Vacation on a Budget - Doesn't Mean What You Think

We are less than a week away from our big family vacation.  Hooray!  Most of our planning is done, although we still have a few items to take care of before we depart.

As we head towards our departure date, I need to do laundry and pack.  I also have one more Amazon Prime order to execute on.  But as for our travel plan, the airline tickets are paid for, the hotels are reserved and the rental car is booked.

We vacation on a budget, but we don't scrimp.  What does that mean you ask?  Well it means that we always have a short term savings account earmarked for travel/vacation.  We also have an automatic deposit set up, so $200 per pay period goes into our vacation/travel fund.  That normally means that we have more than enough in our travel/savings account to pay cash for airline tickets.  After our airline tickets are booked and our vacation is planned I often up extra savings into our travel/vacation fund to make sure we have more than enough cash on hand for our hotel, rental car and spending.  This time around we didn't need to since our savings account was well funded.

I don't scrimp when I go on vacation, so I normally budget at least $100 a day for food which seems like a lot, but if you are eating out or stopping at a local brewery for a couple of $10 beers it works out to the right amount for us.  I also think about and plan for other spending, we'll be stopping at two national parks, so I'm accounting for entry fees, gas, and misc. spending on a t-shirt here or there or a special souvenir.  Mr. Sam likes to pick up t-shirts on his travel and he wears them a lot.  I like a more upscale souvenir, a piece of art from a local or maybe a handcrafted piece of jewelry.  I am picky so that means I often come home with nothing and that is ok.  Baby Sam gets to pick out something fun for herself that is inexpensive and I will likely pick out something for her along the way.  I normally set aside another $100 in cash for misc. spending.

All of this preplanning means that when we get home from vacation we only bring memories, a rock or two for our collection and no debt.

Voting by My Actions

So, even though we need to focus on savings and adding money to our 2016 IRA (in 2015 we saved nothing in our IRAs), I find myself doubling up my monthly payments for my nused car (purchased in December of 2015).

Why am I doing so?  Well, we paid off Mr. Sam's 2013 truck in full as of last month.  That means that I have an extra $500 a month.  So, rather than using that $500 for savings I sent it off to Chase for my auto loan.  I'd frankly be better off putting that $500 towards our linger credit card debt (now down to $1195).

So why do I make these choices?  I much prefer killing debt than saving money.  Now don't get me wrong I love saving money and watching the balances grow in our retirement accounts.  But, I seem to get more satisfaction paying off debt.  I also am not a fan of car loans.  I'd prefer to pay cash for cars, but over the course of 2013-2015 we found ourselves buying a new truck for Mr. Sam and a nused car for me.  I seem to dislike car debt more than credit car debt, etc.

Amazon Mom Update

Almost a year ago, I signed up for Amazon Mom/Prime program.

What I have learned, and it is also what I expected, is that having Amazon Prime makes it super easy to buy stuff from Amazon.  "Free" two day delivery on lots of items means that I often go to Amazon for my buying needs.  Does that mean I'm spending more in general?  Hard to know.  I could be making the same purchases, but simply making them at Amazon instead of other retailers.  Or I could be making more purchases since Amazon makes it so easy.  I suspect it is both.

Today, I was working on my Amazon Prime subscription box.  The subscription service allows one to sign up for purchases that are regularly occurring.   For us, that includes diapers, wipes, diaper genie liners, baby sunscreen, baby snacks, etc.  If you sign up for five items a month that ups your savings to 15% off on everything and 20% off on diapers.

So each month, we get diapers and wipes.  Normally we get some puff snacks for Baby Sam.  That normally leaves two items left.  We have storage space, so I'm genarlly looking for something we go through a lot of and is a dry good or cleaning supply.

As working parents, coffee is a big thing for us, so today  I decided to look at coffee options.  On Amazon, even narrowing by Prime, that brings up thousands of choices.  Select ground and hazelnut and I'm down to hundreds.   Sort by price and I come up with some brands that Mr. Sam buys regularly.  Ok, price per bag, price per ounce.  No idea if this is a good price.  Am I falling into the trap of buying something to get a discount that isn't a good deal?   Cross check to the Wal-mart site and yes this is a good price.

