Well, let's see. What's been going on in my life the last few days...

It's been 1 week, 6 days, 1 hour, 41 seconds since we smoked and we've saved $164.74. Yippeee!

We had our third FPU session and it was a good one. We went over the quickie budget, cash flow sheet, and the other forms Dave recommends. Since we have most of them completed already that class was more of a review than anything but it was great nonetheless. Even the things that are review for us help keep us motivated and the discussions that ensue between DH and I bring us closer and remind us that we're working together for a common goal. That's always a nice thing.

Oh, and I'm now a certified barista where I work. I needed a few days of actually making the drinks to get it all very firmly planted in my mind but I got those days and feel much more competent now. So yep, I'm officially certifiable...uhhhh, certified!

That's about it for the last few days. It's been quiet and we haven't spent a lot of money though we did have to make an unplanned trip to Louisiana yesterday. Fortunately, we had enough money for it so it didn't cause any financial stress. I'm off today and go back to work tomorrow so I'm cooking some things today to feed us the rest of the week.

We started on February 1st using Dave Ramsey's envelope system for our personal expenses of food, gas, clothing/laundry, and entertainment expenses. And so far we're doing very well. We'd budgeted $86 for food for 14 days and we're at $108.22 only 8 days into the month. Interestingly enough, that's about the amount we haven't spent by not smoking, which right now is $108.19. Ha!

We've definitely spent more than we'd budgeted. However, we still have $24 in the food envelope. The difference between the $108.22 and the amount we've spent from the envelope, $46 and some change, came from a combination of our personal spending money and entertainment money. A little over $24 of that was actually for nicotine patches rather than food so it isn't quite so bad as it looks. But I include it all in food here because I'm lazy. For you purists, I have it all properly broken down in my spreadsheet, though.

This month we're trying to spend as little as we can for most things. We're hot and heavy on the trail of an increased emergency fund and paying the bills! In light of that, we're using quite a bit of food from our pantry and eating meals like slow cooked beans, rice with a little chicken gravy and tossed salad, homemade taquitos, chili, etc. We have a beef roast, some ground beef, and several big hens in the freezer but I'm cooking with less meat for health and wealth. So rice, beans, small amounts of meat and lots of vegetables are the way to go this month!

So here's what we've spent so far:

Business rent, utilities, advertising, etc., $1000

Food, $108.22 This includes spending for groceries, eating out, snacks and drinks at work, and cat food

Gas, $49 (budgeted $86 for two weeks - will be re-funded on the 15th)

$100 for Financial Peace University

$35 to oldest stepson (we'll more than likely do this every week or couple of weeks for awhile so I might create a new envelope for it)

$60 supplies for office (not something we buy monthly - we usually don't spend even $5 on office supplies in a month)

$15 personal (budgeted $20 each for two weeks - will be re-funded on the 15th)

$7 laundry and $11 for a work shirt for me (budgeted $21 for two weeks - will be re-funded on the 15th and will have to increase that amount a little I think though I don't buy any kind of clothing every month much less every two weeks)

So far, so good. We have bills due again starting in a few days but we have most of the money for those and will have the rest by their due date, I think.

All in all, Financial Peace University and the envelope system are really helping us. And it's great to know the bills are paid..or almost paid!

They need a little tweaking, the budget and envelope system do. They'll work, I'm sure, but I set up this month with three pay periods rather than two. I didn't stop to think that the third pay period is on the last day of the month and by counting it in this month and dividing the monthly amount to go in the envelopes by three I was cutting it way too thin for two week periods. Does that make sense? I hope so! Anyway, after discussing it with DH I adjusted the envelope amounts to reflect a two pay period month. It should work better now, I think, but the budget and envelope system both will need a little more tweaking here and there to get them just right.

Also, it was asked in a reply to my previous entry if DH and I get allowance. We haven't done that in the past but maybe we need to. DH just keeps a little of what comes into the shop for himself and if I need money for something I ask him for it. I haven't the foggiest how much allowance we should get, though. Considering that we have a fairly low income, substantial debt, and are just getting into the concept of saving, what's a reasonable figure for weekly allowance per adult?

Okay, I have to head to work in just a bit. Not that I'm eager to do so but it helps pay the bills.

Wooohooo! That's how long its been since I've smoked! DH has cheated a little but all in all he's doing beautifully.

We've not smoked 155 cigarettes and we've saved.. drum roll, please.....

$30.07!

::and the crowd goes wild!::

That's our spending for yesterday and today. That includes $10.59 for food at Wal-Mart, $2.24 for a hot dog and drink for me at work, $1 for coffee for me at work, gas in our truck, and $35 for my oldest stepson. The hot dog and drinks for me at work should come out of the food money since that $87 is for groceries and eating out so I removed $3.25 from the food envelope and slipped it into the savings envelope. I'm not sure if I should have just kept it for myself since I used my money to buy the things at work but I decided to just put that money in savings. That seemed fair to me.

$66.07 seems like a lot of spending for two days but we didn't spend $28.71 on cigarettes in the last two days and that's a very good thing.

