Percentage of Income

I hear on Dave Ramsey’s podcast that your house should be no more than 35% of your income.  I am not sure if he is talking about utilities AND house, or just house (mortgage, insurance and tax.) 

I enjoy working with numbers, so I decided to do our calculations.  Here are our numbers:

Utilities:

This includes our cell phones, electric, propane, DSL, dish, NetFlix, trash, septic inspection (yearly) and our Terminex (required by us: we had a horrible infestation when we first moved in.)  All of these services equal 15% of our take-home income!!!

Home:

This includes our mortgage (15 year,) property tax on both properties we own, and home owners insurance.  These are 17% of our take-home income.

That doesn’t seem so bad.  And it may go down when we get re-evaluated on the property we own next door.  The Auditor is still counting it as a regular dwelling valued at over $60,000 even though we purchased the home for less than $8,000 and it no longer has water or septic (the house is dilapidated.)  I have been working on the re-evaluation for over a year!  When they finally do it, our taxes should be cut down to next to nothing on this property.  Right now, they are charging as much as we pay for OUR residence, which just isn’t right.  Once it is re-evaluated, our homestead should be approximately 14% of our take-home income.

The numbers don’t look too bad at all, but I think it is redicules that we are paying as much for “services” as we are for our dwelling.  The culprits are our cell phone (3 phones and unlimited texting,) and satellite.  We have a 3^rd phone for Todd’s mom so they can talk without racking up minutes.  The thing is, if we were to go down to one income, these numbers will double.  That makes me very uneasy.

So, I guess we will continue to work on Dave’s plan and build up our Emergency Fund and pay off the house as soon as we can.  I would really like to be able to live off of one income in the near future.

Netflix

((Originally written on Friday morning.))

I decided to cancel Netflix for this month.  Todd mentioned that he doesn’t really watch it that much anymore now that he has his satellite package that he likes.  However, I like to watch Netflix on the weekends when he is working.  I stay in my jammies and watch several streaming videos through the Wii console.  I noticed that our next billing cycle is November 14^th.  So, tomorrow, I am placing a hold on the Netflix for a month.  I have two more craft shows for the next two weekends, Thanksgiving the weekend after, and then we are going to Florida the weekend after.  Why pay $10 for the month if we don’t have any time to watch the movies?  So, when we get back, I will determine if I have any time or need to watch any movies.  I would also like to start reading more at home.  I have been reading books for the blog reviews, but I would really like to read some books that I’m really interested in. 

Did You Know...?

Did you know that your eyes are the only part of your anatomy that does not grow with age?  A fellow blogger mentioned how large her son’s eyes looked.  Well…this is the explanation.

Age Is Just A Number

I know of some women (and a couple men, too) that refuse to share their age with others.  I don’t quite understand the big deal.  My mom is the same way as me – we are what we are! There is no changing it or hiding it!! 

A woman at work takes her birthday off every year and refuses to share her age.  What’s the secret?  You are a day older every single day.  Who cares if you are 42 and 235 days old or 82 and 16 days old?

I am not embarrassed or ashamed of my age at all.  I never have been.  I will be 30 in a few short months.  Does that scare me? N-O-P-E!  I am lucky to have lived this long!  Give me 90 more (healthy) years!!!

Why Do People Talk To Themselves?

I hope this does not offend anyone, but it is something that kind of creeps me out.  I have a coworker that frequently talks to herself.  I’m not saying just mumbles, but carries on full conversations and even laughs at herself!!

Am I the only one who finds this not only annoying, but kind of scary? 

My Not-So-Frugal Weekend

This weekend, I did NOT have a frugal weekend in any sense of the word.

Friday, I had a $35 Urgent Care visit (and they couldnt help because of the blood thinner I'm on,) $150 Co-Pay for the ER visit.  Then, on Sunday, I got a ticket for going through a yellow light.  Yup.  That's right.  A $305 weekend of MY issues.

I called this morning to see how much I owed for the ticket (Todd wants me to dispute it,) and it is $120!  Oy! 

I am just hoping our car insurance will not go up because of this.  My last ticket from 3 years ago finally dropped off and our insurance went down by half.  I am thinking it could be because I'm coming up on my 30th birthday. 

Again, I repeat, Oy!
I am paying for the ticket out of my allowance.  I have to learn to start abiding by the rules.

