2006: Car repairs, new digital camera, new tv
2007: New car, subsequent repairs
2008: Another new car, new digital camera, vcr/dvd player.
Are we seeing a trend here? I hate spending large amounts of money on 'stuff'. HATE it. I feel like people are looking at me like they think I don't know all about saving money, investing, and planning for the future.
But I do, I really do! I've been to so many meetings on financial planning- church sponsored or otherwise- that I should be an expert by now.
When I was single (I say this so often, I promise I do like being married) I saved money like nobody's business. Sure, I don't know a ton about investing, but I was able to go on a cruise and fly home twice a year without putting much of a dent into my savings. Of course, I was still on my parents insurance, I shared a house with four people (cheaper rent), and I didn't own a car or a computer.
Then I got married. And we had more expenses. We no longer had roommates so we had to get our own computer. We were moving out of the city, so we had to get a car. And insurance, both health and car kinds. Joseph wanted to go to school, so we needed to pay for that first year out of pocket. We had a baby, and while our insurance was good, a c-section still leaves you a bit to still pay for yourself.
And somehow, saving money didn't happen so easily, and my carefully saved funds slowly dwindled due to emergencies and bills. I'm very glad we had it, don't get me wrong. But according to all those money seminars, I should have thousands put away somewhere accruing interest for our exciting retirement years. Yeah right.
Eventually, I found a new dream. It seems that when you're married with kids, you can get a pretty good sized tax return. Each year we've been married, (excluding the first year when we didn't get one) our return has been progressively bigger. Maybe not large according to some standards, but enough to be excited about.
My dream though, may be a little different than reality. If we lived according to my dream, we would put away about ninety percent of our return, or figure out that investing thing. But it seems this time of year always necessitates the spending of our newly found wealth.
A great deal of it usually goes towards car stuff. (I know all about how buying a new car will save you money in the long run, blah blah blah, and I want to punch people when they tell me this. You realize a new car also requires payments, right? Nuff said.) This year we bought another vehicle, a van, and I hope its better than our last one because we spent significantly more on it! Our tabs were expiring on the WA plates our other car still carried..and since it required more repairs to even be registered in UT, we thought it more prudent to just get a new one. It seems nice so far.
Also, our vcr/dvd player was dying. This is definitely not a necessity...but we had to record LOST! We got one that will record to DVD this time too, so hopefully it will last longer.
Finally, we got a new camera. This was probably the least necessary of our purchases, but I had been planning on it for quite a while, remember? And I got a nice one, let me tell you. I couldn't justify buying an actual Digital SLR, but what I got was a Panasonic Lumix, which had all the features I could want. Check this out.
There is a tire swing one can see through the fence from where we live. With our old camera, I tried to take a picture, but you could barely tell the tire was there,as the camera couldn't zoom too far. Yesterday, I took these with my new camera:
Well look at that, there's a tire over there! Not only that, but I was able to change the lighting on the camera to make it darker, as it was too washed out normally. But wait, can I zoom in further?
My. Look at that! (This one wasn't darkened) And wait, theres more:
I am so excited! I could actually have gotten even closer, but then you couldn't tell what the picture was.
Then I used my new stealth camera to catch these paparazzi shots of Elora, from over 100 ft away:
Pretty cool, huh!
So while I hate that we've spent so much money in such a small amount of time, I am happy with the stuff we have. Someone I know once said that only poor people spend large amounts of money when they get a check in the mail. (I tried to link to it, but couldn't find the exact post, sorry.) While that may have stung a little, I guess we do qualify as poor students. I just hope we can do better next year.
11 comments:
Those are great photos!
With every year that I'm married, we pay more and more to the government. It's especially rough to think I pay so much to the state of Utah in taxes when I don't even live there. I don't get to vote on how monies are spent and yet they take massive amounts of it away from me each year!
Oh well, that's the way life goes. I supposed someday if I have a kid the tax pendulum will swing the other way. Maybe?
Your new camera seems so nice! It's definately worth it to spend money on things that you need for your family. :) By the way, Elora's hair is getting so long!
We pay more to the IRS every year we're married...but I think in two years we may possibly start to get a return. That will be crazy. You bought a van? Are you like a grown-up now? Elora has tons of hair! I guess that's cuz you did too. ;)
It is so hard to save money. There are always more things to buy, especially with a family!
Money is always such a tricky thing. The minute you think you can toss a little extra into savings, the hot water heater blows, the car needs some repairs or a doctor bill comes due. Life just happens - & unfortunately, it usually costs money.
Your camera sounds fabulous - and takes such crisp, close-up pictures! I've been salivating over SLR's, but I'm having a hard time justifying that one too!
We've had to use our tax return on living expenses this year and the previous two years as well. We've gotten enough back to buy a couple of "extras" also, but most of it has gone to rent and other bills. We always plan to save a large chunk of it, but we've needed it just to get by. It's amazing how quickly that green stuff disappears!
thanks for the comments everyone! Kara, that was the plan for a bunch of our money too, but now I think we'll have to figure out something else. Oh well, it all works out.
Well, you could lower your withholding so you don't get the huge refund, and call your business office at work and have them put the difference plus some into your 401(k), which would be coming out before taxes and could drop you down into a lower tax bracket (so you might even still get a refund in the end). You'd be earning interest on your money instead of Uncle Sam! You could amass your retirement funds pretty quickly that way.
okay, let me reword what I stated in another comment. Our tax return is from Earned Income Credit, and the Additional Child Tax credit. It has absolutely nothing to do with our withholding amount, as we owe no taxes on our income. Maybe that helps you to better understand the situation.
You may feel like poor college students, but those photos are amazing... perhaps you'll rake in the dough for your great pictures!
Thanks Sarah!
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