Boomeyers's Digging Out of Debt

I don't know if you recall, but my MIL bought each of my girls a laptop last year. I was'nt thrilled, but its her dollar, so I let them have them. 2 of the 3 have already crashed/required fixing. The first lost its hard drive (after 3 months!!!!), I sent it in and it was repaired. The second had a crack in the screen, but we lived w/it for a while and used it anyway. When it was close to the warranty running out, I decided to send it in to have it fixed. Fixing the screen wasn't the problem, but they said I had a "liquid spill" in the unit and they could'nt fix the screen until they fixed the spill for $500. No way! So I said "Hey, send it back, we were using it, just could'nt see the screen." So back it came and guess what??? Turned it on and it would'nt work!! Called them up and they said the liquid spill caused it not to function any more. We could however, buy an extended warranty for $300 that would cover all the problems. Whaaa?? I had also been told that the unit was shot (less than a year old), but that I could go out and buy a new one, because that model was only $450 now (as opposed to the $700 new).
Long story long, I asked my brother to look at it and my older daughters one, because YES, the hard drive crashed AGAIN!!! (no longer in warranty). Anyway, he told me he could NOT find any signs of a spill and they had simple not reconnected ANYTHING inside the laptop before they sent it back. Gee, no WONDER it didn't work anymore!! He reconnected everything (drivers, WiFi, antenna, etc) and it came on just fine, you just can't see because of the screen. My brother has offered to fix it if I buy the parts (keyboard had some broken keys and the screen), so I am going to go surfing for some hardware. Not sure what I will do about DD2's.
Thanks for letting me rant. I am exercising my right to blast the scammers on my blog!!!

Since we are at about $0 in the account, we have been eating from our pantry, freezer. I sure like that DH has been cooking since he has been working from home. I scrounge and he cooks! Hamburgers last night, chicken tonight. Wonder what I will find for tomorrow night??

Mothers Day was nice, even without the high cost! I gave my mom a nice card, DH gave his flowers and candy. Time spent together was the best gift of all!
Love that DD1 gave me a whole bag of Reeses Peanut Butter cups! I am guarding them with my life from DD3!!! DD2 sewed me a cute elephant and gave me flowers and DD3 gave me a candle and some "coupons". The hub gave a box of chocolates and took us to Bread Co for lunch/dinner (had a GC)!
Redeemed my Mypoints for a $25 Red Lobster GC to use for DH for Fathers Day. Searching Craigslist for a golf push cart that rolls your clubs for you. Probably give him that and some GCs. Gotta plan ahead!

That is it really. I had a NSD yesterday. Today I am going to take the little ones swimming. Dinner is planned, so another NSD looks to be in the works!

I recently was watching an infommercial on the "In-Styler" hair tool. It allows you to straighten your hair, while curling your hair? Anyway, I thought it looked neat and with three girls, we do experiment occasionally with different hair "gadgets". The price was reasonable, $14.99 + shipping, but I am too cheap to really get it. But then I thought about my PayPal account which has some money just sitting in it. Perhaps I could find this cheaper on ebay? So off to ebay I went. Here is where the gullible part comes in, these things were going on ebay for $60+ dollars!!! Holy cow people! Go to In Styler.com and get it for $14.99!! Geeze! So now I am thinking, the infommercial offers 2 for $14.99. Perhaps I will purchase this and sell the other one on ebay and make my money back, plus some. I am just amazed that people do not research before they buy!

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....

I hope better than mine!!

DD3 and I excitedly planted our seeds and watch them grow into healthy little seedlings. But the weather would'nt cooperate and the seedlings grew, bigger and scrawnier each day. Freeze after freeze, we had to keep then in the house. So when dh transferred them, well.... lets just say, we won't have a bumper crop!

So more seedlings are growing away busily and hopefully we can transplant them very quickly! I am really looking forward to fresh veggies from the garden, and a fat jack o lantern to carve in the fall!

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!!

Friday night was enjoyed with friends playing bunko!
Saturday, in my spare time (har, har, har) I threw together a garage sale. We made $168. We put $100 toward Six Flags season tickets and had a nice dinner out with the rest. DH wants to do it again on Wednesday, so I am looking for more stuff to sell.
This is my last week at Remax after 6 years. I am feeling okay about it, not melancholy or anything. We are so busy, no time to dwell.
Had a nice Easter with church and family time. Dinner at moms, yum! Tried my cake decorating skills. Won a "baking basket" and DD3's school carnival and it had lots of neat baking stuff. One was reusable cupcake liners, cake mix and a cake decorator bag. Here was my dessert offering:

Yes, I took the nanny job and now I am working out my two weeks notice. I am cautiously optimistic about the way things are moving. If I hate it by the end of the summer, I will move on and find another job.
More money! Will keep you posted on the transition!

