Boomeyers's Digging Out of Debt

I'm heading into the websites of all my creditors to determine a new "state of our state". I have been guilty of throwing things on the credit lately for the trip and stuff and now I have to find out how much I need to pay the piper. (We planned limits, and I think we stayed within reason, but I need to KNOW!)
Suck it up... here I go.

Well, things are really slow at work, so they are having us leave after 4 hours instead of 6 or 8 unless it is the weekend, then we get 6. I have been working lots of hours right now covering for someone else, so I am not so worried about the cut now, but when I am back to regular hours, it will be a bummer.

All the bills are paid for April except one - yeah! But not enough coming in to pay ahead on any CC's. Guess I will just have to be content that they are paid for the month. Not anticapating any extra cash coming in either.

We are gearing up to take the kids to Florida at the end of the month to tag onto DH's business trip. Doing lots of online research to try to make it affordable. Found round trip tickets and a rental car (mini van) with unlimited miles for only $240 per person. Not bad! Will keep checking things out. Going to try to Cocoa Beach for a couple of days, then just hammer out the Orlando stuff, Disney, Universal, Sea World.

Well, it is quite the bummer that yesterday morn I was on a cruise ship and this morn I am sitting at my desk at work!

The cruise trip had its ups and downs. The BIG plus was that I did NOT get sick! :-) Woo hoo! I took the Bonine (lower dose form of Dramamine that does'nt make you sleepy.) and that with "mind over matter" worked wonders! We got along great with our friends that we went with and were very compatible, plus we met lots of nice people. We ate, we drank, but kept the spending well below what I thought we would spend! There was lots to do and the beds were soooo comfortable, I wish we could have brought one home! We slept like logs every night!

The down side was that the seas were VERY rough (even the seasoned folk were complaining) and I still have'nt gotten my "land legs" back yet! It was cloudy and cold every day, but the last day, yet I still managed to get sunburned in places where people just should'nt! The water was very cold too! That and the fact the food just was'nt what I imagained. While good and edible, it did'nt really knock my socks off. It was like a regular restarant and buffet.

DH and I are probably not the cruising type. We did have a very nice time, but we were bored sometimes too. And sitting on the beach, gazing at the ocean with a fruity cocktail is fun, but maybe for 3 hours, not 6. The islands we went to (Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay) were private type islands with not much to do (DH tried to go deep sea fishing, but it got cancelled due to rough seas). The other place we went was Nassua Bahamas and that was much more our speed, with a beach, shops, Atlantis and a whole island to explore!

Our airfare and car was an awesome deal and if you are planning any travel, you should check out Allegiant Airlines! They have limited flight areas and times, but if you can drive a little farther and be a little flexible you can save a LOT of money!!

DH and I are off to go on our cruise. We will be back March 22nd!
Can't say it has been frugal. The trip and the flight are paid and we have saved up spending money, but getting the wardrobe together has not been cheap! I have the stay at home mom, midwestern winter wardrobe - not condusive to warm sunny climates! Who knew swimsuits were soooo expensive?? (Not something easily bought used!)
Anyway - bon voyage! Cross your fingers I don't get seasick the whole time!!!!

My indicator on the right tells me today is my 1 year blogoversary!! Hooray! Thank you to everyone who give such super support and ideas! Your the best!!

Well, I have'nt blogged in a while. Lets see whats up!

Like Tinapbeana, the money Gods have been smiling on us this month. I have trying to be careful about where it goes. As you can see, most of the CC's are paid off. I told DH that there will be no more spending on CC2 until it is paid off. We will use it when we go on our cruise, but we already have the money in the savings account to pay it off. (Hopefully we can stick to the spending plan!) I have also spent a little on clothes.

Made some money on ebay. That has'nt happened in a while! I will start another pile for when they have another listing sale.

When we get home from out trip, I will balance out the accounts again and then start saving. $6.00 in the account is NOT something to be proud of!

Still sick. Can't seem to shake this thing! Yuk! Been spending time in bed resting. Grateful I am blessed to be able to do this!

