Same Song, 2nd Versus, A Little Bit Louder,

A Little Bit Worse....

Now that I have that song stuck in your head...you're welcome.

For those that do not know it..."You can't ride my little red wagon, the axle's broken and the wheels are...."

Now the rest of you...YOU are welcome.

Yes as I have said once before, I fail even with the best laid plans.  I was going to blog more, swear...then life happened.  I know I have secret followers out there and I have failed you.  For that I am sorry.  So much has happened that I do not even know where to begin.

In the reality of my life, the phrase "You can't make this shit up" applies so much this year.

And with that teaser...I'll check in with you tomorrow.

Money, Money, MON-EY!

One of the big things for me this year is making my budget work.  Yes, I live off a budget and then I get lazy and things fall by the wayside and then it becomes juggling money from this account to that account to cover eating out too much or whatever.  Who's been there?

So, for step one of the new year...I redid my budget.  Thank you Mint.com for making my life easy.  If you have never heard of mint.com or don't know where to start with managing your money...Mint.com is where you go.  As I learned with Dave Ramsey's school, you should plan where you spend your money at the beginning of the money versus figuring out where it went at the end of the month.

Does the initial set up take some time?  Absolutely!  But think about it, anything worth doing takes a commitment.  If I wanted to play softball in college, I just couldn't step out on the field on game day...I had to practice.  If I want to do a race, I can't show up on race day...I had to do runs before hand. 

But now that I have got through the initial commitment, guess what?  Yep, it takes a minute a day every morning.  I can log in, make sure that my money coming out of each account is going out of the correct budget category and guess what...it even remembers it for next time!  Every morning, in ONE MINUTE, I know exactly where I am at and guess what...there is an app for it!  :)

Step two was this great idea I heard on the radio this morning.  So props really go to the JB and Sandy Morning Show.  It is the dollar a week savings play.  For each week of the year, you save that week.  So, week 1, you save one dollar.  Check.  Week 2, you save $2 and you continue through the weeks.  I have included the picture they added.  Don't get me wrong, the end of the year will be tough and maybe I'll mix in some of those later weeks into the earlier part of the year.  However, at the end of the year I have saved $1,378!!!  That doesn't factor in interest either. 

Now I challenge you for 2013...make it the year that you spend your money at the beginning of the month versus wondering where it went at the end of the month.  Plus put away the week of the year into savings each week. 

2013 resolution of making my finances right!

Exhaustion

That is what today is.  Yesterday started out as an okay day and then just took a drastic spiral at the end of the day.  At this point, I don't know what I am going to do.  But enough of that for now.  I couldn't shut my brain off last night when I did finally go to bed and it was still after midnight before the alarm went off.

So First things first - today was Weigh in Day.   187.6 is the official number.  7.6 to go.

Summary of Day 3:


Eating - I did okay. D2ND  but we are starting over on the darn Vending Machine.  I had a salad from Freebirds for lunch so I am not sure if that was good or bad.  I did have just a baked potato for supper, so hopefully it balanced out.

Exercise - Negative.  It was too darn cold - or that was my thinking.  I was exhausted when I got home and took a nap.  I was going to open mail, eat supper and then walk the dogs for a bit.  Maybe I should of just skipped the mail and leave that to Saturday's.  Needless to say - no walk for me or the dogs.  :(

Cleaning - Nada but really wasn't much to be done outside of unload the dishwasher.  That can wait another day.
Money - Well, my spending was $0.50 on two sodas, $50 on the vending machine and $6.62 at Freebirds.  That is the positive. $25 went to the Kohl's debt gods. The negative is that a tight budget needs to find more ways to be cut.  My saga of credit card debt and the hands that bind continue.  Target - well they got me this time.  I was on back to back 6 month lower interest plans, well in December, I came off the last one and didn't realize it.  So, my payment wasn't automatically made to them.  They called me about two weeks after the fact and I paid them.  Then I made my payment in January.  Last night I opened my new bill.  I missed a payment in their minds and now I have a 29.99% interest rate to go with a $170 payment.  That is a $100 more each month I need to come up with just to pay them the mininum, never mind attempting to make a dent.  The monthly interest charges almost equal my monthly budget for food which is a mear $150.  Seriously considering the word bankruptcy.  :(  I can't win if I tried.

