Made about another $80 today. Have a few things that did'nt sell that I will put on Craigslist.
Have a cleaning job tomorrow. Will use that money for gas/groceries.
Have to go to the dentist too, have to get a tooth fixed. Not sure how much that will cost, but fillings before were never more than $35.
I am depressed it is back to work on Monday. Really dreading it. Must get back into the "happy to have a job" mindset. Just bummed out now....

Because having the birthday parties was'nt enough , DH and I had a garage sale last Saturday, made about $80. He really wants to sit outside with the leftovers tomorrow, so we will see what we get. I am sick and tired (literally, a head cold), so he may have to handle it by himself!

Of course, I am speaking of Chase and Citi! I learned the secret ingredient of "the hardship" department and may wonders never cease!
Chase: lowered us to 12% with a set monthly payment for the life of the loan. Better than nothin and I'll take what I can get.
Citi: 0% and a set payment for the life of the loan.
Of course, barring no payments are ever late and yada yada.
With Citi, I had to let them automatically deduct it from our checking account. This makes me CRINGE!! However, I am thinking about opening a new checking account at a credit union and can just leave this payment coming out of the old account. We'll see. I am excited every penny will be going to principle!!

I will start with the frugal things I managed to do this week. I took the kids to the free movies and we brought our own snacks. On the day I took all 8 kids, I bought a large popcorn, got the free small bags to go with it and used the free refill option, so popcorn for all was just 6.50. We swam at the subdivision pool and we ate lunch at the house.

On the spendy side, I have been getting DD2 ready to go to camp for two weeks and for a "service" trip. I have been getting most things at the dollar store, but even then, that adds up! I have my goodies ready for fathers day, gc's to take DH to dinner, something for my sisters birthday and something for DD3's best friends birthday. Did have to buy DD2 new shoes for camp. Compromised, bought $45 shoes and made her pay $10 for it. Still way to expensive!!

I blew it as well. Took the littles to McD's yesterday, to the water park today and bought them lunch there. Ouch. Turns out their mom reimbursed me, but I took DH out on a date, so that is gone. Shelling out $10 for friends sons birthday, $25 for a graduation party tomorrow and had to buy allergy medicine, yuck, expensive. Just feel like a wasted too much money and ONCE AGAIN, completely ignored my beautifully planned budget like a selfish teenager. Ugh.

The littles mom is going to start working from home more. She is uncomfortable in her pregnancy and they are letting her do this, which is a great option. But...this is tough, because she has rigid rules on how she wants the girls raised, and I have to admit, I do slack on a few for the sake of sanity!! This will be a tough few months. I am happy to say I get July 3rd off and the 9th and 10th off, so shorter weeks will help! Will be interesting to see if she can make her own rules stick when she is with them 24/7 when she is on maternity leave. The fall will be interesting as she has them scheduled for this and that and I will be running them here and there and everywhere dragging a newborn. Ugh.

Yep, already. I haven't been told by my friend, but she may get laid off! I have only had this job a month and half! I guess I will spice up my resume and wait to see if the ax falls! This thought was actually floating through my mind when I took this job! I won't tell you how I found out about it, but it kind of makes me mad that she did not warn me up front. Then again, they have been generous and any job is risky these days.
So, I may have to blast into the past and go back to retail or something. YUCK! I can substitute teach again, but that won't start for another couple of months, so I would have to find something else in the mean time.
I will keep you posted!

On a positive note, having this new job has been so good financially! I have been excited to see our balances TRICKLING down! Two of our cards will be back below $10,000 in the next couple of months!! Excited!

I was buoyed by my two payoffs, but am now back in draggin' land. Seems like the "I need" emergencies keep popping up like crazy with the end of the year festivities. Barely able to juggle and rob Peter to pay Paul. We are still eating in and the cupboard is getting a little bare. We are going to start reaching the freezer burn yum yums soon. June should be a little better as far as the money, but I think that and the "I need" emergencies pop up again!