DH confessed that he found a couple of butts and has smoked them but he's an adult and I can't prevent that. As for me, I haven't had a smoke or even touched a cigarette since we quit the morning of January 31. I know myself. I can't smoke one, not even one little drag, or I'll be off and running again.

My patch came off at work last night and I haven't replaced it. I'm fine without it. Oh yeah, now and then I think about smoking but it's when I have nothing to do, which isn't often. And even when I think about it it's a fleeting thought. For some reason I don't experience the physical agony and such that so many people do. But that doesn't change the fact that I love to smoke and am addicted. Or that I have to avoid only one cigarette...the next one.

I so very much wanted to go out to eat tonight. Instead, I grabbed a container of store bought barbecued shredded beef from the freezer and nuked it and we had bbq sandwiches. I'd also put some wings in the slow cooker this morning and DH had drained them a few times for me. When I got home from work I drained them again and covered them with Country Bob's Sauce, let them cook about an hour more and we had those with the sandwiches. Not as tasty as mexican food would have been but certainly much cheaper!

And now I want a cigarette. Oh yes, I do want one. I won't have one but I want one!

It's hard to describe what the last three days have been like for me. I've been in the depths of despair and have been almost elated, also. Why? Well, let me tell you!(Glad you asked!) And no, we didn't win the lottery!

About three weeks ago or so (after we last paid bills) we set aside envelopes to put cash from the business in to pay expenses. We realized that if the money is in our pockets it gets spent. So we wrote things like Rent, Electric, Advertising, and Materials and Supplies on regular envelopes and every night, after the shop closes, we sit down together and go through the sales for the day and put it in the envelopes. Business is slow (apparently in this field it drops off somewhere around Christmas and stays slow until early to mid February) so there have been days when we only had $25 to put in envelopes but we'd put $5 in this one, $10 in that one, etc and keep just a little for ourselves. We do this every day we're open, 6 days a week. Keep in mind this is our first time of doing this and we had no idea if it would work.

Then recently we opened a checking account at a bank closer to the shop. My checks go into that account as have some cash and all checks written at the shop. I've managed to be very careful with that checking account and rarely write checks from it. DH has a debit card for it but I don't because I KNOW from experience that it's just too easy for me to spend money with a debit card. Long story there but for me plastic just isn't money. It's.. plastic! Instead I get a little cash from when I need it. When it's gone, it's gone.

We just started Financial Peace University (FPU) last week and got Dave's envelope system. Since we already have one going for the office expenses so we decided to use the FPU system for things like food,
clothing, laundry, gas for the truck, etc. After looking at that cash flow plan a couple of days ago I didn't see how we could possibly do this and was so upset! And I'm still not sure how we're going to do it. But yesterday I realized that all this is just part of getting control of the finances and rather than panic and worry I need to stay calm, learn from this, and USE it to help us.

So last night I realized we needed to get the phone bill paid immediately or we'd incur a late charge. Now mind you, in the past even if I had the money to pay on time, I rarely did. I just didn't think about it and we constantly were late on bill payments and paid those late fees.
But last night I did think about it so I called the phone company and paid the bill over the phone with an e check, making sure I noted that in the checkbook. We had the money in the checking account so there
was no danger in me doing that. Plus we had the money for that bill in the Phone envelope set up recently.

So, this morning I picked up my paycheck and went to the bank. I took the FPU envelope system with me. It's very small, looks much like a wallet and fits in a purse easily. I knew the amount of cash I needed to get for the next two weeks and knew how much for two of the four categories I needed. I couldn't remember the other two amounts but knew the total amount to get. So I get to the bank and rather than go through the drive through I walked in. Why? Well, there were a couple of reasons but one was something that just dawned on me this morning. When I use an ATM or drive through it's just too easy. It's too easy to get cash from the ATM or a drive through teller without THINKING about it. For me, it's similar to using plastic. So I decided to go in to the lobby because that makes me THINK about money. Ehh, it's hard not to think about it with all the money related stuff staring at me. Also, I needed the cash broken down into certain bills and it was going to take a little while and it's cold outside and there's no need to hold up other customers while I piddle with money. So I went to the teller, gave her the deposit slip and check with the 'less cash received' part filled out and said, "I need this cash in a certain way." No problem.

I got $87 for food for two weeks, $87 for gas for the truck for two weeks, $25 for entertainment for two weeks (not that we will use it but we figured that amount in on the CFP sheet so I did it) and the remainder was $51. I walked to a side counter and put $87 in the food envelope, $87 in the gas envelope, $25 in the entertainment envelope, and left the $51 remainder in the bank envelope. Then I headed to Wal-Mart because we needed bread, lunch meat, and a little fruit.

