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Archive for July, 2010

Roth and 401K Retirement

July 30th, 2010 at 02:42 pm

Got My end of quarter statments that ended 30 June 2010. Should not have looked.

My Roth went down BUT since I know how much I have put in I looked at it and said to myself oh well $80 profit for 2 years is not bad. Note year 1 was only 1,000 deposited.

Then I looked at my 401K, It is down, it is down about $400 MORE than I put in this quarter. Which means I lost $4,900. Man that hurt to see that. So I am mixed, part of me is glad that I reduced my savings amount, I mean IF I am going to LOSE all I put in and then some for the quarter why put in so much.....But then I think the market is down. I should be buying.

Then to top it off I see a TIP on this website about the child care credit. I start to thinking IF I am not contributing the max to my 401K this year will I get the Child Care Credit this year?

I am thinking maybe I should just increase my 401K back up and just figure out ways to get my other goals accomplished. I have been thinking of taking in a roommate. I saw two ads for rooms/roommates wanted for single mothers and am thinking this might be the way for me to go. I am going to let everything settle for a few more months and if I am still as tight as I am currently I think I will start with a 6 month lease renting out one or two of my basement rooms so that I can get a little more wiggle room.

But in the mean time, I am (to quote Dave Ramsey) going through all my stuff and "selling anything not nailed down until the kid thinks he is next"!

The positive side is my XH comes back to town Monday Night, so we will sit down and discuss his visitation schedule. I figure I will only have to pay for daycare for 4 weekend this coming year. The sad thing is that the 2 week training this summer we both have the work and so I will need to pay for that. BUT this means if he will take his visitation that should save me $600 in daycare costs this year.

Furniture to be delivered Sat, Rummage Sale, Birthday Party.

July 27th, 2010 at 04:15 pm

I got a call from the furniture store. They can deliver the furniture this Saturday, it is the earlist they can deliver it. I will get a call friday with the time they should arrive.

We have desided to have a Nintendo Wii birthday party at the house. It would have cost $8-$10 per child to have it at the bowling alley plus the cost of food since they do not allow outside food.

I went and purchased another Wii remote and Nunchuk for the party. So now we have four of each. This came to $54.00 which is cheaper than the bowling party since DS wants 5 kids plus the two neighborhood teens and possibly more to come. I have a Gift Card for ColdStone creamery so I am going to use that to purchase the ice cream for the party. My Cousin makes cakes and she will make the cake. And I have 1 or 2 giftcards for Pizza. I plan on getting the carryout special so the pizza should only cost a few dollars. So the house party will be cheaper....plus it will make me clean the house.

I wanted to have a rummage sale this weekend, but I think that Aug 14 or 21 will be better. I need more time to go through the house looking for stuff that needs to be decluttered. The good news is with the party coming up and the furniture delivery on Saturday I will need to do some major cleanup and this should help the house get cleaned up and if the stuff is just being tossed into a box into the storage room once the party is over I know that stuff can be labeled and put in the rummage sale.

3 days until Payday. I need to transfer $$ into the savings account that I am holding the credit card $$ in from this check hopefully my retirement change has gone into effect. I also need to lock in my aftershool daycare, this will require a downpayment so I need payday. Wow glad I pay myself first, I would hate to be this tight on money at the end of the month IF I was one of those people that paid themselves with what is left in the checking account right before payday.

**Edit**
My paycheck stub shows my retirement change will not go into effect until the 15th of August paycheck or later. :0(

I am just going to have to have a rummage sale on the 14th. To quote dave ramsey I plan to "SELL everything that is not nailed down so the kids think they are next". Yep If I am not currently using it then it is getting sold. I need to pay off my Credit Card bill and get my Emergency fund funded and save for the deck, so I can up my retirement account again.

CC Payment, Computer Working, and $$$ Daycare

July 23rd, 2010 at 02:33 pm

Yesterday XH signed the check from the Old Mortgage Company so today I can deposit that and the $ from the rummage sale.

I am happy because once this deposit clears than I only need to come up with $820.81 to be able to payoff the credit card to what the statement balance was after the Furniture purchase posted.

I still have the stuff set up in the garage from the last rummage sale. My DS asked when he came home when we would have a rummage sale and so I might try to have another one in August. I need to go through my house as I am slowly coming across things that I really dont want anymore cluttering up my house. So I might have enough to have a sale if I keep looking between now and August.

Computer update: My Deesktop computer has been having issues for a while. Well Sunday it would not turn on at all. So I was not sure if it was the power supply or if it was a multitude of other minor problems to include possibly the motherboard. Well I unplugged the computer and the printer from the wall since I figured if the thing was not working I was not going to pay to feed electricty to the surge protector.

