When my brother and I was going through it, I wasn’t happy with my original attorney, so I sought another one. I thought I had given her a deposit, to hold. $4,000. But I had no record.

Long story short, I’d asked about the money but the attorney said she didn’t have one. Today out of the blue, she called and mentioned she was cleaning her office and found an envelope with my name on it and a note marked to hold. Low and behold it is the check. She said she thought it was strange because normally the funds would go into the trust account. She’s returning to me. It’s a cashier check, I no longer bank with the bank that issued it, my question is, will I be able to cash it?

If I’m able to cash it, the money is going straight to my savings account. My goal is to save 6 month of my take home pay. I’ll continue to tackle my student loans the same as I am currently doing.

Other news, I paid another $320 on my student loans. My total paid for the month I believe is $3,000, I’ll calculate this weekend. I know that I’m just under $3k for my first loan.

When my brother and I was going through it, I wasn’t happy with my original attorney, so I sought another one. I thought I had given her a deposit, to hold. $4,000. But I had no record.

Long story short, I’d asked about the money but the attorney said she didn’t have one. Today out of the blue, she called and mentioned she was cleaning her office and found an envelope with my name on it and a note marked to hold. Low and behold it is the check. She said she thought it was strange because normally the funds would go into the trust account. She’s returning to me. It’s a cashier check, I no longer bank with the bank that issued it, my question is, will I be able to cash it?

If I’m able to cash it, the money is going straight to my savings account. My goal is to save 6 month of my take home pay. I’ll continue to tackle my student loans the same as I am currently doing.

Other news, I paid another $320 on my student loans. My total paid for the month I believe is $3,000, I’ll calculate this weekend. I know that I’m just under $3k for my first loan.

Pay day and I paid $400 on my student loans. I’m hoping to have my lowest balance loan, of $5,485.00 paid off by December 🙏🏾. The best thing that could have happened was this zero interest deferred payment. It allowed me to tackle at least one of my loans aggressively.

Now I’ll admit last month was a dud. I fell off the wagon, buying things for the house. I wanted to “fix” my home up. I painted my kitchen cabinets, painted the spare bedroom, bought a rug, bought a cube for the office space, and other miscellaneous items. Though I love how things turned out I’m pooped about what I spent (paid cash). So for September I had to reel things in, it’s a no spend month for me. For every day I spend nothing I’m adding $2 to my challenge fund.

Saving news, I socked away $400 in savings today as well, I also realized that my EF, including my mortgage account, has 6 months of expenses saved. I’m so excited about this. I’m really nervous about what will happen the first quarter of 2021, I think things are going to get bad. We can’t have record number unemployment and nothing going into default. But either way, I want to be ready, my goal is to have 6 months of my take home pay saved not expenses but I’ll take this for now.

Other news, I had to call the electrician back, we think that the plug on the dryer was bad, fingers crossed, that it’s fixed. I don’t mind hanging my clothes to dry but I like to dry my towels in the dryer that way they’re nice and soft.

That’s it in a nutshell for me.

Just checking in, I hope everyone is doing well, for me I’ve been trucking along.

We have another storm brewing, 🤦🏽‍♀️🙄, hopefully it passes us by. Yesterday I headed out to the store to pick up a few snacks, other than that I’m doing pretty well with hurricane supplies. Though today it appears as though the storm made a turn, I’m always thinking better safe than sorry, these things can shift at any moment.

Yesterday I paid $300 on the student loan, finally got the balance just under $6k at $5885. This is one of four loans, and I’m so happy to be tackling them finally. For September I’ll be able to pay about $1500 on it.

I also made my first mortgage payment after refinancing, I really want to pay extra on this loan but won’t start doing that until January. I’m thankful for the long term savings.

My emergency fund, finally hit the 6 months worth of expenses saved yesterday. I’m so excited about this, because I’m genuinely nervous about this virus and the impact on businesses. I’m working but we laid off a ton of staff, that we brought back but things look shaky.

I’m so thankful that I worked my butt off to pay off this debt. By doing so my expenses reduced and I was able to save. Rather than needing $2500 a month for expenses, I only need about $1200 a month. I did rounded up to $1500 to include groceries and miscellaneous stuff.

