Debt Free Wannabe

OK, so I haven't posted since the end of August. What have I been doing all this time? I am not really sure, but I definitely wasn't posting on here. I did go through a miscarriage in October and haven't felt like doing much of anything since then, but I am coming around slowly.

Debt wise we seem to be doing really well. We decided to take money out of our long term savings to pay off our truck, with the understanding that we will increase our investment amount by equal to what the car payment was each month. This way we own the truck, save the interest payments each month and have a smaller debt load. Win-win all the way around.

We have continued to make the snowball payments that we had committed to. We are down to the last 2 debts and it is all paid off (besides the mortgage). Took a big chunk out of it at the end of December with my insurance opt-out check and my DH's bonus.

The dirty little secret is that we have managed to put way too much onto the "everyday" credit card. Things that we don't have the money to pay right that second, like swim lessons, have gone on there and it just keeps snowballing in a bad way. Once the original snowball plan is done we have to attack that in a big way, but one step at a time.

I have managed to sell quite a few things on half.com so that has helped supplement things very slightly, but every little bit helps.

So, moral of the story is that we are continuing to make progress, but have a ways to go.

I am one of those people who can't remember what needs to be done unless it is written down. Therefore, I have about 4 to-do lists floating around at any one time. One for home, one for work, a grocery list, a Target list, an event planning list, etc. Unfortunately, the lists never seem to get shorter and they tend to get lost before they can do any good.

Well, I found a great site on-line called BackPack that has been helping me with my list problems. Basically, you can sign up for a free account that let's you create as many as 5 separate to-do lists at any one time. They can be accessed from any Internet terminal and has little check boxes for you to check stuff off as you get it done. You can even email stuff directly to a specific list from a blackberry or PDA if you are technically inclined (which I am not)!

In other news, we got the new rates for Caleb's daycare that go into affect next week. Was really hoping for a significant change so that we could put more towards debt payments. I should have known better. We went from paying $218/week to paying $213/week. Know we can almost afford to go out to eat once a month. Also, we found out that the cost for an infant for the next year will be $288/week which is more than we had planned on for sure.

All we can do is try even harder to get out of debt as quick as possible to free up a little more money for daycare payments. I am going to have to propose some pretty tough restrictions on spending if that is going to happen, though. Once again I have to be the bad guy...

Well, we were able to avoid having 3 separate repair people come to our house last night. I managed to fix the DirecTV ($0), Scott fixed the garbage disposal ($0), and then we both worked at fixing the weed whacker ($13 for parts). I figure we saved ourselves about $600 by repairing what we had instead of throwing it out and buying new.

We started this journey out of debt just shy of six months ago in the middle of February. When we realized that we were thinking about expanding our family and realized that we couldn't afford to pay for daycare for a second child with the amount of monthly debt payments we were under.

So I started doing a little research on the internet. Found out about the "snowball method" and knew that it was something we could stick to. As you can see at the left, we have paid off over $4000 in debt and are almost done paying off the THIRD of four outstanding revolving debt accounts. The best part is we have a PLAN and (for the most part) are sticking to it. There have been more downs than ups and most of the time I feel like I am in this battle alone, but I am determined that we will get there.

As for the birthday party update (see previous post) we have decided to go with the party at the local Children's Museum. To compensate for the money we will be spending, the party will be our present to Caleb and we will just tighten our belts in a few other areas. Thank you to everyone for the great advice and helpful hints! The biggest factor for me in making this decision was the fact that it will be a LOT less stress for me and at this point in time, that is what I really need.

In other news, Scott and I have made the decision to actually use some of the money we have been socking away into our vacation fund and go away for a long weekend together without Caleb. This will be our first time that we have been away together since Caleb was born, almost 3 years ago. We have each tended to get away for separate weekend things, but one of us has always been there to stay with Caleb. He will be staying with my parents so I know he will be fine, I just hope he knows it.

Anyway, we have decided to take a trip down memory lane and go back to our university town for the first time in almost 9 years. That is where we met and we will soon be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary. It is located in the middle of no where (Houghton, Michigan; google it and you will see what I mean) and there has been no REASON to go back to visit, but we both realized how much we miss the area. Plus, we are going in the middle of September when the fall colors should be almost at their peak (did I mention we will be as far north in Michigan as you can go without a boat?). Can't wait!

And the best part is that we have enough in the vacation fund to pay for the hotel, meals and gas (as long as we don't go crazy) so we won't be putting ourselves further into debt to do it. Now THAT is what I call progress....

My son, Caleb, turns 3 on Labor Day Weekend and we have decided to throw him a little party with his friends. After the last two years with all of the family there turned into nightmares, we will be limiting it to his little friends ONLY. Here is the rub....I have NO IDEA what to do. There is a local Children's museum that sounds fun, but it is a pretty big expense ($170) and if not many kids show up, I am still out that full amount. Of course, last year I spent at least twice that to throw the huge family party (food, goody bags, beverages, ice, etc) so this might actually be a cost savings in the end.

