Phase One. Eliminate CC2.

COMPLETED!!!

Phase Two. Build up EF to $1,000.

Between the three accounts, taking out a little for airfare and adding in regular budget amounts plus extra my savings has increased by $129.83 since the end of last month. Rock on. Granted it's not the expected increase of $155 but considering I pulled out $90 I know I totally would have exceeded the expected.

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

Statement balance difference: +$1,758.15
Total payments: $523
Total charges and fees: $248.70

Previous potential balance by 4/15/2010: $3,916.24
New potential balance by 4/15/2010: $6,701.73

Right now only $2,141.74 to go before things get back to normal. This includes the $2,000 balance transfer I did for my brother. Hopefully he can start paying me back soon so I can eat away at it faster.

---------

I updated my Quicken balances. It now shows a payoff date of 2/1011 but that's because I don't enter in the lower interest rate because that only applies to a small portion of it. The interest saved now it shows as $781.42

---------

Since my raise won't be in effect til next month, I'm really glad I held out $60 to cover the budget. I didn't really need all of it though. But I'll still do it next month til I know what my actual amounts will be. I wound up with $48 left over, I like to keep $20 as a cushion so I transferred $28 to savings since that's the Phase I'm in right now.

And I found out that I can't get glasses at the cheap place I found online. My prism is too heavy. So looks like I'll be staking out LensCrafters and Binyons after all looking for a good deal.

Just got word that reviews have been postponed for a couple more weeks. There's a few things in the works that will potentially have an impact and until more is known then everything else is on hold. Ah well. So I won't really know the impact of my raise (if there is one) until Feb 20th. Sort of a bummer but whatever. It's all good still.

I didn't drive the past two days so that was nice for saving on gas. And now there's four of us all together that carpool to a meeting once a week so with the rotation it means I'll only have to drive once a month. That's nice because it's a bit of a drive out there (from 30th to 162nd with no easy freeway travel so it's all surface streets).

I am anxious for my check tomorrow. It'll be the first with my regular withholdings. I suppose I could have left it as it was and just changed it at the end of the year but I'd rather rip the bandaid now than later.

I decided to not do the cruise I was contemplating next January. Whether or not the band I like will be one of the many included, I have a better vacation to plan for in March of 2009. It'll be a sort of graduation celebration for my best friend so we're planning on doing things up right. I figure, if I can save the money and pay cash, then I can splurge on things I wouldn't normally since it'll be a special occasion. We'll see how that goes. I have a thought about how to fund the vacation account but I'm not ready to actually start it yet.

I will be riding up with my best friend's parents in March so I can help her pack and move to Utah. I put in my vacation request and it was approved. Now all that's left is to buy the plane ticket. Soon as the $90 transfers from Emigrant I'll do that. Southwest has an awesome deal right now, I can get a one way ticket for just under $90 from Salt Lake to Portland. I'm buying it now (has to be purchased by Jan 22nd to get it at that price anyway) and if something comes up and I don't go now I can use that later on another flight with Southwest. Right now that'll be coming out of my EF but my hope is once I get my vacation fund set up I will be able to pull that sort of thing from there instead.

Payday was today. I can't tell by this check what my regular pay will be because of the extra that's included from being on call. That will have to wait for next check. But perhaps I'll get my review before then, that would be nice.

When all was said and done, even with holding onto $60 for bills on the 20th, I still had $117 left over. More than enough to pay those extra things I needed/wanted. I'm going to call and schedule an oil change next week, giving me the weekend to try and find my prepaid punch card. Because if I can find the punch card that's one less thing I have to pay for. I decided to wait on the yarn store. I went ahead and spent the gift card I had for there to start on socks and I still haven't gotten whatever my best friend is sending me for Christmas. But I don't need the needles just yet so they can wait.

I did get a nice surprise in the mail. My uncle finally sent me the money to pay me back for the concert tickets. Total was $82.43, he sent me a check for $100. Since I'm stashing away extra unexpected money, I deposited $80 back into savings and kept out $20 to go towards my Zoo pass. That makes my total so far $45 and a Zoo plus pass is $59 so I'm almost there. As long as I can get it before summer so I can take advantage of the concerts then I'll be happy.

All the medical type things I have to pay for this month look like they'll be covered above and beyond what my budget is. That makes me happy, more to go into my medical savings account. But it's staying in checking until I'm done with appointments and prescriptions since there's a couple extra this month. I need to call the dentist once I have $500 in that account and find out how much my portion of a crown will be. The temporary seems to be holding ok at least.

401k meeting was today. Our funds got bought by Wespac although the transfer hasn't happened yet so we can't actually dictate what money we want to go where until that happens.

