January 2011 Controlled/No Spend Thread

[ses]

RedWagon--Since you already have a 401k account at Fidelity I would have Blue roll over both of his previous accounts into an account at Fidelity. >>>>>Have them do all the paperwork so you don't have to pay taxes or penalties.<<<<< It will be easier to monitor and balance them at one place. Besides I like the way the Fidelity Freedom Funds are managed better than any of the other lifetime funds that i have seen so far. (Go to Fidelity.com--then scroll down on the left to click on Mutual Funds. Scroll down on the left to Allocated and Specialized Funds and click. Now you need to go to Freedom Funds, explore around on that page. Be sure to read Learn about our unique rolldown asset allocation .
You are both too young NOT to have the bulk of your funds in stocks. Start by looking at the Freedom Fund 2050 or 2060. If down the road you want to be more conservative change to the 2040 or whatever mix you feel comfortable with. You can change whenever YOU want to.
I recommend the Freedom Funds because just starting out you don't have enough saved to be well diversified. If, after you have $50,000-$100,000 and have studied investing, you want to strike out on your own Fidelity is an easy brokerage to work with.

Just my two cents worth.

[ses]

mizbear--I thought I was the only who stocked up on all of my OTC stuff this time of the year? I think it makes a lot of sense. The less I am in the store the less I will spend and when I have a basket FULL of OTC I keep "thinking how much am I spending here?" and it is such a huge amount -although already saved for this purpose- I am not tempted to add anything more.

[redwagon]

SES - thank you for your input. I'll consider rolling his old plan to fidelity, but his current plan can't be moved since he's still contributing to it and his company is in charge, so it might be best to keep his two plans in one place. And to be honest, I don't really trust the lifetime funds. I followed the one for my age group and my picks performed better over the past few years. I think I'll do 85-90% stocks and the rest bonds for his investments. I think I really just need to pare his choices down to 4, not 9, to keep it simpler... Between us we have around $30k, so I think we're doing pretty well for our age group. If we get new jobs with raises, we will for sure up our contributions at that time.

Sheila - so sorry to hear about DH. I know it's been a frustrating few years for you guys, employment-wise. Here's hoping he finds something new soon!

mizbear - not crazy at all. Take advantage of sales if you have the money available to do so.

[startsmart]

mizbear- whatever works for you is what you should do! A lot of people don't understand stockpiling because they don't get the best prices, overstock or under/overestimate how much they need. I've done all of those... I have enough shampoo and conditioner for another year so I'm not stocking up. And toothpaste and deodrant and lotion and candles and soap...

This topic plus the stress of today reminds me I need a long bath tonight to use up some bath salts. Maybe with the ice pack back on my face. My dog Jackson ran into me when I had the camera up and smashed it into my face. Combine that with the scrapes and bruises from tackling him last week in the street and I am SORE.

[ses]

RedWagon--changing jobs is a big plus for having an account at vanguard or Fidelity. Whenever you move from job to job you will always have a place to easily rollover your old 401k and keep them all together and easier balance and re-balance

[spruby]

red - for your 401(k) funds - look at what year you all hit 70 or 75 - and do some research on what the kind of lifetime fund looks like. While it seems you would want ALL stocks early - you really need diversity - since stocks and bonds do well at different times (so bonds are "cheap" when stocks are doing well and vice versa). That- plus dollar cost averaging - helps your portfolio.

Also - I would suggest thinking about your portfolio strategy against all your different retirement accounts - and then select the best option for each. Example - numbers not real - 40% US stocks, 20% international stocks, 10% REIT, 30% bonds. Say your 401(k) has a great international fund and a REIT and Blue's has a great stock fund and both have good bond funds. You would put 20% of ALL funds in your 401(k)'s international fund or work towards that based on where money is.

