So its week 8 of our little journey in savings. I'll be honest, by this point I would have saved a few hundred dollars in a couple of different accounts in addition to the money in my vacation savings and the money from returning deposit cans & bottles. So needless to say I'm kind of disappointed and I feel bad that I made this sound like it would be so exciting on weeks #1 & 2. Hopefully you're still with me and I really do promise that in the next few weeks I'll be back on schedule paycheck wise and there really will be some saving going on!
Ok... this week I actually got 2 checks. 1 from my job and 1 from the insurance company paying for some of the time I was out after my surgery. It's gonna get confusing because Aetna Insurance literally screwed up everything with my claim. Not only did things take WAY longer than they should have to get any money coming in, but they gave me the wrong info they took taxes out of the check even though I told them not to. They are supposedly trying to fix that situation, but I'm doubtful that they will actually do anything to make it any better. They are also trying to tell me that there is a 5 day waiting period where I get NO money from them and that if I wanted to be paid for the first 5 days I had to use sick days. The people in the HR department at my work said that is not the case and that the insurance company does have to pay me so I will try to sort that out next week. The last bit of confusion is that I just got a bill from my health insurance for money they say I owe them because they took no money out of my paychecks for 4 weeks, but that should not be the case either. As far as I know you have to be out for over a month before you have to pay for your insurance out of pocket. I'll deal with that next week with the HR people at work.
This week my income consists of a check from my job for $85.99 that covers 1 day (January 21st). The insurance company will need to pay me for the other 4 days of that week, but those are the 'waiting period days' that they are telling me I don't get. Like I said, that will get fixed asap!
The other check that I got was for $652.56 from Aetna Insurance. This check is covering the 2nd & 3rd weeks I was out (January 27th - February 9th). I should be getting 2 more checks for a total of 9 days pay from Aetna and then next Friday I will get a full regular paycheck from my job.
As far as savings go this week there was not much, but I did make the $20 transfer to my vacation account even though my checking account is still 'in the red'. I had mentioned before that I 'hide' money in my checking account so its not really negative/overdrawn, but in my checkbook register it shows negative and when I get back on track I will 'replace' the 'hidden' money. Also because I got a work check there was a little bit of money put in my 401K.
So let me give you the week 8 wrap up:
$7.65 to my 401K
$20 to my vacation fund
which makes the 2013 totals...
$172.72 in my 401K
$160 in the vacation fund
$20.05 in the piggy bank
Now this is a total coincidence, but I feel like I need to mention it. In my world of OCD the #72 is my number. When I pump gas I always top it off to how ever many dollars & .72 cents (if its not possible to get there without spilling gas on the ground, I settle for .27 cents). Also in my car I usually keep the climate control on 72 degrees, I've given wedding gifts in the amount of $127.72, I have shirts & jerseys with the #72 on them etc etc etc.... I'm crazy! I wanted to point this out because I was pleasantly shocked when I saw that my 401K total for the year is $172.72... what were the odds!
All righty.... see you all next week with hopefully some more money from the insurance company and some other info about fixing some of the issues they have caused!
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
Week #7 - All Whammies, No Big Bucks!
First of all, I'm back on time... Its Friday morning and I'm actually posting this weeks edition of the blog! Of course thanks to my gallbladder surgery and the runaround that Aetna Insurance has given me I still have no money. I spoke with the people at Aetna and the people in the HR department where I work and there is a check scheduled to go out in the mail today (2/25) which would be great if I hadn't been out of work since January 22nd! Its basically been a month and I've had no income at all!
Ok... on to the savings... I'll be honest if it wasn't for my OCD and the fact that I feel like I've let you guys down after building up this blog in early January, then I probably wouldn't have saved anything this week. I would have just sucked it up and skipped my transfers and realized that I'm getting close to being negative money in some places and I still have a mortgage payment & credit card bill to pay this month!
On to what I actually did. Even though I had no cash coming in, I did make my weekly $20 transfer from my checking (officially 'in the red') to my vacation fund. It's going to take at least a week or two to get my checking account 'back in black'... haha!, but I still didn't want to skip the weekly transfer.
I also went back to Stop & Shop with my returnable cans & bottles and after feeding them into the machine which was making horrible squeaking noises the whole time I got $4.90. It should have been a little more because the machine for plastics was not working so I had to bring the bottles back home with me for the next trip. Next can returning trip will actually be a little weak because we had to buy Pepsi based on soda being on sale and for some reason Pepsi is the one soda that if you buy in Rhode Island, it has no deposit. Stop & Shop brand, Walmart brand & all the Coke products do, but not Pepsi... cheap bastards!
