Thursday, August 21, 2008

One Really Large Mortgage Mistake

OK, so I made my first online bill pay error, and I would not have suspected a thing unless my car payment came in at $0 for the month!

I set up my online bill pay through Citizens bank about a month and a half ago, and I have to admit, I do really enjoy paying my bills via the Internet as opposed to the old fashion way of writing out checks. I do not quite manage my money online, because that would mean that I allow these bills to be automatically deducted from my account, instead I handle my money online. The main difference is that I go online and submit payments manually for every bill instead of having my bank account pay them for me every month. I am still getting used to online banking and I am so anal that I do not know if I will ever be ready to simply manage my money!

My mortgage payment of $1,175.78 is due on the first of every month, and from there, like most people, I have until the fifteenth of every month before Countrywide will mark my payment as late. I am used to sending in checks and I have a list of what bills every paycheck will go towards, so I usually pay my mortgage early, around the fifteenth of the month before. I pay bills on Fridays and I paid my August mortgage payment online in the middle of July.

I closed out my month of July with no debt and no late payments, just like every month prior. When I received my Car payment for the end of the month of August, I noticed that my balance due was $0. I usually overpay my car payment a little every month to knock off some principle, but I am no where near paying it off completely! I noticed that they received two payments from me on the same day of the month previous. One was the payment designated for them, and the second payment was in the exact same amount as my mortgage, $1,175.78.

I cannot tell you how fast my heart rate went up and my jaw dropped! That was a kind of panic that I have never felt before. I have read all of these horror stories about what being late on one mortgage payment will do to your credit and refinancing options and I was terrified. The good news was that it was still only the 10th of August, which meant that I was not completely late on my mortgage payment, and now that I paid my bills online, I would not have to worry if a check would make it there in time.

I posted this on here for two main reasons. The first is obviously to show how aware you need to be when handling money online. I paid Chase Financial twice in one month when one payment should have gone to Countrywide. I am not sure if I saw the "C" at the beginning of each name and quickly chose the wrong account. Citizens Online Bill Pay also gives you confirmation numbers so that you have a record of payment. I even went so far as to write down one of the chase confirmation numbers on my countrywide payment and file it away, all because I wasn't paying close enough attention.

The second reason that I posted this story is to point out how important it is to have money saved up in an emergency fund for events such as these. I was lucky that this was all that happened. On the upside, I did knock over $1000 off the principle of what is still owed on my car. I do not have to make those monthly payments for a few months, but I am able to make them, and I have budgeted for them, so I am going to continue to make my regular monthly payments.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Grocery Game May Not Be For Everyone

No, I am not referring to grocery shopping in general, I am actually talking about a website dedicated to helping its users get the most bang for the buck at grocery stores.

At first the premise is promising, you can log on to thegrocerygame.com, and the site will tell you what is on sale at your local grocery store. By tracking the trends, coupons and in store sales, the site will give you an itemized grocery list. It breaks down its list into three categories, the first being made up of items that you should only buy if you need them that week, the second for items that you should buy in regular quantities, and the third category is for those items that you should stockpile because they are at their lowest selling point of the year. Again, I was on board for this. I was a little disappointed when I logged on and realized that I would have to pay to use the website, and that the website would not provide the coupons, I would have to cut them out of my local papers myself. The breakdown of price was only about $1.25 per week, however tack on the cost of all of the local papers I would need to buy and that cost goes up dramatically. Newspapers were cut out of my budget for two main reasons, I can get all of the information online for free, and by reading my news online I would not enlarge my carbon footprint to a greater size than it already is!

I decided that I would sign up for the trial period of the Grocery Game, which only cost me $1 for the first 4 weeks. At this point I was told that not ALL stores in my area were covered under the Game umbrella. I suppose I was lucky that my local Stop and Shop was covered, so I proceeded. The first thing I noticed when my list was generated is that it is a general list that everyone who subscribes to this store receives. I would have liked to enter items that I regularly purchase or even categories that I was interested in. The result of not being able to customize my list still did not deter me from going forward. I was very excited after the set up process to see which of my favorite foods would be on sale this week. I was greatly disappointed to learn that nothing that my husband or I regularly consume was on the list. Our list, and perhaps it is just for our store, was full of junk food and weird soups that I would never consider trying.

I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers, and I am willing to pay a little more for fresh produce and healthy foods, but I am still always looking for deals and ways to save money. Don't get me wrong, I will not pay exorbitant prices to have these items, I tend to pick and choose what healthy foods I buy based on what is on sale that week. I will not settle for a cheap bag of greasy potato chips, I will bypass the chips that I am not interested in anyway and I will look for a healthier cracker or chip choice that is on sale.

After weighing the pros and cons of being a member of the Grocery Game, I decided to cancel my subscription the next day. Most of the items on my list needed coupons from previous weeks newspapers that I hadn't saved up yet and I have no real need to stockpile groceries as it is just my husband and I. I didn't like any of the items that I was told to stockpile, and even if I did, I have no extra storage in my kitchen area. It was actually a rather easy decision for me to make.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Welcome!


I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now, really ever since I have become obsessed with reading other people's blogs! I have a major interest in personal finance, home decorating and overall organization, all while living the most frugal life I can.





Perhaps I should begin by introducing myself. My name is Stephanie Graham and I live with my husband in a condo that we purchased last October in Massachusetts. I just recently turned 23 years old, and my husband is 22 years old. We were married in March of 2008. I went to a local state school for a bachelor's degree in Biology. I graduated the four year program in only three years, while working a part time job about 30 hours a week. Kyle, my husband graduated from a different school with a bachelors degree in Sports and Recreation Management with a minor in Marketing. His college baseball team took up a lot of his time, and they made it to the NCAA College World Series twice in his college career. We were both fortunate to find jobs right out of school, although both of our first jobs turned out to be disasters! I worked in a soils engineering lab while he worked at an entry level marketing job in Boston. I was able to find an entry level position in Customer Service at a larger Biotech business in Boston, and we were able to commute into the city everyday together. From our house that was about 60 miles per day.




Kyle and I have become very savvy and efficient at saving our money, especially for our age. By living a very structured life through my organizational skills, we were able to save up for some of the larger purchases and goals that we had. We both drive new cars, Kyle has a fuel efficient Honda Civic, while I drive a Jeep Compass. Kyle has found a job closer to home, whereas my company ended up moving out of the city and closer to our condo. The Compass does well on gas compared to other smaller crossovers, but it has the main feature every New Englander needs, 4 wheel drive! The Compass was a little bit of a splurge, however we will usually only use it for trips when the weather is bad, or when we have to load up the back. We also own our own one bedroom condo in the town we grew up in. The town is on the wealthier side, however we both love the area having grown up here. We are going to begin to look for houses in the area at the beginning of 2009 (unless we find the perfect fit before that).

I have also lost close to thirty five pounds in the last year. This was mainly due to the fact that I was motivated by our nuptuals! My mother (who lost fifty pounds!) and I have been Weight Watchers lifetime members now for a few months. I will try to include some healthy eating habits and tips in this blog as well, as that has become such a large part of my life as well.

Overall, I hope that my blog, however small, will help people organize and better their lives.