I know we could do cake and ice cream in the backyard, but I am afraid that his grandparents would want to show up and I WILL NOT go through that again (long story). Some how it is August already and I have to get the invites out in the next few days. Argh! I am going to have to figure this out quick!

Anyone have any other ideas? I have never done this before and am feeling a little lost...

It has been a LOOOOOOOONG time since I felt like posting on here, but I am going to try and be a little more frequent. I have fallen off the debt bandwagon a wee bit but am in the process of getting back on. Don't get me wrong, we never quit paying down debt like we have planned, we just haven't been as diligent about not charging the debt back up. I updated the amount of debt paid off on the left if you want to take a look.

Looks like my fiscal year end bonus will be given out 8/11 but that will go to pay down the credit card debt that we charged back up in the past few months. This bonus was never figured into the debt paydown plan as it was intended to be used as part of the YNAB buffer....guess that is going to be delayed a while longer.

Our biggest problem right now seems to be getting a handle on cash flow. We have enough to meet all of our commitments, just not WHEN we need to meet them. I have dreams of developing a full month's buffer needed for YNAB, but that just isn't happening. I find myself dipping into and then replenishing our savings several times during the month. How do I get away from that? It is very nerve wracking and drives me crazy.

On the personal front, I have broken my Mt Dew free streak. I had gone almost 1.5 years without a Mt Dew, but one day I decided I could have just one. Well, several weeks later, I am having at least one per day and hiding the fact from my DH. Shameful and unhealthy addictive behavior, but at this point I don't care.

More about my other failures later....

I don't know how many of you saw it, but there was a blog contest out from 5/1 to 5/15 having to do with "Confessions of a...". There were several entries and everyone can now vote on their favorite 3. Go check out the blog section of the forums and vote! There were some great entries!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

As of right now, my DH should be in New Zealand. He left yesterday afternoon and got there....tomorrow. He skipped Friday entirely. They are 17 hours ahead so it is already tomorrow morning. Can't quite wrap my head around it but what can I do. That means that for the next 2.5 weeks I am entirely on my own. I am not really "scared" just a littler nervous. I know it will be life as usual, but if something goes wrong, I will be the only one to deal with it. On the other hand, once I clean something it should stay that way for more than a few minutes.

Right after work this afternoon we are headed to my parents house, about 2 hours away. Mom and I will be spending most of the weekend geocaching while Bumpa gets to play with Caleb. They are going to have a blast. Caleb is already talking about riding the Gator and Unky's 4-wheeler. He has a blast running around in the woods and chasing the dogs. We will be able to take him to the camp fire at the geocaching event on Friday night so that should be a good time. He will get to try his first Smore...mmmmmm can't wait!

Money wise, this weekend should be fairly low spend. Gas will be the only BIG expense. Put $65 worth in my car this morning and I am sure I will have to do the same before the end of the day tomorrow.

The past week has been a roller coaster for the budget. Scott needed quite a bit of stuff for his trip to NZ...power converter, travel size stuff, new pants, etc. That set us back a bit. Then I also had to buy a belated Mother's Day gift for my mom. I know she will love it, and I wanted to give her more, but I cringe just thinking about the money. Maybe that is a sign that I am healing my spend-thrift ways.

Took the morning off of work today and went to some local garage sales with a friend of mine. The small community we were in has a city-wide sale at this time every year and they are fabulous! We spent 4 hours and only made it through ONE neighborhood. Spent $100 but got all of my sons summer clothes for this year, several toys, a folding easel, and 12 skeins of yarn. Great deals were everywhere!

Tomorrow are the neighborhood sales at the ritzy subdivision near our neighborhood so we may take a drive through there just to see what we can see.

The thing I love about garage sales, especially for kids stuff, is that when we are done with it we can get probably as much back out of it as we paid for it in the first place. Can't wait until I can start the stuff going out instead of only seeing it come in. My neighbor is having a sale in June and I might throw a few things in with her, just to be rid of them. Might as well make some money off it rather than sending it to Goodwill.

Should be a busy weekend around here. My parents are coming into town tonight, we are going to a friends house for dinner, tomorrow we are meeting friends at the farmers market, and then tomorrow night we are going to another friends house for dinner. The good news is that I don't have to cook for the next couple of nights, the bad news is that I have no time to get anything done. Oh well, there will be other weekends to worry about that stuff.

Went to the chiropractor last night about my spasming back and it turns out that my lower two ribs on the left side were completely out of joint. Don't know how I did it, but it hurt like hell. He put them back were they were supposed to be, then I had ice on it all night, finally took some Advil and this morning felt much better. Starting to get sore again tonight, but at least I can feel marked improvement. Will probably have to go back in on Monday, but we will see.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Unfortunately, our total cash available was down to less than $100 before getting refilled this morning. We "borrowed" $1200 from ourselves in the form of OD transfers. OUCH! But, we are almost back to normal. We will have less to live on for the rest of the month than we are used to, but it will be a good challenge.

