Here's what I'm gonna *try* to do...

I'm going to *try* to round up as much money as I can this month via Overtime, spare change, and my leftover Xmas money and send it to the Best Buy card so that I don't have to post a huge charge when that statement comes. =D Sounds like a plan, I'm just afraid I won't stick to the plan... Come on, scrounge some motivation!
Also, I finally found those cool sidebar-payoff bar thingy majigys so I'll get to add them tonight as well so everyone can see my progress more easily!

December Update

12/30/2007
Old Navy- $0
CareCredit- $377.59
AnB- $954.35
Dell- $999
Citi- $4015.68
BoA- $5171.55
C Car Loan- $8584.81
M Car Loan- $11853.77

Total: $31956.75
Change since last month +$106.58
Total since 8/9: -$1208.50

Well, there's the damage... it's up, but at least only $106, but we sooo could have knocked off $500 had it not been for Christmas... Plus I haven't added our Wii debt (I'm still head-in-a-hole about that one).. But the good news is that we now have our Christmas saving's fund set up so next year won't be the same. Yes, I seem to have learned something! =D

Plus DD's Hospital payment is down to owing $237.39.. only 2 more months till it's gone! So if you want to add that in, I'm down a whole $12.11!

Still Here...

I'm still here, just have 2 sick kids... they both have the flu and my 17-month-old also has an ear infection and slight respiratory infection... Thank goodness Dh and I got a free flu shot at work! So right now I'm just taking care of these babies... Luckily I have 80 hrs of vacation, so I'm not worried about being out of money. Anyways, give me a few more days and I'll get this place updated! I promise =D

Large Derailment.. Please don't yell at me!

Well I lied.. was gonna update, but I'm still waiting on DH's car payment to post. I'm hoping that will save us from *looking* as bad as it does currently... I'm so ashamed right now. The major issue is that today we bought a Wii and of course a few games. However, to soften the blow we did have a $100 Best Buy gift card so at least I'm not crying right now. That won't be added for another week.. I don't know if I can stand seeing all the damage done right now. I swear someone needs to take my cards away and lock me in a hole so I won't *have* to have anymore stuff! It would be ok if we were financially stable, but right now we're like one step away from falling off the edge. I'm posting this then I'm gonna go hide my head in a hole lol

Aaahhhhhh! Time to relax!

Yahoooey! Christmas is over =D I'm soooo tired... visited all 4 families, DH's mom on Sunday, DH's dad on Monday, and my Mom & new wacko husband at noon today, and my Dad and his new wife at 4ish... I'm just glad I can relax and breathe now.
Both kiddos are sick though with coughs and fevers, so I may have to miss work tomorrow which sucks, but I do have the PTO so it's not as bad... Time to go to bed and rest up so that I don't get sick! Ack!

Oh yeah, and I will be finally looking at our finances again... Couldn't forget that since this is supposed to be all about money here lol. I've kinda been avoiding looking at our bills including what DH spent on me for Xmas, but I WILL look into it all tomorrow (after a good night's sleep that's hopefully not interrupted by coughing kids.) Night! =D

'Cause I had a bad day...

Well, had some popcorn for lunch and went to floss and brush after and my stupid temporary crown fell off my back tooth... so I guess I'll be making an appt come Monday at the maxiofacial surgeon if they're in... that's Xmas Eve, and I'm praying that they'll be there... I really don't know what else to do right now. *cry*

Personal Update

It's been a while since I posted, but basically I'm just waiting on Christmas to get over with and for the next paycheck on the 27th. The first of the month is always hard, but I tried to save a little this paycheck to cover where we fall short.... too bad DH's CC was declined (surprise surprise) and he had to put in on our debit card which is better overall, but I'm afraid we're gonna not have enough to cover next paycheck shortage. I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck.. maybe DH will open his eyes this next year *dreaming*

Oh yeah, and I'll be updating my horribly increased balances either Xmas Eve (since I'm stuck working) or after Xmas sometime... so stay tuned lol

Reasons to stay motivated

I was sitting at work thinking of my reasons to stay motivated to get out of debt. I think for right now I'm going to focus on the next year- Year 2008!!! lol We're hoping we can have the debt paid down enough and save enough money for a decent downpayment on a house. I know this isn't the greatest plan trading apartment rent of $525/month for a mortgage payment while we're trying to pay down debt, but we want our kids to know the feeling of growing up in a house where at least they'd have their own bedrooms, instead of a 2 bedroom cramped apartment where we can't even think about getting a pet =)

Goals to Work Towards

1. Pay off debt by Dec. 31st, 2009. I refuse to go into 2010 with this stupid debt =D
2. Have a fully funded emergency fund. (at least $5000)
3. Save for closing costs and a downpayment on a house (I would like at least $10k, that's not gonna be 20% but it's a whole lot more than we were going to do before we got edjamacated =D)
4. Send DH through college.
5. Save more for retirement.

