Amber's Personal Finance Blog

Balanced my cash envelopes and I have $246. This amount is a combination of all envelopes (e.g gas, food, household), not bad.

I’m annoyed because I spent $30 yesterday. Went with a friend to an event that she was heading to anyway, paid $10 for parking since I drove with her. But she kept harping on gas, so I gave her $20. That won’t happen to me again, I’ll drive myself. I have the money, in one of my sinking funds, it’s money I save for things such as this, but it just annoys me since she was going anyway and I could have drove myself and spent less. Hey, it is what it is, a lesson learned.

I checked my electric bill and it’s trending at about $65, if I hit that mark, it’s about $30 less than the previous month. I love it. I see what simply turning things off, unplugging items not in use can do. If only I could unplug that water heater, I’d probably have a bill of $30, lol.

Today, is a busy day. One, I need to wash two loads of clothes. Two, wash my hair, and three, pick a few items up from Walmart. After all this, I’m relaxing. I was going to work a little at home but I’ll pass.

I absolutely hate interest. I paid over $500 this last billing cycle on CC10, only to be charged another $100+ in interest. All the more reason for me to get this credit card paid off.

It’s a process and I know I must be patient but I can’t wait for this sucker to be gone, so that I can start tackling my student loans. I’m thinking by April 2020, this card 💳 should be paid off.

I’m no longer gazelle intense for a number of reasons, SO is no longer here so I don’t get the extra $800+ a month. I still add to my EF because I think it’s crazy to only have $1,000 saved, and lastly, time is not on my side, I’m late to the party 🎉 so I continue to add to my 401(k). Yes by doing these things, it slows the process, but at least I’m comfortable, and I haven’t stopped paying down debt and saving. What I’ve accomplished so far, I’m happy with. The ability to go to events, stores etc and not spend anything is a huge accomplishment for me.

I honestly think, if I continue to budget, live a frugal lifestyle, I’ll be done with all debt, including my house 🏡 in seven years.

I can’t wait to get home this evening, to balance my cash envelopes, and review my budget. Lol, who would have thought my Friday nights of hanging out with friends, buying new outfits to do so, and spending tons of money would have turned into review the budget nights? I absolutely love it and look forward to it.

My co-worker was heading to the store 🏬 , I asked her to buy me a Coke 🥤 and gave her cash. She comes back with two 8 pack Cokes 🥤 and tells me they were BOGO. Well after looking at the receipt 🧾 the items were not BOGO. So I’ll be letting her know today. Why not just buy what I asked you? But it’s my fault because I had no business buying.

Anyway, I logged into Receipt Hog 🐷 and noticed I leveled up so I got an extra 175 points, that allowed me to cash out my $5.00. That made me feel a little better about the Coke 🥤.

SO came by yesterday, he’s been really watching what he spends lately. I didn’t ask about the mom’s car 🚗, but I sure as heck wanted to know what happened. I knew something was wrong, because he bought dinner and lately he hasn’t been spending money.

Anyway, finally after eating. He mentioned his mom hurt his feelings, and he felt like he wanted to treat himself since he hadn’t lately, that was why he bought dinner. He managed to get the money together, $1200+ to pay the car off. He went to the bank to do so. When got there he was told the balance was a little over $800. So he paid it and car is paid off. Took her the receipt, told her the car was hers and she no longer needed to worry about it. Her response, “Why did you do that? You should have kept that money because, you need to make payroll on Friday.” Wow was my first response.

I told him, you may not like what I’m about to say, however, “you should have let the car go, that is the only way she’ll understand that this financial mess she’s in, is serious. Maybe when people start talking, she’d get it together.” He said he thought about it, not paying the car, but he had prayed and out of the blue he started receiving checks so he felt like it was God telling him to pay it off. I couldn’t counter, he had a valid point. He did mention that this week he’s taking things over. I’ve heard that song and dance, we shall see. I did asked him if he thought he dad, when his dad was alive if he went through this mess, he said he believes so.
Sad, just sad, that a mother would manipulate her child, to the point in that it’s detrimental for not only her healthiness future but his as well. Sad

I like reviewing my budget before the month ends to see where I am and so far so good. Areas in that I’m over, I actually no why 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️

Categories in that I’m over are as follows
* Charitable donations - didn’t plan for the Boy Scout Fundraiser
* Gifts - only planned for my nephew and direct report’s birthday, totally forgot I buy the kids Halloween 🎃 costumes every year.
* Personal hair care - forgot to include my once a month haircut and color. I’ll adjust this.

