Gasping for Breath

I'm itchin to do my taxes and see if I guessed right on my withholdings. Around April I went from 1 to 2 and after my last check in December I went back from 2 to 1. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't have to owe. If I break even that'll be good. If I get any back then it's bonus.

My regular job usually gives us the W2 with our last paycheck of January, so the 20th. FedEx sent me a $3 bonus in January after I quit last December so I'm anticipating something from them. And I have my new part time childcare gig that will give me a W2 at some point too.

I've used TurboTaxOnline for years and as soon as I start getting the W2s I'll be inputting the information in so when I get the last of it I can submit it imediately. Unless I owe. Then I might hold off. But I don't think that'll happen.

I just like to get it over and done with. Plus if there is any return then I have plans for it.

I wasn't going to do any but this morning during my workout I thought of a couple so here are my goals for the end of 2007:

1] Consumer debt down to $14,000 (currently at $26,834) [monthly amount of decrease needs to be $1,070 to meet this]

2] EF holding steady at $1,000 (currently at $537)

3] Medical savings at least $500 (currently a little over $200)

4] (non monetary goal) Holding steady at my current goal weight (currently have 34 lbs to loose)

Wow that looks pretty intense now that I have it down on paper. We'll see what comes of it this next year.

I may revisit them at the end of each month to see where I'm at.

Post #2 today.

I did my networth figures early by a couple of days so it won't include the little bit of interest I earned but that's ok. I took a step back with the money I pulled out to help my brother with but hopefully it'll be all downhill from here.

Assets $ Diff % Diff
Cash $796 $423 113.40 %
Retirement $25,318 $491 1.98 %
Cars $2,305 $0 0.00 %
Total Assets $28,419 $914 3.32 %

Debts $ Diff % Diff
Student Loans $36,108 ($110) -0.30 %
Credit Card $18,154 $1,607 9.71 %
Other $8,680 ($169) -1.91 %
Total Debts $62,942 $1,328 2.16 %

Net Worth ($34,523) ($414) -1.21 %

And here's my nifty graph:

I have participated in Pinecone Research for a while now. I love getting the little $5 checks in the mail (although they're going to be doing it via PayPal in the future). I really have fun with the surveys knowing that I will actually be paid for it instead of a 'we'll put you in a pool of names to be drawn for $xxx'.

I got an email a while back stating that it was a followup and I thought it odd, I'd never gotten one of those before. But I didn't take it because I wasn't really sure what it was. The day after the last day to submit the survey, I received a package from Pinecone Research with another item to test out at home and give feedback. The light went on, apparently I had been sent something to test but I never got it! It wasn't the item I'd just received because the project numbers were different.

I emailed Karen and explained the situation thinking that perhaps there was a signature required and that's why I never got it. I just happened to be home from work the day I actually received a package. She explained that signature wasn't required and if I didn't get the original item it was too late the survey was closed and they didn't have any more. No problem. I thought that was the end of it.

About three weeks ago I got an email stating that the company wanted the test items back, you know the one I never got. I was going to reply to Karen and say 'don't forget I didn't receive this so don't send me the return materials' but I never got around to it. Sure enough, about two weeks ago a large envelope showed up at my door with packing material for the item and a $5 check as a 'thank you' for sending it back.

I don't have the item to send back.

I emailed Karen again, replying to our prior string of emails so she'd know what I was talking about, asking where to send the check back to because I don't have the item to send back. I haven't heard a word since.

I know it's the holidays and she probably has a slew of emails to go through. But I did get one recently regarding the switch to PayPal.

Do I just send it back to their address as listed on the return address when they send stuff out? Do I cash it? Do I just do nothing because it's not really mine to have?

I'm going to give her til the middle of January to respond and then actually do something with it.

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.

