Kris10leigh's Personal Finance Blog

I just counted my jar change (otherwise known as the $20 challenge) and I have $40.19. This is good because the last time I checked I had $37 in it and that was before I stole from myself. ;o) So I'm starting over with $40.19 and no more robbing of the change jar...until I decide what it is for, that is. Maybe vacation.

And I've finally decided to start blogging about my weight loss. No one needs to know just how much weight needs to come off, but I'll log a loss of 14 lbs.

I was around quite a bit three years ago and was very active on the message board and less so in blogging. Since my return, I've noticed the message boards seem to be all about...how shall I say this nicely...tough love? And the blogs seem to be all about support. I keep telling myself, hey, I paid down $27,000 in debt. Yes, my original goal was to do so in one year's time. Did I manage my goal? Um...no. Was it because my plan was faulty? No...it was because I was naive, idealistic, unrealistic and in my rose colored world there were no broken down washers, kid's school expenses, or doctor's visits. Would I advise someone else to keep a $100 balance in their checking account while throwing every spare cent at the credit cards without any type of savings at all? No I would not. But did it work for me? Apparently so.

I'm struggling to pay for Christmas right now without putting money on the credit cards. I know the words "I'm struggling to pay for Christmas" sends chills down spines, tears to some eyes and breaks the hearts of the tender hearted who care very deeply about the children. Then there are those, and rightfully so, who don't care a bit if someone can't afford Christmas because it's about the spirit of the holiday. But for me, "I'm struggling to pay for Christmas" is really just me complaining. We'll get through the holiday, some of it will have to go on the card, but we're expecting a large reimbursement check next month that will cover it. It will, hopefully, be the last time we're looking backwards.

In any case, I'm proud of what we've done. We're at point 0 right now, surface level, and the waves are gently making it a struggle. But there are no rip tides in sight.

I had a freedom account established a few years ago, and though it didn't lost long, I liked having it. We're expecting a large reimbursement check within the month that will take care of Christmas plus a good amount to start up a FA. I've been brainstorming categories I need it for today and estimated $1000 for misc. for the year. I wonder, should clothes and home improvement monies be accounted for in a FA or in some other way? We've scrimped for so long, we've never had money for either category and bought only when necessary and then only very cheap.

I received my rewards checks from Kroger today so I headed over to Kroger and purchased Christmas gifts! I got a couple games for my kids and some foods you can only get in Ohio for my dad who moved to Florida recently. I came in under the amount I had in rewards, so I received $3.00 and change to add to my challenge jar.

I stole from my jar last weekend because I had some needs to purchase at Sam's club and they only accept cash or my debit card. I didn't want to go any lower in my checking account, so I used jar money. I'm a little peeved at myself for doing so because I've been in the challenge for a whopping week and my own personal conviction was that I would not dip into that money under any circumstances. But, like any good idea, you just get back on the wagon and move on. I'll have to count my jar money to see where I really am.

We went to a festival last night and I took along $40 in cash. When we were emptying our pockets last night I told my husband I'd like to start putting $1 bills into the coin jar as well as loose change. I had a ten dollar bill and several ones. I asked him to please give me the $3 I knew he had in his pocket and I'd give him the ten dollar bill from the festival. He argued and argued with me that we could put the $10 in the jar because he didn't understand what I was trying to say about saving $1 from now on. Finally I decided it was the silliest argument so I tucked the $10 into the jar and figured I worked for that $10 in words alone and it should count! LOL! So I added $13.66 to the jar last night.

We also got to see New Moon last night. I can't believe we saw it on opening night! The only reason we did so was because we didn't have the kids! I'm a little phobic about crowds. I come close to panic attacks in certain situations, including traffic. We caught the matinee and there were only maybe 50 people in the theater. But after our movie was an enormous line! I clammed up on the way out and hid behind husband, there were so many people!

My feelings about this series amuse me. I loved the books! (except book 4...I hated that one) I am a big Edward fan and I did not enjoy Jacob's character in the books. Now generally speaking, 99% of the time in fact, I do not enjoy the movies that follow my favorite books. Twilight is no exception. I don't really like the movies at all. But in the movies, I actually root for Jacob! LOL! I do not like the actor for Edward. I just can't past the pastiness of him or the whining and the melodrama. But Jacob is so sweet! Quite the opposite in the book.