Good news is that there were only three categories, I paid cash, and all other categories I either broke even or came well under 😀

Next month is a three paycheck month for me. The goal is to budget in such a way that I do not use any of the funds for the last pay check. If I do this, then I’ll meet my goal of three months of expenses saved (EF).

I’ll take this weekend to plan things out.

Other news, I finally scheduled my mammogram, I kept forgetting about this. I’ll get 200 points, with my insurance company that translates into money/gift cards 💰 💳.

Lastly, not money related but I’ve been binge watching Game of Thrones, pretty good

I’m excited about earning the points because I want an Apple Watch and will be able to use those points to get one 😀

I get a natural high checking my energy bill. Lol. My next bill is projected to be about $52. Wow 😮 is all I could say. If I can get that bill down to $52 that would be awesome!

Yesterday I did not have one soda, I also only bought what was on my list, while grocery shopping; in addition , I stuck to plans to not donate money an event I had attended. I always feel guilty but I didn’t budget for something like this, so it was a no for me.

Checked my Murphy points and I have about 720 points, that’s .72 cents off gas per gallon. I’m waiting to get to 1,000 points, that will give me a buck off each gallon.

Family news
I realized that the way my mother speaks is simply by yelling, all weekend when she called she was screaming, so much so, it gave me a headache. I don’t think it’s intentional, just believe that, that is all she knows 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️

SO stop by in tears, I just listened didn’t respond. I’d told him awhile ago to seek counseling so it’s up to him. He needs to come up with a ton of cash by tomorrow or the bank will take the mom’s car. He called his siblings for help, but no one offered to chip in. I did tell him he can’t wait for an offer, he needs to ask.

If it was me I’d let the car go. She shouldn’t be driving anyway, and he can’t afford it. One thing he did say was, he got himself in this mess. I’d say he sure did, if he refuse to take things over because he fears hurting the mom’s feelings, well he’s right where he wants to be. He’s a fool

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

Today is going to be a little busy.
I have to review my spending, budget and update my cash envelopes.

Later I meet a few friends for a late lunch.

I also need to put a few loads 🧺 into the washer.

The item I sold on Poshmark, received 5 stars ⭐️ so I earned $4.05.

Lastly, AT&T finally sent me an email that they received their cable boxes. My account has yet to be credited. So I contacted them, apparently, the items were received and I’ll get a credit next month. I made sure I got in writing that my service would not be disrupted. I’m saving for a modem (?) internet box, so I can return their box to them. That will save me $10 a month.

I can’t believe it, my electric bill was $90.69, that’s a decrease of $59.10, or 61% decrease from my previous bill.

How did I do it? Unplugged the dryer, lights, washing machine, toaster, and Keurig when not in use. Turned the AC off when I left the house for hours, and line dried most of my clothes.

I’m just so excited about this.

Today was pay day, I paid the mortgage, the electric bill ⚡️ , added an extra $25 to the EF, took care of my tithes

I’m awaiting on both the cell phone and CC10 invoices.

So the dryer wasn’t fixed after all. I think there is a shortage. So I unplugged 🔌 it. SO has a truck so he’ll pick up the dryer my uncle is giving to me. I’m so thankful that I do not have to buy a dryer.

I’d already cut back on the dryer usage but still wanted on.

Other than a few miscellaneous items, I’m all packed and ready to. I’m not checking a bag, so things should go smoothly. I have to pick my boss up so later, I’ll vacuum my car.

Now the electric bill is currently at $86.60, with a close date of 10/17. With me being gone the next bill should not tick up any more. When I leave, I’ll unplug everything I can think of. I’m hoping to hit $90 or below. We will see

I think we fixed the dryer. SO came over and helped me remove the hose thingy from the dryer. We caught the devil but got it. I was surprised to see there was no blockage, we did however recover a tea light candle.

