HouseHappy's Personal Finance Blog

I got an email from one of my credit cards, notifying me that they've increased my credit line. I haven't carried a balance on any of the cards in at least 2 years, but for some reason, they still love me.

I have a few store cards that I use for discounts and coupons. And I have 6 major credit cards. I only use 2 of them, but I haven't gotten around to closing the others. Mainly because I didn't want to mess with my credit bureau prior to buying the house. Now I am thinking about closing some of them.

But right now, I'm just amazed at the credit lines that I have available to me.

CC#1 $2,400.00 limit
CC#2 $3,000.00 limit
CC#3 $4,000.00 limit
CC#4 $6,500.00 limit
CC#5 $7,500.00 limit
CC#6 $13,200.00 limit

Geeze! Like I would EVER use that much if any of the credit available to me.

In a spending update, I brought lunch/dinner to work with me today, only to find it spoiled. So I grabbed a salad from the salad place. A $6.00 super huge salad (I'll have to take a pic next time I get one). It covered me for lunch & dinner AND I finished off the last bit when I got home from work. Not too bad.

Tomorrow, we're having a team outing at work. Except we're staying in to play trivia games. Dull, but not my choice. On the upside, we're ordering food from one of my favorite take-out places! I'm either going to get a sub & split it between lunch and dinner, or get a pasta dish with bread and salad. Which, I'd also split between lunch and dinner. The pasta might last until lunch on Thursday too. We'll see.

Oh, and for an overtime update: I worked 4 hours on Monday, 3 hours today, I'll work 3 hours tomorrow. I might get some time in on Thursday, depending on a doctors appointment, and I'll get 3 hours in on Friday. I'm doing all I can, just in case overtime is no longer available in July.

If that's the case, I'll be looking for a part-time job QUICK!

I'm at work til 5pm today. My coworker is completely miserable & making sure that we all know it. I'm tired of her complaining. So, I just ignore her.

On the upside, I passed up several offers to order lunch today. I ate my oatmeal, baked cheetos and peanut butter and crackers instead. I even got a bread stick from one of my coworkers! I love free stuff.

I'm all ready to spend some time relaxing. I have movies to watch, cleaning to do and sleep to catch up on. Today is DEFINATELY a no spender.

Tomorrow will be too, excluding getting some groceries paid for by my gift card.

I'm going to try extending my no cash, credit or debit weekend into the week. However, I am planning on 2 things. I need to buy cat litter and I will be paying a copay at the doctors on Thursday. We'll see if I can make it til Friday!

Enjoy the weekend!

I was invited to Atlantic City this weekend, with some new friends, but I declined in an effort to not spend right now.

At least we have a movie night planned instead of the weekly bar night we have usually. I'll bring microwave popcorn from home, one of the guys is supplying the movie. Should be fun.

My goal for the weekend is this: to not use any cash, debit, or credit cards. Today, I am working til 8pm. I'm stopping for gas on the way home (I'm on E). Then I'm heading home to watch a library movies and possibly a re-run of House while I clean & pack some food for work tomorrow.

Saturday, I'm planning on leaving my wallet at home. I'm working 8-5. I'll take a 1/2 hour lunch, but I won't be going anywhere. I just plan on playing on the internet for the 30 minutes.

Then tomorrow night, I plan on hanging out at home. I've been working 6 days a week and for the last 3 weeks, my only day off (Sunday) has been packed with family obligations. So I am planning on completely staying home and vegging on both Saturday night & Sunday. Unless the temperature gets too high for being without A/C, in which case, I'm going to camp at my parents house

I'm want to do some organizing and cleaning this weekend, watch some free movies, catching up on blogs and some financial stuff, and generally relaxing. I really need it.

I have food for dinners at home, but I plan on making a stop at the grocery store at some point. I have $29.36 in Super G gift cards left for this pay period. So I'll stock up on some salad stuff & some essentials.

I was going to make some food to freeze ( I have this meatloaf muffin recipe that I want to try), but if its hot, I won't be turning the oven on. I'll just plan on having a lot of salads and tuna fish and pasta salad

So to recap, I'm buying gas tonight. Then no more spending except my gift card to Super G for groceries.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

I forgot that Janet Evanovich's new book Lean Mean Thirteen came out recently. So I went onto my library's website to request it. I'm #275 in line to get the book. However, the total Delaware public library system has about 67 copies of the book. So hopefully, I'll be able to get my copy within a month or so.

I've also been putting myself on the library wait list for a lot of movies. I have a pretty varied taste, but the library has a good selection. Just to name a few that I'm in line for: Blood & Chocolate, Because I Said So, Breach, Epic Movie, NCIS Season 1, and The Pursuit of Happyness.

