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Home > It’s my Party and I’ll Save if I Want To

It’s my Party and I’ll Save if I Want To

July 24th, 2011 at 09:27 pm

Today is my 30th birthday and I’ve been pondering all year what to do about celebrating it. I went from trying to rent a hall, calling a caterer, paying over $400 for a custom made multi tiered cake, and wanting to pay some musician friends of mine so that I could have a live band to play all night. Now I don’t feel like doing anything. There was a huge concert coming up and most of my friends would be there. I really enjoyed the concert and thought it was a fitting gift for myself. Money well spent. Plus, my cousin who is having a destination wedding will be getting married today after church for friends and family who won’t be able to attend outside of the country. So I imagine I will be celebrating with her instead.

Although I’ve been setting aside money just for this occasion, I’m sort of breathing a sigh of relief that I won’t be celebrating that big. I always admit how I’ve never really been a celebratory person. I’m grateful to God for another year, but I never really did celebrate my birthday beyond a small sheet cake and a reasonably priced dinner (about $30 including a beverage and tip) with friends. I also don’t do presents either. Not that I hate them or wouldn’t appreciate them it’s just that if you asked me what I wanted for my birthday I’d get a headache trying to think about it. My mother treated me to dinner today. Total spending for my birthday was $15. Birthday balance left…$1,985 which I moved to my emergency fund.

Debt Explanation from yesterday’s post.

The Macy's and Limited card I haven't paid interest on yet. I'm going on vacation next week so I had it in my budget to go shopping for things I would need. I will be paying those off. (I guess I should've said that.) I've been saving for my trip since last year. I budgeted $2000 but so far I've been paying for it out of take home pay because it's been pretty reasonable. The Limited and Macy's are still a part of that budget so I'm still on track. The only thing that needs to be paid is about $600 for car rental, parking, food, park tickets, shopping, hotel, and, offering. My church convention is down there which explains the offering and the deeply discounted “vacation”.

The Citi will be paid off by next month. Also no interest. That includes $43 that I charged last month that's due Aug 7th and some new charges I made this week for online purchases which I don't normally use my debit card. They included concert tickets I purchased for my family for approx $100. I was given cash for them minus my own ticket for $15 and random food purchases for the month.

Savings #1 for $2283.38 was my vacation fund. I haven’t tapped it yet. I’m still trying to see what I can pay for out of take home pay. I will have until September to pay Macy’s and Limited without paying interest. I’ll try to see if I can do that without touching savings.

Savings#2 was my car repair/replacement fund. I haven’t been monitoring it closely. So I decided to convert that to my general emergency fund. Since starting this blog, I committed $300 out of this past Friday’s paycheck to start my first installment. I just had some major preventative repairs done so I won’t have huge problems later so I should be done for a while. I also started putting money in for my 30th party which was about $2000. I’ve decided to celebrate in Florida since it’s only a week away and it’s already in that budget.

Savings #4 and #5 was my emergency fund split between the two different banks I have accounts with. Before, I had about $100 to $200 a piece in them just for quick emergencies in case I needed them. They also serve as transfer accounts for my online savings. Because of the overdraft laws and now the debit card transaction cap fees, both banks have sent letters regarding fees to my checking. I could be charged up to $4 a month for each. I don’t get direct deposit so that works against me. I also get my statements online so that saves $2 off my fee. I keep both accounts open because I like having money with at least two banks. It’s a trade off though. One bank I get free checks for life. The other I get rewards which far outweighs the $1 fee I will be paying starting in October.

To sum it up I guess that makes it $9031.13 for emergencies and $2,283.38 for my vacation fund. If I happen to go under budget which I suspect I will, I will use approx $200 to pay off my old cell phone balance. (just switched over to Verizon) and set up a repayment plan for my medical expenses. I could pay a huge chunk but why since I’m paying at 0%? I will have to cut into my dining out budget from take home pay until it’s paid for.

I hope this clarifies a few things.

4 Responses to “It’s my Party and I’ll Save if I Want To”

  1. CB in the City Says:
    1311560746

    Happy Birthday! Really glad you didn't rent a hall and hire a caterer! Do people really do that for a birthday?

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1311568313

    Happy Birthday. Sounds like you've got a good idea of where you are going.

  3. snafu Says:
    1311569291

    Is 30 y/o a marker Birthday like 18 or 21 , 55, 65 etc?

  4. HousingCounselor Says:
    1311608988

    Haha!! @Snafu! I always thought beyond 21, if you were turning an age that was divisible by five, it was a milestone. I ended up not celebrating because I didn't want to. I kind of knew I didn't but I wanted to be prepared just in case. The $15 was for a concert ticket I bought the day before. The best $15 spent in a long time so that was fitting for my birthday I thought. We'll see what happens at 35.

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