Okay yall, this is where it gets good! Why? You'll see change of thinking popping up a lot though you may see some of that already. I got to Wal-Mart and walked in with my little envelope system and my keys and my cell phone and nothing else. No checkbook, no cards, not even my purse. I walked by the deli and saw they had my favorite egg rolls at 2 packages for $5. I bought a package of orange chicken a few days ago for dinner one night this week and figured egg rolls would be great with that so I got one package. Not two, not three, just one. Then I picked up bread, lunch meat, 3 bananas and 2 apples. That's it. I didn't wander around the store, I didn't look at every thing there. Oh, I thought about it but I had $87 in that envelope to last two weeks so I knew I couldn't fritter it away. I got what we needed and went to the self check out stand where I rang it all up and paid cash - $10.59. I paid for it, put the bills and change I got back back into the food envelope, wrote on the envelope what I'd paid and the new balance, and got out of there.

I got back to the office and told DH how much my check was and such. I balanced the checkbook, told him what's in it (a little more than we usually have, even on my payday!) and started showing him the envelopes with the money. He had the office envelopes in his hand and we started going through those while we talked. He said something about being a little short on the rent money which is due today then commented that we had enough in the bank to cover it. At about that time he handed me the phone bill envelope and told me to go ahead and deposit that and send the payment. I said okay then it hit me. I paid that last night out of the checking account! I told him and he told me to just deposit it then. But he'd just said the rent money was short so I asked what he needed for that. He counted and told me. I opened the phone envelope and handed him the money and said "There, done."

I know, this is simple stuff to some of you but this is a light bulb moment for me! He took the money, grinning, added it up, saw that it was enough and called the landlord and told him to come get his money when he was ready. After giving him that money I had $25 left of the phone money. We slipped that into the electric bill envelope which is still short but we have until the 12th to pay it.

Okay, so the phone was paid last night, the rent was paid today, the electric bill envelope has about 1/4 of what it needs with about 11 days to go, and we have plenty of food because we believe in stocking up when prices are really good.

Realizing the bank account was in the positive(not a lot of money there but a little), he went ahead and ordered something he needs for advertising purposes. The cost was only about $38 or so but he did it over the phone. Afterwards, he realized that he had $30 of that $38 in the advertising envelope so he got that out and moved it to the savings envelope. Yeehaw, another $30 in there!

At this point, yall are probably thinking "Big deal, they're just shuffling money around!" and that's true, we are. But this is our first time doing this and it takes awhile to tweak it so that its just right. For awhile, it will go on like this and that's okay. The point of all this, though, is that we're beginning to see the light about how we spend and we're beginning to be able to pay things when they need to be paid, and still have a little left. And more than that, we actually have money to shuffle!! I can't tell yall what this feels like to me!

The main reason we can do this is the Cash Flow Plan and the Allocated Spending Sheet. They're helping us prioritize what needs to be paid. A lot of people can do this without help but we need help and FPU is giving it to us.

No, it won't be easy and it's going to be very rough at times. We have a lot of old debt to deal with and at some point we will. But we have to take care of the four walls and the business and that's happening, slowly but surely. And my next check will be very small since I am only working a few hours this week. But most of the bills will be paid and we'll have food. And life will rock on, even if it rocks a little slowly.

I hope all this makes sense to yall. I'm just so excited I had to tell somebody! I think I see light at the end of the tunnel.

Tonight was the first session of Financial Peace University. It was great! We met some seemingly very nice people, some of whom seem to be very deep in debt, and at least one couple that is debt free except for their house, thanks to what they've learned from Dave Ramsey.

I've never really watched Dave but have listened to his radio show quite a bit. He's absolutely hilarious to watch and really does a great 'show'. Learning is an added bonus.

The kit is nice. In it is the book, Financial Peace Revisited, the Financial Peace Course Workbook, Dave's envelope system, and each course session on CD along with several bonus CDs.

The first session is basically information on Baby Steps 1 and 3, both of which deal with the Emergency Fund. Dave explains why its so important to have an emergency fund and gives some very convincing scenarios of how the EF can save your buns! I have to say that although DH was already on board with the EF concept, he wasn't really focused on it. Well, he is now!

I didn't get the savings account opened today but he said we'll have the money to get that opened this week and building that EF is a real priority for him now. Yaaaaay! It will be so much easier to stay on track if we're working toward the same goal.

On the way back from the session we talked about what constitutes an emergency and came to an agreement about that and how we'll prepare for it. We also talked about our eating out habits. We eat out a lot less than we used to and although we agreed to eat out once a week, he still likes to go to Chik-Fil-A for a particular breakfast sandwich and he likes to go get chicken wings. I don't begrudge him those things at all but if we're going to get 'gazelle intense' to use Dave's phrase we're going to have to put an end to that. So our compromise is that we'll eat out once a week only (my goal is once a month, if that) and if we get breakfast sandwiches one morning or wings for lunch that's our one meal out for the week.

So all in all, I think the first session was great and I think FPU is going to help us get on track..both of us!

This morning I paid the electric bill of $64.19 for the little house I still rent. The bill would have and should have been much lower but the neighbor who checked on the house and Bob the Cat for me recently was worried that Bob would get too cold so she kept the heater running most of the time. Now that the cat isn't there, there's no need to run the heater so the next bill should be somewhere around $20, give or take.

