Coupon addict gets REAL!

Well I set a $100-$150 limit for My Son.

I want to pickup a Nentendo DS game (normally $29.99) for him. But after that my total will be about $86.29.

I need to wait on the game because he is currently saving money to buy the DS Machine and he has about $45 left to go. Tomorrow we will be taking in a few more toys to Once Upon A Child. I am thinking he could get $20-$25 for the items but I hope he gets more since I would like him to be able to get the machine sooner.

He does not know this but I am going to buy him his first game and a storage tote for the machine, when he has enough money for the machine. Since I am not sure which game he will pick I will need to wait on the Christmas game until I know which ones he really really wants.

I want to buy the storage tote/bag as it has pockets for the games, batteries, machine etc and it will all be in one place and not spread all over the house. So the tote is really for my sanity so I will buy it.

I bought him for Christmas (All items he wanted):
A remote control fourwheeler with driver $49.99
A Mini REAL Football (one size down from the junior) $6.29 (from Santa)
** And I plan to purchase one Nentendo DS game, Then I will be done!!

This year I am going to scale back big time. I am so happy; I was going to buy more stuff for my son but I am going to stick to a less is more Christmas and keep going on my fiancial freedom plans.

I was doing some math and last year I believe I spent close to $300 each on both my Husband and Son. I also spent close to $200 each on my Step-daughters. I realize I totally go over board; it is not that we cant afford it because we can I just need to learn I dont have to buy every single thing the kids ask for.

This year; my spending goal is $110-$150 total.

When DH gets home he will get the smoker I purchased for him this fall, so I am not including that in my numbers. I need to buy something for my grandmother, and my cousin and her family and of course my son.

Since I sent items close to $250 in value to StepDaughter 2 for her birthday this year and did not get a note, text, email, or call; I have desided the girls will wait until DH gets home and he can deside what to do about a holiday present. At Christmas she said she wanted a IPOD for her Birthday (June) and since I happen to have one- my anniversery gift which I never got around to loading/using I sent her that and some other items.

I have desided that DH needs to handle the gifts for the girls because prior to this I sent gifts to the other daughter and one of her sisters was just plain rude to DH about them being the wrong size.

I purchased her some very nice Cute clothes; I was told she had no/very little clothes as their house was burnt down (arson possibly) which was not covered by insurance as they suspected a family member. When I went to buy her a holiday gift all I was told was that she was a big girl; since she was 12 years old I figured clothes my Size would fit or be a bit big that she could grow into. Of course DH felt bad that I was upset about the gift flop; exspecially since I had asked him to get her exact size and he had told me to just go a little bigger than a 12 year old girl would wear.

Her half sister throw the clothes in DHs face and said these would never fit her. I dont know what they ended up doing with the clothes; I think the snotty half sister and her twin ended up getting them; DH ended up taking his daughter shopping before he came home.

Back to his Summer and Gift giving in general; Am I wrong because I think that if the person buying you the gift is not there to see you open it, you need to atleast acknownledge you recieved it.

Am I bad person for wanting to skip the girls all together or send them a small check in the mail; because they dont apprieciate what they get?

When I talked to DH last he asked what I thought about selling the house; I was of course totally for it as I have wanted to sell since reality set in that all household and child care would continue to fall into my hands in addition to working full time because DH is too busy playing computer and XBox 360 games.

He said I should call a realotor and get the ball rolling even before he gets home. Of course once he gets home he may change his mind. The conversation was basically that he did not want to get a full time job to help pay the household bills so we should sell the house to reduce expenses.

Yeah that makes me feel loved that my husband who told me he would do what is needed to keep the house is so willing to get rid of it (the sooner the better) to avoid having to pull his share of the weight.

Oh well, it would have been nice to get him on board with earning income, but reducing expenses so we can save more is good also.

My plan is to rent or buy a condo (with no outside work) that is half the size of our current SQ footage, and cut payments down so we can either save money to eventually buy another house or buy a condo with a 125K price point.

Our house was $172K we took out a loan and paid $40K down and now owe 130K; we have our basement now 90% done (will be done when we sell) and our insurance has placed a rebuild - lot value of our house at 209K. So our house could be worth between 229K-173K. Our lot was $20K when we bought it; included in loan value and we have paid off our special assesments.


So if we can get 229K for the house that would leave us with only a $26K mortgage on a 125K condo. Extremely Super Awesome!

If we can get 209K for the house that would leave us with only a $46K mortgage on a 125K condo. Which is still Super Awesome!

If we only got $172 which is doubtful in our area since our state is one of the best for housing not depreciating. But $172 would mean $83K mortgage on a $125K condo. Which would still be good as this this would drop our monthly mortgage payment by $521 per month or by 43% to $675.

I get paid today, yesterday I figured out what bills I had to pay and how much. I factored what I needed for food and gas money and then set up transfers to the Emergency Fund for Monday.

The money is suppose to hit my account today so if the payment request is Monday I am sure there will be no glitches.

