April was our first month of married life working off a real budget.  For the first several months of marriage we just winged it.  I knew where our money was coming from and where it was going and I reported everything to Bird at the end of the month.

But we really wanted to get serious about saving for a house (hopefully buying in 2011 or 2012), so we decided to set up a budget and you know I had a lot of fun doing that.  I checked out a bunch of different websites and helpful tools like a budget calculator.

I won’t bore you with the details, but I’m happy to report that we were under budget in April by almost $160.  That leftover will go into the downpayment fund.

April was a pretty typical budget month, but there are a few special things in May that we need to account for.  We’re going to just go ahead and increase the Miscellaneous category from $300 in April to $500 for May.  We are using May to take care of the upcoming wedding season expenses.

Bird’s best friend is getting married in July, but Bird will be hosting a shower and a bachelorette party for her this month.  We also will be attending a couple’s shower for her next month and then the wedding is in July.  We’re just going to take care of all the gifts this month.  We have a May wedding to buy a gift for, as well as another July wedding.  There are other miscellaneous expenses in May like Mother’s Day and my birthday.  We don’t have a specific gift category in the budget, so all this gets categorized as Miscellaneous, which is why we had to up it to a guesstimated $500 making it the second largest category after Mortgage/Rent.

Remember back in February ’09 when I joined the 21st century and upgraded to a Blackberry? 

It has come in very handy at times, like on our honeymoon when we used google maps all the time (lifesaver!).  And I loved the facebook app for reading people’s status updates.  I liked checking my gmail on the phone and seeing that I sold another book on Amazon.  I liked taking pics and sending them to Twitter via my phone.  I even liked playing brickbreaker (high score: 15,260) all those times that Bird went to the restroom in a restaurant and left me sitting there alone.

But was all that worth an extra $30 a month?  I’ve decided not for me.  After some thought and a look at my current priorities, I decided to head into Verizon this past weekend and downgrade back to my old phone.  Bird and I are on a family plan, so this move should drop our monthly bill from $105 to $75.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time this past weekend on the cable company’s online chat feature discussing my options with a representative.

I love companies that have the chat feature.  It’s perfect for people like me that don’t like to talk to sales people.  I could take my time and research the competition, etc. all while still chatting with her.

Anyway, we went over all kinds of deals, specials, bundles and promotions.  After almost an hour, I decided to sign up at a promotional rate for 6 months.  She really wanted me to lock in for 24 months (it was the best deal) but who knows where I will be in 24 months.  She then offered the 6 month deal and said when that is up, then I can do the 24 month deal.

Long story short, we’ll paying about $115 every month for cable and internet for the next 6 months.

Over the MLK Day weekend, Bird and I traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida for a friend’s wedding.  It was a lovely weekend and worth every penny we spent.  Although there were definitely a few ways we could have saved.  Let’s get to the numbers.

Flights:  $415.25  - Flights were actualy $578.42 for the two of us, but I used $163.17 in Credit Card rewards put towards the cost.

Checked bag fee:  $40 ($20 each way) - We saved some money by only taking one bag for the both of us, but I still hate baggage fees.

Rental car:  $155.68 – I was basically the driver for the group all weekend so we rented a bigger car than we normally would have.  I did use a coupon from an Entertainment book to save $36.  We were an hour late turning in the car, which cost us about $20 extra, but it was worth it because we got an extra hour at the beach.

Gas:  $50.57 – We did quite a bit of driving and covered a lot of territory.

Lodging: $704.58 – This is where we could have saved the most money.  We stayed in a really nice place because that’s where our friends were staying.  And while it was nice to stay near friends, I don’t think it was absolutely necessary and we maybe should have stayed somewhere else.  Since Bird was in the wedding, she was busy all weekend and we didn’t even get to spend that much time enjoying the place.  I hate to admit this, but we went to the breakfast buffet one morning and I should have known better, but when the bill came upon checkout two days later, we found out that we paid $52 ($26 each) for our breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and french toast.  That’s the worst I’ve been ripped off in a long time.

Groceries: $7.89 – I bought some treats and some cold medicine because I was feeling a little sicky.

Date night:  $48.23 – On Sunday night we went out for dinner and a movie.  We had some pizza (and ice cream) and watched Sherlock Holmes.  We liked the movie more than the pizza.

Biking:  $48 – On MLK day, we left West Palm and headed toward Miami.  We went to the Everglades and rented bikes.  Entrance fee was $10 and then I paid for 3 of us to rent bikes ($38).  It was a very fun outing and fun to get up close to the gators.

