Boomeyers's Digging Out of Debt

I have noticed recently, that including myself, many on the blogs have been talking about going full time, getting part time and in some cases getting a second job. I have learned so much on these blogs and have seen some great things happen (Price), but what the heck is up? Is the economy that bad or is everyone so impatient to get rid of debt, that they are accelerating it? I know in our case, a loss of income is the key, but also the price of gas and food just keep rising. Even the prices at ALDI keeps going up! What is going on????

I updated my financial "stuff" numbers over to the right. As you can see, it is down for some and up for others. The car repairs will do it. So basically, I am spinning my wheels. The savings is dangerously low, but the bills are paid. My goal will be to get gas tomorrow, then go for as many no spend days as I can! We do have the planned spending of the car fees and a copay, so I will not count those, just unplanned spending.

If you are the type to use wood for heat or have a chain saw and can cut up some wood for sale.... these neighborhoods are goldmines! All the cities hit by these ice storms are hauling their wood to the curb for the city to come and get. It could be someones for free! (Too bad DH is not a chainsaw kind of guy!)Cha-ching!

I scored so big at the grocery store today!
1) Bought 2 $50 gift cards at $5 off = $90.00 spent/$10 saved
2) Split my $100 of groceries into two piles and cashier rang it up in two sections with a $10 off coupon on EACH total/ $20 saved
3) Used two coupons at $1 each/ $2 saved
Total saved = $32!!!! Yeah!

Was told by a friend that the library was interviewing only 5 people out of the 40. Am disappointed I could'nt make their time frame. I guess if they don't like any of those 5, then they will call me to set up another day. Will keep you posted.

DH finally got the car paid straightened out. One more inspection to go then we are clear for another 2 years! :-)

We've been trying to get the old Toyota to pass inspection, even going as far as taking it in to have it preinspected to see if it would cost us too much, so we could decide whether to sell it or fix it. We were told new tires and all looked good (except for the muffler we already new had to be replaced.) So we did the tires and the muffler and when I took it in to get inspected, IT FAILED!! Now they want another $200 for brakes. They also said windshield wipers (they wanted 11.99 for one, we did both for $5 at Walmart), and they said the muffler was not done correctly up to code. So DH will take it back to the muffler place to be redone and see if they will do a passing inspection on it. Cross your fingers!

Only grocery shopping planned tomorrow.

Also, tomorrow DH's company is having a big meeting about how they did in 2006 and since DH was the top producer they are supposed to give him kudos. Hopefully they will give him something else too (money, trip, watch???) We'll see, he is making THEM lots of money!

Has anyone watched this new HGTV show on Sunday evenings? Actor Ed Begley and his wife live in California in a totally GREEN (enviromentally friendly) home. He uses solar panels, solar ovens, and electric cars! He is a vegan too! Now, I admit, I am not a half-way type of green person, but he is fun to watch and many of his ideas are very cost effective as well!

Scored last night at the grocery store! I saved $13 in coupons!! I spent $22 and paid $9! Dog food, coffee, air freshner starter kits (2 for FREE!), milk and biscuits! :-) Happy!

Working three days this week instead of one. It will help keep us above water since the big $3170 pay cut.
So far, so okay. All bills were paid for January and we are already into paying February bills.
We will be adding debt as we need more work than we thought to keep the old '89 Toyota going for DH, but it will keep it going till it needs to be inspected again in another 2 years. So far $250.00, then we will need a new muffler, plus fees and inspections, well....
I see some things will need to go on the CC to keep us afloat too. I am trying to keep it to the bare minimum. Cross your fingers!
No word on if they will open up a new day for the library interviews!

Gee, I can't wait to do my taxes! :-) What? Am I weird. I know we are not supposed to get back money every year, as the government should'nt be controlling that money, WE should. However, with the two jobs that I was working not taking out taxes when I was paid, we thought it best to cut our claiming allowances on DH's checks to cover what we might have to pay from the two jobs. Well the good news is, at the one job I did not even make enough to have to claim it!!! Yeah! And the other job is not going to be that hefty either, so I told DH to go ahead and raise our exemptions to 3 from 1 and hopefully we will see it on this coming check! Yeah! We won't take that big of a hit! As I always say..... it's the little things!

Here is an

I got a call from the lady who is doing the interviewing for the library position I applied for. She said they had a limited time to hire someone could I come in on Friday. I told her I had to work Friday 9-4. She told me they had 40 (!!!!) applicants for the job and just no time for interviews and before I could ask any questions she just told me if they came up with another day for the interviews she would call me. The end. That was that. I guess I am a disposable applicant. If I can't make their time and place I am out of luck. Thing is, my old employer knows I am applying for this position and I'm sure she would have let me have some time off to go in for this interview, but this lady hung up before I could even sputter something out! Will keep ya posted.