Last night my XH unplugged all the things for the computer (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc etc.) well then he thought maybe he should test it before he starts ripping it apart. After he rehooked up everything and plugged it in the computer worked. The power supply in the computer is meant to turn itself off if there is a power surge to protect the computer. My XH thinks that is what happened that the power supply shut itself off and that by my unplugging the computer and replugging it in it restarted the power supply.

So I have bought myself a little time before I have to buy a new computer for my son. I need to buy another external harddrive as the one I have now is full. Once I purchase that and make sure there is nothing left on the computer I will feel much better.

I am happy because now instead of buying DS a computer for his birthday I can buy him somethings he REALLY wants. I also am saved from having to buy a printer. My printer is on its last leg BUT I want to use up the ink in it before I replace it. If I would have had to buy a new computer I would have just bought a new printer because of all the hassle to load the drivers on this old one, but now I have a little time to delay the purchase of the new printer.

Yes it is nice not to have to buy a new computer and printer on top of trying to pay off the credit card.


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And the final topic - Daycare. I have ironned out the date that XH will be staying at the house and so I know when he is available to watch DS and when I will need to take vacation and when I will need daycare. It is really going to help my budget this month to just take vacation time and only pay for daycare for 3 days instead of the 4-5 weeks.

What a relief....I do need to apply for my Afterschool program though and that requires a small deposit, and the partial payments for August and May so about $200. Glad I dont have to come up with that on top of regular summer daycare.

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Have a great day! Yea it is Friday!

Mostly Personal - Breakup Soon???

July 22nd, 2010 at 07:31 pm

Not sure why only the first paragraph is posting so here goes....3rd times the charm right...

Thinking I will be boyfriend less soon. I feel bad because right now I am still getting the mess that was my relationship with my XH cleaned up and so I find I talk about my XH or will bring him up when I am talking about a situation at hand because that is the whole story to my New BF without realizing it. (this is my bad habit and I realize it).

BUT The main reason I think we will not be dating soon is that I work 8am-430pm so I have to be up at 630am to get ready, Feed and cloth DS, drop off DS at daycare and drive. This means I need to be in bed by 10pmish. I work Mon-Fri.

He works 12:30pm until 9:30pm. He works 7 days then gets 4 days off then works 7 days than gets 3 days off then works 7 gets 4 works 7 gets 3 (get the picture). He wakes up at like 10am and goes to bed at 2am, this sleep schedule sticks even when it is his days off.

So on the days he works we will not see each other UNLESS I am willing to push back my bedtime. Now with My son being home the Nightly walks are going to be ending. I like to try to get together when he has his days off (either after I am done with work or if it is a weekend basically spend the day together) BUT I have found that he like to RELAX on his days off. Which means he cleans his apartment (super neat/clean) and spends a lot of time watching TV or going to the YMCA.

He has super Cable TV so this seems really lazy to me since I have NO TV reception at my house. If I try to spend time more time with him than his magic limit, he will get a little irratated because he wants to relax on his days off. But I know that if you just let time pass you dont get it back.

I also have a house and child to take care of so I am busy and so I like to plan my time if at all possible.

Today He had the day off and so I asked him to come see me. Twice I got shot down, and he told me "I needed to chill" well that hurt my feelings. I dont get it because he was the one that ASKED ME out. Oh well....I am going to focus on myself and my son now and I will let him call me/ text me, when He wants to see me but I am going "to chill" and let him figure out and tell me what he wants from a relationship.

The good news is normally I shell out a ton of money when I am dating someone. The last guy I dated before My XH had a daughter and I loved to buy her things she needed plus he lived out of town so gas money etc. At least with my current boyfriend he paid all the time...He got uppity if I tried to pay so I learned to just enjoy it. He even bought me roses (MY FAV FLOWER) and had them delivered to me at work. So no regrets on a finacial front. I just wish I did not feel bad because I wanted to see someone I was dating. I feel like he was seeing me as clingy or needy but I suppose it was a bit much because I was trying to get as much us time together before I had to figure out daycare plans if we we going to spend time together without DS along.

Counseling with the XH and My Little Boy coming home today!

July 22nd, 2010 at 02:49 pm

Not sure if I wrote about the counseling.

My XH is very self centered. He thought the 8 years we were married were the BEST years of his life and is totally confused as to why I was not blissfully happy also. Yet in the same sentence he says it makes him sad being around me after the divorce was final, because now that we are divorced I am so happy it is like I have a huge weight off my shoulders and the sparkle is back in my eyes.

