Okay, I thought that no-spend days were cool but now I’ve discovered something even better!  Days when my only transactions are money-back store returns.

Costco — ($80.31)
I’ll admit that I’ve expressed various frustrations with Costco before (ie. they stopped carrying the cases of Horizon chocolate milk) but I have to admit that you simply cannot beat their return policies.  I returned four items yesterday and ended up with $80.31 being put back onto my American Express card.

I returned two boxes of trash bags/liners — turned out I had stashes of kitchen trash bags and waste basket liners that I’d forgotten about.  A box of the kitchen bags lasts me the better part of a year so I saw no reason to keep a whole extra box.  I bought the box of liners because I knew that was down to the last few bags on my current roll — what I didn’t realize was that it was just one of about 6 rolls in a box and I still have 4 rolls left.  I bought the original box about two years ago so I certainly saw no advantage to keeping an extra box around.

The trash bags were the easy returns and I didn’t anticipate any issues getting full credit for them — they were unopened and purchased within the past 30 days.  The other two items I was a little more worried about.

I’d purchased a king-sized bag of Frigo string cheese sticks thinking that this was a brand we’d purchased before; thinking they already had The Daughter’s seal of approval.  Apparently not.  I was informed that they were gross.  According to The Daughter, these Frigo sticks taste like plastic.  The package was open; I didn’t have the original bag; and one stick was eaten.  Still, I received a full refund.

My last return was the Belkin iPod FM transmitter kit I purchased last month.  The package was opened; the transmitter used.  We hadn’t opened all of the packaging and taken out all of the other cords I’d wanted to put to use (I wanted to try the transmitter first).  Unfortunately the Belkin unit proved to be less than impressive.  I like the DLO unit a thousand times better.  But, just like the cheese sticks, the Costco employee accepted the return without a hitch — for a full refund.

Fabulous!  Thanks, Costco!

January marked my fourth whole month of using the YNAB software* and but only my first month of recording all of our household expenses.  In previous months I’ve tracked all of my expenditures, but only some of The Husband’s.  On the income side, I tracked our salaries and any supplemental income I brought in (ie. survey income) but none of our dividend or interest income and none of The Husband’s other misc income (ie. Disabled Vet, pension, or Social Security).

I’m really quite excited to be taking our budgeting to the next level and including every single bit of income and all expenses — his and mine.  Because I’m responsible for the vast majority of our monthly spending (and what I didn’t spend personally I at least knew about — our mortgage, car payment, tuition payments, etc), our new “whole picture” budget reflects only slightly higher monthly expenses.  On the other hand, our income was woefully under-represented in my previous months’ budgets — I’m glad to finally see the reality of our income v. expenses.

The expenses outlined below are categorized just as they are in my YNAB budget. The first number is the amount spent in that category in January. The second number is the difference (+ more) or (- less) between January’s number and December’s.

I only had to add two new categories to our budget now that I’m tracking The Husband’s expenses — his Cash and Misc Expenses. The data I get from The Husband come in the form of copies of all five of his bankbook registers. The Husband doesn’t want to be bothered with turning in each individual receipt — and I have no trouble respecting that. He’s busy, he knows we spend less than we make, and he never makes silly or frivolous or even large purchases. His expenses cover things like meals, groceries for the office or occassionally for something at home, dry cleaning, gas, and the occassional gift for my birthday, our anniversary, or Valentine’s Day. He also buys office supplies, etc. but all of those go onto his expense report and he periodically issues himself a reimbursement check.

In January, we spent a total of $6,843.10 (that’s $731.50 more than in December — if you’re comparing this month’s budget overview to December’s posted overview, these numbers might not vibe due to minor changes and corrections made since posting December’s review post).