Separate from my EF that covers mortgage payments as well, I also have about 2 months of mortgage (including escrow) payments saved, and about $2k for home repairs.

Though I haven’t hit financial independence I have hit financial peace of mind.

I’m praying things turn around with this virus and economy. One thing I’ve learned, the stock market is not the economy.

In friends and family news, my friend lost her dad to COVID, this is the third person I know who had lost their lives to this virus. Another decided to take a family trip because they needed to get away, well, the entire family was diagnosed and fell very ill, the husband ended up in the hospital for a while, thankfully he’s still with us.

Stay safe everyone

This week I received two checks, one for my escrow from the previous lender and a refund from my attorney. I had asked her to hold on to the retainer a little longer in case my brother started up. Well the check came and it was almost $2k. I was surprised.

With both of these deposits and my payday savings I’m about $15 away from having 6 months of expenses saved. I guess things work out for a reason. Ii will up the side bar later

I’m pretty certain my escrow account will not be enough to cover taxes and insurance in November, so I’m saving my October and November side hustle checks to pay the difference. I do not want a higher mortgage payment.

Things are trucking along, after reviewing the budget, and making some adjustments, I’m able to pay $400 on my student loans Friday. I’ll be honest, I’m hoping this interest free savings continues, I’m making some serious progress on my loans.

My refi was approved, whew! I should be closing next week. I’m so excited to be saving on this mortgage. The savings is about $230 a month.

If I close next week, there will be no July payment, I can sock that payment away to my mortgage sinking fund, and that would put me at 3 months saved, aside from the EF. Once that happens, I can now stop funding this account and throw that money at my student loans.

I was hoping to throw $1000 this month to the student loans but it looks like only $500. I totally forgot I had to pay for the inspection of the home during the refi. Oh well, something is better than nothing.

I’m so thankful for everyone here and of course God, who has taken me on this journey to get my finances in order. I have a ways to go but I’ve definitely come a long way. God put it on my heart, that pay check to pay check was not the way to live, and all of you encouraged me along the way. It’s such a relief, to finally see I can do it.

I’ll admit, I get disappointed when I look at my student loans but, I know I can get them behind me

I’m 46 but for some reason it’s on my heart that I’ll be totally debt free by 55, and that includes the house.

Sinking funds. I have so many, but they give me peace. When I bought my house I started a home repair fund, best decision ever and later a mortgage fund. The goal of the mortgage fund was to save three months payments, in addition to my EF. By the end of this month, I’ll have the three months mortgage saved.

I’m so excited about this! Just knowing that I have at least three months of mortgage saved, not including my EF, is amazing. Once I hit that goal, I can throw the extra cash at my EF. The goal of my EF is to have six months of expenses saved. I have a way to go but definitely believe I’ll get there.

I signed the documents to lock in my refi rate of 2.70. In my excitement to post I was thinking my total payments would drop close to 50% but the numbers I was looking at was only the P&I. I forgot about escrow, over all based on the recalculation I’m looking at a 30% decrease, that includes P&I as well as escrow. That’s still significant and will help me knock 🥊 this mortgage and student loans out sooner.

Today was pay day, I managed to save 51% of my income. This include my monthly mortgage payment. If I close before the first, I won’t have to make the July payment. I also, added an extra $100 to the student loans. Though when I look at the balance, my payments look like pennies, I know eventually this will change. In the past I paid for my degree, I have no idea what possessed me to take out a student loan, oh well, can’t cry over spilled milk.

Finally I feel like I can breath, that I can make head way. I’m saving and paying off debt, and it feels good.

This is tough for me but I decided to hoard cash and only pay the minimum on my debt. Though I think/feel like my job is stable, with this pandemic, things can change over night.

I reached out to our controller, after reading an article that the loans for small businesses had reached its cap. He was always adamant that there is a possibility that the organization wouldn’t get it, as with I, but just to read about it, it did something to me. Our organization’s loan application and backup documents are in, at this time we are just waiting.

