The road traveled

Family Binder and Legacy drawer

2011-02-28T16:10:00.002-05:00

I would never have called the information on this list a legacy. However I do believe that it is so important to make sense of my desk for my husband or DD should an emergency arise.

I cant focus today. So I am working instead on some steps that are already laid out in Dave Ramsey's plan. I will state that I did try and get started on my work but the primary bank where I was doing my work was being hacked - or down due to severe weather. Either way I chose to start this project...

Dave Ramsey's suggestions on creating a legacy drawer for your family.

http://www.daveramsey.com/article/legacy-drawer-keep-your-family-prepared/lifeandmoney_relationshipsandmoney/

There are 11 items on the list. I have done #1 and started on #3. (and I kept the cover letter open as I wrote the Financial account information because I kept thinking of things to add which means this was a GOOD exercise for me) It is intense to layout all this information to your family. I have it written down in a couple of places and it made sense to me but having to make sense of the information so that others understand it too. Well thats a bigger project then I thought. But It is important to just knock out a couple of items off your desk. The huge piles of paper on mine overwhelm me so I cnat imagine my husband going through it to make sense of it. So today there has been incremental progress. I'll take small wins where I can.
Take time yourself to go through Dave's list. It is an act of love to create this for your family. It is also very important.
Peace

2011-01-14T15:43:00.003-05:00

==============

Sometimes the bloggers' efforts recall the words of poet Langston Hughes:

It's such a bore
Being always poor.

================
http://saving4later.blogspot.com/2010/12/5-bill-emergency-fund.html

not a bad idea to save any $5.00 you get and tuck it away for a cash reserve in the home. I have been thinking about how much should we have in the house just in case. I don't have an answer to that yet. How do you determine it? How much savings do I need? another $1000 ? this would put my savings accounts to 3k which is not that bad considering I want to have at least 20k as a true emerg fund. (6 months unemployment) but still when you are drowning under a load of debt it feels like $5.00 is a lot of cash. I am going to try it. I'll put it in an envelope and see where I am in 6 months to see if this is a reasonable thing to do. I rarely carry cash so it might not stack up/put a dent in my wallet that fast anyway.

A couple (2 give or take) of years back, I gave away my emergency cash to my daughter. I have never replaced it. I used to keep $100. in my wallet for emergencies. It turns out that not keeping the money there was a good thing when I lost/dropped my wallet somewhere. But I did spend the $100 more often then not. So I decided having cash around the house for me was dangerous. HOWEVER I think It is time to with caution revise my plan. It is winter what if the power goes out? What if there are major issues in the area and we need some cash on hand. I have two little kids what if they needed to eat. So

I may not have the money to keep cash around but I can do something about it I can take a small step by saving $5s I think I'll try it.

***Uopdate 2/28 So far I have saved $10. The money is in the family binder I am creating. I still think its a good idea even though I rarely have cash.

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......

Finally some good news

2011-01-14T15:10:00.002-05:00

Today is the first pay check of the new year. I waited with anticipation to see the results of my choices. I had done a lot of math but with changes to social security happening I was not sure how all the numbers would net out. I am going to "save" by switching health care and the change in SS tax $164.88 per month. Yep feels like a raise to me. Now I need to be careful about what is true savings and what will be out of pocket deductibles. There will be an increase in our out of pocket costs, I am guessing. So we shall see what our options are and if I really save any money by having this health plan. I am hoping that I do. Over the course of the year it puts $1978.56 back into the kitty. Sadly though I know there are deductibles so.... I am not sure I will truly benefit in the end. Hopefully though there will be NO MORE SURGERIES this year. Two surgeries in one year is enough for anyone.

And for those of you who are checking my math yes this calculation is lower then I previously calculated in my estimated savings for the different health care plans. I increased my HSA account from 500 to 750 as a result of knowing that we would probably have more out of pocket costs. That is taken out of each check pre-tax. I also increased the dental plan to include the 2 year old. We are going to get him the the dentist at some point this year. Perhaps closer to 3, cause he is a big baby this week.That stubborn son of mine would not open his mouth if he was asked. So maybe in the summer. ;-)

In the mean time I don't want to fritter away the increase in cash flow. $82.44 per check is helpful. I have two problems this month. #1 I dipped into my cash reserve for my checking account. So I think the first $82.44 will have to go towards maintaining the $1000 minimum balance I try to keep in my checking account. The balance did get down to $876.44 so I will be paying the stupid tax on the checking account this month. $14.00 fee coming my way. Sigh...Issue #2 is I had to dip into the savings I had. So my balance is currently: $1644.86 instead of the $2000 where I like to maintain it.

I have an automatic transfer of $105 From checking to savings. It will take 4 more "payment" transfers before the balance goes above 2k again. That means I will have paid myself back by March 15th.

Now to be sure the first thousand is for a real emergency. The second thousand is for known expenses that I like to avoid. Car insurance being top of that list. Some time ago I divided Car insurance and I think DD contact lenses to determine I needed to save more. So far the automatic savings has worked very well for me. I never feel that OMG feeling in the pit of my stomach that I have forgotten something. And although I do like to pay the car insurance with the tax return I dip into that top thousand of savings when it rolls around if I need to like in Oct. when there is no tax refund to cash in on.

OK so the math:

I am short $356.00

$105 * 4 = $420.00 // current payment pays back the deficit with $20.00 left over to go to debt at the end.

$165 * 3 = $495.00 // paid back in 3 transfers plus So I would be done by 2/28 AND it leaves me with $95 in the beginning of March to go to debt.

This is of course understanding that Murphy did not come to visit my house - which you know he LOVES me. Who am I kidding. I none the less hope for a quiet few winter months. In the past it typically is in the fall where I fall apart so here is to hoping...

The other option is to put in an automatic transfer directly to the credit card
I am leaning towards the automatic transfer. Its cleaner. I am already doing it, so the bite wont be too bad. And well I like savings in my pocket instead of those bloody debtors.

Of course I am paying interest for that privilege so there is the argument for the other side. paying off the debt faster pays me faster.

I think its the fact Murphy in the form of a snow storm or a DD need will win the case in the end. I am going to do the cash thing. I need a 2k Emerg fund and that is that. Once the savings account is paid back then I can begin to hit the debt harder. And if we use the tax return on the car insurance.... Ahh I can continue till October on the $ I have and stay focused on the debt. Lets hope I actually get a raise this year too. I think we'll know in June. If its a whopping $2.56 again so be it. LOL More reason to study programming in my spare time.

Oh and for those of you that noticed I slipped the extra $20 into my purse - Yep I always seem to feel short on pay day. Maybe that $22.44 will help me stay in balance and I can avoid dipping into savings.

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......

New Years Rituals

2011-01-07T16:09:00.006-05:00

I am replacing the Cross Stitch calendar on my desk it is a very small thing that I have discovered makes me happy. This year I feel like they gypped it a bit. There is one pattern for every 2 days instead of a pattern a day. Really? you couldn't do a pattern a day? Sigh. But I feel like I have started the clean slate process with setting up my calendar, Next up scanning to clear off my desk. What can I purge?

That process starts a few rituals that I do every Year in the December/Jan time frame.

The first thing I do is buy a new calendar for my purse. Yep no matter how tech I am I like my little paper pocket calendar. $7.00 (rounded up) and I am good for the year. Most if the info is is in other places but this is my at a glance when I am in the Dr's office am I free/ busy can I make this appointment first place I check.

The second thing I do is try and clear off my desk. This is going to be a BIG challenge this year. Last year I was without a scanner on my desk for about 8 months. It caused a terrible backlog in what is on my desk. Regrettably I am trying to start scanning again to move forward.

I also need to look through all these papers to see if there are any tax documents. I do have some stocks (that I debate on weather to sell to pay off debt or to keep and hold) and they send me 1099's so I need to track those. I also need to make sure I have last years return backed up. and I gather the same info for this years return.

FAFSA needs to be done as early as possible for maximum financial aid (I am writing a separate post on this topic.) and I need the w-2's to at least estimate our income so we can get that ball rolling.

I also like to empty out all last years credit card statements. Shred any old health information that makes no difference any more, and look for any outstanding questions there. I know of at least 3 things on the Health care front that needs to be addressed right away.

I like to create budgeting spreadsheets for the upcoming year. Create folders in windows that will contain my bills for the upcoming year etc.

This is a great time to back up your data. At work I bought for myself a 2 Terabyte drive for a whopping $100. It makes it SO easy to back up all my stuff. I took it to work and put all my personal files that I had been saving on my work computer onto this drive. DONE. But it reminded me that I have a TON of scanned documents that need to be backed up at home and how would I like to handle that? Ahhhh I also have a terabyte drive at home. Time to copy over the files. Especially those Christmas photos that I have yet to post for my family.

The last item on Gather little by little's list is check his safety deposit box. I don't have one, But I do have a "vital documents" folder for each kid that houses their birth certificate, bonds given to them, social security card and and pertinent data. My husband has been looking for his Birth Certificate. Perhaps I will make a folder for him too. I think it would be smart to purchase a fire proof box to house these items. I also want to get passports for each of us. Because frankly you never know when you might need one. I used mine when my wallet was missing and while it was expired it was still an acceptable form of ID. If we travel with the kids each should have their own passport for ID purposes. If I do it now then in the summer when we may travel there wont be a big panicked rush.

The digerati life suggested scheduling financial mile markers. I think its a good idea... So things I need to schedule throughout the year so I don't forget...

Quarterly credit checks
Make a will
529 plan for kids
Create a financial and emergency disaster plan.
add big payments to calendar (car insurance)

So there we are.... On our way to 2011 success. Lets Roll

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......

New Years Reading

2011-01-06T14:51:00.002-05:00

Reading has become front and center this week. I have a new set of glasses and I literally see things in a new way. I also asked for and received a kindle for Christmas. I just finished reading the girl with the dragon tattoo. I now understand why it was on the best seller list for so long. It was quite a compelling read. I am torn between downloading the next book or taking a break and organizing my Cross stitch. Some Combo there in I think I will find balance. Typically I alternate - Read, Stitch, do a project, Read, stitch, do a project. In the last two years I have not been doing much reading. That is unusual for me. I love to read and my desk is quite covered in books. Currently there are a LOT of SharePoint books. This is good as I move forward in trying to expand my career and increase my salary.

Yesterday I was rebuilding my computer at work and I discovered a new Mozilla Add on. It is fabulous. I am so thrilled. I did not like the new look of Bloglines and while I had been a faithful Bloglines subscriber I have a new solution. I do still like netvibes. But the Feedly add-on in Firefox is SO cool. I am content. I have done more reading this week then in the past 4 months. I am starting to feel that I am back. This is good.

Here are some of the blogs I would recommend to a reader:

10 personal finance blogs I love:

Clever Dude I like reading about the personal finance journey. Clever posts often with info I like to explore. In short his blog makes me think and I like that.
Boston Gal Boston the city has a special place in my heart so when I started reading Boston's blog I really enjoyed her thoughts. It reminds me of someone I know. She also does a huge amount of reading and sends me to other sources I would not have read.
Graceful Retirement I really like Grace. She has a saucy way of looking at things and I really enjoy getting to know her.
Man vs Debt Lots of resources. Interesting read.
Lazy man and money The title appeals to me. Should I be the lazy woman regarding debt. I think it would be better if I applied "Gazelle intensity"! LOL
No Credit Needed - This guy I followed closely and really enjoyed. Lately he does not post as often and I read it less. But go through the archives and share his journey. Very cool and interesting.
Fabulous Financials I really like single Ma's tude. She cracks me up. I don't agree with everything she does but I love being on the journey. I guess I relate because I was single for so long with a DD too.
Wise Bread Lots of resources around the net. Variety of ideas, always something new.
Blogging Away Debt
We're in Debt

I read hundreds of Craft type blogs. I love to see what others are working on. I believed for a time that Cross stitch was dying. But there are stitchers out there. and I am ever inspired by their work.

5 stitching blogs:

Becky Bee She does such beautiful work
Blacksheep's bit of the web Edgar is creative and thoughtful I like him a lot.
Cherry Hill cottage I just love the designs that they post here. Gives me inspiration for things.
The Stone Rabbit One of the Most creative blogs I read. I do like her style.
All the beautiful things The photograph of her work is amazing and I am so impressed at the sheer quantity of projects she is able to do being the mom of two girls.

If your gonna increase your income you gotta be up to date on your topic of choice....

5 SharePoint blogs:

Everything SharePoint - Steve is a great resource. I love the links he puts up he saves me a lot of hunting in my reading.
Meet Dux - I just love this guy. He has energy, a balanced perspective, and something interesting to say.
Office & SP Dev Cool resource. I also try to follow as many women developers as I can.
End user SharePoint Always something going on and new here I get tons of ideas and things to try from this site.
Woody Windischman excellent developer.

As I looked at my favorites I did see a trend emerge. I like a good story and I also like bloggers who link to other resources. I can get so lost linking to other things. I like learning new things and exploring the world.

5 great books for 2011 - I am not sure what to do here so I am going to ask you readers to make suggestions.

New year new reads... What can you recommend for me? I would love to hear about it.

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......

New Year - Refreshed goals

2010-12-30T10:11:00.004-05:00

Typically I like reading other blogger s new years goals and their year long wrap ups. To my horror I looked at my blog and have not posted since July. Wow. I am not sure where all the time passed to.

In quick summary I have had a new DD child#3. She is beautiful and wonderful I am so happy she is here. She arrived via C-section so my recovery was slow. I also fought mastitis, bladder infection and nursing. Toddler adjustments to a little sister being born were tough but he is handling it OK and we are on the road to being a happy family. Lots of family visitors this time and my DD#1 home from school. In Nov I returned to work for 2 weeks only to skip out again for Thyroid surgery. It took a LOT of effort on family to make that happen and I cant say enough how grateful to my mom I am that she came for a stay.

So here we have arrived at the end of December.
Yesterday was an insane day and I want to blog about the choices I made.
As this is pretty much a pf blog lets look at yesterday from a financial perspective. I am still not sure I made the right choice and I am a bit nervous about it. It really helps me to see things written down

Yesterday was Health Care. So here we go...

Currently I have been paying $578.26 per month

If I left my health care alone it would cost me $855.82 per month. So Obviously we are NOT going to spend that kind of money

The PPO plan is $369.28 per month
The ALT plan is $288.64 per month

So.... I am going with the ALT plan. It makes me nervous but we are going to try it for one year to see if we like the plan. If I don't like it, I will change it to the PPO. We are done with the HMO.

I will save $289.62 per month by making the switch. That adds up to $3475.44 per year. Hmmmm that is two credit cards in a year. Well there is the reason right there to do it. Done. I just needed to see it in black and white. And if we end up paying a lot of $ out of pocket will deal with it when it comes.

Here were my last years goals:

Pay off 28,077.53 amount of debt, or this year about $9000.00. That equates to $750.00 per month. I am budgeting about $800.00 to debt but some of that is interest. So we’ll see how I do.
Lose 20 lbs
Learn to be a SharePoint developer/programmer

#1 was not so hot. Over the course of the year despite paying down some debts here and there they were also increased here and there the net sum for the year: I paid down $ 581.81 total. UGH So goal #1 will be renewed. Pay off $9000.00 of debt.

#2 I have indeed lost 20 pounds. Goal for 2011 Keep it off and loose 20 more.

#3 I did not start a blog and I did not write enough code to be considered a developer. But that is a higher priority this year. Baby is here. No more kids I have the IUD to prove it. Focus is going to be on self and career. Because if I truly want to get out of credit card debt I will have to increase my salary. I have one more year at my employer so they pay the % of my DD tuition. After that I want the economy to be solid enough to risk looking. But I think I can do it. I just have to sharpen a few skills first. So Goal #3 is really #1 and I have a plan on how to accomplish it.

I have a SP environment in which to practice writing code
I have 3 developer books that I can use
I WILL sit down each morning for 1 hour per day and write code. To be a good author you have to journal and write every day. Same with programming to be a good developer you have to write code each Day. The blog has somewhat successfully helped me to be accountable to my finances and I hope the same effect will happen with SharePoint.

So there we go nothing new under the sun except t scars and a beautiful daughter. Good bye 2010. Welcome 2011!

Raise Update

2010-07-30T12:54:00.003-05:00

Well I said I would post an update to all the events that have been happening. This is number 4 on the list.

My Raise is on my mind today because as I was going through old text files and posting them I came to the origional post I had written to be excited I was getting a raise and how I was going to re-invest it into my savings.

Well... it turns out that my raise ended up being an increase of $2.57 yep you read it right. The cost of medical benefits went up on July 1 just as my raise came in. And basically it all went to the cost of health care. (And people wonder why the middle class can't get ahead?)

I also received an email today from the parking services. They are raising the cost of parking to be 120 bucks. (I think that works out to an increase of $5.00 per pay period.) Now because my raise was $2.57 per pay period. I am about to be $2.50 in the hole.... till January when I switch my medical benefits plan. And that is before I jump to the next bracket in health care once my DD is born. Ahhhh Sigh.

Well. There it is. Another year of a wash in increase in pay. I really need a moonlighting position. I just don't know what I can do. I have web dev skills, I have book keeping skills. Its finding the clients that want those skills and will allow me to work from home that is the challenge.

All things considered I am glad I got the raise because otherwise this post would be about keeping my health care benefits is costing me money to work and what are my options. As it stands I am still making the change to a different plan in Jan. I hate the plan I have. But I am taking maximum advantage of it... C-Section, tubes in my son's ears and thyroid surgery. At least they didn't make any money off me ;-)

I am becoming a yard sale junkie.

2010-07-30T10:49:00.001-05:00

I am becoming a yard sale junkie.

Early on this summer I found a yard sale with kids stuff and I got a little Tykes slide for $8.00 Total bargain. Every kid in the neighborhood has tried it out in one way or another.

In the spring I had really awesome success at a consignment sale near my home. I had gone there the year before and I had good success getting clothing items for my infant son. So knowing I am going to need items for two small kids now... I looked online to see if they were having a sale again. They were. And there was an added bonus that if I sent in a check for $10 I could get in the door at 7:30. Vs 8am when they let in the rest of the crew. I knew all the big items last year were sold early. I also knew that I want to get a swing for my new baby we did not get one for our son and I think it would have helped. So I sent in my payment and made a plan with my husband that I would be getting up and out of the house early and he was to be in charge Sat morning. (Getting him to agree should be easier... Sigh)

With an execution plan in my head, list of needed items in hand I set off to the school where the sale was being held. Parking was crowded but not awful. I found the correct early bird line and hopped on. When they let us in I went right over to the big equip items. There were about 9 or 10 swings there. I picked one that was reasonably priced looked clean enough and headed over to the purchase area (this took all of 5 minutes) I went out to my car and placed the item in the trunk. I then returned to the entrance and re-entered the sale. I started shopping for the rest of the items on my list. I looked at the bedding. And there was the cutest bumper crib set. Pink and green a perfect match for the quilt I have in mind to get for the Oct baby. it was priced 1/2 of the online ones I have seen and very gently used. I was thrilled. I also found a hand made pink blanket and a few girl clothes. I had good success with the boy clothes although the pickings are much slimmer for the larger sizes.

So now I have been looking online and they are having another sale on 09/25. I have resolved to cross my legs and wait to have this baby till 10-1 so I can get DS's winter clothes. Keep your fingers crossed. I saved A LOT of cash buying used clothes. Its been a great find.

Focusing on what I want most.

2010-07-30T10:33:00.003-05:00

http://frugalbabe.com/2010/03/10/focusing-on-what-we-want-most/

Inspired by the link above...

Focusing on what I want most.

My priorities
1) my daughters college degree
2) I would like to be debt free
3) I would like to own my own home in which I can retire mortgage free
4) Surrounded by my loving family who I love in return.

What I want vs what I want right now.

Right now I want to go back to bed. But That could cause me to loose sick time and take away from maternity time I am planning to take in October.It is important to me to have "bonding time with my new baby so I will stick it out here at work.

I recently had a conversation with my DD. She was making a stew out of everything going haywire in her life. I tried to help her refocus on only what was important to solve for today. I asked her how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Keep a smaller focus in order to truely achieve your dreams.

She understands but is often surrounded by girls who do not share the same long term perspective. She gets frustrated by the fact they want to be soccer moms and drive a mini van. While she is looking forward to her career. It is often still a choice, despite more equality in the workplace, to have children vs a career. I was often of the Mrs degree. I still think I would like to smack that 20 year old child in me and say you are going to have to work for the rest of your life. Make sure you like what you do. focus on the work part because the marriage and kids is the easy part. Sigh... I knew so little. Yet as life journey continues I like where I am in general. I have a few sources of discomfort I want to be debt free. It causes me a lot of stress. I want to live in my own home instead of paying rent forever. But when you pull back from the details of day to day living I am happy with my Husband and family. I am proud of my DD,and DS and look forward to a second DD on the way. Most days I think I am utterly insane for being pregnant again. But I know I want to have children around me for a long time. My husband wanted to be a dad so crazy as it is, it is done with love. Who knows how it will turn out but I too want to live until I am 90 and so I must act as if that will come to pass. And take steps to ensure it will take place.

Some days I get the money I wants. I want a higher paying career, I want my masters degree, I want the super-sized McMansion. None of those things is unreachable, I just need to make them a priority. Yet I tend to fall back to the simple top 4 listed above. The first is almost achieved. Once it is accomplished I will turn to debt and a home search in a more intense way. I let myself fantasize about the McMansion. If you don't enjoy a good daydream whats the use of envisioning something? But when I envision the details of the dream most of the time I see happy children running in the back yard while my husband and I enjoy a glass of wine with each other or with friends. The location is less important then the scene I paint. Perhaps it comes from my family home which was a large colonial in the suburbs. Where we live now is just costly. We could get a LOT more house for less if we lived in another part of the country. But my#1 choice is where my brother returned to last year in June. He has just become employed after one fill year of unemployment. The prospect is not appealing. We will stay where we are for a while longer.

July Updates

2010-07-22T09:47:00.002-05:00

1) my DD school has been resolved and I will be sending her off in August for the fall semester.

2) We took the cheapest vacation ever in our lives and I will have to crunch the numbers on that later. I am pleased

3) My DH is crunching numbers for daycare and a new car - enntire post coming on that

4) My raise came in. And there was an increase to the cost of my benefits. Result: my raise was $2.57 yep you read it right.

5) I am crunching numbers today and I will be posting the results of vacation, car payments, and daycare payments

more of details matter...

2010-06-25T13:56:00.002-05:00

So after waiting a few days for my DD's school to get the paperwork I decided to follow up...

Where is the grant money not showing up in the billing statement?
Where is the PLUS loan information I have applied for?
Why is the PLUS loan not showing up on the billing statement?

Oh.... You have another form that needs to be filled out that never got sent to me???? How silly of me. Of course I can sign that paper. Why didnt you email me in the first place..

Well after that email (and it is #11) finally the grant is being reflected in my daughter's account. Lets see how many emails the PLUS loan takes. We are waiting on the government. I am sure they will move quickly... Oh wait ;) LOL what am I thinking?

Details matter

2010-06-23T13:52:00.001-05:00

Today I did a little bit of follow up to make sure a grant my daughter is entitled to was being processed. Its a good thing I did. It turns out that the university had not completed a detailed listing of fees and the grant was going to be $750 less then it could have been. Thankfully I contacted the DD's university and they provided more information. Hopefully this will be enough. It did not look like a lot of documentation but perhaps it will do. If not we will be back in touch with both places for round 3. Getting funding this year has been a beast. I need a third job.... Sigh. I am just trying to take it one day at a time and it is not okay to have to come up with an additional $750.00

EVERYONE is becoming so tight with every detail simple transactions seem to be much more complicated. Everyone is watching every dime. I guess that includes me too. Details matter and I don't have a spare $750 anywhere.

good news bad news

2010-06-21T12:40:00.004-05:00

The good news is I got a raise. The bad news its $15.00 per week. I am not belittling the amount. Every single bit will make a difference. The panic I am feeling lately about minimum payments is important enough to re-evaluate how the money is allocated.

