2012 is over, and it was a crazy year here at SLB.  Early this year, I finally had a successful elk hunt (when I was literally .5 of a mile from giving up for the season).  That was pretty cool, as it was my first elk, and I’m still enjoying the rewards as we speak (though I’m running low, so I’m hoping to re-up this month).  February was relatively quiet, and then in march I went with H and her sister and some friends down to new mexico for the basketball games.  I was going anyway, but then my undergrad school unexpectedly made the tournament, and even better, got sent to new mexico!  That was an awesome trip, and we all had lots of fun.  In april, we closed on the house, marking a huge purchase for both of us, and the start of a long summers worth of work.  May was filled with working on the house full time for H, and when I wasnt at work for me.  June was my marathon and H’s half marathon, which could have gone better for me but H did well.  In July we got married, and we spent the end of july and the beginning of august out of the country on our honeymoon.  It was a great time!  Since then, things have slowed down and shifted back to more house work and getting used to living in our new place when it’s not under construction.

Finances we pretty ok this year, we were able to pay cash for most everything we bought, put 20% down on a house and did some major renovations for it.  In 2013, i’m expecting the pace of renovations to slow quite a bit, as we are more or less done.  Here are the numbers from 2012:

Debt:

At the beginning of 2011, I had debts from 1 student loan and 1 vehicle loan, totaling $20,825, down from a pre-house high of 55,400 broken down as follows:

• Truck Loan: $9,466
• Student Loans (1):  $11,359

Things have been busy around here, which explains the lower number of posts than usual.  I’m trying to finish up processing my elk right now, and I’m doing quite a bit more in terms of processing than last year (making sausage for one).  We are still working on the bathroom, and are very, very close to a point where we can actually finish up the tiling and take a shower upstairs (Something I have never done, in 8 months of living here.  Hopefully that will all quiet down in early february, so H and I can spend some much needed time relaxing and not doing much (or gutting the basement).

It’s the first month of the new year and it’s time for my check in.  Finally, things here got back to normal, as H and I had no trips, and no super large expenses (though I did have to get new tires for my truck).  Earlier in January I talked about our financial goals, and it’s time for the first check in on those.

Debt:

These are all of my debts. Right now, that includes a vehicle loan, a mortgage and 1 student loan. When I started, I had 3 credit cards, 3 student loans and no vehicle loans. Everything that I’m still paying off now (with the exception of the student loan) has been incurred since I’ve tried to become debt free. Funny how that works out, eh?

House

Mortgage $ 118,538 ($0) – This didnt change because I did the december review so late that our january payment had already been made.  Everything is going fine with this though.

Student Loans

Great Lakes Loan $ 9,211 ($140) Unfortunately, this isn’t quite as pleasing as last month, when I found the $600 credit to my bill.  Oh well, this is still moving in the right direction.

Truck Loan

Ford Credit: $3,755 ($626): H and I have a goal to pay this off at the end of Q2, and it looks like we are doing just fine.  I was able to make 1 full extra payment this month.  It will be nice to have this money back as free cash, as well as the money from lowering the insurance.  This month is the 3 year anniversary of my first payment on this loan.

Total Debt: 131, 504 ($766) – This is a lower per amount reduction than normal, but it’s because of the timing of the mortgage payment.  High, but I’m still OK with it.

Health Goals

Im starting off the year well in this area, just like last year.  I’ve been to the gym almost everyday, and my training for the death race continues.  The training is odd at times and fun at times, but I’m moving forward.  My focus was to use january to get into a habit of going to the gym in the morning, which has worked well.  Now that february is here, it’s time to focus on something else: my diet.  I’ve never been one to much concern myself with what I ate.  I just ate at meal times, and didnt really think about how that was affecting me.  I’m not going on a diet, but I am changing the frequency with which I eat.  I’ve started to eat 6 times a day, 3 meals and 3 snacks, and I’m eating smaller portions than normal.  This is supposed to keep my energy up, and maintain a balance of 300-500 calories (+/-) between the amount I’m taking in and the amount I’m burning at any give time.  I’ll hopefully have an update at the end of february.

By far though, the hardest workout was pulling the elk out 2+ miles to the truck when I went hunting.  Even though I’ve been training with my pack and doing lots of workouts, it was still physically exhausting.  Maybe next year it will be easier – it should if I train all year.

Goal Workouts: 20

Total Workouts: 35

Im also thinking of changing this from a set number of workouts to some other sort of metric.  I’m not exactly sure what though, and hopefully I will figure something out by february.

Every year, I get some interesting visitors to the blog through search terms.  Most of these people dont stay long, because my site isn’t what they are after, but it’s funny to see how they ended up here.  I dont get as many interesting hits as Jana at the Daily Money Shot, but there are still a few good ones.  Here are the best:

1. www.fule xxxarabee muvee  - I’ve got no idea what this person was after, but I hope they found it.
2. zombie proof trucks  - I dont think these will be necessary in the future, but I’ve been wrong before.  Hopefully this person builds one.
3. why is the principal balance of my loan going up – either because you’re not making payments or you have an exotic note.  Get this fixed!
4. which way round do hurdles go – I have no idea, I always thought you went over the hurdles.
5. where can i buy a gross of white t-shirts – I have no idea, but why do you need so many?  The 3 packs are more than enough for me.
6. what would happen if there is no toilet paper – Something that I’ve never thought about until now.  Thanks for making me worry.
7. what to wear to fincon – hmmm…..I wonder who this could be!
8. what started the boogeyman? – Apparently, it’s a stephen king book.
9. tasting local food is a big part of my travel – Mine too.  In fact, H and I had sushi not too long ago, and I just could hardly stomach the cost of the meal.  It was so much more expensive than in Japan, and it tasted so much worse.  I dont know if I could ever eat it again.
10. swagger calculator – Hoping that you find one of these and it says you’ve got tons of swag.
11. reusing old socks – I havent really found something for this yet.  You could compost them if you like, or turn them into rags if you’re feeling really brave.
12. recycling used tooth brushes into decorating items – I cant even begin to see how you would decorate with these as I usually just use them for cleaning.  I’d love to see what you come up with though!
13. no spend november rules – Pretty self explanatory if you ask me.
14. much men on 1woman – not going to touch that one
15. marriages on short notice in anchorage alaska – it’s not las vegas, people.  It’s way colder most of the time.

Those are the most interesting things that people have looked for on the blog in 2012 – what is your favorite?

This is the last installment of goal week for the year!  I’ll be reviewing all of my goals, starting with my finances.  My finances were the reason that I started setting goals, and eventually started this site, so I figure it’s best to start here.

The first goal that I’ll have is to not add any new debt from now until the wedding.  This shouldn’t be that hard, but it could be a bit difficult, so I just want to put it out there.  I’ve got a lot of things to prepare for in terms of wedding clothing, gifts, etc.  I’d love to be able to cash flow all of the things that I need to buy (which I will post about later).  I think this will also keep me from going overboard on weddings (much easier than you’d think).

This was a fail.  I didnt add any new credit card or any other type of consumer debt, but H and I did buy a house this year.  We had been talking about it for a while, and decided that it was getting to be time to move on it.  After looking for a while, we made a decision, put in an offer and signed all of our papers.  Just like that, we had 120k+ in new debt, but have been able to build a substantial asset in the process.  I’m not upset about adding this debt by any means, but it does violate the no new debt before the wedding goal.

My next goal is to pay down half of the truck loan.  I initially thought about trying to pay off the remaining ~9,000 by the wedding date so that when I got married, the only debt that I would bring is my final student loan.  Though I don’t think I’ll be able to make that, i’d really like to lower the amount on this loan quite a bit before I get married.  I think I can do this by keeping my wedding expenses to a minimum and getting creative in other areas, such as going out and travel.  If I can cut these things down, this goal should be no problem.

This went well this year.  Earlier in the year, I mapped out a plan to pay more than the minimum every month (which I had been paying for a while) and rewarded myself with a small reward when I got halfway to this goal.  The loan sat at around 9,000 at the beginning of this year, and half of that is 4,500.  I’m happy to report that the balance of the note is now just above 4,300.  This goal is a pass!  A secret stretch goal for this was to have the whole thing paid off, but unfortunately that didnt exactly turn out.  A closer look will have to be given to our spending at the beginning of the year to determine if the mortgage payoff plan is a good idea before this is gone.

