Pennies on the Sidewalk

Although I try to save up as much towards extra payments on the CC’s, the big payments really come on paydays. So, two more CC payments today: $100 on the LB CC and $215 on the ATT CC. Plus, another $58 to the ATT CC after the freelance check gets deposited tonight.

CC Activity:
LBCC Old Prev. balance: $1,171.91
Charges (interest): $24.54
Payment: (last week): $100
Prev Balance: $1,196.45
Payment (today): $100
NEW BALANCE: $1,096.45

CC Activity:
ATT Old Prev. balance: $3,347.10
Charges : $274.73
Prev Balance: $3,621.83
Payment (today): $215
NEW BALANCE: $3,406.83



PERSONAL DEBT:
Car: $0
CS fee: $0
LB CC: $1,096.45
AT&T CC: $3,406.83
------------------
$4,503.28

STUDENT LOANS:
RWU: $26,475.41
UMD 1: $38,044.87
UMD 2: $2,435.76
-----------------
$66,956.04

Other: $15,000

TOTAL DEBT: $86,459.32

So the payroll person where I work can be a bitch. They have previously not paid people for overtime. I just looked at my check and they pay me $12.89 an hour. It's supposed to be $12.98 an hour. It's a 9 cents an hour difference, but here is the math:


$.09 cents an hour
$3.60 a week
$7.20 a paycheck
$14.40 a month
$172.80 a year!!!!!

Yikes!!!

Got it sorted out. They inverted the two end numbers, so that was the mistake. They said they will fix it for my next paycheck, plus they said they will pay me what the difference is for the last 2 paychecks in my next check. Which means...An extra $14.40 in my next check!

Since it is “Unexpected extra money” I am going to put it into the $20 Challenge / EF account.

Sooooo excited! Just got an e-mail from half.com saying they are making a direct deposit into my account in a few days. OK, no big deal, they do that twice a month.

BUT

This time it is for..........

$77.01!!!!

That is the largest DD I've ever gotten from them! Can't wait to add that to the CC debt!

Threw $2 in the bag today because I used me AAA card at D'angelos for dinner and saved $2.

Threw in $12 (!) today because when I threw on my jeans this morning, there was $12 in the pocket! Haven't worn these in a week or so, and I forgot about the cash in them. I consider that free money! Cha-Ching!!

After the yard sale on Saturday, this will all go into our $20 Challenge / EF account.


June 6, 2006
Dollars: $14.00
Quarters: $8.50
Dimes: $3.30
Nickels: $1.30
Pennies: $1.05
Vouchers: $1.10

TOTAL: $29.25

So, as mentioned in a pp, we are looking for a condo. Not as great as a house (I want me own yard) but better than an apartment (maintenance and security, we’re not throwing money away on rent but putting money towards owning something, and, did I mention this before, we can decorate as we want! Yay! Paint! Colors on the walls!).

We found one listed in the city we live in, about 20 mins more North of where we live now. About the same commute for me for work, maybe even a little shorter, def. a shorter trip into Boston and Providence. It’s a 2 bedroom unit, w/living room, bathroom, and kitchen. 635 sq. feet. All appliances are included and (so they say) new: fridge, dishwasher, disposal unit, microwave, AC unit, and range/oven. Also supposedly new is the carpet, entry door, bathroom, kitchen, and ceiling (w/remote controlled lights). There is off-street assigned parking (yay! No more fighting over parking spaces!), tennis courts, a swimming pool outside, laundry in each basement, on site security and security safe doors (you can only get in the main building door if you live there or someone buzzes you in).

One bonus is that the condo was originally built to be a 1 bedroom deluxe condo and the previous owners turned it into a 2 bedroom. Since it was built as a 1 bedroom, the condo fee is the 1 bedroom condo fee ($208 a month) as opposed to the 2 bedroom condo fee ($310 a month).

Not sure about the neighborhood. Have heard some negative things about it but not necessarily from people I trust (they are kinda snobby). Def will check into local police reports and activity there before we make a deal.

Price was $70,900, but they just dropped it to $69,900. With no down payment and a 30 year mortgage at 6% interest, it will be about $440 - 460 a month, plus the condo fee ($208 each month) for a total of about $650 – 675 a month. We pay $625 for rent now.

However, there is another unit on the ground that is a 2 bedroom, and 950 or so square feet. It is selling for … $69,900! So we are going to try to use that as a bargaining tool to get them to lower the price (we’d love it to come down to $65,000).

