June 2009 Budget Update & Mid-year Analysis

In general, I did well keeping to my budgeted amounts in June. It was a rough month health-wise so between office visits, prescriptions, and my massage, my expenses there went over. I also bought a GPS system for my bike, which I categorized as auto but should probably go in misc or bike. Auto is more for maintenance and gas. My spending money came in under budget, primarily because I was sick for a week and a half and didn't leave the house for much of anything and didn't go to the cafeteria at work.

Now, on to the 6-month check-up since I began budgeting/tracking expenditures. My spending money category is good - my average is slightly over my intended $15/day. My medical allotment is low - I've budgeted $2/day and it has been more like $3/day (chiropractic and massages figured separately - those are very controllable). The "miscellaneous" category is interesting. I've bought a fair number of medium-to-big-ticket items:

• Microwave
• Projector bulb
• Car seat re-upholstery
• Timing belt repair
• Motorcycle
• Motorcycle safety gear
• Mattress
• Motorcycle GPS

I have no regrets about any of the above and can certainly justify each of them to some degree (ok, so the GPS is more of a frivolity than any of the rest of it) but they are also all items that need purchased once every blue moon. I was able to pay for them out of savings or budget surplus (which would otherwise have gone to savings) with the exception of the motorcycle, which I feel I got a fair financing deal on through the BMW dealership. I really don't see myself having a several-hundred dollar unexpected expense every month so I'm going to leave my misc category where it is right now and just see what happens the rest of the year.

Since I have the motorcycle now, I'm very motivated to get it paid off quickly. This should help with frivolous expenditures (mostly buying breakfast and lunch at the cafeteria instead of taking it from home). I'd also like to automate as much as possible. I already have a few things automated but want to explore the capabilities of my ING Direct accounts. I'd also like to go through my stuff and sell or pass on the extraneous junk, as much for de-cluttering sake as anything else. Proceeds will go to the motorcycle loan.

May 2009 Budget

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, this month saw a few large expenditures that indeed deviated from budgeted expenses. The big one was, of course, my new motorcycle. Associated with that purchase was the requisite safety gear - my old stuff had served its purpose. I also bought a new mattress as more of an investment in getting better sleep and thereby better health. I shopped around quite a bit and got a nice one with a 10-year warranty for a good price. The timing belt on my car broke the day before I got my motorcycle (uncanny!) but it was relatively inexpensive for a timing belt replacement since my engine is non-interference, meaning it doesn't eat the valves when it fails.

The one area where I really let it get out of hand was grocery/eating out/entertainment. I've found that with an appropriate balance, I can enjoy life and get by on my $15/day with little problem. The idea is that groceries are cheaper than eating out, so it's a balancing act. Well, I ate out way too much this month. I also spent a lot at the cafeteria at work - instead of bringing healthful inexpensive food from home, I'd eat less healthy overpriced food there. I ended up $125 over - an average of $4 a day!

My major financial goal for June is to get that category reigned in and brought back to a more reasonable level.

I have already developed a payment plan for my bike - I'm going to divert everything from my student loan principle to that through the end of the year. At the end of the year, I'll re-adjust my Roth IRA contribution for 2010 and increase my motorcycle payments accordingly. Although my loan term is 5 years, I am on track to pay it back in less than half that if all goes well. Then it's on to the student loan...

Fiscal Frivolity

It seems May has been a month of budget overages. I haven't run the sums yet, but I did make some big purchases that I hadn't quite expected:

• A replacement projector bulb
• A new motorcycle
• Appropriate safety equipment for said motorcycle
• A new mattress set to replace my 4th-hand set

The above purchases were made with funds I had saved ahead of time or financed at relatively good rates with no prepayment penalties (the motorcycle). I did better on the mattress than I could have - I had considered getting a new frame and switching to a platform bed but it just made more sense to get a nicer mattress set - which I comparison shopped for at 5 places and got a good deal on the one I eventually bought (1/2 MSRP). I don't regret any of the big purchases above, but I have also been eating out quite a bit lately. Maybe it's because I don't feel well and don't feel like fixing food at home. Or maybe it's that I know my budget is way out of whack and I just figure I'll start over in June. It's probably also partially my tendency to keep spending when I start. At any rate, the exact numbers will be known later this week when I get everything transferred to my spreadsheet and summed.

And I will start over in June - with fresh goals and fresh ideas. One of my goals for the month is to clean out my closet, my room, and my workshop of things that can be sold or donated which will both reduce clutter and either build my savings or pay off part of the bike.

A slight change of financial plans...

