Budgeting woes

Well, we fell off the wagon for the second month in a row. I tried to simplify things so all we had to do was record our cash outflows. Unfortunately, that didn't even work. I am going to have to go back to the drawing board and see if there is something else we can try.

New Tires

A few months back, I had a little driving mishap with my Honda Accord and destroyed two of my tires. It wasn't the brightest move to make, but my short term solution was to get two used tires. Unfortunately, they weren't very good and I now have another example that fits the saying, "you get what you pay for." Anyways, I did some research on some new tires and settled on the Bridgestone HP50. They appear to be pretty good tires from the reviews I read and should last a good 60-70,000 miles which is approximately 6-7 years since I don't put many miles on my car. I just got home from Sears and let me tell you that first ride was nice and a dramatic improvement over the old tires. From a cost standpoint, I took advantage of two things to drive the price down. First, I bought the tires at Sears which is a participant in Discover Card's current 5% cash back promotion. Second, Bridgestone is offering a $50 mail in rebate. I will be completing the paperwork for that tonight and will give an update when I receive the rebate.

I got a raise!!

I have been anxiously awaiting this day for the past week or so. I guess with all the positive economic indicators and the positive trends for our company I was hoping for a nice pay increase. While I won't complain, it unfortunately wasn't much more than a cost of living increase, 3.23%. I am going to wait and see how it impacts my paycheck and then decide how much I will increase my Roth IRA contributions. My initial thought is that I will contribute $50 more each month. As they say, every little bit helps.

American Express - Finally a Solution

Back in February, I posted about my difficulties getting American Express to correct the interest rate being charged on my statements. After four months and numerous calls to their customer service department, everything appears to be corrected. My initial balance transfers are now accruing interest at 3.99% instead of 13.99%. My account was also credited for the excess interest charges from the previous months. Life is good.

March Net Worth Update

Another month has come and gone. I have updated my net worth and it can be viewed at NetworthIQ. Not too many changes to report. The cash and credit card balances went up due to the Sears check I cashed. I was hoping to see a more significant jump due to the tax refund but we also had some significant expenses. I will be reviewing our expenses in relation to our budget in an upcoming post. Let me just say it wasn't pretty and it is really making me wonder how I put together a budget that was so far off from reality.