I was a spendthrift. I can tell the truth. Oh man I went over budget. It’s a good thing I budget for less money than Noah actually makes. It’s a good thing my budget involves a lot of “over pay the mortgage” so that when I need to fudge there is wiggle room.

I’m not going to do screen shots this year because I didn’t wake up before the kids. Oh well.

I wish that “shopping” was broken down more in this table. Hey wait! I can do that.

Your Spending

Yikes that’s a lot on clothing. I am starting to buy clothing in the post-breeding-stage. That’s a lot of why that is so expensive. I am buying things I really like even if they are kind of expensive because my size has been stable for more than a year post-marathon and almost everything I own has been through a few pregnancies. When I started the pregnancy journey I was more than 30 lbs heavier than I am now. I’m trying to feel “justified” in spending money on clothes for me. Like, that really pretty sweater/dress I found in Portland. That was over $300 just for one thing. But I’m going to wear it daily for many years. Also lots of shoes this year. We don’t buy cheap shoes in general. Running shoes aren’t cheap and I’m trying to not fuck up my body more than necessary. But it feels like a lot of money. I bought more than one article of clothing from the local boutique place I can walk to. I look really hot in the clothes (I buy them for Noah to see–it results in him trying harder at sex.) but they aren’t cheap. I bought many more pairs of pants because my waist is approximately 5″ smaller than it used to be and I’m really tired of my clothes falling off. So I feel guilty and justified (kinda) at the same time. I know a lot of people who shop at thrift stores. I get violent and angry because I can’t shop and watch my kids at the same time. I wish I had more patience.

Because I’m not doing the screen shot of the pie graph you can’t see easily that home was 40% of our spending this year. That is way below where I want it to be. In order to get home to the solid 50% I want it to be I will have to noticeably cut back spending in other areas. And if I’m honest mortgage was only 62% of the “home” budget which means… I’m way under where I want to be on mortgage repayment. $30,000 in the year is only $4600 above on mortgage. Pitiful. I don’t think I put the overall mortgage below $200,000 this year. I think we are within a stone’s throw of it but we aren’t quite there. But I have the Backyard I’ve Always Wanted. Trade offs. The back yard I always wanted cost right around $13,000. Ouch. Good thing I get to keep it permanently and I had it constructed such that my grandkids will play on it.

We maxed out the 401k contributions permitted (I don’t even know what that is because I don’t see it–it happens before I touch the money and I’m too lazy to look up on the internet what the limit was last year) I put $5500 into an IRA in my name (w00t) and I thought I contributed to the 529 but I see no sign of it in bill pay. Shit. Ok, that’s going to be added to the budget for this year right now. Luckily what we have put in it so far has dramatically increased. We are something like 20%-25% of the way towards what we want to have saved for Shanna’s education. I need to figure out what kind of account to open in Calli’s name this year because I’m not sure we want another 529 in the family. They are difficult to use for anything other than school and there is the possibility that one or both of our kids won’t want college. 529s can have the name on them changed so I suppose I want to think of the two combined accounts as interchangeable between kids.

I spent $4800 at the dispensary last year. Thank goodness that California allows me access to a medication that makes my life so much better. Therapy was $4100. Massage was only $1400. I think I am going to mostly reverse the massage and dispensary quantities this year. That will mean Noah is also getting more body work. He’s making all this damn money he should benefit from it.

Because I simply have to start contributing more to kid college funds their slice of the pie will probably be higher next year. Oof.

Noah earned $115,001 his primary job in 2013 after taxes/401k/etc. He continues to shock me with how much his brain is worth. I mean, look at the guy–who would guess? (I kid. Obviously.)

• Other Income
  $18,492

• Income: Book sales$10,998
• Income: Investment Income$5,656
• Income: Krissy writing$79
• Income: Present$1,602
• Income: Tax Return$156

I don’t think I’ll call myself a professional writer any year soon. But that is how much I made from people randomly finding my book on Amazon before it was kicked off the Kindle store. This year I am going to deal with my fear of rejection, work on both books to make them slightly more marketable and start the process of getting rejected by every publishing house in America. This is not a fun anticipatory process.

We ended the year with $47,538 in cash. I think that is higher than the previous year and it is no thanks to my spendthrift ways. It is entirely because Noah is capable of out-earning my spending.

My stated goals for 2014 (maybe I’ll check this later and maybe I won’t): I would like “home” spending to be more than 50% of our spending and I would like “mortgage” to be more than 90% of the home spending. I would like to end 2014 with $55,000 in cash. I would like to contribute $5500 to my IRA and $4,000 toward kid funds with it being split between the 529 and some other kind of account in Calli’s name. I need to figure that out soon. I would like to overall spend less than $110,000 next year. Transferring money to the IRA and 529/other savings will not “count” against that total because Noah will earn more than $110,000 and I am trying to not beat myself up for transferring money. That’s not the same as “spending”. I’m trying to convince myself. We’ll see.

Let’s see how it goes. Just keep swimming swimming swimming.