Another good thing that happened this week. I finally took pictures and re-posted my puppies and was able to sell several of them. A couple are waiting to be picked up, and I am still in contact with more possible buyers. Hopefully in the next week or so I will be down to just a couple. Which is much more manageable and cheaper.

I am also selling some goats tomorrow. The little bit of money will be a welcome help.

Am I the only one bugging about taxes already? I am checking the mail everyday hoping for all the documents to come in. I want to submit now! lol. Unfortunately since I am a sub-contractor, have several savings and retirement accounts, and we have two W2 jobs we have to wait on a lot of different companies to send us stuff. I hate waiting. I would love to be able to complete our taxes before the baby comes but I doubt that is going to happen. We'll see how punctual everyone is. I am cautiously optimistic we may get a good sum back this year and will be able to either pay down debt or save for retirement.

We met our goal and got the nursery construction DONE! Well mostly...

We finished the wall rebuilding, drywalling, mudding and taping, priming, painting, new ceiling fan, fixed the electric, built a closet, and handmade all our own trim. Husband took off last weekend and we were able to knock it all out.

We cleaned and cleaned the original 100+ yr old hardwood floors but no matter what we did they are in terrible shape. They are very splintery, parts of the floor is completely missing stain so it's hideous and dirty, and there are large cracks which let drafts in. We had planned on getting a large rug, but it wouldn't cover everything. We have this beautiful new room with disgusting floors. Last minute my mom graciously offered to purchase carpet for us. Sooo now we are waiting on that rush order to get installed before we can "move in" the furniture and stuff. We are hoping by early next week.

Although I am not really a fan of carpet it seemed to make the most sense to make the nursery warmer, safer, and more comfortable for the time being. In a few years we plan on replacing all the hardwood floors, but until then this will be a good alternative. I just hope we picked a good color!

Anxiously awaiting being able to start decorating and organizing all the things. We still have a couple small projects to do like repainting the dresser, hanging a decorative wall panel, and caulking the closet but they are just wants.

Tonight we are installing the drawers and shelves in the closet, which we have decided to leave without doors for now. We are going for a more decorative built in bookcase look since we have a wardrobe for the actual hanging clothes.

January is starting out well. Paid our mortgage bringing the balance to $112,730.75. I paid $100 towards the medical loan bringing the balance to $1,800. With husband's overtime from last week we have enough to pay $400 towards the construction loan bringing the balance to $3,550. Once the rest of my web income comes in I will have $400 to put towards the CC bringing the balance to $2,700!

Not bad for the first week of the month. Husband is taking off this weekend so we can hopefully finish construction on the nursery and start moving in. Good thing because I am technically "full term" now and could go any time. (Yikes!) Not sure how much more overtime he will get before the baby comes, but any extra income this month will be saved for February bills.

Well unfortunately a few other things popped up and I owe myself $500+ and I'm $350 short on the construction loan payment to stay on schedule. Ugh. I hate eating into my buffer. Especially since maternity leave is coming up and I really need to be getting ahead not behind...

My computer has been such a pain. I had to run it back to the store twice because I couldn't get the part in myself, and then when I got home the first time it wouldn't turn on. Some how my power button happened to go out, so I had to pay another $50 to fix that and drive 2 hour round trips. But whew, it is working again now. Thank goodness!

We also found out that husband will NOT be getting any paid paternity leave. So that is a bummer. He will use his one week of vacation and take a week unpaid. That is all we can really afford.

He is still working a lot of overtime, which is good because we need to dig out of the hole we are in and save as much as possible before the baby gets here. It is going to be tight. Thankfully Christmas shopping is completely done.

Pumping the septic did not fix the plumbing problem, so now we are trying other things before we call a plumber.

Here's to hoping life and finances settle down in January!

Well the good news is that I believe my computer can be fixed! I found a local shop to repair it, and I'm waiting for the right parts to come in.

It was $135 for the diagnosis and to fix one part. Plus another $450 for the main part that I need. Thankfully my family is buying me that part for my Christmas present! Seems like a pricey fix but still much much cheaper than the few thousand a new computer would cost. Hoping I get a few more good years out of this one! Whew.

But besides that I am feeling frustrated. I have had to raid some of my buffer to pay for things like dog food, fixing my computer, a few baby items we needed, medicine for me and the pets, etc. Also I am working very minimum hours at my side job so I will barely be able to put anything towards debt this month. I just feel like I can never get ahead. It seems like my money is spent way before I ever even get it, and I am always playing catch up. I save for one thing, and then something else goes wrong.