They have quite a few options to choose from, all but like three of them were in the 4s and 5s as far as star rating on Morningstar is concerned. Because we're an institution there's no fees on trades so we can log on every day and change things if we want. Once it's all set up of course.

I think I've decided what I want to do. I took the little risk assesment quiz again to see where I fell and I'm still in the 'Balanced' range. Basically 60% stocks and 40% bonds. I picked out about 4 stock funds and 1 bond fund. I plan on putting $4k into each stock fund and the rest into the bond. Now it's just a wait and see..

------------

I sort of use Quicken as my envelope system. I make 'future' payments with amounts I'm setting aside for use later. For example, I hold out $100 for rent out of my check on the 20th to go towards the next month's rent so I enter it as a payment on the 4th of the following month and then use the Ending balance as what I pretend my actual bank balance is.

I am out of gas. I had to run errands this morning and used more than I'd planned. I've put in all of my gas budget, the last bit was enough for 2 gallons which is about 40 miles of all city driving. I'm up to 26 miles driven so far, and have at least 21 to go before payday (Friday). So I 'borrowed' $40 out of one of my 'envelopes'. I'll put gas in tonight or tomorrow morning and fill it. Then I'll pay back the 'envelope' on Friday as soon as I get paid. It really struck me as funny how ingrained I've gotten to pretending money isn't in my account, I was actually panicing trying to figure out how to do everything I needed to on fumes.

I don't plan on doing this often but it's nice to have that 'oh yeah' moment.

--------------

Anyone have tips on how to keep oranges from going bad? Normally I only buy enough fruit to get me through the week but I only had my Costco card to buy food with so I bought an 8 lb bag of oranges. I've eaten 4, and have had to toss 4 because of mold. There's 5 left, well 1 in my lunch so that one's ok but then 4 more at home.

I suppose I could keep them in the fridge but my teeth are sensitive so I don't think about putting fruit in the fridge because I can't eat it right away. However I could just store it in there and it should be room temp by the time I eat it at lunch. Hmm. Anyway.

-------------

On last thing. My best friend is moving from Seattle to Utah for 18 months to go through a Nursing program. She's very excited about it and I don't know that I'll get to see her as often because of it. I'm working out my schedule for the end of my vacation time and I got a schedule from her of their tenative move plans. Her parents are driving up from CA and towing a UHaul trailer (though it'd be more cost effective to pick up the trailer in WA) and then they'll spend a day packing it, another two days driving, and then a day unpacking.

I wanted to go help her move, it's a big life change and I really support her in it. But original dates made it impossible. However it looks like it just might work out. I could catch a ride with her parents as they pass through Portland and fly back from Salt Lake. Right now tickets are $137 for one way and according to Farecast ticket prices will be heading back up in the next 7 days so buying it now is a wise move. Of course the ticket is non refundable but I'm going to call and make sure I'm reading it right, that I can use it for another ticket on that airline later if I cancel it. I figure I'll probably be making at least one flight out to see her in the next year if nowhere else.

I'm going to wait to actually talk to her about it before doing anything since it's still dependant on when her dad can get time off work. It's also dependant on when another friend's baby arrives because the front part of my vacation will be spent helping that family. It would mean dipping into savings to pay for the flight.

I deposited the balance transfer check on Tuesday because I knew K'd need the money by Friday and I wanted to give it plenty of time to clear, yet at the same time I didn't want to deposit it too early because that would mean more interest.

His monthly expenses are $689.
$275 rent
$100 phone
$40 electric
$74 bus pass
$200 food

Now his food budget he claims is more than he needs. I think that's because he's doing the bachelor thing of just eating a couple conveinence store hot dogs a day and counting that as good. But I want to make sure he has enough just in case.

He had about $142 left over from his last full paycheck and today his final paycheck for about a week was deposited which added another $232. All told he was going to be starting out January at $373, only $320 short of his monthly expenses.

I created a sub ING account for him and had deposited $1320 into it (holding out the $680 for January in case he really needed it all) earlier in the week. This morning I transferred $360 bringing that account total to $1680 plus I withdrew the $320 and deposited it into his bank account.

He hasn't received the paperwork yet for his GI Bill. Once he gets it, fills it out, and sends it back it'll be 3 months before it kicks in. So right now it looks like I'll need to be supporting him til April.

School costs are $880 for the semester plus books. Someone he works at at the bar might have the exact books he needs so books might not be an issue this time around. Only half of the money is due Jan 22nd (two weeks after classes start). The rest is due in February sometime.

If there isn't any more influx of cash then I have enough to cover him until the end of February, then I'll have to start dipping into my reserves. There is hope though. He works at a bar sometimes on the weekends and he can use that money instead of what's in the bank to pay for food. And he had an interview last week someplace that is pretty low key and he'd have plenty of time to study while at work. So there is the possibility of him not having to completely rely on what I've got. He hasn't heard back from the interview though so we're not really counting on it yet.

