LittleMsMom's Personal Finance Blog

I was listening to the John Tesh Radio Show on the way to work. He said the Average person spends $9,000 a year on their car not including their car loan payment. The topic went on to talk about ways to reduce that including car pooling and taking public transportation.

I spend about $2,175 per year

Insurance 112-124 per 6 months = 250 year
Gas 75-80 per month rounded to 100 = 1200 per year
Car Tabs 65 = 65
Oil change 40 x 3times per year = 120
Wiper Blades 40 = 40
Repairs/maintenance 500 = 500

I put 500 in for repairs/maintenance because it seems like every 2 years I have a repair. This year it was new tires and everything flushed because my car hit 120K miles. That cost $830 with Oil change factored in. Two years ago I needed body work after I had a small fender bender which left me needing $1,200 in work. So every two years or so I need 1000 with or work which averages to $500. I do not have to replace my wiper blades EVERY year but it seems like it and with the High Volume of Snow we get here, I tend to buy and put on top of the line wipers.

I live in a area that I am lucky enough that I do not pay toils, I do not pay for parking, I have gotten 2 speeding tickets in my life (knock on wood) the first one was $25, the second was $40. I am trying to think of other car expenses which might drive up the cost of car usage for others but so far none apply to my situation.

So I am $6,825 below average.
Then to top it off I bet I am below average in the fact that I drive a car without a loan.

Well this weekend went QUICK! Yep Capital letters. My son woke up this morning went to get a drink of water and offered to turn off my bedroom light on his way back to his bed. I was just laying in my bed having a hard time getting out of it. So I said thanks sweety but I need to get up and get ready for work and to pack your lunch for school.

His Answer "BUT IT IS SUNDAY!!!!" Yeah poor boy is not the only one who thought the weekend went by too fast.

Saturday I went to Wal-Mart to buy a birthday present for a party my son was attending, when we got there the greeter was handing out coupons for an additional 50% off all clearance items priced $50 or less. I was able to purchase 3 pairs of jeans for my son at $5 each, a t-shirt for $2.50, and swim trunks with a swim shirt for $1.25. I bought flip flops AKA shower shoes for $.25 and a set of organizers for $2. I also bought some grocerys and of course the birthday presents.

I bought the jeans for next fall. I want to stock up on clothes for my son. That way if my son stays with my cousin or my ex while I am out of country then the clothes are there and less for them to deal with/buy. I do not want my cousin to have to purchase stuff, and I do not want to hear my ex complain about having to buy stuff either so I made a list and between now and leaving I want to complete the list (hopefully as cheaply as possible). I have big plans for Black Friday.

After the party I went to Kmart and purchased a picture frame and camera batteries. I need non-rechargable batteries because I put fully charged rechargables into the camera and it is not enough juice...I guess I have recharged the batteries a few too many times for use in the camera. I want two frames but they only had one so I will need to go back. I wanted frames for the two photos I got mailed to me of my mother. One is a copy of her high school graduation picture and one is of her 1st communion.

Sunday I finished pricing the clutter I had around the house and boxed it up for next summers rummage sale. I have more clutter to gather up and price but for now I am slowly making progress. Yeah me!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yesterday I purchased my Sons main Christmas Gift. It is the Big Harry Potter Hogworts Lego Set. I also purchased the Lego Advent Calender and two minifigures. The minifigures are going into his Stocking.

Today I purchased my Christmas Gift. It is a New Black Bug Out Bag by Sandpiper. These backpacks rock! I am going to add waterproofer to it to make sure it is waterproof and no water gets to it incase for some reason I have to stand outside in the rain for long periods of time. The reason I got Black is that no matter the situation is the plain black color does not draw attention to you so it is very multi-functional.

I want to also purchase a portable external hard drive. I have my eye on a 1TB by two different companies. I guess I want to see which one is suppose to be more sturdy. I think I will be waiting until Black Friday to purchase the Hard drive as this is usually one of those items that becomes a black friday Deal.

