Journey Towards Financial Freedom

My dh decided to list some more books on bookmooch because there are some books he wants to get. However, he needs more points. Anyway, two of the books we don't want anymore don't have isbns even though they were published in the last 30 years. I have decided to take them to Goodwill next weekend.

I was inspired by the 30 in 30 Days Challenge and have continued to declutter. Today, I got rid of an old cd player/radio combination unit that hasn't worked for years. I have no idea why I still had it sitting in my bedroom. Since I rarely used it, I don't see a need to replace it.

I also got rid of a pair of courduroy pants that my dh held up to fold after laundering. We could see daylight through them, so we threw them out. I will have to replace them on my next payday.

Well, I cashed in the spare change I had collecting in a jar for the past month. I had $8.00 which I deposited in an account. I will be keeping track of the Spare Change Challenge balance separately and when I get about $40.00, I will send it to my hospital bill #1.

Well, I am well on my way to meeting my 2010 goals. My hospital bill #1 is now $529.58. I paid off $120.00 of it with $100.00 from my tax refund plus my regular $20.00 payment. I will be getting some survey money and other found money soon that I will also funnel towards that bill. I get paid tomorrow and my savings will increase by $40.00 to $598.91.

Well, I guess the month is not officially over, but I am calling my part of the challenge over. I was able to get rid of 35 things. For my dresser and closet, it helped me to clear out some space so I can see better what I actually have. As far as saving money, I think that would be it there. If I can see what clothes I actually do have, I won't be so tempted to go and buy more. A feng shui expert I know does say that clutter represents stuck "chi" or energy. So getting rid of clutter can help with that, too.

- gave all clothes to charity, except for a threadbare pair of socks
- gave a lot of plastic bags to charity
- gave 2 books to charity
- recycled some old magazines and one water-damaged book
- took old receipts, old checks, old deposit slips, and junk mail to a place where they are guaranteed to be shredded
- recycled old insurance information packet
- threw away old non-working marker

How did you all do? How did it help you?

I read Ima Saver's entry about her challenge. I was inspired, but I rarely have $5.00 bills in my wallet, but I do frequently have spare change. My challenge is to save all my spare change and use it pay off Hospital Debt #1. That is my #1 priority this year. I feel fairly confident of being able to do it.

Anyone want to join me?

Well, I found another shirt that I have never worn. Someone bought it for me and I hate it. I also found a pair of pants that don't fit well. I took both of those to the Goodwill today. While at the Goodwill, I bought a sweater in a neutral color and a pair of khaki pants. The sweater replaces a couple of other sweaters I have that are no longer suitable for work, but I can wear around the house. The pants are a better fitting pair of pants that replace those I took to Goodwill.

That makes 35!

Well, last night and this morning I have made a lot of progress. This is what I found.

- 1 pair of threadbare socks
- 5 old magazines that I no longer need
- 10 pieces of junk mail that I had sitting around for awhile
- 1 bag of receipts I do not need to keep
- more plastic grocery sacks
- 1 box of checks with the wrong address on them
- 1 box of deposit slips from a closed account

That's 31! I don't think I will stop there, though. I have a lot more junk to get rid of one way or another.

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Update: I found one old marker and a state employee health insurance information packet from 2 years ago. I guess I don't need that anymore.

That's 33!

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I also wanted to add that I do use the nylon canvas type shopping bags, but I only have 4, so every week, I usually have 1 to 2 of the plastic variety. After they sit around for awhile, they seem to multiple like bunnies. So, after a few months, I gather them up and take them to some place like Goodwill, who seems to be thrilled to get them. I would like to get more of the nylon bags, so I am keeping my eyes open for them. I will also add that I am recycling the magazines, not throwing them away.

Well, with the exception of one of the paperback books, I took everything else to the Goodwill store today to donate it. The paperback book I am going to recycle because it apparently got wet somehow and I can't see someone wanting to pay money for it. This morning, I discovered another clothing item which was threadbare and had lots of holes in it. It hit the dust bin. I don't know what effect this challenge will have on my finances, but perhaps by getting rid of stuff I no longer need or are unuseable, I can make room for other stuff.

