I need to get my Emergency Fund Finished. If the Continuing Resolution is not fixed prior to 4 March 2011, then I am going to have pay issues.

I made a list of my expenses and posted it as a page on here. Hopefully later after I am thinking clearly I can ask for advice on whys to cut out costs that I am over looking.

My Mortgage was refinanced in July 2010 so there is not much I can do about that. It is what it is but I noticed that interest rates are higher than my 4.25% currently so that is that.

I also can't do anything about my house taxes, they were just assessed this Summer also so they are actually correct.

I am thinking maybe it is time to call my house insurance company though and see what I can do to reduce that cost or if that does not help get other quotes. BUT I think I will put that on the back burner for now because I don't want to increase my deductable until I have the increase in my in my Savings.

Today I will try to reduce my Gas/Electric Bill by reducing the heat temp and changing the time settings to match up more with what time we are getting out of bed and going to bed.

I have a list of 5 things that I think will be easy and then hopefully I will start tackling the harder stuff.

I have noticed that since BF moved in I have went from grocery shopping every few days (Boredom/Freebies and Cheapies) to doing the bulk of the shopping the Saturday after the first of the Month Payday. The reason for that paycheck being the one that restocks our pantry, I am not sure.

I have been adding stuff to the grocery list on the counter as I use it so that when that Saturday rolls around I restock what we have used. I guess my only issue is when I do that I am buying the cheapest at the time (brand name with coupon or generic) and I wonder if there is a better way to reduce our grocery expenses.

I am in a rut. I am not sure how to get back into the money saving mindset. See I am not sure if my grocery shopping has gone up since BF moved in but I feel like it has. Before he moved in my son and I were eatting the stockpile and we were not spending much on groceries. Also we were eatting cheap foods and not well balanced meals, and not much in the vegetable relm. So now that I needed to restock the pantry and freezer in order to create meals it seems like to my mind I have spent more than normal. We also always have onions and green peppers in the fridge. A vegetable staple is unheard of pre-BF.

BF's last Student loan payment comes out of this paycheck. I am not sure IF he was paying rent with the 15th paycheck or the end of the month one. So depending on when he used to pay rent will depend on how much money BF will soon start to have available to buy groceries and a portion of the utilities.

Last night I made a potato based soup and I realized the potatos we had were sprouting along with the last sweet potato, so I asked BF to pick up 2 potatos on his way home from work. He did and he picked up a few of the things he needs for the chili he plans to make this weekend. I am wondering if the best way to handle the groceries is to just ask BF to pick up the needed parishables as we need them and have me purchase the staples.

I itemized this year, so my return was held at turbotax until the IRS said they were ready for itemized returns.

Last night I checked my email to see if Turbotax sent me an email saying the IRS accepted my return. There was not an email when I went to bed. So a few minutes ago I went to turbotax to check and it shows that the IRS accepted my return and I should get my return on the 25th of Feb 2011.

I am super excited for my return. It is going to go to the Emergency Fund and Daycare Fund. I will have a bit leftover and that is going to the house repair saving which will mean that it is fully funded for my deductable.

I am thinking since my appliances are really new (2007), the only issue I have is with my washer. I had to replace the motherboard in it and since then the loads take super long so I wash on the quick cycle which is still long but my clothes come out clean.

I am thinking that I might stop the automatic payment that is going to my house repair account and increase the mortgage or escrow amount or both. Yes I want to save money to put on the deck but I think the mortgage and escrow are more important than the deck at this point.

Okay so today is Payday. This means I went into my checkbook added in the deposit for the 15th and then subtracted out all my automatic payments for the rest of the month.

So leftover money went to fund the Mortgage Saving Account and to the Escrow Savings account.

I now have $407.14 for the rest of the month. This includes my internet bill (Should be 40.23) and about $36 for water. I figure I will spend $60 in gasoline for my car and hopefully I can keep groceries low and of course there will be unplanned expenses.

I wish we had another internet option but this is the lowest priced option. I just hate how it will be one price for like 3 months and then a few cents more the next month etc etc.

I hope I can keep from buying groceries since it really should be BF's turn since he has not purchased groceries in a while. I hope I can keep from buying wants. I would really really like to buy some new food storage containers.....BUT whatever I don't spend will be able to be applied to my savings goals on the 1st of March.

I have a problem, I make a plan then I change my mind. First I might decide to pay extra on my mortgage but then I start playing it over and over in my head and I think I should save a years worth of mortgage payments into saving FIRST before doing that.

How do you keep with your savings goals without getting side tracked and rethinking your plan.

The only debt I have is my mortgage. So I am causing myself mental STRESS over what to assign my extra money each month into.

If all the debt you had was your mortgage and you had a pretty secure job, what would you do? How do you figure out when to start paying extra on your mortgage?

******
My irrational thinking below, please don't let it sway your advice to the questions above:

I fear losing my job even though I have no logical reason to fear this, then having to get a new job. My job pays EXTREMELY well and I fear making my mortgage payment if I had to find another job. This is not rational either, Yes I am paid well and would more than likely take a pay cut. The reason the not make the payment is not rational is I have my BF living with me, he has not starting paying rent yet, but if this happened then he would be a shoulder to lean on.

I also currently save a large portion of my paycheck to retirement. If I did not save a dime to retirement at my new job, I would have to find a $18.77 per hour job. OUCH in this area that would be tough. So my fear boils down to how can I find a really good paying job IF all of a sudden world peace broke out.

I guess worst case I could try to sell my home. See I tried to sell it this summer but I know why it did not sell. BF has plans to do some stuff to the home which would will just add buyer interest at a later date. I just hope I can sell it for close to its value. If I was, I could buy a cheaper home and thus reduce my mortgage. I have 74K in equity IF it sold at value. In this town a decent home starts at 110K, so I could get a bare bones house for a loan of 36K and that I think I could afford on a NEW less paying job.

Well I ordered a Pampered Chef Pitcher that I have wanted for a LONG LONG Time about two weeks ago. I was not sure exactly when it would come in, my friend was closing a party and then going to combine orders etc. So I did not write the check right away when I told her to order the pitcher for me.

I also got gas yesterday. I had $3.90 in my checkbook after subracting the gasoline. I admit when you pay with debit card vs credit card you actually notice how much you are paying and how often for gas.

I went in to my checking account to balance it and I think I was going to check if maybe my tax return from the state was deposited.

Yesterday I got a note in the mail from my state saying I missed a credit. I have a carry over housing tax credit from like 2008. I used $20 so my tax return got increased by $20. I still have like $131 left so this credit could take a while to use up.

Maybe credit is not correct. See I owed $20 in taxes once they took all my things into play, so I got all I paid in back except that $20. I had that housing credit thing and they used it to apply to the $20 so I got all that had been taken out of my paycheck back. I still have more of this credit left cause it can only be used to apply to what you owe not what you get back.

My State Tax Return was basically what I had leftover or not given a home in my savings plan. Part of me wants to apply it to my Emergency Fund or my other savings goals but then part of me thinks leave it in checking as a cushion incase something comes up. BUT doesn't something always come up if you do that.

Oh also my Child Support came in....I always forget about that. I use my Child Support to pay for Daycare. The Daycare bill gets pulled on the 5th. So now that the child support came in to pay that, I can use the money "I" allocated for it out of the checkbook. So I now have that for these two weeks until payday.

After reviewing my savings I applied my State Tax Return to my House Repair Savings. Once this months autopayment goes through I will have $2000 which is my deductable if I make a claim against my homeowners policy. Actually I think it is $2100 or $2090 but $2000 is close enough.

I made myself a note, it said "Is it a NEED? EF 4525 ->2505"

I had this on a post it and taped to my wallet and my wallet and the note had two rubber bands around it.

This means I had to take both rubber bands off and this was a reminder to slow down and read my note. I then had to unzip my wallet if I was going to pay.

This actually would make me consider if everything I was an absolute NEED.

I want to finish repaying my Emergency Fund.

Today I have $41.00 left in my Checking until payday on the 15th. I need to stop and get gas on the way home. I was thinking of using the credit card BUT that would be BAD!!!!!

I have a check at home, a refund from cancelling my house phone. I need to deposit that $17.

I was reviewing the grocery flyer yesterday and there are some loss leaders I want. They are the items I did not purchase at the store the last time I went. I also learned that my grocery store puts meat on sale once a month and it is the first week of the month. I was just going to go use the credit card after the talk I had with the BF. But after reading my sidebar and a few posts here, I have desided I will just skip the sales.

Last night I asked my BF if he had any money for groceries this week, and he kinda himmed and hawwed. He said he has $200 until payday. He said once he gets his per deim check, his Student Loan is paid off or Lease gets worked out he will be able to make up for it. This was when I had the what the heck I will just charge it thought. BUT NO I am not going to do it. My BF does not have a CC so $200 is including his safety net.

The grocery sale was for Mostly things HE prefers, Ground Beef, Soda etc anyway. I dont drink soda unless it is in the house. I also will use ground turkey because it is cheaper but he prefers beef. That is fine that he prefers beef and I will watch sales so we can get it when it is on sale. But if we run out of ground beef in the house cause he doesnt have money to buy part of the groceries then he can deal with ground turkey until it goes on sale again.

I hope this does not sound harsh, BUT soda and Ground Beef are not NEEDS. Soda is a Want and Ground Beef is a preference, lots of people even do meatless days to make their grocery budget go farther.

My 2011 Goals
January 18th, 2011 at 01:44 pm
Financial
1. Complete all Baby Steps up to 6 Before April 30
- Baby Step 3. Escrow (DONE)
- Baby Step 3. Emergency Fund Balance Needed 4525
(at 2020.00 on 18 Jan 2011)
2. As soon as 1 is done start Mortgage Extra Payments each month automatic payemnts.
3. Start Savings Goals.
a. House Projects/Furnishing goals (60%of remainder after D & E)
b. Travel & Vacation Fund (20%of remainder after D & E)
c. Braces Fund (20% of remainder after D & E)
d. Save $50 per month automatically for 529 account
e. If BF is paying rent then $319.90 to Savings for Son

Intellectual
Work on Correspondance Courses for Work. Complete 320 credits before 31 Dec 2011.

Family
Take atleast two family vacations prior to 30 August. Examples ValleyFair, LegoLand, SixFlags-Illinios or Missouri and will be atleast 4 days in length.

Spiritual
Find and attend religious services that the whole family enjoys on Sunday on the weekends I do not work.

Physical
Workout atleast 1 hour at the work gym two times per week.
Get weight back down to 155 like it was at the start of the year.

Career
1. Correspondance Courses
2. Attend resident courses need atleast 8 weeks (attend at least 1wk this year)
3. attend ALC
4. Workout weekly

Social
1. Attend Church weekly when not working
2. Attend Facebook invite events by friends to enlarge routine activites.

*** I break my Emergency Fund into three sections. My Mortgage, My Own Made Escrow account of House Taxes and House Insurance and Thirdly a Emergency Fund that is Bills.

I can workout at work, they have free weights, a 4 piece multi-something, two treadmills and two of those what are they called where you are running or jogging but the peddles slide so you have no knee impact. Yes it is very small.

Well the College just opened a pool which is the feature I want, and there is a rumor out that alumni can get FREE membership. The current students are free, it is a for sure thing, need to get clarification on the alumni part.

The college wellness center has a few workout pieces and they partner with another center in town so if I have a membership with one I can use the other free. Well the college has childrens under 12 years old memberships for $15 per month and the other place has daycare during the week for 4 hours for $10 per month. So if I swam at the college then worked out at the other place It would only cost $25 per month.

