I don’t write very detailed numbers concerning my personal finances on this blog even though it is a personal finance blog. I always write some estimates and approximations and also things that have happened in the past. That seems a bit weird since I sort of advocated and being transparent about personal finance. I am actually really open with my close friends about my personal finances, but I do feel weird about revealing exact numerical details to the world. I also don’t keep a networth graph here like many other PF bloggers because I feel that is akin to . The hubby also doesn’t like to give out too much information. Anyway, today I decided to satisfy some personal finance voyeurs by posting our savings and expenses in terms of their percentages of our gross income. I took most of the numbers from our current paychecks, and some numbers are averages of bigger expenses.

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best price for cialis online- This includes Federal and California State Income taxes, Social Security and Medicare Taxes, and the CA SDI Tax. The total may seem a bit low because the income taxes are only taxed off our income after our fairly significant 401k deduction. The income taxes are also tiered, so only a portion of our money is taxed at the highest brackets. Though I am pretty sure we may owe some more taxes this year because I exercised some at the beginning of the year and we may trigger the AMT.

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Rent: 12.26% – We have been living here for less than a year, and when our lease is up in July the rent might go up, but we don’t think it would be too egregious because our landlord is not some huge corporation and we’re taking care of his apartment. We really do enjoy living here.

Car Insurance :1.71% – The hubby just recently got a rate reduction for being a good driver. It took about three phone calls to the insurance company but those phone calls saved us $400 per 6 months term so I am pretty happy about that.

Car maintenance : 1.08% – This is an monthly average of the amount of money we spent on maintaining our cars in the past 9 months or so. We actually spend big chunks of money at once. For example, my , but this happens rarely so I averaged it out.

Utilities: 1.1% – The main utilities we pay include cable internet, the hubby’s cellphone, and electricity.

Food: 4.69% – I feel that we spend quite a bit on food every month, but actually sometimes eating out is cheaper than cooking. For example, making a couple sandwiches at home actually costs a lot because deli meats and bread are getting expensive. A lot of the times the hubby and I just buy one dish and split it because restaurants give too much food anyway. There is a really good Thai place nearby so one time we just bought one curry dish for $10 and then cooked rice at home and stuffed ourselves.

Gas: 2.52% – We have been doing good at saving gas lately by driving slower.

Entertainment: 1.1% – As it was laid out in , we have a 2% ceiling on entertainment, but actually we never spend that much. On average we have spent about 1.1% per month, and that’s why the hubby is running a surplus that he wants to use on a computer in a few months.

Donations: around 6.5 to 8% – We upped our donations a bit this year and we’re donating more than before. The percentage seems a bit small when it is based off our gross income. In light of the recent disasters in Burma and China we also added a few special donations this and last month.

Other: 0.7% – This category includes things like gifts. It seems that there is always a birthday or wedding around the corner. The hubby has a gift account for such expenses.

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401k: 17% – We both contribute 17% of our paychecks into our company 401k plans. The hubby was pleasantly surprised when he bumped his contributions this year from 10% and 17% and barely noticed a dip in his take home pay. The reason is that his taxes were reduced accordingly.

529 plan: 0.72% – I have a 529 plan open with Fidelity for our future child(ren). Right now we are putting very little into it every month.

The rest: 31.21% – The rest of the savings currently is going into money market funds in our Vanguard joint account. I also funded our Roth IRAs for last year with our savings. I’m not sure if we’ll qualify for Roth IRA again this year since the hubby may be getting a raise soon, but we’ll see. This money is also our emergency fund and house down payment savings. It is growing quite a bit and I may buy some more mutual funds with it once it gets past 25% of our entire portfolio.

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I hope we can still save this much when we have kids, but I think we can afford to spend 15% of our income on a kid and still manage to save a good amount for the future. It is also good that we are able to essentially live on one income because this means we don’t have to worry if one of us loses employment. Anyway, it was fun to lay this out so I could see the flow of my money clearly, and I hope someone’s curiosity has been satisfied.