My New Emergency Fund as of 16 November is 6058.25. Which means $3163.75 to go until I have 3 months EF and can move on to step 4 which is already done for this year, so a detour to other savings goals, then step 5.

I keep switching around my goals. I cant help it, I should really just split them up and do a little to each but the satisfaction of checking something off is then delayed.

I am hoping if I keep Christmas in check that I should finish the EF short term goal on the paycheck coming 15 Dec. Yeah on month- would be supper tight but could happen!

Next goal is save $2000 for currently needed household repairs and projects.

After cleaning out all the unused toys out of the playroom; I was feeling guilty thinking my little boy had so few toys.

He had Show and Share at school today and I will not let him take anything with little pieces such as Legos or Knexs; so I was feeling guilty but he found something; a rubber sticky dart that he got at the red ribbon carnival. He had two but the other one broke within hours of getting home, this one had been forgotten and was sticking on a wall next to a picture.

Anyway back to my son and my guilt. After the huge playroom clean out/sale; he still has at least 15 lego sets at $30-$50 a pieces. He has 4 sets of Knex at $20-$50 a piece. He has Books, Two huge Totes of Stuffed Animals, a TV and DVD player with atleast 100 DVD at $15-$20 a piece.

Yeah he is so suffering for lack of toys. I have desided I will wait to buy him the Digital Camera. He would like a remote control car, we bought a cheap $5 one and over the course of three days I had to replace the batteries 6 times. I think it took longer to charge the Double A batteries than a charge lasted. So I told him I tossed it. He was sad, but he has gotten over it. It is new and so I will be donating it; someone with more time to replace batteries can have it.

I also will get him a WII game he has been saying he would like. Then Stocking stuffers (which are all done) and he is complete. I think the Car is going to be $35-50 and the game is $49.99 but games could go on sale between now and christmas.

I just have to remember he is going to get tons of things for Christmas (he always does). It will be good for him to be downsized for a little bit.

My Son is saving for a Nentendo DS Lite. Because two Christmas's ago we got him a Vsmile and Last year he got a Leapster; I will not buy it for him. He hardly played the other two game systems so he is going to have to wait until he gets a little older and he saves the money himself.

My son has a playroom and it is so full of toys he hardly plays with that you cant really use the toys you really want. He is really into Legos and Knex and so the other toys take up room he needs for building. Anyway I desided it was time to downsize his toy collection. The nice thing is he will have room to play and because he will have less to choose from I am hopeing he will not jump from one project to another without finishing anything.

I got a batch of items gathered up and cleaned them up so they were ready to sell and took them over this morning. I was offered $23.50 which we took and added that to his savings which brought his savings total to $37.65.

Yesterday on a side note we were at the mall to get him a hair cut and he went over to the $.25 candy station and what do I see as he is circling and circling. Next to the dollar changer is 1 Dime 1 nickle and 8 pennies. I also found another penny in the mall, and another in the parking lot.

After the successful morning toy drop off at the resale shop I decided to do another load. I was going to wait till next week or so; taking my time but was motivated to do more. We went through his toy room and he was surprizingly willing to say sure take it in after the trip this morning. We took in his Vsmile Handheld and about 10 game a tote of toys and an art table. They basically give 1/4 price of new. They mark all items for sale at half of new then they give the person bring in trade half of that price. So they issued me a check for $50.50 for trip two. This means the value of the items was basically $202.00 for trip two and $93.20. Man it is amazing how much money I blow on toys.

So tonight we sat down calculated tax, and he has $48.59 to go to get the machine. He will also need to save to buy the games but this is a leason in saving. I think the DS Lite may go on sale during black friday so if it does his allowance between now and then would close the deal. Also Big Lots has ads that they have games for $10.

I know my son has three more games for his Vsmile somewhere in the house; unless he took them over to my husbands friends house and did not bring those three back. My husbands friend has a girl who has the vsmile machine so My son may have taken the games over there and in the hurry to get home left them behind. We also have his Leapster2 and games that we could take in. I wanted to wait on taking in the leapster2 until he had the DS Lite but I am thinking he is so close to having the DS maybe we should just take it in and be done with it.

I like the Leapster2 and vsmile because they are nice for road trips and we were hopeing to give him something to do when we need him quiet; such as I have to take him to work or I want to workout and have to take him to the gym with me but that really have not worked. My Son will play with it for a hour or so at the start of the road trip and he is too busy asking question after question while I am at work or the gym that it has not served the purpose I had hoped.

Well I need to go do some small cleaning in his playroom but overall I am really happy about today.

On Friday I went to the store and purchased a coat it was on sale for $49.99 down from regular price of $180.00. I also had a coupon spend $50 get $10 off, so spend one more cent and save $9.99 or buy anything $10.01 or less and get it free and the difference off the coat.