Enjoying the new job as much as I can. I already got a raise and they have begged me to continue in the fall when the baby comes. I will tell them yes, as prospects of a "real job" are still extremely slim right now. I will tell them we will reassess at Christmastime.

DD1 is doing a German exchange student program. Our student comes in October. I am pleased to say, besides spending money, which she has saved for, all it will cost is the plane ticket. What a relief! We will start fundraising soon!

Wow! Two in one month! I paid off the brakes for the van. It was 90 days same as cash, so we are paid off before they can start charging us interest!
Can't wait till I can post about another victory!! Amazing what having a little more money can do!

I like how frugal getting your hair cut can be. I had about 8 inches chopped off and it is so freeing!! I used a coupon making this a frugal endeavor. Now I use less shampoo and conditioner, less time combing out tangles and just the general cut loose feeling a nice summer cut can give.

Even more frugal, DD3 had over 10 INCHES chopped off her head to donate to Locks of Love. And since it was for donating, the cut was free and all it cost us was a tip!

Okay, we are making progress. It is amazing how a little more money can help your budget! It is nice to go from "less than nothing" to "almost less than nothing"!

I paid off my daughters class ring!! It was not much, around $350 (for the cheaper one!!), but I made the last $100 payment last night! Baby steps.

Next in my sights is to pay off the brakes on the van. Around $400 (90 days same as cash).

Here we go....

It was a long week! It has been 10 years since my kids were little and I feel everyone of those ten years!! The first part of the week was spent playing "Who is the boss". The last two days just fell apart. I am hoping for a new week! We need to get into our groove! The girls (3,5) are adorable, stubborn, and just like all kids their age! But I am exhausted! And boy have I been crabby to my own family. I hope to get it together much better this week.

The first paycheck was nice! I have paid some bills, more to go. DH will be getting his first paycheck from the new job this week. We will see how much he gets, I have absolutely no idea, just that it will be more than he had been bringing home! Still feeling very buried under debt. Hope the light at the end of the tunnel is coming!!

I really enjoyed her article that she linked to in her last entry!jhttp://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/20090324-crash-spending-... It was about having an no spend month.

I emailed it to my husband and he agreed to pull out $400 cash to use only for gas, groceries and medicines. I am hoping to leave it at $300 if possible. Sooo, thank you Thrift o Rama, you have composed an article that finally got the DH on the same page as me for once! I feel a lot of pressure to make this succeed! Will keep you posted!

A blog I enjoy reading called Frugal Babe, recently listed a place you can go for a free credit score called Credit Karma. http://www.creditkarma.com/.
I went on and found my score to be very good. It amazes me, since we owe so much on credit cards and the credit card companies have treated me like a leper or dog do or worse! I am considered a great credit risk?? Wha?? I thought I was the scum of the credit earth. I will never figure this out!!

So, still checking out the customers at my lovely second job. It is a store in the mall selling holiday decor and Christmas gifts. I can't say there has been too terribly much I have wanted to part with my money to buy, even with a 30% discount. I think I will get DH a really cool St. Louis Blues plaque as a gift, and I picked up a Mizzou ornament for DD3's teacher, but other than few other small items, nothing I want to waste my precious pennies on.
But anyway... The Customers... Most are still LOOKERS, not buyers and I must say most are paying with cash in exact change. Really odd. I have had a few less than $5 purchases on debit cards??? But other than that... the consumers are still not spending. Bad for my boss! I also ran down to Macys to return something for my mom and pick up a Christmas gift for my BIL. I was SOOO CREEPY!! A Satruday night at the mall, a month before Christmas and there was NOBODY in Macys except for the dazed and bored looking employees! Gives me the willies! On the other hand, when I cruised through the Super Walmart on Friday afternoon, I could'nt get a parking spot!!
Anyway, that is the report from the retail trenches.