Since I'm off today I plan to go the laundrymat and to the bank to open the savings account. It figures that I'd open one when the interest rates are so low but I need to get the money out of my immediate reach and that's certainly one way to do it. Opening a savings account is one of my main goals for this month and the month is almost over so I need to get on the ball and just do it.

Tonight is the first night of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class we're attending and I look forward to that. We didn't attend the orientation but since we listen to his show and have read TMMO I figure X amount of what's presented, including most of the orientation, will be review for us. I really am excited about going, though. Thanks for all the input about FPU. I believe it will be a worthy investment for us. By the way, someone asked if the cost is $100 per person or couple. The $100 is for a couple and it includes the kit and access to the paid areas of Dave's website, apparently.

I'll post updates on FPU now and then for others who might be interested in it.

Bills are due soon and we don't have enough money in the envelopes for them all. We're close on several of them and not so close on a few. Business has slowed down, which is normal for this time of year, so we just haven't brought in all the money that we need. However, things should pick up sometime between the first and middle of February and fortunately, that's close. But we have bills due before then.

We haven't used hardly any of my last paycheck so we'll more than likely use some of that to cover the shortage this week. Rats, that isn't what we want to do! But we're trying to pay bills on time and if we have to use it, so be it. And I'm thankful we have the money to use.

On the brighter side of things, my new $20 challenge total is $77.02. Yippeee! I should be at $100 very soon and once I am, that will be used to open the savings account where all future $20 challenge money goes when it hits the $100 mark. So, I feel a little better knowing that although we'll more than likely have to spend some of my pay on bills, I'll have $100 very soon to put in the bank. It softens the blow just a tad.

Okay, not really but one never knows. It could happen! In light of that, I read and collect books on alternative methods of doing things and plain and simple living. Even if the sky doesn't fall, it can't hurt to have some skills that might be handy in case errr....mmm, well, in case the sky falls! I have some of the Foxfire books but have coveted #3 for awhile.

Some months ago I added it to my wish list at Paperback Swap and recently got email saying someone had it to offer so I snagged it. Today it arrived in the mail and I've been reading it. Interesting stuff.

I mean, come on, who doesn't need to know how to tan a hide, make a banjo, churn butter, build a smokehouse, and make a broom? Those skills might come in handy should the sky ever fall. Besides, the book was free and that's a good thing and I've lately wanted to read something other than email...

We don't have any current debt right now - no house payments (lost the house in foreclosure recently) no car payments, and no credit cards. However, DH and I both have some old debt on our credit reports, totaling something near $15,000. Of course, our credit absolutely stinks. I'd like to improve it but honestly, that isn't the biggest concern in my life right now.

This summer I'll have a few thousand dollars that I could put toward those debts but I don't know the best way to handle it. The money won't be enough to pay ALL the old stuff but it's going to be enough to pay some of the debts in full. But we also need to save some of the money. Keep in mind that we only have about $1100 saved right now, DH owns a 6 month old business with a wildly varying income, and I work retail for slightly above minimum wage, with hours being cut. And soon we'll have to find another place to live.

One of the things that stumps me is that I've read that once I pay one or two of the creditors I'll be contacted by the others wanting their money, too. But I simply can't pay them all at one time, not even if they were willing to take payments.

Should I wait until I have the money then contact a few of the creditors and pay them in full? Should I disregard them and save the money? If I pay off some of the creditors, will the others then come after me?

What would YOU do?

I went to bed but couldn't sleep. I have a knot on my gum that is causing me some discomfort. I got up to take some aspirin and drink something hot but that hasn't helped much yet. So here I am again, reading and thinking, thinking and reading.

Here are more of my musings on creating some kind of financial plan for this year. It's hard! But putting my thoughts in a blog entry and getting feedback seems to help the process. So does reading the blogs of others. I've gotten some excellent ideas and am very thankful for that. On the other hand, I read the blogs of some members (like Ima Saver and Lux Living) and feel like such a spendthrift at times! But that's not necessarily a bad thing. If reading their blogs inspires me to do more to cut back here and trim there and save this way or that way, this is a very good thing! Again, I'm thankful.

I've thought a lot about waste the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure why but it's been on my mind. Perhaps the recent political issues in the news got it started. Then I talked to my youngest son tonight. He's an OTR driver and called me from Indiana and we got into a discussion of government waste and the national sales tax concept. Regardless, waste of this sort and that sort has really been in my thoughts lately.

DH and I are wasteful. Compared to many we aren't but compared to many others, we are. I think we're too wasteful and want to work on reducing waste.

We throw soft drink cans in the trash. That's wasteful when we can sell them for a little bit and that could be added to the challenge money or put in savings.

We smoke still. Yes, we quit for almost a year but started again. We smoke less than half of what we used to smoke but it's still costly in many ways and wasteful. We need to quit. Period.

We try very hard not to waste food and for the most part we're good about that but we do it at times. We need to put an end to it and eat or freeze leftovers before cooking something else.

