North Georgia Gal's Financial Awakening

Another half.com sale! Yea! This month has started off great! Still waiting on my money from the end of last month. It says it is pending....anyone know what I should expect? This is the first payment from them.

I don't think that I have anything listed on ebay, so I must get that done in the next couple of days. The ebay table is overflowing! There was a minor avalanche yesterday when the cat jumped from the top of the old refrigerator(that the person didn't come pick up UGGG!) to the ebay table....all is well though.

Picked up my laundry from my mom yesterday...all washed and folded. I know she doesn't mind, but I really want my washer back! Something about being 36 years old and having my mom wash my undies bothers me! We ordered a part last night and hopefully DH can fix it since we are not having any luck finding a used one and I hate to spend the money on a new one! I think that it is really shocking my mom that I haven't asked her for the money to buy one yet...That is the old me.

Might have to drive 2 hours for a soccer game tonight...will know later. I am hoping not. Had to drive an hour last night at the last minute! i couldn't feel my feet by the time it was over! I was the one with the ugliest knit blanket thrown over my head!(fortunatly I found it in the car!)

Well...I booked our vacation. First one ever(except for the one my sister paid for) and then I realized that I only have a little over a month to save for it! YIKES!! I know I can do it, but I am already stretching this month. So every bit of extra will have to go into the vacation fund instead of anything else! I can do this...

I sold a total of $111 on ebay and half.com for February. It was $103. after all fees were deducted. YEA!! I made the challenge.

I have made my first two sales of March already! I sold a movie on half.com and a basket on ebay. So I am off to a good start!

I had estimated my payment for sears to be $40. The minimum was only $16.46 so I paid the difference to the applied credit card, trying to get it below the limit. Won't be long!

But I am not panicked. I have checked craigslist and have found several for under $100. Might have to drive a little ways...but can't beat it. Will also look around to see if a new one might be reasonable. The best part? I HAVE THE MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF IT!!! I am so excited! No need to panic. A few months ago, I would have called my mom all in a panic because I didn't know what I would do! But not this time! YEA!!!!

I also booked a small vacation last night...well the hotel anyway. We have never taken a vacation as a family other than Disney that my sister paid for. So I booked a hotel for Jekyll Island for 4 days. Not very long, but doable. I can't wait! Already have some money saved toward the vacation, will continue to stash money into that account.

So my Sunday will be spent looking for a new washer...but that is okay.

I know it is horrible to be happy that a soccer game was cancelled, but I am happy that it was cancelled. We don't have to drive 2 1/2 hours! He does have a home game now, but that is okay!!! I get to save the money I had budgeted for the game! So now I won't have to transfer as much as out of savings next week. I woud love to transfer it into my savings, but I know that I will need it next week.

YEA!!!

That is how much I have in my various savings accounts! I have never ever had that much money "sitting around". I know I blogged about that yesterday, but some was added today and I am just tickled to death!

I added $9 to my vacation fund. I had alloted $30 for Girl Scout cookies,not remembering how much I had ordered. They are only $21 so I transferred the difference into the Vacation Fund. That has been the biggest thing for me...putting anything over what I allow into savings...it is already taken out of myy account, so why not?

I might need to take some out of savings if my DH doesn't give me any money today. But I can make it back up when he does.

It is storming today...hopefully they will canceel the soccer game tomorrow. Isn't that terrible? But I really don't want to drive the 2 1/2 hour drive to sit all day!

I also paid all of the utilities today as well as the credit card payments. Every utility is on time! I made a payment on every credit card, and extra on one! I am on a roll...look out!

I do have one UGHH! My DH picked my son up from practice yesterday and went to Burger King. I have nothing against them going to burger king, but that meant that I would have to feed my daughter then. I hate to wait until we get home at 9:00 from cheerleading before I even start something, so fast food it was again! If he hadn't gone to BK, he would have made dinner and it would have been ready when we got home. UGGGG!!!! Another eating out that I wasn't planning on!

I have never had $500 in savings! I do now! I have it spead out in various accounts, but it is over $500! I am so proud of myself! I used to get really mad at people who said they were broke, but they werent really. You know the ones who had money in savings or had access to other money. Because I really was broke! Like counting pennies to make the mortgage payment or calculating excatly when they would cut the power off. But now I get it! The choices I made were what was causing me to be so broke! granted there are some people who just don't make enough money, but I do. And now I am managing it better and I feel great about it!