I've been kinda lost the last few days. Spending more than I like, when I need to reign myself in. So I am going to make some changes. I have been saying that for awhile, but I really need to hold myself accountable.

Also, there's some things I've been wanting to do around the house that I'm either going to put off for awhile or do myself. There's some terrible bramble bushes in between some trees at the end of my property. I was hoping to hold off & get a professional to get in there & haul the stuff away. But now I"m thinking of doing it myself. Maybe do a bit at a time.

In other news, its been really hot and humid here, so being without a/c has been very uncomfortable. We seem to have a break in the humidity tonight, so I'll be able to sleep comfortably.

Monday is the A/C installation day. Its my normal day off, but I usually go in for overtime. So the game plan is to meet the workers myself and about 10am my mom will come over to be around while they're there & I'll head into work for some overtime. This week, I'll have worked 21.5 hours. Next week, probably about 15.5 hours due to a meeting & doctors apointment that I have scheduled.

AND... I heard back from that home improvement store that I had such problems with. The manager of the store that I visited called to get some more information about the situation. He will be calling me back tomorrow. I'll keep you all updated with what happens. I have to share that I was all flattered because he told me that my letter was very well written. I'm so glad I waited until I had calmed down a bit before writing and mailing it.

We had a going away party for someone at my work. I contributed potato rolls & butter for about 20-25 people. I spent $6.88 last night picking the stuff up. (I used my grocery store gift card). And today, I ate very well

We had fried chicken, jerk chicken, mac n cheese, spanish rice, spinach dip & beer bread, pasta salad, rolls, plus various cookies and cake. So I am now stuffed It was very good.

I'm working 8am to 8pm today, same as yesterday. I'm going out with some coworkers tonight, so depending on what time I get in, I'm going to come in early again tomorrow.


I have to make some changes in my spending and budget. I've been spending and eating based on my emotions. I really need to make some changes. So this weekend, I'm finally going to sit down & do some of the things I've been putting off financially and personally. We'll see how it goes.

I am a HUGE list-maker. I make lists for tons of things. Then I remake lists. Then I do some, but not all, of the stuff on the lists, but thats ok.

Here's a few examples of my lists:
-Lists of movies that I'd like to rent from the library, but if I can't I might get from Netflix later on when I restart it
-Grocery list
-Meal Plan list
-To do for work list
-To do for home list
-Overtime schedule list
-Books I want to read in the future list
-Websites/Blogs that I want to explore further
-Wish list (my small & big wants). If I write them down & wait, some come off the list & some get asked for at birthday/Christmas
-Bank account balance & budget catagory balance list

I have no idea when I started this habit
of list-making, but it REALLY helps me stay organized. And I'm less prone to impulse buying this way

UGH. I knew what range it was in (high numbers), but when I heard the actual price, I almost threw up. I had gotten quotes from a few other companies, but this is one that I really trust. They were straight-forward, gave me options on the different models and were generally nice to me. They also had the best price.

So I've converted the bill into overtime hours: The full amount minus the $400.00 gift card = 172 overtime hours! Yuck. But its ok, I have the cash. I'm going to use some money (not showing in the balances on the left)that I have set aside for a small interest-free first-time homeowners loan that I don't have to pay back til 10/2009. I'll be able to pay myself back in a few months easily. And I'll still have my emergency fund.

In the mean time, I'm buckling down on the overtime. By Saturday, I'll have 23 hours to put towards that total. Next week, I'm doing a minimum of 19 hours. That leaves 130 hours to go.

I'll also be adding to paying myself back from other sources, like paycheck funds that would normally go to savings.

I am REALLY tired right now. I am going home and making some food to bring to work tomorrow. Then I am going to bed.

I have a specialist visit with my gastroenterologist at the end of the month. I used up some of my medical budget on a new medicine I'm trying, so its a little depleted and I have a few 3 month supply of prescriptions to order this month. So, I am going to find little ways to make up the $30.00 copay without having to dig into my medical or other budget catagories.

I also have to get my car inspected, which will likely be a $20-25 fee. I'd like to complete it by the end of the month.

So I want to find ways to come up with $50.00.

First, when I get paid on the 15th, I have $10.00 of the budget going to personal items (shampoo, ect). Since I already have a $20.00 gift card to Happy Harrys (owned by Walgreens), this covers my personal items for the month & the extra $10.00 isn't needed, so I'm starting off this personal challenge with $10.00.

I'll keep updating as I find other funds.

