At least in my opinon. When I was decluttering over the long weekend I found a certificate for $20 off at McCormick & Schmick's. Now, there's nothing on their dinner menu for less than 14 (not in the main entrees anyway) so it's not someplace I frequent. But I had promised to take a friend out and when I found that the certificate didn't expire til the end of the year (I'd gotten it back in September for volunteering for something and expected it to be past it's use) I decided what the heck, I'll use it. Plus I owed her a few bucks from something else so this made us square.

We decided on the location on the waterfront and man what a nice view. I love love love looking out over the water and seeing the city lights. Granted, we were on the side that I generally like to look at but still, lights are lights and the bridges look cool at night too. The seating areas were at different level raises, where the two people tables were was in the middle so we had an unobstructed view of the big floor to ceiling windows looking out at the lights and water and city. The tables may have been set for two but they weren't tiny. Just the right size and the chairs were like small armchairs, cushy but didn't take up a ton of room.

My friend always gets fish and chips, and in anticipation of eating fish and chips tonight I'd worked out an extra 30 minutes this morning. Total bill came to $29.90. After certificate, only $9.90 plus I left $6 cash tip out of my leftover gas money. It was totally worth it. The food looked small portion wise at first but when I'd finished, I was full. And I didn't eat that much bread to begin with either before the meal. I even left a few fries since I knew it would be too much.

We sat and talked probably for longer than we should have but they didn't try to rush us out of there. Overall it was an awesome experience and I think if I ever had a special occasion to celebrate where money wasn't an issue, I may go back to that exact location. Plus I got to hang out with my friend, something I haven't been able to do for a while. I'm out of town this weekend, she'll be out of town next weekend, and we both are busy in the inbetween time.

I have $11 left over now from gas budget, will not be needing to fill before Tuesday when I get paid again. I have $12 left over from grocery, will not be needing more food for at home before Tuesday. That gives me $23 to spend on food and gas for this weekend. We're all pitching in to pay for that so it's not all on me or anything. Between the 6 of us going I'm sure we can get by with not spending too much. But we wanted to have a 'dress up' dinner and have fondue so that's potentially pricey. I'm so looking forward to getting away and not really having anything planned.

I got my dividend check yesterday! Why couldn't it have come a day earlier so I could have deposited it with the rest? Anyway...the amount of the check plus $13 pays off my CC2. So, since I know I'll be making the deposit for the bulk of it on Tuesday, I went ahead and paid the balance off!! I have money in my account that I'm holding onto for stuff to be paid on the 5th I just try not to use that money for anything else. But since I know that I'll be replacing a bulk of it, I am justifying it. Besides, I'd rather have it paid off now than next week, think of how much lower my daily average for factoring interest will be this statement! Not that it wasn't low already....Plus when I calculate NetWorth on Friday that'll be gone too! This means I can unofficially move into Phase Two and any extra monies go straight to Savings.

*happy dance*

Tuesday deposit has been made and applied. $33 this week. As I was driving home from babysitting last night I debated whether or not to make the Tuesday Deposit this week since I was paid in cash. I thought perhaps I'd just hang onto the cash for this weekend and if I didn't need it then just include it in next week's deposit. It was quite the debate in my head but I resolved it by saying that if my check from Certified had come then I would deposit it all. If it hadn't I would keep the cash. The check from Certified was not only there but was for $5 more than I was planning on, I'd forgotten it was a last minute blind check so they pay a little extra. So off to the bank I went this morning after going to CC2's website and scheduling the payment. Once it applies, the balance will be under $100 which means it will definately be paid off next week!

I realized something in the shower today. My roomate gives me a check on the 1st for rent and her part of utilities. I pay rent on the 1st but the utilities don't get paid until the 20th. I generally have enough money to cover paying all of them on the 20th so whatever she gives me is considered 'extra'. Well with the whole 'don't know what my paycheck will look like in the new year when I change my withholdings back to 1' thing I realized that I should just hang onto the extra $60 from her check and have that as a buffer for my first real check without any extra money on Jan 20. If I don't need it, bonus it'll go to savings or wherever. But if I do need it then I can rework my budget accordingly. That makes me feel a lot better knowing that.

And on to not so smart decisions. My youngest brother, the one who still owes me like $500 from picking up his rent a few months, is trying really really hard to go to school in January. He's starting out at the Community College so one semester's tuition is only going to be like $800ish plus books. He has a GI bill but that won't kick in for about 3 months. His job ends at the end of December which really is perfect timing for school but means he'll need money in the interim. Because he's applying so late, student loans will take even longer to process. So he's going to apply for a personal loan at a local credit union. Only because his job is ending in December, he needs a co-signer. And I offered to be that.

