October's Update

ANB $856.80
Dell $1049.31
Citi $4024.46
BoA $6712.69
Toyota: $27467.05

Total Non-Mortgage Debt: $40110.31

Mortgage: $121901.03

A little late I know.. so shoot me =P

Hello!

I know, I know! I've been gone forever and a day! Let's see, speed recap: I got better, had crazy amounts of work, got sick again, both kids got sick, and just now am starting to almost feel better. So here I am again! Debt has gone up due to a new hobby, savings has gone down slightly, and DH has started to read Dave Ramsey's Your Total Money Makeover, so maybe he can get us on track.

New hobby is Geocaching! I'm excited about it, but we did have to spend money on a decent GPS unit to get started. After the GPS, we shouldn't need to buy anything and it should help us get some exercise.

Quick update

I'm feeling much better than I was in my last post. But no worries, I went to work everyday last week and actually I was feeling almost normal by Tuesday. So anyways, just wanted to give everyone a quick update so y'all know I'm not dead or anything =P Anyways, I'll be gathering up my update from last month... since I always put it off =D

Not financial at all..

I just want a place to whine for a minute... I HATE BEING SICK! I've come down with some type of sickness... I didn't feel well on Friday at work, but I decided it was kinda pointless to leave since I'd just have to come back and pick up DH. So, pretty much after work when I got home I was miserable. I was wearing flannel pajama pants, a 3/4 length shirt & jacket, socks, and finally had to put 2 comforters on me to get warm. My whole body hurt, throat hurt, and I was totally miserable. I do feel better now, but my throat is just painful. It hurts to swallow anything /cry

Anyway, that's my whine.. I'm getting better and hopefully will be rested up enough to go back to work on Monday.

Out with the old and In with the new!

I finally got my old bank account emptied and closed, and just yesterday I went and opened up a savings account at our new bank so we're all set up now =)... So far we have $100 in there woohoo! Actually, I have about $70 more tucked away in a hiding place that I've been slowly building up since we didn't have a savings account. So I'm not sure when/if I'll take it to the bank, but for now it's just hiding there making me feel good =D
Now I am going to update my sidebar really quick and bask in my 17% of my starter EF!

Cha-Ching!

Hehe, DH is getting a bonus! It'll be around $600 after taxes and 401K is taken out. If I had gotten my new job just a little bit sooner I'd be included in this quarter's bonus as well, but BOOO lol. Hopefully 4th quarter will be just as good or better! =)
Anyway, we're planning on paying off a few medical bills that we've gotten recently, and then we'll be left with around $400. I haven't decided whether we should just throw it towards a CC, or if we should save it for our EF or Christmas funds. It'd feel wonderful to have that money sitting around, but I'm so afraid we'd spend too much one week and have to take money out to cover. So pretty much I'm still undecided.

End of September

Okie, so on to the end of September debt update; too bad it's not a good one.

ANB: $896.36
Dell: $1082.31
Citi: $3996.92
BoA: $5911.41
Toyota: $27760.51

Total Consumer: $39647.51

Owed on house: $122024.76

So the next two weeks are going to be pretty tight... and then the next paycheck I'm hoping to start saving again to fend off Murphy.

Getting all my ducks in a row..

Alrighty, so we got our new checks and debit cards in and yesterday I spent a good amount of time adding the new bank account to our online bill pays... And switched our paychecks to be deposited (hopefully this Thursday, but if not we'll move the money ourselves). So basically, we're just taking it slow and trying to keep track of our money really closely since we'll have payments coming out of both accounts for a few days.

I'm just going to skip the last months update since I'm officially a day away from the next end-of-month lol So I've also got to get our numbers together between work, dinner, and watching House tomorrow! =D

Really upset

I've been really upset here lately with our "debt elimination." I don't feel like we're making ANY progress, especially since we now have even more debt than when I first started this blog. Of course, we're making more money now, but I guess we're just upgrading our lifestyles along with it. I need some help! lol And now I'm feeling even more depressed because the holiday's are coming up and so far I have $0 saved! I had sworn I learned my lesson last year when I had to charge the last of the Xmas presents! But now look at me. I just want to cry.

