Well, I got paid again. The gas, electric, credit card, and car insurance have all been paid for. I have also allocated for 1/2 of the mortgage. Those are all the bills I have due until next payday. Because of the upcoming holiday, my next payday will be 11/23 instead of 11/25. I have also bought groceries, health supplements, put money aside for replacing my car, and got the gutters cleaned out. You might also notice that my regular savings balance is not going up. That is because after my balance broke $1000, I started sending that money to the credit card instead of keeping it in savings. I am planning on allocating a total of $160.00 per month between my normal payment out of checking and the reallocated savings deposit towards paying off the credit card then starting putting money into savings again. My tentative schedule shows the target payoff date as next October. While I would like to allocate all extra money to the credit card, I also absolutely have to set aside money to replace the card in the next couple of years, as it has several things wrong with it. Most are some minor and just annoying, but the big one is that the heating/ac switch does not work right. Our mechanic said he could replace the switch, but Pontiac does not make them anymore and he was not able to find one from a salvage yard. He manually switched us over from cooling to heat, so we will be good until it gets warm next summer when we could try again to replace the switch. We would like to get a new car or certified preowned car and have the money set aside be equal to at least 1/2 the cost of the car. I don't want us to be locked into huge car payments, so I am doing my best to come up with as much as possible.

I did pretty well with my paleo challenge last week. I ate oatmeal one time when I sort of woke up late and didn't have time to make any eggs. Oh, well, I will do better this next week. I feel really amazing and have a lot more energy. Since I have been eating gluten free for over a year, it was not that big of a challenge. I just eliminated oatmeal, bread, and crackers. Apparently, brown, wild rice is okay in small amounts, though.

Here are my meals for next week:

1) Meatloaf - 2 meals

2) Top Round Roast - 3 meals

3) Eggs and Ham, Smoothie with almond milk, cocoa, stevia, flaxseeds, banana - 3 meals

4) Almond Butter on an Apple, Carrots, Trail Mix - 1 meal

5) Beef Stew w/ onions, carrots, mushrooms - 3 meals

6) Chicken Soup w/ brown rice, Rice, Onions - 3 meals

7) Green Salad w/ chicken, Avocado, Tomato - 3 meals 1 Done Tonight

8) Chicken Leg Quarter, Steamed Veggies - 3 meals

Due to a minor miscalculation, I had to move a little bit of money from a savings account to checking. It is not any of the savings accounts on my sidebar, but one where the dh hoards $ for video games and other stuff he wants to buy. I hated to do it, but we might be overdrawn by Friday if I didn't. I have already set up an automatic transfer from checking to savings for the same amount to make sure the money gets back there.

Oh, well. On to other news. Here are my meals for the coming weak. You might notice I am not planning to eat oatmeal this week. I think grains are becoming a little problematic for me, so I am going to cease eating them for at least a week to see what happens. It's going to be a little weird, but I will probably be eating stuff like pot roast, beef stew, and stir fry for breakfast in order to go grain free. I will also eat eggs, but can't eat them every day.

1) Pot Roast - will make at least 2 meals

2) Beef Stew - will probably make 3 meals - 1 Done Tonight!

3) Eggs and ham - 2 meals

4) Spaghetti Sauce - 1 meal - I may subsitute some broccoli or something for the noodles.

5) Chili - 3 meals

6) Chicken salad and carrot sticks - 1 meal

7) Green salad with chicken, onions, and tomato - 3 meals

8) Chicken stir fry - 2 meals

9) Almond butter on carrot sticks and apples - 1 meal

10) Leftover 13 bean soup w/ ham - 2 meals - 1 Done!

When I did this recently, it was so successful I decided to do it again. If you would like an easy way to make a little extra money for savings, paying off debt, buying Christmas presents, or whatever, just click here. It's easy and there is absolutely no cost.

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/u8a5m6

Full disclosure: I will get a 25 points bonus for recruiting someone.

I have been using my "spare" money from rebates and surveys to save for a new car.

Well, I made it to payday. My challenge was to make it without using the debit card or credit card. The credit card stayed safe and snug, but my husband was sick and I had to take him to the doctor, so I did use the debit card. I think I did use it for a couple of other small things, too, but I used cash for everything else. Woo-Hoo!

I am going to take my pocket change to Coinstar tomorrow. It should be around $3.00 or so. I will add it to my car account. I will also add another $20 to the same account and $20 to the house account.

