The Blade is Dulled, but the Battle is not Over! Fight, Ronin, Fight!

Why we didn't win.

First off, I will casually confess I'm somewhat of a defeatist. I typically look on the worst side of things and my outlook is more than occasionally grim. This is regularly vexing to my better half, the Budget Naginata.

When I get overwhelmed by something, I typically quit. No, it's not very sportsmanlike of me and no, it doesn't really solve anything. I admit all of these things. This is also the undergirding reason why I haven't been posting since the beginning of the year. Things have not been well and I didn't really want to just sit here and write one depressing post after another.

"Yes we spent money. Yes we ate out crappy food. Yes we bought nonsensical goods that don't better us as a financially independent entity."

I wasn't in the mood to do that, so I avoided it.

... so here we are. One year later. (Truth be told, it's one year and four days later, but we set May 1st to be the cutoff date, so there we go).

In the broadest sense of the contest, we totally lost. We have spent money on things that were unessential to us and we have plans to expand that in the coming months. I'm not going to break it down to you in dollars and cents, but it's enough.

So normally here is where I would shut down, lower my head and kick at the dirt a bit.

As I geared myself up to write this, however, that not everything is completely horrible. We did accomplish some pretty decent stuff over the past 12 months:

1. We finished paying off our Budget-Mobile, which makes it completely ours and saves us a bundle each month on payments.
   
   
2. We finished our credit card repayment program. This saves us even more than the car and frees up even more money.
   
   
3. We reconditioned an outstanding school loan and put us in good standing with the institution. Yes, we still owe a boatload on that, but we now can forebear during lean months, whereas before we didn't have that option.
   
   
4. Now that we have some money freed up, I started auto-drafting some money into a savings account. It's not much, but it's a good start.
   
   
5. We have used our tax refund this year to make some vital improvements/repairs to our house. We are close to a position to sell our "starter home" and possibly move into a better place closer to where both Budget Naginata and I work. It may mean a bigger house payment, but what we would save in time and gasoline should more than offset that. Should this occur, we'll also most likely eliminate a small equity loan that we had to take out to make some repairs after the first year we lived in the house.
   
   
6. The upcoming stimulus package will fix some broken things on the Budget-Mobile. We're very excited about having it in great working order.

These are some pretty significant things to happen that impact our financial standing. These are things I should not discount when I think of all the other things that have happened to us. The Budget-Clan is still dealing with a family medical issue that requires us to buy several extra tanks of gas over the course of a month and we all know that's not getting any cheaper. We are also still trying to make some final upgrades to the house to get in selling order and that requires more money. The Budget-Truck has remained unmoved for months due to a faulty starter (we think) and we have not had the money or opportunity to get that fixed.

Seriously, I could go on. Things are better in many ways, but we have a whole array of new problems. This, as I understand it, is what life is like.

I was going to ramble more... but I think I will save that until May-Day.

hmmmm.....Just to clarify....

"I'm sure that Budget-Edamame would chime in her praise if she knew that her new rations of marshmallows and noodles will soon be purchased from the salary of said job."

Thank you for the kudos on the job, I would like to point out however that Budget Edemame does not just eat noodles and marshmallows.

That does it for this edition of "The who in the what now?"

Back and Budget-ier than ever!

So...

I guess I'm a bit late and all. Nevertheless, the budgeting goes on! I think there is a certain amount of shame involved in the upcoming post, because I know I've been bad. I blame the holidays. I was looking to spend nothing, like the months leading up to December, but Naginata and I agreed that we needed to spend somthing on Budget Edamame since she is totally worth it.

The holiday rush also had us buying some meals and cutting some corners on other things as well, with one specific result. The Budget-Mobile remained our burden. We didn't get the chance to finish our payments as I had hoped. That being said, we actually rallied this month to send out that final payment. Currently we are waiting for it to clear so we can put that behind us.

So now we can start looking forward to clearing some of our debt. A school loan, an equity loan on the Budget-Stronghold we had to take out shortly after purchasing it many years ago and a small in-collections loan for our replacement AC. I'll cover these more as we get to them, but I think the AC loan should take little time and the house loan might be able to be eliminated inside of two years.
Getting back on track is the biggest thing. The holidays threw us all for a loop. Driving to relatives house cost tons in gas and sanity. Quick meals and a couple of big feasts cost more money at the grocery store than we expected and despite Budget-Naginata's amazingly wonderful crafted gifts and my banana bread, we still had to spend some money on gifts. Mind you, we tried to do it as economically as we saw fit, but out of budget spending is still out of budget spending.

Starting next month, I'll be devoting more money to savings. I'd like to have a nice pad of savings to back us up so we are less crippled by life events such as holidays or emergencies. The first of the month will still have our mortgage, which is still like 60-70% of that paycheck, so there will not be a lot of breathing room there, but with the repayment of our credit cards and our car loan, we gain so much the second half of the month. Everything I've read tells me to auto-draft savings so that I'm not even thinking about it. I'm going to set that up today to distribute a healthy amount back to us. The rest I'll use to start targeting our remaining debts.

