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Well, I did not luck out with the car repair. I went to AutoZone, and learned there that it was a problem with the coolant sensor. I took the car to Kia, but they had just had two mechanics quit, and they couldn't take me until Thursday. They did assure me that driving my car till then would not be a problem. I went to Aldi and bought $28 worth of groceries, came out and tried to start the car -- couldn't. After I gave up, I called AAA and then returned the groceries, since...
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Well, I applied for a job this week. It pays less than the job I have now. Why would I do this, one might wonder. The job is for the local water district, and their office is 10 minutes from my home. Right now, I spend a minimum of 45 minutes commuting each way. That's in good weather and with no road construction projects. Currently, I am taking a longer route due to 3 (!) construction projects on my usual route. It is just under an hour each way.

I'm not entirely certain...
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The week is starting to wind down. DH is out in the yard. He's mowing since it is a tad bit cooler and less humid. We had horrible heat and humidity last weekend and most of this week. He spent some time watering his garden before the mowing and we had a few tomatoes to pick! Most were cherry, but homegrown is homegrown, right?

There's something gratifying about going to the garden and getting a few things to use. I pulled up some onions that I'm going to use for a meal. I...
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The whole 30 is over but I'm mostly continuing it. I like it. I liked how it made me feel and I like how easy it is. I think it's helped a lot. Did it make me lose weight? 10 lbs or so in a month. But I think I can see long term weight loss and getting to a steady state by just making better choices. Since it's been a few days I've added back soy, peanut butter, butter, and corn. I'm going to stick to a modified whole 30 without sugar and processed foods and some dairy for...
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Summer items are selling great!
Total sales were $366.00!!

Sale #1766 (SF) $8.00
Kids Beach Bucket 6pc Sets (2) - I paid $2.13 each
Sold for $4.00 each
Profit = $3.74

Sale #1767 (AH) $38.00
Carlos Santana Sandals - I paid $3.25
Sold for $20.00
Profit = $16.75

Bath and Body Works Shower Gels (3) - I paid $3.49 each
Sold for $6.00 each
Profit = $7.53

Sale #1768 (RJ) $15.00
Water Shoes (3) (Joint with my Mom) - We paid $2.65 each
Sold for $5.00...
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I had started logging these back in Sept. 2019 when I purchased them, but when we lost all those months of our blogs I lost the info so just reposting it for tracking purposes. I am doing pretty good with getting my summer items up and posted for sale!

Kids Beach Bucket 6pc Set (Bought 5)
Regular Price $7.99 each
Clearance to $1.99
Final Price + Tax = $2.13
(Marked $4.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 2 for $4.00 each on FB on 7/5/20
*ETA - Sold 2 for $4.00 each...
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Paid an extra $150 today on the student loans, the balance is now $28,292.98, this amount is a combination of two loans.
The smallest of the two is $8,567.75. With the $150 payment, my new balance will be $8,417.75. Next pay day I plan on paying $300. Either way, I think I can get this loan paid off, I hope by December. My goal, $1000 a month.
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Today it is nice and cool after a stormy night. I wish it would last. I ran the air for most of the day and all of the night yesterday.

I did a load of laundry yesterday, which was my only spending. Variables remain at 14%.

I finished up my French onion soup yesterday at lunch, and made a frozen pizza for dinner. The soup was so good, I just kept eating it, rather than putting in the freezer. I plan on making mac and cheese (from scratch) today.

My freezer is beginning...
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DS and I inventoried the big chest freezer a couple of days ago, which was a lot of work and we also got the sides defrosted. It doesn't frost up too much, but enough that we had to use a butter knife to break it lose. It take about six months or so to build up about an inch and it only does it on the back side. Anyway, we have a lot of food in there and now I know what it is exactly, so I will better be able to meal plan.

I made up an Excel spread sheet to track it as we...
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or number 9 since the refinance.

The regular monthly payment posted on 7/3/20, bringing the principal balance down to $28,225.67.

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $745.61.

The last payment date has moved up to 4/3/27; that is 6 years and 9 months to go if from this point forward I pay only the regular monthly payments.

