Forest on Finance » Giving

Adding up Christmas

Forest — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:09:34 +0000

Here’s a breakdown of our Christmas gift spending.

My Mom and Dad: $23
Her Mom and Dad: $23
My Grandparents: $23
Her Grandparents: $23
Her Brother: $45
Her Sister: $45
Her Sister’s BF: $25
Her Cousin 1: $16
Her Cousin 2: $15
My Brothers (2): $75
My Brother’s GF: $11

Total Spent: $324

That’s not a terrible amount, but it doesn’t account for the money Bird and I spent on each other which was about $150 each. So if you add that $300 its gets up to $624. Plus Bird has one more brother that lives out of state that we didn’t buy a gift for yet, so that’s another tenative $50. When you add that all up and it comes to almost $700…that seems like a lot.

How much did you spend on Christmas gifts?

Karma or Coincidence

Forest — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:38:30 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I made a $5 donation to Debt Ninja over at Punch Debt in the Face because I like his blog and he had mentioned on Twitter that no one had ever used the donation button on his blog. He bought himself a burrito dinner.

Then, last night, I found a $5 bill on the ground.

Coincidence, I think not!

Unlike Ninja, I’m going to be a good PF blogger and put that $5 in my Downpayment fund

I’m Moving!

Forest — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:10:00 +0000

No, we didn’t sell the house.

I’ve decided to move this blog to it’s own hosted site. I’ll be taking care of that this weekend and hopefully you all will be willing to move with me. I’ll keep you posted and let you know when it’s ready, but I just wanted to warn you and to ask you to bear with me as I may not post for a couple of days here.

In the financial department, I donated $20 to The Current today, mostly because they play great local music like my friend’s band!

A Gift for My Mother

Forest — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:44:00 +0000

My mom’s birthday is next week and I don’t have any ideas of what to get her. I realize that none of you know her, but I figure moms are pretty universal so maybe you guys could help me out with some ideas.

I’ll tell you what I’m not going to get her…flowers.

Where My Money Goes – Savings

Forest — Sat, 17 May 2008 04:47:00 +0000

When money comes in, this is what I do with it:
The first 10% is allocated to church/charity and then another 10% goes to the money market savings account.

The rest of the money stays in my checking account for the duration of the month. Because I’m not much of a spender, I don’t worry about my spending. I don’t live a luxurious lifestyle, but I don’t feel deprived either. I could probably maximize my savings a bit more if I really wanted to, but for now I consider myself lucky that I’m naturally inclined to save more than spend.

I keep my receipts and record all the income and expenses for the month. On the first day of every month, I run the numbers for the prior month. This is when I spread out the remainder of the money from that month.

I take all income (minus the 20% that’s already been allocated) and subtract expenses. The balance gets divided like this:

40% to the money market (general savings)
25% to my Roth IRA (until I reach my contribution limit)
20% to my future Vanguard account (minimum of $3,000 to open an account)
10% to my stock portfolio at Zecco
5% to my emergency fund at ING

It can get a little messy and it varies from month to month depending on my spending, but it seems to work for me.

Basically, my personal money philosophy looks like this:

Pay God first. Then pay yourself. Feel free to spend, but never more than you make.

Mother’s Day Disappointment

Forest — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:34:00 +0000

I ordered flowers for my mom last week and had them delivered to her work on Friday. She works at a school and I thought she would really love it. She could show them off on her desk (she’s a secretary) and all the staff and students could come by and make a fuss over her.

I googled “flowers coupon code” and found a 20% off coupon for FTD.com through Coupon Cabin. (Savings Tip: Always google “coupon code” for anything – you just never know!) I browsed for a bit and decided on a nice set of tulips that came with a box of chocolates and completed my order. I was shocked to see that delivery was going to cost almost a third of what the flowers did. Part of me really wanted to cancel the order and just get flowers at a local florist and give them to my mom in person on Sunday to save the delivery charge, but I knew that I was paying for the experience of her receiving them at work and getting to show them off.

Friday came and I checked Fedex delivery tracking and was surprised to see that they had shipped on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 pm and from Illinois! (I’m in Minnesota – no wonder delivery cost so much!). Doesn’t that seem a bit out of the way? Plus, they went to Indianapolis from Illinois and then got delivered here about 9:30 Friday morning. I didn’t hear anything from her on Friday (which isn’t completely surprising because she’s really busy) but I live pretty close to my parents so I decided to stop by that night (mostly to get free dinner) and see how she liked them. I walked in and they were on the table but I was super sad to see that they were in terrible shape. Almost every single one was drooping and several of the leaves were actually broken.

I was a little frustrated because A) I felt like I had wasted a good bit of money and B) I don’t think anyone would be proud to show off these flowers, so I hope my mom wasn’t too embarrassed to get these at work! I took the customer service number that came with them and planned on calling to see what we could do about this (even though I’m not really THAT guy at all). Of course, my mom said it was the thought that counts, but that’s what she has to say, she’s a mom! So I asked her if she at least liked the chocolates that came with them and she said: Chocolates? What chocolates? There should have been a little box of chocolates with them, I told her. It turns out they must have been wrapped in this big bunch of tissue paper that she mistook for flower box filler and threw in the trash. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.

We got together for a Mother’s Day dinner last night and I’m happy to report that the flowers have completely recovered and were all standing up straight and beginning to open. They looked great. Maybe she should take them back to work today. I’m glad they eventually recovered…but I’m still bummed that they looked so bad on the day she got them.