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!!

Yes, I have to keep a close eye on this. My Citi card payment has been moving backward. I make a budget each month and write down payment due and due date. Now I know that a due date can change because of the weekend or holiday, but then it has been staying earlier the next month and if it adjusts again, it stays even earlier! So yes, I had to pay $39.00 in a late fee. So far they have not raised my interest rate because of it, but I am keeping an eye on it. So I looked at my March budget and made sure to back up the payment AGAIN so it won't be late next month. Tricky sons of guns are'nt they??

I did make my first "snowflake" payment to the American Express. Yeah! March will be sooooo tight unless we get the amended tax return money, that I will have to be very creative making REGULAR payments, let alone any snowflake payments, but I will try!! I took a couple days babysitting jobs. It doesn't pay much, but it is better than nothing!!

Sooo... anyway, money wise we are doing OK. Nothing great, just OK. I am still waiting for our amended tax return deposits. We also did a refi, not a whole one with money out, just one with a better interest rate and it was a no cost one, but they will be sending what was left in the old escrow account, so another $800 coming in to send somewhere. Did dip in $300 to the savings account. Something is always coming up. There was another meat sale at the local store and we were almost out of our stash, so a $100 resupplied that. Except for fresh fruit and milk, I really have a load of groceries to last us a while! As soon as I get paid I will make my first "snowflake" payment. It sure won't be much, but it will be a start!!

DH and I went out LAST night for our Valentines date. We went to Lions Choice, used coupons, and paid cash. Way cheaper than the Outback DH was inclined to! We gave each other store bought cards and I gave him some more deluxe mixed nuts, as he is on the South Beach. Bought them 2/$5, so one for the anniversary and kept one for Valentines day. He gave me some chocolate and a balloon. Perfect! I am going to splurge on the girls, I gave them some candy and other knickknack things I had around (body lotion, get pens, notepads) and I will order a pizza for dinner. We have gotten back to the point where this is exciting to get... instead of expected!!

Yes, I have finally gotten my UGLY DEBT TOTAL in order and can face posting them on here. And it is ugly my friends. $45,500 in CC debt. It about chokes me. Soooo, since the beginning of January, the rule has been no new debt. That has been successful although not 100%. My goal is to get the baby EF up to $1000, which I am trying to do with the tax return money. We had to amend our taxes, so who knows when this money will come in. I have decided to attack, ie.. snowflake to DEATH, the BOA first. It has a 0% until May. I am attacking this one as it has the lowest total.

We'll see how it goes. Feels good to finally be getting a handle on it. I know some of you will say, "Holy cow, I feel good, she's got it way worse!" and maybe a few of you will say "Gee, that's not so bad...." Anyway, hopefully we can finally get moving of diminishing this. Don't fool yourself that "Everyone has debt" because that is NOT the way it should be! I can't wait for someday when we are DEBT FREE! I could be a looooonnnnggg time! Stay tuned......

Yes, I have finally gotten my UGLY DEBT TOTAL in order and can face posting them on here. And it is ugly my friends. $45,500 in CC debt. It about chokes me. Soooo, since the beginning of January, the rule has been no new debt. That has been successful although not 100%. My goal is to get the baby EF up to $1000, which I am trying to do with the tax return money. We had to amend our taxes, so who knows when this money will come in. I have decided to attack, ie.. snowflake to DEATH, the BOA first. It has a 0% until May. I am attacking this one as it has the lowest total.

We'll see how it goes. Feels good to finally be getting a handle on it. I know some of you will say, "Holy cow, I feel good, she's got it way worse!" and maybe a few of you will say "Gee, that's not so bad...." Anyway, hopefully we can finally get moving of diminishing this. Don't fool yourself that "Everyone has debt" because that is NOT the way it should be! I can't wait for someday when we are DEBT FREE! I could be a looooonnnnggg time! Stay tuned......

For those of us who have a hard time setting and acheiving goals, February is a great month to get moving! (It's short!!!) So, my goals are:

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.

Whew!! For a non-goal setter, 4 is the max I am going to try for. Revisit on March 1, to see how I did!!