Now that my regular savings is up over $1000, I decided to divert the normal $40 I have been putting in there every payday to paying down the credit card. I fought very hard to get it up over $1000 and plan on maintaining that.

My retirement is also up. Woo-hoo!
My husband will go to make our mortgage payment on Tuesday. Yea!

Here is what I would like my retirement to be like.

I don't especially seek out no spend days, but when they happen, I do celebrate. I am trying to trim our expenses where it is possible in order to save more to buy a replacement car. I don't want to go into debt to buy a car, unless necessary. I am also trying to get the credit card paid down. I would not mind using it for every day expenses and paying it off immediately, but I am not that disciplined yet.

Yesterday, I was at the grocery store wondering what to buy to eat. My hubby is a little picky and whiny. He grumbles about "how I never fix anything different" but is not specific about what he wants. So, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Anyway, I saw this top round roast (2.09 pounds) for $2.99 a pound on sale. What a bargain! I thought I could cook it in the oven first and eat probably about 1/3 of it with some cooked cabbage and green beans. Then, we could eat some on sandwiches. Any small amounts left over we could toss into omelets or stir fry. Yum. I can't wait until the roast is done. I can already smell garlic all over the house.

This coming Thursday I am supposed to show up for jury duty, but I hope I don't have to go. I won't know until the night before on that, though. It is a big inconvenience for me to POSSIBLY be gone from work for a day but not to know whether I really will be or not. I know it is my duty to serve, but I think they ought to be able to organize it better than this. Arrgh!

Well, I finally got my salary letter with what my salary will be for this fiscal year. After doing the math, I realized I have about a 6.59% raise, way better than I was expecting!

Also, because the raise was supposed to begin with the first July paycheck, I got a catchup paycheck that included my extra pay for July and August. I made a list of what I wanted to do with it. It included:

1) Buying a copy of the book Traditional Thai Yoga. $4.98 with shipping -

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=10475825&matches=13&.... DONE

2) depositing $50 into the car savings account - DONE

3) making an extra $20 payment to the credit card - DONE

4) making an extra $20 payment to the mortgage - WILL BE DONE SEPT 1

5) buying chair cushions at Home Depot for the chair my husband sits in - ~ $30 - DONE

6) replacing our defunct wireless router at Best Buy - ~$59 - DONE

7) buying a few replacement clothing items for the hubby and I - ~ $20 DONE - I found a great thrift store over the weekend, so I will be doing more of this on Saturday.

8) $40 out of any paycheck gets automatically deposited to my regular savings, so that account increased also - DONE

9) my retirement account went up a little too, but I don't know how much - DONE

10) buy some needed health supplements - ~$40.00 - DONE

Unfortunately, the rest got absorbed into the grocery budget and other stuff, but I got some great stuff accomplished.

Also, I have made my lunches to take to work and suppers for the week. Here they are:

1) Stir Fry with chicken, green peppers, canned tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, leftover frozen veggies, Chinese hot chili sauce, and rice. 4 meals

2) Tuna Salad sandwich on gluten free bread, cucumbers, carrots, apples, and filtered water from home. 3 meals

3) Almond butter sandwich on gluten free bread, cucumbers, sliced tomato, apples, and filtered water from home 2 meals

4) Gluten free lunchmeat on gluten free bread, cucumbers, carrots, peaches, and filtered water from water. 4 meals

Well, howdy everyone. I got paid again today. Still no raise, but I am still plugging right along with my goals. I increased my regular savings (emergency, although I don't really like to say that) to $708.02. I am increasing my car savings by $20.00. I wish I could do more, but we had to have work done on our car's air conditioner that cost $150 and I did not want to go into debt over that. I got a $5.00 survey check. As soon as I got it, I deposited it and paid the cc by the same amount. No survey money does not waste time lingering in my checking account or it would get spent on something when I want to spend it gaining financial freedom. I also paid extra to the cc today, bringing the balance to probably about $1797.06. I will pay more later when I scrounge up some other funds.

I am going to Coinstar tomorrow and will deposit the funds into my car account. It will probably be around $2 to $3. Update: I had $3.00 in change, bringing my car account to $296.49.

We got our latest mortgage statement. It is no surprise to us that it is going down, because we pay every time on time. It feels great to know we are building equity.

I am going thrift store shopping tomorrow for 2 pairs of slacks (1 preferably black and then other khaki). I also need some new socks. I will check Big Lots for those.

Just saw this link referenced on a listserv. I thought you all might like to see it, too.

