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Off to the beach!

October 27th, 2007 at 01:46 am

And we're off tomorrow morning! I am so excited. My youngest has never seen the ocean! This is an all cash vacation for 3 days- which is a huge excitement to me! None of it will go on the CC's!

CC balances update

October 7th, 2007 at 04:47 pm

Ugh- we're slipping. It feels like a black hole that I'm inching out of, then I see light at the end of it, but then I slip and fall 2x further down than I feel I was. It will end, it will end, keep repeating to self.

BOA CC- 2664.23 @ 15.24%
MBNA CC- 6776.09 @ 7.9%
Discover CC- 558.80 @ 10.24%

Where to begin. I'm throwing everything I can at the Discover, just to have it paid off. Then next will obviously be the BOA.

Hopefully my DH will have the floors he's working on finished soon and that will be around $1000 to throw completely at the BOA- if the Discover is paid off. And a check for $300 should be coming in for work he did yesterday. That will go 100% to the Discover.

Grocery shopping tonight...I have a budget of $150 for the rest of the month. Think I can do it!?

Two options for the van

September 21st, 2007 at 01:05 am

I've checked with our credit union on a lease buyout to purchase the van. It would be a 72 month loan at 7.49% I've also checked with the bank that we hold the lease with...they will get back with me tomorrow. I'm really hoping that one of these institutions will come through. At the credit union our payment would only go up $30 a month. Which we can handle. So that would be great to know that we own the van and can drive it until it dies!

Dh got paid 1320.40
Paid other half of rent $400-$37.00= $363
Cell phone = 51.54

Will wait to pay van payment until later in the month to see if this loan thing works out. Otherwise that is $435 that I can throw into savings for a payment in the future or throw it onto a credit card.

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It's been Spirit Week this week at my kindergarteners' school! Tomorrow is wear your favorite team shirt! Go Purdue! Smile

Kelley Blue Book

September 19th, 2007 at 02:30 am

UGH- KBB lists the value of our van at 16,900.00 We owe 26000.00

I'm going to call our Credit Union tomorrow and see what they'll do regarding a lease buyout. But I'm not hopeful. Ahhh, tomorrow...

Stupid $#%^ Van Payments

September 16th, 2007 at 11:46 pm

Ok- so the ONE terribly horribly wrong decision that I *we* make, was the decision to lease a mini van. So, now I'm trying to figure out how best to purchase the darn thing and mark it up to a lesson learned. So anyway, we are currently leasing the Honda minivan with a payment of 435.00 a month. OUCH! So, anyway...I call to get the payoff today to figure out about financing....payoff is...*drum roll please* $26,657.10. Talk about OUCH! So, I am trying out how to finance that much money on a stupid car. Dumb, dumb, I know. Believe me we will NEVER ever do this ever again. We are going to drive this car until it dies and then buy something USED!

So, anyway...any suggestions? We don't own a home to get an equity loan and car loans right now are at the 7.20% I have this amount available on my CC's to possibly put on there, but the interest rate is at 10%. I'm sure I could ask to lower it..as we've always been on time, and have a great record with them. So, help me out!

Friday night

September 8th, 2007 at 02:21 am

I've been through all of my bills and paid everyone for September! Woooohoooo! That is fantastic! I have also paid some bills for October.

Rundown:
Bills for October
Rent - $800.00 pd half already -$400
Cell Phone $52.00
Van payment- $435.00
Power- $250.00
Sallie Mae-A- $55.00 - PAID
BOA-CC - $100.00
Discover - $100.00
Sallie Mae CC- $100.00
Truck Payment - $100.00
Car Insurance- $135.00
Sallie Mae-A- $200.00
Life Insurance- $64.00-PAID

These are the fixed bills, groceries and gas will also fit in there somewhere. I am trying to get my DH to not take so many handyman jobs as I've decided I'd rather be in debt a little while longer than lose my sanity and my marriage. I hope he sees it the same way I do.