I went to my aunt's last night for dinner because another aunt and her new husband were visiting. Dinner was wonderful and if I didn't already have a bunch of leftovers in the fridge, I could have come home with more. Instead I insisted she send as much as possible home with my brother, the one who's out of work and who I'll be supporting for the next three months (or rather from now until three months after his GI bill paperwork gets sent in). She also tricked him into accepting $75 by palming him some cash with a $5 on the outside so he accepted thinking it was just a couple of bucks, but there was $50 total in hand plus $25 in a card she'd already planned to give him.

I got $25 as well in my card. Sweet! I was talking to my best friend on the way home and she mentioned that I should hang onto it for my Zoo Pass that I really wanted but no one got me (well I didn't want any one person to get it for me but rather said I was accepting donatations towards it). The other thing that I really wanted was a set of Denise Interchangables (knitting needles). I have a $25 gc for a local yarn store and they sell the needles there for $50. So that would make up the difference. However, the way my friend was acting on the phone I have a feeling she >might< have gotten that for me for Christmas. I haven't gotten her gift yet but she said it'd be showing up after Christmas. And it's one of those things you can't take back so I'm going to wait and see before doing anything.

I decided I really wanted the Zoo pass but I don't want to pull the rest ($34) out of savings. So I'm sticking the $25 in my dollar jar and any time I babysit and get cash for it (instead of a check) then I'll add it to the $25 til I get to $59. I should have it all in time for the Summer Concert Series.

I'm planning a trip to Costco on Saturday. I realize that it's probably a suicide mission but I have things I need to get, staples for lunch that I'll be running out of. There's only $5 left in grocery money so I'll be using my $50 Costco Cash Card to stock up as much as possible. I did a quick inventory of breakfast and dinner items and I should be good til the 5th. Plus some of the items I'll be getting at Costco are dry goods and will help future grocery budgets since I wont' have to buy those items for a while.

I have a list of items to buy with my 'extra' money this next check instead of putting it into savings. Why is it that savings is so much harder to push paying into than credit cards? Anyway, I knocked one thing off that list this week. I was talking to someone about wanting to get a wireless card for my desktop and how since I have a $20 gc for Best Buy maybe I'd pick one up there. I started looking on eBay and found a new Linksys card for $19.96 after shipping with BuyItNow and decided to just get it now. Then when I went to pay, I was reminded that I had $9.99 sitting in PayPal that I'd forgotten about. So it really only cost me $9.97. I took it out of my 'Personal' money. The rest though will probably cost more than I'll have coming in so they'll have to wait til the next month. The list is:

- Oil Change (sucks because I still have one that I've prepaid but I can't find the card that shows it, who knows I might find it before the 5th, $20)

- Concert tickets (I'm restraining myself and not spending $40+gas to go to the Seattle show and only going to the Portland one which is $14 but I'm taking my dad and buying his ticket so he can't back out of it so that'll be $28)

- Home Depot (Damp Rid refill and container, and a staple gun about $30 total I think)

- Classmates 3 month membership (I have this strong desire to reconnect with people I knew before leaving for college, someone on there is trying to contact me but I won't know who without getting a membership so I'm getting the lowest level possible. $15)

- Yarn store. (If I do get the needles I wanted then this will actually come out of my gift card and I'll just get yarn for the socks I want to make, otherwise I'll be buying the needles I want. $25)

All told that's $118. And I'll probably only have about $87 extra. But I also changed my withholdings back to 1 so that might change too. So we'll see what gets held over for February.

I'm anxious for Monday, I really want to see how things look for the end of the month as far as Net Worth is concerned. I was hoping I'd get my uncle's check for the concert tickets I bought for him before the end of the month since I pulled that money out of my savings. But I don't know that that'll happen. There's still three more mail days though so it's possible.

Figures, just when I get used to checking things online for my 401k and actually keeping up with it, we change companies. There's a meeting on Wednesday where we will 'learn about new options and investment opportunities '. Not only that but they scheduled the meeting to start at exactly when I get into work so I need to make sure I'm early that day. *sigh*

I had a nice holiday. I'm planning a trip to Costco to spend my cash card on things that I need to stock up on food wise but can't because I have $5 left in my grocery money to last til the 5th because I spent grocery money on Christmas Eve Dinner. Not regretting it in the slightest just stating fact.

