Category — Budgeting

So Mr. Juicefairy and I thought since we are getting married we were ready to have little ones running around our feet.  No, of course not kids (I like being selfish and I think I am going to keep it that way for a long time).  We bought a puppy!  And English Bulldog to be exact (you can see our cutie pie above).  Mr. Juicefairy is an ex-Marine which may explain his small obsession with bulldogs.

We realized of course with every major purchase you should do your research. Just like you can look up the total lifetime cost of ownership on a car we should be able to calculate something like that for a dog, right?  Here are a list of things that Mr. Juicefairy and I considered into our “cost of ownership” of our new puppy so could decide whether we could afford to provide it with the best home possible.

1. Cost of the Dog - If you adopt a dog from a rescue or the Humane Society (which I highly recommend) the cost of a dog varies but is usually pretty affordable (somewhere in the $20 - $100 range).  A lot of times these are dogs that came from other homes so they may already be up to date on shots, be microchipped and be neutered.  All of these costs will have to be factored in if they aren’t done before you buy the dog.  Mr. Juicefairy and I, for our own personal reasons (which I will not go into here on this site), decided to buy a pure bred dog from a breeder.  This is usually a more expensive way to go.  I won’t share how much our puppy cost but you can Google a bulldog and get an idea.  Pure bred dogs you can generally take home around the age of 8 weeks and may some their shots but usually there are more needed after the dog comes home with you.
2. Vet Costs - Dogs will need a vet visit as soon as you get them.  Depending on where you get the dog from it may anything from an average check-up and fecal exam (under $100) to needing all of their shots, possibly medications and neutering (at about the age of six months).  After these initial visits you will most likely go only once or twice a year and spend an average of $100 - $300 a year.  Of course there are always dogs that may need extra care.  Just like a human, you can’t predict health problems and emergencies and these things should be factored in when deciding if you can afford a dog.
3. Food & Treats - Depending on the dog you can expect to pay somewhere between $20 and $60 a month for food.  Some dogs have food allergies as well and may need more expensive brands with different types of fillers.  Treats are a must if you plan to train your dog.  Trust me, a treat is a big motivator.
4. Toys - You will need to stock up on some toys of varying hardness for your dog to chew, otherwise expect them to use your shoes or furniture.  I have heard bulldogs even like to chew on drywall so ours has plenty of chew toys.
5. Beds & Crates - If you are planning to crate train your dog you will need to purchase one before you get your dog.  The larger the crate the more expensive and the size depends on how big your dog will be.  Our crate was about $60.  A pet bed is also a nice thing to have for your dog, but probably not a necessity.  We bought one a Ross (a lot cheaper there btw than a pet store) for $12.
6. Leashes & Collar - It is important to have a collar on your dog with an ID tag. You want to be prepared in case your animal gets lost.  A leash is also a necessary item to have.  While you can train your dog to walk without a leash, most places have leash laws that you have to abide.  I think we spent $40 for a matching collar and leash.
7. Grooming - The amount of grooming necessary is based on the type of dog you have.  This is an important factor for most people in making the decision of what type of dog they want to own because of cost and time spent.  This could cost anywhere between $30 (basic nail trimming) to $500 a year.
8. Flea and Heartworm Prevention - Your dog will need Flea and Heartworm prevention starting at about 10 weeks.  These are monthly applications that are necessary to keep your dog healthy.  You can buy the applications in bulk (6 months or 1 year of applications) and expect to pay around $30 - $80 a month depending on the weight of your dog.
9. Obediance Training - Not all dog owners take their dog to an obediance training but we chose to take our dog to Petsmart which is $109 for an eight week class.  We think it has helped us a lot as first time dog owners.

So now for “total cost of ownership” peteducation.com has an article claiming that the average cost to own a dog per year (not including the first year) is $1,386.  The doctor that wrote this article guesses he will spend $12,468 on his dog over it’s 14 year lifetime.  So think carefully when before you decide to buy a pup and make sure you are willing to shell out the cash.  I have no regrets about getting my puppy and think she has made life just a little fuller … but I sure do miss that extra spending money I had.

It is difficult to learn how to increase your credit score until you know how it is calculated.  Your FICO is basically comprised of the following factors …

35% - Your payment history.

Any bills that involve borrowing, such as a mortgages, loans, car loans, credit cards, or home equity loans, are tracked to make sure you pay in a timely manner.  But be careful with other bills like cell phone bills, medical bills, or utility bills as well.  They aren’t regularly tracked but if you pay any of these too late and it goes to collections you may see them on your credit report as well.  Student loans also show up on your credit report.  Make sure you are paying in a timely manner and if you can’t and go into forbearance this will sometimes appear as a negative as well.

30% - The amount you currently owe

This is the amount currently owed on accounts and how it compares to your credit limits.  FICO likes to see that your balances are low or nothing at all which means that you are not spending more than you can handle.  However, having too much available credit is sometimes a negative as well.

