Sorry there was no update last week. I've been both busy and lazy.
Last Saturday, I earned an extra $100! One of my regular customers needed someone to do (easy) handy chores in his yard, and wanted to know if I'd be willing to work for him and how much I'd charge per hour. I said that I'd want to make at least what I was making at the grocery store ($15/hour); he said he was thinking more like $20/hour. I said that was okay by me!
So I did 5 hours of pretty easy work (though hot, as it was a sunny day and none of the work was in the shade) replacing some lattice panels, painting the small arbor framing, and a couple other little things.
He also wants me to work for him again this coming weekend. That extra money will definitely help fund the Fund.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Utilities (The Budget, #4)
We live in the city, so we are billed for all our utilities through the City public works department. For our budget, "utilities" means
Electric There is a base charge of $16.77, and then on top of that we pay $0.0674/KwH. This is the largest single factor in our utility bill, and the most variable. We've done a few things to keep it generally low. We have fluorescent lights in the kitchen and dining room, LED lights in the living room; the bathroom is the only other room that regularly has lights on-- I'm planning on swapping out the incandescent bulbs for LED when they finally burn out. The water heater is set at the lowest possible setting (I think it's 115°F). We don't have an A/C unit, so there's no power wasted there; heating is all electric baseboard heaters, which aren't the greatest, but we try to keep the heat off or low as much as possible.
Water The majority of the water cost is in the flat-rate surcharge ($28.22), the variable rate ($0.02/CF) adding maybe $7-13 a month. So, while we do have a 2.5gpm showerhead, I don't worry too much about water usage except to try to keep it under 429 cubic feet/month, because usage above that rate-tier bumps up the cost per unit AND bumps the sewer rate to the next tier...
Sewer A flat rate for sewer usage, based on the volume of water used-- under 429 cubic feet, and it's $61.95/month, if we use more water than that it is priced at the next tier which is way more expensive (I think we did once, and I was not happy with the cost...).
Garbage We have the option to have our garbage can emptied weekly or every other week. Of course, less often = less expensive, and as a bonus, they give us the largest available residential dumpster size (96 gallon). We'll often forget to put it out on time, and it will often still not be full after a month. Every other week service is a flat rate of $18.50/month.
City Taxes Our city provides free fire and emergency medical (ambulance) services, for which we pay a few dollars every month. We also pay some tax for when the sewer system overflows (during heavy rains, etc.); a little tax on garbage; a few dollars for a study they're doing about the sludge in the harbour (or something like that); and a little bit for general city operations. All told, $11.38 every month.
And that's it. There are a few things we could do better, I guess-- we could find a clothesline instead of using the dryer-- but Mrs. Fund already hates doing the laundry, and the dryer makes that chore less of a chore. I've thought about a drying rack, but...neither of us wants to have to pick ALL the clothes up after the two little Fund toddlers pull it over.
Electric There is a base charge of $16.77, and then on top of that we pay $0.0674/KwH. This is the largest single factor in our utility bill, and the most variable. We've done a few things to keep it generally low. We have fluorescent lights in the kitchen and dining room, LED lights in the living room; the bathroom is the only other room that regularly has lights on-- I'm planning on swapping out the incandescent bulbs for LED when they finally burn out. The water heater is set at the lowest possible setting (I think it's 115°F). We don't have an A/C unit, so there's no power wasted there; heating is all electric baseboard heaters, which aren't the greatest, but we try to keep the heat off or low as much as possible.
Water The majority of the water cost is in the flat-rate surcharge ($28.22), the variable rate ($0.02/CF) adding maybe $7-13 a month. So, while we do have a 2.5gpm showerhead, I don't worry too much about water usage except to try to keep it under 429 cubic feet/month, because usage above that rate-tier bumps up the cost per unit AND bumps the sewer rate to the next tier...
Sewer A flat rate for sewer usage, based on the volume of water used-- under 429 cubic feet, and it's $61.95/month, if we use more water than that it is priced at the next tier which is way more expensive (I think we did once, and I was not happy with the cost...).
Garbage We have the option to have our garbage can emptied weekly or every other week. Of course, less often = less expensive, and as a bonus, they give us the largest available residential dumpster size (96 gallon). We'll often forget to put it out on time, and it will often still not be full after a month. Every other week service is a flat rate of $18.50/month.
