I feel officially grown up.
I finally quit procrastinating and got my will printed, signed, and notarized. I never did this when I was married or when I started having kids. Now, all of a sudden, I felt like I really needed to finally follow through.
So, there we are. Copies are made and I need to put the original away.
I can't believe that took me 15 years...
OK, I am going to admit, I am irrationally nervous about doing taxes this year. In past years, I never had a problem with it. I plugged in the numbers and always ALWAYS ended up with somewhat of a refund. Even years where I was aiming to break even. Things were good.
Then I got divorced. And last year, for the first time, I owed. And I owed big. And there really weren't significant changes besides going from Married to Head of Household. I was devastated and it wiped out my savings.
I bit the bullet and texted my contact today accepting the new side-job. I'm still on the fence about whether it will be more hassle than anything else, but my gut was telling me that I needed to get in the door before someone else took my spot. *laugh*
So, I guess we'll see! It's a little out of my comfort zone because I'm not really familiar with what I'm supposed to be doing, but after a month or two that'll be a non-issue, right?
Wish me luck. They're supposed to be emailing me
OK, the drowning continues...
Thousands of dollars in medical bills just do not mesh well with divorce-acquired debt. I truly feel like I'm drowning because I don't have a snowball. But, we're working on that.
Since yesterday I have -
Changed my cell phone plan - $30 a month to snowball
Changed my auto insurance policies - $20 per 6-month period to snowball
Cancelled some subscription "wants" - $14 a month to snowball
Temporarily suspended Auto-Draft for Student Loan (I was pai
OK, I've spent the afternoon allocating and planning and paying off things. I feel good about some, a little intimidated by others, but I've got to get myself back into a moving forward position instead of this treading water slightly-backward movement.
So, today I paid the air conditioner repair, the pool motor repair, two dentist bills, a doctor bill, a pediatrician bill, and paid some toward two credit cards. After some deposits are made that I'm waiting on, I may be able to apply a littl
Well, I just have to laugh.
So, this week, I've had to replace both the compressor in my central air HVAC unit and the motor on my swimming pool pump. One, I thought I could handle without a nervous breakdown. Two, well.... *laugh*
The pool parts and labor were right around $500. I haven't seen a bill for the A/C yet, but I'm expecting a similar outcome there.
Just when I thought I"d get ahead! At least it's a 5-paycheck month! *laugh*
OK! So, enough of the pity party. Let's get this fixed.
So, I've been concentrating on getting everything lined up to be paid. It may involve some moving money around for a while, especially on the credit cards (ugh...I can't believe I have CC balances...I've NEVER had that....but anyway...). Nothing is past due. I don't need to back-peddle any. I just need to move forward. I've paid off some small amounts that I was holding on to. $200 to a friend and a few smaller medical bills. Now
Yes, I know it happens to all of us, but I'm so far back at square one. In fact, after being in BS6, I think I'm at square negative one. I just want to cry.
I've got debt. And for the first time in pretty much my whole life, lots of it. And I don't see a very good way out of it at this point. My expenses are mounting and because of the stupid divorce, I don't really have much snowball to dig out with at this point. I'm being killed with school tuition (a requirement in my divorce paper
I am so very frustrated. My good progress has slipped away very quickly and for the first time in many years, I'm going backwards. Quickly. I hate it so much.
Cleaning up the mess from my divorce left me with some debts and a much tighter budget than ever. This month I ended up with a $1000+ doctor bill, over $2000 in car repair costs, and I found out that because of the divorce, I wouldn't be getting my usual tax refund. In fact, I will owe over $2000 in taxes this year. I'm absolutel
So, today is the day.
I am once again refinancing my own house, that I've been paying for alone for 13+ years now, so that I can remove my ex's name from the deed and mortgage. If ONLY I had been forward-thinking enough 3 years ago when we refinanced it last. The bank kept asking me why I was putting his name on it since he had been unemployed for so long. I did it because that's what you DO when you're married. If only I had known then what I know now. *laugh* I would have saved mysel
Wow. Life has changed a LOT since the last time I was here. A year and a half went by quickly.
Things were good. I had my head wrapped around where everything was and where I hoped everything would go.
But then I had enough.
So, here I am, a year and a half later and things look very very differently. All I can say is, thank goodness for this place and the baby steps and everything we already had in place. I am waiting for smoke to clear and trying to piece things back together ag
Another Quarter past.
Amazing how time flies (and how bad I am at remembering to update this blog).
Things are going OK for us. We did have the pool installed. We swam in it yesterday for the very first time. We'll have to plant grass around it and fix the areas that were run over by the equipment, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue, just a little hassle. We paid for the whole thing in cash, so we're good to go! It feels good to save up for something, especially a big proj
I am one of the weird people who actually likes Tax Time. I giggle like a little girl when I finally get handed my W-2 (which happened yesterday). I've had everything else filled out and ready to go for a week or two now.