We waste time. Oh, do we! We're at the shop more than anywhere else and unless we're open we're wasting time. There's no television at the shop but we stay online when not busy. There are other things we could be doing - reading books about personal finance, discussing strategies to save and the need for a plan for 2008, continuing to work out goals for our marriage, etc. Surely there are more constructive ways to spend spare time.

Those are just four ways in which we're wasteful. The first three directly impact our finances and eliminating or greatly reducing them could save us a bundle. Quitting smoking alone would save us about $35 a week. The last one indirectly affects our finances but I'm not sure what the solution to it is or if that solution would save us money.

Okay, now I'm all verklempt. Give me a moment..feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. Opinions, suggestions, accolades and spare change welcome!

I absolutely must have a financial plan of some sort for 2008. I tried talking to my other half about it a couple of days ago but he was distracted at the time and we haven't resumed the conversation. I don't want him to see me as nagging so I'm going to concentrate on things I can do without his help or approval for awhile and talk to him about it at a better time. Some of these actions are small and some aren't so small but here are my current ideas.

1. Since he's already stated that he wants to attempt to pay all the bills with the shop income and save at least half of mine, that's one step of the plan already going. My income varies depending on what position I work and how many hours I get so although I can say we want to save half of my income, I can't get a handle on just how much that will be. I'm going to set up Direct Deposit at work with the hope that doing that and having half of my check automatically go to savings will make the saving part easier. A lot of people claim it does and I think it's worth a try.

To go along with paying the bills with shop income, I've been thinking of ways to reduce those bills to make it easier for DH and to help us save.

I really want to unplug appliances when not in use but my love dislikes when I do that so for now that's out. I'm faithful about turning off lights we aren't using and go behind him doing the same when needed. But I can be more faithful about that. The phone and internet bills are basically set amounts so there are no reductions to be found there. That goes for the rent, also.

2. Vehicles and the gas for them are issues. Right now I take his truck to work, which is only about 3 miles from us. I need to get my car registered so we have another vehicle to drive so he can do some minor stuff to his truck to prepare it for inspection. We should have the money to register my car by the end of the week. The truck is a gas hog and the car is only a little better but once it's legal again we can drive it rather than the truck. We already try to combine trips to minimize driving but we can do more of that. We can also have at least two non-driving days a week, perhaps, if we prepare for them.

3. Food is definitely one area we can cut back. We eat out too much and though we're better about it than in the very recent past we can improve. I just need to plan better since I'm often at work when it's meal time. I need to make sure there's food ready at the office for DH and I need to take my lunches, snacks and drinks with me to work. I know how to meal plan so this isn't difficult - I just have to make myself do it.

If we do those three things - save half of what I earn, reduce driving, and spend less on eating out, we should save a lot.

Okay, so this isn't really a plan yet. Right now it's more me writing out my thoughts. But to formulate a plan I have to think things through and get a handle on them and I'm doing that slowly but surely.

Now, what do I do with these ideas? How do I make an actual plan? I guess the answer is to just do them. Right?

I'm considering going with Direct Deposit at work but have very little experience with it. If you have experience with it, good or bad, would you please share that with me?

Chase Bank is offering a $100 bonus for new accounts with DD and I'd like to know your thoughts on that, also. I read the fine print on the mail I got about it but haven't made a decision yet. But between Chase's offer and a few people I know encouraging me to go with DD, I need to decide. It seems that having it deposited and having half of it go straight to savings might be beneficial. That out of sight, out of mind thing!

It's so wonderful to have all you knowledgeable folks on hand.

Thanks for your help!

I wrote this then added to it and am now adding to it again so I edited the name, also. I might as well post just one entry rather than three.

So far the envelope system is working! Yes, it's only been three days but there is money in each of the envelopes, including the savings envelope.

It feels great to know our bills are paid for the month and we're working for the next round of them. We have a ways to go before we have enough for the next round of bills but we'll get there, I know.

Yaaaaay for envelopes, cash, jobs, and a little discipline!

Speaking of jobs, I'm a reasonably intelligent person and am capable of doing just about anything I set my mind to. But correctly marking cups at work boggles my mind and I'm close to admitting I've been outsmarted by paper and plastic!

I did pretty well today but still messed up at least 6 cups. I either had the wrong size or marked them incorrectly or something else stupid. It doesn't help that customers often don't ask for an item by the name on the menu board. So I think they're asking for one thing and they're really asking for another. Example: "I'd like a Chi Tea." I mark the cup for what I think is Chi Tea. Then I look around and don't see Chi Tea anywhere. After doing this three times I realized they were asking for a Chi Latte!! Doh! When I ask what size, they say they want the medium and I mark it. Then they change their mind and want a large. Okay, no problem, I can handle that. I get another cup and mark it and bam, now they want the other one again!

It's fun and I love my new job.

My $20 challenge is up to $27 now thanks to a couple of meatless meals and not buying a snack or drink while out running errands. I have some change to add to it tomorrow, about $2. Yippee!