Really????? (Shaking my head)

He said he wanted to talk about why I wanted a divorce, and basically I asked him why? Why if you were so happy do you want me telling you why I was unhappy? Anyway I said that basically if he was going to move out of state for 2 years to go to school without even discussing it with me; leaving me to care for our son and the house etc that we were basically seperated/divorce but without the paperwork to make it legal.

That was not good enough so I told him I would talk about it but it had to be in a counseling type setting. His answer was "I cant afford counseling" to which of course as always I pointed out two FREE options to him. I told him he would have to make all the arrangements.

See with my XH he tend to put stuff off or only finish half. I figured IF he really wanted this to happen then he would follow through OR I would not have to do it. He followed through Darn it!!

My XH has PTSD, ADHD, and Rage Issues so I was not going to discuss this outside a setting where if he needed HELP after the discussion he could get it. I really dont see the point in crushing the rosey picture of the marriage he thought we had but I guess if that is what he wants then so be it. I am going to make sure I start with that, going to tell the counseler that and see if she can convince him he does not want to hear about 8 years of bad stuff.

The appointment to see the Counseler is at 4pm this afternoon. MY XH will be dropping off DS with my Grandmother and my aunt for a few hours during the appointment. My Son has been spending 3 weeks with my XH so Grandma of course is excited to see him. Of course Grandma and aunty just know XH has somewhere to be at 4pm. Wondering IF XH told DS where he was going. DS was the one that spilled the beans that his mommy and daddy had broke up.

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On the Positive side, My Little Boy is coming home today. After the appointment I get to pick him up from my grandmothers house and get caught up on all the hugs and kisses I missed while he was gone.

Now that my little boy is back home I need to call my daycare provider. He needs to start daycare this Tuesday at $130 per week. Oh well I lucked out and will only have to pay for 4 - 5 weeks of daycare this summer instead of the whole summer so that is good. I am slowly trying to budget in the cost of summer daycare spread over the whole year BUT since I only had like a month lead time I am just going to have to eat ALL the summer daycare costs out of current income.

Stepped on the scale this morning 166.8 pounds. Yep does not seem to have gone down much, but people are commenting on my weight loss and My clothes are fitting looser.

*EDIT*
After I posted this my XH called to find out if he could stay a little later this weekend. (He was going to leave Sunday) but now wants to stay at my house 2 extra days cause a buddy is going to go back with him. Then like 5 days later (3 days earlier than planned) he was going to come back to return friend. So he wants to stay with me instead of heading back just to turn around and drive back.

I have agreed to this...At first I was not really wanted to do this. My XH stresses me out and so I really dont want him around, #2 I am seeing someone and he really wants me to stop helping my XH and working on the things I need to do for myself.

BUT then I got to thinking and about the # of days that would be. Between my XH being here (If he stays I will require that he watch DS during my work hours in return), and the days I took off because my brother will be in town This would really reduce my daycare.

I figure if I took an additional 8 days off, all I would need is 3 days of daycare which I could have my grandmother FREE or my Cousin CHEAP do. This would mean a cost of $54 instead of $540-$675.

So I am now looking forward to it, this will really help my budget. I looked at my checking account today and it was the lowest I have seen it in YEARS! plus I have a HUGE Credit Card bill because to be on the safe side I have switched to CC only use until the retirement % changes in my paycheck.

Not looking forward to the BBQ.

July 20th, 2010 at 09:14 pm

My Boyfriend...Yep OMG I have a boyfriend.

Anyway, sorry back on topic. I have met his brothers and his niece and nephew but not the rest of the family. Well there is a BBQ for his brothers birthday tonight and I agreed to go.

So it is a meet the parents/uncles/aunts/sister-in-laws night. I was not nervous at all until a few hours ago.

I hated my hair, I was growing it out and it was at a horrible stage, well I cut it. Yes I lost about a inch on the sides and about 3 inches in the back BUT I think this new cut will grow out Much better than the style I had before. I cut it because my BF wants some pictures of us together so he can show people who ask. Anyway I wanted to feel my best going to meet the parents and cut my hair.

I am so much more happy about my hair.

Well the BF is 43 and I am 33 so it is not like it is MEETING the parents like when you are in your 20s. But Still I want to make a good impression.

Well today I got a text from my BF and he was telling me about the gag gift he was going to buy his brother. I am a little uncomfortable about the gift as it is "NAUGHTY" in theme and I am worried his family is going to think I am perverted or something because he is bringing me to the party and not sure if he makes a habit of giving these types of gifts to family members. What if they think I had some input in the gift.

Four Hours until the BBQ and I am now getting nervous. On another Note my little boy comes home in 2 more days!!

