Anyone else here line dry their clothes? I was doing this and stopped, but decided to get back at it. I'm not sure how much I  would be saving on my electric bill by doing this though. 

I hung my clothes out to dry and they dried in about a hour. It probably was shorter than that, I was on a work call and forgot about them. 

For those of you who line dry your clothes, is it worth it? And how do you get the outdoor smell out of your clothes ? 

I had a few things come up so I couldn't make my semi-monthly payment of $160, towards the student loan. I paid only $100. 

This is one thing that freaks me out, what if I can't make the payment when things kick back up again. I pray all goes well. 

I am making a little less, but I like the new job. Sometimes it's not about the money but our peace. 

Inflation is definitely here, my grocery bill has skyrocketed. I use to budget $200 a month, now it's about $80 more s month. Thankfully me not driving into work helps, what I save in gas goes towards my food bill.

That's it for now.  

I’ve been sharing with others that the interest on student loans, and repayments are scheduled to start back up with interest accruing first in September, followed by the  first payment due in October. 

Though I can only worry about myself ( I haven’t stopped paying), I’m still anxious about this happening. I’m scared, anxious and  nervous and I don’t know why. Maybe because no one is talking about it. I’m in different financial groups, follow financial gurus and nothing.  It’s almost as if no one is expecting this to start, strange. 

 I recently paid $96 dollars to round things to an even number, I hate odd numbers on any of my debts, don’t  ask me why. 

In preparation for repayment , I signed up for auto pay which saves me a very small amount on interest. I have to remember not to make any payments next month (September).  The reason why is that my first payment of $318.68 is scheduled to hit on October 15th. Since I get paid bi-monthly, (for a while I would pay $160 a pay date for a total of $320 for the month), I want to make sure the funds are available when payments starts. 

 If I skip the September monthly payment that I normally make, the funds are surely to be available on the 15th of October. 

I can surely make extra payments, and I want to, I just need to figure out how much and when. I’ll be reviewing my budget. 

I'm praying for those in Maui, this is so heartbreaking 

This isn’t a post about finances but how I’m feeling. I looked in the mirror and I wanted to cry. I have put on so much weight. This is the most I’ve ever been. I’m so disgusted. 

My goal is to hit 10k a day, starting today and I did that. It was a struggle and I’m sore but I got it in. I also ordered a few healthy meals. I hope this works 

I can't believe how big I've gotten. 

Though eating out appears to be less expensive, in some cases, than eating in, I have managed to eat at home since August has started. 

I'm hoping to reduce my food bill this month. I shopped yesterday at Trader Joe's, which is far less than our local grocery store. 

Things have gotten so expensive. It's times like these that I really miss my dad, he grew all sorts of fruits and vegetables, I don't have a yard to do so. I think I'm going to look into a raised garden. 

Well on my way to visit my friend I felt water dropping in my foot. I’m two hours away from home. I pray this is not something serious. I’ll call the mechanic on Monday. 

wendy to check in at the hotel and my reservations were not made. It looks like I never hit saved. Thankfully we got a room. 

When it rains it pours 

I’m going to visit a friend who has cancer, as I mentioned before, fear often holds us back. It’s a two-hour drive and I’m fearful to take the ride alone so my ex is going. I’ve got to jump out on faith and just do things. 

I rented a room for one night, which cost $82. I could have stayed with my friend but she has cats and I can’t stand them. 

I was lucky to get a room at a reduced rate using a few points. Well my ex wanted to go early, and leave yesterday, I told him if he wanted to go early, he need to foot the bill for the room, which was 100+ dollars and I needed the money upfront if I was booking. 

Well as you can see we aren’t going early. One he doesn’t have the money, and two, I’m no longer footing the bill for anything he suggests or wants, nor am I  waiting for him to reimburse me as he always says. I was always booking the trip and he’ll give me the money back supposedly but it’s either I never see the money or he’s short when he pays me.

I foot the bill for a trip to NY a while back that he was supposed to pay me back which I never got. This is not happening to me again.  Nope. 

I bought my home a few years ago, and ever since I’ve started making payments, I always pay a little extra extra towards the principal. Sometimes it’s $10, $800, $60, it’s always something. I swear this was/is the best decision I’ve ever made financially. My goal is to have my mortgage paid off early, and I think it’s going to happen. 

When mortgage rates were low, I refinanced. I was nervous as hell to do so but I did. I did some research on why I should, spoke with two friends who are financially savvy, I think I also posted here. Either way I got some good advice, and understood why it would be beneficial to me yo do so. 

I ended up getting my rate down to 2.75% and reduced by $200 a month. The money saved from the refinance,  I used to help throw at my student loans. 

I’d shared with my sister to refinance her mortgage and shared why it would have been beneficial, she refused. Once before she’d done this and locked into a balloon mortgage and lost her home (2008). I told her she was wiser now and to ensure that the rate was fixed. She now regrets not doing so, especially with rate hikes in Florida’s homeowners insurance. That’s a different story. 

I can’t help but wonder how fear hold so many of us back, myself included. 

Once I get these student loans gone, I’m going to throw that amount at my mortgage. I can’t wait to do so. I honestly think I’ll be debt free including my mortgage in 10 years. I’ll see. 

today I'll make my September mortgage payment (I like to pay early), for now I’m going to continue to add extra to mortgage, I’m averaging about $60 a month. 

One of my goals for 2023 was to knock out 1/3 of my student loans. I am way benhind on this goal, I've paid just over $2,000. This really ticks me off. I've had so many expenses come up, I can only think that had I not had these this thing would be gone. 

Nothing like crunching the numbers for a reality check. Starting September I'll throw about $1000 a month to it, that's about $4,000 by the end of year. I'm estimating that it will take me two years to pay this thing off. 

Fingers crossed 

I'm not saying I'm perfect, Lord knows when it came to finances I made some mistakes; however I'm taking those mistakes and learning from it. 

I was chatting with my ex, thank God he no longer lives with me, and he was telling me how hard he was hustling to come up with $700 to fix a roof. $700!

 I don't know why but I felt so bad for him. All I can think was that you are 51 years old, in a job that is high risk that can cause you to stop working in a split  second and you're struggling to come up with $700. It's really sad. 

he always have the nerve to say "I've never been in this position."

I had to remind him that he's always in that position and that when he gets a check he needs to put something aside. 

Poor guy, he's got a big heart, but what he's doing, taking on caring for his mom 100% without preparing for his future, is a huge mistake. 

I’m still crunching the numbers but I can say dining out was my second largest expense for July, first was home repairs. 

I’ve committed to eating out less this month. With the exception of visiting a friend who was diagnosed with an illness, and a planned vacation the end of the month, I do not plan on eating out. I’ll post the numbers early next week. 

I’ve screwed up badly, I have no idea where my mind is. First I write a check for the fence on the wrong account which bounced, costing me $25. Next I use my CC to pay for the fence since the check was written on the wrong account, then paid the CC bill from the wrong account, causing an overdraft 🤦🏾‍♀️🙄. I’ll call Bank of America to make sure I’m signed up for overdraft protection. I never signed up because I never overdraft. First time for everything. 

I’ve got to slow down. I don’t know why I always feel rushed. This behavior has cost me.

Physical news. My blood pressure is slightly elevated, the company I work for reimbursed me for walking pad (treadmill), and I’ve been working to get this thing down. I’ve been exercising daily; however, I need to change my eating habits.