Someday A Goat

2009 Christmas budget: making it jolly

Working on my wreath last year. I spent about $11.08 on all these materials and made a simple wreath.

Decorations, cards, postage, gifts for each other: $80

This includes anything for the house, holiday cards and postage, and what's left over gets divvyed up between the two of us for presents. I've already spent $56.61, so I'll probably hold off on any other decorations until the sales after the holidays. That leaves us only $23.29 for presents for each other. Looks like we'll end up over budget, but not by much.

Holiday cards

I was planning on using any holiday card I have around, but I found a good compromise using a VistaPrint deal for free postcards. I paid shipping and adding color to the back side of the card. The service was pretty easy to use, although the quality isn't the greatest. They were super cheap, though, and I'd hate to kill more trees by sending them back to be reprinted. I'll send longer letters to a couple of family members. I probably wouldn't have done cards last year, but I got a holiday bonus, so I had a little extra money. It was mid-December, so we sent cards with a happy new year message, which we're doing again this year, which has the added benefit of giving me more time to address the cards.

• $26.60 stamps (book of 20 regular rate, 3 books of 20 postcard rate, $1 shipping)
• $14.10 holiday postcards (100)

Decorations

I've bought a few ornaments, but I really don't need much. Last year I spent $11.08 to make a nice wreath for the front door. We'll reuse that, and probably get real garland for the top of the entertainment center again. The cats destroyed the inexpensive tree skirt I bought last year, so I'm not sure what to do about that, I'll probably make something. I also like to fill various vases and hurricane lamps with inexpensive ornaments and LED tea light. We keep it pretty simple.

• $5.12 ornaments and small present at Pottery Barn -- used a $50 gift card, and all items were free shipping. I linked through Upromise, so I'll earn a bit of extra money. We like to have a wide variety of ornaments that don't all match, so I get a few nice ones each year.

Random

I recently used a couple of credits to order prints from Kodak Gallery to send to friends and various holiday projects. I got about $45 worth of pictures for just over @$10.

• $4.86 Kodak Gallery shipping to use $20 bonus credit for photos for family members
• $6.03 Kodak Gallery shipping, used $15 credit to order prints and a photo ornament. I used Ebates, but stupid me, clicked though on the rebate, not the reduced shipping plus rebate. Could have spent even less!

We don't have a lot of holiday expenses for hostess gifts or children's parties. Usually, if we're invited to a party where I feel obligated to bring a hostess gift, we pick up an inexpensive bottle of wine and this comes out of the regular food/beverage budget. We do the same with any meals we make for guests around the holidays. When we hosted a big holiday dinner for our parents last year, my mom bought the prime rib, so everything else was very doable in terms of budget. A potluck holiday dinner could save even more.

TIPS

• Pare down the holiday card -- don't do photo cards, or if you do, look for good deals on prints. Unless you get fancy with the cards, postage will most likely be your biggest expense, so start early when looking at your mailing list so you are prepared. Order stamps from USPS -- pay only $1 over the face value of stamps to save a trip to the post office and make sure that you get the fun holiday stamps you want (many post offices will run out). Spending a dollar to save a last-minute trip to the post office during the holidays is a deal indeed.

• Start with a special and basic ornament collection, add a few each year. You can always say you're going for simple elegance.

• Don't buy a big tree, or get a real one. It's easier to decorate (and store) a smaller tree, and artificial trees have improved drastically in the past few years and can be reused.

• Start stockpiling pantry items like cream soups, sugar, flour -- any non-perishable food and baking supplies that you tend to use every year. If you're keeping a grocery book (link), make a list of items you know you'll need and the prices you want to pay, and keep that in your wallet so you can instantly spot check a good deal.

