So Now What.... Personal Finance Blog

I thought after having a "vacation" that I would be in a better position. But the truth is....I'm not. My house isn't any cleaner. My finances aren't any straighter. My house isn't any more organized. And I haven't finished anything I wanted to do. How is that? I feel like all I do is work. I did manage to balance my checkbook today.... but for someone that normally looks at their finance on a daily basis????? That's not normal. I think part of it is that my birthday is next week and its a time of reflection for me. But I really just need more time in the day.

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.

I got sucked into looking at Groupon today. I wanted to by a harcut/deep-conditioning/style/with highlights deal today....it was $29.00. Its a steal! But, I didn't do it. All extra has to go to taxes. It was hard....because I need a haircut. But it will just have to wait. But then I started thinking about all these other things that would be great to get. Luckily, I still didn't buy anything. So today will be a NSD. I think to keep my mind occupied and not thinking about how much money I need and how much money I want to spend, I will just try to spend some time outside. It is 80 degrees in Texas today. Might as well enjoy it.

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.

Oh SA friends...when I tell you I am shaking in my boots....I can hardly stand it. We are going to owe taxes. I have found as many expenses for deductions as I think I can. And I think I have a big $4000 staring me in the face. I feel sick. Luckily I paid too much on our Unemployment Taxes for the business, so we will get $1000 back. But that still leaves $3000. I have learned a lot from this. Including how important it is to make sure we put our self employment taxes back. But I really thought we would get money back. I assume the IRS will let us do payments??? But how long will that take???

Not a lot going on today. I did get my Walmart Ebates card yesterday. I also have a $5 Walmart GC that I forgot about. So I will be using that $15 towards my groceries this week. My goal is to spend $60 or less! (Including toilet paper, paper plates, and I will have to buy some meat.)


I am going to meet a friend for dinner tonight. I found $10 in a coin purse, so I am using that to pay for it. So it should be a good time and I don't have to worry about paying for it.

So, since we live in the country now, I am taking advantage of the land and starting a garden. It will be small...at least until I get the hang of it. I am doing:
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Carrots
Herbs
Cantaloupe
Tomatoes
Peas
Garlic
Yellow Onion
Shallots
Most of these are items I buy on a weekly basis so if I can grow them myself that would be great. I started the seeds inside a couple of weeks ago and I HAVE SPROUTS. Its pretty exciting and I realized that I really enjoy it. Prepping the land, working with the soil, watching them grow. Kind of theraputic.


And today I spent $5 on something. It was a total waste of money. And I feel dumb for doing it. Why would I just waste $5 of my $11? Impulse! I've got to learn to move past the feeling. Learn to ask myself...Do I need it? Total "Doh!" moment.

I am really looking forward to having no debt. It would feel great to have extra money at the end of the week. I filled up my gas tank and kept an extra $10 just in case. I have our mortgage payment ready...paying extra. Have to pay misc bills, buy dog food, and our $20 out to eat splurge. I'm left with $11. Even putting a tiny bit in savings. I just can't wait until I don't have debt.


So very randomly my sister asked me to house/animal sit. I have to stay overnight 2 nights, but she is willing to pay me $150.00. Interesting that the cost of my brake repair happens to be about $150.00! So we will be taking the money from Savings and replacing it in 2 weeks after I complete the job. I'm still not ahead, but at least I am not behind. And luckily I didn't have to try to shave off more from my budget these next couple of weeks.


But in 3 weeks we have an extra pay period. Although, it really isn't extra. But there will be a little bit of wiggle room. I'm going to add a little bit of a cushion to my jars, put some in savings, pay extra on my credit cards, and maybe have a little leftover.


And our shop is getting busier. So maybe I can start to pay myself just a little bit. HOPEFULLY!

Ok...so I had $30 of the $79.00 Annual Fee set aside. Instead of sending the whole $30.00, I sent $15 and put the other $15 to the credit card my step daughter used. Since the Annual Fee was credited, I am still up an extra $15.00. Hope that was the right decision.


I made it to work today with my gas light on. Luckily I was able to put a very small amount in using my work's credit card, which should last me until tomorrow afternoon. At that point I can just fill up instead of Friday morning. Let's hope that plan works out.


