Yes, I had all my credit cards paid off. I had no car payment. I only had my student loan and mortgage. And then everything changed. I have done some damage and now I have to deal with it. Some of it was emotional. Some was necessity. Some was nesting. Some was social. Some was medical. But debt is debt. And now I am in it.....again.

Be prepared to see the mess I have made on the side bar.

I also had to borrow $150 from our business to get my account right.

The only way I know to make it better is to blast it on here and make a plan.

I'm doing the walk of shame.

I was embarassed. I felt like I was failing. So I had to step away from the blog for a little bit. Truth is, I had to get out of the mindset I was in. I was continuing to spend money. Even after knowing that I didn't like what it was doing. Then, family came into town...and I spent more. Not good. But, I can't hide from it. I feel out of control when I am spending with no regard. I don't like having debt. And the last few days I have just been thinking... "Are you really ready to get rid of this debt?" "Are you ready to commit and knock it out?" Do you realize how much better you will feel without debt? And it will free up part of your budget!" And the answer is "Yes!" I want to be debt free. And I can make sacrifices to get there. Because it will be so much better in the end.

So I am refocused on the "jars" and working with cash. I have looked at my budget and made myself realize....this is what you have to work with. And its possible.

I am still going to have all of my credit cards and the personal loan paid off by the end of September. That is still within my original goal. My husband and I are looking at a couple of ways to possibly make a little extra money. We are also really considering paying me for my work with our personal business. We are thinking $50/week. It would be nice.

So...that's it. I'm here.

CC #3 is now down to $51.53. We go a small refund check from our insurance company, so I applied it to CC #3. Pretty exciting.

But...at the same time that I am making progress on my debt, I totally blew my budget. I have overspent by $75 and I still have to make a purchase of $60 that I did not budget for. Pretty much an epic fail. I am actually not even sure how to recover from it. Not pay extra on my mortgage? Its disappointing. Because nothing I bought was a need. I guess I am still headed in the right direction. I just need to focus.

Side note...I didn't come out ahead house sitting. Gas cost more than I thought. I also made more trips than I thought. But at least that insurance check helped knock out what I wanted to pay with the cash.

Ok. CC #2 is down to $372.25. CC #3 is down to 96.33! Eek!! I am so close. I got a check from Ebates for $9.89. I will put that towards #3. I told my sister that I would house/pet sit for her. For free. Because I owe that much to her. If for some chance she does pay me anything, I will use it towards gas and CC #3. But....I am not planning on that.


I am planning on grocery shopping tomorrow. We have food still....but its hard to make a whole meal. But we do need things like milk, water, etc. The water in our area is horrible. Nobody drinks it. At one point it had more chlorine than our pool! For real!


But that leads to my garden info. We moved the garden a couple of weeks ago and I planted everything. So far I have broccoli, radishes, lettuce, green beans, snap peas, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, zuchinni, and something else I can't remember, all sprouting. Our peach trees are also producing fruit this year. I am so excited! OOOHHH...and tomatoes. But if we can get any products from these plants I will be sooo happy. And that is less groceries to buy. We moved the fencing and I used popcicle sticks as markers. So I am only out $7.00 for repellant and the cost of seeds. Less than $20 probably.

My debt right now is:
2 credit cards
1 student loan
1 personal loan (which I never put on here)
1 mortgage

My personal loan will be paid off by 08/22
CC #3 will be paid off by 09/05
CC #2 will be paid off by 09/26

September 26th is going to be a great day!!!

Of course, this is just with what I have planned. Wouldn't be great if I could swiggle some extra from somewhere and pay it off sooner?

Finally....I paid off CC #1 today. So happy. Still have 2 cards left and my student loan...but this is a victory.

I also paid on my other cards and I will be able to make an extra payment in 2 weeks.

Hooray!

Well, my shopping went well. I had $114 I could spend. And on this trip I had to buy household products like TP and paper plates. But after coupons and adding a couple of extra items, I only spent $84.50. So I will put $25.00 back in my Grocery Jar. If I can continue to stay under, I will use that money towards debt. But for right now, I'm just going to keep it in the jar.


Next payday I will be able to pay off cc #1. And by 05/16 CC #3 will be under $100! Still sticking to my goal to have all CC debt paid off by September. That thought makes me soooooo happy.

