Back in the beginning of the year I posted on some of the things I am looking forward to in2009 and considering that we are now about half way through the year I figured I would post an update of where I stand. The past few months have been pretty interesting and quite a bit has happened so I will get right down to it.
Getting back in shape: I have been going to the gym for 5 months or so now. Lately I have been getting up early in the morning and going to work out four or five days a week. My gym is closed on Sundays thorough the summer so I am really only missing one or two days per week that the gym is available. Since the gym closed for Sundays a couple weeks ago I have been working to get outside and do something on Sundays as well. Overall I now: get a pretty good amount of exercise, have quite smoking for over a year and do not drink. My diet is still a bit unhealthy and I tend to overeat and have a sweet tooth but I am making progress.
No more car payments: Next month will be my final full payment followed by a half payment in August and that will be done. I am very much looking forward to not owing money to my ex-girlfriend any more and am looking even more forward to having the extra cash every month!
Giving my site a new look: I have changed my theme twice and am thinking I will settle with this one for a little bit. So far so good I think.
Paying off my credit card: I no longer carry a balance on my credit card from month to month! I am still getting to a point where I do not spend at all on it but my balance of nearly $2,000 that was carrying over and accruing interest fees is now gone!
Rebuilding my savings account: I am getting there. I have my own little emergency fund challenge for 2009 running to give myself some public incentive and accountability to get my savings account back in shape. Right now I am up to $250 in the emergency fund and am aiming to reach $1,000 before the end of the year.
So far 2009 has been a pretty productive year and I am really looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up. I am hopeful that my personal financial situation will continue to improve. My girlfriend has also been taking some pretty impressive steps to improve her financial fitness as well and has impressed me with her ability to reach her goals as well. I think that right now she has more in savings than I do and was telling me the other day that now that she has the money in savings she does not want to touch it. Needless to say - I am proud of her and am awed by her ability to accomplish her goals.
Early last month I was pretty excited to report that I had paid off my credit card balance to Capital One. So I thought I would give everyone a quick update on where I am at this month: the card is still paid off.
The plan that my girlfriend proposed involved paying off the credit card balance and working to curb spending to keep the balance low. The result for me was a pretty empty checking account and we figured that we would use the card for expenses but would keep a closer eye on spending. So far it has worked out. Since my initial pay off of the large balance I have seen two statements.
The second statement was about half of the first for amount due so it appears that we have been gradually easing up on credit card use and easing back onto the checking account and debit card. I did have a couple of decent months at work which lead to higher commissions so the balances were paid in full and so far I have not made any transactions on my new statement period (which began in the middle of last month).
All said and done - the little plan my girlfriend put forward has worked pretty well. The process looks like this:
Pay off the entire balance - do not worry about the low checking account balance.
Use the card and stick to your budget for essentials.
Keep tabs on spending, use the card sparingly.
Pay the card off in full again - this time with a lower balance leaving more in the bank.
Repeat
In addition - the plan plays to my emotional well being as well as I generally do not like having to pay with my credit card. The emotional reaction is enough that I will often forgo additional comfort items for myself (do I really need to go out for a coffee?) and stick with the basics.
Over the weekend I discovered that I have a new favorite television network: Planet Green. I had seen a couple of clips from shows on the network but had not sat and watched for an extended period of time until Sunday afternoon. My girlfriend had hurt her back so we were having a mellow afternoon and she told me about a show called Off the Grid she had seen the night before after I had fallen asleep. She said it was pretty cool and that I would have really liked it.
The show is a documentary starring Les Stroud (also known as Survivorman) and his family as they purchase 150 acres of Canadian wilderness and move off the grid. I was just amazed at the lifestyle the family chose and really just could not stop thinking about how cool their plan was.
The best part - they went green on a budget! Obstacles like not being able to drill through bed rock due to cost constraints were real and they faced the challenges like a regular family. Once completed the family produced their own power and water which left them both living green and free of utility bills.
