Allowance Challenge

Chitown over a windy city blues had a great post on possibly using the allowance system to control spending.

Basically this means you are giving yourself a set amount of money to spend each week and after you have spent it there should be no more spending. Reader Aaren commented on how she puts $250.00 a month into a separate checking account that is simply for her allowance and gas. There are several other PF bloggers that are trying the allowance system as a way to focus on goals such as saving more and paying off debt.

I want to try to use the allowance system for one month and would love to have some people participate with me so we can hold each other accountable.

I know DD is moving in the beginning of the month and the first weekend of the month is also the 4th of July but lets all see if we can pick an amount for an allowance to give ourselves for the month. Perhaps we can post at the end of every week how we did with spending and what we bought with our allowance. We can update on our blogs how we did each week.

Who's in??

Do you pay for trash pick up?

Apparently I will now have to! The city instituted a fee of $150 fee for all residents who own commercial and multi family homes. Those homes occupied by the owner and not rented are exempt from the fee.

I don't mind paying for trash pickup. I know that several people in other counties that have to pay for the trash pick up. I would rather pay than put all that trash in my car. My problem is that my trash pickup is coming at 8, 9, and 10 pm at night.

Alas, I guess it you get what you pay for. The tax base in the city is shrinking drastically and the money has to come from somewhere.

Do you pay for trash pickup?

YBP

Bills and the significant other

Do you and your SO combine bills, equally divide bills, or have a joint checking account that you use as a "household account"?

Boobee and I do have a joint checking account however, we only used it to pay the mortgage.

That is all going to change August 1. All our bills are are going to be paid from the household account.

Right now its nothing like that. I put my part of the mortgage in the joint account and then pay the gas bill, water bill, car payment and car insurance out of my account. Boobee puts his part of the mortgage in the joint account and then pays the electric, cable/internet and cell phone bill out of his checking account.... when he remembers.

We sat down and calculated what are monthly expenses were and including our parts of the mortgage it comes to $1760 a month.

We have decided that we are going to split that amount in two for a total of $880 a month. Every two weeks we are going to put $440 in the "household" account and that should cover all our expenses for the month.

We are also going to add $2000 into the household savings account which will be a short term emergency fund for any and all household issues. We both agreed that this would be a great way to manage all our monthly expenses and make sure all the bills are paid on time ( and for me that means as soon as the bill comes in)

I can't wait until August.

If anyone can tell me how to post my budget spreadsheet onto blogger I would greatly appreciate it.


YBP

When murphy comes he really comes!!!

I just got the quote on my car repairs. The immediate work that needs to be done is over $1200.oo with about $1720 more of work that needs to be done. The total for the work that needs to be done is very close to the amount that I have left on my car loan. The reason why the car wouldn't start is because of a defect in the alarm system which costs $475.00 to fix. I also need a new remote sensor for my key, and two latches fixed in my car. On top of that I need 3 more fan belts. That is all I am getting fixed this week.

Within the month I will be getting a new air pump ( $750), new CV Bots ($667), Colon leak ($278). Finally, I need 4 new hubcaps and my corning lights fixed.

We have all heard of Murphy's Law right, anything that can go wrong does go wrong, sooner or later. Just when I am paying of my car loan, I have all these repairs to make. It doesn't bother me though, yet. If I had over $5000 of repairs to make then it would be a problem!

This emergency makes me wonder about Dave Ramsey's baby steps. Step #1 is to save $1000 in an EF. What if your emergency is more than $1000, then what is one to do. Put the rest of the emergency on credit cards, or payday loans.

Perhaps Dave should think about raising the amount of money in the EF for baby step one to $2000, just a thought.

Until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

I was a victim of PPA (Philadelphia Parking Authority)

Yesterday turned out to be a not so good day... I am glad that it is over. I wanted to take my car to work but the guy wanted to use it as well, so I made a big deal over it and but finally relinquished my car to him. Once I got to work the kids were cool, very excited about their weekends and the heat, however, we go got a lot of learning done. All of a sudden I get a text message, my car had been booted and towed due to tickets that he had on the car that were never paid off. I was livid, upset, hysterical, etc. What makes matters worse is that I had to leave work early to go pay ticket balance off along with the tow fee and go all the way down to South Philadelphia in order to get my car from the lot where they towed it too.

So I left work at 12:30, took Septa to Center City, paid $547.00 which was the balance of the tickets, then had to pay for a cab to go to South Philadelphia to get my car. I put the $547.00 on credit cards,which i am going to pay off on Friday.

Thank God its over! Its going to be another beautiful day in Philly, and I am going to enjoy it. My lawn is starting to look good, I have NO tickets on my car, and this weekend I have my orientation for Columbia.

All is well that ends well!!

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP