Budgeting Archives - Page 2 of 15

How We’re Funding Our Anniversary Vacation

March 19, 2019August 7, 2017 by Money Beagle

I recently mentioned that we’re going on a ten year anniversary vacation. We’re all booked up for flights and our resort. Since we’re staying at an all inclusive resorts, we are comfortable that we have most costs covered. One thing with other trips is you get stuck with fees, meals, drinks, etc. We already have that stuff covered.

But, still, we had to pay for it. I don’t know about you, but we often fund things like this from several different sources. That was really true with this trip.

Funding Our Anniversary Vacation

Here are the list of sources that we’re using to piece together the budget:

How To Calculate The Value Of An Annual Membership

April 17, 2019March 3, 2016 by Money Beagle

Do you have an annual membership or pass to any local attractions?

Many families find annual memberships to be a great way to save money on favorite places or attractions. They can be especially valuable for families. We have young kids, so we have four different memberships that we take part in:

Detroit Zoo
The Henry Ford Museum
City Park (for the beach)
Robot Garage

It’s a pretty well rounded group of attractions. The first three are pretty self explanatory. The last one is a local business that recently opened up that offers classes and drop-in opportunities where kids build with Lego, gears, wheels, pulleys, motors and all kinds of other nifty materials to create things that walk, roll, open, close and other cool things.

What Might We Do With Our Extra Money?

April 17, 2019February 22, 2016 by Money Beagle

Looking at our money and our budget, there are a few things that have changed over the recent months, and it will require some change in planning on how we approach our money. One of the things we’ll have to look at it how we allocate extra money.

Where Is This Money Coming From?

Everybody will define this differently, but for us the extra money boils down to a few different areas.

Why And How We Create A Christmas Budget

April 18, 2019November 30, 2015 by Money Beagle

It’s that time of year, and shopping is already underway in earnest.

I’m sure that many of you have gotten started with your shopping, and many will also be waiting until the last minute. I generally fall somewhere in between that spectrum.

I thought I’d take a little time to explain how we set and track our Christmas budget, and I’d love to see how it compares to yours.

History As Our Guide

We have one big spreadsheet that I’ve used for years to track various aspects of our personal finance, from a spending ledger to budgets for big items to investment gains and losses, and yes, a Christmas budget.

This is great because I can track prior years spending and set that as a starting point for this years budget.

Is Our Mortgage Payoff Too Aggressive?

April 18, 2019November 9, 2015 by Money Beagle

Four years ago, we made the decision to refinance our mortgage. We hit the time when rates were about the lowest they’ve ever been, and decided to get into a 15-year mortgage. This would increase our payments but lower our total interest. It would also move forward our mortgage payoff date.

From a financial perspective, the move has been a big win so far.

The Benefits Of Our 15 Year Mortgage

Low rate – We got a 3.375% rate, if memory serves, so we are paying very little in interest and more toward principle.
Modestly higher payments – Our payments went up a bit from our previous 30-year mortgage
Getting in line my payoff date objective – I’ve always said that in an ideal situation, the mortgage would be paid off before our kids started college. This timing would actually have the payoff occur during senior year of high school for our oldest. I’d be 52 which is a pretty good target age to be mortgage free, all things considered!

Cider Costs: What The Apple Is Going On Here?

April 18, 2019October 21, 2015 by Money Beagle

Fall and apples go hand in hand here in Michigan, as I know is the case in many other parts of the country.

We have always enjoyed many of the activities that fall brings, and those centered around apples have always been favorite, specifically going to the cider mill and also apple picking. Both of these things have been traditions of our families for the last few years.

But, we noticed this year that things are just out of hand!

Cider Prices

Who doesn’t love cider and donuts? I know everyone in our family loves these things. Still, the price of cider these days is through the roof. A gallon is now around $8 at most local cider mills! This pricing came about in kind of a sneaky way.