Do the same thing for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and I'm good to go for check out.

So bottom line, discounts can work but you have to be careful about making a poor buying choice for purposes of getting a discount.

Also, being able to get items I need delivered makes my life so much easier.  Between, work, baby, family life, maintaining sanity is important.

Mr. Sam's Truck

Happy to report that Mr. Sam's 2013 truck is now paid off.

Real Estate Update

Just did an update on our networth numbers.  Our three investment property mortgages are each, now, under $100,000 in debt.

The current mortgage balance numbers are as follows:
$98,207
$85,483
$74,520.

We also are about to get under $200,000 on our primary home mortgage, right now the balance is $201,583.  Next month's mortgage payment should get the balance below $200,000.  This makes me happy especially in light of my recent house envy.

I seem to respond more positively to reducing our debt than I do to increasing our savings.

Tax Day Update

Well its the day after taxes are due, so its a good time to think about our 2016 progress.

First, we haven't filed our taxes since we normally seek an extension which is what we did this year.

Second, we skipped 2015 IRA funding.  Just didn't happen for a variety of reasons.  Lack of discipline, baby and child care expenses, life, etc.  So, that means we have a bit of extra savings to put towards 2016 IRA funding.

Third, I'm still waiting on Mr. Sam to make my 2016 Excel savings chart.  He's as busy as I am, so it hasn't happened.  Hard to track progress without the chart.  But see below.

Definite goals:
(1) Max out 401k, $18,000 for each of us, for a total of $36,000.  On track.
(2) Finish funding our 2015 IRAs - $8900,  Skipped
(3) Fund 2016 IRAs, $11,000 for the both of us, for a total of $22,000.  $1100
(4) Baby Sam'college fund, add another $5000 this year.  On track

Updated tentative goal, so this is a definite goal now:
(5) Add to emergency fund, $10,000, increased this from $5,000 to $10,000, since we utilized a chunk to buy my nused car.  On track

Debt killing goals:
(1) Pay off lingering credit card debt in the amount of $4261.  Down to $2403
(2) Pay off Mr. Sam's new car, remaining debt $2000.  Down to $1000


Overall debt below $450,000 goal:  Total debt $474,731.

I Keep Trying to Get Back on Track.......

I've been spinning my wheels now for more than a year.

With the time pressures of a more than full time job, baby, husband, landlording, life, etc. my ability to manage our finances has been backsliding.

I'm not paying bills on time, rent is not being collected (that is Mr. Sam's duty), our savings rate has gone down.  I haven't even started to create our 2016 spending plan (our form of a budget), although I've put down on paper what I'd like to accomplish for savings.  Mr. Sam has not created our 2016 savings Excel chart.

I know the reason for all of this:  full time job, baby, husband, life, etc.  I've yet to figure out a solution.

I used to spend 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week working on finances or reading about finances (money blogs help me stay on track) when I arrived at the office.  But, I used to arrive at the office @ 7:30 am.  Now, on average, I'm arriving at @ 8:45 am.

The solution is to get up earlier so I can get to work earlier.  Today, I arrived at @ 8.20 and spent an hour or so on finances and made good progress.

Focusing on Debt

This was my December update on debt:

Debt killing goals:
(1) Pay off lingering credit card debt in the amount of $6500.
(2) Pay off Mr. Sam's new car, remaining debt $2500.

Of course, we've added to our debt by buying me a nused car.  But, I'm ignoring that for right now.

I've been chipping away at our credit card debt.  We killed the 0% credit card debt that we took out for tile in one of our rental homes.  Mr. Sam also cancelled that card/account.  As for our revolving credit card (Chase) that has been hanging around since Baby Sam arrived, it is now down to $3809.  I'm utilizing Dave Ramsey tricks by throwing a $100 at it here and there, and sending payments from various checking accounts on the same day.  I expect that Chase will be killed off by mid-March (hoping for end of February).

