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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.

Good News regarding Daycare costs.

September 8th, 2010 at 07:07 pm

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.

Dave Ramsey Followers question

September 2nd, 2010 at 07:45 pm

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.

Todays purchases and Money Making

August 25th, 2010 at 09:21 pm

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.

Long time so here is the catchup.

August 20th, 2010 at 03:24 pm

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.
___

Roth and 401K Retirement

July 30th, 2010 at 02:42 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 27th, 2010 at 04:15 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CC Payment, Computer Working, and $$$ Daycare

July 23rd, 2010 at 02:33 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

--

Have a great day! Yea it is Friday!

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

July 22nd, 2010 at 02:49 pm

Not sure if I wrote about the counseling.

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

Really????? (Shaking my head)

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

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

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

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

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

--
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.

Facebook got me started on Back to School Shopping

July 20th, 2010 at 03:32 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Payday and Tranferred funds hit.

July 15th, 2010 at 02:56 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Financing my home! The Buy OUT!

June 3rd, 2010 at 03:06 pm

Yesterday I spoke with XH and he agree to let me buy him out of the house.

My XH is very self centered and a instant gratification kind of person. (Truthfully he was hoping to list and have an offer in the first week) Even though our house is over the average price for a home in city (169K).

So....I have refinanced the house in my name only. I was approved to refinance anyway. Now I am waiting for the company to Fed-Ex me the paperwork which I will review and sign and return and then THE CLOSER will call me. Due to back log I am told this can take 5 days. But I am locked in on the new rate and it is 1.5% LESS than what I am at now so my total payments will go down $150 per month. Also I will not have an escrow anymore (I will be doing a self-escrow).

Once the house is refianced then I will be paying my XH 10K which is what he would have gotten had we sold the house at the REAL VALUE price AFTER the realtor fees and the portion to Myself and to DSs college fund. We will be doing a Quit Claim Deed to transfer all ownership to myself and to BUY him out. Actually the 10K is $1,500 or 7% more than he should be getting BUT it is what his "I need this amount to move on was".

I would have liked this as an option before we divorced so we could have gotten it taken care of with that instead of having to do a quit claim deed NOW but my XH usually has to be given time to come to realize that I am right.

See he thought our house was worth 260K NO way I was going to pay him 50% of equity of that. I knew it was closer to 206K well we met with a RE Agent and the house is listed at 214 (Big difference in Equity from his minds idea)....NO bites no nibbles. So house is not selling and people complaining about this that and the red neck neighbor with 10 cars three which are parked on the grass and he FINALLY realizes we are going to have to be at a break even point NOT a huge flip that house profit (finished the basement) to sell the house.

So basically we are now both at a house value point that is REAL and because he understands that if we sold to split the profit we would have to pay a realter so that is going to be factored OUT of the equity for both of us. I feel bad that he thinks he should get more than what the market is going to bring him. BUT on the other hand when I called back and told him that I got approved he was releaved. He told me all day after that it was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

The funny thing is there is still some work for me to iron out, so at times there is still a little stress on my plate. But last night I played outside with my son, we rode his scooter and he rode his bike and then would take a turn on his scooter. It was great and it was all possible because FINALLY I am done spending all my spare time keeping the house OCD clean.

This morning I took a shower in the Master Bathroom. The Main floor bathrooms have been off limits for a while now since I super cleaned them and put out NEW towels and rugs. Last Night I BBQed But if I had wanted to I could have used the kitchen again. We were limiting cooking and doing alot of take out so that we could reduce the cleaning required. SOOOOOO Nice.

Getting the Emergency Fund actually Funded; Pondering Savings moves

May 26th, 2010 at 10:04 pm

Well today I opened a NEW savings account.

It is online and it is my Emergency Fund. It is for the first 3 months of Emergency. I plan to do the rest of it in CDs.

I guess there is some rule about transfering money from one Savings account to another, so I had to transfer the money from one savings account to my checking then once it clears, transfer it to the Emergency Fund Savings. (This could be faster but it is not because it is THREE seperate companys).

I was going to transfer the FULL 3 Months from the Savings account that feeds my Mortgage BUT there is a daily limit so I tranfered $4,580 and tomorrow I will transfer the remaining $2,000 to my checking. The remaining $500 came out of Checking which I used to open the account.

I left enough in my *pay the mortgage autodraft account* to pay the Mortgage through the end of August. Hopefully it will sell before that and then I can roll the remainder into CDs I am creating for the rest of my Emergency Fund. My thought is that I will need a place to temporarily hold the money from the sell of the house until I can open the CDs and that is what this saving account will serve as. If it does not sell prior to that then I will need to start putting money back into the account.

