Unnecessary Expenses & New Finances

I will not be doing a budget update for the month of August. Mainly because we spent so much money I don’t even want to see the figure. Once it got so bad I just stopped keeping track, horrible I know. Matt and I made some totally unnecessary purchases in August.

In celebration of paying off our credit debt and our 1 year wedding anniversary (September 1st) we purchased a WiiFit for me and a new computer for Matt. He built the computer for much cheaper than we could have purchased one, the perks of having an IT guy around the home. Over all we spent about $400 on both of us. More than I would have liked but it’s a one time deal.

On top of these fun purchases we also spent money on some practical things. Things like a small trash can for our bedroom, white undershirts, 2 pair of jeans (I ruined my last pair on vacation earlier), and a new shower curtain. I mentioned most of this in my earlier post. I was so focused on paying off our credit card debt we often didn’t buy other things we needed around the house.

Also after much discussion we decided to take our extra credit card money and save for four months in order to finish remodeling our home. We will still save for the car and emergency fund only our retirement will have to wait. I hate putting it off, but I’d like to have a kitchen I can actually use, maybe we’d eat at home more.

Matt and I have two options we will either sell our home in October or as its beginning to look we will be living here for another 5+ years. We never actually put our house on the market but had an offer made earlier this year. The buyers are having trouble securing a loan with the new regulations and with declining home prices I’m not sure we could even get the agreed price at this point.

If we stay here we will need to complete the kitchen and bath, a task I estimate to be around four thousand dollars. We plan to do most the work ourselves or with help from experienced family. Currently our mortgage payment is low and we have reasonable utility bills.

If we sell our home we’ll have more freedom to move out of state if required and even a little profit to put in the bank. We would also down size for cheaper/equal rent and lower utilities.

I’m really ok with either option. At this point I just want to know which option we’ll be going with. Also if we save the 4K and do end up selling in October we’ll take that money as a security deposit on an apartment and put the rest in savings.

Anyway, September starts a new month and a new budget. Finally a budget focused on saving not paying. I’m sure it will take some adjusting.