I am wondering if I might just get the swimming membership and then if I want to workout then I could either workout while my child is at the after school program OR I could bring him to my work and have him hang out in my office....There is no one under the age of 16 allowed in the workout room at work. The only problem is my son gets into things when I leave him in my office...he gets snoopy.

The other positive is now that there is another pool in town the other place went down in price, (I still think the $51 per month plus $50 application fee plus $17 a month for a daycare or $17.50 for 10 hours of daycare is expensive).

I wish my medical insurance gave discounts like others but whatever.

I have my fingers crossed, If I can get a free membership for me I will be spending the $15 to get a membership for my son starting November 1st since swim leasons would start on the 5th. We missed the start of the current session.

I get paid on the 15th and the end of the month. I usually just say the 1st and the 15th since the 15th and the End of the Month sounds goofy.

Well Today I am going to be figuring out how much money I need on hand in the checkbook and then put the remainder into (#4 pay CC bill) of get done prior to 1 Sept 2011 goals.

I realized I am going to be doing this in #4, #3, #2, #1 then #5 order and am wondering if I should reorder them. See when I made the list I was not taking interest rates into account. The problem with #4 is that it is going to get larger as I start to purchase stuff for my work assignment, but I still want it paid off so that I do not have to deal with it.

This paycheck I pay my afterschool daycare, Gas & Electric, Mortgage, and put $100 into savings for future car replacement repair. I have $423 left in checking once those are all deducted so I will apply $324 to my credit card and have $100 in checking for bills that have to be paid by check.

My new CC bill after making the payment above
the new balance is $1656.57 with a interest rate of 8.9%; my statement balance is paid in full. I will need to pay off this amount and any new charges made before the 9th on or before the 1st of November. I save $100 each month for car repair and replacement and since a little over $830 of that is from the car service work If I cant pay the balance in full prior to 1 Novemeber I will take as much as I can out of the car repair account. Right now I do not have $830 in the car repair account though.

Oops, I just realized that I applied $423 to my cc so I will actually only have about $16 in my checking once the Gas & Electric bill is pulled. Well good news is I work best under pressure and now I will be motivated to find some extra money. Guess I will be getting around to listing the furnature I have to sell this weekend. I will also make sure to call this guy who buys cell phones about getting the extra cell phones I have sold, since every bit helps.

Well I got word this morning that I have basically a little less than a year until I will be handed my first year long overseas assignment.

This means to make things run smooth back here for my Son and myself, I need to get my Emergency Fund Completed.

I will need to either rent out my house, get a company that takes care of vacant houses or ideally my XH will move back into it. This would require him to move back into state. If he could do this early it would work out best.

Right now his school should be complete in October/November 2011. I leave for Assigment in Sept. I am hoping that he can finish early so he could move into the house and then our son would not have to leave his home or his school. I guess worest case even if XH says he will not return until October that is only 2 months that my son would have to stay with my cousin as long as my XH is not set on staying out of state even though that would not be in the best interest of our son.

I have all my bills already on autopilot. If I rent out the house then I will need to get a managment company so that they can pay the bill for me while it is not being rented. If I just find a company to mow the grass, shovel the snow so it does not look vacent then the autopay would stay with only a few things getting cancelled (internet and telephone). If my XH moves in then nothing will need to be changed except changing the name of the cable bill so that he can add TV or make changes as needed.

If my son ends up staying with my cousin for a few months or for the year I am gone than I need to open a joint savings account so that I can get her a debit card to pay for clothes etc for my son and to pay her for taking care of him.

I will be out of country so I want to make sure I have my life insurance in order, I want to make sure I have enough and that is will be valid IF something would happen while I am working.

Now the $$$ breakdown:
#1. 3,000 in checking so that the few bills that would continue to be pulled from my checking account can without any action by me.
(I have been through this too many times that I KNOW that there is always a glitch with the pay-either it is slow getting started or you are paid less than you are suppose to in the beginning, so I need to be able to just ride it out).

#2. 2,695.70 into my escrow account ( I will need to figure out a way to get my house taxes and insurance paid without any action by me).

#3. 5,233.06 into my mortgage account so that my mortgage can continue to be pulled automatically without any action by me.

#4. Pay in Full Credit Card.

#5. ??? into E.F. For anything that Might happen that is not planned for (house repairs etc)

That is the principle involved with the stock market, so why do I have such a hard time doing this. Right now we are low, so I should be buying buying buying. But no I look at my statement and see the price went down again and instead of being happy about the reduced price so I can buy more shares I feel like I am throwing good money after bad.

I am looking at the returns on the investments and wonder how long it will be until the stock market starts showing good returns again. Dave Ramsey uses a 12% average return for a lot of his compound interest calculations and instead I see the market with 5% currently.

I have not been following Dave Ramsey s advice to the letter and so yesterday I made a commitment. I am going to start following his advice. You see I was saving saving saving for retirement but a call weeks ago from a financial evaluator got me thinking. I should really get to a point where I am investing my money and not all of it into retirement based accounts (401K and Roth IRA s). Her point was I should be fully funding the Roth IRA before my 401K since I don’t get a match and other reasons (which yes that is true). But it is a head game. Just like Dave Ramsey says pay the smallest balance because you need to see progress, instead of going in order of interest rate. I like being backwards and funding my 401K first before my Roth because I fear if I was not getting it pulled first I would not be dedicated and put it towards my Roth I would pay bills (Mortgage or something) instead .

Right now my and I am sure others also retirement accounts are making around 4-5% per 12 month period. My Mortgage is 4.35% so I have reduced my retirement account savings and am going to start paying down my mortgage. If I reduce my retirement saving to 15% of my income that leaves me money to apply to My NEW PLAN.

