Beyond all odds....

Our Emergency Fund
Despite our "off budget month" it looks like we managed to pull it off and come out unscathed. Despite everything that happened this month, in a few days when the transfers go through, our emergency fund will be sitting pretty at $11,000.00........

Yup, that's right. We have our emergency fund done for the time being. If we break down our expenses and cut out all extras our budget gets really simple...

• Mortgage $808.18
• HOA $262.50
• Gasoline/car $200
• Groceries & Food $200
• Insurance Premiums $143
• Utility Bills ( Phones, internet, electric) $230

Together that's $1,843.68 a month, times 6 months = $11,062.08... and that's with us keeping the internet package on our cell phones. We figure we could get by with $200 a month on food since we'd do more batch cooking and we wouldn't end up tossing our stuff or letting things get wasted or go bad. Not bad for two 25 year olds just starting out :) Its our goal to try and keep the balance at 11k, and maybe add an additional 1k every year starting next year.

Presents for the twins...
We have also had a few comments on what we did for presents for the twins... and here's what we managed.

• For the twin, my sister wouldn't give us an option that fit in our budget that didn't involve alcohol. She either wanted us to spend a lot of money at EXPRESS for a really nice button up shirt, or stick $50 on a gift card to Game Stop... (because anything less meant he wouldn't be able to use the gift card to actually get anything from the store.) So, since we were running out of time, we just went to Costco and picked up a case of beer for him and stuck a bow on it. Not our most shinning gift giving moment, but SCB was okay with it because it meant we solved the problem because he was not okay with putting that much money on a gift card (and neither was I). So we grabbed a 36 case box of beer and brought that... $23.48
• For my sister's fiance, we picked up a UCLA bowl he wanted from the $0.99 cent store so he would have something to unwrap and inside the card we wrote that we got him the Movie he wanted (The greatest game ever played) and the TV show he wanted (Season 2 of eastbound and out) off Amazon since we couldn't find them in the store (the movie has been out for a long time and the Season doesn't come out till August 2nd). The Amazon purchases ended up costing us $28.98, but we have an Offermatic offer for $10 off a purchase of $20 on Amazon because I liked Offermatic on facebook a while ago and we occasionally get good offers from that... so in a few weeks that purchase will end up only costing is $18.98

Considering my sister wanted us to spend $50 a pop on them, I think we did really good with the little notice we had to plan for them... My mom actually went to bat for us and told my sister to give us options that were actually in our price range...

It was also nice that SCB and I got to work together to figure out how we want to handle gift giving as a married couple since his family normally doesn't spend much at all on each other when it comes to holidays and gift giving and my family tries to buy one another's love with gifts...  So it looks like we will keep the $50 budget for my mom and sister (and immediate family members), and keep other relatives to the $30 or so range. With this in mind, we should be able to better outline our holiday gift giving. In case you didn't know, Christmas is about 5 months away....

And speaking of Offermatic, we also cashed in some points we earned through the site to get a $25 gift card to Target for free. We are going to use it to stock up on either household cleaning supplies that I hate to buy, or we will try and keep it for holiday shopping.  

Jury Duty Part 2

Inside the court room they called 18 people up to sit in the jury chairs after we had a short introduction... My name wasn't called and I sat and watched as they were flat out interrogated the first group for about 45 mins...  yes, 45 mins. 15 mins to state some basic information to the judge, & 15 mins with each side, defendant and prosecutor.

It was a DUI case so they really wanted to feel out who would and wouldn't be able to give someone a fair trial... and it seems like every other person in that court room was either a Police officer's best friend (we were told police officers would be testifying during the case), had one or more DUI convictions or arrests themselves, or gave money to M.A.D.D.

Needless to say, 7 people were dismissed (you need 12 +2 alternates), so they called 7 more and repeated the process.... by 4:30pm they didn't have a full jury so we were all instructed to return the following day.

.....

We showed up at 9am and the judge thanked us for returning... and we started where we were. They called 7 more people... and dismissed 5 of them....

So the judge decided to call just 2 more people because at this point, both sides were okay with the jury selection thus far (and they really only needed one person). then he decided to add a third...

Me.

I took my seat and for good measure, the judge decided to fill out the rest of the row... and then preceded to dismiss everyone else in the room.

We each stood up and stated our names, our occupations, and what our spouses did  (and if we had any kids over 18 and what they did for a living). After that we were asked to volunteer information that we thought might be pertinent based on all the questions that had been asked by the judge and the defendant and prosecutor thus far.

I raised my hand and told them that my dad had been arrested for a DUI when I was very young and that he was found innocent by the court... and that i was too young to have taken part of any of it so it shouldn't affect my judgement.... but then I mentioned that I grew up in home environment where drugs and alcohol were readily abused... One other person mentioned her 2 DUI convictions... another man mentioned how he was hit by a drunk diver... and the 2 others didn't raise their hands.

The judge and the prosecutor and the defendants lawyer all went and did a "sidebar" and came back and immediately dismissed me, the gal with the 2 DUI's and the guy who was hit by a drunk driver.

So I went up, got my paper showing my service to give to my work... and headed home... thus ending my adventure in the land of jury duty... maybe next year i'll get to sit on a jury!

Spending updates again...

This should be the end of our spending for the month... hopefully. I get my extra paycheck tomorrow and that will help balance everything out and hopefully set our emergency fund right. We should be all back to normal next month which will be a nice relief.(and hopefully more normal blog posts now that we are all caught up.)  


July 16th-

• No Spend

July 17th-

• Fresh & Easy - 2 cans of tomato sauce ($0.39 each); 1 can of kidney beans ( $0.79), BBQ Sauce ($0.69), 2 jars of Alfredo sauce ($1.99 each), Italian seasoning ($2.29), 1 can of re-fried beans ($0.99), Parmesan cheese ($3.29), 3 one lb bags of penne pasta ($0.99 each), Ritz crackers ($2.89), Sugar cookie mix ($2.29), Croutons ($1.39), Potatoes ($0.98), Mushrooms ($1.89), Tomatoes ($0.98), Yogurt 4 pack ($2.79), 2 bags of salad mix ($1.99 each), Hamburger buns ($1.29), 2 bags of Tortilla ($0.98 each). We had a $6 off $30 coupon via email (We got a printer as a wedding present) so it made the Total $30.22
• Henry's Farmers Market-  2.06 lbs of Golden Delicious Apples ($0.99 lb, $2.04), 2.03 lbs of Cauliflower ($0.99 lb, $2.01), 2 avocados ($2.50), 0.77 lbs of Broccoli ($0.99 lb, $0.76) Cilantro Bunch ($0.49), Sour Cream ($1.19), Green Onions ($0.49), 2lb bag of carrots ($1.29) --------------Total $10.77
• Ralphs- Gallon tub of Ice cream ($4.99), 1 two liter of mountain dew ($0.79 +$0.10 Crv), Jennie-o turkey keilbossa $3.00 ---------------Total: $8.95   
• David's Bridal: We decided to bite the bullet and take care of getting my wedding dress cleaned immediately. The cheapest route was actually the most convenient. After asking around and making a few phone calls, we found out through a friend that it would be cheaper to have it cleaned and preserved through David's Bridal since we bought my dress from there in the first place... They knocked off $60 from the regular price making it $139.00 out the door. I should have my dress back in a few weeks cleaned (including stains and all).
• Boudin's Bakery- $5.29 when we dropped by to get the bridal dress cleaning kit, we stopped in for a 2lb loaf of bread. Yummmmmmmy 
• Gasoline- $40
• Golden Spoon- $3.10 we spent the night out and saw Harry Potter with our free movie tickets and stopped in to golden spoon before the show to split some frozen yogurt.