For example: Our new plumbing is messing up and so I need to come up with $200 to pump the septic and then fingers crossed that is actually the issue and not something terrible and more expensive.

I'm starting to stress about maternity leave. Thankfully I will be paid. But my husband is also hoping to take off for a month at 70% of income. (Which is a blessing) but we need to put back money to cover the difference, and also we won't have any overtime that month to put towards debt so we need to pay that ahead of time too. Seems like we are quickly running out of time and paychecks!

And just like that my computer is toast. :/ The computer I scrimped and saved for and then paid off early.

I knew this day was coming. It has been making some noises for a month or two now. (Of course about a month after my extended warranty wore off...) The computer is 4.5 years old and I use it for hours daily and have lots of programs and games.

Fortunately I can still get in it in safe mode so I was able to save my bookmarks, and documents. I had almost everything backed up anyway since this computer has died multiple times in the last year or two (under warranty) and I had to recover things over and over. I'm kind of used to it to be honest.

Thankfully my husband has a computer so I think I am going to download the bare minimum to his computer so I can work somewhat and wait a bit to purchase. Today is Cyber Monday but the computer I want is only $450 off which isn't much. I think I got my last one $1,000 off plus a free tv.

I can get 12 months free financing but I am leery to take on anymore payments. So I'm going to wait for now if possible. A major pain, but doable I think. Since I am getting close to my due date I have cut back my hours and projects a lot anyway. I think I can finish up my commitments on my husband's computer. But eventually, probably sooner rather than later I am going to have to buy a new one and it is looking like around $2,500. Yikes!

A necessary expense for someone who makes a living on computers, but definitely not what I wanted to spend my money on right now.

It's been a busy couple weeks.

Took care of some financial things. Got the property taxes all paid, got the mystery 401K contribution from husband's old employer rolled over into his new 401K. Finished the yearly open enrollment for insurance, and I had my baby shower.

I got a ton of stuff. Now I need to sort through all of it and see what I actually need to keep and what I still need. The nursery is not finished so the presents are currently stacked and taking up my entire living room, along with the other stuff I already had which is taking up my entire foyer. lol.

We are hoping to go get some paint samples tonight for nursery. The mudding is like 99% done, just need to check it all over one last time. Then it will be primer, paint, new ceiling fan, a decorative panel we are adding, trim, polishing the floors, and finally furniture. Whew. Lots to do in the last 10 weeks before baby is due.

Now for some good news! I got a $3 an hour raise at my main job! (Effective 2020)

They did cut my vacation from 60 hours to 40 hours a year but with the raise it isn't much of a loss. Honestly I never took that much vacation anyway and always just cashed it in.

Not only that but they are going to give me 6 weeks of paid maternity leave as well! That will take a lot of the strain off because we won't have to save for my time off work. I secretly think it is because they are worried I will quit after the baby is born and by giving me a raise and maternity leave it will be harder for me to leave.

Don't plan on quitting, but I know things do change. Honestly for now though we need both of my incomes, so until our debt is paid I'm stuck. Perhaps 2021 I can think about going down to one job again if I'd like.

Husband also got a raise, around $.60 I believe. But he took a pay cut $.30 when he switched to days. So not much impact overall. We have all but $80 of the doula money saved now. Should be able to finish that off this week.

We are going on a weekend getaway this month. Just to a nearly hotel with an indoor pool. Husband finally gets a weekend off, and our anniversary is coming up so we decided to take a breather and just relax away from home. We have enough credit card rewards and date money saved to pay for the hotel and a fancy dinner so shouldn't cost us much out of pocket. It will be nice to getaway one last time before the baby comes.

Well both the bonus and the health insurance came through. We decided to put back the $500 bonus for our vacation. Since it's already past time to buy plane tickets and such. The dirt pile can wait.


We have already deposited $60 into the HSA, but I have no idea where it is, or how to access it. So we will have to find that information out.

Paid my mortgage today, new balance is $114,114.20.

Had to buy more hay and pay for a vet bill so my animal fund is dwindling again. I can't wait to sell some goats and fully bulk that fund up so I don't have to keep pulling from my regular income.