I also came home to a nice surprise. I received the air conditioning repair bill from last week. I had been quoted $322.00 for the visit, but the bill was for $300.00. Yay! When I have the estimate tomorrow, I do plan on asking the guy to consider that I just shelled out such a large amount to their company.

In other news:
-I found out that the $400.00 in gift cards from work is going to come in the form of a Visa gift card as opposed to store cards like last time. I'm hoping to put this amount towards the new A/C unit. I'll have to talk to the company's office, but it shouldn't be a problem. My family has done business with them for years.

-I worked 3.5 hours of overtime yesterday & today. I won't get any in tomorrow because of the appointment for the estimate. But on Friday, I'm going into the office at 7am to do some system checks for the boss, so I'll get in 4 hours of OT, maybe 4.5 if I decide to take a 1/2 hour lunch again.

-And in even better news, the overtime is back on for next week, so I have some opportunity to earn some more OT hours.

Its funny, I keep thinking of the cost of the A/C in terms of OT hours. I'll calculate exactly how much I'll need once I have the figures tomorrow

I already packed food for tomorrow & I plan to have a big breakfast before I leave. So tomorrow WILL be a no spend day for me
Well, I'm off to bed, I'm beat!

I had someone I thought was a work friend say something very hurtful about me to another coworker today. I had to get out of the office for a bit to recompose myself. So I went down to the cafe and bought a soft pretzel for 55 cents. It was worth it just for the temporary peace.

This situation concerns a small group of people and I sort of feel that I'm in a hostile environment when I'm around them. I am able to remove myself from them at times, but this changes how I view my current workplace.

I am seriously considering some changes in my job. I'm going to try to let the situation go for now, not get myself worked up, but I do plan to take some time this weekend to sort some things out.

In the meantime, I spent 55 cents on food today. And I did end up going to a bar after work last night with another group of coworkers. I spend $9.00 for 2 large mixed drinks, an order of fries and the tip (its a small local bar, so its cheap). The $9 came out of my entertainment money.

Today I'm working 8am to 8pm with a 1/2 hour lunch. I packed all my food (outside the pretzel).

Tonight I'm going home & premaking food for tomorrow. Then heading straight to bed. Tomorrow I meet with the a/c guys for the estimate. That should be fun.

I'm working 8am to 8pm today. I packed all my food and my plan is to not buy any food all day.

Well, around 12:00, I started having a drop in blood sugar. Its not unusual for me, but it was really bad. I was shaking like crazy. I didn't want to eat all my packed food before dinner time, but I also didn't want to run down & buy something from the cafe.

Luckily, I had a small stock of stuff that I brought from home that I keep in my desk. I keep a pack of generic Ritz-like crackers and a jar of peanut butter in my desk for just such an occasion. I spread the pb on a few of the crackers, gulped down the soda and now I'm fine! If I didn't have that supply there, I would have spent AT LEAST 75 cents for a soda and more if I wanted food too. So yay! Crisis averted.

A few more tidbits:
- I also found a quater in the parking lot today!
- I'm going to work a 1/2 hour lunch & get another 1/2 hour of OT in today

And just to share my packed food:
Today I had/will have:
-a small blueberry muffin
-a banana
-1 cup dry rice chex (I eat them as a snack)
-all bran crackers
-tuna sandwich on wheat
-5 crackers with peanut butter on top
-salad with light italian dressing
-homemade pasta salad with wheat pasta, tons of veggies and light italian on it

Not the most imaginative meals, but its been REALLY hot in the office and I just couldn't take any hot food.

I know I'm bringing a salad & the other half of the tuna tomorrow, but I still have to figure out the rest. I'm going to work 8am to 8pm again.

****edited to add****

I just found out that I'll be receiving another $400.00 in gift cards from work. This was the last oppurtunity for it, but I am SO excited that I won!!!!

Well, the A/C went again. The last visit from the repair guy was a last ditch effort to see if it would limp through this summer. Obviously, it won't. I have the cash to get the new unit, but I want to pay myself as soon as possible.

Also, there was a glitch between my hot water heater timer and my brand new hot water heater, so I had the installation guy come back out to take a look. It took him 5 minutes, but it was fixed.

Today I:
-woke up at 6:45 am.
-was at the grocery store by 7:30 am to buy veggies and some staples
-made food to take to work
-called & set up an appointment with the a/c guy
-called & got 1 more car insurance quote. I'm just waiting to talk to the company who has my homeowner's insurance to see if grouping them together would save me a few bucks
-met with the hot water heater guy
-went to work for overtime from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm
-came home & cleaned the kitchen, living room and downstairs bathroom
-made dinner and premade food for tomorrow.

now I'm resting, playing on the internet & reworking my budget a little.