Still living off of DHs mini salary and putting all commissions in the big savings account. Hopefully they will finally start paying some of the commissions, they take forever! If a few deals come in at the same time, we are hoping we can take that money and buy DH a new car and save the Toyota for DD1. It would be nice to pay it straight up and not need a car payment!

I must give credit to where credit is due. Tina heard my cry for help and answered my question to perfection!
Thank you, thank you, Tina!! :-)

Soooo, here is the picture of the girls at the TV station - finally!

What a relief, I can quit tearing my hair out!

When I enter the img code and go down and enter my add image, when I go look on the forum, all I have is a box with a little red X in it. My pics are in jpg. Anybody know how I am supposed to post pictures?

Yes, the big day. The money went into our account! So I will pay off all the bills and repost my "financial stuff". Now to keep my butt out of debt and pay off the big boys that are left! Oh- and start saving.
I will try to repost the picture of the girls at the tv station. Don't know why it did'nt work yesterday.

I'm throwing in a picture of the girls at the TV station. It was so interesting and they had a blast and learned a lot!
(Ut-oh! Looks like techinical difficulties on the photo front again!)

As for money, still no Federal in. Will try tomorrow, cause of the holiday today. Hopefully it will be there. As AiYa! said about the new Chinese new year of the Pig, I am being blessed with money! My realtor friend did give me a $500 bonus and my mom is giving me $300 to help her decorate her new house. Crazy! Aiya! also said it would go to frivolous things, which I am trying to keep from happening. I'm not sure how to present to DH, so I am just waiting until I have it all in hand!

Oh, look at my blogoversary count! Two more weeks! Neat!

I am always looking for cheap and frugal things to do with my girl scout troops. One of the local TV stations gives weather tours of the weather center and at the end of the tour they are allowed to wave to the camera, which he then puts on his evening weathercast with a nice "here is troop *** who came to visit today". The girls are beyond themselves with excitement over this!

Oh yeah, did I mention I am SICK??? Here are the highlights of what has been up the past couple of days. With 2 make up Valentines parties today and a soccer practice, I now want to go curl up and croak! (Sniff, sniff).

*Went to the meat sale. Bought 5 London Broils, a stew meat, chicken breasts, a sirloin and 2 packs of 4 burgers for $40, plus a couple of other things and used my $10 off coupon, plus a couple of other coupons and saved a lot. Thats a lot of meat for $30!! And of course I carefully looked for the largest portion sizes available.

*DH got paid will divvy that up to the sharks this weekend.

*Still waiting for the federal return. It says it sent it out, but it may take a couple of days to post to my account. Hope it is quick, can't wait to get out of some of this debt!

Ahhh, the sneezing, the stuffies, the body ache.... I'm off..........

Went ahead and took advantage of the ebay special. I have had stuff to sell for a long time, just waiting for the listing sale. Some is clothes, so I won't hope for a lot.
There is a big meat sale I want to hit tomorrow, with bonus coupons. Will post my haul!

Another snow day here and DH took off work, so it is a family day! Can't beat a weekend in the middle of the week! Will have to see if they reschedule DD3's Valentines Party. So glad I can be a SAHM and roll with these punches instead of stressing out and leaving the kids home alone all day. (DD1 is old enough to command the ship, but they still fight like crazy!)
Told DH instead of taking him out for dinner, I will make a roast dinner for all. Don't think the girls will have church tonight.

I am still waiting on the fed tax return. The state already went to the basement! (With this weather and the kids off school for two days, I told DH it was the best money ever spent. The kids have been down there all day, even fighting over it! Yeah!) Okay, I digress!
So I have the fed money coming and I am going to use it to pull myself out of most of my debt - again! We are making it on the savings, his salary and my pt job, but sometimes I fall off the wagon and spend like we still have more money (remember we took a huge salary hit in January). Mostly on eating out and groceries. So a little left from Christmas, too many GS cookies bought from my DD's and some of the car repair will be paid off. I am also taking some of this and keeping it for spending money on the cruise. Great... money coming in.
The exciting part is that one of the agents at work that is a friend of mine, hinted that she was going to give me a commission for recommending a friend whose house she sold. I initally recommended my friends grandfather, whose house she sold and she had a good business relationship with my friend, so I did not expect this. If it comes through, it would be for $500!!
So the "pig rolling in mud" is a happy girl with lots of money coming in. It is fun to think about what to do with all of it!! Hopefully by the end of the year, you will see all the debt numbers on the right - eliminated! :-)