I enjoyed the movie. To be fair, it follows the book fairly closely and doesn't leave a whole lot out. I thought that which was left out was just fine.

I was reading an article about buying cheap things and it got me thinking about things I am cheap about vs those items I insist on quality regardless of cost.

Shoes: The shoes on my feet cost a ridiculous $285 and I own two pair (sandals and tennies). Now on the plus side, I can have them completely overhauled as often as I like or need for only $50-$60. That's like a new pair of $285 shoes for $50. I figure that's a pretty good deal. And with these shoes I do not have knee, back, or foot pain. And my closet is nice and spacious and uncluttered by cheap shoes!

Clothes: I swing both ways here. I go through spurts. I try to get clothes from the thrift store and actually end up with better quality there than when I go shopping for new items. When I buy new it's generally because I'm in need of something specific, and everyone knows you can't go to the thrift store with an agenda. ;o) But my quality/expensive clothing always lasts longer, fades less, and looks better longer. Where I might replace a cheap pair of jeans within a year, I'll wear an expensive pair for five+ years, waistline willing. ;o) (Actually right now, I'm hoping to get out of these 5 year jeans and go smaller!)

appliances: I'm big on buying high quality appliances! This seems to be hit or miss, unfortunately. We bought a top of the line fridge a few years back and we hate it! For a couple months every time I opened it a new little piece of plastic popped off! The part that held the container for the ice maker completely fell apart. But we just bought a new washer/drier (needed to) and bought top of the line. In this case I'm glad we did, so far.

Socks: Only high quality for me. My gold-toe socks are still being worn after...um...1989!! Wow! And daily! I got them for Christmas in high school. Any cheapy socks I've purchased since have been replaced yearly. Now for the kids, only cheap socks. Yes, they wear out in about three months, but they're also generally so filthy I don't mind throwing them out. I bought them high quality socks once and still threw them out after about four months just because they had turned unalterably brown.

For other items I am cheap! Food at Aldi's. Furniture is almost always hand-me-down. I buy generic soaps. I devour books at the library and if I purchase them it's from a half-price book store. I just avoid new bookstores, because I can't walk out of a bookstore without a purchase. Who am I kidding? Three purchases!

I found some old gift cards and decided to check out their balances online. Glad I did!

Kohls 4.66
Walgreens 17.70
Walmart 74.88 (!)

Total: $97.24!!

Sam's Club takes Walmart gift cards. If I do Click N' Pull, I won't get sidetracked and spend money I didn't intend to spend! Yeah! And if I send DH to get the goods, it's even less likely to happen!

Now...what stocking stuffers can I find at Kohls for $4.66?

I gave up my cell phone a couple months ago for a couple reasons.
1. It broke and was going to cost me $50 to fix.

2. I rarely used it and was pretty sure I used it far less than my bare-bones policy accommodated.

3. I get tired of how rude other people are with their cell phones and didn't want any part of it for me.

At first I thought I'd look into pre-paid phones. But it has been two or three months now and I have only missed the phone on a couple occasions. I wished I'd had it when my husband and I got separated at my kids' carnival, but I stayed in one place and he found me. And I sometimes wish I had it to make a quick phone call home from the road, just to check in. But now I just call from work before heading the door if I want to check in.

It's oddly freeing not having the cell phone. No one can call me at inopportune times and I am not obligated to listen to the voice mail on the stupid thing. And I'm saving about $45 a month.

DH has a cell phone paid for entirely by his employer and I can use it if ever necessary. And if I ever take a long trip or something by myself, I'll look in to a pre-paid phone. But for now, I do not miss my cell phone.

I don't know what possessed me to do it, but as soon as my feet hit the floor this morning I started scrounging for money. I scrounged in my husband's sock drawer, pants pockets, coat pockets and car. I found...


THIRTY SEVEN DOLLARS AND THIRTY SEVEN CENTS!!!

I can't believe I found that much pocket change. Only $8 of that was dollar bills. I ran out to the store and spent $2.75 on coin rolls and rolled it all.

So I begin my $20 challenge with pocket change and am very pleased.

