Crap! It's Christmas!

This is late I know, I haven't been worrying about the debt things to much as I have been worrying about how to pay for Christmas without adding to debt.

November recap - it was a great month in which I paid $952 towards cc debt, WHILE purchasing Christmas presents. In case you are wondering I did pay off the next smallest card, my next victim is the Kohl's card, which stands at $321 right now.

The 870 that was in our savings for our cushion is gone. I knew it wouldn't last long. My son had a dentist appointment, and he is not covered yet by insurance (starting 1/1 he is!)...$115 and we had a car inspection due.....which was $430.....OUCH! What happened to the rest? Christmas.... does it every time.

Goals for December... don't use credit card. don't use credit card. breathe. My husband worked some significant overtime at FT job last weekend, and should be working even more this coming weekend, all of course we get in the paycheck AFTER Christmas. Which is fine, I will have a good check to work with, and maybe we can knock out that Kohl's.

Wishing all my friends a safe and happy holiday season.

A Little Cushion

So for our family, November is a 3 and 5 pay month. Which means, my husband gets paid 3 times this month from his FT job, and 5 times from his PT job. He was paid today and nicely I was able to bring our EF back to $1000, and I put $870 in there for safekeeping, Christmas, Car inspection, if there is anything left, it will go to snow ball to the debt.


My goal for the end of this month is to pay off the next smallest card, the balance is a little over $200. All my bills due up to 11/11 are paid. This makes me very happy, and I hope my positive attitude can hold up this whole month!

I really need to sit down and get a budget on paper.... anyone have any suggestions on how to do make a budget?

Happy November!

How I Hate This Process...

I am frustrated. I am tired of thinking about money all the time. I don't know how much hubby's next paycheck is going to be because of all the overtime he worked this past weekend. He is also still working a few hours a week at his part time job. I need to sit down, and get organized, pay my bills for the month and figure out where we stand. How come I just don't feel like we are getting anywhere?

I am letting my worries about money consume me, I sit here with the kids and play, but in my head I am crunching numbers. After they go to bed, I sit and read other blogs about other people and their debt. Then I lay in bed for about 15 minutes and worry about the future.

I just want this to be over with.

It doesn't help that my husband had a tooth ache which ended up in $273 unexpected dental bill, $60 of it being a new patient fee, which he realized later he was not actually a new patient, did he think to ask for that to be taken off the bill? No. It was all out of pocket since he has been out of dental insurance.

Hubby's car is up for inspection in November and Christmas is in December....anyone else want my money?

Sorry for the whiny post. I just needed to get it out.

Sometimes Sweet is the Way to Be

About a week ago I recieved my quartly trash bill. Immediatly I was furious, they had tacked on a $10 late fee, and to my knowledge it was mailed out before the due date. I put in in my file, and walked away.

This morning I take the bills out to see what is due by 10/15.... and there is the trash bill. Due by 10/10. I start to write out the check including the fee....and then the annoyance came back. I looked through my paid bills, and found the stub from last quarter. No due date. No due date? So HOW could my payment have been late? Why was I being charged a late fee? I look online and the check was dated for 7/7/07, and cashed 07/10/07...so wth?

So, I pick up the phone, and call. I give my name, and say in my nicest voice that "I received my bill last week, and I am doing my bills today, and I am confused by something, could you help me?" She asks for my account number - I give it. "I am so sorry, I will waive that fee for you right away!"

I didn't even have to ask her to waive it.

I immediately called my girlfriend, and said Neener Neener, she has about $30 worth of late fees and they refuse to remove them....I had to cheer, you catch more flies with honey.

October is Going Great Already!

Insert sarcasm here.

So hubs was told that it could be 2-3 weeks till they need him at his PT job. Can we say FREAKING OUT??!!!! It doesn't help that last week they had him leave early one day, and this week he has worked a whopping 12 hours at PT job. This doesn't make for a good month.

I had to dip into ef to remove for my son's preschool tuition. It's due tomorrow, paydays are Thursdays..... it's already killing me. My thoughts are running rapid. I can't concentrate. I hope I can get some rest tonight.