I'm actually going to be under budget for groceries this pay period! Yay I have $17.56 left of my $50.00 gift card that I'm using for this pay period. I'm going to save it for when soda is on super sale again. I like to stock up when its at its cheapest

So other than groceries paid by the gift card, I had a no spend day today.

Tomorrow, I'm working 8am to 8pm (3 hours OT). I've packed breakfast, lunch & dinner to take with me, as well as some snacks.

I've been running the house fans, but not the a/c since the a/c isn't working. But even if it was, I'd probably have it off, its been so beautiful in the last few days.

My goal for this week is to pack my meals all the way through Saturday. I say that sometimes and I don't follow through. But I will this time. I actually put a sticky note on my debit card. It says "A/C", just as a reminder. When I was saving for the house, I had a sticky with a picture of a house on it. Its a strange little motivation, but hey, it works for me

For entertaiment this weekend, I'm getting a few movies from the library. I've been watching old Poirot movies, which is fun. I have plans to do some organizational and cleaning stuff around the house this weekend. It should be pretty frugal

My family & I went to the movies & dinner for my dad's birthday & for an early fathers day. My mom's treat for both. Plus, she gave me a bag of paperback books that she picked up for me from yard sales & book trade shops. Thanks Mom!

I opened up a trial size toothpaste this morning that I had gotten as a free sample. I have another one somewhere in the drawer. Its berry flavored, with a hint of mint, which is a little weird, but it was free & it'll last me a good long while I'm going to organize & use all my free samples, before they get lost.

I'm going to be putting together an organizer for my card collection. I keep a stock of cards for birthdays, sympathy, congratulations, ect on hand. But when I go to find them, I can't because they've been shoved into some drawer in the spare room. So I cut the top off a tissue box & I'm going to organize the cards in it tonight. This means cleaning out my desk drawers, but that needs to be done as well.

I'm in the process of reading Green with Envy: Why keeping up with the Jones is keeping us in debt by Shira Boss. I got it from the library awhile ago, but I'm making time to finally read it this weekend. After that, I'm re-reading the last few Harry Potter books so when the new one comes out July 21st, I'll be refreshed!

I am holding off on my impulse to pre-order Mean Lean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. I LOVE this series. I have all the other books in hardback. But I"m really trying to hold off on it, get it from the Library and just put it on my Christmas list in December. We'll see.

I've been listening to back episodes of Dave Ramsey's show & heard his guest Henry Cloud. I put two of his books on my want list at the library. Boundries, and Integrity. Both should be good reads.

For the weekend, I plan to:
-Deep clean the house
-Finish cleaning the basement after the repairs
-Clean out my car, including vaccuming
-Start updating my resume
-Put some stuff up on Craigslist (I keep putting this off)

Next week I plan to:
-Finalize my car insurance decision
-Work any OT available to me
-Pack breakfast, lunch & dinner every day next week, no exceptions!
-Work on prescription billing issues

I spent $1.20 on some fries to go with my salad for lunch. I actually paid out 20 cents cash, and used a 1.00 voucher for my work cafe. Considering I've been at work since 9am & won't be leaving til 8pm, I packed most of my meals, I just got a littler hungrier than I thought.

I plan to go home tonight & make food for tomorrow's meals. I also am finalizing that letter to the store that treated me so badly (see my previous entry on Worst Customer Service EVER). I have the CEO's address, the complaints department address, and the address of the head manager of the specific store that I visited. I want a response. I want to know what they think about the way that I was treated.

In other news, I'm coming in for 3 hours of OT tomorrow & I'll do a 1/2 hour on Saturday for a total of 5.5 hours this week. I have the option for OT on Monday, and they may give us a little during the week again, we'll see. I'll be taking any ot that I can get so I don't have to dig into savings to cover the air conditioning repair. I would be able to 'repay' it quickly, but I'd prefer not to have to.

And just a side note--- we're having a work party next week. I signed up for pretzels only to get publically humiliated for my choice. I was told by a peer... not a manager... that pretzels were'n't good enough & I have to cook something. I told her I'll bring something, but I don't have to COOK anything. She preceded to yell at me from across the aisle. I was PISSED.

If I didn't like my coworker that the party is for, I would have just declined to attend altogether. So I stuck to my guns & told her to write down pretzels. Then about a 1/2 hour later, I changed my item to rolls. I can get them for the same price & they compliment the food we're brining more. Still, it was the rudest thing I've ever seen. AND I wasn't the only person that she did that to.