15% - The length of your credit history.

FICO likes to see that you have long standing accounts, which means you are less likely to be a credit risk.

10% - How many newly opened accounts you have.

FICO looks as a person with newly opened accounts as riskier.  Because, really, why would you open new accounts if you weren’t planning on using them.

10% - How many credit inquiries you have.

Inquiries into your credit report are logged as they occur.  This would typically happen when you are shopping for loans, or trying to open a new account.  FICO interprets the higher number of inquires as to say you are shopping for more credit and is flagged as making you higher risk.

The great thing is that when you get your credit report, all three credit reporting agencies;  Equifax, Experion, and Trans Union will list any potentially negative items dragging down your credit score first on your report .  This way you don’t have to translate it for yourself.  They will list any late payments or collections items and they give a summary of why points were deducted, such as not having a long enough credit history.  The lesson here is that you will never know this stuff if you don’t get a copy of your credit report and score so go get it here now.

I am not sure about your workplace but mine finally feels back to normal!  Everyone is back from vacation refreshed, and things are back in full swing.  It’s oddly comforting, despite the fact that I would rather still be on vacation.

I got some very good news for the new year.  No, it is not that I got my well deserved but overdue raise at work (I wish)… I found out my FICO score went up over 50 points.  It may not seem like a big achievement to most people but I have learned the hard way how important it is to have a strong credit score and my hard work is finally paying off.  Your credit score is how the world judges your financial stability and when you are marked with “needs improvement” your goals, especially in this economy, are going to get harder and harder to reach.

Think you aren’t affected by a lower score?  Your score is checked whenever you buy a car, buy a house, apply for life insurance, open a credit card, get a cell phone, even apply for a job a lot of times.  For those of us with not-so-spotless credit records (mine was courtesy of the an obscene amount of medical bills when I had no health insurance) these blemishes represent higher interest rates, which can equal a lot of money or even cost you the ability to get a loan at all .

Let’s put it this way, in the Dec 08 those who wanted to buy a house and had a credit score in the top 33 percent were paying  6% for a $300,000 mortgage.  The average borrower would pay at least 7%.  That extra 1 % in interest works out to $50,000 difference in interest over a 30 year loan, paid at the front end.  Most people don’t really notice how the lower score translates into dollars … a lot more dollars.  Since I want to buy a new house in the next three years my number one goal is to get my score as high as possible, because bottom line is, it will cost me a lot more money if I don’t or I wont be able to get a loan at all even.

While any score above 750 is acceptable, the best loans go to those above 780 (for the FICO illiterate the scale is from 300 to 850). Good news is that you can get your credit report absolutely free every six months from all three major credit reporting agencies; Experion, Equifax and Trans Union (try this website).  Bad news is that your credit score is not free (usually $7 - $10 per company), but is totally worth the money!  I didn’t know when I first started tracking my score was that all three companies can have very significant differences in what they report, so get reports and scores from all three agencies.   While Trans Union is honoring me with an outstanding score, over 750, Equifax is still only giving me a 695.  Equifax is deducting for one late payment on a credit card in 2003 that I don’t even remember!  This is a good example of why it is so important to make sure every bill is on time and that you follow your credit report closely to catch errors.

So make your New Years Resolution to get your credit report and your credit score (all three!).  It is important to know where you stand, especially if you plan to get a loan, buy insurance or apply for jobs in the next 7 years!

For those who are making this resolution or maybe want to improve your credit score I will be following up with more tips and info about your credit report and score so stay tuned!

This week is the first week that I have panicked about the economy.

I know.  You are thinking, the market has been up and down for a while now and you are just now starting to worry?  All the frugality and personal finance bloggers have been preparing for the worst, building emergency savings for months now.  And I have been spending as usual.  Even as I watched magazine ad sales fall steadily I still figured that I was a necessary piece of the puzzle at my job, and I was safe.

Then Friday at about 4pm I heard a woman on our staff walk around the office saying goodbye to fellow employees because she had just been let go.  True, she works in a whole different department and I barely know her, but I still couldn’t stop thinking … maybe my job is next.  You never really know when a layoff is going to happen.  You may hear rumors but you never really know until it happens.

The other art director on my magazine (my better half) is going on maternity leave in about a week.  My head has been spinning.  What if my company realizes they only need one of us when she comes back?  She has seniority so she would be the obvious choice to keep, right?  What if my magazines keep going down in size and number of issues?  Won’t that mean less work between us?  More reason to let one go?

I have been saving up t redo my kitchen.  Mr. Juicefairy and I are about half way there.  Now I am panicking, thinking maybe we should hold off?