My money flow feels pretty good right now. We filed and paid our taxes...on time. And I had the money set aside to pay them. My CC #1 will be paid off in the next couple of weeks. I was able to transfer $100 into our savings (Payback from our business). I have money ready for our mortgage payment and we are paying extra. I have money set aside for our pest control for the quarter and my sister's birthday. And at the end of it all...I will have a little money left in the bank and a little in my wallet.


I still haven't counted my change. It has just been very hectic in my world lately. But I still intend to count and send some to CC #1. Even if its $20...I could knock it out quicker.


I have been cutting lots of coupons, preparing for my shopping trip next week. And amazingly, we still have food left. I plan to go to the store on Wednesday...so we will see what we go through between now and then.

First....the Garage Sale. It was a lot of work, but it was a modest success and we got rid of a lot of stuff. And we gave our leftovers to my stepdaughter so she can have a garage sale. Needless to say, I didn't make even close to enough to pay for tires...but..

My birthday was Friday. And my sister gave me money to buy my tires. So along with our garage sale money and the gift, I was able to buy tires. No, I didn't have any left to put towards debt. But I think I am going to count change and see if I can come up with some. My CC#1 is down to $53.88! I can almost taste the payoff.

I am trying to clear out our fridge and pantry. I went to the grocery store and spent $60 for 2 weeks. I have $20 to carry over and $80 in 2 weeks, so I will have $100 to spend. But, I am going to use as many coupons and deals as possible so I don't have to spend the full $100.

I have seedlings almost ready to go in the garden. I have ideas this year to prevent a total wipe out from Bunnies again. But if I could get our produce from the garden instead of the store, we could save some serious cash!

Going back to my birthday... it was great. I got several free meals. Plus the tires. Plus:
DVDS to watch with DH at home
2 - $25 Target GC
Pair of shoes
Necklace
Solar Lights for yard
Door Mat
Bath Salts
So I got a pretty good haul. I am a lucky girl.

I'll let you know how much change I come up with tonight.

I don't have much to report. I went to lunch today. Thought that I left my debit card at work, so I had to use a credit card. Only to realize when I got back to work that my card was at the bottom of my purse. Grrr! So I went online and made a payment to my credit card to cover the cost of the lunch plus a few cents.

There is not much going on financially. Got paid today and everything is set to go out.

Oh, and husband needs a car. Truck is not driveable. Too cold to ride the motorcycle. He is driving another moving type truck we have but the gas is killing us. Our bank is offering us 3.7%. So we are going to see what we can do.

Well I hate to come on here and vent, but jeez. Water heater went out last night. We had to buy one today...$350 after we got a discount. Husband's car is still out of commission. We have had to shell out some cash on that. I had to go to the dentist today. They couldn't find anything wrong with the tooth that was hurting.....but surprise...I need a root canal. On a totally different tooth that I didn't even know I had a problem with. And I have a funeral Thursday. We lost a coworker. Its really sad, but what can you do.


Savings is a little depleted. I feel a little defeated. But I'm still trying.

Well, I just got our electric bill. YOWZERS! I thought we were being good....I was wrong. That ice storm really killed us. Our bill is $61.00 more than our budgeted amount. I have enough cushion in our household account for the difference, but I was hoping for it to go the other way this month. I need to find us some cost cutting actions this month!!


And I am the only one getting weird ads on the SA homepage? I had an ad with half naked cartoon girls???? What the heck does that have to do with debt and savings and such??

I am very excited to start a new year. I stretched myself a little too thin financially while my family was in town, but I can recover. I have 6 "goals" for 2014.


*** I know its not much, but I want to put 1K in Savings from my payroll alone. Of course I want to do more, but that is a starting point.
*** Pay off my credit cards by September
*** Pay off my personal loan by Septermber
*** Find new home insurance. Ours went up and I am disappointed in the company.
*** Coupon as much as possible
*** THINK. Think before I buy. Think before I speak. Think before I plan. THINK.