The CDs are going to be open with this company because there CDs pay higher then the other two.

The online account that my EF is in is earning .45 MORE than my Mortgage account is so that is why it will not be my Emergency Fund. I am sort of rethinking having my Slush fund through my Checking account Bank because that is really bad for interest, EF savings is 1.0 Higher. I might turn Mortgage Autopay into the slush fund later (once it is not longer being a Mortgage Autopay) then close the Slush Fund Savings.

The thing I have noticed is there is a limit to how much money you can transfer online each day and the CD's I want to create are larger than that amount SO It will take me 6 business days to transfer the money plus clearing time.

My Car Repair and Replacement Savings is with ING.
My Emergency Fund is with ING.
Both are more out of sight out of mind because car repairs are few and far between and the replacement is quite a few years off, and the EF well that is Emergency Only.

My Mortgage Autopay Savings is also the Bank I have my Credit Card through, that is why I am thinking that would make a better home for the slush fund. The Slush fund is for non-reguler expenses such as auto insurance and Car Tags which I tend to pay online using my Credit card so having the slush fund savings there would make paying the bill faster.
My Sons Braces account is at that same company BUT I am thinking maybe it is time to close the account there and open it at ING so it grows faster.

Well Tomorrow is another day....

One last note Spent $20. I registered for a 5K Run. My FIRST offical 5K Run. It is on Sept 18. I am pretty excited about it. I registered early so I could save on the registration fee. It goes up by $5 every month until Race and I registered online so I saved an additional $5. I get a Long Sleeve T shirt for finishing so basically I bought a $20 T Shirt that says "I ROCK" okay it does not actually say that I just think I rock for doing this!

A Pet??? Guinea Pig

May 25th, 2010 at 03:38 pm

My XH thinks I should get our son a pet, basically a gerbil or hamster as a pet so that he can have a snuggly friend and learn to take care of things.

Of course I am not happy about this because I think they stink, to which my XH says Not if you take care of them.

I actually think a guinea pig would be nice. I went online and did some research. I guess I have to look into the towns animal rescue and see if they have any. I do not want to buy a pet from a pet store when there are always pets that need to be rescued.

I have two issues #1 that they do cost money, I would rather spend the $ putting the money in the bank for savings goals (but in this case $ is BUYING love). And #2 I am not sure how long you can leave them alone for.

I think on the few weekends per year that I go out of town if I make sure the cage is cleaned BEFORE I leave town and if I put fresh water and food out that in the 24-48 hours I am gone it would be fine.

Now the issue comes up what if I have to go out of town for an extended period. I know every summer I end up going out of town for 1 week to 2 weeks. I am pretty sure that would be way too long to leave it alone even with water bottle and or some sort of automatic feeder.

Worst case is if I would have to go out of town for an extended period. Last spring I was told I was going to be out of town for 3 days and then the POOP hit the fan and I was out of town for 5 weeks. I just think a pet would be too much in addition to all the changes that are already going on in DS and my life already.

I live in a city that when you combine the city next to it there is a total population of 70,000 people. I am pretty sure there is NOT a company that will come into your house and clean your pets cage and water/feed your pet for you while you are out of town so that you dont have to board it. I am not sure if they even have boarding options for pets that are not cats/dogs.

Boarding = $$$ but if I am going to get a pet I have to make sure I am aware of this things as I will need to board from time to time.

I dont want to talk myself out of getting a guinea pig (male and neutered) Because I would love for my son to have a pet; he LOVES animals but on the other hand I think I am LAZY. I think I like to keep things as easy as possible, meaning if I have to go out of town I dont want to have to get a pet all set up at a sitters in additional to packing up my son and getting him all set up at the sitters in addition to getting the apartment all set so it can be left unoccupied for the time I am gone.

What would you do? Would I be a bad pet owner because I am woried about the care of the pet IF I get very short notice from work about an assignment? Would I be a bad pet owner because I am mentally adding up the cost of the special HAY, food pellets and fresh fruit and vegtables it would eat that would be added to our monthly budget?

Shopping this weekend! $$$

May 24th, 2010 at 06:08 pm

This weekend we went shopping for carpet.

Looking over the instock supplies; XH was set on a certain type and color of carpet the sales lady was suggesting which was $2.29 per SF. I had pointed out that I prefered a totally different type and a mixed color instead of solid one which was $1.19 per sf.

He was stuck on the carpet at $2.29, until we got the quote. $714. He wanted to go to another store or two and so we left and on the way out he said okay maybe we will go with the $1.19 per sf carpet. I truthfully had been hopeing to get the carpet installed and all for around $300 so the $1.19 per sf is much closer to that price than the $2.29 stuff.