We went wild crazy and spent over $600 this weekend of husband's overtime money. We got lots of stuff for the house including our remaining doors, door knobs, some decor, and we even printed and hung some pictures of us for the first time since we have been married... (Nearly 7 years. ) I guess it just goes to show that we are finally settling in. It is SO FUN to actually get to decorate and style things, rather than make do with hand me downs and unfinished spaces. We are pushing hard to finish most of our in-progress projects because we are having several guests this month. We've been working every night on something.

We are about to completely finish the hallway and is it weird if I say it might be my favorite room in the house? I built a bookshelf that fits perfectly, and hanging above it is our personalized map with pins to all the places we have traveled. We both love travel and outdoors, so the room is adventure themed and we are going to cover it in pictures of us on all our vacations, and it has some mementos we have picked up along the way. Such as a bottle of sand from the desert, and a yellow rock from Yellowstone. Husband is an amateur photographer so we are printing his favorite landscapes to hang as well. It's nice to walk to our bedroom and remember all the good trips and fun we have had together.

I'd like to start doing a monthly check in at the end of each month with numbers so I can keep track of my progress.

Here is where I stand for March:

Mortgage -$114,264.90
0% CC -$8,898


Roth IRAs +$14,380
401K +$19,478
Emergency Fund +$2,118
Animal Fund +$500
Truck Fund +$1,420

I think we broke about even this month as far as net worth. Had a lot of expenses and not as much income. I still managed to get my CC under the next thousand but I didn't meet my monthly goal.

HSA should start automatically withdrawing next week, so there will be steady progress on that goal.

We also did an "adult thing." We went ahead and signed up for life insurance through husband's job. It was only a couple bucks a check and now we will both be covered if anything happens.

April will be spent paying myself back and saving for my mini vacation in May.

Ugh after a great January and February, March is already kicking my tail a week in, even worse than expected. So many holes I am trying to plug but I can't stop the bleeding.

So many big expenses popped up this week, just when I was feeling on top of everything.

1. I FINALLY got my car titled in my name ($315)
2. Had to buy hay ($315)
3. Husband's birthday present ($200)
4. Car insurance went up more than expected ($670)
5. Propane tank ran out and had to refill in addition to my normal budget billing ($400)
6. Received a bill from the vet I'd been waiting on ($60)

On top of this my mom decided she wants to go on a short vacation with me for her birthday so I need to come up with around $500 in the next two months.

Ehhhh. Thankfully I had money put back for the present, hay, and car insurance. But I still need to come up with over $700 for the propane and car title fees. That plus my smaller web design month, my debt payoff is going to be really down. Booo.

This month my husband and I have to start paying our own health insurance which will suck $300 a month out of our the budget. But he will get a $160 raise next week, so really only need to come up with $140ish extra.

Oh well. It shall pass. Lots of year left.

Home remodel is at least going well. We got some more trim up, and we are hopefully getting the driveway graded this weekend. Then we can finally purchase new rock.

Paid my mortgage today, new balance is $114,264.90!

I reviewed my net worth since starting YNAB again 6 months ago. In the last six months my net worth (if I exclude my mortgage and retirement accounts) has increased by 70%!! I've increased savings and decreased debt by over $8,000 in 6 months. Which means we have been saving/paying debt with over 30% of our monthly income.

If I include our mortgage debt and retirement accounts we have increased out net worth by 12%.

We are still about $4,500 negative in our net worth (excluding mortgage and retirement) but I am positive we will be in the positive by the year end and most likely sooner. Then it will be a longer marathon to be positive in our entire net worth.

If we count our house value as an asset we are already there, but I prefer not to include it since we have no plans on selling. I dream of a day of more money in the bank than I have in debt.

Onward and upwards.

First the good car news. My father in law was kind enough to wash and clean out my old car, and park it in his driveway for sale yesterday. Well we already have someone seriously interested. It is at the mechanic today getting inspected and if it looks good it will be sold. That is the fastest I've ever seen a car sold! Unfortunately I will be getting about $200 less than I wanted for it. Father in law offered a lower price than I wanted to start with, but at least it will be off my hands and I will be able to cancel the insurance which is due to renew for the year in the next two weeks.

Then the bad news. I am having a terrible time trying to get my new van changed over to my name. It belonged to a relative who passed away and left it to her daughter. Who is selling it to me. I live right on a state line and the daughter lives in a different state than the deceased relative and I do.