I need to buy myself a new pair of running shoes, I need to email the compnay though and ask what the name of the replacement of my current shoes is. See I wear the same pair then order it online until I cant get it anymore then write the company and get the name of the new shoe then buy it for years, the last pair I got at a store that was selling last seasons castoffs. Well it is now time to write the company again and find out what the name is of the newest upgrade to my shoe is called. I learned to do this after buying running shoes and never being able to get a good fit even though the store associates swore that the shoes were basically the same thing.

On a side note:
I talked to my X last night and it seems that he is willing to do what is best for our son and so he more than likely will be moving into the house while I am gone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#4. Pay in Full Credit Card.

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

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).

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.

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.

I have not written since the 10th. I had to work that weekend. It was also the weekend of my mothers "Family Reunion". My Mother did not want a funeral or a service and so the family had a family get together where the people on the left part of the state got to together and the people living near the right got together on the right side. There was the high shool photo of my mother and a yellow rose in the room. My Uncle is going to make my brothers and I copies of the photo and they gave me the rose. It was nice because they respected her wishes but at the same time they got to comfort each other.

My brother (never knew his father-not on the Birth Certificate), and so he was rather upset because when he heard our mother was died he felt like his only family was gone. Of course there was still my brothers and I, But we had just gotten in touch a month or so ago. So after the "family reunion" he was able to find comfort that he is not family-less even though mom is dead.

The family get together was really great, it was just a meal at Perkins (for those on the left side). My brothers went through my mothers apartment while I was at work and some of the relatives came and got some of her stuff. They also had a brunch but I was at work and unable to attend. The rest of her things got unloaded into my garage as they finished Sunday evening and every donation place was closed by them. My brothers and I went to eat dinner at a relatives house Sunday night and then the next morning my two brothers started the drive home at like 4am. My other brother flew out of town two days after they left.

I am for the most part done going through her things, Since most women seem to have three sizes of clothes in their closet. (the current size, the blotted size and the oh I used to be skinny size-or this will look so cute on me when I lose 10 pounds size). I was able to actually wear alot of her things, I have always wanted a trench coat and well she had 5 of them. 3 were long and 2 were short and in different colors black, navy, white. It was kind of wierd because she had the exact same jeans as I wear. She wore a size larger BUT she took in the waist band as the no gap was still gapping and so they fit me just a little loose.

I ended up with alot of things and so there are really only about one or two larger boxes of things that I need to take down to donate. My brother had a really hard time with boxing up her stuff because he did not want someone who did not know her having all her stuff, but it worked out well....He and my other brother packed what they could into their car, my brother packed a few things into his luggage, my mothers family took the majority of the things that my brothers had not set aside except for a few of the LARGER pieces of furnature that they had earmarked for my house. Then the remainder came to my house.

The funny thing is one of the items I like the most is that my mother used to clean houses so she had a bucket of towels for cleaning. I love that bucket of towels because I have always wanted to go papertowel less but never did. Now no more papertowels except for when I make bacon and everytime I grab a towel I will think of my mom. I wish I would have gotten more time with her but I am happy that she no longer has to "be unhappy".

I was nice to meet my mothers side of the family. It is sad that she felt the need to distance herself from everyone including my brother and I but she is in a better place now. I know this, she was extremely unhappy while she was on this earth and I do not think when we leave this earth the you are punished if you are a good person.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

So Yesterday I worked out, so proud of myself because I cut nearly 5 minutes off my five 5K time. I ran it in 31:27 since it is 3.1 miles that turns to a little over 10 minutes a mile which I think is super. I picked up my son from after school daycare.

We get home and there is 3 messages on the phone. I think the first one was old, the second was a hang up and then the third was a minute later and a message from a cop in the next town over with his name and number and a request for me to call him.

