Progress Update

Despite myself I have made progress. I have paid down over $15,000 in debt. Go me. I am in the middle of the journey. I no longer feel the heavy anchor so familiar to me of my monthly payments that beginning shore where I said oh if something happens I'll just use my credit card.... and the other shore where I am debt free. When you no longer see either shore the journey seems long. I know in my heart I am doing the right things. I know in my heart I will stay the path and keep pushing to be debt free. But the birth of my beautiful son and the costs of college for my daughter seem to pull at me so that I swim very very slowly to the shore where I am debt free. Had I not become pregnant and had my husband not needed to work so often on the weekends I would have taken a second job. I am still looking for opportunities to make extra money.

Today though when you break a round number like $15,000 you should stop and celebrate. I am going to treat myself to one $16.99 magazine holder for my cross stitch magazines. I dont want to spend much because I have to keep swimming. I also need to remember that the books I purchased from amazon will not have been charged to my account yet and I need to save that birthday money for when the bill arrives.

My progress from NCN. I have updated the numbers in the side bar. so Celebrate with me [ ]3 as we roll forward.


I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......

Time

There is really little time to myself these days but I did manage to stitch a little last night. Here is an update...

Marching on

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.... Well the Lion says get some stuff done. The little lambie wants to be lazy. Sometimes people dont get blogging. But for me it helps me focus. I have to think about my progress for the week and then I can tell where I am and where I want to be.

So things I need to do to be on track:

Address health care issue
Bank (done)
Errands this morning (done)
Dr this afternoon
Balance my check book - I have not been tallying my budget for the last three months
Fill out financial info
Pay car insurance

Also I would like to do a how much does this dinner really cost. I spent $63.00 at the grocery store today. I bought the ingredients for about 5 days of food
We need to focus on two things: Cost
and Calories - I have high cholesterol and am at risk for diabetes so the meal must be healthful.

Today I saw a recipe that I adapted from A year of CrockPotting She has some awesome recipe ideas.

I am making a pork roast. Here are the ingredients list:

Pork Roast (Used 1/2 from Sam's Club, Cost 6.25)
Rosemary Used in the house ~1.00
Cumin Used in the house ~1.50
Salt
Garlic 1 bulb (Yep the whole house smells like garlic .66
Plums 3.00
Apple juice 3.79
Cinnamon stick 7.99

Mashed pots leftovers
Veg 2.29

26.48

Much less then a dinner out and we'll have leftovers for at least one meal so 26.48/2=13.24. Not bad for dinner. The cinnamon sticks were WAY over the top. But I love different spices. I will use them in another meal.

[Update: the pork was Delicious. I'll make it again. I have become a crock pot fan.]

It is really helpful to look at different costs to determine how we are doing on dinners. I am really really bad at spending money at the grocery store. I admit it. SO... If I blog about it I am then accountable. And If I am accountable I can change. I can get out of debt. I can. I can I can.


My reward should be to choose what cross stitch project I am going to bring to AZ. We are going on vacation with our family. And as you ask how can you do that??? My mom is treating us. Thats how. She paid for the tickets, the car rental, and the living arrangements. We are covering a small amount of food and whatever shopping we do there. Is it bad I looked for a cross stitch store online already? there is one there.... Maybe they have some new stash. LOL

Naughty purchase

For my birthday I have wanted the cross stitch book by Isabelle Haccourt Vautier. Her new book is called "Si la mer m'était comptée".I love the images on the cover and I cant wait to stitch them. I was frustrated that it was difficult to find the book. Well I did a search on amazon.fr and found it. Then I did a search on amazon.ca and it was there! I was a little worried about the shipping from Canada but it turns out not to be too bad. It is an indulgence I have been wishing for this for about 2 months. I decided to just go for it. I dont spend a lot of money on myself and I really wanted this book. Amazon made it a little too easy. I used my regular amazon account. It worked on the .ca orders too. Shipping info was there ready to go. Billing was one click. Like I said a little too easy. Now I just have to wait for it to ship.

In the mean time I am going to pay my Car insurance... LOL Well there has to be some reality to my day!

I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......

monday musings

I have a full plate today so here goes....

I hate Daylight savings time. I always feel so tired for days until my body adjusts. The whole house is sick and that makes the adjustment LONGER. Ugh How many days do you have to be sick before you call the doctor? I would just like to stop coughing!

Financial concerns: If a bank where you have a credit card goes under what happens?I have a plan to eliminate the debt all together. Yet... I have 6 Credit cards left. I am trying to make it 5 as fast as I can. Most have under $2,500 dollars on them and I took offers of 3.9 & 4.9% to gain lower rates. But One card has a little over $12,000 on it. What would I do if they changed the terms? What rights do I have if the bank is taken over? If the bank outright fails and closes its doors would I still owe the money or would it be forgiven? (Boy would my snowball shrink then!) They would probably sell it to a collections service. Would I be able to continue making payments then? Would they want the whole amount at once? (I dont have it so forget it) The offer I have now is 3.9% till the balance is paid off. I do not want to change the terms of that deal. I get plenty of offers in the mail, even these days, to transfer my balances. But most banks have shortened the terms of the offer. 3.99 for 6 months or 0 for three mnonths. I have a plan to eliminate the debt all together. So for myself nothing has changed. I will continue to pay down my cards with no new charges going onto them until the debt is gone. It was a 3 year plan. It is a little longer now with DS in the picture. I will continue on my journey. After all I have already paid down $14,668. whats another $25,135 ??? LOL UGH my stomach hurts seeing that number. But I did it. I ran it up I will pay it off. I think the answer is that there are so many possibilities don't borrow trouble you have no control over. But with all the banking in the news its hard not to watch and wonder.

On happier news. I was able to get a little more done on the baby bib. We are going to AZ in April and I want to have it completed before the trip.

March Money update

Well I have paid my bills for March. I was Happy with my January progress. I had a really successful pay down of debt. But starting this month the pay off will be much slower! We have started back to work and daycare. It is a big financial commitment to have the baby in daycare. But I do like this place and they seem to care for him which is a good thing. I have committed to DH that I would pay about $500 per month. Feb I paid 675. So I am really shy on a food budget and other things. But I want to celebrate progress for what it is. Last month I was at 34% paid. Now I have achieved 36.85% and I have paid off $14,668 of debt. Amazing as I thought I never would get out of debt. What a wonderful thing.

DH and I went to look at an open house over the weekend. To my distress I was sad to say we are not ready to buy. We need to get rid of the credit card debt first. So. to that end I am going to cancel my Yahoo space. It will give me back 15 to my debt every month. I am not using it and It is silly to pay for something I am not using. I still want it don't get me wrong its a great thing to have web space where you can post your portfolio and do extra outside work but if its not paying for itself then it is an expense we dont need. And truthfully I never have time any more. Baby just takes up too much of it.

I think the message for today is that the debt snowball works. Yeah hoo!


I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......