April already???

Where did the first quarter of 2013 go? Wow! It’s been a good year so far and I’m seeing some good progress in my debt reduction and staying credit card debt free while slowly building up the savings account as well. I’ve been working a lot of overtime and I was paid for some other non work time that I wasn’t expecting, so that was a nice bonus added to the financial picture. Always nice to receive about $400 that you weren’t expecting. I’ve been working really hard and thinking about purchases before I make them and continually asking myself if it’s a need or a want. Often times I find things are wants and I put them back. The only wants I should be indulging are adding to my retirement account so that I can be financially solvent in my retirement years.  I have more than enough “stuff” so I really shouldn’t be needing anything. I rarely go shopping anymore, usually because all I do is indulge in wants, not anything I really need. Also, I find clothes I like at thrift stores for a fraction of the price of the stuff I see at the mall. My wallet really likes the thrift store prices better too. I’ve made it through my most expensive time of year and now that the big expenses of birthdays and ticket renewal for football have been met along with having the money for my annual loan payment to my parents, I’m feeling REALLY good about my financial life. I’m 4 months ahead on my car payment, but that doesn’t mean that I have been continuing to make that monthly payment. I’m working on getting that debt taken care of next. I’m hoping to have this one completely knocked out by June 30, 2014. That would be 3 ½ years early! Then it’s on to FULLY funding my Roth IRA each year. I’ve continued to contribute the match to my Simple IRA through work and it’s great to see that continuing to grow year after year. All in all, I’m feeling really good about where my money is going and the improving look of my financial future. I hope you are all seeing the same trend as me. Happy Spring!




Current debt: $227,390.55

Progress is being made…woohoo!!

OK, so I’ve made it through one family birthday already and one more to go this month (next week). Then I have a break from birthdays until the end of March. I’ve gotten my tax refund and it’s sitting in my savings waiting for my loan payment due to my parents in April and I have my football season ticket renewal coming up, but I have the money for that in my checking account. All bills are paid until March 1, so I’m feeling pretty good about things at the moment. I’ve been being really good about not overspending on my groceries and keeping tabs on my gas expenditures, trying to make smart decisions when running errands. So far this year I’ve only spent $65 on gas for my car. I cut out my Internet connection at home, I have access on my iPhone and the library is very close if I ever need more access. I’ve also cut down my cable to basic, I watch about 4 hours of TV/week, so it’s not like I’m missing out on anything. I read A LOT!! Thankfully, again the library is just down the street.  We’ve had a warmer than usual winter this year and it shows in my utility bill, it was surprisingly smaller this time than I think it has ever been at this time of year since I moved in 6 years ago.




Every year I try to give something up for lent and I’ve been giving it some thought lately as to what I will give up this year. I’ve decided that I’m going to give up alcohol. I’m not a huge drinker, but I do like a glass of wine every evening and on the weekends a couple of glasses. It’s not a big thing, but the 6+ weeks of lent will save me quite a bit of money in my grocery bill, not to mention the health benefit of not imbibing.



Other than that, not too much going on here, just waiting for spring to come…I love it when the flowers start sprouting and the days are starting to get longer.



Current debt: $230,364.87 (that’s quickly going to be under $230,000!!!)

Will I ever be able to retire???

Last week I met with my financial planner and while it was good to hear what he had to say, it was also somewhat depressing. I will be turning 41 in about a month and that is making me think how much I am looking forward to retiring someday. I’m not an extravagant person and don’t anticipate being so in retirement either, but as things look right now, even without having a lot of wants for my retirement years, I will be lucky if I can retire by the time I’m 70! UGH! I really don’t want to think about working for another 29 years! It was good for me to hear this as hopefully it will be the kick in the butt that I need to buckle down and not only contribute to my 401K, but also to get back on track to fully funding my Roth IRA each year. I haven’t added anything to that since 2008. For shame! Now that I have my credit card paid of completely and am working on the car loan, I will continue to put most of my money toward that, but my goal is to also fully fund the Roth IRA this year, that’s adding $5,500for the year. This might be a little over aggressive, but I’ll give it a try! Nothing ventured nothing gained! How are you doing on your retirement goals?




Current debt: $231,114.94 ($500 car payment hitting this Friday will put this under $231,000)

Extra money???

Is there such a thing? J What do you do with extra cash, bonus money, found money…whatever you call it? I used mine to pay down my credit card and now that I no longer have credit card debt, I thought about applying it to my car loan as that’s my next target, but I recently earned a little extra money from some surveys I did and instead of putting it toward my car loan I decided to reward myself a little and put it on my Starbucks gift card so that I can enjoy a few treats. I earn quite a bit throughout the year on surveys and I seem to have a knack for finding money while out running errands, so for a little bit at least I’m going to treat myself to a few indulgences that I had denied myself while paying off the credit card. I earned Starbucks gift cards from both Swagbucks and Bing. I’m going to allow myself to treats with these bonuses at least through April while I have less discretionary income due to making my annual loan payment to my parents and paying for my football season tickets as well as all the family birthdays that come up this time of year. After that, once May starts, I don’t anticipate the big expenses that I usually have in the first part of the year. I’ll re-evaluate what to do with found/bonus money at that point.