Then a friend of mine, who has a small business, was in the middle of underwriting when he received an email, his loan was denied due to depleted Paycheck Protection funds. He actually shared the email. This is so heartbreaking, as well as my validation to save more aggressively now.

Honestly I’m nervous about food. I went on Walmart Sunday, and the shelves were empty, no eggs, milk, orange juice, nothing.

I know we’re told not to hoard things, but I’m heading into the grocery store today to get a few perishable items, and water. We’re heading into hurricane season, and if we have an active season, with this pandemic, only God knows what will happen.

For the most part I feel good but I can’t help but be nervous.

This week has been rough, work is very stressful. I’ve got to learn to let things go. This is not my organization.

Financial news, my stimulus/loan hit my account today, $1200. I added this to my emergency fund. I also, received the check from my side gig (last week) and decided to pay my car insurance for three months, saving me about $16.

Though I’d really like to tackle my CC right now, a part of me is telling me to save. Save as much as I can, and pay minimum payments on bills. I’m so confused about what I should do. Save, pay debt, save pay debt.

My student loans payment automatically stopped.

I’m just confused 🥴

I ell these last few weeks have been extremely exhausting for me.

First my mom hit me for $1500 that I totally forgot about, significantly reducing my EF. I’d borrow the money from her about five years ago. I tried paying her back and she wouldn’t take the money. Honestly I forgot about it, well she asked for it. Was I annoyed? Absolutely but I owe it and I’m done with it. She was upset because I took my $100 she owed me, for paying her cable bill. Either way, we’re done. I’m trying to hold on to my EF in case I’m laid off.

Next, I’m in HR. What I’ve found is that these managers do not adhere to the recommendations that I make. They’ll go to my boss, the CEO, get her confuse and convince her to go with their recommendations, that normally benefits themselves and their favorites.

Well yesterday, I had a manager insist on laying staff off. I’d advise her against it. The controller and I had worked out a few kinks and created a plan that could keep staff, all would receive their pay, and keep medical expenses at least a month. I’d given her a few options. She said she would speak to her direct report and call me back. Well the next call I get is the CEO decided to shut down two facilities, 40+ employees. I ask, when will this be done she says it’s already done. Being pissed is an understatement.

Well after she did this, she realized that the plan to pay her high income earner friends was no longer. 1.5 to 2 hours later, she’s on the phone telling her director staff to return to work. This is so unprofessional and unacceptable, I can just scream. We can’t do this to staff, given these times.

When I finally spoke to my CEO, she liked my recommendations and was told she was never provided my recommendation.

Well it’s been a pretty good week. Tomorrow I turn 46, wow.

I feel somewhat down because I feel like I haven’t gotten myself together financially; however, I’ve made some progress.

Rather than focusing on the negative, I’ll focus on the positive.

Today, I paid an extra $453.78 on CC10 knocking the balance down to $5,500. Tomorrow’s billing cycle ends, so I’ll be hit with interest 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️. I did look at transferring the balance to a zero interest card but the fees to transfer wasn’t worth it. I’ll have the card paid off in a about four to five months.

I also added $50 to the EF, $50 to the IRA account.

This month I have not eaten out, 16 days. Wow. I almost gave in yesterday, it was the sorority’s Founders’ Day and I really wanted to hang out with my girls but paying the credit card 💳 debt was the best decision. I’ve saved a ton by not eating out.

Tomorrow I’ll head to Sweet Tomatoes for my free birthday dinner.

Lastly, I decided to get the quote on the hurricane shutters before the season rolls around. It’s so difficult for me to find some one to come and put the plywood up. I wish I could find a decent handyman. I’ll apply for the city grant for reimbursement

Well final cost to repair my car $776.26
The funds actually came out of the sinking fund that I save for car repair and a new car. I sort of feel defeated but I am thankful for being able to pay cash for the repair. I literally knocked my car sinking fund down to zero. I went ahead and got my headlights cleaned, cost was $80. It had become increasingly difficult to see at night. I’d tried the toothpaste remedy and other stuff but nothing cleaned them. Pray fully I can the get the sinking fund back up.

