North Georgia Gal's Financial Awakening

Well, the repair shop just called and they can't find an engine for my car. They said it will be about 3 weeks before anyone has one. That really sucks. So I guess that I am going to be relying on my parents for longer than I had planned. Bummer. That killed my good mood.

I can see it!!! I only have one more payment for my daughters monthly Cheerleading dues. And only two more expensive trips to take. I am looking forward to having that extra money each month. I also have been told that I can go back up to 40 hours/week. That will help alot. But what I think I am going to do is take the extra money in the check and put it toward credit cards. That would be $240 a paycheck put toward credit card debt. I could get them close to paid off in 2 months. I mean I am used to living without that money so it shouldn't be so hard to put it toward credit card debt. I would also like to be able to start giving my parents some money toward my house payment. So far I haven't been able to give them very much. They are paying the house payment and the power bill. I am excited about my financial future. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and this is one instance where I want to go toward the light!

Someone else mentioned that they traded their points for cash so I decided to see if my points could be cashed in for cash and they could! I spent 3500 points and got $25 in cash deposited into my checking account. I will get another 100 points when I pay for my car and will be able to trade in another 3500 points. These are points associated with my debit card, not a credit card.

My checking account looks huge right now since I put the check from the bank in there. Of course it is all going to pay for the repair to my car. I wish that is what my balance looks like all the time! I will get there.

I dropped the car off this morning to have the engine repaired. I can't wait to get my car back! They said it would be about a week.

We had the cheer competition this weekend. DD's team came in first place! She was so excited. I was excited because I came in under budget for the weekend. I still had $20 left. We even took a taxi to the marta station, my feet were killing me with all the walking we had to do. Staying at my sisters was a great visit! I love seeing her.

My Ex gave me $100 this weekend. He still owes me like $400 for the month of February. I told him that I had to have at least $300 this week. We'll see. He hasn't gotten his engine up and running yet either.

Going to file my taxes tonight. I need to make sure I have enough time to get them back for our trip to Columbia, SC in two weeks. Hopefully they will show up by then.

The bank called yesterday and the loan can be closed this afternoon. So I will be able to take my car to the shop on Monday. Only one more week and I will be close to getting my car back. I can't wait!

I gave my parents some gas money yesterday for the next week. I also plan to give my sister some gas money for coming to get me tonight. DD has a competition in Atlanta this weekend. We saved the hotel fees by staying with my sister. This is a huge competition, something like 1000 teams in all different levels competing. They are saying that it could take 30-1hour to get tickets, and parking will be a nightmare! Thinking I might take Marta, which drops us off right at the center. Or will have my sister drop us off and pick us up.

I have budgeted money for the weekend and I have it in cash. That way I won't go over the amount of money I have to spend.

And I will finally be able to get my car into the shop! Then just 1 short week and I will have it back! I can't wait. I hate having to rely on other people for rides. And I don't like the fact that my parents don't have a car most nights.

I transferred $57.99 into my car fund since I didn't have to all of my gas allowance for the week. I will give my parents some more money tomorrow toward gas for the next week. Will probably have some left of my gas allowance for next week.

We have a cheer competition this weekend. I am saving money by staying with my sister in Atlanta. It is a huge competition. The awards ceremony doesn't even start until 9:00 on Sunday. Probably won't make it home until Monday morning since my sister doesn't want to drive so late at night. Once again, relying on other people to get where I need to be. Can't wait for my car to be fixed!

My parents rode with me to Calhoun Monday night so to kill time we went into Goody's. I purchased 5 shirts for $31. I was in desperate need of some shirts. I feel like I got a good deal. they were all marked down.

Still waiting on the bank loan to be approved. Should be either today or tomorrow. They are having an appraisal done on the mountain property.

My budget is doing well, still within my range. Hopefully my ex will have some more money for me on Friday so I can order my son's senior pictures. I can't believe how expensive they are!

Not much Financially to report. I am waiting on the bank to approve the loan so I can get my car fixed. I hate being dependent on other people. It is getting really old really fast.

My checking account is in a good position. I transferred $100 to my savings account. The budget is looking good through February and into March. Will have to tweak a little bit. Went to the grocery store yesterday and spent $160. But I had budgeted $150 so I feel good about what all I bought. Actually made dinner last night. It was good. Just living a boring life.

Well, my parents and I have been thinking about this alot and have decided to have the car fixed. It will have a new engine and a new transmission. Should go for another 100000 miles. We are taking out a loan big enough to pay off what I owe to the high interest finance company. Therefore, even though the loan is for more money, with the better interest rate, my payment won't go up any. Just have to pay for another 3 years. Bummer. Only had a little over a year left to pay for the car.