Last month when I got the news about my raise I had decided to add the $30 bi monthly amount to my automatic savings. Currently I have an automatic transfer to my savings account that takes place twice a month for $105. I think I came up with that amount based on auto insurance costs and contact lenses costs for my daughter. I realized I was not putting any money aside for known expenses. this is a foolish practice and I added the automatic payments to compensate.

In the past few months that ole Murphy he has come to visit in waves. There have been a ton of expenses that I was not prepared to pay for. I have depleted my "emergency" or back up fund quite a bit. Currently it stands at $1384.24. Which means I need to allow it to build back up to the $2000.00 level. I think I can make it by October which is when the auto insurance will be due. and of course our newest dd. 210*3= $630 puts us just over $2014. Now If I increase the amount of the automatic deposit to include my raise I will be able to "add up some snow flaking" and any funds paid over the 2k amount I can then send to pay off one credit card. Impressively the difference in 3 months is 270 *3 or $810 That's $194 to pay down debt. Nice. Lets do that!

I could pay the $30.00 directly to debt but I think at this point its really important for me to be in the habit of paying myself just like a bill. Once that emergency fund is fully funded I can put anything extra towards debt. But If I cant keep that 2000 in the savings account I may never be ready to purchase a house. So I want to practice good sound finances and keep it moving forward.

One other side note. I should get about $300 for some expenses at work paid back to me. All of that will be going to CC#3. Its current balance is 2622.54 and I made a payment in June of $465 so that card is moving in the right direction (2157.54). I want to get down from 5 cards to 4 so that the minimum payments is a bit more manageable. The PLUS loans will start to kick in and I will need to put more of my available cash to them and less to credit card debt. It just cant be helped. My dd is the most important thing.

As a result of the latest ex-husband financial entanglement it will be really important to get out finances in order for the next three months. I keep telling myself one day at a time but Phew.... I am tired of Murphy. Can someone kick him off my porch?

I notice my side bar needs to be updated. That will keep. Its not really good news and it moves in the wrong direction so I did not want to make the changes :-( But I will to keep it on the straight and narrow. The money facts are just that facts and I can face it.

In between poverty and madness

2010-06-21T12:26:00.003-05:00

This was a long financial weekend. And it continues today. Here is the low down so far....

The DD's dad is no longer making payments to college directly. Instead he is giving DD $500 per month for expenses. While that sounds like a lot its about 1/3 of his share of tuition. She as a 20 year old has been spending a goodly amount of it. Boy oh boy did she have some open eye moments this weekend as to what that money needs to buy.

Here is a breakdown of the numbers:

Her tuition for the fall is $17,700 Plus a housing element of $1050

Total owed to educational institution: $18,750

Less payments so far totaling 5962.50
Less an outstanding balance of$63.56

Current balance therefore stands at $12,723.94

My work will give her a grant of $6125 (possibly 6500) which leaves $6598.94 to be funded.

We have been taking out loans from a certain institution that has a solid reputation and with which I know many people who have loans with them. To our distress because of changes in the law we can no longer borrow money from the same place.

On Tuesday, March 30, 2010, President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 into law. This Reconciliation Act ends the Federal Family Education Loan (FFELP) Program and requires all schools to begin awarding loans through the Federal Direct Loan Programs (FDLP).

So we applied for a private loan. This was very humbling, I have a decent credit score. But I also have $26,834.32 in debt (June's number) so OF COURSE all my money goes into credit card payments and I have a high debt to income ratio. I knew that but did not really care... till I needed to borrow money from a bank... Sigh It was very humbling to be rejected to fast. The fellow asked how much the rent was. Because rent includes my husbands salary and he pays half the rent it is out of scale for my salary alone. I knew as soon as he asked it wouldn't work. They wanted my husband to co sign the loan. Nope. we were done. So now instead of my daughter borrowing the money for her school I have to take out a plus loan. Here is to hoping it goes well because if I am again rejected she will have to hit up her grandmother for the cash. With times being tight this is not the way to go.

I even crunched the numbers of going to a local state school. (She would hate it but on the surface it looks cheaper) Appearances are deceiving, Guess how much we would have to pony up per year? Yep $13402 about the same amount despite the fact that her school seems on the surface to be more expensive the room & board is cheaper and the tuition reimbursement would be less. I still would have the same costs out of pocket. Crunching those numbers does make me feel better about her choices for school. I am still sick about coming up with the cash but I do feel better.

Onwards......
I am tired of people who do not live up to their financial responsibilities. How come I choose to be responsible and not him? He is such a dope.

The reason for my title is how hard we have to swim to be in the middle. Because I re married I have to include my current husbands income when applying for financial aid. Even though he contributes only to her well being in spirit not financially. So we never will qualify for a financial need scholarship. My daughter applied for over 10 grants and scholarships we were awarded none. As for academic grants she is a good student she has a 3.4 GPA its not enough for an academic scholarship they all require 3.6 and above. So there again we are just close enough to be screwed. I am tired of being so close and getting nothing for my efforts. In the end what I will have is a well rounded wonderfully educated daughter who can now gain employment. Its a big deal and I believe the degree is worth it. And if you read what others have to go through to finance their educations having $30K in loans is not a lot when you graduate. It sucks and is hard but still plenty of people end up with in the 60's and 70's so perhaps I should not whine. But you know 30K is a lot of money to me and I am sooo tired of being in debt. I don't care about the rest of the world. This burden is heavy! and I am carrying it alone. I am completely depressed.

Support system thoughts

2010-05-30T12:49:00.002-05:00

Saw this article (http://amysfinerthings.com/finer-things-friday-support-system) and wanted to write my own version...

I have been feeling overwhelmed lately. Murphy is parked on my doorstep and wants to come in. I am pushing back as hard as I can and having little success...

Here is what is happening:

My son may need surgery for tubes in his ears
My daughter's father has decided he will no longer pay for college
We are having a baby in Oct
I need to have thyroid surgery. I need to work with the doctor will try and get it done before my insurance changes in Jan.

All of it is mostly manageable but right now I am feeling quite stressed about issues. In addition there are promised layoffs at my husband's office and we will find out if he is on the list today. Of course there are rumors of additional cuts in the future so there are no guarantees that we would be safe. More stress...

When I see it all laid out here on the computer I have a lot going on.
I guess its about how you spend your time but I am grateful for the people who are supporting me...

Family
My mom has been a rock and even though there is a lot of stuff going on for her she is still coming to see the new baby, and to nurse me through the surgery in Dec.

Co-workers
surprisingly this is changing for me. I used to have good support here it is changing with this pregnancy. I am leaving as soon as my daughter graduates college.

Faith - I have not found a good church in this area. Its too bad really because I do have a strong faith in God. My husband is a no go guy so I tend not to go either, mostly out of laziness.

Looking into a lawyer made me realize how important it is to get to know people in the area and take suggestions from those around you.

Looking into surgery for my son I got a lot of interesting feed back on face book. People love to comment and give input. It did make me realize though the scale of the number of ear infections is wayyyyyyyyyy above the norm and I need to make it different. I do not want him to loose his hearing.

So there we are. I am grateful by brother after one year of unemployment has a job currently. I am grateful my dad is keeping the chaos low. I am grateful my mom will support me the best that she can. I am grateful I will be out of debt some day. I am grateful that I do have a family that I love as crazy as they are, they are mine.

Mad money monday

2010-05-27T10:24:00.001-05:00

Life has been busy and I have not felt inspired by others to blog. Although I have a bunch of notepad documents that I might one day go back and post... We'll see.

Picking up from my last post. I have not had the heart to change my side bar. I have had a bunch of financial setbacks last year and this so perhaps I got a bit dis heartened because we have extended the time It will take for my debt to be gone. last month the debt stood at 26713.65 It was a tough winter and fall. And predictions for may have the debt increades by $200.00 Thay was due to some traveling requested by my mom. And you dont say no to my mom. So travel we did.

There is some good news. $200 is did not put me back at $39804. I start with a fresh sheet of paper each month and I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Someday I will be out of debt. I am here and I did not give up the ghost. I truely believe that persistance pays.

My raise has ben spent and spent and spent. It has been a blessing but spent... I have set up an automatic payment from checking to my savings account to transfer 100.00 every month to get savings back to $2000.00 It has dropped to ~1400. Some days I have to pay things out of savings so I do not increase the debt. and the emergency fund is where the money comes from. By transfering the cash into savings every two weeks the emergency fund will be replenished by the end of theyear and I can stay on track with debt pay down.

There has been one other piece of good news... I am going to have baby #3 so I will be increasing my expenses. I am doing everything I can to get as much paid down before the arrival date. but 20 year olds seem to have other ideas in mind.

One pregnancy challenge I seem to be having is keeping my mind focused which is causing me to spend too much time on facebook and not enough time on programming or work.

Wet and windy get focused day

2010-05-03T11:32:00.003-05:00

Hard for me to realize that I have not posted since Jan. I thought it had only been a few weeks. Silly traveler....

So Instead of back tracking and trying to catch you all up I will just do a brief where have I been and then quickly move forward.

The fall was super bad for expenses. I pulled myself up by my boot straps and re focused in Feb and said no more silliness. So far Feb, March and april have been more on track and I have managed to get my debt payoff to 33% in number terms for you geeks....

I started this journey at $39804.12. Currently I have $26,713.65 in Credit card debt. I have paid off in 2 years $13,090.47 WEEEEEE I have paid off $13,090.47 in debt. I do not wish to be there ever again!

My goals have been to pay off the total of the debt in 3 years. based on the fact it took 2 years to come 1/3 of the way it looks like it will be more like 6 before I am truely free. Thats okay. Not fun but okay. As long as I get ther eventually.

There have been set backs... Health care additional costs and college expenses for my daughter.

There has also been good news. I got a small raise. Even though the place where I work has put a freeze on all raises They examined my salary and found (NOT to my surprise) that I was paid too low below market and this was un equitable. So they gave me a bump to make it more of a market rate. In truth I think I could leave this employeer and make a move to almost double my salary and that is my plan in two years... But I will blog more on the hows of that some other time.

In June of 2009 I had 23864 in debt so I am still not quite back to where I was a year ago.

I left off here... I will post this and continue more in another blog

CREATING THE NEW YEAR

2010-01-14T16:05:00.000-05:00

Well its new years so I like many others feel compelled to create goals for myself. Of course its obvious to me my top three.

Here is what I am focused on:

Pay off 28,077.53 amount of debt, or this year about $9000.00. That equates to $750.00 per month. I am budgeting about $800.00 to debt but some of that is interest. So we’ll see how I do.
Lose 20 lbs
Learn to be a SharePoint developer/programmer

I am starting a new blog for #3. I think it helps to keep me on track and focused. I like blogging. Lets see if I can make a little additional income and get some referrals for technical work by putting it out there. I am not going to blog about #2 because from my observations people who are on a debt diet then start talking about a real diet never seem to come back to the debt blogging. And really getting out of debt is more important. It makes me feel like I have lost my friends when bloggers go away. I really am missing I've paid for this twice. She was really inspirational in my focus. Of course I also like NoCreditNeeded. But he blogs much less often and his journey is less about debt and more about skills after the debt. I need and want those skills but I need to remain focused on my own goals.

As I write this blog entry I received in email David Allen's productivity tips email. You can subscribe to it yourself here... http://www.davidco.com/productive_living.php

I Love how he re-frames New Year’s resolutions...

CREATING THE NEW YEAR
What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?
What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?
What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?
What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?
What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?
What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?
What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?
What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?
What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010?

So Here are my responses:

CREATING THE NEW YEAR

Love the positive language that I can create the year I want to have.

What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?
Having baby #3 we are attempting it, but have not had success there yet. Second biggest triumph will be to get the debt back under control. For the last six months things have been a little (a lot) crazy.

What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?
Have persistence in paying off your debt. Perseverance and diligence these are the skills that will accomplish getting rid of debt. Towards the end Oct, Nov and Dec stay focused on the goals instead of dithering away on auto pilot. Make allowances for the fact that it is a busy time and try to put away extra before the fall to compensate for the time you know you will have more demands on yourself.

What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?
Increase my income, decrease expenses basic but HARD
Learn to be a SharePoint developer to increase my income.
We are giving up cable to decrease expenses further. And as I type this the thermostat is set to 65!

What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?
I would like to read more books. I have not been able to focus my attention for long enough on any single book. I just look long enough to read the answer I need. I would like to learn the information in a textbook really commit it to my skill set.

What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?
Ahhhh chocolate comes to mind. Then Cross-stitch, But also it is an indulgence to learn a new skill. To dedicate so much time (which I have little of) and focus (which I find harder and harder to obtain) is a luxury and therefore an indulgence. So I plan to dedicate 2 hours each week to reading about SharePoint development.

What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?
The back sliding. I know it happens but I find it so frustrating. It is exactly these circumstances for which Dave Ramsey has you create an emergency fund in the first place. I have dipped into it a lot recently. I want to put back. (I will post more about this in a further blog)

What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?
SharePoint development
Better budgeting
Making a SharePoint Blog produce an income.

What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?
Having another child is a very expensive choice. But I am too old not to try to take action right away.

It is also a risk to learn programming. In two years will I be able to leave my job and take a contracting position to do development. I like security. We will see.

What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?
1) Learning tract for SP development
2) Be a better teacher
3) Working towards preparing my team at work for the next version of SharePoint that is coming out.
4) Encouraging users them not to be afraid of the new tools.

What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?
Undeveloped talent… My first thought is leadership. But what I really want to develop is the skill to lean something by reading and doing. I want to be a self learner. In the past I have learned very well by taking classes and reading blogs. Now I need to strengthen the ability to take what I read and turn it into a doing action. I need to retrain my brain.

What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?
Joy... My children, my husband and cross stitch. These are my biggest pleasures. I would like to spend more time with each of those things. I need to remember when I am spending time with each of those people how much I appreciate them for who they are and how much they support me and bring me happiness.

Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?
Family, my children, my husband, my brother, my parents.

What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010?
Progress

So those are my answers, what are your goals? Feel free to comment.

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......

Debt free tips from Indiana Jones

2009-12-30T15:29:00.004-05:00

I love to read blogs. I love to see what people say. I read a lot of personal finance blogs. I read a lot of cross stitch blogs and I read a lot of SharePoint blogs. (SharePoint is a product by Microsoft) I came across this blog http://sharepointkb.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/sharepoint-tips-from-indiana-jones/ and began to think that hmmmm. I think this could also apply to personal finance. So lets see how our journey goes... 1) You have to have the courage to take on something challenging.

Fighting my way through the debt heap has taken a good bit of courage to keep going. It has also taught me to "defend" my wealth. I hate confrontation. I hate fighting. I have come to respect that sometimes you have to stand your ground in order to not be taken advantage of. Currently I have to appeal to my health insurance some extenuating circumstances that my dd had an urgent situation and needed to get care. If I do not appeal then the health care company denies my claims for around $2000.00 Its my money. She needed the health care its why we have insurance. I have learned to be brave and take the fight to the vendors because typically I get my money back. Another example is getting a lower interest rate. See my blog entry here... http://travelfarandwide.blogspot.com/2008/11/ask-dont-forget-to-ask.html
Be brave ask for what you want.

2) Know your limits and what your good at.

I am good at dreaming. I can daydream all day long. Typically, I have to stop myself from dreaming and put my nose to the grindstone to get myself to focus on my work. It is okay to run away from the big boulders when they are flying at you but it is also necessary to know when to get to work.

3) Simplicity is often the best option. (Gun vs Sword)

Isn't this one of the favorite scenes where the swashbuckler is waving his sword and Indy just shoots him. I think this is parallel to online banking. It was a lot of fuss to pay lots of bills over the phone on cards. I love online bill pay. I just hop on my bank's web site and off I go, electric paid, rent paid, cable paid. Done. And because time is such an issue in my life now that I have a 1 year old. It takes me about 30 minutes to check all my balances and pay the bills. Once per month 30 minutes is very effective. Keep it simple. Bam just knock it out.

4) You need to know your stuff and be ready to learn.

Indy Jones always pops in with some little tid bit of history that solves the puzzle. He knows a lot of stuff and it gives him that little competitive edge over the Nazis among others. I read tons of blogs. I have learned a lot about how to do things as well as been inspired by others who struggle in the same journey.
Places to learn:
No credit needed
Dave Ramsey
WiseBread
Boston gal's Open wallet

Places where I feel inspired:
I've paid for this twice
GRACEful Retirement

5) You don’t have to be a superhero.

Indiana Jones was a geeky history professor who liked fancy vacations. I am a geeky Technology buff who likes mellow vacations. I believe if we follow the map to the treasure we can achieve our goals. And I follow Dave Ramsey's baby steps road map. you should too http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/

6) Some things never change.

Indiana Jones uses old fashioned common sense and logic to solve his conflicts. He seems to choose the best way to get out a of a fix. There is no way to stop life from becoming complicated. BUT we can keep an emergency fund in order to keep our debt from growing.

7) Know what your are afraid of, or bad at and let other people help.

Snakes why does it have to be snakes??? I love that moment. When the great hero admits to being human. But he pushes through his fears and escapes anyway. I have mounting fears that my debt is mounting. But I keep on the plan because its to only solution to escaping debt.

8) You can’t do it alone.

Jones used lots of resources on his journey. He took advantage when help was offered and so should all of us. When my mom offered to help me with some extra cash I paid it toward my debt. I am going to start cashing in my bonds (I only have 2 so its not big bucks) to pay off some if the debt. I am also going to look into selling off some stock I own to try and get the debt down further. Again we arent talking big bucks maybe a couple of hundred dollars. Any help is good.

9) You have to believe in yourself and it doesn’t hurt to be unique or have your own image.

When Indiana Jones was on an adventure he wore his unique hat. It helped to get him into the roles he had defined for himself as an adventurer. He was super confident when he came into a new situation. He believed in himself.

It turns out to be different then average is to have no debt. So my goal is to be unique. I am going to get out of debt and then build up savings. I have fantasies about how fast it will happen. But mostly I am planning to follow the steps and save for retirement. There are no get rich quick schemes.

10) You have to see things through and stay focused.

Indiana upon his return from the opening adventure in the movie said "Marcus, I had it it in my hand, Marcus. I can get it." He was completely focused on obtaining an artifact for the museum even if it took more then one adventure to get it. He was then changed to follow the arc of course, but the idea is persistence and diligence despite setbacks won him the treasure every time.

We all need to be like Indy.
This was a light and fun Holiday way to help one enjoy getting back into the grind of debt reduction. Sometimes when you look at something in a new way it gives you a different perspective. I want to be a bit more like Indiana Jones. I want to crack my whip and have my credit cards sit up and take notice. Because I am coming for you...

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......

October wrap up

2009-11-02T14:05:00.003-05:00

My retirement fund and my debt paydown reached the exact amount I have paid off in debt, 14,000. It is not a lot in the grand scheme of things but it means a lot to me. I am floating in the big debt sea and can see neither shore those little elements help to make your day.

Despite a really lousy financial October, I still am putting $200 to pay down debt. I have newly resolved that I no longer need web space I WILL be closing my website. That is a painful choice but I think we can do it. I wrote about it before here...

The October renewal plan:

Training 1 hour every day. read in a chapter, study something having to do with MS Sharepoint. From 8-9:30 every day.
Put money into savings. Currently I am not saving enough. It is a real problem. I am not sure I have calculated it correctly but I have noticed when the payment is automatic I put more away consistantly to my debt then at my other cards. I need to replenish our emergency fund. I had to borrow $500.00 to cover for my husband. He came up a bit short on the electric bill. So I have set up an automated payment schedule. Well see how November handles that and if I miss the money. (The budget is so tight I am sure I will.
My plan is to be debt free in 35 months. I do love the snowball calculator web site http://www.whatsthecost.com/. It helps me to stay the course and not forget that #1 I have made progress and #2 I have to keep paying down the debt. On the current plan I will pay off CC#2 by October of next year (2010). I dont want to look at the rest. But I did. And its not so bad really.

Here is the run down:
CC#1 is Paid off Bal $0

CC#2 13.49% $3,833.69
CC#3 11.24% $3,590.70
CC#4 9.90% $3,690.93
CC#5 4.99% $874.97
CC#6 3.99% $2,023.11
CC#7 3.99% $11,363.51

Total is $25,335.13

So If you are following this And I know no one is I have had a bit of a back slide since July. Most of that is due to DD and College. Also some of her health issues. But I believe it will get better and I am going to just keep pusjing forward.October 2012. I can do it. I have no other choice. I Refuse to live in debt for the rest of my life.

I thought I had 6 cards and I have 7 shudder and ugh. I am paying off in interest order. I get dave ramsey's psychology first better now. On card #5 I have an automatic payment. Once it went below 1000.00 I was like thats it boom lets just knock it out. The thing is It has the LOWEST interest rate and it is until the balancce is paid off. I am better off sticking to CC#2 with a rate of 13.49% and getting rid of it. There was a time when I had 18000 on a 24% card so I know truely I am making progress. but it is very hard to feel like you are making progress. But I CAN do it. and I will do it.

Things that I have done wisely:

I am proud of myself for reducing the interest rates I am paying to the best of my ability.
I am proud of myself for trying not to carry cards in my wallett I pay mostly only cash. I have to say mostly because last month there were a bunch of unexpected medical expenses for my daughter. While you can call this murphy's law or something. It was frustrating because I do not believe she needed to go to the emerg room over a sprained ankle. So I am mad at the dicisions her employeer made for her and did not pay for.
I am proud of myself for keeping on the path to get out of debt even though It is hard and tiresome
I am proud of myself for having a budget and knowing what I can spend and what I should not.
Life is a journey. and I am on the right path for myself.

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......

Still in the rowboat

2009-09-21T15:50:00.003-05:00

I have started a number of times trying to write about finance. I find it to be really hard. I have felt like I was in the middle of the sea in a row boat with no shores in sight. The thing about that is I know you have to stay the course. Frankly there is no going back to having nearly 40K in debt. I do not want that life. And I don't want to maintain this level of debt either.

I know

1) If I had not started the journey when I did I would have had to declare bankruptcy - especially as many cards are now raising their rates & minimum payments.
2) I want to retire some day and I cannot do that carrying this debt burden.
3) I want my son and daughter to live a debt free life so they can learn healthy attitudes and carry that behavior forward into their own lives..

Knowing and feeling are two different things. Right now I feel despairing that I will ever get out of debt. And I relate (as I often do) to Paid Twice's journey that knowing there is light at the end only seems to invite Murphy to stop by more often. (you can read her post here http://www.paidtwice.com/2009/09/09/the-home-strecth-can-be-as-difficult-as-the-start/)

It is much easier to know what I want... College for my children and a house.

I have about 2.5 years left until my DD comes home from college. So far I have only had to borrow about 4k (Her college is 32K per year so keep it in perspective) I am willing to be in debt for her degree. I want her to have an education. It could have been cheaper, but She is happy.

The house debate within myself continues to rage. There are a lot of factors. I really wanted to take advantage of the 8K house credit. But I think my DH and I were a little ambitious there. It would have been a stretch. And while I think we are a good risk I have no idea if a mortgage lender would see that and grant us a mortgage. And even if they did grant us a mortgage would it be enough for me to get the type of house I would want.

It might be better to wait. I think If we take our time and do it carefully I will get all the things I want but I am the least patient person on the planet. All I can offer myself is that there is hope at the end of the tunnel.

So with Mad money Monday in mind....

So I am turning to the tool...

What's the cost to re-evaluate where I am today.

I have to account for some of the setbacks that I had during August....

Setbacks

Man oh man I know every dollar needs to have a purpose but right now the names all seem to be debt. And I cant even cry misfortune. Lack of planning? maybe, a little hid under a rock definitely, but its time to stand tall, take the hit and get back on the wagon.

