Why I'm cutting myself off pregnancy magazines ...

OK, I have been a bad blogger lately, but tomorrow is a new month, and I'm going to get back into my writing routine.  This month I have been amazed at how much crap the baby industry has convinced the people around me that I am going to need.  I am not even halfway through the pregnancy, and I refuse to register for baby gifts, but people are already giving me stuff anyway.  But I can see how easy it would be to be brainwashed into it, which is why my new resolution is not to read any more pregnancy magazines.

When I went to my second ob-gyn (long story, I'll tell you later) they gave me a huge pile of complimentary pregnancy magazines.  I was flipping through them this evening, and according to them: (1) My husband views all pregnancy expenses through the lens of the 50 inch flat-screen TV that he now cannot afford. (2) I need a $1k crib and a $500 diaper bag now, not to mention a room full of expensive new baby-themed wall hangings and a million plastic strollers, toys, baby bouncers, etc. (3) But I don't have to worry about the cost, because it's the duty of my friends to buy all of this stuff for me at my baby shower.  (4) And I need to start planning now for my post-pregnancy body with a ton of girdles.  In fact, I give the scariest product award to ShrinkxHips, which promises to narrow your hips to their pre-pregnancy size or smaller.  Somehow permanently compressing my hips just doesn't sound like the smartest idea ever to me, I can't think why.

I consider myself pretty strong-willed, but I'm pretty sure that six more months of reading this drivel won't do me or my budget any good at all.  So I am cutting myself off; no more pregnancy magazines for me.  Speaking of cribs, my family saves everything, so I have the one my mom used for my brother and myself.  I'm going to need another, however, and I don't want to just run over to Wal-Mart and buy one.  Anyone have any good ideas for finding used (I know, you're not supposed to, but how dangerous can it be?) or reusing something into a crib?

Taxes Finished!

Thanks to promethazine and ondansetron I finally got my taxes completed today.  Thanks to a big loss on CIGX (bought at $4.92, sold $2.03 so that I could pay off my debt) the feds are actually giving us back a few hundred dollars.  Thanks to Louisiana politicians changing the state tax rate, but not the withholding tables, last year, we're getting more than a grand back from the state.

All the money is going into my "baby fund" account.  Basically, my plan is to amass 3K between now and my due date (mid-October) and use that for baby expenses until I run out.  Then I will have some idea of a baseline for expenses and can adjust the budget accordingly.  Anyone have a better idea for budgeting for first time parents?

If you're a big tax procrastinator like me, and you use any Turbo Tax besides the free edition, you might try this link through the Scottrade Knowledge Center.  It gave me 30% off my federal return.  If you scroll down the page there's a link to the Turbo Tax website, and it should come up the same as the normal site, but with the fees reduced 30%.  I'm not sure if it will work or not, but since I didn't have to use my Scottrade log in or anything, I thought I'd share in case it helps.

Well, I didn't see this coming ...

I'm pregnant.  With twins.  Since I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, it's a minor miracle that I've conceived without medical intervention at all.  So I'm delighted, but it definitely was not in the plans for this year.

On a happy note, my ovaries obviously understand that I should have all my medical expenses in one year and get the child tax deductions for 2011 with only 2 months of baby expenses (I'm due Oct 31).

HOWEVER, no one ever explained to me the living hell that is so-called morning sickness.  In my case, it's more like 24-hours-a-day-7-days-a-week sickness, and it's akin to having airplane sickness constantly.  It's been going on for 3 weeks and my midwife expects that it will only continue for another month or so.  Some days it is all I can manage to wipe the vomit off my face before I go back to bed for the rest of the day.  So expect sporadic posts from me until life starts revolving less around my proximity to the bathroom facilities.

What I Learned from the No-Spend Challenge

Today marks the end of the No-spend Challenge!  I ended up with 6% or my food money and 18% of my household money left over; my toy budget was blown at 49% over.  I consider it a success because I was able to pay for all the car inspections and maintenance without drawing down any of my savings.

Things I Learned From the No-Spend Challenge:

(1) Murphy is always waiting just around the corner; a financial cushion makes this an annoyance rather than a disaster.  Yeah, I knew this already, but being extra money-conscious this month definitely reinforced the message.  No sooner had I decided to spend no money from my toy budget, then my computer blew up.  Now, if I had to, I could live without a computer and do all my internet from the library.  A working computer is not a necessity like food and shelter.  But it sure was nice to have the extra cushion to just make a new computer happen painlessly.