Not everyone will agree with this - which is fine - just remember a few things - save as much as you can plus a little more; avoid debt as much as you can; re-balance every 5 years and pay attention to transaction/fund fees

[spruby]

red and what SES said too!

mizbear I like to stock up too - anything to keep me out of target. I find it easy to stay out of stores - but if I go in - oh boy - it is hard - I've spent 100 before i know it

3cats thanks for remembering my bday! I didn't get anything from you - if you want to send a gift I won't say no - everyone has raved about your gifts!

[spruby]

UPDATE

3/25 - NS (0/5)/CS(3/20) days
3/10 - NEO days
1/15 MOAN days

I got a CS, NEO AND a MOAN today!!! Woo hoo!!!

Tomorrow I will get none of those.

[moneysquirrel]

Update: 3 NS / 1CS = 4/15 Goal 15NS/CS

Being back at work is really helping my beginning of the month numbers. Since I go to work and come straight home on most days without a stop I then can get a NS day quite easy. I do tend to run all of my errands on the same day whenever possible.

[mizbear]

Thanks everyone on their input- and yes I overstocked on toothpaste and shampoo last year- so I have been giving toothpaste to my ex-SIL for my nieces and to my DM! As far as the shampoo- hey, I have not seen tresemme at that price with coupons since.

I used an all cash system for a while and I did not like it- I was treated like the national bank of the house because I had cash on hand.
Just so you guys know where I am coming from, I am 34, divorced, and disabled (bipolar). The doctor has finally gotten my meds restabilized and we are hoping I can go back to work once I get retrained. I can stretch a dollar until it screams- and then stretch it some more.

[moneysquirrel]

mizbear -- It makes perfect sense to me. You are only getting items that you will be using in the future at sale prices with coupons. It is the most cost effective way to do this. Also with the cost-of-living continuing to rise your stockpile will be worth more than you think as prices unfortunately will continue to rise (and sizes shrink) on the basic supplies just because that is the nature of the economy.

[constanz22]

1 NS, 3 CS

[redwagon]

So am I totally off? As we have more money to work with I would increase our REIT percentage. But everything I've read so far seems to have people my age at 90% stock and 10% bonds, essentially, including the Vanguard Target Retirement Funds, so I was trying to just do that myself. I like feeling like I have a smidgeon of control over where my money is going. I will make sure to watch the various funds so that between us we are investing in the best options for each category (bonds, international, small-cap, etc). I do tend to like small growth funds and large-cap blend funds for some reason. They just feel right to me, and I found options that have done very well over the last 5 years, somehow. Thanks again for all your advice. I'll go with my original plan of mirroring his asset allocation to mine for now and do more research as our plans grow.

If anyone has Kinect and is looking for a great game, Dance Central is so much fun and a good workout! I gots da moves!

[redwagon]

Oh, and 1/15 workout hours. No change in NS/CS.

[3catslady]

So I spent $4.05 on a 2 dollar lottery ticket and a soda and a candy bar, neither of what I needed. DS gave me 2 dollars for a lottery ticket so I decided to buy one for me and a soda because I was out of Mist and the mini Reese's cups were just sitting on the counter crying my name "The devil made me do it". Today was a spend day now I have to pull myself back in.
spruby; I will get one out in the mail by Friday if not before.
2 NSD, 1 CSD, and 1 spend.

[sparalach]

Hi All, I'm back with a late post and aiming at 15 NS and 25 MOANS for January. I've missed this board and you all but finally have some breathing room from work craziness.
As of yesterday I've at 2 MOANS and 2 NS.

Goals for the new year:
Pay off Chase CC and put on new roof on barn
Lose 12 pounds of fat and gain 3 pounds of muscle
Join a local fiddle jam

I have a DH, grown kids, a quarter horse and a house rabbit.

[Deleted]

Update 2 NS, 3NEO, 2 Moan

Good Morning ladies.

Sheila So sorry to hear about your DH getting laid off. Hugs to both of you.