Like weight watchers you are more apt to stay on track if you track your progress. Over the summer I have to say time has been fleeting at best and I have often been derailed. The thing is I know I need to get back on track. Right NOW.

So starting today, I logged into many of my different accounts. I have created an outline for My October budget. I will also have to do a where did my money go budget but I cant face that yet. And seriously I will only avoid getting back on track if I have to beat myself up. So today Is no judgment Monday. Just evaluate where you are and what we can do today...

I have to wait till month end to get the true numbers. And I will be receiving a check back from the college to pay back money I was forced to put on a credit card for some of my daughters education because the financing was not lined up. So I charged $2680 to CC#2 (Currently focus of the debt pay down. ) I also charged school supplies and gas because this card was having a promotion I wanted to take advantage of. Time to get back on track...

What's the Cost predicts my debt pay off, given my current standing (which includes the almost 3k in education), to be September 2012. I am sure when I adjust the numbers for the education charges I will come back from that date a bit. More like something around May 2012. Not surprisingly the first card of focus is CC#2.

So we are back to the 3 year plan. Its a long journey to pay down nearly 40K in debt. It looks like I will have paid off most of my credit card debt as my DD graduates college. I can live with that. The only worry I have is that now the minimum payments are larger from certain of my cards how will that effect my schedule. But onward. Row Row Row

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......

Debt elimination vs savings

2009-08-03T12:40:00.003-05:00

I read Paid twice's blog often. I have found that if you surround yourself with people who are on the same path for a goal you will be more likely to achieve that goal. I really really want to be out of debt. I can not ignore the huge credit hunk of change I owe. And I have noticed that the interest rates did indeed go up. The banks want a little more from me... I do not really want to give it to them but I did borrow the money.

I currently have 6 cards that have a balance on them. 3 of the cards are at a fixed rate until the balance is paid off. I like that fact. It saves me a LOT of money. The other three cards drive me bonkers. CC#2 is the currrent card I am paying the largest amount to each month. CC#3 will be next and CC#4 has a 9.9% rate that has not increased... However... I am charging my web design space to CC#4. It is $14.00 per month. So I eliminate any debt reduction by the charge. Previously I did not want to get rid of my domain name. But currently my job focus is elsewhere and I no longer need to post a portfolio. And if I did need to host a web space I could sign up again. Nothing there is critical any more. So it has to go. It is important to revisit these charges. Because as few as 3 months ago I felt differently. But my career goals have shifted just so slightly and I feel it is no longer necessary to have web space. Actually I feel it is foolish to hold on to something that is costing me money for no benefit.

So How do I feel about Debt elimination over savings?
Well I am in the middle. It has been saving grace that I have paid down as much as I have so that when issues come up like vacation, child's father not paying for college and school expenses I just reallocate some of the debt elimination/repayment money to the current spending challenges. Life does happen. Just because I got myself into debt does not mean my child has to pay and pay. She will have her own challenges. And having a college degree for her is so important to me I would do a lot to make sure it will happen. I would even take on more debt. I know its not Dave Ramsey's philosophy - but he is a multi-millionaire and he funded his kids schools long ago. Each of his kids are in college. There is a classest divide in this country. Those who do not have good skills or a degree have a much harder time in life supporting themselves. I want my daughter to have a degree so she can get employment. I am committed to it.

SO Anyway....

I also see the value in building up savings. I used a little savings to carry us at the end of May. Things were just too tight. That is why we have savings, to bridge the gaps, so we do not feel the need to put charges on the credit cards. Well.... I would like to pay back to savings the money I borrowed. But I chafe at the pace of debt repayment. I want it all to be over now. I want to be debt free today. I also want to be skinny now and wanting it does not make it so.

There is a rhythm to each financial year. My spending is always higher in the summer because the child is home, then there is back to school, then Nov birthdays and then Christmas. So If I am honest with myself Aug - Dec are always slimmer then Jan - July. The BEST debt repayment months are during winter. But I have felt the power of debt elimination. I feel how wonderful it is that I can decided to pay less each month if I needed to. I am committed to paying of the remaining balances.

Each month just a little more goes to elimination and a little less goes to interest. It is so powerful to be able to make progress.

For myself the argument for savings is a big one we want to purchase a home. We will need to have money for closing costs and other expenses. I am not sure if one month's savings would make a dent so I keep eliminating debt. But that is where the tug and pull comes from. Rationally I think we will end up purchasing a home in 2 years after the debt is much lower. We'll see. If they offer the tax incentive again next year it will give us pause... again.

My actions are to debt elimination even though some times I feel the savings pull. I almost always choose to put the money into debt pay down. I just don't want to live a life with an expensive anchor anymore.

Food for thought. Enough ranting... thanks for reading

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......

Well the journey continues

2009-07-30T11:12:00.003-05:00

July was a hard month. Financially and emotionally. A lot of events happened. Two family vacations, visits from DD, visits from my mom, and a few unexpected bumps and bruises. So my blog has been quiet. There was so much going on I didnt try to control the chaos, I just went along for the ride. Thats the name of the blog.... road traveed. And this months was a doosey. So I have been bumped and bruised. Today I have picked myself up. Brushed myself off and I am ready to be back on the financial trail.

The damage:

After vacation spending through the end of june and All of July we put $1486.88 on credit card for vacation. There may be other expenses through checking but on a credit card for two vacations $1486.88 is not bad. There was a lot of pressure to go on both of the vacations. The beach vacation is a tradition we have been doing for about 12 years. My daughter would not let me not go. Financially my husband contributed a lot more this year and thank goodness he had a lot of overtime cash he spent so we did not have to run too much on the cards. He is an awesome man.

The second trip was a vacation to visit Husbands family. I did not have a lot of vacation time left so I had to drive down on a different day and so there were gas and food expenses. It was not too bad and as it was for his family I would do it again.

Time now to get back on the horse though. Over all I am not too upset with the numbers. I want to be able to take it in stride although It makes me sick to have a debt anchor hanging around my neck. I look forward to the day I do not have to write checks to the banks and I am free. It may take longer then the origional plan BUT I will get there and I am determined to be debt free. One day at a time.

As a result of being away my desk has gone to pot. Last week I organized all the papers to help make order from chaos. This week is health care focused. Next week will be how can I save money by taking lunch to work. Thank goodness I can sit at my desk one day pr week. I do not know how I would get it done if I did not have that luxery.

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......

The good the bad and the UGLY

2009-06-01T12:13:00.002-05:00

First the Good....

I have paid down $15,939.98 in debt. My debt total is UNDER 24 K! Just under... but still under. I like seeing those numbers drop.

Then the Bad...

I had to pay mostly the minimums this month. I took $250 out of savings to cover daughter coming home from college and to pay the back balance on the sprint bill. I have had an increase in groceries this month and Man are things tight. Although I paid $95.00 to debt over the minimums. So It was not a waste of a month but the progess is not where I want it to be and I chafe at the pace.

The Ugly

Life happens. It makes progress slower then I would ever like but I acknowledge that life happens. I do have a daughter. I cant ignore her untill all debt is paid off. I desperatley need a hair cut. I really need to get a couple of new clothes so does she. I am postponing all of those things in order not to incur any new charges to the credit cards and I acknowledge that this road is HARD. I did replace $100 back to savings. I am concerned that I need to show the ability to maintain a balance if we choose to buy a home. I need to replace the funds I took out sooner rather then later - which means financial health at home not on the credit cards. They will see progress on the cards but that wont be as important as maintaining the balances.

We are on the road to debt freedom. We will get there eventually inspite of the side trips. And Last May was a rough one too. If history is a predictor June will be tight as well. With DH's birthday coming up in June It will indeed impact the wallet. So we shall see.

There is always hope. somehow it will get better.

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......

Well, How did I get here?

2009-05-18T15:25:00.002-05:00

I was reading my blogs today and I saw this on Boston Girl’s blog (http://www.bostongals.com/2009/05/ny-times-reporter-personal-credit.html) about an economist who got into big big debt. Well I too was a business major. And still I hung myself on the rope that the credit card banks gave me - paraphrased from this article
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html?pagewanted=print)
So I thought I’d tell a little more of the story.

I looked back through all my posts and it turns out I try not to dwell on my mistakes of the past but I have focused on the future. I deem this to be a good thing. Yet I think how I got here is worth examining. Even reading back through some old posts I found evidence of my fuzzy logic that often times was the result of chaos elsewhere in my life. Thankfully I am much more grounded now.
As I read back my blog is more stream of consciousness not a book of how to get out of debt. I think that is the part of the journey that is personal. All I really want to do is get out of debt not to become a journalist. Here are a few posts that chronicle some of my journey…

Inspiration to begin:
http://travelfarandwide.blogspot.com/2007/03/change.html
http://travelfarandwide.blogspot.com/2007/03/confession.html

Some more of my journey:
http://travelfarandwide.blogspot.com/2008/07/economy-and-personal-finance.html

I have come a long way:
http://travelfarandwide.blogspot.com/2007/04/changing-times.html http://travelfarandwide.blogspot.com/2007/04/clutter.html

So those posts have some of the history of how the big debt got started, but I know the choice I made that really started the whole thing…

It is as clear as day the moment I first dug the hole. I had my first real job. I had just moved out of my Mom’s house, where I went to recover during my divorce. I was paid an okay salary not awesome, but enough to live on. I got a one bed room with den for myself and my daughter. We needed a TV cabinet. Well need is a matter of definition. I picked one out of the JCP catalog. It was adorable. I can still see the item in my mind. I was building my cozy nest. I wanted my DD to have a nice home. Never mind that I should have saved up for it and paid cash. That is never going to happen I told myself. I can’t save money. And I need to be clean and organized. I need the cabinet. So I ordered it from JC Penny’S and I was on my way to Credit Card debt. I made monthly payments. I don’t remember if they were over the minimum. I doubt it. I carried the cabinet board by board into the house because the box was too heavy for me to carry by myself. I put it together with my friend the power screw driver. It looked pretty nice. We had a living room.

Then the hole got a little bit deeper…

I remember getting the card offer in the mail. The card was Prime Option; they are no longer in business. 0% interest. What a good idea. I'll transfer the 22% interest JCP card over to this new card and after 6 months it will be only 12% interest. I can "afford" that I thought. But then I needed gas one day. So I put that on the card too, again and again and again.

Not related to Credit but related to income, I did some soul searching about why I was not happy where I was. I was alone in PA. My friends all lived elsewhere. I was an hour from my mom. Why was I still here? So I decided to move to NC. I did some research. I had taken a Microsoft course in computer networking. My brother was getting paid $50K to set up computers, I could do that I thought. (I still have yet to make the 50K salary mark!) I am going to move to NC and take some more classes and start over.
Well, the move was mostly all on credit cards. My dad did pay for the moving truck through his business. He even offered me a job, which I accepted. I took the position of Business Manager. Great at someone else’s money just not my own. Everything went on the card.

Because I thought of myself as middle class and sliding I had a certain amount of pride about what I could afford. I was maintaining a lifestyle that no one saw... Irony of ironies I am an introverted person. I have few social interactions with the parents of my daughter. Even at our church I was never approached by other parents. I bet they could not even tell you my name. And yet I was maintaining a three bedroom apt so I could have an "Office" for myself? How stupid was I? Don’t answer that I already know.

Then the denial or magical thinking really began. Credit card bingo. It is a sign that you are in trouble with debt that you shuffle balances from card to card. I looked at it as a good money manager to keep transferring money around so that you can take advantage of offers.

In business school your studies are all about the analysis of others behavior. It is never a focus on you. It is not discussed to gain an edge by never taking out a car loan, or not having to pay credit card interest. It is implied but not explicit. The thing about that is you get cocky. I was really really good at floating money from month to month. I took that as skill at manipulating the interest rates not a sign that I would have t o pay that money back some day.

Then more magical thinking I had some money in an investment. It was equal to the amount on my cards... So I could pay them off at any time right? (or so I told myself) But I didn’t want to. And I kept thinking my career will pick up any time. I will get a job that will pay off all my bills. I will magically have a big check to pay it all off. Getting out of debt takes step by step perseverance. I never had that. I learned it mostly when I met my husband. And slowly I have improved it my ability to focus and finish a task.

Now as I move forward It is even more important to get to the goal. To finish what I have started and to live my life debt free.

Month end and looking forward...

2009-05-11T14:33:00.001-05:00

There were not a lot of posts for April. And I now that I have done the numbers not much progress either. All things considered though it was not too bad. We did go on a family vacation and I still paid $200 to debt. I can live with that. It may make the progress slower then I would like and I know I chafe at the pace of my progress but when I look at that number I am really happy that I dont owe 39K any more. I am able to think of owning a home which 1 year ago It would not have been possible. CC#2 has a balance of 2162. I made a payment to if in May for $400.00 so I know next months numbers will be better. My DH has been paying ALL of the child care so I can continue to pay down my Credit Cards. He is a wonderful man. I will keep forging ahead. We'll see what comes. One day at a time.

Today I plan to go to the library and check out how to purchase a home for dummys so I can start getting smart about the biggest purchase of our lives. I am excited. We are hoping to be able to make a home purchase before the end of the year. It is a little ambitious but we'll never have the same low interest rates and $8,000 tax credit again. I think we can do it.
If you have any good sites for the process leave them in the comments I will be sure to check them out!

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......

Debt Details

2009-05-04T15:45:00.002-05:00

Excessive Debt is bad. I dont want to put anything on my credit cards anymore. However. I just got a letter from CC#1. I worked very very hard to get rid of any outstanding balances on that card. This bank card was a very bad one. I at one point asked them to lower the rate (24.99%) and they said "NO, you are using this like a long term loan". Well DUH If I cant get a lower rate then It will take FOREVER to pay it off. AHHH now it has a 0 balance. I transfered some of it to 3.9% offeres and I paid off the rest. If you have tracked my progress you can see that I have slowly made every effort to be out of debt. This card had a crazy available credit of $24,000. I dont need that nor was I ever going to put a single dollar onto this most hated card ever again. EVER. So When I opened my mail today It surprised me that I was sad that they have "re evaluated" and lowered my limit to $12,500.

I am actually happy that the limit is lower. I still felt a pang of "Oh no" when I looked at the paper. Isnt that silly? I have considered closing the account. If for any reason any of the banks I have cards with suddenly change how much I owe because the bank has changed hands I wanted options. I do get 8.99% offers from them all the time. Of course as I get $0 and 3.9% offers from other banks, I would not consider using this card unless one of the other banks went out of business. Like I said I want options.

So why does it bother me? Well I dont want it to look like I did something wrong. I paid off that account fair and square. I want it to be the truth, the change is a reflection of the bank's choices. BUT what will it do to my credit score? We are talking about buying a home so dont say it should not matter. It will if we were to go for a mortgage in the next few weeks. One step at a time.

All things considered this month I thought it would be tighter then it turned out to be. We made it through April and I still made payments to my debt. I will be debt free someday.

$15,236.09

Good job girl.
I have been neglecting my desk but it turns out that I am still somewhat on track. I will get out of debt. I will I will I will.

Progress Update

2009-03-30T11:58:00.004-05:00

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

2009-03-26T06:43:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-23T10:24:00.005-05:00

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

2009-03-16T10:23:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-09T08:25:00.004-05:00

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

2009-03-02T11:16:00.006-05:00

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......

Forward March

2009-02-23T10:08:00.003-05:00

I received two reminders in the mail this morning for items on my long nagging to do list. They are enroll in business school and re-invest my previous employers retirement into the current employers retirement fund. I moved to this state 2.5 years ago. I have dragged my feet in filling out the paperwork to transfer the funds. It is not worth much but the paperwork is so bad I have yet to have completed the process. UGH. Why do I procrastinate? It serves no purpose but to hurt myself.

Today is my work from home day. It is a great way for me to accomplish work. The baby is at daycare and I am able to focus as long as I need to on any given project. As I am working I also scan in the documents for my records. It takes soooo much time! but I feel more secure in having my documents backed up if I need to . I was so behind on my desk after having my baby that I emptied the shredder three times! how long do you keep healthcare information??? 1 year. 30 days?

So the dilemma - Go back to school for masters or get a job weekends to pay off the debt sooner. Dave ramsey would say job. the payoff long term is the MBA. What if we could pay off the debt in 2 years AND I could be half done with my MBA?

Undecided I am going to just leave this post with an open question. Feel free to comment.

I have clarity once again

2009-02-20T11:59:00.002-05:00

Cents:
I have managed to regain focus. It only took filling up the shredder three times! I have eliminated all the Credit card Fodder. I have sorted all my documents into a Scan pile, a Take Action pile and a Tax pile. I have written up my todo list and prioritized it. I can see the surface of my desk for the first time in two months. And it is the first time in 4 months I feel organized. Phew what a difference having a work from home day makes. It is amazing!I feel so much better.

For right now I am scanning. I need to focus on high priority items but I have less then perfect focus so I am doing the low priority and waiting until the caffeine kicks in.

I have received letters from one Card that increases my limit. It is also changing my terms. Mostly it will not effect me as I took advantage to transfer balance with an offer of 4.9% for the life of the balance. Now if they change that rate with a different rate I will be transferring the balance to a new card. But for now I am keeping an eye on it. Thats why you have to look at all of your cards each month. Those silly banks like to play games. There are no additional fees and they do not seem to have changed the grace period. As I am just paying off existing balances the grace period is not really an issue either. No new charges on any card. Period.

Stitches:
I have started working on the CUTEST bib ever for my son. I love this pattern. I am sure I will want to stitch it again as a gift for someone else. I love it! Here is a pic of the progress. The design is called "Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails" by Stoney Creek Collection. I bought the pre-made bib to go along with it. Oh I love it! It can be found here if you are interested.

Finance update

2009-02-07T11:58:00.002-05:00

It takes me longer then previous life before baby to stay on top of the finances. However DH watched the little guy for a while this morning and I am sitting in the cold basement typing up the results. Good news. I have paid down $13,859.19 in debt in one year. Yahoo! The debt snowball plan works. It really works.

I Have a finish!

2009-01-30T09:24:00.005-05:00

I did it I finished a cross stitch project! I was not to bad either. I have so many completed but not finished projects I cant begin to tell you. I actually followed the steps in this tutorial http://hannahxs.blogspot.com/2007/11/no-sew-cube-tutorial.html It made it very easy.

Here are photos of my progress.

This is a gift for my Daughter. I made it so long ago she may not want it anymore. But I do like the way it turned out. Lets hope this will inspire me to finish more.

On the Cost front it was not terribly expensive to finish. I purchased two fat quarters, some red tag ribbon and styrofoam for the center. Total cost was about$12.50. It came out of my Misc. Category in my budget. It made me very happy to spend the day working on something crafty. Totally worth the cost.

2009-01-30T09:01:00.005-05:00

Baby decided he wanted me to wake up at 6:30 and stay awake. hmmm now he is back to sleep and I am up for the day. So just a quick entry before I grab a much needed shower....

Stitching:

I am working on a heart ornament. The pattern is from Just Cross Stitch Mag Jan/Feb 09 issue. I asked my DD to give me a subscription for my Christmas gift. I stopped getting any magazines a long long time ago as they were an unneeded expense. But I just missed JCS too much. I am altering the thread colors for the first attempt at it. I will maybe make it again in the brown as shown in the Mag. I never would have attempted a change in the pattern except for the inspiration that I have gotten reading others blogs. It is really helpful to see what other stitchers are doing and use those techniques for my own.

My local needlework shop (LNS) has sent me a coupopn for my birthday month. Ah the pleasure... What shall I get? Have to be careful about too much temptation. However on the other side of that I have only 2 weeks of maternity leave left so I should take advantage of shopping while I am still able to get out and about easily. I am sure the tiredness will return as I return to work as well as my ability to accomplish anything will again diminish.

Cents:

I really need time to spend at my desk. I am driving myself crazy with what needs to be done and what is left undone. When I return to work I will have one day where I can work from home per week. Typically I spend about half of my work day clearing off my desk and taking care of my paperwork that needs attention. It short of shifts me into work mode and makes it easier to transition into attention to details. The problem with sitting at my desk right now is with the baby it is just too cold for me to have him sit downstairs. We keep the heat off in that room to save as much money as possible. So I accomplish nothing. If I could get him to nap peacefully I would be able to sneak away. Today that is not going to happen. SIGH... Maybe tomorrow

Stitching purchases

2009-01-25T10:09:00.004-05:00

Stitching:

I purchased the Over the top tin by Just Nan. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I am so excited. I have been a cross stitcher for many years. In 2005 I looked for cross stitch blogs.There were not many blogs out there. So I continued on with the idea that cross stitch was dying out as there are not many cross stitchers. (Michaels and other craft stores used to carry TONS of stuff for cross stitch. Now a days its all about scrapbooking and very very few cross stitch patterns are carried in craft stores.) Last year I began to pay off my credit card debt. During that process I started reading Personal Finance blogs. In Sept/Oct I searched again for Cross stitch blogs. Jackpot. I found a few. Then a few more.... I found I missed all the interaction. I have been introduced to new designers. I have been inspired by other stitchers and I am enjoying planning other projects again. One of those designers is Just Nan. I was so jealous of the tins people posted on their blogs. They all sold out so fast. So I ordered one for me. I really like it. I cant wait to start stitching. First though I have a few things to work on. I need to make a small gift for my DD for Valentine's day. (DS dosent need a gift at 2.5 months old he will never notice!) so as the holiday approaches I have to make that first. For Christmas my DH purchased a bunch of patterns for me. One of them is a bib for DS. That will be next. Then OTT tin. I have been working on my Lavender & Lace project and it is close to completion but I cant have too many Cross stitch patterns going at once. First of all it takes too much space in the Living room. Secondly with DS taking so much of my attention these days I am lucky if I get to stitch on any given day. So there it is. Just Nan awaits. I am so psyched.

Cents:

The tin kit was not too expensive. I have not been driving very much while on maternity leave. and I used the budget item of gas as justification for the purchase. In every day living I shop only for food and necessities. I also need something to be stimulating me while I am home. I love my new son but a conversationalist he is not... yet. Although lately he does try lots of wonderful coos. So I justified it that way. Plus it will go away if I do not purchase it now.

I can justify it all I want to but the truth is it would be better if you put the cash towards debt. The challenge there is if I feel so deprived that I never get to purchase anything for myself this is not a good debt reduction plan. So balance is important. I purchased one thing for myself this month. And a couple of items for DD valentines Day. Then I am finished. This is good balance.The rest of my money to the dreaded credit cards. I will be out of debt soon. I have a plan.

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......

Stitching and Cents

2009-01-20T15:59:00.007-05:00

Well I am finally afforded 20 minutes to type. It is much harder then I imagined to get to my computer during the day with an 8 week old baby. My computer is in the basement and It is much too cold to bring him down there. Laptop??? Of course, but at night when I finally sit down typing is awkward and If the baby is sleeping I need to be sleeping. But here I am .... and things ARE settling down.

PF bloggers if hobby talk bores you skip down to the Cents section.

Stitching:

I am posting a photo of progress. It has been a delight to get back to stitching. I am trying to figure out how to move the Q-snaps so as not to muck up the beading. I have seen other stitchers using quilted batting around the frame to help in holding the frame in place. It occurred to me that the batting might solve the bead issue. I am worried about moving the frame and it would rip out the beading that had been completed. I like to mix it up I like to stitch a color, then do a metallic which I do not like to stitch with but I do like the end result. It keeps my frustration level at the end of a stitching piece low. I always save the back stitch for the whole piece till the end. I am also reconsidering that. It is a big piece and It might be better if I did it in quadrants instead. We'll see. I do feel good about how far I have gotten this week. I had to frog 60 rows of white because the two skeins were different colors. It took me 3 days to pull all the stitches! One was a regular white from old and one a bright white. Hazards of using stash I suppose. I am so happy to be stitching again.

