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Two projects done....4? to go

September 6th, 2011 at 09:25 pm

Today the Sprinkler guy came to fix the head that popped up from the ground. He also (main reason) fixed the cut line from the post hole auger. He also adjusted some heads so they were not hitting the fence. $60

This afternoon the AC/furnace guy came. He blew out the AC drain, put some gel tab thingys in and poured water down drain. He also let some Freeon out ( I guess we had a bit too much in). Hopefully those things fixed the leak. He could not find a reason for the leak so it could have been the tooo much freeon which was causing the coils to freeze then thaw and when thawing leaking under the unit. Waiting on the bill. I did ask him to please rush the bill since I was leaving in two weeks. Some times it takes them a while to bill.

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I am still on hold for someone to come out and fix the window.

I have a dentist appointment for DS tomorrow after school.

I have my car going into the shop for a bunch of little things on Friday, so I took that day off.

I then have a Doctors appointment for DS on Monday the 12th.

I think that is all of my to do list. Sadly not wanting to see the bills from all these projects but no choice since I do not have a magic pay the bills fairy.

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Tomorrow my stuff will be loaded into the conex and I will be done with my deployment stuff.

Tonight I plan to mow the grass, BF did not do it this weekend and I forgot my grass stained yardwork shoes at work so I did not do it. I wanted to do it since BF is going to have to do it every week once I am gone. Not sure why BF did not do it this weekend BUT I think he is starting to be bummed out that it is getting close to time for me to leave.

DS is getting a bit more hyper, not sure if it is because I am leaving or the fact that we have TV again. I saw a decrease in his hyperness when I disconnected the TV years ago. Then I saw another decrease in hyperness when BF moved in. I hope it is just DS's way of reacting to my soon departure. That way once I am gone he can calm down. My cousins have even MORE cable channels than we do, so I am hoping it is not the cable.

I HATE school lunch!!

September 2nd, 2011 at 03:18 pm

The school lunch program is such a pain in my lower backside.

They use a 6 digit pin to pay for their lunches. They enter the pin number once, and the students name appears on the registers screen. The adult asks the child if their name is _____, if the child says yes or nods then the number is charged.

The school district 7 miles away has the child use their thumb scan. Now that would be nice.

Well once again this year I am battling the unauthorized charges issue. This year I put NO money in my childs account. It was at a zero balance, until yesterday. Yesterday my son brings home a note saying his account was $1.75 short. This means the charge was placed this school year (last year lunch was $1.50).

My son has had cold lunch everyday, #1 because I need to limit his dairy, #2 because the money in his lunch account last year seemed to have a leak.

Well I called the school and left a message yesterday after I got the note. I then called back this morning. The charge was tracked to ANOTHER school. So the charge will be removed. I had his account flagged. His account now says NO Breakfast, NO Lunch CASH ONLY. Hopefully this WORKS.

Our School district has a NO hunger policy, so I am not sure IF this will help.

The policy is that a elementary school student can charge lunch without a problem no matter the negative balance in the account. In Junior high the student is allowed to charge a cheese sandwich or the main entree and Senior high the student can only charge a cheese sandwich.

So if the lunch person at the other school whom allowed this student whom is not my child to use my childs account sees the note but the child wants food she might ignore the CASH ONLY note just like she/he ignored the note on the screen about that account number belonging to a student in another school.

I need to get a note from my son's doctor so he can get juice instead of milk with his meals. Since my cousin will be having my son use hot lunch and the standard is milk.

Balanced the Checkbook

July 26th, 2011 at 05:28 pm

Today I balanced the Checkbook.

I recorded the deposit that will take place on the first and subtracted the deductions that will take place the 3rd, 5th and 9th.

I need to record the Water Bill and Record the Electric gas bill. I am not sure IF I received the Elec/Gas bill yet though.

I transfered money to savings.....I now have $6488 in Emergency Fund once the transfer takes place on the 5th. That means I have 8.26 Months of Emergency Fund in Savings. Only $2,612 to go until I have 12 Months.

I plan to move some of that money into my checkbook as a cushion closer to the start of the deployment. There is always hickups with pay when you start new orders. So I want to have money in my Checking. I also plan on putting money into SDP and it would be nice to already have the money I am going to live off of in my checkbook so my check can all go to SDP.

Right now since my Checkbook cushion of $1677.07 includes Mortgage, Escrow and $ for my Son it is more than my EF since My Mortgage and Escrow had difference EF accounts. I have 3.86 Months of Checkbook Cushion in my Generic Emergency Fund.

I still have approx $350 to last from the 1st until the 15th of August, for Misc Bills.

Gasoline- $80 (this is a high guess since I am off work for 10 day so will either be low due to less driving or higher due to more driving since I am not at work)

My Son's 8th Birthday Pool Party: 8+ kids and Parents plus Family
Pizza - $63.49 (I figure 10 pizzas)
Soda - $10 (8 2liters)
Cupcakes - $20
Ice Cream - $5

It would be awesome if MY Ex would pay some of the food costs since I am paying for the hotel BUT I am not banking on it.

I miss my landline... / Child Life Lessons

July 26th, 2011 at 03:54 pm

I hardly ever had any calls on it, I also did not have caller ID but...

It was a secondary phone, so IF I forgot to charge my cell or whatever it was there.

I also like the ease of calling 911 in an Emergency, Cell Phone technology for 911 Calls is advancing as more and more people go to cell phones only but it is still a work in progress.

I will be re-installing the landline next fall when I get back from deployment, I would do it now but it seems silly to pay for something that I will not be using for 12 months. I think I might talk to the BF about it.

It might be nice to actually still have a number that is active (my cell will be turned off). BF can monitor the answering machine and tell me IF there are any calls that are a big deal.

A few weeks ago my Ex-Husband took our son out to watch a movie. I ran to the store. I guess I left the front door unlocked. Not really a big deal in our neighborhood and we have a HUGE Dog.

Well my Ex dropped our son off and saw our son walk into the house and was getting to leave when our son ran out in tears. At first my Ex thought it was because he missed him already. Nope it was because he was about to be left home alone (It is really rare for someone not to be home BUT My BF went out for the first time ever with some co-workers, and I ran to the store to try to get some birthday shopping done).

I am not sure IF our neighbors have my cell phone number, I know at one time they had our house phone number. I also don't know if the two neighbors our son spends alot of time at were home so that they could have called me or not had my Ex actually drove away.

Anyway, When I get home from my deployment, I will be installing the landline again. I will also be getting DS a cell phone. The landline will cost $40, the Cell phone will cost $30. The savings of not having him in daycare in the afternoon for 1 and a half hours is $160 once you factor in those expenses.

I will have signs by ALL the household phones that list.

My Work Number
My Cell Number
My Cousins Cell Number
My Cousins House Number
The Neighbors Numbers
My BF's Cell Number
His Fathers Cell Number
911

And the home address and my work address with the time I will be off work and what time I will be home.

I will also have rules listed, like no friends over. No answering the phone for anyone other than family that leaves a message on the answering machine. No answering the door....ETC ETC.

By MY State's guideline next August my son is old enough to be left home alone for a few hours during the day. He is going to LOVE this for trips to the store. I will be able to leave him home when I have to make a quick run to the store and BF is not home to watch him.

I am happy about the money savings (can start applying the saving to his "saving for braces account"), but mostly I am looking forward to him starting to learn skills.

Why is it that children are so coddled now days. Some children are being sent off to college and they have never been left home over night before OR they don't know how to cook because they are not suppose to be near the oven.

I am looking forward to this next adventure. Next year my son will be a latchkey child for an hour and a half during the week.

The following year he will be able to stay home during the day while I am at drill (as long as I am staying in town and it is during the day). More than likely that will mean just Sunday (Since Friday is evening and it is easier to just leave him at the sitter starting Friday night until Saturday afternoon. Also it would maybe once or twice a year since my BF is usually here.

At that age I am also going to start really teaching him. (He currently knows how to fold his own laundry - doesn't do it often) he also knows how to sort the laundry. I want to assign him the job of sorting ALL the laundry and then I would like him to be able to wash laundry.

I will teach him to use the washer, and that way he can pull an load out of the washer when he gets home, put it in the dryer. And he can start another load. Of course I will be helping with the folding and putting away, but I want him to do the loading of the washer and adding the correct cleaners, and loading the dryer and making sure to double check the temps of the washer and dryer.


Eventually my child will learn the following skills BEFORE heading to College.
Staying home alone (responsibly)
Washing Laundry
Cleaning (His Bathroom, His Bedroom, and His Playroom/eventually his office)
Basic Cooking Skills
Automotive - Driving, Maintance
$ Management




Birthday Pool Party AKA surprise Expense of having a pet

July 21st, 2011 at 09:37 pm

Today I called and booked a room, so I can plan my son's birthday party.

