Making Cents Of It All

January is already over. That went really fast. We did get a lot done. I think with it being cold and our goals on our minds that we do more earlier in the year.  #1  Max out Hubby's 401K   We are allowed to put $19K in this and his company does a partial match. Looking long term here. We are currently putting 15% into Hubby's 401K. His job does a match too.   #2   Add to our Roth IRA  We can add $6500 to this. Again looking long term here. We will do this before the year is up.  #3  Pay cash for OD's wedding   We have given her the budget that we can contribute. We have already paid for her dress, shoes and the DJ. We have money set aside already for the rest of this. We booked the AirBNB and paid for half of it. It was a better option then several hotel rooms. We put a deposit down for the hair and makeup. YD has her dress and shoes. Everything is coming along.  #4  Pay cash for bridal shower   I spoke...

My son will be starting a new full time job tomorrow. He has left his job at Panera. I will miss all of the free bread, pasties, drinks and food. But it was time for him to go. He had been working there over 2 years.  He started there right after he graduated high school. He was staying home for college and they were willing to work around his school schedule. He decided last winter that college wasn't for him. We gave him until September to figure out what he wanted to do, get a full time job or he needed to go back to school. Well, he got a full time job.  Auto mechanics has always been an interest of his. Hubby has always done most of the work on our cars. My son has helped him for years. We looked into several school programs and work opportunities. He was hired as a mechanic's assist in a year long program and if all goes well he will be a mechanic after the year. He is a hard worker and we know he will do great. We are very proud of him.  College is not for ev...

We had Hubby's company picnic this weekend. They always have lots to do. I enjoyed the BBQ and cotton candy. They always do a kids pinata but this year they did an adult one too. It was so funny to watch. It was filled with little plastic bottles of liquor.  You had to spin around five times and then swing. No way my vertigo could handle that so I just watched.  They do several free raffles for the employees. And Hubby won one. We always sign up to be on the clean up crew. We brought home lots of leftovers. I made trays for several of the younger single people to take home food too. They were shy to come up and make it themselves but were grateful when I handed them trays already done.  Hubby and I stopped at some yard sales. I spent $1.  Hubby spent $4.  YD is keeping busy at school. She brought art supplies with her. Her new friends and her are painting lots of rocks they found on campus. She is making some for gift...

Sorry I have been gone so long. It was totally unplanned. I have not been felling well the last few months. I have vertigo and anemia. My iron was super low and so was my vitamin B. Now I know why I was so tired and run down. My vitamin B is good again. Still working on my iron. I seem to be having a hard time absorbing it. I have always taken iron tablets with vitamin C and it stays good. For some reason that hasn't been working as well lately. Going to the doctor lots lately.  Youngest daughter is loving college. We got her moved in with help from OD. Her 2 roommates are very nice. She has made a ton of friends and gotten a bunch of free stuff. They give out a lot of freebies at the beginning of the year to get students to go to events. I cannot believe my baby is away at college.  We stayed and visited with OD, her fiance and Ruby after we dropped YD off. Wedding plans for oldest daughter are going great. She booked the location for next July. She also...

Did you get your free ice cream from Ben & Jerry's? I sure did. I love that they got rid of plastic spoons.  My sister dropped Lip off for the week.She also brought some treats for the puppies. She also brought a slightly used coat. Hubby got a free magazine in the mail. We get several magazines and we don't pay for any of them. We always pass them on when we are done.  I got a free coupon in the mail.  My neighbor gave us more free cheese. I shredded this one in the food processor and froze it for easy omelets or quesadillas. My son brought home lots of extras from work this week.   He was also named associate of the month. He received a bonus and a voucher for 2 dinners at any of the companies restaurants.   We also received a ton of freebies from the college YD will be going to this Fall. She received a cinch sack, reusable water bottle and t-shirt when we arrived. Then there was a...

As I have said many times before, Hubby and I are debt free  except for our mortgage. Youngest daughter is graduating high school this year and will be starting college in the fall. We are doing everything in our power to make sure she doesn't have student loans when she graduates. We did not set up an 529 account when she was born. Wish we had but I can't go back in time. She did receive a small inheritance from my grandparents when they died so she does have that. When we were paying all of our debts off, we were focused on that and not saving for college. Then we built up our emergency fund. Our son started college around that time so we cashed flowed that. Our emergency fund is now fully funded. Next was our retirement. We started putting 15% of our income into retirement. It made the cash flow tighter but seeing our numbers go up is wonderful. I don't want to be a burden on my kids when I am old.  Our son took a semester off from school to figure out what he wants ...

Our big news of the week is we decided where youngest daughter will be going to college. She is going near her sister in Maryland. I will miss her so much but I know OD and her BF will watch out for her. We put a deposit down for school and her dorm. She accepted all of the scholarship money they offered and we will be cash flowing the rest. We are not planning on taking out student loans. YD currently works part time and is putting most of her paychecks towards school. She has worked very hard and received a very generous scholarship. She is still working on local scholarships. We will find out in June whether she will get any.  I did really well this week food shopping. Sausage was on sale for $1.99 and I had a personal discount making it 99¢ a pound. I was allowed 2 family packs. I got one hot and one sweet. I broke them up into smaller sizes for the freezer. Each pack was under $3. I was very happy with that.  ST Patrick's Day always brings out good sales ...

It has been very different this week. I haven't worked at a job all week. It is going to take a while to get used to this. I don't have to rush to get the laundry hung before I leave for work. I can get used to that. Hubby is also enjoying it as I have made him breakfast every single day. I made a batch of GF banana chocolate chip muffins for YD. I threw walnuts in 2 of them to see if she liked them that way. She preferred them plain. I froze most of them so that she can grab one when she wants. I made more juice with apples I had gotten marked down. I put carrots and some grapes that were frozen in it too.  I hate to waste food, so I made  apple cinnamon syrup  with the cores.  I then made 2 apple cakes using the leftover pulp.  Hubby was happy to take them to work.  It was my Dad's birthday so my sister had us over for dinner to celebrate. We brought a bunch of pastries from my son's job and dairy free chocolate ...