I finally have time to spend on stitching and I am just going to take it one step at a time. I would like to finish this project this year. After its completion, I am going to move on to smaller projects so I can get more done. I also am going to try and complete my finishes. I have never done a pin keep or a cube and I have plans to do one of each for my DD. I am also considering sending out some of the items to be finished because I know I will never get to it. I will post my progress here. Oh and I am dropping the sled project. I started it. ButI hate the colors of the bow. Not shown in this pic. And it has been a long time since I stitched on Aida cloth. I don't like it any more. I am too addicted to linen. So rather then waste time doing something I don't like I am dropping the whole thing. I might do the pattern later with different threads but. Not right now.

Cents and Sense:

Things I have accomplished this week...

1) I called CC#1 and had them adjust the "Past Purchases" balance to macth the new purchases interest rate.

2) My DH and I had a discussion about the Home purchase fund. He feels it is mathmatically smarter to pay off the credit card then to hold on to 3K for closing costs. I can see his argument, but it gave me a major sense of security. I knew that if there was an absolute extreme emergency we could dip into the fund. On the other hand it is silly to be losing money on 3K when I could gain progress on the debt reduction. Including the fact that I will be decreasing the amount of money I am putting toward debt each month. I am increasing my healthcare, I am adding child care. I really need to set time aside to do the budget for this year and that is really hard to come by.

3) Insurance. I followed up with the insurance company regarding submitting a bill for my son. He saw the Dr. In Dec and the insurance company does not have him covered starting in 2008. However... He is covered in 2009. Great execpt if I get an insurance bill in Dec for any office visits he should have been covered. So I called my employeer. They now have to follow up. and I am sure that things will need to be followed up with more later. What does this have to do with personal finance... Well I was sent a bill by the pediatrician for $223.00. I certainly would like to save that money out of pocket, He also went to the Hospital for two tests and there are probably one other insurance statements we havent seen yet from his birth. The less I pay out of pocket the farther my income goes to pay off my credit card debt.

What makes sense? Follow up follow up follow up.

I saw an item in a magazine yesterday while sitting in a doctors waiting room. there were clothes pins with each day labeled on them. I need to do one thing on my desk each day. I started With CC#1, continued with paying bills Tuesday, and follow up with insurance. I need to do one thing each day so that I can feel accomplished and organized again. I have so much to do I cant seem to wrap my head around it all. So I am doing it the way the pros do, one step at a time... Break it down and take it in small steps until the chunks are gone.

That goes for stitching too.

taking care of yourself

2009-01-05T15:14:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I forget to take care of myself. I become wrapped up in what needs to be done and I focus on the tasks at hand. The thing that gets added lastly to the list is me. My DH yelled at me for doing it again as I was feeling frustrated because I was not able to figure out all my bills the way they should be. I needed time to sit at my desk and I was feeling VERY stressed as a result to the hight of each of the piles. Needless to say I had to ask for time to sit at my desk and take care of some of the piles. It is stunning how much mail I receive and how much time it takes for me to focus on each task and take care of things. I hate the amount of time it takes.

So as my reward I ordered a cross stitch calendar for myself. I should have ordered it earlier. but I was hoping Santa would get it for me. It was on my wish list. The calender is no longer available. It is on order but I doubt I will be able to get it. SIGH. I just needed to speak up sooner.

On the Credit card front....

I noticed that in CC#1 Statement they did adjust the rate BUT... They did not adjust the rate of past purchases. The past purchase rate stayed the same. I noticed a while ago but Dh is watching little stuff and I am slowly recovering my baby brain so here goes... I called again. I told the first customer service person the story. Oh let me transfer you. Ok I told the second Customer service person. Ok Let me see. I got a third customer service person. OK here we go again. But cheerfully I went through the explanation of why I was calling again. I noticed that the "past purchases" rate did not change and I wanted the two rates to be the same. Oh I see. He said. Let me fix that for you. And he did. I should see it reflected on the next statement. Hooray! I do think being pleasant and cheerful helped. It also helps to be persistent. I spoke with three different people before I got to yes.

January begins again

2009-01-03T11:15:00.003-05:00

January begins again. Thank God that I put my goals on automatic pilot. I have just added up all my payments with the year end and in 2008 I paid down 13,255.42 in debt. I paid off 33.3% of my total debt. Man I rock. I even made progress in December even though I was trying to hold steady at no new debt. I accomplished that and more. I am so proud of myself. I managed to pass through Christmas without getting further into debt. WOW. I did it. Wow. I need to take time to bask in that.

Plans for 2009... The same as this year but at a slower rate. I will not have as much money for bills as I did before. Happy baby boy needs Daycare. I have allocated Some funds to pay off the debt though and I will continue to try.

My credit card #1 is paid off. My credit card #2 is paid down to 68% of the original amount. I will keep chunking away at it. My DH yelled at me to take care of myself. He thinks I need new socks. I think I need to make due with what I have until the debt is paid off. By paying off the debt I am taking care of myself.

I will post more later. For now Lunch is calling.

Lower rate early payoff??

2008-11-13T11:03:00.004-05:00

The math way of organizing Credit cards says to pay off the highest interest rate first. I like saving money. Last weekend when CC#2 lowered my rate I stopped and paused. Should I now refocus on another card CC#3 with a rate of 12.9% interest and let the 9.9% ride? But I have decided to keep paying off CC#2. there are two reasons. The savings over 6 months is maybe about $180.00 total. It would have me paying off debt a tiny little earlier. BUT I have a baby coming. If I had to just pay the minimums on all my cards because of additional child care expenses it would be better to have fewer cards then lower interest rates. I don't think the change is focus is worth it. So I am following Dave Ramsey' snowball temporarily until this CC #2 is paid off. I think it should be complete by May of next year. Security is more important then $180.00 in fees. Then I will return to highest interest rate card first. It will really depend on Christmas expenses and how pay checks work while I am on short term disability and maternity leave. It is good to have an emergency fund so I know I can cover one month's expenses. Hopefully after that all the funds will kick in properly and I will be receiving a regular pay check. It will be a fine balance I am sure. My employer while a strong stable company is known for its flubs on payments. So I am a little nervous. One day at a time road traveled. One day at a time.

Cross stitch Posts

2008-11-10T11:12:00.003-05:00

So November has arrived and I have finally finished "Smell my Feet". I love how it turned out. I will post pics of the finish when I do the finish. It has to be soon because I cant leave it abandoned for an entire year!

And to keep myself and my hands busy while I go to the Drs twice a week I need a small to carry with me project where I can just grab the project and go. So I am working on a wonderful winter sled. I started out wanting to keep it all the same as the pattern calls for but the unavailibility of some supplies will require me to re evaluate that. Some of the Rayon threads are no longer available. And truth be told I love the cotton much better. I knoww what the Colors would be in the regular cotton thread so I plan to use those and create a little pin keep or perhaps a door hanger. I love to hang little items on the china cabinet for the season. Lets see how far I get on the finish.

And in the evenings... The big project... is one I had started but had to stop. I lost heart. Really who in the heat of Aug wants to think about Santa. Well besides me... because typically I love Christmas all year round. I have considered a Christmas Room. But then thought. DH might object. LOL

This design is Song of Christmas......L&L 46 I love it. .

Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum is one of my all time favorite designers. I have also stitched

Spirit of Christmas......L&L 11
Nantucket Rose......L&L 20
Angel of Light......L&L 7
The Bride......L&L 9

hmmm and I am missing a Santa... But you get the idea. I love her designs.
This weekend I discovered a huge problem with some of the threads though. I had to pull out almost the entire left angel. Yep over 60 rows of stitches. to do over again. Something was wrong with the threads. The dye lots were not the same. They did not match. Perhaps by letting it sit for six months I aged the threads somehow and the yellowing of the one angel showed up like crazy. There was even a line in the skirt where I had changed threads to a newer brighter white. It was not a good combo. Out with the bad and a redo. Painful but I could not look at the finished piece and live with the error. Not when I have the ability to fix it now. It took two days of careful seam ripping and meticilous thread pulling to get rid of the yellowed threads. Ahhh but now she is ready to start fresh and whole and I will have a bigger sense of pride that the piece looks right.

So I feel ready for the baby to come. I have my nap time projects and the room ready. Come on little son.

Ask.... Dont forget to ask

2008-11-10T10:36:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I decided to spend $35.00 on myself. I was talking to my DH about it and he started telling me about a feature that cc#2 has in order to make purchases online. They will issue another number to your card so that if you are unsure of the reliability of a web site you are not compromising your personal information. Great idea I thought. I use my bank debit card for everything, but this site was new to me and I was not feeling that it was all that secure. But I don't like to use my credit cards for anything but carrying a balance. No new charges keeps my debt load the same. Its a control issue. BUT.... Security is a bigger issue I am willing to transfer funds to pay off the purchase now in order to maintain my identity. Issue #1 I have never activated the card. Okay that is first.... Dial the number and activate card. Because of the length of time it has been since I rc'd card and activating it I got a customer Service person on the phone. He verified my info and activated it. He then asked me a strange question... "Is there anything I can do to keep you happy as a customer?" To which I immediately replied. Sure. Lower my interest rate. Thinking Yeah right he wont do it. I have tried this with other banks and they pass you around till you are sick of the service and give up or they finally tell you no. But this card has the highest interest rate of all the cards where I carry a balance. (I have other higher rates but I paid off CC#1 and the other cards have transfer balances of 4% & 5%) It is not a big deal for some of the cards because if you are not going to make any new purchases who cares what the interest is. I want to pay off the debt. That is my #1 focus. I will not shift it until it is done. So then he says.... I can lower the rate to 9.9. DONE I replied. Wow That was easy. (The rate was 15.99) We will see if that effects the balances I am currently carrying. If it does apply to other balances and not just new purchases I will refocus on another card to pay off first, which has a 12.99% interest rate. There is no need to give the banks MORE then they need to and if they are willing to give me a lower interest rate I am so willing to take it! Lets hear it for positive action steps. Oh yes and Issue #2 was I had not yet changed my name... So the Customer service rep went ahead and made that change for me too. Go team. I have to say they did a great job on their customer service and I think a LOT higher of this card for that reason. I have worked with a lot of banks both professionally and personally and I have to say it was a lovely experience getting a friendly person on the line who was able to accommodate me with such ease. Way to go CC#2 and me for asking for what I wanted.

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......

Actions defining my priorities.

2008-11-08T10:33:00.000-05:00

After reading paid twice's blog entry here (http://www.paidtwice.com/2008/11/06/actions-define-priorities/) which I read every time she posts. I started thinking about my actions and my priorities. My #1 concern is paying down as much debt as possible before the baby goes into day care and I have to shift my priorities. I spend money on my daughter and now my children. I rarely buy myself clothing. I rarely buy items to decorate the house although last month I spent $10.00 on some hand towels for the down stairs powder room. Mostly because we are having guests on thanksgiving and I want that bathroom to be clean. Sadly I spent a lot of money on food this month. Gestational Diabetes is a bear to maintain so making sure my sugar levels are where they need to be for the baby I do spend more money on foods. And the volume of food is increased from what I normally eat (even though I did not gain a single pound this week)

Last week I spent some time indulging my renewed passion in Cross stitch. So far it's just looking. I have decided that what I want for Christmas is to be able to purchase some cross stitch supplies. And I would also like subscriptions to stitching magazines. I miss the hobby. I love reading the blogs and seeing posted progress of other people's ideas. It's also going to be a long winter with a new born and I know that with my daughter it was cross stitch that saved my sanity the first time around. I fully expect for it to work again. But I want to act within the confines of my budget. Any hobby can go awry quickly with spending on things that you don't need. Cross stitch is no exception. But if DH is going to get me a gift for Christmas isn't it okay to get what I want??? It may also be possible to ask mom for stuff too. That way the big green eyed monster will keep me in check before my actions override my priorities.

Actions and priorities... Shouldn't your priorities define your actions and not your actions define your priorities?? That is to say set your goals. Decide what you really want for your life and then keep your actions within those goals. There are no perfect people so slipping up like shopping for the powder room last month are the little indiscretions that take place outside of the boundaries you have set for yourself. But coming back to realign my priorities... That's what counts. Always returning to my goals. Paying off my Credit Card debt. That is first for me. When I first began this journey I limited everything. Now that I am in the rhythm of the process its going okay.

What do you spend your money on?

Children, debt, food & shelter. In that order.

What do you go without or spend less on?

Clothing for myself. Decorating the house.

We don't get movies except on the rare occasion. As things move forward I will spend less on food. I continue to budget for work clothing. I rarely buy anything for lounge around the house clothing. We are cutting back our cable. We gave up the home phone. We use cells only.

What are you saving for?

#1 is having an Emergency fund. I keep $2000. Because I feel with children you need that extra and above the Dave Ramsey rule.

#2 is a down payment for a home and closing costs.

What percentage do you save?

I don't do it as a function of a percentage. I received some money from my grandmother and I have set aside that for closing costs. If we were to purchase a home right now we would have to finance 100% of the cost. This is possible for us because my DH is eligible for a VA loan. We have not been really looking at homes however so it's a pretty long way off.

My budget is pretty bare bones. It took a year to get there. It was NOT overnight. I want to be out of debt. It seems like a long time to go without buying pretty things for yourself. I have found that my children are Very expensive and they are my main priorities. DH is an awesome man and financially he has really kicked it up in terms of budget. We keep separate checking accounts. This is because we manage money differently and I would be really uncomfortable managing my money the same way he does. Having been married before I like it separate. We agree on common spending items and we agree on most of the priorities.

I am feeling comfortable with our choices. Health care evaluations are this weekend. I need to decide which plan will be best for us. It was much easier when its just me. and I find very difficult to plan for the unknown.

Priorities and Actions in Action….

2008-11-06T10:28:00.003-05:00

Priorities and Actions in Action….

I have promised myself time to stitch if I finish the priorities on my desk. (Fear of leaving stuff undone is also motivating me. Labor looms...)

1) Scan Comcast bill to submit for work (Done)

2) Collect Sprint Bills (done)

3) Pay bills online (Done)

4) Call at least 2 pediatricians (DONE)

5) Look online at which Pediatrician takes my insurance (DONE)

6) Find pricing of benefits for next year. (DONE)

7) Call Dr about missing prescription (DONE)

8) Pay Hosp bills (done)

9) Mail Package to SK (Done)

10) Call Short term Disability Benefit # (DONE)

11) Fill out Finals Gift pack for DD (Done)

Those items were the stick. The carrot. Cross stitching. I needed a reward. I dont know why I thought it would be "quick" to handle. I had a lot to do. I rocked through it. Fear of labor was another stick. But in the end I did it. I got it all done.

And so here is the result of the stitching. As you can see I made some progress. All that is left is is a bit of sock and the back stitching. I am so proud to have completed this piece. I instantly fell in love with it and cant wait to finish it into a door hanger. That is this weekend priority and plan. Clean the house, pack for the hospital, and finish a few Cross stitch pieces. I will take more pics when they are done.

Last item is to find the thread boxes. We moved them somewhere. I would never abandon them.

Here ia a pic of the Cross stitch. It is a pattern by La D Da called "Smell my feet". It was in the JCS Oct2008 issue. I love it.

November goals:

2008-11-03T16:45:00.002-05:00

November goals:

Stitching:
Finish three ornaments for Halloween.
Find 1 small project to take to Dr. Office with me

Baby:
Put pack in play in our room so baby has place to sleep
diapers
bottles
Pediatrician
Evaluate health plans

Finance:
Submit expense bills to Office
Pay bills

Good news. I paid down $961.59 in debt last month. Not quite sure how... but it worked. I am so excited. CC#2 new balance is $3170.32. Next month it will be under $3000 mark. Wahoo!!! I am rollin', snow ballen'

The pay down date according to my snowballs on http://www.whatsthecost.com/ is still Aug 2011. It seems a long way away. That works in my favor in a way. It gives me time to do slow and steady wins the race.

DH even was able to talk to the cable company and renegotiate a deal so that the cable bill dropped significantly. Feeling much better about cable. And I should get a refund from work for some of the cable expense. That will really help.

Notes for October....

I only spent $82.80 on gas last month. WOW what a difference commuting and a dip in the gas prices makes.

Eating out was another story. I spent a lot more eating out then I should. Its time to make sure I have quiche prepared for breakfast!

I also spent $207.87 on misc. Expenses. One night the power was out and I went shopping for the baby. The other times I really wanted to stitch something so I bought some items to create a project. they were small amounts but they added up quick. I will need to be more careful in November.

Cross Stitch love returns

2008-11-03T11:37:00.001-05:00

I love cross stitch. It is a frugal hobby when you look at the time spent working compared to the cost of materials. Some projects cost more then others. I started out in Early Oct. looking to make a welcome baby sampler of some sort.I could not find a pattern I wanted. I looked all over the place but I did not feel inspired.

20 years ago I made a sampler for my aunt when My cousin was born and I started remembering how I had accomplished that. I remember charting out the name and the letters along with a picture I liked. Bingo! I started creating a plan. I could make a sampler for my son of something I want.

But in the mean time I have found a pattern I loved in the latest issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine (JCS). it was called "Smell my feet". It was so so cute. I decided to stitch it first being in the Halloween spirit. I had decorated for Halloween around the house and I needed something to take with me to all my doctors apts.

Once I found the needle in my hands again I was content. It has been 9 months since I worked on a cross stitch project. I was discouraged at the lack of stitchers there seem to be. All the craft stores cater to the scrap bookers these days. JoAnn fabrics, Michael's, AC Moore.To find the truly awesome designs you have to really know the designers and do a LOT of research.

Then I did a search on technorati for cross stitch blogs. Well Of course if people are blogging about Personal Finance they would be blogging about cross stitch. I fell deeper in love. I am reading about projects people are working on. Looking at different finishes they use to accomplish these items. A pin keep, a pillow, an ornament, framed. The passion is back. And I realized I was making a mistake. Art is influenced by our moods and passions. I had limited myself to work on one project and one project only until It was completed. Well I had a monumental huge project that I love. But it is a Christmas Santa. and who wants to work on Santa in the middle of summer??? So why not pick up a little quickie project that you can complete and let Santa wait. Its the same theory as the Dave Ramsey snowball. Pick off the little things first. then roll you efforts onto the bigger ones. So this is what I am doing in my cross stitch work. I have almost completed the Smell my feet design. Once it is completed I will be picking up Santa again. It will be November and that is not too early to work on Santa. Plus after a feeling of accomplishment with the small project I feel like I can take on a bigger mountain.

As for my CC status. I picked off a med size one with a high rate of interest. I am working on another Med sized one with a lower but now the highest interest card rate of all the cards. I do believe I will be able to pay this one off by next summer. Then its on to card #3. I am sticking to the Debt snowball plan.

As for projects... I have Smell my feet to finish. Which I have already purchased the fabric and cording for. I have a plan for two others. I am going to work on them this weekend after the Hospital birthing class. I have been inspired by others finishes and I know I can do it. In a way this is mental clutter and planning on clearing it out feels so good. In the mean time here is a photo of the smell my feet in progress. I Will post it again after completed.

Cross stitch This is something in my life that I am really proud of. As a young girl I heard often the message when you leave a place you should leave it behind you even better then you found it. Well that is what Cross Stitch does for me. It allows me to leave beautiful things behind that lets me know I have been here...

Friday Funk

2008-10-31T11:35:00.000-05:00

I am unmotivated to be at work today. The only reason I showed up at all is they pay me to do so. So sad.
So I have been looking for articles about paying down debt. Then I realized I can read about it all I want to but I still have to DO it. I even ran across someone who was whining about getting started. The thing is if you whine about it you will never start. Just DO it. Get started. Begin today. Don't buy the cup of coffee you want and send the credit card company the $5 instead. Then you have accomplished something to be proud of.

I am at almost 30% and yet I realize that means another two years minimum to go. It feels good to make progress don't misunderstand. I need to know I am moving forward and I check my NCN Chart to keep me in line. I even print it out for my desk to keep me from buying too many cross stitch projects. because it is more important to me to be out of debt then to have another project waiting for me to accomplish. It is a far greater accomplishment to be out of debt. And I choose every day to take any action I can to that end. But. I still realize it is three years of discipline. three! and with baby maybe longer. Yet what else can I do???

DH has been awesome. He has picked up so much slack I am stunned about how my grocery bill has dropped. I am staying within my budget for the first time in October in 10 years. that in and of itself is a reflection of the Major change of idea sets I have under gone. I am proud of all I am doing. I am proud that I have paid off 11K in CC debt. Worthless interest that I have done nothing but accrue. I even know that all the balances on my cards are not from actual purchases. The 28K left is all interest. Let THAT be a warning to you kids... Don't fall into the trap of I need it now. I can pay for it tomorrow.

Waiting and Hobbies

2008-10-27T11:25:00.003-05:00

Well I am playing the waiting game now. I am waiting for my baby to be ready to be born. I am waiting for the end of the month so I can pay my bills. I am waiting to be out of debt so I can use my money on other things. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. I HATE to wait. So I do two things to keep myself calm and focused while I am waiting. One I listen to my ipod. I listen in the Hospital waiting room, I listen before I go to bed I listen when I feel anxious. I also do cross stitch. I choose a small project to work on for the fall because I knew I would be distracted and absent minded about things. I take it with me where ever I think I will have to wait. And I am making progress on it...

I was a little reluctant to re-invest in cross stitch again. This project 5.00 for the pattern, 10.50 for the fabric and 2.00 for the thread. Its not that much money but I am enjoying it so much I think it was worth it. I am really really trying to keep my expenses low. I think this will be the first October in 5 years where I did not blow my budget. That is primarily due to the fact that my daughter is away at college and

Today I went through my mail and cleaned off my desk it took about 40 minutes to shred all the papers I did not need, and organize those that need action to be taken. But I feel calmer about it now. When you know what needs to be done its so much easier to ignore... Ha ha ha Just kidding. Sort of. If you don't know what is important and might be hiding in the mail there is a certain level of anxiety builds up. If you know what you have to attend to you know if you can afford to give it a few more days or not. thats where you can make choices. If you don't have any idea whats in the pile thats when it bites you. Its important to me in my later stages of pregnancy to stay on top of things like ANY outstanding bills because they will not be on the top of the list when the king arrives.

Spending indulgences

I really get irritated when I read pf blogs who talks about nothing but shopping. I dont mean a random indulgence or a whim of a n old habit. But there is one young girl that loves to purchase shoes. I

The Ups and Downs of a Down Market

2008-10-20T09:49:00.002-05:00

I have read a ton of blog posts recently about things to do in a down market. So I am going to write about my ongoing plans too...

Income:

I work for an educational institution. My job is sort of stable but there are no guarantees. I want to keep up to date on training and learning new skills so If I end up looking for another job I will have the ability to do so at an increase or at least the same.

I try to make myself valuable to my current employer by not complaining and doing as much as possible around the office. I am not very popular as I am going out on Maternity leave. I try to make sure that all the bases are covered and I will still have a job when I get back. It is not easy.

I have been thinking about a second job but the numbers of hours in a day always seem to limit me. I am skilled at website design but I have no idea how to find clients that would hire me to do that. There are TONS of scams on the internet to get a web site built for $250.00. That is not a very large budget for a site that will represent you. I have looked at elance and the prices are really low for the amount of service needed. And you are competing with those over seas. I am a skeptic. BUT I am also still thinking about it I will let you know if I choose to make a leap of faith there.

Expenses:

Reduce Spending.

Being a gestational diabetic has been a very hard learning curve for me. I have found it is a little hard on my sugars to eat rice and beans. As my doctor put it skip the rice eat the cow. So Lunches have been expensive. My husband on the other hand wonderful man that he is has really done an outstanding job on the dinners front. He looks for bargains and keeps us in line there. I see it as my job to try and reduce my lunches out. I need to eat more meals from a brown bag and keep the sugar and the expense down.

I need to keep on getting out of debt. As of today I have paid down 28.39% of my debt. That is a lot of progress. Don"t be fooled it is also a lot of debt to go. It will take time to get out from under $30k of debt.