We turned it on a few times and it started to get hot. We will monitor it.

I was at my mom’s prior to heading home and my uncle was there, I’d mentioned the dryer and guess what he has one. Praise God, I won’t have to buy one. I’m so thankful.

Other news, today was a no spend day. I also walked over 8,000, surpassing my goal.

So my dryer is not drying 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️. I have the cash to buy another but I’m waiting. I’m going to unscrew the vents and see if there is any blockage. When I Googled the issue that was what came up in the search. I pray this thing is not out and that a simple vacuum will help. I really don’t want to spend any cash.

If I have to buy another one I’ll be looking for an energy efficient one. My dad use to go to this used appliance place, I’ll check them out this week, I’m hoping to find one for no more than $150 but the most I’d go is $200. I’m seeing dryers for about $375 to about $800 for new ones.

Other news, I always get these Victoria Secret coupons for free undies, that I never use, why I don’t know. So tomorrow I’ll head into to VS and get my free item.

I went up in the attic and finally retrieved my fall decor.

Went to my local grocer and got my $10 gift card for getting the flu shot. My arm is sore, it usually is when ever I get the shot, hopefully it won’t last long.

Wednesday I’m traveling to Atlanta for work, during this time I plan on speaking with my boss, the CEO, regarding training me to take her place. She’s extremely dissatisfied with the individual she has had in mind. She’s mentioned several times that she thought I could run the place. Even if I’m not tapped, the training would be great.

I just finished updating my planner, I’ve been using it consistently for a few weeks, particularly for work and it’s been working great. I’ve bought planners in the past but I never really found planner peace. I’m planning on treating myself to an Erin Condren Life Planner for Christmas 🎄. I’ve heard and read that this is the Mercedes of planners, so we will see.

Right now I have a load of clothes in the washer 🧺, next I have take care of the towels and sheets. I’ve notice my electric bill decreasing since I’ve been line drying everything. I checked my electric account and my bill is projected to be $92, that’s about a 57% decrease. So exciting.

Other than that I have nothing else to report.

Well Friday I sold an item on Poshmark for $7, my earnings was $4.

Checked my cash envelopes and I still have about $221 (total envelopes) left. I’m so proud of myself for not only staying with in my budget but coming well under.

Friday is pay day and I should be able to allocate additional funds to the CC. This is in addition to the extra $100 I have budgeted.

I returned the cable boxes to At&t and was told to hold on to the receipt for a year because they’ll say, “they never received it.” I was so shocked when the rep told me that. I couldn’t believe it but glad she did. Now I’m waiting for the $500+ credit. Smh. They never sent me the shipping label, only to find out I could have taken the items into a UPS store, smh. I called them 3x before they billed me $500+. Now that I think of it, I’ll scan the proof of shipping and email to myself so that I always have it.

I looked at my spending for the year and $806 was paid in interest on a credit card, all I kept saying was, you know what you could do with that money, pay this card off ASAP

Lastly, I’m heading to a local grocery store to get my flu shot, they also provide $10 grocery gift cards

SO came over and cleaned out the AC, it appears as though that’s what the issue was. Fingers crossed 🤞🏾 I’ll be sure to put that on my monthly to do list.

We ended up chatting a little. I was surprised to hear him say that he told his mom that he’ll be moving soon. I thought he’d never leave her house.

He also mentioned that sometimes he goes into a store and picks something up but realizes that something else is more important and that he’s working on his finances. I shared with him, that I understood, and that my goal is to be debt free in seven years and I can’t be debt free eating out everyday.

He then said, “sometimes I wake up at night and I just cry, I realize that I’m in this mess due to my own actions.” I felt really bad for him. I mentioned to him that if he needed to talk, to call me.

I’ll listen, and provide sound advice. God knows if I didn’t have my friends, I’d probably would have jumped off a bridge. This time our conversation was different, for some reason I felt like he wasn’t himself, something was missing and that worries me.

As I told him, change is hard, he’ll get through it, he just have to keep pushing through.

I read your previous comments and I never thought about counseling for him, I only thought about it for his mom. I’m going to suggest he calls someone.