That's 12!

Well, I have been looking for more stuff tonight after getting home from work. I found 2 books that I have had since college and have not opened them since. So, because one is in good condition, I will take it to the Goodwill tomorrow. The other is warped by water, so I will take it for recycling.

That's 10 items so far!

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I found another shirt. That makes 11!

Well, I did not think I would be able to participate in the 30 in 30 days Challenge. Well, I did yesterday and didn't even realize it until just now. I gathered up 2 pairs of blue jeans we no longer wear and also a bag full of plastic grocery sacks and took them to the local Salvation Army. Before I get flamed for not reusing my grocery sacks, please let me assure you I have enough plastic sacks to last for quite some time. However, the Salvation Army and Goodwill can't do without donations and I know they can use bags. Also, I found another pair of blue jeans and more plastic grocery sacks to take to the Salvation Army today. I think I will count the plastic grocery sacks as a group. So far, I have gotten rid of 4 things. Wow. That's pretty cool. I also got rid of 2 pairs of socks that were threadbare. I just threw them away. So that's 6 things so far.

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As an update, I do want to say that I do use reusable nylon grocery bags for the most part.

Well, I got paid again yesterday. I have already paid the gas and electric bills and the AAA membership. My auto/renter's insurance is on automatic withdrawal and will occur later in the month. I also made a payment on the credit card. I bought replacement pages for my planner yesterday. Last year, I was carrying a big, heavy planner that was like a large notebook. I bought another smaller, lightweight one at a yard sale. I am much happier with it, as my back was starting to hurt carrying the old one around. Later today, I will be going to the credit union to deposit some money into my car account, house account, and professional account. I already updated the balances, though. I will be getting updated statements for hospital bills #1 and #2 soon. I will pay those then.

Oh, recently I saw a post on another forum about unclaimed property. Just out of curiosity, I checked to see if any money was available for me in the several states I have lived in. Supposedly, the amount I am getting is between $1-$5, so it's not huge, but it is something. Check this website for your name: http://www.unclaimed.org/default.asp. There might be money there for you, too! You do have to fill out a form and provide some proof of identification, but it seems so worth it.

I opened an extra savings account today to pay for things like professional memberships and attendance at conferences. The annual amount I need for this ranges from $500 to $1000, depending on what conferences I plan on attending. I am going to aim for $1000.

I was curious how much my net worth had changed in 2009, so I looked it up on networthiq.com. I was very surprised to find my networth has changed to the tune of a positive $10,227!!! Wow. I knew it was better, but that is amazing.

net worth in Dec 2008 - $9,335
total hospital debt $2,900
credit card debt $1,882
no savings account
retirement account $13,054

net worth in Dec 2009 - $19,562
total hospital debt $1,772
credit card debt $1,682
emergency savings account $462
house downpayment account $135
car replacement account $150
retirement account $20,759


I updated this on 12/27/2009 because I did some calculations based on my payment schedule and discovered that my payoff dates for these debts are different than I thought.

2010 Financial Goals
1. Pay Hospital Debt #1 Down to Under $400
2. Pay Hospital Debt #2 Down to $400
3. Establish $1000 Emergency Savings Balance by June and Maintain it

In February, I plan to start paying another $20 per month more on hospital debt #1. This will accelerate the debt payoff.

Well, I got paid again. Savings is up. Retirement is up. Debt is down. The scales are starting to tip in my favor. I bought groceries today and spent more than I had planned, but I was out of practically everything. I also increased the amount automatically deposited to my savings, which is my EF. Anyway, just checking in with you guys. I'm doing good now and better than yesterday! Well, I decided to try something new. As far as the household expenses, like utilities, rent, etc., it seemed like the were out of balance. I did a little figuring and found that yes they were out of balance. The beginning of the month's paycheck seemed to go farther because I had less fewer dollars going for household expenses. So, this time, I evened it out a little by transferring $100 to savings for the purpose of going towards rent later in the month. This should help a lot. Let's see how it goes. By the way, the "Other Real Estate" Category on my networth iq profile is not really real estate. It is a separate savings account I have at another credit union. It is a join account with my husband.

