Mstooke's Money Personal Finance Blog

we can now add more to are challendge
307.13
100.00 dh had a very small side job
5.00 2 n.d.& misc
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412.13
200.00 stimulas from unemployment
612.13

we are now not running the furnace or the air yes i love may also !
my goal is to pay off all current credit cards
i also keep track of all small and big spending!
we finally got a raise in the unemployment now that extra will go in the bank!

woo hoo today was really nice, not just the weather but in coupon savings we got quite a few free items and even one that owed us money! love that when it happens so for the 20.00 challendge iam able to save :

255.65
4.00 (2 days no driving)
8.85 coupon saving
39.43 old balance@c.u.
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307.13

not bad considering i started on 3-24-09 little bits sure do add up quickly

WE WENT SHOPPING AND I WAS ABLE TO SAVE yea that

222.65
21.00 (coupons and lost leaders)
2.00 ndd on 4-3
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248.65

i have been since the first of the year decided to save in a (seperate piggy bank)coins that we (DH) and myself find laying around since jan.8 we have found money on the street in stores and under things that rarely get moved ie. washer and dryer! no coin is not to icky or dirty not pick up and clean off! its sorta of a personal but yet fun thing to do! we will save thru the year just to see how much it adds up to! so far we have:

11.16
.20
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11.36
14.00
-----
25.36


THEN WE WILL ADD IT TO OUR 20.00 CHALLENDGE!!!!!!!!

Since about January we having been really keeping track of all exspenditures! I have been concentrating on needless spending & repetitive spending things like you really don't pay attention to its just a habit to buy! or get in car and drive for 1 specific thing and end up buying more than ya went for! dh losing his job in the first time in 18 years really was a reality check !so slowly we are changing bad habits and rethinking what really is important now and in the future we our discussing goals and that is a good thing

220.65
2.00 (no drive day)
------------
222.65

iam glad march is over it seems to be the longest month of the year but i get to ad to my challendge my dear sweet mother gave me a little boost sorta of emergency money to add sorta of just in case got to love mothers LOL! i also ordered from angel food minstries that should save a little on groceries the only bummer there is that you have to wait a week or two.

115.65
105.00 my mom's gift
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220.65

Today we decided to blog again about our 20.00 challendge !we started off rather meagerly dh has lost his job! due to the automotive downturn we are living off our savings and unemployment and trying to save every penny!if we dont need it it can definetly wait so here goes:

2.65 coupons
67.00 odd dollars from the tax refunds
37.00 change can
9.00 coupon savings =
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115.65

we have started a savings can for extra change, coupons and found money our total as of 3-17-08

41.20
15.50 (walgreen coupons)
69.00 (insurance check)
_______
125.70
we are starting to feel pretty good about our finances again

WE ARE i think making some positive moves !
we where in the throws of loosing our home but we got the morgage company to work with us they are going to be able to make the back payments up thru lost mitigation they will take the back payments (2) and spread them out on our current payment bringing us current and stopping any foreclosers YEA .it went up 20.00 but i can save that on one fast food run !how we got into this mess? we had bills based on overtime when they cut hubby's hours and brought him down to 40 it was the start of a real hard time never do this!so iam working to get the bills based on a 40 hour week !we also dont have a car payment!(we only have 1 truck) we also are going thru consumer credit and have been for nearly 2 years we have 1 year left on the credit cards and we are told it will go real quick now YEA i also am currently looking for part time work. we are empty nesters so there will be no childcare costs concured we are going to start a household budget as soon as we can this will be a very positive move but its hard the utilities fluxuate because the gas is sometimes estimated we now know that we can enter our meter reading online which hubby plans to do !thanks to all that leave such positive comments i really need them now it keeps us going yes he reads this with me ! i have now set up a envelope system
1. groceries
2.household items (everyday living items)
3.gas
4.car pepairs
5.house repairs
6.clothing
7.entertainment
*now all i have to do is figure away to get the money in there*

our can:25.40 opening
10.00 not eating out
4.60 coupons
1.20 found money
= 41.20

today we made nice progress in defyning what need to be done !
1. organazized all the bills
2.called each debtor to get all current balances
3.used 3 weeks worth of vaction money to catch all up (no Vacation this year!)
4.started our savings can again where we put coupon found money and anything we can save into this can
5.stopped eating out saved 10.00 (fast food)
6. learn to navigate this site

IAM JUST BEGINING AT THIS SO PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH ME WE ARE SEVERLY IN DEBT BUT WE DID THE RIGHT THING STOPPED USING ALL CREDIT AND STILL WE OUR JUST DIGGING OUT GEEZE WHAT A MESS BUT IAM SURE I WILL GET THE HANG OF THIS SITE EVENTUALLY MY GOALS ARE TO HAVE ALL BILLS EXCEPT MORGAGE PAID OFF BY 2009