I hope you are all having a great start to 2013!

Current debt: $231,230.18

Credit card debt is ..........

GONE!!  I just set up my final payment on my credit card! Woohoo!  Payment will go through tomorrow and I will officially have the credit card debt gone.  My pay increase has taken affect and it's made a real difference in my paycheck.  So far, I've only spent $10 in 2013 with no plans to spend any money until Saturday.  Then I will be running all of my errands and hoping to have a quiet evening.  I'm working on planning my menu for January and will try to do the bulk of my grocery shopping then for the entire month and then make do with what I have on hand for the rest.  January is going to be my month of spending as little as possible on unnecessary items. 


The first 4 months of each year are always expensive for me as I have my football ticket renewal and the annual loan payment to my parents as well as 4 birthdays in my family by April 30.  I'm going to have to be creative about the things I come up with for those occasions, but I don't think that will be much of a problem. 

Now that the credit card debt is gone, I'm moving on to saving for the annual loan payment and knocking out the car loan.  I am working on setting up a graph to chart my progress and keep me motivated.  Does anyone know if there is an IPhone app that will help me track this? 

Woohoo!  Super excited that the credit card debt is FINALLY gone, that was the end of the debt from my divorce and it's nice to begin the year putting closure to that part of my life.  :) 

Current debt:  $231,520.74 (look at that balance going down!!!)

Happy 2013...

I hope you all had a safe and happy start to 2013.  I had a great time at a house party where I spent the night and didn't have to worry about driving after celebrating or risk being on the road with others who'd also indulged. 

Have you made any resolutions?  I'm still thinking on mine, but I'm hoping to have them pinned down in the next couple of days, by the end of the upcoming weekend at the latest.  I didn't quite reach my goal of having my credit card paid off completely by New Year's Eve, but I'm close, only $810.24 to go.  Should be completely gone by the end of the month, then it's on to the car loan and building up the savings. 

I'm working on myself a little bit more this year, doing things I want to do, not what others want me to do.  I need to do the things that will make me happy, regardless of what others might think of my decisions.  For too long, I've been doing things to please others, sometimes to my own detriment and that's not right. 

That's all for now, I have much thinking to do on what my goals and resolutions will be this year.  I'll be back soon with more.

Current debt:  $232,330.98  (I can't wait to see where this number is at at the end of this year)

How was your Christmas???

Were you able to stay on budget?  Come in under budget?  Or are you saying, "what budget?"  I am very happy to say that I came in UNDER budget and did not have to pull out the credit card once for holiday expenses.  I was hoping that I'd have the credit card paid in full by 12/31/12, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen, although it will be close.  I'm down to $1286.01 left to pay on it and I should have that paid off by mid-January.  I have a fairly large check coming at work tomorrow for some back pay that was owed to me.  Once I see exactly how much that is, I'll have a better idea of when I'll have that balance down to zero!  I also have a check coming hopefully in the next couple of days for a $122 for a reimbursement from a drug company.  It pays to look up prescriptions you are taking to see if they have an offers.  I have a face cream that I use and even with my prescription my co-pay was still $152.50.  I checked out the site and they are currently running an offer where your portion is no more than $30.  So, I quickly filled that all out and sent it in, I should be getting that check in the next couple days as well, that will all go straight to debt reduction.  My birthday is in 2 months, so I've decided that I'm not going to go to the after Christmas sales and buy stuff I don't need or want and will wait until my birthday and use any birthday money I receive in order to do some shopping for spring/summer clothes. 

For New Year's Eve I will be going to a party at my brother's house and will spend the night there.  Better to not be out on the roads that night.  I love that they have a party every year, it's very low key, lots of fun and light on the wallet.  I only have to bring what I'd like to drink and a dish to share. 

Not too much else coming up that will cost much, so it'll be nice to get the credit card knocked out and then work on the car loan next.  In April, my annual loan payment to my parents is due and I've been putting money aside each paycheck to cover that, so that'll be taken care of.  Last year marked the 1/2 way repayment so now I'm on the downhill slide to having them paid off.  Woohoo!! 

I'm still working on fine tuning my new year's resolutions, they won't all have to do with my finances.  Are you making any resolutions?  If so, what are they?  I'd love to hear what you all are working on.  I hope you had a FANTASTIC Christmas holiday and are looking forward to 2013, I know I am. 