Well we drove the 3 hours to her house and went with her to the DMV with all the multiple papers in hand. After waiting we were told sorry but we had to go the other states DMV. So we hop in the car and drive the 45 minutes and wait all over again. Only to be told no, we need to go back to the old one. By then it was already closed for the day...

So then she goes back alone another day and they tell her, NO they were right the first time we have to go back to the other state...

So then she mails me the title and all the necessary paperwork (will, trust, affidavit, death certificate, etc) Well I went again yesterday and FINALLY they say I have everything I need, except she had mailed me a copied death certificate and I need the original. ARRRRG.

So now she is mailing me the original and hopefully I will be able to go back in next week and get it taken care of. I'm not kidding we have been to 3 different DMVs, 4 times, with over 10 hours of driving and waiting. I can't believe it is this complicated. Ugh. Every person we talked to gave us a different answer. I just think they don't know what they are doing since it involves 3 parties and 2 states.

I can't believe it. I was surprised to received a $1,000 gift yesterday!

We decided we are going to put $500 into our EF, I am giving $100 as a gift to someone else needy I know, and the other $400 I will pay on the credit card. It's going down way faster than I imagined!

Husband gets paid tomorrow for the first time and we should be back on a normal budget. He has about 20 hours of overtime this week, so we are going to both go through our entire wardrobes and donate/trash all the clothes that we don't wear. Then figure out what items we badly need.

I finally got all the forms I needed so I submitted my taxes this morning. After paying the state and for the tax software I will net about $750. Which will be sent to the IRA. Glad it's over!

We got the first check from husband's disability and I paid $849 on the two credit cards! I can't pay anymore until the balance transfer goes through. Hopefully soon.

I may be getting a new car. A relative passed away and my family is offering their car to me. I am test driving it around to see if I like it. It's a much nicer car, that is newer, with fewer miles. But it's a lot bigger and gets bad gas mileage. So I have to decide if the space/luxury is worth paying more for gas.

I only drive to work 2 days a week. But my car is the main driver when we go on trips, or errands.

Basically I have a cheapo old Dodge Neon. The new car is a Buick Terraza. So a minivan/cross over. It would be nice for driving around future kiddos and for our road trips. (We usually borrow my mom's van) It is also AWD which is nice for the snow. I haven't been able to get my car out of the driveway since Friday...

So we'll see. Still mulling it over.

Well we got some good news today.

#1 I was able to pay $510 on the credit cards.

#2 I applied for a new 0% interest credit card for 18 months. And was approved for enough to cover the ENTIRE remaining amount we have on two cards now. So woo hoo. We'll be down to one card and have a good long while to pay it off. Still hoping for the end of the year. I will update my balances once the transfer goes through.

#3 We got a letter in the mail that says we were approved for short term disability for husband's month off work! It looks like they have already mailed the check. Although there is a mistake. Originally we had him going back after 3 weeks, but we just got the release for 4 weeks. So the payment is missing a week. We have already submitted the forms with the correct date on them, so if they haven't fixed it in a couple days I will give them a call.

Very thankful for this. It will still be 2 1/2 weeks until he receives his normal paychecks again. But since I've put money back we should be able to pay most of the STD on the credit cards.

My husband saw his surgeon this week and was told he could go back to work in two weeks... So we turned in his work release at his job.

And then his primary doctor said no way, that's not enough time. She wants to extend it another two weeks. Eek. The doctors are meeting today to decide, but fingers crossed he doesn't have to wait another month. Ugh.

We don't want to go back to his boss and tell him that his leave has to extend. Also the disability company is such a major pain. They won't even approved our claim until we have a work release date.

If his time off does get extended that will be 6 weeks off. Yikes. We were originally told 2 weeks, then it was 3, then 4, now possibly 6. This is because his job is so physical. If he had a desk job or could go on light duty he could go back now. Thankfully our church gave us a gift this week which covers a week of bills.

Hoping the doctors agree 4 weeks off is enough, and that the disability comes through.

My last post was about how I felt so financially secure... And then the boom dropped.

My husband had severe stomach pain all day yesterday and finally went to the ER. He had an appendicitis and had to have an emergency appendectomy today... Thankfully we caught it before it ruptured, and the surgery went well. He is very tired and sore but home now resting.