It is a pool side room in a hotel near our home. Cost $91.99 Yep saved $2 because of my military discount. The party will be on Friday, I had wanted it on Saturday but there is a Wedding there on Saturday and so ALL the rooms are booked.

This Weekend I will need to complete the Invitations and get those mailed out. I need to figure out if I want to have it from 5pm-7:30pm or 6pm-8:30pm. It is a pool party and we are going to get pizza, have cupcakes and ice cream cups.

What time would you suggest for the party?

(Okay, my title said unexpected cost of having a pet. Normally I just have birthday parties at my house, BUT this year we have a dog. She is old, and so she has been having a harder and harder time holding her bladder for lond periods. I don't want to her to have an accident during the party. Also she sheds, like crazy. So I can vaccum, swap and mop, and 20 minutes later the floor and rugs are coated in hair. I also am concerned that some of the boys MIGHT get rough with her.)

I don't mind the added expense of having a location party, because it means I am not going to have to spend days cleaning my house, then days cleaning it after. Also my SON, is SUper Excited about having a pool party.

I already bought all the paper and plastic items, I bought some soda, but need to get more.

The Menu:
Pizza (from Little Ceasers $5.99 per Large)
Soda $1.25 per
Water $2.99 a case
Ice Cream Cups(?$)
Cupcakes (Hopefully my cousin will be making them)

Cups, Plates, Napkins - All purchased

I bought my son two lego sets, and one nintendo DS game. I also bought him a 12 inch Angry Birds Stuffed Animal. Everything is wrapped except the angry birds animal which I have not got in the mail yet.

I will stop by work on Friday and fill the cooler with ICE for the water, Soda, and Ice Cream.

I just need to figure out some gift bags, I bought a box of pre-packed cookies, and a box of fruit snacks. I need some small toy or something to round out the gift bag and then I will be done with that.

Any Ideas of the gift bags for the guests?

Cheap Fun "Memory" Idea

June 15th, 2011 at 05:48 pm

I bought stamps online...Yes there is a $1 fee for doing so, but it guarentees me a better variety.

I am buying the smallest pack of stamps I can. Normally a 4 pack. I bought 4 different 4 packs, one has 2 designs. I bought one 5 pack with 5 different designs and one 10 pack with 10 designs. All were forever stamps except the one 5 pack which was named sunday funnies.

I also bought two letter writing kits, they came with paper, envelopes and one came with a book on letter writing and the other came with directions on writing with invisible ink. They were both Disney. I bought these for my son, hoping they would help make writing FUN.

I am going to take the Disney Stamps out. They each came with 8 stamps which were 39 and 41 cents, so no longer current. I plan to use them to mail postcards back to my son. Yes they both are above the cost of a postcard stamp, but I figure he would like the stamps on postcards and by them being more than the current postcard rate, I insure that if I buy postcard stamp I do not have to figure out where to get the add on stamps if postage costs go up.

I also plan to go to the post offices around town and see if they have different stamps at the counter than is online.

I want to mail each letter back to my son with a different stamp (that a boy would like). Then once I get home maybe we can create a stamp album from my letters. I am going somewhere that does not have free postage.

I went online and they have a stamp called Owney the postal Dog scheduled to be released July 27th. That is really cute, BUT the awesome news is they have a Pixar 5 different designs set coming out Aug 19th. Both are forever stamps. I plan on buying a TON of the Pixar ones. I figure as I go through my deployment if I run out of different stamp varieties if I have to double up the Pixar ones would be his favorite.

My son wants a letter or postcard Everyday. I will try to write as often as I can, so I will need to be on the look out for interesting stamps. As I look for Boy type stamps, I plan to use the 44 cent stamps first then if the rate changes I will have the collection of forever stamps to fall back on.

When I was younger I was dating a guy and he went away for training and he said Letters were awesome it was the highlight of the day. So I wrote him daily and if I did not have enough to say for a letter I mailed a card. He got mail EVERY day. One of the instructors told him "hope you realize you have a keeper". Well I hope to do nearly the same. I want to mail my little boy a letter atleast once a week. I figure that is 50+ stamps minimum.

So far I have 21 different designs...Owney the postal dog and the pixar will be 27. They also have adopt a shelter animal ones I want to get which has 10 designs so that is 37 designs.

They have a 50 flags of the USA set out. I wonder if I should order those then I for sure have different ones. I will think of it...I think this is going to be fun for both my son and for me.

Is a 16.5% return worth 30 years of delayed gratification??

April 27th, 2011 at 09:02 pm

Let me explain....Lately I have been really second guessing myself. Can I really keep this up to another 13 years.

If not I better make changes. Currently I am investing the MAX into my retirement. Because I do this it results in an earned income credit of $2640 more than I would get if I didn't save any in pre-tax dollars. This is basically 16.50% return on the deposit BUT I can't touch it until I am 65 years old.

I wonder is that 16.5% or $2,640 worth it, or should I start funding my Roth IRA and investing in the stock market then when I make a career change I can slowly sell my stock and use it to make my mortgage payments.

I guess option 2 is to instead of putting money into the Retirement account put that amount into my mortgage and then refinance/downsize when I make the change. But will I be refinancing with a higher interest rate? Applying 16,500 a year would take 8 years to pay off my mortgage. If I made it 8 more years in this job I would be crazy to quit.

Truthfully I have been unsatisified with my work life for about 2 years but I have been hanging in because I did not see any other choice. If I change jobs unless I downsize I will be house poor.

I wish I had been able to sell my house when I got divorced because then I would have had a smaller mortgage and would feel like I could make a change. Right now if you figure reducing my income by that 16,500 per year I need a job that makes 36K a year or approx $16 an hour, just to keep maintaining without any retirement savings.

I need a personal cheerleader, the reward is AWESOME if I can hold out in this job another 13 years. The reward is good if I can hold out in this job part time for another 9.5 years.

I am just getting burnt out, I am tired of working 40 hours a weeks plus having to work one weekend which means once a month I have a 12 day streatch without a day off. Once a year I have to leave my son with family for two weeks minimum. Next year I will gone from home for a whole year. I will make approxmately $500 more per month BUT my bills because of this go up MORE than $500 per month.

Last year I signed a 6 year extension but truthfully I am starting to think I should request a hardship discharge. The 6 year extension does not mean I could not switch to part-time, which would be alot easier. I could also go part-time then IF my part-time does not work with my new job request ING then possibly Discharge based on employment conflict.

Everytime I leave for Annual Training, for Job Training, Flood Duty it is getting harder and harder mentally on my son.

I need to start planning short term instead of long term because I don't know how much longer until I burn out. I guess another problem is I am tired of fighting the weight battle. I am allowed to weigh 149 pounds or % body fat. At 149 pounds I wear a size 7/8. My body naturally falls at 165 so the % body fat option has been my option for YEARS. Right now I need to drop weight to get down to my % body percentage. Some times I just wish I could eat what I want and exercise because I enjoy it instead of doing it because someone is going to be putting a tape measure to my body or counting my reps or timing me and judging me.

STOP....No I do not want MAY to come yet.

April 27th, 2011 at 04:46 pm

Where did April go? I am not ready for May. In May I have 1 week of normal life then 3 weeks of Annual Training.

So if I blink it will be June. I then have just under 4 months left until my deployment when June starts.

Yesterday I was told the 2012 rates for my afterschool care will go up by $5 a month because of gasoline. Not that big of a deal. I just am getting cranky because of the 30 days written notice of cancelling the daycare.

I thought I prepaid for May back in August. I have to check my bank account IF I can go back that far because either I will not get charged anything. I will get charged $170 or get charged $165. And if I get charged $165 I am either getting charged twice for May or am getting under charged for September.

If it is a school year program why would they pull for Sept 2011 in May. Originally I thought it was just me since I was only going to be doing a few days in August and about a month in September. Last year they did not pull anything in May, the last pull was in April WHICH I was really looking forward to.

I am really glad when I am done with my deployment that my son will be old enough to ride the bus home or walk home and be home alone until I get done with work. I might even reinstall the house phone then, Between $30 for a cell phone and $30 for a house phone that is cheaper and less headaches than dealing with afterschool care.

Deployment Trial Run!

April 20th, 2011 at 05:07 pm

Okay change 314, I was told I leave Friday for flood duty, then I was told I leave Thursday but inprocess Wednesday Night and would be driving my vehicle.

With the price of gas, the fact my ABS light is always lit, and we are not paid in and around mileage just from home of record to the Work location and then from the work loaction back to Home of Record; I really really do not want to drive.