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/financialhealth/index.html

I only got a C+, so it's looks like I have a lot of work to do!

Here is the dispersal of my reimbursement as it stands now:

$1241.38 (total of reimbursement)
-$200.00 (payment to credit card)
- $90.00 (balance payment on lawn mower)
-$200.00 (deposit to car savings account for eventual replacement of car)
- $33.93 (ordering health supplements)
- $56.25 (ordering new water filter cartridge 7/4/2011)
- $50.00 (second payment to credit card 7/4/2011)
-$325.64 (replacing dying PS3)
-------------------
$285.29 balance as of 7/4/2011

I would have sent a larger portion to the credit card, but the bank balance is a little wonky right now and I need to clear that up before sending more. Our PS3 is our primary source of entertainment, as we do not have cable tv or satellite. My husband plays some of the PS3 games and we both watch tv episodes and movies on Netflix instant viewing. So, that's why we wanted to replace our dying PS3. After I get the bank balance straightened out, I will likely make another payment to the credit card and put more in regular and car savings.

Oh, and if you need to order any health supplements and certain health food stuff, try

http://www.vitacost.com. They are having a 4th of July sale today with a lot of things heavily discounted and no shipping charge on any order over $49.00.

Here is my progress so far with the reimbursement.

$1241.38 (total reimbursement)
-$200.00 (payment to credit card)
-$200.00 (deposit to car savings to eventually replace the car)
-$90.00 (pay off the balance on the lawn mower)
-$325.64 (bought a new PS3 because our old one is about to die)
__________
Balance $425.74

I will make at least one more deposit to the savings and payment on the credit card next week.

The other thing we need to get is a new filter for the water filter connected to our kitchen faucet. That will probably be around $75-$80.

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=231719&catid=...

A computer geek we know has basically offered to buy our old PS3 because he fixes old ones and sells them. We don't know how much yet, but it should help some.

The note about my credit card balance at the left is correct for the first time in a long time. I had not put the actual number up there because it was so embarassing. Now, I will be putting the correct, and declining, number there. I am getting a pretty good raise in July and that should help a lot in enabling me to: 1) increasing regular savings, 2) increase retirement, 3) pay down the credit card, and 4) put away more for house upkeep and eventual car replacement. Woo-hoo!

My reimbursement for my travel expenses has arrived. Normally, I only get $500 per year, but if there is any travel money left at the end of the year in my organization because someone didn't use their travel money, someone gets the benefit of that. So, it is being deposited and once it clears, I will begin the process of dolling it out. The first amounts to go out will be: 1) $90.00 for the lawn mower, 2) $250.00 to the credit card, and 3) $250.00 to savings. That is just the beginning of my plan, but it gets better than that. This is gonna be FUN to pay off debts and bring up savings balances!

Well, I just got $10.00 in survey money, so I immediately set up a payment in equal amount to the credit card for Thursday. By then, I should also have my reimbursement money and can alter this amount to include what I was going to pay out of it on to the credit card.

Well, I survived with no major catastrophes. However, while ironing clothes in my hotel room last Friday morning, I burned myself with the iron. It will probably take a couple of weeks to heal, but it's okay and does not even hurt. It itches a lot, though. I also managed to something get my neck vertebrae out of place and had to go see the chiropractor. I sounded a lot like a popcorn machine when he put them back in.

As for the financial news, you will note in my list of the debts to the left, hospital bill #1 is PAID OFF. After I got back from my trip, I found that I had some money in checking that I had allocated for the trip left over. So, I immediately wrote a check to pay off the hospital debt. It feels great. I had planned on paying it off with part of my reimbursement from the trip, but this is even better. It's like found money.

I also had $6.00 in cash left over from the trip. That money went to the regular emergency savings account, bringing the balance to $522.43! I am loving this!

Also, I got a $20.00 survey check in the mail today, so I deposited it to checking without delay and scheduled a credit card payment for the same amount.

I managed to do fine with eating on my trip. I was a little bit afraid I would not be able to find gluten free food to eat, but there was a market close to the hotel where I bought cereal, bagels, almond milk, fresh fruit, lunchmeat, peanut butter, and bottled water to eat. It cost a whole lot less than going out to eat. Most of the cash I took with me went for food at that grocery store. I am so proud that I never whipped out the credit card and only used the debit card 4 times, so I was way under budget.

Well, I get paid again tomorrow. Hubby is going to the bank to make the mortgage payment which has already been allocated from my two previous paychecks, so no problem there.