Took Ruby the Vizsla to the vet yesterday. Everything checked out just fine, but we are now out $150. Two shots and the heartworm test were most of it, but at least we know she is as healthy as she can be. The vet always remarks on how gorgeous her skin and coat are, but never asks what we are feeding her. That's OK, since most vets would flip out if they knew we were feeding her a RAW diet anyway.

Had to leave work early yesterday because Caleb had the WORST tummy pains. He vomited once at daycare, but didn't get sick again the rest of the night. However, every 15 minutes or so his little tummy would cramp up and he would be writhing in pain. There was nothing I could do and I felt horrible. I just held him until he felt better each time, then he was off an running again. He finally collapsed on the couch at 6:30 PM and didn't wake up until 6:00 AM. Woke up feeling fine this morning. At this point I am chalking it up to a weird bug and praying it isn't a food allergy (DH has bad food allergies and we have been very nervous about DS developing them).

I seem to have tweaked my back. I either pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve on my left side that is generally a dull ache until I reach for something the wrong way, then it is a horrible shooting pain. Getting out of bed was the biggest challenge of my day. Will be taking some Advil and hope I can make it to my chiropractor appointment this afternoon.

I did my first survey for Pinecone last week and am having the $5 sent to my bank account as we speak. Also, I sold 3 books last month on Half.com and they just deposited $19 into my checking account. Gotta love it! As soon as we are back flush with our savings account (tomorrow) I will be transferring this money into our buffer account. Any little bit that I can see that grow will not be wasted effort.

Even though the days are getting longer, my time seems to be getting shorter. Scott was gone last night to Grand Rapids so of course I didn't get anything done around the house. We didn't get home until almost 7 due to chiropractor appointments and having to stop to pick up dog food, and of course it was tough dragging Caleb into the house, but I can't leave a 2 YO outside alone while I cook dinner. So there was much screaming and yelling and scratching....and that was just me! (ba da bum) But seriously, the evening went really fast.

Now for my big confession. I arrived at work yesterday to find 2 emails saying that OD protection had been advanced for my account to the tune of $1000 total. Ugh. Guess I wasn't paying as close attention as I originally thought. There is nothing I can do about it until pay day at the end of the week, so we are just going to have to pray for a miracle between now and then. I momentarily went back to my old ways and now we are paying the price. I will be able to pay back the OD this week, but we are not going to have ANY discretionary spending for the rest of the month. Scott is leaving for New Zealand in a few days and won't be back until June, so it will be up to me to keep things under control.

Yup, 2.5 weeks as a single mom. I am not really looking forward to it, but I am not as terrified as I thought I would be either. Originally, I was planning on going along with DH to New Zealand, but I just feel uncomfortable leaving DS for that long. I just hope that I have the chance to go there in the future. Has always been a dream of mine, I just hope I didn't squander my only opportunity.

I updated the total debt numbers on the side yesterday. Our credit card payment date is much earlier in the month now, so we are all of a sudden below 5 digits on your main credit card. Yippee! And we are quickly approaching the $2000 mark for payoff. That feels great for sure.

Savings for our "buffer" (equal to one months expenses) are completely non-existent. However, I have moved all of the money in our EF from our credit union to ING, so now I have a savings account that I can use to store the money until it is full. At this pace, it could take forever to get the account full. *sigh* One day at a time, right?

Hi, my name is Sara, and I am a compulsive shopper. Worse, I am married to another compulsive shopper. As a result, we are $33,000 in debt in about 9 years. The first step in many recovery programs is first admitting you have a problem and Saving Advice has been very helpful to me for this reason. After all, confession is good for the soul.

After years of research and reading, I have reached some conclusions. First, compulsive shopping isn't something that is obvious at first and there are varying degrees. Like almost everything, we fall into different categories:

The "I deserve it" shopper: this shopper feels entitled to anything and everything. May stem from childhood or simply be narcissistic.

The "I NEED it" shopper: this shopper feels they have been denied and can't go on without the latest gadget or life will be greatly improved, just by buying something.

The "But it's on sale" shopper: this shopper has good intentions, but you can't spend money to save money. Doesn't work that way. Buying something you may not use just because it is on sale it counter-productive

The "I work hard and earn plenty of money" shopper: this shopper is in denial and probably doesn't know what their bank balance is. After all, that is what overdraft protection is for, right?

The "I have to have this because everyone else does" shopper: the classic keeping-up-with-the-Joneses syndrome. Trends may come and go, but you will still have the debt.

The "If I buy this, I will feel better about myself" shopper: possibly the most sad, this shopper is trying to fill an emptiness with "stuff". In the end, it doesn't work, and you are left with the credit card debt.

Each of these shoppers has the same thing in common: an internal dialog telling them it is OK to spend money they don't have. That little voice in the back of your head isn't the same voice that controls your bank account and that is a very dangerous thing.