Recently two abducted boys were found alive. One, Ben, had been missing since last Monday. Your heart just aches as a parent. The absolute MIRACLE of it all is that with him was found Shawn Hornbeck who had been missing for almost FIVE years! It is sooo exciting, everyone is just giddy!!! :-)

I kinda scored today from the survey sites! I got a free box of 6 granola bars to try and report back on. (And they are yummy!)
Received a $5 check for some survey I did. Don't remember what for, but they just send me $5 as a thank you - I'll take it!
And I am still building up my Mypoints account. I am torn between a Home Depot GC or maybe a Red Lobster one, our anniversary is next month and I have a coupon! :-)
DID end up spending yestereday. DD1 needed some "necessities" so I spent $17 at Walgreens on that and some stock up items (and a little junk!)
DH spent $20 on a "team building" bowling trip he had to go on for work. Team building, whatever, and this was a mandatory after work thing. They only bought them chicken strips and some light stuff. Oh well, he bowled well!
Todays spending is in check. Spent $2.10 to eat lunch at DD3's school with her. Bunko tonight, but friend owes me money so she is paying for my bunko for the next two months! Dinner will be at home!

Okay, I'm on the BA bandwagon!
My lovely lettuce can be used in such a variety of tummy filling ways, it boggles my mind!
You have to remember, I just went and had surgery so I could eat lettuce again! That is loyalty to my lettuce.
Nothing gets me like a big vegetable salad (lett., broc, caul, carrots, tomatoes, etc.) or a chefs salad!
The first salad I ate after the surgery was a yummy all hail tooooo.... Caesar! Yummmmmmmmm!

Oh, and another no spend day for me! :-)

I have noticed that I tend to avoid blogging on days when I spend money I should'nt. :-) Yesterday, I splurged on McDonalds for me and the girls (and one of their friends). I had spent the day cleaning and was having Scouts and DH was working late and DD3 had to be picked up anyway..... (good excuses, eh?) I had also overbudgeted slightly for music lessons, so this came from the surplus.

Other stuff I've done (good):
*applied for the library job
*cooked dinner at home tonight
*worked at the 2nd job
*went to Walmart, ALDI and Shop n Save to stretch the grocery dollars
*Put items back to not go over my $50 budget at SnS.
*Put in only a budgeted $10 in gas and paid in cash

Tomorrow should be another no spend day! I have had quite a few of these for the new year so far!! Yeah!

I'm not sure what to do. My goal for myself at this point in my life is to be a stay at home mom and raise my children. End of story. Then I took on a part time job and we moved to a larger house (not huge or fancy, just a little more room to breath!). I have not been a good money manager, just an okay money manager.
Anyway, I have an opportunity to get a new job. Okay hours, okay pay, and I have friends who work there too (its at the library), so chances are I have an "in" and could have the job. With the hours offered, I could also work at my other job I have had for the last almost 4 years, which has been shaky but holding. So basically, I would be working full time. Yuk.
My thing is the stay at home mom job has a severe time limit to it. I can't go back and take this mom job in 10 years, the kids will be gone. But it would make my husband happy and we could get out of debt and I could drop either/or job at any time if needed.
So what is the verdict from the blogs???

I had to laugh. I figured DH might want to know what is up with our finances, as I post them at home and here. So I discussed with him the amount we still owe in CC debt. I kid you not, the look on his face is like a Victorian Virgin getting hit on. The shock, the horror. Then he sputters and then blows up. It is of course, yep, "MY FAULT". We have debt, we don't go out enough. Yikes! At least the look on his face gave me a laugh. Now for a few days of tension and silence. Ugh.

For the last year my youngest has been taking piano and my middle taking voice lessons. We are actually picking up a new piano teacher, (not cheaper, but not more expensive and she will come to the house)and DD3 will take from both teachers for a couple of weeks until she decides which one works best for her. But since finances are so tight,I have to consider letting this go. DD2 is only taking for pleasure and not for advancement or career. DD3 is very talented and I think it could be really useful to her later to persue this, but how do you pick one over the other?
For now, I will suck it up and pay for DOUBLE lessons, because it is already budgeted, but it sure would make a NICE bag of groceries!!

To make up for my transgressions of Saturday, Sunday was a lovely no spend day. Besides the roast in the crock pot for dinner (which was deee lisshhh us!) I made cookies for the girls school lunches this week and even added in some flax seed to them! (Tee hee, don't tell them its healthy!) Then I made up the girls lunch bags for the rest of the week with a bag, drinks, chips, napkins a fruit snack and all I have to do is add sandwiches or crackers! What a time saver!

I did'nt end up blogging yesterday. One reason was I could'nt get to the computer! Kids and DH hogging it. Another reason was, I spent money. Too much money and money I did'nt have. The girls were invited thru scouts to take a free self defense seminar (it was excellent by the way). Afterwards everyone went for a bite to eat. I had already known this, but we chose a place that had kids eat free. Well unfortunatley, they did'nt have that program anymore, DH came up for lunch too and the restuarant had now been sold and when we got the bill, everything was more expensive than on the menu. Long story long, they added another persons food to our bill (she paid me cash) and I just put the whole thing on my CC. So as you can see a couple of the CC's have gone up (looks like DH has been spending too!) So, I have adjusted the gruesome numbers at the right for all to see.
Today will be a no spend day. Roast is in the crockpot at home for me to serve up when I get home from work!