The bad news. He is off work for 3 weeks. Thankfully his work was very nice and understanding. I have already submitted a claim for short term disability which would pay him 70% of his base pay. BUT he has only worked there a little over 3 months so we aren't sure if he qualifies yet. We have to wait a week to receive the packet and then submit more forms, etc. Could be a while before we even know something. I do know he doesn't qualify for FML (you have to work a year). So I am a little scared he could lose his job, although his boss didn't indicate that.


Besides just his normal missing pay, this week was Christmas and he was off 2 days. Which was supposed to be a paid holiday, but per the employee rules you have to work at least one day in the holiday week to get paid. And now since he is off work he won't qualify for Christmas, or New Years either. On top of that he was supposed to be working 12 hour days these two weeks, and also Saturdays. So I don't even want to think about the amount of money we are going to be missing.


Major bummer. I know we will be okay. We always are. But it just stinks that instead of paying a large chunk of debt off, now we are going to be scrambling just to pay our bulls. I am very thankful we are in as good as a position as we are.

Hoping and praying that he doesn't lose his job, and that STD goes through so we can at least squeak by for the next 3 weeks. I would appreciate it if you kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks!

I've been complaining a lot about stressing and being over busy with web design this month. The good news is that I have hit my monthly hour goal already and still have 11 days in the month left! I've never done that. Honestly it's usually a struggle to hit my goal.

Also I have caught up enough that I am only going to have to work one day next week on web design and the rest of the week I will be able to relax and enjoy family time. Sometimes hard work pays off!

With all this work + my raise I should have over $700 just from my side income to put towards the CC next month. Also husband has a couple hundred ear marked for me from overtime. We might be able to pay $1,000 on the debt in one month! I never thought it would be possible.

My car is fixed, our bills are paid, our savings are on auto pilot, we have increased our EF, we have purchased all our needs... Don't want to jinx it, but right now I am feeling very financially secure. Hope this trend continues into next year!

My car was done at the mechanic today. It was $130 which I had enough put back for. I just hope this really fixes it. *fingers crossed*

Husband's overtime is still every week. We are going to up the EF and then put some towards the CCs.

Goat is sold and gone.


Web design is still swallowing me. I've been having to play catch up on the weekends and been staying up to about midnight most nights. Both husband and I are worn to a frazzle. Our house is a wreck, and we have been eating a lot of crap food.

I really hope life slows down after the holidays.

All bills and personal credit cards are paid, money is put back for this week's normal expenditures, and I have $7 left!

Bad news is that the new car battery did NOT fix my car like expected which means it has a much more expensive problem than we thought. I could not start it at all today and had to take my husband's car to work. Ugh. Looks like it will be going in the shop.

Also my kitten is getting fixed tomorrow, so I will need to come up with the money for that. That will be no problem when I get paid on Monday. I am really worried for her though, she had a terrible reaction to her first set of shots and almost died. We have no idea how she will do with the rabies vaccine and/or anesthesia. So I'm nervous. I will discuss my concerns with the vet before surgery.

I received an even better offer for the credit card I was planning on transferring our big balances to in January. Last month the offer was 14 months interest free, they sent me a new one for 18 months interest free. We will definitely still try to pay the balance within 14 months or sooner, but it's nice to have a bit more wiggle room.

Web design is overflowing right now. But so much so that it is stressing me out. Hoping I get the time to sit down and work a lot of hours to cut down on some of the projects hanging over my head. The income will certainly be nice!

We have quite a shopping list this year. As per usual I always purchase everything possible online. Usually the deals start days before Thanksgiving.

So far we have already purchased a tool set and a new tv and mount. Today I just purchased both my parent's Christmas presents. Just waiting on husband's gifts to go on sale tomorrow and I will purchase them as well.

We still like to go Black Friday shopping at the stores but since all our "needs" are already done it is much more fun to look for smaller items like clothes, household supplies, towels, etc, without worrying about fighting other people for the big items like electronics. It makes for a more relaxing experience and there are some great deals on things you wouldn't normally consider on Black Friday.

I sold some goats and was able to add $250 to the animal fund. Have a couple more sale pending as well but it will be a few weeks before payment/pick up.

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

I made a happy oopsie. I totally forgot my job upped my vacation time to 60 hours this year. Which is quite a bit since I only work 15 hours a week.

Well I thought I was about out of vacation time so I double checked how much I had left and was pleasantly surprised to see I have 35 hours left. Since I have to use it by the end of the year and have no vacations planned I am just going to cash out 5 hours a week until the end of the year. That extra money will help me buy Christmas presents and get ahead.

