All Entries

I can see that our federal tax refund is expected to be direct-deposited in two days. We’re getting $2606 back this year which means I had too much withheld, but next year we’ll lose $3500 in child/dependent tax credits so I’ll need to adjust withholding to prevent owing a thousand bucks, assuming all other things are equal this year. I’ll take a closer look at that during the summer after I know whether there is any increase in income and after I take some time to research...
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I had another no-spend day yesterday. In the afternoon I took a walk that took me over 6,200 steps. It was snowing in a very wet way, but it wasn't cold or windy, so it wasn't too bad. One of my feet got a little wet, so there must be a leak in my boot. That is a problem to be addressed later.

This time I walked a very big circle in my neighborhood and I saw lots of interesting houses and buildings I hadn't noticed before. Many houses that made my tongue hang out it in...
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I filed our tax return for 2019 on Sunday. The IRS and our home state where we file have both accepted the returns. My husband's income is exempt in our home state, so we owe nothing and since we didn't have any state withholding taken, there is also no refund.

We are getting a $1,308 refund from Federal. I had several years in the past where we tried to get closer to zero refund or owed, but I have skipped that the last two years because of tax changes and different credits...
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next friday we should have the grading and treatment that my hubby should be getting for his cancer, I was going to pay off the CC next month but we only have $2000 in our ice account so I have decided to pay $500 a month onto the CC and put the rest into our ice account until we hit a few more thousand as we don't know what our expenses will be in the coming months...it seems good to me we won't be paying much interest on the CC and our savings will grow. If we don't have a lot...
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It was a work-laden weekend. I read more instructor evals than I'd care to admit and wrote four evaluations/summaries of them. Three of them were outstanding, but it will be a difficult conversation with the fourth. I'm scheduling it for next week.

I had a great breakfast with my work friends on Saturday. Nothing like six women--all with complicated lives to take up two hours of talk time. But so so happy my friend with MS is doing so much better.

In other news, DD is...
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My sister is still not doing well. Continued prayers would be appreciated. She needs to have surgery, but her doctor wasn't in today due to it being a holiday. It is something she has been putting off because she doesn't have medical insurance. This is going to be rough for her.

I was able to get out of bed today, but am still very much under the weather. I still can't drive because my head spins. DD is about a day behind me. DH and DS seem to be getting better faster...
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Taxes are done and filed. We will only be getting about $1000 back, but it's something!

Here is a little boost to savings. We also need to get started on the 52 Week Challenge for this year!

Current Balance $10,375.00
+$110.00 FB Sales
+$50.00 MO Payday to Our Savings (2/14)
Balance $10,535.00

Local Savings $1155.00
GC Savings $610.00
Capital 360 Savings (US) $3085.00
Capital 360 Savings (Mom Loan Payback Account)$3335.00
Capital 360 Savings (Rental Deposit Account...
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Still have a lot of big orders to be picked up, only 1 of the big orders was picked up this week, but I did have a few high dollar items picked up which helped the total.

Sales for the week were $221.00!!

Sale #1635 (BH) $45.00
Google Home Mini 2pk (Joint with my FIL) - We paid $26.81
Sold for $45.00
Profit = $18.19

Sale #1636 (PJJ) $15.00
Cuisine Art Waffle Maker (Joint with my FIL) - We paid $7.49
Sold for $15.00
Profit = $7.51

Sale #1637 (SF) $40.00
Blackweb...
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This entry is very overdue. Loan payment #9, or #4 since the refinance, has posted. The new principal balance is $34,868.16.

Since the previous regularly scheduled payment, I managed to pay an extra $1,668.98.

The last payment date has moved up to 10/3/28; that is 8 years and 8 months to go.



When I went for my dental cleaning, the hygienist asked if I had considered a partial. I am going to discuss it with the dentist when I go for my next filling.