Thanks to all of you guys for supporting me and being there with advice and wisdom. It has really made a difference to me!

Not much to report here. Yesterday, my DH asked me to stop and get him Cigarettes so I went ahead and filled up my car while I was there. I will not need gas again before Saturday so that left $18.65 in my gas allowance for the two weeks. I transferred that to my Emergency Fund. I was worried that I wasn't going to have enough in my gas allowance, but it all worked out.

My son has two soccer games Saturday...about 2 1/2 hours from home! It is a tournament of some sort. Fortunately the first game isn't until 1:00 so we don't have to leave too early! But I had to allow extra food allowance(since we will be gone all day) and gas allowance for the day.

Tomorrow is pay day and I have all of my utilities and payments set up in bill pay already. I am so excited! Everything will be paid on time!

I have two items endingon ebay today. Doubt they will sell..this is the second time I have listed them. Will probably donate them next week. Still have the TV listed. If it doesn't sell, it will be donated as well...sick of it in the middle of the floor! DH doesn't want to just "give it away" but we don't have room to store it!

I have studying my credit card balances this morning. I am making progress on them. I will be making an extra payment to one of them this month and then hopefully getting it under the limit next month. they have stopped charging me over the limit fees though so that is nice!

I figured up that I am making $267 worth of credit card payments this month! **WOW**. Think what I could be doing with that much extra money a month! I can't wait to get them paid off! I could have my EF funded in 3 months! I could have the vacation funded in 6 months! What an eye opener! I will continue to throw whatever I can in their direction!

I gave my husband a challenge last night. Now that the food is on open shelves in the kitchen, I told him that he needs to come up with ways to eat all of the canned goods that are in there! I don't want to buy any more canned goods until they are gone! He is the creative cook in the family, so hopefully this won't take very long!

My son needed some under armor for soccer. It seems that the coldest spot in the county is at the soccer fields. So I went today to get him an under armor shirt and pants. $90!!!! I couldn't believe it! Hopefully they will last him a couple of seasons, but geez!!!

On the up side, it is nice to be able to purchase something that he needs without having to wait and try to come up with it!

I have been struggling with eating out lately. I am trying to not continue. I hadn't planned on eating out last night. My daughter had cheerleading until 8:15, but my husband should be home by 6:00 in order to cook dinner for when we get home. However, last night, my son had a soccer game that I didn't know about and didn't know about until 6:30 last night. So DH went to the soccer game while I was at cheerleading. The game didn't start until 7:45. So in order to prevent having to eat REALLY late, I got a bucket of chicken at KFC. If I had known about the game, I could have done something inthe crock pot. That is frustrating to me. So tonight we will be eating at home!

One benefit of the open shelves in the kitchen is that we can now see all of the items that we have to be eaten. I told DH that he needs to work on eating all of those cans of vegetables and stuff.

Payday is Friday. I already have payments set up in the bill pay for the utilities...by the due dates! All except for cell phone, which will only be 10 days past the due date, not the usual 15-20.

I'll admit it. My family(especially me) is spoiled about name brand sodas. I just don't like off brands. So each week, I see where they are on sale and purchase them. I try to stock up on them.

CVS had coke products on sale last week 4/$14($3.50 each). Now that isn't a great price, but I bought 6 and received $10 in extra bucks plus a $1.00 off coupon. And when I purchased the 6, I had $14 extra bucks and a $3.00 off coupon. So the 6 12-packs cost me $4. And I still got another $10 Extra Bucks. So I went back to CVS yesterday. They had sodas 3/$11. I got 3 12-packs...used the $10 Extra bucks and the dollar off coupon. They ended up having to adjust the dollar off to be only .99 cents off or else they would have owed me a penny! So I got 9 12-packs of soda for $4. That makes them .66 each! I know that, technically, you should take into account what I had to purchase to get the original $10 EB, but I don't remember as I just started using them.

We took out the cabinets to make room for the larger fridge yesterday. Today I went to Home Depot and got the items needed to put shelves up in their place. We got those up! YEA!! It looks alot better than i thought it would, since it isn't enclosed yet. But we moved all of the food items out of the pantry and that is now strictly storage. This is good because we put the litter box in there so it is better to not have food in there. Major improvement in my opinion!

I spent $200 at home depot because I bought my husband a new cordless drill. I figured that if he had this, he might finish some projects around the house. It was a wise investment I think.