I am also making another payment on Hospital Debt #1, bringing the balance to $177.58. Woo-Hoo!

Because I am already done paying on Hospital Debt #2 (!!!!) and I have 3 paydays in April, I am allocating a little extra money towards debt payment on the credit card, the Conference Challenge, and home maintenance.

I plan on spending around $50 to $60 on a new ceiling fan Saturday.

I am also allocating $150 to the Conference Challenge, bring my balance to $1056.44! Woo-Hoo! I will add more to that after going grocery shopping and paying the credit card bill, etc.

I am not sure how much I will pay on the credit card. Hmm...

For the Lunch Challenge, I am thinking of making lentil soup. I hear it's yummy and nutritious, so here goes!

Hello, everyone. I got paid again on Friday. More money went to savings and retirement. Speaking of which, I need to update those numbers. Done as of 5:11pm on 3-19-2011.

The repairs to the car should be complete on Wednesday and we can go pick it up. That will be a relief. Hubby and I agree we should immediately start saving for a replacement car. We thought seriously about getting a different car now, but everything we looked at was out of our price range and we did not want to go into debt for a car so shortly after buying a house. I also added more money to the Conference Challenge. I cashed in some survey points, which will get added to the Conference Challenge.

I also hit another major milestone. I PAID OFF HOSPITAL DEBT #2!! Woo-hoo!

This debt was close to $10,000 in 2006. My husband had no insurance and I had to take him to the ER. He has insurance now thanks to my pointing out it might have cost less than 1/2 that if he had had insurance.

In other news, the Lunch Challenge continues. Next week, it is Spring Break at the college I work at. I will be working Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday through Friday I will be on vacation. My progress so far this much is that I have eaten lunch out once on last Friday. I spent about $10.00. I also bought ice tea or soda several times, but I bring my own cup which makes it cheaper because they give a discount for that. Here are my lunches for next week:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - leaf lettuce salad, carrots, cucumbers, tuna in foil packet, oil and vinegar for dressing, orange or apple, water

Wednesday - Wednesday is the day we expect to pick up our car, so I think we may go out to lunch to celebrate

Friday - maybe an almond butter sandwich on gluten free bread, orange, apple, carrots, water

Another thing I have planned to do on Wednesday is to go to Home Depot and buy stuff to fix our toilet that runs frequently. Our last water bill is $60 and we only have 2 people living in our house. I think the water bill should be about 1/2 that much. Have any of you ever fixed a running toilet? Is it difficult?

If any of you would like to earn a little extra money by watching videos and answering surveys, click here to sign up with Beezag.

http://www.beezag.com/index.html?utm_source=beezag&utm_mediu...

I get paid today, so I have pre-allocated money to make payments on Hospital Debts #1 and #2, as well as the mortgage. I have also paid the internet bill and one other bill that I cannot remember. There is more money going to savings and retirement. More money is going to the conference challenge. This is great.

I already have my lunch and dinner menus planned out for the next two weeks and am going shopping today to do that.

My lunches for the next two weeks will be:

1) Chicken salad sandwich on gluten free bread, fresh fruit, handful of nuts, filtered water
2) Chicken cacciatore with rice, green peppers, and spices, handful of nuts, filtered water, fresh fruit

Well, I did finally get a paypal payment from cash4books.net for a book I sold them. I put it into the Spare Change/Conference Challenge. I am seeking other sources of possible books. It's kind of hard right now, though, to do anything with this. Last week, my hubby went to a nearby town to take our car tax and registration payment to be applied. Normally, I mail it, because we never normally go there and it would have been late if we had not have taken it there. Anyway, on the way back, the car died on the highgway, but he was able to get it off the road and call AAA for a tow. Anyway, I took off work a little early on Friday anyway. Because of having no car, I knew I would need to get groceries on Friday, because the city bus does not run on weekends. I live in a small town and it is a miracle we even have a bus. So, because of my car dying and needing an $800 repair, my hopes of shopping yard sales for books to sell are shot out of the water. Apparently, I am not the only one with car and other mechanical problems, though. I was talking with a couple of friends today who were telling me of similar problems. Must be something in the air. Anyway, I told the hubby that until we get hospital bills #1 and #2 paid off, we are going to occasionally have little problems like this because we don't have a lot of wiggle room. He said that it sounds like we need to pay them off with the tax return, but I told him by the time the tax return gets here, #2 will probably be paid off. #1 will have a couple of hundred left on it. I think with whatever is left, we should put 1/2 into the regular savings and 1/2 into the house savings. After living in our house for a year, we can also get level payment plan on the gas and electric, so then gas and electric won't be such a problem.