Facebook got me started on Back to School Shopping

July 20th, 2010 at 03:32 pm

The day after my rummage sale a friend posted on facebook that they were going through their daughters closets and about 85% of the clothing was too small.

They were talking about starting School shopping. This year they have two children in school and so she has started school shopping for things like shoes, lunch boxes, and backpacks.

Well this got me thinking. DS is with his father until Thursday so I went to Wal-Mart and while there I started School shopping for his clothes. I had purchased over the summer four pairs of pants that where on clearnace for $7. Those pants are now back in the department for $12; so I saved $5 each by picking them up this summer. I also have the last two pairs of pants that I picked up a few years ago at BIG LOTS when they had a deal on jeans for $5. I had one pair of Nearly New jeans that I purchased off of EBAY for $5.50. This is seven pairs of jeans.

Now I live in the Upper Midwest so my son wears Jeans year round. With my Work schedule I like to be able to have at a miniumum 10 pairs of jeans so that on the weekends that I work I dont have to worry about washing his jeans I can do it Monday. So I purchased two pairs of Jeans for $8 each and two pairs that were $10 each. He has to have adjustable waist pants so finding deals on jeans is getting more and more difficult as his size gets larger but the price I got was good since He moved into the larger size Boy Jeans that cost more.

Those last 4 pairs brings his Jeans Total to 11 and he is set for school. I purchased him 6 new short sleeve t shirts, six were $7 each and one was $5. I think he will like them but before I take any tags off he will give me the yes no vote. I will not buy anymore short sleeve T shirts for him, he has a few Newer Ts from this summer that he can wear this fall.
Because when school starts the weather will be hot he will have about two weeks of shorts and short sleeve tops. I found a pair of shorts on clearance that are put away and he had another pair similiar that are newer. I purchased him three or four short sets for summer and they are in very good nearly new condition that he can wear for the first two weeks.

I will need to buy him some long sleeve shirts for school but that will need to wait for about two weeks when the fall clothing hits the stores.

I purchased him two packs of New Socks....I have a thing for new socks. I purchased his backpack and lunchbox last fall on clearance from CVS. I have tons of School supplies thanks to CVS and School sales from last year.

So I believe the only things I have left to buy are:
8 Long Sleeve Shirts
1 Pair of Shoes
** The special request classroom supplies that vary by teacher and by grade etc.***

Computer Crashed!

July 19th, 2010 at 02:21 am

Well truthfully it is not a surprize as the computer would boot wierd and I would get messages for errors this and that. I think there was some issue with the little bitty battery that is on the motherboard. Or maybe it was the bitty battery on the video card. Plus the computer was lossing time (the clock would say it was a different time than it was even shortly after going in and readjusting the time.) My Ex would say OHHHHH that should be fixed but he would never get around to it.

Yeah i am one of those people that does not know what they do not know and I can function with a WORKING computer but give me one with issues and I am lost.

Well the computer that crashed was the Desktop which my ex-husband built. I am not sure exactly how old it is BUT I dont want to mess with it. I want a FRESH new start.

My only consern is it has TWO hard drives in it. I am not sure IF there is anything important on those hard drives or not. I would like to save/transfer the data from the hard drives but not sure the best/easist/cheapest way to do it.

_____

The Desktop is the one that the printer was using as a server. Now I am printerless as the printer is a beast to load as the printer is like 13 years old so the software has to be located on the company website and everytime there are issues the software needs to be reloaded.

_____

So Step one is actaully buy a new printer (Much over due).

Step Two buy/build a computer.

Now the thing with the computer is that this computer is the one my son uses. I like that it is a desktop as I think they are more sturdy for Children usage. I will more than likely be purchasing another desktop for him.

I like that a Desktop is NOT portable. I want him using that coputer where it is placed no moving the computer so I cant see what he is doing AND if it is not being moved less chance of damage due to dropping etc.

I wish I knew what is the minimum requirements for a computer for him. He uses it mostly for internet and of course in the future he will use it for school work. Right now the school work is not so much typing up papers. I would use the computer as a second computer to print coupons off of and of course as a backup computer incase my notebook has to go in for repairs.

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Today I was at the store in the toy aisle looking at Legos and trying to figure out what to get my son for his upcoming Birthday. I then come home to a broken computer. So I guess the timing is good. Atleast if I HAVE to buy a new computer part of the expense can be rationalized as a Birthday Gift.

Rummage Sale Results $305.10 Profit

July 18th, 2010 at 12:46 am

Today was my one day rummage sale.

It was from 8am until 6pm. I posted a FREE ad online and put a sign by my road and a sign by the cross street that runs off it.