Current debt:  $232,806.75

Holidays...bah humbug...

OK, not really, I'm just working on a plan to keep the cost associated with said holidays down.  While I've drastically reduced my gift spending over the past several years, I'm still looking for ways to cut even more.  This coming Friday my mom, sister in law and I will take the day off work and head out shopping.  I'm hoping to take care of all of my shopping on this one day and then next Monday when I take my Grandma out to do her shopping.  Other than that, I hope to steer clear of the malls and shopping.  I'm looking forward to spending some time celebrating the real reason for the season, enjoying friends and family, relaxing and reflecting. 

I was home sick this past week for 2 days and was so thankful to have paid sick leave at work.  There was NO way I could have gone to work and while I felt miserable, it was a real comfort to know that I was still going to be paid for those days, one thing off my mind while I was home and could focus on getting better. 

I'm working on thinking of what my goals for 2013 are going to be.  I'm hoping to start the new year without the credit card debt, however, there may be a small amount left to pay on that.  That will be my first priority, then I have to get the money built up to make my annual payment to my parents for my mortgage down payment loan.  That will be due in April and is nice to get it taken care of.  Then it's time to power ahead on knocking out the car loan.  Since I turned 40 earlier this year, I am focusing on planning more for retirement and the future.  It's hard to believe I've hit 40 already, I'm sure 50 will come even quicker, then 60 and so on.  It was  a real eye opener to see that 40 came so fast and I want to be able to retire at a reasonable age and enjoy life. 

Not too much going on here, I know it's going to be 2013 before I know it and a new exciting year.  I hope you all are looking forward to a joyous holiday season with family and friends and NOT getting yourself in to debt.  Remember, no one wants you to give them a gift that you can't afford. I would hate to hear that someone when in to debt in order to give me a gift.  And because I feel like that, I am not going to put myself in to debt in order to give anyone else a gift. 

Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday season! 

Current debt:  $233,562

Are you ready for the holidays???

It's hard for me to believe it's already this time of year again, where has 2012 gone?  I'm spending a quiet day at home today, not venturing out in to the chaos.  This will probably be the last weekend like this for me until the new year.  I'm enjoying watching football and baking some cookies for my lunch this weekend.  Working on my shopping list for gifts and what I'll need this week for my contribution for Thanksgiving dinner.  I took advantage of the great coupons and loss leaders at my local grocery stores and was able to get a large bag full of groceries for little to no money to donate at the food drive at work.  I've listed a bunch more things on eBay for a friend and she's going to pay me a commission for helping her, currently her items are selling for over $500! 

Dear friends were supposed to be in town this weekend, but they had to postpone the trip, probably not until after the new year now.  :(  They made the decision to postpone due to some expenses related to the trip and while I'm disappointed they aren't here, I am proud of them for making the financially smart decision to wait until the trip was more manageable for them. 

So, while there's not much to report from here, I'm enjoying the day and looking forward to a holiday season that is not as stressful as they usually are.  I feel really organized and ready for the season. 

Current debt:  $233,351 (stayed the same since last time, at least it's not going up!)

Reducing expenses...

I've been taking a look at a lot of what I thought were my "fixed" expenses and am finding that I can reduce these as well.  It had been awhile since I'd looked at my insurance rates, so I ran some quotes with different companies today and found that I could go back to Progressive which I'd had in the past and save over $500/year.  That's HUGE!!  My homeowners policy is also going to be just under $100 less per year by switching.  I had Progressive insurance years ago when my car was stolen and they were great to work with, so I'm excited about the savings and not worried about the coverage.  That $600 savings alone would put me under $1,000 left to go on my credit card debt! 

I finally turned my heat on this past Saturday night, but it didn't take much to take the chill off and I think if I'm diligent about it this year I can reduce the costs from what I paid last year. 

I took a full inventory of my pantry and have made a meal plan for the next 2 weeks.  I should only have to buy a few minimal items between now and Thanksgiving.  I know my mom will send me home with LOTS of leftovers and I won't balk at that.  Apparently she thinks I eat a lot as a single person because she always sends me home with enough food for almost a week. 

I cut my cable back somewhat too, not to just basic, but close.  I watch TV maybe a couple times a week, so it just doesn't make sense for me to have extended cable and all the extras, I don't watch enough TV to get my money's worth.  This change will save me $16/month and will really add up. 

A good friend was supposed to be coming in to town this coming weekend which I was really looking forward to, except I knew I would spend WAY too much money.  Since I put the money aside to spend while she was here, I'm going to go ahead and put it toward reducing my credit card instead.  I think I may actually get that final $1,550 paid off before New Year's Eve.  OMG, that would be the BEST way to start 2013.  Then I can plow full steam ahead in paying off the car. 

Well, that's about it for now, hope all is well with you.

Current debt:  $233,351