Side-note: A great article here on automating your finances. I'll definitely be "borrowing" some of these going forward: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/01/13/how-to-automate-your-personal-finances/

Along with the other grand news of debt reduction, I can proudly announce that Budget-Naginata has a new job! I'm very proud of her and everything she's done to help all three of us out. I'm sure that Budget-Edamame would chime in her praise if she knew that her new rations of marshmallows and noodles will soon be purchased from the salary of said job.

So with new income on the way and old debt left back in '07, it looks as if 2008 has the potential to be a good fiscal year for the Budget-Clan. I promise you'll hear more from me, good or bad, to keep you all up to date.

At this point, less than 100 days left in the Mayday challenge. Even though we've fallen off the wagon, I'm going to rededicate myself on spending as little as possible between now and May 1st! Wish me luck!

Not Dead!

... just tired because of the holidays. More posts to come, honest.

WBRFS #7

SHOWDOWN!
Budget Ronin vs. the Fist of the Open Future!
"Goodbye Old Friend! Greetings to our Newest Adversary!"

That's right. I didn't even start with an apologetic intro. I'm on time today! I have, however, spent a good deal of the day kicking around what I wanted to write about. I mean, here I am on time, but lacking something to complain about.

Thank goodness for the Internet and it's infinite array of diversions. You may be surprised to find that many of the places you go to find out fun and interesting facts are littered with material designed to activate your consumer bloodlust. Yes. I was shocked, too.

I'm usually fairly immune to advertising, but occasionally there will be some sort of product that will be lurking in a clever flash sidebar that will grab my attention enough to make me go and look at some flashy thing that I totally don't even begin to "need" in the way that I need food or clothes or beer. After I see it, however, my brain will get all obsessive and suddenly I'll recognize that this is exactly what the advertisers want.

Sure, sure, you know all of this already. So what does this mean to you, the readers of Budget Ronin?

Um? Give me money so I can buy things? I totally want to consume!!!!

The halfway point in the challenge is now much, much harder, I came to realize today. Couple that with the fact that we are almost done paying off the Budget-Mobile (the penultimate payment clears this afternoon). The Mayday Challenge after the first of the year will actually be not to break the challenge and buy things that we'll actually be able to afford for a change.

I think that it really just "feels" like we'll have more money than we actually will. I've been focusing heavily on the last couple of days to itemize and estimate things on The List. The List is now the new name for all the previous lists. I've even come up with clever acronyms for things. So far we have:

1. WLI: Wish List Items - Things that are "pie in the sky" things that we'd like to have the money to do once in our lifetime, like taking an exotic cruise around the world or hiking the Cotswold Trail.

2. LTI: Long Term Items - Things that will most likely require financing. Not that we're planning to get one, but a new car would be a prime example.

3. STI: Short Term Items - These are things that are outside the scope of impulse buying but don't require financing. These are things that we might have charged to a credit card at one point, but we'd do better at saving cash a month or so in advance to purchase without creating more debt. Fixing the struts in the Budget-Mobile is a fine example of this.

4. OPI: Outstanding Payment Items - The few random collection agency things or doctor's bills that are not much, but we need to catch up on to resolve them on our credit history. These are tricky, because most of them are just annoying, not expensive, so we fall into the trap of letting them ride for another month because we need to buy tortilla shells instead.

So I've got a spreadsheet with all the WLI, LTI, STI, and OPIs I can come up with. Frankly, even if you drop off the Wish List Items, it's a hefty bottom line. It's made me realize that despite the challenges that we have recently beaten, there are always new financial challenges out there. Has anything really changed? Will I fall back into old habits? Will the sudden rush of money cause me to fall back into bad habits?

It's a tough call. I'll confess that despite the excitement or enthusiasm expressed here in my interweb-log, I don't really relish saving reciepts, crunching numbers or making lists. I look for excuses to do it and it doesn't take much to derail me if I let it. I guess that's why I try to be as honest as possible here, because I think a lot of being a fiscally responsible person is being honest and transparent. No, I'm not going to give you all access to my online banking to watch me, but I will try to report not only my successes, but my failures right here.

For example, since our payoff discovery, Budget Naginata and I have already made a new exception to the rule that allows us to order takeout once a month. We started it last month to justify our celebratory dinner and we've let it ride so far because we've both had a bit of extra income from side projects. I'm trying hard to keep this to once a month.

So when I re-read my entries to see how amazing I am, instead of convincing myself that it's a good reward to get something new and shiny, I'll be humbled, if just a little, to remember how this all happened and why I got started on the Challenge in the first place.

Whew. That was a lot.

Better head out now before a cause a market panic in my IP. (Look, real market-type talk!)

B.R.

Holy Carp!

I just fished myself out of the gutter. I've been under a rock trying to get a side-project done, not even realizing that it put me 2 weeks behind for the Showdown. I'm a very bad Ronin. No wonder the feudal lords never made a Samurai of me.

Ok. So... We're past the halfway mark! Woo!!!! A week or so past, you know, when I should have been keeping up with the Showdown, I could have actually posted this little fact when it was timely. Regardless, it's still relevant.

