Well another interview and another rejection. I guess I should be happy I even got the interview. I will keep sending the resumes out, but I am starting to feel guilty about killing all those trees! The worst part is having to stay at this job that is driving me to drink!!

The check never came. I tried to catch up with the IRS, but all I got was a maze of numbers to push and a hang up. We should have received our money by deposit on May 9th. I will try to investigate again tomorrow.
We have had nothing but rain and clouds for weeks. Very depressing. Been fighting very hard againist the depression (I've never really HAD depression before), but not so good. Too much debt, a terrible job and lack of ability to be hired anywhere else.... well, it adds up. Ugh.

I posted before how Citi had moved its due date backwards and we had a "late" payment. The charged us the lovely $39.00. This statement, I now see that the late payment is listed as a "standard purchase" and is being charged an 11.99% interest rate. Do they know how to get you coming and going, or what!!!!

Well, if you wanted to return something without a receipt before, now is definatley a worse time! IF you choose to buy something from this store, PLEASE do not lose your receipt, especially if you had the NERVE to pay CASH (God forbid!!) If they can look it up by your CC or debit, you are okay, but if you paid cash and it was over $20, you a NO LONGER ALLOWED to return it AT ALL! I did'nt care if they had to send me a check or give me a in store credit, but you are not allowed to return it PERIOD. So, you know I have a long standing problem with this stores "rules", but now it is beyond, beyond!! The clerk smiled at me and told me to use it as a gift!!

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!!

Not literally, but I was invited to join a survey chat group that paid $50. Unfortunatly, I had to work late today and get dinner, so I called DH and told him to start getting on line for me. Poor guy is not computer literate and just could'nt make it work, so by the time I signed it, it was 6:01, one minute late! So I was bumped from the survey. Bummer!

I went to enter in a photo for my profile yesterday and it knocked out all my blog preferences!! The colors, the favorites, everything. Very odd, and the picture never did show up. Any thoughts??

BTW, to add to my last entry, I used Turbotax again this year. I think I have been using it about 7 or 8 years. This year it was extremely difficult to log on, I had to download Firefox and use it to make it work. I had to call customer service to figure this out, every time I would go to log on, the screen would just turn blue. You could not move easily from place to place and when I went to print, the screen would pop up blank. Over and over. Finally hunted around and found out I had to download the latest version of Javascript. Then it turned out I had to amend the return, and oh my, another complete nightmare. Two thumbs down for this years version!!

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!

After I scrape my ego off the concrete, I will keep looking. After 4 months of seriously looking, I am very discouraged. Multiple resumes sent, three interviews, three rejections. Face it guys, its not like I am interviewing for a high tech job or bank presdient, I'm interviewing for receptionist/secretarial work. I have been doing this for five years, with previous experience and I am damn good at my job (check my references!!) I take a shower and dress decently and make articulate conversations with people. Sooooo, anyway..............

Picked up breakfast on the way to work with my Starbucks GC. Yum!

Went to work. This situation is getting WAY to uncomfortable!! Yikes! I'm sorry, but there is a woman who is running the business that is running it LIKE a man would say a woman would!! Secrets, back stabbing, running amuck!! AHHHH! I may have to quit before I find something else, as it is almost a moral dilemma for me!

DD3 wanted a new game for her Nintendo DS, so we gathered all her unplayed games and an old Gameboy her sister unearthed and traded it in. Not only did we get the new game for FREE, but we also got 8.15 in store credit for next time!! Woo hoo! They gave us money to take things from their store!

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!

Amazing what having no money and no access to money can do! I did'nt spend a thing today!

I called the high school and they told me they already hired someone for the secretarial position. Bummer, it would have been a good fit. I don't think they were very professional about it either. Most of the time they send you a letter saying "thanks for the resume or interest" or whatever, nothing. I asked her if they keep the resume on file. She said no, I could send one to the main school district office. So I guess my time and effort went into the trash - ugh!

Have listed a couple of things on ebay hoping to make some money.

On a really happy note - NO NEW DEBT!
Woo hoo!

Went out today and spent money buying the girls lunch (they had a snow day) and spent too much time getting a gift card for this party and a gift card for that party. Ugh!! Too much money spent!! Shame on me and my weakness!

Ugh! I have been fighting this stupid disease for almost 10 years. It sure seems like the older I get, the less frequent the "attacks", but the the more severe and longer in length they are!! I knew I was messing with trouble by scheduling too much for the birthday weeks, but hey, I should be able to handle it. Geeze, like a ton of bricks I have been useless and miserable this entire last couple of weeks. It sure makes saving money harder, I really don't feel like cooking, but I have managed to drag my sorry butt to make something every night (except for this weekend). I have been feeling a bit better since yesterday, I just can't wait to feel normal again!!