My "5th Wheel Amortization" page has been updated, if you care to take a peak.
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Hi! I'm Raquel. I'm feeling a little vulnerable. I stumbled across this site, gathered all my information, tried to settle my nausea, and hit update. I finally got my head out of the sand a few weeks ago. Unfortunately we got a rude awakening when we received court documents regarding a debt. What a sinking feeling. I thought to myself, I better do something about this before I get 10 more. So, I put all of our debt on here. As of last week, we have payments set up on...
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We closed on our appraisal and got a total of $7,005 cash out. $5,000 will be saved back to finish our dirt work project. $1,770 will be used to pay for the water heater, and the rest will be put towards the new fridge we had to buy since ours went out this week... Ugh.

At least every appliance is new now.

We also effectively gained the $2,000 I had set back for our taxes and insurance since the new loan has escrow included now. It will just remain in our savings account...
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I wish I could report a windfall, or a payoff, or some kind of success with money, but I am just in a holding pattern right now. It is less than a week till payday, when I can start feeling like I am making progress again. My variables are at 14%. I haven't bought much of anything so far this month.

The lamp I ordered (last month) arrived yesterday, and surprise! It was much smaller than I thought it would be. I obviously didn't look at the dimensions very carefully. I...
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Have some extra money this month which has really boosted our home deposit account (see side bar) so happy we are reaching our goal...a little each month..but this is a big jump for us..

Other than groceries/gas..I also bought a gift for a baby shower and a house warming gift...although I need to send that to the US so will cost a bit but that will come out of my mad money.

Was our youngest b-day today..she didn't want to do much so we just had cake and then she left to go home..
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No surprises here. My take home pay was $0.07 more than expected. I planned to transfer $805.43 from sinking funds to pay my car and 5th wheel insurance and that was the only transfer which happened. Buffer is the beginning balance in checking, and my only other income was the expected $0.01 of interest on checking.



I did manage to trim my needed cash by $40.00. That is always nice when I can manage it as I send every spare penny to extra principal.



No surprises...
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Pay day is Friday, I sort of played around with the numbers and realized I will be saving about 34% of my income. Though most of this is sinking funds (e.g. HOA, mortgage, car insurance) it’s still a great feeling knowing I can save for these things.

After tallying what I’ll be adding to my challenge fund, my YTD will be $1532. I’m so excited about this. I had so many plans for this money when I first started, saving for my 50th, then it changed to paying off CC, now...
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It is extremely hot and humid in Maryland today. Summer is not my favorite season. The humidity just seems to drain all my energy really quickly. I did venture out to run a few errands though. I had a coupon from my grocery store for a free 10-pound bag of russet potatoes. I dropped half of these off to my brother as I will never eat that many! I’ll need to find some recipes for what to do with the rest.
Then I went over to CVS and bought 5 bottles of shampoo, and a 6-roll...
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Yesterday was a day of some drama. First of all, it was a peak savings day, which means I was invited to reduce my electrical usage as much as possible between the hours of 3 and 7, in exchange for a credit on my bill. I turned everything off, including the air. Since I was planning to leave at 5 for the baseball game, I thought it wouldn't be too bad.

No sooner did I turn it all off, I got a message from the property manager that there was a gas leak, and the gas had been...
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Bought a rug today...have wanted one for quite awhile it is so nice and much better than the carpet to lay on..it set me back $350 was on sale and talked them down another $50....but its what we wanted..so all good.

May have found my mom a house but we will see what happens last time it didn't eventuate so hopefully this will be the one...she really needs her own space...apparently the landlord will call me tomorrow so will see what happens.

payday tomorrow so will go do...
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Received the refund, for the house after the refinance, the amount was $779. I also received a refund, thank goodness, for my professional membership from the job, in the amount of $219.

Now that I have a nice chunk set aside for professional membership and certifications, $763, I’m going to stop contributing to that account and add the amount I was contributing to the student loans. My membership is ridiculously high $219 and the certification (two) are about $150 every...
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