July 18th-

• Inn-n-out $12.93

July 19th-

• No Spend

July 20th-

• No Spend

July 21st-

• Home Depot $17.42 (Zip ties, epoxy, and super glue to fix the office chair... again...)
• Sprint $136.82 (our first cell phone bill with the prorates charges for a new days and all of august.)

July 22nd-

• SCB had a lead on a job offer (a friend of ours mentioned it) and needed to verify he had a good driving record so he paid $2 to the DMV... filled out the application.... and never heard back again.... despite being told from our friend that he would get hired if he applied.

July 23rd-

• No Spend

July 24th-

• Gas- $31.43

July 25th-

• Gas -$55.32 (this time for my car)
• Food when I was at court for Jury Duty: $10.55

July 26th-

• Costco $12.67-- 2 gallons Fat free milk $4.79, salsa $4.49, tortilla chips $3.39 (My sister lovingly informed us that its her fiance's birthday party this weekend... and in addition to getting him a present, we need to get his twin brother a present.... and bring chips and salsa... to a party we will only be able to be at for an hour and a half because I picked up a shift at work on Saturday... and SCB has a gig lined up that day too!)
• Fresh & Easy-- Suddenly Pasta box mix ($2.49), Ranch Dressing ($1.99), 2 jars of Alfredo Sauce ($1.99 each), Tortillas ($0.98), 2.49lb for Chicken breasts ($8.43), penne pasta bag ($0.99), Dish Soap ($1.99), 2 packages of pepper jack cheese ($2 for $5 sale), 4 pack of yogurt ($2.79), 1 two liter of mountain dew ($1.69 +$0.10 Crv).... Apparently yogurt and cheese don't count towards dairy because our $3 off $30 coupon from the add worked. Brought our total down to $27.69
• Henry's Farmers Market-- Broccoli ($0.30), loose Mushrooms ($1.44), Baby Carrots ($2.49), Apples ($.99 lb...$2.73), Cucumber ($0.49), Watermelon ($3.29)... We remembered to bring our reusable bag and saved $0.10..... total: $10.64  

July 27th-

• AMC- $3.00 -- We had 2 free movie tickets, but to redeem them, we had to pay a few dollars a ticket. We saw Friends with benefits and it was really funny! 
• 5 guys burgers and fries $17.63 --We found a California location in the same place the AMC was located and just had to go in since it reminded him of Utah... a bit impulsive, but delicious all the same.
• Cox Internet: $34.99

July 28th-

• HOA- $262.50 Our HOA bill is increasing $12.50 a month due to all the frequent problems they have been having with the water issues. 

Jury Duty Part 1

On Monday I got the opportunity to serve and complete my jury duty for the year. 

When I got my notice in the mail originally, I knew it was in my best interest to postpone because it was so close to the wedding that I just didn't want to deal with the hassle. It was a "call in" slot/appointment thing and quite frankly when you have already been at work for a few hours before the Court opens... the call in option doesn't really fit into your schedule very well. 

I don't know about any of you, but the thought of Jury Duty doesn't send shivers up my spine and make me freak out, in fact quite the opposite. It fascinates the history buff inside me. 

So, after a phone call to the court house (because the forms don't have a box to check on them if you need to show up in person... And they just plain don't make it easy for you to fill out) I marked my form appropriately and in a week or so I received a postcard in the mail saying the date I requested to show up was fine and dandy with them.

I will say something though, I'm glad my work has paid jury duty service because it would be a hardship for my husband and I if I was only getting $15 a day plus mileage one way... They really should consider changing this amount. I know the court doesn't have a lot of money, but maybe they should make it so employers need to provide Jury Duty pay for at least 3 days for regular employees or something. 


Right now now we live on my income for the most part (despite going into labor ready all week last week SCB wasn't able to get any work.) and if I didn't have paid jury duty it would but us in a very difficult spot. So i'm very fortunate to not have to worry financially about being called for service. 

But to amuse you further, here are some things I learned while waiting for my name to be called for a trail selection:

• Some people really don't think when they make their phone calls. The guy sitting next to me just read off all the digits off his credit card... including his expiration date AND the little code on the back. Sure he needed his secretary to play for a ticket for a travel arrangement, but I could have very easily gotten all of his information and gone on a nice shopping spree if I wasn't such a law abiding citizen... especially when they had to spell his name 4 times over the intercom because he wasn't paying attention when they did the first round of names for service.... yup, it would have been all to easy.  
• Apparently judges aren't exempt from jury duty. Oh and according to one of the judges here who did our "welcome speech," we are asked to be jurors because the only thing necessary for a judge to be a judge is 10t years as a lawyer... And lawyers don't have much common sense.-- He was funny... and it was much more interesting listening to him then the "informational" movies.  
• Jury duty is a great place to to finish writing all your wedding thank you cards... It looks like ill use every last one I ordered :) We ended up getting incredibly blessed after the wedding from the family I was staying with... I'm still floored... they are too generous...  
• Labor ready is still our employment savior for the time being. SCB will get to do something new since he hasn't been called back as a dishwasher yet... He gets to unload a truck today for 4 hours. The start of the xbox fund begins! (or possibly a "new glasses" fund... or a doctor visit fund... Our goal is to get the xbox done by December to bring it with us for Christmas in Utah).
• I figured out how to do some Mobil banking and realized I never transferred some $200 something dollars out of our wedding fund... Found money is awesome and I feel so much better now because I couldn't figure out how we had managed to spend so much because the budget numbers just were not adding up at all... Yeah for finding money... Even digitally :)

I made it through round one of jury selection without being called.... 


Round two... 


Round three.... 