So, that is our condo news. We are going to meet with the real estate agent and look at it tomorrow night when I get home from work. I’m really excited. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high, in case the area sucks or we can’t get a mortgage, or it is way more than we can handle w/fees and such, but I can’t help being a little excited. Just the thought of moving into a place we own (or will own after 30 years, LOL) is so exciting. Wish us luck!

Whoo-hoo! Got another freelance check in the mail yesterday. Another $50 will be going onto the CC as soon as I deposit it on Friday!

So after my small rant about paying rent yesterday, I figured I should explain how and why I am suddenly angry re: rent and apartment living. As some of you may know, we have crazies living next to us. Literally. On one side there was a convicted pedophile (he has recently moved out, thanks goddess), on the other side of us is the one we call the Psycho Hose-beast – cops here all the time b/c she is wicked loud, she has huge fights w/friends and family and girlfriend that involve throwing things and slamming doors and she’s tried to kill herself twice). Across from us is the guy who was in Vietnam and never really left. Multiple personalities and voices and thinks he is still fighting a war. So, really, crazy neighbors. Thing is, I lurve our apartment. I’ve been there 4 ½ years. The whole apt (bedroom, living room, kitchen, dinning room) is blond hardwood floors, one wall in the kitchen is brick and has glass door cabinets, mini storage shelves built into the wall in the hall outside the bathroom, old fashion tub, and sliding wood/glass paned doors that slid into the walls between the living room and dinning room. 4 blocks from the zoo and a great park, 10 minutes from the ocean, 5 minutes to several huge strip malls; I really do love it.

But lately things have been getting to me: crazy neighbors, maintenance that doesn’t ever show up and fix anything (like our bathroom light which has been broke twice now), fighting for off street parking (more cars than spaces), crazy neighbors, not being allowed to paint the walls (I’ve lived with egg-shell white walls now for over 10 years. I’ve never been in a place where we can paint!), etc.

SO, we are thinking of moving. But then we said, well, instead of moving to another place where these same issues could pop up, and where we basically throw money away on rent every month, why don’t we look at buying a place. We know we can’t afford a house, so we are looking at some condos in the area.

Paying rent sucks. It's not even going towards owning something. Just throwing money away every month (and paying way more than the place is actually worth). We are looking to mobe and it turns out we have a very cheap apt. by what we've seen. I'm getting a sinking feeling we won't be able to move for another year or two.

Ok, done griping for now...

Did some big time cleaning this past weekend, and found over $5 in spare change! Yay! Threw it all in the bag, but will do a count up later this week. Not rolling anything right now because I'll need change for the yard sale on Sat!

So I've been having major issues with e-bay. I can't get pics and text to appear on my for sale listings at the same time and as a result, have not been listing. Which is a shame, becasue with the cleaning streak I've been in lately, I've found some good stuff to sell.

Anyways, I was on the ebay message board and saw a LOT of other people having the same problem. Guess ebay is putting in some new technology and it's basically screwing things up for everyone. I thought I'd have to wait, but someone on the MB suggested I try Auctiva.com

It's FAB! It's basically a place where you create your ebay listing, with pics, templates, all the same stuff as ebay, then they upload it for you. You still pay the ebay fees, but Auctiva is free and it gets you around all the tricky stuff from ebay. Plus, they have way more template and options to make your listing look good.

Since it's free (FREE!) I'm listing a bunch of stuff now. Yay!

Bam, baby! $25 for the car! He did the oil change, checked all the fluids, air in my tires, checked the computer...and only $25. Kickarse!

I never can seem to sleep on weekends anymore. Never been a good sleeper anyways, but....

So today I am bringing my car to the mechanic to get some minor work done. Oil change, overall check-up / tune-up (Car just hit 100,000 miles!!!), air in the tires, and hopefully nothing else! Been procrastinating this for a loooong time now.

Have about $60 to get us to the next paycheck (next Friday), and about $100 worth of room on the CC. Really don't want to use that but it looks like I might have to. Ugh.

I get paid every 2 weeks, and I got paid last Friday. When I looked in my account (Direct deposit rocks) I saw I had only about half my paycheck. Ut-oh. So, very long story short, it turns out b/c I was switched from salary to hourly pay w/my new position, they messed up and forgot to pay me for my last week of salary. Boogers.