I went to a home improvement store on Saturday to buy a hot water heater & set up an installation date. I had shopped around and planned on using a $100.00 gift card that I had gotten from work, plus sign up for the store card to get 10% off the water heater. Before anyone worries, I have the cash to pay this off, I'm using the card for the discount & I'll pay it off when the statement comes.

While I was there, I encountered a salesman who got angry about having problems with the store's computer system and at having to fill out the installation paperwork by hand. He began cursing while helping me set up the order & installation. I mean a SERIOUS use of profanity, repeated over a 20 minute time span. It was REALLY inappropriate. I am really not exaggerating.

Then, when I went to customer service to be rung up. The assistant manager that helped me, filled out the credit card paperwork didn't process the 10% discount. When I asked her about it, she starting making excuses:

1. I, the customer, should have told her, the MANAGER, what the store's promotion was.
2. I, the customer, should have told the sales guy that I wanted the discount (which I did). And he should have noted the discount.
3. If she cancelled the transaction & restarted it, then I would lose my $100 gift card because she can't refund gift cards.
4. If she cancelled the transaction, I would have to start COMPLETELY over by going back to the salesman.

At this point, I told her there was no way that I was going back to the sales guy becuase he had flipped out. She finally punched a few buttons on the cash register & handed me cash for the 10% discount.

So basically, she was trying to bully me into giving up on getting the promotion. She lied about having to delete the whole transaction and order. AND she lied about my having to lose the gift card.

I have already written a letter to the CEO of the company, which I will be sending return receipt requested.

I've been in customer service for 14 years and I've never seen anyone behave that way before!

$30.00 specialist copay to eye doctor... I have a floater, if anyone knows what that is. Its very distracting at work, but so far, not a sign of a serious problem (which it can be).

I spent nothing on food today. I packed my lunch. YAY!

I am heading to the grocery store after work. I'm going to use on of my gift cards. I'm trying to limit my spending today, knowing I'll be going back next week to stock up on more veggies and fruits.

I am working on my May totals and June goals over the weekend & I'll post them as soon as I have them.

-Had another a/c problem (in addition to the pipe freezing). The same company came out & fixed it free of charge
-Since I had to wait for the a/c guy, I didn't go into work early, therefore losing out on 3 hours of OT
-I am planning on buying the water heater this weekend. Installation is going to nearly as much as the unit. But it'll be worth it since I can't do it by myself. AND they'll haul the old one away for me. I'm working to find coupons.
-I am starting to shop for car insurance. I'm getting some quotes and I even got my free annual copy of my CLUE report just to see whats on there. Nothing is showing, which is very good
-I have an eye doctors appointment tomorrow for a medical issue. So I have to pay the specialists copay of $30.00.
-I'm going to head back to the library tomorrow.
-This weekend, I am going to total my May spending. I can already tell that I grossly overspent in the eating out catagory, so I do plan on making some changes
-I did update debt & savings balances on the side for all to see.

I used a small company to fix my air conditioning & I feel like I really lucked out. They were very professional and were able to identify and fix the problem quickly. So quickly, that I was able to get into work on time & even get in an hour of overtime! Originally, I took a vacation day for today, because I didn't know how long it would take. I'm glad I didn't have to use the vacation day after all!

I did also find that I have a small leak at the base of my hot water heater (not the faucet). Its the only thing in the house that wasn't in the last 2-3 years. At least according to my home purchase papers So its been on my to do soon list. Now its on my to do immediately list. I'm going to go shopping to price hot water heaters & I'm going to ask around to see who my family and coworkers have had good experience with. I don't have the skills to do the insulation myself, so I'll need to pay for that too.

Just for kicks, I totaled the amount I have earned in overtime since January 1st. The grand total is...... $3,152.54. This is out of 9 paychecks!

I am planning on working 3 hours of OT tomorrow to round out the month. So I'm still due about 25.5 hours of overtime. And I still have the ability to do more OT on Mondays through June.

**edited to add**

Oops, I also forgot the $400.00 in gift cards that I won last month. Its possible that I may be eligible to get them again this month, but its wait and see since my job capacity changed

Just a not-so-quick update

I worked 8 hours of overtime today. The unlimited overtime ends on June 1st. After that, OT will only be available on Mondays for June & likely ending altogether for July.

Halfway through the day today, I called my mom and asked if my family wanted to come over to have some food for the holiday. So my mom supplied baked beans and hotdogs & buns. And I made pasta salad, baked fries, hamburgers and all the fixings. It was completely last minute, but very yummy.

I’ve been stalling on handling my bee problem at the back of the house. But they’re wood boring bees and I’m actually seeing sawdust on my deck from where they’ve dug on the side of the house. It’ll be pricey to get the guys out here, but I guess it’s necessary.