So let me give you the week 7 wrap up:
$0 to my 401K (because I got no paycheck)
$20 to my vacation fund
$4.90 in the piggy bank
which makes the 2013 totals...
$165.07 in my 401K
$140 in the vacation fund
$20.05 in the piggy bank
I think that's about it for this week. I am 99% sure that by next Friday I will have some checks in hand and I'll have to start figuring out what is going to go where to pay the bill and then we will be back on track and ready for some real saving!! Thanks for hanging in with me!
Ok... on to the savings... I'll be honest if it wasn't for my OCD and the fact that I feel like I've let you guys down after building up this blog in early January, then I probably wouldn't have saved anything this week. I would have just sucked it up and skipped my transfers and realized that I'm getting close to being negative money in some places and I still have a mortgage payment & credit card bill to pay this month!
On to what I actually did. Even though I had no cash coming in, I did make my weekly $20 transfer from my checking (officially 'in the red') to my vacation fund. It's going to take at least a week or two to get my checking account 'back in black'... haha!, but I still didn't want to skip the weekly transfer.
I also went back to Stop & Shop with my returnable cans & bottles and after feeding them into the machine which was making horrible squeaking noises the whole time I got $4.90. It should have been a little more because the machine for plastics was not working so I had to bring the bottles back home with me for the next trip. Next can returning trip will actually be a little weak because we had to buy Pepsi based on soda being on sale and for some reason Pepsi is the one soda that if you buy in Rhode Island, it has no deposit. Stop & Shop brand, Walmart brand & all the Coke products do, but not Pepsi... cheap bastards!
So let me give you the week 7 wrap up:
$0 to my 401K (because I got no paycheck)
$20 to my vacation fund
$4.90 in the piggy bank
which makes the 2013 totals...
$165.07 in my 401K
$140 in the vacation fund
$20.05 in the piggy bank
I think that's about it for this week. I am 99% sure that by next Friday I will have some checks in hand and I'll have to start figuring out what is going to go where to pay the bill and then we will be back on track and ready for some real saving!! Thanks for hanging in with me!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Week #6 - (still) Days Late & (more) Dollars Short
Ok guys... I know I'm late with the blog again, but what it has come down to is the fact that I really have no money right now. I'm still out of work from my gallbladder surgery (I'll be going back next Monday) and I haven't gotten a check from the temporary disability insurance company. They are giving me the run around with sending paperwork back and they don't seem to care at all if I can pay my bills I guess.
My next mortgage payment is my important bill and that's not due until February 28th so I still have some time to get that money. I also have racked up more on my Discover Card bill. Its back up over $1000, but $300 of that is something I bought for someone that they will be paying me for soon and $200 is something I bought as a short term investment to resell and possibly double my money (worst case, I break even). That being said a $500 credit card bill when I have no money still terrifies me! I have to try and calm down and just remember that some money will be coming in and I'll be back on track with regular paychecks soon. Also March has 5 Fridays which means 5 paychecks for me so that will help me even everything out.
I'll fill you in on something that I hadn't disclosed yet. I almost always have some hidden money in my checking account. So in my check book ledger it might say I have $72.27, but there is actually $272.72 in it because I 'hide' money from myself. That comes in very handy in times like this because right now my check book ledger reads as being negative money, but in reality (the banks reality at least) it is not negative. So I should be able to get by for the next week or two by keeping my checkbook in the 'black' even though it will appear to be in the 'red'. Then when I do get some money I will even it out by 'replacing' the 'hidden' money. Yes folks... I told you in week #1, I'm crazy! I am coming close to dipping into that secret hidden money, but I did still make my weekly $20 'vacation' transfer.
In other news, its tax return season. I don't know exactly what I'm going to get for a refund, but this return will be my first that's based on a full year of paying mortgage interest and being married. we'll see in the next few weeks once my taxes are all done and then when the money comes in I'll have to figure out what accounts to distribute it into and what to do with it!
So let me give you the week 6 wrap up:
$0 to my 401K (because I got no paycheck)
$20 to my vacation fund
which makes the 2013 totals...
$165.07 in my 401K
$120 in the vacation fund
$15.15 in the piggy bank
Once again ladies & gentlemen.... I know that the last few weeks have been incredibly boring in my world of OCD saving, but there will be some different stuff coming once I get back to work and regular paychecks start coming in... I promise!
My next mortgage payment is my important bill and that's not due until February 28th so I still have some time to get that money. I also have racked up more on my Discover Card bill. Its back up over $1000, but $300 of that is something I bought for someone that they will be paying me for soon and $200 is something I bought as a short term investment to resell and possibly double my money (worst case, I break even). That being said a $500 credit card bill when I have no money still terrifies me! I have to try and calm down and just remember that some money will be coming in and I'll be back on track with regular paychecks soon. Also March has 5 Fridays which means 5 paychecks for me so that will help me even everything out.