He also was palmed money from our aunt when we were there on Wednesday so he won't be dipping into his account quite yet. The plan right now is to spend cash first, and that as little as possible. When the first half of school is due I'll look at his bank account, calculate how much he needs for food til the next deposit by me at the beginning of February (using a rate of $7/day), and hope that there's something left over to put towards school so I don't have to pull the full amount out. It's entirely possible if the bar is busy on the weekends and he gets to be a server.

I'm really excited about him starting school. I think it'll be a lesson for him in more ways than one.

The payment will be going up on my CC that I did the balance transfer on, but right now I'm already paying about $160 more than the required minimum I should be able to absorb any extra that the minimum increases. Plus once he starts getting his GI bill he can start paying me back which will just go straight to the CC.

I am charging him interest and the fee that was incurred to do the balance transfer. Of course the downside to all of this is it'll increase my debt by $2k. *sigh* That's more than I've paid off since I started really concentrating on it in September. But it's ok. It will be taken care of in short order, at least as far as the actual debt going down on the CC. I have every confidence in that.

But I'm not panic'd. Not yet. The reason I spent most of it was for Christmas Eve dinner and I'm expecting there to be plenty of leftovers to get me through.

I have $17 out of $100 left. I do still need to pick up some green beans for Sunday and fruit for lunches. But the fruit I usually only buy a little at a time so it doesn't go bad before I can eat it.

I'm really excited for the meal on Sunday. I bought an 8 lb ham and I think there's going to be 7 of us eating. Ham, a stout and cherry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans with toasted almonds and garlic, rolls (gluten free), pumpkin pie, sparkling cider. I think someone's bringing a salad.

I also got gas. I figured that as long as the price hasn't hit $3.079/gal then I'm still safe telling them to 'fill'. Unfortunately I only got 19 mpg last tank. I do a lot of city driving...ah well.

I was able to stash away $6 for my trip to Seattle in March. That makes me happy. We'll see if I can actually hold onto it...

Phase One. Eliminate CC2.

COMPLETED!!! I was very much expecting to have to pay a little bit of interest on this month's statement but it is all $0.00! Wheee! Onto Phase Two officially!

Phase Two. Build up EF to $1,000.

Between the three accounts, taking out unexpected loans and adding in regular budget amounts plus extra once Phase One was unofficially completed my savings has increased by $205.33 since the end of last month. Rock on.

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

Statement balance difference: -$293.12
Total payments: $523
Total charges and fees: $229.88

Previous potential balance by 4/15/2010: $6,096.99
New potential balance by 4/15/2010: $3,916.24 (I'm going to start using Quicken's figure for this)

Right now only $992.91 to go before things get back to normal. Unfortunately that won't be lasting long. I'll be cashing a check next week for $2,000 balance transfer and will be adding a few more dollars to the mix.

------------------

I updated my balances in Quicken. It still shows the same payoff date of 10/2010 but now it shows the interest saved as being $472.34. I'll take what I can get.

------------------

I got paid today. All bills are paid and my cushion left in the account is $18.65 It'll be interesting to see if we do get a Costco Cash Card after all since the guy who makes Costco runs went yesterday on his way home from work. If we don't, I'll be stretching that food budget creatively.

Did my bills/budget this morning and I have $58.04 left after all is said and done. There are a couple of things on my 'Christmas List' now to buy so I'm going to keep that money out and available. Anything over $20 when my next paycheck arrives will go straight to savings.

I did put $10 into ING (auto transfer) and $10 into Wells Fargo (manual transfer) since those are budget amounts. And I received a $10 check yesterday from Certified that once deposited will go to Emigrant for a total so far of increase to savings of $85. I'm definately on my way. I can live with that for now.

Weekend was a blast. The place we rented was cute and tiny. We had just enough room to sleep and hang out. Probably wouldn't have lasted too much longer than we did though, good for weekend jaunts. I got paid back for a chunk of what I spent on food. I had put $13 from my own cash into the pile of things to deposit so that took care of my part. I had $10 in my account from one gal to pay for the wood stove except we didn't actually use it so that went toward's her $14 and she'll give me the other $4 on Thursday. One gal wrote me a check for $14. One gal had bought about $15 worth of food for the weekend so she balanced out. That leaves two gals that need to give me money and about $32 outstanding total.

I spent $5 on our way back at the cheese factory and $5 once I got home towards the Christmas Tree that my roomate bought. The gal who's car I rode in wouldn't take money for gas.