I just got the estimate for my car repair. 4902.95. OUCH!! That hurts! My mom suggested that we go to a local bank and take out a loan to pay off my car and pay for the repairs. They would cosign for the loan. With their good credit, the payment would probably be about the same as it is now with my high interest rate. She has suggested using the car as collateral, but then I had a thought. If there is a wreck or something and their name is on the car, someone could come after them for money. So now I think that a signature loan would be the way to go. The rest of the car is in good working order and the transmission is new. So I definately feel that repairing it would be the way to go.

Well, I got my car back today. The mechanic said it could last a long time or it could last a day. It makes a funny noise every once in a while. But because of this, my mom won't let me drive it very far, including to work. They brought me to work again today. I am trying to get an estimate for a new motor. My mom suggested trying to trade it in. But I think the smarter thing to do is to get a new motor. That way I am only going into debt for the cost of the motor, not $10k - 15K or more for a new to me car(because they would add the balance still due on my car to the loan). Plus the two major things would have a 100000 mile warranty's. There isn't much else that could go wrong. What do you think?

I am losing my good nature about this. At this point I am close to tears. I need to resolve this quickly.

I called to find out about my car yesterday and they told me that it had been out of oil. I apparently ran it out of oil. I knew it was well past an oil change but I thought there was a light on the dash that would tell me if the oil was low. Guess not. He said they put some oil in it and are hoping that I didn't do any permanent damage to it. Should know something this afternoon.

Add benefit of not having a car is not having to buy gas. My parents insist on putting gas in their car and since I am driving it, I don't have to buy any gas. I will probably try to give my parents some money toward gas, but they won't take it.

Speaking of parents, mine have been truly wonderful. They have let me borrow their car leaving them at home without one. They have worked with my schedule to make sure that DD makes it to her cheer and I make it to work. They are going to help with the repairs to my car. I am truly lucky to have the parents that I do. My mom told me this morning that they were so proud of the way I am handling things...meaning my attitude. I am not giving up or upset. I have come to a point where what happens happens and I am not going to stress over it. There are people with much worse things going on.

I redid my taxes last night and now it looks like I am getting a refund. I received my second mortgage interest statement. Since I renewed the loan last year, I have two statements. That made a huge difference in my return.

That is the sound my car is making. It is coming from the engine. There is also some metal shavings in my oil. This is not good. Dropped it off this morning and I am just waiting for the repair shop to call me to tell me it needs a new engine. My ex is looking for a used one from a junkyard somewhere. I can't afford a new one and my parents are all tapped out. they are giving me $1400 toward it...that would just about cover finding a used one and having it put in.

Yes this is the same car that I just put a transmission in. If I had known that the engine was going to crap out, I wouldn't have put the new transmission in. I would have traded it in. Too late know. I have too much invested in the car now. But I will never buy a car from North Georgia Ford in Blue Ridge GA again.

I would have waited to get married and have kids. I got pregnant right out of high school and ended up married shortly after. It was not a great marriage. If I had waited I could have found someone who truly loved me and I might have been able to stay home with my kids. I also would not have gotten into such debt.

Well, I figured my taxes today and am really upset. It appears that I won't be getting refund. In fact I owe $46 to federal and $236 to state. I am really disappointed. Apparently once a child turns 17 you no longer get the child credit. And I apparently made so much money that I only got $400 for the EIC. I don't understand now I can make as much money as I do and I am always broke. I don't have any money in savings and I am struggling to pay my bills. In fact I haven't paid rent or power in a couple of months. My parents are paying it. I just don't get it. I don't live extravagently. I don't have all new things. I think I spend my money wisely lately. I just don't understand.

Today is payday. Nothing exciting. I only had to pay two things today, as the rest are set up as automatic debits. It is such a let down sometimes. I know that sounds funny, but since I have been actually paying my bills I am excited for paydays to come. Then there is nothing for me to do.Oh well. I guess that is just something I will have to get used to. It could be worse. I could not be able to pay my bills.

I made dinner at home last night. I made a hamburger helper. I had the hamburger in the freezer and the helper was $1 at DG. Made some garlic bread to go with it and dinner was served. My son now has food to eat tonight. (I don't eat hamburger meat, but my kids do so we end up with a good amount of leftovers.) I am enjoying cooking. Even though our schedules rarely line up to eat together, I at least know there is something there to be eaten. Lets hope I can keep it up. I did have to throw away the first thing of hamburger meat because the cats got into it and ate half of it. my daughter forgot to put the meat back in the microwave, which is where we hide things we don't want the cats to eat. Frustrating, but at least we had some more in the freezer.