So how are we doing on the downhill slide? Things are not too bad at the Budget-Compound.
Both Budget Naginata and I have some extra money coming in from side projects. Our Budget-Mobile is still on track for being paid off at the beginning of the year. Our credit card debt is now a thing for the history books, at least for the time being and Naginata and I are trying to get things organized for what's coming up next year.

Already we are looking at funding one big home improvement project that will greatly help the resell of the ole' Compound, as well as making the place a bit more energy efficient and comfortable to dwell in. It will cost some money, however, so we're trying to approach it with the mindset of getting as much of the cost front-loaded as possible and have a timely schedule for paying it off.

We also have repairs on the Budget-Mobile to slot and we're looking forward to and actual perhaps vacation this coming summer.

Other updates: The hot-tub still languishes unsold, unused, unwanted in the back. The Budget-Truck could use some nuts and/or bolts to get it back up to 100% and we still have some miscellaneous unpaid debts that would be great to get rid of.

It looks like we've settled on the following percentages for our Budget Buckets right now: 70% household maintenance, 10% Long Term: Savings, 10% Short Term: Projects, 10% Fun (after the Challenge is over, for now, we'll be putting that extra 10% into Long Term). Ultimately I'd like to get our debt for our household expenditures down to 50% and put more in Long Term Savings and add some to a Charity Bucket. There is at least three more persistent things we pay for, two of which we might be able to resolve inside of a year or two. This is pretty critical, especially if we want to take on the extra cost of the home fixup.

I think I'll save more about what we plan to do to the Compound on a later post (perhaps this week's Showdown).

That's all I've got for this quick update.

WBRFS #6

Well... one week on time is a good start. Last week Budget Naginata was away from the Budget-Compound, so Budget Edamame and I held down the fort by ourselves. I took a couple of days off of work to be with her, including Friday. Pardon my truancy.

Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Perplexing Percentages of Peril!
"The alchemy of finance! Don't let your world explode!"

Things I meant to do this weekend:
1. Clean out my inbox.
2. Work up a budget spreadsheet.
3. Talk with Naginata about said spreadsheet.
4. Bake some muffins.

Things I accomplished:
1. Delicious muffins.

I just wanted to post that to demystify the oft-glamorized world of the Budget Ronin. An unproductive weekend, aside, I've been looking at some numbers here at work on my coffee break and think I'm looking at some reasonable percentages. Mind you, I am expecting some fluctuation as we continue to pay off some long term debt, but right now I think we' can say that 70% of the income can cover our obligations and expenses, which leaves us with 10% for short term projects, 10% for long-term investing and 10% for fun. That is the standard we'd like to shoot for. I think starting there and then reducing our obligations by 10% so that we can put that over to charity or redistribute to savings.

I haven't given it a lot of consideration because it looks like we're overspending on our obligations just over 5% or so. Which means we could trim off that amount from fun and still meet our budget. I have identified close to another 20% of our obligations that is long-term debt. I'm not sure we can escalate the payment of this in any easy way and still save a good chunk of money, but I intend to bring it up to Naginata so we can make an informed decision about it together. If we can move it over, we can easily get to 60% income only to obligatory cost and leave 40% open for savings/investment/recreation.

Having 40% of the Clan's income going to exactly where we want it to go makes me very happy. Assuming the car payments go according to schedule, we should be on track for being close to 30% at the top of the year.

I'm trying to think of a good way to organize receipts and expenditures. Maybe buckets or folders that get emptied out once a month. Hmmm. I know there are several online services and several computer programs that would let me track expendatures, but I would really like to make things less complicated, not more. Streamlining is what I'm aiming for.

If we are hitting our percentages, especially our obligatory expenditures and our LT/ST savings, then I'm not so inclined to be nitpicky over the remaining % points. Again, less worried that spent $5 over on any one thing, more worried if we come in 5% over budget per month.

I'm going to try and hammer out something solid with Naginata this week so that this Friday's Showdown isn't another repeat episode.

Enough rambling for now. Let me go look at buckets, baskets or bundles for our new receipt accounting.

This post came in under budget, but over time.

B.R.

WBRFS # 5

Bang! Right to the Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown!

Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Crushing Fear of Unseen Expenses!
"From out of the Darkness, razor-sharp receipts! Beware the papercuts, Ronin!"

This is still a tough time for us. Despite the deluge of great news about our debt and car loan, we still don't have money. Just resolving the debt wasn't like winning the lottery as far as our bank account was concerned. So we've still had to be very careful, even though I can tell the mood between Naginata and I regarding our finances is markedly different. We're very excited at the prospect of making progress instead of just filling holes that seemed relatively bottomless.

As part of the changes going on around our house and blog, I'm going to stop blogging my receipts. Taking my last Showdown to heart, I'm going to start planning for a monthly budget report instead. I've done a good job at curbing impulse shopping (all shopping really) and I think the previous half-year (177 days to be precise, but still, pretty darn close) has strengthened my resolve quite a bit. I think at this point, reading that I spent $2 on bananas or 10 quatloos on tribble food. Yeah. You thought my quatloo jokes were done, didn't you?

