Hello, everyone. For several months now, I have been carrying around a small Mead spiral notebook with me in my purse to help me keep a better handle on my budget. I keep a running balance of budget categories (in pencil) so that I know what I need to leave room for. My problem is that it is not big enough. I need something small enough that it will fit easily into my Ameribag purse (medium size, I think), but large enough to contain information about my budget which is 25 lines on an Excel sheet. Would a Moleskin notebook, maybe the one with gridlines that is about 3x5, do the trick? Wait a minute. Hold the phone. I just measured the spiral notebook I already have and it is almost 3x5, so I am going to have to get something bigger. I will check at a store tomorrow, but can't spend the money until Friday or Saturday. I ask because I have only seen them on the internet, but I think I could probably pick up one at the campus bookstore or Hastings.

My other choices include a small Mead Five Star notebook in either 3x5 or 5x7 sizes or just a plain lined journal like I have seen at Walgreens, etc.

Anyone have any ideas?

Well, I did pretty good this past week. I took my lunch to work every day. I spent between $1.60 and $2.50 per day on snacks. I feel very good about that. I am continuing my challenge into the next week. Because I incorrectly calculated on the amount of food I had, I had some food left over, including a baked chicken breast and raw carrots. I have purchased a BPA free plastic bottle to take filtered water with me each day. This means I don't have to spend money on bottled water.


Monday - leftover chicken breast, raw carrots, raw organic apple, bottle of water

Tuesday - beef strip stir fry with onions, tomatoes, and carrots, organic apple, bottle of water

Wednesday - beef strip stir fry with onions, tomatoes, and carrots, organic apple, bottle of water

Thursday - Starkist tuna packet, 2 slices of bread, raw carrots, organic apple, bottle of water

Friday - my payday - I am treating myself to lunch out.

This is an update to my part of Househopeful's challenge to eat frugally. Here is what I have planned.

On Monday, I have the day off, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge to eat frugally, but I am going to stick with it anyway.

Monday - egg salad sandwich, carrots, apple, water

Tuesday - Chicken and pasta chili mac, apple, orange, water

Wednesday - Chicken and pasta chili mac, apples, water

Thursday - tuna sandwich, apple, carrots, water

Friday - leftover baked chicken breast, apple, carrots, water

I was going to make egg salad anyway to have for dinner one night this week. The cost of ingredients is minimal. The carrots and apples are inexpensive and fresh food, my effort to eat frugally and healthful at the same time. The apples were on markdown for only $.89. I bought the pasta for the chicken and pasta chili mac on sale for $0.99 markdown. I bought the canned tomatoes and tomato sauce on sale also. The tuna is leftover from last week when I went out to eat for lunch instead of eating my packed lunch as planned. The baked chicken breast is left over from a couple of weeks ago.

carrots 1.5
apples 0.89
chicken 5.00
leftover chicken 1.00
tuna 1.45
tomatoes 1.14
tomato sauce 0.59
filtered water from home 0.10
pasta 0.99
12.66

I calculate I am spending about $2.53 per day to eat lunch. We will see how this goes.

Well, I am off on another challenge to eat healthy and cheap this coming week. I thought about making chicken soup using some chicken bones I had in the freezer along with other stuff I would buy. However, I noticed boneless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.19 per pound, which came out to $3.45 for what I believe is 5 chicken breasts. I also bought a bag of 8 organic oranges for $4.69. I have 1/2 a bag of raw carrots leftover from last week, so the cost for them is negligible. I have 10 tea bags left. I usually drink 1 cup of tea a day while at work. I bought a 12 pack of bottled water. So, here are my lunches for the week. I also have some nuts leftover from before.

Chicken breast, orange, snack bag of nuts, snack bag of carrots, 1 bottled water, 1 tea bag

I am coming up with a high estimate of $2.63 per lunch to eat for this coming week.

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Update: I got an updated bill in the mail for Hospital Debt #1. I made out a check for $20 and will mail it on Monday. This brings my balance to $377.58. Yea!