How did I get here? If you can spare, please say a quick prayer that this is only a 2-3 week break.

It's Been A Whole Month

Well, since my last post it has officially been 1 month.

Why? Well, I have been disappointed in myself, and I am tough on myself, I beat myself up, and make myself feel incredibly guilty.

The month started up fine, I was proud about how much I spent on vacation, to turn around and wash my Mothers Day gift in the washing machine. My purse, with my iPod. I was crushed. So I did what any idiot would do, after a week of trying to revive it using different tips from Dr. Google, I bought a new one.

a) I KNOW that was stupid. Trying to dig out of hole, and not getting anywhere by buying expensive toys. I get that. However - my kids love my iPod, my husband does as well, it keeps me sane, and I need all the help I can get.

b) this time, I am going to insure the sucker, along with my camera and all it's parts. I enjoy photography, and it is an expensive hobby, but I hope one day, it will pay in some way.

So, it has been very hard on me since July, my husband working all night, all day, getting home around 4, eating, going to bed till 10. I knew this would be hard but it becomes trying. So you think I would be excited to hear that he will be getting a little over a week off from his part time job...... just the opposite, all I am thinking about is money......and how losing 8 days will effect us.

We aren't sure how much he will be working after that, whether it will be 12 hours or 24....we have no clue. Hopefully he will find out more this week.

I also offered to help a fellow graduate plan our 10 year high school reunion. I begrudgingly fronted $200 for deposits, as did she. I will get back $130 of that as $70 is for hub and I to attend.

She has asked me to be in charge of collecting the money, as I am at home and that scares me a little. I figure I will use one of the kids savings account to dump the checks. Any other ideas?

Good News:

a) efund - is at $1000
b) my smallest card - the children's place card - PAID OFF!

Here's to October!

Darn This Efund!

Well the good news is I did NOT dip into my efund to have to pay for shore groceries and shore spending cash, the entire week I was there, I spent under $100....so I came home with plenty of cash, and added that to efund.

So after the deposit I make tomorrow my efund will be at $900. Again, I didn't make goal of today, but I am not far off. I never, ever thought even with the extra income, that this would take this long. I am disappointed, however, we have not added to our debt at all, so I should be proud of that.

I put up some of the kids old Halloween costumes on eBay, and now thanks to Hector, I am going to check out Half.com!

I need to really make a firm budget and stick to it. I tend to be incredibly weak when hubs suggests getting take out, or ice cream. Proud though as I have lessened my trips to Walmart spending $100 on silly things, I stick to my lists and get the heck out of there.

Welcome new readers, any suggestions I am open to constructive criticism!

Goal #2.... Unattained....

While goal #1 has been attained, and sustained...my goal of having my baby emergency fund to $1000 today, sadly, isn't going to happen.

I am keeping positive by reminding myself that we haven't used the credit cards. However, I am still a little bummed. Saving $1000 is harder than I thought. I realized that my budget of $600 a month (gas, groceries, entertainment for a family of 4) that I had just was not reasonable (hence debt...) so I made some tweaks and changes, and therefore wasn't as able to save as aggressively.

However, I was able to pay some to the cards as well (minimum payments count!). The next two weeks are going to be tough as well. I am leaving to go the beach with my family, taking the children, and hubby is staying home to work. Don't feel too bad for him, he doesn't want to go anyway!

However, each person coming is responsible for groceries. I may very well be dipping into my EF money for those, and that BITES! I really can't complain about it, my parents paid my share of the house, since they felt bad that hubby isn't coming, and he is working two jobs that right there saved me $375 that I did not have.

So I am resetting my goal of $1000 savings to August 30th. I can't wait to start combating my debt...... down debt down....good boy!

My first goal.... ATTAINED!

WOO HOO! I am so proud that my first goal was attained, the date of my last charge was 7/15... just as I promised myself. My next goal date is rapidly approaching, hubby gets paid tomorrow, and all of that check is going into the efund. I am thrilled at that thought. This whole process has me giddy and I sure hope that lasts quite sometime. Now I am off to remove my credit card #'s from online shopping sites so that I use my debit card instead!