And today is a NSD. The fact that I have nothing to spend probably has a lot to do with that. But I'll take it.

I have not been at my best the last few days. Lots of bad choices....too much money spent and the need to spend more money.


My step daughter was with us this weekend. I ended up having to give her my credit card to buy lunch and gas....my husband didn't put gas in the truck on his way home. So that was $30 that I didn't plan on spending and definitely didn't plan on putting on my card. And I have zero extra right now...so I am going to see if by Friday I can come up with a way to shave $30 off my budget. I already tightened the budget to come up with the extra money for the HSBC card. Maybe I could split the extra money between the 2 cards? Still make extra progress on HSBC and pay part of the other money back?


Also realized now that I need new brake pads and rotors. Pads on front and back. Rotors just on front. It will cost about $150 (husband can do the labor). I haven't started an Auto jar, so somehow I have to come up with it. I really don't want to take it from savings because we only have $1184 in there.


And my mom had to go to the ER yesterday. So my plan of being extra careful about driving this week isn't going so well. I had to drive from my work to the hospital and back home. The good news...my mom is ok. (Just stress) The bad news...I have a quarter of a tank of gas to last me until Friday. Its Tuesday... and there is no way.


So....I don't know. I can only throw a pity party for so long because I am in this position because of decisions I have made. And I know it could be worse.

I just wanted to post a picture of our Giant Cow. Some of you may have missed on Carolina Girls entry the other day, but I posted our Valentine's Day tradition. My husband proposed to me on Valentine's Day in front of a giant cow statue. So every year we go back to the cow and think about that day. So I just wanted to share the cow. Happy Valentine's Day!

Talked to HSBC today. Asked for my annual fee to be waived. He said no. So I said..."What is the benefit of me having this card? You won't lower my APR. I have to call long distance to talk to a person. And you charge me a $79.00 annual fee." So he agreed to give me a credit for half. Which helped. Then he said he went ahead and credited the WHOLE THING!! So if I still come up with the $79.00 then I will be further ahead. WOO HOO!

Ugh! Somehow I had forgotten that my stupid HSBC card has an ANNUAL FEE. UGH! And its $79.00!!!!! How am I ever going to pay this card off? Soo....its not a great plan, but I have tweaked my budget (which is very tight right now!) so I could come up with the $79.00 by the time it posts to my account in March. So I won't be ahead, but at least I won't be further in the red. Jeez!

Sent my found money to my credit card this morning. I know $15 isn't a lot, but I know if I keep doing that, I will knock it out. My Ebates total is only up to $9...not the $11 I was hoping for. But still...there is another $9 I can send to the card.


I think I am about to give up on Swagbucks! I watch the Swag TV and try to do surveys and do the daily poll but I only have 144 points!!! I just don't get it. Maybe its just not meant to be. Or maybe I am not doing enough? I have never met my Daily Goal...ever. I think today it said my goal was 90! How do you get 90 points in one day????

We survived dinner last night. I was able to pay for my family's dinner plus split my mom's check with the cash I had. No extra left over, but at least I had enough!


I bought some household items yesterday on drugstore.com through Ebates. I think I will get another $3.00. Add that to the $8.00 I already have - that's $11.00 I can put towards the credit card when I get the check!! I also decided to split the "found" money from yesterday. I will put $16.00 towards the graduation savings and $16.00 towards the credit card! I am kind of liking these snowflakes!


This week will be really tight. After everything is paid (or budgeted) I will have $6.00 left. Not much wiggle room at all on this one. But at least I am in the black (at least for the budget).

Well, I came across an account that I had and it has $33.39 in it. Not sure if I should 1) Treat it as a snowflake and put it towards debt repayment 2) Put it towards Savings or 3) Xfer it to my step-daughter's graduation savings or 4) Stick it in checking to add the cushion. So many options for $33.


