Prior 52 Week Challenge Balance: $783.48

$22.00 deposit to slush fund
$40.00 deposit to regular savings
$40.00 deposit to house savings
$100.00 deposit to professional savings
$37.48 dh's payment to cc #1
$20.00 regular payment to cc #1

New 52 Week Challenge Balance: $1042.96

One of my new games this year has been to use all my change in my purse for my one big, regular purchase of the week. And that is grocery shopping. I go through the self checkout and bag all my groceries myself. I use as many coupons as possible. To limit the amount coming directly out of checking, I use all my pocket change and any bills I have in my purse. Usually, it is only a couple of dollars, but one week, it was about $20 I had leftover. Woo-hoo! I have also really been trying to evaluate each purchase I make and to use cash I take out of the ATM for impulse purchases, so that when the cash runs out, I stop buying stuff.

Old Challenge Balance: $773.48

I found myself with some extra money in the checking, so I sent it to the cc #1.

New Challenge Balance: $783.48

I have allocated for nearly all of the upcoming expenses and find myself with some money left over. So, I decided to send an extra $5.00 to the cc#1.

Old 52 Week Challenge Balance: $496.48

Add $5.00

New Balance: $501.48

So far, this is shaping up to be a repeat of last year with not having to look very hard to find the funds to pay off debt. Cheers to my progress. I will start putting the pedal to the metal.

Woo-Hoo!

I was under budget for my shopping today and so the leftover $20.00 is going to my slush fund. Also, an extra $20.00 is going to cc #1. Also, when we refied our house in July, it seems the mortgage company figured some fee incorrectly and today we got a check for a grand total of $5.85. As soon as that check clears, I will send it to cc #1.

Hi, everyone. We just got our first statement on our mortgage since we re-fied. It's weird because, unless I forgot to record the balance on SS for several months, the balance went down by about $1179, but the regular principal plus extra principal is $151.00. Hmm...

I also got some found money in the mail, $3.00 for a Pinecone survey and $6.77 in a reimbursement check for a work related party. The whole $9.77 is going to cc #1 once the check clears.

Hi, everyone. I am so blessed. Today is a wonderful day. I remembered a couple of days ago that my cc #2 has with its rewards system a way to "erase" travel purchases. So, since I recently had to travel out of town for work, I decided to see how it would work for that. I was able to erase part of the cost of my hotel stay to the tune of $30.41! That was after I had already paid that part off for myself. Woo-Hoo! The credit for that hit today, which brought the balance of cc #2 to $185.59. Awesome. I also received the reimbursement payment for the trip from my work. I paid $100.00 to cc #2, bringing the balance of cc #2 to $85.59! Awesome. I feel so blessed. I will probably pay off the rest before next payday out of the same funds. I can't stop smiling.

I have today and tomorrow off. I probably will not be going anywhere or spending much money, so I decided to allocate some extra towards payoff of cc #2. Woo-Hoo! That brings the balance to $245.25.

Hi, everyone. It's payday again for me, so more money has come in and gone out and I am blessed. I have put more money into nearly all my savings accounts, retirement, and towards debt. The dh and I refi-ed our house this week. Woo-hoo! That lowered our payment by $40.00, $40.00 which we will now be putting towards set asides for more new windows. Eventually, I will go back to using it for paying more on the mortgage principle and credit card debt. Right now, in order to avoid freezing in the winters and roasting in the winters, we need new windows. We are so blessed and have no idea how we managed to bring all this greatness into our universe because we did not even seek out doing a re-fi. The dh called the mortgage company about something else and they wanted to talk to him about a NO COSTS OUT OF POCKET re-fi. Woo-hoo!

Also, I count on my list of things successfully done this week is paying our annual registration and car tax. I saved up since last July for doing so and on Sunday discovered I was only lacking $10.00 in the AAA/tax savings account from being able to pay for it. I had $10.00 in checking and it is due next week, so I paid it. It feels great knowing that it was not a problem to pay it, because I saved up for it rather than HOPING I would be able to pay for it when it came due.

I will be attending a conference soon. I have also saved up for months to attend it. I have to pay for it up front myself, but got special funding at work to reimburse my expenses. My professional savings account is down $200 because I just paid for the conference registration in full.