Last night I got lazy and went to Wal-Mart and spent $1.80 on those round garage sale stickers that are super fast to put on stuff.

The stickers were my ONLY cost. So I made $305.10 Profit after factoring out the cost of the labels/stickers not bad, not bad at all. As a result I am now I am about half way to my credit card payment goal (to pay for my new furniture).

My neighbor will be having another rummage sale here in about three weeks so, she said I could add stuff to hers. All I have to do is as I pack up to make sure the stickers have my initals on them and then pack the stuff away for three weeks. Hopefully I can get rid of some more stuff. The nice thing is it will be closer to school so more of the clothes will go.

I am extremely happy about the results of the rummage sale. I should have put together one a LONG time ago. But now that I know the turnout is good for this area I will just keep some totes empty and as I find stuff I want to get rid off I will label it and set it aside for the next sell.

I ended up giving someone a $19 discount on the FireKing Dishes BUT better to have the $30 that I got for the remaining 43 pieces than to have them collecting dust.

If someone asked if I would take lower on any item I always said yes. Better to have cash in hand than a piece of clutter in a box. Truthfully the only regret is the dishes. It would have been $49 for all the pieces and she offered $20. I came back with $35 which really was what I would have been happy with, but then she came back with $30. I need to get over it and not stress out over $5. The thing is that they had special meaning to me and I already priced them low to begin with so here I am trying to let it go.

The only downside is tomorrow I NEED to clean, I moved EVERY flat surface piece of furniture that I owned into the garage to use and so the house is back to being trashed and there are boxes EVERYWHERE. Oh well....I will clean.

Oh I forgot to mention the quality time spent with my computer. During the sale I was cleaning out my email inbox. I have really neglicted the email account I have for sendearnings, inboxdollars and Mypoints. Guess who knocked out a bunch of emails and surveys. So really I made more than just the $305.10 I just dont know how to put an exact dollar amount on the email time.

Wish I had a truck

July 16th, 2010 at 02:26 pm

I wish I had a truck. I live where it is a benefit for driving through the deep snow in the winter. I am also a home owner so there are some purchases that owning a truck comes in handy for.

I want a little truck. I have not looked yet and am hoping to pass as long as possible, since an added vehicle means increased gasoline and added insurance cost. Plus another space used up in my garage.

I am having a rummage sale on Saturday, IF I had a truck or knew of someone who had a truck I could borrow tables from work to set stuff on. Why does everyone I know have Jeeps, Vans, SUV's or cars?

Oh well. I am being creative, I moved two empty bookshelves from the basement into the garage. I also moved a storage chest. I have two end tables and my laptop desk that I plan to move to the garage to set things on.

I put my Fire King Dishes on the top two shelves of both Bookshelves. Out of the reach of children but still displayed. I have 59 pieces of peach luster dishes, including some serving pieces. Truthfully that is one of my bigger items. I am trying to sell by the piece but if someone wants the set then I will give them a group discount. I just want the money and I priced them low enough that someone could buy them and sell them online if THEY wanted. I dont have good luck with online sales.

I have two doors that I use to create tables, one is already set up. I thought I had another set of saw horse legs but I guess I dont so the second door is going to be placed on some rubbermaid totes.

Tonight is going to be a long night since I will spend the evening setting out the rest of the stuff. In the morning I will need to put out the things that are going in the driveway.

If I sell anything than it will be worth it, I just want to clear some space. Well that and get a little cash in pocket. I plan to post a FREE online ad for the dishes, TV's, Bed Frame, and 8 by 5 rug IF they do not sell Saturday at the rummage sale.

Here is Wishing for a Awesome Sale!

Payday and Tranferred funds hit.

July 15th, 2010 at 02:56 pm

Today was payday. Tuesday after work the check from the extra $ from the refinance was delivered to my door.

So today I checked my checking account and all the money I had moved from my smaller interest paying Savings account was in my checking, the check from the refinance was posted (with part of it pending) and my paycheck posted.

This means I just completed the transfers. I now have 3 months Emergency Fund in all three of the subcategorys. I also updated my savings amounts in the house repair fund and added the car repair/replacement fund to my sidebar.

I have not closed out my savings account that is only earning .65 yet. I am taking some advice and am planning on using that to put toward the Credit Card Bill that will come due on the 1st of Sept for the furniture I purchased. This way I can get some interest on the money until the bill comes due but I dont have the hassle of transfering it to checking then to my other savings account then back into checking to get .5 more interest for only one month. At this time between now and the credit card bill being due I need to come up with $1448.55. I am hoping that my retirement change will hit on the first of the month so that will account for $700 leaving only $748.55. Between the Rummage Sales and whatever else I can think of I think I can come up with that before the 1st of September.

