$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $184.46
Feb interest: $.23
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $184.69

Old Personal Savings: $110.21
Feb interest: $.18
-------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $110.39

Old House Fund Balance: $16.49
Feb interest: $.02
--------------------------------
New House Fund Balance: $16.51

I just got a DD from half.com for $15.05. I also just transferred $15 from my paypal account into my checking. Now, to decide where to out the $30.05. I want to add some to my personal savings. I need to get a move on with my couch fund. But I know I should add more to the EF. So, I guess the best way to figure it out is $10 into each account.

Old Personal Savings: $100.21
Online sales: $10.00
-------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $110.21


Old House Fund Balance: $6.49
Online sales: $10.00
--------------------------------
New House Fund Balance: $16.49

$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $129.99
Online sales: $10.05
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $140.04

Little bits, but at least there is something.

$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $109.09
Jan Interest: $.12
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $109.21


Old Personal Savings: $100.00
Jan Interest: $.21
-------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $100.21


Old House Fund Balance: $6.48
Jan Interest: $.01
--------------------------------
New House Fund Balance: $6.49

One thing I have been worrying about lately is where to get the extra money to contribute to my savings accounts. I am still not working (except at the tarot store), and have not heard anything from SSDI yet.

With not having a steady monthly income, everything that does come in really needs to go to living expenses. All tarot money, online sale profits, found money, needs to go to monthly expenses like rent, food, bills. It's hard to find that extra money to throw in my savings.

I do, of course, put a little in my savings when I can, but it is slow going. I feel like I will never have a decent EF, or enough for a house down payment, hell, even enough for a new couch at $250!

I guess my question is when you are on a fixed income, or getting an income that barely covers the basics, where do you find extra money for savings? Especially when what would normally be considered extra money (ebay sales, etc) has to be put towards the basics so it really isn't extra at all?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, enough worrying...one a quick side note, I worked the tarot store and had only one reading. Brought home $16. Working tonight as well, so hopefully it will be a better night.

One bonus to working last night was that my friend who plays the SIMS games and was going to sell me hers for $60 was in and we worked out a deal. She is going to install the game I have and give it back to me and I am going to borrow her games and install them and give them back. Since they don't need the disc to work, I can borrow them and then play them after giving the discs back. No money spent and I still get all those new expansion packs! Yay!

I had a good amount of money to deposit today at the bank. There was a check from BF, a check from a survey I did, rolled coins from CITB, and cash from work Sunday night. It came to $105.35

After depositing that, I moved some of it around into my savings accounts.

Old Personal Savings: $94.94
Tally-Up Transfer: $5.06
-------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $100.00 (Goal met!)

Old House Fund Balance: $5.38
Random transfer: $1.10
--------------------------------
New House Fund Balance: $6.48

So, this means that my savings goal of $100 is DONE! YAY!

And I have the first deposit into my $20 Challenge of 2009. All my $20 Challenge Money goes into the EF, so here is the new total:

$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $40.09
Survey check (1st deposit of 2009!): $10
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $50.09
(halfway to 1st EF goal)

While my 2009 EF goal is $1,000 I am aiming for $100 right now (small goals work better for me) so I am halfway through that first mini-goal. Wa-hoo!

I am thinking of spending $60 from my personal savings. Here's why: the only thing we pay for in terms of entertainment is $10 a month for Netflix. My BF plays World of Warcraft and he pays his $15 a month subscription fee himself. I play the Sims (I'm addicted and play for hours sometimes) which, after buying the program for my computer, is free.

There are about 6 expansion packs for the Sims game I play. For you non-gamers, this basically means there are 6 additional versions of the game I can play, along with the original. Each one costs about $20 each, plus tax.

Well, I have a friend who also plays, but she is buying Sims version 3, and I play version 2. She has all 6 expansion packs that I don't have, and told me she would sell them to me for $10 each. I think this is a great deal. It will literally give me 6 more versions of my game to play and keep me entertained for MONTHS. At least 6, if not the whole year.

Looking at it that way, it is $10 a game (half price), $60. Keeping me entertained for at least 6 months makes it $10 a month in entertainment, less if I keep playing after 6 months.

Anywho, I want these games (and I can also resell them when I get sick of them), and have the money in my account. But, I feel guilty spending so much of my personal savings.

LOL I guess I am looking to be approved to buy them. I'm watching Suze Orman right now and she is doing her Can I Afford It segment.

Got a few tidbits to add to my $20 Challenge.