Mr. Sam's truck is down to $2000 and we have 4 payments left.  I don't plan to pay ahead as we have a 0% situation.  So, by May the truck will be paid in full.

Once the Chase is killed, we really need to ramp up 2015 IRAs savings since the deadline to fund is 4/15/16.  At present we have $2500 in our 2015 IRA savings.  That means we need to find $9000 before 4/15/16.  Our available savings is down because of my nused car purchase.  We do have $4200 in our vacation/travel fund, which means I could likely raid it for a couple of thousand.  And I could probably take $1,000 from savings.  That would mean we need to find $5,500 from other sources in about a month or month and a half.

Updated 2016 Savings/Financial Goals

Still working on our goal planning, some changes since I last posted.

Definite goals:
(1) Max out 401k for each of us, the limits have not changes for 2016 so that is $18,000 for each of us for a total of $36,000. Automatic payroll debits are in place, I will just need to check them in January
(2) Finish funding our 2015 IRAs - $8900, The 2015 IRAs must be funded by 4/15/16. As such, we will have some heavy upfront savings of about $1110 per pay period between 1/1/16 and 4/15/16.
(3) Fund 2016 IRAs $11,000 for the both of us, this number also is unchanged from 2015.
(4) Baby Sam'college fund, add another $5000 this year.

Tentative goals:
(5) Add to emergency fund, reducing this annual goal to $5000 (this year we saved $10,000)

The above savings goals total $65,900.  The highest savings number we have ever hit with our savings efforts is @$64,000 (back in 2013). So, this would be a stretch for us, especially with our child care expenses for Baby Sam.

I've deleted the nused car savings goal, because I went ahead and bought a nused car in December.  More on that in a later post.

Debt killing goals:
(1) Pay off lingering credit card debt in the amount of $4261 (this was at $6500 in my last post, we've made progress).
(2) Pay off Mr. Sam's new car, remaining debt $2000.

Above debt totals at $6261.

Also, I'd like to reduce our total debt to under $450,000 total.  At present our debt total is at $491,863 (this number went up due to the nused car) which would require killing the above credit and car debt and also killing another almost $35,602 in debt. I think that is this is may be a reachable goal since we paid off @$34,000 in debt this year.

Additional financial goals:
Roll over old 401k to my current employer 401k.  This has been a previous goal, and guess what it is still an item on my to do list.

2016 Savings/Financial Planning

Starting to think about 2016 savings and financial goals.

Definite goals:
(1) Max out 401k for each of us, the limits have not changes for 2016 so that is $18,000 for each of us for a total of $36,000. Automatic payroll debits are in place, I will just need to check them in January
(2) Finish funding our 2015 IRAs - $8900, The 2015 IRAs must be funded by 4/15/16. As such, we will have some heavy upfront savings of about $1110 per pay period between 1/1/16 and 4/15/16.
(3) Fund 2016 IRAs $11,000 for the both of us, this number also is unchanged from 2015.
(4) Baby Sam'college fund, add another $5000 this year.

Tentative goals:
(5) Add to emergency fund, reducing this annual goal to $5000 (this year we saved $10,000)
(6) Save for a nused car for me $10,000.  My car will be 10 years old next year and its got some expensive repairs that I've been holding off on. I replaced my last car after 9 years of life so I'm thinking this car will need replacing soon.

The above savings goals total $75,900.  The highest savings number we have ever hit with our savings efforts is @$64,000 (back in 2013). So, this would be a big stretch for us, especially with our child care expenses for Baby Sam.

Debt killing goals:
(1) Pay off lingering credit card debt in the amount of $6500.
(2) Pay off Mr. Sam's new car, remaining debt $2500.

Above debt totals at $9000.

Also, I'd like to reduce our total debt to under $450,000 total.  At present our debt total is at $484,848 which would require killing the above credit and car debt and also killing another almost $26,000 in debt. I think that is this is a reachable goal since we paid off @$34,000 in debt this year.