The payments are low enough that should it be necessary, I can cover it. We worked out exactly how much he'd need to fully pay for school and cover his expenses for three months (rent, electric, phone, bus pass, food) and came up with $3k. Plus he does have a part time job working at a bar but it's totally on an as needed basis on weekends and sometimes he only works two weekends in a month and if they're slow then he might not even make $50 over the course of the weekend. But it means that he'll have other potential money coming in too. He's going to call today and see what all I need to do to be a co-signer. If he goes through with this I think I'm going to have a long hard talk with him about the money and how to budget it. Since it's my neck on the line too that'll be a condition of my help. He's planning on paying on it for at least six months since he has no credit record to speak of and then he'll get it paid off as soon as possible. Once his GI bill kicks in it definately shouldn't be a problem since it'll be over $1k/mo and he'll only really need about $700 to cover all his monthly expenses.

Wow my Tuesday Deposit is going to be low this week. I didn't get paid last night, the guy forgot to bring checks so I'll get double next week. I don't know if I'll be getting a check in the mail today from Certified yet. I haven't seen the family I house-sat for since I house-sat for them so no payment for that yet. I won't be receiving the dividend check from CC2 til later in the week. But I am babysitting tonight so whatever that is I will be depositing that tomorrow. I only have $105 left before CC2 is paid off and I'm certain that next week I will be able to pay whatever is left so it'll be paid off until the statement comes out. That makes me happy.

My friend called me earlier this week asking for help getting her finances in order. I went over last night to take a look. Oh man she has a long road ahead of her. The reason its so overwhelming for her is she doesn't have any sort of set income. She never works the same amount of office hours, never has the same amount of commission (from clients), and she is far behind on many of her payments. Some CC's are only a payment behind but a few things have been sent to collection.

We looked at a few things last night. I told her it wasn't going to be an overnight thing, it will probably be March before everything is being paid on time again. We're going to babystep as much as possible. The first step, I made a list of places she needed to call and what she needed to talk to them about. The list was daunting but I reminded her that she didn't have to make all the phone calls in one day just to set a goal of by the end of the week.

It gets even more confusing because she also has her own business so some things can be paid from her business account so trying to seperate that out will be her job not mine. I'm just going to help her get back on track and create a budget system that will work for her.

She isn't keeping any sort of solid bank records. We'll work on that too at some point. She does have Quicken but she never used it. Unfortunately her computer is down right now. I have the hard drive so I can make a backup of it and we'll be buying a fresh copy of XP at some point to reinstall. (her computer didn't come with the load disks, and it's a real mess)

I'm just excited that she's asked me for help. It's one of those things that I really enjoy doing but I don't offer my services because I don't want to offend anyone. We'll be meeting again on Sunday (or at least that's the plan right now) and take a look at things again. She'll have made a couple deposits, some phone calls, and gotten another paycheck in the interim.

I finally went through last night and cleared out all the accounts I had set up in Quicken that I didn't need anymore. Car loans that had been paid off, checking accounts that I don't have anymore but still showed a balance, etc. Then I set up a new Debt Reduction Plan. I'm ignoring their suggestion of how to pay it off because they want me to pay off the loan that is .2 higher percentage than my credit cards. Fact is, the loan is fixed the credit cards aren't so personally I want to pay off the credit cards.

I reworked their payoff plan to match my Three Phase Plan as far as order of payoff goes. I did not set it up with the extra money that I'm expecting simply because I wanted a worst case senario, if push comes to shove and I have to scale things down, what does that look like. Even scaled down it shows me as being consumer debt free by 10/2010. Since my current goal is 4/2010 it makes me realize it's not totally unrealistic.

I can't wait for the totals to update each month and have Quicken update its plan based on how much I actually pay.

It's also interesting to compare where they say I will be with CC1 by 4/2010 and where I say I'll be. See, when I figure it manually, I assume that interest payment will stay the same. I know that's not true but it's just easiest to figure. That's also why my projected balance goes down every month because I recalculate based on the recent statement. They actually adjust for interest going down. Their projected balance for CC1 is about $3k less than mine.

And even when I shift into Phase Two and put money into my EF instead of CC's, my actual payment amount is more than I told Quicken. Simply because I didn't include my step brother's monthly payment because it's a temporary thing.

I'm a geek. I like charts and graphs and seeing how much of a difference a little extra here and there makes. I can't wait for next month to see the new projected figures.

Looking at my budget last night I realized that I am on paper always at -$80 every month. This doesn't really show up because my on paper budget is based on the amount I was getting before I dropped my 401k down from 8% to 3% and before I changed my withholdings from 1 to 2. I actually balance out right now. Come January I will be moving my withholdings back to 1 because this was the first year of testing my theory on how to basically not get a refund but also not owe on taxes. On the one hand, I know I'll be ok because of how my pay/budget plays out (on the 5th there's always extra money from being on call, and on the 20th I always hold out money for things that I can't pay for all of out of the 5th) but on the other I don't know what my new 'pay' will be until January 20. I don't like those kinds of unknowns.

Of course the other potential bright side to this is we get yearly evaluations and raises in January so there's the possibility that my raise will have kicked in by then. But still. It makes for a long hard look at my budget. Fortunately I really do have some wiggle room as what I pay on some things is more than required so for a couple months I could get by. Plus I do have extra money coming in, at least $25/wk from one job and an as yet unknown other weekly amount. But I don't want to stop the momentum.