Old Personal Savings: $91.74
December Interest: $.20
Pinecone: $3.00
-------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $94.94

Old EF Balance: $40.00
December Interest: $.09
-------------------------------
New EF Balance: $40.09

Old House Fund Balance: $5.37
December Interest: $.01 LOL
--------------------------------
New House Fund Balance: $5.38

Oooh, big numbers, eh? LOL

About 2 months ago I bought a book on Half.com, but I never received it. The seller just refunded my money. Since it is not money I was missing before, I won't miss it now. I'm transferring it to my $20 Challenge.


Old Personal Savings: $82.66
Half.com refund: $9.08
-------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $91.74

Just got a payment from Pinecone in Paypal. I also had a small balance in there left over from Ebay sales last month. Transferring it all to my $20 Challenge.

Old Personal Savings: $77.64
Pinecone: $3.00
Paypal balance: $2.02
-----------------------------
New Personal Savings: $82.66

Went to the grocery store today and cashed in a large trashbag of bottles and 1 and a half large trashbags of cans. Got $4.45 for them all. And then I found a nickle there, so my total "income" today was $4.50. Threw the $.50 into Cash in the Bag, and am adding the $4 to my $20 Challenge.

Old Personal Savings: $73.64
Cans and Bottles: $4
-----------------------------
New Personal Savings: $77.64

New Pennies on the Sidewalk Total: $2.10

My old laptop has been acting iffy lately. It is overheating, smelling like burned rubber, and the screen has been flickering. I know soon, it is going to crash. It's about 5 1/2 years old, so it has had a good run.

I've been worried that it will go and I won't be able to afford a new one. Then, something fantastic happened!

BF is getting a new laptop. His is dead. Mums and Dads said they would get one for him, and he could pay them back for it. And they decided to have one of his X-mas gifts be money towards his laptop, so he only has to pay back part of it. And they offered the same deal to me!

We got the new laptops last night! It's a Compaq Presario. I heart it. Windows Vista, which I don't heart, but it's not too bad. 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive. CD/DVD player and burner, Wireless internet card... The only thing I don't have on it that I use a lot is Microsoft Office. Usually it is $150 to buy the Office 2007 version I use. But Microsoft had a sale and I was able to get it for $69.99! More than half off! YAY! I used money in my personal savings for it, so I didn't even have to charge it.

In addition to the Office purchase, this laptop is only going to cost me $200!! The laptop originally was $550, but Best Buy had a sale going and it was $150 off, making it only $400! Then, Mums and Dads were going to give me money for X-mas and also for my b-day (in March) so they said instead of doing that, they will put what they were going to give me towards the laptop, and that amount is $200.

Original price: $550
Best Buy sale: -$150
Holiday and B-day: -$200
------------------------------
Laptop price: $200
MS Office: $69.99
------------------------------
Total: $269.99

I am so excited! I heart my new laptop! *grin*

Oh, also, my $20 challenge/savings update:

Old Personal Savings: $143.65
MS Office: $70
--------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $73.65

Laptop Balance to Pay Off: $200

Feels good to have something to put into the Challenge! Today I transfered $50 from my paypal account to my Savings. This was from Ebay profits. Yay! *smile*


Old Personal Savings: $93.66
Ebay profits: $50.00
--------------------------------
New Personal Savings: $143.65

Note: EF is at $36.14 (which if I need more, I will use what is in the Personal Savings).

Note: House Fund is a sad and lowley $5.37

EF
Old EF Balance: $283.00
Interest: $1.28
----------------------------------
New EF Balance: $211.28


House Fund
Old House Fund Balance: $96.01
Interest: $.11
----------------------------------
New House Fund Balance: $96.12


Personal Savings:
Old Savings Balance: $25.41
Interest: $.06
--------------------------------
New Savings Balance: $25.47

Not much interest, but hey, at least it is earning something!

EF:
Old EF Balance: $624.53
Interest: $1.57
--------------------------------
New EF Balance: $626.10


House Fund:
Old House Fund Balance: $25
Interest: $.01 (lol)
--------------------------------
New House Fund Balance: $25.01


Personal Savings:
Old Savings Balance: $25.00
Interest: $.41
--------------------------------
New Savings Balance: $25.41

I don't really use coupons much, simply becasue I never seem to use the items I have coupons for, and so many of the coupons require you to buy 2 before you get the amount off. But I am slowly beginning to use them. I'm a little coupon retarded, but I just realized that coupons work best when combined with store sales. LOL I'll get there eventaully.