(2) Freezers are only frugal if properly utilized.  There is way more stuff in my freezer than I had realized.  We didn't even really make a dent in the freezer this month, even though our food budget was halved.  I'm considering reworking my food budget to continue to require myself to eat from the freezer at least a couple of nights a week.  I'm really good at putting stuff up, but it's not frugal if you put it up and then it spoils before you use it.

(3) Obsessively chasing online deals is not frugal.  I buy a lot of stuff online, so I am on a ton of mailing lists.  Most of them send me an offer every day.  Before this month, I've had a list of what needs to be purchased, and every day I check the deals offered by any stores that have the items on my list until there is a really good deal on what I need.  This month, since I was buying only essentials, I deleted all of those emails without reading them and added 20 minutes of productive time to my day.  It's easy to get a good deal online; getting an excellent one is a challenge.  Spending 20 minutes a day for a week on a $1K item to save 10% might make sense; spending the same time for 10% off a $10 item does not.  I'm unsubscribing from all those deal lists and just shopping for small dollar items as I need them from now on.

Right before I started this challenge, Debt Ninja posted his belief that "[No-Spend Challenges] are just an excuse for people to pat themselves on the back."  This is the first no-spend challenge that I've ever participated in, so I didn't have an opinion at the time, but I resolved to come back to his post after this challenge was over.  I certainly didn't expect to learn anything from the challenge; I thought I'd just end up with more money at the end of the month.  This No-Spend Challenge helped me pinpoint leaks of both time and money that make my lifestyle less than optimally frugal, and I saved some money, so I'd say they can be worthwhile.

Want to be my Accountability Buddy?

Hard to believe that February is almost over!  Only 2 days left of the no-spend challenge, and, barring anything unforeseen, I should clear my food and household goals with no problem (the toy budget was blown a long time ago).  I've got 9 days left on the shape up for march challenge, but that will barely last me into March.  It's been great doing these challenges; somehow reading about other people doing the same thing makes it easier to keep myself on track.

Looking at my 2011 goals, I am doing well on all fronts except (a) practicing with carry firearm  (b) doing Flylady routines (c) connecting with my friend and (d) working on piano.

If any of these match up with something you've been thinking about getting serious about, I'd love to have an accountability blogging buddy.  Let me know if you're be interested.

Having too Much Fun to Spend Money

Today I:

Went to the library and discovered that I had 4 ILLs in ...

Read one of them on the stationary bike at the gym ...

Castrated, vaccinated, and tagged some calves, and set the rest up to finish first thing tomorrow ...

Discussed purchasing a house in the neighborhood as a rent house with my parents ...

Made it to Judo only 15 minutes late ...

Came home and ate one of the pizzas that I made Saturday ...

And am now heading happily off to dreamland!

Hope your day was great too.

The Challenges of Spousal Money Management

I woke up this morning to discover that Mr. Goat had made a midnight run for some "necessities."  What really steamed me is that he had asked me to get cat food the night before, I bought some, and he didn't see it, so he bought more.  He also bought kitty litter and dishwasher detergent from Wal-Mart, which is much more expensive than Dollar General.  As we weren't out of either, I was planning on getting them on Saturday with a $5 off $25 coupon.  So he spent about half of my remaining monthly budget, and didn't actually get anything that was urgently necessary enough to pay Wal-Mart prices.

The really frustrating thing is that he doesn't even understand why I am upset.  In his world, if it's in the bank account, it's OK to spend.  He sees that we still have money in the budget to cover it, so he thinks it's all good.  Before we married, when he used to run out of money at the end of the month, he'd just eat beans and rice and buy his smokes with money from his change jar.  He wants to buy whatever tickles his fancy until the money is gone, then tighten his belt until the next paycheck.  I want to divide the money into four reasonably equal amounts and have an even standard of living throughout the month.  Normally I have enough flex in my budget to accommodate these midnight runs (he makes them two or three times a month), but since I am doing a no-spend challenge this month, these last few days are going to be pretty tight.

Luckily, we still have plenty of stuff in the freezer, so I think that, as long as I don't have to buy gas between now and next Monday, I should still come under budget.  Considering his proclivities in the financial department, he does pretty well accommodating to my very different financial style.  And I'll be repeating this mantra to myself until I've calmed down enough to be rational about this.

Do you and your spouse/partner have different financial styles?  How to you create a blend?  Even if your blend works pretty well, do you ever want to smack him or her over the head when they make monetary choices that seem utterly bizarre to you?