The final goal is to create joint financial goals with H after we get married.  Obviously, once this is done we can continue to move forward as a couple with our joint goals, and work to complete them together.  Right now, I’ve got a bit of an idea about what will shake out of that conversation and be transferred onto paper.  Once that happens, I’ll probably update you all on the new set of financial goals, and our methods to get there.

H and I have briefly talked about this, but not nearly as much as I (or her) would have liked.  It’s a different thing than Im used to as I mentioned, but it’s very important that we are on the same page.  I’m constantly worried that I’ll ask to talk about things and she will be bored, and she wants to know more about what’s going on.  I feel like there’s an equilibrium point somewhere, we just have to work to find it.  This goal (in some form) will continue into 2013.  I’m also going to call this a half pass, because we did come up with one goal.

That’s it for my goals from 2012.  It seems like I was focused in very tightly on the health goals, and didnt really pay much attention to the others.  This has given me some interesting thoughts on how to structure my goals for next year so that more will get done.

Readers: How did you do with your goals this year?

This is a Guest Post from my dad.  Previously, he’s wrote about business relationships, plastic bags and paying off your mortgage.

In the last several years since the great recession started one of the things that has been in vogue is frugality.  As this site and many others can attest to, the popular notion that frugality is brand new!  People have discovered that you really can have a good life without the expensive luxuries that were considered must have only a few short years ago.  As the recession drags on and people are getting into a frugal mode that hopefully will serve them well if they do not fall back into conspicuous consumption habits again.  As a member of the so called “tweener” generation we have the good fortune of having been raised by parents who survived the real “great depression” and developed thrifty habits that at times were extremely funny to us as we grew up.  Several of the things I can remember being just hilarious were things my mother did without thinking twice about the frugality aspect of it, she just did them as a course of habit.

One of my favorites was the washing and drying of used “tin foil” as she called it.  This apparently was a hold over from the WWII years when the thought of throwing out any metal, particularly aluminum, was unpatriotic and wasteful.  Tin foil can be used over & over she said, until it was in too small of a piece to wrap your old chewing gum in, then maybe you could throw it away.

Old clothes were never just thrown away they were either passed on to younger relatives or torn into pieces to go into the “rag bag” for use later.  I think I once had a pair of jeans that had pieces of 3 different pairs of pants sewn into them.  Having been born into the least fashion conscious state in the union, clothes were just something you wear not something that you should look good in.

Shoes were bought at least one size to big for your feet, if not two.  That way you did not wear the fronts out and you could wear them at least 2 years even when growing up.

Food was something that also was “just to eat” and not something that was great tasting or presented in a fashionable way.  “Liver night” was nobody’s favorite, except the dog, who got all you could sneak him.  Fried “minced ham” which is no call bologna was fried up and eaten between bread slices.  Burned toast was never thrown away, just scrap off the char and eat it anyway!  Beans were a great source of protein and were eaten when real meat was on in the budget (this could explain some gastronomic issues that seem to run in the family).

My wife also related a funny story about her mother, she used to wear nylons as a young lady and when they got a “run” in them, she would cut one leg off and put another pair on that also had a run in the opposite leg, so she would have 2 pairs of nylons that each had a run in one leg but looked good on the outside.

Frugality it seems is not something that has just been invented, it has been with us in some form or another for many years.  It serves as a way to stretch tight budgets but also as a source of family fun in later years.  That frugality served our parents well and hopefully this current generation will learn that spending money is not the source of happiness in life.

Jeff’s Note: I cant help but laugh at some of these things and how much things have changed!  There are times when I think the way my grandparents did things is easier than what we have now, but there are somethings that Im just not willing to try.  For instance, my brother in law used to love eating liver, and would always take it when he went hunting.  I was happy to see him waste less than me, but I just couldnt bring myself to try it.  Eventually, he had to stop eating it for health issues though.