So I call him back, and he tells me that my mother has died. He tells me that my brother (half brother really) might be calling me. I think my brother found out today also. I forgot to ask when she died.

It was not really a shock because of the paperwork I signed like 40 days before, my mother was the non-custodial parent and she chose not to have a relationship with my older brother and I. She tends to get in touch with me every 5 or so years the last time I talked with her prior to her contacting me about two months ago was 7 years ago when I happened to come across her telephone number at work and I called her.

Well she only gets in touch with me when she wants something, two months ago she contacted me because she wanted me to sign some medical/legal documents (I guess it was up to me because I was the only child of hers in the state). Anyway she wanted me to sign paperwork so she could donate her body to science upon her death, to which I asked if she was terminal or something and she said no (just making sure everything was taking care of). I had gotten divorced two months prior and knew I needed to update my will and I figured maybe a close friend or family member had died and she was just motivated to ensure everything was done, usually stuff like that causes you to take action to ensure your affairs are in order.

So now I am a little numb, A coworker is calling me a "mumblefish" today as I normally am a loud and clear person, but today I just feel out of it and am having a hard time concentrating. I am maybe a little sad but not ball your eyes out sad. I talked with my half brother for only like 45 seconds last night, he was ball your eyes out sad.

I have realized I am the sad that you feel when you hear a friend lost a family member, you are sad for them but it is not the same as a if it was someone you knew personnally. I think I am more saddened by the fact that I am not more upset about it and just NUMB. But that is it in a nut shell, I never really got to know her, I saw her maybe 1 weekend a month every other month for a 4 year period (age 7-11), so she is more like a obscure relative than a mother.

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

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

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

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

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

Well I should know more within the next 30 days.

375.11 Starting Balance Spending Money for September

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So I am punching numbers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Please help me deside.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am finally thinking positively.

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

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

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

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

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

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

IF you were me would you:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

451.66 Sept prior balance for spending

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like I said life is full of unexpected.

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

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

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

451.66
+ 41.69
- 20.88
- 15.00
- 39.31
= 418.16

$418.16 Left for Gas/Food/Daycare/Misc

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

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

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

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

All these items were from my stash.

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

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

Today I posted of my challenge for Grocerys.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well today was Summer Rummage Sale #2.

I was hoping for a repeat of #1 with enough Profit to pay off the Credit Card Balance for this Month. Basically $205 or $265.

I was short $265 for my Credit Card Payment that is due on the first. I remembered my savings account that I am "Paying the banking Game" with (cant close until November but has no minimum balance IF I have a automatic savings transfer) and transfered out the money that the day before got automatically transfered over so really I only need $205 to pay the Bill.

In my mind a desent sale for 9 hours is $100 everything above that is extra awesome; well I brought in $86.50 so I was a little disappointed but on the other hand my other goal was to clear out clutter.

My Boyfriend brought some things over of his parents, their profit was $57 so technically I made the $100 minimum I like. It just was not my $100.

__
Lesson Learned,

The free website I used just created a NEW layout and I dont think it is as user friendly as the old layout, so that Might have affected sales.

Number two was I waited until Friday to post my ad and others that might have been planning their shopping might have missed it if they did not check friday afternoon for the Saturday Sale.

Number three: The first customer asked if i had had a sale a few weeks prior, it was a month prior then I did have alot of drivebys (cul-de-sac so easy to tell) so I might have missed a few people who did not want to stop so soon again. A May/June and a September sale like the neighbors might be better IF I am going to do two.

Number four: the neighbor puts up a sign on the other side street, i might want to invest in some signs with metal legs and post on the other street also.
__

I have decided even though I still have a lot of stuff left I am not going to do another one this year. I am going to neatly pack it up and a few items I will individually post on the free website everything else will either be packed for next year or if the neighbor still will let me add it to her sale; it will have one last harrah.

