It doesn’t feel as great the second time around but it’s still a nice load off of my shoulders…

Anyway, here’s the breakdown:

Cash:
This is a little low because, well, I extended myself a bit to get rid of the balances on the credit cards sooner rather than later.

Savings:
With the weekly credit card payments a thing of the past, the pace here should increase to the tune of around $1200 per month…

Gov’t Bonds:
Hey, the rates are quite attractive when compared to a savings account…

Home:
Some months up, some months down.

Auto 1, Auto 2, and Auto 3:
They all dropped. Makes sense — they aren’t getting newer!

Credit Cards:
Hooray!

Auto Loans and Other Loans:
Nothing to report.

Mortgage:
Just another minimum payment.

On second thought, you know, it does feel pretty darn great to have pretty much nothing to say about the liabilities.

Here’s to hoping I can continue on this path for the rest of the year…

For those that haven’t read super closely in the past — and I would never expect you to — the lines in red are infrequent or unusual expenses.

$922.22 : Day Care
$625.28 : Hockey Jersey
$525.00 : March of Dimes
$498.72 : Mortgage
$396.42 : Gasoline
$228.25 : Auto Insurance
$195.49 : Natural Gas
$153.98 : Electricity
$146.18 : Cable/Internet
$141.30 : Tax Preparation
$109.50 : Hockey Skates and Helmet for Duncan
$104.81 : Plastic Hangers
$100.00 : Cash
$90.38 : Land Rover Parts
$66.15 : Business Expenses
$40.08 : Life Insurance
$25.63 : Finance Charges
$21.27 : Cell Phone
$21.26 : Lego Set
$5.00 : Car Wash

That all adds up to $4416.92.

Okay, so, with the success that I had in paying down my credit card debt, well, I got a little crazy on the spending side of things.

I won’t deny it.

I bought a few pricey items (including over $100 worth of plastic hangers!) and even donated $525 to charity but guess what?

Yeah, I could afford it.

And that feels pretty darn good.

Hooray!

Again.

Today was a pay day and my latest paycheck allowed me to make a $450 payment to the fine folks at Chase Bank.

It worked out quite well too as today was my due date so the statement that will come out in a few days will be a totally clean slate.

So, let’s see, the first time around I paid off $28555 in credit card debt in 17 months.

This time, I paid down $28165 in 11 months.

So, if you’re keeping track at home, you can mark that financial goal for 2012 as completed.

Now to build up some savings…

Thanks mostly to that insurance check, my credit card debt level is nearing zero again for the first time in nearly two years.

It feels good.

Here’s the breakdown:

Cash:
Glad I’ve been keeping my distance from the Bank of America fee threshhold.

Savings:
This is the result of weekly transfers of $135. Basically $95 goes in each week to cover my property taxes that come due in July and Decemeber. The other $40 is for whatever…

Gov’t Bonds:
Why am I still holding on to these?

401k:
I’m pretty sure that this is the highest point I’ve ever reported. It was back in October that I broke the six figure mark and I’m up 33% in just 6 months while making no contributions. Crazy.

Home:
Ebb and flow.

Auto 1, Auto 2, and Auto 3:
Eh, they all work.

Credit Cards:
If the balance isn’t gone this month, it’ll certainly be gone next month. It’s crazy what can be done when you really work at it and when some un-expected cash rolls in.

Auto Loans and Other Loans:
Nothing to report.

Mortgage:
Just another minimum payment for now but once the credit card debt is gone, I’ll start attacking this more aggressively.

$922.22 : Day Care
$694.02 : Dentist
$498.72 : Mortgage
$422.99 : Business Expenses
$314.60 : Gasoline
$273.30 : Framed Photos
$225.38 : Auto Insurance
$204.08 : Natural Gas
$157.45 : Clothing Rack
$151.60 : Electricity
$143.18 : Cable/Internet
$140.00 : Cash
$118.89 : Water/Sewer
$76.77 : Clothing
$59.15 : Birthday Presents for Henrik
$40.08 : Life Insurance
$31.47 : Finance Charges
$26.53 : Oil Change
$11.65 : Hat for Duncan
$7.39 : Air Filters for Furnace
$4.95 : ATM Fees

That adds up to $4524.42.

That’s more than I would have liked but the upside is that over $1100 of it went towards unusual expenses (highlighted in red).