I guess it helps that I have purchased carpet with my grandmother many times and know that the price per sf adds up fast!

This is the same place he went to to get the molding for the upstairs bath that he was charged $60 a piece for. Really!!

***
We had went to my prefered store next. XH and I met with someone and talked about our needs, he suggested not only instock but figured out how much carpet we would needed and suggested a remenet piece. Being XH was about price at this point we picked out an piece and when it was all done it was about $424.

I am not sure the exact price because XH paid for it. Which was nice that he paid since I purchased the replacement garbage disposal and paid the plumber to fixed the water line for the dishwasher the day after we had the countertops installed.

The nice thing is this guy was the real deal, he made sure to ask about all the add ons. We ended up going home and measuring doorways because we needed to fix the transition of the lamenet. Which by the way is $30 there per piece!

We ended up having to go back because XH missed measuring out the landing at the foot of the stairs and he said it was like a foot and I was sure it was more. When we got home the landing was closer to 2 feet. We ended up having to go with a larger piece of remnent but it was an easy process and the price different of going from 12 x 10 to 12 x 14.6 was actually only $29.00.

The first piece was a berbur, the second was a pile but not a cheap pile, the thin little curly q type pile. Actually the store had it in wierd diagnal cuts of different colors at the front of the store so it must be popular. I want to say it reminds me of a shag rug. Maybe it is shag carpet.

Anyway the carpet we got was almost identical to what we had except the type. The carpet on the stairs will be removed and the carpet will be laid down on the stairs and the hallway this friday.

****
Saturday evening I went shopping, I got propane for the gas grill. I am hopeing that we can grill more so that #1 we will not be using the stove inside (so kitchen stays clean). #2 we can cut back on the number of meals we are eatting out to minimize the mess to the kitchen.

I then went to Wal-Mart, I finally found some shorts. I went in hoping to buy another pair of jeans but they were out of my size and I could not find jean shorts that fit like I wanted. BUT I found workout shorts, I have been looking long and hard. I am picky about my workout shorts...I do not like them too short and I like them to look flattering but it seems like either they are tight like spandex or they are more relaxed and they ballon out below the thigh.

I found 7 pairs of capris that fit just like I wanted and they were on clearance from $11 to $5 each. I bought all seven pairs because when I find something that works I need to stock up and seven pairs is one weeks worth or shorts. I also got a Tank which was regular price $11 but Marked $5 but rang up $1.

***
Sunday I went shopping with DS I wanted to see if I could find more tanks, I had been looking at the $5 racks after trying it on in the fitting room and after getting home and looking at the reciept I realized I should have been looking at the $1 rack.

Sunday I bought a St. Joseph Statue, I bought DS three sets of shorts and tanks they were $7 each and I bought him a pair of flip flops $4, and a pair of canvas slip on shoes $1 clearance. I found myself another tank but it was $5.

DS might not really have needed the tank/short sets BUT I am not sure. I think his summer stuff is in the tote in his bedroom closet but I might have taken his summer stuff over to the storage unit. Either way the tank and shorts end up $3.50 per piece since they could be worn seperately so for that price it is not bad.

These were the last ones in his size, so If I would not have gotten them they would have been gone when I went back. He wears size 7 slim pants with adjustable waist BUT in shorts wears 4/5 (skinny waist). So I bought them and after I go through the tote in his room and IF he has a ton of clothes for summer I might return them.

So this weekend was alot of spending but not too bad, I did not buy furnature so $1500 less than I planned.

Daycare....

May 21st, 2010 at 04:04 pm

XH is going out of town next week, going to a week long outdoor concert thing. No big deal I work 8-4:30 amd I have after school care already. The only glitche is that on the 28th there is no school so no afterschool care.

I have desided to take the day off work. So I will be using a day of leave. Oh well easiest fix AND little sweet heart and I get to spend the FIRST day of his summer vacation together yea.

****
Well today I was on Facebook and I noticed XH had a post for a memorial walk on that he had said he was doing. I am thinking in my head he really needs to start watching his calender.

I posted below it, a question on if HIS employer was going to let him do it during work hours (which since it was a memorial for a few coworkers they very well could). I continued with a comment saying I thought you were going to BLANK which basically means he would be out of town during the walk. So I texted him and asked the hours he had to work that weekend, and he said yep no walk, and so I had to ask again what his hours were and His answer was "I dont know". So a third time I asked what are your hours I want to schedule daycare.

