Amber's Personal Finance Blog

What a way to start off the New Year, dinner with good friends and family Remember, "The New Year is full of promise, though you may also get a fair share of tough times. With each progressing year, you find yourself growing confident, experienced, and wise. That's the gift of the New Year"

Just wanted to wish my extended family ( You ) a Happy New Year! Let's make this the best financial year ever.

As the new year approach us, I haven't really thought about what I'd like to accomplish for the new year, but here it goes.

-Pay off auto loan (Balance $1700)
-Pay off 3 CCs (Balance $3500)
-Move (I really want to be in my own place by the end of the year)
- Save an additional $1000 (EF)

I think if I keep my goals at a minimum, it will be less stressful and much easier for me to accomplish. Yes, I have more CC debt than listed but getting rid of the first three earlier in the year will make it much easier to pay off the others.

Moving forward, the Heat won tonight so $1 was added to my challenge/EF. In addition, I had lunch, breakfast and dinner at home so $6 was paid towards my challenge/cc debt.

Lastly, I purchased some really nice Gucci frames today. I always wanted really nice glasses. Anyway, I had about $306 in my Eflex account and my new glasses cost $305. I actually make no contributions to my Eflex, all funds were supplied by my employer so my glasses cost me zero dollars

Just ordered my holiday pictures on Walgreens.com, cost, free whoo hooo. Used the "printnow" coupon code and chose to pick up at the store therefore no cost to me

Well I went to BestBuy with the BF last night, and he bought 2 CDs totaling almost $40. All I could say to myself is You can't be serious? Really? Just two or so days before you didn't have money to put gas in your car and you receive a few payments ( for jobs he had done) and you go and buy CDs, wow. Unbelievable! And to top it off, his family is having a get together and requested, by his aunt, that everyone gives $25, of course I was perplexed, she couldn't be serious. $25 to attend a BBQ? $10 from each person would be more than enough to buy food and drinks. Needless to say I told him I was not going. In the end, the aunt asked him to buy a case of chicken, a little more than $50, and of course he did. He has a serious problem of not wanting people to think he is "broke" per se; however, moving forward I don't have a problem with it. If people think I am "broke" which by the way I am, that's perfectly fine with me, because they won't ask me to buy any thing.

I know when Monday or Tuesday rolls around and he has no gas money or lunch for work, he better not look my way because I am BROKE!

So the good news, I deposited the $150 my dad gave me into my challenge/EF account, keeping my end of year goal--$1000 saved by December 31( I started November 14th).
Also today I will tackle CC1 making a $120 payment vs. the minimum payment, brining the total down to about $520 the goal is to have this CC payed off by January 31st.

I know I have said this before but I am glad to be back blogging about my finances. This blog keeps me accountable, I'm more embarrass to say I spent foolishly to strangers than I am friends, not to say we're not friends.
I feel as though, those of us on this blog is somewhat a sort of family without faces
Thanks to all of you who read my blogs, who are honest about things that you see that I am blind too, your thoughts and opinions mean a lot to me

Wow hope every one had a great holiday, I've been a little busy so I haven't had time to post. But here is the update:
First I gave my mom her Christmas gift which was a 8 x 10 picture of her grandkids as well as great grands and their signature. When I handed her, her gift, she responded " is that it for my Christmas?" I thought what an ungrateful so and so. I know I shouldn't have those thoughts but my mom is always looking for money. I can't tell you the last time I got a Christmas or birthday card from her let alone a gift. Even on my birthday, we go out to the buffet she likes and I pay. I think the last time I got a gift from her for Christmas I was 13

