Well, I thought everything was on the up and up, but I ended up having to go to the emergency room Friday afternoon. I have been having chest pains for about a week, but as Friday afternoon rolled around, I started to get scared. After all the tests and blood work, we found out that my heart and lungs are fine. They are treating me for esophegeal spasms - caused by acid - caused by stress. So not the best Friday night. Cost me $200 - but the piece of mind is worth something.


I have been under a great deal of stress. I am a worrier by nature, but between my full time job, doing the books and back-end work for our business, trying to manage our money, plus everyday stuff with a household and my step daughter - I guess I just reached a point my body couldn't handle. I just want to figure it all out. Actually I want to feel ahead of the game.

Well, its payday. I took the $7.00 I had left from last week and sent it to a credit card. Our mortgage is due, and this month starts the reduced amount. The reduced amount is because of our escrow and insurance and blah blah blah. But we are going to go ahead and pay over. So that is going out. And after paying our utilities with the overages, I managed to put just a little bit into savings. Some is better than none, right? All said and done, I have $31 to last the week.

Well, I spent money yesterday, but it was money that I had set aside. I wanted to try Ebates. They said if I spent $25.00 that I could get a $10 gift card, plus the cash back is double right now. So I went to drugstore.com and bought several things that we needed and spent $25.91 with free shipping. Seems like a pretty good deal. But today I actually broke down and went to the grocery store. I spent $11.98 of my remaining money, but will still end the week with $7.45! Pretty excited about that. My thought is to treat the $7.00 like a "snowflake" and apply it to a credit card. But should I wait until I have more than $7.00? Its not very much.....I know....but if I did that every week, that could add up. It will be 2 more weeks before I make regular payments to my cards again.

So after working on our business stuff last night, I looked into Second Spin some more. I had 7 movies, in good condition, that weren't very old and I was offered $4.13. Doesn't seem worth the effort for me. Maybe we can do a garage sale and just include the movies or something. It was worth a try though.


I ate leftovers last night and packed a lunch for me and my husband today. And I plan to make dinner tonight with enough leftover for his lunch tomorrow. Plus I still have $20.00 in my account. My work owed me for gas, so I used that to put gas in my car this morning. So it looks like I am going on NSD #2.

At least I feel like I am figuring it all out. After thinking about our utility issue, we decided to take the amount we are over from the Escrow overage. I hadn't sent it yet, so it will be better for that to be slightly less than take it from savings. The escrow payment I make will still be over what we are estimating we will need.


Everything is paid and I still have almost $20 in my account. And I even have a little cash on hand. I have not started taking a "paycheck" for our business yet. This is a slower time of year so its better for me to just devote my time. But once I start getting that, it will great to start pushing that money out to credit cards and savings.


We have leftovers from dinner last night, so today will be a NSD! And I have stuff to pack for our lunches tomorrow and stuff to cook for dinner. So tomorrow should be a NSD too!!


I've heard a lot of people talking about second spin. I thought about checking it out and seeing if I could possibly earn a little bit off movies that I don't watch. Guess it doesn't hurt to try.


I know this post is all over the place. But I am really feeling the positive energy today.

We have sooo much food right now. At least it seems like it. I was going to do a food inventory a while back, but never did. So tonight will be a good night to do it. I am hoping to have 2 weeks worth of meals between my pantry and fridge/freezer. We will see!

So money seems pretty good right now. Everything is paid and I have $6.00 in my wallet. Today will be a NO SPEND DAY for me. WOO HOO.

I see a lot of people starting money challenges...how do you have $12 or $20 to add to challenge money everyday? Or even $1 or $2? By the time I go through and pay everything and put money in savings or whatever I'm going to do, I usually have little left and I only allow myself $10 in cash. I do the "jar" technique....take cash out...but it in jars and try to only spend that on my variable expenses. So instead of leaving the leftover in the jars...should I put it in a challenge fund?


I still have a few things left to pay. I am going to transfer a very little bit to savings. Still haven't moved the thousand...its just sitting in our bank account. But I am also starting a savings for my step daughter's graduation gift and expenses. I'm only putting $20.00 in this week, but she doesn't graduate until May. We want to give her cash, so I have to start saving now. I also got a ticket for a U-turn....I totally didn't see the sign. So I am having to come up with $107 in the next 2 weeks. So no extra money right now. I think I will have 0.97 but we have groceries and gas and everything we could need for the week.

