Aly's room

Here's what we did tonight in the baby's room:

DH painted the dresser his boss gave us.  It was yellow and antiqued.  Now its black, with pink details showing through on the flower etchings.  Those are the letters we will mount in the middle of records & hang above the crib.  But I thought they looked cute here for now :)

Next to the crib is a little rocking caterpillar.  I think its adorable!!  Got to love how the room is shaping up.  Tomorrow we are heading to Target to get the black rug for the middle of the room.  Then we need curtains (just need my mom to sew the ribbons on), bedding & a cover for the glider chair.  DH wants to get some posters of girl rockers & hang them up too.  Works for me - but only if we can frame them :)  Not a fan of just posters taped up to the wall!!

YAY!

Doing a happy-dance over here.  Our taxes are DONE.  Federal, KS, and MO :)  After going round & round with Tax Cut (the program I have used for YEARS), I was getting frustrated beyond belief because it was kicking out a bunch of stuff related to DH's income.  This is the first year I have really dealt with these kinds of forms, and Tax Cut was not helpful.  At all.

One of the lovely people over on the "Not MSN" boards suggested I try Turbo Tax.  Boy howdy - that made all the difference!  I was able to do all three returns in under two hours.  And, since I first went to their link through MyPoints, I get a bonus 592 out of it :P

Our refund is not what I had thought it would be through TC, but that's ok.  I feel confident that this is the correct amount.  I had adjusted my withholdings so that we would come out with as small of a refund as possible.  Overall, we had to pay one state, but we get refunds in the other two filings.  Net result (after paying for TT services) was $575.  Works for me :)  I am direct depositing it straight into our savings account for maternity leave.

It is just such a relief to get this done.  This has to be the latest I have ever waited to file my taxes!!  I was seriously starting to get worried about it!

Busy day :)

Today my mom & I went shopping for fabric for the baby's room.  We didn't find any to purchase this time, but we did find some steals!  And, mom paid for everything (I tried...she wouldn't let me.  So I bought her coffee).  Here's what we got:

• Bookshelf for the canvas bins I talked about earlier.  It has three cubbies (and I have three boxes!).  I measured one of the boxes, and they will fit perfectly.  Cost for the shelf: $7.49 on clearance.

• Large pink glass vase.  I plan to get some clear marbles to fill it 1/2 way, and then put in some bright pink & white artificial Gerbera daisies.  Cost for the vase: $6 (1/2 price sale).

• Large pink metal butterfly to hang on the wall over the glider. (Notice the grey - that's the new wall color in her room)  Cost: $6 (1/2 price sale).

• 25 yds of ribbon to trim out the curtains, and to make ties for the crib bumpers and canvas bins.  Cost: $6.99
• Letters to spell out baby girl's name.  Most expensive buy of the day - $16.

There are a few things we still need to get to put the room all together:

• Rug - black shag carpet.  Have my eye on one at Walmart for $70.  Waiting to get my $50 MyPoints card in, and then we will purchase it. Cost: $20 + tax (after card)
• Records to mount her name on.  FIL has these, we just need to pick some up. Cost: Free!
• 3M hook & strips to hang the decorations.  Cost: $4 or so
• Fabric for crib bumpers, skirt, and glider padding cover.  Narrowed down a few options today.  Cost: (not sure, but mom is covering this one).
• Fabric for canvas bins.  Will use a drop cloth for the canvas, and cotton for the liners.  Cost: Approx $20 for all three.
• Dimmer switch for light.  Not sure of the cost.
• New globe or light kit for the ceiling fan (old roomie broke the current one on her way out.  Just a bulb right now).  Not sure of the cost - shouldn't be too much.  Will keep an eye out at the garage sales to see what I can find.

While we were out shopping, I took advantage of a great deal CVS had on wipes and baby toiletries.  By working the deals around I got 18 packages of wipes and two large bottles of baby bath for less than $3 out-of-pocket.  Little one should now be stocked on wipes & bodywash for about a year :)

I am getting antsy.  My brother can't finish the paint until Monday night.  We can't start putting things back into the room until that is done.  So right now everything is piled in the dining room and living room.  I feel like I live in a house from "Hoarders: Buried Alive".  Its seriously bothering me!!  If DH wouldn't freak, I would just go finish the paint myself.

Bitty Gurl's Space....

Someone called the baby "Bitty Gurl" on my FB wall this week - and for some reason it stuck with me. Pretty sure I won't actually call her that, but I thought I would steal it for a second :)

My bro came over tonight, and we bought some paint & supplies for her room. He paid for them since he owes us some $$ (we pay for his phone each month). We came back, and got to work. I opened up a window, turned on the ceiling fan, and started in working on the trim work. Bro started with the big roller. In just over an hour we got the first coat pretty much done - still need to get out the step stool for the top 6'' or so, and I need to get down to do the floor, but it should be all coated by next week & ready to start putting together!