After a year of the Silverwing being non-operable and a week of consideration and logistics, I purchased a new motorcycle - a 2008 BMW F800ST (slightly used with only 2300 miles):

Although this will set back the repayment of my student loan by a couple years, I feel it was a good purchase - especially for my emotional health (which certainly impacts other health). I am still maxing my Roth IRA and contributing a healthy amount to my 403(b) at work. The bike will also reduce the amount I am paying for gas since it gets awesome mileage and will prolong the useful life of the Corolla since I'll only be using it occasionally. In addition, I was able to get full-coverage insurance on the BMW along with liability for the Silverwing and the scooter for only about $100 more annually than I had been paying for liability for the other two.

I'm very excited since I've missed motorcycling quite a lot - I didn't realize how much until I got back on this weekend. I'm already planning to take some weekend trips and will be sure to take the camera with.

April budget summary

Only two overages this month:

• Vehicle: I decided to get my front seats upholstered, to the tune of $600 (half of which I paid as a deposit in April, the rest of which I will pay tomorrow). I have been planning to do this for some time and simply hadn't explicitly placed it in the budget. The balance will be included in May's budget.
• Medical: I had a filling that came out in March, so that obviously had to be taken care of. Insurance and billing took about a month to catch up.

Groceries for The Maker's Diet are more expensive than I had been eating. I spent more than the last couple months but my grocery/entertainment category still came out about $20 under budgeted.

I definitely need to set up a flexible spending account next year - all the medical expenses could be pre-tax if I had taken the time to do so.

March budget update

Well, this was kind of an insane month budget-wise.

I had unexpected expenses in both needs and wants. My car and motorcycle insurance as well as my motorcycle registration all came due within the last couple weeks. I also spent a decent sum over budget on my car as well - like I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I finally got around to installing my power locks and windows and needed a fair number of parts I thought I already had. I should be able to recoup some of this in the future by selling off everything I didn't end up using.

I was wise did finally add a category for unexpected this month, complete with a $200 allotment. I bought a fancy new (to me) smartphone and some other stuff and this category ended up overspent by about the same amount my grocery category was underspent. I decided to do some manipulation and moved the phone to grocery (this also includes toys and entertainment) since it was more of a gadget expense than a necessary emergency or unexpected expense. Now they're both within $10-15 of estimated/budgeted. Along with my new phone, I decided to get a data plan so that will add $30 a month.

I joined 24 Hour Fitness, which cost $60 up front (no joining fee but you must pay first and last month's membership upfront) and will cost $30 a month but will hopefully pay off in health benefits. After finally getting my chiropractic billing issues straightened out, I decided to cut my chiropractic back to every other week instead of every week. I'll just make sure to stretch more. I do know that regular exercise does help my back remain limber.

I set up some automatic savings plans for my Roth IRA through Scottrade (to be fully funded by December 31), payments toward principal on my student loan, and a fund for future car insurance and registration expenses - both of the latter through ING Direct where I opened sub-accounts specifically for those purposes.

I also received my federal income tax refund, which was sizable. I immediately transferred most of it to my ING Direct general savings account. I'm not going to frivolously spend the rest - I left it in my checking account as a cushion since the car insurance wiped that out.

My goal for April is to have everything come out at or under budget (except savings). We'll see how I do. I still do have that unexpected category for contingencies.

Tidings from my corner of existence

This is going to be a stream-of-consciousness post. Be warned.

Work is going well, albeit a bit slow. I am enjoying what I am working on but it seems all those in charge of doling out work don't want to dole out too much. This can get frustrating but considering the position many are in, I feel fortunate with the relative job security I do have. At this point, it does not seem that Aerospace is going to have any layoffs in the near future. I must say, I do like my job and the people I work with.

I have kept up with my expense tracking and budgeting but got lazy and didn't do a February summary post. I kept within my bounds with two exceptions. I didn't budget for clothing and went shopping for a few more nice shirts. I ended up buying a really nice (alas, also expensive) tie as well sort of impulsively but I had been intending to get a nice tie that wasn't dated for a while. I also spent a good portion of the month fighting a nasty case of pseudomonas and had a fair number of doctor visits and medicines for which to make co-payments. My grocery/entertainment/etc. budget came out something crazy like 7 cents under if I remember right. I started an ING Direct high-yield (1.65% APY, which is arguably not very high) savings account and funded it with my upcoming due student loan interest. I got a $25 bonus for opening the account.

When I bought my car about a year ago, there were several upgrades that I intended to make so I bought a bunch of parts. Then they sat in my garage for several months. A couple weekends ago I decided to start installing this stuff (power windows, power locks, keyless entry). Naturally, some of the parts I bought were wrong since I have a coupe and most Corollas of that era were sedans. I am now awaiting official Toyota parts ordered with official Toyota part numbers from an official Toyota parts counter. I also decided I don't need remote start and paging so I got a simpler system that will be easier to install and meet my needs better. Getting all this stuff installed will serve a dual purpose - I will not only be improving my car and making my driving experience more enjoyable, I will be clearing clutter from my garage.

