Thank God it is Friday, I am sooo tired I just don't know what to do. Went through and looked at all my bills, everything seems to be current just have a few things to pay on Monday but other than that everything else is paid. Looks like I am meeting my goals. I paid off another CC, well as of the 22nd ( I post dated the online payment) which leaves with me 3 active CC that needs to be paid first and then 1 charge off, an old cell phone bill and 1 student loan, my goal is to have everything paid for no later than October. I guess Dave's plan works after all by tackling the small accounts first I have paid off a lot of debt a total of 6 CC and 1 student loan about $2500.00, so I feel really good right now. Can't wait to check my credit score next month. And thank goodness my car seems to be running ok except today I hit a curb not once but twice at the bank and nw there is a funny sound

I have more problems with my full-time job and payday more than anyone I know. Well we got our paystubs and my check was $1089.99 about 12.00 less than I calculated and I got my reimbursment for marketing at total of $63.90 but guess what the $1089.99 won't be deposited until Monday because that is when the check was dated, nice. So I decided to post date all my online payments and I figured I will pay the following
$40.00 Home Phone
$40.00 C-phone 1
$40.00 Cable
$130.00 CC1 (paying extra on this)
$75.00 EF
$20.00 IRA
$30.00 MISC Svg
$25.00 Challenge
$20.00 Education account
$20.00 Personal Account
$20.00 Tithes
$35.00 Renewal for Sam's Club
$328.93 CC 2 (Paid in full, thank God)

Credit card payemnt:$927.70 (3 paid off)
Groceries: $98.86
Leisure:$$29.67
Job Expenses: $10.64
Student loan;$280.07 (paid in full)
Water & Sewage: 40.39
Gifts: $24.27
Charitable Donations: $20.00
Gas: $18.01
Auto Maintenance:4.79
Hurricane Supplies: $4.47
SS Tax:$16.47
Medicare:$3.85
Fed tax:$16.37
Cleaning suplies: $11.85
Personel Care:$10.40
Dining out $9.04 Way less than usual
Sales Tax:$7.15
Misc: 1.57

Well I did it, I did not want to wait until pay day to pay off one of my student loans, so I transferred funds from my EF to pay my debt. It feels soooo good
Now I only have one more to go, this one cost me $280.07
EF Balance $282.61

Well I went ahead and paid off CC5, $125.84, I figured it is better than waiting until next week (payday)especially since I am in attack mode. Now I only have 4 more to go and next week (payday ) I will pay off CC6, $944.67

I usually calculate my hours a few days before payday (well in this case a week) just to see where I am at and what to look forward to. Well all that complaining I did about paying off that cc was a waste of time and energy becsause this is one huge check...a total of 104 hours yeahhhhhhhhhh!

Now I figure, after taxes I should be getting about $1100.00 (Yeah!!!) plus an additional $228.00 from the part-time job
Anyway here is what I am looking at :
Water & Sewage: $40.00
C-phone#1: $40.00
Home Phone: $30.00
Cable: $40.00
Savings #1: $75.00
Challenge: $50.00
IRA: $15.00
CC2: $33.00
CC:3 $52.00
CC4: $20.00
CC5: 125.00 (paid in full)
Sam's club renewal: $35.00
Dental Ins :$12.00
Leaving me with about $761.00
Now I am thinking if my brother pays me what he owes me ($265.00) I can use this amount + the $761 to pay off cc2 ($944.45) leaving me with $82.00 for two weeks but at this point I do not care because I am sick and tired of these bills and I am not sure as you know how long my car will be around and I sure don't want a lot of bills if I get a new car

Well I was a little nervous but I went ahead and paid off one of my CC's $797.61
I transferred the money from my EF because the money I keep in the challenge account is located at ING and will be a few days before it's actually deposited into my linked account, so I figured before I chicken out I'd better pay it now that I am serious. So now my new total for the challenge is $237.46 this difference is not available for withdrawal as of yet but that is fine with me. I get paid next week from both the part-time and full time job and will deposit the full amount from my part-time job to my EF making up the difference next I will work on another card ASAP. God I hope my car keeps up

