January recap

It's payday.  I spent the first part of this morning paying my bills online and one check written out for our water.  We are on a private well and I send the owner a check every 6 months.  We've lived here over 20 years and the water is still $10 a month!  It is so cheap, but I'd so much rather have city water and pay for it than deal with the water issues we've had over the years.  Plus, when our power goes out - so too, does our water.

It was a pretty good month budgetstickingto-wise.  I budgeted to have $600 left over at the end of the month to put in savings/EF and I ended up with $500.  I am pleased, especially since I spent several months prior to December running out of money by the end of each month.  I still had trouble tracking it all.  I do great until about the 3rd week and then life gets in the way. December it was holidays and this month it was winter storms, power outages and being sick.  I'll try again for February! Maybe I'll just try Mint online again.

I now have $1522 in savings/EF, which is such a stress relief.  I should easily be able to add another $500 at the end of February.  I got an extra bonus with my paycheck today of $450, after taxes.  I gave Ds $60 to help him buy some more dress clothes for work and Dh just spent $36 on some t-shirts he ordered.  $5 bucks a shirt plus shipping, not a bad deal.  I still need the pair of shoes for work, so will probably get those this month.  I keep holding off buying them, as I'd rather save than spend!

I will also be getting our tax return done this week.  Dh keeps asking how much we are getting back. Usually he doesn't ask, but obviously he wants to buy something that costs a lot :-(.  I just keep telling him I haven't figured it out yet.  I know we are at least getting $1000 back, from the info I have entered so far, and  I haven't even put in our itemized deductions yet.  BUT, as I almost always do, I will probably tell him the return is about half of what it really is.  Every year that extra $1000 or so I "hide" from him has helped us get through part of the year with little Murphy emergencies that pop up. As I mentioned before, if he thinks there is money he will have it spent before I even get it. Dh even asked how much I made this year (he might have even said how much did "we" make, LOL).  I said it was around $72,000.  When I said it, it sounded like a lot, but it sure never feels like it!  I have one of those minds that still thinks things should cost what they did years ago - like to me $100 is still ALOT of money to spend on something, so my salary seems like a big number to me, but in reality it's not and probably a lot less than most families make.  And to offset the income we live in a very high cost of living area and we have to spend quite a bit on gas to get around anywhere.  Add in our extra-inflated house payment due to past re-fi's to get extra money to pay his business bills and no wonder we never have any money.

So......on to February!