Can't wait to see what everyone else has planned.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am finally back at work. We were hit by a big ice storm on Thursday night. Texans and ice just don't mix. All of the stores were bought out of grocery items. Cars were abandoned all over the roads. Today is the first day I have been out of our house. Good news is....I had 4 no spend days! My work took us to lunch today and I got a ride to work, so I didn't spend any money. And Thursday is our company Christmas party...so no spending there either. Although I do have to get a gift sometime between now and then. I am really hoping for a Christmas bonus this year. It would really be helpful. So I am anxious to see if we get one.


Anyway....not much else today. Friday should be a productive day.

So I woke up with my eye hurting. It feels like something is stuck in it. I tried to deal with it but it just hurt too bad. So...I ended up having to go to the eye dr. Luckily I went to the dr a couple of weeks ago to get glasses, because I haven't had new ones in 8 years! But if I didn't have new glasses, I would have been in trouble today! Dr says I am having some sort of allergy. Have to use eye drops and do cold compresses to get the swelling down. So, I had to do a $10 copay and whatever the drops cost me. I guess it could be worse.



I made extra payments to my credit cards. $133.68. Every little bit counts. We are postponing our garage sale again. Concrete guys are going to be out Saturday, so I think it would be too hard to do both. Plus it will give me a little more time to find more stuff.

I have an Ebates check coming! $18 that I can send to CC#3. Plus $25 more that I was going to send. I am going to look everywhere I can to find some more money I can send. If I could find $30 more, I could get it under $100! But my budget for this week is pretty tight. Actually its at zero remaining. But I can check my jars and see if there is any surplus in there.

I still have debt. But after my next payment, CC#1 will be under $300! And CC#3 is almost to $150. No...they aren't paid off. But there is just something about hitting certain numbers that make you feel good.


We have an event tonight for our shop. Then tomorrow I work my regular job and then have to do some pet sitting overnight. I hope that I can get some serious cleaning done Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I have been working hard to "organize my life." Its a process, but its getting better. When my life is organized and everything is on track, its easier for me to keep the money on track!

I don't think that I have mentioned it on here, but the day before my birthday (back in April) I found a puppy in a ditch out where I live. It was cool and rainy and I knew if I left him, he would die. So we rescued him. My sister paid for him to go to the vet and for him to stay there a week. She also helped with the vet bills since the puppy had mange. Severe mange! So, instead of paying as much on our mortgage, I have had to take $50-$75 from it and put it towards this dog. And I also did some pet sitting to help pay. But now...I have 2 dogs to feed. 2 sets of vet bills. Double the treats. I don't regret saving him...but he has been expensive. Hopefully now that he is feeling better and the mange is gone, the vet bills will be REDUCED. He is 7 months old, so we will have to neuter him. So my husband and I are working on a way to pay for that. Should be about $200.

But I guess this is where I get confused. I can squeeze out money to pay for a special event or something that comes up. Why can't I just pretend I have a special event and put $200 towards a credit card and pay them off? Its not the lack of "want to." Ugh...I get so frustrated with myself.

The tornadoes that just hit Texas were about 15 miles from my house. We were slammed with large hail and high winds, but luckily we are all safe and we did not have any damage. As for our neighboring cities....they have been devastated by this horrible storm. Situations like this make me scared. Sure, I am scared of the weather itself. But I am more scared of the financial turmoil. We have $1000 in savings. I am overwhelmed with the thought of how quickly that can be blown away.


I am just left with the thought of how do I save and pay off debt and prepare for the future when there is only so much money coming in. Maybe its all just too much food for thought right now.

I have been battling some sort of cold/allergy/crappiness for days now. I can't breathe, so I can't sleep. And now I have this irritating cough. Nyquil and Dayquil are not helping...so I need to try something else. But I pretty much feel like doodoo.

To add to my day, my husband had a blowout on the way to work. And the lock on the wheel broke, so we couldn't put the spare on. Luckily our insurance had free towing for up to 15 miles and he was only 3 miles from our house. Too bad the tire won't be free.

Here is my money plan for the week:

Starting with $1340.73 (After deposits)
Gas - 50.00
Mtg pmt (reg pmt amt $1024) - 1150.00
Savings - 25.00
Loan - 50.00
CC#3 - 20.00
CC#1 - 15.00 (Minimum due)
Forgotten Hospital Bill - 25.00

I am left with $5.73

I also have:

20.00 Cash - for Pet Sitting
20.00 Cash - for Dining Out
20.00 Cash - for Dining Out - not used last week
22.00 Cash - for Fuel
2.00 Cash - leftover

I would like to pretend like I don't have any cash, but I am sure something will come up.