I was trying to find a single pair of socks or something on clearance for $1 to make this a super deal but the clearance racks were all gone. They must have had sidewalk sales last week or something. Anyway DS needed underwear so I bought a 7 pack of hanes for $8.99. That means they were free with the coat purchase and I saved an additional $1.01 off the coat. All the underwear was the same price the only difference was the white pairs where larger packs than the colored.

Today I am thinking I have yet to take the stuff out of the bag; yesterday I was thinking that for the same price I could find a nice 4 in 1 which is what this is at Wal-Mart for the same price. Should I just find a heavy one piece coat (cheaper)? Maybe I should wait until Christmas and use the Gift Card that I think I will get from my dad to buy a coat. Or maybe I should just keep wearing the liner from my work coat like I have been.

The total after tax is $51.92 and I keep thinking if I return it before the 15th I can remove it from my spending tracker. I am tracking my spending every penny, breaking it into pay periods on the top is the income and than I track my spending with a total at the bottom. I am interested in my food costs; I have been doing a lot of subway lately; but how do you beat a foot long for $4.28 after tax when you don’t feel like cooking. Yeah the $5 foot longs are now $4 for a limited time at at-least two of my local subways. For two of us that ends up being $2.14 a person

Well Santa will be bring me "The Proposal" DVD. I realized two years ago that DS is a very smart cookie. So I need to stuff my own stocking also.

He asked "Why did Santa not get you much Mommy?" Well in my head I was thinking this is what happens when I leave it up to DH to buy me one or two $5 surprizes to stick in it. At the last minute I ended up taking the books I had on my dresser in my room and sticking them in the stocking so mine would not be bear while the stocking for DS & DH were overflowing with thoughtfull gifts. And yes I told DH often I expected him to complete this small task.

I went online to see if I could get a deal off of EBAY or Amazon and ended up buying it off Wal-Mart dot com. They had free shipping and so after tax and all I ended up saving a little over $5 from buying it instore.

I usually never buy DVDs for myself; I have about 7 DVDs they are my favorites and that is all I keep. First I dont like clutter and secondly I hate the thought of the expense when people have like thousands of DVD at $16 - $20 a piece. I normally rent DVDs as most movies I watch once and then have no desire to watch them again. Renting a movie cost between $1 and $3.50 depending on how new it is, so renting is a savings of $15 to $19.

Well I rented that movie on Friday and watched twice in a row Friday night, last night I watched it right before bed. I like the movie enough to buy it for my collection. I wish life was as simple as the movie protrays, hard working female finds hard working male with great family and they fall in love. Of course the movie ends there and you will never know or are even lead to wonder if they are a true love fit. (PS can you tell I have been reading "Five Love Languauges")? Truthfully all me favorites fall along this lines. My Collection is Never Been Kissed; Ever After; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; Maid in Manhatten; Sweet Home Alabama; & Two Week Notice. Now at one time I had While you were sleeping and it falls along the same lines, I cant find that movie so I may have to look and see if it ends up as one of those $5 christmas DVD deals and restock my collection.

What does my collection truly say about me? Is that what I hope for? Do I want a hard working guy and want to fall in love with someone who meets my needs (acts of service-love language) who I can return love to?

Surprizing though was the conversation that came out of watching that movie; my son asked who asked who to marry who. I said I asked his daddy. His answer was why did you do that; you can only pick once you got to pick right. WTH??? Now that I think back DH did ask me, I guess I momentarlly blocked out the proposal; but I was the one who finally said enough was enough lets elope and we sealed the deal within 3 days of deciding to elope.

Lately I have been having alot of dreams at night. I never remember my dreams or even remember dreaming but lately not only to remember them they all are falling into the lines of Me finding someone who understands me and a give and take relationship not the me giving and giving and giving that I am in now.

I guess my mind is telling me if I dont get out off my Toxic relationship I cant do better.

Well talked to DH today. Sadly he told me his plan for his computer building business.

Now maybe I am being too negative but do you think this is a good idea?

My Dh is planning to build Very basic non-name brand computers and sell them on Ebay. He wants to build a $150 computer (charging the parts on the credit card), sell it as a buy now or a bidding option with a reserve for $250 then use the profit to pay off the Credit Card and roll the profit to the expense of building the next computer and on and on.

He plans to include all paperwork that comes with the parts, but dont you think if someone was buying a basic computer (with no software); then they could build there own. I know I would not want to buy a computer without at least a opperating system. He plans to install the software to make sure it works than uninstall it right before shipping.

Note he has never sold ANYTHING on Ebay let alone a computer that need to work after shipping across the country.

His disclaimer is if it does not SELL than that is a computer for DS. The thing is we probubly have all the parts needed to build a computer for DS already around the house; but they are not new so the parts are not something to stake a new ebay identy on.

The other thing that gets me is Walmart sell computers for like $388 including WARRENTY and software loaded, why buy a no software computer off of ebay for $250 than pay for all the software when you can buy it with Software and all from Wal-Mart for $138 more.
----

On a side note, not sure how it came up but DH was asking about a Flat Screen Tv to watch movies on and I Said to him. " Well is that a Short term or a Mid term Goal?" He did not really like that answer.