Now, I have never made an impulse purchase that was "big", thus I was able to deny that I was part of the problem. (DH managed to impulse buy a CAR, but we won't go into that) If there is a big purchase to make, I research it to death and know all my options before even shopping for the item. No, the "little" impulses are my downfall. I'm thirsty...go buy a water. I had a bad day....stop at the scrapbook store. I need some time alone....wander around Target putting stuff in the cart. Pretty soon, I have spent hundreds of dollars, a little at a time. In the end, the purchases made it hard to pay the credit card bill at the end of the month, so I just pay the minimum and promise to do better next month. But I never did, and look where it got me.

I have learned to combat these impulses in a couple of ways:

** Always shop with a list and never deviate.
** Know EXACTLY how much money you can spend.
** Carry a calculator, if you need to, to add the things up that are in your cart.
** Give yourself an allowance, separate from your household budget, for those "impulse" purchases you "need". You can't be cured in a day, but you can give yourself limits.

Remember, you are the only one in control of your life and your future. Choose to be responsible with your money and set goals for yourself. If you give yourself boundaries, stick with them. And, finally, find a supportive outlet so that you don't have to do it alone.

(BTW, for those of you wondering...I fall into all of the shopper categories that I described above, it just depends on the day)

Homebody asked in a comment to my last entry, what I made at my latest OAMC (Once A Month Cooking) session. Well, the list is huge, but here goes:

Pepper Steak
Polynesian Steak
Greek Burgers
Jamaican BBQ Chicken
Chicken Fajitas
Apricot BBQ Chicken
Moroccan Chicken
Ginger Honey Glazed Fish
New England Fish Cakes
Cajun Pork Stir-fry
Hawaiian Pork Kebobs
Tex-Mex Pork Wraps
Caribbean Chicken
Stir-fry chicken & veggies
Garlic Steak

A while back I wandered across a website called www.savingdinner.com that had several freezer cooking documents available called "Mega Menu Mailers" or "MMM". It comes with a grocery shopping list, a prep list, and detailed assembly instructions to put together meal kits that you thaw and cook later, just like those meal assembly places that are so popular these days. Only problem is, my DH is allergic to CORN. All of those chain places use ingredients that are loaded with corn in the form of corn syrup, corn starch, modified food starch, maltodextrin, etc. With the MMM I can use the ingredients that I know are safe and I think I come out saving money. Basically for $150 worth of groceries I got 15 ready to cook meals that are safe for my family to eat.

There are 3 different sets of MMM that have 20 meals each (I don't make them all for personal tastes) and then there are several that are smaller with only 5 recipes, all for one type of meat. They just added a Vegetarian MMM too, but I haven't checked it out. Not really my cup of tea.

Here is the downfall....you have to pay for them. Not a lot, and it is a one time fee, but it is still money out of pocket. For my family, though, it is worth it. No corn for DH, no nuts for DS and I only spend 6 hours cooking per month, it is just all at one time.

Man, it has been forever since I had a chance to post. Last week was just INSANELY busy at work. I had very little time to even think straight, much less fill you in on anything. Then, the weekend was gorgeous so we spent most of it cleaning, working outside and spending time as a family.

Today I am suffering from the weekend spending hangover. Spent WAY too much money and I feel like I lost all my control. The worst part....I am the one who spent all the money. There were trips to Target, grocery store and the craft store that together totaled over $200. My available flexible cash for 2 weeks was $50. See the problem? I am going to have to take another loan from the savings account to cover the expenses. Makes me want to cry. I am going to look at my purchases tonight and make the decision on whether any of it can be returned. The groceries were something that we needed, but most of the craft store purchases were wants, not needs. All of the stuff from Target was household stuff that we needed, but we could have probably gone without for a while.

Well, last weekend my OAMC session went fabulously. We put together 17 meals EACH so that should take us most of the way through the month without having to grocery shop, besides bread, milk and eggs. We spent about 6.5 hours between the shopping and the assembly, which is pretty good for that many meals, I think. Last time I did it alone it took me almost twice that.

We have been eating a lot of PB&J for lunches and have managed to only eat out a handful of times in April. I am going to try to do a better analysis tonight when I import all the final April numbers into YNAB.

I scheduled a big transfer from our credit union to ING this morning. This will affectively move our entire freedom/EF account to the higher interest bearing ING account. If it is just going to sit there until we need it, might as well be earing a better interest rate that 0.75%. I will still be keeping track of it via the old spreadsheet method, but now it is just in a different place. Here is the best news though....I have paid back all of the money that we had borrowed from the freedom account in the form of overdraft protection. We were over $800 short, and I have managed to pay it back in about 3 months. However, we are still $1500 short in the long term savings account, but now I will shift my attention to paying that account back.

That is the long and the short of it. We are still hanging in there, but just barely. The debt is going down, but our daily expenses are not. Have to get them under control or we are doomed to repeat how we got here.

After noticing that many of you are making some side money by completing online surveys, I thought I would check it out. Based on what I have read/heard/seen, I signed up with Pinecone Research (after finally finding a working link) and am waiting approval. I am thinking about signing up for another one as well and then trying it out before doing any more. The one I am looking at is Lightspeed Research. Anyone ever heard of them or done surveys for them?

