Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Okay. I did it.

I felt so guilty that I went and did our bills.

I feel much better.

Although I didn't get as much sent to the BECC as I should have.

Bills.

I put off paying the bills.

I really don't know why.

Some weird God-given right to keep my own money?

Nah.

Anyway. We are now officially one week and one day past payday (we get paid monthly) and I still have not done the bills. We have bills coming due, and I feel no pressure. Isn't that terrible?

I did hop online and send the smaller cc a token payment. I had meant to send them at least $75 over that. But nooooo...I haven't updated Quicken yet to see where we're at.

And the BECC is due in 2 days, too. Have I sent them extra? Have I paid at all? NOOOOOoooooooooooooooo....too lazy for that.

Hmmm...I guess I need to go on their website and see when the due date is. Swear to God, I'm NOT paying any more late fees with them...

And yet, here I sit, clacking away on the keyboard rather than pay our bills.

Go figure.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Dh didn't get the job. :( It would involve just too much walking. He's bummed, but I'm proud of him for getting the application in and getting the interview. We're still thinking on that one.

I can still draw. That's been kind of fun today - I've been drawing some designs. I need to seriously consider if I want to do this (start a business). The tax stuff intimidates me. Do I really want to deal with all that?

And it was pretty cool - I am one of the blogs mentioned in the Carnival of Debt Reduction! I feel so loved! You like me, you really like me! (The depressing thing is that there are many people out there who have no idea why I wrote that...don't even remember it happening...) ;)

Mighty Bargain Hunter has the Carnival this week - brand spanking new with lots of info. Thanks for including me! :)

I'm off to do some work in the basement that will hopefully pay off in cold hard $$$ to send to the BECC (Big Evil Credit Card).
Dh has an interview today! This was great news - I'm so happy for him, just to get the interview. He has serious disability issues (back & neck), so he can't walk/stand/sit for extended periods of time. The car usually helps him, but he can't lift, so deliveries are out. This interview is for a security position at the mall, driving the parking lot. We talked about it and agreed that his health is more important than the money, and if they want him to do things like 1 shift walking the mall, that he wouldn't be able to take it. But I'm just so happy that he got the application in and was called for an interview!

On other news - one thing sold on ebay, $20 more than I thought I'd get for it, so I was excited about that. The other two things didn't sell. I need to post more today.

Payday - September is the check that we get our contract changes on, and I was delighted to see that we'll be getting $100 more/monthly check than last year. This was great news. It will take the crunch off the increase in the gas bill and the gasoline bills, allowing us to send more to the BECC.

I also got two reimbursement checks equalling about $100. :)

I bought five McCall's patterns that were on sale for $.99 each at Hancock Fabrics the other day. Wedding/evening/prom type of dresses. I'm going to be looking at what I need to do to set up a seamstress/design business in our basement. I'm still in the really early stages, but there's money there.

And...I think that covers it for money stuff. I need to do the bills this weekend since payday was this week. I can send a nice chunk to the BECC, and we have about $150 in paypal that I'm going to split between the Best Buy card and the smaller, lower interest rate cc. That will feel good!

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Money Issues...

I seem to spend all of my time lately either obsessing about money we owe others or weight issues. I'm not sure I like it.

No call from the bridal shop. I have to decide whether to just let it go or be gutsy and call her again. I hate being pushy. Really.

But it seems like everywhere we go, I think about how we need to pay down the BECC (big evil credit card). Today, we had a really nice day planned, going to an art festival about an hour away. Everything we saw there, I thought - "hey, we could make that and sell it and pay off the BECC". I constantly think of crafty stuff, but I know how hard it is to make it in that arena. And crafting on ebay is just nearly impossible. I have some things I'm going to set out when we have our next rummage sale, and advertise as a rummage/craft/plant sale, but that's not going to be until June unless I get some energy.

I really hate that it's taking over every waking moment (or so it seems). In a way, that's a good thing because it keeps it clear in my mind, but I really don't like it controlling everything we do.

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Money making stuff lately. Well, I got three more things posted on ebay. Not much. Returned that guy's money that I mentioned in my last post (not really money-making, but good for ebay business that he's not complaining).

Oh - I talked dh into letting me get loads of books out of the house. We have 8 bookcases in the basement (8!!), and we never go down there to find books. So I was able to get about 4 moving boxes full of books out of there. I was able to post about 1 of those boxes (maybe 2 dozen pretty big books?) on half.com. If everything were to sell on half.com, we'd make about $400. Not too bad. I saved a few books to combine into lots for ebay, and the other three boxes went into the rummage pile.

