Keeping The Reins Tight….

After a week plus away, it’s nice to be home. Not that I enjoy being back in the wicked humidity of the South; but more so, I like being at my apartment and not living from a suitcase.

California was absolutely wonderful. The training was extremely beneficial, the weather was perfect, the people were my kind of people, and the availability of free things (trails, beaches, frisbee, and open spaces) were the very things I enjoy in life. Could a possible move be in my future?

Maybe, I need to look into loan repayment programs as I got offered positions at four different high schools (if I ever move out that way). The job security of being a high school math teacher is pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, I won’t make nearly as much from my per diem as I thought I would. I ate breakfast every morning in my room to cut down on costs, this let me pocket about $100. The rest of the time, I wasn’t nearly as fiscally responsible. Whether it be drinks, good food, gas money, or renting equipment (kayak’s and scuba gear), I made the most of my time out west. I did however make sure I never spent a penny of my own money.

It would have been nice to pocket more of my per diem; but, that would have involved sitting in my hotel room in the evenings and not being social.

I’m not willing to sacrifice living life for a few extra bucks.

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I lasted eight months without touching my medical fund. Alas, in the last few weeks, I’ve managed to drain the entire thing and there’s a chance I’ll need to dip into the emergency fund.

The main culprit?

An MRI of my knee, it’s been a horrid 6 weeks since I went down with an injury. Despite following an extremely cautious rehabilitation plan and allowing ample time for a recover, my calf / knee is still not right. I’ve mentally set aside $1,200 for this expense (the cost of last year’s MRI) and anxiously await the call back from insurance with my final bill. I paid a measly $10 to see the Specialist (in endurance sports medicine). The doctor described the need for an MRI as a medical emergency, will insurance see it this way? Only time will tell.

On top of my knee troubles, my contact lens prescription expires on the 24th. I plan to change eye doctors but have not had research/find a new one. Thus, it was imperative that I stock up before my prescription expired. My vanity and love of athletics cost a cool $191.92. Despite my zillion different budgets, I never thought to set aside money for contacts.

May’s been a rough month for my bank accounts (medical expenses + $915 tires), being unable to run is also making extremely unpleasant.

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Life went crazy and for a few weeks, I quit updating my budget spreadsheet; however, I was able to stay within my budget. Because of this, I’m switching to a less complicated version. The new version will simply track my total spending for important categories.

My new budget is as follows:

$1700 is much more than I was expecting; but, I’ve never figured out my monthly expenses with Roth Contributions and contributions to the car/medical funds . When I reach the respective totals for the car / medical fund, I’ll send another $100 into savings.

I’m trying to max out the Roth by the end of the summer, this will then let me sock away $5000 in contributions for 2009 by the end of 2008. All of my savings are going towards Roth Contributions and into a house fund. Since I won’t be buying a home any time in the next 10 years, it doesn’t matter when in the year I make the contributions into the house fund.

Dollar Cost Averaging (on a yearly basis) into my Roth IRA will give the market more time to work it’s magic. These yearly contributions will create a set schedule for rebalancing my asset allocation and remove any inkling of trying to time the market.

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“I’m down instead of up
I’m red insteaf of black
I’m taking one step forward
And two steps back”

Thanks to an electrical overload, my truck needs a new alternator, fuse box, and battery cable. I do not have the time / tools to do the repair; thus, I’ll be paying the local Goodyear $550 to fix the problem.

Instead of wiping out the ‘car expense fund’, I’m going to pay for the repair out of the true emergency fund. Until the car fund can handle such an expensive repair bill (this repair bill would put the car account $150 into the hole), I have to use the emergency fund.

The whole situation is a bummer, I was stashing away loads of money into the emergency fund and finally crossed the 50% funded mark. I’ll be able to repay the emergency fund with my next pay check, but the account’s balance will have pretty much stayed the same for a whole month.

This is completely unacceptable!

I did find a silver lining in this situation, paying $550 as needed for car repairs is much cheaper than the $250+ I would be paying for regular car payments.

Technorati Tags: Budget, Car Expenses, Emergency Fund

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