Roth IRA I honestly do NOT understand the stock market. I have tried to read books on it and my eyes just glass over and I feel dizzy. I did a portfolio builder where they ask questions about my risk tolerance and how confident I feel in trading. Obviously I am not real confident at all. The portfolio builder recommended some ETFs for me. AGG and SPY. I do also invest in a Gold stock, but the majority of my money goes into the ETFs. Can anyone tell me what they THINK about the ETFs? Am I making a huge mistake? I seriously need a "Stock Market for People Dumber than the Dummies"

[MittenKitten]

A warm welcome to all our newcomers! It is funny how we change places and get more new people then we have in a long time LOL! We are a great supportive group of women.

Red Wagon: I would only do 10% in bonds at your age. Heck I do very little in bonds at my age and I am 38. But then again I watch the stock market every day so if things were to go south I could get out of what I need to. Just make sure you rebalance every year.

mizbear: We have a couple of people who deal with bipolar in their households. I haven't had to deal with bipolar just SAD which kicks my butt every winter. At least I know what to look for in the kids, I think my 7 YO son already has it. Oh and for stock piling it makes total sense. I do it all the time. I make gift bags for all the teachers, aids, and therapists in my kids' lives (see note about DS#2 below), so this year I did 14 bags with varias items I stockpiled: toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, lip balm, candles etc, all of which cost me very little per bag, I would say under $1.00 You can also donate the stuff to a food shelf or shelter and take the tax deduction or I found selling my extra toothpaste, deoterant, body wash etc at our garage sale was a huge hit.

A week from Friday DS#2's social worker comes out to see if we requalify for our waiver (he has autism and is non verbal and not poddy trained at 4.5 years old). That is always a pain but at least I have others I can talk to about and bounce ideas off. Will be a stressful couple of weeks.

DSS turns 14 on Sunday but I think I am going to redeem or have DF redeem points from MyPoints for a $25 GC to GameStop, so that will not cost us anything. We will be having the party on Sunday the 16th so I have time to get it. I bought the cake mix and frosting on way clearance after Xmas so that cost me less then $1. Now I just need to figure out the snacks.

I am going back to a cash system for all the misc/groceries/treats as I think I just get out of hand with the credit card, even if it does get paid off every month.

[munjoyhill]

January 5 Update Munjoyhill

Goal: 15 No Spend - current 2/15
Goal: 25 MOAN - current 2/25

I need to work out a little more, I've had meetings after work, then my commute home, I barely have time to grab a bite for dinner, then bed. Excuses, excuses. I really want Spring to arrive, I enjoy getting outside and walking, but I don't like to walk when it's cold and snowy out. I have lost 38 lbs. over the past 5 months, and I have more I want to lose. Working out makes such a difference!

[redruby]

Lumberlady60:[\b] Yes 3 days is definietly better than 0. My DH is in the trucking business. He has his own truck but is leased on to another company.They charge him $115 a week for insurance and other things. He has been home for TWO WEEKS and he says there is nothing to do, but all I can think of is that it is costing us to sit at home.
Sheilaincali: I'm sorry to hear about DH lay off. I feel the same way. It takes $7250 a month for our household to GET BY and DH has not been working much lately so he went and borrowed "from all people" his dad $7000 freaking
dollars. Now, I have to worry about that too. He is like life happens. I am tired of it happening to me. To top it all off. I just booked our vacation home and now I feel guilty and feel like I can't live because we owe his dad. UGH.
NSD= 4 NEO= 4 NoCC=4

[redwagon]

mittenkitten - we've been having trouble using the CC too lately. We just got a new card with a $1k limit that I am determined to pay off each expense as it shows up and make sure we are in budget. It was getting too hard with our old card and was just depressing. Now the old card balance will go down since we're not adding to it anymore, and I have a clean slate with the new card. And that low limit will help keep us in check. And thanks for the advice. That was what I was thinking, I just needed to bounce it off you ladies!

lumberlady - have I mentioned how nice it is to see you back here? Can't believe how old Stella is getting!