Since the hubby and I do not have any debt, we do not know the stress of debt, but there is definitely stress in saving money. First, you have to be vigilant about deals and sales when you want something.  Then you make sure you use your coupons. You also do things like budgeting to make sure that you have money to save.  Then after you save your money you have to figure out how to allocate it and manage it so you don’t lose what you worked for to inflation and other larger forces. Sometimes I do find managing our growing portfolio to be a pain in the butt.  One time my hubby laughed at me when I groaned at the dropping interest rate on our accounts and he jokingly said that he used to manage his money by spending it and I should do the same and cut out all this stress.  I glared at him a bit and told him that the interest rate on his entertainment fund as prescribed by also dropped.  At that moment he screamed in a dramatic fashion, “Nooooooooooooooooo! SCREW YOU FEDERAL RESERVE! YOU STOLE my game money!”

Surprisingly after eight months of marriage, the hubby and I almost never fought about money issues even though he is more of a spender.  I think one reason that we do not fight about money is that we have no debt.  From what I have read in the news and heard from friends, the stress of debt is very draining and even debilitating. One woman wrote me saying that she feels like she is always behind on the bills and she hates that feeling because it is like she doesn’t have control over her own life.  Unfortunately sometimes it creates a vicious cycle because research showed that when . When I watched the movie , I was shocked that people actually killed themselves over credit card debt. I can’t say I know how that feels,but I imagine it is extreme psychological torture for people to take such extreme measures.

I think will take the stress of saving money over the stress of debt any time of the day. I don’t mind that the hubby and others laugh at my Ferengi ways because I find it funny, too. I have also learned a lot about the world and the economy through my research into how to manage my money.  In the end, the work I put into saving money gives me a sense of security and well being. Every month I pay our bills and then add up the amounts in our various portfolios and give the hubby a short net worth report. It’s always good to know that we have a financial cushion to fall back on and we are  ahead of the bills, and I truly believe that it is good for our marriage.

A while ago I wrote an article on Wise Bread titled . One of the commenters wrote that she actually collects cans and bottles at work and then turn them in at the recycling center for a little bit of money. I thought that was pretty funny, but I do drink quite a few bottled waters and soft drinks at work. I also bring home a few drinks that the hubby likes so we discard quite a few bottles and cans each week. Lately I have been feeling guilty about throwing those bottles and cans away. Finally, last week I sort of broke down and brought a plastic bag to work and collected the bottles and cans I used. On Friday I took the dozen or so cans and bottle I collected at work and today I sold them all at the recycling center along with a pile of other bottles and cans I collected outside on the patio. I got enough money to buy a rotisserie chicken, and I was pretty happy about it.

My hubby mocked me a bit and said, “Wow! Months of saving and all you got was a chicken!” I was still pretty proud of it because I got the chicken by recycling! If I were a bit more systematic about my recycling I could earn a few bucks a week and that could cover quite a few expenses. Here’s what I could possibly gain by turning in those bottles and cans.

best price for cialis online – $5 to $7 – Required recycling: 3 to 6 cans a day for a month (This is pretty easy to do between the two of us).

best price for cialis online- $10 to $15 a month – Required recycling: 6 to 10 cans a day (Sometimes I do drink 2 to 3 of the small bottled orange juices at work so this amount of recycling is definitely reachable).

best price for cialis online- $36 a month – Required recycling: 20 to 25 cans/bottles a day (This would require collecting other people’s bottles and cans but it is feasible.)

best price for cialis online – $100 a month – Required recycling: 60 to 100 cans a day (Okay this one probably requires me to be a full time dumpster diver so I probably won’t do it).

Now I have to admit that my mom is probably going to read this article and call me and say, “don’t be so damn cheap! You don’t need to be a real bag lady!” However, I think I will stick to turning in at least the bottles and cans my hubby and I produce everyday. A chicken or burrito every month for recycling waste is still a pretty good incentive to me!

In my article about I wrote that I entered a lot of sweepstakes, and some people are curious how exactly that works. Today I will share in detail what I did, and give some tips through what I learned.