Truthfully I am not sure what to do, part of me KNOWS he is not going to get a job so goals are pointless and that I am going to end up talking to a divorce lawyer; But the other part of me feels guilty for not giving him that 250th chance to do the right thing and prove me wrong for the first time in our 7 year marraige.

I have a large rock I would call a boulder in my yard, and three large rocks. The three rocks could be moved with a bobcat, not so sure on the boulder one.

We wanted to make a pretty landscape with the rocks, but now I just want them gone. I plan to put an ad online to offer them to someone doing landscaping.

I am wondering if I would get a larger call volume if I offered them for FREE or if I listed them Cheap (like $5). I need to get rid of them before it snows or it will have to wait until summer when the ground is hard again. I have a silly fear that if I wait too long they will build behind my house and then the person removing the rock is going to have to drive the equiptment on my grass instead of the empty lot.

The reason I say it is a silly fear, is the empty lot is very long and narrow. The back end has a wierd easement to it because the last 1/3 is like a water catch incase the water tower floods. Anyway the lot is priced by overall size and not by usable space and I am not sure how you would put a house on the lot and still meet city border rules.

Every year my work throws a halloween party for the children of the employees. At one of the office building locations the staff dresses up and the offices and hallways are done up.

I received this years photo, one of the things they do is set up a professional photographer and they take pictures of the children (and families if you want). It is free, everything is free.

Every year more and more children come; this year they believe 200 children went through.

I have all five years of photos on my computer at work. It is amazing how much my little guy has changed. Year one he was two years old and his costume was a 101 dalmations sweatsuit with cute ears on the hood. Can you say cute and frugle? The next year he was three and man he looked so much older, last year looking at his face he really looked like me.

This year he looks like his daddy. He sure has grown up. Truthfully this is my favorite event we do for halloween, hopefully I can get him to go next year. This year it was much more dark than it has been in the past, but I wonder if that had to do with the children getting older. Oh well I noticed alot more scared children this year than last year so maybe next year they will ton it down. The offices get to pick the theme and they have a contest for the best theme.

Oh well maybe next year I will have to take him just for the picture and he can decide if he wants to just have the yummy popcorn and drink they offer and than leave.

This is what I sent him as an example of what I was looking for, even though the article by dave ramsey did have an example, knowing DH he got frustrated and never go past the first paragraph of the article. I did tell him these were not mine just an example of what I was looking for.

MY EXAMPLE TO HIM.

Short term Goals (one year or less)
* 3 Month Expenses Emergency Fund
* New Tires
* New Bed
* Finish Basement

Mid Term
* 6 Months Expenses Emergency Fund
* Build Deck
* NEW 2010 Camero
* World Wide Cruise Vacation
* Build a Storage Shed

Long Term
* 12 Month Expense Emergency Fund
* Mortgage Paid off early 2033
* Retirement funds (15,000 yearly to live off of once retired)
* Retirement AGE 65
* College Account SON
* NEW BMW Convertible

What I got back from him:

wow, that looks great. lets go with that. just joking. i have never really thought about this, so here are some things. i do agree with a few of your things so i left them in.

Short term Goals (one year or less)
* 3 Month Expenses Emergency Fund
* school
* New Bed
* Finish Basement
* a set of weights for the basement (free weights or a cable system)
* computer building business, probably be able to start for 300$ or less.
* buy a smoker.


Mid Term
* 6 Months Expenses Emergency Fund
* school
* NEW 2010 Camero
* trip to europe or australia
* Build a Storage Shed
* Build Deck
* start a garden
* finish garage (cabinets, workbench, air compressor, Refrigerator)


Long Term
* 12 Month Expense Emergency Fund
* a nicer house
* finish school, possibly go for masters in computer science.
* Retirement AGE 65
* College Account Son
* fishing boat or canoe


** I have made a spreadsheet combining ALL of both of our goals and leaving them in the time lines they are in. Now to figure out how to get DH to work so he can help make these goals happen.

I put the list in order by what I would like to see them accomplished and sent it to him to ask him to put the list in his order. We will see if the Camaro stays the second to last on the list of mid term goals or if it gets moved above retirement savings.

I had 2 20K NEW cars on the bottom of my long term list but it has been changed to one 20K new car for Me on the bottom of the long term goals and the 2010 Camaro for DH second to bottom of the mid term goals. Why is the 2010 Camaro second to bottom? Because I value a car more than a vacation to Europe or Australia. A Car can take you to work and the grocery store. Besides If I was picking the Vacation it would be something like a Cruise or Hawaii, But I would place a Vacation as a long term goal not a mid term goal.

I also have NO idea what he means by a nicer house; We have a house assesed at a replacement value of 209K that is less than 3 year old that was custom built and the average house in this city cost 171K. It is a four bed 2 3/4 bath. I am really stumped by that one but I asked him to explain.