I splurged on some tea yesterday. I love rooibus (sp?) tea. It's not caffinated (I'm supposed to avoid caffiene) and has a very nice flavor. A friend of mine gave me a $5 off gift cert for an online tea company and I bought their sampler pack. I have a loose leaf teapot waiting to be purchased at Amazon for when I get my next $20 Amazon gc. But in the meantime, the tea's on it's way. It came to $9.75 and came out of my 'Personal' money.

I met a friend for breakfast today. I went low key (and healthy) and got oatmeal with raisins, brown sugar, soy milk all mixed together and a couple slices of apple and banana on top. It was only $4. I had water to drink and left a dollar tip. After grocery shopping yesterday and eating out a couple of times already I have $57 left to last til the 5th. Next shopping trip list has already been started but nothing is necessary yet so I'm going to go on Saturday. Although, I am picking up Papa Murphy's pizza for potluck tonight, that'll be $7 and will come out of my grocery budget.

I'm not preparing Thanksgiving Dinner. I am bringing a dish though, the ingredients that I needed were picked up last night. I'm hoping there'll be some leftovers I can come back home with (of my own dish that is). If not, that's ok too. Small price to pay for Thanksgiving Dinner.

I filled up on gas and have $17 left over as well. We'll see how long the tank lasts. I am going to just wait til it gets to half (really 3/4ths the way my tank works) and put the rest in at that point. The way gas is going up it'll probably take it all. But I don't have much by way of long distance driving to do for a while at least.

I picked up the yummiest bread. I'm working really hard at exercising and eating healthy with the overall intent to loose weight but that's not the direct motivation. Someone mentioned that sprouted wheat bread is better so when I was at Trader Joe's I picked some up. It's only 90 calories, .5 gram of fat, and 2 grams of fiber per slice. It is heavy but it doesn't taste nasty like I've experienced before. And it costs about the same as the other Sara Lee Delightfuls bread I was getting before. It's twice as many calories but the rest of the numbers are the same. And according to http://www.traineo.com I'm not eating all the calories I should be anyway.

I'm really curious to see what my numbers look like at the end of the month. So I'm waiting with baited breathe to be able to post new numbers. It's all a waiting game for me. I wait for the next paycheck. I wait for the next Tuesday Deposit. I wait for the end of the month. So I guess technically next I'm waiting for another Tuesday Deposit.

I dropped $161 into my bank account today. $10 for something I'll be paying for for the beachhouse trip and $151 for CC2. I actually made the payment for $153 because when all was said and done there was $22 and change left in my bank account and I like to just leave a $20 and change cushion. I requested the dividend check from CC2 today so I should see it potentially by the end of next week, definately the first week in December. I'm going to laugh if CC2 is completely paid off by the time I get my hands on that check.

Today's been a different sort of day. I slept at the house I was dogsitting at so I couldnt' pay my bills this morning. Fortunately, the only things that absolutely must be paid today are on automatic payments. I saw the pending deposit in my account over the weekend so I knew how much wouuld be there and already filled in my budget spreadsheet just to see where things stood. I felt ok with pulling out my food and gas money this morning.

I'm planning on doing a little grocery shopping after work and filling up with gas. Hopefully I won't be so hungry that I can wait til after I get home to eat dinner.

The family I dog sat for this weekend told me today they will pay me the next time they see me. So I've got that to add to next week's deposit since I won't see them til Thursday.

And finally, a picture of me. Not really that exciting. I was trying to take a self portrait with a camera phone and show off my red streaks at the same time (to show a friend a couple weeks ago). It sort of worked.

Ok so I didn't have enough gas to make it til tomorrow. So I relented and broke into the cash waiting to be deposited on Tuesday for CC2 and put $10 in. I haven't decided if I'm going to take $10 out of the gas budget and put it back in the Tuesday Deposit box or not.

I talked to a gal tonight who's kids I watched (in part) during the short Monday night stint. She is continuing on with the Monday night meetings and will be needing a sitter. We haven't worked out pay yet, I honestly have no idea how much to charge. For two kids, 3 and under, I get $30 regardless of time if I have to put them to bed. If they're already in bed I get $20. I don't really care, I figure I'm doing my friends a service and just let them pay me whatever.

However this situation is a little different. It's three kids between the ages of 5 and 10. I'll be putting them to bed at some point, don't know about dinner. Probably will be there for about 3.5 hours. I told the mom that whatever they decided would be fine. She laughed and said she said the same thing when she was in my position and now the tables are turned. They only paid $10 for the sitting when I was doing it, because it was organized through church and their scale was $5/kid or $10/family. But I actually got $25 for the night. And the distance wasn't that great that I had to travel. They are set for this week but will need me for sure next week. We'll just play by ear. I'm just happy to have a new source of income, however slight it might be.

My brother paid me $50 so once I can pull that out of his account (I'm a co-owner of his savings account) I think my weekly deposit total is: $151. I'm quite pleased with that bite taken out of CC2.