Well, I got paid on Friday and already most of my paycheck has already been gobbled up. You see, when we were getting ready to close on our house (July 15th!), my hubby went to or called the utility companies about switching over service. We knew there would be some overlap, as we needed time to clean the old house before we could turn in the keys. Apparently, he only told the gas and electric companies that we would be moving out on X date and would need a few days past that to get the house closed up. Apparently, that was not specific enough information and so they charged us for our level payment for August, but also made it our final bill. So, between one electric bill at the old house for $271 and one at the new house for $264, I spent over $500 this month on electric alone. The gas bills were pretty minor in comparison, but still annoying. It's a good thing I got a survey check and also a housewarming gift check from my aunt in the mail. They helped to pay for the excess on the utilities. We will survive. I know that because I have survived worse.

One of the items I paid with my paycheck was $75.00 on hospital debt #2, bringing the balance to $427.60! Yahoo! (not an endorsement of Yahoo!, just my expression of excitement)

Also, my automatic deposit went into savings. It is my goal that when hospital debt #2 is paid off (probably February), that I will be taking that money and putting it into savings. I don't like these issues coming up that leaving me without anything. I will beef it up until $1000 and then pay off some other stuff like hospital debt #2.

The Lunch Challenge continues in my house. I am making salads with romaine lettuce, random fresh vegetables including cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli, olive oil, chopped up boiled eggs, tuna from a foil pouch, tea bags, and filtered water from home.

Well, today I received another bill for Hospital Bill #2. I have already written the check and it is in the mail ready to send out. This brings the balance to $502.60.

I also have survey money on the way in the amount of $14.00, I believe. When I receive the next bill for Hospital Bill #1, I will mail them a check for the normal payment amount of $20.00 plus whatever the survey money is. The survey money is part of the Spare Change Challenge.

These are my stated goals for the years 2010 and 2011. Given that I am now a home owner, I feel the need to revise them for current circumstances. I have marked in red what I changed the goal to.

2010 Financial Goals
1. Pay Hospital Debt #1 off in full by May 2011.
2. Pay Hospital Debt #2 off in full by May 2011

Note: If these first two debts are not paid off by the time the tax return arrives, I will pay them off with it. I will put the rest aside for increasing the insulation in the attic.

3. Establish $1000 Emergency Savings Balance by June and Maintain it
4. Beef up House Savings

2011 Financial Goals
1. Eliminated Goal #1 of paying off hospital debts
2. Pay off Credit Card
3. Accumulate $3000 in Emergency Savings
4. Accumulate $2000 in House Account
5. Accumulate $3000 in Car Account

Well, in addition to the little tantrum that my hubby was throwing about the situation I described earlier, I also got paid today. I made another payment on Hospital Debt #2. I believe I have estimated that if I continue to pay it off at this rate, it will be paid off next spring. More money is in savings and retirement also. More money has been paid to the credit card. On Monday, we have to pay $175 to a house inspector and $50 to a termite inspector.

Here is a list of money I have coming in or already have.

$ 6.00 spare change
$ 6.00 check from survey company 1
$ 20.00 regular payment on Hospital Debt #1
$ 28.00 difference in car insurance
$ 5.00 check from survey company 2
$ 10.00 check from survey company 3
$ 10.00 check from survey company 4

$ 85.00

The amount for Survey Company 3 has not happened yet. I have to have $10.00 to be paid and right now, I have $9.00. As soon as I have $10.00, they will pay right away. The car insurance is the difference between what I used to pay for insurance before I sold my truck and now when I am only paying renter's and car insurance. All of the others will be arriving shortly.

Total to Be Paid on Hospital Debt #1 on June 11th is $85.00

Holy Cow! How Did I Do That? How Do I Make it Happen Again?

My hubby told me last night that as a result of our selling our truck, we had to turn in the license plate. We will be getting a partial refund on the license fees for the year. I have no idea how much, but anything is great! I am so grateful for my abundance.

Well, I got paid today. More money went into savings and retirement. My retirement account went down, though. What's up with that? Also, I went to Coinstar and cashed in my spare change. I have $6.00 and some odd cents. I deposited $6.00 to my Spare Change Challenge account. I also cashed in $6.00 in survey points. That should come in about 2 weeks, at which time I will make a payment to Hospital Debt #1. I will work really hard to come up with some more ways to make money in the next 2 weeks. Here is what I am thinking.