Over the Grocery Budget (Already)

((Originally written Thursday, November 11th))

Well…it is not even half-way into the month, and we are already over the grocery budget.  Oops.  We found a good deal on split chicken breasts (I thought we had chicken in the freezer, but we used it all) and turkeys.  We bought 3 large (18+ lb) turkeys at $0.49/lb and 20+ lbs of split chicken breasts for $0.89.  I remember the days when split chicken breasts were $0.39/lb…but not any more!

At any rate, that’s what happened.  As you can see, we are not strict with our budget. J  That’s OK though.  We really like turkey, so we will have one after Thanksgiving because we go to someone else’s house and never have any leftovers (I love turkey with miracle whip free!), one early next year, and one probably in March or April.  There is nothing like turkey, taters & stuffing (which I bought on super-sale for $0.25/box at Ollie’s last month!) on a cold Winter day.

And the split chicken breasts, hubby is making his famous chicken & dumplings today for dinner.  When he makes a batch, it is usually enough to feed us several meals and then freeze half of it.  He makes it in a huge stock-pot.

My mouth is watering just thinking about all of this food! 

Green Smoothie

A few months ago, I started drinking raw, “green” smoothies.  I read an article online about the benefits of raw food as well as the fact that it can cure and prevent cancer! I was a bit over-the-top about eating raw (who me?  Obsessive? No…)  Let me tell you, it’s not easy!

I enjoy sitting down to eat dinner with my husband every evening.  This is something I did growing up.  We ALWAYS ate dinner together at the table.  No ifs, ands or buts about it.  I am pretty adamant about that for Todd and I as well. 

That being said, it was difficult to drink a smoothie while Todd was eating awesome dinners.  I felt a little neglected.  So now, I drink a smoothie once in a while as a meal replacement. 

What I like about the green smoothies is that I get my fruits/veggies in for the day within 2 meals.  Also, these raw shakes will “clean you out” in no time!  I was doing two a day, and eating dinner with Todd in the evenings.  I had more energy, didn’t feel exhausted at 2:30 every day (as usual), lost quite a bit of weight, and felt great!  It also helped with my cravings for sweets.  However, it was not something I could continue.  It is not the smoothie’s fault, but my own inability to stay motivated.

My smoothies usually are as follows:

1-2 carrots

1 stalk of celery

1 apple

1 banana

water

When a specific fruit was in season, I’d throw a bit of it in there with these items.  Strawberries, blueberries, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, etc. The sky is the limit! They were so yummy! 

I would like to continue to drink a smoothie at least once a day for the health benefits and to keep my caloric intake down.  The great thing about them is that you can “hide” the vegetables in a sweet smoothie.  They are high in fiber and very filling too! 

Mint.com

I really like to use Mint.com!  I have my own written budget, but this website helps me to stay on track!  Anytime within the month, I can check to see how much we’ve spent on groceries, entertainment, etc.  This is especially great considering we are debit-card junkies!  We rarely ever carry around cash (except for our allowances.)

Mint.com will show me how much I spent each month on certain categories of the budget.  For instance, groceries, electric, phone, restaurants, movies and debt-repayment.  It takes a lot of the guess-work out at the end of the month when I want to see where all of our money is going.

What budget software (if any) do you use to keep track of your spending?

My Hubby the Work-A-Holic

My husband has a rotating schedule.  One week, he works 2 days, the next week, he works 5 days.  On his “days off” during the week, he works like a maniac!  I don’t know where he gets his energy from, but he gets a ton of stuff done while I’m at work.  It amazes me.

Todd will create a schedule of things he wants to get done on his days off.   He is very particular about trying to keep in-line with his schedule.  90% of the time, he is on time based on his “to do list.”  He does more in one day than I do in 6 months!

That being said, I don’t know if Todd could ever retire.  He is one of those people who cant take a day and just lounge around more than twice a year.  He is always up doing something.  No wonder his muscles hurt all the time!

Sometimes, I feel like I have to keep up with him on my days off.  Usually, on the weekends that he works, I try to do all the grocery shopping, bake a few meals for the week, pick up a little (not much – I hate cleaning,) take care of the animals and do as much of the yardwork as I can handle.  The other day of the weekend…I do NOTHING!  I like to stay in my jammies, watch movies all day, read, play with the critters and eat!  So relaxing.  And I don’t apologize for it one bit!