“About Me” Archive
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A couple of you have mentioned Flylady in your comments. I was actually introduced to Flylady’s program back in 2005 and can honestly say she turned my life around! While I may be a financial mess…I do have an organized household and plan that keeps a busy group on track and productive. If you haven’t looked into Flylady…please do. She can be found at www.flylady.net and she really can change your life. I remember when I discovered Flylady. It was just after a neighbor stopped by my house unannounced and as she spoke to me in my front entryway, I realized she was having to stand on my dirty clothes that were overflowing out of the laundry room! Talk about embarrassing! That moment jump started life changes in me and near 7 years later, I’m still living a pretty “flylady” life. I love her decluttering tips and her “zones.” There really is something for everyone on her plan—and you can take what works best for you and watch it make a difference in your life. I’m learning now that an organized life really does lead to saving money!
It is because of Flylady that I am a regular menu maker and why I still take 15 minutes a day to clean up a “hotspot’ in the house. Good stuff here…give it a look…and THANKS FLYLADY! And thanks to those of you who have reminded me to get back to checking in with her!
Before the first of this year I was totally out of control on eating out for lunch. I had every reason for doing so…in my head at least. I don’t have time to pack a lunch, I don’t know where I will even be around the lunch hour, what’s $7 or $8 for a quick bite…on and on and on. I’m happy to report that this too is an area where I have made dramatic changes. In January and February I cut back to lunch out once a week. As of March and April, I’ve managed to cut that to once every other week…and always with a coupon! By May, I’m shooting for once a month. I’ve done this by taking lunch items up to the office at the beginning of the week–enough to make a variety of things. This way everything I need is there and it isn’t adding something to an already busy night or morning routine. I’m also eating better of course—that’s a very real added benefit. The funny thing too is that people at the office are “getting” it and the invites aren’t as frequent. We still talk and visit of course…but now we just do so over our bag lunches! The young lady that works in the cafe on the first floor said she missed me. I bet she does! I was dropping about $40 a week there at one point!
SUPER busy weekend and then the week hasn’t let up–so pardon my brief absence! I was so excited and proud about the planning I did for our daughter’s First Communion and things only got better! As I shared, we had made the reservation and had the budget under control. On Saturday when all 14 of us arrived at the restaurant, there was a mishap of some sort. They were aware of our reservation but did not have a table ready. It seems that someone broke up the large table arranged for us into 4 smaller tables and those 4 small groups of people were still dining when we arrived. This is a family owned local restaurant that we really like so even as we had to wait I couldn’t really be angry at them. As hunger REALLY set in and I was dealing with a tired 7-year-old and my poor diabetic 82-year-old Dad…I started to move toward anger. It was over an hour before the large table could be reassembled and as soon as we all sat down and a waitress was passing out water glasses…she spilled one down the back of our poor First Communion Kid! 
The back of her pretty dress was all wet and the pretty curls we did went flat. She had an ice cube in her dress and made me so proud by holding it together when I knew an all out fit was just milliseconds away! The waitress was also near tears and my sister made a well timed joke saying that now this was a First Communion celebration…AND a baptism of sorts. We moved along and enjoyed the rest of our meal. As two bottles of wine arrived at the table and then a spread of delicious desserts I kept eyeing my ex-husband to see if he was adding things to the bill! I was getting nervous thinking the budget was being blown just about the time I got my half of the bill. Dinner for 14 with wine AND dessert? WITH the tip came to $196.00!! OR $98.00 each! I still can’t believe it! The restaurant didn’t charge us for the wine or the desserts!
Our daughter received several gifts and a total of $40 cash. I haven’t yet but will work with her on splitting that up b/w giving, spending and saving. I sometimes forget to do that with her b/c she is young and that is dumb—she’s at a great age to learn skills about money.
We are trucking along on the savings and paying debt. I’m excited to share new numbers on May 1.
As I learn to bear all for all to see my financial mess…I loved the timing of a post on a yoga magazine’s website. I should first fill you in on my journey to yoga. This is one of those times I wish the readers really knew me and what I am all about. For purposes of this post, it is important that you know I hate to exercise and for years people were suggesting I take up yoga. Call it my Type A personality that has to work to relax but a lot of well intentioned people saw the value that yoga could bring to my life. I resisted for years and in just the last six months, I finally took the plunge into this world that I knew nothing about and was sort of put off by to be truthful.