And speaking to those, the dentist expense is due to the fact that I dropped dental insurance last year.

Financially, it was still a good move but every now and then, I’m going to get socked right in the mouth with a big bill.

The framed photos were because, though it’s been nearly two years since our major renovation was completed, the walls are still bare. It was time to start changing that with nicely framed photos.

And the clothing rack… Do I have to explain that one?

Sigh…

No, it’s not for my wife’s extensive wardrobe. It’s for my hockey jerseys.

See, my thought is that by having *all* of them in plain sight (instead of hidden away in bins in the attic), I’ll hold back on purchasing new ones. So far, so good…

Oh, and I just thought I’d mention it but this post marks the third year of posting my spending each month. Hat tip to Debt Destroyer who used to contribute over on the Happy Rock for getting me in this groove.

It has saved me money.

So, with that, I’d like to announce that I’ve officially entered the red zone where I step up my debt repayment pace tenfold.

Simply put, I’ll be debt free (besides the mortgage) again in a matter of weeks.

Yes, weeks.

Total combined balance is now just under $2500.

Flashback to May of 2011, less than one year ago, and it was $28k.

I’m so thankful that I never get down on myself regarding my finances for very long even when things are clearly bleak.

Can you say $30k in high interest debt?

Ouch. That might be worthy of a stronger adjective than “bleak”.

Anyway, and I realize this is a couple thousand dollars premature, having endured it all over the past year and a half or so, I’m pretty comfortable in proclaiming that I’ve mastered yo-yo debt levels while keeping a level head.

Is there a merit badge for that?

I’m not saying that that’s a good thing but, really, having done it now twice in a relatively short time period (all within the time period that this blog covers), I’m super confident that I can pretty much dig myself out of anything.

Kitchen renovation… you’re officially on the radar screen.

Hopefully this time, though, I won’t dig myself so deep!

It’s usually because I’ve normally done my tax return in February but not this year — I sill haven’t found the time to sit down and do my taxes so this year, well, February’s just another month…

Lotsa red over there but the 401k bailed me out…

Cash:
Not much movement here. I spent pretty freely this month and I think it shows.

Savings:
Yep, I spent so freely that I had to take some from my savings. Actually, it was dentist bill but, still, I’m not proud of it.

Gov’t Bonds:
Woo-hoo! Three clams!

401k:
There’s a guy at work (a longtime co-worker) who mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he’d just recently topped the $500 mark in his 401k. In response, when I told him that I’d just recently eclipsed the $130000 mark, I’m pretty certain that he didn’t believe me.

I drove my BMW to work the next day just to subtly rub it in. I still don’t think he noticed. Maybe tomorrow I’ll drive it again and park next to him…

Home:
We had some trees taken down by a landscape service to the tune of roughly $2100. Coincidence?

Auto 1, Auto 2, and Auto 3:
Poor auto number three…

Credit Cards:
Not nearly enough of a drop here. As I said, I spent pretty freely in February but I’ve got that out of my system and the balances are all lined up to drop quickly again.

For the year, I’ve knocked out over $2500 so I’m still making decent progress…

Auto Loans and Other Loans:
Nothing to report.

Mortgage:
Just another minimum payment.

Three weeks ago now, I was rear ended by a dunderheaded lummox and it destroyed a tail light and did some cosmetic damage to the rear bumper of my 2004 Land Rover.

Now, what I keep telling myself to do is to sign the check over to the local auto body place and have them take care of everything and give me a brand new looking car in a few days…

That would make me smile.

But I’ve also got dollar signs in my eyes…

See, this is an 8-year old vehicle. Sure, the mileage is low (60k), but it’s still an 8-year old car.

The Kelly Blue Book value is somewhere between $5k and $6k which, in reality, means I’d only get maybe $4k for it in a trade-in whether the bumper is damaged or not.

That said, it drives like a charm and it’s not ready to be traded in. Simply put, even with a damaged bumper, I still think it has plenty of life left.

Let’s say I’m fortunate enough to get another 40k miles out of it…

Now we’re theoretically talking about a 10+ year old vehicle with 100k miles on it.

Does relatively minor cosmetic damage have much of an impact on the trade-in value of a car at the end of its lifespan?

Probably not…

So, with that in mind, would it be financially wise to dump $1700 worth of cosmetic repairs into it?