A couple of years ago the interest rates kept going up and a few points meant the difference between being able to pay the MINIMUM payments of being short. These days I am putting about $450 to principal in addition to paying off the minimum payments. The snowball works!!! I did carefully evaluate transfering balances - O% offers are not free, nor are reduced rate offers. Make sure you are going to save money in interest before you transfer. I did, so I accepted some decent offers. But even still I was not able to move all of my credit to the lowest amounts. Thus Card#2 is the latest focus. At 15.99% I am working to have it paid off by March. If I cant do that I will at least have it completed by this time next year. And then on to Card #3. Currently at 12.9%. It is actually funny because the fed rates are down somewhat I am better off in what interest is accruing on my cards. My plan for the long term. Get out of debt. I just no longer want this lifestyle of can I make the minimum payment this month. It makes me sick to my stomach that I cant go maternity shopping whenever I want because I need to watch every penny so carefully. I robbed yesterday from my life today. I will not continue to do that.

Retirement... I do have about 30 years left to go. Even at 41 I see myself working until 70. I don't believe Social Security will be around for me. I have to be relying on myself. What does that mean during this down turn??? Well...
1.) I am earning more stocks per share in my 403b plan.
2.) I need to roll over a retirement plan from my previous employer. This would purchase EVEN MORE shares at a lower rate. And then when the market rebounds in 10 years or so I will have a big gain.

I am concerned but not worried. Here is why... This is the first time in my life that I have EVER had a 403b plan. My employer contributes to it at a very reasonable rate. I am contributing nothing at all and I still have more money in the 403b then I have ever held in my life. (Keep in mind it is less then 10K) So I feel hope for the future. Once I am out of debt in 3-4 years I will change my contribution to 3% or more Depending on our finances at the time. Always evaluating. Always checking.

Saving and Investing:

Our emergency fund is fully funded. Phew big sigh. I am sure that the need to dip into it is coming though.

We also have $3500 for a down payment on a home. I really want to transfer that money out of my low interest savings to a money market fund. I am investigating cheep ways to transfer the money.

Insurance:

I believe in us as a married couple. I know that we can do it together. I have life insurance, Both long and short term disability, and health insurance. I carry car insurance, and we have renters insurance. We evaluate the plans and make sure they are current and fit our changing life styles. Open enrollment for health insurance is coming to my employer and it is time to evaluate it again. We will take a look at the costs for baby and mama & hubby to see what makes the most economic sense without jeopardizing our care.

Investments:

Once I am out of debt I would like to go and get my masters. I might start before I am out of debt but I question splitting my focus. I will evaluate after the baby comes.

I am looking forward to the times when I am no longer focused on saving every penny to debt and instead shopping for solid investing tactics.

Here are some links that discuss that topic...

http://www.ncnblog.com/2008/02/25/10-things-to-do-after-you-get-out-of-debt/

http://www.gatherlittlebylittle.com/2008/10/18/debt-to-investing/

Other things to do in tough times

1. Keep communication open with your spouse
2. Evaluate your resources. Each other - and your incomes, Could I get a second job now at 8 months prego??? Debatable
3. Do you really need it? is it a savings?
4. Pack a lunch - really.

Fun Friday

2008-10-10T11:32:00.002-05:00

I got to work from home today because of a Dr.s appointment. So I am reading and catching up on information I have not had tome to take a look at. One of my Favorite blogs is No Credit Needed. He wrote a post on his Savings account allocation. Wow. I really admire his commitment to not ever using credit again. Currently having diabetes and not having sugar is a tough commitment and sometimes I slip. To plan for the future so you do not have to use a bank. NICE. I really admire his persistence, and planning. So using a little inspiration from his own post I have added new categories to my budget. I have set aside $3500 for a down payment on a home. This is mixed in With my fully funded emergency fund. I have been sweating how to move the money to a money market account at another bank because I was afraid I might touch the money. Or I might confuse what category I was pulling it from because it is sitting in one lump sum in a savings account. The answer is so obvious TRACK IT. Duh! So By creating a break down and tracking the money I spend if I need to I fight the demon to spend from the house down payment. If I need to use money from my emergency fund I have it available. I know exactly what I need to pay back and what is allocated to a Home down payment. This way I am not going to rob my future for some crisis I am having today. I have done that enough in my life I stole yesterday from my today and I am mad that I made those choices. Compassionate with myself but I wish I had looked harder at solving the issues sooner. I don't regret the cards. They have taught me a valuable lesson and It is painful enough I am committed to not using credit cards in the same way again. My goals are along the line of NCN's I want to have enough cash in my bank account that if I need to use it I can. I expect this to take me about 10 years to accomplish given good times. If we have a few Murphy's law moments then It will just take longer. I am realistic and experienced enough to know that Murphy will call back.

So I am using the following categories for my savings...

Emerg. Fund $2000.00
Short term goals (Home Down Payment) $15000.00

They were reflected in the side bar on my blog but they were not line items on my budget.
For now I have no long term goals. Really The only other financial goal I want to focus on is paying off the credit cards. All raises and any extra cash will be snowballed to debt. The longest term goals are retirement. I am not ignoring it but I am primarily focused on debt. Once the debt is gone I will put more towards retirement and education. I want the intensity of the goal to work for me and the only way I can stay on track is to stay with it and keep paying on those bloody cards. One at a time. I have kicked one to the curb and I am praying that I will have card #2 done by March.

Sept Review

2008-10-06T12:31:00.002-05:00

I like going over my budget numbers and having no surprises. For September I spent a whole lot less then I thought I did. I was still over my budget by about $ 200.00. The reason... I bought maternity clothes. I needed a few new items to make it easier to go to work in. I have so few options and my nesting hormones are in overdrive. I am trying to curb those emotions though. My food budget was decreased significantly by my daughter being away in college and my gas consumption is about half of what it was between teen driving and commuting with a neighbor. I actually did not think commuting would make such a huge difference but it really has. Plus the price of gas being generally down is also a plus. I saved somewhere between $50 to $60. Thats a lot.

On another positive note... We had an offer from a friend of the family for a high chair and a few other baby items. I told her we would be happy to accept any donations she cared to give us. Her baby is only 14 months old so anything she wants to give away is my gain. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on baby gear. They are such warm and wonderful people. I cant imagine any one more giving.

So over all the picture to close September is good. I have a few concerns for October. Car Insurance is due and I really want to purchase a few things for baby. I did pay a little extra to the credit card snowball. I had re budgeted to make it 900 per month because I have been feeling a budget squeeze but I really want to make progress before baby is born so I redirected any savings on food and gas to the credit cards. I want that card balance DOWN! I would be so happy if card #2 could be paid off by the time we need to put baby into Daycare. So Onward we go ...

progress updates

2008-09-29T08:35:00.005-05:00

Calm and quiet. The hormones raged yesterday and I was shaky all day. Today I feel a sense of calm. Its a nice feeling and I have not yet felt that way in a long time. The house is quiet. I need to focus on work. I have had a very hard time caring about work lately. It comes and goes but mostly I care less about doing a good job right now. Sigh. That needs to change.

Being the end of the month and Monday. I have gathered all my credit card statements and written down my finances for the month of September as I know it. I hand write it out every month. Yep a tech junkie like me writes out every dollar on paper. Every month I use a steno pad (I like the size and the green paper reminds me of ledger paper) and I write out ALL the balances of the cards. I look at the current interest rate. Compare it to last month and the Due date. I write out each of these things for each card. This helps to keep me accountable and not like "oh no worries I am almost paid off". NO I have a long road to travel and it is only keeping my nose focused on the work that will keep the pay off schedule real. I need to do everything I can to decrease the debt before the daycare payments start. I have 6 months from today. The minimum payments now add up to under $500.00 per month. Yahoo. That leaves me with about $400 per month to pay to principle for the next six months. I will do my best. After I go back to work in March I will need to get a second job or a new income to keep paying off debt combined with child care. Depressing. But I will do what I need to do in order to get rid of the Credit card debt. I must.

I just calculated my Total numbers. This is how I justify paying the largest amount of interest off first. Not the smallest payment Dave Ramsey Way. I want to save as much money in interest as I can. Dave Ramsey wants you to feel like you are making progress. And So I calculate the total progress I have made every month to make sure I am on the right track. Even with some semi surprise charges on the statements I have still paid down the balance. I did very well last month despite my anxiety. I now owe $ 28,505.83 which means I have paid down $ 11,298.29. HOO RAH! Good Girl road traveled. Despite my anxiety and doubts I have made progress.

maintenance

2008-09-15T10:22:00.002-05:00

The in between weeks take forever. I am waiting to be paid again and I just got paid today. I wait for the end of the month to check my progress because there is no progress in between. There 1080 days until I am debt free maybe. And today I am one day closer to holding my baby in my arms. I cant wait to see him I cant wait to rock to him and sing nursery rhyme songs. I am waiting... I am not good at waiting. But I did hear a song that reminded me of why I chose the journey today... And I think I am on the path to debt free to re learn the steps. I have to go back and remember how I got here (Unending spending and unemployment) I never said no to my daughter. I would not get a haircut for 3 months or more because we could not afford it but I would get her new clothes, take her to the doctor and spend on her. I believed that was my duty to do. Now I am paying for those swim lessons and the latest Limited Too fashion. I was conservative I never went off the roof spending but I wanted her to look like the other kids. I didn't want her to grow up feeling poor. we were. I was a single Mom for most of her life. With Child #2 I need to be a little more conservative. I can see the top of the hill and even If I have to crawl and claw my way to debt free. Even if it takes 6 years I am going to do it. I have to.

Needs

2008-09-11T12:10:00.003-05:00

I am grumpy today. I had a long morning negotiating healthcare and I shopped online. Mostly because I was trying to clear my desk off of catalogs. But also I have started to be a little bigger with the baby and I know I will need some fall clothes. I had to take a little money out of savings for clothes. Its not an emergency but I need to be dressed in a professional way and I am finding that doing laundry every day so that I can wear the same things over and over is a little tiresome.

I am also trying to clear off my desk of un needed papers and anything that is not urgent. I have felt so stressed in the last three months. It is harder and harder to find things and feel like I am doing the right thing. August's budget was a bust. The on going projects that need attention this month are

my health
Daycare
Get rid of old paperwork
Work

My health takes a lot more care then you would think. This mornings visit ended up being a total waste of time. I spent 40 minutes waiting to check in for an appointment only to be informed that I was still missing all the documents for the check in process... Oh and by the way its your fault we are not responsible even though no one told you that a refferal is not the same as an order and oh by the way we need both. Harrumph Yeah right. I now actually have no interest in seeing a dietitian. I though it would be really helpful with gestational diabetes but really I am not interested in doing the work it takes to scale the brick walls the hospital lays in front of you. Its not worth it. But that lets the health care companies win. It means I wont get the care I need and I am paying a LOT of money each month to afford good care. Frustration level is high! Like my sugar LOL

The hunt for daycare is actually better because Hubby is going with me. Mostly. Today we have 2 appointments so far I have visited 4 other facilities. I think we have chosen the right one for us so far It is some kind of cross between personality and facilities. Hopefully it will go well. We need to reserve a spot or risk not having daycare in the spring. Not an option as I need to work.

One of my projects is to organize the OLD health care information in my desk. I have every receipt and Doctors visit my daughter ever had. Plus all of them for the last 15 years for myself. I do not think I need all this paper. BUT I am loathe to get rid of it. So I scan it in to "save" it and then shred it. I love to shred stuff. It is so satisfying to eliminate things that bog me down. Usually I feel free. Today not so much just grumpy it could be hormones and sugar.

And lastly work. I find it very hard to focus these days at work at all. Today I would say I am hiding out from work. I just dont have the passion I used to about the things that need to be done. Partially because the enviornment has beaten it out of me and partially beacuse August was so intense I think my brain is rebelling. You can only keep sustained Overtime focus for so long. Sigh I need my job though so I am going to have to fake it till I make it. Wish me luck...

August Wrap up

2008-09-06T15:04:00.004-05:00

Well I did it. I survived August. I did not think I would but I did. Phew. The end result was I went 1400 over the budget. Mostly for taking Child to college. Thank God I had a wind fall from my Awesome grandmother. Thank you Grammie! I would not have been able to get daughter off to college without that.

Here is my NCN Progress chart. I am so proud. I have passed the 25% mark. I never never thought I would see that number change. Never never never. And here I am. Working it!

The question or perhaps worry I have now is How will things change when the baby comes? Will I be able to continue paying down the debt? I am resolved that I need a budget now more then ever. July and Aug were out of the realm of reality. I need to settle down and focus on myself now. We have begun the hunt for child care. Most cost around $1500 per month. Ihave promised to contribute about $500 per month to child care leaving my husband the other thousand. The next big debate is the MBA or second job. Dave Ramsey would say second job without question. I am actually thinking about delivering Pizzas. Although I also am looking into picking up some consulting on the side. That would earn me WAY WAY more money. We shall see. But just for todau I have a roof over my head. I have paid down 26.76% of my debt. I have made Septembers debt payments. I have covered my bills. All is okay.

Progress

2008-08-03T10:33:00.003-05:00

Well I am proud to announce progress. My debt total is Under 30K it is 29,976.86 to be exact. I am so tickled. I love it. We are doing well and making progress. I am now turning my intensity to Credit card #2. The next highest interest rate card. I did a balance transfer a long time ago and it sits at 15.99%. Time to get it gone. By the calculations I made on the What's the cost website, I will have paid this sucker off by July of next year. Hoorah! I feel good about making progress. Its not perfect. Its not exactly what I want it to be but I feel confident that I will be doing the right thing. After all 24.69%progress is progress.

Here is my chart....

I want to be recession proof

2008-07-29T11:56:00.000-05:00

I was reading my blogs and I read this article. I want to add my here! Here!

http://gradmoneymatters.com/2008/07/dont-go-down-with-economy.html

I have been stressing about having a new baby and worrying about my personal economy. To the point where I exploded last night.

But here is the thing. We have a solid financial plan. I am not going to be in debt forever. I am not going to take on unheard of levels of debt to compensate for not having money today because I know I am going to need all of my funds tomorrow.

There is always news that’s why they call it news. Try to keep yourself grounded.

Take care of yourself. No one else is going to pick you up when you fall. Be self reliant.

If you need help get it. You don’t have to be alone. You do have to do it.

I have had to give up my cookies. I am bitter about this. I am very bitter actually. But for the health of my baby I am giving up sugar. I can do it because I have to. Well I also have to get out of debt. So I will because I have to. I can’t live with the bank cards having power over me. I borrowed yesterday so today I can’t play. I did it to myself. BUT I am not getting out of the hold myself. I have read a thousand blogs. I listen to Dave Ramsey. I have read PF books. I have slowly over time created a plan. Knowledge did not come instantly for me. It took time and patience with the process. (I am not that patient)

I am just one pea in a pod. I am a single mother who is soon to be married again. I worry about our plans for what could go wrong. But we have solid plan (Or so I think) I do know I am just one spot on the scatter chart. I do not make the trend. As a matter of fact most of the time I buck the trend.(Thus the road less traveled) I am also not giving up on making preparations for my future. I still figure that if I get my MBA by the time I am 50 I will have 15 years of working at a $20k more per year salary. I can save that for retirement and I will be better off. I will be out of debt and I will be living in a home. These are my goals. I do not want to be a person who suffers more than average from a recession. I have been there. It’s how I got here. Unemployment for a year taught me that. I will not allow myself to be in that position again. I just won’t. I want to be a person who bucks the trend.

It’s like the last lecture says.... The brick walls are there to prove how much you want something. I want to be out of debt. I will work at it until it happens. The harder you work the better your luck. Luck is where timing meets preparation. If you are not prepared you may not be able to take advantage of what you want when it is available.

Renewed focus, Credit Card#2

2008-07-21T09:48:00.004-05:00

So After looking at my different side bars I have decided to change the Credit card bar to read Credit card #2. I have paid off about half of what was on Credit card #1 and re financed the rest to lower interest rates. That card is GONE baby! So Credit card #2 is at 15.99% and the Balance in June was $ 4,562.21. I have made the June payment of $ 100.00. I am working on my cards in interest order. Dave Ramsey suggests to make progress with smallest first and then interest But I am tracking the debt pay down as a whole and I want to pay as little as possible to those stupid banks. I can see my progress in my NCN Chart. Interest order will accomplish that. The interest makes a bigger difference if you start with 40K in debt then if you had 10k. Its a lot of interest. As a matter of fact Credit card #2 I have never made a single purchase on. I opened it for the introductory balance. And then I never moved the money. Bad plan. Those were the old days this is the get out of debt world and I am not looking back. According to my debt snowball plan, Credit card #2 will be paid off in May 2009. As long as we keep on track. Whoop Whoop Whoop.

I think it is a sickness. I am actually looking forward to my statements this month so I can log in my progress. I am also looking forward to making my August payments. just so I can track the progress. It really helps to have a fully funded emergency fund. Hooray debt is going down this month.

The Economy and personal finance

2008-07-19T07:21:00.003-05:00

I read this article in the NY times this morning. "Uncomfortable Answers to Questions on the Economy" By PETER S. GOODMAN It was very interesting and he covered the changes in the economy in a big picture kind of view. As I read There were a few things that gave me pause si I felt the need to write about it. After all what else is a blog for???

I graduated High School in 1985. The career counselors all said get a job in accounting there is always a need for an accountant. And I have held many bookkeeping positions. I am glad I had the skills. I have used them to get a job that paid the bills. When I graduated college the economy was so tight I didn't pursue getting a job. I was pregnant and We moved overseas. The economy was terrible and I was happy to be away from home.

In 1992 My then husband (now ex) and I returned from over seas. The economy was terrible. We questioned leaving the military life and finding jobs. Neither one of us had a lot of experience and we both floundered around for a year. Then our marriage fell apart and we went our separate ways. The economy had nothing to do with the marriage falling apart but I do think if it had been easier to find jobs when we returned to the US it would have shortened the suffering.

In 1999 I moved South to NC. I wanted a position more suited to my skill set. I had been working in purchasing. I enjoyed it a little, but I felt there had to be something more for me. So I went south to have family support while I returned to school in programming. My daughter and I arrived just as the technology bubble burst. I was in NC for 6 years and never found a job in Technology. Some of that was skill set. Some of that was I needed time flexibility to be a single parent. Some of that was the crash of the technology sector made positions harder to get.

I feel like I have seen a lot of downs. In the booms I was never in the right pace at the right time. I never benefited directly from a growing sector in the economy. I benefited generally by the economy being good enough I was able to find work. The grass has always been greener for a friend. Different friends who were able to make money based on the economy. I have never been able to ride the wave. So I find it ironic now that I am caught up in the momentum of the pay off your debts wave. I started realizing my debt was to high about 1 year ago. I didn't quite have a solid plan I just knew things needed to change. I knew when my debt started approaching my salary I was in deep trouble. It took me about six months to read enough blogs and to find Dave Ramsey to get the steps into place. Even now I still prefer a moderated approach then the extreme rice & beans every day. Still it was shocking to me to read that "Average household debt has swelled to 120 percent of annual income, up from 60 percent in 1984, according to the Federal Reserve." How can you do that? The madness must stop.

I was never able to buy a house when every one was rushing to do so. I was not in a financial position to do it. This year I have started allowing myself the hope that prices will fall enough and I will have my debt under control in such a way that I will be able to take advantage of the timing of the economy. I feel like its about time its my turn! It has to be my turn to be able to take advantage of the economy and to personally be financially balanced. To live within my means.

Actually I find it funny that we need the economy to be bad to do what we should have always done. Live within our means. To say "Long term, Americans may have no choice but to spend less, save more and reduce debts — in short, to live within their means." is so silly. It has always been true. Learning how to do it is hard. Doing it is hard. Living within your means during a down economy is even harder. Increase the income.

Now the economy will be slow because we are not spending. "it’s an adjustment we’re going to have to make.” I am comfortable with it because it was my own decision. How comfortable are you?

random bad day notes

2008-07-16T09:28:00.000-05:00

I rarely post when I am not feeling up. This is a post from 07/16/08. I am posting it to keep it real. I have bad days too. Wednesday & Thursday were whoppers. I am so glad to be beyond this...

I am feeling depressed. I also feel overwhelmed. I have a lot of tasks and I feel powerless to effect any change. I know that life is full of ups and downs. I know that I just have a few hurdles to get me over the hump. I can do this. I know I can get this resolved. I will pursue the right course of action. But why is health care so hard? How can I keep better records so that this can be easier to resolve. I feel completely trapped.

School financing -
Well it happens all the time move one stick and you get a flood this is why I am always afraid to take action. I finally took action to resolve some financing with my daughters school. I literally hit send on my email and my ex husband is trying to make a payment to her school. What kind of craziness is that? He sent an email stating that he would in no way contribute. He has now paid 1/2 of what he should contribute with no way of knowing what else he will do .

Medical record forms -
I need to consolidate her medical records with a single doctor and get things rockin' and rollin' for her future. I also need a good pediatrician. And I need to get my blood work done. It is a little strange I cant wait for my daughter to go away to school so I can take care of myself. When does it get to be my turn? I must have had a look in my eyes because dear fiancee looks at me and said "I am so glad we are doing this. I am so glad we are having a baby. I am so happy". Phew I just need to keep thinking about that moment to keep me moving forward.

So what does all this have to do wih the price of Tea in China? Well let me explain the connection. For me having my finances on a plan keeps me grounded So when I have days like today and I become unhinged I can rest assured that at least that area of my life is under control.

It just take s a couple of hours out of my day to fix what used to become a huge flood in my life and now is just a inconvenient high water mark. It only took a few hours of my day to make sure my daughters father contributed to her life. It was not my plan for the day but it was not that hard to handle. And he needed to contribute. He is not good at it so he needed a lot of coaching.

Stop think observe plan

Stop reacting to the ex husband in the same old pattern. If nothing changes nothing changes.
Take a deep breath.
Think about what he is actually doing vs what he is saying. Act only on the actions.
Observe that the words and the actions don't match. This is a very old pattern you have seen it before. Its okay. He will not change but you do not have to live with it.
Plan how you are going to approach him when you talk with him.

How do we break a habit? One study I read about it being the best time to quit smoking when you are on vacation. That way you are out of your element and you can start new habits without feeling uncomfortable. How do you change a behavior you have done for the last 20 years?

The answer is in the grounded steps to personal finance. Stop spending. Think about the changes you want to make. Observe how others are doing it successfully. Plan for yourself a good plan of action. Its about what choices you are making that define where you want to go.

There are signs for when you are too far off the trail.And there are strategies for when you need to shore up the plan you have. Persistence and patience. One day at a time baby. You will make it happen.

Money Geekness

2008-07-11T11:42:00.002-05:00

***I wrote this a while ago and saved it in notepad. I am posting it now for my record ***

Friday where my brain is allowed to float along is a dangerous thing. I started to look at houses. I want to buy a house next year. I think we will need at least 3% down. Than means if I want a home the size I want it will be 3% of 425000 12,750. We have 3k from my grandmother set aside. I have my fingers crossed that my mom might be generous and gift us another 12K from the estate next year. That would be awesome.

I really want to pursue my masters degree. I think that is the only way I am going to increase my earning potential. I don't know how else to do it. The problem is I also think I am going to need to take a second job so I can continue to pay down debt and still make payments to the new child support bill that I know is coming. I am so sick to my stomach about that. It takes as long as it takes. But a second job at a generous rate of 12 per hour will net 20 hours per week of about $170.00 its only about an 8K per year raise. A degree should give me an increase of abour $20K per year.

I can never remember if housing is supposed to be 25% of net income or gross income. It makes a big difference in the home we can afford. (Update: the answer is net income)

Really I am just mad about the numbers the house I want is just out of reach for us. We really can afford about a $325,000 home not a $425,000 home. I just am being greedy. I need to adjust my desires. Its too much pressure on us to get there from here. right now. I think we need to keep focusing on the debt pay off. We need to continue to contribute to a down payment fund.

