Yesterday I was able to do a conference call with my husband to the office that manages his old job's pension. We now have the amount it's worth, if paid out lump-sum. Now the dilemma is, do we roll it over into an IRA or into his current 401K account? Or do we leave it, and hopefully it will still be available for a monthly payout (he can start receiving at age 55)? 55 is still 12 years away, and a lot of his co-workers are feeling uneasy with the old employer and have taken the lump-sum. My gut feeling is to take the lump-sum and set up an IRA account for it, then we are in control of it (well, except for what the market does to it!) He has a retirement annuity from an even more previous employer that has been not going anywhere, so I will look at rolling that over too. I think I could get a handle on our retirement accounts - his 401K, my public employee account, and a single account like an IRA for the rest - yay!

Yesterday I also did some preliminary figuring of our taxes (just need one more 1099.) We will again get a refund on our fed taxes. Every year I keep fiddling with our withholdings, and I have the state taking just the right amount. But the federal is another matter. At least compared to last year, I'm heading in the right direction. Oh well, it's back to the w-4 again. The last 1099 wasn't in today's mail, but as soon as I receive it, I'm ready to write up the forms and get them sent in.

Well, going over the budget stuff, I've concluded we're doing pretty well for our fixed expenses (including things like insurance, vehicle expenses, etc.) I guess it's more our discretionary spending is where we could use a little work (ha - a lightbulb moment or what!)

Food, including dining out - We eat most meals at home. Depending on our finances, we eat out once every two or four weeks. We all eat breakfast at home. My husband packs a lunch for work and the two younger girls take lunches and snacks to school and the older two eat lunches at their schools. I usually come home for lunch, or I bring a lunch. Dinners are at home, usually with everyone (we eat early or late depending on the activities.) Our grocery list is usually basic foods - I stock a pantry and freezer, rather than shop for meals. I shop only once a week. I used to shop every two weeks, and even for a time, monthly (we had milk home delivered then.) We're incorporating more fresh vegetables, fruits, protein and higher quality carbs into our diet, so I find weekly works better for that (though I find it is a bit more expensive the more often I shop.) I keep a running list on the frig of what we run out of. I look over the sale flyer to see what bargains and coupons are offered for the week. Then I make my list, sticking to it for the most part. With a combination of pantry and freezer items and newly bought groceries I create our meals.

Part of what I include in our 'food' budget is health, beauty and cleaning supplies, plus food and supplies for our pets (we have 6 - a dog, 3 cats, a guinea pig and a hampster.) We aren't star consumers in this area - using the store brands of cleaning items, the 99cent shampoos, generic pain relievers, etc. The pets get more than their share of the budget...but somehow we've acquired these animals and we'll see to their good care - though we have a current restriction on allowing any more of them at our house.

For a budget amount, I took an average and came up with $170 a week. And that is about what I spend most weeks between groceries, the occasional dinner out and pet store stop, though the range can be $70 - 200. Sometimes I feel that since I say it's a certain amount, I somehow make sure it is that amount. Still, I don't think there is much I can do about the pets (just no more new ones!) And the cleaning/health/beauty amounts are probably fine - though I'll keep tabs on amounts used, and use what is minimally necessary. The dining out is not an outrageous part of our budget.

So what's left is my two oldest's use of school lunches, and the food portion of the grocery bill. Hmm, I guess a talk is in order for the girls. And I'll go over the meal plans. I cook mostly from scratch, and we aren't having steak every night (actually that's only twice a year - on father's day and my husband's birthday - he loves steak!) I like what some journalists were doing with figuring out the costs of some of their meals. Maybe my meals cost more than I am realizing? I guess I'll have to think some more on this area. As a kind of initial goal, I'm trying to spend closer to an average of $130 a week. I need to come up with better figures of our absolute minimum amount to keep us and the pets going. But I'll try a $40 dollar a week reduction, and see where that gets me.

That's all for now...take care!