SO called Sunday and asked if I wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes 🍅, he had a coupon. One thing I noticed he made “jokes” about it (having a coupon) but for some reason I think the “jokes” about saving took the onus off of him that he needs to be intentional with his money.

Living with his mom and her dysfunctional lifestyle has opened his eyes, he’s mentioned that, not to mention that he’s lost a ton of weight, so it’s obvious. It’s sad because is lack of response and spine, is going to be the death of him. I’ve heard of momma’s boys but this relationship is extreme. He’ll lose everything not to “upset” this woman.

Other news, I went for a walk Saturday, Sunday and Monday, had plenty water these days, my goal was to not have one soda 🥤 this week, epic fail 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️. I had one on Monday, it’s better than three.

I’ve been slacking with going to church ⛪️ and I don’t know why. I just don’t want to go. I pray daily but I haven’t been in the mood, hopefully this changes soon.

I’ve decided to put a cap on the sinking funds. EF $12,000, this is six months of living expenses. Car $6,000, I want to be able to buy a decent use car when the time comes. $10,000 for the home repair fund (roof and AC is about 10 years old), $150 for gifts; $500 professional development/certifications; $5,000 HSA, this is my average deductible.

This is a ton of money and I’m sure things will happen for me to have to dip into the funds, like an emergency or car repair but at least I have a goal, and if I add a little at a time like I’ve been doing, I’ll reach them.

My debt free goal is seven years (December 2026). This include the house.
It’s going to be tough but I think it’s doable. I’ve managed to cut expenses, and not inflate my lifestyle when I received a raise. I noticed that since I’ve buckled down, I’ve become extremely frugal.

It’s true, that once you do something long enough it becomes a habit. I absolutely hate spending money. There are so many things that I say I need, but my priority is saving and paying down debt. For example, I give myself $15 a week for fun to spend, I’ve managed to hold onto these $15 for four weeks, hence, I currently have $60 in my fun envelope. It was so funny, I went into Home Goods just browsing, found the exact color curtains I wanted for the spare bedroom, the cost with tax would have been $30, almost half of my cash in my envelope, can you believe I said no? The old me would have bought those curtains.

So as I’m typing this blog, I hear water dripping. I go in the spare bathroom, nothing. Then it sounds as though it’s the AC. I feel cold anyway, turn the temperature up to shut the unit off and boom, as soon as the unit is off, water starts to run out 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️. Thank goodness SO friend is a licensed AC repair guy. I’ll call him tomorrow to come out. He’s less expensive and get the job done. I’m thinking the hose outside is backed up.

Moral of the story, save because you never know.

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.

To renew my HR certification with SHRM I think it’s about $400, I started saving for it in June and I’m almost at my savings goal, with just under $75 to go. Hopefully my employer will reimburse me, fingers crossed. If this happens, I’ll continue to save and use the money towards the convention that I’ve always wanted to attend.

I have my sinking funds and was wondering when I should stop contributing to them. But after reviewing I don’t know. The home repair fund, I want at least $10k in that account. One, I know eventually the roof will need to be repaired, it’s well over ten years old as well as the AC. I also have some miscellaneous items that I’m holding out on as long as possible such as the refrigerator, cabinets and washer.

The car fund, I’ll just keep adding to that the $25 per pay period, my car is a 2002 Camry with well over 250,000 miles. She runs great, but I would like a nice cushion to be able to buy a car cash, once its time. Hopefully she’ll hang on for two more years at least. I think I need to bump the contributions amount to about $40 or $50.

Next there is the HOA, there’s really no cap, my HOA is $2,220 a year. I deposit $88.80 per pay check, when ever I hit a balance of $370 I make two payments. So I’ll never have a cushion in this account and don’t think I need to. Right now I’m paid through the end of the year. Once I get the new coupon book, in December what ever is in this account, I’ll pay as many months as possible.

Gifts I can cap at $250. I figure $25 per person for gifts such as birthdays and showers. When I’d initially set this up I only counted one graduation and a few birthdays but I got hit with baby showers and weddings etc. Right now I have one birthday coming up and that’s it for the rest of the year. Thank goodness.