Balance on CC's as of 9/7/07
BOA-959.47
SM- 6882.00
Discover- 159.00

That does count what I just paid in for the month of September. Smile Looks like it's going well. DH isn't expecting a bonus check next month so with his checks the rest of this month I am hoping to pay all of October's bills or at least get a BIG jump on them.
I've also decided that I HAVE to start contributing to our IRA's and my children's 529 plans. I will put $50 a month into each of our IRA's and $25 into each child's 529 plan and $25 into their savings accts- (they do not know they have , nor will they and they will be used for college expenses).
All in all, everything looks like it's on the up and up. DH is in Indiana this evening for his grandmother's funeral, will be home tomorrow evening late. I'm thinking the kids and I should go to a park tomorrow. I've got laundry to do and I will wait to do it tomorrow so I can hang it to dry and save money!

Uneventful evening, and for that I am thankful.

When is it worth it?

September 2nd, 2007 at 10:20 pm

My DH and I argue about money vs. time quite a bit of the time. He works his full time job and then does handyman side jobs on the side. Like 6 days of the week. I would like him to be at home to help me with the kids, or just plain be active in their lives. At what point is getting out of debt worth it? Don't get me wrong, I would love to be 100% out of debt, but it's not going to happen overnight, nor probably within the next few years. I want him to be present in their lives and heck MINE too. I married him to have a relationship with him-FOREVER. But being with my children for 6 days a week straight isn't good for my sanity level. Anyone else dealing with these kind of issues? I'm almost ready to tell him to quit the side jobs completely, but they're helping us not put things on the CC's. UGH...what to do?

Sept goals

September 2nd, 2007 at 08:44 pm

1-This month I would like to not be in the red at the end of the week in our checking account.
2-I would like to start putting money into our IRA's and the kids 529 plans again.
3-Save $250
4-Rework budget
5-Pay off CC totaling $1400

It's been a tough week for me!

September 2nd, 2007 at 05:16 pm

First my oldest started Kindergarten


Then my baby boy got his 1st haircut!
BEFORE


AFTER


So many changes this week :-(

Life and death

August 30th, 2007 at 09:11 pm

After an unplanned trip to Indiana, resulting in over $300 spent we are now in the hole. School starts tomorrow. Groceries need to be bought. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow is at least Friday! Smile

The unplanned trip was to say goodbye to my DH's grandmother. She is 90 years young and now on hospice. Poor woman, her body is starting to shut down. DH will have to fly up there for the funeral -whenever that may be. There will be another $500 at least. New tires for the mini van and an oil change, racked up another $400. I couldn't see putting our family in danger driving through the mountains hydroplaning on tires that you can see the wires.

Everything has had to go on to cc's lately too. I hate it. The vicious cycle- will it ever end? I hope so!

Busy day

August 23rd, 2007 at 01:26 am

Being a stay at home mom is challenging, I find lots of free entertainment to do each and every day, but what gets me is eating lunch out. With 3 kids, I try to get us out of the house 2-3 times a week. Otherwise they just get stir crazy in and around the house. At least the area we live in has lots of entertainment available. And free is even better.
But today after a visit to the doctor and a $25 co-pay, we went to the Nature Center here. It's very education entertainment for the kids. And the one "teacher" there is awesome. I usually take my oldest there for nature classes. Today was just a visiting day, where we were going to walk around one of the trails, stop in the nature center to see the animals and color a few pictures, etc. Miss Staci brought a snake out for the kids to touch and learn about. She is excellent with the kids! It was an awesome morning.
Then...the kids needed lunch. Instead of driving the 25 mins home to get lunch there, my friend wanted to eat out. Chick-fila. UGH. $14.36 for all 4 of us to eat. I don't even like chickfila. They're extremely expensive. So, total spending for the day was $39.36. That's way too much! I guess I will be packing the kids lunch and just putting it in a cooler in the van just in case. Tomorrow is another free entertainment, we're going to the rec center. $1 per child is almost free for 2 hours of fun! So, total spend amount for tomorrow will be $3 and I'll be packing a lunch! Lesson learned!