New checking account

Well, I was very happy with Bank of the Ozarks when they took us in and got our mortgage within 2 weeks after Arkansas National Bank was closed. But their checking account's website just sucks. They group all of their pending debits and credits into a full day, instead of itemizing, and that just hasn't been working for me. I actually ended up overdrawing and getting charged with a stupid fee because I couldn't tell if my childcare check had been withdrawn yet. It's especially hard as some places like gas stations apply a test charge before allowing you to use the card. It's refunded, but I could never tell if they had done that or not. Anways, long story short, I finally convinced my DH to open a new checking account with Arvest. I've never been really fond of them, and he doesn't especially like them, but they are probably the largest bank network in our area, and the people I know who bank there always say they're good when I've asked them. So we've got our new debit cards already, and we're waiting on our checks, and then everything will be changed over. It sucks to have to do, but I'm hoping it will be much easier to check pending amounts.

Wow

Wow sorry I've been MIA. It's been a crazy few weeks since I got promoted. I already had to let someone go... face-to-face. That was painful. Anyway, the previous boss just left on Friday so now I'm fully 100% in charge. I'm just hoping nothing else crazy happens.

Anyways, yep I'm late on making my end-of-month update AGAIN! Maybe I should just make it a end-of-month update but around the middle of the next month lol. I'd prolly be late anyway =D But I don't think we made any progress, so don't keep your hopes up. We're having a really hard time right now. I will update everything soon! I get my first paycheck with the new $$ on Thursday.. I have no idea what I'll be making yet.

WOOOHOOOOOO!

I got a promotion! I got a raise! I'm so freaking excited and it still all feels very surreal. Anyway, I will now be making $5874 more annually! I'm very happy =D I was hoping to hit $30k salary, but they offered me $31250 and I gladly accepted lol Hopefully I can now buckle down and use this money to pay off my debt more quickly!

=D

I'm getting a promotion! I'm getting a promotion! I can't tell you how excited I am. It's not my dream job, but I'm going to get so much experience I'm freaking out! lol I get to manage 6 people directly! Of course, the people are all really dependable, so they don't need much.. but I get to do the schedules, goals, reviews, group reporting, and everything! Basically my boss and my boss's boss are "grooming me" to do great things =D And yes, I realize it benefits them because they're not having to pay for someone with a Bachelor's or the supervisory experience, but this will REALLY benefit me too! I'm freaking excited. I should be getting my offer in 3 days... but probably Monday.
And I'll be getting a raise!

Hmph...

Well I thought we were doing well. Until I remembered DH bought his new computer. *sigh* It's always something. I will not be given more than I can handle, right? I guess all I can do is look ahead and see what I can change about the situation and what else we can do to make this debt disappear. Anyways, I don't think I'm doing very well with eliminating my debt. It just seems to keep growing. I'm really upset at the moment.

On to the update:
ANB: $841.29
Dell: $1162.31
Citi: $4035.32
BoA: $4886.79
Toyota: $28399.17 (This is the same as last month, since the payment isn't even due until 8/6. I was actually ahead a little bit for the past couple of months, but this month I won't be able to keep ahead, so you'll see August's payment in August now.)

So the new total is $39324.88
Bleh! Somebody help me! lol

Progress

Wow we actually made progress on the BoA CC this month! It's amazing what can happen when you actually try to do something! lol anyways, just a brief update for this card: it's now standing at $4886.79! This card had been inching along before, so this is a nice change to actually see a dent taken out of it.

Bonus!

Woohoo! DH is getting a bonus! They sent out a little estimator and after taxes we'll prolly see $110. Not much by any means, but hey that's WAY better than nothing. And of course it's good for the employee morale =) Anyway, we had already decided that any money from his bonus was going straight to the BOA CC, and that's still what we're planning to do! Soon as we get it next week on the 24th, I'm making a payment =D

Ahhhh...

Kids are spending the night at their grandparents and it's been kinda quiet. But nice =) Everyone needs to give up their kids every once in a while!

Anyways, Chase finally updated our account and of our $900 payment, only $125.75 went to principal! lol that's just bad!!