Lady in Waiting

Why on earth does this feel like it will take forever to start!! I want to get started right away! Hubby and I have decided that we aren't going to sell any possesions at this time, we have to have 2 cars, and since we aren't sure if we are done in the child department we are reluctant to sell any baby things that we would then have to repurchase.... seems silly to us.

Goal #1 discontinue all use of CC's by July 15th.

This is because of the kids birthday party, which is the 15th.

Goal #2 $1000 emergency fund by August 2nd.

Welcome to July....

The month where I will establish an emergency fund, and tighten the tourniquet to stop the bleeding... since I started this blog I admitted we would not be able to stop using the credit cards right away, however I am pleased to say that in a week, gas and groceries, we only used a little over $100. It feels good.

So Happy 4th, so far so good my husband started his part time job on Monday, and it's going OK. Unfortunately, today being his day off, he got the stomach bug I had earlier in the week, luckily he doesn't need to be at work will 7 am tomorrow, so he has time to recoup.

I am thrilled to already have a reader! Thank You so much for your kinds words, and I hope you keep visiting me!!!!

Why Do Friends Thoughts Bother Me?

I knew this would happen, I have started mentioning that my husband took on a part time job, and the first thing I hear is "When will he sleep?" Trust me, it's a concern of mine, I am not heartless.

Either way, if I took on work he'd have to be awake with the kids, because daycare....that would defeat our purpose. Hubby thinks the kids would rather be home with me, and he would rather work because he could make more..(which he proved.)

I have to stop caring what other people think, they may not know our full disclosure of how much debt we have, but it's not their business either. Our thought is we got into this together, we get out of it together, he is not the only one making sacrifices here. We do what we have to do.

On other notes, last night I tried to work out a budget, and I am praying we can make this work and stick to it.

Hit the Floor

I am Debt Mom, I am a stay at home mother of 2 wonderful children, boy (4) and girl (2). I have a loving husband who works full time, and starting Monday July 2, he will also be working part time, to get us out of this situation we call Debt.

His full time income is just starting to not be enough to cover bills, we are never late on payments, however we charge more than we pay, we don't have a budget, we do what we want, when we want. It stops now, I refuse to wait till I have creditors knocking on my door.

I am tired of going to bed with a stomach ache. I started this blog to give me an outlet because our families do not know, and we don't want them to know, our financial situation. Most of our friends do not know, but there are a select few that know a little bit.

I offered to get a part time job, so please don't think I am totally selfish! However his opinion was that kids like me better, and he could make more money. Sad to say he was correct on both accounts.

I ordered this book by Dave Ramsey, as well as the workbook (hey, whats another $28....we have 0 cash coming in for 2 weeks!) I want to prep myself and start working a budget worksheet to use with the next pay.

So bear with me, I can't stop the bleeding yet, as we have no means till July 11th. So my debt will increase, but we are trying to keep it at a minimum. My children's celebrate their birthdays very closely, and I know we will have to charge some if not all of their party expenses....ugh.

Our debts from smallest to largest....

Childrens Place Card - $96.56
Universal Savings Bank - $227.18
Kohls - $569.87
Chase - $12,051.98
MBNA - $14,847.22

Grand Total: $27,565.68

Holy Hell. How did we get here? Oh wait, we were here last year too.....but we consolidated that into a Home Equity loan (which for the moment, I am NOT concentrating on, I need to reign in on the credit cards first, and then worry about the non-revolving debt. However, since I know you are so interested we have a total debt of $72,053.68) Hello....wake up.....your children do not need closets full of clothes, and definitely not toys......

I have a slight addiction to toys, and especially stuffed ones, from Build A Bear. My children are well provided for, and want for nothing, even though Mommy should have taught them otherwise......I am sitting here in shock, that I just announced to all the readers that I am nearing $73,000 in debt.....I want to vomit.

So I have a feeling this will be a long journey, and a hard one, we will more than likely have some pits in the road here and there, join me, and bring me a cup of coffee.....cause I can't afford one! HA!