Week #43 - Late and Short

Hey everyone... I'm writing this on Monday October 28th even though the blog should have been posted last Friday. If you're reading this then you know I was away on vacation in Disney World with my wife so that's why there was no blog last week. I'm not going to give you any info on Disney since this should have been posted while I was still there, but I will give you some info in the blog that gets posted this coming Friday.

For now I will just give you the info about my paycheck from last week. I got a check for $538.87 with $xx.xx going to my 401K. The check was a little smaller than usual because I left early 2 times last week to try and look into getting a new job. No updates on that yet either. So since this is the last week of the month its the check that gets saved. I'm putting $200 in my money market savings, $200 in my future car savings, $38.87 in my future vet bills savings and I'm going to put $100.00 in my regular checking to catch up on a few things. I also did my usually $20 vacation transfer even though technically I was ON vacation when the transfer was made! Over all its not a bad week of saving... here is the wrap up...

Here is the week 43 wrap up:
$34.13 to my 401K
$200.00 to the money market savings
$200.00 to the car repairs account
$38.87 to the vet bill account
$20.00 to my vacation fund

Which makes the 2013 totals:
$1485.99 in my 401K
$860.00 in the vacation fund
$96.90 in the piggy bank
$550.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$263.87 in my vet bill savings
$2227.41 in my money market
$1677.40 in my car account

See you guys in a few days for Novembers 1st paycheck and the Disney vacation recap!
Lastly I just want to note that this issue marks the final count down of the last 10 blogs of the 2013 OCD Savings experiment!!

Week #42 - M-I-C... C-Ya Real Soon!

So today is October 18th and I starting at 3:30pm today I am officially on vacation. My wife and I leave for Walt Disney World on Sunday Morning, but I actually have a pretty busy weekend even before we leave. Tonight I will be going out to dinner with some friends and then Saturday morning I'll be headed to the Rock & Shock Horror Convention in Worcester (see last weeks blog for more info). In between those things I have to make sure that everything is all set up for the cat to be taken care of while we are gone, make sure the light timers are working and double check that I packed everything that I need.

I decided (after some prodding from my wife) to take some cash out of an account I have that is all the money we got as wedding gifts (after all the wedding expenses were paid for) and I'm going to use that to take care of Rock & Shock, some of the cash we need for vacation and then for the Rhode Island Comiccon and the Super Mega Fest (also mentioned in last weeks blog).

Other than the regular stuff I have a doctor bill I have to pay when we get back from vacation and I still need to pay for my new iPhone, but I'm going to sell my old one and hopefully cover at least 1/2 of the cost of the new one. I have been paying my full credit card balance with the exception of the cost of the phone. I know that I may end up with some interest on it, but somehow it makes me feel better to know exactly what I need to pay for the phone and I'll get it taken care of after vacation.

The mortgage payment is scheduled so that's all set and I'm mostly set for Halloween since there will only be a few days between when we get back from vacation and Halloween.

Not really sure what else I can give you guys this week so lets get to some money talk. I got a paycheck for $613.83 and $39.12 went to my 401k. I should have gotten 2 paychecks today, but it looks like GE screwed up again... BIG SURPRISE! Now normally I would make a big stink and tell them I need the check FedExed to me the next day since they are technically required to do that, but the reality is I don't care because I'm not going to do anything with the advanced check until after vacation anyway. This is the 3rd paycheck of the month so I'm going to put $400 in the mortgage account and $213.83 into my regular checking account to help pay the medical bill (which I'll take care of after vacation!). I also did my usual $20 vacation transfer which probably seems crazy since I'm going on vacation and I could just take the $20 with me, but I feel like there is no sense in skipping a week because that's how excuses not to save start! Now the wrap up....

