There’s not much point in working unless you’ve got a reason to work. Some of that reason may be intrinsic motivation, but the pay sure is nice too. And with the pay, well, it’s nice to be able to buy things. Single mom rich mom has an interesting philosophy in which she decides how much to work by laying out her spending goals first. We don’t do that– more money always seems good to us, though we’re also willing to spend it to buy time. But here’s some of our larger spending goals for the near future.
Grill and accessories: $600 (purchased this fall, used maybe 10 times?)
Trees: $2000 (Ordered, but money still hasn’t exchanged hands with the tree guy)
Piano: not yet purchased (and haven’t seen how much they cost)
Funding relative’s 529s: $2000 not yet done for the year… we wanted the parents to match with $30 (the minimum they can contribute)… but even with our $50 check to them this Christmas they haven’t been able to come up with that. So I keep not knowing what we should do so nothing gets done.
Roth IRAs: DH’s done: $5000. Mine done: $5000. (Next year we’ll be back to not being able to do ROTHs)
Tickets to visit family: Thanksgiving done. Future trips waiting for DH’s family schedules. (There’s another new grandkid so they may not visit this year.)
So those are the major purchases we’ve planned for the (school) year. Anything else will have to wait until next year. How are you all doing on big-ticket items?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
January 5, 2011 at 6:14 am
Oh good you made me look – tx for link! I’m $1k short on my reno savings (took too much time off in December and he who shall remain unnamed has only paid a whopping $550 in child support in the last 6 months) – RATS! More work for me. Guess I’ll be bumping up my hours this month. Oh well, January isn’t the best time to take time off anyway.
January 5, 2011 at 6:16 am
Good luck!
January 5, 2011 at 8:03 am
So far, January is shaping up to be another spendy month. My mom is going to Poland and my husband and I both have to be in Florida for work at the same time, so we’re going to turn it into a family vacation + bringing my MIL to help while we’re in meetings.
While my mom is in Poland, we need to decide what things we should fix in her dump house in her absence. The bathroom is already under construction as is an extra kitchen that we are turning into an office but her main kitchen needs some TLC with 60’s linoleum and countertops. Countertops may be in the cards as well but I don’t think we have the time to do the flooring.
I think I might start my savings goals at the end of first quarter.
January 5, 2011 at 8:08 am
That all sounds like great uses of money!
January 5, 2011 at 8:58 am
Hey congrats on not being able to do a Roth next year, assuming it is because of the income limitations.
How can people not cough up 30 bucks? Their poor kids. Thank God you are looking out for them.
I need fireplace doors and a chimney cleaning, a new front door, and a new driveway. I swear renting has got to be cheaper than buying a home considering how much money my house sucks out of us.
January 5, 2011 at 9:19 am
The dad explained it over Thanksgiving (sitting at their beautiful wood table, in the dining room filled with curio cabinets of their house that is much nicer than ours)… they’re living paycheck to paycheck, one month one of the kids’ coats gets torn so that it can’t be fixed. That’s $60. (I wasn’t clear on if it was $60 for all the kids because they had to buy them all new coats when one ripped or if that was $60 for one coat, which struck me as really expensive for a kid’s coat) Because they budget every penny with no room (the budget is a new thing, btw, also they don’t use credit cards, though their high-interest HEL is really big, which is how they furnished the house), that $60 meant the cable bill didn’t get paid that month. So they have no extra money.
Almost all the kids got whatever the newest hand-held video game console is for Christmas. And of course, their grandma got them a dog whose food upkeep alone is $10-15/week. (The dad is not happy about that.)
They’re only 2 years older than we are and we feel like we’ve said everything we can say. They’re definitely in a better situation than they were 10 years ago. But… Education is either not a priority or they don’t really believe their daughters are going to get one. I’m guessing the priority is to have stuff so that the kids never feel like they’re poor or different, but it definitely causes the entire family a lot of stress when money runs short because they have no emergency savings.
And I don’t know if the kids are lucky… we could totally be destroying their future happiness for all we know. But one does what one can.
I’m with you on the house expenses!
January 6, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Oh my, how hard it must be to visit them! People complaining about living paycheck to paycheck while having everything? (Except a future education of course.)