Moving on, next my BF gave me a MK watch (approximately $200) a snuggle (@ $20) and Chanel Chance (@ $140). Nice gifts right? But here is the kicker, I said to him lets set a limit on this year's gifts his response he doesn't set limits on his woman. That's fine and dandy because I did, and didn't spend more than $120 on all 4 gifts. Now comes yesterday he says to me he needs some money ( I'm thinking he is joking). So I end up first spending. $30 to put gas in his car. Next we go to his grandmothers and he ask me to take him to the liqueur store, I end up spending 30 more dollars. My thought is I'm going to pay you back for the gifts you bought? If so take them back to the store. This is crazy. Now today he comes here huffing and puffing because his kids asked for money to get their hair done. My thought, you just gave the oldest one $250 for Christmas why is she asking for money. Long story short, I'm not getting any nails done

His problem is, he wants people to believe he has all the money, well I don't and I refuse to have him nickel and dime me out of the few dollars I have saved

Lastly to end on a good note, my dad gave me $150 today so I can add this money back to the funds I transferred from my challenge

I have no idea what happened but I over extended myself and had to transfer money from my challenge I am glad that payday runs around next week so I can put the money back but it hurts.

Today I went into Micheal's to pick up some miscellaneous stuff with my BF, big mistake. He ended up picking up a book for his daughter for $13.00 causing me to spend $13 more than what I anticipated which sucks.

I hate going anywhere with him, especially if it is my shopping trip, he always picks up junk. I did tell him that moving forward I will not be shopping with him. I think he thinks I was joking but I am serious.

I said to him that I will be buying gift cards for his daughter and niece to JCPenney's and his response was kids don't like Penney's. Well I plan on using my CC and when I get my mileage check next month, pay it off. I am not spending any cash on gifts that His kids do not appreciate.

For his daughter's birthday I bought her jewelry, not a thank you. He had to tell her to say thanks like 4 hours later. For Christmas I got the youngest one, two years ago, a cupcake maker and its still in the box unopened. Last year she got an mp3 player, still in the box. One thing that I do know this will be the last gift they receive from me, if I do not get a thank you or the gift card is not used. Period.

On a different note, I received an A in my lab class and a B for my lecture. I am officially one with the prerequisites Now I will begin studying for the nursing entrance exam

I absolutely hate Christmas, I hate the fact that everyone always have their hands out for something. I hate spending money I really don't have and this year there's going to be some disappointed individuals. For one my uncles daughter, who I never see also my God daughter's sister who is always looking for something, and my nephew in Georgia. I can't afford so many gifts and I'm not going out of my way or broke to buy gifts. As far as the others I have to buy for, I will be hitting up JCPenneys in hopes of getting a really great deal otherwards there will be some very upset kids.
My bf is all set, less than a $100. I asked him to set a budget and his response was "I don't put limits on my lady" well he is in for a rude awakening because I place limits. For him I got a wet/dry vac $19.99 a car stereo $39.00 a music cd $15, and two picture collages free, total $75. My goal was to spend no more than $200 for Christmas and it looks like I am right on track.
On a different note I added $8 to the challenge/CC because we had McDonalds for breakfast

Wooohooo and the money keeps on coming in. I will receive a $10 Reward Visa Card from AT&T for making the switch to paperless billing.Plus I should be receiving my $200 gift card from Blue Cross Blue Shield of FL, and $10 from ING. What a way to end the year.

I am so excited, I officially reached my saving goal today The goal was to save $1000 by December 31st, well I have met and went beyond my goal, yay! Today I added $20 to my challenge which put my balance at $1006.77. I know it's way less than where I want to be but to start in mid November, actually November 14 and exactly one month later, to have saved over $600 in four weeks is amazing. This small little task shows me that I can do anything I put my mind to.
Now it's time to tackle CC 1, the balance on this card is a little more than $600, so I figured I should have this paid off by mid January.

On a different note, yesterday I bought one of three of my BF's Christmas gift, cost $18. This was half of what I expected to spend . This weekend I plan on using my ShopKick points to redeem a $10 gift card to purchase a car stereo he wants, cost $49 with out the $10 gift card.

Yesterday the BF went to court and one of the issues with his child support was tossed out. However, the attorney who handled this case advised him to fire the other and consider the money he spent a lost. Wow I've been telling him this for a year, I guess since I don't have a law degree what I say doesn't matter. Long story short he will fire the lazy lawyer.