So, HR cut me a petty cash check for the other week. (How sad is it that 1 week of my pay can come out of petty cash??? LOL)

OK, everything is going well, then I get an e-mail from HR yesterday telling me that when they did that, the took out my health insurance deductible AGAIN so I actually overpaid my health insurance by about $100. Their solution to this? Not deduct it from my next paycheck (June 8th).

OK, all well and good, but that $100 could have been good now. I mean, we have barely any money for the next week b/c I was planning out for us to have that $100. Ugh.

So for the next week, it's no going out, no grocery shopping (which we need, badly), no anything. I guess we'll just have to eat that case of Ramen we have sitting in the kitchen for times like this. LOL

On the plus side, listed 2 new books on half.com last night and one sold today for over $30! Yay!

So I just took a look at my goals for 2007. I am really sucking right now. LOL

GOAL: Save $3,000 in EF. How much do I have now? Less than $75

GOAL: Pay off all CC's, CC fee, and car
How is that going? 2 CC's left (almost $4500).

GOAL: Pay Mom back at least $5,000.
How much do I still owe her? $15,000
Yup, not a penny paid back yet.

Kinda depressing. I knew the new job and pay cut would hurt, but didn't think it would hurt this much. *sigh*

Made a donation today to a co-worker. She is doing the American Cancer Societies Relay for Life. It's a cause I like to support, so I wrote her a small check.

May 30th Donation: $10 to American Cancer Society
Total 2007 Donations: $49

Well, The Boy is no longer at the job with the tips. Too bad, cuz it was some good change. Anyways, still tracking my regular change. Rolled a bunch and deposited almost $30 last weekend, so my totals are low again. But that just means more fun building them back up!

May 30, 2007
Dollars: $0.00
Quarters: $6.25
Dimes: $2.10
Nickels: $1.10
Pennies: $0.84
Vouchers: $1.10

TOTAL: $11.39

I had a webpage that focused on my teaching, writing, and tarot readings. I also had an e-mail with it. However it was costing $11.95 a month, and I haven't really touched it in a year or so.
So, I cancelled it.

Also cancelled our Netflix. With those new Kiosk movie rental machines popping up, you can rent a movie for a buck for a night. Much cheaper than the $15 we were paying every month for Netflix, since we don't watch 15 movies a month.

Cutting some of our extras, but I feel OK with it as does The Boy.

An extra $25 or so a month can go towards debt or saving for something.

Ahhhhh, the frugal life.

Just put another payment on the big CC. Paid $100, but somewere in there I missed $.65 in a finance fee or something, so only $99.35 went towards my debt balance. Slooooooooow going, but hey, I didn't build it up overnight, either. OK, it took a few bad months, but tis OK. It will get paid!!!


PERSONAL DEBT:
Car: $0
CS fee: $0
LB CC: $1,171.91
AT&T CC: $3,347.10
------------------
$4,519.01 (Down $1,000.60)

STUDENT LOANS:
RWU: $26,475.41
UMD 1: $38,044.87
UMD 2: $2,435.76
-----------------
$66,956.04

Other: $15,000

TOTAL DEBT: $86,475.05

My digital camera is dead. It's kinda OK, as I've had it about 3 or 4 years, and electronics tend to burn out around me very quickly (my aura and such).

So, I have found a new one I want. Everything I want in a digital camera, plus a little more. Good price, too. On sale for $130 at Target. But I am trying so hard not to buy it.

I keep telling myself it's a want, not a need. But then part of me says, yes, but to continue to sell things on e-bay, a digital camera would be best. So, is it a want or a need?

Took my $ bills and rolled coins to the bank this morning. Total will be added to my $20 Challenge Account.

Old $20 Challenge Total: $30.99
Cash from the bag: $29.50
--------------------------------
New $20 Challenge Total: $60.49

More big tips from the Boy! YAY! Was able to roll some more change. Can wait to deposit it and add it to the EF account!


May 23, 2007
Dollars: $6.00
Quarters: $11.25
Dimes: $11.20
Nickels: $2.80
Pennies: $2.04
Vouchers: $1.10

TOTAL: $34.39

With that big freelance check I got last week, I did something FAB today. I paid off the balance left on my car AND on the CS fee!!!

Whoo-hoo!

It feels amazing to have 2 of my 4 personal debts paid off! And even better, that's almost $300 a month towards other debt now!