I also ordered the last two o-rings for my motorcycle. Now I can drop the engine, Loctite and tighten the two bolts, install the two o-rings, and put it all back together. I'm hoping to do this in two weekends (coinciding with my next Friday off) which means I have to get the garage cleaned to a certain point before then. This will be good because the weather is finally starting to get nicer and riding season is getting close.

My health has been mostly lousy for a couple months. More on that in the next couple days on my health blog.

I've been watching Twin Peaks episodes to occupy the time while I'm on the exercise bike. Twin Peaks was a David Lynch TV show from the early 1990s about a logging town in Washington state. It's a great show and I am bummed it only lasted 2 seasons.

I'm teaching Bible Chewing and Beyond (basically how to get the most out of scripture and how to get the most of it in you) lesson 1 to the Christian Education committee in about an hour. This is my first solo teaching outing so I'm a little bit nervous but mostly excited - Sanctify has been working on the curriculum for a couple months now and I like the direction the church leadership is pointing the congregation.

I started Moby Dick at my infusion last Friday. I think this is the third time I've started reading it. I read about 150 pages in around 3 hours, which is about half the rate that I generally read Harry Potter. Moby Dick does have smaller print, and the English is definitely more refined and ornate.

That's about it for now, I'm considering taking a different approach to blogging and just pop on and write a paragraph every couple days instead of writing tomes every couple months. We'll see.

January Budget Report

Overall, I did well. I tracked every cent I spent the entire month, including mundane stuff like soda from the snack fridge and parking meters. Without going into boring detail, I managed my expenditures well. I did go over in grocery, entertainment, and eating out (all 3 are the same category) and had a couple unexpected expenses - namely a new microwave and the registration fee for the Navigator prayer retreat. My chiropractic was much higher than projected since I had several outstanding visits.

The chiropractic and unexpected were necessary and worthwhile expenditures so I don't feel too badly about that. My food and fun budget was $465 ($15 per day) and my excess for the month was $70. I can look through the month's expense list and see a handful of things I could knock off - I purchased a video game on impulse on the first of the month that was about $45 of that and taking a salad from home for lunch costs about half what it does to buy from the salad bar (and my salads are fresher and contain exactly what I want). Despite my excess expenditures, I did manage to contribute a significant chunk to my Roth IRA for tax year 2008, which brought my yearly contribution to half the allowed limit.

I have already learned the value of tracking expenditures daily and established a habit of doing so - when it's at the forefront of your mind, it's not difficult to have a pb&j sandwich instead of going out for mediocre fast food or to pass on junk food at the supermarket. I've also learned it's important to be flexible - it may be more important to participate in an activity or have lunch with friends than to save another few bucks.

One cost associated with this new mode of operation may end up being one of my dress shirts! I often jot down what I spend at work on a post-it note and stick it in my shirt pocket. Last time I washed my shirts, I overlooked one of these and it bled yellow onto my blue and white striped shirt. I hope I can get it out - I did wash it cold but also dried it.

My financial goals for the year include funding my Roth completely for 2008 and 2009 (2008 may be funded until April 2009), starting an emergency fund, and beginning to make principal payments on my remaining undergraduate student loan (which was in deferment until I earned my Master's). The balance of emergency fund/savings account to student loan principal remains to be determined.

Stuff and Things

Well, here I am again after 3 weeks of silence - longer than I intended but better than 3 months for sure.

I had a blast with my cousins and aunt over New Year's weekend. We showed them a lot in just a few days including Hollywood, PCH up to Malibu, the Metro Rail, Alvera Street, and lots of good food. Mom and my aunt and my cousin's wife went to the Rose Parade and the men slept in, watched college football, played Frisbee at the beach, and ate good cheap Mexican food from El Burrito Junior.

The Navigators prayer retreat was great. I didn't have any idea that praying for an entire weekend could be that engaging but it really was. I was quite outside my typical comfort zone with about 35 people I didn't know, but actually acclimated quite quickly. It gives me hope that my social skills haven't atrophied completely - having a common purpose (conversation and communion with God) and knowing it was a friendly, positive environment certainly helped break the ice.

This brings me to my only actual New Year's Resolution. I want to be more social. I know it's vague, but I couldn't think of a good way to quantify it.

My budgeting is working - I have spent a lot less this month than many in the past and am only over by a little bit in grocery/eating out/entertainment month-to-date but can still finish within constraints if I am careful the next 10 days. I did have a couple unexpected expenses - a new microwave (which has a utilitarian purpose - it cooks my oatmeal perfectly without intervention) and the prayer retreat registration fee (which was well worth it). I also had a couple outstanding bills that will go down next month. Even with all that, I have still managed to (already) put some into savings.

I watched some of the inauguration festivities yesterday and was honestly impressed with President Obama's speech. I am trying to be positive and trust that he is in place for a reason instead of dwelling on how I disagree with him since feelings of resentment will do nothing productive.