I must say I am blessed and sometimes I do forget. Got my first paycheck today from the part-time job...$228.94 and was able to give $20.00 for Tithes because I am thankful. I was not looking for a part-time job and my sister gave my name to her boss at her part-time job (same place) and I was hired. Then a week later I was told I need a new car; so guess what the money I make here will be used towards car payments once I get a car, so yes I am blessed. Then I transferred $8.31 to the challenge giving me a new total of $737.04 placed $150.00 in the EF leaving me with $50.00 for myself. Boy, am I thankful

Once again you guys gave me a new idea, I think now I am going to save all soda cans and turn them in. I drink a lot of oda and figured I'd better get some of my money back. I 'll have to research as to where I can turn them in and how much per pound ( Iwonder if it will be worth it) but I will add what ever I get to my challenge money

Well today we took a co-worker out for lunch, (she's leaving Wednesday for PT school) anyway the boss bought lunch today...yeah!!! I did not have to spend a dime. So I figured with my coke and sandwich it would have been about $7.00 so guess what I did , added that amount to my challenge money now brining my total to $385.17. Boy am I glad I am back on track

Boy am I on a roll, I treated a co-worker to lunch today, her last day is next Wednesday I will miss her a lot...but the money that I would not have normally spent I also added to my challenge money which was $6.55 ( now whatever I spend that I normally would not I will add that amount also to my challenge money,because it's money that could have been saved) anyway my total is now $355.41. I am so happy because I will think twice about blowing any money; with my new way of thinking because basically I will be spending twice the amount

For a minute I was slipping but now I am back on track with my saving plan I did not buy breakfast this morning and packed my lunch. Now I have added 4.27 to my challenge money again rounding up brining my total to $348.86. I will definately meet my $100.00 goal a month. It feels good to be refocused

Just rounded up my change and made a few deposits to my challenge money brining my total from $321.79 to $339.59 only about $60.00 more dollars to go before I meet my monthly goal of a $100.00 a month deposited to this account. I even gave my self a new alternative that if I waste any money such as shopping eating out etc I would deposit the same amount that I spent to my challenge money because that could have been money saved. Looks like I am back on track

Well I upped my challenge money to 325.77 from 321.79 a difference of $3.98 simply by rounding up. I am feeling a lot better today than yesterday when I was going over all the money I spent for clothing. But since then I can't wait until payday b/c I will be able to pay off 2 cc

I don't know if you guys remembered but I finally reached baby step one (1000.00 EF) and because of my little spending spree last month I used cc and not cash that I should have had, now I had to take money out of my EF to pay CC' s leaving me with $900.00 I used 3 different cc's and was only able to pay off 2 the third has a balance of 125.00 which will be paid next week, payday. I was doing so well and then bam! I don't know what happened. I was thinking about cleaning outmy $20.00/ New house account to pay off my Student loan but now I will pass I really need to get these CC's out of my hair...and I am still waiting for the 225.00 from my brother it seems like I won't see that anytime soon. That is enough of venting now

Ok I went back and reviewed all bills paid since the 1st (online) which came to 2.73 in stamps; if I would have mailed my bills out so I added that to my challenge money as well as $1.03 from earlier now bringing my total to $321.79 now that I have added another option in order to save/add to the challenge I should reach or come close to my $100.00 a month goal (money to be added to the challenge). It feels good to be back on track again, boy did I waste a ton of money last month

Thanks to Boomeyer's previous post I decided any bills I pay online (no stamps) I will add what I would have paid in stamps to my challenge money. I already round of the change this will give me an additional $7.00+ each month now I got the hang og adding well coming up with new ideas to add to my challenge money
Thanks again

I have finally made baby step 1 by reaching my $1000.00 EF yeah I am so happy I hope I won't need to touch that money. I also was able to pay bills and up my $20.00 challenge/new home money to
$317.98 my goal at this point is to save $100.00 each month for the challenge money
Well new month and no shopping for me I am definatley staying out of the stores.
Unfortunately I was unable to take the challenge and live off minimum wage

Wow did I go over my budget this month especially when it came to buying clothes but I am will be back on track this month
So far
I have a total of:
$20.00 Challenge/New Home $295.98
New Car acct $45.42
College tuition $71.08
Misc account $.04
Personel Svgs account $31.00
EF $750.66 decreased by almost 200.00
Total savings $1194.18

