September 12 Updates

We PAID OFF Credit Card #1 Today !!!!

Today I added all our debts up and we are under $49k but that is just barely, we have paid all our bills except the mortgage for this month but have major storm clouds in the horizon and will probably start saving money instead of extra to bills but atm we don't know whats happening with these storm clouds.

We do need to buy flea control for our animals so that will be done with the next paycheck, and possibly we will need dog food at that time.

~PBMFMM

September 7

UGH
Today I had to use the CC to buy some thing that broke I swear I'm going to freeze that darn thing and see if that helps. I'll have to readjust the side bars when the totals are posted.

We have stretched ourselves very very thin this payday and not having full paychecks has hurt alot. I feel the opportunity for OT is going to be coming up eventually and will try to pick up as many extra days as possible since I have very lofty goals for next year.

CC#1 will be paid off next payday for 110% sure :-)   then off to the next one on the list I know the new medical bill will be paid off before the 15 months it's scheduled to be paid off because I have money in my HSA and will try to use that to pay it down ~$600 in that account.

~PBMFMM

Tuesday

I paid all our bills up to this point and will pay more next payday and the last ones on the third payday. I'm still hoping to put some in savings but so far we haven't had full paychecks due to vacation.

~PBMFMM

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