The past few years it was nice to have my car so I could still have somewhat of a life instead of working my 12 hours then spending my 12 hours at the hotel but that was before I was saving all my money to get ready for the deployment. In 2009 I ended up having my car and did a little CVSing when I was not on shift (I worked the night 12 hour shift so this worked out).

Now I don't leave until Thursday, I am to meet another co-worker here at 2pm and we will be driving a GSA part-way where someone will then drive the GSA back here. We will then hop on a helicopter and fly into the work location.

I also talked to BF and he will be watching DS from Thurday evening until Sunday Morning so as of now my cousin will be watching my son for 109 hours so the cost has gone down to $272.50.

I am going to treat this as a deployment trail run. I will be staying at a hotel BUT I will only have what I bring with me (besides towels, bedding, etc). So this will be a chance to write down reminders of things I really need to make sure I pack. In the 5 weeks I was on flood duty in 2009, one thing I ended up going to the store for was facial moisterizer. My face was soooo dry it hurt.

I also will be going to Annual Training in May and will use that as a trail run also. It is hard to remember sometimes what you really really need to have when you are trying to pack as lightly as possible.

***
Sidenote, I never got that Cell Phone I ordered online so I will need to order it again. I never was sure if it took since I did not get a confirmation page. My phone transitions to AT&T on May 3rd so just incase my flood duty gets extended I will have to take both phones on flood duty with me. Tonight I will need to go down to the AT&T store at the mall and transfer my numbers. I got a call from the store at the mail suggesting I do that.

I also purchased a extra tall wide span gate (baby/pet gate). I have a 42 hallway that I want to block off, most non-wide gates expand to 41 or less. My dog keeps peeing on the carpet. So I want to block off the hallway so if she continues to pee on the carpet at least it will be limited to the area at the foot of the stairs. So less area will need to be cleaned. The gate was free ship to store, and it was a little under $52 after tax. I want to minimize the damage to the carpet until I get back from deployment and can level that hallway and then put lamentant back down.

I had been holding off on the gate because I could not find one in stores that was wide enough. Well today my sweet fluffy pee-ed on the carpet this morning after I brought her in since we were leaving for work and school. We do not have a fence yet so she has to come in during the day. She also left me two brown presents on the carpet area at the foot of the stairs. I moved the training pad from an area on the lamanet where it was laying unused and put it over the area she left my present and usually marks.

This mornings incident was why I had enough and went online and was able to find what I wanted. A little shopping around actually saved my a lot.

I am sure she wants to be left outside all day while we are gone, but because we don't have a fence she can't. I am sure that this is the reason she is showing her displeasure with the potty business.

Acted toooo soon

April 19th, 2011 at 03:22 pm

A couple days ago I transfered money from my Daycare fund that was ear marked for flood duty. I moved it into my Emergency Fund since the river had crested and was on the down swing and I was told that as a deploying Soldier the deploying Soldiers would not be put on flood duty unless absolutely needed.

Well I report Friday Morning the 22nd. I will be back Saturday the 30th. I was suppose to have drill Friday the 29th through 1 May. So when I get back Saturday Morning I am going to have a lot of makeup drill activities to get done.

I will miss Easter (really sucks), but this is why I made sure I had the baskets ready to go for weeks. I need to find out if my autn and uncle are having Easter, and if so to show BF where their house is incase he is willing to go.

I called my BF and he will watch my son Friday thru Sunday. Sunday Evening he will drop my son off at my cousins (he works Monday at 7:00am). My Son will then stay at my cousins until I get back from flood duty or Sunday after drill is over (or whichever is later). He would have been able to start watching him again Thursday evening the 28th BUT he also has drill that weekend.

So I am looking at about $407.50 in flood daycare costs. On the good side at least I will not have to buy gas for my vehicle for that time frame so that is $40 saved.

Man I hope my NEW straight talk cell phone comes in today or tomorrow. I need it prior to Friday because it will really mess up my plans if ALTELL switches to AT&T while I am on flood duty and have to carry around two cell phones (I have read that the day of transition you might not have cell service on either phone for a 24 hour period). Also if I start service with AT&T I have one month to cancel, I do not have a contract with ALLTEL and want to cancel service before I have to even mess with AT&T.

I also need to call my EX, he was going to be in town Thursday the 28th to sign the family care plan before his drill. I will need to tell him that will have to wait and if he wants to see our son Sat evening 30th after drill for a few hours (his normal plan) then he will need to cordinate with My Cousin.

So much to do, at least by the time it comes to pay for the flood daycare I can pull it out of my paycheck from the 1st.

So stressed, I really really HATE Flooding. Why doesn't the city build a permanant dike.

NEW Checking account

April 18th, 2011 at 04:59 pm

I opened a checking account, it is a secondary checking account. IT will only be for writing checks to the EX-Husband, or if something comes up and my cousin is taking care of my son for that. (Long Story about a plan involving 12 months worth of post dated checks, and if my Ex decides to be a butthead or abuse my kind nature; he will regret it)

I could have gotten a 100 bonus for the account BUT since it was a secondary account I did not feel I could meet the requirements. (Direct Deposit- Would have to switch my pay to this checking and then transfer back to other checking account).

The other requirement was 3 debit transaction a month. If this was my primary account that would not be a problem. Well it would not be a problem until November.

So I decided to pass on the $100 bonus.

The reason I got a second checking account is because I am sure I will need to be paying my ex for expenses while I am gone and I do not want him to have my REAL checking account numbers.

Also, this account gives me FREE checks, well the non-duplicate checks are free. You pay for shipping if you want it to be trackable. So I got 200 checks for $5.56 shipping. If this was my main account I would want duplicates. But because it is a secondary account non-duplicates are fine. I am going to be making a copy of all checks I give my EX, so the duplicates is not that big of deal.

I should have the new two forms of the "family care plan" paperwork signed next weekend. My checks should be here the 25th. So if I have to write the checks at that time I get the paperwork so be it. I really don't want to give him the checks until August (so he does not loss them etc) but if that is what he needs as a olive branch so be it.

My plan is to have that account fully funded for all the post dated checks prior to the first check being drawn. My projected balance is 7702.80. I might have to borrow from all of my other savings accounts other than my Escrow and Mortgage that is. Talk about stealing from Peter to pay Paul.

Really Upset with DS

April 14th, 2011 at 07:38 pm

DS used to eat hot lunch and he used to eat breakfast at the school. $1.00 for breakfast and $1.50 for lunch. Well he started burning through his food money because he was going for seconds at breakfast.

The problem I have is that for $1.00 he is getting one 4oz juice and a slice of toast. He does not take and eat the cereal and milk because of his allergies. If he is still hungry he would go back for seconds, an additional slice of toast is $.75 and an additional juice is $.40.

Some mornings he was spending $2.90 because he would buy 3 pieces of cinamin sugared toast and two juices. Really, for that daily cost I can buy a whole loaf of bread and a gallon of juice. Thus feeding him for a week or more.

So fast forward to the first time I figured out what was happening to his money, I told him he was no longer allowed to eat breakfast at school. He had to eat breakfast at home.

He was still periodically eatting breakfast because He was burning thorough his lunch money fast, so I told DS he was no longer allowed to eat hot lunch. I would give him lunch money BUT I would tell him when he could eat hot lunch.

Well about a month ago I gave DS a check because he was out of lunch money. Embarrassment( At the time I was sure again that money was disapearing faster than it should, but I was not 100% sure. So I told him I was going to track the lunches.

I gave him enough money to pay the Debt he had on his account and enough money for 10 lunches. The reason I like him to have money at school is because if I am sick or life is crazy and I don't have time to make his lunch then he can have hot.

I made a chart and wrote down every day he ate hot lunch. Yesterday I get a call from my son at school. They have to call home before they are allowed to eat IF they do not have enough lunch money to pay in full. The message was on my cell phone because my phone died and I need to charge it. Anyway right before I go to pick him up from daycare I hear the message and I am fit to be tied. He had only eaten lunch 4 times since I gave him lunch money, so somehow his account got shorted $9.00.

Well guess what, DS told me why he was short. He has been eating breakfast AGAIN at school. He does not eat breakfast at home (says he is not hungry). I was not going to force him to eat, because I want him to have a healthy relationship with food... but in truth he does not want to stop playing to eat. So starting today I am going to make his breakfast and he is not going to have the option NOT to eat breakfast or tell me he is not hungry.

I have decided that I am not refilling his lunch account. I am done.

He has three lunch boxes (sometimes the school does not return them until the next day). I also have two more somewhere in the house, I will be locating them. I will prep all five bags with everything except the sandwich so that all that needs to be made is the sandwich and then I have NO reason for having him eat hot lunch.

He lunch is normally a capri sun "roaring water", a snack bag of gold fish crackers, a cup of applesauce or cup of fruit, a apple or orange and the sandwich. So really the lunches can be prepped ahead of time and all that needs to be added is the sandwich.