City Taxes Our city provides free fire and emergency medical (ambulance) services, for which we pay a few dollars every month. We also pay some tax for when the sewer system overflows (during heavy rains, etc.); a little tax on garbage; a few dollars for a study they're doing about the sludge in the harbour (or something like that); and a little bit for general city operations. All told, $11.38 every month.
And that's it. There are a few things we could do better, I guess-- we could find a clothesline instead of using the dryer-- but Mrs. Fund already hates doing the laundry, and the dryer makes that chore less of a chore. I've thought about a drying rack, but...neither of us wants to have to pick ALL the clothes up after the two little Fund toddlers pull it over.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
We Saved $99 Next Year
Update on our homeowner's insurance policy!
I called Allstate and asked what the difference in the annual premium would be if we changed our deductible from $3,000 to $5,000. Answer: $99!
We have enough in our emergency fund to cover the larger deductible, so we won't be overspent if the trees decide fall on the house. I feel reasonably safe in thinking that the house is not going to break, so I'm willing to make sure to keep the emergency fund higher than normal to save almost $100 per year.
$100 in a year will let us reduce the budget by $8 every month. Or we may re-adjust that $8 into another budget category. I would hate having a budget of $1,792, so I'll probably rearrange something, though I might see if there are some other categories that can be trimmed so that we could add a few cuts together to reduce the total by a nice, round amount. I know auto insurance is coming up and might possibly be lower... we'll see.
I called Allstate and asked what the difference in the annual premium would be if we changed our deductible from $3,000 to $5,000. Answer: $99!
We have enough in our emergency fund to cover the larger deductible, so we won't be overspent if the trees decide fall on the house. I feel reasonably safe in thinking that the house is not going to break, so I'm willing to make sure to keep the emergency fund higher than normal to save almost $100 per year.
$100 in a year will let us reduce the budget by $8 every month. Or we may re-adjust that $8 into another budget category. I would hate having a budget of $1,792, so I'll probably rearrange something, though I might see if there are some other categories that can be trimmed so that we could add a few cuts together to reduce the total by a nice, round amount. I know auto insurance is coming up and might possibly be lower... we'll see.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
In June...
Sorry the June totals are late. I've been lazy (and busy, but mostly lazy). We totalled everything up and got to move another $1,000 over to savings! Here are the income numbers:
QFC: $1,367
Domino's: $815
Tips: $897
Total: $3,080
Got full three-day workweeks at the Q, which was both good and not good. Good because, you know, lots of hours. Not so good because we're super short-handed due to two employees quitting and one transferring. So even working only three days a week, I got some overtime; plus pay for Memorial Day, which was nice.
The new phone service with Republic Wireless is working just fine so far. Century Link is officially cancelled now, and I really like the fact that the phone bill will be under $10 every month from here on out.
We went to the (Point Defiance) Zoo which the kids thought was absolutely great! $37.35 spent out of the activity budget, which is totally fine because we almost always find free activities to do, so it's been collecting up for a long while. Had to fill up the gas tank while we were in Tacoma, and we were both pleasantly surprised to see we had been getting 36 mpg.
Lots of fun (free) stuff planned for July, now that it's starting to be consistently sunny and sometimes even hot. Going to the beach, the lake, riding bikes, the local 4th of July parade, and maybe even some picnicking.
QFC: $1,367
Domino's: $815
Tips: $897
Total: $3,080
Got full three-day workweeks at the Q, which was both good and not good. Good because, you know, lots of hours. Not so good because we're super short-handed due to two employees quitting and one transferring. So even working only three days a week, I got some overtime; plus pay for Memorial Day, which was nice.
The new phone service with Republic Wireless is working just fine so far. Century Link is officially cancelled now, and I really like the fact that the phone bill will be under $10 every month from here on out.
We went to the (Point Defiance) Zoo which the kids thought was absolutely great! $37.35 spent out of the activity budget, which is totally fine because we almost always find free activities to do, so it's been collecting up for a long while. Had to fill up the gas tank while we were in Tacoma, and we were both pleasantly surprised to see we had been getting 36 mpg.
Lots of fun (free) stuff planned for July, now that it's starting to be consistently sunny and sometimes even hot. Going to the beach, the lake, riding bikes, the local 4th of July parade, and maybe even some picnicking.
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