I need to send my auto insurance an accident avoidance certificate so I can get a discount. I took the course yesterday so It is not like I am delaying that too much. I also need to look at my policy. My policy renewed on the 8th. It is the first renewal since the divorce so I want to shop around. When I first got married my rate spiked because of my husbands bad driving history.

I think that due to this my rate might still be overly inflated. So I need to call around and get new quotes. I have been with this company for 10 or more years but it is time to see if I can shave some money from the bill. Due to my XH bad driving history it was much cheaper to stay with them then to go elsewhere but now that he is no longer a issue I think it is time to recheck rates.

On a personal note. My DS is spending time with XH so I am not having to pay daycare costs. When packing for the trip I did not pack DS a stuffed animal because I figured it was a small thing that XH could buy him to make the visit extra special. Well of course XH doesn't or won't so I order him one online. I selected next day delivery but Fed-Ex took forever at one point the note was that they tried to deliver it to the wrong address.

Total spent was $26, I was expecting it to be small. Yesterday he got it and the thing is BIG. I got texted a picture of my son holding it and I was surprised by how BIG it was. My son had a Huge Smile, so I continue to realize that I know my son very well. The cost of the item was $13.88 plus shipping. I think it was worth the $26. My son is now no longer homesick. When he misses his mommy (ME) all he has to do is give his present from me a hug. So I think the $26 spent is going to keep DS happy this last week and so $26 saved me $130 in daycare.

Temporary Buyers remorse, and Change of Retirement Savings

July 14th, 2010 at 02:51 pm

Well I went back to the store and bought the furniture for upstairs. In 1 to 2 weeks I should have furniture for my house. Later that evening as I was thinking of the total bill I started to regret it.

I got a great deal on the furniture, I really do need furniture as it makes it hard to sit down and relax when you only have wood kitchen chairs to sit down in. But being the tight wad that I am I have a hard time spending money on myself.

Truthfully this is the first Me Purchase I have made in well 11 years. The last Me Purchase was my Car in 1999. I guess I am stressing because I charged it to my credit card and unless I want to pull the $ out of savings about half the charge might sit one cycle on the CC. Of course my rate is 8% so that is not bad considering. But as a pay in full credit card person this extra month freaks me out.

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I would like to have a fully funded 12 Month EF, truthfully I do not need that much as my job is really secure but it makes me feel better.

Today I reduced my retirement savings from 36% of my pay to 15%. This will bring me about an extra $700 per month into my take home. I plan to use the extra money to fund the Emergency Fund, The House Payment Fund and The Escrow Fund. (Basically I have the Emergency Fund broken down three ways) I figure if something were to happen then why breakup the fund to those three things when I can just break them up now.

Once the Emergency Funds are funded I need to save for the Deck and for a larger house repair fund. The Deck is a Need as it is a safety thing. I have a walk out lower level so without the deck if there was a fire at the front of the house the only way out the top floor would be the two story windows. The house repair fund is currently being fed $100 per month. I would like at least $2000 in the account. The deductible on the homeowners insurance is 1000 and I want to have atleast 1000 for repairs.

Once that all happens then I will raise back my retirement savings. It really hurts to reduce my retirement saving BUT truthfully if I continue how I am saving for retirement I will have $50K per year income and I am currently living off of $29K per year with the mortgage payment so I should not be stressing.

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I hope to have a rummage sale this weekend to help pay for the furniture and to also reduce the clutter in my life.

I was trying to think of ways to increase my income. I could get a parttime job (but this would require permission from my employer). I could sell stuff, which is why I am having a rummage sale/sales. Or I could think about having a roommate or two. I am not ready to go the roommate route because I like being able to live my life without having to worry about noise from other. Also if I get a parttime job I would have to line up daycare. So I am not sure what I will do for extra money once I sell everything that I can sell.

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Hopefully I will get clearity as time goes on, I just feel so pulled in so many ways.

Waiting for the Refinance Payment to hit, Bought Furniture

July 13th, 2010 at 02:45 pm

I am waiting on my Refinance Payment to hit my old mortgage company. There was a 3 day "Change your Mind" window with the loan which means I signed paperwork after hours on Monday so I had until Friday the 9th at Midnight to notify the lender if I desided I no longer wanted the loan.

Well Midnight on Friday translates to nothing happening until first thing on Monday. So I am checking my online mortgage account waiting for the payment to post or for me to try to log in and for it to tell me I no longer have an account.

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I need furniture, it is very difficult to entertain anyone when the only furniture you have is the kitchen table chairs and or the bedroom beds. So I finally broke down and went to the furniture store to purchase the livingroom set that I had desided I was going to purchase.