So I asked if he wanted to take him to his buddies house or if he wanted me to ask my cousin or our other daycare lady (which days again he deleted her number out of his phone saying "dont need THAT number anymore"). His answer was to say DS does not like to stay at his friends house. Truthfully I dont like when XH takes him there BUT I just suggested it because it might be easier for him and cheaper. I told him once I got a yes I would tell him who, location and projected cost at pickup.

See I will be out of town, when XH can pick DS up. We need daycare from 8am-4:30p on Friday then Sat 8am until XH picks him up either LATE Sunday or first thing Monday. So I figure worest case it is 3 days or $180. Yeah XH is going to LOVE that. Oh well I am not home so he will have to pay for daycare.

I say worst case because if something changes I might just need to have DS stay overnight Friday so I dont have to drop off early Saturday. Plus XH will not give me time to what LATE means so if DS is with Sitter we have to pay until the time I reserved which would be until 7:30am Monday.

I hope he remembers his checkbook when he goes to pick him up, even with reminders the last time he needed to pay a daycare provider (out of joint checking) he forgot to bring the checkbook and had to turn around half way there to go get it.

Oh well even IF I end up having to repay XH for the Daycare bill it is less than I normally pay for a month (as long as he does not skip town prior to the end of the month).

House price drop...Sort of; and house work

May 12th, 2010 at 02:44 pm

So yesterday XH painted the stairwell and the banister. There are only two days left until we leave town for his work thing so once I mentioned that to him he realized today he has to do a bit more painting today then he got done yesterday.

The good news is the new paint in the stairwell and banster REALLY make the house look so much cleaner. We still have to paint more areas but I am hoping getting the really smuggy spots done will help with the (It needs to be cleaned comments). We had all the stuff me needed to do except for threee rolls of paper and we barrowed a painting paper roller from a coworker so the painting job so far has only cost $12. And IF we dont use all the rolls any unopenned rolls of paper can be returned.

***

Talked to the realtor last night, she hasn't heard back from the realtor who looked at our house on Saturday yet so I am thinking that means they are not going to be making an offer on the house. Knew we probubly should not have showed it before the stairwell got painted BUT they lived out of state.

The realtor called around and got three quotes on what a deck would cost, 2 said 4k one said 6k. Which is in line with what we had gotten for quotes back when we were looking to add a deck. So we went middle of the road and have now included a 5K allowance for the buyer to build a deck with. So technically the price has not gone down for the buyer but because 5K of the purchase price is being held for them to buy a deck with our profit went down by 5k.

Part of me would like to just pay for the deck and enjoy it now that summer is almost here until the house sells; BUT I dont want to spend 4K and then the buyer not like the deck because they would have chosen a different stain or composite decking or a much larger deck instead.

****

I am working on the rock border, yesterday I got the front of the house by the front door done, and I got the side of the garage done. Tonight I will be working on the side of the house by the front door. That way if you are in the front yard everywhere you see the rock border will be done. My back is so sore, but oh well Tonight is that last night I have to work on it because tomorrow night is the road trip.

****

Tonight is Subway so that I can keep working on the rock border and not stop to deal with dinner....$7.17.

*****
On a kiddo note, since we have three bathrooms in our house I staged the two upstairs and cleaned them superwell and the towels are pinned in place so that they are perfect. I figure we can use the downstairs one and then that is two less things I need to be cleaning daily to keep the house show worthy. We told Little Love of my Life to only use the main bathroom IF it was an Emergency and he could not get to the bathroom down stairs.

Well last night as I am working in the rock garden what does he do? He calls me to come quick I need to look at the bathroom, After asking him a bunch of questions to figure out the EMERGENCY, I go inside. In the process of trying to get cleaned up enough to enter the house, I get MUD tracks all over the newly cleaned rugs by the front door. So I go to the bathroom and the Emergency is......... He has made me a smiley face out of WET Toliet Paper and put it on the Mirror in the Show Bathroom!

I also noticed this morning that he got the NEW bathroom rugs dirty in the process of making the smiley face because he did not take off his shoes before entering the house like I asked.

I am ready to sell the house so I can laugh and appreciate stuff like this instead of just thinking about the mess made.

8888
Added
I just opened my slush fund. It is a goal savings so the amount of my slush fund will automatically get transfer from checking into the slush fund. This is for those bills/events that are once or twice a year. It is with my brick and morter bank that has my checking account so as needed I can transfer the funds from savings to the checking account.

I would like to open a seperate savings account with ING for my car repair/replacement stuff but I am going to wait a few days to see if I can get one of the $25 bonus referal links. My car rarely goes into the shop for repairs and the replacement is a while off so I want to get higher interest on it and the three day transfer time is not a biggy.