Hi, everyone. I have good news and bad news on my 52 Week Challenge. The good news is that I am still doing good on my challenge, but the bad news is that I had to make a couple of steps backward. I had to replace the battery in my car because it went dead. We were not sure if it was the alternator or battery at the time it happened. Between the diagnosis and the battery installation, it was $171.49 or something like that. And that was with a $20 coupon I had earlier printed off the internet, anticipating needing to replace two more tires on the car. I put it on cc #2 to get the rewards points. I made payments to it from both checking and savings to avoid the balance getting out of control. I am not letting that slow me down and am forging ahead.

Previous 52 Week Challenge Balance: $2652.67

Car Savings Deposit $40.00
House Savings Deposit $40.00
Professional Savings Deposit $20.00
AAA/Car tax savings Deposit $5.00
Medical Savings Deposit $5.00
Credit Card #1 Payment $40.00
Credit Card #2 Payment $10.03 (from mrrebates)
Credit Card #2 Payment $58.28 (dh's payment)

New 52 Week Challenge Balance: $2870.98

Hi, everyone. I made a payment to cc #1. The balance is actually a little different than it is in my sidebar. Ugh. I also cashed in a winning lottery ticket. I cashed in my pocket change at the Coinstar. I took the money from both and deposited it to checking and set up a payment to cc #2.

Prior Challenge Balance: $2162.46

$40.00 payment to cc #1.
$8.00 cashed in lottery ticket, paid to cc #2
$3.00 cashed in all my pocket change, mostly pennies, at the Coinstar, deposited to checking, sent payment to cc #2

New Challenge Balance: $2213.46

Hi, everyone. Awhile back, my stepdaughter had some dental work (wisdom tooth removal) done and was not able to pay for her portion on her own. My dh and I agreed to pay it for her and hoped she would pay it back someday. She did have dental insurance at the time, so that paid for a portion. It seems between the two payments, that there was surplus. We just got the refund check today. It is speedily making its way of to cc #2 as I type this.

Prior Challenge Balance: $2003.46

$17.00 refund from SD's dental surgery

New Challenge Balance: $2020.46

Hi, everyone. I got paid on Friday and since then, several things have happened.

Prior Challenge Balance: $1383.05

Paid $5.00 to cc #2

Regular Savings Deposit $40.00

Deposit to Car and House Savings $40.00

Purchased a pair of shoes on line for $99.97, which saved me at least $50.00

New Challenge Balance: $1518.05

I also purchased gardening supplies and had my garden tilled so that I can spend more on eliminating debt and eating better organic food.

I also allocated 1/2 of May's mortgage and $20.00 for future replacement of 2 more tires. More money went into retirement also, but I am not counting that in the Challenge.

My husband and I also paid a deposit of $225.00 for a new window for our house. It will come to us and be installed in about 8 weeks, when we have to have the balance of $225.00. I have $40.11 in the House Account right now and will work to accumulate the rest in the next 8 weeks. I have some funds coming from mrrebates on May 1st, so that will help.

Hi, everyone. I got $7.01 from selling a book online. I immediately sent it to cc #2.

Old Challenge Balance: $1260.76

$7.01 sent to cc #2

New Challenge Balance $1267.77

I will have more payments to make to cc #2 over the next week with cashed in rebates and such. I will post a balance of cc #2 when that is all done.

Prior Challenge Balance: $1130.76

Automatic Deposit to Regular Savings $40.00
Payment to DH's Hospital Bill $30.00, bringing the balance to $40.44
Slush Fund Deposit $20.00
Payment to cc #1 $40.00

New Challenge Balance $1260.76

Future Items to Add to Challenge:
1) sold a book for $7.01 - will get deposit in about 3 days
2) cashed in mrrebates for $12.00 - will get deposit next Tuesday
3) Make DH's regular payment to cc #2 next Tuesday $58.28
4) will make regular payment to cc #2 tomorrow $20.00

Hi, everyone. I got paid today and so more money went to savings and debt. I have not been counting my contributions to retirement or mortgage payments, because those things are more or less on auto pilot, but I am still doing them. My objective this year is to pay off debt and build up savings.

