I don't want to get my hopes TOO high, but I think I may have FINALLY broken the 145 streak. I've been stuck at 145-148 for MONTHS AND MONTHS. Like 3-4 months. This past weekend I weighed in at 144 for the first time since like February. I was at 142 in the winter, put on 5 pounds in the spring and could not get rid of them.
I start bootcamp again in a month or so. Now that the air isn't 90 degrees at 6am. This should help me lose these last 10 pounds. 135 is my ultimate goal. I've given myself until November to get there. It will make 1 year to lose the 50 pounds.
My desire to to stay below 140 for a year before Chris and I start trying for a 3rd. I know. I know. I say every day 100 times a day that I'm done, but we all know there's a 3rd baby. I just can't think about even having that baby until we are a year closer to Chris graduating, and it would be nice if by the time she comes, that Simon is in preschool and Ava is in 1st grade, so that I actually have time for the babe. So, there. Happy? I said it. There's a 3rd. There's a plan for the 3rd to come. I just need to be healthier. Happier. And far LESS busy.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
8 days
Ladies and Gents...we are 8 days from having the car paid off. EIGHT! This is getting so exciting.
I'm headed home for a friend wedding this November. I haven't been home in FIVE YEARS. I'm so excited. The best part is that I'm going to be able to go with CASH, and the trip won't follow me home financially. Flights are ridiculously low. A round trip ticket is usually in the 400s, and because I'm buying in advance, I am getting it for $250 after taxes and fees.
Cash really does make life easier. Stressless. And makes taking advantage of deals PRICELESS.
I'm headed home for a friend wedding this November. I haven't been home in FIVE YEARS. I'm so excited. The best part is that I'm going to be able to go with CASH, and the trip won't follow me home financially. Flights are ridiculously low. A round trip ticket is usually in the 400s, and because I'm buying in advance, I am getting it for $250 after taxes and fees.
Cash really does make life easier. Stressless. And makes taking advantage of deals PRICELESS.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
$7
So, after an hour of 'please hold' and such, I was informed that this 3 months of migraine causing Children's Place nonsense is over $7. It seems that the last 2 months, every person on their team involved in figuring out how to zero my account was off by $7. So, when they tried to reverse all the fees, and make it $0, the computer would revolt and put the fees right back on. Uhhh, how did 10 people add and subtract wrong?! I can't let myself try to understand it, because there is no understanding it.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
the stupidity continues
We are on Month 3 of fighting with Citi. Citi ownes my Children's place card. I went into the store a few months ago and made a payment. That day, I called to be sure that I paid the entire balance, and found out that I still had a balance of $60. So, I made a payment over the phone. The next month, I got a call. My account was past due. And the balance was $135. Weird. I had zeroed it out. It turns out, the girl added a 0 to my account number, so the check didn't clear. So they hit me with all kinds of charges and fees. The CSR I spoke with assured me she removed all the fees, and once again my account was at 0. Last month, same problem. Call that I'm late and $110 in fees. I call and once again they apologize and tell me it's at a zero balance and all fees have been reversed.
TODAY...I get 2 calls. YOUR ACCOUNT IS PAST DUE 5 DAYS. $115 BALANCE.
What the heck?!!? I haven't been inside the store in THREE MONTHS, and don't even go to Children's Place's website anymore, because I'm so nauseated by this credit card company's inability to function. It's been THREE MONTHS. Tomorrow I'm making a call to the supervisor, chewing him out BIG TIME, getting them to ZERO IT OUT, send me confirmation and then CLOSING THE ACCOUNT. PHYSCOS!
TODAY...I get 2 calls. YOUR ACCOUNT IS PAST DUE 5 DAYS. $115 BALANCE.
What the heck?!!? I haven't been inside the store in THREE MONTHS, and don't even go to Children's Place's website anymore, because I'm so nauseated by this credit card company's inability to function. It's been THREE MONTHS. Tomorrow I'm making a call to the supervisor, chewing him out BIG TIME, getting them to ZERO IT OUT, send me confirmation and then CLOSING THE ACCOUNT. PHYSCOS!
Friday, July 16, 2010
BEST.DAY.
I'm not sure there is anything that will kill my buzz today. We transferred $1287 to the car loan today. The new balance?
$413
This is REALLY happening. We started paying for this car in Feb 2006. We had a 6 year loan. (72 months) We are going to be paying it off 17 months early! It feels so AWESOME!
If I'm THIS excited today, I can't even imagine how Freaked out I will be in 14 days.
THAT'S IT! 14 DAYS between captivity and freedom!!!
14 DAYS until we are no longer a slave to AFCU
14 DAYS until we 100% own our very first car
14 DAYS until I love my husband even more than ever for helping us to accomplish this great thing.
14 DAYS until our lives are forever changed!
$413
This is REALLY happening. We started paying for this car in Feb 2006. We had a 6 year loan. (72 months) We are going to be paying it off 17 months early! It feels so AWESOME!