$6.00 Spare Change
$6.00 Survey Check
$20.00 regular payment on Hospital Debt #1
$28.00 excess from changing car insurance after selling truck

That makes for a $60.00 payment on Hospital Debt #1. Woo-hoo!

------------------------

I just cashed in more survey points, which will give me another $5.00 for my Spare Change Challenge.

Well, after a great deal of frustration, the hubby and I sold our truck. It was a 1990 Chevy Blazer. Last Saturday, when I went shopping at Walgreens, it died when I was getting ready to park in the parking lot. We could not start it. We have known for some time that it had been leaking oil, which probably means it had a crack in the engine block or something like that. It also had multiple other problems, like the horn wouldn't work, the windows sometimes wouldn't go down or up, and it got horrible gas mileage. Fixing the engine alone would have cost over $1000, something we just couldn't do. So, because of the significant problems with it, we felt a used car place probably would not want it and we took it to the salvage yard. We got $80.00 out of it, which we are going to put into doing some maintenance on the car Friday. This also means our car/renter's insurance is going down by about $28.00 per month. Guess where that $28.00 is going? Yes, into paying off Hospital Debt #1!!

I got a survey check for $8.50 in the mail the other day. I also just cashed in my Toluna survey points for $20.00. I should get that money in about a month. I will use it to make my next payment on Hospital Bill #1 along with my regular payment. That will make a little over $200.00 paid on debt for the Spare Change Challenge and bring my balance on that debt to $349.08.

Well, I get paid every two weeks instead of twice a month. So, my goal this year has been to use that "extra" payday to make significant payments on debt that I would not otherwise be able to make. So far, as part of my Spare Change Challenge, I took $4.00 from my change jar and combined it with $40.00 that I had leftover from something else we decided not to buy and my regular $20.00 to hospital debt #1. The balance is now $397.58. Woo-hoo! I have already met 2010 Financial goal to bring it to under $400 and the year is not even half over. I also made my regular payment of $75.00 to hospital debt #2, bringing the balance to $802.60.

So far, this year, I have progress of $172.00 on my Spare Change Challenge! I have a survey check of $10.00 coming in a couple of weeks. I will save it for next month's payment on hospital bill #1.

Well, today I got paid again. I have paid the electric bill, trash bill, water/sewer bill, and internet bill. I also made a payment on the credit card. I will have an extra payday this month because I get paid every 2 weeks rather than twice a month. Yippee for me! So I am allocating $100 of that second paycheck for my Conference Challenge to attend a major professional conference in 2011. I will allocate another $50 of it to paying off a hunk of hospital debt #1 in addition to my regular $20 payment. Life is good. As Walter Krontkite used to say, "And that's the news."


-----------------------------------
I added $20.00 to my Professional Account to attend a major national conference in June 2011, bringing my balance to $21.00.

Someone on an email listservs referred me to this survey site. I immediately set up an account and already have a balance of $2.00. It only takes $10.00 to cash in and they pay automatically through paypal once the balance reaches $10.00. This money will definitely go to my Spare Change Challenge. If you want to make more money doing surveys, click here.

http://palmresearch.com/index.pl?ref=1304052

Well, today and tomorrow I have off from work. I have spent the entire morning decluging trash out of my bedroom. I organized all my tax paperwork from 2009 and put it away in a document folder. I also put copies of checks and bills stapled together for old medical bills into the appropriate tax year folder. My next target is my receipt drawer. I need to get rid of the debit receipts that I no longer need to keep. Obviously, certain ones I will keep.

Tomorrow, I get paid and will mail payments for hospital debts #1 and #2 and pay the cell phone bill. The rent will be due later in the month.

Oh, and I learned something very valuable. Last week, I got two survey payments totalling $11.00 which I put directly into my checking because I was anticipating the arrival of a bill for hospital debt #1 and wanted to be able to pay it ASAP. Well, I had some unexpected expenses and said survey checks wound up being what tied me over until payday. What I learned was to delay those paypal transfers until I actually have the bill in hand ready to pay it. Arrgh!

Hey, I just cashed in some survey points and will get $5.00 in a few days. I will delay making a payment on hospital debt #1 until that deposit arrives.

------------------

Update: I just realized my Spare Change Challenge total was incorrect. The total amount paid off so far is $128.00, not $28.00! I was shorting myself some credit!