This morning I fought hard to wake up and wound up sleeping in over an hour. Fortunately my 'wake up time' is way way early so it didn't exactly hurt me however when I got out of the shower I found a text from my brother K asking to borrow $100 for rent. By the time I actually got the message I'd have to leave right then in order to not be late for work because I had a deposit to make into my account before withdrawing and depositing it into his account. So I didn't make breakfast, I did grab a slice of cold pizza though to eat in the car, and I didn't make lunch, but I did grab a granola bar and two clementines.

I made it to the bank, deposited $193.39 out of which I took the $100 to drop in my brother's account (at a different bank that's fortunately only two blocks away from mine). But then I remembered that I didn't bring lunch and would need cash for that too. So I pulled a $20 out of the ATM, I'll pull $20 less tomorrow for food money.

So now I'm $132 short for this next check. I'll get $32 back later this week which is good, but the $100 will be a while. I'll have extra cash on my paycheck tomorrow which hopefully will absorb the whole short amount, plus I'll be getting a check from my roomate tomorrow for rent and her part of utilities. I was really hoping though to put a good chunk away into savings. $55 of what I deposited today came from childcare and survey so that did go into my Emigrant account. If nothing else, that account will grow exponentially.

Then of course there's the unplanned for Christmas gifts. The gals I went to the beach with decided it'd be fun to exchange names for giving gifts. For someone who didn't plan on buying any gifts this year that means it'll have to come out of tomorrow's paycheck as well. I don't mind, actually I have a great idea and I've set my own limit on how much I want to spend but we'll see what happens. And I need to talk to my roomate and find out if we're exchanging gifts this year. We haven't in years past but since she's out of school now she's really going all out for the holidays this year. So another potential gift to buy. Fortunately my family decided to not exchange gifts this year.

I'm planning on doing something for Christmas Eve Dinner but I think I can take care of my portion of it by using the Costco Gift Card that I get from work for Christmas. Assuming we actually get them this year. I'll ask people to bring a dish as well so I won't have to come up with everything. It should be fun.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see how December turns out for EF growth. As long as I can at the least make the minimum expected deposits ($155/mo) then I'll be happy. But if I can do more I'll be very happy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 finally got a payout from one of the PTR sites. I don't think I'll be doing that one anymore. Took me almost a year to get enough for a payout because I didn't really try to refer people. And once they changed their website format I started getting less offers to click on. Plus that payout included the $10 they give you to start. Not worth it for me. I was waiting til I got my check, I got it, now I'm going to delete my account. They also take out a 'processing fee' so instead of getting the $25ish I earned I got $23.35 or something. Feh. But it's money I wasn't planning on so it'll go in with this weeks deposit/payment on CC2.

I went to the store today on my walk home from the gym. Picked up the things on my list to restock plus found some thin cut pork chops with a 75 cent off sticker on it making it under $2 for the package. They went straight into the freezer since I have more than enough food already waiting to be eaten for dinner.

I found I was incorrect in my grocery figure. I actually had $23 in my wallet. Sweet! My grocery money all goes in the same place so I know exactly where it is but I hadn't actually pulled it all out to count it. My total came to $11.01 after they took off the 'club card' savings. Saved a total of $6.69. I'll take it. I was going to have to wrestle with $0.99 but there was a penny on the counter so I still have $12 left. Next week all I'm planning on needing to buy are bananas. I buy them in small bunches, 4 or 5 at a time. I only eat one a day and if I buy any more then they go bad too fast. I don't really care about freezing them to make banana bread or banana milk shakes.

I don't know if I'll go out to eat on Sunday or not. If I do I'll limit myself to spending $5.

I am stoked for the boost in my CC2 payment next week. My childcare job on Mondays will be ending Nov 13th so I won't have that coming in anymore. Not that something else won't potentially replace it but for now it's going away. So I want to pump as much onto paying off the card as possible. My potential payment right now is looking like $113. I have two babysitting jobs this weekend plus the two childcare jobs plus the check I got yesterday. Awesome. And then I get paid in a week and it's my check with extra money on it.

Post #2 today.

Dropped off prescription they said it'd be 20 - 25 minutes. Glanced at my cell phone to see what time that would be. Picked up a hand basket and wandered over to the wine aisles.

Found the exact brand/type that my friend said was her husband's favorite. I know absolutely nothing about alcohol, I don't drink it often, and I know even less about wine. So I'm very nervous about buying it. Which is why I asked specifics. Best part? It was on sale, regularly $12.19 on sale for $7.99. I glanced at the gift bags they have hanging in that area, didn't see any I liked, looked at the price and decided he could live without the excess wrapping.

Walked through the store and found the cleaning supplies. In the past I've used Tilex brand mold/mildew but it was almost $5 and the Lysol brand was on sale for $2.99.

Found my way to the cold remedies aisle and Zicam was on sale for $8.49.