I FINALLY heard from the library last night (mind you two and half weeks after I interviewed). She told me they offered the job to the other applicant. By this time I had pretty much given up any way, so back to the want ads on Sunday.

I went over our budget and if I can follow it, we should be okay till the end of October, new car payment and all. I really hope to pick up something soon though, to help out with Christmas.

Really we can't. My stay at home career has come to a halt, mostly because the economy stinks!

I told you at the beginning of the year we were taking a salary cut, and we did. We went from $4500 a month to $3000. With some belt tightening and so such, we were okay for the first few months. Then insurance went up again and we went from $3000 a month, to $2780. Add to this fact the cost of living, at least in our little world, has skyrocketed and that we tightened our belts, but did'nt completly quit spending, WE ARE DROWNING!

You also have to remember, I do not have my husbands support in paying the bills. I juggle this on my own with what he gives me. He is not a spendthrift by any means, but he does feel like he deserves golf on the weekends and an occasional resturant meal - and he does. He has our EF at about $19,000. But as you can see on the sidebar our debt has gone to about $30,000!

So hiho, hiho, my stay at home mom career will have to go to the back burner. I am terrified because it is VERY important to me to be the one that raises my own children. So please say a prayer or throw a token of good luck my way that I find a job that can juggle all these things!!! I will join my friend Thrifty Ray on my way back to the workforce. Hopefully it will be gentle on me.

I honestly feel something of a failure, because we are relatively thrifty and besides a couple of trips we took (after 7 years!) we really are NOT extravagant in ANY way. Just people trying to live a nice life. We are not the Jones, nor do we aspire to be them. Anyway, I am sad. I want to thank everyone for their great support and friendship, because I really do learn a lot from you all!

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 have been having some frustration about a lot of things, so I have just been lurking on your blogs!

Lot of money output.... prices going through the roof on stuff, can't get money to pay stuff off. Ugh.

DH bought me a necklace for my birthday. It is beautiful. I told him not to buy it, we can't afford it. We really can't! But he got it anyway, which means more debt, which more debt is usually (always) MY FAULT, so down the pike, I will pay for the necklace in grief! Ugh!

Kids need to go back to school! Ugh! One down, two to go!

On a better note, bought DH his birthday gift. Just one. Bought on ebay and used money I had in my paypal account from selling stuff! This last week of sales was outstanding and will be able to use some for groceries!

I am still working on my goal of not over spending by $1000 this month! I have been strict, fallen off the wagon - ONCE, but my biggest challenge is gettin DH on board. Although all the debt is "my fault", it is amazing the amount he spends! Don't worry, when I show him he just gets mad. So I told him NO MORE spending! He is a cheap dude, so now that I have really put it out in front of him... hopefully we can get him!

Our local grocery store has a special on certain Thursdays where they will give you $10 off a $50 purchase. I made my list, followed it so carefully and when I reached the checkout, she told me I hadn't spent enough! So it was back out (running through the aisles!) to pick up a couple of things I had not thought I had enough money to get. Finally made it over the mark!

I thought I estimated on the high side when I made my list. I even went over some old receipts to keep it really close to only spend my $40 (+tax). Things were STILL more expensive than I had highly estimated them to be! Yikes!!

If you look at my magic numbers over to your left, you will see my shameful secret. I am frugal, I know what to do, yet I am racking up $1000 more in debt on AVERAGE per month. The stock market may go up, but we are getting poorer. Some was put on because of the cruise and the trip to Disneyworld. The rest is probably food and junk my kids wanted and I spoiled them with. I do bad things, like not telling myself NO! So I will challenge myself, although I have done it before and simply and easily talked myself out of the challenge for whatever "good" reason I may have come up with, I will challenge myself to see if the last number on the line can go DOWN in one month. Think I can do it???......

Our ebay sales did not go well at all! I just can't seem to get the hang of this. I actually shot myself in the foot on this one. DD2 gave me some little Hamtaros to list and they have been going like HOTCAKES! Big bucks! So we started the listing at .99 to let it ride. Well, it did'nt. One of the items sold for .99! These things have been going for $35 to $100!! Geeze! Had I know, I would have at least listed it for $5 or $10! Ugh! Live and learn.

Soooo... yesterday I had my plan in place...right?? DH comes home and tells me he put $1000 in the savings account from the checking account. Ugh! Too bad we only had $800. He had received a bonus and that will go to cover some of our house payment, but he did'nt think about those purchases he made this weekend. Gee, we need to cover that??? Again, ugh! Good thing we have the overdraft. So now when he pulls out the house payment, I am going to remind him to pull out that extra $200 to pay it back. He will have a fit. It is amazing the denial one likes to live in.....