ETA: Looks like this new company has accounts similar to Vanguard and others where it's more agressive in the beginning and then gets more conservative later. I'll find out more details on Wednesday. I'm actually looking forward now to this meeting.

Lucky Robin mentioned something about being able to get a 90 day supply via mail. The light clicked on when I read that because on my insurance card it lists the amounts for by mail Rx as being double what it is at the retail pharmacy and I always thought why would you pay double. But if you're getting three times the amount...

I am going to wait until my next appointment to talk to my dr about the possibility of doing that. I'd need a new Rx for a 90 day supply and would have to stay on the ball with ordering it at least two weeks in advance. Plus I don't know if my plan's supply maximum is 90 days. And I'm not sure how many of my meds are stable (ie won't be changing dosage). Definately something to ask about!

I picked up my new meds this morning, two week supply was $2.95. Nice. I'll get one more refill and then it'll be time to see the dr again.

I called my dr about getting a pneumonia vaccination, had to leave a message though so waiting to hear back on that. Insurance covers it 100% though which is nice.

Lastly I called my eye clinic to make my two year checkup appointment. The dr I've seen every two years for the past eight is no longer with them so I'll be seeing a new dr. And the way my insurance works it has to be exactly 2 years so since my last appointment was Jan 20th it has to be after Jan 20th. At least I know when to budget for now.

I have $109 right now left in my 'medical envelope' for this month. It looks like it won't be needed for anything else since my next round of appointments isn't until after I get paid again. I could transfer it out to my medical ING account but I think just to be on the safe side I'm going to leave it in my account until the day before my next payday just in case.

ETA Just called my insurance company and the maximum is a 30 day supply so I'd be paying double for the same ammount. I guess that's not an option right now. Ah well. It was worth a shot.

Post #2 today.

I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when 'Santa' came by and dropped off a $50 Costco Cash Card on my desk. I promised to keep his identity a secret, even though y'all dont know him.

Of course, I already bought the ham last night, spent $20.04 on it. *sigh* But that's ok. I'm not taking anything back and I don't have time to go to Costco before Sunday anyway.

So it'll go in my wallet and hang out with the leftover 'grocery' money and if I'm in dire need of anything after I run out of what's left, perhaps I'll use the cash card to stock up.

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In other news, while I am starting new meds tomorrow (I pick up the Rx tonight) I don't have an appointment to see my doctor again until next month. I have a lab appointment next week but that doesn't require cash at time of service. That makes me happy in the 'I might actually have some money to transfer to my medical savings account this month after all' kind of way.

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.

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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.

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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.

I took my change into the bank today. Came to $18.72. That's not a year's worth, I know I took what I had collected in a couple times over the past year. But I do want to see how much change I do save over a year so I'm starting with a clean slate. Mostly.

Deposited $50 that went straight to my Emigrant account. I'm pleased to say that my EF balance has grown a fair amount, even with paying cash for something that I'm waiting for a reimbursement check on. My new credit card statements should be available tomorrow so I'll have a better idea of where everything stands then. I'm really excited to see the results.

Deposited $11 to cover the excess I spent for last minute baking. I have $6 left in my wallet, about $2 of which will be spent tonight picking up one last skein of yarn to finish a blanket I'm knitting. The rest will go to my Dollar Jar which is money I'm trying to save for a trip up to Seattle in March.

Dr's apt went ok. I paid my co-pay while I was there, the way they do billing annoys me so if I have it I'd rather pay it then. They had me take a trip down to the lab for some blood tests. I'll find out tomorrow if I'll be starting on a new med or not. I've been having random dizy spells and the new med may just enhance that so they want to check the levels of a few things. No new appointment has been made yet, it all depends on the results of the bloodwork. If I go on new meds that means I'll be going in more often for appointments while they work me up to the right dose.