I am Divorced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May 11th, 2010 at 04:38 pm

Have been waiting for the paperwork and desided to check the public records for the state.

On the afternoon of the 4th I turned the signed documents into my lawyer she was out of the office and would mail them on the 5th.

On the 6th of May the documents were filed and on the 7th of May the judgement/order was entered and the case was closed!!!!!!

So now I just have to wait for the stamped/filed documents so I can make some changes to insurance and that kind of thing BUT. It is done!!!

Start to finish it could have taken a week IF I would have had my act together.

****
Yesterday MY EX HUSBAND, heheheheh; found out that there was a mistake with his school housing and now instead of the $500 rate he is going to have to rent an apartment. He thought he was getting his own room but sharing a commons cooking/living area. Found out when he was filling out the housing forms that he would have been sharing a room. I suppose that is unexceptable for a 41 year old male. So now as soon as the house sells he is going to be moving so he can get an apartment lined up asap. Which of course means I am left figuring out daycare for this summer. It is too late for the school program BUT I think that everything will work out. Maybe Little guy is meant to switch day care provider now, It is sometimes easier to keep what you have BUT there is a different program that is more expensive than I am paying now BUT I think I like that it is more flexable and I believe it would be available for no school days.

Who knows maybe we will not sell the house until right before school starts or not until next summer and I will not have to worry about summer school. (XH cant move until house sells or school starts because he doesn't he needs the proceeds or financial aid to pay for housing).

The morning gets BETTER.

April 28th, 2010 at 08:54 pm

I got the first draft of my divorce documents.

I say first draft because I needed to make a few changes, I am having the STBX look them over to make sure there is nothing in them he wants changed.

One big point was they messed up the Child Support Amount. I was like WOW when I saw the amount, but then I turned the page and was like WTF when I saw what they had as his per month net pay.

I went to the states website and ran the correct numbers. The amount is the exact same as what StepDaughter#2 Mother gets. The original number was almost double that amount. I told STBX the amount correct amount and of course he flipped out.

I told him we have options, I could either pay him for watching our son this summmer like I originally said I would, and since it is basically double dipping having him pay for Child Support AND half the household bills until he moves we could make an arrangement of one applying to the other. Also I said I am not sure that the CS is automatic or if we have to contact them, and They are always so slow anyway...If we dont do anything it might not happen until School starts (his income jumps once school starts). That calmed him down.

I want the paperwork done, I have no problem letting him mooch off me until School starts because it is best for Our little boy to get to spend time with his daddy and it does help me. Basically I look at it like hiring a nanny.

Man that would be AWESOME if we could get this all ironed out today and emailed back to the lawyer.

I am reading the documents and I think in our state since it is uncontested all that has to be done after it is signed is for it to be entered into record. That would be FREAKEN awesome if this could be done FAST!

5.4 pounds down since Friday AM 32.8 to go!!!

April 27th, 2010 at 06:15 pm

Okay realistically I dont know if I will get down to 143. I technically need to get to 149 in order to avoid being taped to see if I am under 34% body fat.

2008 July I was about 150-155 pounds and toned (lots of swimming) I would like to be there again. I have until Dec 5th to make this happen. Once this happens I an extending my Job contract for 6 years.

Yep Job security for me and my son for 6 years, So worth a little discomfort now. I have been good and drinking 10-11 glasses of water a day, taking my diet pills and counting calories.

I have desided I am going to bite the bullet and buy more benefiber drink mix (keeps me full) even though I have some raspberry tea flavor at home. The raspberry tea flavor makes me gag. The cost of it as as a diet aid is worth it when you consider it is helping me keep a 50K job a year in a 18K a year average area. Just wish I could find my coupon file since I am sure I had some benefiber coupons in there.

***
House Update
Door is to be installed tonight. Countertops sometime this week (the counter is at the store with the install team - just need install team to call to set up a time).

Laywer - no news yet.

***

Three days until payday. Need to balance the checkbook. Bought my son some jeans on clearance that I need to return to the store. They are "Rocker" style AKA basically skinny cut jeans for men. I figured they would not be bad as he normally wears slim jeans. HA the butt looks like he is wearing a diaper and the tightness in the legs/length looks like he should be a host on that show "Q--- eye for the straight guy".

Oh well I am hopeing to get a trip into Once upon a child so I can see if I can get him some bigger jeans. It is hard finding him SALE/Clearance/Used jeans because he needs an adjustable waist (needs a belt because he is super skinny; but cant wear a belt due to medical issues) and he wears slims while Short and HUSKY is the standard wear I live. If he wears nonslim jeans the waist does not get tight enough with the adjustable waist and when he jumps etc the jeans fall down to his shoes.