In the meantime, I did do good wiyth coupons yesterday! My proudest purchase was Zyrtec for my allergies. Our Waalgreens sells a bottle with 45 pills for $27.99. Yesterday Walgreens had them on sale for $23.99. And I had a coupon for $4 off, so I got it for $19.99. $8 saved! Yay me!

I'm not going to add this to my challenge. I figure the savings I get with coupons isn't for my savings account. I's to make that damn grocery budget stretch a little further!

There are a lot of things I want right now (a house, a new couch, a new car, a new bedroom set...) and some things I know I need to take care of first (EF, credit card debt, personal debt...). I know it will take me a long time to get my savings for some things saved up(house, new car), so I am starting now. I opened 2 new savings accounts. One for a personal savings (things like a new computer, couch, vacation, whatever I want) and one for a house fund. And by house fund I mean a down payment on my first house. (Thanks for the motivation Amber!).

I am going to get real aggressive about saving and paying off debt. I need to do this.

I will need help. I am a bad saver; I like spending, especially on eating out. I need to be happy eating what we have in the fridge and not craving greasy, money wasting delivery.

So, here are my savings stats:

EF: $709.03
Personal Savings: $25.00
House Fund: $25.00

(*muttering to myself 'every little bit helps, every little bit helps'*)

I live in MA and for the last couple of years I have had either Amica or Liberty Mutual car insurance. All those great, cheaper car insurance companies (like Geico, State Farm, All State, Progressive, etc) didn't offer policies to MA residents. Well, now Progressive does! Yay!

I spent a few days doing my research and comparing quotes, and I have decided to switch to Progressive. With Liberty Mutual, I was paying $82.02 a month. By switching to Progressive (and having the same exact coverage!), I was able to lower my monthly payments down to $65.67 a month! That would be a savings of $16.35 a month!!

I'm so happy I took the time to research this and made the switch. A couple of years ago I wouldn't have even thought about this. It would have never entered my mind as an option. But I have learned a lot here these last 2 years, and although I should be more modest, I am damn proud of myself for this!

I think we are going to use the extra $ each month and add it to our internet budget. We currently have DSL, but since we both have laptops, we want to go wireless. We didn't have the extra money before, but this extra each month should cover it.

When we went to the grocery store today, we returned some bottles and cans we had. We ended up returning $4.50 worth! We still have a few more to do; I can't believe we drink that much soda! We are usually really good about only drinking water, but latey we have been craving soda like crazy. Gonna have to watch it.

We also needed lightbulbs, so we bought a 3 pack of those energy-saving ones. They were $2 off the original price, and we want to convert all our lightbulbs over as they die, so this was a good place to start.

So, overall, another $6.50 to the challenge.

$20 Tax Old Balance: $121.84
Bottles and Cans: $4.50
Lightbulb coupon: $2.00
----------------------------
$20 Tax New Balance: $128.34

Went to Walgreens tonight with The Boy to get some hair dye. I have naturally red hair, but sometimes I ache for a change, so I got a 28 shampoo dye that will wash out. As we were looking at the dyes, an employee came up and asked if we needed help. We thanked her and said we were all set. She said when we were ready to go to her register. We thought nothing of it.

BUT, we did go to her register when we were ready to check out, and she said "I have a coupon for that." Then she pulled out a box of coupons, and sorted through them until she found the one for the brand I was buying. She scanned it and $2 off! Yay! How nice was she???

I've never had a cashier do that before. I don't know if this is standard practice for Walgreens (we don't go there much) or just something the girl was doing to be nice. Whatever it was, we thanked her several times. We will definitely go back there before we go to CVS anymore.

Had to pick up a few items today at CVS. We did fantastic!! Here's what we got:

2 packs AA batteries
2 bottle Irish Spirng Body Wash
1 pack Thermacare heat wraps

Total spendings: $13 and change
Total savings: $12.49!!!

How did we do it? Well, I had $1 coupon off the thermacare wraps, $1 coupon off the irish spring, plus $6.50 in Extra Care Bucks, and the batteries were buy one get one free ($3.99!)

Ahhh, it's good to know that even though I am on the dole, we can smell pretty and have batteries for the tv remote control! LOL

My car, once again, is having issues. It's making wierd noises and vibrations. So I took it to the mechanic this morning. He is about a 45 minute walk from my house. While I was there, I called Enterprise to rent a car for the day so I could get home and then have a way to go back and pick it up.