It takes 21 days to....

Can you complete that sentence?  No? Maybe? It takes 21 days to form a habit.  Today is day one!  So how my eating and exercise got off tracks I really don't know.  In the past two weeks I have accomplished a lot getting better organized around the house but the food and exercise went to make room.  But, it isn't going to be about just the food and exercise.  I have been lazy lately and not been doing what I should be doing.  Church on the weekends, cleaning and everything else.  So, today was day one of putting it all together.  Managing the two jobs.  Having a clean house so it wouldn't be a scramble if unexpected company came. Being in control of my money so I don't have to have the Lowe's job.  Putting my body first so I can shop in my closet by exercising and making healthy food choices. 

Hopefully if all goes well - I'll be able to share my tips and tricks that I learned along the way.  Maybe a new recipe or two. 

Over all, today wasn't too bad.  Eating, well there were a few things that I could of done better but it was day one without the vending machine at work and eating fast food.  Win, win.  Another win was taking the two flights up to my desk.  On the way home I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a few staples I was missing, the fruit, the veggies, the things I go through every week.  After a supper of soft tacos with Chicken and salsa it was time to walk the dogs.  We did our two mile walk.  I am not sure how long it took because the pups beg the attention of the neighbor kids so we always have to stop and say hi. 

Then it was home for my workout...day two of Self's Your Weight Minus 8.  Today was 30 minutes of pound zapper and the strength cards.  I don't know what was worse, the pound zapper or the cards.  The pound zapper was 4 minutes of jumping rope, 1 minute of jumping jacks, 1 minute rest, repeat the sequence three more times.  Four minutes is a LONG time to jump rope.  Then the strength cards.  WTF is all I can say.  I think the gym cards are easier than the at home cards.  I mean, do a squat on your tippy toes and then stand up, still on your balls of your feet and push weights over the top of your head.  It was a combination pilates, weights and torture.   Thank god I don't need to think about that for another three days!

So that was day one...time for a shower and early to bed...I'm exhausted!

Comedy Central

Okay - that is exactly what this is.  As some are aware, I have been battling these changes that Obama put in place for the Credit Card companies.  I mean, give them a sliver of an opening and they will kill you as quickly as they can.  Well that is until the new laws take place. 

Almost every card I have had, and some are over 10 years old, have either taken this opportunity to either raise my interest rates and or slice my credit limit.  In reality, fine by me because in the next year or so, I won't have them anyway - cash is my way of life.

Now with all that said, how about my latest bill from Citibank.  I mean some would cry.  However, I just laugh.  They honestly have to be kidding if they think that I am paying this or will even try to pay.  I mean it is more than my mortgage.  Really.  New minimum payment due March 1, 2010.....

$714.87

Being Frugal

That is my new motto anyway. As some of you may or may not know, my entire goal is to be debt free by the time I am 40. That leaves me with 4 years, 4 months and 28 days to knock it out. It all is a culmination of bad choices, bad choices with the Ex, more bad choices of my own, a few healthy choices, a bad economy, etc. In other words a lot of excuses that I am tired of.

So, with the start of Second Chances last week, I am getting serious about my Second Chances Financially. It probably is unrealistic to expect to have my house paid off in under 10 years - but it is worth a try, right?

So, my challenge to myself this week is to live out of my pantry. I always buy stuff I don't need or buy more than I need and never use it. I think we all have been there. So, with that in mind, I just got the staples at the grocery store last night. Okay - staples and a treat. :) I walked away with Grapes, banana's, apples, carrots, and a pint of ice cream. That there was the $9.65 grocery bill for the week. Whoohooo - I think that is a pretty grand start if you ask me. I had enough for sandwiches & chips for lunch or leftovers for lunch and sandwiches on Lowe's days. I had a great dinner last night, which translated into a tasty lunch today!

On my other up news of the week, apparently I have had a review I didn't know about at Lowe's and received a $0.40 raise. That is the second raise I have had since I started there. Now, in one year's time I have received an 8% raise in my pay. In my full time "real" job, I have received a 2% raise in 26 months. Hmmmm, wonder if something is wrong with this picture? Maybe I need to start looking for a different "real" job.