I think my next steps are: Open the money market account. Open a checking account so I can get to the money when I need it. Perhaps ask payroll for a direct deposit change to $100.00 per month to go to the money market account so I done have to fuss with deposit slips every month.

Frustration... I just rail at the walls because I am not where I want to be. I want to own a home. I just do.

The third option is to be able to put down $ 85,000. Ha ha ha ha ha that is really stinking funny. Not going to happen from my pay check. Maybe in 10 years it will. In 10 years. If I spend the time to pay off my debt... Lets just run that scenario...

100 contribution per month
x 12
_____
1200 per year
x 10 years
_____
$12,000 dollars
+6000
______
$18,000 for a down payment

Paying off all credit cards. will leave me the ability to contribute 500 per month to the fund for lets say 5 years 30000+18000= 48000 we are half way there. Paying off the debt is a more effective use of my money.

Goals -

If When I become a project manager and increase my income to $70k per year (reasonable and do able) I will be able to put away another $ 30,000 in 4 years which is 80k so in 10 years if I pay off my debt and If I get my MBA Then I will have the 20% needed. Grrr I will be 51 before I take on a 30 year mortgage. Sigh. Well lets get started. today. I have got to do it. Losing my dream is not acceptable to me.

25% or less of your monthly take-home pay.

One of the best ways to accomplish something is to break it down into small, manageable parts. Complete these small parts and soon you'll have your goal accomplished. I need to do this for the PMP certification and for the MBA

http://digg.com/business_finance/WSJ_com_Five_Credit_Card_Traps_Everyone_Should_Know_About

June

2008-06-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

After Reading this post on All Financial Matters I started thinking how true it was for me that there is a definite pattern to stuff I need and when the money is provided.

June has been bad. Financially. I have noticed that there has been a river of outflow on my checking account. There has been a change on the income. I see the drought happening and I am scared really really scared. But I know that I will work hard to find a solution. I do not want to bring this baby into a world where I cant send another child to school. No way. So in order to make sure we don't repeat with child no 2 what happened with child #1 I am on a mission to pay off my debts. I think I need to get a second job. I have hope I will be able to start right after vacation. I do have to work July 12 and I wont be able to work weekend of Aug 22nd but that mostly frees up my commitments for the summer and beyond. Once my daughter goes off to college I will be free most weekends. Dear fiancée will be frustrated by lack of me being around much but he knows how important financial stability is. He worked until 8:30 last night so he could earn some extra OT. I don't want him to get burned out though. Of course I don't want to get burned out either.

So here are some the related threads for all of these random thoughts...

My mom said she was planning on sharing her inheritance with me. I think she is being very generous. but now I feel like I know why the car has needed maintenance and why my checking account is pouring out of my account... Because I am going to receive money. Sigh. I want very much for the money to be used towards the down payment of a house. I want very much to be smarter then I have been in the past. I want to not be in debt. She has not told me how much she is sending. We have talked about amounts in the past and I am not sure how much it would be.

Here are my options for the windfall... Or maybe its just a list of financial needs I currently know about...

Contact lenses $350
Car $1000
Vacation $1000
Replacement of emergency Fund $600

Debt

$30,000

House down payment

Small 3% or $11,250 to $12,750

Med 10% or $ 37,500 to $42,500

Large 20% or $75,000 to $85,000

6-8 months of emergency Savings... $20,000

So the plan if its $10,000 then I will put $3000 towards Car, Vacation and replacement of emergency fund and find a mutual fund to earn decent interest on the 7k while we get ready to purchase a house It will also serve as a back up fund for emergency savings and down payment.

If she gifts me $20000 I will put an additional 2k towards my debt and I will put the remaining $15k into money market fund. At least thats what I think would be wise. That way I will be able to at lease make the 3% down in June if we are serious about the purchase of a home. I think Fiancée is. I know I am.

Grrr I cant remember my password to the debt snowball and as I am at work I have no way to look it up. Here is the deal. If I slow the progress of my payments from $1000.00 to 800 per month that would help me cope with the loss of child support. Rough numbers it only adds 8 months to the length of time before I am debt free. I am so calling Dave Ramsey to scream.

If I get a second job for 6 months and earn 350 per month 2150 additional dollars can be added to the debt. That will also help. For the terms of my permanent employer I cannot work while also on maternity leave and I should be able to get 12 weeks Its very generous. I do like the benefits of staying. Its one of the reasons why I do stay. Its certainly not salary. Its flexible time off and lots of generous leave. These are my choices.

So anyway...

If I were to take all 20K and roll it into my debt. would I be able to know it out in a year? Would I apply that money towards a down payment of a home. I cant truthfully answer that. I think the debt motivates me. I think the dog yipping at my heels is what keeps me focused. You saw how bad I am feeling this months and I did not know the money was coming. So wouldn't it be wise to keep on with the plan and use it for a home? Not sure I will have to include dear fiancée into the question.

The thing is... it was the crushing defeat I was felt when I thought about using a gift from my grandmother to pay off debt instead of a down payment for a home that gave me the willies enough to say NO MORE DEBT. It was the dividing line for me that was the moment of truth. So ... how can i ignore the gut wrenching telling me truly gut feel what to do with that money. I have to listen to that voice or what else do I have? I know in my heart I will pay down the debt. I have a plan. With 4 years is a long time. It is also a lot of debt. Accumulated over quite a few years. Most of what I purchased is gone. Most of what I paid for is long long gone. not its just interest on interest. I will not trade my 50s for debt. I cant do it.

June bug

2008-06-16T13:59:00.002-05:00

Today I am procrastinating. I really really don't want to talk to my ex husband about college funding. I really don't want to talk to him at all. I have been sticking my head in the sand and hoping it will pass. And yet I also know the clock is ticking. I am trying to get it all done soon so I can go on vacation and spend time relaxing. I just don't want to do this one thing.

I have also realized because May was so expensive that I am going to need to pull funds from somewhere to get stuff done this month. There seems to be a huge sucking vacuum on my checking account. I am really trying to stop the river flowing out of my checking account but every time I plug a hole another one seems to appear. I really feel like I am sinking. But then I take stock of where I have been and I know I can continue to pay down the debt. Here are my options for June.

1) Dip into emergency fund
2) Pay just a little less then the $1000. I have budgeted for the month.
3) some combination of both.

For the last 6 months I have been putting away a little more then $1000. Typically its $1080 for the month. And I have been putting money into the Emergency fund. BUT right now child needs contacts and We need $400.00 cash to go on vacation. And if you have doubts that there are benefits to going on vacation just read this article in the NYT. I was sold. Vacations are good for you. I need one. I am so stressed from getting a sassy teen through High school I need a vacation. Besides $400.00 for the week is not a lot of spending.

So how to Squeeze $359.88 + $400.00 from the budget...

I had planned to use the stimulus for the vacation house $400.00 of it anyway. Its gone. I have also rc'd the last child support payment ever. So my budget is now reduced by $500.00 per month. I thought I could wing it but I am thinking I need to re evaluate the plan.

If I pay $800 to debt instead of $1000. It gives me $200 to vacation. I have $200.00 in checking I can use. for the $400.00 vacation money. The $359.88 can come from savings for the contacts. So there it is. I can do this budgeting stuff and make it work.

I calculated the Min payments of all my cards. That adds up to $671.00 So Even paying only $800.00 to debt I still am paying down the debt this month by $129.00. Also If I rcv the $150.00 from work for expenses I will apply that right to the debt. Then it all comes out okay. Ahhh Beach here I come.

Even with my money woes I still keep wanting to purchase maternity clothes. I need another two pairs of pants for my work. But NO GO. I will have to make what I have work for now. If I am shorting my debt repayment $200.00 No pants for me July - or Maybe August.

Keeping up the Debt Lifestyle

2008-06-16T13:54:00.003-05:00

The debt life style. I am trying very hard not to have a debt lifestyle. I have noticed subtle changes inn my life to this end. I enjoy getting the mail. I actually look forward to getting the mail and opening the bills to see that I have made progress on my debt reduction. Even though its slow it is monthly progress. I have a three year plan. I am not sure right now that it will happen but I do have a plan. I am trying to make it happen. Murphy's law - that ole Murphy he likes to visit though. I am starting to change how I handle things though.

I believe debt does not need to be a part of my life. I know that I promised my daughter a new ipod for her graduation gift. I also know that she needs a 6 month supply of contact lenses. I have most of that money set aside for the cost. I will have to take some from savings but that is why I am putting money into savings. Its a good plan. It works. Ant truth be told her needing contact lenses is not a Murphy expense it is a planned expense and I had a plan.

One of my wake up calls happened when I realized I could no longer make all the minimum payments on the cards I had. I knew then something had to change. Last month I put over $400.00 to principle. I have changed my ways. I used to feel like debt was just a part of my life because of the decisions I had made and the choices I made. It was just a burden I carried like a rock that comes with me everywhere I go. Well I choose to put down the rock. I choose today to be debt free.

Advertising is all around us every day. My daughter is so susceptible to it. She has these ideas of what she "needs" for college based on things she has seen. I keep encouraging her to wait and see what she truly needs. I want her to understand that spending money on stuff you don't need now robs tomorrow of what you may need then.

Using a credit card means that you don't have the money right now. It also means you will not have money for the next year while you pay down what you are using it for off. Are you really willing to trade tomorrow's spending money on a quick bite to eat in that restaurant. Is the peer pressure so great that you cant do with out it? Going into debt means you have to work at that job you don't like - for a little longer and it will take your youth.

Each Summer I go on vacation to the beach with friends. Keeping up with the Jones' has always been an issue. They allow their kids to pick out a sweatshirt or a t shirt or outfits that all match. I have mostly resisted. I tend to allow my daughter one item she would like to last for the year as a reminder of the fun week she had. She has always been mostly okay

They all make more money then I do. but I think I enjoy what I have more then they do. Does that sound weird? They run from place to place each day. I tend to be a bit more of a home body. I feel like I have more quiet moments with my daughter and my future baby.

Maybe it is just a matter of style

May wrap up

2008-06-02T13:59:00.003-05:00

I am glad to say good by to May. It has been a hectic month as evidenced here in my few posts. I try to post every Monday and I can tell even those days were crazy for me. I also have not been feeling well with morning sickness. Nausea is not fun. Given all the months expenses I was very surprised that we were able to stay on track at all this month. I expected to be writing tales of woe. I have updated my side bar percentages and to date I have paid down 15.37% of my debt. The total.... Drum roll please is.... $6,116.14. Phew. I have never had that much money in my life and yet I give it to the banks. Let that be the lesson DO NOT use credit cards. Save a little, pinch a lot. You can do it.

I told the fiancée how much debt I had paid off and he was stunned. I am too. Of course some of it is wind falls. Some of it is good luck. Lots of it is hard work tracking all the ins and outs every month.

Despite travel and graduation I was able to ...

I put an extra 88 dollars to my snowball this month.
My current expected date to be out of debt is July 2011. (An entire month sooner then when last calculated!)

I was feeling overwhelmed because of all the expenses we incurred this month. In truth I am making progress. We hosted a celebration party for graduation and I was still able to make my bills. Now vacation next month and daughters new i pod is a different story. Not sure where that is coming from. I have to do the numbers and see how much was really left over and how much I can spend on the vacation. Its going to be tight.

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......

Traction and Ideas

2008-05-05T07:51:00.003-05:00

I have paid off $5496.21 of my credit card debt. this brings up my total to 13.81% paid off. I am so proud of me. I feel like I am learning to breathe.

There are ways I need to improve though.
I need to build up my savings consistently over the next 9 months. I am pregnant and I will need to pay for my credit cards while I am on maternity leave. I am going to count on dear fiancée to handle rent and some other expenses. Day care scares me and it may be that we have to handle debt repayment differently for a while. We'll see. I have it calculated that I have about 5 weeks of paid leave sick & vacation. I only have to cover another three for an 8 week stay out of work. I'd love 12 but we'll see what happens with fiancees own finances. He and I are talking more about money and I am so proud of him for that.

So Traction...

Given this new information I have set a goal of card #1 to be paid in full by Dec 2008. The current balance left is $3060.41 and I am going to pay $405 today. I will also apply $200 of the economic stimulus to the card and possible 150 left from some travel expenses I had. all together that is a payment of $755.00. Quite impressive. This will leave $2305 to be paid by the rest of the year. I think I can do it. Just the fact that all the minimum payments are all lower now with the different balance transfers I feel more confident that we can swing stuff while I have this baby. Phew. What a difference having a budget has made. I can handle it vs Oh My god this will never end! Big difference - big big difference.

Secondary goal is to continue to build the savings account. I need to put at least $130 into the account each month if not $165.00 Otherwise I am going to have more Murphy surprises that I do not want to handle. This month I did not put that amount aside as I was trying to recover from the March madness. Now however with all the tax refunds and extras that I rc'd this month I feel confident that I can put 165 into savings. That would bring the account balance to 1200
about 1365. So keep on growing little savings. Keep on growing.

March left me $537.81 over budget. In April I gained $580.39 which puts things at a wash +42.58

May is going to be tough with graduation coming up. We have to plan what to get my beautiful daughter for her graduation present. Not sure exactly what its going to be yet. It somewhat depends on her dad and what he gets. It also depends on the budget.

I am applying for college loans. I know what Dave Ramsey says but it is the only way she is going to college and she is going! We have to work with her dad to make sure he can fund his share and then My share will shrink in January because My employer is going to pay a portion for her tuition. So in the spring semester I will be responsible for 2000. and for the fall I think I have to raise about $6,000. I also feel like I can get it paid off before she graduates. So I don't feel too bad about taking out the loans. We'll see though.

Incremental progress. I feel the traction this month so I feel good. One day at a time.

Every Windfall has a name

2008-04-21T15:09:00.002-05:00

Why Debt Stinks: Every Windfall Is Already Spoken For

I read Paid twice every day and she often inspires me. Today Her topic really hit a nerve. It is the main reason I chose to get out of debt. My grandmother passed away last summer. My mom started talking about giving us some of the money she will inherit. It was a very generous offer but something about it nagged at me. Mom said wont it help you get out of debt? Gulp, it left such a sour feeling in my stomach. Something just wasn't right about spending my inheritance on debt. Stuff that is already long long gone. I wanted it to help me have a down payment on a home. I do not want to pay for my stupid tax. I wallowed in different plans for a while. I said I was getting motivated but I did allow new charges on my cards I thought I could make progress that way. HA! In Jan I started hitting the plan hard. New real commitment. I gathered steam and decided no more credit card charges. To this point I have paid off 12%. I wanted to give myself inspiration and I was not able to show progress yet. It is still a little too early in the month. Since I cant tell myself how much progress I have made lately. I decided to check the budget for a mid month check. We are mostly on track to recover in April from the additional $537.81 we were in the hole. There were actually $1094 additional expenses but the tax refund covered the majority of that. This month the money flows continue... She needs a dress, she needs shoes to match the dress she is attending two proms. UGH it goes on and on.

My windfalls saved my emergency fund last month. I have to brush myself off this month I have to say hey girl you fell down last month but you can do this. I have been worried about what am I going to do when the child support ends (Next month) and Big news I am pregnant. How can I afford this baby and still pay off my debt. I am determined to pay off this debt. I will not bring another child into this world in debt. I am going to get out of debt.I want to be lean goal oriented performer. I am on the plan. I am on track but I want to make more traction. How do I do it?

The $600.00 from the gov is going $400.00 for vacation and $200 to debt

My Original plan was to put all of the tax rebates $431 & 141 & 600 towards debt. By using the windfall to recover from march madness I miss out on putting a dent in the debt. But wait... I can hear my mom's voice saying don't beat yourself up look at how far you have come. Look at what you have been able to do in 3 months. That progress wont go away. Take a breath and know that God is with you on this journey.

I feel like a trader... I am trading this debt for the Fed return I am trading this debt for the state return and I am trading the emerg fund for the $600 rebate. All windfalls I could have used to get more traction with. I guess its allowing me to stand in place and not slide backwards but still I want some traction!

Things to say when you are grumpy about money...
Unless you have the money I am not doing this, or buying this.
I am 41 I can say no.

Bottomed out

2008-04-17T17:18:00.003-05:00

The bottom out point was $582.85 to my checking account. That was the lowest balance I hit. I'll have to pay a service fee for it going below the minimum but still. Not too bad all things considered. The minimum balance is $800.00 I round it up and keep $1000.00 so its easy math. Also for really bad months like march. I'll finish the budget and and post this weekend. Fiancée has been so Awesome. Because I had a bad month last month I have yet to have paid a single dollar to the grocery store this month. What a sweet guy.

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......

Follow through

2008-04-11T19:54:00.003-05:00

One behavior I have learned (by paying stupid tax) is to follow up on a balance payment. For some reason one of the banks I have a card with always messes me up with its payment schedule. I have learned to send the minimum payment even though I just made a balance transfer. This particular card has been a thorn in my side. The Credit Card company raised my rates for no apparent reason. Then they lowered my limit. (I never made a late payment on any of my cards.) So as soon as I could I transferred all my money off those cards and waited. Well Don't cha know within 6 months they offered me a 4.99% transfer rate until the balance is paid. I crunched those numbers and saving $1000.00 is in my interest. I know Dave Ramsey wants me to feel like I am making traction but I am tracking that in the over all total not card by card. (Current paid to date is $4789.57 - see my NCN Chart.) Frankly it feels Awesome to have gone from $ 12,049.90 to $ 2,943.06 even if the progress is in reduced interest not over all amounts.

So follow through... I double checked the card that was getting the paydown. Monthly payment rc'd - Check. I double checked the card that I was adding the balance to. Balance transferred. Check. Now this card had a $ -83.26 balance. When I transferred a balance from this card previously there was an additional payment that crossed in the mail. I have been waiting to pounce on that negative amount for 4 months. I am quite a program running some actuarial table somewhere that said "nope no change in the rate"... So I waited... "nope dont drop the rate"..... so I waited..... "nope dont drop the rate"... so I waited. Ahhhh then the offer and I pounced. Of course if the rate were to change at any moment I would YANK the balance off this card and move it somewhere else. I hate this card that much. Just so you know I dont recommend this method for everyone. The fees do add up and despite the fact I have just moved two balances recently it is not something I do on a regular basis. I wanted to use that $ -83.26 to pay off my debt. And it did help me. The balance transfer for this card cost.... $ 6.74 ($ 90.00 - $ 83.26 = $ 6.74) Hooray me. I will also make the first payment before 04/22/08 (the closing date on the statement). That way I will be ready to roll when the beginning of the month rolls around again. So the balance on card #7 is $ 3,006.74

Don't panic all you Ramseyites. I am working the debt snowball. I am not putting any new charges on my cards. I just wanted to take advantage of the credit card shuffle to save myself some money. I know just because I finally can move things around does not mean I can spend money. Believe me I get it. I want out of debt as fast as I can git. I am even trying to plan to get a second job and pay down more. On a positive note I also got my State tax refund today. Its staying in the checking account helping to fight back from the deep deep deficit of spending in March.

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......

Daughter lessons

2008-04-07T16:48:00.000-05:00

Murphy came to visit my beautiful daughter. She lost her iPod Friday. She was so upset. She also got $200.00 from her dad as spending money. You know she wanted to run right out and spend that cash but this mean old mom wouldn't let her. This mom said she had to complete paying for her trip which she had already promised to pay for. She has $200.00 left to complete the trip. Then she can put money towards the iPod. Stuck to my guns I did. Oh boy getting out of debt stinks and hopefully she will realize why I am making it so tough on her now.

March Wrap up

2008-04-07T16:37:00.002-05:00

Well as predicted March was a hard budget to balance. I have some scary new expenses coming and I think I have them covered but phew am I going to be glad when May rolls around because April is going to be TIGHT

Travel for my employer and fronting them the money puts an additional burden on me that I was not planning to have.

I also found out Saturday I am going to have a few more expenses before the end of the year so I am not too certain about getting a second job. BUT I have a plan. First tonight I talk to future hubby about the future. Then we map it out together. He likes plans he can stick to. Sept 2011 feels like a long way away. I am hoping for a second job this summer to ease the transition for no longer having child support. I am not sure that it is going to be possible. Trying to take that slow.

So I recalculated my debt snowball based on this months numbers. It is still Sept 2011 but the final payment is lower. So I am making progress. Currently I have paid down $4789.57 towards my debt. Last month I paid $691.60 to principal. This month will be much slower because of all the travel. The many hits to the "uh oh" fund and car insurance. But still I managed to keep my head above water.

While I was talking with my mom about how I did it there are probably a couple of things she asked me and I thought I should share with you.

Quick emergency cash....

I keep a $100.00 bill in my wallet at all times. Mostly so I don't get stuck in the city if something comes up. I don't want to need to use my credit card for an emergency. Which is also no longer in my wallet.

I also have kept $1000.00 in my checking account as a buffer. It is a condition of free checking. I probably dipped into it this month, we'll see when the fiancée clears the rent check. It will also depend on when I get the child support. Timing of all those things might be tricky. But I will not bounce any checks or run out of money. I currently think I am down to about $600.00 So I have to replenish that money. I will use the expense reimbnursement check that is $350.00 and another pay check. I should have it covered. I didnt have to dip into savings for the car insurance at all! That to me is the most impressive.

I am also trying to build up a $2000.00 emergency fund. Right now the savings account is at $1200. I do put $65.00 in every month for car insurance so I can take it out and save a little on the monthly vs every 6 month payments. So far I have been able to cash flow the insurance when it comes up. I have not needed to dip into savings. I am not sure this month that I will be able to put much aside though. I think I might have to use those funds to replace all the crazy funding I have had to do in March.

All in all, even though I got bitten quite hard in the month of march with expenses I was not expecting to pay, I was still able to recover. And I am ready for whatever April has to bring. I think. I don't want to tempt fate. I really have had enough of those Murphys' and they need to knock on someone else's door.

I feel have made a lot of progress in my life. (My mom agrees... LOL) Here are the things I have done today:

I checked a balance on line with a credit card company and discovered my credit had improved. So I was able to transfer a balance to another card. This takes one additional month off the debt payment plan. So the new date to be debt free is Aug 2011. I am so so happy. I feel like I am really making inroads on this debt. I have paid off 12% of my debt. This is BIG! At weight watchers when you reach 10% weight loss you get to stand up and cheer. So here is me I have lost 10% of my debt and I am cheering! Hooray!I will save approx $1700 in interest by transferring the balances. Heck yea 1 month earlier and $1700 less in interest. Go baby go. Card # 1 which started at $12,049.90 is down to 6378.06. Less the payment of $435 I made today Less a balance transfer of $3000. SO.... The new balance is $2943.06 . Now that is before interest next month. And the reason I focused so hard on this card is because it is currently 27.99 interest. GAG ME! I updated the Progress bar for card #1 to be 52% although in reality tracking the individual cards when you are transferring the balances is a mis-nomer. The real progress is reflected in the $39,804.12 number. I have paid it down 12% to date and I made the monthly payments today so we'll get new numbers for the end of April. LOL I actually get geeked out about doing my bills now. Its exciting to see the progress. I have become the cheapest mama on the block!

March Money Madness

2008-04-01T21:55:00.004-05:00

Well it has been a long road this month. I will do a budget recap probably this weekend. Today I want to talk about graduation and college insanity which took place this past week. There were two forces at work on me last week. One was work and one was my family. I have never been able to travel for work in my life. When I was offered the opportunity to attend training I was excited to go. I knew pretty far in advance and gave my travel dates to my daughter and fiancée. It was not too big a deal she is a senior in high school and the pair get along most of the time. We created a plan. I was to travel to the training. On Thursday I would meet them in NC and we would then go together to a freshman registration weekend at the college my daughter is planning to attend. Great. I felt confident leaving things in my fiancée's hands and I felt my daughter would have the chance to have a little fun too.