Let's see... what else is going on... bleh. Just paid some bills. We may be taking a mini-vacation around the 25th & 26th. Planning on traveling up a little ways and checking out Silver Dollar City. We haven't been in a while (5 years actually... I was preggo at the time lol) and DH wants to take me and have a weekend away. I don't expect to spend much money besides gas and snackage. We haven't decided if we're staying overnight or not though, so that could be a little more.

At work, DH should find out soon if the company will be giving out a bonus for last quarter, hopefully we'll find out tomorrow. I'm not eligible, and this is the first time he will be, so he's anxious =). We've both only heard good things, but with the economy you never know. We've both decided already that if he does get anything, it will go straight to BoA CC! Woohoo now that's a bonus! =D

Not much going on..

Not much is going on atm, I'm waiting on tomorrow to get here so I can view our paychecks. We don't get paid till Thursday, but we can view it online on Tuesday evening. And I hope my new boss hasn't messed up my time from the holiday =) Cause if so he's gonna be paying my bills till next pay period! lol j/k

June end-of-month Update

Well let's see.. nothing major happened this past month besides the Old Navy trip so we made some progress. Here are the numbers:

ANB $879.52
Citi $4049.90
BoA $5086.49
Toyota: $28399.17

Total: $38415.08
Down $395.22 this month and down $4806.09 total!

Happy 4th!

Happy Independence Day America! We plan to possibly take the kids to go see Wall-E, and after that our neighborhood is having a block party and they're blocking off the middle road to shoot of some fireworks. Should be an interesting day... meet some of our neighbors and get some free entertainment!

And of course I'm late on the end-of-month update... So maybe I'll spend some time doing that too. Maybe =)

Two steps forward, and one step back

Isn't it always like that? We start making some progress, and then life gets in the way (or in our case, we sabotage ourselves)... Point being, DH and I went clothes shopping today. I was down to 1 pair of jeans and DH had 2 or 3 pairs left. So we were headed home from work and suddenly my mouth starts moving and I blabber "Hey, want to go to Old Navy and get another pair of jeans?" So off we go to Old Navy and I find 2 pairs of jeans I like but I can't find my freaking size. Why is it so hard to stock clothes so that there's not 20 size 14s left and no size 4s or 6s or 8s... Are we stocking more for the "large" now? Or did every other "normal" butt get there before me? ARGH. So I grab a pair that are a different style in my size and somehow grab a shirt instead. HUH? uh hello, you went for jeans, and you grab a shirt???... But of course I'm probably going to keep it since I'm running low on shirts that don't have holes in them. Anyways, we spent over $100 together, which isn't a lot to most people, but is a huge deal when you're trying to get out of debt.

New Networth total!

I finally found out what our house appraised for when we bought it, and according to our county data it's value is $135,600!!! Our mortgage is $122,400, so that brings us a nice jump in networth. WOOHOO! And I am in the black for the first time in a LONG time! Check it out, almost 6k in the positive! I'm grinning like the Cheshire Cat =D

Ahhh back home...

Bleh... we just got back from camping with DH's family. Yea, woopie, way to go me, right? Yeah well camping is one of my least favorite things to do. My parents used to take us camping and I hardly remember it, but if I was ANY older I'm sure I would have HATED it lol. Well anyway, we're back and I survived somehow =) But the crazy thing about going out in the woods and losing access to every kind of technology available (we were in a valley or some kind of force-field-shielded forest and even the cell phones had ZERO bars) is that I have no idea what day it is. It's weird we were only out there 2 days but good grief. All I know is that it's Sunday and I have to work tomorrow lol. I suppose it's time to look at our bills and make sure we're not close to missing any payments or anything. I love it when that I think the only logical thing to do when you get back to civilization is to hop on the computer and write a blogpost lol =)

Reality.. House Payments

Well that house payment time is sneaking up fast, exactly 2 weeks from now. Yeah, I know we have plenty of money right now, but just the idea that we're gonna be putting down $890 every month is kinda startling. Yes, I know what we got into buying a home, but still I think it's spending that amount of money for one thing... every month... for possibly 30 years. It's just sobering to me. Anyway, that's all I'm thinking about right now. Not much else going on.. plodding along with the credit cards and car payment.. same 'ol same 'ol. I guess a good thing coming in 2 weeks is that I get to update my numbers again =) Woohoo!

hm... DH vacation day wasn't really much of a vacation

Well my DH took the day off today to stay home and wait for FEDEX. I wrote him a list of stuff to do while he waited =) And I'm proud that he finished almost all of it! Plus he did do the most important things on the list so I'm happy.. But he's tired. Poor man never new how much work was waiting for him =P I'll probably finish up some of the little stuff tomorrow and this weekend and we'll be kinda caught up on LIFE lol

Happy Birthday!

