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Archive for November, 2009

Envelope System

November 27th, 2009 at 07:55 pm

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.

The Ups and Downs of Living on This Mudball Called Earth

November 26th, 2009 at 03:49 pm

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.

Murphy Struck Again

November 24th, 2009 at 03:02 am

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.

Got Paid Again and Other Stuff

November 14th, 2009 at 07:57 pm

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.

Got Paid Again

November 1st, 2009 at 04:57 pm

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