Not sure what else I can do about this. I really dislike the schools food system. What happened to the punch cards or the lunch tickets I had in elementary and high school? In my town, the school issues all the students a 7 digit number, when they eat lunch they type this number in twice.

How do you teach your child healthy spending when they are just punching a number into a machine.
I have told my son that every time he punches his number into that machine that is more money spent. But he does not get it.

The school does not post any food costs and it does not post that seconds cost MORE than the first go round. My co-worker had to bann his oldest from hot lunch because she would use her account to pay for her friends lunchs. She started taking leftovers to school, but instead of bringing the containers home she would throw them away. He did not realize she was tossing the dishes until he could not find any storage containers....He had tupperware, So in the end it was still expensive for him.

After I heard of this I stopped sending dishes with my son, instead the sandwich went in a sandwich bag. I was using containers so the sandwich would not get crushed and because it was cheaper to use dishes I already had then to buy sandwich bags BUT I guess I can see the above example playing out in my life if I don't take proactive measures.

Kids, Kids, Kids...How do you teach them finances when the world is set up as a charge, no cash system?

My April 1st Spending (during no Spend Challange)

April 1st, 2011 at 07:05 pm

Okay first off, I went to the Parks and Rec Program Building this morning to register my son for their Summer Program.

I am glad I did, I was an hour early and the first person in line. By the time you were allowed to register the building had atleast 35 people there. The reason I am glad I did it in person is there was a glitch with the Online Registration and the Credit Card portion was not working right away. Then there was a problem with the payment portion of the Program I wanted to go into (both online and in person). Twenty Five Minutes after the registration officially openned I was the FIRST person to register (due to technicall difficuties).

Yes Yes YES!!!!!! I got my slot. This means I saved $725 minimum this year in summer daycare. There was also some goofy info on the webpage I looked at yesterday and so I am glad I went in because now I know my son is in this progam all day not just half. I wanted him in this program all day if I could because I think this program is going to be more Fun then the half summer school half parks program.

So Spent Money for April $300 BUT I am not counting that in the No spending Challenge because to me Daycare Falls under Necessary Bills. If I can take leave the days in August that I have planned I will save an additional $375 for the summer.

***
Before this I went to the Capital to get my Birth Certificate and Death Certifiate for my Mother. I am not sure IF I am going to need to get another or if I am going to have to send the other one I have (I DO NOT want to send the other one). See here is the deal, I want to apply for a Passport and one of the new conditions that went into effect this morning is that the FULL name of your parents needs to be on the Birth Certificates that are taken as proof of Identitiy. I have a Certified BC from 30+ years ago and it has my parents full name on it, it has my time of birth and more on it. Well the new one does not, when I brought this to the attention of the Vital Records department they said there head lady would need to call the Passport people because they are not set up to be able to put the middle names for the parents on the BC. I do not want to send my first BC with the passport application because even though they return the birth certificates with your passport things do get lost in the mail.

After the Daycare i went to Wal-Mart. I spent money, I was bad.

I bought a storage tote to put my son's clothes in. I did not want to pack up my son's clothes for his dads place while I am deployed in a garbage bag or a cardboard box. I wanted it in a nice see-through tote, first so I know what is in the box and because I am totally against the garbage bag idea, because my son is not garbage. Yes rationalizing the $11.

I also bought Easter Stuff to fill baskets for 3 humans and 1 dog, I purchased:
3 chocolate easter bunnies $3 each
2 Books $6 &$11
2 packages of rawhide bones $3.62 & $4.50
box of milkbone training snacks $2.50
A basket that after easter is over is going on my dresser to help control the clutter $7
1 Special Flavored Coffee $5.58
Total Easter Basket Spent this trip $49.20

I say spent this trip because I really want to purchase him a stuffed animal to put in the basket. He loves stuffed animals and right now the basket looks kinda empty.

Long Story but I also bought Clothing for my son. I bought him 4 pairs of sweatpants. They were $2 each on sale from $5. I noticed the last time I did laundry that he is down to 6 pair of pants in his current size. The others either got a bit too short or they are REALLY badly beat up. So I purchased him the sweatpants; two different sizes so that he can wear the sweats on the weekend and so I do not have to wash jeans mid week thus making it an extremely small load. So Clothing $8

So April No Spending Month:
Deployment Expenses $11.00
Easter Baskets $49.20
Clothing $8.00
$67.20

Now I also purchased some items that are not counting towards my expenses.

I purchased a book "Hop the movie - The Chapter Book" for $4.24 this is the Easter Present for 2012. I have a limit of $10 for the holiday presents in a trunk so I came in under budget on that one. I also purchased a book for $10.97 it is a hard cover book it is called "leprechaun in late Winter" It is a Magic Tree House Book this is for St. Patricks day 2012. Now technically I did go over budget and said I would account for that in my spending BUT I figure since Easter was $5.00 under budget I am going to call it even. Also when I said I wanted a treasure chest type box, I had something in mind.

Well I already had a very similar box, it just is oval and not very large. I have desided I will use that box and save myself the expense. Also because it is on the smaller size this will mean I really have to watch the size of the items I purchase for this project. Hopefully that will help keep the budget in line.

Sadness over Halloween.

March 29th, 2011 at 04:30 pm

Today I am sad, I can't seem to stop crying.

I want to buy DS a Nentendo Wii Game to stick in his Easter Basket. Amazon had a special that if you ordered the game you got $1o amazon credit. But I waited too long and they switched it to $30 credit if you traded in the game.

Anyway I think I will just downsize and purchase the sticker book DS also wants for his Easter basket and call it good. I need to watch my pennies and spending $50 on a Video Game for Easter is not going to happen this year.

I was on my way to work this morning and drove by the other work location. Every year they have a Halloween Event for the Children of the fulltimers (AGR, Tech, and ADSW/ADOS/whatever term they are using currently AND Deployed). Well In 2005 I was ADSW, 2006 to present I am AGR, so DS has gone every year since he was 2. As part of the event one or two of the Photographers take pictures of the children in their costumes. I have ALL these photos of DS.

I really hope someone takes him this year as this year I fall under the Deployed category. One of my favorite things about Halloween is this photo. I am sad because I will not be here to take him. Yes, October is a long way away and I am not really sure why I am thinking of it.

My Sons Teacher wants to put together a calender and asked for photos. I guess that is the reason, besides his school photos, this it the ONE photo that gets taken every year.

***

Halloween of course has me thinking of Christmas, I can dig out the Santa Claus Christmas paper and dig out his stocking and stuff it and then put the two in a box for my Cousin so she can say "Look what we found at our house this year", if Michael is not staying there this year. The only issue is figuring out what to buy to stuff the stocking since I will have to this finished 3 months in advance.

I also should buy his Christmas Presents before I leave and give then to my cousin, so she can give them to him. Based on the time line I do not think I will have time to buy and ship gifts once I leave for Mob station. Also I am told the internet is not really secure where we are going so if we need to check our checking accounts and that kind of thing the best thing to do is go to the office after hours and use the network computers. So online shopping is really out of the question.

I am not really suppose to do any shopping until I reach my Pre-Deployment Goals But is so hard not to want to get it done now, while it is still fresh in my mind.

Emergency Fund

March 25th, 2011 at 06:56 pm

Today I saw what I will get paid on the 31st of March. I still have not seen my Electric and Gas bill for what gets pulled on the 4th. I hope it is lower since the weather except for that snow storm the other day it has been warmer.

My Highest Electric and Gas bills are the Feb Bill which is for Jan. I noticed July is my lowest month. The bill goes up from July until Feb then it goes down until July. Well It already went down last month so I hope it goes down more.

I was looking over my savings accounts, I really really want to make some progress. I have desided to have BF watch my son after he gets off work so I can start donating plasma again. It is part time pay but I only have to put in two hours a week or so.

It has been a few years since I did it. But I am getting gazelle intense.

I was looking over my Daycare Savings....Man I hope everything falls into place. If I do not need that money then it would finish my Emergency Fund and all I would have left is Baby step 3 for the Mortgage and Escrow. The Escrow is projected to be fully funded Sept 15th IF I continue the saving as I am and not put any extra into it.

I put in a leave slip so I can be in line on April 1st at 10am when the summer daycare applications are taken.

I also was told that I am the secondary Primary inputer for flood duty. We got a new tracking and pay program and the person who enters it cant certify it so we have two inputers (me secondary) and two certifiers. I was also told I am to focus on inprocessing the others, so With those JOBS they are both in town jobs. YEAH, so if I dont actually have to leave town I will not need my saved money and I can put it to EF.