Did quick math in my head. I have $9.45 left in personal fund (in the bank) and had planned $10 (in the bank) for prescription. The total in my basket comes to nearly $20 so I could pay with debit card and pull $10 out of my grocery cash to pay for the prescription. So that's what I did.

The actual total that I put on debit was $19.47 so I did dip into the cushion by $0.02. When I get home and record it I'll just mark the personal fund as empty.

Picked up the prescription and got a little tap on the wrist from insurance because I was getting more of the same before my 30 day supply was up but the pharmacy noticed the change in dosage so pushed it through anyway. The best part is, the prescription I filled was enough for 1 pill twice daily but for another two weeks I'll still be on half a pill in the morning one full pill at night. So that'll make it stretch more than 30 days.

I'm fairly certain I can make it the rest of the week with just $21. Providing I don't go out to eat on Sunday, which does happen usually. But...I have a coupon for a free burger at Red Robin so if I can convince people to eat there instead....

I have $31 left for groceries and $21 left for gas. The tank will not need any more before the 3rd (my next payday since the 5th is a Sunday). But I'm trying to pretend it's not there.

I'm taking in a Rx to get filled today (they up'd one of my meds so I need to get it filled early). Hopefully they'll do it without saying that it's too soon to get it. Although it is a new dosage so it'll probably be ok. But that's why I'm taking it in today. I don't need it til early next week but if there's any complications then I have two days to have my dr work it out. I already counted it as paid in my budget so the money's in the bank waiting to be actually applied.

While I'm at Fred Meyer's I'm going to pick up a bottle of wine for my friend's birthday. I have $9.45 left in my personal money fund and I think I can get away with spending a little over that on the gift. I also am going to get some more Zicam and some mold/mildew cleaner since bleach isn't doing the trick. Depending on how much it all costs, I may just put it all on the debit card and dip into the $20 cushion.

The $31 has to last me through restocking fruit, picking up ingredients for potluck dish, restocking staples for lunch, and going out for coffee once next week. I was going to say going out to lunch as well but I forgot that day got switched to Friday which is payday. I'm sure it's enough money but I always worry about it. I am totally set though on breakfast and dinner for a while so that's nice.

I was more concerned about the $31 when I was going to buy Zicam ($8-9) and vitamins ($12) out of it as well. But I can't find the vitamins in stock so I'm just going to wait til next payday. And I'll use money in the bank for the Zicam.

I was going to wait til Thursday to get gas. But I was in the neighborhood of the cheap gas station I usually fill at unexpectedly yesterday so I just filled then. [Shell station at $2.359 for regular] I don't like seeing my tank get below half but sometimes it has to be done. However, this time isn't one of them! So only spent $19.57 to fill the tank that should get me through til next week payday (Friday). I had the exact change so stopped her from topping it off. I haven't decided if I'm walking to work today or not. I have plans afterwards that make it a little silly to walk to work, walk home, then turn around and drive. But on the other hand, I have plenty of time to do just that and otherwise I'd probably just come home anyway before leaving again. Hmm. We'll see.

I was running errands to kill time yesterday and stopped by Trader Joe's to pick up things I forgot on Satuday. It was on my way so it wasn't that big of a deal to stop. Chicken Burritos? Out. Vitamins? Out. Lemon Sorbet? Out. Ok so the last was just a semi impulse thing so that's ok that they were out. I have enough Vitamins to last til next week but I'd rather pick them up before I run out. And the Chicken Burritos are nice to have on hand for that quick dinner. Fortunately I still have some roast/potatoes/carrots left over (4 servings) and I think some Chili in the fridge so it's not a necessity just one of my staples. Sorta seemed like a waste of gas. Oh well. If I do drive into work today I might travel to one of the other bigger stores in the area in hopes of finding what I'm looking for.

I have $41 or so left over for food stuffs. Vitamins is part of my food budget and that's $12 for 2 months supply. I also need more Zicam. I really do think that's the only thing keeping me from getting a cold when I feel like one's coming on. I have one more tablet left after today. That's another $9 but it's for 25 doses and usually I only have one per day that I'm feeling crappy when I wake up. Or one before I go do childcare at church just in case. I can't take anything else for colds with my heart condition so I'd rather fight if off before it starts.

It's payday today. It actually went surprisingly well. This is the first paycheck where I'm actually paying two of my bills instead of using them as part of the payment of my CC1. I had earmarked more money than necessary for some of them. Others had credits I wasn't expecting. So it all rounded out to not bad.

All bills got paid and leaves 20.03 cushion

I'm anticipating a nice deposit for Tuesday to pay towards CC2. I have the following in hand to pay:
30.00 From paycheck
5.00 Pinecone check

And the following potential:
20.00 Babysitting Friday night (guess)
50.00 Childcare on Sunday (they didn't pay me last week so I'll get double this week)
30.00 Childcare on Monday (extra $5 for what I gave a parent for change last week)

Grand total of $135 potentially to pay on CC2. I checked the calendar and there are exactly 4 Tuesdays between now and 11/20 so I'm ok to make a payment every week. That's exciting too. I can only make 4 online payments per statement period.

