I did it!!! 4 1/2 hours later, and no more floody flood!

WHEW! Seriously, i will forever have mad respect for plumbers - that job is no joke! I know they get paid (a lot) for it, but my goodness, I am one tired puppy.

But, 4 and 1/2 hours later, we have success :) There's a lot that went into it, most of which is pretty boring, but hey you might be bored, right? At the very least, you can relate to the new expenditures that were thrown into the mix. Of course, this is on top of this morning's $45 visit. *sigh*

I hold my head up high, though, as I officially did a house-related job all by my lonesome! I hope you're reading this Mrs. Budgetsaresexy ;)

Here's a semi-quick rundown of today's adventures:

• Used hose on "jet" mode to try and unplug tube in cement - failed.
• Tried two more times - backfired and hit J in the face ;( failed.
• Used hacksaw to cut pipe. Not small enough. failed.
• Went to neighbor's to borrow small saw. failed.
• Went to Home Depot - Success!
• bought skinnier hack saw - $11.97
• bought petite coping saw - $6.99
• bought thin skinny saw - $9.99
• bought duct tape - $2.79
• bought 2 flashlights - $6.97
• bought 15 ft' plumbing snake - $9.99
  
• bought long skinny plastic thingie - $1.98
• TOTAL: Roughly $54.00
  
• Tried out saw #1. failed.
• Tried out saw #2. barely failed.
• Tried out saw #3. Success!
• Used hose on "jet" mode to try and unplug tube in cement - hit J. in the face, again. failed. again.
• Went outside for 8w98405567th time to dig for outside pipe - SUCCESS!
• Clean pipe of pact-in mud, rocks, and dirt - Success!
• Put pizza in oven - Success!
• Snake pipe a total of 13 times to rid of all stagnant water - Success!
• Remember pizza is in oven - failed.
• Take pizza out of oven, and eat pizza - failed.
  
• Attach cut-off piece of pipe to pipe attached to A/C with pipe connector - Success!
• Take a break and down 2 bottle of water, while sweating profusely over the 2 cats and watching the temperature rise once again to 84 degrees - Success!
• Turn A/C back on and check all piping and dug tunnels.......SUCCESS!

See what i mean? Plumbers have it hard boy, I'll give them love any day of the week after what i just went through. But after all of that, here we are, 4 and 1/2 hours later....me eating my pizza (finally), and you reading what i have just typed. What a day!

All in all I spent a total of around $99.00, and it was well worth it. A job like this would have run around $125-$200 when I initially called to make an appointment! Ouchy mama that's a lot of money.

We now have a clean piping system, our A/C is back on full blast, my brain is pact full of knowledge, and I can now enjoy the rest of my day off. Oh, by the way - Did i ever mention i bought that cadillac last night? Post coming tomorrow :)

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Ahhhhh our basement is flooding! (so why am i here posting?)

Because i needed a break ;) That, and i frugal'd (word?) my way into a discount! Mrs. Budgetsaresexy came home last night to find out that there's water swimming around our basement, and it was about to flood into our carpet! We luckily caught it in time, but have been trying to figure out what the F happened all night long - and without the A/C running :(

We narrowed it down to either our condensation pipe in the A/C unit, or the pipe embedded into the cement part of our basement. So i'm home from work dealing with it, and the A/C guy just came and left....and told me we needed a Plumber! D'OH. (have i mentioned how much i LOVE home ownership?)

He then turned around and said, "That'll be $89.00". ARGHHHHHH....I thought, and to which i replied with "well, since you're here, can you at least poke around a bit and give any pointers?" (I also brought in our little kitty in hopes he was a cat man...turns out he was!) He gladly looked around and told me some things i can do myself before calling in professional help. And, on top of that, he hooked me up w/ a 50% discount and only charged me $45!!!! HOTNESS.

So, either the cat won him over, or he just really felt bad for me ;) Either way, I'll take it! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go be Mr. Sexy Handyman...there's no way i'm dishing out more money without a fight!

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Mortgage Late? Don't Wait!

"You Have Options. We Can Help."

WOWWW, something in the mail that's actually NOT spam! haha... And not only that, but something that can potentially help people KEEP THEIR HOMES!

I applaud you Maryland, that is very impressive.