Well, no wonder it was so hard to pay bills last year, we were grossly over paying our Federal Taxes!! So we will get an obscene amount back and change our withholdings for sure!! Ugh!

My van passed its emissions inspection! Yeah! Just in time for the end of the month deadline. Instead of having them "tear into it", DH went to Walmart and put in a new battery. No problem!

I am getting ready to ship out sales of $144 from ebay! Had some problems with paypals shipping, but they were resolved and all is good.

Funny, the hi temp today was 73, the low is now 14!!! Yikes!

Lets see... sent out three more resumes. I got an interview at my best friends work, but the lady said it would be a phone interview. Guess I don't have to get out of my pjs tomorrow after all!!

I am still interested in doing the refi on the house. Just have to have DH agree.

The van did not pass its stupid emissions test. Not sure what to do. Paid $24 for it. Must chew on this. It is a computerized test that said some of the sensors are not working or something. Can't imagine having it fixed, can't imagine not having a car!

Splurged at the knitting store to get a few quick lessons. Bought yarn and new needles and had a hour long class, all for $11.00!! That lady was toooo nice!

DH and I had our date night. $20 at IHop. At least we got to catch up on some things.

Going to list more on ebay tomorrow. Gotta keep the money coming in somehow!

I did get offered a job from a friend at my Bible Study class. She asked if I would come over and help her get organized and do paperwork. This is already what I have done for the guy I work for that sells durable medical equipment. She said she would pay me in gift cards for wherever I want! I think I will definately help her out until I get a full time job!

Things get curiouser and curiouser... they cut the weekend hours from 9-4 to 10-2. Glad I worked this past weekend and got my 7 hours in!

DH and I were bad and went out for date night tonight instead of waiting till Wednesday. Nobody could face the spaghetti and meatballs that were on the menu!! Ugh! We put it on the AmEx that we pay off monthly, so I have to budget that into the beginning of next month. I also have to figure out something to have for dinner on Wednesday.

DH and I have been listing a lot on ebay. We have sold some stuff, but lord, sometimes those fees just bug me!

Well, I worked today and I did use my Starbucks GC for breakfast. Brought a sandwich and nachos for lunch.

DD3 had her first cheer leading practice. We had an extra hour to wait, so I went to the grocery store. I used my emergency $50 to grocery shop. I spent $36.85 to get us ready for lunches from home for the week and some more South Beach stuff to support DH's diet. Saved $5.60 in coupons.

Applied for another job. A full time one. It is amazing the slim pickins in the job market these days! This is a receptionist for a CPA firm. Sounds a little dry, will see if they call me and what the salary is.

I let DD1 drive to the mall.....ahhhh....she was doing so well, then decided maybe she did'nt have to slow down for curves or turns?? Wondering if she is just doing it to po me??

Any hoo, DD2 has had a lot of school costs, $32 for shop, $2 for an agenda, and now $6 for PE for skating. I paid the $32 with the babysitting money, she paid the $2 and I am going to have her pay the $6, plus she lent her sister $2 which I wanted to cover. So I used a GC at Barnes and Noble to buy the Wicked CD that I will give to her which will cover what she is paying for - plus!

I played Bunko last night and mom generously donated the $5 for me to play. I won $20!! So I went to Aldi and bought some cat litter. Only $3.29 there for the scoopable kind. There was only one left, must have been waiting for me! So kitty is set!

Then I will use some of the money to give at church today.

I also used a GC at Starbucks. I am not much for the fancy stuff, but I have 2 GC for there and I like a decaf when I am going to work. I got some foofy thing I won't get again. I will stop on the way to work tomorrow and get a decaf skinny vanilla latte. I think that will be pretty normal and I will get a low fat blueberry muffin. Breakfast will be served! I will pack some leftover or a can of soup for lunch. Will be looking in the paper for a new job and printing out my resumes on the good printer at work.

I also cashed in my Mypoints for a $10 Red Lobster GC. I have a $10 one from Christmas too and will have enough within the next couple of days to cash in for another $10. Using these for our annivesary dinner coming up in a couple of weeks. Plus we have a $25 movie GC. Woo hoo!

