Today is payday! Yay!

DH got about $140 in overtime money. So that brings my checking account padding to $286.84. My goal is to have that amount remaining in my checking account at the end of this pay period. I know most people would hate to have so little in there, but it is a good start for us. That number needs to keep on rising! I would be comfortable with $500 padding. After that, anything above and beyond needs to go to the cards.

Today I need to:
Pull out cash-
$200 for groceries- put in envelope.
From FA- $25X2 for gifts, $60 for Dr. visit and $60 for money I stuck in there until my friends got home from vacation. (Deposit money that came to us but needs to be split between us. Why am I explaining this???) Ok, so from FA I need $170.

Put $100 on gas card.

I can't think of anything else I need to spend money on in the upcoming two weeks. So after everything is taken care of, we should be good for a challenge. We need to get DH's lunches under control though. He's a big boy and I rather think he should take the responsibility of making sure he has lunch the night before, but seeing that he DOESN'T means I need to. It will be easier when I have to start thinking about the kid's packed lunches again. I'll just make his lunch too. But I rather resent having to mother DH too. Thankfully in most situations I do not feel like this, but come on! Plan your own lunch!

LOL! DH called from work today, which is to say he called from his car. The problem with his job and packing lunch is that his office is in the home and the car. Today he had a 10:00 interview with a client and figured he be home for lunch. He got a phone call while out from a client who could meet and blah, blah, blah, he got hungry and had to eat. He called to appologize and I told him it was no problem as long as we would commit to a no-spend two week challenge. The dear man agreed. I knew he would.

As for today, we are spending. My children's best friends, who are also the children of our best friends, are coming for dinner and to spend the night. It was a last minute thing that I decided to do. We're having pancakes, sausage, eggs and O.J. for dinner. Problem is, we don't have any eggs or O.J. We have fake eggs, but their kids won't like them. I adore these kids, so it isn't a problem! I feel bad about spending the money because tomorrow is pay day and shopping day, but again, I do adore these children and there's nothing in the house to eat at this point. Actually, I do have meals in the freezer, but they're pretty much portioned out for four, not six. Anyway, ramble, ramble, ramble.

Tomorrow we start the no-spend challenge right after I hit the grocery store with my list and the gas station. I am putting $100 on my gas gift card which will last two weeks or more. I am taking out $200 cash for groceries and hoping to spend only 1/4 of that or less. Then, it's a no-spend two week period. Here I come!

I think I will go start a thread.

I am sitting here at 10:44 PM wishing the boards were more active. I am missing the thread about no spending. I really enjoyed that thread. It was rather motivational to me and I enjoyed checking in on everyone's progress. I guess I felt like part of a group reaching toward a common goal. With more than $23,000 in debt, I do not feel very much like part of a group. I feel like the only person striving toward THAT goal.

I put together a grocery list tonight and I should be well under my budgeted amount for the next two weeks. I will shop on Friday. I went through my freezer and I have enough meals in there for 16 dinners, so I will not need to buy any dinner foods. I only need to buy fresh produce and dairy and lunch foods. Oatmeal and yogurt is all we need for breakfast. I need to think about school lunches for the second of the two weeks. I haven't had to do that for a while.

I have purchased all the necessary school supplies, though my youngest son's daycare is likely to come up with a few.

I am thinking about doing a no-spend two week challenge for myself starting on Friday. I think I could get DH to play along. I can't think of any birthdays or anything that would mess it up. My best friends are teachers as well so they won't be wanting to do anything these next few weeks. It's time to veg for the rest of our break and then that first week back is always really draining. We never want to do anything after work that first week back.

I'm going to go search out some interesting blogs now.

I have always had a hard time deciding on a firm budget. I tend to earmark money for many, many things. First I decide to use it for this, then I decide to use the same money for that. So I am trying to firmly make up my mind about how I want our money to be spent. Here is my plan...as of today.

For the full year, I will need $8,000 to fully fund my freedom account. So I think I would like for that account to reach at leat $6000 before using any of it toward the CC. This makes sense in my head, but I am not sure how to explain it. Basically, the budget is like this:

Bi-weekly set up:
grocery: 200 (Everything over this will be saved and sent to the FA)
gas: 100 (Everything over this will be saved and sent to the FA)
FA: 300
CC: 200

That amounts to $800. DH actually makes $820 plus overtime. I think for now anything over $800 should sit in the checking account as padding and misc. funds since we there is nothing in the budget to cover misc. costs.

Further funds: Church job $700
$100 back to the church
$100 401K
$500 CC's (for a total of $700)

My two extra pays per year will go to the cards.
Any tax refund will go to the cards.
Each of us needs to add a dependant to our W-4's which is money we can add to the CC payment.

I have never "blogged" before,so I thought I would give it a try.

My husband and I are $23,000 in debt. We have been that much in debt for 8 years! It does not go down, it does not go up. It just stays there despite all the money we throw at it. So we are now on board to do our very best at getting rid of it.

Today I am frustrated. I started up a freedom account with $300. The idea is to put $300 in each pay period, every two weeks. Well, the account is now down to $29. We spent it all. And on what? We spent it on school supplies, birthday presents, and pictures from film that needed to be developed. Our budget is so tight.

DH doesn't want to send every single penny to the CC's. He wants to keep some of it for us for spending money. I want to throw everything, everything, everything at the debt. Who's right? Probably both of us. I know I should set up a reasonable amount of money to send to the cards, but it seems that nothing is ever enough for me. $500 would be good...but $600 would be better...so why not $700?

Ok, so as of today, here is our CC debt: $23,707. Let's watch that number fall.