Have a great day!!

Running Budget Numbers AGAIN! Budget Questions

April 21st, 2010 at 09:17 pm

Here is my Zero Based Budget:

Expenses: Monthly
Housing:
Mortgage / Rent $1,060.00
MDU $126.50
Water/Waste $56.90
Cell $96.16
Internet $38.11
House Downpayment$0.00
Storage Unit $55.00
Phone $29.17

Medical:
Dental Premium $12.69
Dependent Meds $15.00
Braces Fund $150.00 (Savings)
Dental Work Bills$25.00 (Slush)

Daycare:
Daycare $165.00
Weekend Sitter $100.00
Summer Daycare $175.00 (Slush)

Vehicle:
Lumina Gas $50.00
Insurance $33.16 (Slush)
Tags $17.00 (Slush)
Lumina Repairs/Replace $100.00 (Savings)

Dependent:
School lunch $37.50
School Snack $6.66
Clothes $20.00
Gifts- Xmas/Bday$50.00 (Slush)
College 529 Fund$20.00 (Savings)
Back 2 School Items$45.00 (Slush)
Allowance $8.00

Misc:
Food/Cleaner/Etc $200.00
Gifts- Xmas/Bday/Wedding$10.00 (Slush)
Roth IRA $416.66 (Savings)

Total $3,118.51 SHORT 664.53

Income:
Work $2,453.98
Child Support ???

Saving(FROM ABOVE NUMBERS):
Slush Fund $355.16
Downpayment Fund $0.00
New Car / Car Repairs $100.00
Braces Fund $150.00

I am $664.53 Short to keep up with my finacial goals so changes need to be made. First note I do not know how much I would get for Child Support BUT it will be small as my STBX income is $1195 per month if they do not include the $705 non-taxable income he earns. I want my budget to be based off no child support so if for some reason he cant pay and his amount goes to arrears that I am not in a bad situation.

I am trying to follow a Dave Ramsey type program. I want to create a slush fund for bills that are not monthly such as back to school clothes and supplies, gifts, car insurance and car tags etc.

I would like to save for a downpayment or house purchase in the future and so that is a savings item. I would like to save for College for my Son, I would like to save for Braces for him, I also want to save for retirement.

What do you think?

I know the storage unit HAS to go (And will as soon as the house is SOLD), the grocery/cleaning/etc is a total estimate and I am selling the house and would like to put the difference between my current housing cost and rental cost into savings for a downpayment. I am guessing the difference is going to be $500.

If this was your budget would you?
A. Reduce the savings that is going to the downpayment on a house ($500)
B. Reduce/Stop the saving for Son's College ($20)
C. Reduce Roth IRA savings ($416.66)
D. Combination
E. Other ??

Question 2 I bought my STBX an new phone which I signed a 1 year contract for, I can either
A. Cancel line pay $200 Fine
B. Change plan to a smaller plan and pay extra $10 or $20 (depends on plan) until Dec 2010 and keep the phone plan no cancel fee
*** B is cheaper BUT then I have a second line to deal with. I upgraded both phones at the same time so I cant just take over his number and cancel my number.
WHAT would YOU do?

Hard Work, Free DoorBell, Being a Kid

April 19th, 2010 at 03:13 pm

This weekend I worked my tail off on Friday. Of course I still need to seal the wood of the front porch.

I might do that tonight. I needed to let the wood dry out after washing it (twice) and sanding it. Yesterday I noticed dirty shoe prints on the deck after the wash job so I will need to sweep/sand those off (no water) then seal the deck.

I think the reason the stain/seal was not lasting was in years past I was rushing the stain/seal after the cleaning off of the old product and the first year I think the problem was we did not clean the wood to make sure there was not any kind of product on it.

***

After cleaning the front porch I painted the trim around the doors; it looks real nice. We went out to buy a new door bell. Once we got home we noticed the holes in the siding from the old bell were spaced farther apart then the new bell. So went to a different store and same deal. Which means we had to go back to the overpriced place that we picked our lights etc out back in Fall 2006. We closed on our house in Feb 2007. Not sure when the light bell got installed so the doorbell is a little over 3 years old. It still works it is just that the button has a hole in it like the plastic just disinigrated. Since it looked terrible we wanted to get it fixed as it is a eye sore upon entering the house.

I went into the store and explained that we closed on our house in Feb 2007 and was wonder what there warrenty was on the door bells. We explained how it seemed like the door bell button just disinigrated. I was not expecting anything but figured I would try. The floor guy went to ask the big boss and said before leaving to ask her that usually it is a year warrenty but he might be able to do a 30% discount. He came back after a while and said that they would give us the replacement FREE but they needed the old bell.