Seriously! I need to stay away from eating out. What the heck is it going to take??? I am so sick of the BAD prices, LOUSY service and YUCKY food!! Yet I keep going!! WHY?? Today I made my kids go to Chili's for lunch. They did'nt want to. They begged for McD's and should have gotten home cooking!! The food was terrible and I did'nt check my bill and got RIPPED OFF!! I'm thinking I need a little device that gives me a shock every time I think about eating out. I guess my July goals should be my new budget and NOT EATING OUT! (Of course it does'nt count if someone else is paying!! Mom and dad are taking us out to eat tomorrow night! )

I guess the vacation Gods heard the Meyers' were going on vacation, cause just like our cruise, the trip to the lake was rainy and cold EVERY day! The first day we checked out the condos. Nothing to set the house on fire for, but at least we have an idea of the wheres and how muchs. So Friday we decide to do the indoor stuff and go to the outlet mall and the movies, but by Saturday we were getting pretty disgusted. Hung out at the condo, rented a movie, got up this morning and headed out of town!! We did visit with a friend of DH's when we were down there and we joked that it was US that brought the rain. She called us on our way home and asked if we had left town, because the sun came out!! NO kidding!

I rolled out of bed yesterday morning and was actually able to stay awake long enough to go garage saling. My goal, of course, is not more junk for my home! My goal is to find some good ebay goodies. Unfortuneately, not much to be found! I went to 11 sales and could'nt find anything I thought was viable. Bummer! Maybe I will try again this Wednesday!

Doing bad on my dieting! May have to let this go for a while and come back to it later. Still keeping the weight I did lose off!

My biggest challenge is (was) eating out!! I am happy to report that I am trying very hard to keep our finances on the straight and narrow and I have been cooking our dinner at home every night for a week (whether anyone will eat it or not!)! Cupboards and freezer are getting low, but I don't want (nor can I, according to our finances) restock until we get back from our trip to the lake. I may even try to stretch it to after the 4th of July!

(I apologize for the ramble!)

I love this man, but sometimes he just makes me dizzy! Go to work, he says, make more money, quit your job, etc, etc. I think the stress from his job is affecting his brain!! I have not asked him for any extra money than he has been bringing home for the last 6 years and he thinks I should be asking for LESS! Has'nt the cost of living, gas, food, electric shot up??? Another job for more money and more hours came up, but he did'nt want me to take it because of the hours?? Anyway, I shake my head.

BTW, our electric rates are increasing by 2.1%. Our last bill was $84, this bill was $222. Grrrr.

Been exercising, sticking to the low carb and I GAINED weight. Maybe its muscle -right? Hah! Ate cookies and said to heck with it!

Took $60 out of my check and treated the girls, and some friends to a matinee and popcorn today. Saw Oceans 13. Pretty good, especially if you have seen the first two. Nice hot day to spend a cool time in a dark theater with George Clooney!

Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I did tell DH to find me that perfect job with the perfect hours and I will gladly send in my resume. Will see what he comes up with!

Okay, I made my goals! I brought my lunch to work, I cooked dinner at home and I had a NO SPEND DAY!

Tomorrow we have dentist and orthodontist appointments which will cost co-pays. I will try for an otherwise no spend day. Try to resist those "mommy buy me's"!

Now... for the choking drumroll. I added up our debts, (minus the house) and we are in debt..... $22909.43!! The faster I go, the behinder I get!
DH is still putting all his commission money in a savings account and I am left with paying the bills with his itty bitty salary. (Remember we took the huge pay cut at the beginning of the year.) We are'nt spending the way we were, but we did spend alot on travel. (Which we had been nowhere in 7 years, then two big trips in a row!!)
It makes me feel like a financial failure! I really felt like I could squeeze something out of nothing, we did it for years, but now I spoil the kids too much and I am still resisting getting the full time job in favor of staying home and raising said spoiled children. We do make them buy the big things themselves, but too many treats, McDonalds, etc... is taking a nickel, dime toll.

On the upside in personal growth, I have not abandoned the low carb diet and I actually did my Pilates today!

Yeah! I saved $18 yesterday at a "15 hour" sale and I saved $16 today. There was a super cereal sale and I stocked the freezer with a million popsicles. And I scored some freebies at Dollar General! And there was a great Edy's sale with $1 off coupons! All the bagged lettuce was gone though!
On the low carb front - well after almost a month and six pounds, I am stuck and have decided I may have to switch to Weight Watchers instead. I have heard before the low carb works better for men than for women and I guess maybe that is true. I still do plan on trying to eat less carbs as a rule. At least to think twice!