A state stepping up to help out those stuck in all this sub-prime mortgage mess ... you don't see that every day ;)

The flyer is sponsored by Maryland Hope (a division of The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development) and shows their call to action on the front "Act NOW! Before It's Too Late!", along w/ their toll-free Hotline and website. Then, on the back, it shows some of the services they offer:

• Free nonprofit counseling in your community
• Financial resources that can save your home from foreclosure.
• Help with non-responsive loan servicers.
• Mortgage fraud investigation

Not bad, right? And even if you DO end up chucking it, *hopefully* it will at least get you to stop and think about it. Whether you need the help, or not, though, I commend Maryland for giving it a shot. I personally had nooooooooooooo idea something like this existed, and had i been in trouble? Oh you better believe i'd be all over that website ;)

For more information on Maryland Hope, call their Hotline @ 1-877-462-7555 or visit their website: http://www.mdhope.org/

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The new super sexy House Budget!

So I've been playing around w/ different ways to handle our "house" stuff quite a bit lately, and while i'm still not all the way there, I think I'm getting close to figuring it all out! Here are the 3 methods we've tried out so far, including our current one:

Method #1 --> Split everything up, and pay separately. We originally divided up our rent, utilities, groceries, etc. and paid from our own accounts. While it worked for a while, it eventually got old and took too much time determining who owed, and paid, what.

Method #2 --> Using our Heloc as our "house account". We deposited/paid off our HELOC account w/ every dollar earned, then wrote checks from it to pay all the bills. It saved us $100/mo, but it unfortunately backfired when the market went down, and our "deposited money" was frozen :(

Current & Simplest Method --> Opening up separate Checking and Savings accounts. We spent 15 mins. over the phone opening them up w/ USAA ( now making a grand total of 12 accounts w/ them!), and started depositing all "house" money into them. Checking covers all mortgages, bills, groceries, etc., and savings will be used for whatever we wish for at the time. It is currently set as our "wedding fund".

And, of course, I have a budget for this! I mean, you ARE at budgetsaresexy.com aren't you? haha ... Here is how our House Budget breaks down:

1st Mortgage: 30 year fixed, interest-only.
2nd Mortgage (Heloc): We still budget at this original amount (it's since dropped down to $280!!!), and we apply the difference to our store cards and the savings account.
Credit Card: House: Covers our cable bill & all groceries.
Savings Account: To be used for whatever we wish. Currently set as our "Wedding Fund".
Home Owners: Association fees that cover the lawns, pools, trash pick up, etc. in our neighborhood.
Electric Bill: keeps our lights on ;)
Water Bill*: This is a quarterly charge of around $75. I broke it down into 3 payments of $25 each/mo. so we can budget it in.
Store Credit Cards: We're slowly paying them off! Covers our new iMac, and the wedding rings, and are at 0% interest.

As you can see, splitting out "House" stuff will be MUCH easier now that everything is separated and accounted for. Each time I get a paycheck now, I check my personal budget and xfer over the allocated amounts into the right account.

Easy peasy ... at least for now ;)

-------
Cant' get enough sexy budgeting? check out my others:
- my personal budget
- my credit card budget

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Home Warranty - To renew, or not to renew?

I've been nibbling on this question for the past 3 weeks, and it seems that I still don't have a 100% sure answer on it ;) Mrs. Budgetsaresexy and I had already agreed that we should NOT renew it, thus letting the expiration date come and go, but they JUST sent us another friendly reminder - sneaky marketers!

It's hard because I usually go w/ my original instinct, which in this case says to renew it and have the peace of mind that comes along w/ warranties. But then the practical side kicks in and asks, "Will you actually recoup the costs?" I mean, it's a valid question and one to definitely consider for things like this.

Last year it costs us $360, and we used it once for our leaky ceiling ordeal. While we tried to use it another time when our dryer went bonkers, we didn't, and all in all we ended up spending a total of $460 (warranty itself + $100 deductible) for this one plumbing issue. Now, i'm not sure how much the actual costs would have been w/out the warranty, but i seriously doubt it would have come close. All they really put in was some new rubbery stopper thingie and told us what to watch for.

This year the warranty renews at $465! Same deductibles, and same coverage (quoted from their site):

"breakdowns in major systems like plumbing, electrical, heating and air
conditioning as well as washer, dryer, oven, refrigerator and other items."

So what's a brother to do, right? If 3 things happen (or 1 major thing), we're pretty much covered. But realistically we'd be spending money "in hopes" something happens, and then shelling out another $100 each time it DOES. I dunno, it really just gives me a headache thinking of it all ;)

With the wedding coming up, and w/ sites out there like Craigslist & ebay to pick up new appliances, we have decided to pass (again) and keep this money in our Emergency Fund.

What would you guys do, though? Does anyone else use a home warranty of any sort? I'd be interested to see how others handle this little ditty...and unless we change our minds at the last second, fingers crossed that it all works out!