Today was pay day, and I wasn’t able to add extra to the CC 😢. So I’m feeling really down.

Needless to say, I socked away about $344 to sinking and emergency fund.
Added to my IRA. I almost changed the amount by $25 less, but opted not to. I need to stick with the plan, of bumping my IRA contributions every year.

I paid a few miscellaneous bills, and tithed. Today I’ll be stuffing my cash envelopes.

Next month is a better month. I should be able to throw about an extra $300 to the CC, and $400 to my car fund.

I set the bar high for 2020, the goal is to pay off $20k in debt. I know it’s going to be tough but if I keep a lean budget, blog so that I’m held accountable, I think, no, I know I can do it.

I’ve got to stay focus and determine as it pertains to paying down debt and saving. Though this year wasn’t too bad, I just feel like I should be further along

Thank goodness I did not use the emergency fund, my car broke down today. Cost $779.00. This will clean out my new car/maintenance fund.

Though I have a car fund, for maintenance/new car, I also have an EF. It felt good to have the money to pay cash to get my car fixed, and not touch my EF. I’m not happy about the cost but I’m thankful I’ve been saving.

This just reminded me you have to have a cushion

Today is pay day, and I can’t wait to Stuff my cash envelopes.

I’ve created the budget for this pay period; however, my cash envelopes are pretty healthy so I’m sure I’ll be returning some cash back to the bank and adding the extra to the EF. I’m staying focus. Refunding my EF, tackling the CC the student loans, in that order.

I woke up at 3 am, checked my accounts and the direct deposits hit. I paid the following
$951.10 mortgage
$200 extra on CC10 💳
$50 plot
$195.51 tithes

I saved a total of $344, this include the EF, sinking funds and IRA. I was able to bump my IRA, doubling, my contribution. I decided anytime I get a raise or bonus I’m adding to the IRA.

I checked my electric bill, today is the last day in the billing cycle, my current usage is $69, by the end of the day, I’m anticipating my bill should be about $72. I’m so excited. My bill has never been this low. I’ve managed to knock my electric bill down by more than half since the SO has been gone.

My ending EF balance December of 2018 was $8197.69 my goal is to not only get back to this balance but surpass it.

As you all know, I had the emergency legal fee of $5,000. I was so close to hitting the 6 month savings goal and then boom 💥. I am thankful that I had the money to pay 💰 the lawyer.

I checked the EF and my balance is $5,559.87, I’m estimating by the end of December 2019 my ending balance would be about $6900. 🤞🏾

There’s so many things I want, and to do but I realize, I need to stay focus. Focus on one thing at a time is a must. First thing is, I need to keep socking money into the EF, the goal is to have 6 months of living expenses, that’s 12k. Plus a little extra, for legal fees, until this issue with my brother is resolved. I’ve been laid off 3xs and thankfully I had money saved. Right now the average time to find a job is about 6-8 months.

I’m still throwing extra at the CC, about $300-$400 a month, hopefully by March/April this baby will be gone.

Next, I know my car will need to be replaced, she has 259,000 miles on her. I love that car (Camry) and I pray she hangs around at least two more years but at so many miles I don’t know. The goal is to have about $5,000 saved, so that I can buy a car cash.

Lastly, it’s the student loans and the mortgage. If all goes well, and I hit my EF savings goals by February, pay off CC10 by March/April, I can pay an extra $400-$500 a month on the student loans , an extra $100 a month on the mortgage, and bump my retirement contributions. That’s the plan.

In other news. SO has been extremely sick. I personally think he didn’t go to the doctor because he has no insurance or the money. He finally broke down and went to the hospital 🏥 yesterday. I told him, if what he was experiencing wasn’t life threatening, that they would stabilize him and send him home 🏡. And that’s exactly what happened. The ER doctor 👨🏽‍⚕️believes he has an ulcer. I told him that as well. The stress he’s experiencing is off the charts.

Any way they gave him two prescriptions and told him to follow up with a gastroenterologist. The prescription was $200, I offered to pay. It’s the helping others in me. He opted against it. I went online and found a prescription discount drug card, with the card, the prescription dropped to $29.