3 weeks have flown by. We survived the holidays. I did pretty good on money, but under estimated how much gas I would need while I had family in town!

I got paid today. I already paid everything that I had to pay. And after I put in gas and allow for my $20 for dinner out I think I have about a $1.00 left.

We had an unexpected check come in the mail....from our escrow account. A pretty large check for us. But instead of spending it or doing even doing anything with it....we decided to put the majority of it back into the escrow account with our mortgage payment. The reason for this is that I know our taxes are going to go up. We got to carry over the previous owner's exemption and since we are not veterans, we will lose that. So we are just going to stick it back in there to cover the increase. I do have over $1000 to put into savings though. So that will be nice.

I also sat down and looked at my credit card debt. There is absolutely no reason why I should not have all of my debt paid off this year. I just have to pay $38.00 more than what I have budgeted. So I have an amount for each card I have to pay each month to wipe it out. And I want to pay as much over that amount as I can. Even if its only a couple of dollars.

I am sticking with my budget...no bending...so I have 0.00 for spending right now. But its really hard to not go to Target and buy Christmas gifts, or cleaning supplies, or decorations, or candles.... And I don't want to go because I am bored. I just want to go. But I'm going to stick to it. We had lunch out today for a girl's birthday, so I didn't have to pay. And Wednesday is my work's Christmas Lunch, so I won't have to do anything for lunch or dinner that day. But having no money to spend all week is going to be really hard!! I do have to pick up some stuff for work (on the company credit card) so maybe that will get rid of my feeling!

I am pretty nervous about making myself stick to the budget hardcore. I usually have my budget but I let myself bend. After bills I will still have:

$15.00 - Remaining for Gas (I will put $35.00 in)
$60.00 - Groceries
$20.00 - Out to Eat
$40.00 - RX
$30.00 - Toward Loan pmt
$10.00 - Cash

I was really hoping to keep my $10.00 in cash, but there is a back massager I want to get my husband. It is on sale for $19.99. I have a $5.00 off coupon. And I have $7.02 in Kohl's cash...So I think I will just have enough with my cash to get it.


On another note...I have decided to leave my 2nd job. The restaurant is not busy so the majority of my night is spent cleaning. So for a small amount of money, I will be doing some extra work for our business. I do not take a salary for the work I do already. But for this extra work, my husband and I agreed that I could take about $50.00 a week and apply that to debt and savings. I hope it works out. I don't want to not be able to fulfill my goals.

I cannot believe it is almost December already. I am feeling a lot of anxiety right now. Especially in the finance part of my life. Sometimes I feel very secure and I feel like I am on the right track, but right now I don't. I am hoping that I can stick with my December budget...very strictly. I need to do it. Not just for the financial side of it...but so I can teach myself to be disciplined and know that I can do it.


And as the year is coming to an end...I feel like this has been kind of an overwhelming year for us. Buying a new house, starting a business, step daughter's senior year, and trying to pay off debt. Its been the most expensive year. I guess I am grateful for survival.

Since I got cancelled from my 2nd job tonight, I plan to use that time to do a food inventory. That way when I go to the store on Saturday I can try to get just the bare minimums. We should have Thanksgiving leftovers to last us for a couple of days and I think I bought extra eggs and milk with my Thanksgiving money. I do want to try to get some good deals on food my husband can take to the shop for lunch and I want to get plenty of rice and soup for me to take to work. Our goal is to try to cut our spending for December.

I do plan on hitting some Black Friday sales. Hopefully I get what I am after, but if not...I will just have to find other ways to be frugal.

So Happy Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for this site and all of my Financially Focused Friends!

I am posting my December budget. I feel like I need some guidance. I am not getting anywhere. I know that I still spend when I shouldn't. I don't go crazy, but here and there I indulge. So...here is my budget for December and my debt (not including mortgage and student loan). If I could just knock out my credit cards, I could move that payment money to my student loan. And I should say that my actual estimated take home is $2072.00 but I estimated low for some wiggle room. Other things that are important... we live in the country and work a lot, so I am not willing to give up our Dish. It is sometimes our only entertainment. Since we live in the country we do not have any other options for internet or electric providers. Ready for suggestions or enlightenment.