Went grocery shopping last night for a few staples; OJ, crackers, fruit, etc. Didn't even have a cart full and came out with $99 worth. And everything we bought was on sale! We switched to frozen OJ, don't buy soda or chips, bought store brand everything that we could. It all just seems futile...like we are never going to be able to save money and eat well at the same time.

Will be going grocery shopping AGAIN tomorrow and Sunday because a friend and I are doing a marathon OAMC session. We are putting 20 meals together for each of us that will last us the better part of the month. But of course, buying the groceries is going to hurt the wallet A LOT! Last time I did this, it cost about $200, but the cost per meal was pretty low in the end. Took forever to put it together by myself, but should go a little faster with a friend.

Tomorrow is the first morning of the local farmers market. Around here, it is a wonderful social event and we look forward to it every weekend. This time of year they will have fresh asparagus, cheese curds, bedding plants, fresh baked goods. The weather is supposed to be beautiful and I can't wait. We start by getting a cup of coffee (chai for me) and then walking around the capitol square to check everything out. We buy on the second lap. Have to find the best price for asparagus!

Busy weekend, but should be fun. Looking forward to finally having some nice weather to enjoy. Should be in the mid seventies with sun and a breeze. In other words, perfect.

Well, I finally convinced DH to switch our cell phone plan last night. It was quick and painless and MAY save us some money. It will definitely save us from the standpoint of not going over on our minutes.

Right now we have a nationwide family plan because DH was doing a lot of traveling for work. Base price: $69.99 for 700 minutes. Then we found out that we needed to add the unlimited incoming package when we tripled our minutes the first month because of all of Scott incoming calls at work (we had previously had it included but the new package charged extra). That added $14 per month for a total of $83.99 per month, add taxes and call it $90. YIKES! But in the past 3 months we have paid $220 EXTRA due to overages at 0.49 per minute. (DH is working on getting his work to pay most if not all of these costs)

The new LOCAL calling plan we are on still has the same base price, $69.99, (both of these are the lowest plans we can get) for 1000 minutes but the unlimited incoming package it $10 and the " free nights and weekends" starts at 7:00 instead of 9:00. Basically we will only save $4 per month, but will be a LOT less likely to go over our minutes. Also, the plan includes 45 minutes of roaming charges each month, so if DH DOES travel it is at least enough minutes for him to call and tell me he is OK.

Man, do I HATE paying this much money for something we survived just fine without when we first got married. Our culture sure has taken a big turn from just 10 years ago. When I was in college, I didn't even have a computer in my room! That was what the computer lab was for! Now the same school I graduated from requires all incoming freshmen to have not just a computer, but a LAPTOP! And there are 10 year olds getting cell phones!

Wait....did I just sound like my mom? Excuse me while I run screaming through the streets.....

This week has been a whirlwind. I can't believe it is already the end of Monday because it feels like I have been running non-stop. Work has been crazy and will only get crazier in the coming weeks. The weather is finally getting nicer so now I have stuff that I need to do outside in the yard and garden. One more thing that I don't have time to do.

Money wise things have been up and down. I did open an ING savings account yesterday. I will be transferring all the "short term" money that we have been saving. You know, those Freedom Account things. Did an initial transfer of $300 and will be sending about $900 more in a few days.

However, when doing my forecasting for the new week or so, I noticed we are going to be short on cash in a hurry. Even if we don't spend ANY unplanned money, we are going to be $100 in the hole come next pay day. Yikes! Oh, how I wish we already had a buffer in place! That would make this a whole lot easier. I have no idea how people can put together a buffer equal to one months expenses in just a couple of months. Oh wait...those people probably don't have to pay $900 per month in daycare expenses. So far I have not been able to put one penny into the buffer. But I have been able to pay back a lot of the money we owe ourselves due to overdraft transfers. I have paid back $700 in 2 months, which means we are only down $1500. Could be a LONG time before we are operating at full capacity again.

I have made a decision about our cell phones, now I just have to get DH to agree. We can pay the same price that we are paying now and get 300 more minutes by dropping from the national plan to the local plan. The local plan includes 45 minutes of roaming for the times when Scott is out of the calling area on business or something. With the extra minutes we should be able to keep from going over as often as we have the last few months. We have spent over $150 in EXTRA minutes. At 0.49 per minute, it really adds up fast.

The car payment processed through this afternoon, which means we have paid off $157 more on the debt. We have now paid off a total of $1442.30 since March 1st to our outstanding consumer debt. I am happy with this progress, but the total is still scary. We are currently paying $861 per month just to pay off debt. I can think of a thousand things I would rather do with that money.

Forgot to mention that I put our federal tax payment ($1499) in the mail on Saturday. We got $1155 back from the state, so we only had to kick in an extra $344. Tried to carve it our of the monthly budget but ended up having to take it out of the EF instead. Oh well, at least it didn't have to go onto the credit card.