And right before lunch they did round four and I just knew I was going to get called... It is a Monday after all and the last time I was here they only called three groups the whole day. So when I they read my name I gathered up my belongings and walked up and took my paper. I would have to report to a court room after lunch to see if I'm selected. 


Truthfully its the first time this has happened to me. My names never been called before... and i'm a bit excited to see how the rest of the day goes...


Had I known that they have a fridge for people to put their lunch in I would have taken that route because the cafeteria is VERY expensive and its a bit of a walk to get to the parking structure to move your car after the end of the day. Since I knew there was a chance i'd be there until 5pm, I went ahead and bit the bullet and ate there, but if you do get called for service, bring snack foods and be better prepared then I was... and Bottle Water. You are allowed to bring that in. (EVEN inside the court room.)

2 weeks of insane spending.... and more to come

I've been avoiding this post for some time now... simply because this month we spent a lot of money with family in town, our wedding, and a week off to relax meant that neither one of us wanted to cook much and handle the dishes when we already playing catch up to begin with.

and going back through everything to post on this blog has taken far too much time then I originally planned. I can't wait for next month when we get back to "our normal." It's a lot easier to just track things through out the week as money is spent... but i'm making progress... (I have 2 weeks of it done and its below for your pleasure --and for my own personal means of tracking).

We are also in the process of slowly gathering photos from the wedding and going over our wedding contract with a fine tooth comb to see what we can PROVE Orange County Beach Weddings did not provide us with that we had specifically outlined in the contract to see if we can get some money back from them for their horrible job... Every time I start going through it all I just feel sick to my stomach. Since we didn't pay them 10's of thousands of dollars we realistically know there isn't much money we'll be able to get from them (Probably $500 or so)... but we can also petition in small claims court for punitive damages as well.... We are just wondering if it will be worth all the hassle and the emotional stress.

I think our game plan is to create a document with photographic proof and copies of emails sent/received that verify our claims and send it to Orange County Beach Weddings with a statement demanding a refund. Then follow up with a few phone calls... then go to court if need be.

Part of me wants to just let it all go so I don't have to deal with it, but part of me also doesn't want them to be able to do this to anyone else... It was all bait and switch... the whole thing. I'll post the breakdown here for everyone of what we will be demanding and maybe if we never get another dime back... who knows... maybe this blog will get more traffic then their website and  others in the orange county area will choose a better company instead.

But for now, spending reports...
July 4th

• Ice Cream (Ralphs) $3.49 (To celebrate the 4th of July after I got off work because I missed the street fair and I didn't get to see fireworks... but my mommy in law brought me a huge packet of sparklers from Utah to play with... So when I find an area that let's me light them up i'll enjoy that!)

July 5th -

• Air Mattress pump, Small twist Tupperware, Gatorade and Bendy Straws (Walmart) $53.78 (With our pending house guests taking our bedroom, we needed to get a pump for the air mattress so SCB had the option of sleeping on the couch or using the air mattress. We also needed it because I would be sleeping on the blow up mattress the night before the wedding during the Slumber Party.)
• Nails & Full propane tank (Home Depot) $53.73 (We didn't know how empty or full our propane tank was, so we bit the bullet and got a new full one so we now have a spare... which is kind of nice for emergencies and power outages because our whole house is electric everything and our outdoor BBQ has a place for pots and pans so we could theoretically boil water and make pasta still.... the nails were so we'd be able to hang up all the picture frames we used as decoration at our wedding up on the walls. 

July 6th -

• Plunger (True Value) $4.28 (I do believe I mentioned that the toilet wouldn't flush a mere hour or two before family started arriving?... this little guy made all the problems go away.)
• Ice (Staterbros) $5.80 (To keep food platters and coolers chilled since family was showing up at different times all throughout the day and we wanted to have food and munchies on hand.

July 7th-

• Parking at the Zoo $3.00 + Entrance Fees for 4 ppl $4.00 (We went to the local zoo with my new soon to be family and it was fun. His mom even printed off some coupons for everyone to use to get in since a lot of my husbands brother's have larger families. We paid for SCB's friends to get in and carpooled with them so we only had one car to park since we knew that money was going to be tight for them with all they have been going through lately. After the zoo we hung out in the park and picnic'd and tossed around a Frisbee... it was a really nice simple time with family... I'm glad my mom and sister weren't there because they would have complained and flipped out. I really think I mix better with my in-laws then I do with my regular family members.) 
• Electric Bill $68.96 (Lots of AC running last month with all the bug worries-- we kept the house shut until we knew we were on the safe side... and you can't not run the AC when you have 16 people in and out of your house all the time.)
• Gasoline $58.12 (Filling up the Camry since it has AC and we drove it around everywhere.)
• Bathing Suit for SCB $11.24 (He left his good one at a house we house sat for a while back... and won't be going back there for another week or so, so we hit Target and got him a replacement and picked up some sun screen ---woot for gift cards we received from the wedding.)
• Rehearsal dinner $293.38 (Stone Fire Grill...... mmmmmmmmmmm Yes we paid and we were glad to. Everyone was incredibly thankful and appreciative.)
• Frozen yogurt $19.60 (After stone fire my close friends --basically the bridal party-- and I went over and got frozen yogurt for dessert.)

July 8th -

• SCB's got to have his Bachelor Party since I myself went out the week before and lived it up (still the best night ever in my mind)! $35 for Buffalo Wild Wings (after our $25 gift card) and another $46 spent at Dave and Busters. He had a great time out with my "brother" and his best man. They ended up bringing home a marshmellow gun and some hot pink cave man ties and shot glasses as prizes... little did I know that two of those three items would appear at our wedding. 
• We also got SCB's haircut so he'd look nice for the wedding and while he was there he also got some style cream since he wanted to make sure he could re-do the look the next day for the wedding. The haircut, tip, and style cream stuff came to $39.28. 
• My friends and I went and got Mani/Pedi's the day before the wedding. Mine only ended up costing me $25 because I was given a giftcard to the place from my sister.... and because I didn't get acrilic nails because I hate them.
• We also went and hit up Ralphs because I needed to get 4 similar flower arrangements to use as "thank yous" to our parents during the ceremony and to my "grandma" and the family who hosted me for a few months just to again say thank you for everything they have done for us. $55.99

July 9th-

• Chilli's- $65 On the night of our wedding we decided to go and get dinner at chili's because its SCB's favorite restaurant and we were tired and hungry and couldn't really appreciate going to the nice place we originally had in mind. It was perfect though.
• I also wrote out a check to my "Bro" to cover the few bits of sound equipment that he needed to rent for our reception. $110

July 10th- 

• We paid for My old cell phone bill with AT&T $56.67.
• We also went over to Chipotle that day $13.68......... While we were eating I found a hair in my burrito and discretely told the manager about it and asked if they would just remake me one... They did and gave us a gift card for a free burrito on our next visit as a way of saying they were sorry.