I'll fill you in on something that I hadn't disclosed yet. I almost always have some hidden money in my checking account. So in my check book ledger it might say I have $72.27, but there is actually $272.72 in it because I 'hide' money from myself. That comes in very handy in times like this because right now my check book ledger reads as being negative money, but in reality (the banks reality at least) it is not negative. So I should be able to get by for the next week or two by keeping my checkbook in the 'black' even though it will appear to be in the 'red'. Then when I do get some money I will even it out by 'replacing' the 'hidden' money. Yes folks... I told you in week #1, I'm crazy! I am coming close to dipping into that secret hidden money, but I did still make my weekly $20 'vacation' transfer.
In other news, its tax return season. I don't know exactly what I'm going to get for a refund, but this return will be my first that's based on a full year of paying mortgage interest and being married. we'll see in the next few weeks once my taxes are all done and then when the money comes in I'll have to figure out what accounts to distribute it into and what to do with it!
So let me give you the week 6 wrap up:
$0 to my 401K (because I got no paycheck)
$20 to my vacation fund
which makes the 2013 totals...
$165.07 in my 401K
$120 in the vacation fund
$15.15 in the piggy bank
Once again ladies & gentlemen.... I know that the last few weeks have been incredibly boring in my world of OCD saving, but there will be some different stuff coming once I get back to work and regular paychecks start coming in... I promise!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Week #5 - Days Late & Dollars Short!
OK, I'm sorry that the week #5 blog is late. It should have been out last Friday and I'm actually writing this on Monday morning. I was hoping to get some money to actually talk about, but I'm still out of work from my gallbladder surgery and I haven't gotten any of my temporary disability money yet. Actually they said that I might not get anything for another couple of weeks so it could get messy when it comes time to pay my bills (mortgage & credit card) for February!
All that I can really add to the blog for this week is that I did add $20 to my Vacation Savings account. I think that this is important because even though I have had no income for a couple of weeks I still pushed to add that money to my vacation savings. There are a million excuses NOT to save money and as soon as you skip one week it becomes easier and easier to skip more and more weeks. I have been putting aside $20 per week for a future vacation for over a year and a half now and I know if I had skipped one week over the last year it would have been very easy to skip this week and probably the next few weeks where I'll have no income money either.
The only other savings related thing I did last week was cash in some more deposit cans and get another $6.10 to put in the piggy bank.
So let me give you the week 5 wrap up:
$0 to my 401K (because I got no paycheck)
$20 to my vacation fund
$6.10 in the piggy bank
which makes the 2013 totals...
$165.07 in my 401K
$100 in the vacation fund
$15.15 in the piggy bank
That's about it for this week. I'm sorry its not as exciting as I had promised a few weeks ago, but I swear there will be some more serious money saved starting sometime in the next month or two. If nothing else you can look at the totals and see that even though I have been struggling with money because of a credit card bill from Christmas and some lost income from missing work after a surgery, I have still managed to save $115.15 in cash, plus adding $165.07 to my retirement fund.
Have you managed to put away any money so far this year? I want to hear about your saving goals what you have managed to do so far this year so please comment and pass the link around to your friends & family.
See you on Friday with our without a paycheck!
All that I can really add to the blog for this week is that I did add $20 to my Vacation Savings account. I think that this is important because even though I have had no income for a couple of weeks I still pushed to add that money to my vacation savings. There are a million excuses NOT to save money and as soon as you skip one week it becomes easier and easier to skip more and more weeks. I have been putting aside $20 per week for a future vacation for over a year and a half now and I know if I had skipped one week over the last year it would have been very easy to skip this week and probably the next few weeks where I'll have no income money either.
The only other savings related thing I did last week was cash in some more deposit cans and get another $6.10 to put in the piggy bank.
So let me give you the week 5 wrap up:
$0 to my 401K (because I got no paycheck)
$20 to my vacation fund
$6.10 in the piggy bank
which makes the 2013 totals...
$165.07 in my 401K
$100 in the vacation fund
$15.15 in the piggy bank
That's about it for this week. I'm sorry its not as exciting as I had promised a few weeks ago, but I swear there will be some more serious money saved starting sometime in the next month or two. If nothing else you can look at the totals and see that even though I have been struggling with money because of a credit card bill from Christmas and some lost income from missing work after a surgery, I have still managed to save $115.15 in cash, plus adding $165.07 to my retirement fund.
Have you managed to put away any money so far this year? I want to hear about your saving goals what you have managed to do so far this year so please comment and pass the link around to your friends & family.
See you on Friday with our without a paycheck!
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