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.

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! #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.