North Georgia Gal's Financial Awakening

The main road was finally clear enough for me to make it to my work today. My mom got stuck in my driveway though. My son had to go out and push her. She eventually got free.

One good thing came from this storm. Since we are the only person on the cheer team that lives so far away, we were given the option of not going to the competition this weekend. DD was disappointed, but understands. The roads are still in no condition to be driving to Chattanooga. They are going to rework the routine so that her place is filled. This is going to save me a ton of money! I won't need to get a hotel on Saturday night. I won't have to pay admission for Sat and Sun. I won't have to pay for food out. SO this snowstorm has ended up saving me a ton of money! This is great since I really didn't have the money to spend. Maybe God knew that so he sent this snowstorm! LOL

Once again, I am snowed in. The roads are bad due to ice and snow that fell overnight. I know that 8 inches doesn't seem like a lot of snow to those of you in the northern part of the us, but when it snows that much here, we basically shut down. So at home I sit. This is the second time I have been trapped at home since December 1st. And another on Christmas day when I didn't have to work anyway. I think this is going to be a bad winter!

Financially, I don't have anything new to report. I have about $30 to last me until Friday. My exhusband said that he has $120 for me so that will help with my shortage for the 14th. Still need to come up with more to cover the hotel I have to have on Saturday night. My daughter has a cheer competition in Chattanooga Saturday and Sunday. It is cheaper to rent a hotel than drive back and forth. Originally I wasn't happy that she wanted to take next year off, but the more I think about it, the glader I become. Financially and time wise, it will just be simpler.

The money from the books I sold on Amazon is being deposited into my account today. That is good because I was running a little low until Payday next Friday. I am growing closer to my goal on the 18th. Hoping that ex husband will have some rent money to give me by then as well. I pushed my car payment back to the 28th so I wouldn't have a shortfall this payday.

I forgot that I have a hotel stay next weekend. My daughter has a competition in Chattanooga that is a two day competition. It would cost me as much to come home as it would to get a hotel for the night. It will be a tight stay though.

I am closer to having the money I need on the 18th. I am only $30 away now. Hopefully the ex will have some more rent for me and that will take care of that. Although it is unlikely that I will not spend any money, I am still getting closer.

I just talked to my ex husband and he is going to put some money into my account today. He is also going to have the first part of his rent this week. I am looking okay for the next couple of weeks and I am slowly making the shortage for the 14th go away. It is unrealistic though to think that I won't spend any money between now and then. So actually I will need to come up with more money. My financial aid won't be posted to my account until around the 25th. By that time I will be in desperate need. The pay day of the 28th is looking pretty desperate. I haven't done any juggling yet so I might be able to make it better. But I really don't want to. I want to be able to pay everything that is due that payday. I will keep you posted.

My son't car broke down yesterday. And since he was quite a way from home it still cost us some money. Insurance covered the first $50 but we still had to pay $70. Bummer. At least I had it to pay for it.

I went and picked my sister up in Atlanta and brought her back for the holidays. I just took her home today. She snuck $60 into my purse when I wasn't looking. That will go toward the shortage that I am looking at for the 14th.

All my books sold. Two sold almost immediately and one sold on half.com yesterday. That is $94 toward my shortage. If it weren't for the tow, I would be very close to the shortage. I am getting real close to having it covered. Feeling pretty good about that right now. Then when I get my financial aid, I won't have to use it to get caught up on anything. it will just give me some breathing room.

Good News! I sold two of my textbooks last night. They have been mailed and the money should be in my account shortly. Hopefully the last one will sell shortly. Keep your fingers crossed! It worked for the first two!

Today is payday. Not much to do. Have to wait until my child support payment to make the mortgage payment. My daughter is spending the night at a friends and my son has gone to a party. So I am home alone. YIPEE!!

Hope everyone has a happy new year!

My plan has changed for my old textbooks. I was going to sell them back to the bookstore, which cuts a check the day they receive them. But they weren't paying enough for the books. So I have listed them on Amazon. Hopefully they will sell. Keep your fingers crossed.

I typed out this semi-long post and then it disappeared! UGGG!!!

I have a shortfall beginning January 14th. I will need to come up with about $500(not including spending or grocery money). Here are my ideas to come up with it.

Sell textbooks from last semester - $200(at least)

rent from Ex Husband - $300(is more but he usually pays in two installments)

Take title to auto shop to salvage vehicle $75.

Other than that, I am out of ideas.

I realized this morning that I forgot to budget for my car payment and forgot to set it up in my bill pay. Now it will have to wait until January 14, which is still technically in the grace period. But they will call me anyway.

I checked out my credit score yesterday. It is up to 633. That is great considering it was in the low 500's not too long ago. I was impressed. I guess making payments on time really does make a difference.

That is about all for now. Hope everyone has a great day!