We're having a contractor come out on Saturday to look at our house and give us an estimate on converting the closet upstairs to a second bathroom (blue's uncle has same design house and did this years ago). We're going to get estimates on making it a half-bath and also one for a full bath with laundry closet (freeing up valuable space in our tiny kitchen). Also, we'd add a closet in our room (losing some space, but our room is pretty huge) to make up that lost space, but I'm hoping BIL and blue's uncle will do that part of it for much cheaper. We live in a cape so a full bath would mean dormering out part of the house and would obviously be much more expensive, I just want an idea of what we're looking at. You have no idea of the stress having only one bathroom... especially when we're hosting. I have some mild anxiety issues (ie I always need to know where the nearest bathroom is, and if there isn't one available I will need to go NOW) so a second bathroom would bring GREAT peace of mind and would probably cut down on stomach meds haha. Plus, when I am pregnant (maybe next year? yikes!) I do not think it will be smart for arthritic, med-free (for baby) me to stumble down the stairs in the dark in the middle of the night to use a bathroom. I told blue if we don't add the second bathroom we'd probably have to put a twin bed in the dining room and I'd just sleep down there, depending on my pain levels. (For newbies, I have a form of lupus and am happily medicated now, but would have to go off most of them during pregnancy, and I'm not sure how my body will react.) I've read that contractors are cheapest in winter, so I figure we'll get an estimate now and then actually do the work next December/January, with the plan being to TTC in Jan/Feb next year (yikes again!). That way we can save this year (along with paying down debt...).

And I just realized I never signed up for the FSA at work for 2011, probably due to wedding insanity. Crap crap crap. That was so helpful in 2010... I guess I'll have to self-FSA and put that money in savings each month.

[dakota4600]

Update 4/20 NS/CS, 4/18 NEO

Tonight will be an EO and hopefully a controlled spend (under $10) We have a groupon that expires tonight for a Mongolian BBQ place. We may leave mini-D with the IL’s while we have dinner. I’m guessing my MIL won’t mind having him stay since she wanted him over the break but we never were able to get a night that worked for both of us. My SIL and niece now both have the bug that Mini-D and Bebo had. So my FIL is watching mini-d today.

Lumber Lady- Congrats to your hubby. I know this year has been hard, but you have remained upbeat and positive though it all.

Shelia- Hugs to you! Is there a chance that he’ll get his job back when the work picks up in April?

Mizbear- Makes complete sense to me. Having things that don’t expire stockpiled are just another form of an emergency fund. I do the same thing, sometimes I can go a full year without having to restock on the H&B or household stuff. As long as the stockpile isn’t out of control or more than you can reasonably expect to use, it is great.

Munjoy- Way to go on the weight loss! I know I need to lose weight, but my motivation and will power seem to have disappeared on me.

Red Ruby- Hugs to you!

SES- Made the rolls last night. DH approved, he ate two of them that I baked off last night right out of the oven. I did 3 tests, 1 set- frozen after the first rise, 1 set- frozen after the second rise, 1 set-frozen after baking for 12 mins. I figure this weekend I’ll get one of each out and finish them off and then DH & I can decide which ones we like the best. I’ll have to check out the book, maybe I’ll take mini-D to the library once he is 100%.

Red-wagon- House reno’s are no fun, but usually worth it in the end. Also ask the contractor about the savings if you guys do the demo yourself. Around here that is common to do, not sure about out there.

[mizbear]

red- any work you can get done in the winter, often can be done less expensive- but with you having lupus and I gather you have other children?- check with your doctors first- one of my family members needs work done to a section of her house and we are going to have to wait til spring and actually board off that whole room. If I don't lose weight this winter- I'll lose it working on that room.
I had 4 CS days planned- but I think I am going to cut those down. I am still going to do the one today (lunch out with a friend), but I think I am going to cut some of the others out for this month. I don't feel like spending anything. I have specific things on my CS list.