I am trying to quit smoking...again. The last time I went almost 2 months before I started again. I had my last cigarette yesterday morning. Let me explain...I don't believe that I am actually addicted to the nicotene. I have always been able to go without having a cigarette for many days. Mainly it is when I am bored that I smoke. So the key is to keep myself busy and then I won't be tempted to smoke. The worst time is when I am work. I also treated having a cigarette as a kind of break to get me away from my desk for a minute. So right now I am very close to going to get a pack of cigarettes. Heres the thing though, a co-workers husband was just diagnosed with cancer and as far as I know he never smoked or dipped or anything. I also have another friend going through chemo for non hodgens lymphoma. I don't want to end up like either one of them. I also like being with my daughter. I have never admitted toher that I smoke, but I am sure she has figured it out. So when I would have to run to the store, I would make her stay home so I could smoke a cigarette. I enjoy asking her to go with me now. Just alot of reasons to quit and quit for good. Wish me luck.

Sorry for rambling. Like I said, I am bored at work right now.

Well, today is humpday. I am so glad. I sure didn't want to get out of bed this morning. It was so nice and toasty warm! It is raining too, which didn't help my motivation too much. It briefly turned to snow but now it is back to rain.

I took out some hamburger last night to make a hamburger helper meal($1 at DG). I have probably 5 more packages of hamburger meat in the freezer. That is part of what I am going to try to get rid of.

I have a question for you guys...in theory, I am going to be able to put $300/month toward my debt starting next month. Should I pay of a credit card, put the money toward my car loan, or put the money into my emergency fund(which is almost non-existent)? I am torn about the best use of the money. What do you think?

My daughter and I went to the grocery store today. We started out at Dollar General. The savings there was obvious. We spent $66 and easily saved $15-20. I felt good about that. Then we went to Food Lion. I had already gotten most of the things on the list so there wasn't too much to get there. In addition to food, I got dog food(which I should have gotten at dollar general, but didn't think about it) and cat food(also should've gotten at DG). We didn't need these yet, but I figured that buying them now would keep me out of the grocery store that much longer. Total at Food Lion was $102. But I think I easily got enough food to last 3-4 weeks. I shopped smart. Even got some snacks for the kids. I like shopping from a list. All in all, I spent $169 and got a ton of groceries. I stayed in my budget and didn't spend money I don't have. GO ME!!

I put a roast in the crock pot this morning. It is smelling really good. And it looks like we should be able to eat before we have to leave to go to cheerleading. I plan on making some cornbread to go with it. I am in good spirits and excited about going forward. Haven't said that in a while.

My ex husband sent me a text that he put another $150 in my account today. That is excellent news. I can now go to the grocery store tomorrow. It will be good to have groceries in the house again. I also took a roast out of the freezer to put in the crock pot tomorrow. I am going to slowly work my way through what is in the freezer. Therefore, I won't be buying any meat at the grocery store tomorrow. I know I have hamburger meat in the freezer. I also found a crock pot meal in the freezer. There was three packages of bacon. I feel BLT's coming on! I am excited to start working my way through the freezer. Fortunately it doesn't appear that too much of the food is freezer burned. The roast I took out tonight is right at a year old, but no freezer burn. Who knows what else I will find in the freezer!

I checked my bank account this morning and my half.com payment of $85 is there. That is good because I will need to get gas tomorrow. That was part of my gas money for the week.

Wish I had had a better weekend spending wise. We out to mexican on Saturday and sunday we ordered a pizza. We are truly out of groceries. It is funny. It seems that I don't have the money to go to the grocery store, but I always find money to eat out. Wonder why that is. I could have taken what we spent on the two days and gotten quite a few groceries. I must work on that.

My son also informed me that we have alot of food in the freezer downstairs. I thought that we had depleted it. I guess I must journey down the stairs to see what we have. I know we have a couple of roasts, so the crock post will see some action in the next few days.

I was going to start working out at Curves today. I have been paying for them for a year but haven't been going. I had my membership changed to the Calhoun gym so I can workout while DD is at cheerleading. But I didn't bring my clothes and I can't help myself from getting unhealthy breakfast. I really need to amp up my resistance. I have got to start to lose some of this weight. I have slimfast shakes in the fridge, but they didn't taste that good. I need to just buckle down and drink them anyway. I know it isn't going to be easy to lose the weight because of my thyroid. But I at least need to try.

Ex husband said that he would have some more money for me today. He is hoping to have the whole $215 that he owes me. That would be good. Then I can go to the grocery store and stock back up.

