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?

Hi, everyone. I had a small victory. I took $69.22 out of regular savings and combined it with a $36.00 refund we got on car registration. We used the combined amount to pay off an outstanding medical debt. It was not a huge priority to pay it off now, but it was a priority to step up savings and payoff of other debt, which is hard to do when we have money going so many different directions. We have about $200 on another medical debt, which will probably be paid off around May. I am updating my 2013 goals to reflect these debts. Yahoo! It's a small victory, but I am grateful.

1. Pay Down credit card #1 to $750 by 12-31-2013. To do this, I need to pay off at least $100 a month. I will post our monthly progress.

2. Pay off credit card #2 by 12-31-2013. I need to pay off at least $50.00 a month. I will post our monthly progress.

3. Bring car savings to $2,000 by 12-31-2013. I really need to contribute a lot to this one, as our car is going to need replacing in the next year or two. I need to contribute at least $75.00 a month.

4. Minor and major house maintenance and repair. The two big things we are planning for the spring are getting the rest of the tuckpointing done on the south side of the house and planting an oak tree in the back yard behind the kitchen. The cost of the tuckpointing will come out of money we are already setting aside. We need $600 to do that and are setting aside $90.00 a month. It will probably March or April when we do that. The oak tree will be paid for out of our tax refund and money we are already setting aside. It will be about $150.00 to pay for the tree, delivery, and planting.

5. Continue making extra principal payments on the mortgage, even if it is only $5.00 a month. With the rest of our tax refund, we plan to make a large principal payment. We have a 30 year mortgage which we got in 2010. We want to have it paid off several years before I retire so I can ramp up retirement contributions.

5. Increase regular savings to $3,000. I want to have at least $12,000 in regular savings in five years. My expenses are approximately $2,000 a month, but could be cut somewhat in extreme situations. I am going the HR tomorrow in order to increase what I have going to savings out of my pay.

6. Reduce unnecessary spending. I am doing grocery shopping with cash, which has decreased my normally $170 or so weekly grocery bill to around $130. I am even stocking up on stuff I use a lot when I see it on sale or have a good coupon. I am also sticking to my routine of making my own tea at work with my tea bags and travel mug. I bring my lunch to work nearly every day, buying usually on paydays. I also did some gardening this past summer and plan to do the same beginning next spring. See #7 for more on this. These actions have helped to considerably reduce spending.

7. I plan to greatly expand my gardening venture next spring. This past summer, I only did tomatoes and basil and had a ball doing so. Growing my own food was not only satisfying, but tasty as well. I plan to add kale, onions, carrots, peppers, radishes, and spinach to my choices. Doing so will help me to become less dependent on the grocery store during the summer and also eat organically and locally grown food. I plan to continue growing kale next winter also. For some veggies, I will freeze some extra for the winter.

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

This Week's Plan

This week I plan on doing some decluttering and gathering together paperwork for our taxes.

My menu plan is basically vegetarian bean soup, salads, dirty rice, and hummus. We normally eat oatmeal for breakfast. Here is the recipe I use for hummus:

Hummus

http://dedemed.com/print/print-recipe.php?article_id=92

I can't find the dirty rice recipe I use online right now. It's like it disappeared and I only have a printout.

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

We have been making payments on 2 small medical bills dh had. They are considerably smaller than ones we paid off in 2011, but still have been a pain to get paid off. Now, I finally have a plan to get one paid off in the next week. The bill is $105.22. I have approximately $45.00 in checking right now that I will not use before Friday. Yea, me on vacation not buying stuff unnecessarily! I am going to take the rest out of regular savings. It will only take me one payday (this coming Friday) to make it back up. Paying it off will free up some money every month to put towards the credit cards and mortgage.

Hi, every one. This coming week is going to be a use it up week for us. My husband is trying a new diet that means he is severely restricting his calories and not eating our normal food. So, I have decided to use this opportunity to use up some food we already have rather than buying a bunch of stuff. We will be at home for the holiday, but that's just fine, because I am not much for socializing.

1) I made a large pot of chili with roast beef, great northern beans, canned tomatoes, chili seasoning, garlic, serrano peppers, sea salt, and black pepper. There's no real recipe here. I think this should give me about 6 dinner meals. I already had the roast beef, beans, tomatoes, seasonings, garlic, serrano peppers, sea salt, and black pepper, so this meal is an almost free meal.

2) Chicken and garbanzo bean salad. I used 3 cans of albacore tuna, 1 can of garbanzo beans, mayo, 1 can of olives, 1 clove of garlic, oregano, cilantro, sea salt, and black pepper. There is no real recipe here. I just made it up. I put 3 cans of drained tuna into a mixing bowl, then added mashed up garbanzo beans, 3 heaping tablespoons of mayo, 1 can of sliced olives, 1 clove of garlic, and sprinkles of cilantro, oregano, sea salt, and black pepper. This should make 3 lunches for me. I already had the garlic, oregano, olives, cilantro, mayo, sea salt, and black pepper.

3) Caron's Kicking Quinoa Salad. I have not made it yet, but I will put 1 can of drained albacore tuna, some cut up celery, mayo, sea salt, black pepper, and quinoa into a bowl. I will add lemon juice and probably an onion. It will probably make 1 lunch meal for me. I already had the celery, mayo, sea salt, black pepper, lemon juice, and onion.