A review of Dave Ramsey s Baby steps I am sitting as follows:
#1 Baby step 1K Emergency Fund: DONE
#2 Baby Step Pay off all Debt with the debt snowball: I have a revolving CC bill but I am going to Pay it in Full with my next paycheck and just call it done. I will still use my CC for things such as my online purchases but I think I am going to pay my CC bill in Full once a week. That way I stay ahead of the CC bill but at the same time I am using it for the CC rewards.
#3 Baby step 3 to 6 months Emergency Fund: I have 3 months DONE and will have an extra 1 month bills in my checkbook thanks to the NEW plan step 1. I have a secure job and if things change I will address the issue but for now the 3 month EF is fine.
#4 Baby Step invest 15% of income into Roth IRAs and Pre-retirement accounts: DONE I was currently doing above and beyond this. I have reduced this to apply to new plan.
#5 Baby Step College Fund: I saved a little for my son BUT I am calling this DONE. I have an option that I just have to wait out. I will be able to provide my son with a pretty nice option BUT it either requires some contract rewriting or an out of country work location. I have 11 years for one of these to happen so I am not stressing.
#6 Baby Step Pay off Home Early: Main New Plan issue
#7 Baby Step Build Wealth and give (I was already doing this by the extra retirement savings but the bad side was that it was restricted to retirement so adjusting this in new plan.


My thinking, the only blip on the horizon for my pay is in Dec. So this is my new plan:
#1. Save one month expenses in checkbook (so that the auto-funded payments and savings can continue even if for some reason my paycheck(s) are late in December).
#2. Take the extra money that I have each month and thanks to the reduction in retirement savings and apply it to my Mortgage (BS#6) this will mean paying off my house mortgage No Later than Sept 2019. I would really like to make this happen in 6 years BUT nine years is not bad, I think I will do better once some of my bills are able to be reduced. I currently am waiting out a cell phone contract which will free up some money for the next two years. 2 years from now I will need to add another line. But in two years my daycare expenses will drop and I will only need the weekend work sitter not the afterschool care. Then in 5 years my weekend daycare will end and I will only have out of town daycare needs. Also I for some reason always have a tax refund; I have not been able to modify my withholding to minimize this but each year I get better, so extra Tax Return will be applied. Finally my income usually increases by about 2% or more each Jan 1st. So I am aiming for 9 years but think I can do it in much less.
#3. Once the house is paid in full I will apply the extra money to: (for 6 Years)
Maxing the 401K (16,500x6=99,000)
Maxing the Roth IRA (5,000x6=30,000)
Purchasing non-retirement investments (stock portfolio) ????
Building a Deck for my PIF house. ???

I love the idea of a paid in full house because then 14 years from now when I start to pull my pension I very well could live just off my pension until I can start pulling out of my Roth Ira and then my 401K. The money I pull out of my retirement accounts I want to use for elaborate vacation plans. Yep that is how I want to spend my retirement years. I might get a part-time job after age 48 just to have something to do and so that I could continue to save for the future and fund elaborate vacation plans from the age of 48 until I can draw my retirement fund but ideally no job after 48 would ROCK.

Well I found out that my 2 week training session for 2011 looks like it will be moved from June to September.

This is good news because if it is in June (as it is scheduled now) then My XH cant watch our DS as I think he has school and even if he did not have school his work training is the same days in June. He is trying to get out of the training session due to having school.

Having the training in June would result in needing 24 hour daycare for the 15 days or $900 for the time frame.

IF the training is moved to September I will not need daycare during the day, during the week (son at school). Also I am not sure of what hours the training exercise is so if it mirrors my normal work hours then I can have minimal to no extra daycare costs. If it is an hour early I just need to figure out a plan for someone who can watch him from the time I have to leave the house until he goes to school (2 hours-10 days $50) plus weekends if needed ($240).
If for some reason I am on the night session than at most the extra daycare will cost $665 BUT I think it would be more like $425 extra because XH could take DS for the weekends so he would not have to be at the sitters all day and night on the weekends.

I am currently saving the $900 summer daycare expenses into my slush fund but it would be awesome to not have to use it all. I NEED to create a seperate daycare saving account (instead of the slush which is also gifts, car ins & car tabs) because If I get sent for out of town work again this spring then It is going to cost an extra 212.50 per week for the weeks XH can watch DS on the weekends and 332.50 extra per week for the weekends DS cant watch DS because he has to work or something.

Well I should know more within the next 30 days.

375.11 Starting Balance Spending Money for September

Over all the spending has been very minimual. I have not stepped foot into a store except if I had to, so doing well.

On Sept 3rd on the way home from work my gas tank was on e so I really could not put it off any longer. Fill up was $31.90. I am kind of excited now that I am tracking my spending here to figure out what my monthly gas costs are.

Then before I picked my son up from after school care I stopped at the grocery store.
4 loaves Bread 5.12
1 bag pretzel sticks 1.48
Batteries for my scale $3.50
Spread 1.83
Grape Jelly 1.47
Total 13.61
The bread will last for 12 weekdays, the pretzel sticks was for my son at school and afterschool care, the batteries; now that was painful. I wanted generic but the smallest pack was 15 batteries for $6.00. The $3.50 was for Duracell and was a 4 pack. I use rechargable batteries but I have noticed that they are a bit bigger than the regular kind and sometimes they do not work in some items (My scale being one of them). Another thing is remember my $5 per week wiggle room well that almost got me into trouble. I was looking at the jelly and the difference between the grape and strawberry is $1.20 not that big of deal except I am trying to be extremely frugle. I almost told myself use the cushion and buy the strawberry jelly but then I got real.