We don't have a ton of money to spare for this, so its going to be a fairly frugal project. I ordered some MyPoints giftcards to buy the area rug &; accessories with. We got $100 in giftcards, and I am thinking we can get by with spending $30-40 more out of pocket for those things. We will go with the area rug instead of carpet for now, since its cheaper & easier to replace if something gets messed up.

Mom & I are going shopping this weekend to pick out the fabric for the nursery. I already had the black curtains, so we will be re-using those. But we will be putting bright pink ribbon trim on the edges, and hemming up the curtains (since they were really just black flat sheets I re-purposed from the wedding!). For the crib bedding, we will do a bumper & a skirt. My mom found a way to do the bumper with a thinner pad, and it weaves in & out of the crib slats so that it does not become a suffocation hazard later. Then we just need to find some fabric to cover the glider & ottoman with, and some to make basket liners (I am going to turn three diaper boxes into "canvas bins").  Seriously - how cute are those?  Not sure if they will reside under the crib, or if I am going to get a bookshelf to put them on.  But they will be cute :)

For decorations, I am getting some old records (FIL has some he's giving me).  I am going to get the big paper mache letters at Hobby Lobby, and spell out her name in bright pink letters.  Then mount them in the middle of the records, and hang them above the crib :)  They should be light-weight enough that we can mount them securely with the 3M strips.  Which is good because the walls are plaster & its a pain in the bum to put anything heavy on the wall!!

So all-in-all, I am expecting this nursery makeover to cost us $200 or less out of pocket.  And that's just because we got extremely lucky, and DH's boss keeps giving us all the furniture we need!  They have given us the crib, mattresses, glider, ottoman, and now changing table/dresser.  Such a blessing :)

Financial Update!

Its been awhile since I posted one of these.  Got my bonus check today, and already sent it back out again   One of these days I will get to keep my bonuses instead of sending them away!

In 2010, DH and I ended the year $6,282.22 down on our balances, plus all the additional medical bills & work bills.  That includes the things we had to charge on the cards & then pay off.  So for all of our setbacks, its nice to see we still made some great progress too!

We started this year owing $66,115.12.  Currently, we owe $61,991.42.  That's already a difference of $4,123.70!  We also have our savings account stocked back up to handle any Murphy-visits .  Overall, since the start of this endeavor to pay off debt, we have paid down $18,508.92.  We should cross the $20k mark sometime by May!!!!

On just the credit cards, we now owe $24,354.78.  That's $10,636.41 less than our original starting point.  We have officially earned our Party Hat for paying off more than $10k on the "racing" debt .  I am keeping up with the WIRR and posting monthly updates there to keep myself accountable.

Worked on taxes for awhile last night.  I need to get 1-2 more statements from DH, but it looks like we will be able to get a nice sum back.  That should be enough to fund the unpaid portion of my maternity leave.  We are over on the budget a bit for this month since we entertained family while they were in town for the wedding, but I am ok with that.  It was great to get to meet DH's side of the family & spend time with them.  And we didn't go too overboard, so if we can keep things in line for the rest of the month we might still come out on track.

Daylight savings time - who needs it?

This time-change is kicking my bum! This weekend was already busy with wedding festivities for SIL. And then the time-change on top of it. I am exhausted! I took a 2 hour nap when I got home from work today. Hopefully that helps to reset things.

My brother is coming over later this week to help DH move furniture around in Aly's room, and to paint the room for us. He's on our phone plan, and a broke college student, so he comes over & helps with stuff around the house each month to pay for his phone. Works for everyone :) I am SO EXCITED to get started on cleaning out her room & getting it set up. I need to go shopping for fabric so that my mom can get started on making the crib bumper, skirt, and curtains. Hopefully she can help cover the glider chair too (faded denim cover with blue/green polka dot footrest. Definitely does not match!).

I need to get all of our tax paperwork over to the accountant to do for us. I keep forgetting - and we are running out of time! I tried to do them through Turbo Tax like I always have, but I just have too many questions about what to do with DH's stuff & I don't know anyone I can ask for help. I feel bad asking a pro for their help without just having them do the taxes for us. Oh well, we can get that done and get the $$ back soon hopefully.

I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow night for a friend at church. Reminded me that I need to get started on SIL's shower since its only 6 weeks away! I am throwing a "Diaper Shower", since that's definitely something they will need over the next few months as the babies start to come home. An idea I had for a game was to get 4 baby dolls (or 4 water balloons), have people tie one hand behind their backs, and see who could diaper all 4 babies the fastest. For shower gifts, I am thinking of going to the state beauty supply store with my sister to get some nice salon products (I figure everyone can use shampoo/conditioner, and they come in really cute gift packs). I also had the idea to have SIL make up a list of times when they will need help once the babies come home, and have people sign up to help if they want. Might not work at a normal shower, but this is for people from church that all want to help out.

Hold on.....

Is Walmart getting into the Coupon Game? Apparently they made an update to their coupon policy. Now, if a coupon results in overage, the cashiers will not adjust it down. The coupon can be scanned for the full face value, and the overage will be applied towards your other items. If you don't have other items, Walmart's policy is to now give you cold-hard cash back when you make the register go negative!!