2009 Christmas Budget Series

Introduction

Presents

2009 Christmas budget: presents

Presents: $165

• 5 siblings (3 on each side, including in-laws): $15 each

Having a smaller budget forces creativity. Our families are generous at the holidays, so I try to put a lot of thought into our small-budget presents. This year, I'm thinking social calling cards for a recently moved sibling, a cute photo album and photo-printing credit to the sibling that just got back from abroad, possibly a small craft project including ticket stubs from the very early 90s for a music-loving sibling. The two that are living somewhere in the Indian Ocean, they're the hard ones.
$90 total

• Parents (only 3 living): $10 each

They might say they don't need anything, but it's easy to be thoughtful with parental presents. Usually, if you involve photos already printed, you're golden.
$30 total

• My gift exchange at work: $25

I work for a small, close-knit company, and we draw names for holiday presents. There's no rule on amount, and some spend more than others, but $20 to $25 is the general guideline. Last year, I spent $20 and felt cheap. Granted, money was tight, and I sewed an adorable little pouch to enclose the gift card, but I can do $25 this year.Even if it is the single largest line-item present in our budget.

• Prized nephew: $20

I made him an awesome toy last year, spent $16.37, and I'm not sure what to do this year, especially since it's our second in a row  at home, which is not where he lives. Regardless, he gets the most money allocated of any family.

Inexpensive present ideas

• Homemade ornaments, look to CraftyPod for ideas.
• A letter saying why you love that particular person and favorite memories of them.
• Scan in old photos and send prints to everyone in pictures.
• Wine stopper
• A Do-It-Yourself Christmas, from Get Rich Slowly in 2008

Ghost of Christmas Past

Last year, I budgeted $210 and spent $278.61.

• $80 for 4 adults and 1 child on my side, spent $99.68
• $110 for 7 adults, spent $114.49
• Didn't budget for each other, spent $36.87
• Didn't budget for wrapping presents, spent $7.57
• $20 secret santa at my work

Totals do not include significant gift card usage from cards I had saved throughout the year, but I have included shipping costs.

Update 11/19/09: Lifehacker has an awesome spreadsheet gift planner. Check it out!

2009 Holiday Budget main post

2009 Holiday Budget: making it jolly

2009 Christmas budget

 

Our holiday budget is $245, everything included: presents, holiday cards and postage, and decorations. That's all I could wrangle out of our budget. Isn't bad, considering the first contribution toward $245 came out of a 10/30/09 paycheck. Eventually these weddings have to slow down, and we'll be able to start saving for the holidays earlier in the year. If I get a holiday bonus, a little may go to bolster the budget, but most will go to debt, with 20% to the emergency fund. Resisting the urge to buy a new camera. Resisting, resisting, resisting.....

Quick & Dirty

• Presents: $165
• Everything Else: $80

Last year was the first we came close to realistic about how much money we could spend on the holidays. I worked my rear off to get somewhat nice presents on a very small budget, and decorate my house to host a holiday family celebration for the first time. At least I remember working my rear off. I realized when I recently started looking for my notes about last year that I had notes scattered and a bit incoherent. I had to pull a Quicken report to figure out exactly how much I spent.

Our planned holiday budget was actually a little higher last year: $255. I said above that we came close to realistic, which is laughable, since we ended up spending $382.32, which is $127.32 over budget. However, compared to what we spent in previous years, it's progress. We spent $62.25 on decorations, $41.46 on holiday cards, and $278.61 on presents. I'll break this down in future posts to look at each category, and see where the weaknesses were.

Tips for setting a holiday budget

• Once Halloween starts showing up in stores, start thinking about a budget and presents. Ideally, this would happen throughout the year, but who's perfect? Get started around Halloween and you should be fine.

• Sit down early with a schedule of paychecks and bills through the end of the year and find where you can make some room for holiday expenditures. It's not a bad idea to extend the schedule through the first or second paycheck of January. We're lucky that my husband gets paid biweekly, and I budget for just two paychecks for him per month. October is usually a 3-paycheck month, so the money gets divvyed up between the holidays and debt paydown.

• When you're making progress on paying down debt, it's hard to not feel guilty about spending money on the holidays, but we're human and winter celebrations are important. You don't have to spend a lot of money, you could still have a joyful holiday on $40 or $50. It may take a lot of creativity and time, but it's worth it. Even just writing a letter to your loved ones, telling them what you've appreciated about them in the past year, is a simple and inexpensive way to show you care.

• Use store coupon's from retailers like Michael's to slowly purchase decorations over a couple of weeks and keep it simple.

