Anyone else having issues with their side bars? I've updated three a number of times and the balance in CC3 is still incorrect .

So glad we decided to donate Thanksgiving dinner this year.

When drop the food off it was clear that this young lady was need. Her son was so excited to see a bottle of soda and the pie. It reminded me of the small things we take for granted, like the ability to have a Coke every now and then.

The entire meal for the family was a little less than $25. Items purchased:
• turkey
• stuffing
• 2 liter Coke
• 2 liter Sprite
• canned corn (3)
• canned string beans (3)
• dinner rolls
• sweet potato pie
• rice

My heart was broken as I watched the 10 year old's face light up.

Well today was pay day and a new budget. I transferred $2.98 from my envelopes to my change jar. I decided to keep what's left in the envelopes in their respective places. I haven't crunch the numbers but I had $10 in the transportation envelope; $65 in the grocery envelope; $6 in the recreation envelope, and the others I can't remember but I was happy with the grocery envelope. I'll definitely review these tomorrow.

So I paid out a nice chunk of change in CC debt today, over $700 😡. I under budgeted this line item by $0.70. The only good thing about this is that I've reached baby step 1 and will be adding an extra $100+ to CC2 debt, so next month this total should be down.

Well I'm heading to bed, tomorrow is a busy day.

Since I started the 3:10 challenge, tithing faithfully for three months and watching God work, I can say I experience a miracle today.

Woke up to head to church, and the tire was flat. No big deal, drove the fiancé truck with no a/c. Needless to say, miracle number one, it was a beautiful day. We rode with the windows down and enjoyed the nice cool breeze. I'm in Florida and we seldom experience such cool weather.

Miracle number two, well the fiancé pumped the tire up, drove it to the repair shop and low and behold the tire is perfectly fine. Strange, but I'll take that blessing.

Yesterday was a no spend day, first in I don't know how long. Today I spent $15. Not too happy with that, we bought grapes, chips (I could have done without), juice and a pack of chicken. I didn't realize that the extra 5% off on the grapes ended yesterday. I've figured out I cannot go to the store with the fiancé. Tonight or tomorrow evening I plan on having the budget conversation, but this is the week that it will be done. No need in putting things off.

Went to Target to pick up a few items (Coke, bacon, orange juice, and grapes).

The grapes I usually eat as a snack vs chips but they weren't on sale, so I left them. The bacon I have a slice for breakfast and there was a 5% off. I also have orange juice on the weekends with breakfast, this tend to last a while but I could not find the Target brand in our store that had the 5%. The fiancé insisted that we go ahead and pick up, I hate shopping with him. And the Coke, I pack for lunch. I have one can a day, this is down from about 2-3. I really need to work on this, by drinking more water.

So we make it to the check out and I start to separate my items from the fiancé's and he becomes annoyed and decided to pay for everything. I say to him, I'm okay with that and I'm on a strict budget. Once we get into the car I say to him that he really needs to get onboard with me or things aren't going to work. I made a list and let's stick to it. He always heads in the store and picks up items that A) we don't need and b) unhealthy and expensive. I realize that I may be the issue as well. I try my best not to mention budget but when I go into the store, I'm paying with what's been budgeted and applied to my envelopes, I don't need him picking up $24 bags of candy, $4 cookies etc.

As with DW and Monkey Momma today's dinner is based on what we already have in the pantry. I'm using what we have first. I'm so excited about the journey that I'm on and it's draining when you love someone who you know have the potential to be great, and not struggle and opts not to even try.

Crazy day today.

Rolled a total of $39 in change, adding this to the EF (baby step 1) for a total now of $513.33.

We needed paper towels for the house so I ordered online through iBotta for the 20% cash back, which ended up saving me even more. Wal*Mart provided an extra $1.12 discount for in store pick up. Amazingly the process was pretty easy and quick. I think when I need household items such as garbage bags and cleaning supplies, I'll go this route.

While in Wal*Mart I almost bought waffles but as DW mentioned in another one of my posts, this is not needed, we have bread so I can make toast in the mornings.

Went to Target to get the tissue, I know DW spoke against this but I need it for the job. Sometimes I have to blow my nose and it tends to last awhile. Good thing about this trip to Target I only picked up what I needed and that was one box of tissue. I also took advantage of the $0.05 for brining your own bag, this saved me on the taxes.