The deed is done, the strings are cut. I wish he could have talked to the HR person before he left, but she was gone. He was right, they asked him to leave immediately and not work out his two week notice.

Now, he is a self-employed business owner. I sure feel like I have jumped off the diving board and I'm not sure if there is water in the pool or not!!

On the upside, the new job is going to pay his health insurance. Did you hear that?????? We have been paying over $800 a month for health insurance. It will be around $1000 for COBRA. And the new company will pay it!! That extra $800 will go a long way toward paying off the debt!!

Now, here's the clincher..... Hang on to your seats..... I am thinking about QUITTING MY JOB TOO!!! How about that??!! I have a job offer that MAY come to fruition in Aug/Sept, until then, a friend of mine (more like a niece, and I helped raise her) has asked me to be a nanny to her kids for the summer (she is having a baby in Aug/Sept'ish and will then be home for 6 weeks). While it is more money, it is more hours too. BUT, since DH will be working from home for most of the week and the kids will be home for the summer soon, this would give me the opportunity to take care of my own kids as well. We could stay over at my girlfriends house during the day and they have a subdivision pool. Plus there is the zoo, parks, Magic House, Six Flags, etc.. The kids are 3 and 5, can talk and do things for themselves and NO diapers!!
And if the other job doesn't work out, my friend says I can stay on watching the baby and the middle one, as the oldest will be off to school.

So.... what do you all think??

Along the lines of miscommunication with spouses, here is the latest from my DH...

You all know we pulled out $400 to use as our groceries/med/gas fund. So far so good, still well funded!

Here's the kicker. DH is quitting his job tomorrow and starting a new company with my brother in law. He will start that job on Monday. We have to come up with the money to put into the new business. Now, was there discussion about where to get the money from, YES, was there a mutual decision made, NO. HE decided to pull our Roths and some out of our retirement account (which he definitely thinks of as HIS accounts). Okay, fine. The he SUGGESTS that we pull an additional $5000 from the retirement and pay it toward our high interest AMEx. Wha??? We are in debt due in part to him holding out money we needed for bills. Now he wants to pay something?? I'm not saying no, or really anything for that matter, but where the heck was he on this 3 years ago when our income tanked and our debt rocketed?

I really enjoyed her article that she linked to in her last entry!j

A blog I enjoy reading called Frugal Babe, recently listed a place you can go for a free credit score called Credit Karma.

For the kids that is! Last one goes back tomorrow! And I have a day off! Can't wait! So many plans and spending money is not one of them!

Soooo, time for DH to be paid. I was'nt going to be the bad guy this time. He said there would be a $500 bonus on this check and started making suggestions on what we could do with it. I pulled out the lovely "purple book" that houses our calendar and list of bills. I told him we had to sit down and I would show him what I am slated to pay out of this check. I also showed him my "wish list" of things I would LIKE to pay. That deflated his balloon. Plus I showed him exactly what we owe on everything and how the debt had grown in the last 2 years. He could'nt focus on it for too long, but it was the beginning of the eye opener. I also told him what I have slated to pay out of my check next week. Oh, and how we will have almost nothing left to buy groceries and gas with. At least he can't say he doesn't know what is going on with our money!! Refreshing...

I have been so busy, I haven't had time to think this weekend. But I did get up early this morning and make a pot of chili in the crock. So yummy! I am so confused by this time change. I hate losing an hour!

DD3 had a DI competition, we placed 5th out of 11. At least we don't have to move on to state. We also had a couple of GS cookie booths. I have been lucky to keep my 20 pounds off, but I sure haven't been able to loose any more!

Did spend on eating out twice yesterday because of the competition, but at least hubby was fed.

Okay, I have a weird shopping addiction. Can anyone help me?

As I have stated before, I actually HATE shopping of almost any kind. I LOVE finding bargains and using coupons. I have been fully raised to be a responsible thrifty adult.

But... I have the weirdest tendency to panic when I am out of something. If the milk gets down to a quarter of the gallon, I feel the need that I have to replace it immediately. I like to have a few of everything on hand so I don't run out. Maybe it is because I don't want to hear a whiney child (or husband) complain we are out of their favorite whatever.

This ends up costing us more money in the long run. I have a list, I go to the grocery store once a week. But if I see something about to run out, I run into the nearest store to replenish it and pick up 7 other items I'm sure we'll need soon, oh and a treat too. I want to do a no spend day challenge, but I am at loathe to do it, because I would fail after a day. I feel like I need a support group for this? Any one want to join??

I hope everyone has a thrifty and lovely Valentines Day!

Fridays has a buy one get one coupon you can print off and use as many times as you want until March 1.

