I Have a finish!

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.

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

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

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

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

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??

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

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

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.

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….

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.