I got my balance transfer check in the mail yesterday. It's how I'm going to be supporting my brother til his GI Bill kicks in. I won't be depositing it until it's actually needed, which will be before it expires in about 80 days. I don't want to incure any more interest than necessary. His last day of work was Friday, the contract ran out officially. School starts January 8th. He works at a bar when needed on weekends, last weekend he made $80 between the two nights he worked. He is going to be filing for unemployment today and he had an interview on Sunday. I feel confident he'll have me paid back in short order, once his GI Bill kicks in that is. Now if we can just make it til then on whatever I've got and whatever he brings home in the mean time.

But it didn't work out. *sigh*

I had to call the doctor's office to have them call in a new prescription since my refills ran out. The nurse asked if I wanted a 90 day or 30 day so we tried for the 90 day prescription since it would work out to cheaper in the long run and if insurance refused it it would automatically revert to the 30 day no harm no foul.

I was a little nervous about this refill because I had forgotten to give myself some leeway between when I ran out and when I got the refill and literally took my last pill this morning, I take one in the morning and one at night. So I ducked out of work briefly to go pick it up, figuring that if there was any problem at the pharmacy the doctor's office would still be open to fix anything.

Got to the counter and wound up actually being helped by one of the pharmacists instead of a tech. He looked high and low and couldn't find record of my prescription anywhere. I explained that I couldn't autorefill it and had the dr's office call that morning around 9:30 and the light went on, he remembered taking the call but wasn't sure what happened after that. So I got to wander the store for 10 minutes hoping that when I went back there would be a refill for me.

I got back just in time, as I got to the front of the line I heard the pharmasist call my last name and put something on a shelf. *phew* Unfortunately it was my regular 30 day because my insurance doesn't do 90 day. Ah well, I'm not really complaining but it sure would have been nice.

I have a dr apt tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see if I get started on new meds.

Tomorrow's Tuesday Deposit will probably be my last this year. I got paid on Sunday for the 17th and the 24th. I have one potential babysitting gig on Friday but it might get canceled. So I'm packing up my change (all but enough to do 10 loads of laundry) and will be depositing that into my regular savings account when I go to the bank tomorrow. It's not much but I'm curious to see how much change I can actually save in a year, especially since I'm using cash for groceries now. Which means I need to clear out my change since it's end of the year roughly.

We had our work Christmas Pizza Party today and nothing was handed out by way of 'bonus'. Usually we get a Costco Cash Card with $50 on it. I was sort of counting on that to buy stuff for Christmas Eve Dinner. But I'll make it work out anyway. I wont' be going shopping until I get paid on Wednesday. There's still time for it to be handed out too, like possibly with our paychecks on Wednesday. Just have to wait and see I guess.

I walked into the store with a list and $19 in my wallet. Walked out with $31 in groceries put onto my debit card and still have the $19 in cash. *sigh* I have a few things coming up that I need to bake for so I picked up the ingredients and it was a little over my budget. I have decided to pull out the cash from my wallet that will make my register not be in the red anymore and stash it away in my box for Tuesday Deposits so my register will be in the black come Tuesday.

I do have money in the account, it's not like I spent money that wasn't there. Just it's earmarked for other things. So I'm not really in the red but I turn Quicken into an Envelope system by taking the money earmarked for certain things and creating a future payment with that money. Then I look at the ending balance not the current balance to know where I stand with things.

I did know I was going to spend a little more grocery wise because of the holiday but was hoping I could still fit it mostly into my budget. I can't wait for the Christmas Party on Monday to see if we got Costco Cash Cards again. That will be huge in funding Christmas Eve Dinner.

I am excited though. I now have enough ingredients to make two kinds of fudge (chocolate and butterscotch) and two pumpkin pies with gluten free crusts. I'm going to have fun this weekend.

This is the week of birthdays..

Sunday went out to eat with a friend for his birthday. His parents wound up paying so I didn't.