I will get paid "early" on Wednesday this week because Thursday and Friday are holidays, but I plan on making my own lunches and dinners anyway and diverting the savings to the credit card with the biggest balance. I will mail payments for bills on Wednesday. I also need to set aside some money for a trip I have to make to a nearby city later this month. I will also set aside funds for the car account, house account, and trees account. The money that normally get automatically deposited to my regular savings, I will divert to the credit card also. I want to get it paid down as soon as possible.

I had the afternoon off and decided to do grocery shopping early. I usually do it on Saturday. Apparently, I had previously loaded e-coupons for $3.00 off meat if I spent $15.00 on meat and also a coupon for chicken and totally forgot about it. There were various other small ones, too and they all totaled to $13.20. But where I normally used to spending $80-$100 at that store, I spent $59.76! It was funny, because I had looked at the clerk's monitor and saw 70 something dollars. So, I was searching through my wallet to get out four twenties. When I looked back up, it said $59.76. What a surprise. At Dollar General, I spent $18.65 using two coupons. At another store, I spent $20.45. At Big Lots, I spent $2.50. I didn't spend much there, but they are the only ones in town that carry the brand of bread my husband eats. It does not have HFCS in it and he is trying to lose weight, so I make a special effort to buy it. Altogether, I spent $106.42 and most of it was in cash. This dependence on cash for grocery shopping is good for me. It makes me think about what I am putting in my cart. And I wasn't depriving myself of anything and even stocked up on dishwashing liquid (bought at Dollar General for $1.00 minus $.50 coupon), more dried beans, and extra canned tuna. I'm loving this.

I took my coin jar to cash it in. I had a total of $2.02. I split up the $2.00 and deposited $1.00 each to the house account and trees account.

I don't have my whole week's menu figured out yet, but I am going to having the following:

1) leftover pea soup from last week. This was my first venture into making pea soup. All pea soup I had ever even smelled just had an awful smell and so I wouldn't even try it. I decided to try making it myself and it turned out wonderful. That will make 3 lunch meals for me.

2) Broccoli slaw with albacore tuna and garbanzo beans. It probably sounds a little weird, but it's quite delicious. I mix in some mayo and some kind of seasoning. This will probably make 2 lunch meals for me.

Well, I have been conducting an experiment for a couple of week regarding buying most groceries with cash only to see what kind of effect it would have on my overall grocery spending. When I did all the shopping with a debit card, I went a little crazy, even while using a list and my expenditures could total up to $165.00 a week. With cash, I think it's like I know I am limited to a certain amount of money, so I am a little more careful with what I put in my cart. Even so, I actually stocked up on a couple of things, like dried beans, peanut butter, and cocoa. I am on a quest to stock up in anticipation of approaching winter weather or any tight budget times. Winters here have been mild the past year or two, but we always seem to have at least one bad storm and I thought it would be a good idea to keep some food on hand just in case. Well, back to my cash only grocery buying venture. In the past two weeks, my purchases have been $120.00 the Saturday before last and $100 last Saturday. Woo-Hoo! That meets my goal of $120 per week.

Well, I have about $24.00 left in checking now (allocating for 40.00 for mowing, but I don't think our mowing man will be coming by anymore this season). Our grass hasn't grown at all recently and will probably start to die off soon. So, if we still have it in the account on Thursday due to no mowing, I will send it to the credit card with the higher balance. Also, I am expecting a rebate of about $10.00 this week. It will go to the same credit card. I will not have anything I have to pay for this week until Wednesday when I have to buy some raw fruit for a fruit tray I am taking to a work party.

In my quest to reduce expenses, I have also been looking for tasty, and inexpensive to fix, recipes. I am also looking for ways to use stuff I already have. Here is my meal plan for the week.

1) Garbanzo Bean Salad (I add some chicken for a little more protein) - 2 lunch meals for me -

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/vegetarian-chickpea-sandwich-fi... - (already had mayo, chicken, onion, and garbanzo beans)

2) Pea Soup - The recipe says this is for 8 servings, but it looks more like 2 or 3 lunch meals to me - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-split-pea-soup/detail.aspx (already had dried peas and broth)

3) Leftover Ham and Bean Soup - 1 lunch meal for me - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/basic-ham-and-bean-soup/detail....

4) Mediterranean Kale Salad With Beef - 1 dinner meal for me and dh - http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63344509/mediterranean-... - (already had onion)

5) Oatmeal with steva, almond milk, cinnamon, and ginger - 4 meals for dh and I - (already had oatmeal, stevia, almond milk, cinnamon, and ginger)

6) Eggs and Ham. Side of grapefruit. 3 meals for dh and I

7) Green Salad with turnip greens, chicken, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, carrots, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil - 1 meal for dh and I (already had turnip greens, sunflower seeds, carrots, and apple cider vinegar)

8) Green Salad With Chicken and Pecans - 1 meal for dh and I

9) mac & cheese - 4 meals for dh

10) tuna sandwiches - 3 meals for dh

I have updated all of my financials on the left margin. The new account marked trees is for buying at least one oak tree next March. Buying the one we were going to earlier this month did not work because of some kind of a mix-up. We are determined to buy at least one burr oak tree next spring, though. We want to buy one about 6 feet or so tall. I think they come in large buckets of a couple of gallons or something. We are planning on around $200 plus delivery and planting, so around $250.00. When it is planted on the west side of the house, the gas and electric bills should decrease, especially electric since that is the hot side of the house in summer.

