Post-Christmas Decisions
Hope everyone had a happy holiday!
Christmas went pretty smoothly this year. Between gifts, parties, and leftovers the fridge is full, so we all agreed to only chip in $5 a piece for groceries this next week...mainly for milk.
Oh, and we gave away most of the ham Phillip got for Christmas. First we tried to cook it. Cooking and carving that ham had to be one of the most disgusting things I've ever done. Neither of us wanted to eat it when we were done. My brother ate a little, but we ended up giving most of it to Phillip's parents so it wouldn't be wasted. Seriously, cooking a raw ham is tramatic...I was reading up on Kosher diets today.
Anyway, Christmas was good, and I can't complain about the presents. I asked for cash this year and got cash. It helps that my dad's an only child, and his parents only have three of us to spoil. I admit I feel a little self-conscious talking about my Christmas money, but the whole idea of this journal was to be open and honest about my finances. So please understand this is neither bragging or whining but my attempt at using honesty to learn and teach. Not gonna list every gift or say from whom anything came, because that's unimportant as far as money issues go.
Total cash came in at $315
And then I had a few gifts that I ran around exchanging today.
Let's start with the cash. This is what Phillip and I refer to as unexpected income. I had no way of knowing how much, if any, I'd get for Christmas, so it was hard to make plans for it before I had it.
Now I promise you if I leave it all in my wallet without any sort of plan, it could easily be gone within a week with very little to show for it. So I need to make a plan. Part of that plan didn't take much time to decide. I've been thinking a lot about the media cabinet at Big Lots...price was right, it was my style, and my current DVD shelf has run out of room. So it's lovely combination of want it/need it. That took out $76 (tax included) so I have $239 left to play with.
I'm a religious person, so I tithe. (yes, I realize I left that off my original budget...more on that in a later post). I actually set that aside first. Ten percent, so that's $31.50, which rounded down leaves me $207. I like having a few small stashes of emergency cash at the apartment, so I took out another $20 to refill one of my stash places. Ah, $315 wittled down to $187 pretty quickly. And here things got less obvious.
I had to take a moment to think about all the things I want and need. My boots and my microwave are starting to wear out. My B&N membership runs out shortly after Christmas. I've got that big car tune up expense coming next month, and rent due by next Tuesday. And I really want/need to build my emergency fund back up. And again, I can't do *everything* at once, so I had to choose what's most important to me.
The B&N card gives me a ten percent discount, plus the rare member's reward thing. Last year I think I used it enough that it paid for itself, so book junkie that I am, I'll renew for this year. $25 for that.
I have enough shoes that the boots aren't urgent, more a want than a need, so that can wait. And the microwave...well, it works except for the start button. The "Minute Plus" is allowing it to function, so it's slightly annoying, but not massively so. I think I can put up with it til Febuary at least. The main thing is that putting the money towards my bills/building up savings is the thing that will give me the most peace of mind as the year closes.
I'm pulling out another $20 gas, and putting $133 towards my share of rent (which will allow that much to stay in my savings). I think I'm going to go ahead and write out a check for the rest to Phillip (he handles turning in the rent to the office) tonight. I should have one last paycheck coming in this month...though I'm not sure how much it'll be (we had a split check thing this month at church)... if it's $160 I should come out with $3000 in savings for the end of the year. That would be nice.
Okay, this is getting a bit long, so I'll come back later with my adventures in gift exchange.
Christmas went pretty smoothly this year. Between gifts, parties, and leftovers the fridge is full, so we all agreed to only chip in $5 a piece for groceries this next week...mainly for milk.
Oh, and we gave away most of the ham Phillip got for Christmas. First we tried to cook it. Cooking and carving that ham had to be one of the most disgusting things I've ever done. Neither of us wanted to eat it when we were done. My brother ate a little, but we ended up giving most of it to Phillip's parents so it wouldn't be wasted. Seriously, cooking a raw ham is tramatic...I was reading up on Kosher diets today.
Anyway, Christmas was good, and I can't complain about the presents. I asked for cash this year and got cash. It helps that my dad's an only child, and his parents only have three of us to spoil. I admit I feel a little self-conscious talking about my Christmas money, but the whole idea of this journal was to be open and honest about my finances. So please understand this is neither bragging or whining but my attempt at using honesty to learn and teach. Not gonna list every gift or say from whom anything came, because that's unimportant as far as money issues go.
Total cash came in at $315
And then I had a few gifts that I ran around exchanging today.
Let's start with the cash. This is what Phillip and I refer to as unexpected income. I had no way of knowing how much, if any, I'd get for Christmas, so it was hard to make plans for it before I had it.
Now I promise you if I leave it all in my wallet without any sort of plan, it could easily be gone within a week with very little to show for it. So I need to make a plan. Part of that plan didn't take much time to decide. I've been thinking a lot about the media cabinet at Big Lots...price was right, it was my style, and my current DVD shelf has run out of room. So it's lovely combination of want it/need it. That took out $76 (tax included) so I have $239 left to play with.
I'm a religious person, so I tithe. (yes, I realize I left that off my original budget...more on that in a later post). I actually set that aside first. Ten percent, so that's $31.50, which rounded down leaves me $207. I like having a few small stashes of emergency cash at the apartment, so I took out another $20 to refill one of my stash places. Ah, $315 wittled down to $187 pretty quickly. And here things got less obvious.
I had to take a moment to think about all the things I want and need. My boots and my microwave are starting to wear out. My B&N membership runs out shortly after Christmas. I've got that big car tune up expense coming next month, and rent due by next Tuesday. And I really want/need to build my emergency fund back up. And again, I can't do *everything* at once, so I had to choose what's most important to me.
The B&N card gives me a ten percent discount, plus the rare member's reward thing. Last year I think I used it enough that it paid for itself, so book junkie that I am, I'll renew for this year. $25 for that.
I have enough shoes that the boots aren't urgent, more a want than a need, so that can wait. And the microwave...well, it works except for the start button. The "Minute Plus" is allowing it to function, so it's slightly annoying, but not massively so. I think I can put up with it til Febuary at least. The main thing is that putting the money towards my bills/building up savings is the thing that will give me the most peace of mind as the year closes.
I'm pulling out another $20 gas, and putting $133 towards my share of rent (which will allow that much to stay in my savings). I think I'm going to go ahead and write out a check for the rest to Phillip (he handles turning in the rent to the office) tonight. I should have one last paycheck coming in this month...though I'm not sure how much it'll be (we had a split check thing this month at church)... if it's $160 I should come out with $3000 in savings for the end of the year. That would be nice.
Okay, this is getting a bit long, so I'll come back later with my adventures in gift exchange.