Wow the month is not over yet and one more checks to go. I was able to pay all my bills this last pay period (Friday) and pay little extra on debt. Here is the break down regarding my savings:

$75.00 to my EF
$67.50 to my miscellaneous EF (this is the first time in a while I can actually deposit this money with out withdrawing it within the next few days YEAHHHHHHH!)
$15.00 towards my housing account (Kept with ING and this money is actually being used for my $20.00 challenge)
$10.00 towards my car account (for oil changes, rotation of tires etc�also an ING account)
$20.00 towards my ME Account (if I want to go out, splurge etc)
$5.00 towards my new furniture account (HSBC account)
Totaling $192.50 in savings wow plus my dad gave me $30.00 yesterday
And yet I still have $155.00 left to last me to the 28th of the month more than enough,
Every one always ask me why do you have so many different accounts well because I have different reasons to save and with my Money 2006 Deluxe it makes it easy to keep track

This is such an accomplishment because before I started listening to D.Ramsey, Suze Orman not to mention hitting every financial website (blog) there is as well as reading so many financial books I could not save one cent so this is a big accomplishment. Now I have gotten to the point where I do not want to tough any of my money & I love seeing my saving grow. Hopefully with the will of God and everyone else I will be able to purchase my first home by the end of next year wish me luck & be debt free

I drive 89 Toyota Camry that I am sure my friends laugh at first it bothered me but now I see it as a blessing I had �01 Camry that was totaled last year my dad gave me this car (�89) and starting May I will start depositing the money I was paying for my car into my Housing and car account splitting the 348.11 between the two

Right now my totaling savings is $1150.00 wow I did it

Since I have decided to do my own �Total Money Make Over�
(taking the title from D. Ramsey) I have definitely seen some changes in my financial life. Got paid yesterday and socked away a little more than a $100.00. I was also able to take my car to the shop and get the brakes done for $131.00 without dipping into my EF and mechanic put freeon in my car at half price costing me only $25.00. I am wondering if I should use the extra $25.00 I would have paid for the freeon towards paying a CC debt, place in my savings or hold on to it until my next payday, just in case I end up running short�what do you guys think?

New month new budget�I� have decided to make some changes to my budget, last month I went over a little but was able to still save

So far I have upped my EF to $638.00, my $20.00 challenged increased by $133.11 giving me a grand total of $153.11 ending the month of February leaving me with $14846.89 left towards a purchase of my new home ( lol). My auto account something new I just started in case the car needs any repairs or in time a new one is needed, I am at $19.49 but with my plans I am sure it too will increase significantly

In the beginning I used Dave Ramsey�s �total Money Make Over� in order to get my snow ball going, I�ve paid a total of 4 credit cards freeing up $70.00 extra a month, now I have decided to take that $70.00 and pay towards my high interest credit card. Unlike Dave, I am funding my EF as I go, but I did open up a miscellaneous account adding 67.50 each pay period giving me a total of $135.00 for some reason I find myself using this money but at least I have not touched my EF fund and wow is it nice to see it grow.

I found this great tip on MSN Money Central which stated to use the 10% rule, it works like this:
1st 10% of my paycheck I deposit in my EF account
Then I take 10% of what is leftover and deposit into my miscellaneous account (for small emergency) the next 10% I deposit into my IRA account (unfortunately I am unable to deposit 10% but I make sure I deposit 15.00 each pay period totaling 30.00 a month, something is better than nothing) now I pay bills; the only exception that I have made to this rule is what ever my paycheck is I subtract $750.00 to use with the 10% rule and the difference I am using to pay down my credit cards so if my check is 900.00 then $150.00 is used to pay towards my high interest credit cards

Just wanted to share some of my ideas on how to get out of debt�hope it helps some one because it sure have helped me (4 credit cards paid in full 5 more to go)

Now that I have started trying to clean up my act, when ever I eat out or spend any money on some thing that is not a necessity I am ticked off.

Had a hair appointment yesterday, hadn't been in almost 3 months (use to go twice a week) and spent $30.00; which could've have been used to pay a CC or applied to my $20.00 challenge. I am so upset; I could barely sleep last night because of it.

Sometimes I think I am letting this "debt freedom" so to speak take over my life...it's all I can think about L

Lord knows I have made some very bad decisions when it came to credit (living well over my means or like the Jones) However, now that I have found websites like this one, I use them to my advantage more� like a form of therapy. I thought about entering Debtors Anonymous, but these sites are much better. I guess I can hide behind the computer and know one knows who I am. I use to think � blah� when it came to therapy but now I know it helps especially when you have a group of people some just like you, some better off than you, but it feels so good to get advice from everyone and the words of encouragement are AWESOME.

My mother who is great at saving never really taught me to save it wasn�t until I was much older and then she started yelling � you need to save your money�� I wish she had taken the time when I was younger to encourage me to save �but know need to dwell on the past. So thank you in advance for all your support

While surfing the net I found this site, as you all know I am trying very hard to clean up my act when it comes to my finances. Please check this out and let me know what you all think:


http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt8703.pdf

Yeah!!!! I just paid off 2 credit cards and upped my emergency fund. I am so excited