We are going to have to sit down with my parents (when they get back from vacation) to do some advance tax planning for next year. Scott got a BIG raise that is going to hurt our tax position. We increased his withholding which really took a chunk out of our monthly available income but I don't know what we are going to do if we need to pay a bunch in next year. Don't want to pay estimates if I can avoid them.

Another weekend has come and gone and I don't have a lot to show for it. My parents were in town for a few days, which was very nice, but not exactly relaxing. Since they were keeping the boy occupied, I was able to get a little bit of stuff taken care of around the house, though. Paperwork/filing had been taking over my dining room and I was finally able to get things put away/sorted. I am down to one small pile of stuff, but that is mostly catalogs so I should be able to go through it quickly. A little bit of laundry and keeping up with the dishes and that was about all I accomplished.

The weather finally started turn a little warmer this weekend so I did get my front planting bed cleaned up a bit. Still have a few bushes to prune, but it can wait a few days.

I did miserable with the menu planning this weekend. We ended up eating out most meals, but my parents insisted on paying as payment for them staying at our house. I SHOULD have put something in the crock pot for dinner last night, but I didn't get to it. Then all of a sudden it was 7:00 and I had nothing for dinner. We did have a small gift card to a restaurant in the area ($10) so we decided to use that. Still spent money eating out, but we tried to minimize the damage.

The good news that I have is that our wage increases came through for my company. I got a 3.7% raise which is above the company average (yeah!) of 3%. It works out to about $100 extra per month so I am going to put the "extra" money toward my buffer/debt payment rather than increasing spending like I have in the past. We will see how things work out. The wage increase is affective as of our next paycheck on the 27th so I will know better how much more money I am working with in my budget then.

Still haven't sold anything from half.com. Will probably keep them posted, but they are going to be in my way very soon. The idea of the rummage sale is still tickling the back of my brain but I am going to hold off making a decision for a few weeks. May ask my neighbor if she is interested in having one together. Of course, I may just wind up taking everything to Goodwill out of frustration before then. Will have to wait and see.

DH's payday was today and every penny of it has been given a job. And every penny of my paycheck tomorrow has also been given a job. Unfortunately, most of it is going out the door right away. However, for the first time in a while, we are not spending MORE than we are earning. That is the important part. Even though that is a common sense thing, we haven't been doing that in a while which can be evidenced by the debt balance on the left.

I updated the total debt balance to reflect the money that left our account today to pay down the Slumberland and MTU CC. Pretty good payoff for only 6 weeks! Also going out tomorrow is the payment for the Jeep loan, but I won't know the principal paid on that for about 10 days. They only take paper checks and I can't check my balances online; definitely in the dark ages.

Not shown there is the money that I sent to payoff the Wells Fargo card Scott used for traveling a couple weeks ago. Now that card is locked up and won't ever be used again. It will sit dormant or we will cancel it. Haven't quite decided which yet.

My parents arrived in town last night and Caleb has been having a blast playing with them. Everyone went to bed early so I was able to get a ton of stuff done. I re-updated our budget to reflect the latest income and outgo, cleaned up the kitchen, sorted a bunch of papers and avoided shoveling snow. I also listed more than 30 books on half.com. Nothing has sold and I really don't expect much of it to go quickly, but I will have to wait and see.

I am actually considering having a rummage sale this spring to get rid of some of the crap we have been collecting. Usually I just send everything to Goodwill because I don't want the hassle, but I might be able to make a little bit of money that can help fill up our YNAB buffer account. Can't get rid of all the dang baby stuff yet, but when we can that will be the mother lode.

Tomorrow DH gets paid and I get paid on Friday. I have already scheduled several payments that will go out from my credit union's bill pay system. One of the payments will pay off the small amount we have the credit card we did the balance transfer from and the other will pay off the dreaded Wells Fargo card for hopefully the final time.

Also being paid out on Friday are the monthly payments for the Slumberland account and the Jeep loan. SLOOOOOOOWLY seeing progress at the rate of 2.4% per month. At least it isn't going the other way!

But here is the BEST news....I have not had to use overdraft coverage from our savings account for more than a month. I was using OD protection every few weeks and ended up in a BIG hole where I owe $1500 to our savings account. But I haven't added to that amount so I think that in and of itself is progress.

Maybe I will talk my way out of this bad mood yet....

I made a big mistake. I looked at the amount we are paying off each month as a percentage, just because I was curious. Currently we are paying 2.4% off each month. Ugh. At least all of our interest rates are low and we are paying the bills on time.

Today I am feeling really low. I am fat, in debt up to my eyeballs, and it is snowing in April. Add to that the fact that my house is a disaster and my back is killing me and you have an idea of my mood. My DH is gone turkey hunting for the weekend so we have canceled his birthday party. My parents are coming into town tonight for a few days, so as long as they watch the munchkin I have a chance of getting some cleaning done. My filing is so far behind that I have papers overflowing our bedroom, dining room AND kitchen. Where is this paperless society we were supposed to have by now?