..to my daughter, who just turned 5 yesterday! We bought her a computer game she wanted and a new bike! She's so excited. Her party is on Saturday and she can't wait.
I'm stressed out from family drama.
My mom has seriously lost her mind. She is going out of town this weekend and I didn't tell her about my daughter's party so she assumed I wasn't having a party for her. Then she assumes I didn't invite her because I'd rather hang out with my dad. I just want to knock her upside the head right now. SHE was the one who planned to go out of town both last weekend and this weekend! I CAN'T PLAN FOR EVERYONE ELSE'S CRAP! This is NOT about her it's about my daughter SHEESH!

Fully updated

Well at least I think it is =P I haven't added the mortgage yet.. I will need to do that soon. I haven't found a good way to track the value of the home though. I looked online for a few, but they don't have our street built on mapquest or anywhere yet, so it's hard to make sure they're talking about our house... makes me question it anyway. Let me know if anyone has any ideas how to find the value for our networth calculations.

End of May update (belated of course =D)

Finally! And here we go:

Old Navy- $0
Zales- $0
Best Buy- $0
Care Credit- $0
Dell CC- $0
AnB CC- $923.79
Citi CC- $4076.28
BoA CC- $5089.31
Toyota Loan- $28720.92

Total- $38810.30
Down $4,410.87 Woohoo!
And I will have to update the sidebars and Networth IQ later! It's dinnertime!

And it seems I'm a liar

And it seems I'm a liar because I STILL haven't posted... DH has been hogging my computer ever since his blew up (literally, like Pow Pow! and smoke came out the back) and so it makes me a completely unreliable writer. Oh well.. maybe when I get home from work tonight I can gather everything together.

Oh yeah!

Oh yeah! And besides all of the changes in my personal life I had to update everyone with, I will have my end of May numbers sometime! lol I'm so late =P Really, I can't even remember if I posted my end of April numbers... I guess I'll have to check on that tomorrow after I get some sleep.

I'm back!

Wow has it really almost been a month since I last posted?!? Let's get started then! We closed on our house on the 23rd of May and moved everything on my DH's birthday (poor guy!) the 24th. Since this was a new house we've been waiting on getting our cable/internet hooked up since then. It's been bad. We've definitely gotten more stuff done around here than we would have if we had our Internet, but I still want some downtime sheesh. Anyway, the house is shaping up nicely; we still have some stuff to do, but it's getting comfortable finally.

Another huge change: We bought a puppy! At first I just wanted to see the puppy but I fell in love and my husband couldn't tell me no. He knew it'd happen like that I guess so he just accepted it lol. Anyway, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Maxwell (Max), is sooo adorable. You'll have to check out this little bundle of sweetness.

Plus he's already fixed, microchipped, and has all of his puppy shots! Woohoo!

Interest Rates on our Credit Cards

Well, I decided it was about time to make the rounds again and call our credit card companies to see if we could get better rates. First off, Citi couldn't do anything for me this time. Boooo! but their interest rate isn't *that* bad for a credit card (if you can say that lol) It's 12.9% right now.

Luckily my husband had much better luck with the evil BoA. We've been sitting at 18.99% with them for about a year and everytime he called they'd say they couldn't reduce the rate at the time. Amazingly enough they finally gave us a break. hm.. they must have gotten tired of bending us over... i didn't say that lol Thankfully we got it reduced to 14.99%. Now I know that's not like an awesome 3.9% rate or anything, but we're making progress! And I think that's awesome!

If I calculated it right, that's saving about $17/ month just for calling our "provider" and asking for a better deal.