Holy cow that was fast!

The charges have already been submitted and approved by insurance and all we should owe for DS's visit and procedure is $16.85!!! That is the greatest news I've heard all week! I'm sitting here grinning like the Cheshire Cat =D

Personal update

Well, DSon's dr. appt went great yesterday. We went in for the consult at 10:45 and they told us to come back at 4:15 to get the skin tags removed. So YEA! for not having to take another day off of work to get them removed! Just waiting on it to be sent to insurance and see what they'll pay for now.
Now we just need to plan for our eye appointments where DH, DD, and I need to get our eyes checked and I need new contacts and eyeglass lenses (possibly a new frame if I can manage w/o too much money spent. So next stage Eyes! lol After that we'll probably go back to worrying about our poor teeth. DH and I definitely need some major work done there. Plus DD needs sealant and regular checkups now, possibly DS as well (he's 17 months so only checkups as long as we take care of his teeth)

Also- Dreading this...

We've kinda run out of money for the next 2 weeks... till the 13th. Somehow we ended up putting out Christmas presents on the debit card and groceries plus gas on my Citi cc. I don't even want to look at the damage right now.. I know it's just going to get worse. Plus, I'm going to have to move money from our STS account to try and cover the damage in the checking acct. *SIGH* Speedbump Alert!

End of semester!

Woohoo! I finished my second-to-last class for my associates with a 91% A! Besides that, I'm signed up for the last class, but I still don't know if they'll have enough people to keep the class open... just a waiting game there. But I think I figured out what I'm going to do after I get my associates, since the UofA doesn't seem to have any classes outside of my work hours, I'm most likely going to have to do some kind of online schooling. I'm still leaning towards Accounting, but I don't know what kind of job I want for sure.

Tomorrow we take DSon to the dermatologist, and I'm kinda anxious. I hope they say they can remove his skin tags and be done with it!

Confession of Sins...

haha Maybe not that bad, but DH and I did go out to eat with my 2 brothers and a gf, so we ended up spending a whopping $34! However we did have fun and I made sure to add a few bucks into our savings account to finally bring it over $100!!! WAHOOEY lol One of these days, we'll finally get our emergency fund ... well funded.

I also completed my final exam for my class, so I'm sitting pretty till January =D They better not cancel my last class again... I would be pissed... GR Gotta keep positive... So far we have 6 people registered for it... i think it needs around 10 or 12 to not get canceled... but i dunno for sure. I wonder if they would tell me if I called and asked them... hmm... Any ideas?

Some stuff on my mind...

It looks like I need to be aware of some possible expenses coming up. Our son's dermatologist appt is coming up on Dec. 6th, and we're going to need to find some money for that, we're still hoping our health insurance will cover it, but you never know.

Also, we NEED to get our kids in to get dental check-ups and whatever kind of cleaning & sealing they do for little kids, so I need to make an appt for that and that should all be covered by the insurance. Just gotta get motivated to take both of them and fill out the paperwork and get our file straighted out since for whatever reason they are still attaching my file to my parent's even though I handle my own everything, don't live in the same house, etc... crazy people lol I really hate having to deal with things like that... Why can't they just fix it already?!

And let's see... DH wants to go back to his dr. and see what else the dr. thinks he should do to help his headaches. I just wish DH would go to a new Dr. who wasn't so ready to write prescriptions for every little problem. I mean, DH is 25 and is already on 2 high blood pressure medicines. I think the doc should at least make an effort and tell him he needs to take better care of himself before he goes writing him prescriptions. This is the same stupid dr. who just decided that DH needed allergy testing and serum when DH went in complaining of headaches. ARGH i can't deal with either of them! =P

November Update

Well, I just updated the side bars... and here is the recap for this month... Pretty sweet, but I know December is gonna suck with all the Christmas gifting and travel going on. However, I think I convinced DH that next year we are definitely setting up a Christmas Fund since being broke around Christmas for the past few years is so not working. =D Anyway, on to the pretty update!

11/27/2007
Old Navy $0.00
CareCredit $385.55
AnB $838.00
Dell $1,040.00
Citi $3,561.13
BofA $5,186.00
C Car Loan $8,843.26
M Car Loan $11,996.23
Total Debt: $31,850.17

Monthly Change: -$566.32
Total Debt Reduction: -$1,315.08

I'll try to update those charts again when I get home. bleh i'm so lazy =)

Charts!

Oh yeah...

