Right now we are fully funding our IRA's, plus at work I have 7% taken from my salary plus a 9% employer match (which is required), and then an extra $300/month pulled pre-tax to a 457 plan.

However, a number of our monthly bills have been going up. This is causing us to not be able to fully fund some of our categories more months than not. I do all the budgeting each month, and allocate the money in the MUST categories, and then have DH decide the allocation for the remaining categories.

Those categories are the Pet Fund, Medical Fund, Auto Maintenance Fund, Bridge Fund, Vacation and Date Night.

To fully fund all of those, we need $850. Most months we are at least $300 - 400 short. So, vacation usually doesn't get funded, Bridge fund and other funds get about 50% funded.

From conversations we've had, I know this stresses DH out.

There's only two solutions I see to this - one is DH putting all his cash tips into the family budget (which may or may not help enough); or me decreasing the extra I'm having withheld from my paycheck to my 457.

I've talked to DH about increasing the amount he puts in - and he did up it a bit. But the idea of putting it all in makes him feel like he'd have no motivation to go into work. (Sarcastic thoughts in my head about this ... but not going to say them.) So I don't think asking him to increase his contribution more is workable.

That leaves reducing my 457 contribution. If I completely stopped it, it wouldn't be a straight $300 extra back each month, due to being pre-tax. But it would be about $250.

This would make it possible for us to fully fund the important categories (pets, medical, auto, bridge) every month, and put something in vacation every month too.

I really hate the idea of scaling back on the retirement savings, but I'm not sure what else to do.

If we could get our electric bill down that would help. (It went up another $5/mo for the next 6 month period - budget billing.) And maybe in another year or so the car insurance bill will go down to a more reasonable level (as long as there's no more accidents ...) So maybe this won't be a permanent thing.

I'll have a raise in May, and again in August. So, maybe by the following May I could start funding it again?

Or should I just leave well enough alone, and hope that our current funding level in these categories will be enough?

I have 14 years to go to retirement (hopefully!) and am on good track for that. DH hopes to be retired in a bit more than 6 years (that's partly what the Bridge fund is for.)

This is when I wish I had someone I could lay all the numbers out to and the goals and obstacles and have them just tell me what to do. Sigh.

Really trying to avoid looking at current fund balances - other than knowing this is a good time to buy, buy. buy!

When I got home from church today and looked through the mail, I saw an envelope from ATT. I almost threw it away without looking at it. Glad I didn't!

Inside was a check for $12.49 - settling for throttling my unlimited data when I was with their service.

I vaguely remember signing up for this class action suit.

I also cashed out my StepBet/RunBet winnings - $82.42. (This is from multiple bets.)

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I was at Whole Foods yesterday looking for non-dairy yogurt (taking antibiotics for a sinus infection) and decided to see if they have the vegan donuts I'd heard about.

They did. Luckily at $2.50 they aren't going to be very tempting - because taste wise ... very tempting.

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I missed posting on my 15 year blogaversary. I've seen so many people come and go, and sometimes drift back again. I'm so glad to have found this place 15 years ago.