I am still not great at yoga. I’m not able to focus ALL the time as I battle my mind wandering to a to do list or things I forgot to do before getting to yoga. I feel completely silly most of the time (although…side note…I feel MUCH sillier in Zumba). But yoga HAS shown me in a very tangible way that slow and steady wins the race. This practice has brought me into an area that I’m not entirely comfortable in but where I do accept the challenge. I am not naturally good at being still and focusing and pretty much have the upper body strength of Kermit the Frog. HOWEVER, in six months I CAN see improvement in all areas…I can focus longer than I was able to in the beginning and I can do asanas that were completely impossible at the beginning. That is SO empowering.
And so today as the comments became very negative and anger and frustration started to creep in, I was able to go back to my thoughts on yoga. And then I saw this post: http://blogs.yogajournal.com/guestblog/2012/04/money-and-the-truth-practicing-satya.html#.T5Bjfhrb3WQ.facebook
Take a look when you have a chance–I know some of you will find something you can relate to in this article. I know my sharing here on the blog has led to my sharing with trusted friends–with no details being held back….and I cannot say I have done that before. The truth IS setting me free…one day at a time. Challenge yourself to tell one person about your debt dirt today. 
Namaste.
$11,889.19 in my work 401K and an additional $10,288.31 in Restricted Stock. I will be vested in February 2013. This 401K is the only investment account I am currently adding to with a 4% withholding (reminder: this is a recent increase from 3% after a raise kicked in so I wasn’t accustomed to getting the money yet so it was easier to add to savings.) My company uses Fidelity and I spent some time exploring their website and learned some basic info. I’m invested in a “life plan” Vanguard that is designed to grow gradually more conservative as I move toward retirment. I used 2035 as my retirement date which would put me at age 63. I think I was in the default fund and it was too conservative for my current age. I don’t know for certain right now but if memory serves me correctly, my husband’s 401K sits in the same range.
I also used a couple of retirement calculators to see where we are at and what we need to do in order to get where we want to be by age 60. While certainly not in a fantabulous position, we also aren’t destitute. With the debt payments decreasing in the next couple of years I would hope that by retirement we are talking about living expenses, medical expenses (which I know have got to be horrendous), housing and basic living stuff…maybe we won’t need to die within 18 months of retirement. Funny timing as I was doing these calculations today, my husband was dining at what he did not know was a “Senior Friendly” restaurant on his current business trip. I’m sure as he enjoyed what he described as exceptionally bland food…surrounded by the senior crowd…he really wanted to see a text from his wife about retirement!
Anyway, I’ve gathered all the retirement numbers and that prompted me to get things moving on the account transfers and such so that’s a plus to posting this info. I really hate this stuff–like almost rather eat a big bug instead of look at and thinking about my retirement accounts. Sigh. I know it is a reality but it is like I have a teflon brain for getting this! In some ways I think it is simply a mental roadblock that will eventually lift on its own…other times I am pretty sure I will never understand investing. Maybe there’s a community education course I can look into to help–b/c not even reading books on my own is doing it! This reminds me of high school geometry when even the very patient teacher finally just gave me a D to get me out of her class! My only D ever and she was so good about telling me she knew I was working so hard and giving it all I had…but…it was time for me to go! Ah…good times!
I have always been a fan of resale shops and I’m lucky to live around several great ones. I used to be much better about taking my own stuff to them for consignment but I’ve fallen off a bit on that project. I had to stop going to them in the short term b/c I find way too much stuff that I must have! Right now the only self control I can exercise is abstaining entirely!
Our baby girl will be receiving her First Holy Communion on Saturday the 21st. This is such an exciting time! BUT talk about the opportunity to spend a lot of money! Sheesh. Ridiculous really. Good news is she is wearing a beautiful dress she wore in a wedding last summer and thankfully it was big on her at the wedding and now she’s grown into it! This was a wedding on her Dad’s side and his family took care of the original purchase price so we are definitely getting their money’s worth out of it. I searched at a few of the local kids’ resales for a headpiece of some sort as DD is a girly girl through and through. No luck in town but I did find a great deal on ebay and it arrived today! She already has shoes from an end of season clearance last year that I bought big…and so with those shoes the total spent on her ensemble is $20. That’s not bad at all.