Hello, everyone. Another step in my list of goals to reduce overall spending will be accomplished tomorrow. The dh is going to pay for a red oak tree that will be delivered and planted on the west side of our house where the sun is the worst in the afternoon. That is also the side where the kitchen is. I look forward to lower utility bills when the tree is mature. It is already about 6 feet high.

And speaking of reducing spending, I just received our latest gas bill today. We are on a level payment plan and they finally got around to re-evaluating our payment based on last year's usage. Our payment went from $57.18 to $36.86! Holy cow!! I thought the gas bill might go down some because we have been using the energy efficiency features on the dishwasher, but this is beyond believable.

We have not received our evaluation of electric usage yet. Maybe next month...

My checking account is looking a little skinny right now, so I mostly bought a lot of fruits and veggies

1) Broccoli slaw with cut up chicken, cut up red bell pepper, diced red onion, cut up cucumber, and shredded carrot. - 2 lunch meals

2) Chickpea and Chicken Salad. - 2 lunch meals

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/vegetarian-chickpea-sandwich-fi... - I did not have celery, so I used cucumber instead.

3) Sister Slaw - 1 dinner meal http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sister-slaw/detail.aspx

4) Matt's Garlic Salad - 1 dinner meal http://allrecipes.com/recipe/matts-garlic-salad/detail.aspx

5) Green Salad with Chicken and Pecans. - 1 dinner meal

6) Oatmeal. Side of ham. Side of grapefruit with stevia. - 4 breakfast meals.

7) Eggs. Side of ham. 1/2 serving of oatmeal. 3 breakfast meals.

8) Mediterranean Kale Salad. - 1 dinner meal. http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63344509/mediterranean-...

9) Caron's Kickin' Quinoa Salad. - 1 dinner meal. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carons-kickin-quinoa-salad/deta...

10) Salad My Way. - 1 dinner meal. http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63331549/salad-my-way/d...

I am hoping to be able to decrease overall expenses soon. My gas and electric are both on level payment plan. The usage gets re-assessed yearly in September I believe, so I should get a bill with the new amount in September or October. The dh and I have worked really hard on decreasing usage of gas and electric.

1) We have installed LED bulbs in nearly every lamp and fixture in the house. On less-used ones, we are waiting for the bulbs to die before we replace them. We also have a outside security light that we have to get someone to come over and replace for us. It requires a 10 foot high ladder to do it and we don't have one. I think we can have that done on October 14th. We also keep lights in some rooms turned off in the daytime if there sufficient light from the sun.

2) Because our dishwasher was about to die and we use it every day, we needed to buy a new one. We bought a new one with energy efficiency settings that we always use. We also only run it once daily except for the weekend when I do a lot of cooking.

3) We keep the blinds closed on the west side of the house because it gets so hot.

4) We are committed to buying an oak tree which we are going to have planted on the west side of our house. The tree is reserved for us. We just have to go on the 28th, my next payday, and pay for it to be delivered and planted. It is about 6 feet high right now and in time, will provide plenty of shade for that side of the house. And a lot of leaves to rake, too. ;P

5) I do the bulk of our cooking on Saturday and/or Sunday, so that the kitchen does not get so heated up. This was crucial in the summer months.

6) I have been taking shorter showers to reduce the load on the water heater. I also don't use a blow dryer. In the winter, I get up earlier to take a shower to make sure my hair is dry in time to go to work. Or, I take a shower at night.

1. Pay Down Credit Card to $300.00 by 12/31/2012

As of 9/15/2012, one credit is about $1900 and the other is $795. This was due to purchasing of a dishwasher and new computer. Both were about the die and I knew the savings would not cover it. Ugh. Ugly. I will continue to keep both cards open and pay down the debt aggressively.

2. Bring car savings account up to $2000.00 by 12/31/2012. As of 9/15/2012, this account is $1006.85. Not great, but better than nothing.

3. Complete some minor, and major, maintenance on the house. We have succeed in some minor maintenance/repairs, including getting a brick mailbox enclosure built, fixing a plumbing leak in the kitchen, and getting a new faucet installed.

4. Increase house savings account. As of 9/15/2012, it is $113.04. I spent some out of this account for maintenance on the house, so it is down, but I will get it back up again.

5. Reduce unnecessary spending.
I am having a lot of trouble with this one, but have reduced the average monthly amount spent on groceries from $700 to around $480 or so. Major progress. That savings is being split up between the credit cards and the house and car savings accounts. I'm also working out a way to spend less on daily sodas/tea that will also result in greater health.

All right, friends and neighbors, I have A LOT of work to do.

Hi, everyone. I had to save my entry and run earlier, so I didn't finish with my financial update. We had a plumber install a new faucet yesterday. Normally, dh could have done it, but he is having a lot of trouble with his shoulder due to arthritis and I know nothing about plumbing.

I got paid again yesterday. I already paid the gas and electric bills and allocated for the car insurance and 1/2 of the mortgage. I made a payment on one of dh's medical bills and deposited more to car and house savings. I made payments to the credit card. I also got a rewards check from one credit card. I am using it to make an extra payment to the other credit card.