Whew... sigh of relief

Looks like everything's going to be ok with the house. We went to Bank of the Ozarks on Saturday morning, even though the lobby isn't supposed to be open (Thank you Mariah! Here's some free advertisement! lol). And basically, we filled out all of our info and gave them copies of what info we have and on Monday we should find out what our rate is going to be. Everything else we've requested sent over from ANB to Bank of the Ozarks.

Besides that, once that stimulus check comes in, we're switching banks for checking and savings. I really don't want to be a customer of a bank who just bought me. Doesn't seem like they'd try to keep everything the same since it obviously wasn't working lol. But we'll keep an eye on it, if they keep everything similar to how ANB did it, then we can always switch back. It was mainly the builder loans that brought ANB down anyway. Can't keep all of your eggs in one basket, especially with all the worry about the housing market! Dumb!

Shocked

Wow. I don't even know what to do at this point. I just found out that my bank is being taken over by the FDIC and is being shut-down.
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/ANB.html
That's some crazy stuff. Couldn't come at a worse time. All of our money is of course safe b/c of the FDIC (like I have more that 100k just sitting in a bank sheesh), but now our home loan is definitely not going through.
We have an appointment bright and early tomorrow to try and secure a loan with another bank. This just sucks. If we can't get one there, we'll see if this Pulaski bank can do anything. If not them, try Arvest. Surely somebody will take us from where we're at to where we need to be. Like the saying, When it rains, it pours; I think we just tripped into a puddle in a bad storm.

OMG They accepted?!

Yes, we made an offer on that house and the sellers have said yes to everything except one part, so we'll send in a revised offer tomorrow and should be good to go. The house was listed for $128,900 and our offer was $120,000 with a $1200 repair fund, home warranty (up to $450), and a $1200 appliance package that they had advertised. Basically we get everything except their appliance package, which is fine b/c we already have a washer & dryer bought slightly used for $300 together and my mom has offered to buy us our fridge. Also DH's dad has bought us a lawnmower, weed-eater, and blower with part of DH's child support payments (ie his mom is still paying his dad and DH is almost 26. Sad, sad finances there.) Anyway, looks like all we'll need is some kind of window coverings and a moving van. Our closing date is set for May 23, so it looks like we'll get to spend Memorial Day weekend in our new house =)

I'm really kinda stunned about it. It's hard to believe that it's been so easy this time. Let's hope it stays easy with the inspection and finances.

Small saving update

I'm ashamed to say that the only money we have saved right now is about $500. But I'm basing my slowly-moving-ahead-house-decision on the fact that May is a 3 paycheck month for both of us and we're going to be getting the $1800 stimulus package soon. Plus whatever we can save from our regular paychecks.

Really, for the house, I'm hoping we can get them to pay closing costs and give us their $1200 appliance package money (which will be getting used on breaking our lease). So if they pay closing costs, even half or a little more, we really won't need all that much money to cover the rest and moving expenses.

And we don't have to sign anything if we can't do it. I know we can make the monthly payments, it's not going to be something we're going to have to stretch to afford. It's just the getting into the house which is the biggest issue.

Moving forward..

We're slowly moving forward on the house. We went and viewed the inside yesterday, the inside is absolutely gorgeous! There are of course a few issues, it's missing a bathroom door, and they need to install a new closet door (the new one is sitting in the garage so no expense there) because the one that's hanging now has a hole in it. But outside door frame on the back door is really torn up.. the wood they used just wasn't the right one or it wasn't flat or something.. anyway it definitely needs to be fixed. And there's one shingle on the front that is bent up and broken on one side, so there's another small fix (i think)... So far we need to pick out an inspector and i suppose we'll see if there's anything else wrong with it.
Besides that, we're saving as much as possible and our families have offered to help with different things. My mom has offered to buy us a new fridge, my husband's dad also offered to help (probably with the lawn mower) and DH's grandma is going to contribute $500 for a washer/dryer... which we actually will be getting a slightly used set for $300 from a lady who is moving into an assisted living home. So it looks like we'll be all set for our appliances... My mom has also offered to help with some closing costs so that we can go ahead and get into this house sooner. At first I was really leary of doing this, but she told me that out of my two brothers and me, she has helped me the least, and she wants to do this, so I'm not gonna deny her this (especially since I know it's true!!!)

