I had previously saved $800 for some event tickets using money only earned for extra like surveys, turk, rebates etc.

Since then I have added $315 for another event and $600 of $1500 for another event Sept 1.

I have gotten $50 in restaurant gift cards and $60 in Amazon gift cards for surveys.

It amazes me how much extra cash can be made for a little extra time without actual $ from employment.

Reviewing YNAB for 2014 I am pretty pleased! There are a few areas to work on but overall we did very well. We bounced up our savings rate, did more for charity, still have no debt and had a lot of fun. I cant wait to see what 2015 brings!

First there are a few small things we need to get under control.
~ We ate out too much in November. I was ridiculously busy.

~ We got notice of a big cable and internet increase

~ I did too much charity Christmas shopping. About $250 more than we planned.

* set a hard limit for eating out of $75 a month. Have a list of very easy last minute meals.

* I have researched the rates of satellite so I am prepared to negotiate with the cable company again. I also did this a year ago. They are the only choice for cable internet here. I plan to do this Monday.

* I enjoyed every bit of the charity shopping so no changes needed there!

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We will be doing the FAFSA again in Jan which I expect will be again be the same as last year. A small amount of unsubsidized loans we thankfully didnt need.

There will be a small change in costs associated with one childs college beginning next fall but the other child also starts. Though he is now on his own I am expecting besides tuition he may need a little more help from us. Any savings from one child will likely go to the other.

My spouse will be getting a small !% raise. We will be bumping up the 401K 1%

I've got our $11,000 ready for the 2015 IRA's from cash reserves.

I need to get back to tracking all my extras earned!!! I'd like to do all of 2015.

We are done and tallied up already for the month. This is Spending and little extras I earned. This does not include investments, charity or sinking funds.

I decided I wanted to track the extras I earned as they add up.


~ Tuition $8912.37

~ cable and internet 97.93

~ electric and nat. gas~$166

~kids netflix at school $8.43

~ cellular $71.30

~ RV repair $65.00

~ groceries $430

~ dining out/ entertaining / booze $200

~pets $69.86

~ yard $5.17

~ grooming $45.04

~ books $43.28

~ kids extras $62

~ home decor $20

~ auto/ boat/camper ins $860 ( 6 months)

~ Gift $275

~hunt/fish $52

~ clothing $10.55

~medical ~ $61.62

~gas $164.6

~ auto repair $325

~ dh spending $60

~~~~~~ EXTRAS EARNED~~~~~~~~~~~
$3.57 Menards rebate
$221.81 surveys-etc.
$50.00 had Discover rewards deposited
$10.00 Target gift card
$18.00 Amazon cards
$0.20 Savings catcher
$2.50 Checkout 51

We have been doing some things right for a while and some things wrong. So I go from here trying to make a good retirement plan. We started getting serious about this retirement thing kind of late in life!

~ We still expect to pay another $37,000 for the child in college.

~ Tech training is all paid now for our other child lives at home so some savings there!

~ We expect to earn $61,000 -$63,000 this year


~ We no debt so that is a big plus!!


~ My spouse is contributing 20% to his plan at work.

~ I maxed out both our IRA's with $ that was in cash.

_ If hubby stays at the current job the next 13 years he should have a pension of $2,200. However we know things can change. Fingers crossed! Too much of retirement working out hinges on this.

According to the calc I used we should be more than on track with the pension and social security. I just don't have full faith where these are concerned.

I'm going to include a snip of our financials:

Some of what shows as cash is the $37,000 earmarked for the kiddo finishing college and the emergency fund.

My goal is to keep converting over time amounts that are in cash into investments. This goes slowly, as my spouse is comfortable with it. I'm not pushing much.

Our income is lower than it used to be and saving much besides what is going into investments is a BIG challenge now. I am going to be doing by best too reduce expenses so I can comfortably bump up the 401K % a bit more. That is game plan 1!

In all likely hood this may be a very boring blog