$14.84 A video game for DS (long story - he had his heart set on a dog from the pound and I have yet again said we have to wait so the video game was a consalation prize because I was oooooh so close to caving and getting him the dog). It meet all the rules I had set forth, it was a pound animal which means it would be put to sleep if someone did not adopt it (ie not a pet store or breeder animal). It was one of the 4 breeds of dogs that I love. And I cant remember the third rule right now but it met it. I just could not bring myself to adopt. It was not the extra normal costs involved because IF I had to eat PB&J for lunch for the next 10 years to afford the food and vet care for the dog I would it was what to do with the dog when I cant care for it. It would have to go to a doggy daycare and that is $24 per day two years ago I was out of town for 5 weeks. That would get expensive quick.

$5.10 donuts (part two of the make it up the DS about the dog).

So it is now the 6th of September and we are basically a week into the month. So far I am doing good on spending if I say so myself. Tonight we are going to my cousins husbands birthday party, I need to locate the birthday cards I have stashed somewhere in the house. They are cooking chili so free food and I can remind her that this weekend I have to work.

375.11
-31.90
-13.61
-14.84
-5.10
309.66 Remaining Spending for Sept

Daycare $100 so really $209.66 So basically $69.00 a week. Which if I stay at the rate I am going I will have extra this month to start goals not even having to wait until next month.

Thank you all for you advice on the mental issue I was having regarding the lack of deck or fire excape as I was looking at it.

""I honestly don't think Dave Ramsey would say it is okay to borrow money for a deck. However, he might think it a safety issue and a priority. He would tell you to take a second job, sell everything you can and use the cash on hand you have. In other words, everything you can think of doing before you would go into debt further."" (Need to go back later and give credit to the poster)

I wanted to post about what I am thinking of doing to get my EF funded.

First: I have responded to an ad online looking for a roommate. I am thinking that for a while I will rent out a room in my house. This is not nearly as much money as a parttime job but after you deduct all the costs with parttime work it would be about half of what my take home would be, equal to it IF I could rent out two rooms.

I am going to look into seeing if there are any jobs in town that I could work from home. I would like to pick up a second job but because I would have to line up daycare and it would have to be when I am not working my primary job it would make it not super easy to do. I also have to get approval from my employer to work outside my home so I am thinking internet in the evenings. If I can find something internet than even if my job took me out of town as long as I have internet acess I could still pull in work. Or the job would have to be one where I could bring my son along (part-time evening nanny).

I have a few items I could sell, I just had a rummage sale and plan to have another next summer for the small things. I need to put ads out for the few large items I do have to sell to make a little money.

Okay now thirdly the "Use the money you have" The point of an emergency fund is to plan for unexpected events. Truthfully My job is secure I have a contract (just not the orders yet) for a 6 year position. So the Emergency Fund is fine at 3 mths. The Escrow and Mortgage do need to be at 12 Months because the posibility of needing to have then autopaid for extended periods without me being able to oversee it are more likely.

So I am going to buy the 3 rolling ladders
then I am going to continue to work on increasing income
then I am going to save for the Mortgage and Escrow.
then once those are at the 12 months I will save for the Emergency Fund and deck.

***
The only blip that is going to be on the horizon is in Dec. I NEED to have a months cushion in my checking account at that time as that is when my contract moves from old to new and pay is ALWAYS messed up for atleast one pay period where you end up waiting on the first check to cut.

So I am punching numbers.

I have the following question, Building your Emergency Fund is a step 3 item, Debt reduction being step 2.

Where would a house repair that is not really a repair fit in?

I have desided that all my extra $ over the next few months is going to the house savings account that is basically the money I would need to shell out if I had to claim something on my house insurance until it is finished.

Then I need to figure out a plan of attack. See I do not have a deck on my house, I have owned the house for 3 years, we were able to purchase the house without a deck BUT we could not resell the house without putting a deck on the house or putting an ALLOWANCE into the selling contract so that the city knew it would be completed shortly after sell.

It is a safety thing, If there was a main floor fire at the front of the house and we could not exit out the front door, then it is a 2 story drop to get out of the house without the deck built. I want to get this done ASAP but not sure how to prioritze it.

Is building a deck a DEBT because technically it should have already been done for safety reasons and me be paying it off. Or does it fit into step 6 paying off your home early because it is something that needs to be done to the house.

I was thinking maybe it fit into the middle gray area somewhere. I was planning on trying to pay a percentage to the Emergency Fund, The Mortgage Fund, the Escrow Fund and the Deck build. But I figure I have about $450-$500 per month that can be spent/saved IF I am gazzelle intense. If I do the % then it will take me 5 years to finished all them and the deck then move on to the next dave ramsey step.

The problem with that is I hate thinking that I am putting my sons safety at risk for 5 years when if it is a DEBT catergory item then it would be saved for in 21 months or Approx August 2012.

Is there anyone out there that who just wants to slap me and say get over it, it is a safety issue who care what dave ramsey would think and you should take that CC that has a limit high enough to pay for the deck and build the thing financing it at 9% and be done worrying that a fire is going to come along and then it will be a debt to be attacked.

Please help me deside.

376.54 Remaining Balance
- 1.43
(Difference from Gas & Electric Bill Last Month and this Month)
375.11 Remaining Spending for Aug and Sept

Yesterday I was going to go to the store and buy Jelly and Toothpaste for DS.

Well Plan B. No Jelly, I have Lunch Meat that I purchased for his lunches because I was not planning on sending him with PB&J sandwiches BUT since we are trying to get creative, he will have Ham sandwiches until I use it all up then I will buy a jar of jelly.

I am thinking IF I delay the purchase then maybe I can get some coupons in the time I delay so that It will be even cheaper, I tend to buy my groceries at WM as they are much cheaper than the grocery stores most of the time. But one thing about the WM is I have not seen generic jelly there so a coupon might help.

I found a tube of kids toothpast in a shower kit and so DS is using that until it is gone. There is about 3 fourths of an inch of tube left, that could last a few weeks.

