Women in Red Savers 2014

[ambellamy]

Ambellamy: 1/31/14 $1,284.32 (1/1/14 Starting: $0.00 Goal:$16,750.00 WIRS1)

[Ombud]

ambellamy, took away the stars and smilies as requested but you're still on track!

[shopaholic814]

nalto- Can you believe we WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!! I bet you are going to the Welcome Home Parade today. I am so jealous! The city must be a complete buzz of total unbridled excitement! To answer your question, I am NOT from anywhere near Seattle, I'm from North-central Ohio!! I grew up a Browns fan, still am down deep somewhere I guess, but its been hard to be supportive of an organization & city hell-bent on self-destruction. I became a Seahawk fan while my DH & I were dating in mid-90s. He is also from Ohio but has been a dedicated fan since Steve Largent played in the early 80s. As a surprise 4-5 years ago, I took DH on a quick weekend trip to Seattle over Valentine weekend. We took a tour of the stadium, saw the market, took the ferry over to Bainbridge, etc & drove all around & over to Forks & to see the ocean. It was amazing. We actually are hoping to go back for a very overdue 'honeymoon/anniversary vacation' in the summer of 2017.

[shopaholic814]

Here's my first update.  Not too bad considering all we had going on this month & the debt we still have to pay off.

Shopaholic814 : 2/5/14 $7264.70 (1/6/14 $6302.14 / Goal $18,600.00)

UPDATE	GOAL	PREVIOUS	SAVED	SPENT	CURRENT	% Saved
EF	$1,000.00	$500.00	$200.00	$0.00	$700.00	70.0%
Car Insur.	$800.00	$143.55	$300.00	$0.00	$443.55	55.2%
Home reno 7/2014	$5,000.00	$4,831.57	$202.08	$0.00	$5,033.65	100.7%
CMAS 12/14	$1,800.00	$100.00	$150.00	$0.00	$250.00	13.9%
Car Fund	$5,000.00	$80.04	$50.06	$0.00	$130.10	2.6%
Travel Fund 7/2017	$5,000.00	$646.98	$60.42	$0.00	$707.40	14.1%
Total	$18,600.00	$6,302.14	$960.48	$0.00	$7,264.70	39.0%

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

I love Seattle, too, shop!  It's a great city. 

[Ombud]

love Pike's Market

[Saving4Norway]

Gotta jump into the Seattle Love - I'm more of a country girl (downtown Seattle stress me out) but I'm a huge Seahawks fan and have been since the beginning. (Growing up, I had a poster of Jim Zorn and Steve Largent on my bedroom wall!)

Shop, I have friends who live in Forks and other friends who are from Chillicothe (spelling?), and Nalto, my aunt lives in Sequim. It's a small world!

[mak]

Mak 2/7/14 $1275.00 (01/1/14 $0)

Just stopping by to drop an update. This is three paychecks worth of savings. 

Fund	Goals	Previous	Added	YTD	%Met
House Down Payment	10,000	0.00	1,200.00	1,200.00	12%
Emergency Fund	1,000	0.00	0.00	0.00	0%
Christmas	800	0.00	0.00	0.00	0%
Misc Expenses	400	0.00	75.00	75.00	18.75%
Family Vacation (2016)	1,500	0.00	0.00	0.00	0%
Retirement %	10%	3%	0%	3%	30%
TOTAL:	13,700.00	0.00	1,275.00	1,275.00	9.31%

It looks like we will be getting a tax refund this year. We still have to decide how to apply it above. 

I still need to figure out this chart thing. I seem to have to retype it all every time. Any tips? 

[shopaholic814]

Saving4Norway: I'm a country girl too actually. I grew up on a small farm, my dad owns a tractor dealership, & my DH, kids & I live in very small town out in the boonies. Cities scare the daylights out of me, I couldn't live there, but they are ok to visit. I have extended family that lives south of Seattle, but I can't remember where it is. When DH & I go out there for our vacation in 2017, I don't think we plan to stay in the city long. I want to tour 1-2 of the San Juan Islands, visit family, and maybe drive along the ocean a bit. I don't know if we will be allowed to visit the Seahawk's practice facility, I haven't checked into it yet, but if we are I would like to surprise DH with that.

Rocky: Even though we both would much rather be in the country, DH & I both thought Seattle was a great city too. However, we continually got lost b/c the GPS wouldn't work and since our plane got in at about 1am, we got lost getting to the downtown hotel & didn't get there until almost 4am!! I think next time we will not stay downtown, bring our own GPS, & take a plane that arrives during the day so that we can see the signs better!

Ombud: Pike's Market was Awesome! During the Super Bowl commercials, a reporter was interviewing one of the guys at the fish throwing booth, it just happened to be the same guy that DH & I talked to for like 20 minutes when we were there. It was really slow the day we were there & they weren't busy so he was chatting with people walking by. He was such a nice guy!