Anyway, obscure fictional science-fiction currency aside, I am going to start working on a monthly analysis that tells us more of an over/under of where we are hitting on our percentages for the month and year. I kind of screwed the pooch on some receipts for the last few weeks, so I won't be doing October, but November and December still give me ample time to ramp up for our first new year of non-car/non-credit card budgeting. I'll probably try some formats and names out just to see what looks good visually.

So sometime in the next couple of weeks between now and All Hallows Eve, I'm going to try and do some number crunching with Budget Naginata and see where we want to put down our numbers. It's like projecting for the next fiscal year, which is all business-like and far too grown up for my own tastes. Regardless, it's a positive first step and while I don't really want to run our household like a business, projecting a profit for the Budget Clan's 2008 fiscal year is an altogether new and giddy experience that I want to be a part of. I think I might have t-shirts made or something. Let's see the Gamemasters of Triskelion beat that!

Further updates from the Budget Clan?

We still have not sold/unloaded the hot-tub. We're thinking about just giving it away at a loss. Now that the extra couple of hundred does not seem an insurmountable loss, I'm inclined just to reclaim the deck space and my sanity.

Our first credit-card refund has arrive and been deposited. Our second is en route. Our last credit-card disbursement has been paid. I have to verify with the creditor it has bee received, but I'm pretty sure this clears us on all the cards.

Our Budget-Mobile is still slated to be paid off by the end of the year. Yay!

Budget Naginata and I are looking to move banks from Spank of America to something else. Recommendations and/or advice are welcome. Something online would be fine, but we would like someplace we can physically make deposits instead of having to mail anything in.

Well, that's it. Showdown is on time and I am off to work on pie charts... or maybe just some pie.

Compounding intrest daily,

B.R.

WBRFS #4

[Note: I started this on time on Friday, the 12th, which is why I'm so happy.]

Back on track, today, after several personal delays, we are back to the Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown. Setting the calendar reminder was a big help, too. Today's episode is...

Showdown!

Budget Ronin vs. the Spectre of Spending!

"Don't be distracted, Ronin! Let your aim be true!"

I put the last sum of credit card money into the debt repayment system today. I authorized CCCS to make the final disbursement on my behalf and I just need to follow up to make sure the credit card company gets it in a few days. I can't even begin to tell you what a relief that is. But with the big refunds in the mail, I do feel like we can breathe a bit easier. It doesn't feel so bad.

There, my friends, is the challenge. It does not _FEEL_ bad, but it is not necessarily good. It is not as if Budget Naginata and I have a great deal of money saved. Should we run into an unexpected car expense, we still do not have the means to fix it yet. While planning to pay off the car and starting some significant savings sounds like a great idea, I think the sudden rush of money feels very intoxicating. I'm looking at things and thinking to myself: "Wow. In a couple of months I could buy that no problem."

It occurred to me today that this is exactly the kind of thinking that got us in trouble in the first place. I don't think we'll rush into getting credit cards so quickly this time, we have plenty of credit building power from our house, a large school loan and paying off some miscellaneous collections. I may consider getting a single gas credit card to put our gas expenditures on that we can pay off in full each month, but right now I'm more concerned with paying off the car and fixing up our broken things.

But no single monthly paycheck is going to cover all of this, so we need to look at our newfound income and split it up into discrete sums that we can use to further our goals. I've done some reading online (original authors forgive me, I've forgotten exactly where), but most budget blogs/financial specialists I've studied break it up into percentages of your total income. Here's a couple I remember:

Plan A: 60% living expenses, 20% investing, 20% savings.
Plan B: 60% living expenses, 10% investing, 10% long term savings, 10% short-term/fun money. (I know I'm missing 10% here, but that's what I honestly recall).

I think you get my intentions here. I'm looking at what we spend against what we should save for (retirement and investments) and would still like to factor in some fun. So the question I ask you faithful readers is this... what percentages would/do you chose for your budget? I've got some ideas, but I need to talk it over with Naginata.

Ideally, I'd love to get our living expenses down to 50% of my income, but I'm assuming 60% is more realistic. With the remaining 40%, I wonder what I would feel comfortable allocating to Savings, Investment, Charity, and Fun? Do I make it an even split? Do I weight one over the other?

This is my big conundrum for the day.

[Note: Now it's Monday, the 15th.]

Still my conundrum, a few days later. Dang, I almost had it all done on time, too. I probably just should have posted as is/was. I have more to talk about, but I'm totally not with it right now. Sorry for the late Showdown posting.

More debt-free than ever before!

B.R.

[10.16.07 edit: There's a line above that got spell-checked into nonsense, so I substituted something that sort of made sense to me now.]

Mistakes were made...

I know I skipped my weekly Budget Ronin Fianancial Showdown last week. I think I was turned around from having to make up for one from the week before. But rather than try to make up and miss another, I 'll just plan to start up again on time. There is, however, a hitch. I'm on the road again for business, so I don't have all my receipts to catch up on. Nor do I have all my Budget Ronin tools and implements of destruction.

So I'll probably do the next WBRFS next friday. Right now this is me setting myself a calandar reminder

OK. Reminder is now set.