My birth mom...
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I got two things done yesterday that I had to push myself to do -- I cleaned the fish tank, and I took a walk that exceeded 5,000 steps. In fact, I got 6,700 steps in. I walked along the lake shore and saw some amazing ice sculptures which had naturally occurred between the water and the trees. Professional photographers were taking pictures. The skies were blue and it was springlike. A guy walked by me in a Hawaiian shirt -- but it really wasn't that warm.

I also went...
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I am ususally the one person in the family that people come to when they need help financially...not money wise just budget wise and helping make phone calls etc...they know I won't lend them money. i always tell them you can't borrow your way out of debt you just need to work on it...I will sit down and write them out a budget after we figure out all their debts/income etc...it is time consuming but worth it if they stick to it.

One of my nieces uses a place that pays their...
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It's 40 and sunny. The snow we received earlier in the week is starting to melt so we can see the brown, crunchy stuff we call grass.

Yahoo!

It's been sort of a tough winter here in Central Illinois. We've had snow, ice, and below zero wind chills. Then there is the gloom.

Fortunately we have not had the snow storms I remember having in the 1970s. A couple of times they had so much snow pile up, our three lane street in the downtown became a two lane one as they plowed...
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I've been watching a couple that's on YouTube work on getting out of a lot of debt. They were behind on their mortgage and didn't know until people started commenting that they needed to get current first!! When you are behind on payments that IS a debt and one that can get bad very fast, potentially losing a home or a car.

They have been gazelle intense on selling lots of things and their house is on the market to sell. They are finding cash in their home, including redeeming...
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I had a $20 coupon for the car repair, so the final bill was $767. $20 is $20. Glad I dug it up!

After getting the car back, I went to the gym, and then to Aldi, where I spent $50. I got some really exceptional deals on valentine candy and cookies, which went in the freezer. The candy -- chocolate Dove hearts -- I will eventually chop up for making chocolate chunk cookies. Each bag (9 oz.) was only .73 apiece. The cookies, only .49 for 4.4 oz., will be good to have along...
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Yesterday was a day of finding things to make my life easier.

I just happened to see in the morning that DL's school was doing e-waste collections. If nothing else, we still had MM's old car stereo (the one that came with the car he inherited) and it's pretty big and bulky. So I figured I would drop that off. I also had a shoebox full of stuff (the older stuff, Best Buy probably wouldn't take). Hell froze over and MH let me recycle my first two smart phones. (He likes to...
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Please pray for my eldest sister. My husband is taking her into the ER.
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After my regular mortgage payment (which I always round up so that I pay $400/month and keep my balance to a round number), the balance was $50,100, so when I got my paycheck yesterday, I allocated an extra hundred to the mortgage so that it's now at an even 50k, and should be at 46k by year's end. Total debt is now about 83.5k. They moved our annual bonus and pay raise to start with the last pay in February, so if we do get a bonus, I'll pay the debt down to 80k. 80k was originally...
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It’s about time to do review recurring monthly expenses. I try to do this at least once a year, to see if better deals are available and try to keep fixed monthly bills in check. Auto insurance is a great deal around here and should stay the same (I was mildly injured by another driver this year, which weirdly goes through your own auto insurance per our state laws, and Geico was very helpful. Great customer service. Can’t say the same for the medical billing people at the...
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Text I just got from my daughter (she's 24). She is at the bank waiting to have a form notarized.

Her: Lady in the waiting area on her phone, "I always check my account balance on the app and it said $168". It was normal for me to have more money than other college kids but this lady is 50 or 60. I mean she could have more money in other places but still.

Me: Surveys show that most people can't cover an unexpected $400 expense.

Her: People need to get their stuff together...
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Walgreens just totally blew my mind.

I think because we have a Walgreens very close to our home (really the only store within reasonable walking distance), I've just always gone there for convenience. It's not like it's a big deal to stop by on the way home and pick up a couple of things. (Though I otherwise tend to spend about -0- hours of my time "running errands").

I had an email today about a Walgreens coupon. I know I needed to pick up some feminine products and I...
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