I signed up for a coupon train a few weeks back and it should be a few weeks until it gets to me. I want the P&G coupons. See I think P&G is crest. There is a Spongebob Kids toothpaste in the travel section for 97 cents if I use a 50 cent off coupon that does not say not valid on trial or travel then the little tube is only 47 cent. when you put together like 4 tubes the cost is actually less then those Oral B candy flavored toothpastes plus you get more ounces and I actually think the toothpaste is better. It is tamer than adult Toothpaste (less minty) but not so weak like the kids toothpaste seem to me.

In My october budget I put in a note that I wanted to purchase a school shirt for DS. Well I was thinking they were $20 as it is a fund raiser but they are only $10. The thing is the order has to be in before the 20th of September so it will come out of this months funds not my planned October budget.

I will wait until after the first to write the check for the order, I was going to wait until closer to the 20th but I dont want to get crazy busy and forget. I suppose I should ask DS if he really wants one or if it is me that wants one for him. Last year he asked for one and then over the course of the school year they had different school pride events where the kids wore the school shirt or school colors. I know he had asked about the shirt at least twice but you can only order them at the start of the year.

Yesterday I tried to use my printer, it is acting up again. I cant get anything to print from my laptop and only some stuff will print from the desktop. I have known that once the printer started acting up again I would need to go out and buy a new one.

My current one in 10 plus years old and the drivers are always having to be reloaded and they are a pain since it is such an old machine. The last time I bought ink the ink was $20 LESS than a whole new machine with INK, so soon I might be making the $78 plus tax purchase to buy the printer I have had my eye one for a while. For now I am trying to figure out other options. I did not buy the new machine last time because $20 is $20.

I need to print a photo or two for a school project for DS. I could not get it to print at all no matter which computer I used. I am taking photo paper to work and will print the one photo there (emailed it to myself). I have a photo on my work computer a co-worker took it that I might print for the project also. If that will not work I will try walmart.com for 16 cents a print. That would still be cheaper than a new printer.

I need to check but I was not able to print coupons off my laptop (I dont think the laptop is printing anything). If the desktop will not work for internet printables then I will be no internet printables until i get a new printer.

I am finally thinking positively.

I was in a funk, I was stressing out thinking how am I going to get my CC bill paid off and make any progress on savings goals.

I put up my October Budget on my SideBar. I have a little under $600 wiggle room in my Budget each Month IF I make the months prior goals.

By Wiggle Room I mean whatever does not get spent on gas or food is free to apply to goals....So it is up to me to save gas and scout meal deals to stretch that but It is totally doable.

This is better than I thought. I was thinking I was going to NEED to bring in a roommate in order to make progress on my savings goals but truthfully IF I just keep spending down to a minimum I could actually make progress on my savings goals.

I am going to post spending here because then I am holding myself to my purchases and at the end of the month when I post where the saving went I will see the result.

I have a question for you, I currently have a VERY low balance in my Checking acount right before payday this is where I have my Automatic bills come from. I would like to beef up the balance but I do have autodraft so I should be okay. I am currently charging ALL purchases then at the bill due date paying the statement balance. I get credit card rewards for doing this (please note I am doing this because I am BROKE, not because of the rewards).

IF you were me would you:

Option #1: continue to use the CC for purchases such as gas and food and get the rewards paying off the statement balance a week or so prior to it being due and gaining the cash back reward applying the extra money you had each month to the $$ Goals in your sidebar.

Option #2: Take the leftover money at the end of the month for a few months and build up the checking account balance so you were using the checkbook and or debit card to buy the gas and food and not have a credit card bill what so ever and miss out on the CC rewards and delay the $$ Side bar Goals for a few months.

The two options both have postitives
#1 CC rewards and Faster Sidebar Savings
#2 NO CC balance and More of a Checking Cushion

Negitives
#1 CC balance revolving Each month so never really PAID in Full
#2 Missing out on CC rewards 1% on all purchases and 2% on gas; Checking account needs to be balanced instead of just verifying that the charges on the CC are correct and nothing fraudulate are poping up.

My Cash Rewards are $61.99 but the Gas are Separate and do not know the current balance on that.

Well I have not posted in a while. I have not spent any money in a while.

This morning I used almost all the jelly up making DS his sandwich for lunch and for breakfast toast. No School Lunch and no School Breakfast SYTD is now $7.50 saved.

I really like that I am tracking every penny spent. It is amazing how much easier it is to just not spend. I have not been shopping because I know if I spend it then I have to post it. I tried doing the paper tracking menthod and it did not really work for me. I guess this method of figuring out how much after bills I have to spend then a running tally online helps alot. I might continue after the CC is paid off because I would like to use any left over to apply to my savings goals.

There is maybe enough jelly for half a slice of breakfast toast in the jar (going to use every last bit with a rubber scrapper). So that means I have to stop at the store to pick up jelly today.

I am also going to buy DS some childrens tooth paste. I have quite a bit of FREE crest, colgate, whatever brand CVS was giving away free or as a money maker using coupons AGES ago. I dont think I have done any CVS shopping deals during 2010. I have been trying to use up my stash. Back when I was CVSing I separated out the toothpaste into minty, gel, flavorburst and plain PASTE; the plain paste going to my son but he still spends more time rinsing the paste out of his mouth than with the tooth brush in his mouth so I am going to cave and spend the money on kids toothpaste so he will brush longer.

I also want to buy him the childrens Sonic toothbrush, I have a sonic toothbrush and love it and I like that is times the brushing length. But I will wait until After the Credit Card bill is caught up since that is an expensive purchase.

I have desided I am going to skip the box of crackers until later. I will just be extra careful to make sure he has a snack in his bag daily.

It is Monday and I spent no money Yesterday so Grocery non-necessary spending is reset for the week to $5.