In this instance, I think my mind is all but made up…

I foresee a considerable drop in my credit card balance in the near future… or a super wicked awesome first birthday party for Henrik… courtesy of Geico.

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PIAC Post Extension
For the record, I own this car free and clear. No lienholders in the mix to coddle so please save me the ethics lecture. I don’t like it either but apparently this is how the system works.

I’m also about 80% sure I can replace and repair the tail light myself for under $100.

For an additional $7 (to buy the special plastic clips), I can re-attach the bumper trim piece too…

A $107 repair job is “good enough”.

Sure, it might seem like they are but… for the most part, they’re not.

Or are they?

In the past, I’ve found that a nice constant to use for this sort of analysis is a utility bill — any utility bill.

I moved into my current home late in October of 2002 but, for simplicity sake, I’ll just pretend that I moved in on January 1, 2003.

Here’s what the my natural gas bill has looked like from 2003 through 2011.

2003 – $329.67
2004 – $988.97 (I switched to a natural gas furnace)
2005 – $1733.93
2006 – $1545.59
2007 – $1666.98
2008 – $1892.21 (Coldest year ever?)
2009 – $1633.42
2010 – $1599.13
2011 – $1512.82

As you can see, I peaked in 2008 and have been on a steady decline ever since.

What happened?

Gas prices do flucuate, yes, but my heating habits certainly haven’t. I like to wear shorts in the house — even in February.

Thanks to global warming (or something), it was a balmy 58 degrees in Connecticut on Wednesday.

So I’ll blame that “inconvenient truth” — and applaud it. Hey, it’s saving me money!

Seriously, though, last time I heard, gas prices have been on the rise since 2008… and are still going higher… yet, my bill is shrinking…

The weather hasn’t been “that” crazy…

What gives?

Ordinarily I’d just flat out say something like, “Things aren’t really going up now, are they?” and end the post there…

But not today…

Could it be that the new siding and that insanely small amount of styrofoam insulation behind it that we had installed in the summer of 2007 got the ball rolling?

And what about the “real” insulation that we put in behind the walls during our 2010 interior renovation?

Could those “investments” be paying for themselves via my natural gas bill?

Apparently.

And I thought that part of the sales pitch was totaly hooey…

Okay, so my gas bill has dropped, what about the others?

Well, here are the stats for the rest of my utilities (exlcuding water/sewer cause it’s pretty static no matter what):

Electricity and Cable went up, phone dropped like rock.

Explanation?

Well, I’m going to attribute the recent electricity increase to laundry for a family of four (starting in 2011) and a power sucking plasma television (which debuted late in November of 2010).

And the cable bill relates directly to the new television — we upgraded to HD service.

The dates coincide with the additional expenses.

As for the phone, in 2010, we got fed up and went with MagicJack.

I can’t stress how great this thing is.

For those interested in all of the actual numbers, click here.

Christmas spending hangover, perhaps?

$922.22 : Day Care
$498.72 : Mortgage
$225.38 : Auto Insurance
$215.76 : Business Expenses
$206.27 : Gasoline
$193.73 : Natural Gas
$184.38 : Electricity
$140.07 : Hockey Jerseys
$138.12 : Cable/Internet
$120.00 : Cash
$73.31 : Phone
$40.08 : Life Insurance
$36.66 : Finance Charges
$26.04 : T-Shirts
$33.09 : Toys
$8.00 : Car Wash

That all adds up to $3061.83.

As I’ve been doing the past few months, I’ve showcased the “infrequent” or “unusual” expenses in red.

And I’m grateful that there weren’t too many of those unusual expenses to showcase.

Hockey jerseys. What can I say and not sound like I should be on an episode of Intervention? The good news (or bad news) is that this hasn’t appeared on one of these spending reports since September. It’s also good news that I only spent $140.

Seriously, I browse things that cost 10 times that much on a near daily basis…

A phone bill? What? Yep — last time I paid a phone bill was back in March of 2011.

Even better, this is the last phone bill you’ll see in one of these reports until 2017. How about that?

No joke — everyone should switch to MagicJack.

Basically, MagicJack’s rates were slated to increase on January 20th so, since it’s been wicked awesome since we switched to them in 2010, I pre-paid for the next 5 years at the lower rate.

Oh, and I took the car for a car wash.