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Looking at my budget, I am in the hole beginning January 14th. I need to come up with about $500(not including money for groceries). Here is my plan:

Rent from ex husband - $300(Owes more but it is usually paid in two installments)

Sell back college books from last semester - $200(at least)

Take title to auto shop to salvage vehicle - $75

Other than this, I am out of ideas.

I discovered today that I forgot to make my car payment for January. It is due January 6 and I forgot to set it up in my auto pay and forgot to budget for it. It will have to wait until January 14 to be paid.

Checked out my credit score yesterday. It is up to 633. That is up from 525 about a year ago. I guess paying things on time really does make a difference! This car payment will be the first time I am late on anything in over a year. And I believe that as long as it isn't over 30 days, it isn't reported(at least that is how it used to be).

That is about it for today! Hope everyone has a great day!

I can't believe that the last time I was on here was in September! Not much has changed since then. I had to put the new transmission on my parents credit card. It was worth it to do the repairs. My car is still in good shape.

I managed to get through Christmas without using any credit cards. My kids had an awesome Christmas and it was all paid for with cash.

I am still attending college online. I got a c and two b's last semester. I think I may have overdone it taking three courses. But if I don't take that many, I end up having to pay some out of pocket.

I haven't been able to make extra payments to my credit cards in a while. I am pretty strapped right now. I was cut to 30 hours at work and that has really caused a shortfall. It amounts to over $400 a month that I am losing. But at least I still have a job. Yes I could look for another job, but I am really well paid for the area I live in and doubt I could find a job making the same amount of money. I would still be short if I found something else. So I will just stay here and work things out.

Thank goodness for my parents...without their help I would probably be homeless. I haven't been able to give them anything toward my house payment. I am hoping to turn things around in January.

We have also been battling Lice in the household. My daughter started it and it has since spread to me. I hate the little suckers. It seems we just can't get rid of them! I even soaked her head in mayonaisse, which worked the last time. We did another treatment last night and washed everything in hot water. Hopefully this will be the end of it!

Sorry to ramble. I promise to not stay away so long this time!

Well, I was floating along financially. Had money in savings. Things were looking good until Januaray. Then BAM! The transmission goes out on my car. It needs a new one, to the tune of about $3500. It never fails that just when things start looking up, something happens. I am having to use my money in savings and put the rest on my parent's credit card, to which I will be making monthly payments. So instead of getting my credit cards paid off, I will be working on this debt. Bummer! I was really looking forward to having my credit cards paid off.

I haven't posted in a while, but I am still here, lurking in the shadows. Today is payday. It is kind of let down. I wait for payday to make the extra payment on my credit card or timely payments on the other stuff that is due. But since I set everything up through my bill pay there is nothing for me to do! Everything is paid automatically! Oh well. Guess I will get over it! LOL

I still have almost $700 on my emergency fund and almost $200 in my car maintenance fund.

I have decided to plan a trip to disney. We will be in Tampa anyway for my daughters cheer leading and will just spend an extra week there. I have some tickets that my sister bought us that never expire so the tickets won't be that much. We are also going to visit Universal and Sea World. I am so excited about the trip. My best friend from High school has offered to let us stay at her house, she lives about 30 minutes from the parks. So it will be a frugal trip, but a trip none the less. And it will be paid for all in Cash. Now I just need to get busy and save!

Out of the $4900 I got, I gave my mom close to $3000. She called me to today to thank me for remembering them. She said that in the past they have given money to thier children and then when the children get windfalls, they don't remember to give any back to them. She was just very proud of me. To me it was the right thing to do. I am trying very hard to be self sufficient. My parents are not alwasy going to be there so I need to learn to live on what I make.

I keep staring at my account in Quicken. I am not used to not having to keep a strict eye on it to make sure I don't bounce a check. I still keep a strict eye on it, but for different reasons. I just hope that my resolve stays strong and I continue to not spend money, even though I have it.

I joined Thrive Tuesday night. So far so good. I bought the recommended bread and peanut butter and jelly. I bought the protein shakes fromo them. It was pretty good. I am not hungry, but I find that I am bored and tempted to eat out of boredom. I must put a halt to that! But wich me luck as I continue on this diet plan. I really need to lose a bunch of weight!

I have decided that I am going to join Thrive, which is a weight loss program. Since I have sacrificed myself for so long, I am doing this for me. Maybe I can get back down to a comfortable weight. Would I be doing it if I hadn't gotten that money, no. I couldn't afford it. But this is important to me. My weight is affecting my self esteem. And since I did get that money, I think that spending a little bit wisely on myself will be a good investment.

When I checked my email this morning, I had an email from the child support office that there was a new payment on my account. When I looked it up, it was $4930!! I was so shocked! Apparently the ex did the first time homebuyers credit. I was so surprised!