I will post my month left to spend balance once I make that jelly purchase and the tooth paste. I do need to update the balance due to a change in the Elec and gas bill truthfully I cant remember what I calculated for planned usage if I went with a higher than normal usage guess so I would not go over or if I went with usage for last month. I will have to write out my Budget when I repeat this for October.

Well this is morning two of toast and jelly for breakfast and day too of PB&J for lunch for the little boy. (By not paying for school breakfast and Lunch I saved $5 this week).

I asked if he wanted PB&J or Ham sandwiches for lunch today and he elected PB&J. Could be that last year I did not pack PB&J at all because there were two extreme peanut allergy children in his class.

I now have two items on my grocery list. A box of chedder crackers (whales from WM) and Jelly. The box of crackers is for his cubby at school incase he forgets his daily baggy of school snacks. OKAY if mommy forgets to double check that it is ready for the morning. If I bought both the crackers and jelly at the same time I might have to not count the crackers against the $5 weekly groceries because I was not planning on reducing my grocery spending by the $9 per quarter snack money (they did not do that this year-yeah). So I might give myself a free pass on the amount of the crackers that goes over my allowance because I did not shell out $9 for snacks at the start of the quarter.

My grandmother makes or I should say used to make the BEST jelly. The main ingrediant was always rubbarb. Strawberry Rubbarb was her staple but she has made all kinds including blueberry and mixed berry with rubbard which is my FAV. But a year or so ago she found out she has this condition with a v name vasvassomething or other. So She has to avoid steam or she passes out. This means cooking is no longer the thing she does alot of. She has resorted to light cooking ie nothing that boils. Well as I get ready to spend $3 or so on a jar of jelly I think of how with $3 of fruit my grandmother could make half a dozen jars easily once you added in the FREE rubbard from her garden. Plus hers was SOOOOO Much better. A year ago I tried to learn with her sort of over seeing. It was a huge flop, I ended up with two dozen jars of sugared fruit juice (basically fruit drizzle for ice cream.)

See the part I need the most help with she could not help with and that was when it starts to bubble and thickening and STEAMing. So one batch got BURNT and over thickened and the remainder was toooooo thin. So sadly no more of grandmothers great jelly.

Starting Balance $418.16 Left for Gas/Food/Daycare/Misc for Sept

Today I got the preview of my direct deposit that will be deposited on the 1st of Sept.

I forgot about the food charge that was going to come out of my check one of these days. 41.62 so I need to reduce my spending money by that amount since I will not have that amount to spend.

I was panicing a little this morning as I was looking at my checkbook balance after I set up the transfer of the last payment to pay my credit card statement that is due Sept 1. I was thinking my balance should be around a $150.00 but after recording a deduction I was like $101.00 and I still had a $58.00 deduction coming on or around the 30th. I knew I wrote a check for $15 but I was thinking how could I cut the balance that close.

The good news is in the far column where you write you ending balance I had subtracted a deposit. I actually have 240.09 instead of the $101.39 I thought I had.....Big relief.

I have a "Date" coming up next week, it will either be tues, weds, or thurs. The plan is the date will wither cook or pick up dinner and meet us at my house, we will eat dinner then DS will do his homework if he has any. Once the homework is done then all of us will sit down and watch a DVD of the dates choosing. ** The nice thing is if dinner is ready when DS and I get home the night is less stressful and then there is more time for fun (DVD) before DS has to go to bed. The other good part is the date is not trying to see me at 10pm or later when it is not a good time for me, and because he is going to cook or pick up dinner it is also going to be nice to for my food budget.

$418.16
- 41.62
= 376.54
Left for Gas/Food/Daycare/Misc for Sept

451.66 Sept prior balance for spending

I went to the bank and did the deposit (was recorded here yesterday)

I then went to the store and returned some items this generated a 41.59 refund.

I purchased:
paper towels 1.94
2 2pack light bulbs 17.78
total = 20.88

I made bacon this morning and had to use napkins to let the grease drip off. Which got me thinking I am almost out of napkins (mostly use papertowels) and I would like to switch to cloth napkins it would be cheaper in the long run just a higher start up cost. I put it off though.

When I went to the store I needed 3 bulbs and was looking forward to having one extra, but of course once I got home a fourth light burnt out. The bulbs are for recessed light and I bought the long life clf bulbs so these are a bit more spendy BUT the are for 8000 hours or up to 7 years.

I had regular recessed bulbs in the basement because I could not find the clf bulbs, but now that I do I will be slowly switching them out to the clf. It just is tough to pay $4.44 a light bulb and not cringe but slowly I will switch them out as the regular ones die so the bite is not so much. My light bill will even go down a bit.

Like I said life is full of unexpected.

We then went to my sons school open house, even though we are not planning on taking part in the hot lunch program I deposited $15.00 into his account because there will be days when I forget to pack him a lunch or in the hurry out the door it gets forgotten in the fridge so there is 10 lunchs in his account to start the year.

I then went over to the eye doctor, the GREAT news is that I went in expecting to pay $87.00 but the doctor wrote off what the insurance did not cover and I only had to pay. $39.31

On the way home my son treated us to McDonalds (dollar meal items with me drinking water) his total was $5.34. I felt bad that he paid BUT he wanted to go and he was willing to pay to get to go.

451.66
+ 41.69
- 20.88
- 15.00
- 39.31
= 418.16

$418.16 Left for Gas/Food/Daycare/Misc

OHHHHH one more good news note. Last year the teacher collected money quarterly for snacks and the parents of the two girls with extreme peanut allergies would take the money collected and purchase snacks and bring them in. Well this year we will be providing our own snacks one a day. This will be MUCH cheaper than the $9.00 per quarter that was the snack charge last year. Super good news for me.

I planned to make a return and a deposit today and pay a bill but I stayed home.

