1. I am blessed with a husband who loves me and takes care of me.

2. I am healthier now than I have been in a long time. I am working hard to get even better.

3. I have a good job and will likely have tenure (job for life) in about 2 years.

4. I have the beginning of a good retirement account. When I have my cc and medical debt paid off, I want to increase it.

5. I have significant debt paid off.

6. I have two working vehicles.

7. I have two beautiful cats.

Well, I got paid again on Friday. My hospital debt #1 is down to $918.58 and #2 is down to $2077.60. I have not yet paid the cc, but will sometime tonight. I also got a check for grant money to attend a conference next June. That along with a little bit from this paycheck and a small survey check brings my Conference Challenge total to (drum roll here) $1890.00 with $1015.00 of that being locally available. I need to plan for a contingency of not having a hotel roommate at the conference and so I need to gather about another $650.00. Once my conference presentation has been approved, I can ask my work to buy my plane ticket. Yea! A couple of more steps closer to freedom.

Howdy, everyone. I was wondering what you all use to track your finances. I need to have something that costs very little, is portable (so that I can take it anywhere), and is easy to use. My initial thought is something like a moleskin notebook to write notes about what I spend money on or planner pages to track expenses. It just seems like my money just disappears and I hope something like this will help me to find the leaks!

Well, I got a reimbursement from my employer for a conference I went to. This brings my Conference Challenge amount to $516.00.

I have already decided that when I get my reimbursement for the conference I am going to, I will use however much it takes to wipe out the rest of hospital debt #1. Woo-hoo! The rest of the reimbursement I want to hang onto in a special account for the conference I go to in 2010.