Monday I flew to the training location. Fiancée had hurt his back. Oh boy. I was already wishing I could turn around and go home to be there for him. Tuesday he let me know that there was no way he could travel down with the daughter for the college weekend. Drat. Okay, So I hopped on line and found a cheep airline ticket for her to meet me at the airport and we would drive together to the college event. Hmmm... but wait... how would we drive? Well my dad lives not to far away... Oh no, the beloved basketball team is playing tonight. Drat. and I am going to need to get from the hotel to the college. Okay rent a car.

Now I should interject here that I have not put a single new charge on my credit cards since January. I am RESOLVED to be out of debt. So I did not take a credit card with me on the trip. I had enough coverage in my checking account to handle the trip. I have been holding a small sum waiting on the car insurance to tell me how much the insurance would be. So as I went off to training I thought I was covered. I was really resolved not to put any new charges onto plastic.

Oh but Murphy's law..... when something can go wrong it will go wrong. And so Murph dog came to visit me. First the additional plane ticket. Plus the planned expense of the hotel for the college weekend. Then the rental car. The freshman sign up weekend cost me are you ready..... $770.48. Oh its true. GULP where on earth am I going to get funding for that?

The travel out of pocket costs are $360.58. This money I will get back but companies are very slow to pay, which is why I did not want to put it on a credit card and have to front the interest. No thank you. So I have not yet figured out if March comes out even. I will pull all the numbers together.

On a side note. I had been missing listening to Dave Ramsey on my laptop while I go to sleep. (I like to listen to the archives) As I was catching up yesterday he had TWO callers ask about credit cards for traveling. He unequivocally stated that NO, you do not use credit for travel. Build up a small reserve and let it fly. Man am I glad I had that small cushion this week. This is why my goals for an emergency fund are $2000.00 not $1000.00 I just need a little more cash flow then the average bear with a teenage daughter.

Well I am really proud of myself this week. I was so nervous about needing to use the plastic. But I did it I stuck it out and I resisted the temptation to use that crutch. Yea HOO!

Feb Budget

2008-03-16T15:20:00.000-05:00

The numbers are in... First I am updating my side bar. Every other paycheck I try to put 10% into savings. I was paid on the 15th. This means my savings is now $1209 so I have contributed 60% of my emergency fund. That is really exciting! After I have reached my goal I will start saving for my masters. I will create a bar after I have completed savings. I have a plan but I am maintaining my focus.

Budget.

I am still trying to get a handle on what we can really afford. Keeping the eating out low and the extras to a minimum makes a BIG BIG difference in our budget. Last month (February) I had an additional $341.00 left over. Now, I would put that towards debt but I also have Car insurance coming at the end of this month. I have to take care of the immediate and necessary first. With a new driver in the house it makes a world of difference to be able to know we would be sort of covered in case something happened. I have also noticed that my fiancée has been buying more groceries. That seems to make a big difference in what I am spending and what we are able to do. I also think it helped that Feb was so short. And my daughter was sick quite a bit I did not spend as much on lunches as I usually do. That should teach me to bring my lunch to work!

So there it is I actually sat down and did calculate all our spending. I have updated the budget spreadsheet and I am working on where the money really goes. It is a huge step forward in my financial maturity. I am acting like a grown up not a kid. Sigh… It’s about time.

Focus and Trust

2008-03-15T13:54:00.004-05:00

I have some time management choices and some financial choices to make. This week I went to an information session about getting a masters degree. I have been thinking about it for a while and I wanted to be sure it was what I wanted to do. My time line was to apply for enrollment for the fall 2009 semester. I had in mind that in Sept. 2008 after my daughter goes to school I will have more time in the evenings and weekends as a result I would be able to get a second job. I would crank on my debt snowball while she is in School and I might be able to pay a large amount off before Sept 2009. The date it is currently set for. As long as I snow flake and keep going the way I have been for the last 3 months I will definitely have it paid before that.

My time line plan was to study for the next few months Take the GMATs in the fall and apply in Jan 2009 for fall of 2009. Here is the bonus... They might wave the GMAT because I have over 10 years of progressive work experience. If they were to wave the test I could probably pull the paperwork together by July and start taking classes this fall. Here is the wrinkle with that... I would not have as much time to get a second job and accelerate the debt snowball.

I read "How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals" over on Zen Habits. I poured over it because one of my short term goals I have set is to read one hour a day. I mean to read a book for one hour per day. I seem unable to find time to accomplish this. I seem to spend A LOT of time reading blogs and not books. So as soon as I read the title I zoomed over to see if there was some insight into my life I could glean to help myself accomplish this goal. And I was brought up a little short by number one... “One goal at a time”.

It is hard for me to focus on one goal at a time. I have many balls in the air and to keep a balanced home I am always juggling something. I am also been a big fan of Dan Allen GTD. Trust in the system. If you don’t trust the system then you won’t feel confident in your minds ability to keep track of the goals. The gerbil running “gotta go… gotta go” in my head spins and spins.

I keep a running list of goals. I also track a running list of “to do” items. I use the site http://www.netvibes.com/. I make lots of little web notes into a very large list and I cut and paste based on priority. This way the list follows me where ever I go and I can jot things down before I forget them. I have so many things on my “to do” list I could not begin to get the list down to one item. I mean if you have a goal of retiring with a fully funded 401k how does someone accomplish that goal? Break it down into smaller tasks. Okay then what? Do a little bit every day or every month. But then I would have a lot of time left in a month to do other stuff if I only had one focus.

Perhaps it is a matter of while you are doing the one task stay focused on that task until you accomplish it. Don’t start doing the dishes until you have finished the blog entry. That part I can understand. I get so many interruptions per day staying on track for any given project is a real challenge. But then am I robbing myself of accomplishing my goals because I have to multi task or is it a matter of style?

There are two really big items I want to accomplish in the future. The first is getting rid of the debt I have. The second is getting a masters degree. I will not melt if I never start to read a book for one hour per day. But if I never start on the Masters I feel I will be 50 before I am finished. I will not accomplish my goals. I am determined to keep blogging about debt. I am determined to continue on the journey to be debt free. I have made Major strides in working this plan. The question is could I do both?

Ah… wait there is another factor… the cost. I have committed $ 1,000.00 of my monthly budget to pay down the debt. I cannot waiver in this commitment. I do get tuition from my employer for classes.

Evaluating the cost…

		Employer	$5,250	Me	Credits
Fall 2008	3630	$1,620			6	2
Spring 2009	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2009	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2009	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2010	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2010	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2010	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2011	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2011	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2011	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2012	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2012	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2012	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2013	1815	$3,435			3	1
Fall 2013	1815	$1,620			3	1
				$ 15,300	72	24

When I become Debt free the cost of $4000.00 per year is very manageable. It will cost over $16,000 to get the degree. BUT the average salary of someone after they complete this degree is double my salary. Getting the MBA makes it easily worth the investment of money. I would earn back the cost of school in one year.

The Challenge...

Start grad school this year? Or work for 1 year to pay off debt and then have enough progress on the snowball that would allow me to go to school.

Trust….

I trust the math. I believe in the numbers. I believe I will be debt free on or before Sept 2011. If I postpone my start of school I will be MUCH better off than if I were to start now. I came across a budget I created in 2000 to pay off a credit card. The payments were unrealistic and I remember not doing it at all. After much debate today I have come to the conclusion that I should maintain focus on debt and the degree will come next. It is the price I must pay for the poor money choices I have made in the past. And what is a year really? Time for fiancée and I to enjoy one another alone. Not a bad choice at all. Maybe if I got a job at the gym they would give me a discount. Hmmm… It is food for thought.

So In conclusion. I think short bursts of focus are good. But you have to keep balance and the big picture in mind. Of course I travel a road less traveled and so maybe my choices are not for everyone. But that has made all the difference in my life. It has made me the person who I am today.

If I could turn back time....

2008-03-10T14:27:00.002-05:00

In my reading this week I came across this post. It made me realize that I am grateful for the knowledge and wisdom I have acquired over time. My worst financial purchase was a service called network direct. I was a senior in college and a sales guy made a presentation to us. All I remember hearing was that you could purchase jewelry directly and save a lot of money. Can you tell what I was thinking. Engagement.... Stupid girl. I was hoping that my long time boyfriend would ask me to marry him. What a poor choice that was. I still remember him taking us to the bar afterwards and buying a round. I should have suspected something then. I even tried to use the coupon clipping service when I ended up living over seas. I think I paid $1200 for the membership. And I still dont know what I got for it except bills. It was so long ago. I am so glad I was not that girl any longer.

* Getting credit cards and not understanding them

I also came across a budget I had created in 2000. I was trying to pay off my Credit card. I had the idea right but the "payoff" amount was just too large per month. I should have known right then I was drowning. I don remember realizing that if I paid as much as I could close to the $300 I would be better off. If I could tell my old self that I wonder if I would have gotten out of debt? I think it was not until we moved in 2006 that I really felt enough pain that I have resolved to be debt free and live my life that way. It is a big change for me and I am very proud of myself.

* Not being serious enough about school

This one gets me too. I was not at all interested in what my grades were in college. I was reveling in being independent from my family and happy to be away from home. I wish I would have taken my grades seriously. Or gone on for more school right out of college. I didn't know what I wanted then. I hated competing and I was afraid to allow myself to shine. I wanted people not to notice me and then I didn't understand why no one really knew me. I skated through college with minimal study time. Now I am going to go back for my masters because I really do know what I want to do.

I don't regret my past I took the road less traveled as always. :-)

Debt snowball choices

2008-03-09T11:15:00.004-05:00

Having a greater focus on when I will be debt free is very comforting. October 2011. I have a plan. So when I received a letter from a card which has no money on it to transfer a balance I said why bother? I am on track. I have a date. I can get out of debt without them. Then I thought about the debt snowball. I thought about being out of debt sooner. 4.99% is much better then 27.99%. How much of a difference would it really make? Well, Having just used the debt snowball tool, I decided to run it again. I wanted to see if I transferred $2000.00 to another card would I get out of debt any faster?

Here is the breakdown....

Without a balance transfer I will pay $7,173.00 in interest. And I will be debt free in October 2011.
If I do transfer the money... I will pay $6,181.00 in interest. And I will be debt free in September 2011.

$7173.00
$6181.00
_______
$ 992.00

BUT don't forget the balance transfer fee. For 2000.00 It should be $60.00 or 3% of the transaction. So I actually gain $932.00 Is it worth making 6 payments instead of 5? Oh yes, for me it is. I am able to be debt free a whole month sooner. And In truth I will be cutting that time shorter and shorter because I did pay just a little extra to a few cards because I like round numbers in my payments $100 vs $94 is $6.00 that I don't have to pay interest on. I also intend to snowflake any reimbursed expenses I receive from work to the debt. I will also be applying some of my tax return towards the debt. While that does not make a huge time difference I think over the next few years it will. I have also started a what have I paid down already. My highest level of debt grew to $39,804.12. I have paid off $4097.97 as of the end of Feb. That is fantastic. I am on my way. I have also funded 50% of my emergency fund. And this month it was not a struggle to put money in there. Hooo rah. I am on the journey. I actually look forward to tallying the numbers. I no longer get the sick feeling in my stomach that something is horribly horribly wrong.

Today I have to complete my taxes so that I can apply for financial aid at my daughters school. That should be a trip. so I will be getting my refund sooner then I was expecting. And we will also be getting the financial incentive in May? That money will be applied towards the debt. I am on my way..

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......

Murphy and being prepared

2008-03-03T19:54:00.003-05:00

Today was a day that will live in the family lore for a very long time. I am still not over how well I was able to handle it. Really living on "No Credit Needed" and "No more debt" was put to the giant test today. I am proud to say I passed. And maybe BECAUSE I passed things turned out so well for us..... Here are the details. you decide...

This morning my daughter took her drivers test. She did not pass. It was a devastating blow for her. She was torn apart. She had been flying high all weekend. She was so excited she offered to get up at 5:00 in the morning to drive me to work. LOL Like I want to be there that early! I knew when the tester swapped spots with her on the exam course that she was going to explode. On the whole I tried to be the rock for her. I tried to have peace in my heart for my baby when really all I wanted was to go and fly swat that guy. Parallel parking did her in. Poor thing. We rescheduled the test for next Monday. She declined to drive for the ride home. (She cried the entire trip.) So I got into the drivers seat. The check engine light was on. Now you don't know me but car maintenance really stresses me out. I mean over the top you do not want to chat with me on a day I am having my car worked on. In the past a large part of that is because I know I cant afford to have anything go wrong. I can not afford a single thing to happen to that car. And I love my car. I got a very very reliable car that would have minimal maintenance issues. I have been taken advantage of by many many mechanics and I do not enjoy the ride. So As I am getting older I have begun to be just a smidgen wiser... This time I would NOT take the car to the dealer behind my home. I am taking it to the dealer where my fiancee bought his car. I called ahead to see if they would have time to work on the car today. The mechanic explained it would be a $104.00 charge to diagnose the problem. The light had been on before and my fiancee had turned it off. He is an excellent guy to have around in a pinch. We had discussed that if the light did come back on again it would need to go into the shop. So there I went. It is a intermittent problem and the dealer could not reproduce the problem. My fiancee talked to the manager and explained the day we were having. He had also just had his car there for repairs. They waved the fee to diagnose the issue. They looked at the car and could not see anything obvious wrong with the car. So..... they waved the fee.

The whole drive over to get the car looked at I just kept telling myself to be calm. I even stopped at the house to gather some relevant paperwork. I thought about putting the credit card into my purse "Just in case". But I was strong. I chose not to. I thought I will use my emergency fund if I have to this is what its there for. And God smiled on us. I did not need to use either one. Murphy has been politely asked to leave. Now if I could just catch up on all the things I need to do for my work. sigh.....

Total cost for the day $0
Effort to build up emergency fund and have it just in case... Priceless!

Finance Goals

2008-03-01T15:01:00.003-05:00

I have a date. A get out of debt free date. Here it is.... are you ready??? October 2011. It seems so so so far away. But I am ready. My daughter will be a Senior in college and I will then be able to attack that college debt! I will be able to pay CASH for her 22 birthday. If I take a second job I will be out of debt even faster. I love having a date and hope. I love that I have hope again. If you have hope then you have it all. Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby! I just want to be out of slavery. I want to work for freedom. I want to be debt free. I can do it. We have a plan. I have a budgeted amount. Plus a few snow flakes... Hooray!!! I have hope again. I used the snowball calculator here to figure out the debt. I will be done with CC#1 Dec 2009. I am going to do my best to make that happen sooner. I hate that card with a passion. I hate that I have depended on it like a crutch. I hate paying 27.99% interest. What a sick sick sick choice I have made. But I now have a concrete plan. I have removed the card from my wallet. If I do not have the cash I do not spend money on things. It sounds easy but it is not. It is a struggle when you are surrounded by people who have stuff. But my dream is a home of my own. My dream is to buy a home of our own. And now I have hope that we'll be able to buy a home before I am 50. Hooray!

We also had some great financial news. My daughter gets her license Monday. My daughters car insurance is a LOT less then I imagined it would be. Good good news. So I am using the 2006 tax return I just rc'd to pay for the bill of ~600.00 From the 7++ return. The remaining $1++.00 will go into the emergency fund. I want it to be at least $2000 because I know my daughter will need contacts eventually too.

So... balance is the answer. To live a balanced life. To balance my dreams. Once the emergency fund is fully funded. (It will take about 7 months.) I will be setting aside the $130.00 I put away every month towards those planned expenses (Contacts and car insurance) After I budget correctly The rest will go towards Debt. Debt free by October 2011!!!
Hip Hip Hooray!

Dump the Debt

2008-02-18T13:07:00.003-05:00

Its Money Monday. Today I am creating a plan to Dump my debt. I already have been working towards it but not as aggressively as I could have. I have been listening to Dave Ramsey all weekend and I am dumping the debt. I have new resolution to sell as much stuff as I can.

My CC#1 is the first to go. I am dumping them as fast as I can. I read this blog today and I can totally relate! My CC#1 company when I told them I wanted a lower rate responded by telling me I was using this as long term debt. It was to encourage me to get rid of them as a card. So the interest rate is 30%. Needless to say I am looking for balance transfer offers but my number one choice is PAY them OFF FIRST. Why a big balance first you ask? Well isn't 30% a disgusting enough reason. It is no longer o.k. with me to work for a bank. I want to work for myself. I want to be debt free.

This morning I transferred Cash from Checking to savings. My Balance is now $1078. Hooray! I also transferred $200.00 from reimbursed funds I rc'd. Typically my checking account would just absorb that money. But I am making a thoughtful focused effort to make sure any extra money I get goes to that stinkin' debt!

I also spent time this weekend with some final scanning and I have scanned the last 10 years of my takes. Done :-) It feels good. And yet I find myself looking around for more. I am on an organizational high!

Tell all Tuesday

2008-02-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

Well I usually work from home on Mondays. This week my daughter needed some Mom transportation so we arranged for my day to be switched. I LOVE work from home days.

I spent some time computing my spending for January. I was feeling very happy that I was very close to my food budget. Then I looked at a few other categories and I feel that I have some improvement to do.

Here are a few expenses....

Rent $ 850
Cell phone $ 80
Groceries $ 631 ($ 6.00 over)
Eating out $ 168.70 ($ 170 over)
Gas $ 138.59
Credit Cards $1160 ($ 160 additional :-) )
Cable $ 187 ($ 17 over)
Cash $ 154
Misc $ 69.77
Bank Fees $ 4

So you can see I did very well on my grocery budget. We went over my usual payment for the cable because I have no allowance for renting movies. January is a cold month and I can accept spending money on inside entertainment. Eating out to lunch is something I need to improve. Also the Bank fees have to stop. I would also like to take out less cash. Most of that money is for my daughter. It goes to a meal while she is working or for an outing with friends. She has started working on her own so I should be able to cut that to about $100.00.

Overall for January I feel we have made a lot of positive changes. I want to work on making a little more progress on the eating out and bringing my lunch phase. I would also like to cut the grocery budget because I think it is high for three people. We could do better in that area. We have some challenges there but I just read "
How Would You Like to Spend Only $100 per Month on Groceries?" from Single Ma and I think it time to try a few of those suggestions myself. Anything I save can be gathered to the debt.

I am also listening to different podcasts online. I think when you are trying to work towards a goal it is important to surround yourself with people who share the same goals. So.... I am reading blogs every day and I listen to others for some inspiration. I am getting my website up to snuff so I can take in some additional income and I have decided to study for the GMAT in order to apply for my MBA to begin Fall of 2009. I think we can do it. it is ambitious but all I have is today.

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......

2008-02-10T13:47:00.000-05:00

So As a result of paying off a very big chunk of change.... I have updated my side bar to have Credit card #1 @ 71% Hooray! Today's balance is $8,638.80. Of course there will be interest in the next billing cycle but this month I was able to pay down $3036.00 to principle. That means next month the min payment will be smaller. And I will be able to pay MORE to principle. I have not yet received my 2006 tax refund. The information I got stated it would take 6 weeks plus so that money wont be here until March. I will have another $1200 towards the #1 Credit card. Then of course there is the incentive money which I will send also directly to the #1 Card. The snow ball continues.

I have been very stressed by work and I am feeling intensely the burden of Debt. I am working today on my portfolio site and I will be putting out my shingle for more moonlighting work. I need to pay down a significant portion of my debt before I can move forward.

I have 3 things I can focus on.
1) Paying off DEBT
2) Taking the GMAT
3) getting into MBA program
(I would not even consider it until fall of 09
But it takes time to get ready and accepted)

My work would cover most of the costs to get the MBA. So as long as I can continue to pay down my #1 Card I should be able to moonlight less after one year. And take on school instead. Once my daughter is in college the day to day need for my attention should be lessened and I should be more able to study. I am finding I really enjoy my apt when it is quiet. Of course I always want the daughter with me but they do have to fly the coop sometime.

I had a long talk with the fiancee about getting my masters, and that it might effect things on the home front. He was very supportive and wants me to Go for it! so I am going to start studying. If anyone has any links or resources they would like to share please pass them on!

Side Bar Updates

2008-01-28T15:03:00.001-05:00

Today I paid $3000.00 to Debt!!! I rc'd a gift from my grandmother passing away and I am using it to pay off my credit cards. I really want to purchase my own home and I always believed that I would use any money from her to put a down payment on a home. It makes me a little sad and angry to have to pay off debt first. Let that be a lesson to you kids Dont get into debt! It takes Way too long to get out. I also increased my emerg savings to $948.00. It really calls to light that I want to be out of debt. My fiancee keeps talking about wanting new furniture. I asked him to wait a while. I want to pay down more debt first. He agreed. He also wants to wait until we move so we dont have to move furniture twice. I am sad about moving again. I really dont want to but after running the numbers today I know its going to be necessary to move and to get a second job. Sigh. Progress is slow when you are in way over your head.

I have also moved some debt around so that my payments are again under $1000.00. That allows me to put $34.00 towards the principal. Its small but its a start. I am really focused on paying off card #1. If there is ANY money leftover in Jan I will be putting the money towards that #1 card. Plus when I get my tax return from 2006 back I will also apply that $ 1200 to debt. Plus if the government does the refund I should get $900.00 and I will apply that to the debt. So all told I will have paid down $5100 on this card leaving a balance of 7008. Then there will be this years tax return which will be another $1000.00. Once I get rid of this card the snowball will begin to be effective and I will make much much more progress towards the balances. I dont want to borrow trouble though by ticking off things I plan to do you never know what may pop up in the future. For now I am happy I have paid down $3000.00 of my debt. Yahoo!

I can do it. There is hope. I have begun to look for a second job. Any ideas about working out of the house? I can do accounting and bill keeping but have a certain worry about ads I have seen online. Is there real work from home? Just wondering.

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 spent vs cost

2008-01-28T14:34:00.000-05:00

Today I had a number of errands to do. I did not want to drive all the way to an office super store to send a fax. I tried the Drug store - no luck. I tried the post office - no luck. I then found a mail packaging store hidden in between a McDonalds and a HairCuttery. Score! It saved me 20 minutes and cost $ 5.00 to send the fax. I am sure it would have cost less to go to the office store... What is the cost of productivity? I would have lost 40 minutes round trip For my salary that would be more then $ 13.50. So Even though I paid more to purchase fax services I saved about $ 8.50 in time. Sometimes there are costs for doing things the long way & the cheep way. Now I have more time to spend on my job and working on the in box on my desk... Totally worth it.

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......

MLK Monday

2008-01-21T17:39:00.000-05:00

how do you know when to stop? when you spill water on your desk not once but twicein 5 minutes. First the right side and then the left. Thats when it is time to take a break.

I decided today to work the GTD plan. I have been doing more reading. There is a lot of procedural information on the David Allen website. One thing he suggested was to buy a label maker. Done. Next create some file folders. I created the following:

Take action
Pending
To phone
Reference
To scan
To file
To read
Ornament project (Dont ask)

I processed almost every paper on my desk untill I spilled my water. I am not sure why all of a sudden my hands were so shakey. I made a MESS too. Water everywhere. It has been cleaned up and I have a lot more space on my desk then I did this morning. I did a B I G sort. I think the next step is to prioritize each of the action items. Right now though I feel that I need a break so what better thing to do then Blog...

It is MLK day and I have a bunch of finance dreams. The clutter elimination was important to me to start the 08 year with clear goals. Try and straighten out my financial life. I am very careful to pay my bills on time. I have let the other stuff go though. I have some stock from when I was a child. I have different retirement plans that need to be monitored. I took many steps last year towards that end. I was even able to track down a pension I am entitled to when I retire. Next step is to straighten out the 401k plan from the last employer. It turns out that if I am not fully vested so I am not entitled to the interest. I need to move those funds FAST. I don't have a ton of money but compound interest relies on time and I need to get time back on my side. Right now I feel I am fighting time endlessly. Hurry hurry hurry make it right. It took me 18 years of crazy finances it will take me a little while to untangle them. But now I have put the papers in order and I have a list to work through it will get done.