Well, I looked at my budget and checkbook after I paid everything and I actually had a little more left afterwards. Instead of $7.74 I have $11.89. Sweet! I did spend some cash. I don't regret any of my purchases, but I only have $10.00 left.


My husband treated me to a night out with some extra cash he had. We went and watched the UFC fight with some good friends. We hardly ever get to go out, so it was nice.


We also got the notification from the IRS for our payment plan. $300/ month. I don't have the paperwork with me, but I think after the $1500.00 we sent, we still owed around $3000.00. We are going to try to pay as much over $300 we can. And I am socking away money now for taxes at the end of the year. (Business taxes and self employment) I don't want to be in this boat again.

Today is payday! Woo hoo! This is where my money is going this week. (Writing it out...keeping myself accountable)

Starting Balance: $584.24

Gas - $50.00
Groceries - $80.00
Household - $50.00 (Holding account for utilities/bills)
Dining out - $20.00
Cash - $20.00 (Hoping it helps me not spend by having cash TO spend)
Cleaning Supplies - $10.00 (Jar Money)
Pet - $10.00 (Jar Money)
Household Supplies - $20.00 (Jar Money)
Holding for next week - $160.00
Savings? - $30.00
Other - $10.00 (Misc jar money/ clothing/ gifts)
Savings for Step-Daughter Graduation - $30.00
Loan - $40.00
Sister Bday - $20.00
HSBC CC#2 - $25.00
_______________________________

Ending Balance: $9.24
Actually, I will have an ATM fee for the cash...so it will actually be $7.74

I did send the $15.00 extra dollars to the CC#3. And I have to pay the $25.00 to CC#2 because the minimum is due.

I also have $3.00 left from my cash from last week. The numbers aren't super high or wonderful, but at least I have a plan?

My step daughter had her senior speech yesterday. I went ahead and took off of work so I could go. Afterwards, I spent the day cleaning our shop. I did eat dinner out (on my way home) but I used a coupon for a free sandwich. Just paid for the drink and chips. I forgot my lunch today, so I did eat lunch out. Opted for a piece of pizza which cost me $3.00. So of my $19.00, I have $10 left. I hate that I spent anything...but I am aware of my spending and at least I haven't bought anything too crazy.


Unfortunate turn of events...as soon as I got my $52 from the shop I received a bill from my doctor's office - for my visit in OCTOBER! I had to pay it, which was $37. So I only have $15.00 left for CC#3. But I am going to send it today before it isn't there.

Was it spectactular...no. I did go to Walmart. We needed some things at the house. I did buy lunch...but I used cash I had. I wrote everything in my "spending tracker." And I splurged on ice cream for dinner on Saturday. Husband was out and so I indulged...put that on the debit card. Not sure why I didn't use cash. So to make a long story short, I have 0.43 in my checking account after everything clears and I have $19.00 in my wallet.


Actually...I have a little more in my account. I have $52.68. I took my first payment from the shop in the amount of $52.25. So should I send that all to one credit card? Should I put in savings because we only have $1025.00? I just need to do something quick because I do not want that money to magically disappear on crap.

After reading the comments on my post, doing some thinking, and really looking at myself...I realized I need to make some changes.


As I have said many times on here before, my mother has also shown love through things. And although I try in a lot of ways to do some things differently than my mom, I realized that I do that too. I buy for my step-daughter...no matter what. Just like with prom. I had the money set aside for her makeup. But she wanted some extra things. Instead of saying no and sticking to my budget, I spent the money. So that is issue #1.


Issue #2 - I need to stay out of stores. And I have said this before too...but I shop just to shop. I don't buy expensive things, but I can easily spend $20 on cleaning supplies when I have plenty at home. Or I buy things at the grocery store when we really don't need them. No...I'm not going to TJ Maxx and buying all the cute stuff I want for my house. But buying $60 worth of unnecessary food/supplies is just as bad. I am just trying to justify it because its "food" or "household supplies."