So... what's been happening since the big reveal last post? More typically good things. We recieved a notice back from two of our creditors that we had not only finished our debt repayment, but that we had actually paid over by a significant amount. After a quick call or so, we now have two refund checks in the mail. Sweet Victory is even sweeter!

We're going to sink that money into eliminating Budget Naginata's overdraft debt that I highlighted a few weeks ago here in the 2nd Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown. That will put us more square with our finances and take one more card off the table. We are then looking at a better place to start a new account that we will both use.. Advantage: Budget-Clan.

Naginata has gotten some great freelance work, and we're on track for everything. For a change, I have nothing but good fiancial news to report.

I'm on my expense account, so I will be eating craptacularly well today, enjoying every meal. I will probably do another update before the week is out.

I have something else on my mind, but I'm not sure I have the time and/or focus to go into it now.

Willfully Breaking the Rules.

So last night I spent $5.07 on two ice cream treats for Budget Naginata and myself. I know that you ask yourself why the Budget Ronin would both break the rules and how he could get away with it after the last Showdown confession that the Budget Clan was deep in the hole?

I robbed a bank.

Ok. I didn't really rob a bank.

To pick up where we left off in the last post, I did contact some family and they were able to give me the money we needed to put us square with the bank. I picked up a check yesterday and put it in the night deposit last night.

I made the decision to get treats for Naginata and I prior to even this? Why? Why would I break my own challenge rules? Well, honestly, because some things deserve a big, damn celebration. And in lieu of fireworks and streamers, we got ice cream.

At the end of next month, October of 2007, Naginata and I will have no more credit card debt.

It started with a couple of letters from two creditors telling me that we had finished our debt repayment program with them. I called the agency that had been facilitating this for us, the fabulous Consumer Credit Counseling Service. (I'd provide a link, but it varies from town to town. Google "CCCS" and your town and you should be golden.) They confirmed we had indeed finished those two and had a zero balance with one of the remaining two and a small balance with the last creditor. They encouraged me to confirm this yesterday, so I did.

Well, here's my warning to anyone in a debt repayment program. Don't be afraid to knock on some doors. CCCS was mostly correct. We actually had a $9 charge left with one creditor, and the balance on the remaining one was about $10 off. Neither of these is a huge deal and I paid off the $9 charge this afternoon, so we have one last payment to our final creditor scheduled for next month.

This brings up our level of workable return income drastically. So much so that we will be able to escalate our last few remaining car payments and be done with paying off the Budget-Mobile by the end of the year. Wow. By the start of 2008, we'll have a paid-off car and no credit card debt.
This returns roughly 20% of my take-home income back to me. Considering right now we have about 0% discretionary income, that's quite a big leap.

I was so excited, I broke the rules.

Now back to the nitty-gritty. We still have a challenge to win, a car to pay off and some savings to accrue. I also have one more personal debt I have to pay off. But all this is on the heels of some really great news that has put some spring back into my Budget Ronin Geta.

This was not the result of luck or good fortune. We started this repayment program over five years ago and did not miss a single payment. It's the seed of the plant we are now tending every day, and I can say with certainty that it is because we thought ahead back then that we reap the rewards of that forethought now. I'm taking that very much to heart right now.

Wow. By the time the challenge is over, I might actually have my stuff together.

New! With reconstituted ideas!

We bought food... you know, so we could eat it.

On Sept. 8th, before our trip out of town, we bought:

Eggs $1.5
Milk $1.5
=total $3

Upon our return, Sept. 23rd, we bought:

Apples $3
Bananas $1
Yogurt $2.5
Grits $1
Bacon $2.5
Powdered Milk $8
Jelly $2
=total $20

We switched to powdered milk after we did a test run a couple of weeks ago after reading this article:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/09/08/how-to-feed-yourself-for-15-a-week/

So far the powdered milk is a good option for us. It's cheaper, it doesn't go bad as quickly and seems a bit... um... cleaner? It works well for cereal, recipies and I've even used our Budget Cappucino machine to make pasable lattes (our tip on cheap mixed coffee drinks? cheap espresso tastes just as good when you plan to add a heavy flavor like chocolate to your mix). I'll let you know if we plan to change, but so far, it's really nice just being able to make a quart or two of milk rather than having to run to the store for a "fresh" gallon.

So far, no plans to swap out to powdered eggs or freeze-dried beer.

WBRFS #3

The third installment is late, for reasons explained below.

Showdown!

Budget Ronin vs. the Longest Journey!

"A small victory in the face of overwhelming odds! Ronin refuses to surrender!"

Last week we spent time out of the house. Although my employer regards it a "vacation," Budget Naginata, Edamame and I were out of town for anything but a relaxing time. I won't go into great details, because this is blog for financial analysis, but Naginata has a sibling in the hospital in a scary and uncertain condition. We have our best thoughts out for their recovery and, if you are so inclined, we wouldn't mind a few positive thoughts sent our way.

As we spent all of last week at their house, trying to help out the family, I ruminated on the cost of the treatments and considered us and them lucky to have a good insurance program to fall back on. I know it is a situation that many people are not fortunate enough for, but all things considered, should Naginata or Edamame have something wrong with them, it is not a concern of ours to whisk them away to the hospital and apply whatever knowledge Western medicine can give us to help allievate their problems.