I have been looking for a full time positon for a long time now. When we needed a new receptionist at work, we put an ad on Craigslist and it went great. But since I have been seeking employment, I have been amazed at the scams on Craigslist! One time apparently my resume went into a big pool for a temp agency. On this last one, they were seeking a position for a market research place. They sent me an email saying I had to follow a link to take an efficiency test. No problem. I clicked on the link and was directed to this:

Seriously! It must be a genetic flaw. I absolutely hate shopping! In ANY form. Thank goodness for online shopping. It is how I do most of my Christmas shopping now!

Case in point, I must feed a family of 5, two dogs, a cat, a hamster and a fish. This requires that nasty S word! I went to Super Walmart yesterday after work. (Everything in one place is AWESOME!!) I DO make a list and make sure it is the order that the store goes in, so that I don't have to spend ONE MORE SECOND in the joint than I need to! I get my super buggy and I am off like a shot. I need to meet up with DH in 45 minutes. I scramble through tossing in items and rounding corners on two wheels. Some things are there, some are not. Gosh dog, why do they carry every form of a product, EXCEPT the one I want!!??? I do the final victory lap and rush to the checkout. This is where Mr. Murphy holds my hand. It is garanteed, I will get the slowest line with non English speaking checker. As I sweat in my big coat after my strenuous workout I heft all my purchases and try to cram them on an "efficient" and WAY TO SMALL conveyor belt. As the lady in front of me chats on her cell phone and slowly empties her cart, pays in 15 different ways and generally makes sure that I am already 5 minutes late to meet DH, it is finally MY TURN! Guess what?? Time for that checker to take a break, so I wait as they change guard..... Great here we go! I frantically throw filled bags into the cart as she scans the items, of course, smashing the bread with the milk, etc... etc... I am now 15 minutes late to meet DH. I run the card through the machine and rush out the door, the toliet paper falls off the bottom of the cart and I ran over it in my haste, claiming me a shredded wad of white that I toss on top of the milk to the furthur demise of my bread, get to the van, toss everything in and rush to meet DH, now 25 minutes tardy. As I zoom down the highway, I gloomily reflect, I forgot to hand the checker all my ever so important coupons. Sigh. This my friends is why I HATE shopping!!!!

Edit: I meant my story more as an amusement, but I still really DO HATE shopping! I keep reminding myself how blessed I am as I shop for food, but I still HATE it! DH was fine. He needed to pay for something and needed the CC that I had, I had plenty of time to get there. All was good. (But I still HATE shopping! )

Yes, I need to track my money better. I have been working on financial forms for my husband, so he can get everything together to start the business with my BIL. One year we made $120K, the next we took a bit hit and it was about $70. The next, back to $105, the next two around $85. This past year?? $45. Yikes. I wasn't sure how it would wash out, but no wonder we are scrambling. It was a bit perplexing that we really cut back this year, I just did'nt realize, it should have been WWWWAAAAAAYYYYYY back. My mentality is still too paycheck to paycheck. DH keeps swearing he is going to take over the bill payment. I hope this comes true soon!

The girls are hoping school will be called off tomorrow. Our school district calls it when it is -30 windchill. I don't think it will get much more than .... -20. Lord, please send these kids to school!

So far so good. I have been cooking every night. I really enjoy getting back into our old "boring" routine! Comforting! We have plenty of food and I have made a menu for the next two weeks.

PS Kids went back to school today! Yeah!

Mom came by and fixed my sewing machine. Boy do I have a pile of things to do!

Gosh darnit! They were supposed to go back today, but mother nature intervened! She sent a lovely sheet of ice to keep those little varmits home again! I still had to go to work though, but they sent me home early. I am glad for the money, but what a pain, to get ready, get there and then get sent home.

Anyway, here is what has been happening in boo world lately for those uh, maybe 3 people that follow my blog! ....

I finished the part time job. If I ever try to work retail at Christmas again, push me off a roof! Ugh! Christmas was good, under control, most everything paid for in cash except for what hubby bought me and show tickets for the girls.

Still have not found a full time job... most days I am just thankful to HAVE a job. Now I just have to do my best to use this money wisely. Not my best quality.

Debt is up to around $66,000. Makes me want to throw up. Nuff said about this for now.

DH is going to quit his job and follow my brother in law to his new business. Another thing that makes me want to throw up. I am scared to death.

We had to bury a very good friend of 30 years two days after Christmas. Please, live life, laugh and love your family and your friends. Don't hold back on this! It has been heartbreaking and soul searching... again, nuff said.

DH is still letting me juggle the bills. Times are so tight, the kids are great at pitching in. We are still at an impasse. Until he starts the new job, I have no idea what kind of budget to make. I am just doing my best.

Well, long it is! But that was my holiday in a nutshell. I am looking forward to a successful 2009. I am 20 pounds down in weight and looking forward to dumping the last 15!!

I hope you all have a fun and happy New Years Eve and a Spectacular, Fantastic and WILDLY fruitful and frugal new year! Go 2009!!!!