In the coming weeks, I am going to work on getting some disaster preparedness supplies together. My hubby is Red Cross disaster volunteer and so I am going to put together a pack for him to take if he gets called out. I think it should contain a first aid kit, bottled water, basic non-perishable food, tools, a hand-crank radio, a little cash, and whatever else I can find. I want to put it all in some kind of backpack or other easy to carry bag. We already have one hand-crank radio for our house, but I will get another one for his pack. I will put together a separate pack for our home. I am going to check for yard sales and sales at stores!

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."


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

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!

Well, I got a $7.00 survey check in the mail. It will be deposited tomorrow. On Friday, I will write a check with my regular $20.00 payment plus the $7.00 Spare Change Challenge money. This will bring the balance of hospital debt #1 to $454.58. Yes! I will meet my original goal of less than $400.00 on this debt before June even!

For my second payday of the month, I pay the rent, buy groceries, and pay the internet bill. The rent makes a pretty big hole in our checking account, making it a little harder to make it until payday. Well, this time, dh and I each had a doctor's appointment on Friday ($40.00 total) and an appointment for the cats' annual checkups. The vet said both cats are too fat, which I knew and had been telling dh that. Dh insists on pouring the cat food into one of those feeders, which of course turns the food bowl into an all you can eat food bar for the cats. The vet said if we don't get her weight down, she will become diabetic and will need medicine. Our male cat is a little overweight, too. I bought some Science Diet lite food. It's expensive. I don't think dh is going to like it, but I think I will start feeding them myself so we know they are not eating too much. I don't want them getting sick. The male cat also has some kind of parasite. Between the $123.00 vet visit and $31.00 for cat food, I am feeling a little pinched. I will be taking some out of savings to be able to make it until next payday.

Well, I am well on my way to meeting my 2010 goals. My hospital bill #1 is now $529.58. I paid off $120.00 of it with $100.00 from my tax refund plus my regular $20.00 payment. I will be getting some survey money and other found money soon that I will also funnel towards that bill. I get paid tomorrow and my savings will increase by $40.00 to $598.91.

I opened an extra savings account today to pay for things like professional memberships and attendance at conferences. The annual amount I need for this ranges from $500 to $1000, depending on what conferences I plan on attending. I am going to aim for $1000.

I was curious how much my net worth had changed in 2009, so I looked it up on networthiq.com. I was very surprised to find my networth has changed to the tune of a positive $10,227!!! Wow. I knew it was better, but that is amazing.

net worth in Dec 2008 - $9,335
total hospital debt $2,900
credit card debt $1,882
no savings account
retirement account $13,054

net worth in Dec 2009 - $19,562
total hospital debt $1,772
credit card debt $1,682
emergency savings account $462
house downpayment account $135
car replacement account $150
retirement account $20,759


I updated this on 12/27/2009 because I did some calculations based on my payment schedule and discovered that my payoff dates for these debts are different than I thought.

2010 Financial Goals
1. Pay Hospital Debt #1 Down to Under $400
2. Pay Hospital Debt #2 Down to $400
3. Establish $1000 Emergency Savings Balance by June and Maintain it

In February, I plan to start paying another $20 per month more on hospital debt #1. This will accelerate the debt payoff.

Well, I got paid again. Savings is up. Retirement is up. Debt is down. The scales are starting to tip in my favor. I bought groceries today and spent more than I had planned, but I was out of practically everything. I also increased the amount automatically deposited to my savings, which is my EF. Anyway, just checking in with you guys. I'm doing good now and better than yesterday! Well, I decided to try something new. As far as the household expenses, like utilities, rent, etc., it seemed like the were out of balance. I did a little figuring and found that yes they were out of balance. The beginning of the month's paycheck seemed to go farther because I had less fewer dollars going for household expenses. So, this time, I evened it out a little by transferring $100 to savings for the purpose of going towards rent later in the month. This should help a lot. Let's see how it goes. By the way, the "Other Real Estate" Category on my networth iq profile is not really real estate. It is a separate savings account I have at another credit union. It is a join account with my husband.