Lunch in Miami:  $25 – We stopped in a little Cuban restaurant for lunch but we didn’t love the food.

Beach parking:  $1.25 – On the way back to the airport we stopped at the beach because it was finally sunny.  We spent about an hour walking and getting sunburned just in time to drop off the car and catch our flight home.

Tolls:  about $10 – We were on tollways all the time and I think it added up to about ten bucks though we didn’t keep track.  It was just a dollar here, a dollar there all weekend long.

Total cost: $1,506.45

Ouch.  We did some good things to save money like using a coupon for the car and checking only one bag, but we could have done better.  The best cost savings would have been staying at a different place (or at least not eating breakfast there!).  We probably could have rented a smaller car for less money and then also saved on gas money.  Also, if we could have turned the car in time, that would have been a good savings.  The good news is, we had budgeted this trip ahead of time and we had enough money in our travel fund to cover it.  Now we’ll start replenishing the travel fund for our March trip to Florida!

For Christmas, I bought myself this new TV and I love it!

Bird and I have been without a television for almost two years and to be perfectly honest, we didn’t really miss it.  We found other activities to fill our time and when wanted to watch TV (Thursday nights for The Office and 30 Rock) we went to a friend’s house.  We watched DVDs on her laptop which has about a 13-inch screen.  It wasn’t ideal, but it worked for us for a long time.

But once we got married and moved in together, we decided that we were ready for a TV (especially since we got Netflix).  After our wedding, we began to set aside some money in a General Savings Fund for household things like furniture, etc.  With over $2,000 in the fund, I was willing to spend upto $1,300 on a TV.  I started researching and shopping.  After a couple of weeks of researching online and talking to friends, I stopped by Best Buy to stare at the wall of TVs for about 45 minutes.  I narrowed the selection down to three models (high-end, middle-range, low-end or expensive, moderate, cheap) and went home to do more research.

My plan was to buy whatever I decided on online to avoid paying tax and to hopefully get free shipping.  I used sites like www.dealnews.com and www.retailmenot.com to find the best deals and/or coupon codes.  I came close a couple of times to pulling the trigger but never did.  I didn’t know if there would be after Christmas sales on TVs like there was on clothes, but I figured I could wait and see.

The day after Christmas, Bird and I went shopping at the Mall of America to hit the sales .  Though we were shopping for clothes, we stopped in at the Best Buy in the mall for another look at the TVs.  I began to lean heavily toward the top choice of my 3 finalists: the Samsung 46-inch, 1080p, 120hz, which was on sale for $1,300 down from $1,700.

I almost bought it at the mall just to get it over with because at this point I was sick of researching and shopping.  But I knew I could probably get a better deal online.  So we went home and I perused the web but couldn’t find it much cheaper, maybe a hundred or two less.

Then…a Christmas Miracle!  The next morning, I logged on to bestbuy.com and lo and behold my TV was on sale for $999.99.  Sold!  I placed it in my cart while I set off to try and find a coupon code.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one, but then I remembered the Shop through Swagbucks deal.  I could earn 1 Swagbuck for every $5 spent and since I was spending a lot, I was pretty excited.  So I closed out of my cart and relogged in through Swagbucks and made my purchase.  I found out later that you don’t earn Swagbucks for items ordered for in-store pickup which is what I did to avoid shipping fees.  Bummer!  But I did use my Rewards credit card which earned me over 2,000 miles on this purchase.

$999.99 + $71.25 (tax) = $1,071.24

I picked up our new TV at Best Buy later that night after broomball and have loved it ever since. 

The spending on the TV didn’t stop there.  I bought a surge protector for around $30 and various cables to allow us to hook our PCs up to the TV (another $30 or so).  Even after all that, I am extremely happy and we have really enjoyed the upgrade from 13 to 46 inches! 

Watching Buffy has never been better (and have I told you that we are now on Season 7, the final season, and we are dreading the end.  We’ve been watching the Buffy series on DVD for almost as long as we’ve been together, and it will be sad when it’s all over!)

Do you remember when I was bike shopping?

And do you remember when I mentioned that I bought a new bike?

I just realized I never told you everything I wanted to about that purchase.

Here’s the short version:

It was expensive but I love it!

It’s a 2008 Marin Fairfax.

When I walked into the store I was not thinking about buying a bike at all.  About 45 minutes later, I had to call my dad to bring the minivan so we could get the thing home!

Here are the financial details:

Bike: $599.99 (on sale from $629.99)

Bike Computer: $34.99 (on sale from $44.99)

Handlebar thingies: $17.99 (on sale from $19.99)  Not sure how to describe what these things are but I didn’t like the ones the bike came with so I upgraded.