If I'm THIS excited today, I can't even imagine how Freaked out I will be in 14 days.
THAT'S IT! 14 DAYS between captivity and freedom!!!
14 DAYS until we are no longer a slave to AFCU
14 DAYS until we 100% own our very first car
14 DAYS until I love my husband even more than ever for helping us to accomplish this great thing.
14 DAYS until our lives are forever changed!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Debit Freeze
This morning, I banished the access card to our savings account, and the debit card to the depths of the freezer. It is my hope that this will better keep us on track. I say 'us', but really I'm the one that usually has the 'spend' itch. Chris maybe blows $20 a week at a corner store if he's not paying attention, but I usually end up at Children's Place or Carters hitting a 'sale' and coming home $100 later. It's easier to avoid those places now that my little 3 year old refuses to let me dress her. She either wants jammies or jammies. 95 degrees, and she wants to sport fleece footie jammies. ugh. It makes me sweat just LOOKING at her.
So today, for our totalmoneymakeover I have a plan to get through the day. I purchased some cereal and a box of fruit snacks for the kids. I have a difficult time getting 3 year old jammie girl to eat 3 times a day. So far, the cereal worked! check. I sent hubby to work with a kung pow chicken bowl, crystal light packet, an apple and $2 for a treat. I meant to grab a loaf of bread, but forgot. So instead I'm going to bake a couple of loaves. It will heat up the house, but it will taste better. Sandwhiches for lunch. PB&J for jammie girl and me, and just J for little guy, because he's too little for the PB. Dinner? I'm thinking rice and beans. Don't laugh. I'm serious. We've been eating like $2 dinners all month trying to keep our goal of paying the car off this month. Mac & Cheese. Quesadillas. Bean & Cheese burritos with rice. (those actually were really good and a big hit with the kids) I ran out of cheddar cheese yesterday. *Ugh* It's only ONE MORE DAY to pay day and then I can go to the grocery store again.
So while our finances and spending are in a deep freeze, we are sweating it out. My summer goal is to keep the electric bill below $100. Friday it's going to be 100 degrees. Our home faces west, and gets all day sun, and completely beat on from about 4:30-8:30. I've started leaving the air off until about 8pm. Yesterday, we had to turn it on about 6 though, because our home had gotten to 85 and it made us non-functional. Our first power bill of the summer came today.....$99!! w00t! So, it IS possible. The trick is to keep in the basement and outside with water play. Leave the house from 6-7, whether that's to a park, or grandparents for a swim, and then come back at 8 to the house. By then, the sun is low enough that it doesn't take more than 45 minutes to cool the house. Our bills have gotten to be almost $200 one year, but not this year man. I'm not dealing with that nonsense! And hey, sweating is good for you!
So today, for our totalmoneymakeover I have a plan to get through the day. I purchased some cereal and a box of fruit snacks for the kids. I have a difficult time getting 3 year old jammie girl to eat 3 times a day. So far, the cereal worked! check. I sent hubby to work with a kung pow chicken bowl, crystal light packet, an apple and $2 for a treat. I meant to grab a loaf of bread, but forgot. So instead I'm going to bake a couple of loaves. It will heat up the house, but it will taste better. Sandwhiches for lunch. PB&J for jammie girl and me, and just J for little guy, because he's too little for the PB. Dinner? I'm thinking rice and beans. Don't laugh. I'm serious. We've been eating like $2 dinners all month trying to keep our goal of paying the car off this month. Mac & Cheese. Quesadillas. Bean & Cheese burritos with rice. (those actually were really good and a big hit with the kids) I ran out of cheddar cheese yesterday. *Ugh* It's only ONE MORE DAY to pay day and then I can go to the grocery store again.
So while our finances and spending are in a deep freeze, we are sweating it out. My summer goal is to keep the electric bill below $100. Friday it's going to be 100 degrees. Our home faces west, and gets all day sun, and completely beat on from about 4:30-8:30. I've started leaving the air off until about 8pm. Yesterday, we had to turn it on about 6 though, because our home had gotten to 85 and it made us non-functional. Our first power bill of the summer came today.....$99!! w00t! So, it IS possible. The trick is to keep in the basement and outside with water play. Leave the house from 6-7, whether that's to a park, or grandparents for a swim, and then come back at 8 to the house. By then, the sun is low enough that it doesn't take more than 45 minutes to cool the house. Our bills have gotten to be almost $200 one year, but not this year man. I'm not dealing with that nonsense! And hey, sweating is good for you!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Welcome
Ok so I lost all interest in my family blogging, and my blog about weight loss, so I figured, why not a start a new blog about our finances. Chris and I got into Dave Ramsey when Ava was about 4 months old. We had a LOT of debt. We had just purchased our home--thankfully, we had some downpayment money as a gift from his parents, and money he had saved after his mission.