In the end, I am feeling great about becoming debt free

Hmmmm I am not sure. I take my phone out everywhere and scan items for points, and right now I have enough points for $10 at Best Buy, using ShopKicks. I drove back to Sephora because my phone was acting up and I missed out on a $15 coupon yesterday. I had enough points for two $25 gift cards, one for old Navy and the other JCPenny, thanks to MyPoints. And I use my Bank of America CC to get points for cash, today I got a check for $37.50

So am I cheap? hmmm I'll take that

Oops almost forgot I added $12 to the challenge and am very close to my $1000 goal in one month

Whew! I am really glad the weekend is over. First, Friday night we went to the boat parade, a first for me, and it was really nice. Then Saturday, we attended a parade downtown which was also nice and fun. However, my BF lost his dog tag I bought him for his birthday
Lastly, today was the BF youngest daughter's birthday party. I can't understand for the life of me that he insist on spending all this money for a birthday party, when he has all this back child support to take care of. I offered to buy the cake, my gift to his daughter, and I made it clear, I am not spending a ton of money on a cake. Last year I think he spent close to $80 on a cake. The cost of the cake $35.
Now the kicker is, after the party the daughter whose birthday it is called because she was hungry. What! Are you kidding me? I gave him $30 because, apparently he had no money for the week. So I ask why spend the money? His response " Becsuse I had it at the time" My response, "Yes, that's true but what are you going to do for the rest of the week?" of course no response.
The only reason why I gave him the $30 is because I know if the shoe was on the other foot he would do the same. I did tell him, we are going to have serious problems if he does not make an effort to get his finances under control.

I asked him, if he would like to set a limit on Christmas gifts, he said no. But I already know I am not spending over a $100 on him. This is crazy, you can't afford it, I'd rather not even exchange gifts this year.
Long story short, I am out $75 in gifts, $40 for gas, and about $10 in miscellaneous stuff.

Okay last month I used my ING account to pay my cable bill. Well I received a check payable to the cable company with my address listed as the company's address, so I thought the check was a fraud and trashed it. Long story short, the cable bill was not paid, ING will not re-issue the check until 90 days has past, even though I advised them I trashed the check and I do not have an extra $114 laying around.

This really suck!

Next, I am tired of living at home. My mom, likes to make it known its her house when its convenient. For example, the sink is leaking and needs to be fix so its our house. I want to make some changes so its her house. Ughhhh, I hate the situation that I am in

Oh well

Once again my BF does not have his portion of the money to take a trip that I have been planning since January this year. On my bucket list is to visit every state, so for the upcoming year we were to start with Alabama. Well now as he puts it "He is in the hole" and I refuse to foot the bill this time for my birthday. This year I paid for everything, food, gas, the hotel, the theater, and the theme park. He was to give me some of the money back and normally he does but he did not. We have been together for 3 years and when it's his birthday I usually foot the bill but since he stood me up year, I did not pay for the hotel room.

Now here is the kicker, he wants to rent a hotel for Christmas for 4 days, I'd rather use that money for my trip.

Long story short, I am not paying $500 for us to fly to Alabama. If he wants to go dutch, that is perfectly fine with me.

On a different note, Publix had BOGO AJ frozen pancakes so I saved $2. 86

I received portion of my mileage check from my employer and was short $2. I think they do this on purpose hoping that you do not notice because it happens all the time. The person of course, who cuts the check was not in today, not surprised. So I deposited the funds and added $200 to my Challenge/EF account. Now I am just waiting on $91 hopefully I will have it by Friday. I'll add the $91 to the challenge and I would have met my goal above and beyond.

That's it in a nutshell

I usually do not mail off rebates but today, I sent in for my $10 rebate from Macy's for a George Foreman Grill I purchased on Black Friday.

