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.

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.

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.

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???

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

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.

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.

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.

I am going over my baby steps and realize before I start paying down the mortgage in step 6 I need to set up a few budget items.

I am currently not really on a budget, I just spend as little as I can and push all the extra to the debts; but I do need to save up for DHs first semester back at school (June 2010). We need to have $500. He prepays $500 then if his grades are good enough his employer repays him and pays off the remainder of the tuition which was sort of in a hold type status, then we use the refund to prepay the next semester and the cycle continues until he has a semester break.

I also know when DH gets back from this job he has BIG spending plans. I am thinking of setting aside $1000. I know this will upset him as too low but I am tired of having debt over my head and I am the primary bread winner because he is underemployed and only works full time once every three years or so; and then during that time I am left to work fulltime plus take care of all the household stuff. Not that I dont do all the household stuff when he is home because he is too busy playing XBOX 360. His school day is 1.5 hours three days a week so please do not feel I expect too much by wanting him to bring in more than 20 hr per week income also.

When he gets back he wants to go on three big vacations like two week each vacations to California, Oregon, and Alaska. He also wants to buy two flat high def big screen TVs and a theater system. How much is reasonable as this could easily add up to $10,000+

We have no debt but the special taxes which a portion of is paid yearly as part of our escrow account on our mortgage (interest amount added each month to the balance is $150.00) and of course the mortgage. The sad thing about the specials is it is one of those things that if you only pay what is paid by the escrow it will take like 10 years to make a dent. We are also trying to finish our basement which could be hired out at this point for maybe 5K or we could do it ourselves and spend maybe $500 more in supplies.

How much would you set aside for vacations and big screen tvs?

I finally broke down and bought the GPS I have wanted to buy for a while; it was going to have it be a reward for my job contract being extended back in JUNE of this year; so I have been holding back.

I found out I was going to go on a work trip so I did a little online research and found a great deal at Wal-Mart.com. I took a printout to Staples and had them price match it. I got a $245 staples retail; $179 on sale that week for $145 (Wal-Mart price). I then bought a carry case for it and the total after tax and all was $178.00. I saved $10.40 in shipping because to get it before my trip I would not have been able to do the FREE ship to store and still get it before I left for the trip.

Well I found out today my trip is being canceled. I am happy as this will save me money on my daycare and out of pocket cash. I want the GPS and it is an awesome deal, I just know myself and wonder if I will end up returning it before the end of the week now that my trip is not happening.
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I was stressing this morning of all the things I wanted to get done before the trip and now since I will not be going I can relax. I cancelled all three of my coupon trains for the next two weeks and now that I know my trip has been canceled I do not plan to change the cancel I will just let myself have a little break. It will be good for my mind.

This morning I was bugging out thinking it was Thursday and thinking of all the things I needed to do tonight for Friday and this weekend. I am so happy I don’t have to go; I just am not handling everything in my lap very well at this time.
-----------------------------------------Now I realized I burned all my ECBs from CVS for nothing. By burned I mean I spent them on something I did not really need that did not produce ECBs so I have no ECBs left for CVS. I bought some of DSs medication to pack for the sitter during the trip (incase she needed it). I also bought a clearance backpack for DS for next year $3.99 regular price $14.99, a lunch box with coupons in it for $1.99 regular price $7.99 and a two pack of water bottles on clearance for $1.69. I also bought DS a Spiderman car made out of knex. It was something totally cool and worth the $7.99. The items I bought were a great price and I will need them in the future and truthfully CVS deals have not been that great lately that I an kind of glad to be done shopping CVS for a while, no need to figure out how to spend my ECBs without wasting them so they don’t expire.
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For now I am going to be grocery shopping, and paying off my specials and figuring out Christmas and that is it. What a weight off my shoulders. No more trying to save money by looking for deals, I am just going to create some NO SPEND time except for grocery items and paying off my specials early. For Christmas I already have two items for DSs stocking, one is part of a subscription I bought from Lego Masters they send small legos and a magazine every two months. I am saving the toy for the stocking and the magazine DS gets when it comes. I also got a FREE fisher price DVD sample so that is going in there also. Last year for Christmas I bought my stepdaughter a camera from CVS it was Kodak and a great deal after ECBs extra, I figure my actual cost for it was about $39. I am hoping to be able to get a deal like that for DS. He wants a camera, he does not need a great one but I do want one that is digital and uses an SD card. That is my Black Friday goal (But DS will be with me…Humm I may need to figure out a solution to that hiccup). I also need to figure out what I want to get him, I had a list but I don’t want to get him toys as I am tried of him not listening to me when I say no toys in the living room and pick them up. So I have been very slowly taking any I have to pick up and not giving them back to him. Until he can take care of them nicely and listen I don’t want to buy him any toys (but mainly no legos).