Last night I went out for a friend's birthday. Since the party was starting so late I borrowed my roomate's bus pass instead of driving. I hate trying to find parking in the district of town where the bar was at anyway. I just bought tea because I couldn't really have anything else. A friend was the bartender (didn't know he worked there til I got there) so I tipped him pretty well all things considered. Spent $3.50 total. I have a bunch of blank cards at home so I just grabbed one for the birthday card and inside wrote that my gift to her was a free night of babysitting. It's something she'll use and needs. Valued at about $25-30 since that's about what they give me when I sit for them.

Another friend has a birthday on Sunday. She really likes music but even more mix cds made by people. For my home communities' Christmas party we were instructed to make a mix cd of our favorite songs instead of a White Elephant gift. (although the 'wrapping' for the cd can be something white elephanty so long as money isn't spent on the 'wrapping'). That way we get to know people in our community better by their choice of favorite music. I will be putting together my cd this weekend and last night thought that it would be cool to get a copy to my friend for her birthday. I'll use another blank card for the belated card since it will be late and to cover all bases I'll send her an e-card on her birthday from Hallmark.

All in all I think I survived this round of birthdays quite well.

I went to the dollar store last night and found the exact box I was looking for to put the only gift I bought this year in. That was a nice bonus. And found that they had Nestle hot chocolate there. I'd slowly stocked up on it when the nearby Walgreen's had it for $1 for a box of 6 packets and had gotten used to having a mug of it every day at work. I hadn't run out of my stash yet but I only had about a week left so I picked up a box since I was there.

Tonight is women's community and I've been so excited about watching the gal open her gift that I completely forgot until this morning that I'll be getting something to. That's totally secondary right now. I found what I think is the perfect gift. Just really hoping I'm right. One of the gals moved nearby me so we're taking turns carpooling since the house we meet at is about 8 miles away. Not terribly far but it doesn't make sense to each drive when we live so close.

And just because I'm so excited I'll tell you what the perfect gift is. In addition to exchanging names we also filled out a little questionaire to get ideas of what people like/want/etc. The gal I got wrote that she collects stationary and that her favorite flower is a Peruvian Lily. So I google'd pictures of the flower, found one with just a single flower and a white background, edited the photo to add her name (first, middle initial, last), and uploaded it to Vista Print to be printed on the front of 20 blank notecards. And at the dollar store I found a cardboard box, kinda like a cigar box or those older style school pencil boxes and they fit perfectly in there. I wanted to find a box that doesn't necessarily look seasonal (this one just is green with big red dots) but she could refill it as she gets more stationary. Plus it protects the ones I gave her. I am sooooo excited to see her open it I can hardly stand it. Granted I did pay more for shipping than for the printing because we're exchanging gifts today instead of next week because people are gone next week for the holidays, but I didn't want to spend too much more than $20 total and all told it came to $24.

My deposit today will be $126. I have another $15 cash that I've decided to keep onhand because I'm going to a birthday party on Wednesday and while I don't want to spend much I'd rather have cash than use my debit card. Plus I'm paranoid about not having enough money for groceries the rest of this pay period. I was planning on spending about $11 cash at birthday dinner last Sunday but the guy's parents wound up being there and since the 'party' was so small they picked up the tab.

I'm transferring $100 to Emigrant and the rest is staying in my account for buffer. Since I was only counting on $25 to deposit I'm ok with not putting it all in. Plus any excess after the next paycheck will wind up in savings eventually. But if I need it I'd rather not have to transfer it out again.

Total cash on hand now is $31 for food and $2 for gas. I'm totally fine on gas til the next paycheck.

My favorite band is coming to town in February. My usual habit when that happens is to buy tickets for the local show plus any in the surrounding areas (ie within a 3 hour drive). Actually, for the local show I usually volunteer to work the merch table so I get in for free and sometimes get free merch and then pay for the rest of the shows. I am showing a lot of restraint however because my family will be in town when the band is and will not be travelling out of town to see them.