Well, I have changed the account that my paypal deposits go to. They will now go directly to my savings, which is my EF. This will help me to get it built up and ward off Murphy at all costs. I just recently got a survey payment delivered to me by paypal. I had it deposited to the savings and it felt so good knowing exactly where it was going.

Do any of you use the envelope system advocated by Dave Ramsey? Well, I do, but only for my regular grocery shopping and mad money. For more than a month now, I have been going to the bank and getting out a certain amount of cash to spend on groceries. For the first payday of the month, I always allocate more. That's when I stock up on stuff and when I also am usually out of a lot of stuff. At first, I was only doing this because my debit card number had been stolen and so I was without a card for about 10 days. Now, I see that this system actually works to keep me on track with my spending. Sometimes, things happen for a reason. I can actually predict within $5.00 or $10.00 what I will spend and not feel deprived at all. Before this, I think I probably spent a lot more because the money was "invisible." By the way, my mad money is money I can spend for snacks, lunches, etc. without having to worry about it.

Hello, everyone. Well, as I wrote about a few days ago, my savings account is down again due to a visit from Murphy. Something weird about my hubby is that when were trying to figure out how to pay for the car problem, he asked me how much money I have and in what accounts. I told him, but at the time I was distracted and forgot about the emergency savings. Anyway, when I finally remembered it, he made a big deal about it on his blog about how frugal and wise his wife is in making plans about weathering emergencies like these. However, most of the time, he complains when I tell him I am putting money in savings and says "oh, we don't need that." Husbands. Arrgh!

However, I did get paid yesterday. $20.00 was automatically deposited to my savings from my pay. I also put another $20.00 to get it built back up again. I also added a little to my car account and house account. So far, I have paid the water bill. The rent and internet bill payments are due soon. I go shopping for groceries on Saturday. We are planning on getting the fuel injectors on the car cleaned next week.

Well, folks, Murphy struck last week. Something went wrong with my car. My husband said it was gaskets on the manifold. He might as speak Chinese to me, because I don't understand it. But what I do understand is that took $520.00 from my savings and $100.00 from my checking to pay for it. I am not happy, but at least it is not $620.00 in credit card debt. We must look on the bright side. Anyway, I am on a quest this week to replenish my savings as quickly as possible. However, I do have more car repairs coming up, about $100.00 to clean the fuel injectors.

Debt is Down. Savings is Up. Retirement is up, so networth is up. Yahoo! Well, I got paid again on Friday. I paid the gas bill, electric bill, cell phone bill, hospital debt #2, credit card bill, and bought gas and groceries. I averted a minor financial disaster last week when someone stole my debit card number and made a large charge to my account, resulting in me being overdrawn. As a result, my card was cancelled. Don't worry. After about 5 phone calls, I think everything has been taken care of and when I do get a new card, I will be using it much more selectively. When I went out to do shopping last Saturday and today, I cashed a check for my budgeted amount. Last Saturday when all shopping was done, I still had 1/3 of my cash left. Yahoo! This Saturday, after finishing, I had only about $3.00 left because I was out of a lot of stuff, but that's still in the black. I did have to write a check at Walgreens, though. Heads up, if you are coupon shopper and get Dollar General's emails, watch for a special coupon to use. It gives you 20% extra off some things and 10% off of others. I combined that with some other coupons and saved over $5.00 just at that store. Cool.

And today, I decided to give back to our men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. A group at my work is collecting stuff to send there and so I bought a few things to send. They only wanted baby wipes, granola bars, razors, toilet paper, and socks. I really wanted to send toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and toothbrushes, but they told me they only wanted certain things. What gives? I don't know, but that sounded kind of weird, like who would refuse a donation like that?

Last minute update: I just opened the mail and received a reimbursement check from work for $5.40. This goes right to savings. I also received a statement for hospital bill #1, so a check for it is off in the mail now.