Now that the credit cards are gone, we're facing Christmas without any savings and I'm bound and determined not to have any debt when this holiday season is over. So I'm looking ahead. I'm also looking ahead to Thanksgiving. It is going to be such a busy week. I have to host twice because my in-laws and my own family do not get along. Every year I either host two Thanksgivings or two Christmases. I really don't mind, but usually I have the entire week of Thanksgiving off at work. This year I'm not off until Thursday. So I'm stuffing my freezer this weekend with what I can.

For the freezer:
Sweet Potato soufle X2
Corn casserole X2
mashed potato bake


Next pay day is the Friday after Thanksgiving, so all expenses come out of this paycheck. Hmmm...

Forgive me, but this whole no-credit card debt is new to me. I watched with fear, biting my nails, as the news reporter told me of all the horrors banks are throwing at their costumers trying to make as much money as they can now before the new government protection rules go into effect. Then I remembered...I don't have to worry about this! My debt is paid!

The temptation is so great! We just bought a new house, and I love the home! And though the home is much larger than our old home, the previous owners chose a really small fridge so that it didn't stick out too far and impeded the flow of traffic into the kitchen. I can see that. But they bought a side by side and the freezer is so small you can't fit a frozen pizza in it, or even a box half its size. And the fridge? There's no way a turkey's going in there. And we host two full Thanksgivings and one full Christmas.

So I want a fridge to put in the garage! I'm close to saying I actually need a fridge.

But...

We will just pay off the credit cards this coming Friday. Finally! I do not want to put more on the card than we can pay off by next Friday and Christmas is coming up with no money yet put aside. All these years it's been about the credit cards.

I need some encouragement to not buy a new fridge. We have a ridiculously large freezer in the basement that the owners left. It's the fridge I lament.

Perhaps some tips on how to accommodate the holidays with my tiny fridge?

Now that the debt has been paid off, DH and I would like to work toward living off one salary and socking away the other. I just added up all the expenses (bills) that come out of my paycheck and was shocked to see we have close to $400 left over at the end of the month. I'm not confident that's accurate yet because we just moved and I know water/electric etc. will change a bit. That $400 would have to stretch over all non-bills: food, haircuts, entertainment, etc. So we aren't quite there yet. Once we get the car paid off though, I think we can swing it.

In an effort to stay in this frugal mindset I've been in for so many years now, I have a bit of a plan for the weekend:

1. Go to Aldi with a list for breakfasts, lunches and tonight's dinner. I have other dinners already prepared for the week, but tonight we have company.

2. Buy my son new shoes. I can see his toes.

3. Buy my other son new pants because only two pair fit.

I've been waiting to write this entry for a very, very, very long time now!

Finally today, I wrote one of two final checks to clear out our massive amount of debt! The rest will be paid off after pay day next Friday. Wahoo!! We will have 0 credit card debt!

This has been a long time in coming. I will never know what the worst of it was because I was afraid to look until it totaled $27,000. I thought it would be easy to pay off. I thought if we stuck to a plan we'd have it paid off within the year. That was three years ago. I don't suppose three years was all the bad in retrospect. The problem was that even though our plan was always to send X amount to the cards each month, things come up. Holidays, food for holiday guests, vacations we couldn't say "no" to, school pictures, school fund raisers, car repairs, doctor's visits, emergency dental needs, worn out shoes, Christmas gifts, new baby gifts, etc., etc., etc. The best of plans have a way of getting derailed.

But today as I type we are finally credit card free.

Next mission: the car. If I do nothing we'll have it paid off NEXT Spring. But if we put more toward it...who knows. I think what we're actually going to do is just sock money away and once the balance in savings matches the car payoff, we'll send it all in.

I couldn't sleep last night because I kept playing with numbers in my head.

This week is going to be difficult. We have to work within the money my husband cashed yesterday and it has to stretch pretty far. I need to root through the freezer and figure out what we have and better yet, what we can eat for lunches. I actually have dinners figured out, not lunches.

It seems I only blog when I'm feeling good about things. Ha!

We just paid off some bills that made it possible to be back down to just one CC again. It seems pathetic that in a whole year's time we've only paid off about $4,000. But we're in a better place now than we were. Then I was so hung up on putting every penny we got into the CC payment that I was leaving nothing in our checking account forcing us to use our CC to buy groceries. Sinced then, I've stopped doing that. It's been about 5 months since we used a credit card at all. We were going through a cycle of having nothing left over at the end of the month, putting Christmas on the card and then starting all over. Now I am putting money aside for Christmas and am not spending every spare penny we have toward the card.