House hunt update

Well, we went house hunting Friday, yesterday, and today. Whew... luckily we have our new Prius so it's not AS much gas as it would have been. But anyways, we saw a lot of houses, plenty of trashy ones, some really nice (out of our league) ones, and then today we found a really nice subdivision that is actually one where the builder went bust and now the banks and real estate companies are trying to unload the houses for a good price. They are brand spanking new and we can get a 4 bedroom 2 bath listed for $128,900... That's crazy! WOOHOO! lol I mean, they're still selling older 3 bedroom homes in bad neighborhoods for well over that. If we buy anytime soon, it will probably be in this subdivision.

Here's a pic of the front of the house we like, in the neighborhood I won't mention =D

Credit accepted!

We went by the bank yesterday since we both took a vacation day from work, and we are pre-approved for 150k... Of course we don't plan on going anywhere near that. I'm thinking more like 130k at the most.

Also, another plus is we found that my husband's credit is better than we thought. With a average between the 3 scores being 712! Not great, but "above average." I'll take it! Of course mine's a little lower, I don't have much credit history being younger, but my average is around 690... boooo! lol

Anyways, we have around 4 months till our apartment lease is up, we may find a house, or we may not. I haven't decided if it's too soon or not. But I do know that we are saving as much money as we can right now. I transferred $350 last night to savings, so that's a good start. Hopefully I can convince my husband to work a few hours of overtime so we can bump this savings up quickly. And of course, I'm not just gonna sit around doing nothing =), I'll also be trying to squeeze in some extra hours and maybe try to help out some family for some cash =P

Dreaming of houses and perfume... odd mix

I love that picture.

To sum up everything that's going on, I think my DH and I will be sticking to the minimum payments on the credit cards and new car, as we start building up some savings for a downpayment. The credit cards will still get paid off, it won't be as soon as I'd like, but it will be done. I don't plan on using them unless I'm out of all other options, and hopefully we can do better at saving then we have been. I think our main goal is to be able to buy a house by next year around this same time.

On another tangent, this Saturday is my DH's and my 5 year anniversary. He's been doing some planning, and as far as I know we're just going to dinner together.. But he could surprise me. I guess I'll have to wait and see ;-D Really, I'd love some of my favorite purfume Hanae Mori Butterfly... I've been out of everything (even other cheap stuff) for about 2 months and I just really like wearing perfume. It makes me feel pretty =D lol Anyway, maybe he'll read this *HINT HINT* lol j/k

Anyways, what do you guys think about the house thing? Think I'm crazy for putting off my debt elimination in order to take out a massive loan!? (compared to what I currently have it feels massive) Really, for this area, we could get in a really nice, new home for around 130-140k... *sigh* now I'm dreaming again lol

Job Update

OMG I'm so happy right now!!! Just yesterday I received a promotion with a raise!!!! GO ME! lol I'm moving from 11.13/hr ($23150.40 each year w/o any OT) to 12.20/ hr ($25376/year w/o any OT). And actually this is only like part 1 of my promotion... I've finished my main training part, but since with the economy my new boss hasn't been able to get the new position added yet, so I'm still going to be doing my old job in the mornings w/ my new job in the afternoon. After they get my new job added, they will backfill my old job and I will be moved to doing the new job all the time and changed to salary w/ another raise hopefully! Anyways, that should help out a little and I should be happier when I go to work now! =D And I'm hopeful that upper management feels like being generous soon lol