Well, I got paid again Friday. I decided to start building up my emergency fund to $1000 again and then start hitting the debt really hard. So, my savings is up to $838.43. Yippee. My cc is down about $20.00. I also saved an astounding $22.42 doing my shopping this weekend. I am planning on directing it to the cc. I think that may be a record for me. I have already paid the rent, internet bill, bought groceries and household stuff, put more money in savings, and set aside $165.00 for dh to take a CPR trainor course. My husband says he is supportive of getting out of debt, but does not seem to want to do the work and always wants to buy what I like to call "shinies." In other words, he would rather buy some useless crap we don't need rather than buy financial security. Hmm... I haven't really decided how to feel about that, but I have figured out a way to circumvent the buying of the shinies. Instead of waiting until payday arrives to write checks for bills, I write them on Wednesday, two days before. That makes sure that household bills and debts get paid. If I don't have any money left after that, I just don't have it. I have decided that that's exactly what I will tell him if it happens.

I had a couple of things going on last week that necessitated eating out two days, so I have leftover frugal lunches for this week.

I have:
2 bowls chicken/vegetable soup with rice
1 chicken salad with crackers packet
2 refrigerated chicken strips packages
2 bowls chinese noodles
frozen vegetables
2 applies
5 banannas
pretzels
trail mix
6 bottles water

Lunch 1:
1 bowl chinese noodles
1/2 cup frozen vegetables
1/2 pkg refrigerated chicken strips
1 apple
handful of pretzels and trail mix
bottled water

Lunch 2:
1 chicken salad with crackers packet
1 apple
1 bananna (more fruit here because chicken salad packet kind of skimpy)
handful of pretzels and trail mix
bottled water

Lunch 3:
1 bowl chicken and veg soup with rice
1 bananna
handful of pretzels and trail mix
bottled water

Lunch 4:
1 bowl chinese noodles
1/2 cup frozen vegetables
1/2 pkg refrigerated chicken strips
1 bananna
handful of pretzels and trail mix
bottled water

Lunch 5:
1 bowl chicken and veg soup with rice
1 bananna
handful of pretzels and trail mix
bottled water

Howdy, neighbors. I am putting the finishing touches on my frugal lunch for next week. I don't normally cook my lunches until Sunday, but we are leaving to go to a nearby town to visit friends tomorrow. Here is my frugal lunch recipe.

1 9 oz can of chicken (I like Swanson's)
$1.91

leftover carrots (need to use them up before they go bad) $0

2 qts. broth $2.58

1/2 pkg frozen spinach $.50

1 16 oz pkg frozen soup veggies

leftover mashed potatoes, for thickening $0

1 15 oz can cannelini beans $1.00

package of long grain rice $1.85

I am estimating that I can make about 5 servings of soup with this at about $1.66 per serving. Wow.

I was reading a magazine article in the break room at work and saw a really cool article called "Meals for a Month" or something like that. Well, I made one of them tonight and modified it for our tastes. The one I made is called Chicken Posole. I added a can of blackeye peas which I put through the blender and some ground up carrots. This accomplished several goals: 1) thickened the soup - I hate thin, watery soup, 2) concealed the blackeyed peas from hubby - he hates them, and 3) added protein. I also added cumin, garlic, and italian seasoning. Here is the URL for the article.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-fa...

I just asked hubby what he thinks and he said "good but different." I myself thought it was excellent and was surprised at how well it turned out.

Just to make the point of how frugal it is, here is my tally:

hominy, 15 oz, $.89
broth, 32 oz., had on hand from a stock-up shopping trip, $0
1/2 onion, $.50
14 oz canned tomatoes, $1.14
15 oz canned blackeyed peas, hand on hand $0
spices, hand on hand $0
15 oz canned cannelini beans $1.00
carrots, leftover $0
Tyson refrigerated chicken strips (on $1.99 closeout - I had $0.55 coupon which was doubled to $1.00) $0.99

Total cost $5.07

I think we will be able to stretch it out for another meal each for him and I!