• Use programs like Ebates or Upromise to get cash back for your expenditures from online retailers. Research shipping codes to or plan purchases to get free shipping.

• Plan, plan, plan. If you know what you're up against, it's not nearly as stressful.

Simple Mom has a great series about breaking up holiday tasks to manageable chunks. She started in early October with the "12 Weeks to a Peaceful Christmas" series, and each post is full of great ideas. She starts with setting a budget, so make sure to check it out.

2009 Christmas Budget Series

Presents

Making it Jolly

Finally received our state tax refund

We just received our state tax refund in mid-July. Since we had paid one quarter's estimated taxes last year, which turned out to be unnecessary, it was quite substantial -- $1,120. I had many plans for that money. I'd been making lists ever since we received the return from the accountant. Big chunks to the credit cards, big chunks to savings, lots of little necessary chunks for various household projects.

Once the check was deposited, I felt like we had a little breathing room. For about 2 days. Then I started to panic that we would just spend it all, as we always do when we get a windfall amount like this. So I hit my list of plans for the money and got busy prioritizing and transferring to savings.

Where it went and will it stay there?

Budgeting is always about priorities, and planning ahead means that priorities are much more likely to be met. We mainly focused on sending some money to the credit cards, and taking care of a lot of little things.

Debt: Just over $300 went to the cards. The stupid tax lives on.

Garden: We desperately needed some weed-killer for the lawn, which was pretty and green when we bought the house and has been devolving ever since. We also set aside funds in the garden ING account for future expenditures: lawnmower service, mulch, whatever comes up this fall.

House: The garbage disposal has been leaking badly. We priced them a few months ago, and decided that the bowl catching the leak was a better solution than a cheap replacement. We've set aside $150 to offset the cost and now need to start researching models and how to replace the unit. We also set aside $125 toward an eventual guest half-bath remodel. Initially, we were going to do the whole project with the refund, but decided that there were more pressing matters. I'm still on the fence as to whether this was a good choice, I may transfer it to another priority as nothing in the bathroom is actually broken. It's just depressingly ugly.

Misc.: My passport expired in May and we have family out of the country, including a grandmother. Renewing the passport was a must for this refund. My car hasn't been washed since August 2007, so it's getting detailed. The E Fund contribution was reduced to $10 from $100, which was sad.

Fun: We rarely eat a dinner out that costs more than $30 or $35 on the high end for the two of us. As in we've been eating Chick-fil-A and the like way more often than spending on eating out like we used to, although most dinners have been cooked by my husband in the past year. So we went to one of our favorite restaurants and splurged on a $55 meal, which included a big tip. Another $50 went to a bachelor party, and $50 saved toward our trip to Napa for a wedding.

What didn't make the priority cut

What I thought was a ton of money didn't go very far, and I had to cut some low-priority expenditures. The good thing about planning is that I didn't end up spending the money on the below items only to end up not having the money for things like a stinky, leaky garbage disposal that's older than some of my coworkers.

• Health club dues -- if we were serious about working out, we'd go on a walk, use our on-demand fitness options on the TV or play tennis at nearby courts.
• New deck fund -- our deck needs to be replaced, probably next summer. I only wanted to put $10 toward starting a fund, but couldn't make it work.
• Tree service -- a couple smaller dead trees in our yard need to be removed. Since it's unlikely that anything would be harmed if they fell, this came off the list.
• Pest control -- we have a termite bond that requires an annual payment, but I wanted to start quarterly pest control inside service. We didn't have a lot of bugs inside this year, so it went on the back burner.
• Cats -- I had planned on taking the cats in for an annual checkup, but it's going to have to wait a little while until we can pay for it out of a paycheck.

Jeremy at Generation X Finance posted today about starting small when it comes to building savings, and that's exactly what we've been doing for the past year. A lot of our little allocations won't be spent right away, they're sitting in category-specific ING accounts until we need the money. It may be only $10 going to the E Fund when we're able, but it's something and each time I'm able to transfer that money, I feel a little bit encouraged that we can really do this.