Coming out of hiding.... confessions

Hey all, I guess I've been hiding for the past few weeks... mainly because I don't want to have to tell you all what stupid things we've done to our finances. To tell you the truth though, I still don't know whether it's a good or bad thing so I guess that's up to personal opinion now. Here goes.. We traded in our 2 2005 year cars for 1 car: an '08 Toyota Prius. The thing is now instead of having one of our old cars paid off in 2010 at the latest (minimum payments) and the other in 2011 at the latest; the new car will be paid off in 2013 (doing the min payments). Plus with the new car we owe more than we owed on the other 2 cars. But the thing is, both my husband and I work at the same employer and we hardly ever used his car... so it was just sitting in front of the apartment for no reason. What I had originally wanted to do was to just sell his car (the granny mobile) and keep mine (reasonably attractive =D) But apparently my husband didn't want to do that... so before I know if here I am signing papers to buy a stinking new car. It's like a love/hate relationship with it now. I love how it looks and that it will potentially save on gas & maintenance (oil changes every 5000 miles), but we now owe more in total than we ever have. I will have to update the true total when we get all of our paperwork. But anyways, besides being CRAZY busy with work, school, and family, I know I've been hiding from telling everyone that. Right now I feel like from our own choices we're moving 1 step forward and 5 steps back (at least) lol

Sharing Another's Successes

Just thought I'd share an awesome article with you guys, I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.paidtwice.com/2008/03/25/small-changes-make-a-world-of-difference/

Sorry everyone!

I really hate how I've left the blog w/o posting for so long... I'm really just uber busy and I'm not planning on having much time for a little while longer... The job is going good, I'm looking at 2-3 weeks and then I'll be a contact center analyst for real. School is also going well, I'm just sooo tired of going 2x a week, and I can't wait to be done with this class. Really, until things settle down around here, I'll probably just be doing monthly updates unless something BIG happens... So please check in every once in a while, but don't hate me =D

So pretty

Ok, everything's updated now and check out that Networth IQ graph, ain't she a beaut!

I'm Back & Feb. Update!

Whew, I'm back now... Anyways, lots of financial stuff going on since I last posted. We received our federal refund and paid off 4 cards! /cheer! Plus that pesky hospital bill is paid off! Anyways, I'm just going to update our current balances today and hopefully get the sidebar and everything else updated soon. School has been driving me nuts and now I'm training for the new position at work. I've heard it'll be 6 more weeks of training and then I'll be promoted if everything goes as planned! Which also means I'll be moving to salary with eligibility for bonuses!!!! I'm very excited about that part.
Ok, so on to the end of February update! It's a good one!

Old Navy- $0
Zales- $0
Best Buy- $0
CareCredit- $0
Dell- $0
AnB- $939.60
Citi- $4126.08
BofA- $5141.48
C Car Loan- $8066.65
M Car Loan- $11536.41
Total Debt: $29810.22

Plus Hospital bill: $118.70-$118.70= $0!

Isn't that beautiful?!! Plus, I almost forgot, I have my $1000 EF saved up! YEA!!! That was one great month for us!

State Return

Well, we already recieved our state return of $444. So I went ahead and paid off the Zales card with $261.58. I'm planning on saving the rest of the state. And once our Federal return arrives I will finish paying on those cards I already said and filling up the Emergency fund. Yea! We're finally catching up!

Tax return amounts

Wahooey! We finally got our W-2s and it looks like we'll be receiving $3169 from our federal return and $444 from the state! That is fantastic news! I plan on eliminating Zales, BestBuy, CareCredit, and Dell with at least $1000 going to savings... let's see if it pans out!

Feeling down

I'm feeling way down in the dumps... I need to stay focused. February should be a good month as it brings our tax return if our stupid W-2s would ever arrive.. I hate that our company waits till the 31st to mail them, I mean come on! lol
Anyways, I hope to pay off Zales, BestBuy, CareCredit, and Dell, so it will free up some extra money to send to the others each month. Anything over that amount will probably be put in to replenish our savings account.
I hope this goes as planned... I'm ready to get going again! Keep on keeping on! lol

End of January

Well, here it is.. the end of January update... ONLY 4 days late =D

Old Navy- $0
Zales- $261.58
BestBuy- $353.60
CareCredit- $499.91
ANB- $940.91
Dell- $959.00
Citi- $4088.69
BoA- $5153.93

C Car- $8324.06
M Car- $11709.91

Total: 32291.59
up $334.84 over last month
Bringing my total paid off down to $873.66

Also paid $118.69 to DD's hospital bill bringing it's total due this month 237.39-118.69= $118.70 which will be the last payment, Thank goodness!