But on the other hand I really have not one concrete piece of evidence that my job is in jeopardy.  In fact, I am pretty confident that if my co-worker or I got laid off, and the other was left with the work load of two people, that remaining person would drop dead from sheer exhaustion.  And redoing my kitchen or not is not going to save my job.  Who says I should be worried?  Don’t I have an emergency fund too?  Mr. Juicefairy and I have fairly low expenses, due to our frugality so if I lost my job we could float us for a while.

I guess all this frenzy about the economy is finally getting to me.  The fear has rubbed off on me!  Damn, I need to calm down. To relax.  Continue life like usual.  Anyway, I really want my new kitchen!

Here is a shot that Mr. Juicefairy took of us holding hands post engagement.  Yes, my life has now been divided into pre-engagement and post-engagement.

I have been a good girl and have avoided  posting on my wedding plans and ideas so far, trying hard not to turn this into a wedding blog.  But I figured maybe you would like an update and some money saving tips for planning a wedding, since this is a “budgeting” blog.

I have only been engaged 5 months and I pretty much have most of it planned.  This wouldn’t be strange if I was getting married in 6 months, but I am getting married in October of 2009!  Yep.  I have planned most of my wedding and it is a year away.  I am nuts.  I guess since we had been talking about getting married so long I actually started thinking up ideas way before I got engaged.   So I just started the planning as the words “yes” came out of my mouth.  I have the venue, the bridal party, the photographer, the DJ, caterer, the day of coordinator and a plethora of ideas that I am holding off putting in motion.  But now I am actually a little annoyed because I want to do more but I don’t want to have nothing to do next year.  How boring would that be?  So I am abstaining doing and more wedding planning for at least a few months.  I think in January I will start designing my invites… is that too soon?

I have become a regular at some great wedding blogs, The Knot, Brides.com and not to mention meeting couples for my own wedding photography business has helped me pick up some tips to saving money.  Because while I am lucky to have a nice budget to work with, I am slowly watching it disappear!  Weddings are a racket!  They can get very expensive very quickly, no matter how careful you are.  Here are the big tips that I think all brides should know.  P.S.  If you are a wedding blogger reading this you probably already know these tips so don’t roll your eyes and think “amateur”.  This is for us newbies to the wedding racket

1. Send out postcards for RSVPs with your invitations, instead of RSVP cards in envelopes.  The postage for a postcard is a lot cheaper and it saves  you the money on the extra little envelopes as well.  (Below: An amazing invite I love designed by blogger, Darling Dexter for her wedding with a birds nest theme.  I love how original they are!)
2. Exclude RSVPs overall and leave and email address and phone number on the invite where people can RSVP.  A way to make it special is to create an email account for your wedding like ValerieandStuartsWedding@hotmail.com.
3. Bridal Bargains : Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget by Denise and Alan Fields suggests  that you shop for a wedding dress during November or December if you can.  This is when bridal shops have their cheapest deals because new styles have just arrived for the next year and they are cleaning out inventory.  (Below: Image from Brides.com Something Pink gallery)
   
4. The same book had the great idea to buy your veil online.  Veils are a few hundred dollars in a bridal shop.  Try sites like www.wedding-veil.com and you can find very similar veils for closer to $50.  See the book for more sites.  (Save your  money and don’t buy the book.  Just borrow it from your local library like I did).
5. Invite less people!  This seems like an obvious one, but the more I count up how much it costs to have a wedding per person I realize that the best way to cut your expenses dramatically is to cut the fat on your guest list.
6. Don’t do a champagne toast.  Whether you buy the champagne through your venue or buy it yourselves it is still an extra cost for something that most people don’t even drink.  Unless you love champagne, have your guest toast with the drinks they already have in hand.
7. Be careful buying bubbles, sparklers, bird seed and so forth for the ceremony.  A lot of venues won’t even let you use this stuff so don’t buy it and get caught realizing you can’t use it.  Also, I have been to a lot of weddings where the only people that blow the bubbles are kids.  Unless you are having a grand exit with a receiving line people don’t usually use this stuff.
   
8. Don’t rent a limo for a whole day.  All those hours get expensive.  Think about having a limo just to take you and the bridesmaids to the reception for your grand exit but take a car the rest of the time.  Better yet, if you don’t have a bridal party rent a nice black car instead of a limo.
9. Check the outlets for bridesmaids dressed during prom season.  For example, I saw dresses at the BCBG outlet that were appropriate for a bridesmaid and only $39.  I think any bridesmaid would appreciate the getting a nicer dress for a cheaper price.  Think outside the box and try department stores and outlet clothing stores for possible options.  Once they tack on the word “bridal” the price goes up.
10. I didn’t realize this originally but it is much cheaper to get married in a church.  I am not religious, nor is my fiancé so we automatically looked for venues where we could have the ceremony and most places charged extra for the ceremony.  Usually the charge was at least $1,000 for set up of a ceremony, plus I need to hire an officiant.  At a charge you can usually get your pastor/priest and the ceremony for a much more reasonable donation.