IN:
Husband $1456.00
Household $420.00
Payroll $1960.00

OUT:
VEH GAS -$250.00
GROCERIES -$160.00
CELL PHONE -$170.00
SPEC. INSUR -$48.00
CAR INSUR -$115.00
EATING OUT -$75.00
CASH -$20.00
MEDICAL/RX -$80.00
ELECTRIC -$285.00
DISH -$72.25
INTERNET -$61.10
HEALTH INSU -$420.00
CHRISTMAS -$80.00
CC REPAY. -$80.00
MORTGAGE -$1356.50
STUDENT LN -$65.00
CLEAN. SUPP -$10.00
PET -$10.00
HOUSE SAV -$20.00
CLOTH/OTHER -$20.00
SAVINGS -$90.00
WATER BILL -$70.00

IN: $3836.00
OUT: $3757.85
REMAINING: $78.15

This budget does not include my 2nd job. Take home on that is estimated at $70.00/wk. Half will go to SAV and half to Credit Cards. At least that is my plan.

Well, I got my AFLAC checks in yesterday. I will be able to deposit those into savings to make up for the money I took for the wasp/staph incident. I will still have to figure out a way to put back the money for our college trip tonight/tomorrow. About $100 overall. I would say that I could just deposit my paycheck from the restaurant when I go back, but I am beginning to wonder if they will want me back. They went 10 days without me...maybe they will just tell me not to come back. Ugh. Although the extra time at night has been nice, especially since I haven't felt great, I would like to work a little longer and really make some progress on my debt and savings. I guess we will see. I should probably call them and see what they say.

Sunday the 21st, I was stung multiple times by a wasp. He was on my seat in my car...I leaned back...he stung me...and then stung my hand multiple times when I put my hand back there. (not knowing what was going on). Everything seemed normal, BUT apparently it wasn't. I got a staph infection from it. My hand and finger started swelling up last Tuesday (9 days after the episode) and finally by Thursday I had to go to the Urgent Care Clinic. 2 shots, 2 antibiotic prescriptions, and a copay later....I think I am finally getting better. I had to take money from Savings to cover the Dr, but luckily I will get checks back from AFLAC that I can use to replenish.

BUT...I am having to make an unplanned trip out of town this Thursday. My step-daughter wants to go visit a college a couple of hours away. So it looks like I will be paying for a hotel room for one night and maybe one dinner. Cheapest room I could find that wasn't too sleazy looking was $66.00. So, unfortunately I feel like I'm taking some steps back. Especially since I can't work my 2nd job right now because of the infection. (Sigh) Maybe I'm not going backwards...just treading water.

I have been thinking about my Grandma lately. My father's mother. When I think about her and her financial abilities, I can't help but long to be more like her. Before my time, my grandparents owned a bar. When they sold the bar, they bought rental houses in a lower income area. I remember going with her to collect rent when I was little. Somehow, all of the rental houses were paid for. Her house was paid for. She had a nice car that she paid cash for. She had money in the bank and a little in the stock market. But if you saw her, you wouldn't think that she had money at all. She made her own clothes. Cooked dinner every night and would drive around town to get the best deals. She had a stockpile of toilet paper, paper towels, and anything else she could need. But appearance didn't matter to her. She wasn't interested in renovating her house. She didn't need a designer purse. She didn't mind eating a bologna sandwich. So I just wonder if maybe I need to adjust my whole way of thinking. Or at least find a middle ground between the 2. But I do wish she was still here to teach me her ways.

I've been at my 2nd job for a little over a week. After working my full 8 - 10 hours at job #1, another 3.5 hours makes for a long day. The good news is that I hope to put my paycheck towards savings and credit cards this week. I can only put $25 towards my card, but hey...at least its extra. But if I can stick with it through November, I will be able to pay off a credit card and add $500 to savings. Its just hard. I am so tired when I come home.


I took off tonight from #2, to go to dinner with my husband for his Birthday. I can't wait to just enjoy the night.


Oh....and termite treatment is Thursday. My sister is amazing and gifted us the money for the treatment. To say that I am grateful is an understatement.