I called around & got several quotes, they all quoted a service of roughly $300-350.00. This includes 2 visits because the bees may come back. Even the guy that came highly recommended to me (the one that did my termite inspection) said $325.00. They are on the roof as well as under the eave, so I can't do this by myself.

I turned on the a/c for the first time yesterday, due to the humidity. However, the a/c sounds like its struggling to work and I went into the basement to check it out and found a big puddle on the floor and it looks like one of the pipes is freezing. So I’m going to make a call tomorrow. I’m ‘comfortable’ right now (my ceiling fans are helping), so I’m going to go into work at 8am for some overtime & I'll call and schedule the appointment for sometime between Wednesday and Friday. I'm hoping this will be an easy fix, but I'll have to wait and see. This problem trumps the bee guy, so I’m going to wait on that for another week or two.

My sister & dad kept playing with my fan in my living room. And they did something to the remote, so I can’t get the fan to respond to the remote anymore, although the light still does. I don’t have any instruction manuals since the fans came with the house, but it’s a Hunter fan, so I’m going to call their customer service tomorrow & see if they can help me. I REALLY hope so!

On Sunday, I signed up for paper delivery (I got caught at a weak moment at the grocery store). So I am going to call and cancel tomorrow.

I also need to call the trash service & let them know I’m going to be putting that broken tv out for pickup. I don’t want donate it, since it’s completely unusable. When I put it out for trash, I’m going to put a note on the tv, so nobody thinks it’s a great find & takes it home.

My electric bill came over the weekend; it was pretty low since I had no heat or air on for the whole month, just the fans when needed. My water bill also arrived. It was higher than I would have liked. It’s on my to-do list to replace the tank parts on both my toilets, since one leaks sometimes and one runs unnecessarily. I’m going to use the $100.00 gift card to Lowes to help with this one.

I’m also going to use the gift card to get a curtain rod, since I 'found' these nice white curtains with flowers embroidered on them from Pottery Barn that I bought in college. I’m going to put the curtains up in my bedroom.

I also need to get something to treat my lawn, which has been neglected. There are a lot of weeds and a large section is pretty brown. So I’m going to buy some lawn stuff to help kill the weeds and grow the grass.


So my game plan for the week is to not spend any unnecessary money. So I’m packing food for tomorrow. I’ll make those necessary calls from work. I do have a few dollars cash, which I'm going to use to get a few more veggies from the store.

I get paid on Thursday & I already planned to send $400.00 to my student loan principle. But depending on the charge for the a/c, I might not send it. It's wait and see for that one. I'd prefer not to dip into my emergency fund right now.

A few posts ago, I made the declaration that I was not going to spend any more money on eating out for the rest of the month. Yup, well that only lasted a few days. I'm in the second day of a migrane and instead of taking meds and staying home, I'm in training at work for a new job that I DONT want to do, that is causing a lot of stress for me AND doesn't get me paid any more. Plus, the tylonol just isn't cutting it.

Today, I ate some food from home & bought take out today. AND I'm planning on doing the same tomorrow.

I've been using some of the leftover money on my birthday visa gift card to pay for the food. Now its gone & I'll be using cash.

On a brighter note, I had a $20.00 gift card to Bed,Bath & Beyond, where I bought a Black and Decker Wet/Dry Vac dustbuter (with 20% off). This way I can clean out my car easily. There are no electrical outlets in the front of my house & I've been pondering how to vaccum out my car easily... I had planned on buying a long indoor/outdoor extention cord & dragging my vaccum outside, but this is a MUCH better idea.

I also got a 3 draw plastic container. I've been wanting one to hold my nails and picture hangers and screws and stuff. I've been using an old tissue box, but this way, things will be much more organized & easy to see.

I also used some cash to buy my mom a pack of those magnetic clasps for jewelry. She's been looking for them for awhile & I saw a pack when I was at the register. She's been buying me a lot of meals recently, so I was happy to get them for her.

I did get 8.5 hours of overtime in last week. I'm probably going to get about 4 to 6 hours in this week. Then I'm going to try to get 4 hours in on Monday (the holiday). And another 4 to 6 hours throughout the rest of next week.

Once June starts, OT will only be able to me on Mondays (my day off). So I'm going to try to take advantage of them for the full month, but we'll see.

I'm reworking my monthly budget. And I'm going to work on setting weekly goals for myself. I'm taking care of that over the weekend.

I also need to shop around for car insurance since my company is increasing my rates and I'm sure I can do better. The company has been good to me, but its getting way too costly.