So I am optomistic that this is the year. My plan is to pay off $1000 every month, and little windfalls will help in addition to that. Worst case scenario, I'm hoping for:
May: 15300
June: 14300
July: 13300
August: 12300
September: 11300
October: 10300
November: 9300
December: 8300
January: 7300
February: 6300
March: 5300
April: 4300
May: 3300
June: 2300
July: 1300
August: 300

I've joined a challenge for the next 6 weeks in which I have agreed to be pretty perfect with my diet and exercise. This means I have even given up my dark chocolate!

I am following a strict phase 2 of South Beach. I occassionally slip into a phase 3 style, but for the next 6 weeks, I will re-acquaint myself with a true phase 2! In addition to that, I am going to hit the gym hard! (As opposed to just slapping it. LOL!) Seriously, no more sauna because that time eats into my workout time. For six weeks, I'm doing the full hour with intensity! No whining allowed! Can't wait to record the end results.

On the finance front...not much to report. I just need to get more organized. Like we forgot to pull out cash for our son's lunch this morning. I need to remember on Friday to pull out cash. Go back to the cash system...it worked.

Just sent another payment of $348 to the CC. We used $50.00 worth of coupons to pay for this weeks groceries. I think our grocery bill totaled about $27.00, so not bad for the week.

My intentions for journaling were good. I got sick and so I haven't really been thinking about finances this week.

But today is payday, so I thought about it.

Yesterday's frugal thing came in a little card I found on my desk! I was cleaning out a file on top of my desk at school and I came across a Christmas card, which I almost threw away unopened. But I opened it and it was a card from one of my kids with $6.00 worth of Wendy's bucks inside. I was so surprised!! Someone stuck it in this file and I never found it! I felt really bad though, because I never thanked him for it! So I wrote a quick thank you note to him. I had been lazy that morning though and hadn't packed a lunch, which is very rare these days. I always pack now. And my plan was to go to Wendy's for a salad. So that is what I did and it was free.

The remaining CC is down to $1500 and should be paid off within the month.

I get an extra pay in March and I'm trying to decided what to do with it. I want to put it in the savings account and use it to completely pay for daycare next year upfront. That would relieve stress for me.

I am down 29 lbs now!

LOL! Well, the weightloss is still happening. I'm glad to see that my Bio shows 21 lbs lost since last I was here because now it is 27. And that is where I spend most of my typing time now...in the weight loss arena.

I am going to try to make it a daily habit to come and saying SOMETHING!

My 3 goals for 2007 are:
Lose total of 77 lbs
Get my house in order
Erase this debt

Despite my lack of journaling, I have actually been successful in all three areas so far.
27 lbs down

I just got the house in order and am following the principals of Flylady again. It feels so good too!! And now with the house in order and the weight on near auto-matic piolet, it's time to face the finances!!

I've done two things finance related today.
1. I menu planned. I copied out a bunch of South Beach friendly crock-pot recipes and am going to plug them into days of the week and create a shopping list. Tonight and tomorrow and I can pre-prepare these yummy dishes and freeze them for the week ahead. I did this same thing last week and was very pleased with the results!!
2. I called the credit card company and bank to track down a missing payment. I hate the way they make me feel like it's my fault. The CC company was actually very nice. It's the bank that annoyed me.

I'm off to finish my grocery list!

Ok, so I just went and I added up the ugly truth and it's not as bad as I thought. Our current debt is $20,115.42. Christmas basically had us remaining steady. And actually, the $116 more than when I quit in October is gas and groceries that I just haven't paid off yet. We really didn't use the cards except for convenience.

So, here we go! I faced reality and I'm ready to roll! DH got his church pay last night and the entire amount goes to the cards as soon as he gets it in the bank.

Hello all! I am back! I took a little break as Christmas hit hard! I wasn't prepared for Christmas at all and as it turned out, all our extra pennies went to Christmas. BUT, I have come out of it not too far behind, though not at all ahead. LOL! This journal entry is my first step getting back on track, so I haven't even faced reality yet as far as how much I owe on the CC. I send a little more than the minum each month, so I know I'm better off than I was, but...well I just haven't checked in a while.