I talked to my daycare, I thought my last monthly daycare payment would have been this month (this paycheck) so next month that money could be used for the Mortgage and Escrow EF BUT I think she is going to draw out a payment in May (for the last month I will be home before shipping off to Mob Station). That way ALL I have to pay is a few days in fees for August.

So all in all, what a good day.

The Countdown to daycare and need $300.

March 21st, 2011 at 08:19 pm

Today I found out that I can register for the Activity Center this summer at my son's school on the 1st of April at 10am.

I am planning on taking that day off of work so I can either camp out in their parking lot the night before OR arrive to put in my application as soon as I drop my child off at school. It will depend on if I have someone to drop him off or if I will need to do it.

The only draw back is my employeers are expecting the flooding to start the 28 of this month, so I might be out of town. I already printed out the registration form and all I need to write the check. The 1st of April is a Friday SOOOOO if I am out of town fighting floods then my BF can swing by and turn in the forms for me.

I need to have $300 to pay for it. Good thing the day before is payday. This should come out of daycare savings but part of me does not want to touch the daycare savings and I am hoping to just use paycheck money.

The program is 9 weeks long, it is $300 for the summer. The program starts a week and a half after school ends for the summer and it ends 2 and a half weeks before school starts. I was reviewing my schedule and if my BF can watch my son on Fridays then I will take the other days off and I will get 11 days of summer vacation with my son this summer.

I will only have to figure a plan for 22-23-24 August all day and drop off on the 25th of August. The 25th of August is the first day of school. I don't want to drop him off as early as I normally do and then leave because the first day of school is SOOOO special. I need to figure out something, but I have time to figure it out. I am really sad that I will not be able to hang out at the school that first morning until he enters the school at 8:30am like I normally am. I am praying that maybe our training plan for that morning will be light and not have any classes or if the officers and higher NCOs would have a staff meeting, then I might be able to get granted a late arrival time. That would be awesome.

If I can get into this program it will be such a blessing because I budgeted $125 per week for summer daycare which means 9 weeks would be $1125 so $300 would save me $825 dollars plus the $375 I would have paid for the 3 weeks after the program ends that I am planning to just take off work.

I plan to use the $1,200 saved to pay for Fall daycare $180 Aug/Sept afterschool care and then the rest to fund my Emergency Fund incase my Ex-Husband is able to stop paying me child support and I end up paying him.

I talked to my Ex-Husband and no matter what he cant start an externship until the 16th of August because of his Annual Training. His externship is 3 months long. So at this point even though he is planning on spending his spring break here trying to lock in an externship, I think there is a very good chance that he is going to end up staying where he is until the Nov 16th so he can do the 3 month externship and get his degree.

Winter Clothing, Ex-Husband ranting, and ?????

March 21st, 2011 at 02:46 pm

This weekend I was on the look out for clearance winter clothing for my son. I wanted clothing for next winter and the following. I ended up going to Kohls's, Old Navy, A footwear store I can't think of the name now, TJ Max, Kmart, Once Upon a Child, and Walmart on Saturday.

At Kohl's I found him boots $19.99. This was clearance.

I found my son a quality backpack at TJ Max. I spent $25 but it should last until 7th grade when he will need a larger one to hold more stuff then this one can. He is hard on backpacks and so he was averaging half a year per backpack, and that is even me trying to repair them as much as possible.

At Once upon a Child (A resale shop), I found a pair of snow/ski pants for $6.50.

I did not find anything that I was looking for at any of the other stores. I waited too long to start my buy ahead winter clothing mission.

On Sunday we went to staples, Herburgers, JcPenny, Target, Famous Footwear, Payless Shoes, Childrens ??, and Sears.

At Staples I purchase composition notebooks. They were on sale for $1 each and I had my ink cartrige rebate check. I got 6 for free. I have my sons school supply list so before going out shopping we raided the boxes of household/school supplies and checked what he was going to need for this fall and spring and the start of the 3rd grade. Composiion notebooks were the only NEED. So that is what I purchased with my rewards.

At Sears I ended up buying a coat and a pair of boots. The coat was on clearance for $24.99 and the boots were reg price $29.99. Long story short they had a sale going on. I ended up saving 20% on the Coat and 15% on the boots so the 4 in 1 coat was only $21 and the boots were $25.

I still need to find Size 10 snowpants and a size 8 coat for my son. I checked ebay and nothing. So over the next few weeks I am going to have to hit ALL the thrift stores and see if I can find them.

***

My Ex called my son for his weekly talk. He talked to me and stated that even though he thought that he had externships locked in for when he graduated he is not so sure now, because the chefs are not returning his calls and emails. So if he does not do his externship he will not get his degree. He also said that since he will not have a job (he wants a job in his degree field), he will definiately have to do something about child support because he can't afford to pay child support if he has no job.

I said "whatever you have to do". I still need to talk with my lawyer so I know my rights etc, so I did not even fight with him about it. I will fight this battle once I have talked to my lawyer and know where I stand.

My son has a facebook account. It is so he can play the games. I have it set so only his friends can see him. I only allow him to be friends with his immediate family and his daycare provider. Well I guess Saturday he accidentally hit one of those spam ads on the side, so he liked a BAD link on his wall. His father told me about it so when I got home I removed it and reviewed his wall to make sure there was nothing else he accidentally liked etc that was bad. Well as I was reviewing it I came across a post by my ex-husband. The post on my sons wall below the bad link was a post by ex-husband about how he quit his job the day before.

It really burns me. I am going to have to make it clear to my lawyer that I need to CMA, because I think he is planning on doing a unemployment application once school is over so that he can get more child support out of me while I am deployed just because he does not want to work.

I wish I did not have to have him as part of my life, I know a child is should have their parents as part of their life.....But what about those cases where the parent is not a good role model? I mean a guy that makes excuses to not control his anger, a guy that is lazy and does not want to work but would rather milk the system. Lately my son has been saying little things. He is only 7 years old but I think he is realizing that parents are suppose to have jobs to pay bills and if someone chooses to not work when they are physically and mentally able that is wrong.

I wish I could leave my son with my cousin or my boyfriend, but my ex-husband has rights. I really need to talk to my lawyer about this. I am getting the vibe from my Ex-Husband that he would rather stay out of state and just be free of any responsiblity. I am to the point of checking into if I can legally offer my Ex-Husband no more child support EVER if he does not have contact with my son. I just think it is best for my child if he does not have to be exposed to my ex-husbands bad behavior. I would be more than willing to give up $319.90 a month for 11 years just to offer my son a more healthy living environment.

I am getting MagicJack and cell phone changes

March 18th, 2011 at 05:20 pm

We had a communications briefing at our last drill. It was VERY informative.

I am planning on getting MagicJack for my deployment. I plan to get it now, so I have a house phone. I am extremely happy about having a house phone again.

The MagicJack cost $39.99 which includes a one year service and then each addition year is $19.99. The purchase price is LESS than what I was paying monthly for land line service BEFORE I cut the cord.

The good news is I plan to purchase and install it this weekend. I will get the telephone number and update ALL my contacts with that additional number. The good news is that it is portable.

Right before I deploy I will switch the magicjack to my laptop (get to keep my phone number). I will then be able to get and recieve calls from the US just like if I was not deployed. This way IF the bank calls me or My Sons school calls me they can actually reach me.

I was thinking of skyp but since this conference I think MagicJack will be a much much better fit.

****
I got a text on my phone last night from ALLTEL telling me AT&T shipped my phone and will be going Live in March. I was then actually able to go to AT&T's website and review the phone plans. They are very much the same as ALLTEL's current plans but slightly different.

Anyway I found out today that Verizon gives a 15% military discount. Well that is nice...They dont advertise that. For like 3 years I had Verizon and that 15% discount would have been nice. Anyway I was doing the math and if I had their cheapest plan with texting I would be saving $5.50 a month over what I am paying now because of the discount. Oh well I am not going to get locked into a two year contract right now to just save $5.50 a month.

My plan is to keep Alltel/AT&T until I deploy then Freeze my account and my number. I will unfreeze my account once I get back. That way I can keep my cell phone number. I will then be switching to pre-paid which is cheaper. After review of the many ways to combine plans for two phones I will be saving $15 per month by going prepaid. I save $15 on the first line nothing on the second because of the family plan discounts the second line actually comes out to the same on both (prepaid vs contract).

My plan is to get my son a cell phone since he will be old enough to stay home alone for the 45 minutes between the time school lets out and I get off work. I plan on going with straight talk. They currently have free basic phones on their website. I will purchase two, one for my son and one for me. I will port my number to my phone. Then I will save up and watch ebay/online for deals on one with a full keyboard.

I figure I will have a little leave at the end of my deployment so I might be able to delay the purchase of the cell phone for my son for a month or so.

