I recently went on a trip out of town for work. I received my reimbursement a few days ago and sent $50.00 of it to the credit card. Yippee!

Hi, everyone. I have updated some of my numbers. I update the cc balance to reflect what it actually is right now. It has been yo-yoing up and down. I think that is soon to change. One of the reasons that I was charging so much to the card is that when the hubby and I would go on a road trip, we would have to rent a car, because we were not confident about taking our cars on long trips. Anyway, read my previous blog about getting rid of a 1968 Mustang for more info. We now have a road-worthy vehicle when can get us where we need to go. The hubby is not going to like me paying so much on the cc, but I want it paid off NOW! I am tired of feeling like I have no money and can't buy things I want and need because of it. Savings account #1 is at a local bank and the other one is an online account. I just opened it.

My hubby and I moved to our current home in late April 2005. In July that year, we spotted a 1968 Mustang sitting in a parking lot of a grocery store. We bought it from the owner, who was a college student. In order to pay for it, we sold our Honda to a nearby car dealer. Here are 10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Trading a 2000 Honda for a a Classic Car.

1. I wish I had known how much "skill" my husband had in working on cars. While my husband professed to be a decent mechanic and could do much of the work the car, I discovered after we bought the Mustang that he is not really that good at it.

2. I wish I had known to be a little tougher and stand up to my husband and "no, we will not sell the Honda for a non-working automobile." This mistake alone has cost me more aggravation and money that I accurately calculate.

3. I wish I had known that you need space like a garage and equipment to work on cars. We also did not have the space or equipment needed to work on cars. Tools are expensive and we could not afford to buy them.

4. I wish I had known what poor gas mileage old classic cars get. My 5-year-old Honda was not the greatest car in the world. However, it got excellent gas mileage. We used to joke that the Mustang got about 19 gallons to the mile.

5. Except for a bent wheel which needed to be replaced, our 2005 Honda was in excellent condition. We had never had any major problems with it. Our Mustang was in the shop for over 3 1/2 months getting major work (replacing the engine, front end, brakes, power steering, fuel pump, gas gauge, and gas tank) completed. In the meantime, we had no other car and I had to take the bus to work and ride my bike to do errands and shopping.

6. I wish I had realized the stupidity of getting a $500 cash advance for getting repairs done on the Mustang. Mind you, this was not all the repairs that had to be done, only a small portion. Oh, my lord, the enormous interest rates! Because of charging many things to the cc, including the car repairs, I have a cc balance and practically no savings.

7. The cost of repairs for an old classic car can be enormous when compared to a car that is in good, running order and needs only minor maintenance and the rare major repair. In other words, old classic cars are like the house in the movie, "The Money Pit," starring Tom Hanks.

8. Old classic cars that are not in good condition are probably not good for long distance travel.

9. The hubby convinced me that we could fix up the Mustang, sell it, and then buy two in much better condition that even the first one. I learned as a result of this experience that unless you sell to a collector and the car is in excellent condition, getting any money of the deal is not likely.

10. I wish I had known that I have be more responsible for myself and to keep some money separate and hidden from my husband. I am not trying to be secretive and I am not doing anything illegal, but when he finds out I have money, it just vanishes to buy stuff we don't need. He does not even know how much I have in my retirement and I will not tell him. He does not even agree with me having a retirement account, but I am doing it anyway, as I don't want to be standing in the Salvation Army soup line and clipping coupons when I retire. Statistically, because he is older than I am, he will likely die first. Should it happen otherwise, though, his name is on the POD part of all of my accounts.

It took 2 1/2 years to truly convince my husband we had to get rid of the Mustang. We were able to trade it to for a 1995 Pontiac Grand Am that is in good working order. (This is an interesting story in itself, because the guy wanted the Mustang, a car that does not even run, for the car we got. It was a straight trade.) The Grand Am is not perfect, but it is very good. His desire to get rid of the Mustang arose out of us trying to get custody of his granddaughter. In his words, we need something more reliable and family-like to drive the baby around in. I don't car about the reason he finally agreed to do it. I am just glad to have that albatross off my back. I will never again allow him to convince me to trade a good working automobile for one that is in questionable condition.

Hi, everyone. I realized something very important yesterday. When I met my husband in 1999, I had over $3000 in the bank in an ordinary savings account that was not earning a lot of interest, but I had it nonetheless. I was actually SAVING it, not spending it. For some reason, every time I seem to accumulate any money whatsoever in the savings account he knows about, it goes POOF! He has no access to the account, so I am not alleging stealing or anything. It's just that he has not capacity for hanging onto money. And he has a similar effect on others. Like yesterday, I had just gotten paid. He asked me "how much it would hurt" to buy a new dvd player. Not a lot, but it's just I would rather be out of debt before buying a bunch of junk. I am not convinced we are ready to buy a house or anything else like it. He is just a really crappy manager of money and has no clue of the state of our finances. When I have let him in on the process and where and how much I spend, he suddenly sees I have $500 or something in savings. Then, POOF! again. Just now, I opened an online savings account. Does anyone else have this problem? How do you deal with it? If this does not work for accumulating a short term (emergency) savings, I don't know what else to do.

Howdy, all. I have had a good couple of days. I got paid on Friday and immediately took the $14.00 leftover from my last paycheck and zipped it off the cc quickly before it could be spent on something else.

I also transferred $20 into my savings at the atm before it could be spent elsewhere.

I also just made another $75.00 payment on Hospital Debt #2, bringing it down to $2602.60.

A couple of months ago, I went to Walgreens and filled out a survey later. They recently sent me a $5.00 gift card for participating. Wa-hoo!

I needed some aloe vera juice yesterday from Walgrees. It costs around $10.00, but I used my gift card which brought my purchase down to $5.72 with tax.

Well, I am off the grocery store this morning to search for frugal, yet health meals. I am going to try to eat beef-free for a week or so, as I am having a lot of health problems and think they may be related to eating beef.

The picture of the cat doesn't have anything to do with my post, but it is a picture of my other cat, Morgaine. Merlin is the one at the left side of my page.

Hi, everyone. You may notice that in the left column, the numbers for my retirement have changed. I haven't really paid much attention to it and am very surprised it has done so well. I only started investing July 2006 and have been contributing 5% of my income every payday. I am supposed to meet with a financial advisor on April 30th to talk about what changes I need to make. I am 37 and want to retire well enough that I don't have to clip coupons when I am 70, you know. I know sometime in the future, I would like to start an IRA, but not until I have my debt paid off. My husband does not support me having a retirement fund, but he is disabled, 8 years older than me, and not currently working. Statistically speaking, I will live longer than he will and need to prepare for my potential future.