Layout:
Home > Category: Daily Financial Update

Viewing the 'Daily Financial Update' Category

Why We Shouldn't Complain About the Price of Gas

May 17th, 2007 at 06:04 am

Daily financial update...

Good Financial Move--had a $10 bill in my wallet and was passing by the bank so stopped and deposited it into my savings account.

Bad Financial Move--I'm so addicted to Starbucks Frappucinnos. Of course had my daily Starbucks ($3) and then wondered why I complain about the price of a gallon of gas when I spend the cost of a gallon of gas on a 12 ounce (really not necessary) drink. Duhhh

If I buy stock in Starbucks would that somehow offset the cost of my habit?

Today's Financial Update

December 30th, 2006 at 03:19 am

I did a couple of things to move closer to my New Years Resolutions today...

...hubby set up the automatic payments on his bank account to make a double payment on the home equity loan each month so now we don't even have to think about it (go hubby!)
...every time I go by the bank (which is almost everyday) I stop by and make a tiny deposit to my savings account. I'm trying to get to $5000 in savings and at least the money is getting to where it's supposed to be albeit slowly. I'm sure the tellers talk about the crazy lady who makes $5 deposits everyday.

Panic is starting to set in--hubby's huge extended family is having a family reunion cruise this summer; this will include between 50 and 60 family members. We are directly responsible to see that 15 people make it to the cruise (us, hubby's kids and grandkids) and I'm sure we will end up paying for half (or more!) of this group to go. :I And, since hubby is the oldest male in the family (it's an Asian family at that), he is more or less responsible to help any of the extended family that needs it. I'm sure it will be well worth it in the end...it's just all of the dancing dollar signs I see when I close my eyes

2007 Goal Report

December 29th, 2006 at 04:06 am

2007 hasn't even started yet but I do have a goal report... (typical "type A" personality--I need to complete some 2007 goals before we even get to 2007 but that's another story).

Here are my 2007 goals:

--Have $500 on hand in my home.
--Have $5,000 in savings in the bank.
--Pay off Macys CC ($270)
--Pay off Mastercard ($1,000)
--Make double payments on home equity loan each month.
--Pay cash for every single purchase this year (except for bills which will be paid by check or online). No debit card, no credit card--CASH ONLY!
--Increase income from my business to $10,000 a month.
--Travel near or far once a month.
--Develop a plan to be able to live in a tropical locale (preferably Asia) at least four months out of the year (the older I get the less I like the colder months here) without going into debt to do it.

So far I have paid off the Macy's card (it was actually $350 instead of $270--guess it was some last minute purchases), and have paid cash for all of my purchases for the past week (since it is the end of the month and I'm low on cash, I haven't bought anything except for gas and a 14 cent candycane which was marked down from 49 cents and was much cheaper than the Starbucks next door). I have put $58 in savings towards the $5,000. I sold a textbook on half.com yesterday so that money will go into savings as soon as I get it. Tomorrow I will make a double payment on the home equity loan. Looks like travel will be every other month instead of every month--our schedule for this year will be Las Vegas in January, Hawaii/Micronesia cruise in March (going there to delivers 200 pounds of donated medical supplies to Fanning Island), Caribbean cruise in May for hubby's family reunion (about 45-50 people will be going), Vegas again in July for a poker tournament that hubby is going to be in, Japan in September and {{hopefully}} November and December in the Philippines. Still trying to figure out how to spend two months out of the country while still being able to pay our expenses here as well as there.

In January I hope to get the $500 together to have on hand, pay half of the Masterdard, take care of the Vegas trip, and get a freelance job with the local newspaper.

Daily Financial Update

August 12th, 2006 at 05:35 am

Spent nothing today Smile I'm going to try to have at least two no spend days a week. Some of the people on the blogs can go for weeks without spending! Amazing!! I'll start small (two days a week) and build up (to maybe a week or two).

Didn't drive today either. This is another area I would like to work on. Hopefully I can have at least two "no drive" days a week as well.

Basically stayed home, caught up on work, cooked a nice from scratch chili and cornbread dinner and organized my office.

Installed DSL today and cancelled cable internet. I really can't tell the difference in speed between the two and this will save me $25 a month!

Chili recipe: In a pan put one can of diced tomatoes, one can of pinto beans (drained and rinsed), half a chopped onion and a couple of cloves of chopped garlic. Add salt, pepper and chili powder to taste then simmer for an hour. Real simple and real tasty!