I have been so lucky to retain my real estate job, despite my lack of management skills boss. But I am feeling uneasy. Our agents are very seasoned (Remax), but many deals are foreclosures and the ones that do go through are like pulling teeth!! Problems abound that make getting to closing more like a marathon! These people are working for their money, that is for sure! (And most commissions are cut!) The phones are just so eerily quiet. That is what bothers me.

Anyway, I feel bad for the friends I am working for at the mall. I know my friends husband is sweating it. He has owned a sports shop before and it was gangbusters. This is mind boggling for him. The store only made $125.00 today. That is in 11.5 hours. Yikes! He has slashed prices on lots of things. We keep waiting for the holiday spending to hit. I thought it would loosen up a little after the election, but then the stock market tumbled. And judging by the retail losses posted today by so many retailers, I am not feeling too optomistic for them.

Welllll.. lets see.
I got my tooth fixed, only had to pay a $5 co pay! Was told this will be the last time it can be done, so I will have to make it worth it!
We got the van fixed (Finally, after 2 weeks!) It is sitting on a 90 days same as cash, but I told DH, we won't have that money in 90 days either, so he better cough it up out of his "savings account"!!! It was another $856! So $1656 out so far this year. They wanted $1049, but DH was able to get them to match another garages quote. I was really proud of his negotiating skill! He played hardball. Hopefully it will run like a good little van for a while now.
The wash machine broke - again - I actually buy the extended warranty on this Maytag lemon because this will be the 23rd, (Yes, I said 23!!) repair on this thing!!! No, there is no such thing as a lemon law when it comes to this stupid washer.
The ice maker stopped making ice. We are using trays. I have some stuff on ebay I am selling and then we will use it to buy a new filter and see if that works first. Buying it on ebay is cheaper than buying it from the dealer, I checked!
The light wash cycle stopped working on the lovely Maytag dishwasher. Definately not a big deal, just handy for loads that are not very dirty, uses less time and water, but oh well, regular wash is still working fine (knock on wood)!
Hopefully that will be all for now. Right now I am working on having the cheapest birthday parties!
Today was a no spender. I went to a bridal shower that served us dinner! I got to eat out for FREE! (Sans gift!) Good time, good food!

Very interesting. We pay about $120 for cable/phone/internet each month. It is a bundle package from charter. Yes, we could have expanded basic cable and no digital. We don't really use it. No, I do not want to go back to dial up, as it makes it too difficult to sell on ebay, but I would if I HAD to. No, we can not cut home phone service and just use cell phones. My youngest does not have a cell phone. The older two do, but they pay for it themselves, we don't. I would not feel right leaving them home alone with no phone service, I think it would be irresponsible. Anyway, I asked the lady if I cut digital and just had extended basic and phone/intenet, what would it save me? NOTHING! I would be MORE! Can you believe it? YES! $137.00! Then she offered me the new package which comes with everything we already have, plus 2 movie channels and it will be about .60 cents cheaper than we are paying! At least she did save me some money!

Have'nt had a big financial breakthroughs lately. I am looking forward to digging up more stuff to list on ebay! I used my last ebay money to buy the stuff for DD1's room redo. Ugh! So now I want to sell some stuff to hammer out another CC! My goal is to pay off the next CC by the end of August and maybe the personal loan too! I want these suckers chipped away!

DH and I are going at about the same pace. I am paying the bills, he is relatively clueless about our money, but he has given me some of his bonus money to help things along!

Kids are going back to school and back to activities, so that is an extra financial pain in the butt!

Don't forget to run by Thrifty Rays blog and tell her congrats on the new grandbaby!!

It was amazing! Random things I had been putting off listing made me around $75!! Geeze, a windfall! What to do, what to do. I really want to hammer out the next card, but golly, when will this amount come again?? We have birthdays coming up and then Christmas. I guess I'll just look at the amount for a while. I have to relist something and maybe list a few more and see if I can make the number grow a little. It is AMAZING what people are buying and for heavens sake, what they are PAYING!! God bless them!