We went to moms for dinner last night and as our after dinner activity, did we play a game? NO! Did we watch a movie together? NO! In my weird frugal family, mom, my bro, my DD2 & 3 all gathered around the dining room table and CLIPPED COUPONS! Knowing I am on the coupon train, everyone gives me their inserts and I am swamped cutting them all out! So we had a clip a thon! We had a great time chatting and swapping. My SIL thinks we are psycho...... but oh well!

Did'nt plan it, just happened! Still working on the basement, had dinner at moms.
Tomorrow is work, music lessons, and a meeting. Going to have ham and cheese potatoes for dinner tomorrow night.
DH took the little girls to the Beggan Strips Mardi Gras dog parade today. They had a blast. They took our little beagle with them and she had a butt sniffing fest! Wore her out! Too bad it did'nt wear the kids out!

So I have been trying to remodel on the cheap or nothing! We need the extra living space in the basement (figures we finished the basement in the old house - then moved!). We can't afford to have it professionally done or even to start buying 2 x 4's and framing. It is set up with a tv and a rug and a couch and love seat right now, but with only a few bulbs and ONE outlet down there, we don't have much light, so the girls don't like to go down in the dark. So the big plan is: we bought a light bulb addition thing that adds an outlet to the bulb unit and then bought a track light that plugs into it and hung it from the ceiling. With three adjustable bulbs, it sure adds light. I then went to home depot and bought a huge contractor tub of paint for $35. I have been painting those concrete walls with it. It has brightened it up, but wow! Those rough walls are hard to paint! I had a sprayer from the inlaws, but it was missing parts. My favorite part was I bought a huge carpet remnant on clearance from Home Depot. It is a nice beige to keep the floor light and bright in the "family room" section. It was 50% off for a 12' x 7'10" section for 32.00! Hopefully that will make it more warm and snuggly down there. Once we put on a second coat of paint we can put it all together. Hopefully we can get it done by Monday as a snow storm is expected and then we will have extra room to spread around the house. I told DH that he should build the girls a little stage with their karaoke machine and microphone and we could shoot one of the lights from the track lights onto the stage! :-) So hopefully we will have a nice little family room for under $100. There is a play area too, but I am not so worried about that as they are so messy with their toys!
The other remodeling I have planned is the upstairs bathroom (Rainbow Fish is what it will be!) Also our master bedroom has seen better days! Too many dogs/cats/kids on the comforter! They had a sale in one catalog where you could get a full bed set, plus shams and curtains for 99.99! I scooped it up, but is back ordered until April. That is fine so I can get the other projects done!
Sorry so long!

Turbo tax told me my Federal return would be in by Feb. 9th and did'nt give a date for the state return. Since midnight last night I have been going on and checking constantly. The state showed up, but not the Federal! Ugh! That is a good amount of money to be out floating, I hope it shows up soon!!

Went to do some work for one of the agents in the office who is really bogged down. Spent three hours working and got $30!
Plan on staying home tomorrow and Friday! The only spending I plan on is Friday night, my $5 for bunko!

Still not spending money. Things have been going fine. DD3 had a meeting after school and then we had to go straight to Scouts, so I made her chicken nuggets and fries at home, put them in an insulated cup and took a juice box and some ketchup packs for a quickie "happy meal" on the run. I will be running like crazy tomorrow, so I am hoping I don't have to buy lunch out. Will try to make it! I always have water in the car, will have to pack some kind of snacks!

So far, no dollars out. Thank goodness I have a chocolate stash! I must admit, I took DD2's money to the pet store while she was in music lessons to buy her hamster some bedding, so I spent, just not my money! :-)
Went on Turbotaxes website and it said my money will be in on Friday!! Wow, that is quick! I am busy rolling the finances around to see where it will go!