Went to the salon, I go only twice a month vs the four times now. This is something I will not cut out and it's okay. I've managed to cut back on the number of times I go, I relax and color my own hair. By doing this, it has really saved me big bucks. By cutting just a few things vs not depriving myself totally, I think it helps me to stay focus and not crashing. I have cut out the pedicures completely, opting for home pedicures.

I have always wanted to learn to sew. I'm still teaching myself but I think I am mastering the envelope throw pillow. Made this little doozy for a colleague whose favorite color is blue and she's leaving.



We decided to buy blue items and put in a basket as her going away. Basically we're going to be blue without her, is our theme.

In financial news, I went to Wal*Mart, I needed some breakfast food. I noticed that iBotta had $0.50 rebate on waffles plus $0.25, for a store receipt. So I bought the waffles for $2.38, earning my $0.75 in rebates, over all cost of the waffles was $1.63, not bad.

Mom gave me an 18-count of eggs so that saved me a few dollars. Tomorrow is my Target run, I'll return the coupon book and hopefully get some great deals on meat. Last week nothing was marked down and I'm running low on meat. I'll try a few meatless meals if there aren't any deals. Thanks for the suggestion SA.

On a different note, I realized that the external drive I have plugged into the computer is the culprit as to why I am having computer problems 💻. Now I know that once I back my files up, I have to unplug it.

My old boss is still rude. She came into the office and I said good morning twice and of course she didn't speak. I told my new manager and all he could say was, "she lacks management skills." For two weeks she's had a colleague in tears and no one in upper management or employee relations has addressed the issue. I've applied for a payroll position in the company, hopefully I get it and get from under her wrath.

Today's Target run, wasn't too great. We got two pounds of 96% fat free ground beef for about $8. I only buy meat that's on sale with coupons. I was somewhat disappointed but hey, something is better than nothing.

I also ended up picking up a coupon expandable organizer for $7.99 to use as my cash spending envelopes. I think this will be better than the actual envelopes I use. I'm always looking for the right envelope to take the cash out of, sometimes I take from the wrong envelope, and so on. So this may help in the budgeting area. Hmmm as I'm typing this blog, I realize that the Dollar Tree, dollar store, may have the item for a $1, if that's the case I'll take the other one back.

After Lucky Robin's eye opener about my pedi, I decided to revamp my budget. First I'm taking 10% off the top for my tithes at church. I will add to the EF for baby step 1 and then the remainder towards everything else.

Follow up.
Well I wrote the first few paragraphs earlier, so here is what happened since then.

I found the coupon book at Dollar Tree, I'll use for a few weeks before taking the other back to make sure it holds up.

I have updated my zero balance budget, putting my tithes first and then the EF. I had to cut my pocket/recreation funds but I'm okay with that. I'm loving this zero balance budgeting, the envelope system really works.

Thanks for holding me accountable everyone as I take this journey to financial peace.

Computer back up, yay. I'm going to back everything up. I usually backup any way but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I estimated $60 at the salon and that's exactly what I spent. Saving about $30 by simply doing some things at home.

I decided to try a cosmetology school for a pedicure. It's $10 vs $20 not including a tip if I'd gone to a normal salon.

So I go to the school, walk in a thought this place doesn't look that great. Needless to say I sat in the pedi chair, and the young woman came out with a foot spa. I'm okay with the foot spa but the fact it wasn't clean (appeared not to be), through me for a loop. Then she came out with the pedi kit that didn't look clean as well. I'm thinking hmmmm. Finally what did it for me was the dirty towel she had. I took my feet out of the spa, grabbed my purse, gave her $2 for her troubles and left. I'd rather pay the $20 for a pedi than $10 and an infection.
So I ended up spending $24 on a pedi. I'll stick to the places I know of.

Budgeted $80 for my hair but it should have been $90, so I decided not to go this week and will go next week only spending $45.

Today was a crazy day, yet slow day. I had a sorority meeting that I just didn't feel like going to so I stayed home.

Secondly, did some shopping at Wal*Mart for a few items and a gift card for a baby shower. Would you believe they only had gift cards for restaurants? 🙄 So I had to go to another store.

I never did make it to the baby shower, and then the fiancé and I headed out to get wings.

I decided to wash my own hair, I was thinking I should had the $45 I would have paid today had I gone to the salon, to my pocket money envelope.