Husband worked 12 hour days all this week including the weekend. Whew. He sure is tired but the extra money is certainly welcome.

I am down to only $16 left floating on my CC. So on Monday I will be able to pay that off and all expenses from here on out will have cash in the bank to cover everything put on the CCs. Woo hoo!

Goat show went well. We made about $1,000 but it cost $700 in expenses. We also had car troubles and had to get towed and go to a mechanic. Ugh. But I was able to keep my half. So I made $150 + $50 from the sale of my goat (after purchasing another cheaper one). So I came home with $200. Not sure yet where I am going to put this. Probably just send it to the animal fund.

Husband wants me to get that fund up to $4,500 (a year's worth of animal expenses) so I can stop using part of my weekly paycheck for animal food. We'll see.

Husband's payday is today. I put back money for all the bills and paid my mortgage. My balance is down to $114,861.80. Which means we have paid down into the next thousand barrier.

In another week we will have enough money saved to pay completely for our annual house insurance. I didn't think we would be able to save $1,300 in only a few months but we did it! I have the deposit on auto-pay so by this time next year at the current schedule we should have about $2,000 extra saved for our emergency fund on top of having enough for taxes and insurance.

In the spring we will also begin saving in an HSA. I will be okay with this saving rate for the time being and the rest of our extra funds will be allocated towards paying down the CCs. I have a crazy goal in my head of having them paid off by April 2020. That would be about $740 a month which is pretty unrealistic currently. BUT I am hoping we will be able to throw a couple big chunks at them from either overtime or side projects. So we'll see.

The goat show is quickly approaching. I have a goat sold at the show which is awesome since I am also picking up a goat a bought. Oops. I will still make about $100 off the the sale. Hoping I win lots of money at the show.

Sadly my CC floating went from -$55 to $-150. Dog food was on sale so I bought 3 bags rather than my normal 1. And I found the perfect sweater for our annual Christmas sweater contest and it was 60% off so I went ahead and bought it. Oops. Oh well. I'll catch up eventually. lol.

We ended up going out to a very fancy Italian restaurant for our anniversary. It was very fun to "play rich" for an evening.

It appears like husband will be working 12 hour days next week and probably the weekend as well. Whew. Poor guy. But that will give us all the money for black Friday shopping and most of our Christmas presents.

November has an "extra" paycheck week so I am going to use that to put towards the home CCs. I am hoping that I will be able to make my goal as long as I can get enough web design work by the end of the year.

Today is payday!

Our mortgage should now be 115,009.55.

I went ahead and set up a $75 weekly transfer from my checking to savings for our Escrow and EF. I've never done an automatic savings transfer before so that is exciting! Before we always just tried to save what we had left. It's nice to be able make it a priority.

In my last post someone commented that maybe my husband's company matches 50% up to 10% for retirement. I wonder if they are right! Husband was told 10% but he isn't very knowledgeable about stuff like that, so he might have mis-understood. That would be awesome if that is true. He is set to contribute 3% for now, and it increases 1% every year automatically. I am hoping we will be able to raise it next year but we need to settle into the budget first.

Thanks for all the comments and advice about my husband and the budget. He definitely is not a big spender or usually a whiner about money but I think he is nervous about the new job and changes and he is just projecting. I averaged all his credit card statements and showed him that he has been spending an exact average of what fun money he will be getting and that he will be saving about $10 a week in gas with the job change. Plus he won't have to pay for so many discrepancies. He will be fine. I am okay if he wants to buy a little treat for himself to celebrate us getting insurance and a better job. We've been tight for so long, and he deserves it.

Husband's new retirement contributions started this week. We were told they give you 10% of whatever you contribute which is a really awful match. But his paycheck is showing that they matched 50% of what he put it... So who knows. lol. We will take it!

Unfortunately husband had a bit of another melt down once he saw his spending get even smaller... I've asked him to do the budget himself or handle the finances but he won't. I think he believes I am taking all his money and spending it on myself or something. So frustrating.

I have everything mapped out to the dollar so everything is accounted for. But he just can't understand how he can make $400 more a month and it's already gone without increasing our fun money. He doesn't grasp that we were living check to check and that the $400 a month was floating on credit cards, and borrowing from his car money all the time.