I have been shopping with my heart and not my head. Please hang me up as an example of shame and what not to do. I have tried to keep it in check, but I let my desires run away with my checkbook. I canceled the stupid overdraft protection at the end of last year, then they charged me a yearly fee and instead of calling and saying "Hey, I cancelled this!!" I talked myself into keeping it active, in which case I decided to test it and it worked and so now..... shoes for DD2 (yes, she needed them, but could have waited), dinner for us, a new shirt for me to wear to work..... All kinds of my "emergencies" have come up. I know the tax return is coming and have let the devil on my shoulder talk myself into saying its okay to pay it back then, but that money is earmarked for other things and I should be an adult and NOT be doing this kind of stuff.
So, there you have it. My ugly full confession of guilt. What to do with it? Well to start, I am going for a no spend WEEK. I bought gas already, we have food, so unless the girls come up with some kind of school emergency, I should be okay. I will have to pay a couple of bills, but these are budgeted for and I will not count those.

Yep, I made it easy on the DH. We married in a year that ended in 0, (we've been married 17 years, so guess which one!) ;-) And we made it Groundhogs Day instead of Valentines day as my sisters anniversary was on Valentines day. (Long story long, she got a divorce and remarried on Groundhogs Day!)
The groundhog did NOT see his shadow, so woohoo come on Spring!!
Will take DH out for his frugal dinner at Red Lobster and he is treating me to a show!

Well, whether it is right or wrong, I finished the taxes, tied a big red bow around them and hit SEND. I did pay the Turbotax fee and they will go in direct deposit. I kept hearing on TV that if you filed early, you might miss out on some tax benefits? We are getting a good return. I guess I won't worry about it. I just always worry, I did something wrong or put in a wrong amount. So far, I have kept the IRS at bay! I don't think we make enough to get the tax man too excited!

Miss PJ (otherwise known as Kitty Meow Meow) got to go to the vet today. Since we never let her out of the house (lost 3 cats this way) she is used to being warm and cozy! Oops, picked a 9 degree day to go to the vet. Hope she won't get sick, she was sure shivering. (Probably nervous too!)
I DID save money at the vet by getting her the 3 year rabies shot, instead of the one year! Total was only $79.00.

Darnit!! Instead of printing a $10 off coupon for (some) Thursdays, the grocery store that has an "automatic" $10 off for $50 or more spent. This is a bummer because I used to get 2 coupons and use one at the discount, bag your own, place and then the other at the competing hoity toity store that has better meat. Without a coupon, they won't offer the extra $10 off too. Doggone it!!

I have'nt been posting much, because I have'nt really been saving money. I HAVE been making money by working A LOT to cover for someone on vacation. But because we have NO MONEY, it has been easy not to spend too much. I tried different grocery techniques. One was shopping every Thursday for the $10 off coupon, the other was just running by and picking things up every few days. I can't say scientifically either one was better than the other, I can only say being in a store more often was more of a chance to spend on something I might not need.

I decided to be prepared for our anniversary this year. I wanted to impress DH. He is the one that likes to firmly place our money difficulties on me (and probably 85% is!)So I bought a card (.99) and some Sour Skittles (.69) for his gift! :-) Then I cashed in some Mypoints for two $10 gift cards to Red Lobster and I have a $4 off coupon on two entrees (oh, how romantic) that will NOT expire till 2/22. (I have a habit of keeping coupons well past expiration, then being bummed when I go to use them, so I checked in ADVANCE!)If I can keep alcoholic beverages from entering the bill, I can sneak a little more from the grocery budget to cover it.
I would also like to be extravagant and treat him to a movie (I know, I'm a show off), but I only have $7.25 left on my gift card. Not sure if I can squeek more out of the grocery budget, but we'll see!
Our anniversary is next Friday the 2nd (Groundhog Day!) Will let you know how my "surprise" goes!

I have made a few attempts at the $20 challenges, but have kept my eye on the bigger picture, which does'nt seem to work anyway. Seeing the rousing success of some of blogging buddies, I will have to rethink this. Taking $20 and making something more of it? I can do that and in fact I can think of circumstances when I HAVE done that. Will spend more time pondering this one!