And my mother invited us 2 days ago for a birthday dinner for her husband tonight. *Sigh* I didn't have money budgeted for that. And we already used my $20 out to eat allowance for the week over the weekend. And unfortunately the place we are going is not the cheapest...about $15.00 a person. So I cashed in some change and came up with $45.24. And I signed up for their email club and got a $5.00 coupon. I am hoping the 3 of us can eat fairly cheap and maybe I will have some left over?? And at least I will have leftovers for lunch tomorrow?

Day 2 of the fruit cleanse. I have a little bit of a headache, but overall its going ok. I am pretty hungry though! I am taking this time of cleansing to also think about money and taxes and life. There is so much I want to achieve!


Nothing new on the finance front. Everything is paid...and I think I have $7 left again until Friday.

This weekend was so busy. I cleaned all day Friday. Hand scrubbed all the floors and baseboards....just really cleaned. Saturday I worked at our shop all day. Then Sunday I cleaned more. I finished all but one room! So today, my plan is to clean that room, do my 19 minutes of cleaning the rest of the house, do yoga, and tan before my husband gets home at 6:45. As for tanning, I don't pay for a membership. My neighbor/friend has a tanning bed, so I am just going to walk over there and tan.


I should have NSD for the next 2 days. My husband and I are doing a fruit cleanse, so I can't eat anything other than what I bring with me. Unfortunately I had to buy some things this weekend, so won't have the cushion I was hoping for. But I still have my lottery winnings to either put towards savings or debt repayment. Luckily it hasn't melted yet. But I want to do something quick.


I also saw on Ebates that I will be getting $8.11 back so far. Plus my $10 card for signing up. Hopefully I can use Ebates to buy my household stuff and then use the checks to put towards my credit card.

Not much to report...which I guess is a good thing. Today is a NSD for me. Going home after work to cook me brussels sprouts for dinner....which I have been waiting for ALL DAY! My husband hates the way they smell, so he is working a little later tonight. And I am still trying to calm myself and relieve my stress. Tomorrow I am off from work (worked 4 - 10 hour days) so my goal is to clean my house really good. That way on Monday I can start the Real Simple 19 minute cleaning schedule. Basically you do little stuff everyday so its not so hard to do at the end of the week. I think it will help me.

I bought a scratch off ticket. I couldn't help it....it was screaming my name. And I won $50.00. Of course I know that lottery tickets are not a good thing to spend money on, but at least I came out $48.00 a head. Going to keep $8.00 in my wallet and put the rest somewhere so I don't spend it.


I went through my budget and reduced my planned income. My hope is that I can train myself to live off less. It wasn't a lot, but if I act like the money isn't there, then maybe I can build a cushion in my checking account that I can later use for debt repayment? I don't know....that's just what I am thinking for now.

Ok. I feel like I have lost a little bit of financial confidence. I had to take $234 from savings to pay for the hospital and an unexpected pest control visit. When Friday comes around and I pay all of my bills and take out my "jar" money, I will have $40.00 left in my account. So at the end of next week, should I apply what's left to debt or put it back in Savings? $30.00 is automatically going back to Savings already.


We are also doing our taxes for our business. Sure hope we find some expenses! Never thought I would say that!

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.

I have not slept well in 3 days. I'm tired but I feel like my body is on autopilot. I woke up this morning feeling stressed and anxious...and tired. I ended up just coming in to work early (early by an hour and a half). I tried melatonin, but it didn't seem to help. I think tonight I am not going to take anything.


So on to Rewards. I didn't realize that one of credit cards was set up for this. But the poopy part is that I have 1200 points, but you need 2000 to do anything. I feel like that is money I am just going to miss out on because I don't need to charge anything else to the card (to earn more points). Maybe I can come up with $12 another way.

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.

So....we had a water leak. Last month I noticed that our bill was about $20 more. We walked the house and check everything and couldn't find any leaky faucets or hoses or anything. Well that's because it was a main water line closer to the property line. Luckily my husband was able to fix it and conveniently our neighbor (and husband's best friend) does plumbing on the side, so he gave us the parts. But our water bill for this month is $70.00 MORE!! YUCK. Then I got our electric bill. HOLY SUGAR...it is $320! Last month was $158. What the heck happened? I called the electric company, they said it is our heater. So I guess I am going to have to turn it down a couple of notches. Not the happiest camper today.