Today is my first day of training at Starbucks. I'm a little nervous about it but am also kind of excited. I like to learn new things so this will be fun, I hope. But I can't help be nervous about it. So, wish me luck, y'all, and if you pray, say a little prayer for me that I'll do well and like it!

DH wanted to open an account at a bank closer than the one we use now so we went out to do that. Although we didn't get that done, I did add another dollar to my savings amount.

We stopped at a convenience store and DH got a drink and 5 granola bars. He asked if I wanted something and I told him no thanks but that I'd like a dollar when he got a minute. He immediately handed me a dollar bill with this quizzical look on his face and said, "What do you want?" I told him I didn't want anything and he said, "Yes, you do." I think I was grinning!

When we got in the truck I told him about the challenge and that I wanted the dollar since I didn't get anything to drink or eat. He just kind of ignored me and started up the truck...

Men, gotta love em! And women, gotta love us, too!

So, I'm up to $3 so far for today!

I'd love to have $100,000 saved but the thought of doing that is just too big for me to even consider. I do much better if I break large goals into small ones I can manage. So, I don't even look at the large amount of money I'd love to have saved and focus on more manageable, reachable goals. Saving that amount of money is going to take me a long time and can't even get started until I tend to some other things on my plate. So, I'm in the process of emptying that plate!

One of my goals for this year is to have $2500 saved by the end of July. Right now we have about $1100. The thought of saving $1400 in six months is overwhelming to me so I have to break the goal into mini goals and minute steps. It might be pie in the sky to think I can come up with $1400 in six months but I don't think so. I'm going to give up just a few things in an attempt to meet my savings goal. Here's how I plan to do it.

I have 15 pay periods between now and the end of July. If I save $25 from each of those pay periods, I'll have $375 at the end of July. That helps but is a far cry from $1400. I don't think I can afford to save $50 from each check but if I push the limit a little and save $35 from each check, that gives me $525 at the end of July. Much better but I still need another $875.

I have to get creative with this and come up with ways to save a little more here and a lot more there. And it wouldn't hurt to throw in some things that will improve my health, too, so for every meatless meal DH or I eat, I'll add $1 to my savings. I generally eat at least 5 meatless meals per week but I can increase that to 10, I think, without it being a burden. There are 29 weeks between tomorrow and the end of July so If I do that, I'm $290 closer to that deficit of $1400 and now I need $585 more. As long as I'm thinking health and wealth, I'll add $1 for each time I don't stop for a soft drink or snack while out and about. If I can keep to that, I'll have a minimum of $5 more a week which puts me $145 closer. I still need $440 to meet the $2500 goal.

It's getting more complicated now as I have a husband who loves meat (hey, so do I!) and will only tolerate so many meat-free meals and thinks little about stopping at a convenience store for a drink and snack. However, this challenge is MINE, although the money is OURS. I'll reward the savings account with these small amounts of money even if he isn't really on board. As long as I don't indulge, I'm doing well.

While composing this, my stomach started growling so I prepared eggs with a slice of cheese, topped them with salsa, and added some avocado slices. And DH had scrambled eggs with toast earlier so cha ching, there's $2 so far today! I work late tonight and am taking vegetable soup so that's $1 more.

So, I still need to cut back somewhere to close that $440 gap. Any ideas on that?

I used to sell on ebay, half.com, and Amazon but those have petered out for me and I don't think I want to try them again. I might but I don't see it happening right now. I'm considering babysitting to earn extra money for the challenge but that's just a thought at present. Our cell phones are down to bare bones now and we don't have cable television or subscriptions or dues to cut. We eat very few items that we find coupons for so adding coupon savings won't help much though it will add a little. I do plan to learn more about CVS savings and if I get that rolling, the savings will be added.

If you have ideas on other ways I can shave a little here and a little there, please share!

Okay, I've given the $20 challenge some serious consideration and here's my plan.

Tomorrow I'm going to put $20 on a gift card at Target. I think it needs to be $20 a week but I'll start with $20 for two weeks and see how that goes since the goal is to save, not spend. That's my 'at work' spending money. I don't shop there a lot but do get drinks and occasionally a snack when I'm on shift. I'll take drinks, dinner, and my snack in the attempt to spend less of that $20. What isn't spent during that two weeks goes into my savings jar. If there is none left at the end of two weeks, I won't be surprised. But this is an experiment so we'll see what happens.

By the way, I don't know if this is true at most retailers but if your Target gift card gets lost or stolen, the company will issue a new one if you have the original receipt for the card. So, if you buy Target gift cards, keep the receipts!

I'm also going to continue to put my change in the change jars, one for pennies, another for 'silver'. Once a week I take the quarters out and use those for laundry and that's a necessity so I won't change that but I'm going to not spend any of the other change and keep adding to it. Every two weeks I'll roll that and deposit it into savings.