PERSONAL DEBT:
Car: $0 PAID IN FULL!
CS fee: $0 PAID IN FULL!
LB CC: $1,171.91
AT&T CC: $3,476.45
------------------
$4,618.33 (Down $901.28)

STUDENT LOANS:
RWU: $26,475.41
UMD 1: $38,044.87
UMD 2: $2,435.76
-----------------
$66,956.04

Other: $15,000

TOTAL DEBT: $86,574.137

UPDATED 5/23/07

The Boy came home from his first day of work with a cup FULL of change! He earned over $11 in tips (he works at a coffee shop) and over $7 of it was all change!

Plus, did more cleaning and found $2 on the floor under a pile of dirty clohtes.

Added it into the Bag!

May 23, 2007
Dollars: $6.00
Quarters: $10.00
Dimes: $8.50
Nickels: $2.15
Pennies: $1.50
Vouchers: $1.10

TOTAL: $29.25

Now that I have a bunch of coins rolled, I can take them to the bank on Friday. It will put approx. $24 into our EF.

FINALLY was able to take some $ I earned selling a book and put it into the ING/EF $20 Challenge account. That poor thing needs some life breathed into it!!!


Old $20 Challenge Total: $21.87
Interest earned: $.39
Half.com money deposited: $8.73
--------------------------------
New $20 Challenge Total: $30.99

Whoo-hoo!

LOL

Ya know that espression, "When it rains, it pours"?

It's like a fucking monsoon over here.

Found a bunch of things to put on ebay. Ebay is giving me issues. Went to take pics of my items, new batteries in my digital camera...camera is dead. Think it's dead dead as in I need to BUY a new one.

WTF???

Grr.....

ok, i'm done bitching

Found $0.75 while I was cleaning. More cash in the bag!

May 21, 2007
Dollars: $4.00
Quarters: $6.50
Dimes: $5.60
Nickels: $1.45
Pennies: $1.05
Vouchers: $1.10

TOTAL: $19.70

We save all our spare change in a large manilla envelope. We have banks and jars and containers, but for some reason we throw it in there. Don't ask why. I have no idea.

Anyways, I want to start keeping track of it since I don't deposit it until I have a full coin roll. Meaning unless I have $10 in quarters in there, all those quarters sit and wait. Every once in a while we try and throw in a dollar or two. And when I recycle cans and get those vouchers slip, they go in there until I get to the customer service counter on a trip to the grocery store. When there is rolled change, it goes into my $20 Challenge account. I never really know what is in there, and I'd like to get an idea.

May 21, 2007
Dollars: $4.00
Quarters: $6.50
Dimes: $5.00
Nickels: $1.35
Pennies: $1.00
Vouchers: $1.10

TOTAL: $18.95

Right now my checking account is in the negative until that big check clears (tomorrow). Goddess, I hate that. Anyways, I checked my ATT CC and saw that there were a few small charges that just got on the statement. I also paid $30 onto it today, which will actually go through tomorrow. The $30 was money I got from eBay auctions. Yay!

Anyho, due to the other charges, my debt tally balances have changed. Here are the new ones:

PERSONAL DEBT:
Car: $194.46
CS fee: $394.28
LB CC: $1,171.91
AT&T CC: $3,476.45
------------------
$5,207.07 (Down $312.54)

STUDENT LOANS:
RWU: $26,475.41
UMD 1: $38,044.87
UMD 2: $2,435.76
-----------------
$66,956.04

Other: $15,000

TOTAL DEBT: $87,163.11

UPDATED 5/21/07

*sigh* Spent a good chunk of money at CVS today. But it was on need things, not wants, so that is OK.

Vitamins for The Boy - he's not used to damp weatehr (he's from Vegas) and he's not been feeling very good lately so we're hoping this will help out.

Vitamins for me - a new one, on sale for only $6, that helps with weight balance as well. Hey, I'll try anything. Plus I needed more vitamins.

Face wash - been out for a few days now, and acne like mine is ok for a 14 year old, not a 29 year old.

And finally, the most important of all: my birth control pills.

Spend about $35, but all in all, the items we got were needed.

One a diet note, I did OK today. I'm getting better about portion sizes and choosing healthy foods. I am starting a new 6 month program via my health insuranc and when I complete it, I can either contine doing it for no charge, or opt for weight loss surgery and they will pay for the entire procedure.

It's hard for me to really focus on one thing, like getting finances under control. It's so much harder trying to do two things. But, right now one does not come out more important than the other. They are both equally important, and need attention ASAP. Let's just hope by losing weight, I'll eat less, therefore spend less money at the grocery store each week.

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).