I talked to DH, he is now at a new location and do to medical issues he maybe coming home early. Yeah that means a loss of income sooner so we will see.

Any way while talking to him he finally got around to figuring out HIS financial goals. He sent it to my work email so I will find out how we match up on Monday.

One thing he said really made me go "WHAT???". He says after living paycheck to paycheck for so long it is SO HARD for him to think in terms of goals since he just figured he be poor forever. Sure he would be poor forever if he keeps staying under employed like he does now.

We have not been poor in five years; we have spent over 88K on things over 5 years including.

3K student loans (DH)
600 Entertainment Center
400 TV
8K Car loan payoff (DH)
40K House Down payment
1,500 Used Truck
1K table and Chairs
1,400 Washer and Dryer
4K three laptop computers
1K Desktop computer parts
3K Bedroom Set
1,200 Car Body work
15K+ Finish Basement/Garage
600 Stove
9K Special Assessment/Taxes

Note this list does not include small stuff like kitchenaid Mixers, XBox 360 machines, Games etc.

Now at any time one or more of these things could have been not purchased or paid more slowly if we were truly POOR, as my DH thinks we are.

Over the last three years (not five but you get the picture). I have really started feeling the need to save for retirement as the health of DH is going down hill, and we have saved 44K in retirement funds.

If you add 44k to the 88k spent that is 132K; which over the course of 5 years is 26K a YEAR. How is spending/saving 26K a year with no debt living paycheck to paycheck???

Okay maybe it has nothing to do with that, but this morning DS was hungry and I gave him lunch options. The clock said 10:13 but it was really only 9:13am.

DS has sadly been really chowing down on candy. He got a bunch of stuff again this year. He got four packs of fruit snack which will be repurposed as filler for his cold lunches. He also got three juice drinks (Which is his favorite thing to get).

I need to fix his costume, as we were stepping off the curb at my aunts to get in the car to go home, DS tripped and he came down on one knee and his hand. So there is a tiny hole in the knee. He was talking of wearing it again next year. I got it last year after Halloween for 50% off. It was still $12.50 but it is a cool nascar driver costume.

One thing I like about getting the costume the year before is some of the costumes are only available that year and so next year you are one of a kind instead of one of twelve of the same.

I know growing up I used to love playing dress up, with girls they sell play clothes in the toy depatment yearly; but for boys the best time to get them is holloween. The weeks after halloween to be exact. Two years ago I got like 6 costumes for $1 each. and four costumes for $3 each. I had purchased two of the $3 ones to give as gifts for my cousins son who loves to dress up but he had already got them; I sold one of the $3 ones last year before halloween for $5; and the other one when to the play clothes box when the duplicate because to dirty to be worn. Man that fabric doesnt clean well.

Well I am trying to following a Dave Ramsey type program. But I am breaking down my baby steps into short term, mid term and long term goals. I could do the minimum on the steps and keep moving to step #7; but I need to keep increasing our Emergency fund as our jobs become less guaranteed as we get older. I also need to hit the retirement saving hard as we only have 24 years left until DH reaches age sixty five. DH has medical problems so I cant see him working much past age 65. I just hope he is able to hold out that long before he decides just to have me support him and put off my retirement indefinitely.

I have decided that since our income is about to drop again soon; March? or MUCH MUCH Sooner it is time to break my goals into short term, mid term, and long term goals so I can come up with a game plan that will work for me.

At this time I am not sure what length of time it will take for the mid term goals because that will be determined by how much DH decides he wants to work with me and hopefully be gainfully employed instead of under employed and watch TV and play Xbox 360.

Short Term Goals = 1 year or less
Baby Step #3 3 Month Emergency Fund 9,222
$2,000 saved for household repairs that currently need to be done
Baby Step #4 Max Roth IRA’s for 2010
Baby Step #5 6 Month College for Son 5280
$3,000 Braces fund for Son

Mid Term Goals
Baby Step #3 6 Month Emergency Fund 18,444
$5,000 Saved for future house repairs
Build a Deck
Replace Front Steps
Landscaping

Long Term Goals
Baby Step #3 12 Month Emergency Fund $36,888
Baby Step #4 Max Retirement deposits
Goal 645K for DH to retire @65 (Sept 2033)
Goal 525K for DH to retire @ 73; Me @ 65 (Nov 2042)
Baby Step #5 4 Years College Son = 20,217.76+ (need June 2021)
Baby Step #6 Pay off Mortgage at least 4 years early ($43,200 in principle) (no early = 2037)
Reward: New Cars 20K X 2 = 40K

Today the 5 things I want to knock out are:

1. CVS shopping; DH called and he needs gas-x, we also need 9 voit batteries to replace in the fire alarms, and finally they have the razor DH uses FREE after ECB and manufacter coupon that I have.

2. Clean DS bedroom

3. Clean Master bathroom

4. Clean Kitchen: Load dishwasher, wipe counters and sink, and take out garbage

5. Get Cash to pay DS his allowance.

I got my computer back from the company. They replaced the hard drive. Now I am resetting all my favorites after loading my printer and internet.