Here is the week 41 wrap up:
$39.12 to my 401K
$20.00 to my vacation fund

Which makes the 2013 totals:
$1451.86 in my 401K
$840.00 in the vacation fund
$96.90 in the piggy bank
$550.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$225.00 in my vet bill savings
$2027.41 in my money market
$1477.40 in my car account


There will not be a blog posted on Friday next week because we will be in Florida, but I'll try to get something up on the Sunday or Monday that we get back. I know that not many of you care, but its the OCD in me that refuses to skip a week!

for this weeks bonus I'm gonna say that I went and got gas at the same station again and I got another free 1 liter bottle of Poland Spring water. I'm also gonna tell you about a sale at Rubber Chicken Comics in Bellingham, MA on October 26th. 25% off everything in the store, lots of comics for .50 cents each and you can meet Jason Vorhees and get your picture taken with him! There will also be the colorist and writer of the comic Helion there signing autographs for free! I'll be in Florida so I'm gonna miss it, but I would be there if I could!

Week #41 - Big Expenses Are Looming...

So this blog will be posted on October 11th and I have almost a month worth of big expenses coming up. Some good, some bad... but all expensive! I know you may not care at all what I have to spend money on, but I don't have much else to say this week so I'm gonna lay out all the things I have coming up and what they may cost. If nothing else it will make me feel better because in case you haven't noticed... I love making lists of things!

1. The weekend of the 12th & 13th is the weekend of what Northern Rhode Island knows as 'Autumnfest'. It's a yearly celebration of Columbus Day/Fall that takes place in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. I grew up going to Autumnfest and thinking it was so awesome that I couldn't wait every year. I have to admit that it hasn't aged well and I find it kind of boring now, but I still go. Its not a huge expense, but when you spend most of your day at a 'fair' of any kind you end up spending way to much money on crappy food. Thins like $3 slices of pizza, $7 baked potatoes and $9 apple crisp. There is also tons of music, fireworks and some other stuff that's free, but it will still cost $20-$30 for the weekend. If you're morbidly curious about what you've read here you can get more info at www.Autumnfest.org

2. On October 19th I'll be going to the 'Rock & Shock' convention in Worcester, MA. Its an annual convention of horror movie stars and retailers. I don't usually buy much, but the stars sign autographs that range from $20-$50 each! I'm hoping to only get the 1 person I really want on a poster I have signed by a lot of stars already, but I may get sucked into another 1 or 2. Its also about $25 per person to get into the convention so that's a pretty expensive day! Its last minute since the convention is tonight (Friday), tomorrow and Sunday, but you can check out the details at www.RockandShock.com

3. Starting on October 20th I'll be on vacation and in Disney World for 7 days. All the big stuff has already been paid for and we got a special meal plan that should take care of most of our food needs, but everyone knows there are always other expenses on vacations! I'm assuming that the whole thing will cost another $200-$300 easy on top of what we already paid for hotel, tickets & airfare!

4. When we get back from vacation the weekend of November 1st & 2nd is the Rhode Island Comiccon. Its about $20 to get in, but we might have a chance at some free tickets which would be awesome! Either way this convention has a lot of Star Wars actors at it this year. I have a Star Wars box set that has been signed by a ton of actors from the original trilogy and at this convention I will be able to add signatures from the actors that played: Zuckuss, Greedo, Admiral Ackbar, Lt. Renz, 4-Lom and Bosk! That may not mean much to you, but I think its pretty cool... unfortunately it will probably cost close to $200 for the weekend!! You can get more into at www.RIComiccon.com

5. The weekend of November 23rd & 24th there is yet another pop culture type convention. This is the Super Mega Fest in Framingham, MA. This one really only has 1 actor that I'm interested in. Its Oola, the green female dancer from Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi. I'm sure it will be about $20 to get in and $25 for her signature on my Star Wars box set. Check it out at www.SuperMegaFest.com if you're into this stuff.

That's all of the big planned events I have coming up, but its October so its time to start thinking about Christmas shopping which is always a big stress and expense. We are also in the middle of dealing with the issue that caused damage in my bathroom. Its going to be covered by insurance, but with deductibles and depreciation it might end up still costing me money. Lastly, I got rear ended on my way home from work last week. Now that will be covered 100% by insurance, but it will still be a big stress and inconvenience!