As for the shoes, I’m just now, at age 27, starting to buy shoes that actually fit my feet instead of 1 size too big.  My feet are done growing, it’s time to stop looking like a clown when I walk around.

I do keep most of my old t-shirts and tear them up (after I dye them to increase wear time) and put them in our rag bin.  This has helped us get rid of paper towels in the house!

Do you have any frugal tips from aging parents or grand parents?

A while back, I wrote about my experiences attempting to sell my homemade extracts at the farmers market in a post called Expanding My Empire.   I now have another experience to share on my dealings with the feds, just as pleasant.

I”ve never been a person that has really had a problem with the feds, but honestly I think it’s because I never really had to deal with them.  I deal with them in my personal life as you hear about on this site, as well as in my professional life, which I keep off of this blog.  Most times,  I just do what they say as I shake my head and ask why, but occasionally I get annoyed enough to write about my trials.  This is one of those time.

As many long time readers (thank you!) know, I’ve been trying to buy a rifle for a while now. I asked santa for one for the last 2 Christmases  but santa kept saying no.  Dissapointed, but not totally deterred, I went to a black friday event in 2011 (at a normal time) to buy a rifle.  I had a very old drivers license, and since I knew I was going to move soon, I had not bothered updating the address.  They wouldnt even let me fill out the forms if my address didnt match.  I took note of that, left disappointed.  Of course, that was all my fault (though most kids in college/post college dont get a real address until they buy a house, so this is a common problem).  At that point, I decided to shelve the issue for the elk hunting season and deal with it next year.  I had bigger fish to fry.

This black friday was my second try.  I had looked over rifles, determined what I wanted to buy in terms of model, caliber, etc and then started scanning the black friday ads.  Not many stores put firearms on sale during black friday, but I managed to find something that was a pretty good deal.  It was a good quality make/model, the caliber I wanted and it came with a scope.  It was only $279.  I told the guy I wanted to buy it, and he called in my number to instant criminal check or whatever that is called.  Of course, the system was overloaded and had completely shut down (which happens during high volume transaction times, like black friday).  They told me to come back in the next day and they’d get everything take care of.

So I turn up the next day, go through the same procedure and then the guy says the background check came back with a “delay” status.  Basically means that they needed to do further research and needed 3 business days to do it, making it so the transaction wouldnt be able to take place until I was back in wyoming.  While I dont do much shopping in montana because it’s so far, it does have the added benefit of no sales tax, which has now added ~15 to my total cost.

Once I get back in wyoming, I go to a gun store and find the gun I want and they have to order it.  After a week or so it comes in, and the price of the gun from this place is $350, which is about what I could have bought it for off the internet, plus a $15 transfer fee.  So, I agree to the price, adding another $75 to my cost.  Once the firearm is back at the store, I go through the background check again and then come back later to get my rifle.

Unfortunately, this rifle does not come with a scope, adding another cost on to my purchase.  Though some scopes are cheap (like 25 bucks) you get what you pay for and it’s important to have something decent.  I dont need something that costs 2k (yes, they exist, and are probably overkill).  I went and looked at scopes, then went home and read some reviews online.  I found one that will suit me for $100, so I went back to purchase it.  My lucky day though, it was on sale 25% off! Major score, and better than nothing, but with the other one I wouldnt have had to pay at all.

On top of all of this, I also had to buy some scope mounts, which cost about $40 for the pair that I picked out that fit my rifle.  I didnt know I needed to buy these (thought my rifle came with them) so that was another surprise!

So, because of the snafu in montana I had to pay sales tax (5%, or 18 dollars), for a scope (75 dollars) and more for the gun $350 vs $275, $75 dollars, and scope mounts for $40.  This is a grand total of $208 bucks.  I’ll either invoice the feds for this in april, or call the small amount of bartering I do every year a wash with them.  What do you think?

Readers: Have you ever had a situation where dealing with the government has cost you money?  What was going on, and how did you get around it?  

I would like to also take a moment to express my deep sorrow for the victims of last weeks shooting in newton.  I dont even have the words to describe how awful I think that was.