I will have the magicjack at home once I get home for contacting him, BUT I want him to have a cell phone to use to contact me IF he has any problems (misses the bus and has to walk home, or whatever else comes up). The cell phone cost of $30 per month plus tax is much cheaper than the $165 per month I would pay for afterschool daycare for those 45 minutes.

Life Insurance almost done.

March 8th, 2011 at 08:29 pm

Well tomorrow the nurse comes to take blood and urine samples and take my vitals and maybe ask some additional medical questions. Then shortly my life insurance should start.

I signed up for $250K worth of life insurance for 20 years with a rider for my child. The cost is like $36 (I forgot the exact cost). The policy is one that I can make changes to the policy once I have it without having to retake the medical exam. I wanted this because after my Ex-Husband came back from his deployment he was dignosed with PTSD and now can't get any life insurance besides the SGLI which would expire once he gets out of the military or the VGLI once he is out of the military BUT VGLI gets really expensive as a person ages.

I wanted to have this policy because when I get out of the military I can increase the payout by the amount of SGLI I have in place without a physical. I just want to make sure if something happens I have life insurance until my son is no longer a minor. I also wanted a policy so that if I ever got to a point where I was in a non-paper-documented-marriage-type-relationship that I could leave my partner some life insurance proceeds without the ropes that the military makes you jump through to list an unusual beneficary.

Right now I have $400K that goes to my son if something happens to me, I also have an additional $100K which goes to my brother to pay for funeral expenses, plane tickets and any bills that need to be paid between when I die and when the Insurance money is paid out, and whatever is left is his, he is the person who will carry out my will and he lives out of state. Then once I have the additional policy I will have $250K for my son.

I do need to write down some information to my brother, he is the trusty and I would like to give him some ideas on how I would like to see the money handled. Since the money should generate enough interest in my sons name he will have to file taxes and since he make enough to file taxes he would be elligable for a Roth IRA, so I want the interest up to the federal limit to be invested first into a Roth IRA for my son. That way in addition to the Life insurance providing for my sons living expenses it will provide for a retirement.

I plan to once my son is old enough to get a job to match any Roth IRA contributions to the maxium he is elligible to contribute (either fed max or max take home), I want to do this until he reaches age 23. Because if I do, then I have made sure my son will be a millionaire when he retires. If I am not around to do this myself then I want my life insurance procedes to accomplish this investment goal so it still happens.

I have my fingers crossed----Cheap daycare.

March 3rd, 2011 at 09:32 pm

I was reading my cousins facebook post where she was talking about paying $900 per month for daycare this summer.

Well she responded to my request for more information. Her three girls are enrolled in her cities park and rec program for the summer. It is $300 per month per child. Which is $200 per month less per person than what I am paying.

I live 7 miles aways from the city she lives in so I checked it out. They are booked, I grew up in that city, I graduated from high school from that city and my grandmother still lives there, so I was thinking maybe I if need be I could get an exception and enroll my son, BUT they are full.

I then looked into my cities park and rec program. It is only $300 also BUT it is $300 for the 9 week program, yes that is right I believe it is $300 for the summer instead of $900 like the other program. The only thing is the program will not take reservations until "Early April" according to the website. I will have to find out the exact date and time of openning then I am going to take off work and stand in line. I might be camped overnight in there parking lot for that kind of savings.

Even if the $300/student is a typo and it is suppose to be $300/student/month. That is a $200 per month savings.

This is alot like the afterschool parks and rec program except the afterschool program gives first dibbs to prior year applicants. Well it says first come first serve. With the afterschool program through the park and rec there are only 20 openings at the school my son goes to, so I am hoping there are more slots for the summer session BUT incase I plan on camping out for a slot as soon as I can.

I bookmarked the park and rec programs website on facebook and as soon as I know when they will allow applications I will take vacation days and grab my sleeping bag.

Sadly I have NEVER camped out for concert tickets or movie tickets BUT I will be camping out for Summer Daycare for my child. The afterschool park and rec program used to be the same way, people would camp out days before but they changed it and gave prior applicants priority and then the leftover slots would go to a random draw by an outside party. Well I know the crazy required camp out to get a slot and am waiting to findout when I will need to camp out.

The thing that will be tricky is figuring out what to do with my child while I am camping out hoping for a slot. April he is still in school and BF works at 7am so he cant drop my son at school. He could pick him up from afterschool daycare anyday but Wednesday (5:30pm pickup which is when he gets done with work). I hope the registration day is Friday. That way I can take Thursday and Friday off, I could start camping out for my slot on Thursday as soon as I drop my son off at school and BF could pick him up Thursday and drop off and pick up Friday.

Wish me Luck!

Being Sick cost me $1.50 today, and facebook mussings

March 3rd, 2011 at 03:43 pm

Yesterday I wrote my son a check for school lunch. This is for those mornings when nothing is going right and I end up needing him to eat lunch at school.

I just needed to ask my son his code to write on the check since I could not locate the code to write on it. Anyway it was then when I was writting the code on the check that I realized in my still ill mental fog that I forgot to pack my son his lunch. So one lunch taken off the check.

Last night my cousin posted on her facebook about her daycare costs. It was short but sweet but basically it boiled down to daycare this summer is going to cost her $900 per month. I followed up and asked what was the first child cost and where was she going because I have not lined up daycare yet.

I pay $125 a week which is $500 per month. She has 3 children, usually you get a discount for additional children but either way she is still paying less than I would be paying. I think it is a bit funny that just last week she was talking about finding her dream home and hoping she can talk her husband into it. They live in a modular home now, so the dream home is I guess an upgrade? Not really sure why it is the dream home.

I am thinking this summer I might end up paying more for daycare. I would really like to get my son into the YMCA. It would be much more expensive but the hours would be more flexible and I could get my son those swimming lessons during his daycare hours since I never seem to find time to do.

Still Sick but back at work and school

March 2nd, 2011 at 05:06 pm

On Monday My son and I were sick. He had a ear ache that started hurting right at bedtime on Sunday.

He woke up twice during the night to tell me his ear hurt so I knew it was not just a normal ache and pain. I gave him children's pain killer and on Monday I took him to the clinic. I called to make an appointment BUT since his doctor was the walk in doctor they just told he to go anytime before noon. I took him in at 10:30am (I needed the sleep once I made phone calls and my son actually fell asleep once he climbed into my king size bed). We were the first person to be seen by the replacement doctor at 12:02.

So after seeing the doctor I took my son to get his prescription which cost $6 because he was prescribed antibotics for the ear infection and a prescription for ear drops to numb the ear while the antibotic work. Well Last night (I would guess about an houror so after an ear drop dose) about 23.5 hours after first dose of antibotic, .5 hours before dose two his eyes puffed up. He came to me saying he was having a hard time breathing and when I looked at him I was like OMG because he looked like one of those goldfish with the bubble eyes. I ended up running to Wal-Mart and buying him some Childrens Cleariton. $6 spent but he is now almost back to normal. I will not be giving him anymore of those ear drops. I will give him another cleariton right before bed and if he is not better tomorrow morning I will be taking him into the doctor again.

He had a allergic reaction once before (contact something or other and by the time we got in to see the doctor he was fine). So that is why I went the over-the counter route first. Had he not started to show improvement by the time we got in the car (gave him the drugs at the checkout) I would have taken him to the Doctor.

***

On Monday (before reaction). I was also sick, but after spending an hour and a half waiting at the clinic to see a doctor for my son we went home. I waited for BF to come home then I went to the after hour clinic for myself. Well an hour and 50 minutes later, I was told I do not have strep, my swollen gland is causing my ear ache and there is nothing to do since it is just a cold.

***

Blahhhhh, I still feel like I am not 100% but I am back to work and so far the school has not called for me to pick up my son. I wrote a note telling them about his reaction so that they dont think that he has pink eye. (Note his eyes are clear, they are not pink his eye lid area is just puffy like a black more fish).

I need to balance my checkbook. I have been spending money for prescriptions and for gateraid (while waiting for prescription to fill) and then the cleariton and gas for the car this weekend. But I have not been of any mind to balance the checkbook. All I can say is thank goodness for overdraft protection because at this point I am still tooo out of it to bother.

What would you do? I am not thinking clearly.

February 24th, 2011 at 07:53 pm

I am divorced, My divorce was final in May of 2010. My Ex-Husband moved out of state to go to college. It is a 12 hour round trip distance. In our divorce decree we were suppose to sell the house and divid the profits. Well my Ex-Husband is underemployed because he is lazy.

We tried to list the house for sell, but it did not sell. So eventually we came to a both agreed upon house value and I bought my Ex-Husband out of the house and refinanced the loan.

He lived rent free in my home until he moved out of state to start school in August. In Late July we finally came to an agreed house value and I refinanced.