I say this because it is a comfort in our small world of financial uncertainty. Things really are a roller coaster at the Budget-Castle. This weekend, we were notified by two of the five credit card companies we are in debt repayment with, that our obligations had been fulfilled. They thanked us for our participation and we are free and clear of those two accounts. That is a great cause for celebration.

The celebration is short lived, however, because due to the expense of tripping out of state, we have bounced several large checks and currently owe our primary bank a significant amount of cash, to the extreme that we cannot recover when my paycheck comes in at the end of the week. This puts us in the horrible position of having to ask for assistance from relatives.
Odds are we will be able to secure the cash. Having to ask for it, however, is not a position I want to be in. I called my stock broker today to see if there was anything left in any account I had with him. I haven't talked to my stock broker in over five years. I almost considered calling my old boy scout troup to see if I could sell tickets to the Jamboree instead of asking to borrow money.

I'm sure many of you reading this know how humbling it must feel to be a parent and have the expectations of an adult resting on your shoulders and immediately feel transformed back to the age of 14 or 16, trying to con your parents for the keys to the family automobile. It's uncomfortable and often belittling and I want to turn tables so that I'm in a better position than to have to ask anyone other than my own savings account for a little extra money to make up a shortfall.

But thinking of Naginata's sibling and that family dealing with a much more serious crisis really humbles your view on some things. I should be thankful for relatives that would be there for me and would loan me this money. I am thankful knowing that were I the one in the hospital, they would be right there for me. Dispite many of my misgivings, I feel like I have done something very much right in my life to have these people around me and work hard to be someone worthy of their trust and friendship. A large part of my quest for financial stability is not for the best wall-mounted plasma television or expensive vacation abroad, but to be in the position for my friends and family to know that they could come to me and be able to count on my support during their times of turmoil.

I hope this was not overly depressing or preachy. I don't confess to having a lot of answers, just the tenacity to try and make a better life for those around me, friends, family and others. As far as Budget Ronin go, I consider myself lucky to have the friends and family that stand by me. I hope that each of you are equally lucky.

My wallet is empty, but my heart is full.

B.R.

WBRFS #2

Here is the second installment of my would-be ongoing series. My Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown.

Showdown!

Budget Ronin vs. the Overdraft Overlord!

"Helpless against Service Fee Magic, a new technique revealed!"

A week or so past, I answered the house phone and got a fun surprise!* A creditor was kindly calling to remind us of a past due amount on a credit card on my Budget Naginata's account. I had a quick chat with her, because I had hoped it was a mistake. I spoke with Naginata and she informed me this was her overdraft account.

I knew she had an overdraft, but neither of us realized it was that out of sorts. Mind you, I'm not blaming anyone for anything. I have an overdraft on my account as well, and it stays mostly maxed out at this point because we can only barely cover the bills we have, which is kind of the whole point of this blog anyway.

So what next? Well, we scrape together the money to pay off the late fees for the overdraft, but it kind of puts us back where we were in the first place, which is more money out of pocket and more in debt. What's a Budget Ronin to do?

I discussed this at length with Naginata and we came up with a few things:

1. Two overdrafts is easily one overdraft too many. We're getting hers shut off and we're going to pay it off so that it's done, never to be resurrected.

2. We're looking at closing that account of hers. We have two accounts to cover my steady paycheck and normal bills/expenses and hers as a sort of slush fund for other expenses. This is not really working well, since you shouldn't have to pay penalties for your slush fund. It's supposed to be for extra money, not extra money we don't have.

3. We've decided to move the expenses she typically concerns herself with over to cash. Typically Naginata writes the check for groceries, Budget Edamame's schooling and gas for the vehicles. We think that by moving them over to cash we have a better chance at maintaining a tighter budget and more control over recognizing what financial latitude we have at any given point.

Here's how #3 is going to work out. Mind you, I don't consider this revolutionary, we've both read of things like this from other sources, but after some review, we think it might work well for us. Cash in trackable envelopes. We're going to mark envelopes with specific amounts of cash that we know we'll need for each of our expenses: Groceries, Gas, Edamame's school. We'll deposit cash in the envelopes for use for those budgeted expenses and withdraw them to pay for the items. That way we know exactly what we have and don't have available to us. Need gas? No overdrafting, get money from the envelope. Extra money is rolled into the next envelope. Hopefully we'll eventually actually get enough extra money to put into savings or something fantastic like that. And so it goes...

Since we need to know how much to put in, this puts us in the position of budgeting our groceries in a more orderly fashion. Planning for stock items like litter and toilet paper every two months and edibles every other week. This also puts us in the position to splurge less on trips to the store, which has been a vulnerability in our otherwise good plans.

I don't know if any of this will work, but I know that paying service charges on overdraft fees for money we don't have isn't making me sleep any better at night, so we'll try this for now.

And if think that having loose cash on hand puts us at risk, I should warn you that I fill the Budget Clan Compound with deadly spiders. Hundreds of thousands of deadly spiders. It's so dangerous to intruders that we don't even actually live there anymore.

