Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Bragged too soon...

This month has been crazy. And it's only the 30th - only 10 days since payday. We have $150 to last us through until payday (May 20th). And I haven't paid the cable bill or the cell phone bill.

See, we get money from other sources. And then, instead of taking care of things right away, we justify things - "oh, we can go out to eat, we have that money!" , or "Oh, the dog needs shots, but we have that money!" or 10 billion other things.

And then, of course - that money is gone. Even though it was supposed to go to paying off the dryer.

But not only is it gone, we spent MORE than that amount, so we're screwed.

~sigh~

Here's to hoping that the tax rebate comes very soon. Like, tomorrow would be nice. We are scheduled for May 2, so hopefully we'll see it this week. (I say hopefully because we owe the VA some money, and they tend to seize parts of our refunds. I'm hoping that they don't take it all...)


Good news, though - I did a balance transfer to the new cc. 0% interest until the end of September, and then 14% afterwards. High, but it's half of what we pay in interest now (30%). This is a good thing - it will help us focus a little more on actually getting it paid down, and allow more of our money to go to the debt repayment. I'm hoping it will be a good motivator to get it gone. We weren't able to transfer all of it, we still have about $1200 left on the smaller card and still $10,000 on the bigger card, but now $2300 is on this 0% interest to be snowballed second.

So...that was good. :)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Amazing!

We have 5 days to payday (once a month payday) and we still have...(drum roll, please)...just over $70 in envelopes to get us through! AND - we have mucho food in the house, just need to make sure we have fruits, etc and milk. AND - we have gas in the car.

Woo hooooo! I am so happy - we made it through, following the budget, not going over, not having to use the cc's...man. We really watched the groceries and the eating out, and it paid off.

I feel terrific!

Not to mention - we also have $135 in envelopes for oil changes, dog care, clothing and quarterly insurance payments. We didn't touch that money at all!



I'm going to go do a little happy dance to celebrate, and find something for breakfast. :)

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Saturday

It's such a Saturday. I am seriously contemplating going back to bed - it's so gloomy/sleety/rainy outside, it just sounds perfect to go back into the nice warm bed and snuggle in with my dh and the pup.


The jerk who bought our bed finally showed up to pick it up and pay the rest of what he owed us. We had listed it for $250 and agreed to $175. He shows up wtih no one to help him load it, so dh helps. The guy pulls out $20 bills (he still owed us $115) and counts them out, then holds the last one and says, "You have change for a $20? All I need is a $5 back." We don't. He takes a $10 and shoves it in dh's hand and says, "Thanks for the discount!" and jumps in his car and takes off. Dh was so pissed - it really ruined the night. I said we should just consider it good riddance - it's out of our garage, we have another $170 to go to paying off the dryer, and lesson learned.

What is the lesson learned? We both hate dealing with Craigslist.


We also found out we're having road work done starting next week, not to finish until August. Roads dug up, new sewer, new water lines, trees cut down, new curb line, new sidewalks...bad news there is that I was planning to have a rummage sale the first Sat in June when our citywide is planned. I'm really bummed - we could have it in August when it's all done, but there are so many people in the city for the citywide, it's always better. I was really hoping that could help pay off the bed.

I don't remember if I mentioned our good news - we were approved for a partial balance transfer! I was very excited. Our credit is much better than it has been, and every 6 months or so, I try for another cc just for the balance transfer part of it. I tried again, and we were approved for $2300 at 0% interest for 6 months, then 14%. Now, not terrific, but SOOOooo much better than what we have now (30% on one card, 24% on the other), that I'm very excited about it. We're going to transfer as much of the larger percentage/smaller balance card that we can, and then work really hard to get the rest paid off that one. That will feel so great - to actually look like we're making headway!

okay - enough. I think it may be time for bed. :) Have a nice weekend - hope it isn't as gloomy by you as it is by me.

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Wendy at Debt Freedom Fighters to list 7 random and/or weird things about myself. Just a warning - I am terrible at coming up with these things:

1. I love all types of music - the only thing I really can't stand listening to is rap/hip hop. I am such a music nerd - I remember really odd things about groups and artists, and have strange obsessions with musicians as if they are my personal friends. I listen to these on a regular basis: Rod McKuen, Trace Adkins, Harry Chapin, Pearl Jam, Eric Clapton, Alanis Morrisette, Rush, Kenny Chesney, David Bowie...well, you can see, it's an odd combination. Imagine how my mp3 player looks. :)

2. I met my husband online. We had a marvelous 3 month relationship, met in person and moved in together within a week. We met online in Oct of '96, met in person in late Jan of '97, moved in together in Feb of '97, and married in July of '97. He is still my best friend in the world, and I cannot imagine having not met him.

3. I am one of those broke finance professors Dave Ramsey talks about. I have taught Economics to high school students for over 10 years. I love economics and know that the world is just viewed differently from an economic perspective. I know personal finance, I just have a really hard time applying it to my own life.

4. Although I still feel twinges for children, I know dh and I will not have any. I have very little patience for small children, and I have come to accept that about myself. Yeah, everyone says, "It's different when they're yours." No one is willing to offer me a guarantee, or the money to raise the little rugrats. As far as I can tell, it's not going to happen. Plus, the "twinges" I mention are for things that seem very selfish and no reason at all to have a child - who will I pass down stories of my family to? Who will I give treasured possessions to? Who will get the family pictures? Who will take care of me when I'm old and decrepit? That's no reason to have a kid.

5. I am a voracious reader. It's not uncommon for me to have 3 books going at the same time. I check out an average of...oh, I'll guess about 5 books a week from the library. Yes, I read them all.

6. Umm... I am the only person I know that does not like coffee. I love the smell of fresh ground coffee beans, but really REALLY hate the taste. Hot, cold, doesn't matter. It's gross.

7. I love Kraft American cheese slices. How much more random can you get? I do live in Wisconsin, after all. :)


I tag: Well, I am really such a baby at these, I tag...whoever reads and wants to be tagged. ;) Actually, most of the people I read and know have already been tagged! lol If you want to, here you go:

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog. Some random, some weird.
3. Tag up to 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Finally!

The bed sold tonight. We got $175 for it, and the guy is going to come by the end of the weekend to pick it up. He was a little annoyed we insisted on a down payment to hold it for him.

BUT - this will get us closer to paying off the dryer sometime soon. :) :)

Still nothing on the wedding dress. :(