Once my statements are available online I'll be updating my Three Phase Plan.

My tank is at about 1/2. Probably a little under since it actually shows it at half but when you fill it it goes way up past full. I get paid tomorrow but I have a $10 gas card from Shell and the cheap Shell station is on my way to my meeting tonight. So I'm going to see if I can put in that $10 and make it plus what's left in the tank last the whole next pay period. If it does, I'll save $40.

My brother is once again learning the hard way about the way banks work. He's up to a -$127 in his account because he doesn't keep track of his spending. Fortunately he gets paid tomorrow. He's going to start using cash instead, we'll see how that goes. Though I don't think I'm going to push for him to make a payment on what he owes me this month unless it looks like he'll have enough to cover everything.

My step brother is looking into why the allotment hasn't deposited yet into my account. It's really annoying to be honest. Fortunately, I already had enough in my regularly budgeted amount to cover more than the minimum required payment so it's not that big of a deal but it does need to be taken care of.

The day is only half over. I need to find some project to work on to keep me busy.

Or maybe it's 4 days. I get paid on Friday so however that works out.

Gas. No worries there. I do have a dr's apt today to drive to and a couple other meetings during the week but not so much that it'll use up what's left of the tank. I have a $10 Shell card in my wallet which is good since I used my $10 cash last night that was left over from my gas budget this month to pay for my roomate and I to go to the movies. So I still have $4 in my wallet for gas at least.

Food. I used the last of my food budget, just barely squeaking by. I had $25 in my wallet and my total came to $24.22. Unfortunately, I left the sour cream out (I pulled all the to be refridgerated stuff out of the bag, set it on the counter, but then when I actually went to put it away somehow I didn't notice it and it stayed out all night) and I need some for a recipe. So I'll need to dig into the last $12 in my bank account to get a tiny bit of sour cream and probably some oil for my car too.

Extra money earned last week. I didn't get paid last night because the pastor forgot to bring a check with him so I'll get paid double next week. No big deal, just means that the $25 won't get applied to the credit card before the next statement. As far as I know, I'm doing child care tonight which should be at least $25 possibly $30. I'm expecting a PTR check for $25 and a Pinecone survey check for $5 at some point, however if it doesn't show in the mail today it won't get applied til next week as I've decided to only visit the bank once a week on Tuesdays before work. I need to put my paperwork together and mailed off today for the theater check I did so I can get paid for that.

Money from step brother. Still hasn't shown up in my account yet. But I don't know if that's because the wrong information got submitted or because I'm impatient. He says the money has been taken out of his paychecks already so that part is working. I'm going to wait til tomorrow after I get to work, if it's still not deposited I'll give him a call and see what's up.

Dollar jar. I borrowed from that this weekend because I knew I was going out to eat with some friends and to the movies with my roomate. I had $8 in there. I spent $5 on breakfast after church and $3 at the movies for pizza. Perhaps not the wisest expenditure of money but I didn't charge it.

I got a letter from my insurance agent. I love my auto insurance agent because she's an independant agent which means she represents multiple companies. When my insurance comes up for renewal she checks all the companies she does business with and if she finds a better deal she lets me know. Right now my policy is $1066 for a year. She represents more insurance companies now and one of the new ones she was able to quote me at $866 for the year.

My problem is..I got a speeding ticket about a year ago and I never told her about it. If I have her lock in the quote, I have to tell her about it because it'll be found out when the insurance company pulls my record and if they find it when I've told them there wasn't anything it'll be even more. The last time she sent me a letter, the difference wasn't really that much. But now... I just don't know how much a speeding ticket will affect my rates. Argh! It definately would be cheaper to go this other route, and perhaps even with the speeding ticket it would be the same as I'm paying right now. Problem is, I won't know til I tell her and once I tell her, it'll have to be applied to my current policy as well.

I hate lying. And lying by omission is still lying. But I was really hoping I could skate by three years without having to tell her. Although, I know one time I told her I had a ticket and she looked it up and it wasn't on my record. Odd that.

I don't know what to do. My gut says to call her up and tell her to go ahead and lock in the quote. Even if it means telling her about my speeding ticket.