Unrelated, I'll be trying new catchphrases until I get one I like.

Neither Standard nor Poor,

B.R.

*note: Actually, not fun at all.

No catchy story

No, seriously, I don't have one.

I just have a receipt for groceries. On 9/6, we bought:

Cupcakes $4
Something $2 <- The receipt is slightly damaged
Roast Beef $6
Pork Roast $7
Spaghetti $1.5
Tortillas $2
Ice Cream $4
Pretzels $2
Bagels $2.5
Mushrooms $1.5
Grapes $1.5
Pears $2
Tomatoes $3
Garlic $.25
Sour Cream $1
=total $40.25

Moral of the non-story. The Pork Roast was delicious.

And your name is? And we know you from...?

Hello! Budget Naginata here. Just popping to say that Budget Ronin has not disposed of me in any way and that I suck at posting. But of course you already KNOW that.
I have always been an avid blog reader and I want to post more but it is truly hard for me for some reason. I'm guessing it has to do with a deep seated problem of not wanting to face my fears/stress/life. Or I could just be lazy. A little from column A, a little from column B.
Anyway, I am still in on the experiment and I have to say that I've been really impressed with the ability of Budget Ronin to bounce back from some of the budget traumas of the past 4 months. His normal melancholic nature hampers him but he's really worked hard to focus on the learning experience and I for one am proud of him.
Go team Venture!
Here's to rededicating myself to actually post. Please for the love of God, don't hold your breath! ;)

WBRFS! #1

First installment here, so bear with me while I work on some sort of formula to make accessible and fun to read. I really should be doing pictures or something. In the meantime I present:

Showdown!

Budget Ronin vs. the Dental Dragon!

"In the mouth of danger, floss, Ronin, floss!"

One of the Budget Clan needs some dental work that we totally can't afford. Steadfastly, they have been holding out so as not to tax our already strained accounts. We went to get an estimate at the dental surgeons and planned to add it to our next year Flexible Spending Account that I get as a benefit of my job. I consider myself lucky to have this benefit and it has already proven itself invaluable. Luckily for us, we can spend any amount of the FSA at the beginning of the year, allowing to schedule as soon as the next calendar year rolls around.

Budget Naginata was called this morning with the estimate on the surgery. It is close to $2000. Perhaps it's my own unfamiliarity with the cost of some things, but it just seems like a lot of money. It seems like a lot of money we already don't have, so I got a bit depressed about it over the phone.
That's pretty much where I am with it. I don't have a good plan other than going ahead to extend our FSA by the requried amount to cover the procedure. It really needs to be done now, but we don't have a lot of choice, barring a lottery win or a surprise inheritance from a long-lost uncle Stan (wherever you are, lost uncle Stan, we really wish you no ill).

I've been trying to think of what can offset the cost. Thinking positively, this should be a one-time occurance, so we'll only need to expand our budget for the upcoming year (2008). The year after (2009), should see a reduction and more money back in the general funds. Also, 2008 should see the end of the normal payments on the Budget-Mobile. Even with the repairs we were going to do, there should be some left over to put into fixing up the Budget Truck and/or socking away into a savings account. I'm giddy at the thought of that. This also doesn't take into account any yearly adjustment my comapany might make on my salary come review time at the end of the year.

Regardless, it boils down to not being ready. I think a lot of what puts people into debt and keeps them there is not being ready.

I'm not really sure if this counts much as a showdown, but it's certainly on my mind. I think by writing it out, and by looking at what we might be able to do would certainly help in the future. I know that the FSA is good, but this year we tapped out too early. It's only fault is that we can't plan for emergencies such as this one. Really we need to make sure that we have some sort of solid savings accrued. Otherwise we just perpetuate the vicious lending cycles that led up to the challenge to begin with.

This is where my catchy catchphrase would go.

B.R.

Big News and New Feature!

Wow. I need to be flogged with some sort of flogging device. I've missed an important milestone and have not posted about it.

The Budget Clan is 1/3rd of the way done with our challenge!

I'm very excited by this. 1/3rd is a pretty hefty chunk of a year. Four months down and eight to go. I think that in this spirit of revelry that I should rededicate myself to keeping current on all things by starting a weekly feature:

The Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown.

The Showdown will be where I stand and face my current worst financial anxiety with you, my audience and try to make some sense of it. I'll also be recapping any things I might have missed during the week, but I'll try to keep the Showdown about tough decisions and what the Clan and I are doing about them.

I'll be posting by the end of Friday, so hopefully that should add some consistency to the blog as well (warm, thick, sugary frosting like consistency - yum!).

Let me knock out some old expenses here. It seems on 8/4 I missed $29.03 worth of gas for something. Shopping on 8/25 netted me the following:

Bananas $1
Tortillas $2
Cheese $3
Eggs $2
Salsa $2
Chicken $2
Beans $4
Tomatoes $1
?? $2 <- I can't read the receipt on this. Serves me right for not entering it promptly.
=total $19

The great thing about this trip is that I took the tortillas, cheese, beans and salsa, mixed it with some rice and ground beef we had at home and cooked up a weeks worth of burritos for lunch. I froze a good chunk of them and doled them for maintained deliciousness. So for like $10, I got a weeks worth of lunch. Not too shabby and something I'd like to do more of.