BUT, I decided instead to save the $40 it would have cost for the rental and WALK HOME!!!

45 minutes, not too bad! I am so proud of myself!! You have to realize, I am an almost 350 pound woman; walking home before NEVER would have happened! But since I rejoined WW and am looking for ways to save money, I decided what the hell? Mine as well go for it!

And when I have to pick it up? I'm gonna go walk there again!

Found this in a book I was proofing at work. Thought it was interesting.

A number of factors in the years from Nixon’s resignation to 2005 have made it harder for most Americans to maintain their living standards throughout their working lives and during retirement.
After strong, steady yearly income growth stopped, the broad American middle class faced serious tradeoffs. If people choose to incur more and more debt to live in their accustomed style during their working lives, saving for an adequate retirement becomes increasingly difficult. But setting aside sufficient savings for an adequate retirement puts the current living standards in jeopardy.
At one point an adequate overall retirement program seemed likely, but the outlook today is grim. The combination of limited income growth, a precipitously declining rate of savings, and an
increasingly inadequate pension system has put much of the middle class in great jeopardy of failing to maintain their working years’ standard of living at retirement.

Jump forward to the 21st century and the picture has changed radically. Personal saving is on the endangered species list. The experts were wrong—the growth of private pension systems stalled and pension plans became less generous. Only Social Security thrived. It had become a political favorite later in the Golden Years and greatly expanded to become the strongest of the three components. But Social Security growth alone will not
take up the slack.

Saving. Many Americans lacking steady income gains are on a borrowing treadmill. Washington Post staff writers Jeffrey Birnbaum and Chris Cillizza observed in a September 2006 article: “According to a study by the Federal Reserve Board, the ratio of financial obligations—primarily mortgages and consumer debt—to disposable personal income rose to a modern record of 18.7 percent earlier this year. The amount of
mortgage debt alone has more than doubled since 2000, to nearly $9 trillion.”

Historically, Americans have not been among the biggest savers compared to people in other rich industrial nations. But what is happening now is unprecedented. The rate of saving to
disposable personal income that ranged from 8 to 11 percent from the Second World War through the 1980s now has
dropped below zero. Associated Press reporter Eileen Alt Powell wrote in mid-2007: “The nation’s savings rate has been negative since the second quarter of 2005.” This is hardly a good sign in the struggle to retain families’ standards of living at retirement.

Although it is not unusual for people to go into debt early in their earning careers, today the saving rate for those under 35 has dropped to 216 percent. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s
Economy.com, noted that “The post-boomer generation feels very cavalier about saving. They’ve been very aggressively dis-saving and have borrowed significantly.”

All this talk about hair lately has nudged me forward to do something with my own. I want to cut it, get something relatively funky. However, I'm not sure how work would feel about the funky I have in mind (Hot pink anyone?). So, instead I decided just to take a few inches off the end, give myself a little different look.

Did it myself last night! ANd it's even! LOL

Saved myself some money doing it myself. Although, I gotta say, I miss having it shampooed by someone else. Hmmm....wonder what BF is doing tonight...

Things I Can Do to Spend Less Money:

1. Cancel Netflix (we don't watch a lot of movies in the summer).

2. Cancel Website and e-mail I pay for (Yes, I have 2 e-mail addy's. Not anymore).

3. Eat breakfast at home instead of stopping for a bagel each morning at the DnD.

4. Make coffee at home every day instead of stopping at DnD.

5. Unplug all electionics, lights, etc we do not use at least once a day.

6. Start clipping coupons.

7. Keep up with regular oil changes in carso my gas milage is better.

8. Clean out my car (needs it big time) so my gas milage is better.

9. Consolidate trips in the car so I use less gas.

10. Plant mostly veggies in the garden this summer instead of flowers like last year.


Things I Can Do to Make More Money:

1. Freelance as much as possible.

2. Yard sale

3. Stuff on half.com and e-bay

4. Yardwork for Mums (This will nt make money per say, but it will be work towards paying off my debt to her).

Saved $30.18 at the grocery store tonight! $1.60 was from coupons and the rest was just due to having a frequent shopper card there and pcking items that were on sale. Will add at least that $1.60 to the $20 Challenge account. LOL I should use coupons more often!

Also added to the $20 challenge is $7 I saved at CVS yesterday. I had a coupon for $7 off any purchase from my extra care savings card. Yay for frequent shopper cards!