The thing that throws my finances most often is moving. We started talking about the benefits of a cheaper place. It is really important because we could save almost $400 per month. Less storage ($100) then divided by 2 because we split the rent. So the monthly savings would be $150. Sometimes I don't think its worth it BUT we are going to do the math and then make the decision. I have resolved not to rush in.

Actually I received a windfall this last week. I will update the plan in Feb. after month end. Right now I am very happy to say $4000 will really really help me. It was a gracious gift from my grandmother and my mom. Today I checked my bank account to see it twice! $1000 went towards the $500 deposit for college for my daughter. The other $500 went towards a few unexpected expenses. so I have $3000.00 to pay towards debt. Big big big!Hooray! I am waiting for the grace peroid to change before I transfer the money. I want the money to be applied in Jan billing cycle. Its financial balance.Its also going to show serious progress on my #1 goal. Eliminate the debt. Hooray!

Dont hide your goals

2008-01-07T16:05:00.000-05:00

Don't hide your Goals under your desk. Procrastination

The usefulness of having only one pile... There is a purpose in having on in pile. Its really good for me. I cant ignore it. I have piles all over my office. At some point you stop seeing all the many piles and they stop calling to you. We are planning to move next year to a smaller place. I need to limit the size of my office. I can argue that my desk is not at all efficient. The the zen of getting things done is really inspiring me. I have drank the cool aid. I want to not miss any bills I want to manage my money well and I cant do that if I have piles of stuff all over. Its the chaos I can control. Debt feels out of control to me It is so big and I feel like it will never shrink. But even there I have gotton on board with tracking expenditures, and paying attention to the little things. They have become important again and I am no longer as over whelmed by looking at the money spent on an item. you have to spend some money to eat and to live. Its just how you spend it and what choices you make that can make a big difference in the budget.

So today I have accomplished....

I placed the empty file box under the full one. That means I can get to the full one and start scanning magazines & things in it to throw stuff out. I removed my hidden dreams out from under my desk and I have brought them into the light. Hiding under my desk were the following: wedding planning magazines. A PMP certification book, and two books on personal finance. I think I felt guilty and not yet entitled to have these items as my goals. But I kept them physically close to me so I knew they were not ignored (And they weren't I never mixed those items in with any other pile.) So during the slow week over Christmas and new years I wrote down training I would like to pursue. and I prioritized it. Then I added the action to my master to do list. I have long been a fan of 1001 things in 101 days. I also believe in making lists. If I have action items on a list I wont forget the goals exist. There is a lot to be said for smart goals. But thses goals are also ideas. They are 5 year and 10 year goals. The next year will continue to be busy and I need to focus on the big things that are going to happen for us. HS graduation, college are among the list. Yet I also cant let too much time pass before I pursue things for myself. I want to have a better more accomplished job some day.

Hopefully I can get there by continuing to do what I do. Train when I can, read all that I can and pursue my dreams.

Guard your wealth - Don't hide your goals

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......

Happy Customer Service

2008-01-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

I do want to tell you that over the holidays I bought something from www.JCP.com I experienced a little frustration because I forgot to click the right link for the free shipping. So I called the 1-800 number. Customer Service told be I had called too soon. I needed to wait my order was not showing in the system yet please call back later. A day later I called again. The girl was helpful but could not really credit the shipping. I forget the excuse. With all the different things I had going on I forgot to call again. I looked at my credit card statement and $24.57 has been credited to my account and Shipping was indeed free. Thank you JC Penney. I was not looking forward to trying and get that straightened out and now I don't have to!

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......

Balance transfer madness

2008-01-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

I recently transferred two balances from 29.9% rates to 3.9% for the life of the balance transfer. It was totally worth the 150.00 transfer fee. I wanted to see it work in the numbers though so I looked for a way to explain it.... Two bloggers mevsdebt and gradmoneymatters gave me the bones to work this out.

Target Card #1

Balance: $5000
Promotional APR: 3.99%
Transfer Fee: 150.00
Offer end Date: Fixed for life of balance transfer
Standard APR 18.24%
Default APR: 29.99%

So I wanted to do the calculations to determine that transferring a balance $5000.00 was a good choice.

If you only paid the minimum, it would take you 6001 months, and cost you $9,356,167,615,686,400.00 in interest. Information I have never seen before. Thats lovely. Is that even real money?

2nd try with better numbers......

@ current rate of interest 29.9%. It'll take you 618 months (that's over 51 years) to pay back $5,000 if you only pay the required minimum of 3.00%. Over that period of time, you'll pay an additional $18,906.61 in interest.

If you could afford to pay an extra $10 a month towards your credit card debt, it would mean you'd repay it in 223 months (just over 18 years) and you'd save yourself $8,514.01 in interest. In fact, if you could afford an extra $25 a month, you'd repay it in 128 months (just over 10 years), and save $12,303.06.
--------------------------------
@ 3.99 It'll take you 233 months (that's over 19 years) to pay back $5,000 if you only pay the required minimum of 2.00%. Over that period of time, you'll pay an additional $947.62 in interest.

If you could afford to pay an extra $10 a month towards your credit card debt, it would mean you'd repay it in 129 months (just over 10 years) and you'd save yourself $238.20 in interest. In fact, if you could afford an extra $25 a month, you'd repay it in 87 months (just over 7 years), and save $406.29.

hmmmm 51 years vs 19 years. Yep it was a good choice. Of course I will not be doing the min balance forever I intend to step it up! over the life of the card the savings was $18906.61 - 947.62 = 17958.99 - that is 1/2 of a down payment on a $400.000 house. Now why on earth would I want to give the bank that much of my money? The answer is I don't.

Right now my balance on the #1 Target card (first card to pay off) is $12049.90. I will pay down $3000 when my mom sends me some cash. I will pay down another $1000.00 when I get the tax refund. Which leaves me with a balance of $8049.90. My goal is to have it paid off by the June 2009. I am going to get a second job. I will pay off my debt. I cant live this way. I want to own a home of my own. For the first time in my life I do believe it will happen. I have known for a while that this card was bad for me to have but making changes is much harder then saying you will make a change. I can do this though. I am determined.

Long term goal: I have 5 credit cards. I want to be out of debt in 5 years. I can do it. If I keep paying off $1000.00 on debt. I will be able to achieve debt free eventually. I thought it would be easier and I am realizing its not going to be that easy. It is going to be time consuming but I can do it.

The calculator I used is here.... http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditCard.aspx

UPDATE: I added the credit card to my side bar. This will be my focus for paying off this year.

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......

Year End workup or work out

2008-01-01T22:53:00.000-05:00

Well I really don't want to sum up for the year. I feel as though I have failed. My Budget was way out of whack in December. I made a budget but I had many impulse spending items. I didn't spend where it was as important and I spent money on items that seemed pressing at the time but as I look at the list I am a little sickened as to where the money is going. A second job is in the worx for me. I really need to SLOW down the money out goes and pay off a credit card. I did transfer some balances down and I am counting on getting $1700 from my 06 taxes. But its not enough to compensate for the random things that have happened.

So how did I do? Sigh......

The Christmas budget was $1000.00 for gifts. I spent $1163.68 so I went over by $163.68
The unexpected expenses were $650.00

Sigh. Yep now its out there.

All on credit cards. I know not to keep them in my wallet but I also feel I want to hide my shame of not having a lot of money so I spent where I didn't need to to hide it. Some of it was gifts my daughter gave to her friends. Some was wrapping paper and cards. There was even a trip to Target. Some was Art class for school. If I was not paying down so much on debt I would be able to afford these items. However, Because I owe so much to the bank every month I really cant to have a single surprise expense. Sad really. so I am continuing on my journey to pay off the cards. Its going to be a Great 08. I am going to continue to be disciplined about spending. Get back on the wagon and increase my income.

I did not make any resolutions. I already have them Get out of Debt.

Happy New Year

2007-12-26T11:57:00.000-05:00

The thing that REALLY impresses me is that people have other financial goals then getting out of debt. I have a complete focus on getting out of credit card debt right now. I don’t want to be a slave for those banks any more. It was a painful lesson to learn in my mid life years. I am resolved to try and teach my daughter better habits. The thing that really impresses me though is the focus on having a good retirement. On relaxing and working towards other things - owning property or investing in a retirement fund. Saving for the possibility that you can’t work. They have become my future goals. I no longer just want to be debt free I also want my savings to grow. I want to have 3, make that 6 months of living expenses in a CD or mutual fund that we'd have access to easily. I want to pay off my mortgage early. I want to retire comfortably. I want to be able to make a down payment on my a retirement home if I needed to. In short I have learned so much about "common sense" goals by reading the pf blogs I do. I am so grateful to all those who share their lives with the rest of us. Thanks. Let’s make 08 great together :-)

Some links...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119836036944047243.html?mod=money_page_left_hs

Finance Gets Personal By SHELLY BANJO
December 23, 2007

Look for money owed to you on www.missingmoney.com

http://www.bripblap.com/2007/spend-less-than-you-earn-the-wrong-way-to-think/

Things to earn you more money. I need to add this to my 101 things b/c I know I have some small amounts of money being held for me in PA. I will establish this as one of my goals for my work from home day. There are a couple of higher priorities like sign on to FAFSA web site get a pin # work on financial aid etc

Persistence at a goal pays you its own reward.

Update on Credit Card

2007-12-17T16:50:00.000-05:00

I posted earlier about a charge being made to my account. It has been credited and I do not owe anything on that card. Persistence and follow up reap huge rewards. No stupid tax!

The Emergency fund saved college dreams

2007-12-17T15:06:00.000-05:00

$500 for college from savings,How the emerg fund saved her college dreams

I posted earlier about spending the money in my emergency account before the tax refund comes in. Then, I listened to the Dave Ramsey show. He stated how foolish that idea was. Even if you know you can pay back the emerg fund it is foolish to take money out of there for the Holidays. The fund is for an event that is unexpected. Emerg fund is for surprises not Christmas. Hmmm, okay, I will accept he makes sense even if I don't buy it... I will not take any money out. Over this weekend I am SO glad I did not take money out of there for gifts. I have TWO reasons

1) On Friday we were out at a school function and the Check engine light came on in my car. I was highly stressed nut I knew I had back up in my savings account and it would be okay. My fiancee took the car to auto zone and looked at the codes. He determined thankfully the car is okay and the light may have come on due to the rapid change in the weather. It was resolved to "Keep an eye" on it but the car could be driven. BIG SIGH of relief! No money out of pocket but boy was it wise to have not spent it on gifts.

2) On Saturday my daughter was accepted to college! They needed a check for $500.00 to confirm her reservation in the class of 2012. Total relief. I was able to pay for the deposit with cash. No credit card fees needed. So my refund will be re-allocated. When I get it I will replace the $500.00 from the emerg fund. Just to be clear, It was important to have your room reservation in as early as you possibly can. I could have waited for the refund to come in and then paid the deposit but she would be MUCH lower on the housing cue and it was important to her, and so to me, to have as much of our first choice for housing as we possibly could. I will put $700.00 towards Christmas gifts and I will pay $500.00 to paying off debt. It is less to paying off my debt, however I save big time by not increasing my deb load. The emerg fund has saved my daughters dreams. She is so excited! She sings as she goes from room to room it was totally worth it. If I had to I would spend it again and again to make her that happy.

As an aside we also had a teachable moment. I was able to have a quick conversation about the value of money and the idea that if you take care of your money it will take care of you. Its good to plant debt & financial wisdom seeds now. I will have more conversations with her in the future. For today we talked about choices I make about spending money and the value of having an emergency fund. It was good for me to be able to plan that seed in her mind for the future.

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......

Mad Money Mondays

2007-12-17T14:45:00.000-05:00

I get so much done when I work from home. there are fewer distractions and I am able to focus in a better way. However a good part of my job involves helping people and that is hard to do from home. I think that is why I get so frustrated with customer service and how people do their jobs. I do believe in service excellence and I try every day to make someone elses life easier and better. So when I have to ARGUE - which I hate to do - to get what I need. I have to wonder is this what a corporation views as service excellence?

Down to 2 1 tax folders to scan into my computer. As I do my regular work I strive to eliminate the DIS-organization that has held me back from becoming financially free. If you don't know where your stuff is how can you move forward. I have 2 TONS of paper in my office and I think it was weighing me down. Right now I am focused on saving only what I need to move forward in my life. That includes making sure Old tax returns are findable by date. I am sure we will be applying to FASA and for student loans next year. Oh yes... My daughter has been accepted to college! I am sooo proud of her. Now I just have to pay for it. I have a few plans. We'll see what happens.

And now down to 1 scanning folder. Man it feels good to get rid of the financial paperwork that weighs you down! It is a little time consuming today though and I needed to turn my attention to other things. More scanning later.

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......

Money transfers and clutter

2007-12-17T12:47:00.000-05:00

Today I realized that I had stopped seeing the mess. My office has been lifted of a massive amount of clutter. I have been sitting on a project of Christmas Ornaments for an entire year. Of course when I wanted to decorate our Christmas tree I had to get on the ball. And I did. I collected all the ornaments we have and photographed them. This does two things. I actually over the years have acquired many beautiful collectible ornaments. My aunt also sends my daughter an ornament or seven every year so needless to say our collection if added up together could be worth quite a bit. How would we know what we have if we needed to .... A database. I have written one in PHP for a class project. I am going to convert it to house all the ornament photos. I am actually looking forward to that part. It was opening each and every box. Photographing them and then hanging them on the tree that was super time consuming. *** Gold Star moment *** I have completed the task! I am really happy about that. The tree looks awesome and I have an empty desk. Well almost. I have 3 tax folders left to scan but today is a work at home day :-).

Trying to track every $ I have become happier now that My finances are organized. It is total satisfaction to know I am not missing something. I have created quite a few to do lists and One of my favorite links to help me rewind Questions to trigger to dos on your list (http://www.orgcoach.net/pdf/ram_dump.pdf). I have never in my life had so much time to work on it. And I always am waiting for the other shoe to drop. It will but because I have taken the time to start the organization process. I am really proud of myself. My next goal with organization is to work with my daughter on her finances. I do not want her to fall into the places I have gone.

I have cut every expense I can - except lunches. That is going to be one of my goals for 2008.

I am excited. I should be getting a IRS refund of ~ $1700 dollars. I am going to use $700 on Christmas and $1000 towards the debt. I wont have to touch my savings/emerg fund for Christmas much at all. The only question is how fast can I get the refund? And I am sure I will be getting a nice refund next year too. I maxed out my deductions. Before you tisk tisk me it was because too many things in my life were changing. Moving to another state getting a new job with a higher salary. I just could not guess how much I was going to owe. Plus my daughter turns 18 this year so I was not sure what the implications would be of that.

Bills one bite at a time. I still feel discouraged despite all my progress financially that it takes so long to pay off cards. I moved my $ around to help with interest rates - It feels awful to not be able to pay the balance in full. But when you are looking at such large amounts interest rates really add up and it matters a lot. SO... I have shuffled the balances around a bit. I will have paid one credit card at 29.9% in full. A 3.9% interest rate till the balance is paid is making the money go further and pay off the debt faster. It is still a big hole and I am a bit overwhelmed. I rant he rough numbers and by transferring the balance I will save $3000.00 this year. WOW. I cant wait to send $1000 to pay off a chunk of it. Ahhh and I should tell you the wonderfulness of requesting the balance transfer online without having to talk to a judgmental person. So Awesome. I don't love talking to customer service. There is too much service lacking and they view their job as saying no. Making a logical transfer to which I had been sent an offer in the mail sooo easy. Always leave them wanting more. I want better customer service from someone who takes such a large proportion of my salary. The borrower is the servant to the lender to be sure. This just serves to reaffirm my goals to get out of debt.

I will probably use savings to tide me over and replace it when the refund comes. Big sigh of relief that I have over $700 in my savings to cover the lag AND I can afford gifts without increasing the debt. Good news. This is the proof that the plan is working.

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......

Pricing battles save money

2007-12-17T11:49:00.000-05:00

Battling for the correct pricing...

Why is guarding your wealth so much work? How much does it cost us if you don't? Over the weekend I did a lot of Christmas Shopping. One of the things I had promised to follow up on was to complete my daughters gift from last year and get her the matching pieces to a suitcase we bought this summer. There was some confusion when I made the purchase for her about the right sizes. I was thinking she needed two large suitcases But my fiancee felt she needed the set of graduated bags. He of course was right(as usual). She will need an occasional weekend bag for traveling and not always the super huge size. Well... So The suitcases were on sale. It was a very good price. Not really for Christmas but at the right time to buy. So I went ahead to this store's online web site and made a purchase. BUT I forgot to enter the online purchase code. So I called Customer service to let them know. I had called to soon. They could not see my order yet. Okay, I'll call back later. Today I called again. Now my order has shipped. The lady on the phone said she put the info in on my account but I don't have confidence that she was telling the truth. So I will have to follow up this afternoon and call again to verify the shipping charges were credited. $30.00 is not a lot of money but its MY money.

I also saved myself $129.99 last Monday. Sometimes I forget that there is satisfaction in what you don't spend. I was charged for privacy protection on one of my credit cards. Seeing a charge on a card which had $ 0.00 balance at first caused me to feel waves of panic. I had paid for this service before. I thought it would be worse to pay for it then to fight it. (Before I started reading pf blogs I would have paid the charges and hoped to close the account. Now I know better.) Man was it hard to break out the sword and shield. I hate confrontation. But I did it. I called the credit card company... the wait for customer service is 10 minutes. ...UGH... Wonderful daughter bring me your cell phone. I called the privacy guard phone number. (While on hold with the credit card company)
I don't want this service please.
But all the wonderful benefits. Blah blah blah
No I don't want this service please.
But we have so much to offer.. blah blah blah
I do not want your service thank you.
Okay the cancellation number is xxxxx

All the while I am STILL on hold with the credit card bank. Now you see why I paid this card off first. 10 minutes to talk to a real live person! AGH. That and a 29% interest rate. so I have defended my money. I saved myself $129.99 in fees I did not want. All it took was two phone calls. Now please know that I do believe there is a good service to be had in privacy protection. I just cant afford that service right now while I dig myself out of debt. And $129.99 Really??? I don't think so.

I also saved $30.00 at the grocery store. seems like a lot right??? I think so too. There were a few items that were on sale that typically are not on sale. Couscous & stash tea. So I did spend over my weekly food budget by $35 but I think the savings helped to make it worth it. I love cous cous. and I saved $6.50 on that item alone.

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......

Progress

2007-12-03T16:46:00.000-05:00

I have scanned in 4 years of Tax returns. I feel so much better about that.

Today I paid my bills. Painful. The happy news was that I had a surplus for the month of November. One of the main reasons was that My wonderful mother sent me $500.00 for the college weekend trips. AND my awesome fiancee paid for quite a bit of our travels to NC & Mass. I sat down and used the where did my money go spreadsheet. I am working up to budgeting. Well thats not true. I have a budget but I find my extraordinary expenses keep popping up their weary heads.

The college trip expenses were 215.17 + hotels
Sr year expenses were 273.46 for this month.

Where was that money to come from? I need a better plan...

11/19/07

2007-12-03T16:43:00.000-05:00

I did it. I got rid of all 19 magazines. Its one of those very small things that matters to only me. But its about having a clean and workable space. I need to have some more peace in my life. I want to be free of the emotional debt. Then I will be free of the actual debt as well. One day at a time.

Did I mention that I took a credit card out of my wallet? I did only debit card goes with me. I am trying very hard to live on cash only. In some ways it is harder then I though. In others Awesome fiancee is picking up some slack. He treated us to dinner out during our last college exploration trip. It helps a lot because the other expense in addition to traveling was $350 for the eye do

Next focus. Financial documents on top of my desk.

There are two things at play here. One Eliminate clutter. This will save me money when we move next summer. I will not have to pay to store the magazines. (We are planning to move into a smaller space to save money.) Second to get rid of that which emotionally weighs you down.

Get smart about space & place...

I am consolidating my papers down to 3 total file drawers.

Streamline your system....

I pay bills online.
I dont like automatic payments because if your timing is a little off you can end up paying bank fees. I always sit down the weekend before the first of the month and look ahead to figure out how short I will be and stratagize how to juggle the bills for the upcoming month.

I have started using an excel spreadsheet looking at my spending every month and For the first time I brought my lunch 4/5 days last week.

I dont know what to do with all the medical information. It feels like I should record it somehow and it should be organized in some way but I cant begin to know what would be helpful. I have not seen any blogs about that. What would matter to a doctors office or hospital. How important is a full medical history. Do you need origional paperwork or is a scanned copy of stuff okay?

HMO vs PPO

Big decision. Here is what is going into my planning...

Cost

Ease of use

Potential health issues in my future

State retirement

1361.17 2006 contribution
2162.10 2005 contribution
1935.55 2004 contribution
----------
5458.82 total contributions

there is currently 6k in there. I am so glad I have some record of my contributions. I thought there was so much more interest. But If 5500 is mine I can roll it into another fund and be on my merry way

Happy days

Post Thanksgiving Accomplishments

2007-11-26T16:53:00.000-05:00

Goals.

I work better when I have a check list of things to accomplish. When I made it a contest to get rid & eliminate the 19 magazines I had a focus. And I did it. I have another magazine on my desk and I cant bear it. I want to accomplish something else. When I ask myself... Accomplish what? I am not certain. The clutter in my office is a distraction and keeps me from focusing on my work. I know I have 4 home & work days before Christmas. I can definitely accomplish something with that amount of time. But I need a check list so I stay on course.

Last Friday I created a huge to do list. Then I forgot where I wrote the list down. I guess I have Vacation Brain (or turkey sleepiness...) Here is a good link on questions to ask when you cant remember all that you know. Its a pretty comprehensive list. I enjoyed clearing my head of all the nattering s that were swimming around and Feeling like Finally there was order to all I had to do. I dragged things around and categorized them. Now I just need time to do them. http://www.orgcoach.net/pdf/ram_dump.pdf

Today was rough getting started (I couldn't find the list.) So I did my standard set of three. I allowed myself to look around the room and I picked three things that jumped out at me that needed doing. Once I started moving the Chaos was a little more under control and I could relax and go with the flow. The key is to start moving.

So the three things for today....

I moved the winter sweater box into the middle of the room. I need to put it back into the closet so I can walk - Done!
I took out the computer boxes to get to the sweater box they must also be returned. - Done!
I will find a home for the card basket. Its one thing that is really bugging me cause I don't know what to do with it. Done! (It was harder then it sounds. This is where all useless items I did not know where to put during the last move ended up. And man there were some strange things in there...)

Then I will scan some taxes. Which will bring me happily up to lunch I will make a new plan for the afternoon :-)

Benefits to clearing the clutter....

I found my pen I had been looking for.
I can now easily walk in my office.
I feel like I am not forgetting stuff....

Progress is seeing my desk again.

Update:

The taxes were a little tough. I get very uptight when I even look at the forms. I am proud of Myself. I have scanned in 2004 and all of 2005. There were a few interruptions. But I have kept on it and persevered.

I am still missing a list I made of how much money I invested in a retirement plan. I know I made a list last Monday and now its gone. It is in a file somewhere on this silly computer... I did find other paper to scan & purge. I knew I would. Ahhh the threat of the sole magazine inspired a whole days accomplishment & work.

Just do three things is my moving mantra. Every new apartment When I am sick of unpacking I tell myself Just open three boxes and then you can sit down and rest. I have converted it to be my clutter mantra - Just find three things in the room you want to throw out and then go about your day. It seems to work. Once I am in the mode I can sometimes keep going and sometimes I let myself stop and give myself a break. Either way just do three things.

Clutter free the way to be.

Manage your time like your debt. Care for it and it will care for you