Well, I got paid again Friday. I have already paid the bills for gas, electric, cell phone, trash, water/sewer, and hospital bills #1 and #2. I have bought groceries, some of which was on sale. The meat and frozen veggies I bought should last well into next week. My retirement account is way up and my debts are down. I am pleased about that.

My finances have yo-yoed a little bit lately. I feel like I made significant progress and then something happens that makes me feel like I am back at step one again. I had $1000 in my savings and then I had to take out $140 to get the starter on my car replaced. Something else happened, too, but I can't remember what. Anyway, I am getting savings slowly built back up and debt paid down. I am also slowly getting my car replacement account and house account built up. Hospital Bills #1 and #2 are also down some. I will be paying more on #2 on Friday. Also, I will be leaving on Thursday for a conference and will be back on Friday. About 10-15 days later, I will get a reimbursement of about $120, which will immediately be directed to the credit card. It will not be spent on shinies, dinner out, etc., as those things don't contribute to my financial freedom. I got a copy of Dave Ramsey's book at the library and copied the budget forms from the back. I adapted them for my situation and made a spreadsheet based on them. I am not sure if they envelope thing will work for me, as predicting how much groceries will cost is impossible. I am going to try it for awhile without envelopes.

Well, I got paid again on Friday. I have paid the utility bills and the credit card bill, and bought groceries and other items we needed. I am putting as much extra money on the credit card as I can. If it is halfway between paydays and I see that still have $400 in my checking, I send some more to the cc. I am also putting all found money, such as survey money, rebates, etc., towards the cc. I just got a $10 survey check on Friday and it is now on its way to the cc. It is an approach that seems to be working.

Well, the dear hubby bought new reader glasses the other day and absentmindedly paid with the credit card instead of the debit card. Well, he did own up to his mistake and is paying for the bill of $95.00. Also, I just got a survey check in the mail today for $7.60. So, tomorrow after I verify the $102.60 deposit has cleared, I will zip it off to the credit card straight away. No, this money will not stay long in my wallet or it may risk getting spent on shinies. I will post an update of the credit card balance then.

Howdy, everyone. Wow, I really feel like I have hit a milestone. My emergency savings is FINALLY over $1000 and I just made a $100 payment to the credit card without even blinking. The payment did not feeling have a tooth pulled. It was more like paying a phone bill, which is not on my Top 10 List of Things I Love to Do, but it is not all that bad. I don't know exactly what is occurring, except that I am slowly crawling out from the debt hole I was in. In addition to that $100 regular credit card payment, I also took the $16.00 that was left in checking before I got paid and sent it to the credit card, too. I sent $75.00 to hospital debt #2, bring down the balance to less than $1500. My retirement account actually went down a tiny amount, but that's okay. I feel like I am on a roll!

Well, today I had to pay my rent and I also logged into my bank account to reconcile my account and made the discovery that I had $361.94. And that was after paying the rent. This is kind of unusual, as halfway between my paydays I usually get down to about $100.00. Things seem to looking up. I'm not sure what I am doing different, except that I acknowledge that if I have a surplus in my account, I am sending some to the credit card company, even if it is only $5.00. So I logged into the cc website and sent an extra $20 payment, bringing my cc balance to $1652. Wow. I think I have paid off about $300 just in the last month. Some of that was leftover travel money I set aside for going to my conference. So my checking balance is now $341.94 and my savings balance is close to $1000.00. By next payday, it will be $1000.00. Woo-hoo!

Well, I feel much more relaxed and at ease with my financial situation. I don't know why, but it seems like things have eased up a little bit lately. I did not get the amount of reimbursement for my work trip that I was hoping for, but I did not let that stop me from making huge progress. I had to replace my portable dishwasher (we have to have a portable because we don't own our house), which took $461.38. I took $400.00 and put it into savings, bringing my balance to $975.89. Almost $1000. Wow. I am using the rest to get some work done on my car. With all the "extra" money I had been pumping into the Conference Challenge, I am going to use to pay off the credit card and medical debt. I don't know exactly how long it will take me, but if apply the same intensity I did with the Conference Challenge, I would say 1.5 years.