ON another note, we received our power bill for this month. $235.87. Yowsa! It's up $20 on the month. It's to be expected though with the temps here in NC in triple digits for almost 20 days straight!
I'm going to try and keep the air set around 80 from now on.

Another end to another day! Oh to see the sun rise again!

Back to the grind-MONDAY

August 20th, 2007 at 04:46 pm

So, the kids are being relatively good this morning. Smile Always a good thing. I've been able to do some cleaning and play some puzzles with them.

I transfered $1000 from our GMAC account to our remaining CC. Balance that remains is 6782.00 0% interest is up in Sept 07, I believe. I will make it a point to look into that today.

Things to do tonight include putting a shelf up in DD1's room to hang her school clothes and get her organized and ready for kindergarten. :-(

Went through the pantry- some slim pickings, but I'm not going to the store for food this week until Friday. I'll have to get creative!

Started my 100 mile challenge- completed 2.5miles. Today I hope to add at least 10 miles in there. Smile

Woe is me

August 17th, 2007 at 06:46 pm

Well, not really. But just one blow after another with my DH's job. It seems they are trying to get him to quit. After relocating to NC, with all of our family in the midwest...we always plan on going home for Christmas. Not this year. They won't let my DH take the time off. UGH. Not a good thing when you're homesick the way it is. Please dear Lord, let it turn around.

No spend day today. Still recovering from the flu..and DD1 has it now. Hoping DD2 and DS1 won't get it. Today has been laundry and thank God it rained some. Yay! We need rain!

On a side note, I was doing paid to click for ReadRevenue.com...now for some reason their website doesn't come up. Anyone have any insight on this? I'm pretty perturbed by the whole thing.

3 days of nothing

August 17th, 2007 at 12:09 am

I have been so sick for 3 days. I have wanted to do NOTHING. Being sick, plus having 3 kids, and being a SAHM means no rest for me.
Today I finally feel about 50%.
Things are not looking good on my DH's job front. With the stock market the way it is and the big risk with home mortgages, of course my husband works in the residential construction sector. :-(

So, what happens next? Where do we go from here? I really need to start planning for market turns and rely on our savings then.

Big ouch today!

No spend day:)

August 13th, 2007 at 08:36 pm

I am making it a goal of mine to have 4 no spend days a weekSmile Today both girls had dentist appts, we went, insurance covered it 100%. Yay! Then off for lunch at a friend of mine's. Free lunch! Whooohooo! Came home, naps, then get ready for dinner!

! Smile

Back on Track

November 9th, 2006 at 07:09 pm

We received our $12,000 closing cost check. Hopefully within the next 30 days we'll receive our escrow account monies back too. We have paid off the $8000 CC and have around $2000 left after paying all the bills ahead of time and putting some back for savings. The CC we are paying on now has 0% interest until Aug of 08. I am going to pay as much as we can, while we can, but also think I should be socking away as much as we can into our savings.

I have paid all this bills off for the month, except the car insurance. I am thinking of setting only $500 back for the Thanksgiving trip home, and for groceries for the rest of the month. Putting the remaining $2000 on the CC or into our high yield savings acct. Any thoughts? Smile

To Do List:
Change PIN #
Car Inspected
Address Change
Get Birth Certificate
Upload to IPOD
Update Blog
Update Baby Books
Order Turbo Tax
Look into Renters Insurance

pay day

October 5th, 2006 at 06:56 pm

So tomorrow is pay day. And I hope to pay all the of the months bills with my husband's paycheck. He'll recieve another paycheck in two weeks and hopefully I can apply that directly to savings and/or CC bills.