[shanendoah]

1 of 12 NS, 1 of 8 MOAN
Somehow, yesterday went exactly as planned. I'm not really certain how that happened. DH enjoyed class and the teacher let him in. He's got to contact admissions today to get enrolled, and then we have to buy the books and pay for the classes. It will go on the credit card, and I'll transfer money from the high interest savings to pay it off in Feb. I like getting the points - we usually save up for $100 gift cards.
Anyway, I got home, sent DH off to class, did 35 minutes on the Wii,and baked DH cookies. And the cookies turned out great. For the first time in years (and I really do mean years) I managed to soften the butter but not melt it. Huge difference in volume of cookies and texture. It just mostly sucks that I can't really eat them, though I did have one fresh out of the oven when it was still really soft.
I do have to swing by Les Schwab tonight and get the tire pressure checked. DH said it was really off last night and he tried to fix it, but doesn't think he got it right.
I think we should be able to make it to this weekend on the couple of gallons of bio-d we had in the garage, but I'll need to check. I'd rather DH didn't run out on the way home Thursday night.
weight loss: So I'm 100+lbs overweight or so. One nice thing about the braces and bite plate and the current mostly liquid diet (I can eat rice and ground turkey - they don't have to be chewed) is that I am losing weight. Not a lot, but I'll take what I can get. I've got 4 more weeks like this, and maybe by the time I get to take the bite plate out, I'll be out of the habit of snacking I'd developed.
retirement funds: My current 403(b) is in one of the targeted funds for the year I turn 65. I have a pretty high risk tolerance, so I'm considering moving it to one for 10 years later, but I'm not certain.
I had never really bothered looking at my IRA (which had been my 401(k) from the job I left 6+ years ago) was just in money market accounts. It has barely grown. (Granted, it is a smidge under $5k, so its not that big) but I decided to move it into an International Growth Fund.
Need to get DH to pull up is former 401(k) and see where that is.

[sapphire12]

All Link from R2B2 --
David Bach is giving away his latest book today only at www.walletpop.com/

[singlemomky]

Last night ended up being a NS as my parents paid for the munchies at the game

Shan I have my 401K allocated into 3 different target funds w/the majority being for my actual age target. I readjust/balance the percentages in Jan & in July most years.

[Deleted]

Sapphire and R2B2 -Thanks for the link. I just downloaded it!

I miss R2B2. I hope she gets some free time soon and is able to come back.

[dianartemis]

Jan 5, 2011 11:15:09 GMT -5 sapphire12 said:

All Link from R2B2 --
David Bach is giving away his latest book today only at www.walletpop.com/

Got it! Thank you R2B2 & Sapphire.

Update: 3/15 NSD, 4/15 NEO, 4/15 MOAN, 1/4 QUs
Sheila: <<<hugs>>>. That sucks!

I really, really want a doughnut right now. There's a doughnut shop across the street & it smells so darn good! Urgh!

[redwagon]

Munjoy - forgot to congratulate you on the weight loss! I lost about 15 this year for my wedding, and have another 10 to go (probably 12 at this point, from the holidays). Thanks for the contractor tip!

Mizbear - No kids yet! Just trying to get the house ready before we get to that point! We'll have to figure out what to do with the cats during that time period, for sure. Not sure it would affect my lupus or anything, especially if they are not dormering out (ie if we just do half bath).

shanen - glad DH got in the class!

sapphire and R2B2 - thanks for the tip on the free book! I was going to ask you all if there were any new, good finance books. I need a jolt of inspiration and I remember David Bach and Suze Orman being so motivating when I began this journey.

So I adjusted Blue's two plans and am pretty happy with the mix. Thanks to whomever mentioned expense ratios: checked those out and switched two of my choices to funds with lower ratios and similar returns. Feeling good that money will grow now! I cannot wait until Friday when my current 403(b) will say % Vested: 100. Right now it is 0 and that is very sad looking. Soon it will be mine, all mine! mwhahaha! (provided I don't get fired in the next two days...)

[Deleted]

I am at 3/26 NSD and 1 CSD. For me a NSD is no fun/non-need spend at all and a CSD is under $5.