Ok... now that I told you all the stuff I'll be doing over the next 2 months I guess I'll tell you about my paycheck. This week I got a check fro $620.35 and $39.56 went to my 401k. This is the check I put toward my mortgage, but I'm also going to do some saving with it this month. I'm putting $100.00 in my regular checking account to hopefully help with some of the above expenses, $50.00 into my quarterly loan repayment account, $25.00 towards future vet bills and the remaining $445.35 will go towards the mortgage. In addition to my paycheck I also did my $20.00 vacation transfer and I returned $11.00 worth of cans that went into the piggy bank! Now to wrap it all up....

Here is the week 41 wrap up:
$39.56 to my 401K
$50.00 to the quarterly loan payment account
$25.00 to future vet bills
$20.00 to my vacation fund
$11.00 to the piggy bank


Which makes the 2013 totals:
$1412.74 in my 401K
$820.00 in the vacation fund
$96.90 in the piggy bank
$550.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$225.00 in my vet bill savings
$2027.41 in my money market
$1477.40 in my car account

For this weeks bonus I'll point out that you can get free stuff in random places sometimes. I go to the same gas station most of the time because its the cheapest in my area. They have been running a promotion for the last month where if you buy $20.00 or more worth of gas you can get a free 1 liter bottle of Poland Spring water! Even if you don't really want it, its still worth taking!

Lastly I'll suggest you check out the facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/OCDSavings because I have been trying to post some special sales and savings that I find on-line and in stores! Also feel free to add your own findings to the facebook group for everyone to see!!

Week #40 - Vacation Is Coming Up...

I'm having a band week this week so I did up a short blog, but I'm not really gonna put much extra into it. Sorry... Hopefully things will go better next week. Sorry its late too!

 

So its week #40 today's pay date is October 4th and I will be going on vacation soon. We leave for Florida on October 20th and will be there for a week returning on October 27th. It is mostly paid for and we got some great help from friends that go to Disney regularly for family vacations. We are staying at an 'In The Park' hotel and we got a meal plan for free that should cover most of the food we will need for the week. Now all that being said, it is still damn expensive to go to Disney World and I can't believe that some families do it every year or even more than once per year. If I hadn't started doing the $20 a week vacation fund a few years ago this would have been a pretty big stress to pay for.

Things will get screwy around the time of my vacation because I'll be away for 1 of the Fridays which probably means no blog but the way that my job issues paychecks for vacation weeks is odd. We actually get paid in advance of a vacation. The rational is that you might need/want the money for your vacation, but as a saver I see the negative being if I spend this check on my vacation then I have no paycheck to pay my bills when I get back from vacation. Usually what I do is I set the check aside and don't do anything with it until the actual date that I would have gotten it if I hadn't gone on vacation.

So this is the first week of the month which means that my whole check will go into my regular checking account to pay for my monthly bills and gas. I got a check for $608.45 and $38.76 went to my 401K. My check is about $5 short because I was 22 minutes late one day and god forbid a multi national billion dollar corporation give me 1 free pass for being late. I also did my usual $20 vacation transfer which at this point is mostly being saved for a vacation next year. Here is the wrap up....

Here is the week 40 wrap up:
$38.76 to my 401K
$20.00 to my vacation fund


Which makes the 2013 totals:
$1373.18 in my 401K
$800.00 in the vacation fund
$85.90 in the piggy bank
$500.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$200.00 in my vet bill savings
$2027.41 in my money market
$1477.40 in my car account

Week #39 - The 3rd Quarter Review...

 

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to week #39 of the OCD Savings Blog. We are officially three quarters of the way through the year so I figured I would do some kind of a recap like I did for weeks #13 and #26.