Sorority I’m capping at $300. Though I’m no longer an active member, I do like to attend a few events and meet up with my line sisters from time to time. This is more of a social account.

And Christmas, well that’s an ongoing account. I have my three great nephews and mom to buy for. And my holiday game night. So this worked out pretty good.

Just typing this out, put things more into perspective. The home repair, EF and car repair/replacement funds are the most important accounts with much higher caps.

September updates

The following categories decreased:
* Cable by 28%
* Dining out $71%
* Groceries 54%
* Household 94%
* Personal care 82%

Net worth didn’t decrease by much, still negative, but at least there was a reduction.

Overall on my committed expenses (e.g loan, mortgage) I came in under budgeted by $1,103.74 or 14%.

Odd report shows only $50 added to retirement, I need to double check this.

Thank God the blogs are back up, I was seriously having withdrawals, miss you guys.


Here is what is happening with me.

I hate when this site is down. For a few days I could not log in. Anyone know of another site that we can join and transition to?

Anyway, I finally got a response from my attorney. Praise God I did not go with my last attorney I had.

Anyway, she received the documents from the bank that debunks my brother’s claims of me falsifying documents and put his attorney on notice if they decide to continue with this frivolous lawsuit. She informed him that if they continued she’d put him (his attorney) on the hook for my legal fees, in so many words to my understanding she’ll go after him. Now we sit and wait for their response, if they’re going to dismiss or not. Knowing my brother he is not going to let this go.

Keep praying for me.

Other news, I ‪read an article that an organization in that I applied for is having financial issues, they’re filling for bankruptcy. I cried after interviewing last year twice and not getting that job, but God had something better. I’m so thankful I did not get that job, there’s people who haven’t received their checks for about two weeks. ‬

‪I got a surprise in the mail today, $8 settlement check, added to the EF. ‬

‪I paid an extra $100 on CC10. Lastly, I lined dried two loads of clothes. I have to get a retractable clothes line so that I can start drying my sheets and towels. ‬

‪Sunday, was quite productive. I mopped the entire house, cleaned my patio, line dried two load of laundry 🧺 , walked 12k steps. ‬

Finally back on track. I took a week’s hiatus, things were super busy at work and this last week has been crazy.

First, the SO cousin’s wedding was beautiful, but his mom act a plum fool because she was sitting at the wrong table and had to move 🤦🏽‍♀️🙄

The next day at 6 am we took my mom to the hospital 🏥 she had an allergic reaction to something. Then at 11 am we took the SO grandson to the hospital for a possible seizure, all in one day.
Mid week the SO was attacked by bees 🐝 while working and his face looked like the elephant 🐘 man 🤦🏽‍♀️🙄. Thank goodness the Benadryl worked.

All this coupled with a work week from hell, open enrollment, employee relationship issues etc.

Today I finally took a look at my budget, last month was okay. I’m annoyed that I had to stop the snowball temporarily.
So last month...
* Paid only $409.18 to CC9
* Saved $506 of income ( this include the dividend of $4.04)
* I had a few items I went over budget in, not too bad
Tomorrow I’ll take a look at my habit tracker, to see how things went

Revisited my budget and this is a tough month. I signed up for something last year, that I really didn’t want to do but hey, it’s done now. I’m just ticked off at myself and the fact that I won’t be adding anything extra to the CC 💳, other than about $70.

Other news, I’m really glad that I’ve socked away for birthdays and other things that require gift buying, that I may have forgotten. We had a wedding this past weekend, and we (SO) split the gift, $25 each. I took my portion from my fun envelope but transferred the money from the birthday sinking fund right back. Lol, what’s weird is I forgot about the account and was upset I had to spend the money, I thought how could you not budget for this. Then I realize I had actually saved for it. Duh 🙄 It feels so good to not use CCs 💳 and to save for things.

Last night I came home my car window won’t go up, it appears as though there’s something with the rubber, it’s off track blocking the window to go up 🙄. Murphy always seem to appear when things are going great.

Lastly, the weekend was crazy, mom went to the hospital, allergic reaction and the SO grand baby went as well, all in the same day. Plus I started feeling like crap 🤢. Thankfully everyone is home and I’m feeling better.