It couldn't have come at a better time! I paid off my property taxes and one of my credit cards. I also paid off my garbage bill. I put $1500 into my savings account/emergency fund. I caught up my mortage(which was less than 30 days past due) and paid my cell phone bill. All in all, I think I did well with the money. I have my budget set through October. Of course there is always minor changes here and there, but it pretty much sticks to the main plan.

Today is payday and as fast as it appeared in my account, it disappeared just as quickly. I am glad it is payday, cause I was down to my last $10. I didn't get to make an extra payment to the tax commissioner this payday, but have two scheduled for next payday.

I should be getting my financial aid refund around the 7th so I will be able to get things back on track instead of just treading water.

I blew my diet this morning. I tend to get frustrated when I don't see any results. I am logging everything I eat, am drinking more water and yet I don't see the scale moving at all. It is frustrating for me. But tomorrow(and the rest of the day), I am getting back on the diet. Hopefully I will see some changes happening.

I have posted regularly in a while but I have been around reading blogs. But I have a lot of things happening right now. I started my college courses, I am taking three this semester, which alone is going to be difficult for me since I also work full time and am a single mom. But I am also going to begin homeschooling my DD. There has been an incident at school that has been blown way out of proportion...she tried to walk home. Yep that is it. That is all she did and she even told a teacher she was doing it. And for that she has to go before a tribunal to see if she can continue at school. She also has to go before a juvenile court judge to face charges of being unruly. Now I agree that she needed to be disciplined so she wouldn't do it again, but having a tribunal? Having to go to court? And all of this was done by the principle. There is no requirement that these steps be taken. It was soley up to the principle. It just infuriates me! What would happen if she really was a trouble maker? Or did do something else so menial? Now she is in their sights. So therefore, I will be unenrolling her next week and begin homeschool. I am sure that I am going to have many late nights trying to keep up with everything that I have to do. But she is smart kid so I don't anticipate it being to difficult to homeschool her.

Anyway, financially, I am holding on by a string until I get my financial aid money. Should come in around Sept 4th. Then I should be fine.

Sorry I haven't posted lately...There isn't much going on right now, financially or otherwise. I am still sticking to my diet through SparkPeople. I lost 1.5 pounds last week and am track to do the same this week. It is slow going, but no one said it would be easy. I am doing step aerobics on the wii and really enjoying it!

Financially, I have my gas money for next week set aside. I only have $50 extra this next week for groceries or anything. Thankfully we don't need that much. I bought most stuff last week. I am just trying to hold it together until I get paid again next Friday. I hate living paycheck to paycheck. I will probably get a large refund from my financial aid sometime in September. I am not depending on it though. This is the time of the year when I start dreaming of my tax refund! I did submit the form to get the advanced earned income credit so that will add some money to my paycheck. Not sure how much yet.

My financial aid hasn't been processed yet so I had to come up with the money to purchase my books. I will get it back in the form of a refund. I have to admit, I never thought I would be able to come up with $378 without borrowing from my parents, but I made it happen. Between the various savings accounts and such, I was able to come up with enough to cover the books. That felt real good.

Today is payday. It is already spent! Isn't it sad how money goes so fast?

Well, my tactic of sticking my head in the ground hasn't worked well for me. I have been ignoring this loan for over a year. Yes I did try to sign up for income based repayment, but they claim they never received it(I sent it twice). I should have followed up on it but didn't. Now it is at the do or default date. I have to make a payment of $1434.81 in order to keep it from going to default, which would really suck. So...I had to suck itup and ask my mom to put it on her credit card. I have to pay the payments each month and she now gets all the extra payments I have been making on other debts.

Ihave put in applications at Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Food Lion, and Ingles, hoping that someone is hiring a part time helper. Keep your fingers crossed that someone will call me shortly to offer me a part time job!

Yesterday was a NSD for me! The first in a while. My boss asked me to take a co-worker out to lunch so I got a free lunch! THe scale still showed a one pound loss this morning. I was concerned since we ate lunch out yesterday. Tomorrow is my official weigh in day...hopefully it will still show a loss.

Went to INgles this morning and stocked up on bagels and cream cheese for work. Shouldn't have to go back for a while.

Yesterday was almost a NSD. I had to stop and get my daughter some dinner. But that was the only money I spent.

Somehow I ended up with $32 in my purse...still not quite sure where it all came from. But I took $25 and put it in my coin jar at home. That way if I am not able to get home in time for dinner or for some reason end up not coming up until late, the kids have money there that they can order a pizza with.

The scale showed a loss this morning of either 1 or 2 pounds, depending on which step on you believe. I don't care which it is. I am just happy to have a loss! My official weigh in isn't until Friday.