When I go there I realize to my dismay that the set I picked out that I thought had attached cushions infact did not have attached cushions. Sorry but I hate when a couch does not have attached cushions and you have a wiggly child on the couch and before you know it you are leaning against the back of the couch between the cushions.

So after a trip around the show room I had 3 options, the set that I am planning to purchase for the upstairs livingroom, a set very similar to the set I had selected originally but more $$ and with hard arms, and a third set that was not in their catalog.

I actually went with the third option, the couch was smaller than I was planning (only 2 inches larger than the one I plan to buy for the upstairs). But I LOVE the microsued fabric. It was also the BEST price. This store that I went to is always the best priced, so there stuff is hardly ever on sale more than their regular price.

Well they were comping this set because a local store had a similar set on sale so I got a couch, loveseat, chair and ottoman for $1100 plus a discounted delivery fee. That is $600 less than what I would have paid for the original set and the ottoman was basically a freebee. Actually they threw in a fabric protector package also for the sale price listed but since I would not have paid extra for it I did not include that in the price calculation.

Last night as I was sleeping or trying to sleep I got to thinking, I need furniture for the upstairs livingroom also. I was going to wait as this is a want not a NEED. But I can get a couch, chair, and ottoman for the price I would pay for just the sofa I was going to buy for the upstairs because of the comp PLUS since I already paid the reduced delivery fee why not buy the upstairs stuff now and save the second delivery fee.

Buying now would save me $300 PLUS the delivery fee. And the furniture upstairs would match the furniture downstairs so I think the house would flow very nicely. So later today I am going to go back to the store and add the upstairs pieces to me order.

That is so awesome that for the price I planned to pay for just my basement furniture I will have gotten all the furniture I need.

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This weekend I plan to have a rummage sale. I hope it goes well because I really want to get rid of some of the clutter in my house.

Cell Phone - ??

July 9th, 2010 at 02:52 pm

Okay here is the situation. 6 months ago my now XH had to have a NEW phone so he could text. So after researching new phone prices I desided to extend my cell phone contract to get new phones at a reduced cost.

The cancel early fee is $200 per line but the discount on the phones was $220 each so the lesser of two evils was to extend the contract. My XH now has his own plan but he still has the phone I purchased for him. He has basically given me the $200 cancelation fee in FREE daycare services. But there was a mess up with the Internet bill; I pay the bill but the bill was in his name so when the bill was transfered to my name; he is going to get a refund of MY $$ for about $100. If I get that money returned to me I am good for the phone but if not then really he only gave my $100 for the contract cancelation.

Yeah a complicated mess. Here is the deal. I can cancel the phone now, and pay $200 and save $28 per month which times 5 months is $140 or a total cost of $60.

Or I can just keep the second line and it will cost me $140 more over the next 6 months BUT if I only get the $100 it will only cost me $40. But if for some CRAZY reason he desided to refund me the Internet refund then It would save me $60 to wait out the contract.

What would you do? Would you pay the extra $60 and just be done with the mess and the ties to your XH. Or would you wait out the 5 months then cancel the line to save the $60? At this point I have to wait until the 9th to make any changes. The way my provider works is any change made mid cycle will be prorated and if I make the change before the start of the new cycle I am afraid of overage charged because of the prorate.

Another thing is he said he would give me the phone, if I do not get the other phone back I will cancel the line ASAP. But if I have the phone in hand and know no calls will be going OUT from it I am more willing to keep the line. What to do?

Oh one more thing, I HAVE ALLTEL yep, Alltel. We were suppose to be in the process of being switched to AT&T like 3 years ago. At this point I am wondering if that switch happens before the contract would end would I really have a contract cancel fee as the contract is with Alltel NOT AT&T? The swap is causing me many questions because I am not sure my phone will work with them and If I cant upgrade am I going to have to pay FULL price for a phone to work on the AT&T plan?

Case of the blues

July 8th, 2010 at 02:25 pm

Well I have been on a run of happiness. I was looking forward to having my XH out of my house and his drama gone.

I was looking forward to my son spending time with his dad so I could have a break from being the person that handles everything.

But I have hit a blue patch.

Now that it is day two of my little boy being on vacation with his father I am sad. I really miss my little boy. The house is too quiet. I miss my daily hugs, kisses and of course the "I love you mommy".

Last night I blew up at my boyfriend. He does this thing where he quotes movies in a wierd high pitched voice and I try to ignore it but last night he sent me a sound text and it basically it was a movie clip, an annoying OLD military one at that. I know it is dumb to let something like that eat at me but I really find the movie and tv quotes annoying since I have no clue the movie reference since I dont watch TV and because I have a young child most movies I watch are family friendly. Plus the high pitched voice is like hands down a chalk board to me.