39 weeks ago I started this silly little blog hoping that some people would check it out and leave some comments, but my 2 main motivations were actually keeping an even crazier documentation of what I did with my money (for my own benefit) and my hopes that laying out my insane budget would encourage some people that read it to save some money in ways that they hadn't thought of. It was never meant as a way to puff up my chest and say 'look what I have' because truth be told, I still feel broke and stress about money almost all the time. Let see exactly what has happened over the last 9 months...

Counting this weeks contributions I now have $1334.42 in my 401k. I will admit that I'm not good at true long-term saving and I have no clue what will happen and if I will be ready for retirement at all when/if that time comes. However at last so far this year I have put aside a chunk of money that I really didn't miss and hopefully that money has worked for me and earned some interest. Next time I get a statement for my 401K account I'll try and remember to mention it here.

Me meager $20 a week set aside toward a vacation has added up to $780! Now again I'll admit that the vacation that my wife and I are going on next month is going to cost more than $780, but since I have been doing the $20 a week thing for more than just the last 9 months I'm actually in pretty decent shape as far as paying for the trip (plus my wife paid for the plane tickets already). If nothing else look at what the $20 a week has gotten me and start today with even $5 or $10 a week for yourself!!

I have $85.90 in a piggy bank on my fridge that was all free money courtesy of the state of Massachusetts! Yes, I did invest a small amount of time in bringing the cans to the supermarket, but other than that its free money! Even if I didn't save any of it I could have bought lunch with it once a month or something. If you drink anything that comes in deposit cans or bottles please return them. If you don't your basically throwing money in the trash every week!

 

I have put aside $500 toward paying my quarterly loan. Again I will admit that I pay $200 per quarter so based on 2013 I am behind on how much I should have put in the account, but since I started the year with money in the account I am doing fine. I will most likely put aside another $100-$150 before the end of the year and that will leave me all set to make the 4th quarter payment and set me up okay for the 1st quarter of 2014. Even though this is not actual money 'saved' it was set aside prior to me needing it which meant a bill I could pay on time with no stress!!

 

 

This year I have put $200 in an account in case my cat gets sick. As now now Beetus is as healthy as a 13 year old 21 pound cat can be and I really hope he stays that way for a long time, but unfortunately we all know that animals get sick and vet bills are never cheap! Like I said Beet is healthy, but his legs are getting tired from carrying so much weight for so many years and he might need a check up soon. He is pretty much at the point where he doesn't jump up on anything on his own anymore... poor Mr. B!

I've mentioned before that my money market is what I really consider to be my savings account. Money goes in and with the exception of a significantly planned purchase or an emergency, it doesn't come out! So far this year I have added $2027.41 to that account. I think that in a world where so many people live check to check and struggle every day saving that much is pretty good and its actually the number that I am most proud of.

Lastly is the money set aside for car repairs and future car purchases. My wife's car is on a lease and it ends in March of next year so we will be looking for a car and will most likely make a purchase rather than another lease, but we still have to figure out exactly what we want to do. No matter what we do the $1477.40 that I've put aside so far this year will be a big help. I'll tell you that by the end of the year the amount in that account will not be much different than it was at the end of 1012, but I also had to have multiple car repairs done this year. So if I was able to maintain a reasonable balance in the account and pay for tires, brakes and a few other things without stressing over a giant bill then I consider it a success!

Now if you take the money that I have saved (or put aside) so far this year it totals $5070.71 which is 15.27% of my gross income (24.28% of my net pay). Again, this is not about 'look at me', but look at what I did and think about how you can try to do the same. Start small... just start!

Ok... with all that being said, lets get to this weeks income and where it went....  I got a check for $612.82 ($39.12 went into my 401K) and since its the last week of the month its the week I drive the people at the bank crazy and show up with 1 check and 4 deposit slips! I will be putting $200 in my money market account, $200 in my car savings account, $25 in my potential vet bill account and the remaining $187.82 in my regular checking account. Not a bad week! Here is the wrap up....