I have already paid the bill so once received I will add to my challenge. Noting it here helps me keep track of when my rebate was sent

Just took my final and I received a 94 on my exam, yay! So I added $3 to my challenge/EF because my overall grade for the class will be a "B". Not bad being that I had a rough start.

On a different note, I usually drive to the boonies for work a few times out of the month. I packed my lunch, ate and found myself starving on my way back. So I had to buy something to eat, $8

I could not figure out why I was so hungry but then I realized that I only had a half of a bagel and water for lunch. I wasn't really hungry earlier.

Because I did pack and eat my lunch I am not adding this amount to my challenge.

I fell off the wagon, about $65 in dinging out this weekend.
$43 for dinner with cousin and BF
$12 for breakfast and dinner today
$6 for breakfast yesterday

The bad news is the $43 and $6 came out of my leisure fund so I have cleaned that out for the month but on a positive note I had the money.

$12 was not in the budget so $12 was added to my challenge for dining out.

This was the wrong month to spend my leisure fund so quickly and foolishly

Today I received my MyPoints gifts card for J.C.Penney's and Old Navy, both for $25 each. I added the $50 I would have spent to my $20 Challenge/EF. I'll be giving these away as Christmas gifts . Now I am waiting on the $37.50 check from BoA, not sure if I'll simply add this to the challenge or use it towards Christmas gifts. My goal which was set in mid-November was to save a $1000 by December 31st and at the rate I'm going it looks like I will meet my goal mid-December

Okay I am unsure, I purchased Panera yesterday for lunch today. So of course I packed my lunch but I am unsure if I should add $2 to my challenge. Normally when I pack my lunch I add $2 to the challenge, but since I purchased this yesterday I am unsure. Lol

On a different note, today I went to Wal*Mart and purchased the following:
-Old Spice Trial size body wash $.97
-Coupon, buy two get a $1.00 off
-Cost $.94
-Garnier Shampoo trial size $.97
-Coupon, buy 1 get a $1.00 off
-Cost, +$.03
Not bad

Expense Categories
Miscellaneous $372.47
Federal Tax $266.12
Insurance $202.82
Cable $174.00
Cellular $132.54
SS Tax $120.14
Electric $117.43
Gasoline $115.03
Groceries $101.52
Dining Out $83.41
Auto Maintenance $80.73
Water & Sewage $59.93
Internet $49.41
Entertainment $43.12
Medicare Tax $41.48
Manicure & Pedicure $29.00
Household Unassigned $19.96
Personal Care: Misc.$10.60
Personal Care Unassigned $8.98
Sales Tax $8.03
Personal Care: Feminine Prod.$8.02
Total Expense $2044.74

This may not be 100% correct, I paid a lot of December bills in November (yesterday) but unfortunately my software sorts by the date. Either way not too bad, I socked away about $300 last month as well.

Next month, even with Christmas, my goal is to knock $200 off my total expenses. In addition, I need to keep better track of my spending, too much in miscellaneous items.

Just redeemed my cash reward from BoA for $37.50
Once received I'll add $12.50 to this amount and give the cash to my BF daughter as a Christmas gift.

I had Panera's today at a whopping $14.58, I bought dinner and lunch. After my purchase I felt really guilty. I used my BoA card to earn the points and paid the bill as soon as I got home.

I also missed the gym tonight so $2.00 was added to my challenge.

I just checked my account I have about 5 months left and I'll be car payment free.

That's my day in a nutshell

I can not believe it. First I made a special trip on my way home from class to Best Buy in order to earn 225 points just for walking in, and of course my ShopKick is not working properly

Next, I go to my dad who has told me since October that he was not interested in changing his Medicare part D prescription drug plan (which I advised him to since his meds were not covered under his currently plan) but low and behold 7 days before enrollment period ends and my second day back to work after a week vacation, he wants to change his plan. Arrrrggghhh

Then I make an attempt tp pay my Target bill online and was told I was only allowed two payments with in a seven day period, what! Now I have been using my Target card to earn the 5% discount and as soon as I get home I pay the bill. Well, looks like I have done so twice this week Good thing my minimum payment isn't due until the 6th so I was able to schedule a payment.