Old $20 Challenge Total: $113.27
Added April 13, 2007: $8.60
--------------------------------
New $20 Challenge Total: $121.87

OK, just added $5 in ones to my change bucket. Gotta get back in the saving habit. The Boy said today he thinks maybe the reason we've been so lax w/$$ lately is b/c I have been MIA here. Definately part of it. Posting here and reading others posts does keep me in check.

We took $40 from the Fn Account b/c the boy wants to use it to get me something for V-day. How cute.

Fun Account Total: $181.65
Withdrawl: $40.00
New Fun Account Total: $141.65

Well, we have our checking account. Then my bank savings account wich is really just for paying off the cc debt settlers fee since they direct withdraw $100 from that every month. I have the ING / EF / $20 CHallenge account going. Just openeded an Emigrant savings account. This account is going to be for "fun" things: BF's new glasses, our trip to Vegas, new tattoos, etc. Started it off w/the $1 to open it, and the boy has gotten $180.65 from e-bay sals this last 2 weeks, so that is going into the Fun Account.

Fun Account Total: $181.65

It's been a hectic month. Holidays. New job (longer work hours plus a longer commute). Being tired (gettin less sleep). Being sick (no Health Insurance right now, either). Spending time w/the BF (I love him so much! ).

I've missed being here. I've been doing OK money wise. Now that I have my first paycheck from the new job I know how much I will be bringing home every 2 weeks and I can create a new budget.

Let's see, what has been going on? Well, had to get the brakes redone on my car. Completely worn out (I drive fast and break hard and late). Didn't cost nearly as much as I thought it would, though. Dipped into the savings account to pay for it, which was so nice! It was a fab feeling knowing I had the $ put away for something like this and that I didn't have to use the CC. Cost about $300, but I was expecting close to $500, so I'm VERY happy.

My final CC agreed to settle! I'll be making a 1 time payment of about $1,500 to them next week, and then poof! GONE! It's a great amount...my original bill was about $3,600, not to mention the fees added on for not paying it these past few months when it's been in negotiation.

Made my last payment to CC #2 last month...yay! And my last payment to CC #3 next week....I'm just about done. I'll be starting 2007 with a good mount of debt, but with a balance on only my Med CC and LB CC. I feel like I still have a long way to go (I owe Mums so much $), but everything has gotten in control and I have a new handle on it all.

Things with the boy are FAB! We've been together just over a month now, living together, and I couldn't be happier. He's eve starting to pick up on some of my frugal ways! HA!

Dream come true....we got a FREE aquarium!! I've wanted one my whole life and a few weeks ago me and the boy were talking about saving up for one. Then, someone at my work announcs he is giving away a 45 gal aquarium, with ALL the equiptment, AND THE FISH for FREE!!!! We jumped on it and it's ours! Unfortunately, we have had to spend a little money on it (heater cracked in the car during trasport and we needed to get an air pump for it) but otherwise it's been Fab! There were originaly 6 African Cichlets, but we lost 4 of them in the move. Since then we have gotten a few more, lost some, and reaplced them. Luckily, the fish are fairly inexpensive, ony about $8 each. Still, it's enough to spend, with the gas money for getting to the pet store included.

Anyways, we now have 1 large Orange female named Lizzie (in honor of Lizzie Borden), one albino HUGE male called White (as in Whitey Bulger), two little yellow babies (Frank and Jesse James) and one blue baby who is one part of the former twosome the Menendez Brothers (we lost the other blue baby this morning). We have since had and lost Jack (the Ripper), Ted (Bundy), Gacy (John Wayne Gacy), and another set of James Brothers. I'm starting to think we cursed ourselves naming them after serial killers and criminals. LOL

Anyways, now that things are calming down around here, I'll be back soon. Merry Yule, Merry Chirstmas, Happy Hanukah, Merry Kwanza, Happy Ramadan, and Happy New Year (and anything else I forgot!)

Beginning of a new month; I want a record of all my finances.

CC Savings Account Update:

$1,164.09 bal
- $501.00 transfer to checking
----------
$663.09 bal
+ $110.00 DD from paycheck
----------
$773.09 bal
+ $110.00 DD from paycheck
----------
$883.18 bal
+ 0.28 interest
----------
$883.46 bal
- $98.57 payment to debt company
----------
$784.80 bal
+ $215.20 transfer from checking
----------
$1,000.00 balance 12/1/06

Back up to a grand! Yay!