this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

Last January, we took our car in for a small repair. A small repair that turned into potentially much larger repairs. We spent a few days seriously pursuing purchasing a new (to us) car. When we weren't finding what we wanted for the price we wanted to pay, we abandoned that idea.  We decided that we should pay to repair it and save the car search for another year. This year to be exact. Happily, the car ended up needed nothing more than a new set of tires to get us to this point. But we're ready for an upgrade.

Last summer, we took a seven hour drive to visit family and five people plus all of our travel necessities in the jeep was just too crowded. It feels silly to say that we "need" a new car when really we all fit just fine, but it sure would be nice to have more room!

So, we're starting the hunt for the perfect car for us. We don't want a car payment (we haven't had one for years, so why start now?) and if all goes well, we will be able to pay cash for a new car.

Deciding what to do last year was one we went back and forth on quite a bit, but it seems like we really made the right choice to put off purchasing a new car.

"We can't afford it" seems to be a phrase that's commonly tossed around (but maybe not enough?). But I often wonder how people determine what they can and cannot afford.

Clearly if you would have to go into debt for something then you definitely can't afford it. But if the purchase will leave enough money in your bank account to keep you comfortable (and by that I mean a few months worth of living expenses or maybe just a few thousand dollars, whatever works for you), then go for it. It's probably a good idea to make sure that the purchase won't negatively impact any of your savings goals.

That's what I think, but what about you? How do you determine if you can afford something?

On Saturday, I took my state's teacher certification exams. The writing portion of my morning test required me to write an essay about a decision that I regret. If you're a long time reader of this blog (or know me at all), you'll have no trouble guessing what I wrote about. Though the prompt did not specifically mention financial mistakes, mine does fall into that area. And when it comes to financial failures, it (thankfully) is really the only big one that I can think of.

Then there's another category of financial errors - those purchases that I wished I would have made. Four or five years ago I ran across a shirt that I kinda sorta wanted. It was a shirt that featured a mountain situated in between Phoenix and Tucson, a mountain that I drove past many times as I made my way from my home in Tucson to my parents' home in Phoenix. Actually, it's this shirt right here (and if it were my size, I'd be bidding, I may bid anyway). I thought it would be a fun memento of all those trips. I ended up not buying it and oddly enough, it's something I really regret.

I'm sure there are plenty of things that I wished I would have bought, but none of them has stuck with me like this one has.

What have you NOT purchased, but later really wished you did?

The lights are finally down and I think that all the decorations are put away, but I still needed to take a moment to prepare for next Christmas.

We set aside a little bit each month in order to pay for Christmas. I'm not sure what that number was based on, but I don't think it was based on what I actually spend on Christmas things! When all was said and done, we didn't set aside enough. At first it looked okay, but then when I added on all the "little" things, like the Christmas pajamas and the new clothes for church, I realized I needed more! I ended up using our cashback rewards from our Discover Card to pick up the slack and then did what I could to be sure it doesn't happen again next year. I added up all the Christmas related expenses from this past year and divided by 12. That's how much will be automatically put into our ING savings account that is earmarked for Christmas expenses.

How did you do on your Christmas budget? Do you save a little bit throughout the year?

It happened again. Qwest messed up our billing by only charging us for the phone last month and then the phone plus two months of internet service this month. It all adds up okay, so shouldn't be too much of a problem except for the fact that each month we receive a small discount on our internet service. Last month we obviously didn't get it, and this month we didn't get it twice in order to make up for last month. I am not pleased. It seems to happen about once a quarter, and each time it does I call and make sure the missing discount is reflected on a future bill. Except for the one time, I was rudely dealt with, it's always a fairly painful call to make, but why should I have to make that call? Why are they constantly making this error? It's annoying and it messes up with the budget to have it be so low one month and then so very high the next.

I wonder how many others this happens to, and how many people don't catch the fact that they really are paying too much. That's actually what's bothering me more than anything this time around. Please remember to check your bills each month to make sure everything is as it should be!

I think we may be done with Qwest, at least for our internet service. Though, I'm guessing the competition isn't much better.

I've written before about how I'm not so good about taking advantage of clearance sales and buying clothing for my kids ahead of time. In order to combat this (because buying things at a great price that you'll need in the future is a great way to ultimately save money) I made a master list of what clothing items I need in each size. I keep this list with me so I can refer to it when I find a good deal. I still need to go through the box of shoes to see what gaps need to be filled there.

Having three boys means there isn't really a huge need to buy clothes for the younger two, but we were lucky enough to receive a large amount of hand-me-downs for our oldest and after he was done with them, some were just too worn out to make it to the next kid.  Also, I'm finding that the seasons aren't quite lining up right as I pull out clothes for the baby.

So far, I've bought a two-pack of pajamas for the baby for next winter. One of them will work nicely as his new pair of Christmas jammies. I'm currently on the the lookout for a winter jacket for Bug for next year and one for Monkey to finish out this year with - his is getting a little snug!

Yesterday I stopped by the store to pick up some ink for our printer. I know that printer ink is expensive, yet I must forget because each time I buy some it sure is painful. The strange thing to me is that it is almost cheaper to just buy a new printer that comes with ink! A few months ago, we were in the market for a new printer. After some research decided we may just as well buy the cheapest one and as long as it lasted through one cycle of ink cartridges, we'd have our money's worth seeing as the printer came with full ink cartridges and at $40 cost the same as the ink alone!

Our current savings goal is a new-to-us car. We want a larger car to better accommodate our family, but we don't want a car payment. A pay cut is not really conducive to saving a bunch of money, yet oddly enough when we first found out about TTOs pay cut, I was motivated to save even more towards our new car. But then the news came about my decrease in hours and I was suddenly ready to throw in the towel. You see, my earnings were going to go straight to savings, no questions asked (which usually is the case, but often we dip into those dollars when we go over budget), so when I found out I'd be earning significantly less, I was very discouraged. As if putting tens of dollars a pay period is somehow less important than putting hundreds of dollars in. I was starting to think there was no point in saving anything, because it's going to be harder to reach our goal. It's certainly going to make less of a dent, but it still is significant. Every little bit counts, and the reward will probably be that much sweeter too.