Phase One. Eliminate CC2.

Statement balance difference: -$398.71
Total Payments: $650.00
Total charges and fees: $251.22

The charges were expected and extra was paid from EF to cover them. I expect that the New estimated payoff date will actually be correct. I am hoping to pay the entire balance off before the next statement, but there'll still be a little interest that had acrued so it will be January before I see a $0 balance.

Prior estimated payoff date: 3/20/2006
New estimated payoff date: 1/20/2006

Phase Two. Build up EF to $1,000

Between the three accounts, taking out the expected expenses and adding in regular budget amounts my savings has decreased by $177.96. However I'm not that dissapointed in that number considering I spent $273 so it's bouncing back nicely.

Phase Three. Pay off as much of CC1 as possible by 4/15/2010.

Statement balance difference: -$317.08
Total payments: $523
Total charges and fees: $205.92

I am no longer using CC1 to pay bills.

Previous potential balance by 4/15/2010: $6,665.47
New potential balance by 4/15/2010: $6,096.99

Only $1,309.74 to go before things get back to normal on this card.

---

CC2 update.

This week so far I have the following in hand:

30.00 friend paying me back for something
26.00 Certified check
30.00 babysitting
-----
86.00 Confirmed payment

25.00 Childcare on Sunday
60.00 Brother making a payment
-----
85.00 Potential

171.00 Possible payment. This makes me Very Happy since the balance is about $258.

I will be requesting a dividend check for $58.39 on Monday. But I don't kow how long that will take to get here.

---

Old habits die hard. Today we're supposed to all get together to celebrate our birthdays. All four of us were born in November. Plus one of my SIL's has an October birthday that I missed. Well, SIL's debit card number got stolen and $500 was charged to it before it was caught. Then Brother P's check was $300 less than they were expecting. They get paid weekly. They bought a house this past year that's about 50 miles one way into town. So it's quite a hike for them to come. So they won't be joining us. Then I talked to Step Bro and they're not doing so hot either, but they're still coming. Other Brother is the one I've been bailing out recently so I know he's not doing the best, but he did just get paid so he's ok right now. All told, I'm the most financially stable of the four of us. So this morning the thought entered my head, I'll just pick up lunch for everyone. Which of course, means charging it. Then I stopped, stepped back and realized, that's part of the reason I'm in debt to begin with. Not the entire reason, but definately a good chunk. I will Not be doing that after all. I have $12 in my wallet for lunch (I pulled the $7 out of the dollar jar to make it be $12), shouldn't be a problem since I always drink water and I know I can find something on Red Robins menu that after tip won't be more than $12. I will probably be going out to lunch tomorrow after church. I have $7 in my bank account that should do nicely if the occasion arises. If it doesn't, I'll go home and eat. I'm meeting someone for coffee today and I'm going to suggest Starbucks because I have a $5 gc for there. I get paid on Monday, the pending deposit already shows up in my bank account today so I know how much it's going to be. Looks like just enough to cover everything. Unfortunately, nothing really extra to throw at CC2 but I can live with that.

I almost had to resort to that today. There isn't a Costco close enough for me to justify having a membership so I don't. But when I went to pick up a refill today they initially wanted $136 for my Rx. Umm. They said it had been denied as my insurance card had expired in 6/06. That's news to me since I've been using it for over a year and this is the first time I've had problems with it. They took my card, and called again. Got everything straightened out fortunately. Not before a slight bit of panic set in though. I would have had to charge it in order to get it imediately and then pull all the money out of my medical savings to cover the charge. Ugh.

I looked up Costco's prices a while back though just to have an idea. And for this particular drug, with no insurance, it was only $57. Definately would have been worth the drive over there to pick it up had they insisted on me paying that. Providing of course that I could have either gotten a new Rx from the Dr or at least some samples to tide me over. I hate scares like that.

I am seriously almost giddy with anticipation that I'll have CC2 paid off before the December statement comes out. Of course, it will have a small amount on it from the interest that acrues until I pay it off but it won't be much.

Yesterday I came home to find a check from Certified for $26. Sweet! I knew it was coming just didn't know exactly when. So that means I should be expecting the next one next week, since the first two of the three jobs I'm expecting pay from them for happened a week apart. That makes my anticipated payment on CC2 on Tuesday to be $101.

Then this morning I got a call from the gal I'm babysitting for tomorrow, asking if I can house/dog sit this weekend. I've never done this for them before, so I honestly don't know if I'll be paid for it or if it'll just be a 'eat whatever you want while you're here' type deal. I don't mind not getting paid but I'm curious too. Though they may not need me, their regular dog sitters haven't gotten back to them yet so I'm a backup plan. I'm ok with that.

Tomorrow is Brother's payday, I'm hoping to get a few bucks from him as well but I'm not counting it til I talk to him about it. Monday is my payday, I don't know yet how much I can expect to pull out of it to pay towards CC2. Last time it was just $30 but I think it'll be less this time.

And now for just a few of the 'facts you probably don't know about me' Nothing too personal really.