My sister who is in town from DC went with me to Calhoun last night and we walked around the outlet mall. I saw several cute shirts that were on clearance, but I didn't budge. I knew that I didn't have money in the budget for them. I did however buy 3 18 hour bras. They were $13 each and I was in desperate need. I was down to one bra that I had to wash every night. That was money well spent. I was very proud of the fact that I didn't purchase anything that wasn't needed. I saw several things that I would like to have, but nothing that I needed, besides the bras.

I did good on my eating yesterday, actually came in below my recommended calorie intake because I didn't eat anything for dinner. I meant to take a zone bar with me to eat, but I forgot it. The scale this morning didn't show anything, but I have until Friday, which is my new weigh in day. Lets hope there is at least a pound gone. Otherwise I might feel frustrated and not keep with it.

Both Financially and Dieting. Financially, I spent too much money a little here and a little there and it all adds up to too much. I haven't entered everything into my check register yet, but I know it will be bad.

I blew my diet yesterday. We had a birthday party for my nephew and I had a piece of cake and ice cream. I also made cookies last night. This was my first weekend on SP and I knew it was going to be hard. I just need to crack down on myself. Next weekend should be easier since there is no party or anything.

It has gotten really easy to not go to BK. This morning I didn't even give it a second thought. Maybe that addiction has been broken. I also managed to keep myself from getting donuts yesterday after church. We failed to eat before we went and were starving when we got out. But after the internal conversations with myself, I managed to not get them and snack on some grapes until lunch was ready. This is a huge accomplishment for me.

We went to the drive in last night. Since my car is prone to killing the battery, I searched for a portable radio. I found one at Family Dollar for $25. UGGH. Then when we got to the drive in, they made an announcement that they have portable radios that can be checked out for free!!! DOUBLE UGGGGHHH!!! I will be taking that radio back to Family Dollar!!!!

My daughter has been using the car charger to charge her phone. She swears that she didn't leave the car on, but somehow, the battery was dead this afternoon. Another GRRRR! Thank goodness for roadside assistance. Costs me nothing for them to come jump my car off, which has happened several times.

Today has kind of been a blow it day for my diet. I haven't drank near enough water and I had a bag of m&m's for a snack with a glass of milk. Not totally bad, but it feels like it. Will have to do better tomorrow.

I woke up this morning to no milk. My children drank the last of it sometime last night. So I went to the grocery store to get milk. While I didn't do too bad money wise, I definately didn't do too good on the healthy side. I got pillsbury cinnamon rolls and a thing of biscuits. I also got a bag of m&m's. I came home and ate a handfull of m&m's while the cinnamon rolls were cooking. I can still salvage the day diet wise, but it will take some pure dedication!

Food Lion has their dog food BOGO. So I got two bags of dog food, which should last a while since we only have the one dog now(XH took the small dog and she seems to be doing well there). I also got 2 12 packs of Dr Pepper. That should last a while too since I am making a conscience effort to drink more water. The last thing I got was spiral notebooks. I like to keep a few on hand for grocery lists and if the kids need them for school. They were .25 each. I got 12 of them. I was so excited because they were 1.00 at Dollar General. Total Spent $34.

First I resisted the strong urge to go to BK this morning. Then I resisted ordering pizza for dinner. And to top it all off, I resisted going to get ice cream, which has been a usual Friday night activity with my DD. I feel real good about today. I hope I can keep this momentum up.

Since I resisted all of these temptations, I have had a NSD so far. But we are probably going to go to the drive in tonight so I will have the ticket purchase. But I would rather spend my money on that than on food that I don't need!

Positive of the day:
I can resist unhealthy choices to the benefit of my health and budget.

For the last two mornings, I have really wanted to stop at BK and get cini minis. I even tried to rationalize it this morning by saying that I have been good the last threes days and then that Friday can be my splurge day. I was even willing to "borrow" money from my gas fund to pay for them. It was almost kind of comical, this discussion I was having with myself. But in the end...I didn't go! I came straight into work and made my bagel w/ cream cheese. I stepped on the scale this morning and I have lost 1/10 of a pound. That may not seem like alot, but for only have been doing this for 3 days and since I am shooting 1-2 pounds per week, that is great! I admit I was a little disappointed it wasn't more, but I can look at it and be happy. It didn't cause me to crash my diet.

I made it through the week with 30 gas money left. That will become my spending money for the week. I filled up last night for $54. If this week is like last week, I should end up with quite a bit left. I had an extra fill up due to DS taking my car to Atlanta.

My financial aid finally went through. I am eligible for the pell grant. I was going to order the books and use my mom's credit card, but I was able to use the financial aid at the online bookstore! They cost a little bit more, but now I don't add to the money I owe my mom. I am so excited. Classes Start August 16. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing. I am taking 3 courses, something I have never attempted before. Wish me luck!

Almost forgot my positive!

I am a nurturing caring mother who puts the happiness of her children above her own.