A turning point within sight

My husband and I are just getting to the break-even point, our net salaries are finally about to cover our monthly expenses, barring emergencies. I received a raise in February, and signs are pointing toward getting a bonus at the end of March. He finds out this week whether he will receive a raise and a bonus. It’s been a long couple of months since we bought the house and the cost of a roof over our heads went up 60% in terms of rent/mortgage payment alone.

When we bought the house, we knew that there would be a period of time where our expenses would pretty much outstrip our net take-home pay, but like most things in life, we didn’t realize that it would be this hard. Every day I try to be thankful that both of us are still employed and this isn’t anything compared to what others are experiencing, but some days I just want to stomp my foot and give up.

Making small changes one by one

On one hand, we’ve been making GREAT progress on escrowing our irregular expenses. We have four payments for our car insurance policies, the first is due March 3 and the last should be due around May 22. The first and last payments will be completely covered out of the insurance escrow account, and at least half of the second and third payments will be covered. This time last year I had to pull money out of the stock market in order to meet those payments, and I think that I might have even put one payment on a credit card. By this time next year, I hope to have a fully stocked insurance escrow account that will cover all payments in full.

I’ve been trying to remind myself that all these baby steps will get us ahead eventually. I can now pay the bills when they arrive in the mailbox instead of hastily sending a check right before it is due. We’re regularly saving money from each paycheck above and beyond our 401K contributions. We’ve started saving cash for a trip to New Orleans in late April (fingers crossed for bonuses – we might be able to go all-cash on this trip). We haven’t made great progress on the credit card debt, but we’re going in the right direction. We haven’t taken money out of the stock market to meet bills since June – not that it would do a whole lot of good these days. We’ve been able to rely upon our pantry and freezer to feed us when the budget is tight, which is extremely satisfying.

On the other hand, I really want to the debt and car loan to be gone, and have at least three month’s expenses in savings, but with these slim margins between net income and expense, it will be years before we can do that. We can’t cut expenses much more without selling our house, so we’ll focus on income. And not stomping our feet.

Escrow + new savings account = win

Back in early September, I talked about setting up personal escrow accounts to help me save for big expenses that come along every couple of months: car insurance, pest control, car service, ad valorem taxes on the cars, travel and a general emergency fund. Inspired by J.D.'s post at Get Rich Slowly, I added up all the expenses, divided into monthly amounts, and figured out where I could make room in each paycheck. The total amount right now isn't enough to completely cover each individual expense, but it's working a lot better than our previous method (ignoring things until they came due).

I didn't really get things set up until December, but am I ever on a roll now. It's like once the ING account was opened, saving and budgeting has become easier. Well, it's not really saving, more like delayed spending, but forward progress nonetheless. Subaccounts are my new, dear friend. Now that we have specific places to put money away for various things, both of us are finding it easier to try to come in under weekly budgeted amounts, so that we can put a little extra away beyond the standard escrow amounts. Only part to the extra is going to escrow, some goes to debt. All of it should go to debt in a perfect world, but in our world, we do the best we can.

Insurance
For most of September and October, all of this money went to actual car insurance payments, both of our policies are due within a month. This escrow category also went toward replenishing our savings account in November. We have less than 3 months until the first premium comes due, but we're making progress.

Pest Control
Haven't really made much progress on this front, despite the fact our termite bond payment is due at the beginning of April. It's only $300, so I'm planning to save that amount before it is due.

Car service/ad valorem taxes
We've only pulled $10 into this account, but we have until summer before the first bill is due. I'll need an oil change before then, so this category needs improvement.

Travel
this is one of the best motivators, we're planning our first non-essential trip* in April, and we already have a couple hundred dollars saved. I don't have a specific target, but I would like to at least save up enough to cover our lodging. I'm hoping to save enough to pay for the entire trip.

General emergency fund
Our new emergency fund online account is in addition to our joint savings and other various accounts that comprise our emergency fund. The money is a little spread out, and it's hardly an efficient system, but we have enough saved to focus energy on budgeting and planned spending. I received a bonus for opening the account, which is about all I have in there at the moment. Eventually I'd like to have at least 6 months expenses under general emergency fund. Such a long road to reach that amount.  