Before I started dating my BF, my EX-Husband would come and stay in the spare bedroom in the basement when he came to visit our son. (Nothing PHYSICAL was going on, so I felt not fear).

****
Fast Forward.
I learned that I would be deployed out of country this coming September and asked if my Ex-Husband would take an extra large course load to graduate at least one month early (they are on a 6 week cycle) so that he could be done before I leave so that he can take care of our son.

I came up with the idea of my Ex just moving back into the house while I was deployed so that my son would not have to change schools and because if my son is living in my home then his medical is paid 100% with no co-pays BUT if he moves out of my home then he get moved to standard with a 20% co pay. Plus my son has a support system here on the cul-de-sac of people who love him.

Also I figured this would mean that someone would be around to watch the house. I was going to let him live there rent free because he was doing me a favor by watching the house and because of all the benefits for our son.

***
Fast Forward 3 months.
Well then I met my BF and I started thinking maybe I should adjust my plan a bit. I would trust BF to take better care of the house and IF I did have my Ex-Husband living in the house I would need him to pay the waste/water and elec/gas bills ($225 per month) just so that I could insure my Ex-husband would not run up the bills just because he was not paying it.

After a while I gave BF a key to my place not thinking he was going to move in but just so he could come and go as he pleased without me needing to let him in. Well he took that as me asking him to move in. I guess maybe I was asking him to move in without asking. Anyway he asked if I was sure IF I wanted him there because if he was staying at the house then my EX would need to find an apartment during the deployment AND he would need to find another place to stay when he came to see our son, because he was not comfortable with the situation.

My BF gave notice to his landlord and is in the process of breaking his lease. He has a dog and his parents are bringing the dog here with them when they visit either this weekend or next weekend. (They live out of state and have been watching BF's dog). At this time the only financial contribution BF has provided is that he has watched my son for me so that I could work the weekend twice.

****
A few days ago my EX said he wanted to talk to me because he was stressing the housing situation and wanted to iron down the details. I think he thought I might be on the edge of letting BF move in. Anyway when I told EX that he should plan for an apartment when he moves back to this state after finishing school, he said he was really looking forward to living in the house rent free to get back on his feet and since he will not have a job he is not sure how he can afford to rent some place and IF he has to pay rent then he would have to go to Child Support to stop his payments and to get something from me.

Please note that my EX-Husband ran through his Equity buyout in like 3 months and is now getting calls from his bank, creditors, and credit card company. I know this because I told him he need to update his telephone number because his "Services" still had the house number listed as a contact and they were asking for him to call him back.

***
I did the online calculator from our child support website and I currently get $319.90 from him now, IF I was forced to pay him Child Support I would have to pay $717. This is $1036.90 more money he would have a month and $1036.90 LESS money I would have if he chose to go that route. IF he goes that route I dont know where I am going to cut $1036.90 a month out of my bills.

I was thinking to make it easier I would see if BF would agree to let EX live in the basement. I have a two floor home with four bedrooms and 3 bathrooms so the only shared space would be the laundry and the kitchen. My EX is neat and tidy so that would not be an issue.

My another FEAR is once MY Ex-Husband realizes that if he has custody that not only would he not have to pay $319.90 a month he would make that $717 and so he might try to get permanent custody while I am deployed so I have to pay him the $717 each month. Another thing is once I get back from deployment and have to ask for another Child Support Adjustment to get my garnishments stopped and his started his other daughter (Different mother) will have turned 19 so if he maintained custody of our son her amount he would get to keep instead of possibly increasing my amount because of the freed up money.

Yes it is a complex MESS.

What would you do? Would you ask your BF to just try to look at your EX as a housemate? Would you do something totally different? What would you Do?


I am not thinking clearly and don't know what to do.

Bought Shoes and Talked with BF

February 24th, 2011 at 02:58 pm

So last night I realized I needed to start the look out for new running shoes as they no longer make the style number I have. Mine are old and when I run in them my arches start to ache within like 3 minutes.

I have been putting this off for a while. I went online and checked about five different sites. They all had the shoes listed for $84.99. But then I checked kohl's. The good news was I got Free shipping and there was a coupon code online for 30% off. Plus Kohl's sale price was $5 cheaper. So I saved $30 a pair. Yes, I bought two pairs because after taxes and everything they were $55 each. Which was too much of a deal to pass up.

Yes, you are might be thinking what is she thinking, buying two pairs of shoes instead of just one. Well the reason for it is....I need one pair now. And if I doing my math right this pair will wear out about half way through my deployment. I am worried that I will either break, lose, or have this one pair stolen and so I want a spare pair at home. I also have never shopped online and dealt with APO shipping so I figured it would be easier to buy them now and then if I need them before I come home for R&R then I can have BF ship them, instead of possibly having to pay jacked up prices because of the possibility of the cheapest provider not being APO friendly.

****
I talked to BF again about the fact I am broke. He let me cry and told me he understands and has been in my shoes and it is just going to take time to get back on our feet. He gave no ideas, no oh honey but I am going to pay the water bill, nope just yak yak yak about how it will all work out it time, it is just not been very long since my divorce and I just need to relax and let things settle into a pattern.

I knew I needed gas in my car, I need to pay my son's $24 dental bill and my water/waste bill is coming due soon. So this morning I took the gas that I purchased for the snowblower that does not use a oil mix and put it in my car. When I started the car it was nearly on E, oops thought I had a bit more. I now have almost a half tank of gas. I don't know if we will need to use the snowblower again or if it is just going to be shovel weather, and the tank is also the mower one (the grass is still covered in snow so don't need the gas for that yet, so I figured I would use it up).

I know when BF and I sorta talked about him moving in (did not talk about exact finances) anyway he said he would not stand for 2 Rosters in the hen house. Meaning EX could not stay there if he was. Well I am planning to tell him that I NEED to let the parasite live there while I am deployed because I can't afford the financial ramifications if he does not. I hope BF can deal with that. I know it will not be ideal BUT what does he expect for $225 a month rent (which he has not started paying). Yes, it will be ackward for everyone at first, but either everyone will get used to it or I guess BF will move out once he has saved enough money from leaving in my home to either rent an house that will allow a dog or have saved up for a down payment.

I think BF is a good guy, and I would hope he would be able to deal with the situation but in the end.

Not having my Ex live in the house while I am deployed will cost me.
$319.90 Child Support I am paid
$717 Child Support I would have to pay
Child Deduction 2012 taxes
Head of Household 2012 taxes
20% co pay of medical insurance instead of Full coverage
$250 Seperation Pay per month
Yep sure adds up fast.

I feel bad that BF is going to have to put up with my EX living in the basement in one of the spare bedrooms but I can't justify the financial losses.

SO the EX-Husband and the NEW Boyfriend are going to meet

February 11th, 2011 at 07:12 pm

My Ex-Husband is going to be in town for drill. He fixed his starter problem. I am not sure if he took my advice and towed the car or what. Anyway he wants to come over to see our son tonight and do some laundry.

When I told BF about this he asked "Does he not have a laundry machine at his place?" I told him he is probubly trying to save quarters since he is low on money. A extra load or two is not going to increase my water bill since they charge by the 1,000 gallon of water.

I can tell BF is uncomfortable with having EX over at the house, not sure how to get that to not be an issue. I guess his concern is my EX snooping through stuff. My EX is not like that, I think they will hopefully get along.

I need them to get along because if I am not around and BF is helping me by watching my son and my EX wants to see our son then they are going to have to interact. I know both will act like adults BUT it is going to be ackward.

On a financial note, I was going to use the time that my EX was spending with our son and doing laundry at the house to be out of the house ALONE with BF. I was thinking we could go out to eat and I could call it part of my BF's Valentine Gift, But I think he just wants to hang out at home because of spending all day flying home and then having to work tomorrow. He has Drill Just like my EX. So if BF and I go out to eat that is money spent, but if we stay home then that is money saved. Wonder if it will be a NSD or a Spend Day.

My Ex-Husband wants my tools

February 10th, 2011 at 07:20 pm

I just got a phone call from my Ex-Husband. He was calling, not really sure why.

Anyway his starter was going out and his friend was going to replace it for him. So he purchased a new starter, instead of finally making his credit card payment. He delivers pizza for employment so a working car is a need.

Well he said his starter went totally out and now he can't get it to his friends house. He stated at one time I offered to split the tools with him. Hummm don't remember that as I have been selling the extras in my rummage sales as I find duplicates and triplicates. (Divorce decree states he gets the orange colored tools I get everything else). He said IF he had the tools now he might be able to replace the start himself IF he could find it.

He stated he had to get to drill this weekend and was suppose to get promoted this weekend. I suggested he maybe call his car insurance and see if he might have the roadside service added on because then he could tow the car to his friends house and then the car insurance would cover the charge.