My bank is updating their website so I can't get on to check my account. I know about how much was spent yesterday, but I always get the exact amount from the website. So I will get that updated tomorrow and figure out exactly where I stand.

Don't know if I did too much this weekend or what, but I can hardly keep my eyes open. Been like that most of the afternoon. Will be going to bed shortly.

I had budgeted $150 for the circus last night. I don't have an exact total yet, but we spent less than $100! We even ate at the arena(i was planning on eating on the way to save money, but due to time we weren't able to!) I am very pleased! will take the extra and apply to my daughters cheerleading.

my item on ebay sold for $49.99. I am only about $8 short of the $100 goal for the month. I will try to list some items this afternoon, but I have another big project on my agenda for the day. I do have a tv listed on craigs list, but no one has contacted me about it.

I am going to put the brackets up for the shelves today. Right now everything that was in those cabinets is piles on the counters. The kitchen is a disaster!!! So I want to get that straightened up. Can't live like that for long.

Even though my ex-fil sent me the measurments and I sent them to my DH, the fridge didn't fit. I didn't think it was going to fit. But DH said that it would. So we ended up tearing out the cabinets! This was on my list of things to do...but didn't plan on doing it this soon! I wanted to tear out the cabinets and put floor to ceiling shelves there, like a pantry. So it just got done sooner than later! We will have to do it a little at a time in order to get it finished. It all worked out!

We are still cramped due to the extra fridge and tv hanging around. I have them listed on craigs list so hopefully they will sell soon.

I received my tax refund this today. I made Jan and Feb mortgage payments already today. YEAH!!!

My DH also gave me some money. Since I don't depend on his money, everything he gives me can be put directly into savings most of the time. I split it between household maint, Christmas fund and vacation fund. He also paid for another load of firewood, so we should be set on firewood for the rest of the season and some of next! YEAH!!

I have almost $400 in my various savings accounts. That is the most I have ever had saved! It feels so good! I just keep looking at my balance. Can't stop! Plus, there is $250 sitting in the account that I have paid my sister that she hasn't taken out yet. So on paper, I look like I Have $250 more than I actually do!

We are going to the circus Sat night. they are calling for snow flurries where I live...should make for an interesting drive home as we won't be getting home until late. I have budgeted $150 for the circus. Think I might just take cash with me and when it is gone, it is gone. But I hate the idea of not having any access to any other cash in case of emergency. I could take the debit card, and leave it in the glove box...that way if I get the urge, I have to walk back out to the car. That might work.

I have been getting lots of questions about the item I have listed on ebay. It has 1 more day. Hopefully it will sell. That would put me close to the $100 challenge for the month.

I am having a cord of firewood delivered this evening for $100!! It is a great price and it is all seasoned. YEAH! Now my husband will have to get busy to get the shed ready to store firewood, instead of just stacking it by the house.

I had planned for this expense so it is no problem. I could take the $50 out of the household maint account, since that is the type of things I planned it for(that and propane are the big ones). But I am going to leave it in there. I just started that account and we will need propane in the next couple of months.

It feels really good to be able to purchase items without stressing about how I will get what we need! This is a calm that I haven't felt in years, if ever!

Our driveway is a gravel driveway. we rented a bobcat last year and took out more of the mountain behind us so we can park behind the house. But we have a spring in the mountain that constantly runs and pours water into the driveway. So although we had 3 loads of gravel delivered last year, it is now gone and our driveway is a BIG mudpit.

DH couldn't work today because it is raining and I guess he had had enough. So he drove to the quarry to get some gravel. I have been saving for it, but hadn't gotten that far. So...the 3 loads of gravel that we got last year were about $500. He filled up the bed of his truck with 1.5 tons of gravel directly from the quarry for $25!!! yes, he will have to spread it but he doesn't mind the labor. if he isn't doing something, he goes insane and he usually finds something that I see as a waste of time(hence the gravel on a rainy day!). So if we can get a load of gravel every couple of weeks like that, we should be in good shape again! I dont know how far that truck load will go, but getting even a load a week will make a difference!

I made my first sale ever on half.com...YEAH!! This brings my ebay total to 35.90(after fees, etc) for the month. Slowly but surely getting there!

I spent 6.00 today at the gas station, but other than that, it was a good day. Worked from home...makes it easier to not spend!

Dish Network came and hooked up the HDTV today. It is awesome! I also rearranged the furniture to accomodate the larger tv. Shouldn't have done that, but I did anyway. I am paying the price now!! Still have some more to adjust, but it looks better and I just couldn't move the sofa any further!