So I am going to write down every time I spend money. And I am going to notate how I'm feeling, why I'm buying, and whether it is a need or a want. I am also going to try to go over the budget and see if I can make sure I have a little bit of money for me. Maybe if I have $10 in my pocket that I CAN spend, I won't feel like I HAVE to spend it. But if I do spend it, I won't feel guilty.


And I am going to be either at the house or at the shop all weekend. Both places need work and I need to stay away from stores. Sorry for the long post....but I am hoping I am on the right track.

I have been blogging on here for 2 years. And although I have gotten great advice and help and encouragement.....I have not made great progress on my debt repayment. But even so, I felt like I was still on the right track to make better choices and work toward making progress. This weekend, I am pretty sure I have fallen out of the tree of wise and responsible choices. I have no excuses. And as much as I like to tell myself, its ok....you can get back up and start over...I don't understand why I keep making bad decisions. I know that I want to do better....but for some reason it is like I sabatoge myself. This weekend I overspent by $169. Like into the red...account would be overdrawn $169. Luckily I have our savings to cover it....but why would I do that? Then I used my credit cards. Not 1....BOTH. Were they for big purchases...no. They were for stupid things. I am so frustrated with myself. I can talk to people all day long about budgets and how they can get their finances on track but I can't seem to hold myself accountable. Does anybody have some real advice about what I need to do to really get my butt in gear? I don't know why I am having the disconnect! HELP!

Had a great weekend. Worked a lot. But if I'm working at the shop, then I am not spending money. The shop is starting to get really busy, so I am hoping I can finally start paying myself for the "extra" work. Our step daughter was over this weekend. Its time to buy the prom dress. Its $250.00. We will pay half...but I am also paying to have her makeup done. Its a splurge, but I already have the money for that socked away in an ING account.


I am taking some vacation days from work. I will be off this Wednesday all the way until Monday. I can't wait to have 5 days off in a row. I know I will be at the shop and there is a lot of cleaning and organizing that I want to do at the house. But it will be nice to not have to cram it all into a weekend like usual. I just need to stay busy so I don't find myself lurking around Target or something.


I got my first Ebates check. It was $9.92. So I will be sending that to my CC#3. It has the lowest balance but the highest APR. I also moved my first $150 toward the IRS short coming. We have $1250.00 of the $4000. I am hoping to move at least $350 this Friday. I'll let you know after vacation how that goes. I also forgot that I still have $100 to deposit into savings to pay back for the brake job. I'll have to take it to the bank while I'm off.

I guess I didn't have much to report over the last week. Still trucking away at coming up with money for this tax monster. We did get the $1100 refund so that is a good start. I have been putting little bits of money away as I have it. $1 here, $10 there. Hopefully it adds up. I have also posted some adds on Craigslist and we are still trying to sell a dirt bike. I did pay the minimum on my credit cards, so on Friday I will be able to put $150 towards the IRS. I just hope we can continue to get as much as we can for the next month.


Today is a NSD. Hopefully tomorrow is too. I'm feeling a little under the weather so luckily I just want to go home and rest and not make any extra stops.

So last week I had the surprise offering from my sister for the animal/house sitting gig ($150.00 that happened to cover my $150.00 brake job). Today....surprise bonus from my work. It isn't huge but I am clearing $200.00. I really do need to put gas in my car....but that is some extra cash toward the taxes. Woo Hoo!

I am so grateful and thankful.

So after some thinking, I have changed my budget for the next month an a half. Debt repayment will have to take a back burner while we sort out this tax issue. So far I have found $680 to apply to the $4000. Plus $1200 that we should be getting for our unemployment taxes in the next couple of weeks. That makes $1880.00. And we could potentially have another $300....which would take us up to $2180.00. I don't know that we can find another $1820.00 in a month, but we are tightening our purse strings, belts, shoes, and anything else that will tighten, so we can squeeze some money out. If we didn't have a little bit of a bonus pay period, I don't think I could find as much as I did. I'm sad that I cannot pay all of this to my debt. But if we can do this to pay off the taxes....then we can do it to pay off the little bit of debt I have. It has really been an eye opener. This next month will not be fun....but I will do almost anything not to owe the IRS.