I’m praying for his sake, he gets his life together.

Balanced my cash envelopes, and I did pretty good. I came in under budget for the most part

Category Budgeted Left
Groceries $80 $30
Auto $80 $50
Personal $130 $0
Fun $30 $30
Household $30 $27

As previously reported in another post, things are looking great. The electric bill was reduced by almost $60, the water bill came in at $45.68, this is the same as last month but down by $20 over all.

I’m going to cancel Netflix, I realize I don’t use it and that’s $14 I can throw at debt.

Savings is up, I’m about $1200 away from meeting my short term EF goal of 3 months worth of expenses saved. I can’t wait to hit the six month mark, then I’ll feel comfortable and can start throwing even more at debt.

Lastly, I received a notice that my taxes for the town in that I live in, has dropped

Cashed out my Ibotta rebates and added to the EF. I’m about $1,300 away from having three months of expenses saved. The goals is six months but I’d love a year.

Today I’ve been binge watching shows by Gail Vaz Oxlade, quite interesting.

Yay final check hit from my previous employer. Of course I paid my tithes $78.06, myself $100 (EF), knocked CC5 💳 down to $500 and kept $100 in checking as a buffer.

I know some of you would say why not pay all to debt? Well because God has been way too good to me, for me not to give Him what belongs to Him first. I’ve learned over the years, that while paying down debt, if you don’t pay yourself first, Murphy will hit and hit hard. Plus this teaches me to live on less than I actually make.

I think this is the Great Depression syndrome. People who’ve gone through the depression tend to save no matter what for a rainy day.

Right before the Great Recession of 2008, I’d paid off my debts and saved a nice chunk of change 💰. Well the recession hit, I wasn’t worried, I was able to stay home, finish college, take trips and enjoyed my summer while all my friends worried and couldn’t find work. I also ended up back in the mess I’m in after this, by not staying true to my values 🙄, lesson learned. So for me, I never want to be in a position where I can’t afford to stay home if the worst thing happens.

I think that’s why I’m saving. Though I’m what one might call a moderate Republican, I hate government interference, I’m pro gun and pro choice, and I don’t like what I’m seeing. Home 🏡 prices are slowly creeping back up, people are frantic about buying a home (me included), jobs are steady but lay offs are happening and gas ⛽️ , well that’s up and down. Plus the markets has been way too good. I always say, what goes up must come down. Maybe I’m overly cautious but I’d rather side on the side of saving than not.

Oops, it wouldn’t be a post without SO drama. His daughter who is pregnant went to the movies with cousins. Apparently one of the cousins decided to head out the theater early. Well this cousin, who just turned 18 gets into a fight with a 16 y/o and ends up in jail. 🤦🏾‍♀️🙄
I’m not sure why the daughter was at the movie 🎥 she should be in stork mode getting ready for a baby 👶🏾 but of course the grandmother 👵🏽 allowed this foolishness. 🤦🏾‍♀️ unbelievable. SO is another reason why I’m saving and paying down debt. He has too much drama, I need to move or get him out of here. I can’t afford to live on my own with debt and no savings

Just paid over $300 on the Target 🎯 bill, my new balance is $349.61. I should have this sucker paid off by the end of April, thank you Jesus.

I pulled my credit score with Transamerica and it was 698, not bad. Think my high score was 702. I noticed that as I pay these suckers off it's creeping back up. The jump is due to the decrease in high balances.

Back to Target, I'm going to be really annoyed if my payment isn't posted right away. They have a tendency of holding high payments. They actually suck, you can only make like two payments in a 7-day period, you can't add decimals. For example, I'd budgeted $348.76 but had to round up. No big deal but I like a balanced budgets, no over budget items just under. And lastly they hold large sums of payments. They make it extremely difficult to get your balance down.

It's 3:29 am and I've already spent the following:
* $196.08 Tithes - not negotiable
* $20 vacation club (savings)
* $211 JCP - minimum payment that include my AAA purchase
* $349 Target - debt snowball

Though a lot has gone out and I haven't cut the rent check yet, I'm thankful because one, I never thought in a million years that I could and would be faithful with my tithes. Secondly, with my raise and paying down debt, I've freed up over $500 a paycheck. Right now all you see are the payments but I'm about to add a total of $107 to my savings. All I think about is, when CC4 💳 is gone that will be another $50.