I know I am going to have to say something BUT not sure if it will do any good because he does this more when he is nervous so it might be ingrained habit.

We were suppose to reserve the hotel rooms for the trip this weekend but I am dragging my feet on it because I do not want to spend all that money if I think I am going to be blue the whole time and secretly upset with him over the voice thing.

I think I am going to try to have a rummage sale on Saturday instead. I have so much stuff for a sale that I need to have a sale so that I can have a sale. I really need to be saving $ for my $$ Goals and not spending money on things I can really go without.

What to do? What to do?

Savings annoying

July 7th, 2010 at 07:20 pm

Well I desided I not longer wanted the goal saving with my local bank. I had opened it up as a slush fund but after realizing how little interest it makes (.1%) I desided to go with an online saving. Yesterday I empty it out and called today to close it.

Well I called today and IF I close within 6 months I am charged $25 for an early termination fee. So today I transfered $10 back into the account so it doesn't have a zero balance. I reset up the required monthly transfer but reduced it to $30 which is $5 more than the minium required.

I guess I will just have to go into the account after the transfer happens and transfer it back to checking. I will do this for the next 4 months to save myself the $25.

This is a big pain in the butt. But the bank is not going to cheat me out of $25. I will just play their game.

This weekend I am planning on going on a small vacation. Hotel and Gas for the 2 nights should cost around $120. The Spa pampering is going to run me $200 and food I am guessing $50. We are also planning on stopping at the outlet mall and so I am thinking $500 for shopping.

At the outlet mall I am hoping to pickup a Machine Washable bedding set for my king size bed. I am also wishing to buy some clothes for myself and back to school clothes for my son. I would like to get some art work for my walls and maybe a right hand ring. Hopefully I am successful.

Look at my sidebar....I will get that TREAT MYSELF TO SOME PAMPERING goal completed!!! Sweet!

A catch up

July 6th, 2010 at 09:19 pm

Okay lets see. XH moved out on the 1st of the Month, came back on the 2nd for the holidays then left on the 5th until the 22nd when he is bringing back DS from their visit.

I gave him a BUNCH of furnature and as a result I have no couch, but I figured it saved me the hassle of finding someone to take the livingroom set to the dump once I saved up enough money to buy new furnature.

I bought a new (softer) mattress, what a difference that has made. My XH always thought he NEEDED a firmer mattress so I listed my old one on a online site for free and it was picked up within 4 hours.

I need to step on the scale and see where I am at for weight. I passed the physical fitness and body fat requirement for work so today I signed a NEW 6 year contract with my employer.

Yesterday my relatives were all saying that I looked like I lost weight and a co worker who had not seen me in a week said the same thing. I think now that my stress level has gone down the weight is coming off.

I set up autofunding of all my savings goals. I am kind of stressing because after all is done I only have like $600 per month for things like food, gas and unexpected. I am trying to plan for as many non-routine expenses but there is always the unplanned that pops up. I have my 3MTH Emergency Fund completed and am $1300 short of 6MTH.

Tonight I close on my house refinace. So as of tonight I will offically be a homeowner all by myself without my XH on the title. We did a quit claim but the refinace will make it 100% offical as when they were doing the title search they had to have XH sign some more documents so I am glad I refinaced so all the i s are dotted and t s are crossed.

The big summer work rush happened, not sure if I wrote about that but my now single status was the thing to talk about. As a result I am now dating someone.

I got the garage opener back from my XH, but forgot to get the key because he threw a little drama in my lap as he drove away on the 5th. Oh well I am not looking forward to spend the money to change the locks BUT I did want to put a more decorative handle/lock on the door so now I have a good reason to push that to the top of the to do list.

The guy I am seeing has a cousin that builds decks, so he is going to talk to him and see if he can get me a deal on the construction of one. I need a deck, it is not just a want because it is an exit. It is a FIRE escape if there is a fire at the front of the house or in the garage.

I currently have $100 a month going into a house repair and projects account, Once I have my Escrow account funded, my mortgage account, and my 6MTH EF funded to where I want them, I want to bump that up so that I can build the deck sooner.

I am slowly going through the house and I so need to have a rummage sale. I need the money and I need to clear some of this junk because I want to declutter my life.

I had some rocks and a boulder in my back yard the boulder weighed 4600 pounds. I paid a coworker to remove them. The total cost was 326.80 for the work and now once the grass grows in I will be able to mow the grass without having to mow around the rocks. It is a huge weight off my shoulders....Like 4600 pounds. HaHa