I went into one of my personal email accounts and low and behold I found the email to myslef from my work email reminding me to order Microsoft Office Standard 2007. I want it and it does not come on my new laptop.

I can get 1 copy for $49.99 (per account) until the 31st of Dec. One copy can be loaded on two computers. I have a desktop computer and a laptop and my husband has a desktop and laptop so technically we have a need for atleast two copies. DH is not totally crazy about having to have Office on his computers so I am pretty sure I will save a usage for the computer DH will be building DS once he gets home. Since DS is in school I think it will be a good thing for him.

I went and ordered a copy under my account and a few work uniform items then logged into DH's account and ordered a copy under that account. There was not a limit when this deal was first sent out but I guess copies have been showing up on ebay and it is against the policy to buy from this site for purpose of resale. I wish I would have acted sooner since we are a BIG computer family and would have liked to be able to put it on all the computers.

$49.99 for two application is 24.99 for each computer which is totally awesome. Of course that is $100 spent.

+++++
On a side note I have been thinking of Christmas.
I want:
A small handvac (dyson)
2 Wii Games (biggest loser & Jillian 2010)
Laptop case
Small printer

I also want to find:
Digital Camera for DS (Kodak under $50)
Leapter2 Game for DS

The handvac would be nice for my stairs, I have a canister vac and since the only carpet in my house is on the stairs something smaller would be great. The small printer I think I will be buying with the assistance of Staples ink rewards.

I am proud of myself. I finally got around to filing that small box of to be filed STUFF. I am using the file box that I set up when I was reading the financial freedom book by ????. Anyway while I was doing that guess what I found.

I will say I did look in this box while trying to find my CC for that laptop repair call. I found a total of 3 credit cards not including the store card I had also found when looking before. I totally forgot I even had the Wells Fargo Cards, they are for the overdraft of DHs checking account. I think I may have canceled them but I am not 100% sure. I think I need to call and find out.

While cleaning my table, still working on it, I came across a staples rebate check for $3, and a $4 instore credit check for Menards. My Kitchen table where papers go to stay. Sadly is also found some coupons that were mailed to me from the manufacter, sadly they expired the 31st of July. They included a coupon for a free bottle of ketchup. I really need to do something with the paper clutter in my life.

Oh well I am taking one step at a time, and made good progress so far.

I am about to start step 3 of dave ramsey s plan.

It is to have 3 to 6 monthes expenses in savings incase of emergency such as unemployment, etc. I wonder what your thoughts are on figuring out what your personal magic amount is. With the economy the way it is it seems like most fiancial advisors are pushing a 12 month cushion (atleast it seems that way to me).

I would love to have a 12 month cushion but on the other hand I would also like to be able to start putting money into, funding college for DS, paying off my house and the other steps.

I currently have a great job. I have a one year contract locked in.

The down side, one of my credit cards is trying to start charging me an annual fee so I will be canceling it. I used to feel that in an emergency I could always charge it and then pay it off in a few days etc when the funds where in hand, now I am not so sure. So I am second guessing myself. I also see a major household change on the horrizon and that causes me worry also.

How much do you have saved for Emergency and how did you come to that amount?

Today is payday, I checked and the money is in the accounts so I wrote the checks to the City! (My Baby Step #2 is done!!!!) $8380.81 was the debt total!

I need to write a check for one more bill and get that mailed. DH refuses to let my automate it because of fears once they have the account number they could try to pull more than allowed.

I also pulled $350 from prior baby step 3 savings; so I could pay off that credit card which is going to start charging me a $29 annual fee if I dont cancel it. Once I know the payment has cleared then I will be going to call them and tell them I want the card cancelled IF they are going to charge me an annual fee!

I have a work card for work only expenses and one other personal card so I think cancelling would not be that big of deal.

I used my other personal credit card yesterday, but I will pay that off in full once the bill comes. I bought a heart rate monitor/calorie counter to help with my weight loss efforts. This is one of those got to spend money to make money moments since I must make weight and fitness goals to continue my job. I also bought the wiper blades for my car, my wiper blades have atleast a two inch loose piece on each end, so safety first.

Oh and I got a deal on the heart rate monitor, The plastic package was opened because someone tried on the watch; but they did not start it, so I got $10 off. It was the last one of that style so I would have paid full price but he was real quick to offer a discount.

I am so excited! I cant wait to pay off my special assessments. Then on to baby step #3.

I need to buy some clorox or wet one wipes for DS to bring to his classes as his teacher requested. I also need to buy new wiper blades for my car. I have been super good about not spending money, just need to keep it up until the 1st. I stopped at the grocery store yesterday since I had to buy soymilk, bread and lunch meat. I used my $3 off Sara Lee lunch meat for being a FACEBOOK Fan of Sara Lee. I was able to get a 10 oz pack of Ham for $.99. Not bad, I need to buy him Ham as that is what he will eat. No point in buying something cheaper that he will not eat and just waste.