Went to my son's soccer game. They lost. But I always enjoy watching them!!

Well, So far I have already used $40 of my $125 Gas budget since Friday. YIKES! I might make since we don't have any away soccer games next week, but it will be close! I don't have to go to the game on Friday...it is just down the street from my sister's house, so I feel comfortable not attending the game. YEAH! I jumped right on that!(last time I missed a game, my son broke his ankle...it was the one and only game I have ever missed!!!)

I kind of want time to go fast so I can get on with the budget...but i don't want time to fly so that I miss life! Make Sense? I am excited about the budget and the fact that I am finally growing up!

I ate my bagel this morning...back to being good! Just have to be disciplined...I can do it!!

I spent $22 for gas today and $6 on snacks at the convenience store before cheerleading. Need to plan that better, but not sure what to do there. Any ideas??

I have several items on ebay ending tomorrow and don't even have any bids on them! Starting to get frustated! Do I just keep listing items over and over again? Or do I let them sit for a while and list them again later?

My mom tried to force to take a cedar chest today. I don't want it. i am trying to get rid of things. i told her that I didn't think I could use it. She sent back what it was used for and where I could put it!!! I politely told her that I didn't want it but that I would be glad to put it on craigs list if she wanted! I don't know if I offended her since it was my grandmas chest, but I don't want it! So go me for sticking to my guns and not taking the chest!

We picked up the new TV and fridge from my ex-FIL yesterday. The tv is MASSIVE!! have dish network coming tomorrow to hook up the HD. Can't wait!! the Fridge is also huge. I don't know if it will fit in the spot for it, but I haven't mentioned that to DH because all that it took to get it in the house!

I "kidnapped" 3 of my sons friends for the day to help us move the stuff. I had to feed them Ryan's so for $80 bucks, I got everything moved in. Well worth it, especially considering the fridge weighs a ton!! It wouldn't fit through the door. Had to take the fridge doors off and still wouldn't fit! Had to take the front door off the hinges! It scraped the hell out of the floor right inside the door, but I want new flooring eventually any way! And a rug would look fine there.

I have a dilemma though. I was going to sell the old refrigerator. But then I started thinking about keeping it and putting in my huge walk in closet for drinks and stuff. But I don't really think we need to do this. If we had a carport or garage, than ok. But I can't think of a reason when we had overflow fridge goods that woud call for the additional fridge. But I like the IDEA of having a second fridge.(here we go again...the reason why I am broke!) I need to be talked out of it. I could sell the fridge for a little bit at least(since it leaks) and still be totally okay.

I sold my first item of the month yesterday. I actually sold two items, making a profit of about $20. I also listed a bunch of movies on half.com. hopefully some of them will sell soon.

I received all of the boxes that I ordered from the the PO too. So shipping is a breeze now.

I received the $403 refund from the state today. I hadn't accounted for it at all. So this is what I did with it:

I transferred:

$50 in EF
$20 in vacation fund
$20 in Household main
$10 in christmas fund

We went out to breakfast fo Valentines day, $26, spent $24 at home depot and $40 for pet supplies.

I left the rest in my checking account as a sort of buffer.

Looking at my accounts, I have a total of $340 in various savings accounts. I think that is the most that I have ever had! I am so proud of that. It feels really good to be able to pay my bills and take over some of the responsibilites of my children. I guess I am finally growing up.

Third post today! I know I am just full of information today!

I make my last gym membership payment on Monday. YEAH!! That is an additional $39 a month. I also make my last payment on a medical bill on Monday. That is an additional $30 a month. Double YEAH!!

My ex-FIL called the other day because my daughter had been "butt dialing" him. I haven't spoken to him in over a year.(little history, when I divorced, he stuck by me and hasn't spoken to his son since. But he fell off the face of the earth for about a year). Anyway...it came up in the conversation somehow that he is moving and has an extra fridge that he is trying to sell. Long story short, he cut his price for me and told me that I could pay him what I can when I can! this is great since my current fridge has a leaking problem that we can't find! I can finally pick the towel up from in front of it!

He is also selling a 52 inch tv. I had casually asked about it. he hasn't had any hits on it. So he is selling it to me for $300. Same arrangement. So this weekend, I am getting new fridge and new HUGE tv.(it isn't HDTV, but who cares! my tv now is about 15 years old and could crap out at any minute!) I Can't Wait!

