Monday, August 29, 2005

Finally got some stuff on ebay!

It took me awhile to get back into the hang of things. Dh's mother died two weeks ago, and we had to make an extra trip down to KY. And then, I got into a panic because I only had a couple of weeks left of summer vacation before I had to go back to work.

But I finally got my ebay table in the basement cleaned off and ready to go. Took pics, cleaned them up, sized them, uploaded them...and posted 7 things tonight. 2 of them have potential of going big, so we'll see what happens.

I was able to take half.com earning this month and divide them between the Best Buy card and the smaller cc that we had to use for traveling to KY. That meant that nothing extra went to BECC (Big Evil Credit Card), though. I hate that. So these ebay sales could really help me bring that one back down.

I go back to work tomorrow. The kids come back Thursday. I'm going to wear one of my new outfits tomorrow - fitted gray pants and a wrap gray striped sleeveless blouse with kick ass shoes. The grand total for this outfit = $15.74. :) Gotta love that. I'm losing weight, and I want to look better. I needed work clothes that fit, so I did end up getting quite a bit from clearance racks. Not too much, because I still have more to lose.

In that vein, Jo Ann Fabrics had a sale on Simplicity patterns on Saturday - $.99 each. I bought four of them. Between all of them, once I reach a lower weight and my work clothes absolutely will not do, I will have fitted slacks, fitted capris, elastic slacks, slim skirt, flowing skirt, tank, fitted tank, dress, t-shirt style top, fitted jacket, boxy jacket, and purses. :) I don't have the material, yet, of course, but I was proud of my find. They are all pretty complimentary, and I'll choose colors that go together. I haven't been this excited about clothes in a long time. I still have a long way to go, but I have that as inspiration.

Not much else. Still considering a rummage sale this fall. I mentioned in an email to my mom that I don't have any big things, so I might wait. She emailed back saying I could have her wicker furniture and papasan chair to sell, and there might be more in storage. I don't remember if I've mentioned how my mom is (although it explains so much...), but she buys stuff like there's no tomorrow, then changes her mind and gets rid of it within a year or two. Good for my ebay sales and rummage, but bad for her bills. Every time, I offer to pay her the money from sales, but she doesn't want it. Sometimes, I think she's crazy...

Friday, August 19, 2005

Interview

I had a very brief interview at the local Ground Round today. He offered me the job almost immediately, but I was very upfront and honest, told him I wanted only a Friday night and a Saturday night shift. He said he needed three shifts.

Now, if I wasn't teaching, it wouldn't be a big deal. But I know myself. If I don't have at least one day off, I'll start going nuts, really resenting what I'm doing. And there's no way I'll work a shift during the week. So I refused.

It's actually a nice sign of strength - I didn't have to take the job, so I knew I could walk out. We can make it on the money we make, but it sure would be easier to pay the bills down if we had a little extra coming in.

But I need to stay sane at the same time. So no. Not now.

He did tell me to give him a call if I change my mind, which is nice. Now, if I could only find a serving job that will allow me only Fri & Sat nights. Most want a 3 or 4 shift/week commitment. That's what's screwing me here. ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Yeowch...Networth IQ

What an interesting site! Even though it's pretty depressing for us... ;)

Go to http://www.networthiq.com for your own. I will admit, I didn't put exact numbers in, only educated guesses. I will update after we do bills this weekend.

Here's mine, as depressing as it is - over -$60,000 net worth.


http://www.networthiq.com/people/kmickeyd


I will, I will, I will get this under control. I can't continue to live like this.

*edit* - I just looked through their site...I have the dubious honor of having the lowest networth there. How exciting!

Ugh... I guess my new goal is to get that number up and not be the lowest any more.

Kicked in the ass...again...

My m-i-l died last weekend.

We had the money put aside for one visit, which we made two weeks ago now. So, this visit had to be charged. We flew down, stayed in a hotel, rented a car. Much more expensive, but eased the stress of an 7-8 hour drive tremendously. Food, too - we had a fridge, but no microwave. I haven't gone into Quicken yet, but it's probably close to $1000.

I hate that.

We got back home yesterday, and today I got a call from the local Ground Round. I put an application in there last month. So I have an interview with them tomorrow. I figure if they will give me Fri and Sat nights, I can try it and see. If it starts affecting my work (teaching), I'll just have to drop it. But with a Fri and Sat night, I could reasonably make $150 extra/week that could go to paying down the bills.