**
The good news of this call is I found out he got promoted....YES this is good news. His pay will go up. I was kinda stressing about if he was going to try to get me to pay child support to him for the 12 months he will have our son while I was deployed. Not because I cared about the money. I was not wanting to have to have to deal with a child support review to figure out how much I would have to pay him each month for 12 months, just to have a child support review a year later when I get back and have my child fulltime and figure out how much Child Support should be payed to me.

See if he leaves all alone the rate will stay the same and yes he will have to pay me $319.90 per month while our son is in his care while I am deployed.....BUT if he makes a fuss, then I might have to pay him a little child support while I am deployed but once I get back his Child Support would triple. Not worth stirring the hornets nest if you ask me. I think it is one of those cases of think of the long term instead of the short term.

Why would his Child support triple? Because when we divorced he was working 2 part time minimum wage jobs but he will be gainfully employed when I get back also he has that promotion and finally his oldest daughter will have graduated high school. Oh and I forgot the child support calculator has been modified to try to keep up with cost of living increases or something like that.

Where is my NetWorth?

February 9th, 2011 at 10:27 pm

Okay, a while back someone posted they used a website to track their NetWorth. Well I desided to check out the site and plugged in my numbers.

The problem....I don't remember the website. LOL

I am thinking maybe I will start a excell page and just update it maybe every 6 months or so.

I was looking at one of my accounts today and I realized that a CD that I put my son's money into does not mature this year it matures next year. This is good because the CD is earning more than current rates. At the time I only went 30 months because I was hoping by then this would start to pick up and I did not want his money underperforming. Never thought It would go lower, lower, lower until I started thinking maybe I should have put it in for a longer time frame. Oh well I still have 18 months to see if it was a wise choice.

Expensive Monday.

September 29th, 2010 at 03:04 pm

Monday Sept 27, 2010 was a no school day, so I took off work so I would not have to figure out daycare for my son. I did a few errands.

I needed an over due oil change on my car, also I knew a few other things were going to need to be done because they were mentioned at my last oil change. I dont know what happened this time, normally I get an oil change every 5,000 miles but I could not seem to make time and well I was actually closer to 10,000 miles this time, oops.

My car is now at a little over 120,000 miles.

So basically my car NEEDED everything flushed, it also had 6 burnt out light bulbs including one in the window break-light. I also needed new tires as the old ones were over 60,000 miles and one was showing the wear bar, the other three might have had another 5,000 miles on them BUT With Winter coming up it was easier just to do EVERYTHING at one time and be done and only have to leave my car at the service place for one day (four hours) instead of for hours each time I desided to do a service.

When all was done, including taking my car through the car wash. I had spent $830.00. But the good news is that everything should be good for another 60,000 miles. I figured out yesterday that my car is just over 11 years old and so I am averaging about 10,000 miles per year. So I should have another 6 years until I have another big service bill like this.

It is getting close to Christmas, My son asked if we were going to leave Santa Milk and Cookies this year in the car on the way to school. I told him we would leave Santa a glass and he could fill it with whatever beverage he wanted since leaving milk out until he gets there is not good since it should be left in the fridge. Santa knows he can help himself. I also said yep we should probubly pick up cookies as last year leaving him Brownies was kind of a flop.

I wonder what brought it on, but I did ask some leading questions. I did not want him thinking that just because his father was not here this year that we would not be celebrating Christmas or that Santa would not be coming. Last year his father was not home for Christmas and so we had a very small low key Christmas. This Christmas being it is just us we are going to have to figure out some new traditions. I want non-present traditions (My son is too young to shop alone and We have no one that can help him shop for me even if I gave him money to spend).

BRRRRR it is cold

September 23rd, 2010 at 04:19 pm

It is 45 degrees outside now, it seems colder because it is also cloudy and raining.

This weekend I am going to have to go shopping for long sleeve shirts for my son. I have been checking online BUT there is not a lot of long sleeve stuff, lots of short sleeve stuff and a lot of short sleeve sales BUT long sleeve is few and far between.

I just purchased my sons back to school clothes and already I am back to buying his winter/fall clothes. I was hoping to push it back a bit longer like in the end of October/early November but nope.

My son still can wear the same coat as last year and the same snow pants. We were also able to pick him up snow boots last year as part of Wal-Marts Black friday deals. He may well get through the school year without needing a bigger coat. I will need to buy the next size up this spring when they go on clearance for next year though.

Last spring there were not many long sleeve shirts on clearance and IF they were; they had skulls on them and I do not want my son wearing skulls. So this year all his long sleeve clothes are going to have to be purchased. I have checked online and there does not seem to be much. I think Ebayers are possibly thinking it is too soon for the buyers to be shopping (well were I live it is cold now).

I will check out Once upon a child and then check Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target. He will need about 10 shirts. During the winter I like him to wear long sleeves all the time and since I tend to do once a week laundry I need enough clothes so that if I dont wash laundry on Saturday because I have to work he has enough clothes to get him through until Monday when I get to it.

My son has a halloween costume from last year he can wear, but my X offered to buy him a costume since Halloween is my Xs favorite holiday. He told my son he would do it so it is not like it can be a surprized and if it happens great but if not then no hurt feelings. I wish my X would buy him some long sleeve shirts instead but whatever, besides my x is talking about how he is going to need to get a job because his finacial aid is partially messed up and he has not gotten it yet. So I am thinking my little boy will be wearing the same costume as last year since My x would have to buy it prior to the 15th of October if he is going to bring it with when he comes to town for visitation. I hope my son is not too sad when his dad fails to buy him a costume.

The price of gluesticks VS the stockpile

September 23rd, 2010 at 03:15 pm

Well here it is a month into school. Of course ALL the back to school supplies are no longer on Super sale.

This year the town I am in, went from a school supply list for each school (broken down by grade and then each grade list having a few items that were teacher specific) to a list for the entire town (broken down by grade). I know that this list are really only per semester supplies as right around Winter break every year 90% of the supplies are used up and at the parent teacher conference they send home a supply list of the items your child needs for the rest of the year. I also looked at the list this year and thought to myself man this list is Small.

I normally just double or triple the list. Well this year I did not buy ANYTHING, I went through my school/office supplies boxes and I had more than double or triple the list. I had stocking up on the FREE stuff and 1 penny and 5 cent deals last year and the year before and CVSing and so when we packed up the house to sell I knew I was not going to need anything at least for this year maybe more. See I had a now Xhusband that was in college and a son in school plus needing paper stock for the house I always stock up at B2S time.

Well the new District wide school list had 1 bottle of glue and 2 glue sticks listed. This was the same for Kindergarten and the second grade. Well it is now a month into school and a newsletter sheet was sent home and what does it say, that of course the kids are running low on glue sticks and some kiddos are already out. My son still has one stick left and I think I sent him to school with like four sticks at the begaining of the year as he had the same teacher as last year and I still had a copy of the prior years list.

The first grade teachers are asking the parents to send 10 glue sticks to school per child. Well I had actually 12 glue sticks in my boxes of supplies and I might even have a few partially used ones in the art supply box that we use for his home art homework.

So now I am thinking ten glue stick is possibly what they will be going through until mid term because he went through at least 1 maybe 3 sticks in a month If I remember correctly. So I am wondering do I buy gluesticks now?

Staples has a 4 pack of their brand on sale for $1 until the 25th. which is the same price as the sales at B2S time which is a 2 pack of elmers for $.50, My concern is do I buy three packs so I have 12 more on hand incase the sticks only last until midterm or do I wait and see. Now we are talking about spending $3 BUT when glue sticks are not on sale they can cost like $2.50 a 2 pack. I dont want to have to pay that much for 2 when I can get 10 for that price but on the other hand I am trying to downsize the amount of school/office supplies I have because I think I have an excessive amount. (Heck until the teachers sent home the notice saying send 10 glue sticks we had 6 2 packs sitting in a box).

Glue sticks do come in handy for projects and
Office Depot has a teachers 30 pack of the elmers glue sticks that are purple than turn clear on sale for $13.99 which is actually 46 cents a stick which is more money than the staples ones BUT I like the color changing ones as it seems my son uses less glue with the purple kind. BUT then I have a box of 30 Which could be enough glue sticks for years since I am not sure if in the second grade if they will switch from using primarily glue sticks to primarily liquid glue. I think the big BOX of 30 glue sticks might take up less space as the hanging cards the 2 packs are on take up a bit of space. I am not sure what to do since I want to downsize the office/school supplies to a reasonable level but on the same hand the point of stocking up on supplies when they are cheap is to have the supplies when they are needed and to not to have to pay $2 for a notebook when it could have been purchase for $.17 in August.


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