Oh yeah, and if I remember I'll find those Excel charts I was making and post them later tonight. Pretty nifty lookin' even if I'm not making great progress.

Grumble

Well, of course... I doubt I'll be able to pay off that stupid CareCredit this month. Freaking pisses me off. I don't even want to talk about it, it's so aggravating. I feel like I'm never going to get ahead on this stupid debt.

On a better note, I scheduled DS's dermatologist consult appointment. It's Dec. 6th, really I'm hoping they'll go ahead and do his skin tag removal that day, so we can get it over with, but they'll prolly have to set up another appointment to aggravate me =D

Anyway, I'm just hanging on for the ride right now. Hopefully we can afford Christmas without going nuts and charging everything we decide we want. Or going nuts and killing eachother haha Now that would be a blog post =D Anyway, now I sound crazy, so I'm gonna go lol

Kinda a jumbled mess in my head, but here we go!

I just had to brag that at work yesterday I got to help build our new phone contact center. I mean, I actually got to enter it into the computer to set it up and everything! Yea me! Should get to finish it up today, and on Monday it should work. I'm so proud of myself =D

On another note, DH seems to like his new job. I'm proud of him too and everything seems to be going good for us right now.


Now, last night I was trying to create some kind of chart showing my progress, and I hate seeing that my credit cards have actually increased since I started this whole journey towards no debt, and I just wanted to explain at least a little of why that happened. Basically, all was going good until I was signed up for my 2 last classes for my associates and my stupid school ended up canceling one. Well, that created a hairy mess because you have to be enrolled at least half-time (6hrs) to qualify for stupid financial aid AND even for student loans. Why? I have no freaking clue. Anyway, I ended up deciding to go ahead and take my 1 class that hadn't been cancelled and I ended up having to charge that class- leading to a like $600 increase in one month *Sigh*

Anyways, after that, we also had some family health stuff come up and the dr. bills came in, leading to the $200 charge on CareCredit for DH's and a separate bill for DD's hospital which is on a payment plan. Stupid payment plan puts a damper on my debt snowball capabilities. So, I'm just turtling along until we either pay off something or come into some extra money to be able to throw on that CareCredit card.

But I really really really want to get DS in to the Dr. to look at some skin tags and see if we can get them removed, since we've already met our yearly deductable, but I'm afraid they're going to call it cosmetic work and not be covered by our insurance. I guess a consult won't hurt.... I'll have to think about it... *shrug* i dunno lol

Changes

Haha.. I love making changes to this blog...I wish I knew how to make it look really cool though. I might have to start doing some self-training =D

3 Paycheck Month!

Wow, I can't believe that October is already almost over!! November is a 3-paycheck month for both DH and I, and I plan to pay off the CareCredit card and use the rest of our checks for Christmas presents (I don't know what DH has planned yet lol) ... I started an Excel spreadsheet with all of our gifting needs and it looks like we'll be buying for around 29 people, plus our own kids and eachother's gifts (around 33 people total). THAT'S CRAZY! Christmas has really gotten out of hand with 4 extended families now. It's really depressing and Christmas is supposed to be so joyful. Really, I want to start our own traditions already and not trapse all around AR and OK and just invite everyone over to our place. If you don't like it, don't show up! Hahaha I'm so Grinch-y.

Anyway, can't let that get me down. We'll do our best, just like last year, but at least we won't do it charging up cards just to say we got someone something.

End of October Update!

Old Navy- $0!
CareCredit- $393.54 (Added DH's Dr. bill of $200)
ANB- $877.38
Dell- $1080
Citi- $3573.40
BofA- $5224.80
C Car- $9100.64
M Car- $12166.73

Total CCs and Auto- $32416.49
Monthy Reduction of $399.72

Total reduction of $748.76 WOOT WOOT!

Not included in my totals:

DD's Hospital bill- $593.46-118.69= $474.77

WOOOHOOO My First Zero! And some great news!

I'm so excited!!! I just payed off my Old Navy card, sent in $119.45, I believe it was!

AWESOME news: DH just got a new job, with about a 3000/year increase in pay! I'm so proud of him! He starts on the 26th.

And that nasty DH's Dr. bill was cut in half AGAIN and we only owed $200, so we paid it quick on the CareCredit card, but hey, at least it's not $400 we would have had to pay. And we set up a payment plan for DD's hospital bill it's 118.69/month for 5 months, and we already made our first payment so it's down to $474.77 / $593.46.