My goal for this month is to regain the obsessiveness I had before! LOL! My obsession has transferred to my weight issues, which is good, but now I need to be diligent about both.

So I am back 21 lbs lighter around the waist, but not so much lighter in the wallet.

Here's to January and 2007!

I seem to go through major ups and downs when it comes to debt reduction. This is a particularly bad month. I am looking at one full month, possibly more, of paying very little down on debt. Christmas and other things are throwing a real wrench in my plan.

I need to do some no-spend days to get me back into the swing of things. I need to get DH on board with this too.

I don't know what is so different about summer vs. school year. But it seems the kids are always bringing home something I need to buy! And they're making it hard to say "no"! (The school, I mean.) For instance, I have every book I have ever owned plus the many we have purchased for our kids. We have a massive collection of children's books, so many that even though we read very nearly every night, we still have not read every book we own. The kids are always finding new ones. So I chose NOT to buy any books at the bookfair. Well, the teachers take the kids to the bookfair as a class and pair them up with older children. They write out a wish list, take it home, and then go a second time to purchase books with the older child! How do you say "no" to that?! I told my son it was fine if he wanted to purchase a book, but he'd have to use his own money. He did. He got two books for $15.00. What a rip off.

If it's not books it's t-shirts or Market Day food or some other fund raiser. A few days ago it was pictures. And now, not only do they hit you up for $50 in the Fall, they come back for more in the Spring!! I'm sorry, but I don't care to spend money on pictures TWICE per year! Once per year is enough!

I fall prey to keeping up appearances. I don't want people to know how much we are struggleing. Now, I'm not going to go buy a hot-tub because the "Joneses" have one, but I do buy just about everything at the school. I haven't participated in Market Day yet this year, but everything else is hard to say "no" to.

I knew it was too good to be true! I need to slow down on our debt repayment, at least temporarily. We just have expenses lately! I made a list yesterday of what those are.

We still owe DH's parents $473 from a loan several years ago. We steadily made payments for 5 years and then paid all but $473 off in one lump sum in August. We were short $473, and since we had just given them $2000, they were fine with it. The original loan was to be paid in full by October, and here we are in October, so we need to pay it.

Ring bearer tux: $47
Parental loan: $473
College course: $400
Birthday gifts: $75
Camera: $300

The camera is a Christmas gift to DH and me from each other. My step-sister is getting married at the end of October and I'd really like to have the camera before then for that and Halloween. Our current camera doesn't take good pictures at night or inside. It takes beautiful outside/daylight pictures, but inside/dark pictures all have ghosts! I'm tired of it and want a new camera! We keep wasting our money on disposables whenever we want inside/dark pictures!

I think we can recover on all these expenses by the end of October, but only if I slow down on our repayment. Happily, as of right now we are only $600 shy of our goal for the month, so we won't be terribly far off. In fact, $200 still has to go out as our minimum payment on our CC.

It's official! I just paid off CC1! Only $20,000 left to go! Obviously, it doesn't take much to amuse me. *sigh* No, really that is a big accomplishment, especially since now, I can move forward with part 2 of my plan.

From here on out, I will make just over the minimum payment on my one and only credit card at 0% interest. Everything else gets transferred to my ING account where it accrues interest. This is a good plan!

Even better, technically I owe only $19,723. My ING account already has $275 in it. As soon as that number matches my CC balance, I will send it all at once. I have until October 2007 to accomplish this. (Really September. I don't want to cut it too close.) But I think this is manageable. Furthermore, I think we can do it by summer.

I'm struggleing with wanting to take another college course. I've now taken and paid for 2 classes. I need to take just 4 more by October to bump me up the pay scale. I really want to take one now because I've have some down time at work coming up and more down time over the holidays. It's a video course...super easy. I finished the last one in four days! I'm just not sure how to pay for it. The funds aren't there. After Christmas, the funds will be there. Right now, Christmas is tieing up all of our funds.

I could relax my CC payments. I am hitting the payments really, really hard. I just want this gone!

I'm ready to take a look back and another look ahead!

CC payoff goals:
My goal for September was: $2,768
My actual amount was: $2,984

This is a difference to my benefit of $216! Pretty good!

October's goal is: $1300.
Additional goal is to pay off CC1!