I was totally lowballing my guess of what my paycheck would be. I actually like it when I do that. Anyway, here's the breakdown this paycheck:

Income:
1347.06 Paycheck
221.00 Saved from last check
20.41 Left over in account
350.00 Roomate's portion of bills
-------
1938.47 Total in

Outgoing:
45.00 Charity
575.00 Rent
275.52 Consolidation Loan
173.00 CC1 payment *
100.00 Food
10.00 Wells Fargo Savings
10.00 ING Direct Savings **
259.38 Student Loan
29.00 Curves
155.00 Medical
40.00 Gas
30.00 Personal
216.00 CC2 ***
-------
1917.90 Total outgoing

20.57 left in account as cushion.

* They say only 57.62 left for minimum, but I'm still paying the amount in my budget. Plus my step brother hasn't given me $100 yet towards this statement's payment.

** I actually had $4.48 left over from my 'personal' allotment last paycheck that I also transferred to ING

*** I'm waiting til Tuesday to pay this because I can only make 2 more payments this statement period (statement runs on the 20th) and I have two more weekends of childcare still to add into the mix. Plus I think my brother gets paid tomorrow so that'll also increase my payment.

I had $5 left over in my wallet, so that goes to the Dollar Jar. A friend of mine just moved up to Seattle. When I have $70 in my Dollar Jar I'm going to go up and visit her. That'll allow me $40 for gas and $30 for whatever we do while I'm there. Fortunately I don't have to wait that long to see her since she's coming down at the end of the month and will be sleeping on my couch.

I'm really anxious for payday. Not in the 'I'm broke I need more money' way but rather in the 'I can't wait to see how much I can throw at a credit card' kind of way.

I get extra money every check on the 5th for being 'on call'. It's not much, just $35/night to answer a cell phone between the hours of 6 pm and 5 am. After taxes it's closer to $17.50/night. So I never budget for it. It just goes towards whatever it needs to.

I guessed, based on last month's total. But I don't know if I had more nights or less. Normally I just have one night a week which means 4 or 5 nights a paycheck but now and again I cover for vacation or whatever so sometimes it's as many as 8.

If I did the numbers correctly, I'll have an extra $160 to throw at CC2. That really excites me since my Three Phase Plan is banking on $160/month and this is only the first paycheck of the month. I cannot wait to get out from under this! So, time fly to Thursday so I can make some headway.

Oh and that customer training gig has been postponed til next week I think. The gal that I'll be training is their main cashier, and she needs to train a newly hired cashier before she can devote time to training for inventory and the like. So they want me up there as soon as possible yet have to wait for the other training to finish. Which means, I can include my trip to the customer under my regular fuel budget and take the reimbursement and throw it at CC2. Sweet!

The excuses were plentiful. Ranging from 'it's too confusing to figure out a goal time frame with people paying me back for stuff' to 'I don't really know what I want to do with this extra money so why bother'.

But I did it. I sat down and worked out exactly how I wanted things to get paid off. I figured out roughly how long it would take to do it, at least for the first phase. And it actually looks do-able. Nothing like a plan of attack that might actually work. I'm basically trying to get as much taken care of before I make the last payment on my consolidation loan.

My ideas and plans keep shifting but once I put them on 'paper' they seem to solidify a little more.

I put my Three Phase Plan on a Google Spreadsheet, a link can be found under Sites I Frequent. I plan on updating it whenever any of the three phases changes. The hope is that any dates or figures listed are worst case senarios. I know I will have Phase One completed before the end of February but going by what I know I can count on, that's the date that presents itself.

As for the things I know I need, well I will put off getting two new tires until November. I have enough in savings now to pay for them but I want to wait until the last possible moment to pull that money back out. And the Bed. Well, we'll just see where my Emergency Fund is at when September '07 rolls around.

I have done only one project so far and I wanted to do another. With my trip to the coast this weekend (I'm actually leaving tonight after work since book club is next weekend instead) I thought it'd be nice to have a knitting project to work on.

I made my first ever anything on my trip to Croatia. You can see me here starting it (well you can't really see but this is a picture from the night we stayed in the lobby of SeaTac and that's when I started it)

http://www.goingthere.net/gallery/Travel/P5270019

There are other knitters on the trip, I'm the one on the far right.

And then here I am at one of the airports on the way back almost done:

http://www.goingthere.net/gallery/Travel/IMG_4338

I wanted something to go with it. Everyone knits scarves. I don't want another scarf. I have a beautiful one that my aunt knitted for me. So I'm making wristwarmers instead. You can see the ones I'm going to make here:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html

The trip to the yarn store cost me a pretty penny, only because I dont' have the right needles yet. So I know if I continue it won't be so costly. It was $19.95 (out of my $30 set aside for 'personal') for double pointed needles, tapestry needle, cable needle, and yarn. We'll see how it turns out! I know I'll have trouble when it comes to the thumbs but that's ok. I have two great friends who knit beautifully that can help me out once I get there.