Here’s the breakdown:

Auto Expenses — $1,212.27 (-331.13)

• Gas — $305.62
• Loan — $904.15
• Other — $2.50

Charity — $60.00 (-305.00)

• Offerings — $60.00

Food — $690.60 (-114.67)

• Groceries — $593.55
• Eating Out — $97.05

Gifts — $26.39 (-743.15)

• my family — $10.72
• other — $15.67

Household — $489.70 (+359.53)

• Consumables — $167.78
• Durables — $286.89
• other — $14.98
• Postage, Shipping, Supplies — $20.05

Housing — $1,650.74 (+10.64)

• Improvements — $10.64 
• Mortgage — $1,640.10

The Son — $73.24 (-11.86)

• Allowance — $6.00
• Clothing — $67.24

Kids — $366.92 (+318.26)

• Books & Materials — $61.92
• Equipment & Rentals — $35.00
• Lessons & Activity Fees — $270.00

The Daughter — $134.39 (-11.96)

• Allowance — $24.00
• Clothing — $62.89
• School Lunches — $47.50

Medical/Health — $863.85 (+594.64)

• Alternative Care — $355.00 
• Co-pays & Deductibles — $240.00
• Prescriptions & Meds — $81.67
• Vitamins/Supplements — $187.18

Personal — $589.15 (+532.32)

• Books & Music — $24.27
• The Husband’s cash — $200.00
• The Husband’s misc expenses — $222.26
• Other — $118.11
• Toiletries — $24.51

Recreation — $403.78 (+356.50)

• Entertainment — $145.28
• Vacation — $258.50

Utilities — $359.16 (+154.53)

• Cable & Internet — $60.59
• Phone — $210.21
• Water — $88.36

Well, that’s it for January.   I’ll be back next month for another budget review 

Tuesday night, after getting in from the airport just in time to grab a bite to eat, grab the kids, and dash to our local precinct in time to vote for Barack Obama, The Husband gave me an American Express application he’d received in the mail.  Actually, I’d received it but he had opened it and looked at it.  Normally that type of thing goes straight into the trash.  But this time he handed it to me and said he thought I should give them a call and get a card.

The application was for an American Express Blue Cash® card and it had an RSVP number printed on it and invited me to simply call their 800 number, give them the RSVP number, and quickly be done with the application process.  I put it in my “to do” pile.  Last night, while waiting for The Husband to be ready to watch our movie together, I gave American Express a call.

The application process was not quite as quick as I’d hoped.  I already have an AMEX card through our business but since I was applying for a personal card in my name, I had to go through a few hoops.  Nothing too strenuous or bothersome, though, and after about 10 minutes I was very politely informed that my application had been approved.  In a few weeks I’ll receive my new American Express Blue Cash® card — with an $18,500 limit.  When the customer service rep informed me of the credit limit, I joked that I could go out and buy myself a new car.  She thought it was very funny.  The Husband, who at this point was sitting and waiting for me to finish, smiled at my joke too.

I sure am glad that there isn’t any part of me, not even the most remote part of my being lurking in the shadows of my subconsciousness, that takes my little joke seriously.

This will not be my first credit card.  It isn’t even my fourth or fifth or sixth credit card.  It isn’t my highest credit limit card either — though it’s probably in the top three.  The Husband’s rationale for encouraging me to apply for the card was:  one, it would be good to have a personal AMEX card for purchases at places like Costco that only accept AMEX; two, it’s always a good idea to have a card for emergencies like airline tickets; and three, it’s a good idea for me to have a couple of cards in my name only just in case something happens to him.  This card will help build up my personal credit score (my credit is squeaky clean but I don’t have a great deal of credit that isn’t tied to his credit — which, naturally, is as clean as can be) and will likely prove to be very important in the event of his demise (since he’s got terminal cancer, his demise isn’t quite as theoretical as I’d like it to be).

The card has no annual fee and offers 1.5% cash back on “virtually” every purchase I make and up to 5% cash back on purchases at grocery stores and gas stations.  The fine print excludes purchases at “departments of superstores or warehouse clubs” which means that none of my Costco purchases (warehouse or gas) will qualify for the cash back rewards.  I anticipate switching to this new card for all of my Costco purchases (warehouse and gas) as well as using it for all of my non-Costco gas station purchases.  Other than that, I expect the card will sit in my wallet quietly building my credit and sitting at the ready should an emergency arise that I want to spread out a little and not lump together with my monthly household expenses.  The one thing I can guarantee it will not buy?  A car.