Credit card 9 💳 is really getting on my nerves. I want this sucker paid off. I’m contemplating taking the money saved for any home repairs and adding it to it. I have an EF so if anything happens I can use that. One minute I’m stoked about doing it, the next I’m nervous as hell. 😬

I finally completed my taxes, and hit the submit button. I’m looking at about $633 return. This will be adding to the CC.

The budget meeting with the SO didn’t happen, I was a little disappointed but hey that’s on him. I’m still trucking along on my financial peace journey without him. Something drastic has to happen for him to change. I told him we will continue to live as roommates, splitting everything.

After reviewing and crunching numbers, it looks like I should have both CCs paid off by early September (CC9 should be gone by end of April early May) and from that point on it’s the infamous student loans 👩🏾‍🎓. I’m really hoping to pick up a second job by then.

Lastly, though I follow Dave Ramsey, I never read his book, “The Total Money Makeover.” 📖. I have listened via audio 🔊, but you know how that goes, your cleaning 🧹, doing other things so you’re more likely to miss something. I’m excited to dive in. Last month I finished, Rachel Cruze’s, “Love Your Life, Not Theirs.”
I’m also read a book by Zig Ziegler, that I checked out online at my local library. What’s great about this is, in the middle of the night 🌙 when I can’t sleep 💤, I can read.

Took a look at my budget and so far I am pretty much on the verge of breaking even for the month of March. I have a new line item to add, hurricane season🌪. Hurricane season is approaching and I want to be ready, it’s always a nightmare in the stores if a storm is named and heading our way.

The SO and I will be sitting down tonight to create his budget. Yes, he’s decided to work on one. He wants this relationship to work and he knows that finances are a huge issue for me. I’ve shared, don’t do it for me but because you want to.

Apparently his mother called yesterday and told him she’s short $600 for payroll. Smh, she is unbelievable. For reason he still hasn’t gotten to the point where he will take the business over fully. I guess the same reason why I haven’t thrown him out. I simply mind my own business and continue to live like roommates splitting the cost of everything. Basically when he pays me, I use that money to knock down CC9. I tend to pay my bills as if he’s not paying anything. This year so far, he hasn’t been late 🤞🏾.

Next week we have a wedding to attend, I would love to buy an outfit but I’m scrounging around in my closet to see what I have. I think the money I have in my fun/splurge account I’m going to throw it at the CC.

Another one of my items sold on Poshmark, that’s $10 this week, you know where that’s going, CC9 💳

I’m considering signing up for Acorn, any one use it?

Yay it’s pay day. Today bright and early I was crunching numbers.

For the first time I decided not to pay extra on the mortgage and throw it at the credit card 💳. It was tough because I don’t want to lose the habit of paying the extra on the house but I want the CC gone. Extra payment on CC9 is $181, down to $3,495.18.

I socked cash away to all the sinking funds. I looked at my home repair fund and smiled. It’s $667, for some of you that may seem small but it’s huge for me. I know home ownership can be daunting for some, my sister is a great example. She bought a home last year July, too much home. Her mortgage is $1400, yikes! Her roof started leaking, she got a quote to repair and it was $300, small leak at the time. She didn’t have the $300. Now the leak is getting worst. I don’t want that to happen to me. When I knew I would be closing, I immediately set up a sinking fund and started budgeting for it. I’ve been in my home renting for 8 years prior to purchasing, no major repairs but I know Murphy could decide to visit. I’m praying that I get two years in without any major repairs.

I’m also proud of my Christmas and birthday sinking funds. It feels so good to know that this will be my second year that I can pay cash for Christmas and when birthdays, showers etc pop up I can pay cash.

Today’s spending
$185 HOA
$965.10 Mortgage
$181 CC 9
$65.13 Electric
$187

Savings
$25 EF
$25 Car maintenance
$25 Christmas
$11 Birthdays
$50 Home repairs
$20 vacation/fun
$88.80 HOA
$20 Sorority
————————-
$264.80 total

Sold an item on Poshmark and made $5.05, I’ll be adding this to CC9 💳.
I wish I could sell items like others, I have a bag full of clothes I can’t get rid of.