Daily Financial Update 6/7/06

June 8th, 2006 at 06:07 pm

1) $ Spent--$42.27 Walmart (mostly office supplies); $38.77 Gas (ouch!); $53.88 Groceries

2) Expenses Cut--bought only the things that were on my shopping list

3) $ Earned--$0

4) $ in Savings--$3

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$0

6) Giving--nothing

7) Increase Financial Awareness--back to the library for more books on financial topics

Daily Financial Update 6/6/06

June 8th, 2006 at 06:04 pm

1) $ Spent--$0

2) Expenses Cut--wanted to go shopping but didn't guess that saved me at least some money

3) $ Earned--$8 rebate check

4) $ in Savings--$0

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$0

6) Giving--nothing

7) Increase Financial Awareness--read Dollar Stretcher website

Daily Financial Update 6/5/06

June 6th, 2006 at 05:22 am

1) $ Spent--$75.86 household supplies; $1689.80 bills (house payment, phone, cells, etc)

2) Expenses Cut--went through my house which I do about quarterly and made a list of all of the supplies (shampoo, toothbrushes, etc) that I need to stock up on. Went to the store and purchased the things on my list that were on sale. If I couldn't find the item on sale I didnt purchase it and will wait to get it when it comes on sale.

3) $ Earned--$2200--check from a client

4) $ in Savings--$5

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$300; paid off $317 credit card. Three more credit cards to go!

6) Giving--tithed $100 to religious organization

7) Increase Financial Awareness--really paid attention to the prices when I shopped today. Usually I just throuw what I need in the basket and not really compare prices; today I was comparing ounces vs. price, etc.

Financial Update 6/4/06

June 5th, 2006 at 05:49 pm

1) $ Spent--$36.42 gas; $27.01 Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cake

2) Expenses Cut--borrowed a friend's housr for my sister's party. Since I live a few hours away, I usually end up taking everyone to a restaurant in her town whenever we celebrate any occassion; this saved quite a bit over what it would have cost at a restaurant

3) $ Earned--$0

4) $ in Savings--$0

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$0

6) Giving--hosted a great party for my sister's baby shower

7) Increase Financial Awareness--nothing today

Financial Update 6/3/06

June 5th, 2006 at 05:44 pm

1) $ Spent--$85.93 at Walmart, mostly stuff for my sister's baby shower; $81.11 grocery store, again mostly food for my sister's baby shower

2) Expenses Cut--bought all of the food for my sister's baby shower which I will prepare instead of having the event catered so that saved a lot of money

3) $ Earned--$0

4) $ in Savings--$0

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$0

6) Giving--volunteered at a kids safety day today

7) Increase Financial Awareness--watched Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad's Guide to Wealth" on TV this evening. Realized that my balance sheet is way out of balance--it's heavy on the expenses and liabilities and light on the income and assets sections Frown

Daily Financial Update 6/2/06

June 3rd, 2006 at 03:23 pm

1) $ Spent--$18.95 car oil change; $16.00 mail Ebay items; $21.77 paid off one credit card

2) Expenses Cut--used a coupon to get a better price on the oil change; got rain checks for a couple of items that were on a very good sale at KMart but were out of stock.

3) $ Earned--$32 from an EBay sale

4) $ in Savings--$0

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$0

6) Giving--nothing today

7) Increase Financial Awareness--went to the library ans checked out an armload of books on saving money, earning extra money and basic personal finance principles

Financial Update 6/1/06

June 2nd, 2006 at 03:10 am

Financial Update 6/1/06

1) $ Spent--$14.37 dinner out for me and the hubby on the way back from work. Breakfast and lunch were covered by the client so hubby and I used the Entertainment Book 'buy one get one free' coupon and had a great Chinese dinner.

2) Expenses Cut--nothing in particular, however when doing laundry this evening I used half the recommended detergent as usual and half a dryer sheet per load as usual and washed two medium sized loads of laundry then dried them together because I dont like to waste the energy a dryer uses for a little load of laundry.

3) $ Earned--$0 but did get in some networking with a couple of possible new clients

4) $ in Savings--$5

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$10

6) Giving--nothing today

7) Increase Financial Awareness--read Bottom Line Secrets website and a bundle of emails from a variety of money saving/budgeting listserves

Daily Financial Update 5/31/06

June 1st, 2006 at 03:49 am

Financial Update 5/31/06

1) $ Spent--$21 gas; $25 dinner (this will be covered by per diem since I am working out of town); $2.25 latte (my weakness)

2) Expenses Cut--none really but did get cases of free stuff today. I do a lot of public safety/medical events during the summer so saved one client hundreds of dollars by ordering from the WA State Dept of Printing (everything in their general store is free!) and got cases of handouts/stickers/videos delivered today. Also remembering to use my cell phone for long distance calls instead of the office phone.