This is what gets paid with one paycheck:
Mortgage 1100.00
Gas 25.00
Sallie Mae school loan #1 55.00
Cable/phone/internet 152.00
Discover CC 175.00
Sallie Mae school loan #2 200.00
Medical Bill 60.00
Truck Payment 100.00
Auto insurance 112.00
Sallie Mae CC 125.00

for a total of 2101.00
should have around 800 left over for gas and groceries. Looks like a good month all around. We'll close on our house on the 31st and then pay off the 8000.00 CC and then put the rest on the 11,000.00 CC. Leaving us with $7000 in CC debt. If I use the snowballing I was using, I could have this amount paid off in 7 months. Paying around 1000 a month on it. Boy that sounds exciting! To be 100% CC free in 8 months! Wow!

My next goal is to pay off my student loan and my husband's truck in 2 years. For a total of 16,000.00. I think it is possible and I will keep my eyes on the prize! Debt FREE!

Showings

September 28th, 2006 at 01:13 pm

So far we've had one showing on our house, and another one today. I love that my house is so clean. I really hope we sell this house quickly and for full price (wouldn't that be nice?)!

Toda I am trying to make it a no spend day. Yesterday I was sick, but DH bought me a MT. Dew and chicken strips at BoJangles for a whopping total of 7.99! I asked if the chicken strips were made out of gold!

Today, I vow a no spend day. Only gas that is already in the car, while I am out picking up the neighbors from school. Smile

Price of moving?

September 25th, 2006 at 08:33 pm

So, our house has been on the market for a week, with no interest. Despressing. I really was hoping we'd sell the house in less than two weeks and start the process of saving tons of money. Since we do already have access to the house we will rent, we've been cleaning it and moving stuff over there to help de-clutter our house. Which means, we haven't stuck to our budget about eating out. I was exhausted, tired, cranky, and didn't feel like cooking much...so I caved and we ate out. Total for the weekend- almost $125.00! I've got to get back on track. I figured out the next paycheck that my DH receives I can pay all of the bills for the month. Every single one of them. With around $300 left. I've never been able to do that before and the feeling is great.

I've also been watching the amount of TV we watch and keeping the computer on. Last month our electricity bill went down $40! And our water bill went down by half! Now if we can just move out of this house before winter! We'll be moving from a gas heated house to a wood burning house! And I'm so excited! We have unlimited amounts of wood to use and it will only cost us sweating and working! I can live with that! Plus the other house is total electric with a heat pump! I can't wait for *all* of my bills to go down!
I'm probably getting my hopes up and I probably shouldn't be setting myself up to fail! But, I can't wait for this move!

One down...

September 12th, 2006 at 06:14 pm

OK so one CC is paid off, this morning as of 9am. In 10 days I am calling to cancel it and tear it up forever! No more CC for me! Whoo HOOOOO!!! I cried this morning I was so excited at paying it off! Who ever knew gigantic things like paying off a CC would make me soooo happy? Smile

No more whole life

September 8th, 2006 at 11:09 pm

Ok, today I received a check in the mail for around 2100.00. My cash out of my whole life. It will go directly to a CC that I am paying off. My Dh's and my children's whole life insurance pay out check should be here sometime next week, I hope. Then the entire CC will be paid off. That's $4000.00 down! I am so excited to see this happening. But also so dissappointed in myself for being sucked into buying it. I will definately do more research next time. Although I was only 17 years old at the time, I still wish I would have looked at the entire big picture then.
The depressing thing is, I recieved a statement from the insurance holder and it stated I had paid almost $14,000.00 into this whole life insurance and I only recived $2100.00 back. To think of all the stuff I could have done with that $12,000.00 is very depressing.
I can't change it now, so from here on out, I will be doing anything I can to get my family out of this mess and saving for our future!

Getting the hang of this...

September 2nd, 2006 at 05:01 pm

Ok so I kinda feel like I've come full circle in the financial sense. When I was younger I was the saver in my family, then I went to college and totally lost my mind. I spent all the money I ever had and then some. Then I married my husband and with best intentions we got ourselves further and further into debt. We are currently 303.000.00 in debt. That's alot. I am getting the hang of this getting out of debt thing. We've changed lots of things in our lives and are starting to pick up the pieces and realize that we don't want to live this way. Hopefully in 2 years we will completely be debt free. Smile