The exterminator came today. I decided to work from home until he came so I didn't have to take a vacation day. The news....not so great. With a discount...probably because I started crying while he was there...it is $936.00. I didn't cry to get a discount. I cried because I am completely and financially overwhelmed. I quickly dried it up and realized that THIS IS WHY WE HAVE EMERGENCY FUNDS AND SAVINGS ACCOUNTS. Unfortunately, we don't have enough to cover all of our recent financial "happenings." But we have to have our house treated. Its not optional and he said we need to do it within the next couple of weeks. Which means shortly after that, we HAVE to do the siding on the house, to protect us. And of course, we still have to fix my husband's transmission. And changing the oil filter on my car...didn't fix the problem.


*deep breath*


I am so overwhelmed. The good news is that I did get the job at the restaurant. I am just a cook. Should be easy enough. The pay is not huge, but its extra and if I could put $100 of it a month towards my debt repayment, I could probably knock it out pretty quick. And put the rest towards EVERYTHING else. I start tomorrow.

We have termites. A little while back, I was afraid we may have termites, so I invested in some home treatments and home test kits. And...we have them. I am afraid of what the treatment will cost. I think it could be anywhere from a couple of hundred to a thousand. I will know tomorrow. I am hoping with every ounce of my being that we caught it early and it is the low end. We don't have a huge savings, but we could cover that.


My husband's transmission is in the repair process. I am hopeful that he is able to fix it. He does not want to pay someone 2K to do it nor do we have 2K to pay someone. So... what can you do?


My car was also having some issues. My husband truly thinks that is was because the wrong oil filter was on it. I hope that he is right. We will see if I have any more issues, because he changed the oil filter last night.

And finally, I applied and interviewed for a part time job last night. Its Monday - Friday, 5-8 PM. Waitress and possible cook. I enjoy the restaurant business, its only 3 hours a night, it will bring in a little extra cash, and its only 6 miles from my house. Which for being in the country, that's pretty good. I just realize how much I miss our savings account. When we had 10K in there, I knew we would be ok if something came up. I feel like now I am just floating in a sea of danger in a saran wrap dingy.

I am trying not to let the fact that we have to fix my husband's transmission get me down. The upside of this situation is that my husband is going to try to fix it. Should be $300 - $500. If it doesn't work, then rather than deplete our savings, my husband is going to sell one of his "man toys" to pay for it. Down side is, I won't see my husband much. Luckily we have another vehicle he can drive (eventhough it is a gas hog) and he can also ride his motorcycle.


Other financial ramblings... I'm looking forward to October. Excited to make bigger credit card payments. I will also be able to put a little into savings and boost my Christmas savings.


Luckily this week will not be as tight as last week. And I am hoping that no EXTRA expenses pop up. Lots of work to do at our shop and around the house, so I should be too busy to spend money. And I took Monday off from work, so I'll save a little on gas.

Retirement has been on my brain a lot lately. A year and a half ago, I didn't even have a 401K. And although my contribution is small and I do not get an employer match, I still feel like I am accomplishing something by having one. I had a 401K years ago, but due to financial "ignorance" I took a total distribution when I was laid off. But....you live and learn.

But retirement has become so overwhelming. According to Merryl Lynch, I need at least $600,000 at retirement. I do have over 30 years before retirement, but how in the world can I save 600K? Pay off debt and put that amount towards retirement? Even then, its not enough.

Retirement has been on my brain a lot lately. A year and a half ago, I didn't even have a 401K. I did have a 401K at my previous employer, but being financially dumb I took a distribution when I was laid off. Not the best decision. But you live and learn. My employer now doesn't match %, but I feel like I am accomplishing something by just having one. Unfortunately, I can't change my percentage for another couple of months, but I plan to raise it.


But retirement seems so overwhelming. How am I supposed to come up with $600,000 (According to the retirement calculator, that is the minimum I need)? Pay off debt, then use that money towards retirement? Find a different way to invest? I have over 30 years until retirement, but the days are just flying by. And I don't want to be stuck with nothing.