Well, I have changed the account that my paypal deposits go to. They will now go directly to my savings, which is my EF. This will help me to get it built up and ward off Murphy at all costs. I just recently got a survey payment delivered to me by paypal. I had it deposited to the savings and it felt so good knowing exactly where it was going.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Howdy, neighbors. I am putting the finishing touches on my frugal lunch for next week. I don't normally cook my lunches until Sunday, but we are leaving to go to a nearby town to visit friends tomorrow. Here is my frugal lunch recipe.

1 9 oz can of chicken (I like Swanson's)
$1.91

leftover carrots (need to use them up before they go bad) $0

2 qts. broth $2.58

1/2 pkg frozen spinach $.50

1 16 oz pkg frozen soup veggies

leftover mashed potatoes, for thickening $0

1 15 oz can cannelini beans $1.00

package of long grain rice $1.85

I am estimating that I can make about 5 servings of soup with this at about $1.66 per serving. Wow.

I was reading a magazine article in the break room at work and saw a really cool article called "Meals for a Month" or something like that. Well, I made one of them tonight and modified it for our tastes. The one I made is called Chicken Posole. I added a can of blackeye peas which I put through the blender and some ground up carrots. This accomplished several goals: 1) thickened the soup - I hate thin, watery soup, 2) concealed the blackeyed peas from hubby - he hates them, and 3) added protein. I also added cumin, garlic, and italian seasoning. Here is the URL for the article.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-fa...

I just asked hubby what he thinks and he said "good but different." I myself thought it was excellent and was surprised at how well it turned out.

Just to make the point of how frugal it is, here is my tally:

hominy, 15 oz, $.89
broth, 32 oz., had on hand from a stock-up shopping trip, $0
1/2 onion, $.50
14 oz canned tomatoes, $1.14
15 oz canned blackeyed peas, hand on hand $0
spices, hand on hand $0
15 oz canned cannelini beans $1.00
carrots, leftover $0
Tyson refrigerated chicken strips (on $1.99 closeout - I had $0.55 coupon which was doubled to $1.00) $0.99

Total cost $5.07

I think we will be able to stretch it out for another meal each for him and I!

Well, I got paid again Friday. I have already paid the bills for gas, electric, cell phone, trash, water/sewer, and hospital bills #1 and #2. I have bought groceries, some of which was on sale. The meat and frozen veggies I bought should last well into next week. My retirement account is way up and my debts are down. I am pleased about that.

My finances have yo-yoed a little bit lately. I feel like I made significant progress and then something happens that makes me feel like I am back at step one again. I had $1000 in my savings and then I had to take out $140 to get the starter on my car replaced. Something else happened, too, but I can't remember what. Anyway, I am getting savings slowly built back up and debt paid down. I am also slowly getting my car replacement account and house account built up. Hospital Bills #1 and #2 are also down some. I will be paying more on #2 on Friday. Also, I will be leaving on Thursday for a conference and will be back on Friday. About 10-15 days later, I will get a reimbursement of about $120, which will immediately be directed to the credit card. It will not be spent on shinies, dinner out, etc., as those things don't contribute to my financial freedom. I got a copy of Dave Ramsey's book at the library and copied the budget forms from the back. I adapted them for my situation and made a spreadsheet based on them. I am not sure if they envelope thing will work for me, as predicting how much groceries will cost is impossible. I am going to try it for awhile without envelopes.

Well, I got paid again on Friday. I have paid the utility bills and the credit card bill, and bought groceries and other items we needed. I am putting as much extra money on the credit card as I can. If it is halfway between paydays and I see that still have $400 in my checking, I send some more to the cc. I am also putting all found money, such as survey money, rebates, etc., towards the cc. I just got a $10 survey check on Friday and it is now on its way to the cc. It is an approach that seems to be working.