So we drove home took the door bell off and my son and I returned to the store to get the new one. We had a white door bell that actually looked a little cream now BUT they were out even the display model was gone so we ended up with a silver one. Oh well FREE is FREE and I think the bling of the silver adds a nice touch to our front door which feels a little plain at this time. All in all we probubly spent $.50 in gas and got a FREE doorbell. Now I just have to return the door bell we had originally bought at a hardware store. Regular price of door bell $19.97 @ overpriced lighting store which we got for free because we asked about a warrenty.

***
This Saturday we had one showing. I think the STBX is getting nervous as time goes on because I think he is secretly wishing that it will sell in April because then he can move out of state faster. The school he wants to attend keeps asking if he wants to start sooner because they have openings. He told me they say it is easier to get a earlier date and not a later date so he is locked into August BUT if we sell the house earlier he could move earlier. STBX promised to watch DS this summer but I have a feeling I am going to be putting him into daycare this summer. I cant really blame him for wanting to start early after all if he does then he does not have to get an apartment here if we sell before August. It just sucks because as usual I am the one having to scrabble to make everything work.

Today we have two showings.

I guess I do not have a preferance when it comes to selling the house. When we sell I will move into an apartment and my housing expenses will go down by about $600 per month. When we sell STBX will move out of state and depending on when that happens then come summer I will need to pay for fulltime summer daycare $500+ per month which is a $335 increase since right now my afternoon care cost is $165. Also once he moves our electric will go down because he runs his computer and all his electronics 24/7 and even forgets to turn off the TV.

I think my food costs will go down also since while he was gone we averaged $50 a week including resterants and now we are averaging $150 in groceries alone.

So if you do the math it is still cheaper and the stress of everything will be less, I just wish that my little boy could have a fun free carefree summer. I think I am going to be enrolling him in the summer school program 8am-12noon (FREE) then figure out a afterschool program for the rest of the day. It is three weeks a month for June and July so I could actaully take vacation the other week. Then I think I could enroll him in the all day August program at the place he goes to now afterschool.

This just makes me a little sad as I really just wanted my little boy to get a summer of going to bed late, sleeping in late, riding his bike, playing with kids and not having to be stuck in a classroom from 8am-noon.

I need to start clearing out the storage unit, since we have desided what STBX wants as his property. Maybe I can talk to my grandmother about a rummage sale in May. I wonder if there is time for a small one this Weekend at her house since we have the open house this weekend.

Emailed the information and paid part of the bill

April 15th, 2010 at 05:52 pm

Yesterday I sat down with STBX and we went over the list of marital assests that I made.

Also we answered the questions on the parenting plan guidance, at least I hope we answered them well enough.

He agreed to still watch our son this summer. I offered to pay him, which he turned down. He asked when I wanted him to move out, to which I brought up him just moving into the basement.

So yesterday we bought a new mattress and box spring for our son. We set it up on a frame and put it in the basement, it is what STBX will sleep on until he moves out of state for school or we sell the house which ever comes sooner. Once the house sells we will discard the 15-17 yearold mattress that is on my sons bed and he will get the new one. Until then we will keep the extra furnature to fill up the house.

The bed in the extra room makes the house more inviting instead of an empty room it is now a room with furnature to see what size it is.

The good thing about him in the basement is that it means our son will be able to just be a kid this summer with no real bed time and waking up when he wants to. Also he can continue to drop our son off at school.

I am thinking if we still have not sold the house when our divorce is final I might go buy the couch and automan I want for my new apartment and put it upstairs in the livingroom to help fill out the house better.

Since we completed the papers we have been getting along real well. When he raises his voice about something I dont take it personal anymore. I remind myself there are a few benefits to putting up with it.

He has also been better, instead of yelling every hour or so about something minor he is maybe yelling once or twice a day.

Yesterday we even went out for lunch and he paid. It was nice. For once I was just living life instead of hating him because I was allowing him to treat me badly and thinking I had no way out.

---

This morning I re did the marital list so that it was grouped into things like accounts, then the house, then into his and then mine. I hope this makes it easier to understand.

I then called the laywers office and got the info to email the lawyer and paid the first part so they can do up the paperwork.

I asked how long it normally takes, did not get a real answer. If nothing needs to be changed and all parties still agree it goes rather quickly. WHAT is Quickly?

Today the 15th of April I submitted the information to the lawyer with a partial payment, lets see what quickly is....

Taking tomorrow off!

April 13th, 2010 at 07:19 pm

Tomorrow I am planning on breaking out the paperwork.