1. best price for cialis online- It is time consuming to find out about individual sweekstakes yourself. What I did was use online-sweepstakes.com. It is a great community and forum with thousands of contests that you can enter. It used to be completely free, but now there is a subscription fee for some of the premium content (more sweeps and site specific contests). I paid subscription for one year because I won so many things from there.

2. best price for cialis online- This is to prevent spam and newsletters from rendering your main email address useless. No matter how hard you try, if you are a sweeper you may be spammed.

3. best price for cialis online – You should always read the rules and see if you qualify. Otherwise, if you won something and then got disqualified it would be a sad loss. Usually sweepstakes disallow Floridians to enter because of the laws there. Liquor companies also do not allow Californians to enter for prizes worth more than $5.00.

4. best price for cialis online – This is important because there are scammers out there that try to collect emails and addresses and then sell these lists. If you only deal with companies that are fairly well known then the chance of being scammed is lessened greatly.

5. best price for cialis online- The most popular form filling software I have seen is Roboform. Before Roboform I had to write my own form fillers. It is usually not against the rules to use Roboform to fill out a contest entry.

6. best price for cialis online – Some contests have rules that say they are limited to the first X number of entrants. These contests will give you a much better chance at winning. Local television and radio stations are also good places to look for contests because the pool of entrants is much smaller than a national contest.

7. best price for cialis online – Sweepstakes should be no purchase necessary. This is the law. If a sweepstakes asks for money or credit card information you should avoid it. There should be no entry fees of any kind.

These are the basics of sweeping, but there are a lot of other things I learned through the few years I was a sweeper. A lot of sweepers are stay at home moms and they are generally very friendly. The key is to be careful when you are online and supplying private information. You also have to be persistent to win. I have won some very nice prizes and tried many products that I would otherwise not have bought. So I think if you have a lot of free time on your hands it is a good hobby.

Welcome to the 123rd ! If you are a new visitor to feel free to look around! Since this is the 123rd edition of this wonderful carnival started by the , I decided to group the thirteen excellent articles this week into the one, two, threes of debt reduction!

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Both of the following two articles offer no nonsense tips on how to reduce your debt. Go ahead and read them!

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posted at – “This is the latest in a series explaining Funny’s Ten Money Principles.”

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Avoiding new debt and charges is the first step towards reducing your debt. Here are quite a few articles focusing on avoiding credit card charges and other various scams.

Lynnae presents posted at – “I received a letter from my bank, along with some convenience checks. My bank told me it pays to use the checks. Pays whom? is my question.”

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posted at – “How many credit cards do you own, and when is enough enough? Discounts, lower fees, better rates, travel perks. Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? The number of credit cards you have may be hurting your credit score. Here’s how to fix that.”

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posted at – ” In current times of falling home prices in the US and the $1.8 trillion sub-prime mortgage debt that financial banks have to deal with, “Rent to Buy” signs are popping up everywhere to lure consumers into purchasing homes at “cheap mortgage rates.” Rent to Buy is a marketing gimmick used by landlords to lease out their homes and receive rental income, only because they cannot sell their homes in the existing mortgage market. If you are renting, there is little benefit for you to fall for these schemes. The reason is because most Rent to Buy schemes do not result in a purchase. People with bad credit, no down payments and lots of credit card debt also qualify for rent to buy schemes. That’s why you should avoid them.”

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Once you are committed to reducing your debt you would need a plan and discipline to execute your plan. These articles offer stories and advice on how to budget for your goal.

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posted at – “Being in debt and having a large expense looming is difficult to navigate. Planning is key!”

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Once you are on your way to eliminate debt you should shift your mindset from spending mode to savings mode so that you never ever get into debt again!

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posted at .

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Thank you all for reading this edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction and make sure to submit your articles for the ! If you enjoy reading The Baglady feel free to subscribe to !

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A if not paid back soon enough, becomes a . This is the worst form of an . Even are better than this situation.