My prior challenge balance: $932.76

Contribution to Regular Savings $40.00
Contribution to Car, House, Medical, AAA/Tax Savings: $78.00
Slush Fund Transfer $20.00
Payment to cc #1 $40.00
Payment to cc #2 $20.00

New Challenge Balance: $1130.76

I also cashed in rebates at mrrebates. I will get the deposit April 1st and immediately put it on cc#2.

My retirement also went up some and my mortgage down. Yeah!

We also recently got our tax return. We have spent some of it so far and have specific plans for the rest.

$1167 federal
$177 state

Total $1344

Paid Plumber to Have Toilet Fixed $50.00
Paid for New Wave Enviro Water Filter $54.00
Paid for New Guttering On Front of House $196.00

We have not had it done yet and don't yet have a quote, but we will be buying 2 new windows for our house and having them installed.

With the rest, we will be paying off DH's hospital bill #4, which is about $70.00, and the rest will get sent to cc #2.

The last part with windows and payoff of medical and credit card debt frees up monthly expenditures so we will have more money for other things in multiple ways: 1) will likely lower electric and gas usage, which in September, will mean our equal payment amount will get lowered significantly and 2) will lower our monthly payments on debt, so we can concentrate on payments to other debts.

We know for certain to our existing windows are a major factor in our electric and gas usage. Last summer in July, it was very hot in our house, particularly the kitchen. My husband saw an article on the internet about how you can use foam insulation boards like these

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-R-Matte-Plus-3-1-2-in-x... to insulate your windows. They were only about $10.00 a board and 1 board was about wide enough for 1 1/2 window in our house. So we did it and within 10 minutes, our kitchen was 10 degrees cooler. So, after that, we started putting money aside to buy new windows with the plan to replace all windows within 2 years. Then, the recent cleanout of savings to help pay for a funeral kind of derailed part of that plan, but we are going forward with doing 2 windows and will do more as we can afford to do so.

Well, I paid more on debt and want to report on a pet peeve of mine.

$608.86 Previous Balance of 52 Week Challenge

$7.00 Money Previously Allocated for Something We Wound Up Not Buying (saved money twice there!)
$20.00 paid to credit card #1
$11.97 rebate money paid to credit card #2

This brings my balance to $647.83!

Because my employer called off work today due to bad weather, I am probably saving money because I am not out buying something. But that's hard to calculate.

My pet peeve regards cc#2. I got it in 2005 about 4 months after the discharge of my chapter 13 bankruptcy. The company charges an annual fee to use the card. Of course, I could pay it off and cancel the card, but then I would be cutting off my oldest currently open credit line. Not good when I hope to refinance my house some day. So I will keep it and keep it paid off when I get it paid off.

Hi, everyone. I paid some on dh's medical bill, bringing the balance to $96.00. I also put some money into savings and paid to cc's. I will post those balances later.

Previous Challenge Balance $479.86

Payment to Dh's medical bill $30.00
Payment to credit card #1 $50.00
Deposit to savings $49.00

New Challenge Balance $608.86

Hi, everyone. I got $5.95 from selling a book, so I set up a payment to cc #2, bringing the balance of that card to $396.00.

That brings my challenge balance to $485.81.

I also got a rebate of ~ $11.00. I won't get it until about Feb. 1, though.


Oops. I made a mistake and counted the $5.95 book sale twice, so I am back to my previous balance, which I think was about $479.86.

Hi, everyone. Not a whole lot of progress, but some.

$20.00 regular deposit to slush fund every payday
$5.95 selling a book on cash4books - paid to credit card #2

This brings my Challenge total to $479.86.

On Saturday, I am going to donate some old clothes and clothing items to a charity thrift store. I need to calculate my tax writeoff for next year.

Here is my 52 Week Challenge Progress So Far:

credit card #2 payment $58.92
credit card #1 payment $3.99
regular savings deposit $40.00
slush fund deposit $20.00
credit card #1 payment $7.00
credit card #2 payment $10.00

Total So Far: $139.91

I am so surprised at my progress far. I have only been doing this since last Friday. This is not all I will be doing this week. I am waiting on the appliance repair man to fix our fridge and then I will pay more to credit card #1 and deposit more to savings.