Of course, I realized last night that I'd messed up somewhere. I was using the tail from the start as a guide for counting rounds. Since I'm using four needles instead of three it actually works out ok because the last needle is the only one that I complete a set of stiches on. But, I got halfway through my third round and there was the little tail. Umm. So I think I'm going to take it out an redo it.

Incoming:
1204.69 Salary
-6.55 left over from last check *
-------
1198.14

Outgoing:
100.00 Rent (save for October)
93.17 Insurance
250.00 CC1**
60.00 Student Loan
35.00 Savings
121.00 Personal Loan (save for October)
100.00 Food
60.00 Storage
170.47 Timeshare (hopefully not)
65.01 Electric (equal pay plan)
40.00 Gas (car)
30.00 Personal play money
50.00 Croatia Trip***
-------
1174.65

Leaves: 23.49 when all is said and done

* I sent in a check for $20 for an application fee in March. Turns out I didn't need to pay it, but they've not returned my check nor cashed it. So I pretend it's still there but allow myself a $20 cushion before pulling extra cash from savings. I was not overdrawn.

** Part of that payment is made up of my Cell bill and Cable bill money. If the timeshare does go away I will pay cash for my cable bill this time around (not due til Oct 9 so it can wait) and next month pay cash for both. The goal is in October to still be able to pay $250 towards CC1 while paying cash for the other two bills.

*** Went to Croatia in June for a mission trip. The plane tickets were more than anticipated so teammember wound up charging the difference. We are trying to figure out ways to raise the last of the money due ($5500) but until then we each pitch in monthly towards the minimum payment. Teammember says I don't need to contribute for a couple months because I keep giving her double what she asked for initially from each of us. I tell her to take all she can get to throw at it. I'm working on her though, she did call and get the interest rate lowered by 3% and as soon as the new house she bought craziness settles down we're going to start looking at other options to perhaps transfer the balance to a lower interest rate card.

Soon as I hear that the transfer has processed for my timeshare I plan on taking that $170, putting $61 towards the cable bill, $30 to pay back a friend for ticket she bought me, and $80 towards CC2. Plus my brother gets paid tomorrow so any money he starts paying me back will also go towards CC2.

Today is payday. I expected that my timeshare transfer would have processed by now. I called and spoke with Owner Services and they said they had the paperwork, it was being processed, and they verified that I had submitted my email address to be notified as soon as the transfer was official. The problem I have is, the money I set aside to pay for the timeshare is out of this check that I received today. I don't want to spend the money in case it doesn't process and I get charged. But since it's in the works, I should be safe right? At any rate, I am just going to hold off spending it right now just in case. Until things are final at any rate. The person I spoke with said I'd be notified within 72 hours of it going through.

But that sucks for me because I was hoping to use that money for other things, like actually pay my cable bill instead of charging it. [side note: I pay a couple of bills with my credit card, take the cash I would have used to pay those bills to help make up the minimum payment on my credit card. Not pretty, but it works. However once the transfer goes through I shouldn't need to do that anymore.]

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I guess just stick with the plan of pretending I have to pay it like normal until I hear otherwise.

In other 'news', I pulled cash out for my grocery and gas budget instead of using CC2 like I had been. Since they're changing the cashback bonus to not be as favorable for grocery/gas purchases, I really don't need to have that temptation in my wallet. Now to just work on getting it paid off like it's supposed to be.

I had $3 left over in my wallet from last pay period. I put it in my dollar jar for use later in case I need extra cash for something imediate.

Roomate comes home tonight so I am tidying up the front living areas after my explosion of boxes from storage that I was going through. Finished up last night, took out 5 more grocery bags of paper (3 just recycle, 2 shreds) and one 13 gallon garbage bag. The end result of things to keep (either to really keep or to keep for sale at some point) mostly fit into one of my 12 gallon boxes. Now to find room for that.

While tidying I found an offer from Citi. Normally I'd shred/toss these but the 0% APR on balance transfers until Sept '07 was really tempting. So I tried applying for it online and it claimed I put in a wrong number. Hmm. Ok so I think I'll just mail it in. But first I check to see what the regular APR is and *shock* it's prime plus 23.99%! Hello? I don't think so. Even if I was only going to use it for the balance transfer, I'm not applying for that card.

I finally got ahold of someone at the clinic where I usually send in $100 towards my dr bills and tests. I was pretty sure I was ahead of the game temporarily but wanted to be certain. She said there wasn't a balance because they were still waiting to hear back from my insurance. Last time it took about 3 months for them to reply about my Echo so I think this month and next month are fairly safe to use the money for my dentist bill. Fortunately I'm on a go see the dr every three months rotation now instead of once a month (or in the beginning, once every 2 weeks). So I can expect that once my last Echo is paid for, I won't have a bill from them for a while. Which will be nice. More for savings or debt repayment!