[shopaholic814]

Mak- I save my chart in a spreadsheet format with formulas that automatically adjust the totals when I make changes, but it is not a Microsoft Word spreadsheet b/c I refuse to spend a fortune to purchase it since it doesn't come installed on computers anymore. I use Open Office documents & spreadsheets (free download) which format very similar to Word. However, I can't get the tables to highlight the lines like Word spreadsheet/tables do. I sometimes have difficulty getting my tables to post here, but after a few tries fighting with the 'Visual' & 'BB Code' tabs at the bottom of this box, I figure it out. It was easier when I had Word spreadsheets & we were on the original MSN Money boards, I don't know which of those made it easier though. I'm not computer savvy at all. If you want to email at laurak814 @ yahoo. com, I can send you a copy of my chart. Granted, it will be in OpenOffice format, but it should copy to Word if that is what you have. It will have all of the codes for making the different lines, etc and you can copy/paste any changes you need to make to make it fit your needs.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Shop, you can't go wrong with any of those options in the Seattle area.   In the city, I recommend the Underground Tour if you haven't done it already.  I also recommend driving up to Vancouver BC or down to the northern coast of Oregon if there's time.  Both are a lot of fun and lots to do/see.  Olympic NP also offers a lot of different areas to visit and Mt St Helens is a great side trip if there's time. 

[nalto]

nalto 2/6/14 $4,512.90(1/14/14 $1,961.06 / Goal $20,000)

My tax refund came through. I'll be able to save/invest almost all of it (though I haven't decided what to do) so I'm throwing it into my goal!

I love the Seattle love going around this board! I actually live pretty close to downtown, but like you S4N, I prefer the country. Downtown is too much hustle and bustle for me. I was at the parade yesterday shop, and my voice is GONE today. I was just on the phone with a coworker, and I was answering a question he had, but no words came out! For those of you talking about places to visit, I highly recommend the Ballard Locks and Golden Gardens, especially in spring time.

[mak]

Sorry - just testing my copy/paste of my table. Still no go. Maybe it is because I have a starter version of MS Office. 

[shopaholic814]

Rocky - YES, YES, & YES, to all of your suggestions! We are hoping to make it at least a 10 day trip, if not 2 wks, but it all depends on how much $$ we can save & the actual costs for all we want to do. We don't plan on staying in fancy hotels or eating at fancy places, but I realize that most things are more expensive on any coast.

[sealy]

I have some sad news.  I am using my savings.
I am paying off a CC and giving my granddaughter's 
mother money to help her and my DGD survive 
when they go back to Australia.  I'm going to 
miss them a LOT.

[HappyCat]

UPDATE:  Please note that I changed the total amount of this race.  Also, I had $1,500 in my emergency fund before I started the race. I added that to the beginning total so that I could keep it straight since I use only one savings account.

I have several trips between now and June and the first is paid in cash. I also bought a new to me car in December and I am going to try to have that paid off very quickly So, I reduced my total goal and revised my table to keep it simple with just an increase to my emergency fund and saving for Christmas.  I am racing the car loan on the MidWest board and want to find that balance between saving and paying off that note.

Sorry for any confusion.

2014 Savings Plan	Goal	Current	Remaining	% of Goal
EF Savings	$3,000.00	$2,000.00	$1,000.00	66.67%
Christmas 2014	$1,000.00	$0.00	$1,000.00	0.00%
Total	$4,000.00	$2,000.00	$2,000.00	50.00%

HappyCat: 1/8/14 $500.00 (1/08/14 $2,000) (Begin Balance in Savings as of 1/8/14 $1,500)

[HappyCat]

Sealy: That must be so hard to have your granddaughter move so far away.  You are a good Gma to help and I will keep you in my thoughts. 

[sealy]

Happy I can't wait to see her again .

[Ombud]

Finished the updates. It's on pg2 of the droid.

I love that entire Seattle area. Says the hard core 9r fan in me
Hugs HappyCat ... 

[Saving4Norway]

(It's Post #84. On mine it's page 3.)

[seahorse]

UPDATE: Seahorse 02/11/14 $4,049.11 (01/01/14 Start $516.80 / Goal $9,100)
Diff Last Post $2,709.85

	01/01/14	01/29/14	02/11/14
	Goal	Previous	Current	% Saved
Christmas	$600.00	$10.00	$20.00	3.33%
Emergency	$1,000.00	$63.09	$73.10	7.31%
Buffer 1	$1,250.00	$461.17	$483.73	38.70%
Buffer 2	$1,250.00	$-	$-	0.00%
Mocu Savings	$2,000.00	$5.00	$1,915.28	95.76%
CD	$3,000.00	$800.00	$1,557.00	51.90%
TOTAL	$9,100.00	$1,339.26	$4,049.11	44.50%

Tax refund!

[seahorse]

How weird? My chart stays but anything I type disappears from that post.   ETA:I went back and edited and had no problem adding text..must be me, lol!

I also love Seattle.  DH and I once drove to Seattle and it was a magical/fun experience.  There was a gorgeous rainbow ahead of us after a beautiful rain storm.  We also got lost in the downtown area.  The streets are short in some areas like only one or two cars could be on it.  We also made the error of being in noon traffic so it took a bit to navigate.  I would totally go back again.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Feb 11, 2014 11:04:56 GMT -5 seahorse said:

How weird? My chart stays but anything I type disappears from that post.   ETA:I went back and edited and had no problem adding text..must be me, lol!