1. Pay Down credit card #1 to $750 by 12-31-2013. I am a bit of a failure on this one. It will get better when I get some more medical debt paid off. 'Nuff said.

2. Pay off credit card #2 by 12-31-2013. I am a bit of a failure on this one. It will get better when I get some more medical debt paid off. 'Nuff said.

3. Bring car savings to $2,000 by 12-31-2013. Update: As of 1-4-2013, we have a different car. We cleaned out our car account to about $500.00 to do it. We were presented with an unprecidented opportunity that we could not turn down. It has turned out to be a pleasant surprise in several ways. I will begin contributing to this account again next payday, though.

4. Minor and major house maintenance and repair. Still plan to do this, but has not happened yet. Need to bring my total up to date.

5. Continue making extra principal payments on the mortgage, even if it is only $5.00 a month. I paid $10.00 extra for January and $5.00 extra for February.

5. Increase regular savings to $3,000. I want to have at least $12,000 in regular savings in five years.Progress being made, but not enough. Insert kick to my butt here.

6. Reduce unnecessary spending. Still working on this, but possibly not as good as I could be. Today, I bought 5 1 liter bottles of Smart Water and 5 bottles of tea to put in my mini fridge at work. I also bought some snack nuts to keep at work. Hopefully, that will keep the hungry beast (me) from wanting to buy something.

7. I plan to greatly expand my gardening venture next spring. I have not planted anything yet, but I have been preparing by buying seeds ahead of time and keeping them in the fridge.

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

I am expect a survey check in the mail in a couple of weeks. I will apply it to credit card #1 when it arrives.
--------------------------------------

On Friday, I went to Bank of America to pay my mortgage for February. While waiting in line, I heard the teller tell a customer that that branch would become an Arvest bank after March 1st. My brain went into overload. When I went up to the counter, I inquired how that would affect my mortgage. The teller told me my mortgage would still be with BOA. I don't trust BOA even one inch due to how they have been treating other BOA customers by repossessing homes whose mortgages are current or even repossessing homes that don't even have mortgages. I wouldn't be dealing with BOA at all if my mortgage had not been sold to them at the time of closing. I keep copious records, including receipts, printouts of copies of cancelled checks to prove payment, and a detailed spreadsheet. I absolutely refuse to do electronic payments or mail in my payments because I don't want them to get "lost" in the mail. The closest BOA branch to me is 30 miles away and I do not know if it will become an Arvest bank. I could drive there every month to make payments, but it would not be optimum. My question is concerning the fact that I have been paying on this mortgage for only 2 1/2 years. Does anyone know if it is possible to transfer a mortgage to a different bank or credit union without coming up with closing or appraisal costs?

Hello, everyone. It is one week until payday and I have $35.93 left in my checking account. I have already accounted for Netflix, 1/2 of the mortgage (due 8/1/12), and biweekly mowing. I filled up the gas tank and paid a little extra to credit card #1. Well, the biggest news is that the hubby and I applied for a different credit card with a 5% lower rate. We are going to keep the old one, though, and only charge our Netflix to it. We had already asked for the balance transfer to the new card when I had to take the hubby to the ER in the middle of the night and were a little short on cash. So, the majority of the balance is on the new card with a much lower rate. It should not take long to pay it down to a much more reasonable level.

Here are the meals I have planned for the week:

1) Oatmeal with cinnamon, flaxseeds, almond milk, stevia. Orange. Side of ham. 4 meals

2) Eggs and ham. Side of oatmeal. 3 meals

3) Green salad with tuna or garbanzo beans. Side of orange or apple. Side of raw snack nuts. 3 meals

4) Chicken salad with mayo and raw veggies. Side of orange or apple. Side of raw snack nuts. 2 meals

5) Chicken breast. Side of steamed veggies. 2 meals

6) Angus chuck patties. Side of steamed veggies. 1 meal

7) Stir fry with chicken and veggies. 1 meal

8) Lunch out!

Yesterday was my first payday of my employer's new fiscal year. I guess my pay raise must have gone through because my check was $29.75 higher than before. Woo-hoo. I will start putting even more into savings that I have already been. I will also increase what I am paying to the credit card.

