Updates on the budget

I dropped DS and the vehicle we transferred to him from our insurance. I sure estimated that reduction right on! It will be $70 a month savings. Plus he reimbursed me for the registration tags of $75 and that will be a yearly expense I won't have anymore.  Add that to the $200 a month in health insurance I won't be paying anymore. Next month I'm going to increase my 401k a bit. Between my 2 salary increases the past year and this $270 reduction in expenses, I'm also feeling more comfortable that if for some reason my side job ended (honestly, I'm surprised it's been this long! almost 4 years now!) I will still have a cushion of extra in the budget each month. It won't be a lot, but it will be ok.  I'm hoping to keep doing it 2 more years. By then DD will be graduated college and I'll probably have another raise or two to add to it.  Plus, when DD gets her degree and starts a job, some of my other expenses will go down too. Another $200 a month for health insurance and about $70 a month for auto insurance. Most likely she'll move out on her own and food and electricity will go down too.

We have a big expense coming up this week. Tree trimming of 5 big trees in our back yard. The tree trimmer quoted us a few months ago at $200 per tree, so it will cost $1000. Most of this is coming from what I have leftover from the $2500 birthday gift my mom gave me. It seems like such a huge expense, but I guess if I look at it that we have lived here 25 years and trees grow every year. It's a necessary job at some point. Average the cost out over 25 years and it's $40/year for tree trimming. One of the biggest trees is hanging way over our fence to our junkyard neighbor's - over his shop, so that one is definitely a must do. Our other (good) neighbor on the other side is having one of his trees just over his side of his fence done at the same time.

We also have about $150-200 worked into the budget to tune up the long borrowed lawnmower so we can return it to friend. DH wants to put new blades and do a tune up before it's returned. I think we had that lawnmower 7 years! Friend had moved and didn't need it (no yard) and ours had died. DH took meticulous care of it, always either washing it or blowing off the grass and dirt with our air hose after each use. Friend finally got his yard put in last fall, so he'll be ready to mow soon. It will also give a little more much needed space getting that out of our garage.

DD and I have a girls weekend coming up the first weekend in April. An all day Saturday thing at her university, so we will go the night before and stay in a hotel Friday and Saturday.  The girl (and her mother) that she has connected to be roommates with is also flying in (she's from out of state) so they will get to meet and Sunday we will spend the time with them to do a little sightseeing and are having brunch at a nice place. Her roomie texted last night that her mom made reservations for the 4 of us, her treat :-)  Should be a nice girl's weekend for us. I have a $50 gift card to a gourmet hamburger restaurant I was hoping we could use while in her university town, but apparently they don't have one of those in the area. Darn.

With the weather warming up our electricity bill should start going way down the next 7 months. Who doesn't like an extra $100 a month or more to add back to their budget? It all just goes to lawn/yard maintenance but that's ok. I am so ready for Spring to start!

DD tried a new recipe recently. Penne pasta, bacon, onion and fresh parsley topped with parmesan cheese. It was really good. Easy to make and smelled so good while she was cooking the bacon and chopped onions.  Tonight's dinner is going to be chili and corn bread.