* We moved every summer when I was a kid because of my dad's job. Because of this I was very shy as a child, what was the point of making friends if I was going to be leaving them.

* I have technically five blogs that I keep up. This one for finances, one that I've had since 2001 for 'everything', one at myspace for randomness, one that no one knows about so I can talk about things that I don't want people reading my 'everything' blog to read about, and a new one for knitting.

* I have an overactive imagination. This is a bad thing when it comes to my heart condition. Especially when I insist on watching shows like Grey's Anatomy that seems to have more than it's fair share of heart-paitents-that-have-things-go-terribly-wrong.
But it's a good thing when it comes to my heart condition when the dr tells me I need to exercise more to help ensure that I don't need a transplant in 20 years. I am now up to exercising intentionally 6 days a week, 3 days at the gym, 3 days with videos at home.

* The internet and chatting online has made me a better/bolder person offline. Not completely but definately an improvement.

* I love to read, but never have the time.

* I am addicted to TV. I realize this so I solve it by not turning it on. Once it's on it's hard to turn off. Even at midnight when there's nothing on but infomercials.

* I love to learn. I have two BS degrees. I'm only using one of them and as of late have decided perhaps it's not that big of a deal if I don't use the second one. (Computer Science with Business Emphasis is the degree I'm technically using right now, Accounting is lying dormant except within the sphere of personal finance)

* I have worked at my job for 9.5 years. I drag my feet finding another because either the pay won't support my debt, or I've been too long in one place and I'm not as knowledgeable as I should be in the tech industry.

* Our family's first computer was a TI keyboard that you connected to the TV. It had BASIC on it and I copied/tweaked a program from the manual when I was 9. Even though I studied Computer Science and was good in it, I didn't have a real computer until my Jr year of College.

And that's enough of that. I'd say if you want to know more you could check out my 'everything' blog but that's not going to happen because I don't want the two worlds to collide.

Post #2 today.

I am salary. There isn't much change in my pay month to month...except my on call nights. During 'normal' business function, I have the same number of nights each month. However, business rarely is normal. It always seems like someone's on vacation or there's a holiday or whatever and that makes it so I have more than the usual number of on call nights. Today, one of my co-workers wasn't feeling well and went to the ER. He was scheduled for cell phone tonight. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have plans tonight to go to dinner and a movie with a friend. That's not something I do when I'm on call. But the plans were already made and by the time it was realized that the guy in the ER was on for tonight, there was no one else but me left to pick up the slack.

I told one of the owners about my plans and he gave me permission to 'ignore' the phone during the movie since these are special circumstances. I try very hard to not plan anything like that when I'm on call and will not take this as a sign that it's ok. This is a special circumstance.

All that to say, wheee! I get a little more in my December 5th check because I'm on call tonight! Not too much more, we get $35/night flat rate and it seems to work out to be about $17.50/night after taxes and 401k are accounted for. But I'm not complaining. And it sounds like that customer training thing I was supposed to do ages ago might actually be happening. Providing that the customer still needs training. It's been so long and she's been calling in when she needs help that it's possible she's good to go. It'd be interesting to get out of the office for a day, and make a few extra bucks on mileage. But if it doesn't happen, I'm not totally bummed about it.

Stopped by the store today to pick up salad mix (bogo) and bananas. That's the last of the needed grocery shopping until Monday (payday). I have $15 in my wallet from leftover grocery and $7 in my wallet from leftover gas. My gas gage is at about a quarter so tomorrow when I pass by one of the cheaper gas stations I'll put the last $7 in. I don't want to pull what I did last time, filled up with 13.17 gallons and I have a 13 gallon tank. Plus I have a little bit of extra driving to do this weekend so better safe than sorry in my book.

Tonight I'm going out, dinner and a movie. The movie is $3 to get in, the slice of pizza at the movie will be $3 and change. That'll leave me with $8. Saturday is our 'celebrate all birthdays at once' lunch at this amazing and cheap italian place. $8 should cover mine. If it doesn't, I'll have also along with me the $7 I have stashed in my dollar jar.

I'm fairly certain I'm ok as far as everything else is concerned. I got a clinic bill for $12, I'm going to send in $20 because I'm still waiting for my Echo to get settled and I know I'll owe a good chunk for that. But I'll mail the payment on Saturday, it will get to the clinic before it's due but it won't get processed before Monday when I get paid and will come out of my Medical portion of the budget for that paycheck. That way I don't touch the Medical savings account I just set up.

I'm still feeling a little anxious. Like I'm forgetting something. Like I should have kept out the $25 cash I got for babysitting, instead of depositing it and applying it to my CC2, just to have as a cushion. But I know if I had done that it would just have been spent so I know I did the right thing.

I have $7 in my checking account and there's always the EF if absolutely necessary. But I don't think it'll come to that. I was sort of hoping some of my extended family would be coming to the birthday thing, they have a tendancy to pick up the tab for everyone. Is it bad to wish they were there partially because they pay for things? I really do want to see them too, that's not the only reason I'm dissapointed.