My regular savings account is up, as are my car, savings accounts, and retirement.

I bought some angus chuck patties on sale and with a $1.00 coupon at the store. That in itself was very good, but it gets weirder. The patties were 2 pounds of frozen meat patties packaged in a box. The original price was $8.99. There was a sign that said they are on sale for $7.99 and I had a $1.00 coupon. I am thinking this is a pretty good deal, because I had wanted to buy some hamburger and these were chuck patties, not regular ground beef, so I bought them. Then, I noticed my receipt said I was charged for $8.99 minus the $1.00 coupon. I approached Customer Service to make them aware of the problem. Apparently, the patties had been on sale, but someone forgot to remove the sign. I thought they might give me the $1.00 back, but I didn't expect anything else. Then, the lady told me they have a policy where if a customer catches a mistake, the customer gets the item free. Yes free! I said that's terrific, because I wasn't expecting anything more than $1.00 back. I told the dh and he thought it was great, too. With $3.00 out of the $6.99, I bought some fresh spinach, oregano, and parsley at a different store.

I also cashed in a lottery ticket for $4.00. I added that to $3.00 more dollars I had just laying around. Along with my normal $20.00 each deposits to the house and car accounts, I divided up the extra $7.00 between the two accounts.

Here are my meals for the coming week:

1) Stir Fry made from leftover rice, squash, and tomatoes. 2 meals. This stuff would have gone bad soon if I had not done something with it, so this is a real boon to my budget!

2) Meatloaf. Side of steamed veggies. 2 meals

3) Spaghetti with rice. 2 meals

4) Baked chicken breast and steamed veggies. 2 meals

5) Green salad with tuna or garbanzo beans. Side of apple or orange. Side of raw nuts. Iced tea. 3 meals

6) Angus chuck patties. Side of steamed veggies. 2 meal

7) Eggs and ham. Oatmeal. 3 meals

8) Oatmeal with side of ham. Side of grapefruit. 4 meals

9) Tuna salad with raw veggies. Side of apple or orange. Side of raw nuts. Iced tea. 2 meals

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.

If you are interested in making a little extra money doing surveys, etc., click on this link. There is absolutely no cost to join and earning points is fast and easy.

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/a5dbcf

Full disclosure: I will get 25 points for a friend signing up, but mostly I just wanted to pass along a good opportunity to earn a little extra money.

I have been putting my extra dollars towards paying off the credit card and beefing up my car account. My car account will enable us to replace our car in 1-2 years with a used or new car.

By the way, if they link above does not work for you, post a comment and I will get another token. The tokens can only be used once.

I get paid every two weeks. Two months out of every year, I have 3 paychecks in a month. With September, I have 3 paychecks. I am planning now what I plan to do with it.

$1228.12 (total amount of paycheck)
-20 mortgage extra payment
-60 emergency savings deposit I am changing this one to 100
-50 car account I am changing this one to 100
-50 house account
-20 towards chest freezer
-50 water bill
-200 groceries
-40 stock up on staple grocery items
-100 credit card pmt
-50 towards eyeglasses I am changing this to 75
628.12

I am not sure what to do with the rest, but I think this is a good start. Per the ads on Home Depot, I will need around $700 for a chest freezer, so this is just a mere start. I will likely need around $150-$175 for new eyeglasses.

Update on 9-5-2011: I have updated a few numbers above and added one. I changed the eyeglasses one, because I really need new eyeglasses. Mine are falling apart. I already have $63.00 set aside for this and will set aside $50.00 more on September 16th. After that, I only need probably $25.00 more than originally allocated to get a new pair. I also decided to stock up on some staple grocery items, such as canned tomatoes, dried beans, bread, toilet paper, spices, and paper towels. I may also add another category to stock up on some health supplements, but will need to check my supply first. But before doing any of this, I will make sure ALL bills get paid first.

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

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 an email telling me that survey money will be arriving soon, about a week or so. That will be $25.00

Also, I cashed in my beezag points for $8.00. Thanks to beezag doing some kind of special this month where a lot of their videos were 250 points instead of the usually 20 or something.

So, when those go through, I will have another $33.00 in the Conference Challenge. woo-hoo