DH called and of course he NEEDS money here soon so he can mail some of his stuff home since the airplane is limiting how many bags they are allowed to bring. He also sent me a email saying I should hire someone to finish the sheetrock; how did I know after he said he would do it that he would end up asking me to hire someone.

___My To Do List__

I still need to call the repairman for the washer. I also need to pay off the one credit card as soon as possible so that I can cancel. I am kinda sad to cancel it as my available credit line by canceling the card is going to go down by $19,000 so my debt to available credit will increase.

Today is a work holiday for me, not DS so I dropped DS off at School and while driving there I realized much to my dismay that it is VERY icy under the light snow.

I hate slipping and sliding. Anyway saw way to many near miss accidents and a few nonmisses that I am not going to be doing the errands I was planning to do today.

If the weather warms up and the roads melt off, I will do them this afternoon. No point in messing with Murphy when I already have a washer needing fixing.

I came home and shoveled snow, I will finish folding and putting away laundry and adding a few more things to my car trunk to drop off at the thrift store for donation (hopefully this afternoon).

This morning while sitting with DS while he was drinking his medicine and eatting breakfast I openned some mail on my table. What was it a note from the CC that expired on the 30th of September that I never recieved. They plan on adding a $29 per year annual fee. Well I guess it is time for me to pay off that card and cancel. I have until December so I will pay it in full here either the 15th or the 1st and then call and cancel.

The last time I called to cancel a credit card with an annual fee they told me they also offered one without an annual fee, I wonder if that is going to happen this time. If so I will keep the card as I like having two cards plus my debit card. But if not oh well bye bye Bank of America.

My Washer that I bought in April of 2007 (Out of warranty), will not drain.

Silly me (okay I am using another s word at the thought of a repair man). I opened it mid cycle (was going to add am item). And I guess that comfused it so now it is giving me a F01 Error code, and according to the wonderfully internet I am reading that means my CCU is fried. Hope replacing the CCU is not expensive. Not sure what a CCU is but I think it is like the motherboard in a computer except in a washer.

I priced a new washer so I know when a repair is no longer worth it, $1000 and sadly I paid $1400 for BOTH my washer and drier in 2007. What is up with that I thought the economy was supposedly bringing costs down. Will call tomorrow and hopefully get something scheduled for Monday.

I am really sad about having to pay for a washer repair while trying to pay off my special assessments before the 28th of the month.

S word here, I was going to say I hope they take credit cards so I could hold off paying until the 1st but off course I dont have a cc at this time because CC1 did not send me my new card, and I could not find CC2 when I went looking for it when I was trying to fix my laptop.

F F F (ARRRRRRGGG)

Sorry for the foul language but I am really upset.

Today I started by packing up my new laptop and dropped it off at Fedex.

I then spent a while recording and packing up stuff to drop off for donation on Monday. It is a Holiday for me but a school day for DS so I can run errands and such without the child tag along which tends to slow things down.

I then watched a movie with DS, and finished a book I was reading.

Finally installed the hot water heater blanket, then took a shower. I am still a little itchy but that will stop as I think it is just mental at this time. Kind of like how your heat starts ti itch every time someone says the word LICE!!

Is your head itchy??? LOL

It is so close I am going a little crazy wanting to reach the finish line.

I got my Newest Special Assessment Payment receipt. It noted that I have until the 28th of this month to pay off my Specials if I do not want them to be combined with my taxes. The last note said the 15th but this one said the 28th which is awesome.

The receipt had a note that went into detail about what my bill amount would be if I did not make another payment before the 28th and what the bill amount would be if I made payments after the 28th but before the bill was paid by Mortgage Company. I can tell they figured out I plan to get this taken care of as soon as possible, and if I keep going at the rate I was going the specials would be taken care of before the Mortgage Company paid the bill but after the bill by the city was cut.

I do not want the City combined my special assessments with my taxes because I want my escrow account amount to go down. $1000 a year was going to escrow to just cover the specials partial payment. By knocking this out before the tax statement goes out my monthly mortgage amount will DECREASE by $83.

Why is step #3 moving backwards, because I have my mortgage payment on auto pay. I have it in a separate savings account; I had a little over 3 months of cushion in that account so I would not worry. Well I took out enough money out of that account to pay the specials. I did not take all the money (which would not have paid off the specials in full); I just took enough so that when I get paid on the 15th the leftover money from the 15th will go to paying the specials in full.

The extra paycheck for the first of November will then go back to step #3 and to pay my CC. I need to check when my CC’s are due but I am thinking for one month I am going to cheat and just pay the minimum so that I can free myself from that ballooned escrow payment.

I requested transfer from my online account today, so once I see the money in my checking account I will cut a check to the City and will be knocking out one special and will be down to one left to pay in full with the 15th paycheck.

