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Archive for May, 2008

Just a plain ol' Saturday

June 1st, 2008 at 01:23 am

It's just been a lazy day here at the house today. We've watched movies, played outside, and even got a nap in. It's been a no spend day. Well actually, I used some of my Amex points today. You know I haven't been using it but I still had like 35k points from prior. I'd been hoping I could get a plane ticket somewhere but I had no idea how many points those require....you'd have to buy a house with your Amex just for 1 person to fly somewhere. So I'm just going to use them up for a lot of smaller ticketed items. Today I used some of them for a blower. The driveway and walkway just looks a fright since cutting the grass the other day. It was nothing out of pocket so I guess it's ok to say it was a no spend day.

I'd checked out the Aldi's up in SC the other weekend (we were seeing the in-laws)....it seemed neat but I know different areas price differently so I'm going tomorrow to check out the Aldi's close to here. Hopefully they'll be just as discounted. The closer to Atlanta you get the more expensive stuff gets. This Aldi (the closest) is halfway between me and Atlanta so we'll see.

There hasn't really been a lot to report here but I felt like I needed to post something to keep from falling off the boat.

Dabble In Stocks

May 20th, 2008 at 06:48 pm

So I opened up a Sharebuilder IRA account. I already have an IRA with ING but I figured it would be kind of fun and educational to trade stocks. I used the portfolio advice tool to see what to make my first investment in. So I invested $50 into SPY. I know it was down today but hopefully the market will get over the increase in gas and go back up again. I'm sure it will though...it usually does. The site seems very user friendly and I really like the 'education' tab. Anyways, any advice on this whole trading thing would be greatly appreciated.

I just bought gas

May 17th, 2008 at 04:02 pm

My 2 yr old woke up super early this morning and would not go back to sleep. I live in a small town and when it comes to grocery shopping we only have 2 grocery stores and a Walmart. So it's in my better interest to go shopping early...which is what I did this morning. I went to Dollar General and Ingles. Dollar General had their brand Cream of Mushroom soup 2 for $1 so I stocked up on that. I also needed to get a broom since somehow I found my broom broken last night. I think the blame is going to go back on my son. Anyways, I also went to Ingles to get some chicken and bananas. Our Ingles has a gas station so I was just going to fill up there. To my surprise they now have the scanners to scan your Plus card. So I scanned it and ended up getting .10 off a gallon. So I ended up paying 3.62. It was a pleasant surprise if you want to call it that.

Sometimes It Can Be Discouraging

May 16th, 2008 at 05:37 pm

So my last post was about us finally being able to pay off one of my cards. I was totally stoked about that and I guess I still should be...but I've been in a dilly. See last year I had to have some emergency surgery. I didn't have any insurance so my bill ended up being somewhere around $6000. Well after some self pay discounts I got it down to around $4000 something. Ever since, I've been paying $10. It hadn't really been a top priority of mine since it wasn't gaining interest. Well the billing company called me yesterday to tell me they would be transfering their old accounts to a new billing company and if I could come up with 50% before the end of the month we could just settle it and be even. Well, my first thought was "If I could give you that much money, do you think this account would be an issue right now?" I told her I'd call her back and she said ok, but I have until the end of the month. I posted a forum post asking for help with this. I was just concerned that if it went to another billing company, they wouldn't let me keep my payment plan. I think I've come to the conclusion that debt is debt (no matter if it's owed to a company or if it's a credit card) and if you can come out less that's what you should do. So, I figured I'd probably take this debt and put it back on that c.c I paid and use my second job checks to agressively pay it down, no longer than 6 months. Even with interest it'd still be less than the $4000 something. *Sigh* It's just kind of discouraging....once I get the sucker paid off I have to put this back on it...although I guess I have to look at it as another debt I'll have taken care of in no longer than 6 months.

I Am So Excited

May 13th, 2008 at 04:00 pm

After getting checks from the various 'get paid to' sites I use (see left), my second job, and some ebay sales....we're able to totally pay off one of our credit cards. Woo! I just hope we can keep it up!!

The Second Job

May 8th, 2008 at 04:03 pm

I haven't really had anything to post so I figured I'd post about this second job. All my life I swore I would never work 2 jobs....I was always better than that. Now I am and it's not insulting. It's nothing big... it's just a part time job at Macy's which is 3 hours maybe 3 days a week. Right now as I'm still trying to get use to it, it is a drain. I work 8:30-5:30 at my regular job and then 6-9:15 afterwards. I really hate being away from my 2 year old but at the same time, I know he's not going to be any better with his family being overcome with debt. I'm just hoping this little bit at a time will help put a huge dent in these credit cards.

So I'm back

May 3rd, 2008 at 12:24 am

Yeah. I figured out I can't do it on my own. I have tried and failed. I'm going to take it in stride though. We learn from our failures right? I just fell off the boat. We started cutting back then I saw what extra we had then started using it and the rest is history

On a positive note, I come back to the blog married. We got married April 12th. I'm so glad that's behind us now. Actually our honeymoon was to Hilton Head. It was a 4 day 3 night trip for $100 my dad had purchased. He gave it to us and all we had to do was sit through an 1hr 1/2 timeshare presentation (said no btw). It wasn't really what I wanted to be doing on my honeymoon but hey it made our vacation free to us. Plus they gave us $100 in gift certificates to use for our meals. I guess that was the real frugal thing that got us back on track.

Once we got back I took on a 2nd job at Macy's. I'm a contingent employee so I may get 15 hrs at most during the week. I figured that would be ok. It wouldn't take away time from my full time job, school or, my son plus it's extra money. So far so good I guess.

I'm trying to get us back on track. I'm really going to try to be diligent in this. I was happy to come back to see all of y'all posting great advice. Keep it coming cause Lord knows I need it.