I have always done all the budgeting and bills so I guess he just didn't realize how tight we were. I will have to keep encouraging him to be more involved in our finances, but it's like pulling teeth. Ugh.

He is going to have to start paying union dues next week which will be another $10 a week out. But he should be receiving a $20 a week raise in the next month, so it will even out.

I'm not sure how much fun money he is wanting a week. If he would just give me a number I would just let him have it and figure out a way to cover the difference so he stops driving me crazy. I don't think he even knows or really wants more. I think he is just upset that he is working a harder job and doesn't feel like he is getting anything more from it compared to his old job. I'm sure he will settle down eventually, just one of those moods.

Today I am feeling the squeeze with the budget. Which is crazy since our income increased, and I was just reassuring husband that is was fine, lol.

We have all our needs met, we are putting back money every week. We aren't struggling. But I looked at the forecast for the next several months and realized that I have already planned out all my spending for the next 7 weeks. 3 weeks for the blinds and bathroom accessories, 2 weeks for a new car battery, 2 weeks for a fun item I have been wanting.

That puts me all the way at Thanksgiving. And we were going to do a little black Friday shopping this year. So I'd like to put some sort of money back for that.

Christmas is quickly approaching. Husband and I agreed to purchase one larger item to share on black Friday as our main "present" and we will set a smaller limit for each other for gifts to open on Christmas.

Our anniversary is this month and we were wanting to go away for the weekend since we did nothing at all last year. But I don't see how we can swing it without pulling from savings which I'd rather not. Plus we aren't sure with husband's new job if he will be working weekends or not so I really can't make reservations or anything. Ugh.

I have a goat sold at the end of the month. Normally that money is put back into my animal saving fund but I may end up using it for either black Friday shopping, Christmas presents, or for our anniversary.

Otherwise I would love to figure out a way to scrounge up some extra income. I am owed about $133 from past web projects but payment is sketchy at best. They recently asked me to do another project for them and I implied that I wasn't willing to pick up any more work because they never pay me. They promised they will send it soon... Hopefully that will light the fire, but we'll see.

We got husband's first check at the new job. I am so thankful that we essentially got double paid+ since he also received a full check from his old employer and vacation hours.

This will essentially pay off all of our personal monthly credit cards, and allow us to put money back to switch from our currently bi-weekly budget to a new weekly budget since his new job gets paid weekly, and so do I.

Something I found as odd is that his new employer rounds up the hours. They don't do partial hours for regular pay and they don't pay less than .5 hours for overtime which is interesting. I've never seen a job do that before. He actually worked almost 1 hour less one day, and then worked about 15 minutes over another day. They do their overtime as anything over 8 hours in a day. So his check was surprisingly a full 40 hours of regular pay plus .5 hours of overtime. Even though he actually worked less than 40. It's a small amount of extra but we'll take it!

Tomorrow we are going out to dinner to celebrate his new job.

I sold a couple goats and have put that money back for the fence repair. The guy is hopefully finally starting this weekend. (weather permitting)

I added up my house CC payments and so far this year I have paid $3,576 in debt. That means I have $1,424 to go before the end of the year or about $475 a month. I'm not sure if that is doable or not but it will be close. I don't think this is bad at all though considering I had to spend over $2k on an unexpected fence repair.

I received multiple checks today that I had been waiting on so I went ahead and made a trip to town to deposit and pay some bills.

I paid the mortgage, our final real estate tax installment, my estimated self employment income tax for the year, and paid the rest towards the credit cards. Whew, it is crazy when several thousand go in and out in one day. But it feels good to tick some bills off.

Husband's first day at his new job is today. He was feeling quite sad about leaving his old one all weekend. They really did love him at his old job. His coworkers got together and gave him a card and $150 as a goodbye gift, and he received a gift card for dining and some cookies and candy. His boss said if he ever wants to come back he is welcome. It is a real shame that he had to give up such a nice job due to expensive health insurance. USA healthcare stinks.

Over the weekend we went out with friends and spent some of his gift money on having fun and taking his mind off the new job.

Now for a question. I've seen it mentioned that instead of putting his old 401k in his new 401k that we should move it to an IRA. What is the benefit of this, when all three accounts are at Vanguard and in the same funds? His 401K and his IRA are both ROTH. Can we move rollover his Roth 401K to his Roth IRA without any penalties or taxes? I plan on calling Vanguard and discussing with them but I have to add myself as an agent on his account first.