We’ll have about 12 people attending and we have budgeted for the meal after Mass. In fact, I think we put it in the spreadsheet back in March. Once again, I am thankful for the very good friendship I have with my ex-husband. We have agreements on everything really-time, money, etc. We do not exchange child support b/c the children are with each of us for what works out to be a pretty even amount of time. So, we always split events like this 50/50 which helps everyone’s budget. For other religious events we’ve had meals at the house but with my remarriage that has become somewhat more difficult (ex-in-laws aren’t nearly as pleasant as their son) so we have to go to a neutral place in order for our daughter to be best served. I DID spend some time thinking about how to forego the celebration—but we’ve done it for all the boys…so the guilt thing got me. We are going very simple and I’ve pre-selected the menu so we KNOW what we are paying going in and people won’t be left to choose from the menu. We will spend $250 (divide by 2) for a nice Italian meal at DD’s favorite restaurant.
WOW! I think before I started thinking I would have spent closer to $500 just on my own (without counting what her Dad would have spent) on this event–using a credit card of course. That’s progress.
I overheard the kids talking tonight and 7 year old girl explained to her big brothers that the library is the “way to go” because you just borrow the books and DVD’s and you don’t have to give them money. :-) This on top of the 13 year old revisiting the 25 cent boxes of Rice Krispies and marveleing aloud. The 12 year old was on the phone with his Dad yesterday sharing what a deal these antennas are because “tv is FREE Dad.” There have been some unrelated challenges with the 17-year-old so we definitely don’t have any positive or negative commentary from him. Oh to be as smart as all of the 17-year-olds out there! Another day where I find a whole new respect for my parents surviving FIVE teenagers!
I know that some readers will assume our kids are overindulged…but I beg to differ. They saved money from chores (more on that in a post to come), birthdays, holidays, little “jobs” and have bought ALL of the gadgets they have. One bought an iTouch after over a year of saving. Honestly I didn’t think he’d be so determined but I’m proud he was! We supply the bottom of the barrel cell phones b/c my husband has a stash of old phones at his disposal and I’m the only one in this house with an iPhone! And that was only after it was reduced to an employee discount price. The middle schoolers just got their phones this school year and friends don’t believe them when they learn their Dad works for a cell company…b/c they definitely don’t have the cutting edge phones. Three of the four kids seem to be naturally thrifty and the one that isn’t…is learning from the others. We provide basics and even the PS3 that is now serving as our television supply was split–we paid 50%, they paid the other 50%. So, all this is to say that I’m not surprised by the lack of drama or pushback from them…but I am surprised at each of them articulating it in the manner they do. As a new blended family we’ve needed a common goal. It hit me today that saving money and paying off debt is the perfect common goal! In some bizarre way (truly bizarre thinking here) I wish I COULD point to a bunch of crap for the kids to explain this debt! But that’s CRAZY talk! I am sure the days ahead will see unhappiness and disappointment as the novelty of this battle wears off and we all realize it is a long war ahead.
Anyway, this is just a random share to celebrate the entire family’s progress. I like the idea someone put in a comment about recruiting them for my ebay sales. I know they would love that!
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About This Site
My Debt
- Original Debt: $97,293.06
- Paid: $1,927.89
- Remaining: $95,365.17
- Emergency Fund: $1100
- Broken Down
- Line of Credit 2: $0.00
- Line of Credit 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 2: $245.00
- Credit Card 3: $405.00
- Credit Card 6: $1,785.00
- Credit Card 7: $2,381.17
- Consolidation Loan: $11,000.00
- Credit Card 10: $14,519.00
- Auto Loan 1: $16,093.00
- Credit Card 11: $23,873.00
- Auto Loan 2: $25,064.00
Finance Blogging Buddies
- Beachgirl’s Budget Blog
- Becoming and Staying Debt Free
- Boston Gals Open Wallet
- Debt Free Hispanic
- Debt Kid
- Debt Reduction 101
- Dual Income No Kids
- Everybody Loves Your Money
- Financial Hack
- Free Money Finance
- From the Brink of Bankruptcy
- Generation X Finance
- GRACEful Retirement
- Grad Money Matters
- It’s Your Money
- Josephsangl.com
- Kick Debt’s Butt
- Lazy Man and Money
- Low Income Life
- Make Love Not Debt
- Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Money, Matter and More Musings
- My 1st Million at 33
- No Credit Needed
- One Million and Beyond
- Personal Finance Advice
- pfblogs.org