Everything is filled out and ready to go. Unfortunately, the government hasn't submitted their final form for the sale of my grandmother's house, so TurboTax won't let me efile since the government has told them to hold on until they finish their forms...
So, I wai
I am constantly amazed by the sheer number of plans there are out there to get things organized in your home. I love them. I sit here at the computer and read and absorb and gaze lovingly at organizational methods used to make houses and families run like clockwork.
I'm a good researcher but not such a great implementer.
I've been meaning for 2-3 years to set up my 10-year filing system. I FINALLY did it today. I get feeling under the weather was good for something! I have been a
Travelling was always something I wanted to do. I never went anywhere growing up. We rarely had a vacation or a trip out of town. I could count on one hand the number of places I went until I went to college. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in a family that took yearly vacations to see the sights and learn things. I want to do that.
Since my MS diagnosis, I have come to realize that time is very precious. There could come a time, very soon even, when travelling like that will be
So, like the impatient person I am every single year, I sat down today and attempted a trial run at our tax returns for this year. So much fun. I hadn't done quite as good a job this year of having everything together and organized as I had in years past. Thankfully these trial runs force me to get everything together so we're ready to go when those real W-2s hit my hot little hands.
This year, I was doubly curious because I received some money from the sale of my grandmother's house. I
It's that time of year and looking at every else's list has really inspired me to sit down and think about what I want my financial goals for this year to be. I've sort of been running on autopilot since we got to BS4/5/6. I need to do better and do things more purposefully!
1) Contribute regularly to both Roth IRAs and all three 529s. Even if I can't contribute the maximum to all 5 accounts, I want to make a concerted effort to come close.
2) Continue to pay the higher payment to the
Looks like I skipped Fall! *laugh*
I can't believe it's 2013 already. It's just amazing how time flies.
Let's see...
Things are still going well. I'm still dealing with some health issues. In fact it appears I'll need surgery yet again in the next month or so. Hopefully having the surgery will have the nice side effect of eventually feeling BETTER. Wouldn't that be nice? I'm nervous about recovery since it's a long process, but I'm hoping that I'll find out that issues I've ha
I suppose I can do one entry per season and stay pretty up-to-date! *laugh* Things aren't the same in BS4, 5, and 6 as they were in BS2 where there was always something to report!
Along those lines, though, things have been going well. I've been contributing enough to get the max company match in my 401K at work and working on the Roths for me and for DH on our own. I should probably be working harder on that, but I contribute pretty regularly. I have a feeling that I'll be putting in t
Much has happened since my last post.
Hours and personnel were drastically cut at work, but I was one of 4 people who weren't affected. Financially, this was fine for me. Mentally, I had pretty much resigned myself to the drop in hours and was actually looking forward to more time at home *laugh* . Oh well. I've been working harder as a result, since I'm there all day and everyone else is working half days. It's frustrating in it's own way, but I am glad that I didn't get cut.
The h
As a planner I absolutely, completely, utterly hate unknowns. Unfortunately, we all know there isn't much we can do about that.
For me, this week, it's the employment unknowns that are slowly eating away at me.
I work for a small, privately-owned pharmacy. We have maybe 20 employees when everyone is there? Due to the economy and the fact that people are gravitating toward larger corporations as opposed to mom-and-pop places these days, our business has started to decline. The reality
It's hard to believe I only really get to come by here and play every 3 month or so, but here we are again.
Things are going fairly well financially. I had surgery this week (thus the extra time to visit the website!) but that is covered 100% by my insurance, so we're not taking a hit with that. My grandmother's estate is finally wrapping up and I got the check today from the sale of her house. There wasn't much left after repairs and that sort of thing, but we were glad to get it off of
Can you believe the holidays are rolling around again? It's amazing how quickly they seem to move through. I guess that's a sure sign that I'm "all grown up" now. *laugh*
Things are going well with the finances right now. The car was paid off with my last entry and since then I've held the title in my hot little hands. I was very pleased to add it to my collection! Now, we're skating through the holiday season. We do have a few "extra" events coming up that will result in some money s
I bit the bullet today.
I got a reimbursement check and threw the entire thing at the car loan. You know, the car loan that I got a year ago after swearing that I'd never do that ever again? I do take pride in the fact that I can pay off a car in a year (but I still swear I'll never do that ever again!).
So, the car is completely paid off! I am just THAT much closer to being completely back into BS3 again.
I've moved up my remaining student loan and put it into BS2. I never had i
My two older children are finally starting to grasp the concept of money. They know they need it to get things they want. They know that it doesn't grow on trees and must be earned. I think it's time to start letting them have a little on a regular basis (as opposed to the sporadic birthday/Christmas money they have gotten before now).
I'm really trying to decide how I want to approach this.
They're just 8 and (soon to be) 7, so they don't need large amounts. But they have come to re