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Our house likes to eat up our Dryers.

So we are having some pretty bad luck w/ dryers lately. I don't know what it is, but we're now onto our THIRD one since we moved in last year! I know they don't last forever, but man hook a brother up for at least an entire year, ya know?

Here's a quick synopsis of our pain so far:

1st dryer - inherited when purchased house. seemed normal, until it started taking longer...and longer...and longer to dry. we replaced w/ sister's dryer after she picked up brand new ones. (yay for free!)

Sister's dryer - worked perfectly for a good 6 months or so. then all of a sudden started making this horribly awful screeching noise as it dried. it was so bad you could hear it on the 3rd floor! This is even w/ our doors closes and it being in our basement. i'm sure our neighbors love us.

And now we're onto our 3rd dryer. This part could get me REAL fired up, so i'll try and get through it quickly before i start slamming these keyboard keys....after many weeks of failed Craigslist searching, we decided to use our home warranty again and pay the $100 to have someone come out and fix it. I mean, it REALLY dries well, it's just the awful noise that comes out of it.

We got the standard, "we'll have someone out there between 4-7" and roll with it. And although the company they source out to looks pretty damn sketchy (took me 6 calls to get a live person, their voicemail isn't set up, and their website is shoddy), they were willing to come out on a saturday!

Sooo...off we go:

• we rush home after Mrs. Budgetsaresexy's wedding shower, to hurry up and get it done, so we can go back and hang out with her nephews up from NC.
• 4 rolls by - nothing.
• 5 rolls by - nothing.
• 5:30 we get a call! "we're on our way, be there in 35-40 mins". Not the best news, but at least they'll be here shortly,and we can run back to have dinner w/ everyone.
• 6 rolls by - nothing
• 7 rolls by - nothing

This goes on, and on, and on...NOTHING! why the F do you call saying your'e on the way, and then NOT show up, NOT call back, and NOT answer your damn phone? I was fired up. I left them a calm, yet very stern message every hour on the dot until 10. And to this day? nothing.

I called back our home warranty people and asked for a new company, but they don't do weekends or evening hours. we were stuck. And then, as if a flash of light appeared through the clouds and the Almighty one himself looked down upon us, we catch a HUGE break on Craigslist!

A perfectly working dryer for only $45! I call this one the "Richie Rich" dryer, as the place we picked it up last night was fairly richie rich, and the thing looks brand freakin' new. Mrs. Richie Rich had just replaced her set with some new super duper futuristic ones, and couldn't get herself to haul it way. Fine by me!

So now we have our third dryer in less than a year. And i swear, if this one doesn't last at LEAST 6 months, i will consider washing everything by hand. i mean it, don't tempt me! ....haha...nah, that's a bit extreme. plus i'm too lazy :) but i WILL blog about it! so take that.

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Me and my home warranty.

The other day my girl and i were chillaxin' around the living room when all of a sudden i get a "Honey, why is our ceiling dripping?". In a split second I went from totally relaxed to completely freaking out. Why WOULD our ceiling be dripping? How does that even happen? In case you couldn't tell, we are new homeowners.

After gathering my wits and taking a few seconds to actually think about it, we realized that our master tub is directly above this sneaky ceiling. I jolted upstairs and started analyzing the situation. I checked for holes, cracks, missing tiles, leaks, you name it. While i did notice the need to brush up on my caulking (what a funny word!) skills, there was nothing awry that the human eye could see.

As with all sticky situations, i immediately called my mom....just like 3rd grade all over again :) Something you also didn't know, was that i was even a realtor for 3 months a cple years back, so i should have DEF. known what to do! At any rate, mom was much more calm and collected, and brought up two major points which never crossed my mind:

a) Did i check the crawl space behind the tub to see where it's leaking? What a novel approach! To my credit, i never knew these existed as normally i'd just call management to get 'er fixed up. But apparently most master bathrooms have a section cut off, and blocked off, to easily access the back of the tub. So i grabbed my handy screwdriver and flashlight, and took a peek. And voila, there it was! the space between the tub & the tube had water stains. So now i at least knew where it was coming from.

b) The second thing she asked, was if we had a home warranty? This one immediately calmed my nerves just by listening to the words come out. I had TOTALLY forgot we picked one up right before closing! Of course, this could have had the opposite effect if I had rejected my realtor knowledge and didn't spend the extra money for one :) How awesome right?

We called a preferred plumber from our warranty company (HMS Warranty. I highly recommend!), and within 48 hours we had it all fixed up. Luckily enough the damages to the house were almost nil, and it didn't cause much ruckus to our wallets either.