I will be sitting down with STBX and completeing the Marital Assets list and the parenting plan.

At least I hope it gets done, hopefully STBX is not too much in shock that I actually am taking the bull by the horns and going through with a DIVORCE.

I am a little nervous, hope it all goes well.

I need to get my little guy a hair cut. The last hair cut was right before STBX came home the 29th of January. He has needed one for a while but STBX keeps saying he will take little guy in for a haircut when he gets one. I think he MIGHT be getting a haircut for work two weeks from now but maybe not. I am tired of waiting so I will take little guy in for a hair cut after work tonight.

Truthfully STBX hair is really short as he buzzed it right before coming home in January so he could probubly just take the trimmer to the back of his neck and right around his ears and be good (Little guy- no way).

Got an Email from an old friend, guess he is getting out of the Army in like 4 months. He has a Medical Review Board coming up. It is too bad as he only has 9 or 10 years based on his enlistment date and not all of those are Active as he was in the Reserves for a while; so he is short of the 15 needed for a Early Medical Retirement. Hopefully since it is service related he will at least get VA disability payments. I would have liked to hear more and cheer him on but his wife is TOTALLY PSYCHO so I will probubly not hear from him again.

Hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow after I am done with the paperwork, I hope to get outside and rake the lawn. It is still early so I dont want to turn on the sprinkler system, but I sure wish our grass was greener to help sell the house faster.

Running Numbers

April 8th, 2010 at 02:46 pm

I am running numbers, and my husbands take home should be $672.20 per month after taxes and taking out Child Support for his two other children. This seems low BUT that is 8K a year so more than poverty level. (It will go up by close to 3K per month once certain non-taxable income start kicking in).

I am not sure how to have the lawyer address the housing situation. YES I want stop living with him ASAP but until we sell the house technically it is half his. It would be much easier if he would just move and answer one of those roomate wanted ads or get an effecentcy appartment which in our area are $240-$365 per month. But I am not sure what he will want to do, who knows it could take months for it to be finalized and then renting for one month is silly (unless we have the house already sold).

Also Part of the $ above is money I will be paying him this summer to watch our child (since he will only be working 5p-9p Mon-Fri. It would be easier to continue the daycare situation if we are sharing the house because then our son could sleep in and just be a kid (until the house sells).

I plan on sitting down with him this coming Tuesday. I am going to say we need to come up with an agreement since he is moving out of state in August for school. Even though we have been functioning like roommates for years, it will still be a surprize I think.

Work and Bills

March 20th, 2010 at 02:42 pm

Well been out of town for two evenings so far. Before I left I sat down with the husband and told him what he would need to pay, nothing major just his child support payments and sending lunch money for our son. Everything else is on autopayment out of my checking account.

So he is going to get a little taste of paying bills and buying groceries etc.

Not sure how long I will be out of town. We are at a very nice hotel, my only complaint is that this hotel has the worst insolation. Every night at like midnight the people upstairs come in. We can here them walking to the window to turn on the heat then back to the bathroom then back to the bed; then the second one enters the room and goes to the window/bed then to the bathroom and back to the bed.

They are not stomping but they sure are walking heavy heeled. Nothing like having stomp stomp stomp awaken you out of sleep and then having to wait like a half hour for them to stop walking around so we can go back to sleep.

I am currently on the 7am until 7pm shift, as of Monday I will probubly be switching to 7pm until 7am which will be a pain since my roomie is one at 7am until 7pm and will be staying that shift.

I cant wait to get home after this to see how the husband handled the bills and get everything finally totally seperated. Depending on if his checks come in he might have to do some transfering from one account to another so it should be a good learning experience for him.

PLUS he is having to be fulltime daddy and housekeeper only thing to make it better would be if he had to work also (then he would know what my life is like).

I will post if I can later.

College Tour in May Concert, Job and pondering summer daycare?

March 15th, 2010 at 04:18 pm

The Hubster mentioned that before he goes out of town for the concert in May, we need to order a replacement tent pole.

Long Story Short He broke the tent pole on another concert trip about two years ago. So he better believe it is coming out of the money I have already saved for him for the trip. It will not be coming out of household funds.

He told me that weekend he has to go down a day early, he plans to take a tour of the campus that he wants to attend this September.

He talked of applying for work at the place he worked back in 2003. The reason is if he is hired here; then moves there, there is a chance they would transfer him and he would then have a job right away without having to locate one once he is settled in.

Depending on when and what kind of hours he works will determine what kind of daycare we need and if our son will be going to the free half day summer school program or not.

Whatever happens we will see, I just have to sit and wait.


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