Pulled a bunch of books together last night that I want to put on Half.com, but I was exhausted once I got DS into bed. I have about 30 books of various authors and conditions that I am going to try to sell. If they don't sell, I think I am going to try to put them up on craigslist. Would have just donated them in the past and not bothered with the donation form, but am trying to make a any extra income that I can come up with.

Well, even though I couldn't find the coupon for dinner last night, we still went out to eat for DH's birthday. Since he got to drink free beer and I only got soda, the final bill with tip came to $25. Not too bad, but should be less. It was strange how eating at the restaurant felt like a treat, whereas not too long ago it was an everyday thing.

Tonight DH is going to my parents to go turkey hunting for the next few days. Hopefully he will decide to stay at the house to eat most meals and avoid eating out, but I am not holding my breath. I know the peanut and I will be eating at home for sure. This month so far we have spent about $150 total for food (dining out and groceries) but it should be a lot less as we aren't even half way through the month yet!

Menu planning seems to be helping with the total overall cost of food, but not as much as I expected it to. I am planning on doing a OAMC (Once a month cooking) session with a friend later this month, so hopefully that will help with next months food budget. I am vowing not to do any grocery shopping (except milk and bread) until the OAMC trip. We should have enough in the freezer and pantry to last us until then if we get a little creative.

Did I mention that my DH has a terrible allergy to corn? Doesn't sound like a big deal until I mention "high fructose corn syrup". That one ingredient seems to be in EVERYTHING. As a result, we have to buy mostly high end things like cereal and peanut butter that are made with actual sugar instead of corn sweetener. That definitely doesn't help the food budget at all. We have to be very careful label watchers because they keep changing recipes of products. I end up making all my own marinades, sauces, side dishes, etc. which can be cheaper except for the fact that I tend to have more "staple" ingredients to buy that way. When I have to restock the pantry it hurts!

ETA: We recently found out that DH is also allergic to Nutrasweet and Splenda too. So he is avoiding all sugar free products as well. What fun.

Today is DH's birthday. He turns 32 and we were originally planning a small, informal party for next weekend but he has decided he doesn't want one now. At least that will help with the cash flow issues. He had lunch with his parents this afternoon as they were passing through town and his gift from them was $50. So now he has a little spending money of his own that he can use for his turkey hunting trip this week so that will help the budget as well.

The weekend went pretty well, spending wise. Dinner on Friday night was McD's drive thru on the way to my parents but then they provided the food for the rest of the weekend. We did pick up about $15 worth of beer, but that was it. Of course, there was about $50 of gas that we wouldn't have spent otherwise, but I did plan for it.

The only boo-boo came in the form of easter bunny shopping for DS. Since he is only 2.5 I have never done the basket thing before. So I went to Target and picked up a bunch of stuff for the basket and the egg hunt. Ended up spending about $40 total. OUCH! I will definitely have to do better next year. And he is not getting anything else for quite a while. May have to see what toys that he doesn't play with that I can sell to make up for it. Shouldn't be a budget killer but could definitely hurt it quite a bit.

Want to hear something funny? A few weeks ago we got one of those valupak kind of coupon flyers in the mail so I went through and clipped the coupons that I thought we could use. One of them was for a place here in town called the Nitty Gritty which bills itself as "the birthday place". Basically you get to drink all you want on your birthday and you get a souvenir mug to go along with it. The coupon was for a buy one, get one hamburger deal, so since it is DH's birthday and we had this coupon I thought it would be a good idea to splurge a little. Problem is that I CAN'T FIND THE COUPON! Dang! Of course I didn't file them away like I should have and now they seem to have disappeared. Don't know if we will still go or not. I don't have anything else planned for dinner and DH was looking forward to it. I feel really bad....will have to create better system for handling coupons in the future.

While at my parent's house this weekend, we found out that our neighbor's 20 YO son, Neal, really screwed his life up but good on Saturday morning. Apparently, he was in a minor accident but decided to flee the scene at a high rate of speed. Less than 5 minutes later he ran a stop sign and got into another accident, but this time he killed the driver of the other car. The man he killed was a pillar of his community and is being mourned by thousands of kids that he coached, mentored and taught.

Neal was ejected from his vehicle and taken to a local hospital. While at the hospital they discovered that he was not only drunk, but also high on cocaine. There is little doubt that he is going to spend the next 6-20 years in prison. I feel so bad for everyone involved in this horrible situation. It just makes me sick.

Logged on this morning when I couldn't sleep and am LOVING the new look. And I love that we can do so much customization, although I will probably be too scared to try different colors for a while.

A few posts ago, I was lamenting how much having another baby would hurt our new budget and whining a little about life in general. Well, after many long heart to heart conversations and some close examination of the budget, DH and I decided that we are going to try for another baby this summer. That way the baby would be born in May 2008 or later. This is important because my parents own an accounting firm and the winter months are just INSANELY busy for them. They can't focus on anything else and I don't want to stress them out anymore than they already are.