Also, for every meatless meal I prepare and we eat, I'll add $1 to my challenge money. This won't be very easy as DH and I both are meat eaters and though we're happy to have meatless meals, he'll likely fuss if I serve too many. Right now he is eating a meatless breakfast so cha ching, there's $1! Ha ha, I just mentioned something about thawing ground turkey and he just said, "For sausage? That would go good with these eggs right about now." See?

I'm still thinking about this and will add changes as I figure them out.

We went to a movie tonight, our third in 12 years!

We saw "I Am Legend" and if you like Will Smith and/or apocalyptic type movies, which we do, you should enjoy it. I admit I shed a few tears during the movie, too, but we had a nice time and it was a great reward.

For what were we rewarding ourselves?

We have $1100 saved in our emergency fund!!

Now to some of you that might be nothing but to us that is a MAJOR deal so we splurged and spent $22 (not of the emergency fund, though!) for the movie, two drinks, some chocolate covered peanuts, and one bag of popcorn.

Another goal reached - go us, go us!!!

I really have good intentions to blog regularly and I do try! But life gets in the way, I get busy, and the blogging slides until I get this wild urge to do it again. I'm sorry I'm such a lousy blogger. Forgive me, please.

So, what's new with me? Well, DH and I are getting counseling and working to save our marriage. That's a wonderful thing! He opened up a business after we split and it's doing well. We pray its successful and I believe it will be.

I got a job at the new Target store here. I really like it (I might be crazy but I LIKE retail!) but am switching to the Starbucks at that same Target on January 6th. The pay is a little better than cashiering and I hope I like it and do well at it. Hey, the coffee is a nice perk, too! Since finding a job was a goal for me, I feel great that I've found one that I like and pays halfway decent. Though I know I won't get rich in retail!

Tonight I've been planning our meals for the next week. Between having a job with irregular hours and the recent and ongoing increases in food prices, meal planning is more important for us than ever so that's something I want to get done. In a separate entry, I'll post our food inventory right now and the meals for the next week.

To Carol in Australia, who reads this blog regularly - would you please email me? I can't find your email address and want to email you.

I don't use a multiple envelope system where there's one envelope for each bill that's coming due but I use a single envelope system. It's a bank envelope and the amounts due are written in list form on one side of it. Once the entire amount for that bill is in the envelope, I check it off. I can easily look at the envelope and see how much is in it, how much I still need to get, etc. But it's a new system for me and this is my first month using it.

Right now there are no unchecked items and it's only October 7th! I just put in enough money to pay the storage and electric bills. The electric bill isn't due until the 24th but I'm going to pay it early this week.

Wow, it feels great to have all bills paid or the money for them set aside so early in the month.

The system I'm using seems to be working.

Go, Denise!

I checked my electricity account online and got a great surprise. The amount I owe is $72.06 and not close to $150 like I suspected I'd owe. Since this is the first full month and the first electric bill which was for 9 days was almost $40 I just knew it would be between $120 and $150. I'd figured my average daily kWh as 22 but the bill shows it to be 20. What a pleasant surprise to get a utility bill that's actually about half of what I thought it would be! I've tried not to use the AC much but I'm really not sure how it worked out this way. But hey, I'm not complaining.

And I managed to keep the kWh at 20 or less which has been a goal.

Yaaay, go me!

I got to the house I was to clean at about 11:30 after a very fitful night of not sleeping. The back door wasn't unlocked and there was no key to be found. I called the client and he had someone come let me in. So, I got in and started working. I thought it would take about 3 hours to clean but it took 4 and 1/2 hours. There were messes that I wasn't aware of but I managed it. Pay wise, it works out to a little over $13 an hour. It's hard around here to make that kind of money, especially if you're 'undegreed and uneducated' so I think I did well.

The client just called me and told me he was very pleased with the house and that it smells good. That made me feel nice! "Make it smell good" was his big request for the day so I succeeded!

But I am one tired girl! My back hurts, my feet hurt, and my head hurts. I was hungry when I got home but so tired all I could do was open a can of vegetable beef soup and eat it right from the can, no water and no heating. Now that's pretty tired!

Anyway, I survived and I hope he ends up being a regular or semi-regular client. Of course, if he does, it shouldn't take that long each time. I think I could do it monthly in 3 hours. That would be great!

And the best part is I have 60 more dollars to add to the bill envelope.

There are a few money-related things I need to work on so I've set some goals for myself for the month of October. They are:

1. Learn more about maximizing coupon use via thegrocerygame.com, CVS ECBs, and other methods. I've paid for membership with GG for October, November, and part of December and that should give me plenty of time to decide if I like it and if it's worth the money to me.

2. Keep my grocery spending at or below $125 for the month. Normally I go for $100 but with Thanksgiving approaching I'll need to buy a few things for the family get together.

3. Cook less and make better use of leftovers so little to no food is wasted. It's difficult to cook for one after years of cooking for a horde - or even a few people who eat like a horde!

4. Look for a local part time job.

5. Have at least two no spend days every week.

6. Put aside for savings 10% of all money I bring in.

There are other things I need to work on but if I try to do too many, I won't succeed at any!