I personally dream of a day when I can go somewhat off the grid with my family in our own home. I do not think we will be using any self composting toilets but I am open to the idea of a gravity feed from collected rain water (provided my better half agrees). However - I do not want to go totally off the grid at this time. While I strongly believe in trying to live a greener lifestyle I also think that we may be able to give back additional power generated if we were to produce our own energy via solar or wind power. From the setup that Les Stroud and his family had it appeared that once their batteries were charged the system just stopped producing energy. I figure that if the system is producing energy anyway and we have the ability to be wired in then why not give some of it back to the power company? I have also heard that the power companies will also reimburse you for the power provided back but my goal would be more in line with providing a little bit of green power back more than making money. Anyway - at this point it is more or less just a wishful dream of mine but I hope someday that it will be a reality. I suppose when the time comes then my girlfriend and I will talk it out and make decisions based on what we can and can not do.
In the mean time - while digging around on the show a little bit I found it over on YouTube. Here is an embedded clip of the show for anyone that wants a preview. For the rest of the episode just head on over to YouTube and search “Off the Grid Les Stroud”.
As a follow up to our implementation of a chore and allowance system for the kids I thought I would let everyone know how the first pay day last night. Overall it went pretty well and the system seems to be doing well. My girlfriend took the chore charts down from the fridge and we counted out how much each child had made.
Her son neglected to pick up toys all week which lead to a $0.75 deduction from his allowance. To emphasize the point my girlfriend took the approach of “This is how much you would have made, but since you did not pick up the toys you only get this much” and laid the money on the table so he could see how it all worked. We then gave him two jars where he placed 20% of his base amount and 10% of his base amount (so $0.50 and $0.25) for savings and charity respectively. He took the remainder to his room and put it directly into his piggy bank (he wants to save it). The point seemed to hit home that he needs to do all his chores to make his full allowance and he did manage to get everything done last night to start the new week. However in all fairness we are not sure how much of the incentive was financial and how much was fear of losing access to his favorite video game for the rest of the night (he had to finish chores before he could play).
I missed the review with her daughter but know that she had a $1.00 deduction ($0.50 for a missed chore and $0.50 for a poor attitude) for the week. I also noticed a couple of smaller jars on top of the fridge this morning containing her portions for savings and charity containing $2.00 and $1.00 respectively. I also noticed that she did not appear to get any of her chores done last night but she also got home a bit later in the day than usual - I am not sure what the result will be here and will have to talk to my girlfriend about it. She may be granted a waiver or she may have deductions, I am not sure yet.
The kids also went out for ice cream with their uncle last night and I believe that they each brought their own money as well. Overall I think that our little system is working fairly well and I am looking forward to seeing how it works over a longer term.
Over the past few months my girlfriend and I have been kicking around the idea of setting up a chore and allowance system for the children. Earlier this week as I arrived home for lunch my girlfriend informed me that she had drafted a chore system that morning and offered it to me to review. I was a bit surprised as all of our talks so far had been in theory and now I had a physical document in my hand to look over.
The basics of the system were pretty much as we had discussed and read about from other sources. We also had the additional wrench of having a split household situation where the children are not home 100% of the time. We settled on pretty much a hybrid of several popular theories the quick details are:
Each child will receive a base rate of $1.00 for each year in age weekly.
Chores must be done in order to receive payment - each chore is assigned a value.
In our case each child has 4 chores. They are 10 and 5 years old, hence $0.50 and $0.25 per chore respectively.
We based the system on a 5 day work week - they may be home a bit less than this over all but chores are to be done prior to leaving for their father’s on days they will not be home.
We reserved the right to assess bonuses for good behavior as well as penalties for attitude, unwillingness to do chores or not doing what is asked.
Chores need to be done before bed time - no staying up late to finish your chores.
10% of the allowance will be placed in a jar for the child to donate to a charity of their choosing.
20% goes to a savings account.
The rest is for them to spend.
On Monday night we had a family meeting and discussed the new system with the children. Overall it seemed to go fairly well and yesterday was our first day in practice with the new system. As of last night - each child has had one deduction for chores not being done and the 10 year old has had one $0.50 attitude deduction. I was not home last night at bed time due to another commitment but when I did get home I was informed that my girlfriend’s daughter (the 10 year old) was a little weepy about the deduction for not completing a chore. So time will tell but it seems that the kids are both excited about the opportunity to earn money and be part of the community.
For anyone interested in checking it out our plan in detail here are the documents that my girlfriend drafted on Monday morning (with the children’s names removed for privacy):