I just hit "send"! $2000 off to CC1! That leaves $748 remaining on the card and if I had another penny to pinch, I'd do it. But I don't, so I just need to be patient. It will be paid off within the next two weeks if I get my money in the mail. I can not wait to be down to just one card.

It was suggested that I split the large card into smaller parts. I considered that, but I have another plan instead. The large card is 0% interest, so having the balance sit there is not a problem. We are going to pay a tad more than the minimum on it each month while stockpiling as much as we can into our ING account. So now instead of PAYING interest, we will be EARNING it. And according to the calculator, we'll be EARNING it to the tune of $848 from now until June. I am very excited about getting to watch our money grow instead of deplete.

Tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for! I get an extra paycheck tomorrow, and that along with budgeted money from DH's other job, I will be paying off...[drum roll please] $2000!!! [and the crowd cheers wildly!!!] That will leave us with only $700 on CC1! That will easily be paid off in the near future. DH's job owes him money for our cell phone to the tune of $400.00. (4 months worth) I just need DH to send in the information!!! I'm getting really aggravated with him about this. My job owes me $425 reimbursement for a college course I took. I just signed up for a second course that was $400, so $25 can go to the CC. In other words, I just put the new class on the CC, so this reimbursement will basically cover this course. My point is, of the $700 remaining, $425 is coming to me soon. And within the next 2 weeks I see $516 coming in from income. We will basically have CC1 paid off very soon.

I don't know why that's so important to me exactly. Once this card is paid off, we still have a card with $20,000 on it! That's no small potatoes. I guess it's just that it's a goal I set, and my plan was to accomplish that goal by the end of October and we are accomplishing it early in October.

We are struggleing to stay within budget now that I am back to work. I went out to eat with co-workers yesterday. It was the entire speech group, and we only do that once or twice a year. While there, I ordered an extra appetizer to bring home to DH. I like to do that for him. I'm tired and just don't feel like cooking or I don't feel like eating what I have, so we order out. It's a horrible habit. Life is stressful at the moment, and I am one who turns to greasy food when I'm stressed. Bring on the Chinese! Why is that comfort food? I'm not sure, but it is.

Tonight I've asked DH to return home from his church job with a coke. I just really need a coke. LOL! Most women would want a beer! Me? I gotta have my Coke!

I'm looking ahead. My goal for September CC payoff is $2,818. So far, as of next Friday, my actual payoff will be $2,934. So, I am counting my chickens before they hatch, but I am track for reaching my goal! It may be even better than that. I'm afraid to send the amount I should today because my bank is not showing the amount I think it should. I have to wait until Monday for the dust to settle.

I just can't wait to get CC1 paid off! We are so close!!! So close I can taste it! I just have to wait it out. In fact, I think that in 3 weeks it will be paid off.

I'm not updating my debt tracker yet though. I need to have a little more patience. I really should wait until I actually hit the /send/ button before doing that.

Ok, so back to work...

Ooooh, free time on my hands. What to do? What to do? Oh yes! I can blog!

I've been playing with numbers again! I'm so excited! We're going to start to see some progress now!

Upcoming payments:
Friday (tomorrow): $300 from DH's pay
Wednesday: $316 from church pay
Friday: $1500 from my pay! ! So excited! It's a three pay month, so it's extra money in my budget!

That is so exciting! I also just transferred $1400 from our high interest card to our 0% interest card. The 0% card is now officially maxed out! But, after next Friday, we should be down to $400 on the high interest card. That will leave a maxed out card of $20,000 and I'm excited! Only one CC! One very large CC, but still...one CC.

I also just payed for a college course using the CC. I know, I know! Throw the book at me! But here's my reasoning. The card is almost paid off and we're going to use it for gas once it is paid off. I get rewards for using the card, including $.15 off each gallon of gas, but only if I use the card. My school district is reimbursing me the money in October. The time is just slightly off, which irritates me, but what can you do? I am expecting reimbursement for my last class (which will cover THIS class) in October. I have to sign up for the class now. And, as far as classes go, I am trying to get all of my +30 hours in before January of 2009 to get a $10,000 raise. If all goes according to plan, at that time we can live off one salary, invest the other, and be completely debt free except for a mortgage payment. And the mortgage is on track for paying paid off by 2013. Not bad for a family currently sitting on $22,354 in CC debt!