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Prioritizing financial stability is essential if you want to buy a home. You should figure out what you can afford to spend on a home and work on raising your credit score and paying down your debt before you go house hunting. Getting your finances ready can help you secure a mortgage with favorable terms and ensure you can comfortably afford your monthly mortgage payments. Below are eight suggestions to help you prepare your budget for a home purchase.
1. Determine Your Credit...
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As the month rolls slowly toward its end, I continue to spend small amounts, which have taken my variables up to 91%.  I spent $15 on my newly-named Compassion Fund -- $10 went toward the care of a neglected dog, and $5 to a homeless man. I spent $9 on two bottles of hand wash, and $4 on a Happy Meal. I don't expect to spend anything for the rest of the month, other than laundry, and that money comes out of the change jar (though I do count it in variables). Also my scheduled...
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Hi all,
I knew it had been awhile, but not since August? Oops.
I just passed the 1 year mark in my new position at work. Still loving it. The new me we hired and I get along fabulously.
DH and I are a month off from our 7 year anniversary!! We're in discussions about an overnight trip.
My 101 yo grandma (CA) passed on Feb 13. We had a burial/memorial service for her yesterday. She is sharing a space with my dad.
I had planned on going ... but a bit over 3 weeks ago DH got...
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So I did end up having a drop in income due to the loss of the retention incentive at work. We continue to lose & gain emplpyees at our lower salary ranges, but have been pretty good about gaining & retaining staff at the higher salary levels. We hired 3 employees for a section, then lost two. Que sera sera... We are at least in a much better place than we were a year ago. We can breathe a bit not feeling like everything could crumble at any minute.
My married girlfriend...
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I started feeling better yesterday, so I went to the grocery store (Aldi) after all. I spent $19, and I bought biscuits, raisins, butter, eggs, Swiss cheese, coffee, and French fried onions. With the latter, I made three small green bean casseroles. I ate one yesterday and the other two are in the freezer.
Today I picked up a prescription at Walgreens, which was $15. Variables are now up to 80%.
Lights are still out in the laundry room, so I did laundry in the dark. Well, with...
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My husband got a raise! He received a 4.26% raise! It’s the largest raise he has gotten since he has been working for this company. He’s worked for the same company for 12 years and he has gotten a raise every year, but this year was the biggest he has ever gotten.
I’m so happy for him because he works so hard this past year, and he did not feel he was compensated appropriately at work; he wasn’t upset with his salary, but with certain bonuses that were...
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Yesterday I mailed my package -- $10 -- then stopped at a Hallmark store and did a little Christmas shopping. I'm determined I'm not going to leave it all to the end of the year this year. I spent $47 there on stocking stuffers, some things on sale, some not. Then I bought lunch at McDonalds - $4. I have learned that Happy Meals are just about right for senior citizens. Except for the toy. That I give to Goodwill. If I ask the McDonalds employees not to include the toy, it seems...
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March is determined to be absurd.  In January I refused to believe that January set the tone for 2023.  That we were going to have another *crazy* year (after the last several crazy years).  But I give up at this point.
My newest employee has been out sick 3 times already this year (once for a whole week) and had her third emergency this week.  This work jinx clearly remains (this is everyone who works for me).  My other employee was hospitalized last...
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Our lease is up in 7 months and I really don't want to stay in this house anymore..2.5 years is enough...they have heating and cooling in 1 room so it hot in summer (also has a flat roof) and cold in winter...our daughter who lives with us plans on having a baby this year (early next year) and this house isn't good for that...and no matter what we do this house has never felt like a home....so we want to find somewhere else to live....so I have decided today to start decluttering...I...
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My day at the museum was much cheaper than I expected, thanks to the generosity of my friends. Unbeknownst to me, they expected that I would be admitted on their ticket, as they have a membership which admits two guests. Meanwhile, I went ahead and bought admission online. When we met and talked over what had happened, they insisted on taking me to the ticket window to get my money back. Well, as it turned out, they had to count two of their kids as guests, so I wasn't a freebie...
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Begin - beginning checking account balance
pr - net payroll check
SB - my contribution towards our joint living expenses
cash - cash for the next 2 weeks
sf - automatic sinking funds transfers
roth - contribution to my Roth IRA
Citi MC - payment for my Verizon bill ($50.38), Netflix ($15.49), prescription co-pays ($57.76), less redeemed cash rewards ($27.32)
CarMax - payment towards my car loan.  This payment includes an additional $195.99. The new balance is $23,351.69.
house...
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Fortunately I am blessed to have many friends who have many talents. One dear friend is quite brilliant and he shares insights with me on many things whether it is finance or technology. I admire his many abilities because he is humble about them and is willing to share his knowledge. I feel like I'm constantly learning things that I would not have had the chance to do so before, but this person does it in a way that is gentle and encouraging. 
Another good friend is quite...
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So yes it personally did affect our life and we got to see SVB up close and very personal.We were very fortunate to get paid on Wednesday March 8th.  My DH's payroll is through rippling and they took the money out March 7th to pay his company.  So they had around $10m at SVB.  They also fortunately had a super smart accountant who put the rest of their money into treasuries.   So they used to be chase private clients but they found it hard when starting...
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Found out yesterday that a childhhod friend passed away...it was her second time having cancer and she had stell cell treatment again...it didn't go well I guess because she passed..not sure if it was from the cancer or if she got an infection or what..her sister (her only living relative) doesn't want anyone to contact her right now which is understandable...but I have no words...she was only 53 and the only the 2nd person I know that has died from school...she had so much life...
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Let's see if it works from Edge.  Because it isn't working from Chrome.
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Testing
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Received $127 bank interest for the month of February.
Received $246 I Bond interest for the month of February.
 
Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $35 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 
--Redeemed $108 cash back on Citi card
--Redeemed $10 cash back on dining out/gas card 
 
Other Snowflakes to Investments:
+ $9 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)
 
TOTAL: $162 Snowflakes to Investments
 
Snowball...
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You may recall at the beginning of the year I posted about how it took weeks to get my Clark's return credited to my account. At the time I was just thankful it was received after I didn't get the tracking info (silly mistake on my part). Well, apparently it was a system wide issue because I got a mass email from the CEO. I copied a brief part of it below. It's so unusual for a large company to issue this sort of apology & I really appreciated it.
"It is unacceptable that...
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Pay day was on Wednesday. I paid my property tax - $562 - the first of two payments this year. I also went to Aldi and spent another $10 on groceries. My previous shopping, at Food4Less, yielded two boxes of crackers, granola, and bread, for $10. Plus I spent an additional $4 for lotion, which comes out of another bucket. At Aldi, my $10 bought lactose-free milk, mushrooms, onions and creamer. It seems like I am buying less and less with the same amount of money. But since I skipped...
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It was quite a saga yesterday, looking for hubcaps. I finally decided to go with the expensive but sturdy hubcaps from the dealership, since even the people selling the cheap hubcaps couldn't recommend them. Since I bought four, they gave me break on the price, but it was still $399. But they have been installed and they look great, so much better than what I had before.
I've also gotten the front bumper fixed. The body shop jerry-rigged it with a combination of glue and wire,...
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