Mortgage $126,875
Car Loan $22,000 (Chris had a 2003 Nissan 350 Z when we started dating...we traded it in Feb 2006 for a Saturn Vue to lower our payments *heh* by $40. we were total SUCKERS!)
My student loans $3,500.
Credit Card $500.
Credit Card $800
Credit Card $200
Basement $7,000
We've come a LONG WAY. We've had 2 kids, our first (Ava) was delivered emergency c-section. That added $4,000 to our medical, and since she was born Dec 29, put her hospital bills, and mine, into 2 separate billing years. Our second, Simon, spent a week in the NICU and needed to visit a neurologist at Primary Children's hospital three times. Love those kids, but man alive--what's that song that Veggie Tales has "You can buy a zoo with all the dr. bills they paid?"
As of July 14th 2010
Car Loan $1700
Credit Card $1700
2nd Mrtg $7800
1st Mrtg $108,000
Minimum Payments=$1456.
1st debt to die this time around is going to be the CAR. July has 3 pay days for us. So this Friday, we're going to move $1200 to the car. BAM! And ...July 31st...$510 (to cover any interest) and SO-LONG CAR PAYMENT. I have set this pay off date more times than sanity can really handle. Let's just say...this time it WILL happen. It HAS to happen or I may just lose my ever-lovin mind.
I lost my wallet for 4 days somewhere in my home. (see what i mean...my mind is so fragile as it is) and I didn't even care. In fact, I was relieved, because it was 4 days that no matter HOW tempted I was to go shopping I COULDN'T! It probably saved us. Something is really wrong in my head. I sabotage myself. Everytime we have a payoff date or something really big to SAVE for, my mind goes into compulsive shopping mode. Usually, it's not even crap for me==What's that honey? You wanted $300 for a new phone. OK! "Oh look I hit a great sale at Children's Place and spent $200 for $890 worth of clothes."
I read an article the other day that struck me hard. It said, you shouldn't relate a sale to saving money. If you come home and DON'T move that "total saved" into a savings account YOU DIDN'T SAVE ANY MONEY! You only spent. So, if you come home and take your receipt to mr. computer, and it says "total saved $56.27 and move $56.27 to savings, congrats, you really did save. But if you don't, which I never have before....you're just a sucker. Welcome to my club.
Mortgage $126,875
Car Loan $22,000 (Chris had a 2003 Nissan 350 Z when we started dating...we traded it in Feb 2006 for a Saturn Vue to lower our payments *heh* by $40. we were total SUCKERS!)
My student loans $3,500.
Credit Card $500.
Credit Card $800
Credit Card $200
Basement $7,000
We've come a LONG WAY. We've had 2 kids, our first (Ava) was delivered emergency c-section. That added $4,000 to our medical, and since she was born Dec 29, put her hospital bills, and mine, into 2 separate billing years. Our second, Simon, spent a week in the NICU and needed to visit a neurologist at Primary Children's hospital three times. Love those kids, but man alive--what's that song that Veggie Tales has "You can buy a zoo with all the dr. bills they paid?"
As of July 14th 2010
Car Loan $1700
Credit Card $1700
2nd Mrtg $7800
1st Mrtg $108,000
Minimum Payments=$1456.
1st debt to die this time around is going to be the CAR. July has 3 pay days for us. So this Friday, we're going to move $1200 to the car. BAM! And ...July 31st...$510 (to cover any interest) and SO-LONG CAR PAYMENT. I have set this pay off date more times than sanity can really handle. Let's just say...this time it WILL happen. It HAS to happen or I may just lose my ever-lovin mind.
I lost my wallet for 4 days somewhere in my home. (see what i mean...my mind is so fragile as it is) and I didn't even care. In fact, I was relieved, because it was 4 days that no matter HOW tempted I was to go shopping I COULDN'T! It probably saved us. Something is really wrong in my head. I sabotage myself. Everytime we have a payoff date or something really big to SAVE for, my mind goes into compulsive shopping mode. Usually, it's not even crap for me==What's that honey? You wanted $300 for a new phone. OK! "Oh look I hit a great sale at Children's Place and spent $200 for $890 worth of clothes."
I read an article the other day that struck me hard. It said, you shouldn't relate a sale to saving money. If you come home and DON'T move that "total saved" into a savings account YOU DIDN'T SAVE ANY MONEY! You only spent. So, if you come home and take your receipt to mr. computer, and it says "total saved $56.27 and move $56.27 to savings, congrats, you really did save. But if you don't, which I never have before....you're just a sucker. Welcome to my club.
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