Tomorrow I will do all my errands together and save a little gas.

Today cooked homemade pizza, rice crispy treats and made ahgratten potatoes and fish. (spelling bad)

All these items were from my stash.

I finally got to doing the cement repair/fix by the garage doors. It helped alot with drafts. I do know I will need to replace the rubber thing on the bottom of the garage door as it is not sealing well as it is like smushing out instead of down.

Not sure how much that will cost, if it is some thing I can do myself or something I will have to hire out.

Today I posted of my challenge for Grocerys.

Today I got to the bank to deposit the money from the rummage sale.

I dropped off a few items that were left over from the rummage sale to ONCE UPON A CHILD for resale. I then headed to Wal-mart.

At Walmart I returned two items that I do not need and have not used. The return credit was $89.93.

I then bought grocerys:
2 loaves Bread
18 Large Eggs
2 5 pound Flours
and
2 jars of pizza sauce
total spent $10.84
total spent $2.64 against my $5 weekly misc grocery budget

I then went back to the resale shop and they gave me $17 for the things that they wished to purchase.

I came home and there was a check in the mail from my insurance provider. Seems they thought I already paid my eye exam visit or plan for me to pay it and issued me a check for what they covered. The check was for $39.31 and the exam was $87.00 I have not paid the exam and will do it tomorrow or wednesday and will deduct it once I pay it.

I have a little cash in my purse and will deposit the $10 and $3.04 in coins when I deposit the check tomorrow.

SO recap.
303.22
+ 89.93 Return
+ 17.00 Consignment
+ 39.31 Ins Check
+ 13.04 Cash and Coin
- 10.84 Groceries
= 451.66 To spend on GAS/FOOD/DAYCARE/MISC Sept
(But will need to pay $87 for eye exam)

I have been thinking of that $260.82 that I have budgeted for food/gas/daycare/misc for the rest of August and all of September.

Yesterday I returned the Humidifier that I had purchased for my sons room in a hope that it would help with his nearly daily bloody noses. Well it was a replacement for one I had tossed out because the machine was just getting gross and the filters were expensive. Well this new one was basically the same thing but without a filter. The old one would turn off once the sensor noted it was at the moistness level selected. This one only had three settings instead of a continous slider. Well the first morning of use I came into the room and there was a good 2 inches of water on the floor by the machine. I put down a towel from that point on but I was a little freaked out since that could have ruined the floor.

The machine was pushing out water instead of misting, yesterday I pulled the machine apart to drain it to return since I was not pleased with it. It was had mold growing. I was not able to remove the mold from the inside of the main compartment: no wonder my and my sons alergies were acting up big time.

Well I have desided to just try to limit use of the regular Air Conditioning so the air doesn't get to dry instead of buying a new one right away. The return was $42.40 which means my Sept Budget is now $303.22.

--
Today I have a few more returns to do which will increase my September Budget.

--
Finally I need to buy a few grocerys: flour, eggs, Bread. I am planning on doing a raid the pantry/freezer/fridge challenge. I am going to see how long I can go without buying any groceries. I am allowing myself to buy flour, eggs, soymilk and bread BUT anything else such as tomato paste or whatever to round out a receipe is going to be limited to $5 a week.

August 8-23-2010 $ until 1 October 2010.
303.22

I have been spending alot of time with DS. I elected to use some of my stockpiled vacation time instead of paying for a babysitter this month.

I have saved alot in daycare costs and it has been nice. Three more vacation days until school starts.

___

This year instead of paying for school lunches $1.50 and breakfast $1.00 each day I am going to pack cold lunchs and make sure he eats breakfast at home. This will mean less veggies as the lunch is going to be a sandwich and a snack such as cereal and water but it will save money until I make some progress on my Emergency Fund goals. It will also mean making sure he gets up earlier and goes to bed earlier since he doesn't like to eat in the morning.

___

This Saturday I am having another rummage sale. I hope to sell alot. I hope to do as well as last time BUT even if I only get $100 it would be worth it to reduce the amount of stuff I have in my house. Right now everything is packed neatly in my garage, okay that is a fib as I still have some stuff I would like to go through and label.

Whatever I do not sell I can put in my neighbors sale on the weekend of 10-12 Sept, I just have to make sure I get my initials on it. That will definately happen.

Rummage sales have been worth it so once the rummage sale is over in september I plan to pack everything back into totes and store them under the stairs so that next year all I have to do is pull the totes out and instant rummage sale. Also I hope to have a empty tote or two available so as I find stuff in the house I want to rid myself of I can toss them in.
___

Today I paid the Credit Card Bill, I made 3 payments over the next three days using up the money in both savings accounts (that were at the online bank that was paying out less than my ING accounts) and my checking account. I need to come up with $265 before the 1st of September, so I am hoping to do well on the rummage sale this saturday. Worest case once the sale is over and I know I will not be having another I can cash in my Rummage Sale (starter change) which could help. Depending on the turnout/weather/amount of stuff left I might consider another one on the 28th and or the 4th.

___
Next week I will call and cancel both the savings accounts that I emptied out that were paying less than my ING accounts.

Right now I have a $543.53 on my credit card that will be due on Oct 1st. After paying all the bills for September I will have $804.35 to spend so basically if I make no progress on goals this coming month I need to spend no more than $260.82 on food, daycare and gas or anything else for the rest of August and Sept, So that I can be back at a zero debt level. Man it is going to be tough. Hopefully I do well at the neighbors rummage sale so I can bring in some extra money.

I bought grocerys a few days ago, I am hoping that besides maybe bread that I can clean out the pantry/fridge/freezer and do a very low grocery bill. Daycare is going to cost $100. And gasoline is going to be around $60 so that would give me $100 for food and unexpected or Checking book cushion that I have wiped out to stretch until the end of Sept.
___

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.

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.

--
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.

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.

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.