I am so stoked! I have an $85 deposit waiting by the door because I'm going to the bank today. Tuesday is bank day. And I just went to the CC2 website and posted it. It was payment #4 out of 4 payments allowed online in a billing cycle. And...it brings my current balance to well under $300! Last month the interest was almost $10, even if interest is the same this month (which it won't be) it won't go over $300.

Depending on how this next month goes it's concievable that I could have it paid off by the end of the year. I am stoked about this! I have $75 potential to pay next week ($30 in hand, check from a friend that was post dated, and $25 from my regular childcare, and $20 from babysitting this weekend) and I'm hoping for more because my brother did a side job this past weekend that gave him enough money that when he gets paid on Friday there's no reason why he can't make a payment to me as well. Not to mention that I get paid on Monday too, though the checks on the 20th usually aren't as much of a boost to the payoff. Plus I'm going to request a dividend payout from the card that'll be at least $55. Just don't know when I'll get that check.

Of course I won't consider it officially paid off until I get a statement with a $0 balance. But as soon as the balance online says $0 I can start unofficially moving on to Phase 2.

First the eh news. I realized that I missed my SIL's birthday back in October. On the one hand I could argue that they could have invited me out to do something (if they did celebrate it) and since they didn't, I wasn't obligated to buy her anything. On the other hand, I'm a nice person and the past two birthdays I've gotten her something so there's no real reason why I shouldn't this year. All of the siblings are getting together next weekend for a 'celebrate all November birthdays in one shot' meal. I have gifts for my two brothers and one step brother and now my SIL as well.

I bought her a cd ($13.99) plus two envelopes that serve as cd gift wrap ($3). I already had bought one of my brothers a cd a while ago for his birthday. Total spent at cd store: $16.99 (we don't have sales tax in OR)

Then a friend of mine came by who's been sort of housebound. Partially by her own choice. She doesn't work and since I had a rare weekday off I called her so we could hang out. We went for a walk and decided to go get dinner. Originally I'd suggested Coldstone, because I have a coupon for a free dish of ice cream. But she needed real food so we went to cheap mexican instead. I ate too much, but the food was cheap. Total spent at restaurant: $3.95 for a chicken quesadilla paid for by grocery money.

Since we'd eaten more than our fair share we took a longer route home, and stopped by Fred Meyer's because I wanted to see if this bag I'd noticed there was any cheaper than the last time I'd stopped by. Granted I now have no money for it but was in the area. I found the bag, now 30% off instead of 25% off but still more than I cared to spend. My friend said it didn't look like me and was too small for what I wanted anyway. I actually agreed with her for the most part, glad that I now didn't have the temptation of buying the bag. Only before we left we wandered over to the hats and I started trying on funny ones. I am a hat person. Hats look good on me. Even the crazy ones that I would never wear. We found a simple one that actually looked really really good. I thought it was 25% off which would make it $9 and in a moment of weakness I bought it. Total spent at Fred Meyer's: $8.40.

The cd store total was already more than what I had left of my play money for the payperiod. Which means the rest of it and the FM purchase came out of my cushion. *sigh* I now have $7.76 in my account instead of $20. Or will once everything that's supposed to clears.

The only good news in all of this was...when I went to pull money out of my grocery funds for dinner, I noted with delight that instead of the 1 $20 bill I thought was left, there were actually 2! So I'm definately good for food for the rest of the pay period. The stuff on my list right now is just restock and the list is short.

I just opened a second ING account for medical savings. I have lots of things coming up to pay for, new eyeglasses in January, eye exam, sometime next year I need a crown, not to mention whatever tests need to be run for my heart. This month was the first that I didn't have to use the money allocated in my budget for 'medical'. Ok, let me rephrase that, this was the first month I didn't have to use any money aside from my regular medications.

So it occured to me that instead of leaving it in my checking account where I can 'borrow' from it, I should move it to a savings account. But not my emergency fund because I want to keep it seperate.

The plan as it stands right now is if I have a dr apt that month, I'll keep the budgeted money in my checking account until after the apt. Spend whatever I need to up to the budgeted amount and whatever is left over, if anything, gets transferred to the medical savings account. If I don't have a dr apt that month, anything not going to medications gets transferred to the account. That way when I finally get a bill for tests and the like, I have some place to draw from.

I waited til after my dentist apt today to actually open the account. My cleaning was covered 100% but I didn't know if I was due for XRays or not. I wasn't. So the account has been initially funded with $100. Since I haven't seen anything from my ins yet about the Echo I got in July, I doubt I'll get a bill from the clinic this month.

Post #2 of the day.

I miss having a laptop. When mine died it was a very sad day. I had decided that when the time came to replace it I would get a Mac. I do need a computer for work, and work has kindly lent me (possibly given but I'm treating it as lent) a desktop to use. It's older, clunky, takes forever to do things, is noisy so I hibernate it when I'm not using it, has only one working USB port out of four, etc. Not to mention the fact that if I ever do get another job, they'll probably want their computer back. Or not.

Anyway...

