistent pain in my Achilles tendon is gone, and the frozen shoulder is beginning to loosen up, so it's a worthwhile investment.

Now that I have only two more paychecks at my "regular" pay before the big decrease, I've got to focus on cutting expenses as much as possible, so I'll be hanging out around here again.

My accounts need that! I've gone over budget in virtually every category this month--so far I've spent $447 more than I'd budgeted for. (I don't need to spend much if anything for the rest of the month, so I should end the month about $500 over plan). That's the bad news.

The good news is that July's budget was really restrictive (since I'm living on savings at the moment), and that in fact, I'm spending less than I usually do, particularly for food. A semiannual car insurance payment, a large car repair bill, and an unexpected veterinary bill added hundreds to my expenses beyond what I'd planned to spend.

I'm putting a bit on the credit card and borrowing a bit from my mom to make it through the summer. I hate having debts but they'll be gone by year's end, and I'll be launching an aggressive savings program once the paychecks resume Sept. 20th.

I have a major challenge this summer: I have to live off of my savings from May 20 to September 20. I'm a teacher and I'm usually paid over 12 months even though I work 9, but I had a job-change this year and unexpectedly learned in January that I'd be paid my spring semester salary in 4 checks, one each in Feb. through May. I managed to save about $5500 for the summer, but I've had a lot of expenses this year as a new homeowner. So far, I'm on track to make it through the summer, but things are going to be very, very tight. I'm taking classes myself this summer and just got a new dog, so I'm reluctant to expand my budget by finding some additional income.

Yesterday, I had a major blow to budget plans: I had a nearly $500 car repair (exhaust system) to have made when I brought my car in for its annual inspection.

P.S. Can someone explain the $20 Challenge to me? Every time I click on a link to it, I get taken to an individual's blog entry related to this, and not to an explanation of what it is. I get the general idea but I'd like clarification.