3) $ Earned--$50 monthly payment from one client who I do about an hour's worth of work for each month.

4) $ in Savings--$0 no time to go to the bank today. Will take some money from today's earnings and put in the bank tomorrow.

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$0 ditto as above. Did call the credit cards (4) that I owe on to get the exact payoff for each.

6) Giving--nothing specific today; talked to a friend who will be in Seattle for surgery this week and told her I would drive her home (3 hours) afterwards. Also helped her with her website. Also got her to give my sister a part time job.

7) Increase Financial Awareness--browsing the web this evening in my hotel...lots of great financial websites with good money saving info. Reading everyone's blogs here as well which is HIGHLY informative. Thanx all for the great blogs!

Day 3 Financial Update

May 31st, 2006 at 03:14 am

1) $ Spent--$0

2) Expenses Cut--didn't make any long distance calls from the office phone. Realized these calls were uping my phone bill each month so made today's long distance calls from my cell phone while out and about (long distance calls are included in my cell plan minutes).

3) $ Earned--$150 from a client (nice suprise in the mail today)

4) $ in Savings--66 cents (left over change) Frown

5) $ to pay off credit card--$0 Frown

6) Giving--still waiting to give away landscaping rocks, hopefully that will happen today or tommorrow. While not a "giving" thing, may have saved someone's life today. Hubby and I were in massive amount of freeway traffic in Seattle. Hubby said "did you see that car on the side of the freeway...the driver was slumped over the wheel." After a couple of minutes of debate over whether he was sleeping, ill or passed out we called 911 to have a welfare check done. By the time we got to north Seattle the news broadcast said traffic was slowing due to a medical response at that location. Amazing, you'd think that with so many people driving by someone would have called before us but they didn't. Kudos to hubby for being so aware Smile

7) Increase Financial Awareness--continued to read 'The Amazing Laws of Prosperity' also listened to an old (1997) broadcast from Amy Daczyczn found on the about.com site under her name. Still informative after all these years.

Day 2 Financial Update

May 30th, 2006 at 03:53 am

1) $ Spent--$0 stayed home all day

2) Expenses cut--I got a credit card bill on Friday that was billing me for the annual fee. I called the company, talked to a supervisor and they waived the $59 annual fee...it only took like three minutes to save $59 wow!

3) $ Earned--$0 but sent a freelance article to a publisher that occassionally buys my articles. Hope this is one he decides to buy.

4) $ Saved--$1.50 again, pitiful, but that is just change I found laying around the house.

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$10

6) Giving--sent a batch of cookies to the crew at a casino hubby used to work at.

7) Raise Financial Awareness--read the new issue of the Dollar Stretcher for some great ideas. Hope to read one chapter in 'The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity' tonight.

Day 1 Financial Update

May 29th, 2006 at 12:27 am

Financial Update 5/28/06

1) $ Spent--0 stayed home and didn't spend any money or use any gas.

2) Expenses Cut--$116.90/year Cancelled webhosting for two websites that I didn't have time for. They have sat with no activity for over a year so at least this way I get to save the money and not feel bad for not getting around to updating them.

3) $ Earned--0 however put two leather jackets on EBay...now Im hoping for the best.

4) $ in Savings--$2.50 pitiful I know but I want the bulk of my excess money to go towards paying of the credit cards.

5) $ for Credit Card Payoff--$5 also pitiful but at least it's something.

6) Giving--posted (literally) a ton of landscaping rocks on local Freecycle web and had a half dozen email already. They should be gone in a few days so I can re-landscape that part of my yard.

7) Increase Financial Awareness--read "Dollar Stretch" site for some good ideas, put the book "I'm Not Buying It--My Year Without Shopping" on hold at the local library (I'm number 36 in line...I guess we all want to save money by not buying the book!). Also found a new source of financial info at http://finance.yahoo.com with some interesting articles.

~~whew! whatta day~~

Daily Financial Report--Day One

May 28th, 2006 at 08:09 pm

In an effort to get better organized financially, I will use this space to report daily on seven key financial areas. I hope this way I will be more accountable to myself with my finances because all of you are watching! Smile

The areas I will track are:
1) How much I spent
2) Ways I cut expenses
3) Way I (attempted) to earn more money
4) How much was put towards savings
5) How much was put towards credit card payoff
6) How much/what I gave away or donated (since giving is as important as receiving)
7) What I did to increase my financial awareness and education

Wish me luck--I want to finally (and hopefully quickly) be debt free and have the ability to pay cash for the things I want instead of using credit or a payment plan.