My goal with the car savings is to have it up to $5,000 by the Fall of 2013. I also want to get the house savings up to $1,600 by the spring in order to have the rest of the mortar on the south side of the house and all of the east side done. The tax refund should help out with these goals a lot. The dh is going to sell some of his video games to a second hand store. I don't think he will get a lot, but even if it's only $10.00 each, he has promised to put all of it on the credit card he charged his new computer to.

The dh is still on a salad kick, so that's why there are so many salad meals. The chicken soup is for my lunch. Here are my meals for the week.

1) Chicken Soup with chicken, onion, garlic, brown rice, cannellini beans, stock, carrots, celery. - 3 lunch meals - (using brown rice, spices I already had)

2) Thai Salad with whole grain rice and chicken. - 1 dinner meal -

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/thai-salad-with-whole-grain-bro... (I already had olive oil, garlic, and onion. This recipe also calls for peanut butter, but I don't really like that taste in salad.)

3) Green Salad with Carrots and Cucumbers, and either chicken or ham - 1 dinner meal - (We already have lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and carrots to make it.)

4) Quinoa and Chicken Salad - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carons-kickin-quinoa-salad/deta... - 1 dinner meal (We already have the quinoa, lemon juice, and black pepper. This one is really good and fast to make.)

5) Grilled Chinese Chicken Salad Slaw. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/grilled-chinese-chicken-s... - 1 dinner meal - (We already have the ginger spice and olive oil. We are substituting lemon juice for lime juice and white onion for scallions.)

6) Oatmeal. Side of grapefruit. Side of ham. - 4 meals.

7) Eggs and ham with garlic, onion, and parsley. Sliced tomato. - 3 meals.

8) Mediterranean kale salad - 1 meal - http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63344509/mediterranean-... This is what we had tonight. The dh loved it, and it's my "recipe" that I just made up on the spot to use up some 2 week old garlic cloves that I thought might go bad soon and leftover black olives.

9) I am not sure about the rest of the meals. Hmm...

Something else I am trying is using one of those reusable plastic cups with its own straw like this only I didn't buy it at Starbucks.

http://www.starbucksstore.com/cold-cup-kit-24-oz/bundleColdC...

I am making my own iced tea. Part of this is about my health. I have been using too much sugar and it is causing me problems and costing too much. For every day I don't buy iced tea, I will send extra dollar to the credit card. This will give me an incentive to pay it off quicker.

Hello, financial savvy people. I got paid my third paycheck of the month yesterday. It is not turning out exactly the way I planned, but it is better than it would have been without any planning. Here is my plan for what to do with my third paycheck. The reality of what happened is in red.

1) $00 to regular savings in favor of paying off more debt
2) $100 to house savings - $140 spent on new faucet for kitchen instead, more than I expected
3) $100 to car savings - $40 added to car savings
4) $150 to cc - $100 to cc. I will be getting about $13.00 more to add to this courtesy of mrrebates and about $8.00 or $9.00 courtesy of cash4books. So, that gets me closer to my goal.
5) $200 set aside for mortgage - $161.61 set aside for mortgage - had intended to have $33.00 extra for the principal and $5.00 extra for the escrow, but wanted to get dishwasher (cc #1) paid off as quickly as possible, so compromised there. The credit card is a higher interest rate than the mortgage.
6) $240 for groceries - We were out of practically everything, so I have already spent about $150 out of the $240 two-week allocation I give myself for groceries.
7) $30 gas for car - spent $20.11 on gas
9) $50 water bill - water bill was $51.95
10)$7 cigarettes - spent $7.00 on ciggies for dh
11) $40 lawn mowing - allocated $40.00 for mowing, though I am not sure we need to do this much longer this year
12) $80 internet and landline phone bill - just switched over separate internet and cell bills to a combined internet and landline bill and it was more than I thought it would be - $105.86
13)$100 Miscellaneous - Who knows?
TOTAL $1097.00 I don't want to think about it.


Due to the unexpected expenses, I am trying to use my food as wisely as possible to get as much out of it as possible. I bought about 5 pound of chicken breasts and a pot roast. I also got 3 packages of Farmland ham. That will give me my meat for the weak. The rest is mostly raw veggies. I will also make some soup for my lunches. My meals for the week include:

1) Eggs and ham - 3 meals

2) Oatmeal. Side of grapefruit with stevia. Side of ham. - 4 meals

3) Chicken salad with green onions and cayenne pepper - 3 meals - (already had cayenne pepper)

4) Kale salad with beef, olive oil, cider vinegar, cranberries. - 1 dinner meal -

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kale-and-feta-salad/detail.aspx (I already salt. I am leaving off the feta cheese because I am allergic and substituting strawberries because I could not find currants. I will add some chicken strips. I can't seem to find the currants for this recipe in my area. So far, I have tried making it with strawberries and cranberries, and I must say that I vastly prefer the strawberries. Delicious. With beef is better also.)

5) Flat Iron Steak and Spinach Salad - 1 dinner meal - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/flat-iron-steak-and-spinach-sal... (I already had red onion, olive oil and red wine vinegar instead of wine. I left off the cheese. This one was delicious. We had it last night.)