Here’s some random updates:

-I worked 4 hours of OT instead of 5 because our systems went down and I left early
-I mowed the lawn, but I only had one row left when the mower ran out of gas. So instead of having a no spend day, I spent 20 on gas, to fill up my container that I use for the mower & to put some gas in my car. I didn’t fill all the way because the prices were high for the weekend & I know the prices will go down later in the week. Other than the gas, this was a no spend day.
-I looked up the value of my car on Kelly Blue Book: The Trade in value is $4,775 and the Private Sale Value is $6295 … for a 2001 Hyundai Sonata with 63,959 miles on it
-My car insurance renewal is coming up in June. They were nice enough to send me the new contract along with a letter stating: “Due to increased costs, blah, blah, blah, we are increasing our rates 10%”. They did the same last year & the previous year. Most people I know are saying their rates are DROPPING. So my priority this week is to stop around for car insurance.
-My mom visited some garage sales yesterday & hooked me up with a few books & dvds… Thank Mom!
-I spent no money eating out today… my goal is to do that the rest of the month
-I’m heading to Bed, Bath & Beyond tomorrow armed with a 20% off coupon & $20.00 in gift cards.
-Tomorrow, I’m heading to the bank. I share a safety deposit box with my parents & I’m getting out all my savings bonds. Time to add them up and cash them out. I was just waiting for them to come due

In the last week and a half, I've been VERY lax in my spending. I've been eating out a lot & its cost me... A LOT. I'm not going to make excuses (of which there are plenty), so I'm just going to suck it up and move on.

I am going to get in a much OT as possible by the end of the month. I've had some changes at work, which make the overtime not so beneficial, plus much more stressful.

So I'm going to do what I can with the OT. In the meantime, I am challenging myself to not eat out at all from today to the end of the month.

I went grocery shopping today and I'm going to pack breakfast & lunch for work tomorrow. In fact, I'm going to leave my cash and credit cards at home. I'll bring my debit card (and leave it in the car while at work), because I need to get gas tomorrow. But thats it. I swear.

I haven't been very good at following through lately, so I'm working on it. I will be spending my lunch hour at the library, which should help. I have a few books to pick up AND I requested The Game (that Michael Douglas movie). It was on tv a week or two ago and I didn't get to watch it, so I requested it from the library instead.

I also have Pan's Labyrinth from Netflix (which I am cancelling at the end of the month).

I was just updating some numbers for myself to see where I stand and decided to share.

January I had a total of $2852.63 in cash savings.

Today I have $9038.44 (not including 401k, IRA, and savings bonds)

Seeing the numbers makes me want to save even more Right now I'm playing on the computer & watching a movie borrowed from the library. I have the heat off, windows open and the lights off. I want to keep my electric bill low, all the extra in that budget catagory goes to the student loans too

I'm going in for overtime tomorrow. Somewhere between 4 & 7 hours. We'll see how I hold up. I'm still feeling a bit ill. If I'm up to it, I have $20.00 in gift cards to Bed, Bath & Beyond, plus a 20% off coupon. Its about a 1/2 hour drive there, but I might go & try to get a few gifts for my gift closet. I have some birthdays coming up soon.

I have about 3500 points in my MyPoints account. I'm thinking about cashing that out too, so I can use a gift card for the birthdays too.

Whew, I'm beat. Today I...

-Woke up at 6am
-Worked from 7am to 5 pm
-Came home and mowed the lawn
-Sprayed a bees nest (getting some on me)
-Showered the bee spray off
-Cleaned the kitchen, washed the floor
-Cleaned the downstairs bathroom
-Picked up dusted & vacummed the living room
-Vacuumed the stairs
-Made dinner
-Quick cleaned the kitchen again
-Ran the dishwasher

Now I'm sitting down to watch thunderstorm thats just starting. Then Im going to watch The Good Shepard & have a cocktail. I really like Amarettos Sours

Tomorrow I'm hanging out with my mom & I'll be tackling the upstairs.

I won that contest at my work for April. We get $400.00 in gift cards if we make 160% of production, which I hit! YAY!

Anyway, next week I'll be getting:

$100 gift card to Lowes
$100 gift card to Walmart
$200 gift card to Super G

I plan on using the Lowes to replace the insides of my toilets (they keep running). I'm using the Walmart to get some gifts for planned birthdays, some clothes (just for work)and some groceries.The Super G is my regular grocery store, so that should cover my grocery budget for 2-3 months. I'll be putting that grocery money from the budget towards my student loan.

Very nice!

I love listening to Dave Ramsey's show. I like his Baby Steps. I like the straight up, to the point advice he gives. I think he has a common sense approach to finances.