Yesterday I got a NEW pair of work boots. Yes they are brand new!! We have about six members of the full time crew relocating for a year. The two that have offices across the main hall from mine were cleaning out their offices and tossing stuff in a big waste can. Today the offices even got more cleared out as the furniture was removed from the rooms so that the carpets could be shampooed before the furniture got put back in.

Anyway yesterday I am walking down the main hall and what is on top of the big garbage can, a NEW pair of work boots. I took them, no point in a NEW $50 pair of boots going to the dump. They are half a size bigger than I wear, so I will be replacing the insole with a thicker insole and that should make them fit. If after replacing the insoles they still feel to big, I will be taking them to my favorite resale shop for $$$$$. I will be lucky if I get $5 or $7 for the boots but hay they were FREE and I kept them out of the landfill.

My NEW HP laptop bought July 9 of this year will not boot up,

First they dont package bootup disks anymore. You have to see the fine print on a piece of paper and it says that they recommend you follow the following steps to create your own incase the f11 option thing does not work.

Well my problem was not just my lack of bootup disks. Seems my hard drive is bad. They will send me a hard drive right now if I give them a credit card number as collateral that I will send them the broken hard drive. Well guess what...The credit card I have been using expired on the 30th of September. I dont think they sent me a new card.

I thought my other credit card was in my office which is why my office is now cleaner, had to look for it even though I was 99% sure of where it was...Nope, had to order a new one which I will get in three to five days.

I have a debit card but heck no am I giving them that number. I dont even know what the amount that would be charged if they never recieved the hard drive.

So they will send me a box and I send in my whole computer they will fix it and mail it back. Actually since the guy on the phone was saying it could be more than the hard drive that is wrong why would I want to send them the hard drive then get a new hard drive and it still not work then need to mail then something else.

Whatever...I got the office a little cleaner out of the deal.

Now I need to call credit card # 1 and find out what the deal is with the credit card I dont think I got in the mail, and I want to cancel one of my store cards. It is not worth having and i wish I could cancel all my store cards but the remaining card does offer great savings even if I can never get their online bill pay to work and end up going into the store to pay rather than mail a bill and chance it getting lost.

Tiday is my day off and last night instead of coming home and tackling my to do list, a relaxed and read a book. So today I tackled:

1. Pretreated my winter coat for stains, I may have to just break down and buy a new coat,
2. Scraped lawn mower
3. Spray out lawn mower
4. Spray out lawn mower basket
5. Move BBQ to back wall
6. Move Smoker to back wall
7. Move weed eater to back wall
8. Move small snow blower to front
9. Move Large snow blower to front
10. Made space for Garbage Can in garage
11. Cleaned and organized 75% of the STUFF in the garage
12. Box up Razor scooter

It snowed last night but not much, their was a little snow on the roof tops and on cars that parked on the street, a few yards had a light dusting of snow when I went to drop DS off at school, but nothing I needed to shovel. I dont like shoveling and after this springs flooding I an hoping for a light snow year.

All that is really left in the garage is the area in front of the two cars, the third stall is organized and pretty. Most of the clutter is the tools that need to be organized and stored nicely. I may deside to work on that little bits at a time over the next few weeks since the rest of the garage looks so nice.

It is suppose to snow tonight at 6pm. Actually Snow has been in the forecast since friday afternoon but because I had to work this weekend I was hoping that would not happen. SO now I must get these things done. I am thinking of going home for lunch just so I can knock a few things off the list during my lunch hour.

1. Empty Ball Valve in Underground box, open last drain out – Sprinkler System - DONE @ Lunch
2. Scrape lawn mower
3. Spray out lawn mower
4. Spray out lawn mower basket
5. Move BBQ to back wall
6. Move Smoker to back wall
7. Move weed eater to back wall
8. Move small snow blower to front
9. Move Large snow blower to front
10. Move Garbage can into garage
11. Move Truck on the driveway closer to the road to allow more clearance for snow blowers and garbage to go in and out of garage
12. Cut back Roses- DONE @ Lunch
13. Cover Roses- DONE @ Lunch
14. Disconnect hose- DONE @ Lunch
15. Box up Razor scooter
16. Close the Garage Attic Access (why does this seem to always pop open/ajar the first cold snap of the yard?)
17. Install Bike Hooks in garage ceiling
18. Hang DH Bike
19. Hang DS Bike
20. Move Chemicals into house (do not want to run garage heater until DH returns home)- DONE @ Lunch

I was thinking that my check would be larger this payday because of my reduced retirement savings but the big increase will go into effect on the pay check on the fifteenth.

Oh well I need to call an found out the exact balance on the special with the highest interest. I want to make sure that I send enough to pay it in full and then a seperate check for the next highest interest so that they pay them off highest interest first, instead of lowest balance first.

After todays call (I have the telephone number written down at the office), I will have one more special paid off and be down to two different specials left. Sadly if my check had been as big as I was thinking I could have knocked out two of them and been down to one left.

Oh well I am excited to be getting close to paying these off, just need to keep positive about what progress I am making.