Here is the week 39 wrap up:
$39.12 to my 401K
$20.00 to my vacation fund
$25.00 to the vet bill account
$200.00 to the money market
$200.00 to the car repair account

Which makes the 2013 totals:
$1334.42 in my 401K
$780.00 in the vacation fund
$85.90 in the piggy bank
$500.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$200.00 in my vet bill savings
$2027.41 in my money market
$1477.40 in my car account

Week #38 - Credit Cards Paid, Things Purchased & Fun Planned!

Welcome to week #38 of the OCD Savings Blog. Its earlier in the week than I usually start writing this, but I just finished paying my bills and balancing my checkbook so I figured I would sit down and write a little. As I type this my 3 credit cards have zero balances and I am awaiting a $50 'cash back' check from one of them that's coming in the mail, but my checkbook is back in the red by about $100. Now as I've mentioned before its not a true negative balance because I have 'secret' money 'hidden' from myself in the account that is not accounted for in my checkbook register. That being said I will have to make a deposit to get back in the black.

I've actually been spending a little more than usually over the last few weeks, but nothing totally out of hand. I spent about $80 at Rubber Chicken Comics because there was a big sale and I picked up a few items I had been waiting to get. I also just ordered a new pair of prescription sunglasses from Zenni Optics online which cost about $25. I picked up a few new records from Armageddon Shop in Providence and Patac Records online. I don't buy many records anymore, but when something special pops up its kind of a buy it now, or miss out on it situation and I didn't want to miss out on these. All of the records, toys comics & sunglasses are paid in full so there is nothing looming over head from there.

I also pre-ordered the new Grand Theft Auto 5 game (which I picked up this week). I went big with the GTA5 game and bought the super special 'limited edition' version that comes with a ton of extra stuff and costs $150! I was just going to get the regular $60 version, but I was talking about how cool the limited one was and my wife convinced me to get it since I haven't bought a video game in almost a year anyway. I put down a $25 deposit on the game (which is paid), but when I picked it up I paid the balance on my credit card which won't show up on the statement until next week. I also had to get gas twice this week which is on my credit card and currently unpaid.

I'm also heading to Boston to see a band called FLAG that is made up of an assortment of past members of the band Black Flag performing the songs of Black Flag. Its been a dream of mine since I discovered punk rock in 1987 to see Black Flag so this will be a great night! I can guarantee that if they are selling T-shirts or anything else I will most likely pick up some stuff. I actually have a little cash stashed in my wallet for the show!

I also have a couple of doctors bill coming in the near future from my primary care doctor and one for an eye exam. I'm not sure how bad those will be, but hopefully they are cheap even though I don't have insurance that covers an eye doctor! I'm probably going to need a new pair of sneakers before we go on vacation in October too... phew... I'm starting to stress out about all these forthcoming bills!!

I think I'm telling you all that to make sure that even if you are crazy or OCD like I am that you still should spend some cash on things that are important to you or that you really enjoy. It's important to have money saved for emergencies and such, but its also important to enjoy life. Just don't enjoy it until your credit cards are maxed out!!

Ok... enough about spending, lets talk about this weeks income and where it all went! I got a little overtime last week so I got a check for $648.63 with $41.47 going to my 401K. I'm going to take $250 off the top and put it in my regular checking account and put the remaining $398.63 in my mortgage account since its the 3rd paycheck of the month. I also did my $20 vacation transfer, but didn't have enough cans to return to justify a trip to the supermarket.... maybe next week. So here is the weekly wrap up...


Here is the week 38 wrap up:
$41.47 to my 401K
$20.00 to my vacation fund

Which makes the 2013 totals:
$1295.30 in my 401K
$760.00 in the vacation fund
$85.90 in the piggy bank
$500.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$175.00 in my vet bill savings
$1827.41 in my money market
$1277.40 in my car account

For this weeks bonus I just want to remind you that next weeks issue will be our 3rd quarter review! It will be week #39 and I'll just go over what has been saved, spent etc over the past 39 weeks! I hope you're as excited as I am! Hahaha....  See you next week!