July 11th- 

• Toyota Repairs $453.20. It pays to be nice to people you come in contact with at work. An old member of the gym I work at also works in the service center at Toyota. We chat and he always makes sure to only charge me what he has to... and cuts me a special friends discount. Despite needing to get my 60k maint check up, we also had to get some break stuff cleaned, replace a tail light, and flush my power steering fluid I believe.... He cut a ton off our bill, especially when he found out we had gotten married two days before. He also dropped the bomb on us that we'd need to buy new tires... all 4 of them for our car and hinted to us that Costco would be the cheapest place to do them. 
• We headed over to Lowes and spent $7.07 on some small parts and tools SCB needed to do something with... I've forgotten by now what he bought.
• We walked over to the friends of the Library bookstore and spent $10 on a bag full of awesome books since I've taken to reading more recently again I think I got around 6 paperbacks and SCB ended up with about 6 as well (Gotta love awesome B1G1 sales!). 
• We also hit Rubios while we were out for lunch since we were hanging around by the car dealership blowing time until we could have the car back. We spent $12.26 and again, I found a hair in my food.... and again, we got a coupon for a free taco order on our next visit.

July 12th - 

• Sprint $298.91 We decided to bite the bullet and get on the same network and upgrade to smart phones because we'd be able to download a book reader and we had been considering buying a Nook as a wedding present to us... In 61 days we will get a credit of $175 to our bill which made my phone free and should cover any cancellation fees i'll accrue from AT&T. Its our new favorite toy... and the first luxury item we have bought since we started dating and got married. I love playing games and reading on it!
• While we were waiting for our phones to link up to the network, we hit Subway for lunch ($11.47) since it was right next to Sprint and we had to kill 20 mins and we were both hungry.
• We also hit Walmart and spent $28.56  on a pair of shorts for SCB and 2 pairs of gym shorts for him as well. Before we get comments about us spending money on him and not me, please remember, he moved from Snowy Utah to Sunny California... He only owned one pair of shorts and its the middle of summer. (Don't worry i'll be buying make up and getting my hair cut and spending money on me too, but i'm not going to deny him NEEDS so I can have a want...)

July 13th-

• Costco-- we bough 4 brand new tires for $398.31 because we had a coupon for $100 off.
• While we were waiting at Costco for the car to be finished, we grabbed lunch $6.98.

July 14th - 

• An actual No spend day....

July 15th - 

• We paid what we thought would be the last cell phone bill for SCB's old line... but apparently that isn't the case and i'll have to call the corporate office at the end of the bill cycle to figure out if they will prorate it since we don't use that line.... So the bill we did pay was $55.09

More to follow later... 

Making a point

Last year towards the end of our work "fiscal" year (July 1- June 30th), I got very distracted with the wedding and everything that I forgot about turning in my mileage (and keeping good records of when I was driving while working). My work reinburses us when we drive our personal cars while conducting business during our working hours.
 
Since I hadn't turned in slips for a few months, I probably tossed away $20-$30. Most of my trips are short, maybe a mile or two here or there when I needed to attend a meeting or drop off or pick up supplies from a center... but after a month or two it can add up... or at least it give SCB mountain dew money or me the occassional spending money for a drink with friends or to get my eyebrows done. 
 
So, I decided to make a point of keeping track of my mileage for this upcoming fiscal year, no matter how insignificant. I started a little note pad/ledger before I went on vacation and just kept track of the date and where and when I drove my car.
 
This morning when I came into work I noticed there was an e-mail indicating that the mileage rate was changing and going up (Wahoo!) so they would like employees to turn in their mileage from July 1st- July 6th because starting July 7th there would be a new form to use.
 
So instead of ignoring the email since I only drive my car around one day during that time period, I filled out the demand form anyway and i'll be getting a small check for $1.57.
 
Not much, but its a small start to transitioning from our spending spree month to going back to our "normal" life. 

Cell phones... and planners

We got our statement in the mail from Sprint (we got a new joint contract and phones after the wedding to help simplify things on our end) and we noticed a few errors.

When I called the customer service line I got the rudest person on the phone. She actually gave me attitude because I asked her to remove the $7 per line charge for insurance since we didn't sign up for that service.

after 20 mins of holding and her attempting to fix the problem, she got even more snippy when I asked if she had removed the charges from our pro-rated portion of the bill as well... She asked me if I "seriously wanted her to remove the $0.23 cent charge..."

Her manager should be calling me soon apparently...

We also got hit with another mistake. My husbands line was supposed to be disconnected, but for some reason we will receive an additional bill on that line, even though we just paid the bill the other day. All the customer service rep could tell us was to not use that line and call back at the end of that billing cycle and see if someone would be willing to credit the account then when they could prove the phone wasn't in use after the 12th......

Changing phones is soooo frustrating!

I also opened my email on Monday and found a remark from our wedding planners asking why they heard we were trashing their company... I found it in bad taste and replied back with all of their blunders and mistakes. I'm hoping they will be replying back and offering us a partial refund... if not, i'll phone and email them back on Friday.  

Getting back into the swing of things

While we are waiting for the professional photos, you can enjoy some of these...

We are slowly getting back to normal and accustomed to our new married lifestyle so posts will slowly be coming back to normal over the next week or so.

Last week we ate most of our meals out, didn't bother cooking much, and spent the week off after the wedding playing catch up and running errands (not your typical honeymoon- but our real one is in September).

Because of all of our unexpected stuff this month ($400 for new tires... new phones on the same carrier $300, cleaning my wedding dress $130, etc) mixed with the things we knew about, like our $400 car maintenance check... we are most likely going to change up our goals as we start our married life style.

We may finish off the Emergency fund with my extra paycheck and start focusing on the Roth IRA come August. The car repairs were a nice wake up call that as our cars get older, we should have separate savings for those repairs so they don't come out of our emergency fund... Besides the car check up, we needed to get  something flushed and another thing cleaned.... and then they dropped the ball that I needed 4 brand new tires too...  Thankfully the guy at Toyota is a friend of mine and he gave me some additional discounts on the flush and the other maintenance work the car needed. We decided to get the tires done at Costco because it would be cheaper in the long run because we found a $100 off coupon in the Costco coupon booklet we received in the mail.

So we spent one day of our honeymoon getting my car serviced, another day getting tires replaced... and that's only just part of the car issues we have had to deal with this week.