6) Thai Salad with whole grain rice and chicken. - 1 dinner meal - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/thai-salad-with-whole-grain-bro... (I already had olive oil, garlic, onion, chicken, and peanut butter.)

7) Green Salad with Tomatoes and Cucumbers, and either chicken or ham - 1 dinner meal - (I just made this one up. We already have lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, ham, and chicken to make it.)

8) Quinoa and Chicken/Tuna Salad - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carons-kickin-quinoa-salad/deta... - 1 dinner meal (We already have the quinoa, mayo, lemon juice, black pepper, chicken, and tuna. I haven't decided whether to make it with chicken or tuna, but either way, it should be good.)

9) Grilled Chinese Chicken Salad Slaw. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/grilled-chinese-chicken-s... 1 dinner meal - (We already have the ginger spice, and olive oil. We are substitution lemon juice for lime juice and white onion for scallions.)

10) Chicken Soup with Rice. Already have brown rice, broth, carrots, onions, salt, and pepper.

It's a good thing I had a plan on how to spend my "extra" pay this month instead of just spending it willy-nilly because I get paid ever 2 weeks rather than twice a month. The first thing involved the fact that we had a water filtration system hooked up to our kitchen faucet and had had for most of the two years we have lived in the house. The water from the filter creates too much pressure in the faucet and so it leaks. The first thing the plumber told was that we will definitely need to replace the faucet, but first he hooked up the filter to a separate water line which involved drilling a hole in the stainless steel sink to the left of the faucet. That stopped the cause of the leak and it works great. It cost $150 and that came out of the money I had planned on putting into the house savings account for last payday. The plumber said if we buy a Delta faucet, it will have a lifetime warranty and will probably cost around $150, maybe less. We will get that with my next payday on the 31st and can install it ourselves. In addition, our dishwasher died last week. We bought a new dishwasher with our credit card #1. We also have to pay to have it installed. I will work hard to get cc #1 paid off quickly. To help that along, I will use what I planned on being an extra principle payment to the mortgage to go towards cc#1. In addition, the $40 that is auto deposited to regular savings on payday I will divert to cc#1 in addition to the $150 payment I was going to send anyway. Because we are a little skinny on our bank account, I decided to do what I could with our meals to use up what we already have. The hubby also specifically requested we eat entirely meal-sized salads for our dinners, which made this even more of a challenge. It is really weird of him to request salad at all, but for every dinner meal is odd. I am not complaining, though, as he is not a veggie eater.

1) Eggs and ham - 3 meals

2) Oatmeal. Side of grapefruit with stevia. Side of ham. - 4 meals (I already had oatmeal.)

3) Chicken salad with apples, ginger, mayo, ginger, onion, and celery. - 3 lunch meals for me (I already had mayo and chicken.)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-salad-my-way/detail.asp...

4) Kale salad with beef, olive oil, cider vinegar, strawberries, walnuts, and salt. - 1 dinner meal - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kale-and-feta-salad/detail.aspx (I already had kale, olive oil, cider vinegar, and salt. I am leaving off the feta cheese because I am allergic and substituting strawberries because I could not find currants. I will add some beef strips.)

5) Flat Iron Steak and Spinach Salad - 1 dinner meal - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/flat-iron-steak-and-spinach-sal... (I already had red onion, olive oil and red wine vinegar instead of wine. I left off the cheese. This one was delicious. We had it last night.)

6) Thai Salad with whole grain rice and chicken. - 1 dinner meal - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/thai-salad-with-whole-grain-bro... (I already had olive oil, garlic, onion, chicken, and peanut butter.)

7) Green Salad with Tomatoes and Squash, and either chicken or ham - 1 dinner meal - (I just made this one up. We already have lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, ham, and chicken to make it.)

8) Quinoa and Chicken/Tuna Salad - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carons-kickin-quinoa-salad/deta... - 1 dinner meal (We already have the quinoa, mayo, lemon juice, black pepper, chicken, and tuna. I haven't decided whether to make it with chicken or tuna, but either way, it should be good.)

9) Leftover Baked Chicken. Cucumber Tomato Salad. Side of apple. 1 lunch meal for me.

10) Grilled Chinese Chicken Salad Slaw. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/grilled-chinese-chicken-s... 1 dinner meal - (We already have the ginger spice, and olive oil. We are substitution lemon juice for lime juice and white onion for scallions.)

Hello, everyone. Seeing Wowitsawonderfullife's entry about lunches and meal planning made me realize I had not posted my weekly post about meals. It helps to keep me on track with food expenditures.

No show of the plumber yet, so our faucet is still leaking. Hopefully, he will show this week.

Later, this week, I will place an order for some health supplements and probably send more dollars to cc #2. Other than that, it should be a low-spend week.

Here are the meals I have planned for this week:

1) Braised Beef With White Beans - 2 meals each for dh and me -

http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/recipe.aspx?id=1421

2) Broccoli Slaw With Chicken (a combination of broccoli slaw, chicken, mayo, and a pepper) - 3 meals

3) Chicken and rice - 2 meals

4) Spaghetti with quinoa - 2 meals

5) Hamburger patties with steamed veggies - 1 meal

6) Eggs and ham. Side of oatmeal. - 3 meals

7) Oatmeal. Side of Ham. Side of grapefruit. - 4 meals

8) Spinach salad with ham, black beans, tomatoes, and a pepper - 1 meal

Well, hello everyone. Payday is tomorrow. I wanted to get a head start to make sure I make my goals. Just to reiterate, I have 3 paydays this month, so I planned out in advance what to do with the "surplus." I add that I made a mistake in listing lawn mowing twice, so I deleted the duplicate. Here is my plan. I noted in red what I have already done.