I got to thinking about it, especially since I'm really close to closing out Phase One of my Three Phase Plan (you can't tell cuz I won't be updating it til the next statement comes out but I'm very excited about the potential). What I'm thinking is, after I finish Phase Two (savings accounts totalling $1k), perhaps I could buy a laptop.

The small MacBooks run just $1099. It's not razzle dazzle but it's functional. Of course the one I really want is the black one but only one of the higher end ones comes in black.

I wouldn't touch my savings but rather could do a balance transfer on CC2 (that'll be empty) and have six months to pay it off at 6.99%, vs applying for Apple Credit and hoping for 13.74%. Whatever isn't paid off in 6 months of me putting every extra dime onto the credit card will be paid for out of savings. Total would actually be more like $1348 because I'd want the extended warrenty. Knowing my luck with computers, and how long my last one lasted, this is a necessity for me.

But it really is a want more than a need. I'm trying so hard to pay things off and changing habits (ie I rarely by books or dvds anymore) but having a functioning computer that is Mine really is an important thing to me. It's something to think about at least.

I signed up a while ago (saw the link on another pfblog) for this mail survey thing where they send you international mail and you enter in the date you received it so they can track transit time. The first month I got an email saying to look for an email with payout info but I never saw it. I also thought that since it was my first month, perhaps I didn't do enough to qualify for payout.

Fast forward to this month when I got another email stating to watch for a payout email and I still didn't see it. I gave it about 5 days then I emailed them and inquired about it.

Today I got my payout from both months, so $40 total. Only instead of paypal like I was hoping for, they use 800giftcertificate.com I debated about getting dining certificates, then realized that a] I'm trying to eat healthy and that's hard to do eating out and b] I don't eat out that often at least not at the restaurants available to me.

I had decided to just go with Macy's because I could use some new clothes and figured $40 would at least get me something there but I checked the list of places one more time in case I missed something.

And there it was...Amazon.com The clouds opened, the sun was shining, and I now have $40 to spend at Amazon. The reason I'm so happy about that is there's a couple things I've really wanted to get, specifically dvds of the workout I currently do at home to replace the video tapes that I'm sure aren't going to last much longer. However, from the cover it looks a little different than the workout I have and I didn't want to spend the money and find out it's the wrong one. I've tried some of her newer workouts and I don't like them as much. (Walk Away the Pounds by Leslie Sansone).

If they're not the ones I wanted, and not ones that I like, then it's not as much of a big deal if it wasn't really my own money that I spent it on. I'm waiting til Friday to actually buy anything since I'm curious to check out their Friday Sale. I never check it out because I rarely have money to spend. But now I do!

Perhaps in the future I'll still get the Amazon.com gc's but spend it on food instead. Hmmm.

I got an email today about the next book club meeting. We'll be reading Life After God. It sounded really interesting but then I noted the date of the bookclub meeting. It's when I'll be at the beachhouse. I still tried to get it from the library because I like reading but they didn't have it. So I thought, why not just buy it anyway? I found it on Amazon, used for under $2. But then add in shipping and it's closer to $6. Eh. I decided against it. It'd be different if I was actually going to make it to the meeting...but I'm not.

Made a nice hefty payment on CC2 yesterday, $347. Of that $218 was new charges that I'd added recently. No more of that though. Soon as the next statement comes out I'll be having them send me the cash back check and will apply it to the balance once I get it. If I play my cards right, I'll have the balance under $300 before the statement runs. That is exciting to me.

I only have one more week of my temporary childcare gig. I don't know if they'll need sitters again for the next run of classes but I imagine with the holidays those won't even start til beginning of the year. I still have my every Sunday gig and potential extra from Pinecone, babysitting for friends, and Certified Reports. But that's more sporatic. Ah well it was helpful while it lasted.

I really like the way I've been handling all this extra money. It comes in and goes right back out without me actually planning on having it. That way my savings account goes up and my credit cards go down without really any effort (except to do the deposits and transfers).

I'm now expecting one Pinecone check and three Certified Reports checks in the future. Just don't know when exactly to expect them. Plus $60 still from friends who haven't paid their portion of the beach house yet (will get $30 tonight). Plus $520 that my brother owes me but he's been seriously strapped for cash so I haven't bothered him about it. I figure it's better for him to not pay me back and make ends meet than to pay me back and have to borrow it again.

I am anxious to move onto Phase Two of my plan. We'll see how fast I can get there.

Because some friends and I are going to a beachhouse, and I sent in a check for the whole thing while they are slowly paying me back, my paycheck today is very confusing. Even for me. So here's a rough summary.

All bills have been paid.
$100 is being held out for 'Medical' because I'm anticipating a bill from the clinic and it hasn't arrived yet. Plus I have a dentist apt next week and I don't know if I'll have to pay anything.
$134 was left over to pay on CC2 but that payment is on hold pending transfers from online savings accounts.
My step brothers allotment has finally showed up so was able to pay an extra $100 on CC1.
$20.24 has been left in the bank account as a cushion.

