Recap for January; all in all I'm pretty proud.
1) Paid January and February mortgage payments, including an additional $933 additional bringing us to an even $258,000 owed.
2) I made January and February payments for braces ($426, $406 regular plus $20 additional) and for tuition ($350, $300 regular plus additional $50)
3) Made a $1,500 contribution to my IRA
4) Upped 401K for DH to 11%, adding $640 roughly to the vanguard money
5) Used credit card not at all
6) Skipped ads and coupons and shopped at Aldi's keeping grocery spending down
7) Four Rxs (new and transferred) added $100 gift cards to the grocery spending
8) Finished the taxes, getting back $4,526 for Federal and $967 from state (It helps to have a large family, actually my children were referred to as a "tribe" at the ortho appointment, someone didn't believe I had that many of them).
9) I paid cash for the hotel for our weekend away in March
10) I did a great job finding bargains on clothing items purchased
11) Extraneous spending including new sporting equipment for the kids (helmet for skier, and new soccer ball and shin guards for the boys).
12) Finished Scholarship paperwork for oldest daughter
13) Making decent progress on paperwork for younger daughter's scholarship
Whew, feels like I've accomplished a lot, since losing the last two weeks to illness. I have two home today. Oh, well.
I should disclose that this isn't going to be our average months. We had some generous Christmas gifts (monetary ones) thrown our way to help up make major progress.
I also opened the Chase account and will get $100 back after I spend $500, and I will make $75 after I transfer $10K from the $20K EF to the Sharebuilder account.
I am ready for February.
January Wrap-Up
January 30th, 2013 at 09:02 pm
January 30th, 2013 at 09:13 pm 1359580387
January 30th, 2013 at 09:13 pm 1359580396
January 30th, 2013 at 09:19 pm 1359580781
I hope you're getting help and contributions of information from your two daughters and their school counselors for research, direction and scholarship essays. The research experience will be important to your girls for college/university course work.
January 30th, 2013 at 09:42 pm 1359582174
My girls have written their essays for the scholarship committees, I'm having to do the financial aid paperwork and following up with their letters of reference
January 30th, 2013 at 10:40 pm 1359585629
ETA: The girls are going for scholarships for their high school education; oldest daughter was a recipient seeking renewal, younger is going for one entirely different.