So, its Wednesday and I have 0.00 of my $2.96 left. I had to make 2 trips to our shop so I am completely out of gas. I had a little bit of cash set aside to get gas to get me through the week, but with the unplanned trips, that is gone. Luckily we do not need anything from the store until Friday, so I will have to steal from that jar for gas. Ugh. We also had a last minute invite to watch a show premiere at a local bar last night. My husband had cash so he bought our drinks. So that worked out.

My plan for tonight is to stay home and make a grocery list. We have not eaten off my meal plan so I should still have some things left. Luckily we have been eating off the inventory so its slowly going down. Husband will be home later than normal so maybe I can do some stuff around the house too. We have just been so busy lately...I am just glad I don't have to be anywhere tonight.

This past week we had some unexpected expenses - termite treatment (do it yourself kind), household items, and one of our insurance policies went up. So when I got paid today, I went ahead and did all my financial planning and paying...transferred money away for our utility bills, paid credit card payments, accounted for car insurance coming out in a week. And I have $2.96 left. I even took out cash for us to eat out once this week and filled my car up with gas. So I am hoping that I still have $2.96 left next Friday. Luckily I have groceries and I think I have $10 in my "Food" jar at home in case we need milk or something along those lines. But it will be a tight week. But next week will be better.


And even though I am saving for Christmas and my husband's birthday right now, I will be able to pay 4x the minimum on my 3 credit cards in October. I feel like I'm doing ok.

So last night I went through my freezer and pantry and made a list of every item I had. And although I did have some stuff in my freezer and a lot of starches in the pantry, I will still have to buy some things to make meals, plus milk and produce. But I was able to cross a lot of things off the list and reduce the amount. At least I am aware of what I have and with the meals I planned, I can clear out some of the older stock.

As I said yesterday, I grew up with the mentality that you should always have food in your pantry and freezer. Just in case. I don't have tons. I don't have a stockpile like an extreme couponer (although I am impressed by them). But I always have soups, beans, some veggies, pastas, and rice; things like that. So I'm trying this to see if I can just have less. I don't ever want to be where I have to go to the grocery store because we don't have anything I can make. Plus it take me 15-18 minutes to get to the store, so I don't want to have to make extra trips.

I made a grocery list yesterday. I have a pantry with food. And I have some food in the freezer. But my list is of all these foods that I want to make. Suddenly I am thinking....mark all of that off the list and only buy produce and milk. Am I being cheap? Or is this really the right thing to do? Maybe I should take an inventory and see what I can come up with? Maybe I could make it into a culinary challenge?

We celebrated my brother's birthday this weekend....a very last minute celebration. I was in charge of bread and dessert, which I thought would be easy and cheap. But it wasn't. My sister doesn't eat gluten, so I had to make sure I made something GF for her. And I stopped to get cupcakes because I thought it would be easier than baking. Well I should have just baked. I didn't think they would be very expensive for a dozen, but after she boxed them all up, she told me it was $40!!!! $40 for 12 cupcakes. Ugh. So I paid for the cupcakes. And my extra $40 for the week, went to that. One of my Rx was free, so I had an extra $20 from that, that I gave to my brother as his gift. So I have no extra money for the week, but at least I didn't have to take money from something else to cover it.

So I am thinking about my budget. Is my current budget good enough? What can I change? Is the living on cash/jar method the way to go? I have tried to do a budget through Mint.com, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I heard about YouNeedABudget.com today. I don't know anything about it except they want $60 for the year for the software. Are there other budgeting softwares? Should I stick with what I know?

Much to my surprise, I got a raise on Thursday and it was more than I thought I would get. I am excited to revamp my budget and see what I can do with the extra money.

I also survived the step daughter's birthday. I realize that I have a hard time budgeting when it comes to her because I want to give her everything. But she is only 18 once. At least that is my justification.

I also got an unexpected increase in our phone bill. My husband forgot to tell me that there was an upgrade fee that would be on our next bill. At least they are going to retro my raise back a few weeks, so hopefully the extra will cover it.

I have had 2 no spend days in a row!!! I love it. But today, I have to buy my lunch. But it seems like a NSD makes you gain focus. Suddenly you don't want to spend money.

I'm also gearing up for the weekend. My step daughter is turning 18! We already have her present and I have a budgeted amount for dinner. So it should go fine. I just have to buy some decorations, which I think I will just take out of my grocery budget for the week.