Since I don't want him to ever decide to hound me for the money, I have set up an automatic payment of $30 a month to go to him. If I have more, I will send it...but at least this is a regular payment.

Well, after an hour on the phone with Tech support, my computer is back! YEAH! I was able to check on my checking accounts...all looks well.(told you several posts ago that I think I am addicted!)

Anyway...today is pay day. Paying a bunch of utilities. I also transfered $59.50 into my savings account, which I will divide between home maint and vacation fund. This was the amount left over in my gas allowance for the two weeks. This is the second time I have been able to transfer more...i could adjust the amount I allot,, but would rather have it left over than scramble to find extra!!

Soccer game tonight. Can't wait! KID 2 says his team sucks this year...but I love to watch them play!

Not cough cough hack hack ill...but I want to beat the crap out of someone ill. My computer starting acting up last night...it is stuck in a reboot loop. Just keeps restarting. Can't get to my checking information or anything! That might be why I am ill. I usually check that several times a day!

I had it out with Sallie Mae this morning. They have called me every day for the last three days. The last one was last night at about 6:00. I told themI would get the forms back to them. They called again at 8:30 this morning. I had to call them back and go through the push 1 for...push 2 for...practically yelled at the guy to quit calling me and that I verified my address yesterday and I wasn't doing it again today.

I also had it out with the vice principal at my daughters school. She had her cell phone taken up earlier this week. I had been telling her to make sure it was off, but what does mom know. I don't disagree with the school taking it up. The reason I had it out with him was because they won't allow a grandparent to pick the phone up...has to be a parent. So I said what would happen if I couldn't get here to pick the phone up...he said that they would keep it as long as I needed them to until I could get there. WRONG ANSWER!! I proceeded to tell him that that is holding something that I pay for each month hostage. And that I understand the discipline behind taking the cell phone up...had no problems with that what so ever...but they are threatening to hold my daughters cell phone, which I pay for hostage until I can take time off work to come get it when my parents are right down the street! Not that she won't be punished if it happens again, but the idea of the school holding something hostage just really ticks me off. Oh and I recieved the nice little "your daughter had missed 5 days of school" note yesterday in the mail. That is another sore subject and if they had mentioned that I would have gone off even further!!

Anyway...thanks for listening to me rant and pray for my family today!

My mom has paid for my daughter to do cheerleading for almost 2 years now. She also pays for the violin lessons. Each of these is $95/month. I told my mom this morning that I will start paying for the cheerleading each month. I have worked it into my budget and I assured her that if I couldn't do it one month, I would let her know. She seemed a little relieved, but also disappointed. My parents are retired and their income has reduced due to the stock market. So they are stressed each month. However, I think my mom ENJOYS paying for things because she thinks it keeps her involved. Eventually I would like to pay for the violin lessons as well...but baby steps.

I ate out again today. I had a dr appt in Atlanta so I grabbed Chik-Fil-A on the way home. We dont have one of those here. Lately my willpower for eating out has been non-existent. I need to get back on that band wagon!

My appointment went well. I am going to have surgery to remove the endometriosis in April.

I have increased the amount of the automatic deposit into the kids savings accounts to $20 per pay period. Hopefully I wont miss it.

Finally got some items listed on ebay. I really need to spend more time on them, but end up hastily posting them. Maybe I can take a Saturday and get everyting posted. I don't think we have anything going on this weekend.

Today is my son's 16th birthday. I let him sleep late this morning. Ran several errands on the way to dropping him off at school. He told me last night that he has a soccer game tonight...and he needed new shin guards for it! Got the shin guards this morning. But since I go to all the games, I now have to drive to an away game this evening. I thought I was going to have extra money in my gas budget...but probably not now. will have to allot more now that the soccer games have started.

I was 2 hours late for work...not that that is a big deal. I have a flexible schedule so it is not a big deal. But we have a project kicking off next week so we are going crazy getting ready for it. I like it when we are this busy though...I work better under pressure!

Yesterday I spent $7 for lunch. My willpower is just not very strong right now. I made a catergory in my quicken for cash though so that i can keep up with where I spend cash, when I have it. I rarely keep cash on hand.

Here are my plans for my tax refund. I am getting back $4800 from federal.

Pay January Mortgage $575

Pay February Mortgage $575

To DH for his back taxes $2500

To DS for his car $500

Rest into EF

This will get my mortgage completely caught up! YEA!! With that stress gone, I can start working more on the credit cards.