I don't have much to report today. My checking account is still in the positive, if only a bit. I got the email that the half.com payment will be deposited into my account shortly. I have $50 to last until Friday(not including what I have allotted for gas, I have that money set aside.) Payday is looking good as well. Especially if ex husband gives me some more money. He owes me about $200 right now. I should get my financial aid sometime in the next week or so. But things are so different from how I used to be. I used to be in such desperate shape when I was expecting a large payment, that I was depending on it. I am not depending on this payment. It is going to get my mortgage caught up. It is only about 15 days past due. I get to throw the entire financial aid payment to debt. I can't wait to get it, but it is good to not be depending on it.

My ex husband told me today that he didn't get to work on that car so he isn't going to have all the money he owes me. But that he has $300 for me right now. I will take it. It still puts me in a pretty good position. I will be able to make the payment for cheerleading tonight, which I thought I would have only give them half. So that is a plus. Two more payments on that and then I will be done with it. She said she is not going to do it next year. I can't say I am disappointed. Not only for financial reasons, but the time committment. I actually can't wait. That will be an extra $170/month that can go to other things. I will be able to get things paid off alot quicker. The possibilities are exciting.

I decided late today that I was going to go to court and ask the Judge to reduce my tickets. He reduced them by $60. Not bad. I would have liked more, but I will take it! So my tickets cost me $250. Ouch. Guess I learned my lesson on speeding!

My ex husband said that he is going to have the rest of the rent money, power bill and cell phone bill for me this weekend. That will put me sitting pretty. Can't wait for that. He has been out of work for a while and I have been carrying him. I just can't afford to do that anymore and told him so on Tuesday. I don't know what he is going to have to do to get it. Not my problem. But I look forward to having it.

When I checked my account this morning, my child support payment was there. I didn't have to transfer any of the money to be able to pay the tickets. I have decided to go to court to see if the Judge will reduce the tickets any. If he doesn't, that is fine, I budgeted for it. If he does, great! I will let you know.

Ordinarily, my child support payments are deposited into my account on Tuesday, like clockwork. So I set up some payments to be sent tomorrow. However, today is a bank holiday, which I forgot about. Therefore, my child support might not show up until Wednesday. Now I am scrambling to find money to cover what I have to pay tomorrow. The largest of which are my speeding tickets. Well, one ticket for speeding and one ticket for having an expired tag. Total is $310. I am about $30 short...but wait, I just remembered that I have money in my kids savings accounts. I put $20 each payday into each of the accounts. I hate to touch them, but this is an almost emergency. I am not sure what the penalty would be for not paying the tickets on their due date. I know have enough to pay the tickets! YEA! That is a huge relief.

Today is payday. I am always excited at paydays to get stuff paid. I guess that is because for so long I couldn't pay for things. It is nice to have things paid on time for a change.

I called to find out the balance on my car, just for giggles. It is alot more than I thought. It is over $5000 left owing on it with a little over a year left on payments. Not sure how that happened, but need to start sending extra payments to them.

Keep your fingers crossed that my ex husband will come up with some money for me next week. I sure could use the money that he owes me. I would be smooth sailing with it. Hopefully the roads will become clear enough that he can make it to Dahlonega to work.

I finally went to check the mail today and found a check in the mail from my ex father in law for Christmas. I am not sure how he got my address since we moved, but I am not going to question it! I also received my rebate from Verizon...$50. So I grossed $100 today!

Bad news from the ex husband...he doesn't have any money for me. he hasn't been able to get to work this week. I hope he will get to work next week. I am good until the 21st. I finally started keeping a spreadsheet of the money he owes me and what he has paid me. He owes me $500 right now. Boy I could sure use that money now. But I am afraid that if I ask him to leave, I won't get the house rented and then I won't get anything. And this is the first month that he hasn't been able to pay the rent in full. Not sure what to do.

I sent my mom an email letting her know that when I got my financial aid refund, I was going to give most of it to her. They are covering my mortgage and my power bill for the last couple of months. She sent me back an email telling me that I don't need to give them most of it. To pay off my credit cards or something. They know that I am struggling but that I am trying. They are so good to me! More than just financially. They care for my children and do more for them than any other grandparent I know.

So when I get that money, I will have to get my son's senior pictures and announcments. The rest can go toward credit cards. Might even be able to pay one off. That is exciting.

I revamped and updated my budget this morning. I know I should be working, but I am drawn to my budget instead. I am now good to go until the 11th of February. Plus I didn't include any money that my ex husband will(might) give me. So that will just be extra. I also didn't include the financial aid that I will be getting toward the end of this month. I am stoked. I went from having a deficit to being totally prepared. I made up the shortfall by selling things on Amazon and half.com. I still have one book listed, but since it is only used at my college, the chances of selling it are slim.

I called this morning to see how much I really owe for my car payment. I have been paying extra with each payment so I was ahead a bit. They told me that I only needed to pay $39.10 for the month of January. That was awesome news. If I had to pay the whole thing, the budget wouldn't look so good.