And the computer is working in the basement now, so it should be easier to post things to ebay. I've been using as an excuse the fact that I've read in numerous sources that it's better to end an ebay sale on a Tuesday, but screw that. As long as it ends in the evening, I'm going to post when I have time to post. I don't always have time on Tuesday (7 day sale) or Thursday (5 day auction) nights. I just need to get things posted. So there! lol

Some other ideas:
~Memory dolls
~Custom sewing - the big stuff like wedding and prom dresses, possibly career wear, but no super easy stuff that I couldn't charge much for
~Garden decorations - like my growing chairs
~One of a kind christening gowns
~Writing
~Word processing for college students (university within 15 miles of us - actually 2 pretty big ones within 20 miles of us)

I just don't know where to start on a business. I have no interest in getting all the paperwork done, so my ideas just sit there. Lazy me.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

No news...

Well, I haven't heard from the bridal shop yet. I really hope she calls. I haven't decided what I'm going to do if she doesn't call...still thinking on that one.

Tonight I'm going to post more on ebay. We had two more successful endings, but not huge things. About $16.00, and no one's paid by paypal yet. But we did get the money order for one sold last week, so that's another $11 in our checking account, plus about $25 deposited from half.com. So we'll get through the month without raiding paypal. That's a good thing.

We sold an almost complete set of Time-Life books for about $50 last week. He pays by paypal, so it's sent out the next day. He emails me yesterday (after already leaving positive feedback) to say that one of the books is missing. I, of course, have no proof that I mailed all of the books that I said I did. So I look all over my little ebay room, all over the computer room (I may have brought it up here to write the auction, because the book he says is missing was damaged and I wanted to make sure that I put down what was wrong with it) - the book is not in this house.

So, short of calling him a liar, I am offering to pro-rate the one book from the total purchase price and refund that amount. It would be about $5, and I can live with that. It's cheaper than having him send them all back to us and having to refund the entire amount + 2 way shipping. And then he'll be happy. My gut tells me that book was in the box, but what can you do? We have 100% positive feedback, and I take pride in that fact, and the fact that we are honest people trying to clean out our house, not a real ebay business.

Sometimes ebay really sucks. All that drama.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Second Jobs...

Well, on Friday I stopped over at the bridal shop that had posted an ad for a seamstress. I had a great talk with the owner, and I think she was impressed. It would be really ideal - close to home (actually, so close that I could walk it in about 10 minutes), not using up gasoline, extra income, good hours (only two nights a week, and then only until 7pm, and Saturdays, no Sundays). I know she has others to talk to, but I think she was impressed that I stopped by and with my background. Keep fingers crossed.

We have three things ending on ebay tomorrow and two will sell. It's at about $16 right now. Not much. I'll be posting more on Tuesday night. Dh got the computer working downstairs so I don't have to lug everything up here to post.

We have a little over a week to payday (20th) and we are poor! We did grocery shopping tonight and need to put some gas in, plus pay the phone bill. We got a $40 check from insurance that will cover the phone bill, but I will have to use some ebay sales/paypal to help us get through the week. I really hate getting paid once a month. It's so hard by the end of the month! Not to mention that I hate feeling so poor - I'm really looking forward to a decent second job that will help us get the debt out so we can spend our money on us - savings and investments - rather than "past us" (dumb spending).

Ah, well. We live and learn...I'm just sick of the learning part and ready to get into the living part.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Ebay Sales!

Well, we had listed 7 things, and 4 of them sold, so we made about $85 on it! I'm a little disappointed the other things didn't sell, but I relisted them at lower prices to see if I could encourage anyone.

We're at over $100 in paypal right now, so I'm going to be transferring it over to our bank account and then sending it off to the BECC (Big Evil Credit Card). I don't know why I wait until it's over $100. I shouldn't. Really.

I am also planning on getting a couple of other things posted by Thursday. If I can keep that up, we'll get at least $50/week extra to send to the BECC.

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In other news, I have a lead for a different second job. A bridal shop about 10 blocks from me wants a seamstress. Now - I made my own wedding dress, numerous prom dresses, and a set of bridesmaid's dresses. I'm going to call them this afternoon to see if they are looking for part time. I'm excited - I could walk to work (saving gas), and since it's so specific, I think I could ask for $10-$15/hour. Even just a few hours a week could really add up and get more to the BECC!

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I'm really nervous about the bills. I'm so sick of them hanging over us. And if the BECC doubles minimums like other cc companies are doing, we will be so screwed. We won't be able to pay them. Really. That would put our minimum to over $500. We pay what we can, usually around $400/month, but there's no way that we could cover $500 without serious problems.

It's bad enough that gas is going up so much - if heating oil goes up as much, our monthly electric/gas bill will be atrocious.

I hate worrying about money. I really wish we were independently wealthy. I know the numbers say that even independently wealthy people have money problems, and that your spending increases in time with the income, but man. All I want is to pay off the cc.

We're tightening the belts right now to work on paying things off, so if the gas situation does affect our heating, we'll have some extra that we can play with. I got another 6 month extension on the student loans, which will help. But man, we'll be in trouble soon if we don't get this under control, and quick.