$00 to regular savings
$100 to house savings - this will actually go towards repairing our kitchen faucet
$100 to car savings
$150 set aside for cc #2 (not paid til later in month) - $100 paid Friday
$200 set aside for mortgage - DONE
$240 for groceries - spent about $130, $110 left
$30 gas for car - spent about $20, $10 left
$152 electric bill - actually $159 - check has been mailed
$40 lawn mowing - allocated in the checkbook
$37 trash bill (billed bi-monthly) - actually due at end of month, so will put off until next payday
$7 cigarettes - did tonight
$45 chiropractor visit - allocated in the checkbook
$100 Miscellaneous - $48.00 left
TOTAL $1141.00

It's a good thing that I organized so well this payday. We had to have a couple of trees trimmed today because branches were leaning on a power line. $275.00. Ouch! About $90 will come out of checking, but the rest will come from regular savings. I must remember to save more for this kind of stuff, but apparently, tree trimming people are expensive.

Hello, everyone. Well payday #1 for August is here. So, here it goes as far as my progress so far. I have already paid the phone/internet bill and the gas bill. I made a $111.21 payment to credit card #2. $11.21 of that is rebate money from mrrebates when I order stuff online. I discovered that I didn't have to delay til later in the month to pay it. Because it is the same bank as my checking, I just basically make a transfer. That's cool and it will save me time and interest.

$40 is automatically deposited to my regular savings every payday. I transferred that to the car and savings accounts immediately. I need to beef both of those up a lot. I will also put more in tomorrow by check. I have also already made set asides for 1/2 of the mortgage, lawn mowing, and a chiropractor visit.

$00 to regular savings - DONE
$100 to house savings - $20 DONE
$100 to car savings - $60 DONE
$150 set aside for cc #2 - $100 DONE (plus $11.21 rebate money)
$200 set aside for mortgage - DONE
$240 for groceries - DONE
$30 gas for car - WAS ONLY $10.00
$57 gas bill - DONE
$7 cigarettes (not mine, hubby's) - DONE
$45 chiropractor visit - DONE
$40 lawn mowing - DONE
$100 Miscellaneous
TOTAL $1069.00

I get paid every 2 weeks, which sometimes means I have 3 paydays in one month. I still only have 1 month's worth of expenses, so I have decided to make a plan on how to spend it wisely. Here is what I am planning for my August paydays:

1) $00 to regular savings
$100 to house savings
$100 to car savings
$150 set aside for cc #2 (not paid til later in month)
$200 set aside for mortgage
$240 for groceries
$30 gas for car
$57 gas bill
$7 cigarettes (not mine, hubby's)
$45 chiropractor visit
$40 lawn mowing
$100 Miscellaneous
TOTAL $1069.00

2) $00 to regular savings
$100 to house savings
$100 to car savings
$150 set aside for cc #2 (not paid til later in month)
$200 set aside for mortgage
$240 for groceries
$30 gas for car
$152 electric bill
$40 lawn mowing
$37 trash bill (billed bi-monthly)
$7 cigarettes
$45 chiropractor visit
$40 lawn mowing
$100 Miscellaneous
TOTAL $1241.00


3) $00 to regular savings
$100 to house savings
$100 to car savings
$150 set aside for cc #2 (not paid til later in month)
$200 set aside for mortgage
$240 for groceries
$30 gas for car
$50 water bill
$7 cigarettes
$40 lawn mowing
$80 internet and landline phone bill
$100 Miscellaneous
TOTAL $1097.00

Hello, everyone. I got paid on Friday. I also got official notification that I got a raise of about $1100 per year. Not spectacular, but it is definitely something. I put more money into savings. I have paid the credit card #1. Credit Card #2 does not have a payment due until next month. I bought groceries. Hubby and I have to make a day trip out of town on Wednesday. I will send more to the credit card on Wednesday.

I also took my spare change for the last couple of weeks and cashed it in. I divided it up and deposited it into the car and house savings.

My meals for the week include:

1) Oatmeal with stevia, almond milk, flaxseeds, and cinnamon. Orange. (4 meals)

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

3) Goulash. Side of steamed veggies. (3 meals)

4) Chuck patties. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

5) Green salad with chicken pieces and greek dressing. (1 meal) This is a dinner meal for me and dh.

6) Green sald with garbanzo beans or canned chicken. Added tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers. Vinegar and oil for dressing. (3 meals - lunches)

7) Baked breast of chicken. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

8) Chili with beans. (2 meals)

9) Egg salad with crackers and veggie pieces. (2 meals)

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

The hubster and I recently applied for a lower rate credit card. We will transfer our balance from the old card to the new one. The rate of the new card is 5% lower than the old one and has no annual fee. It does not have any rewards, but we don't care. We want to keep the old one open and charge one thing to it per month and pay it off every month. Our goal is to get the credit card paid off and keep it paid off every month in order to improve our credit overall. We hope to be able to refinance our house in a few years, so good credit will be very important there.