Apparently my sister got into a car accident a couple of weeks ago (her fault again) and after getting her car back, found out that her transmission is shot because she took it to bad mechanics the last few years who never properly cleaned it out. She decided to wake my husband and I up at 8:30am on our honeymoon to insist that we loan her one of our cars because she "needed" it and we obviously could loan her one because we both had the week off of work. (this is the 4th accident she's been in that's been her fault).

Thankfully at the time, we were able to tell her no because it needed new tires and we had to do that to the car so she couldn't borrow it... But that didn't stop her from roping us into playing car shuffle with my mom so her car could be picked up from the shop and dropped off at a new mechanic place and then to get the rental car returned... Basically if we didn't help out my mom would have had to walk all over town for her BEFORE she had to go to work because my mom can't tell my sister no.

Oh ya, and then get this, we had to pick her up from work too because she was having a little party at her place and none of her friends could come get her. In the end so we wouldn't be further inconvenienced on our honeymoon, we ended up loaning my mom our car so my sister could borrow her truck for a few days and went everywhere in SCB's car... with No AC and No radio... but it was better to put up with all of that then to deal further with her.  

The next morning we woke up to the phone ringing... for some reason it was my mom calling SCB at again, 8am... when I picked up the phone and said hello, I got cussed out... Apparently my mom miss dialed and called SCB instead of my sister... She was walking down the road in the morning rain/mist to pick up my sister's stupid car... So again, in our PJ's we headed down and picked up my mom and did the car swap shuttle thing... (we just couldn't sit in bed knowing she was walking down the street in the rain...)

Ya, my sister also tried to convince my mom to buy a new car (a $37,000 car mind you) so she could borrow the truck from my mom and save up more money... We had to convince my mom that buying a car from LA that she has never seen and never driven was a bad idea... and about twice what she wanted to pay for a car in the first place.

Yes, my mom is a HUGE pushover when it comes to my sister. Thankfully, my mom didn't buy the car, but somehow my sister did. She let go of a car she almost outright owned ($2500 left) because she couldn't afford 3-4k in repairs for a new transmission... all because she could afford the monthly payments on the 37,000 car instead..... STUPID.

Thankfully the rest of our week went much smoother. We had ourselves a little Harry Potter marathon at home... and then went to the OC fair on Friday because it was free entrance and free parking day.... we did errands and grocery shopping for this up coming week, mowed through piles of laundry from having house guests and no time to do laundry while they were there... and ended our weekend with the last Harry Potter flick. I made SCB sit through all the credits so I could properly mourn the end of an era.

I'll post the hard numbers later for everyone on all of our spending in my next post...

We survived our wedding (Part 2)

And then the ceremony started. (My brother's dad offered to video tape the whole thing for us on his tripod camera so everyone could enjoy themselves).

We were supposed to have coordination paid for for it, but we had to figure that out ourselves. Thankfully the rehearsal helped us carve out the do's and don'ts so we were able to do it on our own.

I had one of my bridesmaids remind SCB to tuck his vows into his jacket pocket (good thing to or he would have forgotten them).

My brother held my hand and walked me down the isle and it was perfect. SCB's mom had made me a hand made handkerchief and I carried that with my bouquet down the isle. After my brother gave me away, SCB and I Immediately turned to my bridesmaids who were holding 2 vases of pink roses that we then gave to each of our parents together along with hand written thank you notes addressed to each of them. Then we proceeded up to get married.

We all laughed when the guy in the Corvette drove by and shouted "CONGRATULATIONS!" in the middle of the ceremony (it helped lighten the mood)

We exchanged our personal vows, said our traditional ones, did our sand ceremony, exchanged our rings, got to kiss as man and wife, and in my exit I forgot to grab my flowers back from my maid of honor!  

After we exited, our guests had to move the chairs inside (Still sooooo angry about that), and we did our group shots and some solo shots with the photographer. (I'm hoping these turn out well because we didn't get a lot of good shots with my brother's camera-- but I still have my MOH's camera to look through too)... plus we got a few good ones from our guests who grabbed shots and posted them on facebook!)

My family behaved-- through the whole thing. (MIRACLE- I think after witnessing everything that went wrong since they showed up 10 mins after I did there was no way in God's green earth that they were going to attempt to make me cry since I was already holding back the tears from before the ceremony's stress).

My brother announced us all into the reception via a wireless mic (since he had to also introduce himself since he was also a groomsmen) and as we were announced we went right into our first dance song.... which we pulled off fabulously despite the fact that my handmaid garter fell down my leg and the ribbon kept tripping me up. (Yeah for floor length dresses).

After that I went around and mingled and apologized for the horrible wedding company. We then honored and thanked my grandma and the family we have been staying with with flowers and thank you notes and then did our Best Man and MOH toasts. The 2 servers I paid for who were supposed to be properly dressed weren't there. Our guests had to pour their own apple cider.... We followed that with cutting our cake.

No one came up from the company came to help us with the cake cutting so we just had to figure it out ourselves... and when the cake was brought back into the kitchen, they butchered it and didn't cut it properly. (my mom and my aunt almost walked into the kitchen to fix it for us since they both know how to as professional servers, we paid for servers so they could enjoy themselves)-- should have saved the money since the people didn't do jack... and the cake was horribly served (But tasted yummy!!!!!) hats off to the bakery for getting our suggestions for the filling PERFECT)....

We only got to actually have a slice when SCB went into the kitchen to actually track down some for us to have... well more than the one bite we fed each another!

and here's the kicker... at that point the mom and daughter wedding company should have left the site since the cake was cut and the toasts were finished.... but no... they stayed and made it awkward as hell since they walked around and kept fiddling with things.

But we continued on.

We did a few group shots with the photographer of everyone who was there and got in some more family pictures too since that was easier inside the building than out. The photographer left after about 2 hours and after some more mingling we did a second round of toasts where my "brother" gave the best speech ever. My sister followed him (and my sister only slightly got out of hand) and then we played our dad's favorite song and danced to it. His parents gave us their toast personally instead of surrounded by everyone and I was really touched by it. They told us that SCB had  married up and that there were no returns =)

After that guests started to slowly filter out. We tossed the bouquet and the garter & then my family left to go out and celebrate elsewhere and it finally mellowed out. My mom was impressed about how well mannered all my now brother in law's children were, especially with the delays. the 4 month old baby didn't cry at all during any part of the wedding or the reception, nor did the 2 year old who actually wore his cute blue tie!

With just our close friends and my now husband's family left, we brought out the mini marshmallow gun and played with that as the two year old ran around collecting them (It was soooo adorable). We opened some of our gifts while the wedding company took down everything and put it away. (At least they did one thing right).