Don't forget to come check out my new blog www.cutupthecards.org. It has been lonely on the outside!

Okay, it was a puny guy, but I paid off the JCPenney Card! I am now focused on paying off the Firestone card while making regular credit card payments.

So, DH is talking again. That is nice. We still are at an impasse on money and etc. I will cut up the cards, and we will pay them off. This should be fun! He says he will put me on a $50 a week allowance for gas and food. I told him once I filled the tank in the van, he would starve. He said okay. I don't think we are seeing financial harmony here.

On a better note, we are using the Six Flags passes again tomorrow. And DD3 is going back to school on Thursday. I picked up an extra day at work starting next month too! That will help with the bills! This week etc I will be working 1/2 day Friday for someone, then Sat, Sun and Mon and Tues. Gotta figure out what to feed the family for dinners, cause obviously we won't have much money for this.

One store has a sale on Hamburger Helper and DH HATES it!! But by golly my friends, it is CHEAP and stretches for a family of 5. I think this is something I will definately invest in. Throw in some salad and viola! Let you know how it goes!

So the husband is still not talking unless it is to yell about something. I can understand his anger and I am waiting for him to calm down.

I guess I didn't fully disclose everything. DH always had access to see what we owe, and to whom, he CHOSE not to look at it. He did'nt want to know and I forced him to know. That makes him not happy. (Well, that and the amount we owe.)

We are in $55,000 of CC debt, plus we owe around $8800 for the paperweight (DH's car) in the garage. I pay our bills on time every month, we still have credit left (unbelieveably) on the cards, our home is safe, and our credit ratings are very good. That said, the dangers of having $55,000 in unsecured debt is daunting.

Some ideas I have had for the "plan" he wants me to make to get us out of debt are>
1) I have asked for more hours at work. I don't think it will happen, so I am still on the hunt for a FT job somewhere and I have tweaked my resume in hopes I will get more calls!
2) If I get a m-f job, then I can apply for a PT job for eves and weekends.
3) I like the fact that one person on the blogs talked about how she "settled" her debts with the CC companies, offering them 30% less than she owed to settle and close the card. I think this is awesome, I just don't have the money to offer this. But this might be a good thing to save up for to help close maybe one of the cards.
4) Let go... and just cut up all the cards.

Obviously, if things continue exactly the way they are now, we just have to tighten our belts, find more things to sell, and do the snowball effect of paying off the smallest and hammering on the larger ones as we go along.

Any other thoughts for "the plan"???

I have been making my list for our 4th of July celebration. I already have beans, and eggs for the deviling. The list is still long. I am going to try a new pasta salad. I was quite unimpressed with the prices though. 2 packs of OM hot dogs for $3.00, tomatoes .99 a pound. No one really has hamburger on sale! Whats up with that? One store in town has a $10 off a $50 order, so I will probably go there. It is always a crazy madhouse on special days before a holiday though!

Here is the link to the Ziploc freebie. It is from Clean Home Journal. They want you to sign up for their free newsletter too. http://www.cleanhomejournal.com/offers/July2008/?hs225=chj&h...

I put the CC's away. I was'nt brave enough to cut them up - YET. But I did take them, seal them in an envelope and then wrap packing tape, round, and round, and round, and.... well, you get it. Just to make it daunting to get out. I thought about freezing them too. Will have to see if I have to go that far.

The stimulus check should come in a week or so. It is all accounted for. Just paying things off and using a bit for our vacation. Oh, and we had to put a new alternator in the van. DH did a good job calling around and we got it for $300.

I entered a raffle last weekend for DD3's school and was the winner of $100. Boy that felt good!!

The dragons at work forced out another worker and I have been putting in full time hours. It is such a shame, I finally got the raise and now the opportunity to work full time, but I would'nt want to work for these people for nuttin! Still trying desperately to get out!! Still sick to my stomach whenever I have to go to work!