Going to work up at school for DD3. I have to go to the bank to put in the money for dogsitting so I can boost the savings back to $100. I am soooo tempted to treat myself to lunch out. I have eaten my lunch here so that I don't have to pay for it at school when I eat lunch with DD3(I will just munch on some fruit snacks while I chat with her and her friends), but afterwards, after the bank, I would really like to eat fast food! Ahhh! I will resist, I will resist.....

Dinner is planned and ready. Steak tonight - yum!

DH got paid. It was a little more than usual, not sure why until he gets home with the paycheck stub, but don't want to really tell DH, so I can pay some more bills with it!

I must confess, I did give myself a little nap with the puppies on this rainy morning. That will keep ya out of the stores!
Had pudding for the girls after school snacks and planning spaghetti with meatballs and salad for supper. Early supper as DD3 has lots going on tonight!

*Cut dryer sheets in half.

*Ate leftovers for lunch. DH came home and ate lunch too.

*Will eat dinner at home.

Some excitement as DH is going to get a 3% raise on his commissions. Will see how this year pans out.

*Made the snacks for the kids lunches. Baked brownies, put them in baggies and bye bye Little Debbie.
*Made dinner in the crockpot, served with healthy salads - no eating out!
*Sent out for 3 seprate rebates from Christmas totalling $80. DH and I agreed this will be for groceries when it comes in. Every little bit helps.

Forgot to transfer over a $50 payment I had made, so guess what? I have $50 less than I thought. I spent $69.93 at the grocery store and have over a weeks worth of dinners ready, so that is a plus, but now savings is down to $23.00. :-( (Had to cover my butt!)
On a brighter note, I dog sat for a friend for a week and she gave me $100! So I will be able to replace what I took out of savings! Yeah!

The DH and the DD's are all safely back to their respective work/school. DD1 and 2 only have a half day. So the dogs and I took a short breath of relief and I cleaned the carpets and took a shower. Got all of Christmas tucked away and all our tax stuff out and ready for the W-2's. Now to run to the grocery store and try not to spend much. Hopefully can get enough to last till next week.

Woo woo. No, I am showing you all my financial "stuff" (or baggage I guess). Off to the right you will see I have finally listed my 'state of our state' for all to view. Some may see it and think, "Holy Cow, and here I thought I was doing bad!" and some may see it and think "Gee, she doesn't owe much". Any way, I would like to dump the baggage, some of which is leftover Christmas garbage (ie, CC4 is JCPenney). Anyway, I will target any extra money (haha, remember the $3170 pay cut??)toward ditching CC4 first and some to the savings account, then work my way up to CC3. You can follow my jolly progress up and down, I am sure, hopefully more down than up! :-)

When I drove into the gas station today, I thought I would purchase the cheapest wash (so I could see out of my windows again!)When I put in "purchase wash" it said "Wait while lowering fuel price" and it took .10 cents off the cost per gallon! I was really happy with the savings (I spent $25.00 total for gas and wash). I do wish they would just give us the cheaper gas price anyway though!! :-)

I started working on getting our tax stuff together and I was kind of ashamed that we made some good money and we are still in a pinch. The would'a should'as come crawling in. Will have to ponder on this.

Have a happy New Years Eve to all my bloggy friends. Be safe and responsible tonight!

Yes, like my friend Baselle, I spent the day cleaning out the closet and doing various other tidying up for the New Year! Found 2 outfits I will give up to ebay. I only wore each one once! Got rid of some old sheets - glad to see them holey things go! Made sure all the laundry is caught up on too. Washed all the bed linens and remade the bed. Still need to go through the Christmas decorations and get rid of the ones I did'nt put out this year, make room for the packing up in a few days.
I have lots of stuff for charity. Still torn between no more garage sales and just giving it to charity. So far getting rid of it is still holding out.They are getting some good stuff! The best stuff I will ebay.

Ha ha! Okay, just the basement. We had a large Christmas explosion down there and it was time to clean up! I reorganized all the gift bags/tags/bows, etc., merging in all the new items bought at the after Christmas sales. I marked and put into a special box all the gifts I purchased for next year, then made a special list for my calendar book, so I don't rebuy anything for next year. Have enought Christmas cards and wrapping paper to last a couple of years again!
Also prepurchased the girls Valentines gifts (after clearance jewelry at Kohls) and cards and put them in a special spot, then all I will need to do is run by Walgreens when they have the Valentines candy on sale and pick up a few things! Got DH's anniversary card ready too!
Inspired by my buddy Contrary, I am going to try to organize the scrapbooking area I created downstairs so my best friend and I can start doing some serious work on our books! We will be a little chilly, but it will be our spot!

The new budget has not gotten off to a happy start. As I stated before, we are taking a monthly $3170.00 cut in pay and have agreed to supplement $1550 out of our EF each month for the house payment. Otherwise it is all up to me to magically squeeze all the other bills and groceries/gas out of our piddly salaries per month. Already DH has been screaming. I think he is just being a little defensive because it hurts his ego some to be making less than he wanted. I will list our expenses/income next week for the big January 07 bonanza! Will be able to pay all the bills for January, but my personal EF will be down to about $20. :-( Scary!!