New Budget

Well, now that I have started working from home our finances have changed a bit. We are still catching up, but the future is looking a bit brighter! The great thing is that I can be flexible in my schedule & work whenever I can fit it in. My plan is to work as much as possible for now (I am approved for up to 40 hours a week, but I can't work 7 straight, so that makes it challenging).

I haven't gotten paid yet, so that first check should be a good one. That will help us get caught up, then after that we should be current! Woohoo current is good!

I am working on a new budget & we are trying to figure out banking. It is hard to believe how much of a pain it is to not have paper checks in 2007, but we are not as much of a paperless society as we'd like to think! We wanted to open an ING checking account, but without funding the checking account we have now (don't like the credit union & it's too far out of the way now to deal with) so we figured go electronic, but dh has his paycheck direct deposited to his account now card, which makes sense for us, free bill pay, debit card access, easy to pay at the pump for gas groceries, etc. But we can't use it to fund the new ING account, unless we have them issue a check....blah blah blah! Why does it always have to be so confusing! I understand that most normal people have checks, try and explain that to my husband. I keep getting the "I don't trust you with checks" lecture, like okay, that was over 7 years ago & you weren't telling me the whole story (not making deposits & using the card without telling me) so sure the checks bounced, not really my fault I was just the one who wrote them. So we have been pretty much without checks since 2005. I am ready go nuts & he is in heaven. It is just crazy that two people could be so different!

I am a balance the checkbook weekly kind of person, we haven't had a checkbook since 2005 & then I wonder why I am always a little tense! I am a need to know kind of girl. If I can't just look it up I go nuts. I guess it's the OCD in me, but then he should be used to it by now, after 12 years of marriage!

With our tax deductions corrected, after taxes & 401K deductions we should be meeting our expenses with enough left over to save for a new car. I have been looking at the Honda Hybrids, simply because dh drives 45 minutes a day to work & it is mostly highway. A car that gets 50 mpg would do wonders to improve our vehicle expenses budget! Even with the gas prices what they are now we'd be saving $30 a week on gas, I think that makes up for the "drag" of a payment! Say he drives 400 miles per week, the hybrid Civic gets 50mpg that = 8 gallons of gas/ week at $3.20/gallon = $25.60 vs. the 20mpg he gets now = 20 gallons/week = $64.00 So Savings = $38.40/week or ~ $153 a month. Figure a payment ~$330 - $153 savings = $177 actual payment out of pocket. Plus we are going to try to pay as much up front as possible when we go, so maybe the $330 won't be $330 or it won't be for a really long time. MSRP is around $23000 on a 2007, not sure what it is on a 2008. I am hoping to sock away $175 a month now just for the car, then anything over that will be gravy!!!