Well, the dear hubby bought new reader glasses the other day and absentmindedly paid with the credit card instead of the debit card. Well, he did own up to his mistake and is paying for the bill of $95.00. Also, I just got a survey check in the mail today for $7.60. So, tomorrow after I verify the $102.60 deposit has cleared, I will zip it off to the credit card straight away. No, this money will not stay long in my wallet or it may risk getting spent on shinies. I will post an update of the credit card balance then.

Howdy, everyone. Wow, I really feel like I have hit a milestone. My emergency savings is FINALLY over $1000 and I just made a $100 payment to the credit card without even blinking. The payment did not feeling have a tooth pulled. It was more like paying a phone bill, which is not on my Top 10 List of Things I Love to Do, but it is not all that bad. I don't know exactly what is occurring, except that I am slowly crawling out from the debt hole I was in. In addition to that $100 regular credit card payment, I also took the $16.00 that was left in checking before I got paid and sent it to the credit card, too. I sent $75.00 to hospital debt #2, bring down the balance to less than $1500. My retirement account actually went down a tiny amount, but that's okay. I feel like I am on a roll!

Well, recently I came up with another way to scrape some more money together initially for my Challenge. I realized when I went into a spare room that I have a lot of fine china packed away in boxes just gathering dust. If I sold it, I could use the money towards my Challenge. One of my coworkers has a booth in a flea market in a nearby town, so I asked her if she would be willing to sell the stuff for me in exchange for 10% of whatever it sells for. She said her booth is basically open shelving, so she could not do that without risking breakage. She suggested I come to that town in a couple of weeks for the town's city wide garage sale and bring my stuff over to sell it. Even if I did not want to come for the sale, she could sell it for me and said she would be willing to do so without payment. She said that the more stuff available at the sale, the more stuff sells. So, Saturday, I picked up price labels. Today, I went through my boxes of stuff and marked everything with price labels. I even went through my closets and drawers looking for clothes that are too small, etc. and found a pair of jeans and some other stuff I can't use any more. It's been really bugging me that this stuff has been sitting in boxes for 10 years because I don't have anywhere to display it. So this seems like a good idea. After I get back from the conference and receive the reimbursement, I will enough of it into savings to bring the balance to $1000. The rest I will wipe out at least 1 debt with.

Well, I got paid again yesterday. Here's the good news:

1) Hospital Debt #1 is down to $838.58.

2) Savings is up to $697.35.

3) Retirement is up to $13,816.57.

4) The conference challenge is up to $1699.49.

5) The doctor has encouraged hubby and I to eat less red meat and eat tuna and turkey instead. The good news is that turkey is a little cheaper than ground beef and we should not notice any difference in taste.

The bad news is that I had to go to the chiropractor yesterday (scheduled visit) in a nearby town. I was out of several of my health supplements that I take and had replenish. I had only anticipated spending $50-$60, but it was $113.08. Anyway, I have to pay my rent at the end of the month. Other than that, I have $104.38 to get me through until April 3rd, my next payday. I don't do a lot of driving and don't drive to work, so gas for the next 2 weeks is not a problem. I have already bought groceries next week. My only expenses are rent ($465) and food (~$70.00). I am determined to remain within this budget and not use the credit card.



Hubby was doing the laundry and found $0.65 in the pocket of my pants. I have added it to the Conference Challenge and broken the $1700 mark, bringing my balance to $1700.14.

Hello, everyone. I just added some leftover pocket change that I didn't know existed to my Conference Challenge. This brings my balance to $1618.16. My next payday, which is Friday, will enable me to add $80 more, bringing it to $1698.16. Maybe I can find $2.00 somewhere and break the $1700 mark. I am expecting a Starbucks coffee card in the mail this week. I plan to take it with me when I leave for my conference so I can get some good tea for free.

Like Sherlock Holmes, here, I am off in search of clues, specifically clues leading me to additional funds for my Challenge.

This coming week is going to be a "super-frugal" week, as I have only $12.00 in my checking account. I am determined not to use the credit card and to stay within my budget. I have food that I can take with me to work, so that's not a problem. It's just that I sometimes like to buy something and this week I can't.