I'm so overwhelmed with mix emotions. I'm upset that I'm on this journey once again and I'm glad that I'm doing what it takes to no longer be slave to the lender.
I know it takes time and that I'll get there

I had budgeted $110 for the optometrist. Well for some reason, things just didn't sit right. I had scheduled my appointment but something kept nudging at me to call them. So I did and found out that my renewal is in July.

I ordered my contacts, that came to $34.99 and canceled my appointment. I'm going to pay half of what's saved to the CC and put the difference in the EF. But a part of me is saying add the entire $75 to CC4. If I did this it will bring the balance to about $658.

Decisions

On the 28th of February I paid a $1,000 on CC4. I notice that my available credit after paying it hadn't changed, so I called the credit card 💳 company. Well they were holding the funds.

Why would they hold the funds? Well I found out that if you make a large payment they hold your funds. This to me is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. I paid it and it should be processed. Well they finally processed it yesterday, two and a half weeks later. Smh

I've updated my side bar, things are looking pretty good. As you all know, I'm not going on the vacation but I'm saving now for a laptop. I probably could have purchased a refurbished one this budget period but I decided to wait, it's not a must. I do like the idea of putting money aside so when I want a big purchase such as a laptop 💻 that's not an emergency 🚨, I can simply just purchase the item. Or maybe one day I can treat myself to a fabulous lunch, and a little shopping that's credit card 💳 free. What I've found is that this program works but for me I need to do something nice once in a while or at least know that I can. Though I haven't done anything foolish since I've started, just knowing that I have the $100 to blow, if I get a crazy urge, makes me feel good. It's a process. Who knows, I may use this money to pay my CCs, that seems to give me the most pleasure. Who would have thought that paying down debt, gave you a natural high lol 😂 too funny.

I know Dave says to save a $1000 for the EF and then tackle debt. But my car is old with over 200k miles. I drive about 60 miles round trip each day for work. So for me, I think I need to budget funds for the EF, even if it's $20. I want to have at least $6k 💵 saved in case I have to buy another car 🚗. I'm happy that I was able to throw an extra $54 at it. This may slow me down a bit, but if my car breaks down rather than financing I'll have good ol sweet cash 💰.

Sinking fund, well this was to be for car insurance, car maintenance 🚗, Christmas 🎄 gifts and sorority dues; unfortunately I've been using this account strictly for car repairs. I'm glad I have the money 💰 but I was really hoping to be able to pay my car insurance for six months. I have one more item to fix on my car, once that's done everything else should be good and come October I'll be able to pay the six months.

Oh SO, has challenged himself not to spend any money, seems like last week he did pretty good. I didn't ask but I'm happy he's at least trying.
That's it for now.

Finally sold the tennis hopper and balls 🎾

I'm adding the $15 made to the EF, I've decided that no matter what, I'm going to add to my EF each pay period at least 2% of my net income, and what ever else I sell will go to the EF.

I remember my dad saying once that if you put $10 out of your check each pay date and save it, pretty soon you'll have so much money that you won't want to touch it. Since I lost my dad, I've been determine to make him proud about what I've done with my money. I want to save and be generous just like him.

Hopefully I can sell some more items. I'm

I was able to cash the check, thank goodness, this was a nightmare (see Sprint post) and glad it's over.

After paying my tithes from the check received, I can add about
$190 to the EF bringing the total to about $994 just $6 away from my mini EF.

I was so stressed out last week about taking the money out of the EF; however, I'm a true believer that it was all God. I made it a point to pay my tithes with every extra income I had received and though I'm upset for a few minutes when things occur, a calmness then comes over me. The only thing I'm anxious about is getting out of debt and saving money.

Today we're having a chapter meeting and was asked to provide non-perishable items. Normally I'd go out and buy items, I simply took what was in my cabinet that I have not used and don't plan on it any time soon, and bagged it all up. Loving this being intentional with your money concept.