This means I can cash in my Rummage Sale Starter Bank. I usually start with $67.50 Basically One roll each of Quarter, Dime, Nickels and Pennies 4 $5 bills and 30 $1 Bills. I keep Extra $1 bills and Coin Rolls in the house and so when it was all said and done Monday when I take the Starter Bank and Profit to the bank I will be depositing $231.00

Yeah that means I have enough to pay My CC statement Balance in full and I have $26 to apply to my Bill next month or to my Food/Gas/Daycare/Unexpected Money for September.

Tomorrow I start to pack away the stuff and clean up my house. That is another reason I do not want to do another sale, I had to raid the house of every flat surface to put stuff on and so I made the house messy and I want to get it clean and keep it clean. Basically the point of the rummage sale to declutter, but it got worse before it got better.

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.
___

Yes, having vanity saved me $5.30.

I really want a footlong subway sub. I have to work until 10pm tonight so I would like to buy a footlong and eat half now for lunch and then half at 4pm for dinner BUT I am vane.

See I am at work, and I am having a great hair day. The First in like Months. So I dont feel like putting a hat on and ruining my cute hair. See I am in my work uniform and IF I leave the building I have to put on the matching hat which sucks and will mess up my hair.

I eventually will have to put the hat on thus messing up my hair and leaving a hat ring around my forehead BUT I would like to have pretty hair and unmarked forehead for as long tonight as possible because I have really missed feeling pretty when I look in the mirror.

So I am going to eat the leftovers that I have stashed in the freezer and tonight I will have some steamfresh steamers lightly sauced sauce.

I have a finished basement, it is a walkout/daylight basement so very nice.

I would like to rent out a room and have been looking on my towns free website and after doing some math I am thinking $350 or $400 per month IF they want in garage parking for one car. I am thinking $600 IF they want two bedrooms and one car parking.

I am scared, How does one start to find decent renters, this is really important as they will be sharing a home with me.

I am trying to sell stuff from around the house to get extra income but at this point I am thinking I need to do something bigger. If I get a second job then I have to get daycare plus the way my contract reads I would have to get the MOONLIGHTING approved through my employer so that is does not reflect poorly on my current employer.

I am thinking the renting of the room would be better/easier. I figure if I rent out both basement bedrooms then I can move my sons playroom/toys into the storage room. I have been slowly emptying out the storage room by getting the stuff tagged for my next rummage sale.

Any advice?

Well we had major storming last night, had a little hail but no damage. I do not think I am going to get hail damage for a LONG time. Why because I have desided once I do I am going to pay the extra/difference and go with seamless steel siding instead of the vinyl siding that I have now.

The water easement that is at the rear of the lot behind our house had major water collect in it. I took a picture of it with my four foot tall son standing by it. He looked like a toddler.

I resently rechecked the sprinkler system because I thought that I was watering only once a week but it seems that I was watering twice a week because one day while I was at home the system started. Well I fixed that so my water bill should go down.

My grass has been growing super tall super fast SO starting lastnight I actually am now only watering three zones, the boulivard (which has misters) and the zones that are on the side of the yard that meet the unseeded lot that a house is in the process of being built on. Because there is no grass next to mine in that area my grass needs more water because there is less vegitation to hold the water into the ground.

I tried to fertilize that area but rain came and it kept coming and coming so the fertilizer actually got washed away a bit early so I will need to redo it. Just going to put it on lightly since it did get a little bit that did not completely wash away.

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On a different note, We went to the Zoo on Sunday. It was my son and I and well my boyfriend. The boyfriend paid, then we caught a bite to eat. I paid for DS and I and the boyfriend paid for his. So the Zoo trip and Meal only cost me $13.11. Not bad, not bad at all.

I have desided that YES my boyfriend has issues because he tends to spend time with me in small doses which I guess I just need to get used to since I am used to a relationship where the person is always around.

But since it costs me nothing to go out and spend time with him I am just going to enjoy it and hope that eventually he gets over his issue with wanting to save his days off for cleaning and couch patato vegitation.

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.