Very little spending yesterday. Put $26.02 worth of gas in my car, and spent $3.03 on DnD for an afternoon pick me up (was never gonna make it through work without it).

Today I spent $4.45 on Breaky. Went out to lunch with a friend from work, but she paid since she owed me a few bucks. Yay! Free lunch!

Hoping to make tonight a quiet night in, with no more spending. We’ll see.

We have finally pinned down a date to go to Vegas and move the rest of The Boys things out here. We are going over Thanksgiving, this year. At first we were weary of going over the holiday, but then Mums told us that my Sis and her hubby are going to Texas to visit his parents for Turkey Day and it was OK if we were away too. So, that is our plan. Now, to fund it.

I am seriously still paying off debt, but now saving for the Vegas trip, too. We'll need about $2,000 (this includes hotel, car rental, airplane tix, and money to ship back whatever stuff of The Boys doesn't fit in our suitcases). I want to do as much with cash as possible, and charge as little as possible. I know no matter what we will have to charge something, so my goal is to come up with $2,000 between savings and room on my CC by November 20th.

All extra money will go to CC debt and/or the trip. I am going to put a minimum of $2 a day into a savings account for the trip. My goal will be $5 a day, but at least $2. We have 143 days to save (July 1st - Nov. 20th). We have a tiny little Emigrant account with $2.15 in it. I will be adding to that.

Yesterday I transferred in $18 ($3 a day to take me through July 6th - Friday - which is payday).

Today I transferred in $30. Tomorrow is payday and this $30 is what we had left over from the last paycheck.

Vagas Prev. Balance: $2.15
Vagas additions: $48
---------------------------
New Vagas Total: $50.15

Happy Fourth All! Today was a great day. Me and The Boy slept in (so nice) then went to Mums and Dads house for a small BBQ for dinner. My sis and her hubby weren't there, but it was still fun. My best friend (who I've known since we were 12) also came over and joined us for the cookout. We hung around and played cards for a while. It was nice and realxing and fun.

While we were there, we got about 4 loands of laundry done (yay!). We have a coin op washer and dryer in our apartment building so anytime we go to visit Mums and Dads, we bring some with us. Parents rock!!

Dinner was wicked yummy: hamburgers, cheese hot dogs, pasta salad, chips, and ice cream. One bonus: as we were leaving, Mums loaded us up with leftover food! We got half a pack each hamburger and hot dog rolls, a 6 pack of cheese hot dogs, a half bag of regular chips, a half bag of sour cream and chive chips, all the leftover pasta salad (yum! Lunch tomorrow), a tomato, 2 heads of broccoli, and an 8 pack of GIANT ribs! Mums just started cleaning out the fridge and freezer and putting things in the bag for us! And then, Dads gave me a 6 pack of my fave beer he had picked up for me! How much does that rock??

So, we got a good load of stuff for the next few days, and this kind passing out of food from Mums will help us make our $200 grocery budget for July. Yay for doting parents everywhere!

The only money we spent all day was $.50 for the newspaper, and $4.50 on DnD Iced Coffees. I like days like this!

Almost forgot, Tuesday night when we went out to dinner, our order got messed up a little bit (not a big deal at all). Because of it, our waitress (who is our waitress every week) gave us a $5 gift card towards our next visit. Sweet!

We always go to Wings to Go on Tuesday nights, becasue for $13 a person, it is all you can eat wings, fries, and soda. An order of fries, a 10 piece and a soda is about $10. For the extra bit for each of us, we end up getting a whole lot more. For example, this week, The Boy had 2 sodas, 3 and 1/2 orders of winges (10 to an order) and 1 and 1/2 orders of fries. I had 2 orders of wings, 2 sodas and 1 1/2 order of fries. We totally get our money's worth there.

Anyways, there was a delay for the last order The Boy put in, so to apologize, she gave us the gift card. After tax and it it is usually about $30. Next week we'll save $5 and that makes me very happy.

Been a while since I posted a CITB report. Just counted up all the change in the Bag. Here are the totals:

Pennies: $1.17 ($1 rolled!)
Dimes: $4.70 (only 3 more til I can roll it!)
Nickels: $2.00 (rolled!)
Quarters: $9.75 (ooooh, so close!)

Total CITB: $17.62

Yesterday was good! I ate breaky at hom (a big challenge for me) and brought lunch to work. Didn't buy any snacks or soda, but waited for lunch time to eat and kept refilling my gigamongus water bottle from the water cooler. Ahhh, free bottled water!