Now I'm just here, watching Alabama beat up on Arkansas. 😀

Last year I was really slacking with my finances. I wasn't balancing my accounts and Go Daddy charged me $180. Didn't catch the charge until about four months later. I thought, I had cancelled the service, but low and behold they charged me again. Ugh! Thank goodness I'm on top of things now, I jumped right on the phone and called them. Now I'm waiting for my refund.

Meantime this charged caused me to go over my limit on the CC incurring another fee😡. I'll be reaching out to BoA to get this taken care of first thing in the morning.

Some good news, I took a look at my spending habits for the last two weeks and I did pretty good for a first time budgeter (new word)lol.

The pluses (+) mean that I actually had money left over and I did not go over my budget.

The negatives (-) represents the amount I went over what was budgeted, so here we go.

Charity +$20
Groceries under budgeted by -$3.57
Savings balanced
Housing balanced
Utilities -$5.56
Personal +$40.85
Debt CC +$26.00
Insurance +$63.36
Medical +$35
Transportation balanced

I'd say I did pretty good as a first timer. I prefer the per pay period/zero budget vs by month, that seems to work for me and provide me a sense of accomplishment.

Another good note I received my Wal*Mart Saving Catcher credit and was able to get my nephew tablet for his birthday for free. Not bad.

Received my $14.84 check from Ebates today, I'm adding this to the EF.

Well tomorrow starts a new pay date and a new budget. I'm so loving this budget thing. I can't believe I've never actually created a budget and stuck to it.

Just eyeballing the numbers, it appears as though, I have over budgeted a few items and have about $200 to play with. I can't actually add the extra to the EF but at least I have few funds to roll over since it's going to be a tough few weeks for me when it comes to money. Pay day is tomorrow, but following that the next paycheck won't be until the 31st 🙄.

For example, this last budget period, I budgeted $80 for transportation. I'm at little less than half a tank of gas right now and tomorrow's pay day. Due to the extra week in October this budget period, I had to add an extra $20 for gas. I spend, about $40 a week on gas 🤦🏾‍♀️🙄. So this applies to all other budgeted categories.

I can't wait to see how I did after the first two week's of budgeting. I'll be crunching the numbers Saturday.

For some reason I'm annoyed.

So I had $20.76 left in my gas ⛽️ envelope. Went to Murphy's, gas there is $2.42 per gallon. All the lights were on at the station but when I tried to go inside, the doors was locked and the attendant stated they were close. I noticed that people were using their cards, but I vowed to not do that.

As I was leaving, I saw a gas ⛽️ truck and figured I'd come back after Bible study 📖, maybe they were low on gas. Who knows?

After Bible study I passed a Wawa, $2.42 a gallon. Went back to Murphy's because Wawa was too busy and of course the location (Murphy's) was still closed. I headed north to a Wawa closer to my house, gas there was $2.44 per gallon. Two cents more, but why am I so mad about it? It's only two cents, but I'm ticked off all the same.

In other financial news, I'm on track with my two week budget and am preparing for the next three weeks, since pay day is on the 31st.

As you all know, I do my Target runs on Sundays and create my meal plans based on the meat 🍖 I get. This week we had chicken breast wrapped in bacon 🥓 . OMG 😲 it was delicious 😋. Tonight I made hamburgers and tomorrow I'll make something with the chicken breast we have. This passed Sunday, there weren't much mark downs, I hope🤞🏾 this coming Sunday there is.

Today has been super slow, and I love it.

It is the first time in months that I did not have to run an errand, attend an event etc.

I had plans to wash my hair, sew a few pillow cases, do laundry and review my finances but all I did was sleep. Now I'm up, watching a little TV 📺 reading blogs and surfing the internet. I just don't want to do a thing.

I think we are entitled to days such as this.

Signed up for Poshmark to sell a few items. Has anyone one used this app to sell or buy items?

I have a few, bebe jeans I can sell and a few pants I've never worn. I figured, I can sell a few items and use this money for baby step 1.

Next week is payday so I created my zero balance budget. I'm really liking this. So far I'm only a week in but I'm doing great with budgeting items each pay period. I prefer this method vs the monthly budgeting system. Looks like I may have some cash left over 😃

Today was my annual anniversary and review, things did not go well. I was really taken aback by the non-factual things discussed. Either way I'll submit my responses. I like the job and I'm praying that this woman is removed. I was furious, but I have faith, so I'm over it.

So much today, a good friend lost her fiancé today, due to a heart attack, my heart aches for her. Death is inevitable we know but it's extremely tough.

We finally have a court date set for the 30th of this month, regarding selling the house, please keep me in prayer.