For the Portland show though I will be buying two tickets ($18 each) when I get paid Jan 5th. One for me and one for my dad who's been wanting to go to a show but they don't play near him anymore since he moved. If he ends up not going I don't think I'll have trouble selling it. But if he does go I don't want to be stuck behind the merch table. I got into a friendly arguement with a friend from Seattle though about why I wasn't going to the Seattle show. But in the end I prevailed and said I would see her at the Portland show (she travels to see them too).

Which led to a conversation about The Rock Boat. The Rock Boat is a 'floating music festival'. It's a cruise where about 30 bands play, usually about 4 sets over the coarse of the cruise so if two bands you really want to see are playing at the same time for one set chances are you can catch them at another one. The band I like were on TRB last year and will be again this year. I knew it was not a wise decision to make since I'd have to charge it so aside from drooling, I haven't tried working out how to go.

But next year, if they're on it next year, I might actually be able to swing it and not charge it. They stagger the payments over time so you don't have to come up with all the money right away. $99 when you register, couple months later $199, couple months later $199, couple months later the remainder. If I beef up my EF I think I can not only swing making the payments like they suggest but with my newly formed savings habits can recoup the loss nicely. Of course, the cruise itself is only part of the cost. There's also airfare to/from. Hotel possibly for two nights (night before launch, night after return). Money to do stuff in port. Seriously I'm thinking probably about $1500 total. Probably less but I prefer to overshoot. My friend from Seattle and I are talking about sharing a cabin, probably just a double occupancy. Yes, the triple and quad cabins are cheaper but our sanity is also a factor. We've traveled together and know we get along in close quarters.

Anyway, it's something for me to think about. They don't make the announcements as far as what bands will be on board until around March.

They wouldn't allow me to co-sign the loan since I have too much unsecured debt. The good news though is that we did obtain a starter unsecured credit card for my brother with a limit of $250 and an interest rate of 20%. Considering he has no credit history that's not bad. The bad news (well depending on your perspective) I went ahead and pulled out another balance transfer from CC1 for $2k for him. Well, the check's been requested I haven't deposited it yet.

I'll hold onto all of the money until it either runs out or his GI bill kicks in. It'll be used for the basics, school (only as much as needed they want half in Jan not sure about the other half), rent, bus pass, electric, and food. He'll hopefully still be working at the bar when he can so that should get him some extra cash. Once the GI Bill kicks in he'll start paying me back. Probably just a little at a time (ie $100/mo) but he knows that interest will be acruing. Fortunately it's only 3.99% for the life of the transfer.

I got paid tonight for both babysitting tonight and dogsitting a few weeks ago. One check for $86. Wow that was more than I expected. I'll take that. With all the extra that I'm anticipating needing for the holiday (ie dinner and stuff) I think when I make my Tuesday Deposit that I'm only going to put $100 into savings and leave whatever is left in my checking account just in case. It can always go to savings later if I need it. And $100 is way more than the expected $25. Right now I'm looking at a deposit of $141.

Unfortunately according to CNN he was found dead. I can't imagine what it's like for his family right now, esp the wife and kids that went through the ordeal as well.

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.

I plugged in all the numbers this morning before I left for work but didn't have time to post them til now. I'm pretty pleased with being down another $1k in debt. Wow, it really blows me away to look at it in the big picture. So here's my numbers this month:

Assets $ Diff % Diff
Cash $373 ($268) -41.81 %
Retirement $24,827 $651 2.69 %
Cars $2,305 $0 0.00 %
Total Assets $27,505 $383 1.41 %

Debts $ Diff % Diff
Student Loans $36,218 ($94) -0.26 %
Credit Card $16,547 ($783) -4.52 %
Other $8,849 ($164) -1.82 %
Total Debts $61,614 ($1,041) -1.66 %

Net Worth ($34,109) $1,424 4.01 %

And I'm going to try and post the graph here, we'll see if it works.

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.