On the bright side, I did get a call from DD3's school for a job interview and DD2 is taking my resume to HER school tomorrow! Cross your fingers!

Sad, but true. I returned some things (with receipt of course) and will use that money to have dinner with some girlfriends tomorrow night. I also invested in a food processor. I got it from Aldi for 16.99. Can't wait to use it. I hate buying appliances and usually am selling them in garage sales, but I have had the need 3 times in the last month for one, so I will give it a spin!

This is working out well. The real estate agent that has me work for her, let me work from home today. I put in 4 hours for her. (This is all she had budgeted for me for the week.) Then last night I worked from home for the Pampered Chef lady and got in 1.5 hours. I will hope to do more for the Pampered Chef lady tonight or tomorrow. Love the computer! Sure has helped the bottom line!

Geeze! I just let it slip by. Seems like I've been here forever! I missed it by a couple of days, but hey, lets celebrate it nonetheless!

Been busy trying to keep at the no spenders. I did spend yesterday, but in gift cards, no credit cards! Yeah!

Am busy changing our withholding and having DH lower his retirement contributions by just a little, so we have enough money to pay bills every month. Hope it will help. He gets paid next week, so we will see if it goes into effect that quick. I think we can change our healthcare plan in June, so I will look into lowering that amount too.

Here are my Feb goals:
1) Use tax refunds to fund the EF to $1000.
2) Eat out no more than 8 times.
3) Use tax refunds and salary to cut down debt by at least $1000.
4) Assume no more new debt.

Well I did close to #1, go the account up to 800.00, but I have already used it up to pay bills. Will try again with the ammended tax money.

We ate out a lot because of the fibromyalgia. Hopefully it is waning and March will be better. I will be more realistic with 10 times out instead.

I did cut down debt a lot!! I will post my new totals tomorrow!

Assume no more new debt. Okay (are you listening Front Porch Mom? Don't feel guilty, you have company!) I did do this! I let my daughter talk me into a new outfit for a dance and one outfit that was a complete waste of money, plus I treated myself to two new bras (sorry boys, cover your ears) and boy did I NEED them. So I have a JCPenney balance I will chip away at with the Am EX.

I was able to snowflake $60 to the AMEX!! Woo hoo! And it really helped me think twice about putting anything on it! Yeah! No new debt on any Amex for me!

I did receive my rebate for my Costco from Amex. They give you cash back to spend a Costco depending on how much you spent on it last year. Since we took two big trips, it was a lot. We have about $360 to play with. Am discussing with DH how to spend this.

Will think about new March goals and post them later.

Okay, ya'll would be VERY proud of me, I was on a NO SPEND STREAK!! Three days! Holy cow! But DD1 had to go in for a strep test today, plus the antibiotics, plus the throat spray, a water, well you get it. Not too bad, but I did splurge and buy DD2 and 3 some McD's for dinner. In a hurry, ya know.... Anyway, got $327 back for the refinance on our house. Will carefully see which direction to send that in. Still waiting on checks for the ammendment of our taxes. Not sure how to check on that?

Help! We've been trapped inside with no school, no spend and cases of Girl Scout cookies. Ummmm..... life is good??!!

It was easy to have no spenders, but Saturday we got OUT and had SPECIAL OCCASIONS and Sunday we were BUSY and had to go SHOPPING. Well, you get the picture. We did spend, but not too much.

Wow the ice storms were nuts! And now more snow is supposed to come tonight. Please, please, please, make the kids go to school.....please!!!

Babysitting tomorrow. Good for the pocketbook, but not so good for the fybromyalgia. Ugh, the pain and all the other fun symptoms have been really flaring up this month. We did eat out too much, shot one of my goals down. At this point it is called survival.

Hoping to fix the wreck of Sat/Sun and make another snowflake payment to the Amex!!