Shopping on the 29th sent me scrambling for gas first ($38.00 worth). At the normal grocery and bulk warehouse store(s), respectively, I stocked up on the following:

Cat food $11
Apples $3
Cat litter $4
Snack crackers $5 <-For work. !Yay snacks!
Goldfish $2
Yogurt smoothie (for the Budget Edamame to snack on) $1
=total $26

Bulk toilet paper $16
Bread $5
Peppers $6
OJ $10
Butter $7
Milk $7
Potatoes $9
Cheese $6
Ground Turkey $12
Chicken $15
Cereal $8
Bisquick $4
Fruit $14
Sugar $4
=total $132

Ok... almost there. On 8/30 we made one more run to the store:

Peas $2
Carrots $2
Lettuce $1
Ketchup $3
Syrup $2
Napkins $2
Mac & Cheese $1
Grits $2
Pasta $2
Cat Litter $4 <-The last time out, I got small sizes of both, so I got more.
Cat Food $7
=total $29

Whew! Ok. So now that I've gotten all those receipts filed, I can tell you about the resurrection of the Budget Truck. We sprung $40 for a battery and replaced it. We deemed it a necessary evil for occasionally making our schedule work now that we have our wonderful Budget Edamame attending tiny-person pre-school during the week. During the swap, I, your normally quick fingered Ronin, dropped and lost a nut for one of the retaining bolts. I had to buy a pack at the local autostore for $2. But it works and I've driven it and for the short while, it is of no further problem.

Hottub update: None. No more answers from the online ad either. I'm trying to restrategize this. Please let me know if you have any ideas.

I'm actually going to try start off on a good foot and pen a quick Financial Showdown here in a few minutes, so you may get two posts today.

Two days shy...

Hmm... 12 days since last post, 2 days shy of a fortnight. I'm sure I could have come up with a clever fortnight title if I waited (e.g. A Budget Ronin's Fortnight Lament), but I feel guilty for waiting this long already. Fortnight just sounds so classy.

Speaking of classy... the Craptastiganza has long since been over. I would have posted about the glorious finish, but I don't really have one. I ate all my neo-batchelor food and enjoyed it. Surprisingly, I didn't get sick or anything, but considering I've done that like once in for-never, I'm really not that surprised. I should do some more laps around the track though. I'm thinking about adding one, which would bring me up to a total of one.

I recovered my lovely Budgets Naginata and Edamame on Saturday and we returned reunited as a full Clan. I think there was some lawnmowing in there somewhere, too.

I do need to catch up on a couple of receipts. On 8/10, I was all about the buying gas ($31.51) and drinks:

Beer/Wine $13
Coke $6
=total $19

On the 18th (8/18), we made a strip to the store for necessary supplies for cooking out all weekend:

Coke $7
Buns $1
Cheese $2
Chips $4
Water $3
Tortillas $2
Fruit $2
Lunch Salad $2
Yogurt $1
Eggs $1
Ground Beef $10
Spare Ribs $20
=total: $55

And you can't go a couple of weeks without more gas, so $33.14 on 8/19.

Whew! Obviously I've been carrying a couple of those receipts around in my pocket for a while. I should really put them down more often. Even if it's just a quick gas reciept. But enough about that, let's do some updates:

Hot Tub: No buyer. The most interested prospective shopper sent me many emails, promising to be out this past week. Then nothing. No show, no follow up mails, no nothing. I have no new plan of attack for this one. I might try to just sell the lid, which is in great shape and retails new for like $400 dollars. Maybe give anyone buying it the option of a free hot tub to go with it. Hmmm.

Truck: Still without battery power. Currently sitting in the garage.

Computer: The motherboard I bought was defective, so I'm having to return it. I am now waiting for a new one. This sucks, but not so badly as not having a machine at all, so I'll count my small blessings.

"Are you adequately prepared to rock?"

The Craptasti-ganza continues! Last night a friend came over to keep me company during the vacation absense of Budget Naginata and Budget Edamame. He ended up buying me dinner at a local sandwichery (I don't know if that is really a word, but I'm keeping it). He was also there to witness the spending of the last of my birthday loot.

Yes. Guitar Hero II is currently installed in the Playstation Deuce and I've even decorated my guitar with my kickass Limozeen sticker from my copy of Strong Bad Sings. I am now adequately prepared to rock. It was the last of my birthday cash, and I had to turn in some old games to help make up the difference, but it was totally worth it. We had several rounds of fret-blasting mayhem.

On the way back from the game store, we stopped to pick up some vital supplies:

Milk $2
Kraft Mac & Chee $2
Beer $9
=total $13

The beer was the most important element. It added to the rock-star mystique. Had there been chicken wire around the TV pit in the Budget-Castle, I'd probably have felt the need to hurl my empties. As it stands, we had a couple of sandwiches, a couple of beers and a lot of fun.

Yes, my fingers hurt. Yes, I will be practicing again tonight.