Only expense yesterday was dinner out, but that was planned and budgeted for, since we go out to this place every Tuesday night. We're focusing on making this the only time we go out to eat each week.

Dinner for two: $30

Total Spending: $30

When I was little I loved the library. I remember walking there with Mums during the summer mornings. I'd load up with 10 or 12 books, as many as my backback could hold. I'd usually have them all read in a day or two and go right back for more. No wonder I love books now.

As I got older and got my own money, though, I began to leave the library behind and spend time at the bookstores. I love that I got to keep these books and read them over and over. And so, my book-collection (or "book obsession" as The Boy calls it) was born.

But now, with money being tight, I am considering the library again. I know there are some things I want to read (like the Tightwad Gazette) but I don't know if I want to spend my money on them. I want to check them out first. So, it's off to the library tonight to get me a free library card and some new things to read!

I finally got my student loans sorted out. I have 3:

UMD 1: $2,315.76
UMD 2: $38,044.87
RWU: $26.475.41

For a grand total of $66,836.04

Anyways, my payment for the UMD1 loan is fairly small, only $40 a month, so I always make that payment, no problems. The problems came in when it was time to start paying back my big loans.

I am currently enrolled in something called the Income Contingency Plan. How it works is this: They take the amount I make at my job yearly, before taxes, and then calculate a percentage of how much I can “afford” to pay each month. It worked out great when I had $25,000 in loans and was only making $14,000 a year. I literally paid $7.00 a month! And I wasn’t worried about “never” paying off the total amount, because the ICP comes with a 25-year max payout. What that means is after keeping my account in good standing and making monthly payments for 25 years, whatever remains after that 12th month of the 25th year, is forgiven. Whoo-hoo! So, even though I had a good chunk to pay, the IRC Plan worked for me.

Now, however, I’m still on the ICP and I still get the bonus of the 25-year max payout. But the problem is now that I owe a while lot more, and now that my salary is a little bit bigger, my payments are a little bit bigger, too. And I just don’t have it in my budget (even if I cut back on some things) to come up with another $300 a month right now.

But here is the good news. Turns out, because my salary is so, well, crappy, I qualify for a 12 month deferment called Economic Hardship. Under this deferment, no monthly payments are required for 12 months, at the end of which, I can reapply for another 12 months if needed. As a bonus, about $15,000 of my loans will not accrue interest!! Yay! And in months when I have some extra money, I can still make a payment of any amount onto the loans to help keep the interest rate from stacking up too much. This is perfect!
I won’t get charged full interest rates, I can still make payments, but there is no required minimum, and this doesn’t affect my enrollment in the ICP. Even though I am getting a 12 month deferment on repayment, I am still enrolled in the ICP and still get those benefits, as well as the 25 year max payout option.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am to know this is all sorted out and the scary men won’t be knocking on my door for money I don’t have!

DnD Breaky Run: $4.45
CVS (2 cards): $5.02
Gas in car: $20.00

Total Spending: $29.47

This time I am really going for it. I sat down last night and took some time to make out a solid budget for July. My usual budgets are kinds flimsy. I estimate about what I think I spend on each expense every month, and I always leave out entertainment, treats for us, and eating out. I usually don’t stick to it, either, because it is so strict. When you don’t allow yourself any money for anything other than bills for the month, you tend to rebel. And when I rebel, I rebel big time.

Not only did I include every category I could think of (including a MISC in case I forgot something), I also looked at the past 5 monthly payments for each bill that is not a set amount each month (electricity, gas, etc). Then I averaged them out, and viola! I have a really good idea where our money goes each month and where it needs to go in the future. I’m also keeping much better track of my spending, and the new system I created last night will make that even easier. This is the first month, so I do expect some bumps and maybe having to do the Money Shuffle Dance, but I feel like this is a great starting place.

All of this is coming from my paychecks. For some categories (like my CCs) I planned just the minimum payments. Any extra money I get during the month (ebay sales, half.com, freelance work, OT, etc), goes onto the CCs as extra payments. And yes, the minimums I planned for are above the minimum payment required by the CC company.

In the July budget, some numbers are different from the ones in the Monthly Budget. I have some catching up o do this month, and then I will be following the regular budget. For example, I do not plan on making a monthly contribution to the EF right now. I want to focus on paying off the debt first. But I had to take $60 out this week for a bill, so the $60 for July is to replace that. I also have a high home phone payment this month to make up for a few missed payments a few months ago.