So, I've been working on my new budget, trying to come up with a realistic one.

Originally, I'd budgeted $100 a month for food. I'm slightly over that for September and the month isn't over. But the grocery money is gone so I'll make do with what I have for the next six days. And I really do think I can do with $100 a month as long as I'm very careful about what I buy.

I registered at thegrocerygame.com and will see if that helps. Of course, after I registered and paid, I found groceryguide.com which is almost the same but free. Argh! I talked to a few people who have tried both and they all prefer the grocery game. I'll try it for the few weeks I paid for and if I don't like it, it's worth the money to know that.

Most of my expenses are fixed and I'm trying to keep the ones that aren't fixed under control. One of the big concerns I have is paying the electric bill. For nine days in September it was almost $37. Of course, those were nine very hot Texas days!

That doesn't sound too bad until you multiply it by 3 and see that a month of electric usage is about $120. That might not seem like a lot to some people but that's more than I can handle right now so off the AC went and off it's going to stay for some time. Unfortunately, the unit that cools is also the unit that heats so once it's cold, I'll have to use it unless I come up with an alternative. There's always layering clothes and hot coffee, though.

Here's to cooler weather and low grocery spending... may they be with me for awhile.

It's after midnight and I can't sleep. It's 63 degrees out and I sat on the porch awhile hoping the beautiful night might help me relax and feel sleepy. No such luck. There's not much on television but I have some old John Wayne movie playing. I can't see the screen from where I sit but I can hear it. I still love the sound of his voice...

I have way too much on my mind. The wireless install jobs are going okay but there aren't very many of them yet so DH isn't making much money. We're getting behind on things again and it makes me very nervous. I've filled out job applications but there isn't much hiring going on right now and going to another town isn't an option. We've gathered some things to put on eBay so I hope that works well. The last few things we listed didn't sell or sold for very little so I'm a tad reluctant but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully they'll bring in a little cash.

At any rate, it's a good thing I don't have plans for later today. I have the feeling I'm going to be tired...

So, this morning bright and early we walked outside to have some coffee and check on our plants. Here's a bit of what we saw:



This is bed 2. Right now all that's visible is broccoli but there's also fat man beans and a lot of other good stuff planted there.



This is a closer picture of the broccoli plants which are doing very well.



And here are the 24 tomato plants we got FREE at the local hardware store. Most of them had gotten a wee bit cold recently and had a bit of brown on them so they just gave them to us. We think we'll lose 2, maybe 3, of the 24 and that's not bad at all.



And here are the two beds we've planted so far. The tires in the background are stacked and used to grow tomatoes and squash.

And now for something completely different...I figure we all should
Make our own conspiracy theory at least once in our lifetime. Why not?

I've washed a load of clothes and a load of towels and hung them on the clothes line to dry.

DH and I moved the antenna away from the house and closer to the fence. Since we did that, we haven't lost our connection - it seems much more stable. We didn't gain any speed but not dropping every few minutes is worth something!

I straightened up the kitchen, swept the floor, and made more tea. Earlier today I browned the ground turkey for tonight's goulash. We'll have that with spinach and green beans and rolls with butter and everyone will be fat, sassy, and very happy.

Today we got a water bill for $35.22. That's the lowest it's been in a long time. This is the first full billing cycle since we've initiated a couple of changes.

One thing we did is put a brick in the toilet tank to reduce the water flow and I think that's helped.

We're basically down to three people now rather than four and the one who isn't here is the one who took 45 minute showers so that's helped. He still pops in now and then to shower but it's rare and I limit him to 10 minutes.

In addition, I've stopped washing dishes in between meals. I used to run a sink of dish water 5 to 7 times a day because I really dislike dirty dishes in the sink. Now I generally wash dishes 3 times a day, just rinsing anything that turns up between after meal washings. Surely that's made a difference, too.

Hopefully that difference will stick with us. Now if I could just make such a difference in the electric bill but that seems to be an impossibility.

Oh well, one bit of progress at a time...

The repair on the truck was only $135 instead of being around $700 as we figured. Yippeee! While we were out this morning we bought the double minutes plan for DH's tracfone, finally! Last month we went over the 600 minutes on my T-mobile and we've done it again this month. I don't use the phone much but with our ISP down for 3 weeks, the T-mobile was all we had and DH has been using it for business when we're out on a job so the bill is way too high. Now that he has his Tracfone that should end. We paid $140 for the double minutes plan and that included 420 minutes. Those will last him 2 to 3 months, probably.

There is a bit of good news, though. He did two wireless jobs over the weekend and has at least one and possibly two scheduled for tomorrow so that's more money coming in. I'm taking a bit out of all that comes in and putting it away. No set amount yet - just a little here and a little there. It makes me feel better to have a little bit stashed away. But we absolutely have to get caught up and that's where most of what he gets for the next two weeks is going.

We have plenty of food to last us so that shouldn't be much of an expense. The wireless jobs are all fairly local so gas shouldn't be a major expense, either.

Hey, I think there's light at the end of that long, dark tunnel!