We then drove down to the beach, walked the sand and took some candid pictures in our wedding clothes, got honked at a lot and just relaxed. It was heaven to get out of my shoes! After we finished playing at the beach and taking pictures, we drove home and dropped stuff and my MOH off at the condo and then drove through the canyon to retrieve my wedding bouquet from SCB's family who forgot to drop it off at the condo. It was nice to see them for a few mins (and it was funny to be in a campsite still in my wedding dress).

We checked into the hotel his parents got us, and still in our wedding clothes proceeded to Chili's to get some dinner (its SCB's favorite restaurant and after that crazy day I couldn't deny him!).  Back at the hotel we got cleaned up and attempted to get all the bobbi pins and stuff out of my hair... the marshmallow gun reappeared and so did some Harry Potter since a local station was doing a marathon since the new move comes out this week.  We passed out around midnight exhausted as heck but married none the less. And despite everything, I got to marry my best friend and I couldn't be happier.

We survived our wedding (Part 1)

Friday night I hung out with my girl friends and slumber partied away :) We spent the night creating a wedding timeline for the reception because the one we got from the wedding company was complete crap (apparently they believed we were also staying till 9pm????... and there were no notations for all the things I asked for like when to do our first dance, etc.... It just said ceremony, photos, toasts, cake cutting, servers leave and 9pm last call for music....

So we made our own the night before the wedding, emailed it to my "brother," and then he stayed up late being the awesome guy he is to organize the music cues. After we got that done I sat writing my vows while my best gals puffy painted and decorated a shirt for me that said "I'm married" on it. We toasted and then called it a night and got some good shut eye. In the morning the girls my bridesmaid had found came over to help get everyone all pretty.

While my MOH and I headed over to the salon down in Newport for my hair and makeup appointment we got the first phone call that indicated that today was not going to go well at all...

SCB called to say that no one was at our venue setting up... at 10am.

We had walked through everything with the wedding planner on the phone a few days before and according to THEIR timeline they were supposed to be on site at 9am and that SCB was to show up at 10am with the extra decorations (Picture frames, snack foods, and the sound system) ... and no one was there... the doors were locked... and he didn't have a clue where anyone was because no one called us the morning of.

I called the planners daughter while I navigated the streets of Newport and she told me she would be back to me ASAP to let me know what was going on... when she called back, she told me her mom had ordered HOT pink table cloths and she was making her swap them out for the white ones we wanted so that's why they were running behind... So SCB and all of his groomsmen had to wait outside for 45 mins for them to show up...

My hair and make up were done beautifully (It pays to be friendly and socialize with the regulars at the gym! I've never looked more pretty... and I still can't believe she didn't charge me a dime). I thought everything was going well since SCB texted me that they showed up to set up... and I got to the location at 12:15pm.

The first thing I noticed was the puke mermaid green sashes on the chairs (not regular old royal blue)... When I found the wedding planners they told me it was a delivery mistake and not their fault... that they would try and fix it... but that they looked "pretty enough" if the right ones didn't make it and that I should just deal with it. I told them I paid for blue, not green and that I would like the matter resolved.  After being told the new ones were on their way... then that they weren't coming at all... and then later that they found a new company to send some over... it was a bit chaotic.

Then I noticed that I didn't have wooden chairs. They had just covered the building chairs in the covers and sashes and not the wooden ones I paid for. When I had my bridesmaid inquire about it for me they hauled SCB and I into the kitchen to "chat" blaming us about all the changes and they were really doing us all these favors... that they didn't bring the wooden chairs because they would scratch the floor and they'd loose the security deposit... (THEY WHY DID YOU CHARGE ME FOR WOODEN CHAIRS IN THE FIRST PLACE????) They also told us that we would have to sign something for the crayons in our activity baskets to be allowed (even though they knew we were having them for the younger kids)... and in the end I told them they could just pull them out of the baskets since they refused to also put them out because they looked "tacky." (I Thought this was my wedding???)

Speaking of chairs... the "staff" that was supposed to be there to move the chairs from outside to inside for the reception was non-existent. My guests had to move the chairs...

After knowing I couldn't do anything about it at the time, I just sat and breathed and refused to let this mess ruin our wedding day... When they were setting up the sand ceremony items, the sand magically matched the ugly sashes... and when we told her we wanted the blue sand we ordered even if the blue sashes didn't arrive they weren't happy...  Then they told us they didn't have the other color... After 15 mins they decided they could be bothered to go retrieve the correct color....

They also refused to set out our snack bowls we supplied for the table tops because they thought they looked ugly... They made my MOH set all the programs out on the chairs because they were too busy with all our "extras" that we surprised them with.... They made my Fiance go pick up the food platters even though they agreed to....

and the photographer was late because of traffic so the whole wedding didn't start until like 2:15-2:30pm. My guests couldn't sit down because the chairs were being recovered with the blue sashes...Then the wedding planner made all of our guests move away so she could take set up pictures and stall and delay the wedding further...

The ladies from the company also didn't bother to change their clothes (so the "mother" was wearing flip flops & denim Capri shorts... and her daughter, about 8 months pregnant was wearing a spaghetti strap dress with a plunging V line when they new this was a modest wedding because my fiance's family is LDS)...

And my brother had to get them to fix the chair arrangements so people would actually get to see the ceremony and not have to sit sideways in their chairs...

Thankfully my pianist friend was able to play all kinds of good stuff on the fly to keep the mood nice and pretty while everyone waited....

Right before the ceremony started my dear friend jogged across the street and made it just in time before we started and it made the day seem more bearable.

And then the ceremony started... 

Tomorrow I get married... but before then...

In the last remaining day before I say I do its been a complete mad house here at the condo...

The wedding planner called me a week before to tell me we weren't having chairs... tried to change the patio set up we discussed... and tried to cut my servers... One call to her daughter and all was fixed with NUMEROUS apologies from her daughter for her mother's horrible behavior.

The toilet clogged on us about 2 hours before guests started arriving so we had to get a plunger...

We some how crammed 16 people and kiddos into a 700 square foot condo and managed to BBQ and have a fabulous time...

We went to the local zoo and had a picnic and played Frisbee...

The wedding photographer e-mailed and said if things run late we can get a half hour of extra photography for $80 or $160 for an extra hour (way cheaper then the wedding planner wanted to charge us) and she said we can play it by ear if we need to so we can make the decision on the spot.

Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner went well. (although my mom and sister started fighting in the parking lot with me when his family was out of ear shot. Apparently my mom felt "floored" during the rehearsal that "my bro" was giving me away and that "she" wasn't... despite knowing for the last 6 years and being told 19 times since i got my diamond ring... AND knowing she had a mom/family thank you moment.)