I am getting a 12-month deferment for the majority of my student loans (more on that another post!), so I am only worrying about making payments on the small one for now. Rent is not on here because it is already taken care of for the next few months.

If there is any money left over at the end of the month in any category, it will either be put into our savings, or on CC debt. I haven’t decided yet. Most likely CC debt, unless it was a really good month with extra income.

My July Budget:

The Boy Allowance: $20
My Allowance: $20
ATT CC: $150
Cable: $55
Car Insurance: $86
Cell Phone: $45
Eating Out & Entertainment: $50
Electricity: $100
EF: $60
Gas in Car: $250
Gas in Home: $100
Groceries: $200
Home Phone: $130
Internet: $15
LB CC: $60
Meds: $85
Misc: $30
Student Loans: $50


My Monthly Budget:

The Boy Allowance: $20
My Allowance: $20
ATT CC: $150
Cable: $55
Car Insurance: $86
Cell Phone: $45
Eating Out: $50
Electricity: $100
Entertainment: $50
Gas in Car: $250
Gas in Home: $100
Groceries: $200
Home Phone: $35
Internet: $15
LB CC: $60
Meds: $85
Misc: $30
Student Loans: $50

Well, we made it through Day 1 with our new budget in palce. Yay!

My goal today was to spend $50 at the grocery store, instead of the usual $75 or so. We are hoping to cut our grocery budget down by $100 a month, $25 aweek. We came in at $53.25 A little over, but I'm happy with it. It just means for the rest of the month we have $146.75 instead of $150. I think we can do it.

We did great today: we had a total savings of $14.60 through buying things on sale. No coupons, but hopefully that will change soon. So, what did we get?

Hot Dogs (BOGO Free)
Hot Dog buns (Generic & on sale)
Whole Grain Bread (Generic)
Light Cheese (on sale)
Low Carb Pita bread
Provolone (Generic & on sale)
Turkey breast lunchmeat (Generic)
2 cartons of Friendlies Ice Cream ($1.99 each, instead of $5.59 each! And this will keep up from going out to Friendlies for ice cream).
Cat Food (generic, trying a new kind)
Rice cakes
Wheat Thins (on sale)
Carrots (on sale)
Apples (on sale)
Pears (on sale)
Strawberries (on sale)
Green Peppers

We have plenty of meats in the fridge, plus a couple boxs of pasta still. For the next week, we can easily live off what we got today and what we already have. The hard part will be next week. It will be time for our big shop (we do a small one every other week and a large one every other week). I'm thinking I can do this if I just get the Sunday papaer and compare sales beforehand. Plus, I want to try the local Shop and Save. It's a kinda discount grocery store around here. You can't get brand name stuff or meats there, but what they do have is much cheaper and Mums swears by it.

Anywho, that was all we spent today. No other stops anywhere, no purchases other than what was on our list, no other spending.

All in all, a great start and I'm very proud of us!

July Groceries to Date: $53.25
July Groceries $ Left: $146.75

July spendings to Date: $53.25

Start of a new month, so I'm gonna refocus.

Going out to lunch today with Dads, which will be a freebie for me (thanks Dads!).

After that, I want to hit the bank to make a deposit, then the grocery store. Very nicely, my bank has a branch in the grocery store, so that will be only one stop.

Found a band I like at the concert I went to last night, so I am copying their CD right now onto my iPod. Didn't have to pay for the CD, so that is a bonus. Rest of the day I think will be quiet. Read, maybe work on the quilt I am making if it is not too hot, listen to this new CD. A friend at work let me borrow the first 3 episodes of that old show Firefly on DVD, so I want to watch at least one episode tonight, too.

I also want to figure out exactly what our bills are a month. I know we spend around this much for this, but I want to know exact numbers.

The plan for spending today is to spend only on groceries today, and my grocery budget for the week is $50. I need milk, lunch meat, bread, and some fruit and veggies. If it is on sale, maybe some yogurt and ice cream, but that is it.

I will do better this month!

Last night I saw Poison in concert. I LOVE THEM!! It was an mazing show! Yum yum, Bret Michaels. When I was younger (like 5 years ago, lol) I used to go to several concerts a month. Now, not only can I not afford them, but there are just not a lot of my bands touring right now. And the new bands aren't really someone I want to spend $40 a ticket on. I did see Motley Crue three times last year, though, LOL.

So, the tix for last night were $41 each, but I had paid for mine about a month ago, and my best friend drove. I bought 3 waters (one for her since she drove) for $4 each (!!!!!!!!!). Total spendng yesterday, $12. I'm very happy with that.