Now here is the spending
Dining out $520.47
Groceries $100.71
Gas $91.41
Cell Phone $40.00
Household bills (cable, electric etc)$
Misc $333.72
Personal Care $265.63

I know I have gone over the edge with my spending this weeken I have spent soooo much over the weekend on small items that adds up very quickly. I know I spent foolishly out waying my wants over my needs that I have not even entered my transaction onto the register
I am dredging tonight when I finally enter all my transactions

Hopefully it won't be too bad
and guess what I have already decided to return

Yeah it is payday and I just put away a lot here. There was an extra 12 hours yeah!!!!! Boss paid me for my lunches (marketing lunches). So here is the break down for all my accounts, thus far every thing has been paid for the month I also lent my bother again $225.00 leaving me with $128.00 for two weeks

Savings:
$144.00 to EF Total $932.00
$67.50 Misc Account / total 67.50
$15.00 $20.00 Challenge total 280.84
$5.00 Car account /total $45.16
$70.00 College tuition Total $71.00 (this is a new account)
$15.00 IRA contribution/Total $601.37

Total savings: $316.50
CC /Debt
Macy�s paid $20.00 Balance: 346.73
Merrick Bank paid 300.00/ Balance $1456.73
Household Bank paid $26.00/Balance 763.32
Target paid $9.09/ Balance 0
Mom (personal loan) paid $50.00/ Balance $150.00
Capitol One paid $33.00/ Balance $972.85

Now for the month I have spent the following:
Personal Care: $150.32
Dining Out: $99.96
Groceries: $61.52
Gas; $50.00
Clothing $57.51
Gifts $30.00
Home Bills (phone, cell cable etc) $160.00
Leisure/Entertainment $40.00

So far so good

I have been using ING since the end or mid February and I love it. So now that I am gearing up for the fall and of course tuition is going up as well I figured if I sock away $70.00 each pay period towards books/books I should have most of the money for the fall or at least 3/4 of the money so I decided to add a college account to my existing ING account. Right now I have a new home account and a car account. I like the idea because I always think twice about transferring funds and since it takes a few days to actually get the money I've never actually transferred anything and now that they are paying at 4% why not just leave the money there. I actually can�t wait until the end of the year to see how much I have actually save and what I actually decreases/paid off. Since I can remember I have never stuck with my New Year�s resolution regarding saving and getting out of debt this is the longest I have stuck to the plane (4months) and actually have a little some thing in the bank other than $50.00�lol. If you�re not into ING I suggest you think about it, it�s a great way to save money

OOPs I forgot to add that this site hepls a lot

Just round some change up after using my debit card and now my challenge money is at $226.82 just simply knowing I am saving for a house along with paying off debt started from $0 now I have $226.00 towards a new house not much now but wow just knowing I have something save is better than nothing I actually am serious this time and not simply just talking & you guys are helping a lot.
Also my brother paid me the $200.00 he owed me so I was able to add that money to my EF now I am at $873.00 only $127.00 away from reaching my $1000.00 mini EF fund

Boy at one point I loved to shop, I even set up a seperate account strictly for that. So today I went out and spent the money $43.64 now i feel terrible..itis driving me crazy and Iwon't feel better until I return everything I bought. Am i crazy or just realizing my needs over my wants

Here we are at the end of the month and I actually had 21.00(with in a few days I spent $20.00) left. Here are my totals for the month (I really need to cut out the dining out ASAP)


EF $673 loaned my brother $200.00
Misc Saving 134.00
$20.00 Challenge/new home $221.84
Auto (savings account) 39.64
Splurge account $51.00
Piggy bank 8.30
New furniture account $1.00...now that is terrible
Auto/ gas 86.01 over by 6.01
Dining out 133.97 way over
Groceries 161.28 over gain

My total savings is $1145.78 (excluding the $200.00)
Wow I have got to slow down with all this eating out it's terrible. Pretty much every thing else was with in my budget

Just got my pay stub (we won�t get paid until Friday) but I have an extra $62.00 to play with I estimated incorrectly (The boss actually gave me a few extra hours) any way it works out here is my calculation for the 1st check of the month (April)