I spent $128.00 on groceries that include food, paper goods, and other household supplies. We will be eating a lot of leftovers this week, so this is a use-it-up week! Here are our meals for the week:

1) Squash Soup - 3 meals

2) Spaghetti served over brown rice - 2 meals

3) Baked Chicken Breasts. Side of steamed veggies. - 2 meals

4) Leftover Lentil Soup. - 2 meals

5) Leftover Jalfrezi. - 1 meal

6) Leftover Chicken Bean Casserole. - 1 meal

7) Oatmeal. Side of ham. Orange Juice. - 4 meals

8) Eggs. Side of ham. Orange Juice. - 3 meals

9) Leftover Hamburger Patty. Side of veggies. - 1 meal

10) Leftover Meatloaf. Side of steamed veggies. - 1 meal

11) Tuna Salad with mayo, sea salt, and pepper. Chopped up cucumber and tomato. Carrot Sticks. Side of raw fruit. - 2 meals

Well, I got paid again today. My regular savings account is up again. Yeah. My car savings is up, too. I will use it to replace my car when needed. My house account is way down. I took money out to have some work done on the house. That will probably happen next week. I don't think I will check the retirement account, as I don't like to check it more than once a quarter, or I get a little freaked out.

I will probably do the grocery shopping tonight and post about my planned meals and such later. I will post about the credit card later, too.

I am so excited that my regular savings account is up so high. My goal is to get $12,000 in order to call it my 6-month savings for emergencies and other stuff.

Woo-hoo! I went shopping tonight and spent $115.00, which is $5.00 under my grocery spending limit for a week. I still have to buy some cage free eggs tomorrow and that will eat up the other $5.00.

Part of my shopping list was accounting for all the leftovers we have that we can eat. Great. I love leftovers as long as it is not the same thing day after day. Here are my meals for the week.

1) Leftover lentil soup. Side of raw fruit. Homemade iced tea.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lentil-soup/detail.aspx?event8=... - 2 meals

2) Leftover Moroccan Bean Stew. http://www.forksoverknives.com/moroccan-bean-stew-with-sweet... - 1 meal

3) Tuna salad with chopped tomatoes, onion, bean sprouts, green pepper, sea salt, and black pepper. Side of raw fruit. Homemade iced tea. No real recipe here. I just love tuna and raw veggies. - 2 meals

4) Eggs with parsley, onion, cilantro. Side of oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, flaxseeds, and almond milk. Orange juice. - 3 meals.

5) Oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, flaxseeds, and almond milk. Side of ham or chicken. Orange juice. - 4 meals

6) Spaghetti with brown rice. - 2 meals

7) Meatloaf. Side of veggies. - 2 meals

8) Chicken and garbanzo bean jalfrezzi. Side of veggies. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-jalfrezi/detail.aspx - 2 meals

9) Chicken and Black Bean Casserole. Side of veggies. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-and-black-bean-casserol... - 2 meals

I wound up spending $124.00 for groceries today. That's far better than the approximately $177.00 I was doing before! I am doing the snoopy dance.

I have also figured out a way to decrease the amount of bad (and costly) snack food I have been frequently eating. Instead of going to a convenience store to get a package of trail mix (typically $1.00 to $1.99, depending on the kind), I bought a big bag of trail mix at the store. The bad thing about these convenience store trips is that I also feel tempted to get a soda instead of iced tea or bottled water. If I knock out the snack food as a problem, I have no excuse than to drink my own iced tea and eat trail mix I bought at the grocery store. I figure I can save at least $10.00 a week. I will send an extra payment to the credit card with this money. Yeah.

Well not quite. Payday is not until tomorrow, but I did make it without any catastropes. I already have a detailed shopping list made out noting what I do need, as well as what I don't need.

I added a little extra to my regular savings, thinking that even at just under $1000, it is way too skinny. I also added to the house and car savings accounts. My retirement has gone up a little since last month.

As I said, I have already made my shopping list complete with notes about coupons and what is on sale. I am trying to significantly lower my overall grocery (people food and household supplies) bill. Here are the meals I am planning, although it might change a little after I go to the store and farmer's market.

1) Leftover Lentil Soup. Side of apple or orange. Trail mix. Iced tea. (4 meals)

2) Baked Chicken Leftover. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

3) Meatloaf. Side of steamed veggies. (2 meals)

4) Spaghetti over rice. Side of steamed veggies. (2 meals)

5) Moraccan Bean Stew with Sweet Potatoes -

http://www.forksoverknives.com/moroccan-bean-stew-with-sweet... - I changed this from roast because I am just so tired of eating meat all the time - meat, meat, meat. Ugh. I saw this documentary called Forks over Knives on netflix instant viewing. The documentary was great, so then, I got the book on interlibrary loan and it's even better than the movie. The website has a lot of cool information, including this recipe, which is both amazingly healthy and it tastes great, too! Even my dh, who doesn't really like veggies, raved about how great is smelled. Let's see how he likes it. (We're eating the first serving at dinner right now.) - I am estimating 3 meals on this one. It depends on how much dh likes it.

