As promised, I’m here to post my April 30th financial update! It’s a few days late by my standards, but it’s better than the never you were getting before. ;] Luckily, I’m home sick and tired of sitting in bed, so I’ve decided that this is a much more productive way to spend my time.
It’s been a while, so there have been a few pretty significant financial changes. Without further ado, here is the very much late financial update for the past 3 months!
April 30th Breakdown:
Cash + $1,227.38: Not as high as it was back in December, but it’s still an increase from January. Most of this cash belongs to Boyfriend, as I’ve cleaned out pretty much everything I have (again) to pay down my student loans. And once again, I’ve switched myself around completely. With a move coming up in 4 months, I’d like to save up a decent amount of cash, beyond what we already have so that we’re able to pay any expenses associated with our move and possibly purchasing new furniture.
Emergency Fund – $340.22: Womp womp. Along with cleaning out my personal savings, I also cleared out our emergency fund. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but as of May, my student loan payments are going to be cut back a bit in order to save up some cash again. I’m very cyclic with my money habits.
Anniversary Fund – $40.00: Surprisingly enough, this fund wasn’t a victim of my student loan payoff rampage. This should really be labeled “Vacation Fund” as we use it any time we go on a vacation or trip. For Memorial Day weekend, we’re making another trip up to Boston, and this time it’s 0% work related. We have a lot of fun stuff planned such as a Red Sox game on Memorial Day, as well as a gondola ride on the 27th (which just happens to be my birthday)! I’m super excited for this trip and it’s worth every penny.
Gift Fund – $140.00: This one was however a victim. I’ll probably institute it again in the future but I’m incredibly wishy-washy with my financial goals. Who knows what kind of “fund” I will cook up in the meantime.
Investments + $4,003.81: There’s a huge change in our investments, aside from the market slowly going up (even though currently it’s decided to go in reverse), as well as my religious contributions of $30 to my investment portfolio each time I get paid. Boyfriend was given over $2,000 in savings bonds that his grandparents had been purchasing for him throughout most of his childhood. When his parents gave them to him, they asked that either he invest the money, or use it towards a down payment on a new car. So, he chose to invest it with a little bit of my help!
Lending Club Investments – $85.59: The remainder of these loans were eventually sold off with the exception of one loan that was written off. It was a bit surprising as the credit rating of the loanee was an A, but it goes to show you that credit scores can’t even accurately predict the outcome of a loan 100% of a time. Now that the account is back to $0, I think I’m going to take a break from investing in Lending Club loans.
Wells Fargo 401k + $351.24: This change is primarily due to fluctuations in the market. For a period of time, I had been investing money on my own in an IRA rather than my 401(k). I liked the idea of being able to direct money to whatever investments I wanted and to manage the account 100% on my own. I had no hope of being able to afford to contribute $5,000 to a retirement account, so I saw no real difference. Now, I’m back to contributing $25 per pay period to my 401(k) until I decide otherwise.. Which could be any day the way I change my mind!
Sallie Mae + $3,734.09: It certainly is nice to know that I’m making a lot of progress on these loans. It’s only a matter of months at this point before this variable rate, high interest student loan is donezo! I haven’t been monitoring my progress as closely recently, but I’m definitely pleased with the results regardless! Like I said earlier, I’m going to scale back my payments from around $1,000 extra to only around $500 extra for the next few months. The worst case scenario is making one giant payment with extra cash laying around in the event I don’t need as much as I thought for our move!
Direct Loans + $308.95: I think I’m going to stop updating on this loan for quite a while. I don’t make extra payments to this loan, as it has the lowest interest rate of my loans (except for the car loan but I barely even count that at 2.81% interest), and it carries the least amount of risk because they are Federal loans after all.
Lending Club Loan + $982.52: The progress on this loan seems so surprising to me! I haven’t made any additional payments on this loan, nor will I until the Sallie Mae loans are paid off, and yet the balance keeps going down and down. For future reference, I’m using the “Sum of Remaining Payments” number which includes all of the interest I will pay, as opposed to the current balance on the other loans.
Chase Auto Loan + $1,019.16: Again, I’m going to stop reporting on this loan as well. The interest rate is so low at 2.81%, that by the time I power through the rest of my debt, this will have already been paid off most likely.