• For those of you who were wondering, yes we paid for our rehearsal dinner and his family was incredibly thankful for it (they also let the bomb drop while we were at the zoo that they got us a hotel room for our wedding night that's near by our home since all the hotels by the wedding cite were booked.)

and today I will spend a few hours at the beach with the family, then shower and get my nails done with my bridesmaids... and eventually have a slumber party and wake up tomorrow and get married.

Our plans for the month...

This month we are going to take it easy with the budget since we will be having our stay-cation honeymoon... and it's also our 3 paycheck month so i'll be able to open a brand new Roth IRA at Vanguard in the beinging of August because they lowered the initial opening deposit to $1,000!!!! 

We have decided that each week after the honeymoon is over and SCB goes back to work that we will each get $20 a week for fun money and then we will take half of his remaining earnings and put it towards the emergency fund until it hits $11k and the other half will be put towards saving up for an xbox for his friend. (when SCB lived in Utah his friend/best man treated out a lot because SCB didn't have the money since he wasn't working... they never kept track of the amount, but SCB always said he would get him an Xbox to repay his kindness and so they would be able to play games across the states to help them stay in touch)... and we'd like to make good on that promise. :) 
 
Once the Xbox and EF are out of the way we will funnel some of that money into a ROTH IRA for SCB and put some of it towards more specific savings... (Like house repairs, car repairs, and vacations!)
 
I'm so excited to start our marriage off with a solid game plan!!!!!!! More details will follow!

House Guests... My Bachelorette Party... & My mom....

Besides having SCB's family in town this week... we will also be having house guests!!! While i'm finishing out my final week living away from the condo, SCB and his two friends from Utah (the best man and one of my bridesmaids) will be staying in the condo with him.

This means a massive cleaning dash the next few days to make sure everything is in order and ready for the big day. :) It will be nice to catch up with them and everyone... but what a busy week we will be having for 
sure!

We've stocked the house full of food since there will be many more mouths to feed this week... and I'm just hoping between staying at the one house and being the "hostess" at the condo won't be an issue. (Here's to hoping SCB can be a good host in my absence).

I also had my bachelorette party over the weekend and it was FANTASTIC. (My sister behaved as well as she could because there was ample alcohol since she volunteered to supply.-- but i'll take a win when I can)

She did make a few comments here and there about "planning everything" and how my friends suck... and at times she was a little bah humbug when I wasn't drinking to the moon and back... but despite a few rude comments about me marrying SCB instead of my EX.. things were fine. I was even able to deflect and casually blow off all of her attempts to "get reinstated" as a bridesmaid... At one point she through out being the flower girl... but even that stuff didn't damage the day/evening. 

We hung out at the pool for a few hours (and I didn't get sunburned at all) and snacked and hung out on floaty rafts so it was really relaxing and fun... then we hit this fantastic Dueling Piano bar for drinks and appetizers and stayed out till midnight dancing in the conga line while I wore my bright pink "Bachelorette" sash that had flickering lights all over it. We sang loud with the piano guys, danced around, did a few group shots... and at one point I got brought up to sit on the piano since I was a "bride" and they had this young guy who was celebrating his 21st birthday give me a little shirtless dance...

My sister finally stopped complaining about how shitty and cheap my friends were when my maid of honor picked up our entire bar tab for all 6 of us... including all the rounds of shots my sister ordered for us.  

All in all it was a night of good clean fun. To my sister's dismay I didn't puke my guts out... and everyone remembers everything and there isn't an embarrassing photo for anyone to be ashamed of.

I was a little less worried about the wedding because my sister was "behaving" this weekend... but its still a little hard to tell because of the fact that the bachelorette party had lots of drinks for her consuming pleasure...  

But what worries me more was what happened on Sunday... 

We had to pop by my sister's house to pick up my car and get some of my stuff from inside her house and in the process we got roped into hanging out by the pool again since the whole family was there (sans us --another invite not given out) but to keep the peace we stayed anyway.

My sister was crankier than usual because my fiance was there and so was her fiance (and he was a bit rude at times because he'd been drinking... especially when I got stung by a bee--- somehow I being a lifeguard... was stupid for wanting to take care of the sting properly.) 

But I expected him to be rude since he doesn't like SCB and thinks I should marry my exboyfriend instead... What shocked me though was that my mom was a complete basket case because her boyfriend broke up with her... so she's coming solo to the wedding... and she spent the day drinking by the pool getting completely sunburned and not giving a rip one way or the other...

She made some rude comments about my fiance (that he thankfully didn't hear) and also trashed my friends... but exalted my MOH because she paid the bar tab at the party the night before... so because she spent money she's now apparently "stepping up" and actually doing the stuff MOH stuff "she's supposed to do"...

Oh ya, and if I wasn't listening to her go on and on about how she paid for the whole wedding herself (which isn't true, but she did give us 5k and we are grateful for it) I was hearing her complain about everything. 

• She's upset that we can't tell her what we want for the wedding apart from things on our registry or money we can use for cruise excursions or a new desk for our living room.
• She's pissed off we saved up the money to pay back my fiance's parents and aren't spending all that money on an immediate honeymoon after the wedding in addition to the cruise. oh, ya and my sister thinks that its "F*cked up" if they (SCB's family) don't turn around and hand us the $1500 we saved up to pay them back immediately as a wedding present since they didn't help at all for the wedding...
• My mom's also upset that I don't need her help to get "pretty" the day of the wedding. I just don't know what she expects at this point. I invited her to come over the morning of and get her hair and make up done with me and my friends... and she said no.-- she'd get ready with my sister... so that's her fault.  So when she asked when she should show up, I told her if she wanted to come early to the club house that was fine, but I didn't know when I was getting there (all depends on my hair and make up appointment)... but she chose my sister over me... she needs to deal with that herself.

So now, i'm more worried my mom and my aunt will throw a pity party together before the wedding since they are both "going though a hard time" and will come plastered and drunk... 
 
(and will then be escorted off the premises hopefully before I have to get involved and see them.)
Apparently I can't please them and I'm done trying.  

Comp Time or Overtime?

With this past weeks paycheck safely in my bank account I noticed something rather interesting...
 
only 3 of my paycheck for 2011 have been "normal..."
 
out of the 13 paychecks I've  received this year, 10 of them have had overtime on them... which has been a great help when it comes to paying for the wedding...
 
I was talking with a gal in the office about how glad we were to have the extra money to help with the wedding... but now that we are starting our married life together it might be nice if we could bank that over time into additional vacation time so we could see him family more often...
 
Then she told me there was a way because she frankly loves traveling and isn't big on getting paid overtime...
 
Apparently each employee is allowed to convert no more than 16 hours of overtime that they work into what they call "Comp Time." You earn 1.5 hours of vacation for ever hour of overtime you choose to bank... so for some, not getting paid overtime is a great option because 16 working hours turns into 24 hours of vacation (The max you can have at any one time so people can't abuse the system.) 
 