6) Scrambled eggs with onions and parsley. Side of 1 piece of ham. Orange juice. Oatmeal with honey, flaxseeds, cinnamon, and almond milk. (3 meals)

7) Oatmeal with honey, flaxseeds, cinnamon, and almond milk. Side of 3 pieces of ham. Orange juice.

8) Baked chicken. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

9) Hamburger Patty. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

That's all for now. See ya, financially savvy friends and neighbors!!

Frugal Artisan has inspired me to challenge myself to cut my grocery bill by $100. I just added up what I spent for groceries last month and it came to $709! Shocking considering I am not feeding a foreign country or something. Just me, the hubby, and 2 furbabies. So, I am now off to make my much more sensible shopping list.

I got paid yesterday, so more went to savings and retirement. I have already paid the water bill, trash bill, and bought gas for the car. I still have to make a payment to the credit card. I have already bought groceries and will begin my weekly cooking spree tomorrow morning.

I will have all-day meetings on Monday and Tuesday and the entire afternoon on Wednesday. Ugh. No fun.

The other cool thing is that I finally got my garden going. I had to work really hard to get the holes dug, Zoom fertilizer put in, and water and compost put in with the plants in. It was starting to pour rain when I had only 2 out of the 4 plants in the ground. They look great and the guy at the farm store swears by the Zoom stuff for making tomato plants produce lots of tomatoes. My goal is to become less dependent on the grocery store so that I can spend more money on getting out of debt, saving for retirement, and fixing up my house. Plus, I will be able to eat vegetables I grew myself that are not polluted with chemicals, so yea!! The weird thing about my garden is that I had a couple of four-legged visitors to my garden (dogs). I just hope they don't dig up the plants!

Hubby is leaving on a 2 day trip tomorrow at about 12:00 just after lunch. He should be back by the early evening on Monday.

Like I said, I have already done the shopping for food and such. After planting those tomatoes today, I was beat and could not manage to do any more cooking but make meatloaf. So, I will start tomorrow with making lentil soup. I will also making some tuna/egg salad for the hubby to eat as a sandwich before heading out on his trip. I will also make some spaghetti sauce and put together salads for my lunches. Here are my meals for the week:

1) Spinach salad with tomato, onion, and tuna or chicken. 3 meals

2) Lentil soup with ham, onion, seasonings, and broth. 4 meals

3) Leftover chicken noodle soup. 1 meal

4) Chicken breast and steamed veggies. 1 meal

5) Hamburger patty and steamed veggies. 2 meals

6) Oatmeal with banana, almond milk, honey, cinnamon, and flaxseed. Side of ham. Juice. 3 meals

7) Eggs and ham or chicken, grapefruit with honey. Side of ham. 4 meals

8) Meatloaf and steamed veggies. 2 meals

My hubby had previously stated he wanted to come with me on the conference trip, so I had budgeted for that (food for 2 people, etc.). But now, he has decided he doesn't want to. Yeah for me! Because I can eat where I want and what I want. Translation here: somewhere much less expensive. He always wants to eat at somewhere kind of like an Applebee's, which can be expensive. So, the cost of food will be at least 1/2 of what I budgeted for. So, whatever funds are leftover out of the budget I plan on sending directly to the credit card with no stops in between. I have a $20 gift card for Darden Restaurants, the company the owns restaurants like Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc., but I would really rather just go to a local grocery store and buy a salad off the salad bar. So, I figure I can get my first evening meal there for about $15.00. No problem. The hotel I am staying at has breakfast for free. I am also taking along some of my own food to compensate for food allergies and just because it's cheaper to buy them at a grocery store than most other places. So, I will have a small bag with 4 bottles of iced green tea, 4 packages of snack nuts, my travel mug, and gluten free oatmeal. My second meal will be a work meeting with a company my work deals with and should be no more than $10 or $15. The gas will probably be $50 to $75 and the car rental $140. My conference registration is already paid for. As much as I hate, no matter what I spend, I will only get back $122.00. Ugh. But I will also funnel that directly to the credit card.

Hello, everyone. I just got paid on Friday. I have already paid the internet bill, the water bill, 4 other small bills, and went to the bank to pay the mortgage. I also paid the credit card bill, including what I had charged on it plus extra to get it paid down. I bought groceries on Saturday. I also set aside $140 for attending a conference I will attending next month.

Because it has been so hot here lately, I have been trying to do most of the cooking on 1 day of the week to avoid heating the house up too much. So, on Friday evening, we had spaghetti, and Saturday evening and Sunday lunch we had leftover spaghetti. Early Sunday morning, I starting doing the weekly cooking. I made egg salad, Irish stew, meatloaf, and put together my lunches for the week. The egg salad is mostly for my husband, so I doubt I will be eating any of it. My meals for the week will include:

1) Tuna or salmon salad with raw veggies. Side of nuts and orange. Iced tea. 3 meals.

2) Oatmeal with raisins, almond milk, cinnamon, and honey. 3 meals.

3) Eggs with side of ham. Grapefruit. Half of a serving of oatmeal. 3 meals.

4) Peanut butter and gluten free crackers. Cucumber slices. Side of orange and nuts. Iced tea. 3 meals.

5) Irish stew. 3 meals. Here is the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grams-irish-stew/detail.aspx

6) Meatloaf and side of veggies. 2 meals.

7) Hamburger patty and side of veggies. 1 meal.