Credit Cards – $692.16: Whoops, I guess these need to be paid. We are not carrying any balances by any means.. We’ve just spent a lot lately. It doesn’t help that I ran out to get my hair done right after tax season ended and plunked down about $210 to get myself looking back to normal! On top of that, we’ve been booking a few fun things to do up in Boston! Also, we’re buying a lot more fresh food from the groceries stores rather than buying the cheap and easy food that Boyfriend typically picks up. So considering the number of expenses we’re picking up, I’d say we’re actually doing pretty well!
It’s been a hell of a tax season. For whatever reason, this one seemed so much worse than the last. I knew that it was going to be tough to try to keep updating here during tax season, considering I have a hard enough time as it is when I’m not working an obscene number of hours each week, but I did think that I would be able to at the very least keep up with the monthly updates. I’ve missed out on two, and I even had February half finished, but trying to track down all those numbers months after the fact began to get too difficult, and I decided I would just let it go.
Going forward, I’m going to try to get back on track. I don’t know if you can expect too many updates from me, but at the very least you can expect monthly updates. Until then, a little teaser. The last time I posted a financial update, our net worth was a negative $41,029. As of today, we’re at a negative $30,390. We’ve increased out net worth by $10,639 in two and a half months! I don’t know about you, but I can’t complain about those numbers, and it looks like it’s going to keep getting better and better! Maybe I’ll see you around the end of April with another update. ;]
I’m always looking for a new way to game the system. My most impressive example is the refinancing of my car. This time around, I’ve found a way to reduce an expense on a smaller, but just as important scale.
Lately, I’ve been loving my Chase Freedom credit card and all of the cash back rewards it offers. Currently, I receive 1% back on all purchases, and 5% on categories which rotate on a quarterly basis. As well, Chase offers a “Ultimate Rewards Mall,” offering up to as much as 15% in additional cash back rewards when you click through to certain merchants through the Chase Rewards Mall website. For future reference (I promise there’s a point to my rambling), customers currently receive an additional 5% back at Drugstore.com, but I’ve seen it as high as 10%.
In addition to these rewards, signing up for a Chase checking account has also increased my cash back rewards – in addition to the previously mentioned rewards, I also receive 10 points (the equivalent of 10 cents), as well as 10% bonus points per $1 you spend. From what I’ve calculated, the total amount of your purchases is multiplied by 1%, and the resulting amount is multiplied again by 10%. Chase does not advertise the cash back rewards that having a Chase checking account in conjunction with a Chase Freedom credit card, and personally I think they’re dumb not to.
Secondly, Drugstore.com offers their own rewards system, called Drugstore.com Dollars. Customers receive 5% back on their purchases of eligible products in the form of these Drugstore.com Dollars. These dollars are accrued on a quarterly basis, which are then applied to your first purchase of the following month of that quarter. For example, this quarter’s earnings (January 2012-March 2012) will be applied to my first order placed from April 1-April 30.
Another handy feature of Drugstore.com, is the ability to set up weekly emails of all your items that you have added to your list — a list of items that you order frequently, making adding all your essentials to your cart quickly and easily — and also alerting you which items are on sale, and for what price.
Some of you, if not all of you, are finally seeing where I’m going with this, based on my title. I’ve found a pretty good way to game the system. Unfortunately, it’s nothing like Extreme Couponing, but I’m pretty satisfied with the return I’m getting, and I wanted to share. Recently, I’ve placed 2 orders with Drugstore.com. The first order totaled $181.51, with a savings of $17.16. My order included multiples of frequently used items, such as body wash, shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, and some other cosmetics.
Now, let’s break down what I really spent when taking into account rewards from both Drugstore.com, as well as Chase’s cash back rewards. All of the items purchased were eligible for Drugstore.com Dollars. At 5%, I received $9.08 in rewards, on top of the $17.16 I saved by purchasing sale items. Already, I’m saving a total of $26.24. Now, I receive my standard 1% cash back from Chase of $1.82, $0.10 for making the purchase, $0.18 for 10% additional cash back for ever $1 spent, and an additional 10% cash back of $17.00 (tax is not factored in as part of the purchase price for Chase Rewards Mall) from using the Chase Rewards Mall. I will receive a total of $19.10 from Chase in the form of cash back for my purchase.
By using the resources made available to me, while making purchases that I would normally make anyway, I’ve saved myself a total of $45.34, approximately 23%. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I won’t complain about 23% savings. It’s nothing like to 95% savings you see on Extreme Couponing, but I don’t have the time or motivation to do that. Clicking through a rewards mall and taking the time to stock up on items on sale are something I can handle, especially when it means I don’t have to leave the house for any of my non-perishable grocery shopping! ;] Have any of you found a good system for saving money on certain items? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