With the 4th of July holiday, I'll be getting overtime again if I choose do continue to mark my paychecks the way I do... or I could bank some Comp time to use for the honeymoon in September if my supervisor approves it. Since we get 3 paychecks this month and SCB has work lined up after the stay-cation honeymoon, and we are very close to finishing off the EF, I think I might bank the 8.25 hours i'll work on the 4th and trade it for 12.375 hours of vacation since I know I'm taking a whole week off in September for the cruise. 
 
This way I don't have to worry about exhausting all of my time off this year between the wedding (2 weeks) & the honeymoon (another week), especially since we'd like to go to Utah for Christmas :) 
 
On the other hand, Now that i'm a 5 year employee i'm earning 7.69 hours of vacation every paycheck (it bumps up the longer you work for the city)... and even after I take off the 64 hours of vacation for the wedding (and one floating holiday), i'll still have 158 hours of vacation left... and by the time September comes along, when I get back from the cruise and take a week off (40 hours) i'll still have 163 hours left sitting in the bank... and even if I took 8 days off in December, i'd have around 168 hours that would roll over into next year...
 
So maybe I should take the money since I won't really have my hours go below 150 at any time this year (which is essentially 1 month of time off)??? 

Weekly Spending, Debt Update, & Groceries/Menu planning (7/4)

Happy 4th of July Everyone!
Be safe this weekend... Don't do anything stupid... thank a service man... salute the flag... and enjoy the land of the free and the home of the brave!


Here's our spending for the weekish:

June 26:

• Costco: $6.64
• Gasoline:$42.30

June 27:

• Chili's (Gift card from Bridal Shower)

June 28:

• $34.99 Internet Bill

June 29:

• gas for SCB $30.09

June 30: No Spend

July 1: No spend

July 2: (bachelorette party)

• Del Taco Run at Midnight for SCB: $3.51
• Macy's: $23.68 (2 nice button down short sleeve shirts for SCB)
• Ralphs: $12.31 (pool side munchies/Ice)
• Trader Joes: $7.28 (Pool Side munchies)
• Video Games for SCB $19.95

July 3:

• Target: $19.51 (Gum, Cereal, BBQ Spatula, and a grill plate we got with a gift card) 
• Fresh and Easy: $63.69 (Groceries for the week and our 16 person BBQ)
• Ralphs $175.87 (Food platters for the wedding... paid for in advance)
• Costco: $25.64

Debt Update:

In case you missed it, WERE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!! ... he did it. My man not only found temporary work despite all of the challenges... but he saved up all the money to pay back his parents... every dime. Sure it meant we didn't go out often and we stayed home and cooked from scratch but he did it all on his own and i'm proud of him. 

Grocery Shopping Update:

We will be having friends staying at the condo this week in preparation for the wedding... and we are BBQ'in for 16 people... so this week will be very different from normal A lot of our meals are coming out of the freezer this week so we can empty it and fill it with party type food. We are giving ourselves an additional $150 this month to be able to make sure we have ample food in the house since the condo will be ground zero for all wedding adventures and prep work... 

• Costco: Hot Dog Buns $2.19, Granola Bars $7.69, Check Mix $4.29, Hamburger Buns $2.19, Salsa $4.49, Fat Free Milk (2 Gallons) $4.79
• Fresh & Easy: 3 sleeves of frozen burger patties ($6.29 each), Hot dogs (Bogo-$5.96 for 4 packages), 3 cans evaporated milk ($1.29 each), 2 cans of black olives ($1.49 each), 2 cans tomato sauce ($0.39 each), ketchup ($1.49), Ranch dressing ($1.89), Apple sauce ($1.59), Shake & Bake ($2.89), Suddenly Pasta ($2.49), 3 packages of tortillas ($0.98 each), Broccoli ($1.49), 2 packages of carrots ($0.98 each), 2 packages of cheese slices ($0.99 each), frozen veggies ($1.69), 3 Romaine hearts ($2.19), Hummus ($3.49), tomatoes ($0.98), 4 lbs of Strawberries ($3.92), watermelon ($2.28), 2 yogurt 4 packets ($2.79 each), 2 loafs of cheap bread ($1.19 each) 

Meal Plans: - 

Sunday:- Grilled Cheese and salad

Monday:- Steaks, salad, frozen veggies

Tuesday:- shake & bake chicken mash potatoes, peas. 

Wednesday:- BBQ for 16 ppl...

Thursday: Rehearsal dinner

Friday: Boys night @Buffalo Wild Wings... & I have slumber party-
Saturday: Wedding! 

Lots of Milestones

The other day was pay day Friday... and it marks a lot of accomplishments for SCB and I.
 After a year and a half of paycheck deductions, I'm finally done buying back my retirement from when I was a little kiddo (16 years old-18 years old) working for the city before I was eligible to join CalPERS...

• For those of you who aren't familiar with local government... If you worked for an agency before you were a full time employee with benefits, you are allowed to go back and calculate how many hours you worked before you became a full time employee, and then using your prior hourly salary, determine how much money you would have paid in if you were eligible for benefits... you also need to figure in the 6% interest the account would have earned per year with those funds in there.
• Then you can have that money deducted from your paychecks over the course of a few months to a few years to retro actively add those hours and years worked to your current "service time" (the hours and years worked used when calculating your retirement benefits). 

So after a year and a half of having $33.06 deducted from each of my paychecks... it stopped today :) my extra 0.8 years of service credit is bought and paid for. No more elected paycheck deductions for me :)  
 
Happy dance time!
 
What is even bigger than that is that SCB has been working with Labor Ready this past week... and his boss is letting him have 2 weeks off without loosing his gig since he was able to give advanced notice this time... So SCB has a job to go back to after the wedding...
 
and, Drum roll please...
 
He has earned and saved enough money up to PAY BACK HIS PARENTS WHEN THEY COME OUT ON WEDNESDAY... and even a little pocket money for his bachelor party!
 
WE ARE STARTING OUR MARRIAGE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!
 

my mortgage is being sold again...

I got a notice from BOFA again in the mail so i opened it to make sure nothing funny was going on with my mortgage, specially since I called a company about re-financing the other day...

I don't think I mentioned the first time my loan was "sold." BAC Home Loans Servicing LP got my mortgage within a month or so of me making my first payment... but apparently that's normal because banks want to mortgage off their books so they can continue to make loans...

But now its being sold again to "Bank of America, N.A." Anyone else getting notices or know why they are making a change after they already sold the loan?

I also got another notice about that same FHA refinancing plan that I "qualify" for... either way it looks like someone doesn't want my mortgage...