Yep, I sort of fell off the wagon. I went to Target for milk and birthday gifts for parties the DD1 is invited to. I will pay $15 per child party. This is up from $10, which I should'nt do, but do for the older kids. (15), so approx. $35 was gifts and milk. Wow! $50 in crap?? Cat food, soda, ice cream, bottled water, napkins.... Ugh! I put this on our AM Ex that we pay monthly, so not on a revolving card as a would have in the past, but none the less a CC. I also put in $25 in gas with the same card. So DEBT of $114.90 today.

Still not spending out of our checking account, no money in it, need cat litter, not sure what I will do about that.

The menu plan is going AWESOME!! Have'nt eaten out at all, cook every night and have leftovers for lunch!

Have made a tiny amount from ebay. Will list some more things. Even my mom contributed some things that I am going to put on a 3 day sale today. Maybe that will help me buy the cat food.

Mom also paid for DD3's piano lessons for the month, so nice of her! A late Christmas gift! THEN, when the piano teacher came, she gave me a thank you note for the referrals I have sent her way and a note for 2 free lessons for next month!! So next month we will only need $30 instead of $60. Woo hoo!

Wednesday was another no spender. We are out of milk, so I assume I will have to spend at some point. Maybe get gas too, getting to fumes.
So...no new debt.
Got asked to babysit today. This is a blessing of $35 which I needed to cover DD2's shop fee for school. Was running to cover it, so will take it and put it in the bank as soon as I get it. Hooray!

Ok, I'm not Britanny. But I did spend even though it is one of my goals to start a no spend day streak.
$1 Coffee at work
$9.75 groceries
Holy cow, I could'nt believe the groceries. It was for 4 apples, 3 bananas and one bag of chicken fries. I can't believe apples are almost $1 apiece! Will have to check out bags of apples for the savings amount, but the last few times I bought in the bags, I got rotten ones.
Anyway....tomorrow is another day!

I have three checks coming from three different survey sites! Two for $10 and one for $5! Can't wait!

One of the arguments DH has with me is that I do not keep any money in "my" savings account. (His has the true EF in it). Since I pay the bills, I tend to use every penny to pay them, then buy groceries. So now I am paying myself first. Nothing earth shattering, but I am trying to put a little (or alot) in each pay time. That and trying to only eat at home have been my September goals.

I STILL have'nt heard yet if I got the library job. I called her and asked if they had made up their minds, she said the bosses had been in meetings and she has'nt been able to talk to them yet. Hmmm..... Makes you wonder about the place! Did'nt see anything good in the paper to send in a resume for, but I will check the Sunday paper!

Been looking at other ways to save money. One is making a detailed list of meals. They have another meat sale at my favorite grocery store again!! Want to stock up!

The other is to pull the kids in on the goal. My husband pointed out that they are my worst money drain and that if I plugged it, maybe I would'nt have to go get another job. Still thinking on how to make this one work.

Been really concentrating on family lately. Have really tried cutting most expenses and have made dinner at home most nights. Made the dinner list on a calender, so that has been helpful.

We are still spending more than we are bringing in, despite my efforts. Either from necessity, or lack of discipline, mainly both. So concentrating on just making sure everything gets paid.

Just been concentrating on staying at home and making the house a "home". Like having the kids back to school, but soon enough DD3 will have cycle break (year round school) and she will be home for three weeks. Makes getting a different part time job a little harder.

Speaking of jobs, I applied for a different one at the library, but now have learned the last lady was'nt even in there two weeks before she quit it. Hmmmm....

Check in again later! I am always lurking!

I qualified to do a focus group from a survey company I use. The content was deadly (IRS tax forms!!) but the pay out was great - $75 cash!! Oh, what to do, what to do! Grocery shop? Savings account? Probably Walmart!! (And who said Walmarts numbers were down? They are still getting my money!!)

No, I did not win a contest! I went shopping for my parents (I got to spring mom today!!!) and my mom told me to buy my groceries with her card too. I told her it might get pricey, but she said go for it. I did buy some "extras", but nothing too crazy!

Still will have to deal with some issues with both my parents. Since my dads care seems to be getting more physical and extensive, we are talking about getting help for mom, so something good did come out of moms hospitalization. I just hope she takes it easy!