I broke down and had pizza and a salad for lunch yesterday, $8.50. Today my boss and I are going out and tomorrow it’s an old colleague.

Tomorrow is pay day, I can’t wait to knock these bills out, especially paying on the CCs 💳, who would have thought that paying down debt would be so exciting 🤦🏽‍♀️.

So my fiancé has a friend who recently had surgery. The friend has been out of work for a little bit. He decided, the friend, to sell prepared food meals. My fiancé ordered two meals from him for dinner tomorrow. I said to him, this is why it’s so important us to save. You never know what might happen.

I have a family friend in his 70s who is going to be evicted, he has diabetes and goes to dialysis twice a week. He never paid into SS, always worked under the table. Again, a prime example as to why I want to get my finances in order, you just never know. Plus if I had it together I could help both of these individuals.

Both of these situations breaks my heart.

Checked out my habit tracker and I have 12 days so far of no spending. The cool thing is I should meet and surpass my goal of 15 days.

This week is pay day, I should be sending off the April mortgage, and May HOA. We got the new electric bill and it went up. Not sure how or why but I need to figure out how to decrease this baby. I signed up for auto pay for the water, this drives me nuts because I never get the bill until after the fact. I’ll be canceling this.

If things keep trucking the way they should/are, I would have broke even with the grocery budget, I’m so excited to meet this goal. I’m usually over.

Other than these few miscellaneous items, I’m doing okay. Spending is down as well as debts this month and my net worth is doing a very slow, and I do my very slow shift from negative to positive. Slow and steady wins the race 🐢

I do have one more thing to report. I have a friend who just can’t seem to keep a job. She’s very outspoken and is one of the most helpful people I know. I’ve shared with her my journey paying off my debt, she listens but is not interested, I wish she would join me. Please keep her in prayer, she’s in need of a job desperately.

Found a great podcast, NPR LIFE Kits. Here the host talks about getting out of debt, goals and life. I absolutely love it, the only problem is, there’s four episodes.

One thing that was mentioned, is to celebrate when you achieve little goals to reward your self. I thought yay! Once I pay off CC9 💳 I’m going to do something, I don’t know what but something. I’ve been saving for this day, because I know CC10 💳 won’t be paid off until the end of of year.

I’m so stressed about these CCs 💳 and limiting my spending but what’s strange is I also love it, go figure. Just think, January 2020 I’ll only have these stupid student 👩🏾‍🎓 loans and the house 🏡 . I originally set the goal of five years debt free but looks more like 10. I’m okay with that, I’ll be in my mid 50s.

I’ve decided that if I don’t get a raise at my year anniversary, I’ll just look for another job in December. That will give me close to two years in management and I can really bump my salary. I love my job and my boss but the salary is extremely low. I won’t rush though, the goal is to be in the 90s close to home, with little travel.

SO news, I almost fell out of my chair this evening when he came home with actual groceries. Usually he buys junk. He had a pack of pork chops, chicken 🍗 , bread 🍞 , cereal 🥣, drinks 🥤, fruit 🍉 and snacks 🍪. I’m usually the one buying the groceries and I told him last week Thursday or Friday he needed to chip in. My grocery fund was out and I wasn’t buying anything else. As far as the bills, he’s stayed in track with paying, so far so good. 🤞🏾

My mother drives me absolutely nuts. This woman will make a great day go far left in two seconds.

She calls, doesn’t say hello, how are you, zilch. She just starts yelling in the phone. I have a headache 🤕, today we buried my dad’s girlfriend, I took a nap 💤 and I’ve been dreaming about her all day, my head is pounding. To answer the phone to screams is enough to make me want to just hang up on her. She had a document that needed to be signed, she ask me to sign, there’s two signature lines and I signed only one, you would have thought I yanked her teeth out 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️. The woman is miserable. I’d love to have a relationship with her but she makes it extremely difficult. I pray that I’m not like this when I get older.

All I can do is pray for her.

Different note, we got the house rented, I can’t wait to collect the $150, my portion, every month so that I can throw it at the credit card 💳 debt.

Tomorrow I’ll finalize my taxes and just rest.