* Pretty much all travel is non-essential, but for us, it's important that we be there for sick/injured relatives, wedding-related events of good friends and holidays with family. It's not like we can just put these events off until we have money, so we haven't taken a vacation that doesn't fall under the earlier categories since July 2005. We've made an executive decision to take an early 3rd anniversary trip at the end of April this year. We're both really excited and it has increased our motivation to live more frugally, in order to take this trip but to also live within our means, so it's a good thing.

Download Suze Orman's 2009 action plan for free

You have until January 15 (11:59 pm CT) to download a free copy of Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan. Not only am I a fan of free stuff, I also really like Suze Orman.

Link to download Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan

On sale until Wednesday at Publix

Atlanta-area Publix sales I have my eye on.

Publix Thur 10/16/08 - Wed 10/21/08
Campbell's select soup/select harvest B1G1 (C)
Fresh Express salad blend B1G1
Celestial Seasonings B1G1 (C)
**Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats B1G1
Publix lemon pepper rotisserie chick 7.09--Prices on these just went up in the past month from $6.49, so this is still more expensive than we're used to, but it's one of our favorite flavors.
Idaho potatoes $0.79/lb
fun size Nestle, Mars B1G1 (C)
Hebrew National kosher beef franks 2/$6
whole boneless pork loin 2.19/lb
asparagus 2.99/lb
green bell peppers 1.49/lb
sweet onions .99/lb
Motts Apple juice 64 oz 3/$6
**Betty Crockers fruit snacks B1G1 (C)
**Jif/Simply Jif 2/$4--I got so excited that peanut butter was on sale again at the store yesterday, that I accidentally got the regular Jif instead of Simply Jif. I think I'm going to go ahead with Simply Jif as well--we eat a lot of peanut butter.
Daisy sour cream 16 oz 3/$5
Cabot cheese 2/$5
Green Giant frozen vegetables 7 -10 oz 10/$10
Kashi waffles 2/$4--I think we might have paid a little more for these at Kroger yesterday, I'll have to check.
Ziploc freezer or storage bags 10 -50 ct. packages 2/$7
Prilosec OTC 42-ct. 24.99

Key

** Definitely need to check out

B1G1 Buy 1 get 1

(C) Also have manufacturer's coupon

On sale this week

Some of the Atlanta-area sales that I'm thinking about. I'll definitely be buying Halloween candy this week, most likely at Walgreens. I still need to compare some of these sales with my price book before I follow through. Some, like the Cascasdian Farms frozen sale at Kroger, are so inherently good with the manufacturer's coupon that I had to go out yesterday to grab them before they ran out of stock.

 CVS Sun 10/19/08 - Sat 10/25/08
Colgate total 4.2 oz BIGI (C)
Progresso B1-2.99GI
coke 3/$10, $2 ECB
**Mars fun size candy 2/$5 (C $1/2)
Windex, scrubbing bubbles 2/$5 (C)
Neutrogena 40% off
Cetaphil 16 oz 9.99 (C)--As I went through the fliers, I realized that Walgreens is selling this same size, plus a bonus soap, for $3 less. Wow!
Dove Bar soap 2/$5 (C)

Target Sun 10/19/08 - Sat 10/25/08
3M Filtrete microallergen furnace filter 8.99
Bounty 12-pack giant roll (=18 reg) 14.99
Covergirl mascara 5.79 (C)
Prilosec 42-ct 24.99

Rite Aid Sun 10/19/08 - Sat 10/25/08
Prilosec OTC 28 ct 18.99-$3 SCR = 15.99 (C)--This is a little less per unit than the other stores' sales, but I'm going to have to compare it against my CostCo price to see if it's really worth it.