Hi all 👋🏾

I am considering purchasing term life insurance and wanted your input on the best option for me.

I have no kids and currently do not own a home. I have a ton of debt, close to 100k, over half of this is student loans. I've purchased a plot for me to buried next to my dad so we are good there. I've told my family no funeral, just a grave side ceremony. Funerals are too expensive. I'm 43. I was considering a term life of 30 years, at 50k. I figured, I'm paying down debt did not need anything over that. For the year, Zander quoted me about $250. My current employer offer basic life but that's just 1x your annual salary.

Can you all weigh in? I truly value your opinions.

Oops, what are your thoughts on LTD? 2 years, 3 years? I'm currently at $48,000 annually.

Not sure if I spoke about this before but I'm sharing.

I went in for an oil change and asked for the weight of oil that should take me to 5,000 miles.

So I notice that when the technician placed the reminder sticker on my vehicle, that it reminded me to change my oil in 3,000 miles. So I questioned why? His response was that the sticker only can prints for 3,000 miles. My response was, how could that be, when you sell for $5,000?

Then I ask him to confirm that he did indeed provide me the correct weight. I drive 30 miles each way for work and keeping my car maintained is very important.

It's funny because when I went in for the oil change I thought it may have been too soon.

Moral of the story, watch those reminder stickers.

Rich people don't spend foolishly.

During our FPU class Dave Ramsey (DR) tells us rich people bargain on everything and that they don't spend their money foolishly.

So we went out to dinner with one of the fiancé's clients, who is what we refer to as rich. They invited us.

While we were at dinner, he kept hinting that we should order from the PB menu. This menu was the special. He'd mention that we could order what ever we liked, but recommend the PB menu. So after, several comments about ordering from the PB menu, we ordered from the PB menu. I couldn't help but laugh to myself, I thought about Dave Ramsey saying the PB menu gives you a 3 course meal and the others don't, what's your better choice? The PB menu. Why spend à la carte, when you get the same meal or better for less. I ended up with steak vs chicken.

When it came time to pay, again, our rich friend was smart about spending his money, he whipped out his coupon. Again I laughed to myself, thinking about DR comments, "rich people are rich because they don't spend their money foolishly."

As we headed out, our rich friend ask where did we park? The fiancé told him valet. He said, "okay we are over here in the garage."
Again DR words played in my head. The fiancé paid for valet ( $30). Normally I think it's about $10 but because he wanted to park the car in the front, he paid the extra $20. I simply reminded him that rich people are rich because they don't spend their money foolishly. Cost our rich friend $5 to park in the garage. While it cost us $30 and we are poor.

Moral of the story, don't spend your money foolishly attempting to impress others you won't meet or giving yourself a false sense of "richness."

I know that I'm new to this whole budgeting thing, but I'm a little annoyed. I budgeted $20 for one baby shower scheduled for tomorrow and totally forgot about the one for today.

During my FPU class, we were told that it will take about 90-days to get things right but for some reason this just bothers me.

I'd budgeted paying an extra $25 on CC 2 and now have to shift those funds for a gift. I guess I should be happy that I had the money to shift, but the CC debt is driving me nuts.

Yesterday was my first no spend day, in I don't know how long. And it felt good.

Today I'm at the salon. I decided to get my hair done every other week vs. every week. This saves me close to a $100 a month. In between those weeks, I color my hair for about $5 vs $15 and I also relax my hair for about $11 vs $50. Makes sense to do it myself than to pay her.

Lastly on a different note, I researched what my salary should be for what I do without a degree and it's between $54k and $70k. Now with a masters and my certification that range increases significantly. I've gone to my new boss for a raise, he said to wait and see what my old boss recommends. He too agreed that we, the team, deserves a raise. So I'll wait and see. If the salary increase isn't between 60-65 I'll be back looking.

All is well, this has been one crazy week after Irma.

It's the middle of the month, and I wanted to check my spending. Hurricane supplies killed me, over $300 🤦🏾‍♀️🙄. Next year I'll definitely plan better.

The good thing is, half the stuff purchased ( e.g. Batteries, water proof containers, solar lights) can be used for years to come.

I'll be posting my mid month spending totals tomorrow.

Thanks for your prayers everyone

Though Irma is now in the Tampa Bay area (about 3 hours northwest of me) we are still experiencing a ton of rain and hurricane force winds. I'm on the east coast, Palm Beach County.