881.00
-188.00 car insurance
-30.00 cable
-25.00 Home phone
-53.00 c-phone
-30.00 c-phone #2
-140.00 Electricity
-75.00 EF
-67.00 Misc EF
-15.00 $20.00 Challenge/new home acct
-20.00 Me
-5.00 Misc Car account (for any repairs)
-15.00 IRA
-10.00 New furniture account
Leaving me with $208.00 to spare for 2 weeks
Oops I left out the $30.00 I had left from my previous check I thought it was going to be $40.00 but I spent some money since yesterday and will probably spend a few bucks between today and Thursday so we�ll see
Since my last post I did add @ $6.00 to my $20.00 challenge bring my total to a about $206.00

Looks like the end of the month and I have $40.00 left over yeahhhhhh!!! not to mention the money I placedin my savings account. Well I am going to use this extra money to pay my CC debt and work on my debt snowball. I thought about putting the money into my $20.00 but I think paying the debt will be better we'll see

Well finally did it, set up my budget using Excel, (I also use Money 2006 as well) so here it is: Keep in mind I do not pay rent but decided to include this in my budget in order to build my EF, money for a down payment on a house and my auto account in case my car breaks down so here we go:

Monthly Income budget Actual Difference
Paycheck 1 $999.40 $0.00 $999.40

Federal $97.41 $0.00 $97.41

SSN Tax $61.96 $0.00 $61.96

MedTax $14.49 $0.00 $14.49

Total $825.54 $0.00 $825.54

Paycheck 2$ 1,183.50 $0.00 $1,183.50

Federal Tax $125.03 $0.00 $125.03

SSN Tax $73.38 $0.00 $73.38

Medicare Tax $17.16 $0.00 $17.16

Total $967.93 $0.00 $967.93

Total $1,793.47 $0.00 $1,793.47


Housing Budgeted Actual Difference
Rent/Mtg $300.00 $0.00 $300.00
Utilites $140.00 $0.00 $140.00
Water $40.00 $0.00 S40.00

Total $480.00 $0.00 $480.00


Car Budgeted Actual Difference
Gas $80.00 $0.00 $80.00

Insurance(qrtly)$188.00 $0.00 $188.00

Mantainencere $5.00 $0.00 $5.00

Total $273.00 $0.00 $273.00

Debts Budgeted Actual Difference
Merrick Bank $52.00 $0.00 $52.00
Capitol One $33.00 $0.00 $33.00
Household Bank $25.00 $0.00 $25.00
Discover Card $50.00 $0.00 $50.00
Personal loan $100.00 $0.00 $100.00
StudentLN#1 $7.00 $0.00 $7.00
StudentLN #2 $20.00 $0.00 $20.00

Total $287.00 $0.00 $287.00

Miscs Budgeted Actual Difference

Church $20.00 $0.00 $20.00
Food $120.00 $0.00 $120.00 Tuition/Supplies$75.00 $0.00 $75.00 Medicines $10.00 $0.00 $10.00
Entertainment $70.00 $0.00 $70.00
Clothing $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Haircuts $20.00 $0.00 $20.00
Gifts $20.00 $0.00 $20.00
Cash $50.00 $0.00 $50.00
Other $100.00 $0.00 $100.00

Total $485.00 $0.00 $485.00

Monthly Expense Budgeted Actual Difference Housing $480.00$0.00 $480.00
Car $273.00 $0.00 $273.00
Debts $287.00 $0.00 $287.00
Miscellaneous $485.00 $0.00 $485.00

I decided to set up a budget on excel boy is this time consuming especially since I am not all the familiar with Excel, Thank goodness I am able to copy values and formulas because I would probably be here all night but I know in the long run it will be well worth it

I love to read and hard cover books range from $15.00-$22.00. Well now that I am on this get out of debt plan I decided to use my public library (wow) I have not seen that place since 1993 and guess what I owed them $13.00+ a replacement fee for my library card, but I must say it was well worth. I have read at least 6 books since I dedcided to return to the library and saved me any where from $50.00 to a $100.00 easily. Just wanted to remind every one that you do not have to buy books & that the library could be your best friend