Water bottle cage:  $5.39 (on sale from $5.99)

Taxes:  $44.44

Total spent:  $702.80

I bought the bike and then they got me with the upgrades.  All accessories were 10% off with purchase of the bike and included free installation.  I figured it was worth it, so the guy installed my computer, water bottle holder and handlebars.  Of course, by then I was feeling guilty so I didn’t buy some really important accessories, like say…um, a helmet!  But they were so expensive at this bike shop, I figured I could get one somewhere else for cheaper…but I haven’t yet.  I also didn’t get a water bottle with my water bottle holder.  I’m sure I can pick up one of those for cheaper than the $10 they were going for at the store.

I was really happy with my experience at the bike shop.  They told me just what I wanted to know and they didn’t give me the hard sale.  I had really good service and now that I bought a bike there, I also get free tune-ups for life.  That’s a pretty good deal.

Anyway, I’ve already been on several bike rides around the neighborhood and the lakes.  Bird brought her bike down to my house and we store it here so that we can go on bike rides whenever we feel like it.  I like to think that it is good exercise, which it is, but we should probably stop biking to Dairy Queen!!!

Additional expenses:

Since the initial bike purchase, I bought a bike light on eBay for $2.45.  This same kind of light was $15 at the bike store.  I also bought a pouch off of eBay for my phone and keys, etc.  I paid $14.45 for it.  Bird bought me a bike lock at Target so that was a freebie for me.  I think the last thing I need is a helmet and I think I’m going to try to get my parents to buy that for my birthday.

I ended the month with seven days where I didn’t spend anything. That’s pretty good, but I’m going to try and increase that number for next month.

Remember last May when I posted that I needed some new flip flops?

I never did buy new ones last year, but I’m happy to report that this weekend while returning a few things at Kohls, I saw a pair of sandals I really liked and I bought them.

They were on sale for $12 down from $24.  I wore them around the house today trying to break them in and wishing it was summer.  Instead, we had a few snowflakes today.

Here’s a brief update on last weekend:

Friday:  Bird and I celebrated V-day on Friday because I was going to be moving all day on Saturday.  So I sent flowers to her at work to get the day started right  (also, because I didn’t have any other gift for her that night…oops).  $47.96   For dinner that night, Bird had made reservations at some fancypants restaurant in Minneapolis.  The restaurant was really cool, unfortunately, the food was just so-so.  What’s even more unfortunate is the fact that I paid $120 for the so-so food.  It was a restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try, so at least now we have and I don’t think we’ll be going back any time soon.

Saturday: The big moving day.  I spent the morning packing up at my parent’s house and then helping my buddy, T, move into the new house.  After we got done moving T’s stuff, we moved mine.  It was an all day affair.  The nice thing is, I didn’t spend any money.  In the morning, T’s sister bought us donuts.  For lunch, our friend Jeff bought us Chipotle because we were helping him move stuff too.  In the evening, Bird and I had leftover pizza and watched four episodes of Buffy.  A very romantic V-day.  Also, a no-spend day.

Sunday:  I spent Sunday morning moving some more stuff and settling in to the new place.  I went out to lunch with my parents for one last time and then that evening, Bird hosted a dinner party at her place.  Another no-spend day.

Summary:  I’m a little disappointed that the food wasn’t better than it was on Friday night.   It’s really hard for me to spend that kind of money on food anyways, but I know Bird really likes to have a fancy dinner every now and then, so really I don’t mind.  It is kind of fun and we technically have the money to do it.  It’s just more fun when the food is REALLY good.

And I love my new place to live.  The location is awesome. 

Also, I was very happy with 2 no-spend days in a row, especially on a weekend.  That makes 5 so far in February.

After a few of you gave your input yesterday, I decided to go with the Curve.  I was leaning that way the whole time ever since I went to the store and actually held them both in my hands a couple of weeks ago.  The Curve just felt better and I like the full keyboard and the bigger screen.  I ordered it online yesterday and instead of paying $149.99, I got the promotional price of $29.99 for extending my contract another two years.  With tax my total was $32.01.

As noted by calgirlfinance, my monthly bill is also going to increase because of the Blackberry data package.  That’s $29.99 more a month, but I do get a corporate discount off of that.  I know I can handle the extra expense and I’m really looking forward to all the BB has to offer.  Maybe I just need to give plasma once a month to cover the extra charge.

According to the tracking email, it looks like it might get delivered today!  That’s fast service and I’m really excited to get home and open up my package.  It’s like Christmas!