I am too worried that my store won't actually give cash back. But, applying that overage towards fresh fruit & veggies should be a breeze :) Looks like I just found another way to slash down this grocery bill!!

Is it worth having to step foot in Walmart again? Who knows...I am at least willing to try it out :)

Breathing room??

Today was my annual review with my boss. We found out the fate of our raises & bonuses. Surprisingly we actually got them this year which is great. I was honestly not expecting anything. The fact that I still have a job right now is great :) So to get a bonus & a raise was a great surprise.

The bonus should be enough after taxes to pay off the two smallest CCs, pay for our upcoming insurance bill, and get us started on the maternity leave fund!!

We also need to get our taxes over to the CPA as soon as possible. We finally have the things we need to get started :) By my rough estimates, we should be getting back about $1000, which will go straight to the maternity leave fund.

I am scared to think this, but we might actually have caught a break for a bit. Shhhh.....don't let Murphy hear that one ;)

Work is CRAZY BUSY right now. Which is good, because my days are flying by. We have training planned through the end of May. Hopefully I can use June to catch up on everything, and have all of my responsibilities ready to hand off as of the beginning of July, just incase baby girl decides to come early.

Speaking of, she's half-way done!! I can't believe it! I am feeling her move a lot more now, which is pretty fun :) Although the last few days I have not felt her as much - not sure if its just because she is still so little & moves around, or if I have just been too busy to really notice. Maybe running around so much & not just sitting still rocks her to sleep more.

I have enough points through MyPoints to order $100 in giftcards. I think I will get $50 to Walmart, and $50 to Target. We can get the paint we need at Walmart to do the nursery, and the $50 should buy a super cute area rug :) I still need to go shopping for the fabric to do the crib bumpers, skirt, and the glider cover with. My mom has said she would buy all of that for the baby's room & sew the things we need. The plans are becoming more finalized and its all starting to come together :)

I just can not wait to hold my baby. Of course, I would like to at least wait 17 more weeks. But after that, she can come whenever she wants :)

March grocery tally

I had some register rewards to burn up yesterday. Since they were leftover from running last months deals, I am not counting them in the total. Just my OOP. I got milk, flour, sugar, two jars of spices, and some bath poufs.

Total spent: $3.41
Total left: $196.59

I am going to lump all CVS and Wags trips into the grocery budget too, for easier tracking.

We resisted the urge to go out last night, and actually ate leftovers. DH hardly ever touches those!!!

Here we go again...

Got to love working for a large corporation. With the way things are right now, the ever-impending doom of "Lay-Offs" now hangs over our heads. Ughghgh....

No idea if this will even come to pass, or if it would apply to my department at all. But DH and I made the decision tonight to act as if it might. We made a plan - one for now, and one for if the bottom falls out. I just feel so much better knowing we have an action plan in place. I will be working on beefing up my resume just in case, and have already put out a couple feeler-calls to see what's available out there.  Sucks since I am almost 5 months pregnant....I know its not "supposed" to affect the hiring decisions, but it very easily can. 

Part of this plan is to go as bare-bones as we can right now. Not that we live an overly extravagant lifestyle anyway, but we will be making some changes.

1. Grocery budget - $200 per month.  Max.  No ifs, ands, or buts.  Try to incorporate as many NBPR rebates as I can to get our grocery $$ back each month.  For March, the goal will be to use as much of the pantry as we can.  We will see how low we can go with the budget for March. 
2. Gas - with prices rising, we will attempt to carpool & DH will drive me to work in the morning on his way since its only an extra 2 mi out of his way to take me.  We will drive the more fuel-efficient car whenever possible.  We will also start riding to church together - he goes about an hour before I do usually, so we have been each driving.  I will start taking him, dropping him off, and then hitting up CVS & Walgreens for my weekly shopping trip (only 2 mi away from church).  Attempt to stick to $200/month for gas.
3. Energy efficiency - shorter showers, be more diligent about laundry loads (full only, cold water, line-dry now that its nicer).  Could save $50/month.
4. CVS & Walgreens - get back into serious couponing.  I have been pretty lax lately since we have been busy & we have plenty of items on-hand.  Now I will be focusing on getting all the MM deals & I can work out with the least OOP possible.  Extra items will be donated, and receipts obtained for tax purposes later.  MM deals & rebates will be rolled back into the grocery budget.
5. No snowball payments to any CCs or loans.  Minimums ONLY.
6. Entertainment/ going out to eat - yeah, pretty much not going to happen.  I will do better about meal-planning ahead of time so that we are not as tempted to run out on weeknights.  For now, once or twice on the weekends won't be a deal-breaker, but if the big "LO" were to happen, that would obviously stop completely.

These savings will be funneled straight into our emergency fund to start building it up.  To live our lifestyle unchanged, we would need $2700/month.  To live bare-bones completely, we would need about $2100.  Being able to funnel an extra $500-600 to savings each month will help a lot.