My tires cost more than anticipated, $197 instead of $140. I did put them on my card and pulled the money out of all three savings accounts to cover it. I think I pulled evenly so as to not completely drain any one account. It'll be interesting to see how much I can build back up by the end of the month. I paid this with CC2 and will make the combined payment of $344 (paycheck extra, tires and Target) as soon as the money transfers from my savings accounts.

My hair cut and color ran $55 and I left him a $20 tip. I am so in love with the color. It looks awesome. And it should blend well so that I can wait another year to get it done again. But I had to pay with a check (fortunately a friend mentioned she'd written a check when she went to see him but couldn't remember why) because he's had trouble with the credit card machine so he doesn't use it.

I also spent another $12 at Target and silly me grabbed CC2 instead of my debit card. I needed more shampoo/conditioner since I was completely out of conditioner for color treated hair, and my shampoo for color treated hair was almost gone. Plus I got some other product that hopefully will tame the flyaway always sticking up hair. And...and...I splurged a little because their dollar spot had some of their asian line on clearance for 75% off. So I got a sake set (little container and cups), two sets of two tea cups, and a vase for $0.62 each. I rarely spend like that but thought perhaps I can keep them to give as gifts when the occasion arises.

Since today is payday I'm going grocery shopping. I have a growing list that I've been building all week in anticipation of needing it by the time payday rolled around. We don't get the paper but we do get the food day which has the ads. I was thumbing through Safeway since I shop there and Trader Joes most often, and found their 'buy 10 items mix/match and get $10 off instantly'. Now if their placement of that announcement and the items below it are correct (ie that the items below are the qualifying items) then I think I'm going to make out like a bandit. They have cake mixes, $1.98 each, buy one get one free. And cookie mixes 2 for $3. I could get 6 cake mixes and 4 cookie mixes for under $2. But I'm going to verify when I got to the store what items fall under that category. Since it isn't something I normally buy I don't want to stock up on a 'good deal' and not have cash at the end of the payperiod for things I really need.

I'd already updated my sidebar totals this morning but here's my Net Worth report for October:

Net Worth Report for October 2006
Assets $ Diff % Diff
Cash $641 $129 25.20 %
Retirement $24,176 $837 3.59 %
Cars $2,305 ($50) -2.12 %
Total Assets $27,122 $916 3.50 %

Debts $ Diff % Diff
Student Loans $36,312 ($116) -0.32 %
Credit Card $17,330 ($580) -3.24 %
Other $9,013 ($165) -1.80 %
Total Debts $62,655 ($861) -1.36 %

Net Worth ($35,533) $1,777 4.76 %

I'm pretty pleased with the result. Now if I can just keep at it. Though I am anticipating a bite to savings this next month I also know some of my debt will be reduced faster because of other factors. So it should balance out.

I'm trying to figure out if I can transfer my 401k to an IRA or a Roth IRA. Because I'm still working for this employer, I'm not sure I can. And I'm worried about the tax consequences. So we'll see.

I've also decided that every payday I'm going to pull out from my change jars 3 quarters, 2 dimes, 1 nickel, and 4 pennies to put in my car's ashtray. Because I pay cash for gas I like to have exact change. In Oregon you can't pump you're own gas and many of the stations I frequent the attendant is also the cashier (ie they wander around with wads of cash). Since I don't want them to top off, I want to make sure I can give them exact change. Once my ashtray fills completely then I'll stop doing that but until then I would rather be safe than sorry.

I was looking at my 401k quarterly statement and wondering if I needed to rebalance it. I basically just set everything when I opened it 8 years ago and haven't looked bad. I've had my good quarters and bad quarters. But overall I'm still quite pleased that even though I lowered my percentage of contribution (work doesn't match anything), I still had an investment gain of 3 times what my contribution was for the last quarter.

So here's where I stand right now:
Balanced fund. Originally set at 50% currently at 49.73%
Cash Reserves. Originally set at 5% currently at 4.41%
Common Stock Fund Z. Originally set at 20% currently at 20.49%
Large Cap Growth. Originally set at 20% currently at 18.64%
Technology. Originally set at 5% currently at 6.65%

When I make my contributions, the original percentage is how it gets applied to the various funds. But when you look at the grand totaly, the actual percentage each fund contributes to the total is the current percentage.

The categories break down as follows:
Cash Reserves Fund is a Money Market
Balanced Fund is Moderate Allocation
Common Stock Fund Z is Large Blend
Large Cap Growth Fund is Large Growth
Technology Fund is Specialty-Technology

I have no real idea what any of that means. It sounds like it's mostly stocks with perhaps a few bonds. I'm honestly not sure. We changed companies in the mix, they just transfered our stuff over to their comperable funds. Then that company changed hands and merged with someone else. It's really confusing. Half the time I don't know that it's my quarterly statement in the mail til I open it. Though the size of the envelope usually gives it away.

I have a list of all the possible funds, their current quarter returns, and their predicted, or maybe past, returns. I just wish I knew more about this stuff to figure out if I should change things up or not. It seems to be doing ok on it's own...