Dh hates the idea, but I have no clue how we will keep up with the bills if I don't get something else. Ebay only goes so far. Speaking of which, I have to get some things listed in the next couple of days...

Also still planning for a rummage sale. My mom is helping rather nicely, giving us crap to put out there. :)

Total owed to cc: over $10,000 again. :(

Friday, August 12, 2005

Ugh.

We put money aside to visit my in-laws this summer (450 mile trek), but my m-i-l is very ill and we had to go sooner than we thought. We stayed out at her house...the A/C wasn't working (KY in August = hell). We had to buy one or stay at a motel.

$200 added to cc bills.

In addition, she is dying. We came back home, but will have to return within a few weeks unless a miracle occurs. We don't have the money set aside to go, and will have to stay at a motel because her home is no longer available. All on the cc.

Life happens, and sometimes it sucks. Our electric bill went up this month. We are on monthly budget payments, and I was really hoping they'd go down - they went up. We won't have to pay $45 to my s-i-l to help with m-i-l's bills anymore, so that will help. But how will we pay down the cc?

Ebay is our friend. But I can't post anything to sell until I know we will be around. So it will have to wait until after the funeral.

I can't miss any work to go down there - so if the school year starts and she hasn't died, dh will have to go alone. How terrible is that?

Man, I'm really down.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Interesting article...

I found this article...actually, I don't remember how I found it. I was surfing somewhere. It's by Suze Orman, and she talks about how couples need to be on the same page in regards to finances:


http://biz.yahoo.com/pfg/e39couple/

Dh and I have been very lucky as usually, we are on the same page. Every once in a while, we differ on where the money should go (he thinks we need to buy another video card, I think we just bought one two years ago and why in the world does he need to play more games on the computer anyway...). But more often than not, we can keep each other on track.

He's usually really good about talking me out of going out to dinner. We still need to work on that, because I can be very unreasonable, and I know how to use his feelings against him - isn't that terrible? I manipulate him, I *know* I'm manipulating him - and yet I still do it. Good lord.

"They" say that half of all divorces are due to money problems. I'll bet it's more than that. But I can see how the stress could really get to you after awhile.

Well - I'm just babbling now. I'm off to find thrifty things to do!

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Cleaning helps me concentrate on debt...

Is that crazy?

I'm not a Martha Stewart type, by any stretch of the imagination (I actually have a plaque in my kitchen that says, "Martha Stewart doesn't live here -- adjust"). We do have a very cluttered basement, though (one side of the basement is finished and is my "playroom" - office for me, sewing room, library & exercise room. There is so much crap in there, it's not even funny, and we've only lived here three years. The other side of the basement is unfinished and has the washer/dryer, my pantry, storage, and my ebay area - table for packing, packing materials, and a shelf full of stuff that needs to be listed online.

We had a rummage sale in the spring where we made a little over $300. What didn't sell and I knew I couldn't ebay went directly to Goodwill, which I'm really proud of. It didn't go back in the house. But now...as I go through organizing and decluttering the finished side of the basement, I'm finding more stuff, so we may actually have a second rummage sale this fall. I think I'll even advertise it as new (not rummaged before) stuff.

I made a big dent in it last night - worked down there for about 3 hours as I watched the finale of Hell's Kitchen (I only seem to get sucked into the really stupid reality shows...). But as I worked, I started thinking of all the stuff we've bought over the years - on cc, with cash, using bonuses, at auctions, and it occurred to me that we are hoarders.

No big surprise, I think most of the US holds hoarders. But - for two people, no kids, in a small house - we really have a lot of crap.

Luckily, dh is starting to agree with me that we just have too much stuff. He is agreeing to get rid of some of it, too, which is amazing, because he's even more of a packrat than I am. I thought I had really gone through and grabbed stuff for the rummage sale in June, but I'm finding a lot more than I just want out of the house.

I do rummage sales differently - one day only (no multiple day crap for me), and by noon I am marking stuff down rapidly. Sometime around 1:30 or 2:00, things go half price, and I tend to have everything closed by 3:30. If it's not sold, it goes to Goodwill, unless I think I can ebay it.

The two that I've done like this have worked well - $550 on one, $300 on the other. 'Course, I get lots of stuff, and I almost always have some furniture out there, which helps bring more in.

But - as I sort (back to that), I do think about our debt, and make peace with the money I've spent. I think that helps. If we do have another one, the money will go to pay off the cc. That's incentive, too. That sucker needs to go down.