What do you do when the stress of life beats you in the back off the head until you want to cry?

I got the new statement from the city on how they applied my payment from the paycheck from the 15th.

They did not do it according to largest interest rate first. That way it would have knocked out about 3 lines and the largest rate.

Well my statement shows they knocked out 5 and part of a sixth. They went in pay off balance smallest to largest order.

Oh well this will get me motivated to be done with this. They included a note that payments made before the 15th of October will be reflected in this years tax statement amount. So I want to knock out the highest interest $421.73 remaining then work on the next largest. I will make sure now that I have three accounts only that I note the code # on the check and write seperate checks. I will also have to call and get the exact amount of the highest interest rate one after I get back from my trip as these balances are only until the 30th of September.

The good news is I should be able to knock out another sizable chuck before the 30th and since my overall balance will be down, come the first of the year my house payment should go down because my escrow amount will not need to be as big.

Also I priced checked some GPS, walmart online has one for super good deal, and it can be shipped to the store for FREE, the down side is if I do that I risk not getting it before my trip. I printed out the price and am taking it to staples as they have some in stock and told me they would match... I have my fingers crossed, if they will not I will pay the extra $11 shipping for 2-3 day delivery.

Well I am going out of town for work. Right before i get my next pay check.

I will be leaving at oh dark thirty in the morning to catch the red eye. This means DH will be with my (second favorite daycare provider) for 24 hours a day for 8 days at $2 per hour which is $384 (which actually is not much more than the $100 I had planned for my extra shifts of work that weekend). *** Wait when he is not in school so I will need to refactor that! $281.00 plus or minus

I will be getting a rental vehicle (on my employer) but since I HATE not knowing where I am going and it TOTALLY stresses me out; I need to break down and buy that GPS that I was going to buy this summer as a reward to myself for working super hard to met my job requirement to get my contract renewed. $200 ish

Then I need cash for food, and taxi to from airport etc. Food will be per diem after the fact and taxi will be refunded by employer.

So $500 or so of what would of been going to my debt snowball to pay down my specials (city taxes) will be spent and the GPS will be charged to the credit card I have not used since July?? and paid when I get back from the trip.

Now the other set back, I have been dieting and exercising; I must get to 155 or less pounds by the 1st of December, I am currently at 165 pounds so totally possible. What concerns me is what may or may not be available to eat. I am hoping that I will be able to have breakfast (cereal and milk) and the hotel, than Subway or similar for lunch and dinner. A fridge/freezer in my room would be awesome if they have a public microwave as I would do frozen healthy choice meals. (I have learned to take my coupons along to these sort of things).

It will all depend on what my hours of work will be and what is available. If I have to work at 5am and the breakfast is not served until 7am, etc.. THE Worest thing would be to have to eat on site and have FRIED JUNK as the only option with no way of knowing what the calorie count is.

Wish me luck, You may be thinking if I have to charge a GPS ($200ish) my budget is too tight, I would like you to know that is how it works for me, if I really push myself then it works out if I slack and give myself huge cushions then somehow it gets spent, but if it is not there I cant spend it.

Today is payday. I need to mail off one bill and then I will also be mailing the next specials check.

I am going to be able to pay much more than I was thinking, the payoff date is now projected for the 1st of November instead of the 15th.

I also found the reciepts for the office depot rebates so that needs to be mailed.

Love seeing the sidebar progress, step by step.

I have not mailed the checks yet but know how much I will be sending tomorrow so I will update it with tomorrows date.

Yeah!!

I need to get the two rebates in the mail. I have the info for the first one, I just cant find the one for Office Depot.

The office Depot one is worth like $8.

I need to clean off the table so i can find it.

The city got the check I mailed yesterday. They called to find out how to apply it. They first asked if I had one special I wanted paid first, so I asked are there different interest rates. She said there was, so I am glad I thought to ask about the interest rate before saying nope just planning on paying it off.

Step One is done as of this afternoon; and the first payment for step #2 will be in the mail this afternoon.

I called and got the updated balance. I will have to remember to call when I think I am going to be able to pay it in full to get the new balance since interest is accruing.

I saw a pre-copy of my pay deposits so I know how much I can pay now; and again once the money hits on the 15th. I cold really crush this debt if I stay focused! I think I may have underestimated my debt snowball but that is better than failing and then being upset.

Also my Son has been having a case of the gimmes so I have started him a list for Christmas. If he thinks of something he wants he puts it on the list otherwise he has to save for it. Sadly I do not want to spend a bunch of money for Christmas as I want to get moving on the baby steps. We will see as Christmas is about building the 3-6 month expenses in saving. My father usually sends a gift card for Christmas so I might just use the money he sends for me to buy stuff for him so it does not come out of goal money and I usually spend mine on groceries anyways as I am not a collector of material possessions.