I also love Seattle.  DH and I once drove to Seattle and it was a magical/fun experience.  There was a gorgeous rainbow ahead of us after a beautiful rain storm.  We also got lost in the downtown area.  The streets are short in some areas like only one or two cars could be on it.  We also made the error of being in noon traffic so it took a bit to navigate.  I would totally go back again.

Seahorse, sometimes editing or copy/paste works differently depending on whether you're in "visual" tab below or "BBCode" tab.  I always find editing or quoting works better in BBCode tab. 

[seriousthistime]

	2014 Goal	2/14/14	% Saved
Gifts	$2,600	$400	15.4%
Insurance	$5,600	$1,112	19.9%
Pet Care	$3,120	$480	15.4%
Utilities	$260	$40	15.4%
Weekly Savings	$1,378	$388	28.2%
Taxes	$5,300	$920	17.4%
Retirement	$28,800	$4,426	15.4%
HSA	$4,200	$607	14.5%
Total	$51,258	$8,373	16.3%

Serious this time, 2/14/2014, $8,373 (1/1/2014, $0, goal $51,258)

I've got a 3-day weekend, I'm in good shape with the workload at work (so I don't have to fret about taking a 3-day weekend), I have a salon appointment today, and House of Cards Season 2 is now available on Netflix.  

Life is good!

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

I'm so excited to finally be getting back to really saving with next week's check.  So far, it's been eaten up by some big dental work, buying a replacement vehicle, and other annoying expenses having come up.  Hopefully nothing more will come up between now and the end of the month so I can get back on the bandwagon! 

[Ombud]

I get it. Mine's going into my car. DS is trying to fix it for me. $140 battery today. Hope that's it

EDITTED 2/20/14: another 337 today. Alternator too

[murphath]

murphath  02/21/2013 $3,500 (12/28/2013 $0 (goal $17,000)

                              GOAL         MET

DD1's wedding           $5,000        $3,500
Taxes                      $3,600            0
Ireland,  etc             $7,000           0
Christmas/gifts          $1,400            0

Total                       $17,00         $3,500

I've switched things up a bit.  We won't be going to Switzerland in September.  Trip was being arranged by a friend and it just got too expensive.  They like 5 star hotels and we're more into "just clean and comfortable."   Rather spend the money on doing things--just really need a clean room and a shower.  So now we're thinking Irelnad/Scotland in Fall 2016.

We haven't saved as much as we would like because we actually owe fed tax this year.  DD2 is out of med school and no longer a dependent.  Feels strange to not have at least 1 of our 3 on the tax return!!  I knew we would owe so we've adjusted the W4 to take care of that problem in 2014.

Also, the never-ending project tackling continues.  I've finished all the ceilings (de-popcorned, retextured, primed & painted) and all the walls.  We removed the carpet/pad in living room and family room.  Today I get to scrape off the carpet pad adhesive that goes along the perimeter of the rooms.  Sticky mess!  Took the baseboards off and I'll be smashing the hall entryway tile on Monday.  They come to measure and test for moisture (we're on concrete slab) next Tuesday.  I'm having the downstairs flooring done by pros because of the concrete.  I know they'll have to do some leveling and I'm not comfortable doing that.  I'll paint and put in the new baseboards.  After that, I'll take a break before removing the upstairs carpeting.  I think that will be much easier as those rooms did not get as much traffic as the downstairs.  I'm getting some muscles here.  I have a new found respect for folks that work in the trades.

[murphath]

Ombud wrote:
I love that entire Seattle area. Says the hard core 9r fan in me

Me, too, Ombud on both counts!  We'll get 'em next year.

Seattle truly is a great city to visit when it isn't too rainy (although a little rain is okay).  The joke up there is: "How do you know it's summer in Seattle?  Answer: The rain is warmer."  Although we've visited there several times, I'd like to go back again and visit the San Juan islands area.

As for country vs. city:  I guess I'm really a "suburbs" gal.  I like to visit the country but that can be a little too quiet for me.  I love the city love but it's a little too pricey for my budget.  So, the 'burbs offer me a quick commute to both.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Murphath, some friends of mine lost 2 dependents - twins - after they finished college at the same time last year!  And Dad had not, as I told him to do, remembered to change his W-4.  They're still paying on last year's IRS tab.  

[nalto]

nalto 2/28/14 $8,398.37 (1/14/14 $1,961.06 / Goal $20,000)

Making some good progress toward my goal. Technically, this is for March 1st, but I'm not sure I'll be able to check in then, so I'll just leave it here.

I still have no clue what I'm saving for, but I figure I'm covered with cash, retirement investing, and just regular investing.

I love checking in and seeing all of your goals and how you're chipping away at them, it's a great motivator!

EDIT: Whoops! I did the math wrong, and was off by $2000. Fixed it now!!