Still Spinning My Wheels

WOW. It's been over a year since I've posted anything. So far we haven't made all that much progress on the debt repayment thing. Today is a new day and I'm starting fresh with a garage sale. I was dissappointed when I cleaned out my garage to discover that most of what was in there was, in fact, trash. Oh well. Hopefully today I can make $50 or so and I can put that into savings. That is the first "baby step" I have been working on: putting money in savings and not touching it. I'm finding that rather than saving large amounts or trying to meet some lofty goal, if I just save $200 a month and place it in two different accounts it's not missed. The second thing (no using credit cards) has been more of a challenge. We find that it's too easy to just use them and forget how much we've spent. The new rule: until it's paid off no more using the lovely Fred Meyer Card. Then only use it for groceries and gas and pay it off every two weeks like I meant to.

The game plan for this month is:

Pay $800 toward Fred Meyer Card
Pay off outstanding medical bills (give or take $100)
STICK TO BUDGET!!!
Blog progress at least once a week.

On a sadder note we did end up putting Jasmine down. She was a wonderful dog and is greatly missed. I can't end a post with a sad ending though. I am now the proud godmom to an adorable little boy named Alex. I have been babysitting him full time over the past 9 months while his mom has been stationed in an "undisclosed" foreign location. She comes home next Wed and I can't WAIT!

So that's the short version update. More to come soon!

Here we go!

It's been quite some time since I even thought of posting on my blog. This was mostly because I had no real purpose for doing it-now I do. For the past 6 years or so I have been spinning my wheels in my attempts to dig us out of the pit of debt we've dug ourselves into. I have read LOTS of books and blogs, created budgets, and made excuses as to why we never seem to stick to the budgets I create. The only piece that seems to be missing is accountability. My husband trusts me implicitly with our finances and allows me to manage all of our accounts. We have no problem making the minimum payments plus a little extra on the debts we carry. We make a good living and live very comfortably. My new priority is to get all the debt clutter cleared out of our lives so that we can begin to do some of the things that JP and I have always dreamed of doing. I want to travel to places like Australia and Japan. I want to take my boys to Disneyland. I want to be able to pay cash for our next car. First the debt must go. In the midst of that I have to plan for home maintainance (this summer's big project is to get the house painted) and special events like birthdays and holidays. This month we have to come up with the money to have Jasmine euthanized. She does indeed have cancer and will not be with us for much longer. She has lived with lymphoma for the past 9 months in relative comfort but is running out of time.

My financial goals by the end of this month:

Stick to budget
Have $2200 in savings
Set aside money for Jasmine's vet bills ($260)

There. It's written in black and white for all to see. Stay tuned to find out if I succeed.

So much going on....

I have been putting everything off lately including blogging. The whole pregnancy thing just sucks the energy right out of me. I kept thinking last week that I need to get the ornaments on the tree and do my shopping, but I have plenty of time yet! Then I realized this morning that Christmas is NEXT WEEK!! Time to get crackin. At least I'm not still working 80 hours a week or going to college so this should be a cinch right? We'll see.

On a sad note, we think our 11 year old dog may have cancer. J.P. is giving her lots of extra attention and letting her sleep on the bed. We are taking her in for tests in a week or so, but if it's what we think it is we won't be putting her through surgeries or chemo. She wouldn't understand why and she wouldn't be safe to have around the kids. When she doesn't feel good she gets grumpy. We don't want an 80 lb dog nipping the kids because they are bugging her. Hopefully we're wrong.

We did have one really wonderful piece of news this past week...our youngest son Eli no longer has bladder reflux. He has been on antibiotics since he was 3 months old to combat chronic UTI's caused because the plumbing runs a little backwards. Everyone has been praying that this would resolve itself and his latest lab tests showed that it did!! I was so happy (and greatful) I almost cried when they told me!

I love the holidays but this year I'm looking forward to the calm after all the hustle and bustle. I have enough on my plate with family, work, and pregnacy!

- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.


- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.


- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.

Traffic Jams

One thing that has always rubbed me the wrong way is drivers who completely disregard notices about closed lanes on freeways. The resulting bottleneck is both irritating and unnecessary. Traffic would flow so much better if everyone would just merge at the earliest opportunity instead of trying to bypass everyone who is paying attention to the courtesy signs provided. It boils down to the fact that no one's time is more valuable than another's. Politeness is the casualty of traffic jams.

- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.

Mind Blowing

Technology today blows my mind. It shouldn't-I'm not that old. I do remember a time without internet, cellphones, and realistically usefull laptops-not to mention my favorite new toy, PDA cellphones! Maybe I AM that old, but I prefer to think of myself as just easily amused. I am posting this blog using my PDA cellphone. I never could have conceived of that function on a phone even five years ago. This is just plain cool!

- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.

Third time's a charm???

So this is my third attempt at starting a blog. I had one for awhile, but was unable to access it from work. Blogging from home is impossible with two kiddos running around, so I cancelled my account-no point in paying for what I'm not using. My solution (implying there was a problem with no blog...)moblogging using a free blog site. If I can't successfully blog using my cell phone then I'm going to bag it for now!