Missing

Sorry I've been MIA lately... lots going on in our personal lives. I started back at school, I'm going two nights a week from 7:30-8:45 which gets me home around 9:05ish and then I immediately fall into bed to hopefully get enough sleep to start the next day.

We finally got paid yesterday and my retro-pay from the 16 hours last paycheck was on the check, but this is our bad check monthly and of course we're barely squeezing by even with the extra money. *sigh* Woe is me.

DH and I have been fighting a lot lately. We are struggling to communicate effectively. This is a big stressor for both of us.

And finally, at work I'm gearing up to be taking on a huge training experience with the telecom contact center and I'm going to be learning with them about half my workday starting next week. If everything goes well, and I like doing it, they plan on keeping me over there and I will receive a raise. I just don't know how much I'm going to like it, personally, I'd rather be a telecom analyst, but who knows, maybe I'll love it. And it's not like I'll be stuck there forever, I can always move later.

Hang in there with me, it's almost end of month and update time is coming faster than I'd like. But it'll be the first month seeing our poor Wii debt that hasn't even gotten a payment on it yet. (First payment is due Feb. 1st)

Sweet!

I finally found out where to add the NetworthIQ info to my blog, so check it out... It makes me sad that we're negative (no shit shirlock eh? lol) , but someday we will be in the black! And I plan on staying there if I ever make it!

Hopefully I can find the time out of my oh-so-busy schedule to update the tracker once a month =D

My Last Class for Associates =D

Looks like my class will be a go! It was assigned a teacher finally (still only 8 people) and I'm headed there tonight from 7:30-8:45... I really hope everything pans out.

I can't wait to say I have my associates and working on my bachelors =D Makes me grin just thinking about it.

Wish me luck!

Some Blog Updates and Personal Updates

Like the new title? It took me FOREVER to come up with that, so you better congratulate me on my vast creativity lol =D

Well, my final class for my Associate's starts on Tuesday if there are enough people for the college to not drop it again... I think there's still 8 enrolled and I'm hoping that's enough. If it does get cancelled, I swear I'm just gonna try to Clep and move on. It's not worth it wasting my time waiting on one, single, stupid, night class. (Whew lots of adjectives lol)

Besides that, I'm trying to get the courage to ask my mom for some help... I'm hoping she'll offer again and then I can say "Well, my check was short this time..."

When it rains, it pours...

Wow so this might have just answered my question for me... I went online to check out what our paychecks are gonna be and of course mine was shorted 16 hours GAH... My manager is so flakey sometimes... I guess I need to check with her anytime I miss work to see if she got my PTO put in. Anyway, instead of the usual $725ish, I ended up with $596. That's just lame and it sucks and I can't get my money until next paycheck the 24th.
But luckily this is my paycheck that I usually end up with a little extra money, so after all my bills minimums and gas we end up with $96.19 for groceries and prescriptions, and whatever else.... $100 for 4 people... Ugh. We've actually had worse when we had a baby still on formula and we were spending close to $45 just on formula with about $45 left for our groceries for 2 weeks. No need to cry yet, we've just got to downgrade our lifestyle and grab up some ramen noodles... If all else fails, we have a little savings squirreled away... just gotta leave time for the transfers.

My head is so jumbled right now...

Hey I'm still hanging in there... I went and had my two teeth extracted (see previous complaint-http://me061502.blogspot.com/2007/12/cause-i-had-bad-day.html) last Friday the 4th, so I've been medicated and just trying to make it through this weird experience. Really, if you've never had a tooth removed, let me tell you it's weird lol
Anyways, my mom took me to the oral surgeon and on the way she asked if I wanted her to pay for what was due at the time $130.50 I think it was. But my stupid pride just got in the way and I just refused to let her pay for it, even though I had to charge it (Ouch for next month's CareCredit). Now I'm kicking myself for being stupid.... I dunno.. She keeps bugging me about trying to help me financially a little, so it's kinda nice not totally worrying if we're gonna starve this month since I can always ask her for some moola.... But should I ask her for like $150 to help pay for it/ and other bills? I don't know if I'm making sense, so feel free to ask for more info... I would love to hear what you guys think =)