Plus I'm starting to get really focused on going in the right direction again, so I've started saving more in the EF. I upset myself when I drained it last paycheck b/c we couldn't afford groceries, but it already has over $50 in it again, so I'm working on it! I also opened up an ING account so that I could get some better interest rates on savings, and it has $1.oo in it, I plan to build up the bank savings account to at least $500, then save the rest in ING, so it might be a while before I actually use this account, but I might throw some over there if I'm bored or something =)

But it won't be until around the 25th that I post a full monthly update, but I wanted to share my great news with everyone! I can't tell if it's us or October, but I think something or someone around here is lucky lol =D

Next step

Ok, so the next step I suppose is getting back on track. I've had a bad month... depressed, tired, general blah feeling. And I spent WAY more than I needed to. So it's time to get back on track and back on budget. We received 2 dr. bills we need to pay this month: DH's dr bill- $423.20 and DD's hospital bill- $593.46. I'm having DH call and try to set up payment plans b/c there's no way we could pay that up front without throwing it on a credit card. So, I'm hopeful, Drs and hospitals usually try to work with you.

But I've received some AWESOME news about my work/job, and I will be doing some training and helping another group of coworkers and will eventually receive a raise! /cheer! Plus, my annual review is Oct. 24th, so I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a $0.50 raise there as well. I'm so excited that management has noticed me working my butt off and acknowledged that I deserve some compensation for it all!!! Plus I'll be getting a chance to learn a TON of new things and will be the first in line for any positions opening up =D Yea! for hard work lol!

Frustrated and Tired

I'm tired. I'm tired of this stupid debt hanging on my shoulders all the time. My debt went up this month. I had to charge my stupid tuition b/c they won't give me my DANG pell grant b/c I'm enrolled less than 6 hours. Well I would have taken 6 hours if stupid NWANK wouldn't have cancelled my LAST class. I'm so frustrated with school and debt. I'm just really down right now.

So far, so good this month... Although it sucks that my DH and I have busted our butts working all the time the past 2 weeks to grab some overtime, but then of course I realize we haven't even paid our personal property taxes yet and they're due by Oct. 10... so there goes all the extra money we made... stupid taxes. But at least I decided not to just pay off the Old Navy card and have to charge them later. Yea for finally thinking ahead! lol

But I do have to mention that I had a great 21st birthday! I may have used my card for my birthday gift, but hey, you only turn 21 once lol... and now I get to hang my head in shame when I open those statements and have to post to the WIRR's why my credit cards went up this month... Geez, this is worse than screwing up at work lol

August Update!

08/25/2007
Old Navy- $100.61
CareCredit- $215.53
AnB- $881.71
Dell- $1,161.00
Citi- $2,883.09
BofA- $5,264.45
C Car Loan: $9,613.41
M Car Loan: $12,555.57

Total Debt: $32,675.37
Total Reduction: $489.88

Updates

I'm so excited for the end of the month to get here already!! I so want to make my first update! I doubt it'll really be much, but I can't wait to see how I did my first month since joining the Women in Red Racers group and really started to get back on track to debt elimination!

MOVING!

Well I'm going to be moving next weekend the 25th I think... another apartment, but A LOT closer to work and daycare so we should save the $35 extra/month on rent in just gas... But add to that the time we save and less traffic-induced stress and it should be a huge positive move.. but wish me luck on getting through this next weekend without pulling out any credit cards! I have some money saved up for the extra gas to move our stuff and our truck rental is actually going to be FREE besides the gas money.. i just hope we can find some extra free labor.. time to call up some family hehehe... THIS IS AWESOME! i'm so excited =D

Ugh

No wonder I'm so stressed out.. Now that I've seen how close to the line we've been living, it makes sense why I've been freaking out every paycheck... we don't even have any fun money! So basically it's either do something free that doesn't waste too much gas or stay at home and be bored!!! Grr... I'm so frustrated!

Current Budget

REVISED BUDGET: Net pay averages about $2900/month

(includes health & dental insurance and 401k)
Rent $525
Water Bill $70
Electric Bill $70
Car & Renter's Insurance $183.22
Car Payments $557
Gas $100*2= $200
Daycare $140*4= $560
Groceries $125.00*2= $250

Prescriptions $24
Cell Phone $45
AT&T (Land line & Internet) $67
Cox (Cable) $54
Credit Card (minimums)
Old Navy $10
CareCredit $15
AnB $47
Dell $35
Citi $67
BOFA $100

Total: $19.78

Goals for 2007

Ok I've taken a hard look at what's really possible and so now I have to revise my goals:

• I'd like to pay down Old Navy $100.61 by Dec. 31st.
• Start making $500 principal decreases each month... last month was $480 I think.
• Save up $500 in an EF... this will probably end up coming out of our tax return next year, but I can try!
• Finish my second-to-last class for my Associate's degree! (Of course my last class was cancelled so now I'm stuck for another freakin semester!! I'm so ticked off about that...)