Extra Money

We finally got our $200 from our rewards points I turned in, I'm going to try to leave it in the bank although I did promise one of my children a download for a game he plays I'm going to try to put that off but if not I'll do it today since September starts our new budget but I want to be as honest as I can regarding our finances so putting it off until then will force me to address this honestly.

Tomorrow is payday and I'll be paying the bills according to our budget I don't usually get money from the bank for jars until Fridays so I'll do that then.

We also have a bunch of yard waste that needs to go to the landfill so I'm hoping to do that also on Friday as to save on gasoline, this also is money that will be coming from the budget but not counted as we go so infrequently it might be a good sinking fund account to start.

Today I'll look through the grocery store sales paper and see If I can match any coupons for groceries and try to sit down and decide on a menu plan for the next week, we have been very good at making our food at home for the past week since we came back from vacation so hopefully we can continue with that on an ongoing basis.

 

~PBMFMM

Budget

Our budget is set up and ready to go starting with payday, we have money set aside for everything I think we will need, I'm sure something will rear its ugly head about a week into the month but we'll have to handle that as it comes up. I haven't allocated money to the school for lunches as I told my children they will be taking lunches to school this year, my youngest doesn't mind but the middle one hates it. If I have money extra with each paycheck I might send some to the school for middle child to eat there occasionally but it's very expensive to eat at school every day and I have told them that.


On a different note I have a medical bill that finally came and is about $1500 dollars that I will be paying on monthly I'm not going to add it to our debt since I also have money in a HSA that will help defer some of that amount and I plan to have the rest paid off within the year.


 It is coming up on extra shift time at work and I plan on working as much overtime as I possibly can, I think I have told everyone this already but I want people to be prepared, since any OT can be used for debt repayment after we get our BEF restocked, I'll also have to save for new tires for my car as they are getting thin but I'll try to use some OT for those also.


 ~PBMFMM

Back

We are back from vacation, actually we have been back about 3 days but we are getting stuff put away, we have way overspent as in all our money in savings and now we are back to baby step 1 in Dave Ramsey's baby step plans. Fortunately September is a 3 paycheck month and I'll be doing our budget on paper today after I finish with my post.

I have finally decided to freeze my credit cards I don't have the heart to take a pair of scissors to them yet, so I figured freezing was best.

Because of the issues with work, we still don't know much we are both afraid of not knowing so we will be making a budget I'm going to try to get my family to get rid of the cable, keep the internet and stream movies from Netflix's or hulu. It will be hard on me as I have no sound on my computer but we have a laptop that we can use if we want to watch.

All our bills are paid for the month and we have about$20.37 in our checking account to last until next Friday, thankfully we don't really need much between now and then as we got groceries before we came home from vacation.

 

~PBMFMM

Debt Totals

Our Debt totals have finally dropped below $49k, I'm so happy :-) Now with any luck on our side we can get it below $48k by the end of September, we are plugging away and trying very hard to get this gone asap due to the job issues we are having although it is looking more and more like our jobs are safe this time, I wonder when/If this will happen again and we won't be so lucky next time.

I'll be turning in some rewards points when we get back from our vacation, our debt card gives us reward points for use, I'm going to see if I can get gift cards or have money directly put onto our debt, I know one of them does that, not sure about the other ones. If not I figure we can use gift cards for groceries and save money that way for possibly a month.

~PBMFMM

Side Bars

I changed my side bars when I found these new ones I like them alot better but since I didn't know my original amounts I just started over I might change them when I find my original amounts but I'm not sure I will.

~PBMFMM

Today’s Spending

Today we have to buy school clothing, cat food and do some grocery shopping then we are off for vacation J here's hoping for an inexpensive trip. Not sure if there will be many posts until we get back so have a great couple of weeks..

 

~PBMFMM

Debt

I forgot to add we only have ~$170.00 left on CC#2 which we will have paid off next month, LOVE 3 paycheck months!!! Then on to CC#1 IF they job market stays the way it is so please keep us in your thoughts regarding our jobs.

 

~PBMFMM

Spending

So far all we have spent money on is necessities for school, home and vacation that starts on Friday, Yes we can't wait what can I say camping here we come! We had to buy new sheets for our beds the old ones had huge holes in them, not sure how they got there but hopefully it doesn't happen again. We are completely finished with school stuff goodbye $150 for that! And vacation starts soon and we need food for camping but we have everything else, so as you can see we'll be AWOL for awhile while we do our last camping trip of the year before school starts again and we are all busy little bees around here. Have a great end of summer everyone J

 

~PBMFMM

Spending

Today we spent $53.94 on home maintenance stuff and $83.04 on DH Hobby stuff, this should be the last of the hobby spending for awhile except for the usual monthly food bills for all our animals.

Dave Ramsey

Well today we rejoined the Dave Ramsey site, www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com because we loved being on it before so hopefully this will keep us up with bill paying.

I did make an extra $100 payment to CC #2 today bringing the total owed to $265 before this month's payment is due, I'll be paying that towards the end of the month and since next month is a 3 paycheck month I'm paying it off completely next month no matter what.

We have some school supplies left over from last year so I won't have to buy some things, and we plan on reusing the pencil box and backpacks from last year.

I'll need to update my side bars as I've paid down the debt since last time, maybe it will make me happy to see them going down faster rather than slower.

 

~PBMFMM

Spending

We have been very good about not spending money this weekend. We spent $9 at the hardware store and $14 on food, I was at work and DH got pizza for him and kids. I still have not taken any money out for jars although I do need to go to the grocery store for milk & bread; I'm going to try to keep it slim.

We still haven't heard anything about the layoffs other then they are coming soon.

We'll be sitting down and making a very strict budget due to this and it will hurt everyone in the family but it needs to be done, just in case.

 

~PBMFMM