It costs us $360 for the year, with a deductible of only $100. Any costs on top of that are totally covered by HMS. Besides plumbing, it also covers the following (quoted from their site):

"breakdowns in major systems like plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning as well as washer, dryer, oven, refrigerator and other items."

Talk about peace of mind! Warranties like these *might* only be picked up when purchasing or selling a house, but it's definitely something to consider. All i know is, i'm definitely renewing it when it comes around next month!

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2 quickies today.

#1) The IRS is freaking FAST fast FAST! My state and federal taxes were literally JUST sent in online (Last Thursday), and I already got both direct deposited into my account! Seriously, how tight is that? This is the first tax return i've done since buying our house, and i am totally LOVING home ownership right now :)

Federal: $3,036: The timing is impeccable. My Emergency Fund was down to $105 this week (from $3500+ last month due to our crazy Heloc freezing), so i welcome this sum with wide open arms :) I'll be updating my net worth and Sexy Goals in the next few days, and now i'm sexcited!

State: $849: Yeee-haw! Another pile which should hopefully make it into my Emergency Fund this week.

#2) I am revising this site a bit, as you can probably tell, so i huge sorry in advance if i delete comments, feeds, or anything else that can possibly happen. My goal of writing one post a week day is still alive though, so don't you worry about that my good friends. I hope you like the changes!

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Operation HELOC: the bad :(

We really got F'd on this one the other day! Seriously, it was going sooooo well. I really thought we fenagled ourselves a great deal. I mean, it still IS a great deal in that we are saving roughly $200 a month currently, BUT here is where they got us (and i didn't even see it coming!):

THEY FROZE OUR HELOC ACCOUNT!!!!

You might be saying to yourself, so what? You're still saving $200 a month. This is true, and i'm thankful for that. BUT consider what this now means:

1) It was frozen because the market values of the houses in our neighborhood have now gone down! And the bad part is i don't know by how much (according to my bank of course) as I have to await some elusive letter in the mail stating the amount. ARRGHHHH.
2) We have now lost access to our entire Checking and Savings account! Remember, we put 9k into it to save the additional interest each month with the belief we could take it out anytime we wanted...and this was working fine until now. Imagine your accounts having a $0.00 balance starting right now. Scary, eh?

So, did "Operation HELOC Savings" work? YES. It saved us $$$. BUT it also F'd us in the fact we "lost" all our savings and checkings, and we NOW have refigure out how to move on securely going forward, as well as start building the aforementioned accounts back up ... all the while paying our bill and mortgages at the same time.

On a good note, we (or really I), learned a big lesson here: Spend more time reading what I'm signing as there ARE loopholes for both parties. Seriously, i didn't see this one coming!

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Operation HELOC: the good :)

Yayyy, this is the HAPPY part!

So, "Operation Heloc" was put into place by my fiancée and i to save more money on our interest payments. Being brand spankin' new about houses, mortgages, etc, we really didn't know what we were getting into. We trusted our financial guy though (w/ Weichert Financial), and this is what we got:

1st Mortgage: 30 year fixed @ 6.875% - interest only, fixed rate.
2nd Mortgage: HELOC (home equity line of credit) @ 9%*- interest only, variable rate.

At first this didn't mean anything to us. After a cple months, however, it occured to me that 9% is pretty high considering the both of us have Excellent credit scores. I know it's a 2nd mortgage, but still. I started reading all the blogs out there and MAN there was a lot of info (Thanks guys!). The one that really caught my attention was a post from The Simple Dollar on Money-Merge accounts. After hours and hours of further research, it occured to me that we could (and did) do the following:

a) Refinance for a lower rate - We did this 3 months later and got it down to Prime - .45%!!! (at the time i believe it was 8.25%) knocking it down a good 1.2%!, and it only cost us $42 :)
b) We then took out most of our savings and checking $, about 9k, and "paid off" part of the Heloc. This was done by basically using the HELOC as a "checking" account. We xferred all our savings in it, deposited all my paychecks, and then wrote checks out of it to pay the bills. Wierd/COOL/neat? Yeppers. This in effect saved us even more in finance $.

So, overall the plan worked PERFECTLY! We saved a total of $72.00 each month just by doing the above. Since then, the rates have also been going down, so we are now set at a little over $200 savings EACH MONTH!

All in all i'm am happy with our decisions, and we have saved a total of $1,492.40 over the course of 6 months. I will, however, lock in a portion (if not all) of it when I feel the rates are at the lowest points.

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