So, step one in this process is to attempt to secure a spot on the waiting list at our daycare. Currently they are theoretically booked until 2010 for infants, although no one on the list is even pregnant yet. I thought it would just be a "put your name here" kind of thing, but they actually required us to pay the deposit and application fee in full! Are you ready....$325 NONREFUNDABLE, NONTRANSFERRABLE dollars. Yikes! I had to pull money out of our savings account to cover this unexpected cost....guess this falls under the heading of "miscellaneous". The good news is that this fee will cover the first week of care once Baby starts, but what if there is no baby?

In other news, we are headed to my parents this weekend for the holiday. Well, actually we are headed there so they can see Caleb before they head to Key West, Florida for 6 weeks like they do every year after tax season. They have been going to the same place and staying in the same room for 15 years. Have become great friends with the owner and his family and the thought of going there is what keeps my mom sane though the months of February and March.

Caleb (2.5 YO DS) has been asking for the past week to go to Nana and Bumpa's house. He was SOOOO excited this morning when I was able to tell him that we are going there today. He is being so sweet and snuggly lately that I seem to be forgetting his bratty behavior from the past few weeks. I have been trying to be firm and setting boundaries and he seems to be responding well to that. He is whining a little less (THANK God!) but that could just be a coincidence.

BTW, I checked today and the payoff that I sent in the other day has cleared the bank. We will be closing that account today and that feels really good. Any progress is good, but this feels great!

I have two credit cards that I would love to close the accounts. One I paid off yesterday, the other will be paid off as soon as DH's reimbursement check comes in. Right now between ALL of my cards I have a total limit of $51,300 (OMG!) and am carrying a balance of $11,754 which gives us an overall ratio of 22.9%. If I close these two accounts, it will reduce our credit limit to $39,500 leaving us with a ratio of 29.8%. The other thing that puts a wrinkle in this equation is that one of the cards (Wells Fargo, $7800 limit) is our second oldest card overall. The other card (American TV, $4000 limit) is only a couple months old so I will probably close that one for sure.

I am waffling because I don't know how this will affect our credit score (I assume it will be negative). On one hand we aren't planning on applying for anymore credit anytime soon, but on the other hand I don't believe in completely disregarding our credit score as irrelevant. I have been hearing more and more about how your credit score can affect everything from insurance rates to interest rates, so I want to keep it as healthy as possible.

Yes, I am probably over thinking this. I REALLY want to close the Wells Fargo account so I can be rid of this albatross once and for all. Worst customer service I have ever had and just plain miserable tactics for getting every penny out of us that they can.

Any thoughts?

I recently found out about Half.com and was wondering if anyone here has used it. I have a bunch of books and CDs that I would be willing to part with but am wondering if it is worth the hassle of packaging and mailing. What do you think? Any words of caution? I am generally overly cautious about this kind of thing but the extra income at this point would be greatly welcomed.

Well, the payment went out this morning to pay off our first debt in our "debt snowball". Very exciting! Of course,I will probably be compulsive about checking my account to see when the payment is actually credited some time in the next couple days. Then we will be closing the account for good. And with all the trouble we have had with this company, we will never be financing anything with them again, no matter how good the terms are. Just isn't worth the effort. Besides, we are supposed to pay cash for everything from now on anyway, right?

I spent some more time with YNAB this morning and I think it is starting to make a little more sense. Still not entirely clicking, but I am going to have to bend the program to my will until I can get to the point where we are working under "Rule 1". I don't know how we are supposed to determine what our "extra" money for the month is when I seem to need every penny left at the end of the month for the beginning of the next month.

I sat down and did an extensive cash flow analysis (meaning I wrote all my bills on a calendar) and it looks like we are eventually going to get ahead, but it won't be until about the end of June that we start seeing a balance building in our account. I don't know why, since our costs are generally fixed, but it shows I am going to be down to nothing at the end of this month and probably next as well. I guess there is just a lag in the results.

One of my first priorities is to pay back money to our savings account that we have "borrowed" in the form of over draft transfers over the last several months. Right now we owe ourselves $2,060. So before we start building our buffer, those accounts need to be flush. I am going to do that by only budgeting the money that we receive as paycheck each month and then any additional income we get (i.e. daycare reimbursements, gifts, etc.) toward these accounts. We should be back to the actual numbers in about 4 months or so.

Yet another monster post. I can't seem to be brief, even when talking to myself.

Here are the totals for the month of March, 2007:

Current balance as of 3/31/07:
MTU Master Card = $10300
American Furniture = $385
Slumberland = $581
Circuit City = $805
Jeep loan = $9234
2nd Mortgage = $13050

Total = $34355

$35104-$34355 = $749 paid off since 3/1/07!

WOW! It didn't feel like we were making any progress this past month, but I guess we did. Also, what doesn't show up there is that I have scheduled the payment to PAY OFF the American Furniture loan IN FULL tomorrow.

If all goes well, we will have paid off another $1100 by the end of April (inc. American loan payoff). If I could do cartwheels, I would.