Now, I started paying attention to my finances before I ever heard about Dave. I had made a budget and given myself goals and set out to achieve them in a manner somewhat similar to Dave's.

However, there are 2 things I feel conflicted on... stopping retirement savings altogether and paying off all my debt with only $1000.00 in an emergency fund.

My parents talked to me for years about the importance of retirement savings. Iras, 401k, ect. I can't seem to get my dad's voice out of my head when I think of stopping the contributions. SO I am bringing it down to 5%, which will allow me to still receive the company match.

Since I am a single woman, living alone, I feel the need to have a much higher emergency fund to feel comfortable. I feel that I need a larger safety net because if something happens, such as breaking a leg & ending up in the hospital, I'm the only person I can rely on to pay my bills.

So I have set a higher emergency fund goal. Its not quite 3-6 months of expenses, but its definately more comfortable. PLUS I do have another source of savings that I'm basically pretending isn't there.

When I bought the house, my county had a down payment program that provided me a $5,000.00 loan towards my closing costs. I had the cash, but I accepted their loan because for the first 3 years, it is completely interest free. So I have my $5,000 cash in my ING account, earning interest and waiting to pay off off the loan in September 2008. If there was ever any major problem, I could touch it, but I REALLY wouldn't ever want to. So I really just pretend it isn't there.

I feel comfortable where my emergency fund currently is at $4,600.01 (I need to update my sidebar numbers). So from now on, all my extra income from overtime, bonuses, ect is going straight to my private student loan. This is something that my parents cosigned for and although they do not have a problem with it, I really want to pay it off as quickly as possible. Then I will work on my Federal student loan.

I'm going to be working up a projection to get the Private loan paid off in 2 to 3 years. Definately doable.

I have been stressed and sick and whatnot recently, so although I've been doing overtime, my goal is to destress as much as possible this week.

So in the interest of relaxing, I stopped by the library & picked up a few things:

-Green With Envy: Why Keeping Up with the Joneses is keeping us in debt (by Shira Boss)
-Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back (by Karyn Bosnak)
-Haunted Honeymoon on dvd (an old Gene Wilder flick, very funny)

I also have the Total Money Makeover to get through.

At the end of the month I'll be cancelling my Netflix subscpription (I've paid through the 25th). So in preperation, I've requested several new(er) movies from the Library. I'm in line behind several people, so hopefully it'll be my turn around the time that I cancel Netflix.

And as for Netflix, I currently have at my house The Good Shepard, The Guardian, and Unhitched.

Financially, I'm still meeting my goal to track all my spending. I've done very well with this. Each day, I write down any spending in a tiny notebook I carry with me. Then each night, I update it into an Excel spreadsheet. Its been a good system so far & my goal is to track for the whole year. I'm almost halfway through!

I also need to redo my budget, I have some changes that I want to make on it.

As for an overtime count:
Last week I did 15.5 hours
This week I've done 11 so far, with a goal of 16.5 plus any Sunday hours available.

The last few days have not been the best. I've been feeling sick again. I have been sick for almost a month now! I am tired, pretty much a Ms. CrankyPants all the time and to top it off, my house is in disarray because all I do is work and sleep.

-So I've been sick.
-My neighbors keep parking in my driveway.
-I'm so ANGRY that my neighbors take advantage of me (and that I couldn't confront them at the time) that I couldn't sleep last night.
-I need sleep because I'm sick
-I bought lunch today & since I collected the money for the group& felt bad for the delivery guy, I put in too much money for tip since others tried to stiff him
-This resulted in me overspending for today
-I was so unable to sleep that I went into work even earlier than I would have and now I"m even more tired. And cranky.

Ok, rant done. Sorry. I just needed to get it out.

Just to throw in a few positives:
-Over the weekend, my mom gave me a huge bag of books that she collected from some friends & yard sales. I love free books and my mom always knows where to find them!
-I finally got Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover from the library...which I'm starting tonight
-I haven't turned on the heat in over 2 weeks
-My parents bought me dinner 2x since last Thursday
-I went to my nephew's karate class and he was a huge show off for his Aunt, it was so cute
-There are new episodes of Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on tonight. After which, I plan to go to sleep at exactly 10pm

I packed dinner for work today and they provided free pizza for lunch. I gave .20 to a coworker for a soda and I spent $1.00 for a library fine.

I was tempted to buy dinner becuase what I packed didn't sound that good, but I just sucked it up and ate what I brought.

I did 2 hours of OT today, I'm working on Sunday for 5 hours. My goal next week is to do 14 hours.

Tonight I'm making a mealplan for next week & I'll be heading to the grocery store on Sunday.