I bought DH his present a month ago as he wants a Smoker and it was on clearance for $50 off so that is in the garage. He also mentioned one other item which I will buy for him and that will be it. So Christmas for DH will be cut by about 50%, for me it will be cut by 95% (Santa has to get me stocking stuffers). Though DS wants to go shopping for me, so I might have to get him a giftcard and ask my cousin if she will take him shopping.

** Added, on a side note, DS is in need of a second lunch box. He takes lunch to school about 50% of the times because he cant process dairy proteins. When the food or secondary item are major cheese/dairy I have him take cold lunch. I was thinking I was going to need to go to the store and buy another, once I can get a good clearance price on one.

At his school when lunch is over they put their lunch boxes in a classroom laundry basket/tote and at the end of the day the lunch basket is gotten by one of the students and distributed. Well this is the third time that DS has not had his box returned because of whatever reason the child did not get the tote.

Well DH collects Star Wars and one of the items that he had was a lunch box. So to save money I am using it as a secondary lunch box. It is not a collectable, it is just that it fits DHs theme. DH has alot of Star Wars stuff and well to me it is just junk. to him it is collectables...The problem is they are in no condition to be considered collectable, yes they are still in the box but the edges are not sharp as they have been displayed then packed then unpacked and then covered in contracting dust then packed again. Oh well long ramble but I actually found a use for one of the items that was sitting in a box waiting for whatever.

My work sent out a notice in April or May of a program they are a part of. It is kind of like netflick but with CD and tapes of books.

Originally back then I was like CD/Tapes bahh I like to read, but since I really want to save some money and learn some of his points and the ins and outs I took action.

I went to the site and requested dave ramsey total money makeover. I have two weeks to listen to it once I get it than return it.

So it looks like I saved myself a trip to the library and soon I will have my dave ramsey questions answered.

Yesterday after wondering if more found money would make its way into my Step #1 I got the mail and in it was my Staples Rebate. I will post it once I actually get it cashed.

I took the time to figure out my new take home pay amounts because I reduced my pre-tax retirement deduction. I have started the Dave Ramsey baby steps, and based on these findings not including any extra money (gifts, tax returns etc.) I will finish step #1 with the paycheck on Sept 15th. I will complete step two on November 15. February 1st is a big day in that it will completed step three, will still be working on step four, will start my automated payments for step five and start making progress on step 6.

I hope I can keep from spending money so all my extra can go to these goals. I have not gotten around to reading a Dave Ramsey book so I am sure I do not know all the twist and turns. I would be making bigger progress if I was not doing the retirement savings and at the level I am now but my husband is 40 and in bad health. We have no retirement savings because he came to our marriage with huge debt. He said he had way less but that is another issue totally.

I would also make more progress on the steps after four if I did not have my retirement savings level higher than the 15% recommended. The reason for this is I value retirement savings above paying off my house early as I feel that as I age we will be selling this house and downsizing to a smaller house. I also place saving for retirement above saving for college as I saved and worked my way through college. I see some people who need to pay for themselves to get to college to understand the value instead of it just being a big party and getting barely passing grades (my husband years ago).

I do want to save money for my son to go to college BUT it will be on my terms! It will be in a 529 account in my name but with him as a beneficiary that way IF he turns college into a big party time without a care to what kind of grades he gets I will pull the financial plug. Worst case I will take a 10% penalty on the money put in the account if I have to cash out the plan but that is better than my son thinking I will support him while he is partying instead of really studying. I feel children can get loans/grants/scholarships for school they will not give you a loan to pay for your retirement so truthfully my son is lucky I am saving for his college before reaching all my goals for myself first.

Today was payday!!

I checked to make sure my check got deposited and all funds were available. I moved the funds to where they need to be and updated my sidebar.

Drum Roll!!

My Emergency Fund is now 1355 and I only have $745 left to go.

I really hope I can find ways to beef this up before next payday. Time to get around to taking those clothes into platos closet!!

I already planned to fund baby step #1 with a large portion of the paycheck. Once I make sure the money got deposited into my account at the bank(tomorrow or Wednesday). That day during my lunch hour I will move it to where it needs to be.

I hope I am able to do it tomorrow. It feels so good to have a goal again. For a while there I was really feeling like I had no direction.

The paycheck on the first is the big one to do things with since alot of payments need to come out of the one on the 15th.

Well as of this evening Baby Step #1 is funded to the amount of $85.

Slowly but I am doing it.

Today went to the dollar store, bought four nunchuck covers for our WII, I only have two nunchucks but since these usually get sold as a 2 piece set with a cover for the controler for like $14 I figured I get two for later and save $13 a piece on them. I also bought four packs of pencils for DS.