Our power flickered a bit but we haven't lost power. We lost one board of the patio fence but that's it. We're in constant tornado watch, that scared me, but we have the safe room set up and ready to go with supplies (e.g flash lights, water, food, pillows, blanket and radio).

We have cameras so we can look out side, the canal next to the house is filling up, hopefully it won't over flow.

I'll keep you all posted and thanks for your love, support and prayers 🙏🏾

Today is the day that I clean out my closet. I have things that I do not wear, and need to get rid of them. The excuse for keeping them, I'll lose weight. Well six years later and I have not lost the weight.

I'll post photos later

I was reading Women's Day Magazine and came across these apps that are suppose to be useful for saving money and budgeting. Honestly I briefly looked them over, however they seem to be useful. So I'm putting them here and will review later

Feed the Pig - sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs
Feedthepig.org

Level Money - budgeting tool
Levelmoney.com

Digit- monitors spending habits
Digit.co

I was going to go out for breakfast 🍳 but decided to make it at home instead. I'm glad because breakfast out would have been about $20. So I'm adding this amount to the CC.

I had a nice mimosa, scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes, yummy.

In other news I have a graduation party, then a sweet 16. I decided to do my own hair and toes, that save me $65.

Today is a save money kind of a day.

So it's the end of January and payday.

I pretty much paid as many things as I could this pay date. I'm hoping that tomorrow is a no spend day and that everything paid today can clear so that I can see where my money went. I can say this, I'm pretty sure the bulk of my spending went to eating out 😩
For February I'm hoping that I can stick to my meal plan.

In other news, my boss signs me up, so she says, for a management training course that she's attending as well. Then complains to everyone else that subordinates and managers shouldn't be in the same training. I'm thinking why did you sign me up? Personally I think she was mad because the trainer asked me three times if I was a manager. He seemed perplexed that I wasn't. The woman is crazy.

I'll be posting my end of month spendings tomorrow.

So today was day one of my tennis lessons, other than being a bit chilly it went great. There were both young and old, as well as those with years experience and those with none. I look forward to learning and advancing my skills.

As far as spending goes I spent $6 at Chick Fil A so I added $6 to my CC debt. I then headed over to the hair care store and spent $51, this included hair care products and a wig. Ugh I hated spending the money but at least I won't need to go to the salon.
The BF put gas in my car so that was good.
Other than that I have nothing else to report.

Today was a busy day, but at least I feel accomplished. First, I took my car to have my tires rotated. I'm bad when it comes to this. But since I bought tires a few months ago and I'm traveling far for work, it's best that I keep them up. Not to mention I paid the extra $12 per tire for future rotation cost.

Then I took my car to be cleaned. I had a voucher for a car wash that I'd purchase a few months ago and I totally forgot I had it, so I used it. Whew and my car 🚗 sure needed it.

Next I put a load in and took one out. I actually put a load up and not placed it on the chair. I hate putting away clothes.

Then I tackled my desk. What a mess! I finally went through a ton of papers. Though I'm not done, at least I got most of it off my desk

As I'm typing, I think I'll Google the average cost of tire rotation and balance and if there is a difference I'll add it on my CC. Every little bit helps.

Hi all!

I received a ton of calls today. I actually work in Fort Lauderdale not too far from the airport. We could hear the sirens and noticed the planes ✈️ circling around because they were unable to land.
Then there was an individual who jumped off a bridge on a major highway, what a day.

In the end, I'm safe. Thank God my little 5 year old cousin flew out yesterday vs today. He's traveling by himself with of course an attendant. Scary just scary

So over the holidays 🎄🥂🎁 I purchased jeans👖 , very expensive jeans using my CCs, racking up debt that I don't need. My mind told me they're on sale so they're not that expensive, never mind that I simply don't need them.

Needless to say, they didn't fit and I needed to exchange them. I was contemplating returning them but I really liked them and opted to do an exchange. So I trucked on to the mall, first to Macy's for my exchange, but they didn't have any in my size so I returned them, $60 back on the CC. Then to Nordstrom and low and behold, they didn't have my size, so another $60 was added back to the CC.

As I was leaving, I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in years. We chatted and she asked if I wanted to meet for lunch. I thought about it, and remembered my meal plan and said no. I'm not in a position to eat out this month. I told her let plan something later on, that way I can budget next month my dining out expense. Proud of myself, think I might add the $20 saved to my challenge.

I'm glad to be back blogging, it keeps me in track.