Providing someone with options can never destroy future happiness. Lets just hope the kids are learning how not to spend from their parents instead of repeating the cycle.
January 6, 2011 at 12:59 pm
They’re doing a LOT better than the grandparents though. Those stories would kill you.
And they’re still in their early 30s. (They just started grown-up life far too young.) Each generation is doing better.
They really would have to make some pretty steep sacrifices over the short-term for long-term security… They are not high income folks buying Jimmy Choos– they’re working class on one income (not by choice– unemployment in the town is high and it is difficult finding work without a high school diploma, and math anxiety can kill attempts at getting a GED) trying to live a middle-class lifestyle. Who am I to say they can’t afford cable or cellphones or the latest hand-held gaming system or cigarettes. I just wish they had more of a buffer.
January 5, 2011 at 9:00 am
I’ve been spending on travel prep lately. Note that I haven’t actually spent on the travel epxerience itself! For some reason, I’m still hanging back on purchasing actual plane tickets. Instead, I’ve purchased stuff that is handy or essential for a trip to Europe.
I put in a big order to Zappos that arrived yesterday; I want to try several pairs of walking shoes and send back the ones that don’t seem like they’ll work. I also ordered a Scottevest to make it easier to carry stuff on the flight and while traveling. (Unfortunately it’s too small so I have to send it back and hope their largest size will fit; having big boobs isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.) And my biggest purchase the day after Christmas was a Nookcolor to use as an ereader and WiFi web browser. For half the price of an iPad, I have a compact Android tablet that I’ve come to love. This will come in very handy for keeping me occupied on the flights/bus/train, and in storing scanned docs and maps for reference.
Now, I just have to commit to some dates and book the flight!
January 5, 2011 at 9:20 am
That sounds great! Where in Europe will you be going?
January 6, 2011 at 2:31 pm
If I can just commit to it completely, I’m going to Spain. Flying in to Madrid, then train or bus to Toledo, Segovia, Granada, Sevilla, and Cordoba. I’m hoping that’s not too overwhelming for a 10-12 day trip. If it starts getting that way, then I’ll scale back on plans. That’s the nice part of *not* being part of a tour group.
Part of the reason I’ve been holding back on booking is that I keep hoping I can find someone to travel with me so I won’t be too lonely. But so far, everyone I know is too broke or too busy. :-(
Seeing Holly’s post below reminds that I will have expenses for orthodontia and periodontia this year. But I’ve already committed the money for those to come out of my paycheck pre-tax via the FSA, so I don’t count it as part of my regular budget.
January 6, 2011 at 2:35 pm
I’ve been to Spain twice– once for study abroad in college (Valencia with a 2 week national tour previous) and once to Madrid for a conference. It’s a lot of fun. Though I have to say I was a little disappointed at first because parts of Spain are almost identical to parts of the US! I think Toledo was one of my favorites. And the garden in the Alhambra is the prettiest place I’ve ever been.
January 5, 2011 at 1:10 pm
No new expenses…just your average $24,000/year for three kids in private school! OUCH!
Oh, and braces for three kids. Oh, and we spent $1500 cash (bought from a friend; runs well) for a 2001 Mazda 626 for my oldest. We have a great mechanic and I have a year to get it tuned up and ready for her to drive it (I didn’t want her learning to drive on my car)….That’s it. And that’s enough!
January 5, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Wowzers! That’s a lot of kid-related expenses. The car sounds like a really good deal though.
January 5, 2011 at 1:17 pm
I have learned to become VERY frugal over the last several years, BELIEVE ME!
January 5, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Frugal means you spend on what’s important and I totally agree with you.
January 5, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Oh, well, my oldest does have a $6500/yr. academic scholarship, so make that around $17,500 for school (which does not include all of the extras…bus, uniforms, etc.). That’s what I get for choosing to live in a lousy school district.
January 5, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Understood! We’re going to be paying for private school soon too… though we’re still paying for daycare!
January 5, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Good luck!…it’s all worth it, IMO.
January 6, 2011 at 4:33 pm
We have new baby expense this year. No idea how much it would cost, but hopefully the 2% tax cut and the exemption will come in handy. Daycare will be a huge expense if we can’t get grand parents to help out.
January 6, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Congratulations!