Finally on a good note, I still had about $11 left in my account before payday so I added this amount to my challenge/EF. In addition, I paid bills today and every bill due with the exception of one, I over estimated the total amount due so I added another $115 to my challenge/EF. Also I packed lunch, had breakfast at home as well as dinner so $6 added to my challenge.

I had class tonight, so I did not make it to the gym and I am not adding $2 the challenge, this was a good reason not to head to the gym but I'll be back tomorrow.

Total saved $132

It feels good to be back on track to financial freedom.

Today I went to Target and collected over 200 points using ShopKick, hoping to earn enough Best Buy points for BF Christmas gift.

Then I bought the following
Personal care product:3.99 less $1.00c= $2.99
-Personal care product:$.92 less $1.00c= $.08 for me
-Target savings using cc (paid once I got home): $.50
Total savings $2.50

$20 Challenge update
-$6 no dining out
-$1 gym
-$1 Study
Total $8.50

All in all I added $10.50 to my challenge

I saved a buck today using a coupon for Chinet plates, I also studied so a dollar was added to the challenge and I went to the gym and added a dollar to the challenge as well. All in all $3 saved.

Today is my last day off before returning to work and I must say I have been a lazy bum all day. The only thing I can say is that I have done some studying, that's it.

I am really enjoying this day, really

Okay I am new to the couponing the thing. But I think I did okay for the first time.

CVS purchases
Old Spice Body Wash $3.49
Old Spice Body Wash $3.49
Dawn Antibacterial Soap $.99
Total $7.97
Less Coupons $4.99
Total $2.98

I have completed 3 out 4 Lifestyle Improvement Program through BCBS bringing my total to $150 in gift cards
I'll complete the fourth phase between today and tomorrow to earn an additional $50 whooo hoo.

We're planning a trip in January so $200 in gift cards will be nice

Well today I tried to mend a friendship between two friends, I am friends with both women who are not speaking to each other but I have learned to stay out of it. So with that said no more bringing folks together. I'll just remain friends with both.

On a different note my brother gave me $300 to get my mom a tv for Christmas, I was trying to find the best deal for the best buck but ended up spending $295, so I earned five bucks on the deal. So $5 was added to my challenge/EF--I do think I got a really good deal on the TV

I also studied today for a little while and added a $1 to my challenge/EF. Total added today to the challenge $6

On a different note, the BF ask if I wanted to head out to breakfast, we're both in the hole so I said to him "I have no money" his response. "Me either" so then I respond "We shouldn't be going" In the end, I cooked breakfast at home for both us saving over $30.

I picked up my 3 free picture collages from Walgreens and I must say they look great. I was able to get three free, I had the BF sign up as well as my sister. Lol I know some would say I am cheap but I am saving money.

I have a $10 GC from VS, I hope I am able to find a $10 night gown or even one for $12. They usually have them on clearance it will be a great Christmas gift for my cousin or BF daughter.

Well this is a continuation from a previous post. As you all know my BF accounts were frozen for over $80k. As I mentioned before he has an attorney that I think he should have fired a year ago, see he is paying child support for two kids one which he has custody for.

Long story short his attorney finally called back, and guess what? She admitted to him that she does not handle cases (family) such as his. WTH! Was all I could say. However, she will refer him to some one in her office. Are you serious? I said to him I would file a complaint with the Florida Bar Association. A year later, suspended license (she advised him to payless only to find out this was not agreed upon in court so he was in contempt) and over $82k later you realize you don't handle such cases.

I told him when he hired her to go with some one else, but no.
I did advise him not to use anyone in her office

Whew I almost missed out on $10 from ING. ING is offering $10 if you paid 5 bills via there bill pay center, so I paid the two additional bills I needed and $10 should be credited to my account by December 31st. Of course once I receive my $10 I'll deposit it to my challenge/EF