At DSs school they have a birthday "Day" which due to allergies the parents cant provide snack treats. So they say if the students want they can bring a small present etc for the children in the class. Last year the teacher suggested getting a gift for the birthday child to open that is for the class such as a board game or whatever. I hate the idea of cheap toys as part of a party bag that break after a half hour, so I went with a school supplies theme.

Anyway this year I went to wal-mart and got a 20 pack of gift bags for $1.33.

Then bought the 4 10 packs of shiney pencils and got two large packs of stickers. The stickers were the most expensive item I bought a disney princesses pack for girls and scoobey doo for the boys. Everyone will get one sheet and they were about $.50 a sheet. I bought a pack of 30 scented pencil tip erasers a while back that were $1. and I have three packs of red pencil tip eraser that were $.01 or free from Staples last year. Finally I got pencil Gripper for $2.30.

Overall the giftbags for the 20 students cost $20.60 or $1.30 a person and they will all get a pretty bag with 2 pencils, a sheet of stickers, 3 pencil top erasers, and one pencil gripper.

Well now that the back to school freebees are over the free after ECB deals are starting to be few and far between.

This is okay, They are now charging tax on the purchase when you use your ECB's so you get taxed on the free stuff so now you need to decide if the taxed amount is worth it.

Notebooks for example free after ECB cost once you factor in the tax is $.06, which is not bad as the lowest Walmart got this year was $.15. I was really surprized as for as many years as I can remember the two weeks before school started the price droped to $.07. Whatever I got the notebook but had to factor the tax cost. Staples gave away six notebooks at $.01 a piece so add the CVS notebooks I did not need to pay Wal-Mart $.15 plus tax per notebook.

I have Sundays trip all planned out on my Account I will have to spend $2.05 after tax and I will get:
The Glade Candle or Defuser
Two Bounce 2 month fabric softner bars
One Gillette gamer razor
Two Bags of Chocolate
Starting with $20.96 ECB will have $11.99 for next week for a cost of $11.02 after tax which is okay because it is cheaper than Wal-Mart. Its just paying the tax on the original "way higher than Wal-Mart" price that keeps it from being the awesome deal it would have been in the past.

What I will be picking up For Grams:
The Glade Candle or Defuser
Two tide stain removers
Fiber chew 30 ct
Chocolate 8 pk
Starting with $8.97 ECB will have $8.99
for next week for a cost of $2.93 after tax which is awesome!!

PS on the Dave Ramsey Front $45 to put in the Baby Step #1.

I need to go to the library and rent one of his books and or go to my favorite used book store and buy a copy of his book but for the time being...I am using my idea of what his 7 baby steps are to get me started and set up a sidebar note.

Step One: Emergency Fund $1000, do to my lifestyle and recent life emergencies my amount will be $2100.

Step Two: Pay off all debt with the debt snowball. My ONLY debt is my special acessment for our house, I never really thought of this as debt but it is even though it gets paid with our taxes out of our escrow account. $8215.87

Step Three: 3 to 6 months expenses in Savings. I have desided to do 6 months mortgage payments and 3 months Child Support and Bills. Total $7146 Mortgage, $6000 Bills (note the Mortgage amount will go down once Step #2 is done since this amount includes the escrow but I will not know how much my monthly house payment will go down until the specials are paid off.)

Step Four: Invest 15% of Income into Roth IRA's and pre-tax Retirement Plans.

Step Five: College Funding (Is this a ongoing thing like # four of is it a get it funded and forget about it like step 3?) I am treating it like step four and planning $142 per month.

Step Six: Pay off Home Early $137,000???

Step Seven: Build Wealth and Give!

I wanted to say Step Three is Started because I autopay my mortgage from a savings account, I wanted to make sure incase something happens where the payments do not make it to the savings account there is plenty to pay the bill. I do not consider this emergency money as it is doing the job similiar to overdraft insurance.

I also wanted to say I have Step Four complete according to the plan, but it is no where near where I would like it to be since DH is 40 and has chronic health conditions that will either require BIG $$ in retirement and/or a early retirement. But I will leave it where it is for now (auto pilot) and start the steps from the bottom and pass that on without modification to step Five when I get there.

I feel it is okay for a child to get a loan for College since people will loan you money for college they will not loan you money for retirement. But since we are only talking $142 a month that little bit will not derail my ability to prepay down my House once I get there. Depending on where I am at when I get to that step I may change it. DS currently wants to be a fire fighter which does not require college so we will see when we get to that step.


***Where do house repairs and improvements fit into the plan?**** I want to put filler wood to the cabinents in the kitchen and replace the countertop. I also would like to put insolation in the ceiling for the basement (Husband is almost deaf - noise barrer) then sheetrock ceiling. I also would like to build a deck (not a NEED so much but it does add the safety of a exit in case of emergency as our house is a walk out lower leave and all main floor exits are to the front but the main floor windows are atleast 12-16 feet from ground).