Walgreens Sun 10/19/08 - Sat 10/25/08
**fun size candy, 4/$10, ($4R, $1/2C)
Tropicana 64 oz 2/$6
Haagan Dazs, 2/$5 Wcoupon
25% off 4x6 digital prints (min. 50) Wcoupon
Reynolds wrap foil, orig. 70 ft, heavy duty 45 ft, 2.79 Wcoupon
**Yardley soap, $0.69 Wcoupon
**Cetaphil 16 oz (includes free bar soap) $6.99 (C)
**Colgate total 4.2 oz (includes free toothbrush) $1.99 WCoupon (C)
Wal-Itin 30 ct, 7.99
Prilosec 42 ct 25.99 Wcoupon, (C)
**Twizzlers, $0.99 Wcoupon--We're getting ready to send a care package to my sister-in-law abroad. These are definitely going in it.

Kroger Sun 10/19/08 - Sat 10/25/08
Goldfish crackers 10/$10
**Green Giant vegetable, selected varieties 7-10 oz 10/$10 (C)
fun size candies 2/$4 (C)
jumbo sweet onion 10lb/$10
Kroger mini peeled carrots 16 oz 10/$10
**Gala apples 10lb/$10
**Revlon, Almay full lines 50% off (C)--I need some new mascara, so I might go for this.
Always, tampax 5.79
**Annie's pasta & cheese 8/$10
**Cascadian Farm frozen, 25% off (C)--Also many other frozen varieties, including Kashi and Alexia. Yum!

Key

** Definitely need to check out

B1G1 Buy 1 get 1

(C) Also have manufacturer's coupon

Wcoupon Walgreens coupon

ECB Extra Care Bucks from CVS

Almost out of gas

You may have seen news reports that Atlanta is running low on auto fuel--partly because the pipeline that services the city is under capacity due to Gustav and Ike, partly because the EPA requires Atlanta gas stations to use a lower-sulfur fuel due to our lovely smog, and partly because every idiot in town wants to top off the tank before gas runs out entirely, exacerbating the problem.

We tend to wait until our cars are pretty low on fuel before we fill up--it's been helping us attempt to make our weekly spending targets. This has made the past couple weeks feel like we're speculators trying to time the stock market, only our transportation to and from work depends on the bet. Riding a bike, walking and car pooling are all not options for either of us for a variety of reasons. Kind of like living paycheck to paycheck, it's a stupid way to do things.

The week before Ike hit, my husband's car was approaching empty, but we figured that he could make it to work on Friday, we could use my car if needed over the weekend, and he could fill up the next Monday, which was payday for me and thus the turnover for weekly spending. I filled up my car that Tuesday, and as the week wore on, gas prices went up as Ike churned toward Texas. We heard rumors that gas was getting low in the metro area. We decided that his car running out of gas in an uncertain situation was not going to work as he was already almost on fumes, so he went with all the lemmings to fuel up on Friday. Turned out to be a good thing, prices went up further, and supplies in the city were limited.

However, the hurricane passed, and we figured it would be about a week before everything returned to normal and stopped paying attention all last week. Fast forward a week to last weekend, and both our tanks were getting pretty close to empty. I decided to delay a trip to CostCo on Saturday to save money. I would have filled up while I was there, and since I go first thing in the morning, I probably wouldn't be so nervous now. I noticed a couple gas stations with lines on Sunday, but figured it would be OK by mid-week when I would really need gas. On my way to work Monday morning, I was shocked to not only see lines at every gas station, but the station right by my work had two lines 7-8 cars deep outside the station. I would say at least half, if not more, of the stations in North Atlanta are out of gas at any point in time. And prices are more than $4, sometimes a lot more, just for unleaded.

I'm starting to get nervous. My car might be able to make it through Friday, but my husband's definitely won't. And I don't want to waste the last of my gas sitting in line to have the station run out by the time I get to the pump (happened to two of my coworkers). Five of the seven stations that I checked early this morning were out, and the other two had insane lines. Since I'm already not eating lunch out, and we've been cooking dinner at home, I don't have a lot of ways to save fuel at this point. News reports say that it's supposed to get better by the end of the week, but I'm not sure our cars are going to last.

Between this and the stock market wobbling, it's hard to stay optimistic. My rational brain knows better, but a giant emergency fund and a full tank of gas would go a long way to feeling more sane.

Update: My husband waited a short while in line around 8 pm to get gas, but had to drive around for a while. I'm going to see if I can hold out another day.