I solved my cousins problem with having no place to live. She was squatting on her sisters couch and driving her and her family crazy. I offered for her to sleep on my couch instead of theirs. She only took me up on it for one night. Now she is living in the other side of my double, has her own couch to sleep on, since she doesn't have a bed yet, found her a fridge and stove for cheap, and moved some heavy stuff in.
Now I have a problem. She is always using my shower, adding to my gas and water bill. Should I charge her? She asked if she could dry some clothes at my house and wanted to give me $10 for my bill. But she hasn't done any laundry yet, only showered. I do want her to get on her feet again, and I know she is having problems with her ex and an old gas bill, along with a car payment and such, but I have two children I have to pay for and all the bills they incure.
I don't want to be a bi@#h, but I don't want to say no either.
PLEASE HELP

Well, this is good news and bad news.
The good news is that with some of my money, I paid two months rent, paid back my grandma a lot of money I owed her, and am on the way to getting my drivers license back.
The bad news is that when I called my credit cards to pay them, most likely a settlement offer, they said, too late! Charged off 8 days ago. Should have called then.

To me that is good news. No, I don't want my credit in the toilet, but it already is now. So, since the bank that is helping me with a payment plan, is willing to let me reopen my card and use it, I can still build my credit up again, not starting completely from scratch.
Also, my plan is for $30 a month for 6 months. I have paid 2 months worth, plus an extra $160.25 on top of that. I am already back under my credit limit, so I am just going further and further towards that magic number of $0.00!!!

Talk about debt snowball. Those payments I was going to make on those cards are just automatically going to the ones I am not so bad on.
I have paid my utilities, which I have not paid all of in several months, maybe even a year. I was only paying the necessary ones to survive. I can't live without electricity. I can without cable. I can't live without gas, but I can without a phone. Suprisingly, my water was never shut off and my bill was over $400.00!
It's paid now, and I am saving money and directing money to the proper places now.

This is my new total for my savings account at my bank!

Add $.05 for my Challenge money in the Laundry Fairy category.

Add over $10,000 in my checking account for property sold on Friday!

And I think I am good. I was excited when I found that nickel too!

https://moneycenter.yodlee.com
This free site offers to automatically sync up my accounts for me and give me my net worth with the click of a button.
As for saftey of having all your account info on there, they are what powers some of the top banks of the world.

I have left the money alone for as long as I could. I couldn't take it any more. I had my Smarty Pig money sent back to my bank account, as Rent is coming up in 12 days. I earned $1.25 in interest. That is amazing. To make up for me taking money out of the system, I added an extra $25 on top of my monthly contribution of $26
I will be feeling better when I can put $1000.00 in that account and see that interest build up.

I am so excited that Friday is almost here. Wednesday has gotten it's own page. I am trying to track all of my spending on the Money in the bank page. This will make it easier for me to own up to my spending.
I am so excited that my cousin is moving in next door to me today. She signs the lease at 2:00pm
I have recently received my schedule for next quarter here at school. I am not looking forward to my fall classes. Accounting and Records Management&Security.
My computer class will be a breeze, but I don't know who the instructor will be.
I should be typing my Psychology research paper right now, but I am just so hyped about Friday and my lump sum of money.
Yahoo!

Saturday is a day for free fun.
I went to the fireworks downtown with my two lovely sons and my cousin. FREE
I also cooked some chops that had been in the freezer for almost a month. FREE
I love enjoying life for free.
Today, instead of taking the children to the park, which would have cost gas, I let them play with an old bag of flour in a plastic tub. FREE
I love it.

My new SmartyPig goal is up and running.
I will be selling six more books on amazon.com today. I am also talking other students to let me sell their books for them, for a nominal fee of course.
The old fashioned way of making money by selling your stuff really works. I never made any money on eBay, but this seems to be working well. My book was only online for three hours. I will be finding some electronics or movies at home to sell too.

I thought I sold my land already. The closing is apparently not until September 5th. That date is not set in stone. I was told that the check would be written and sent out that very same day.
I could be swimming soon.
I will not blow this money!!!!!!!!
I will save most of it, as it is over $10,000.
I will have the will power to stop myself from spending it on things that I don't NEED!
My car has been needing some repair for some time. Of course I bought an obsolute car that no one carries parts for, that's its defining characteristic!
I will be pre-paying for my youngest's tuition at Kindergarden, but that is about it. I am sacking away a large portion in some form of savings, probably my Smarty Pig plan.
You can deposit up to $10,000 at one time. How convinent for me, HUH?
CAN I COUNT SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOR THE $20 CHALLENGE?????

I am watching my spending. I sorta cheated a little. I added up everything I had used my debit card for in the last 6 months. I talked to S2BH about it. We will check his numbers out tonight. I didn't expect him to go back that far. I only want to know the week.
I am mainly focused on gasoline, lunch at work, and that's it.
I also just took care of my children's fundraiser stuff; writting checks, double checking math, and making sure the teacher got the money.
My boys are getting way better at turning in their paperwork, bringing it all home, and talking with us about their day.
I just can't seem to get homework time to be more fun.
That may sound silly, but I would rather it be fun than screaming about how he "Doesn't want to do it!", and me telling him "Tough, you have to."
I let them eat snacks while working, and no tv, but you can read a short story between papers.
I mainly think that they are tired. When you get home from school, you have been up all day, you're hungary, and you want to relax, not do more work.
I don't like to delay the homework though, since I tend to forget it and they try to stay up past bedtime to finish. I tell them, you can do what you want, when it is done.
I think I will try a monatary reward for finishing within the hour, or 30 minutes.
They just got new piggy banks they painted themselves. That might make things smoother.

I skipped school.
There was nothing wrong with me.
I wasn't sick.
I wasn't even tired.
I was just upset about failing a test Friday.
I tried to test out of a class and I missed an A by 4 points.
I had to get an 89 and I got an 85.
How bad is that?
I will be posting about why I skipped today tomorrow, when I don't skip.

I spent $37.51 at the gas station.
I spent another $8.11 on cigarettes.
I drank free booze, but am out of Mt. Dew and Kool-Aid

I have counted change and added up what I spent this week and weekend, going over it with S2BH.
Let's go with what is fresh in my mind and go back from there.
Yesterday, since we worked all day long, we got to eat for free and our boss paid for the food. Save $5.00
I did buy a Mt. Dew for $1.00
After work I used a B1G1 cap and got two more Mt. Dews for $1.48
Saturday I did buy my dinner at Kid Rock/Lynard Skynard and spent $5.00
Friday night, on my way to work, there was an accident on the interstate and the police made us turn around. I got gas at the next exit spending $25.54
Thursday, I didn't spend much money on anything, but I did buy a pop at school out of the machine for $1.25
Also, to save a thousand dollars or so, I spent $30.00 to test out of a class so I won't take it next quarter.
I hope I did alright.
Finding money on the ground is helping me fund my children's piggy banks. I am also about to spend money on fundraiser items from their school. I hope I can find two cheap things that we can use and I am not just throwing my money away for the school.
I will prepare for tomorrow by preparing today!

Too Much Debt Thursday has come. I have faced up to the fact that I made some stupid purchases on my credit cards and was dumb to max them out so soon.
I have learned from my mistake and am now crawling out of the hole that I dug myself.
I no longer go to the salon and get my nails done.
I haven't dyed my hair in a few months, so that saved me $10.
I don't buy junk at the store, but real food that has to be cooked.
I don't go to the dollar store and browse.
I have tried real hard to control my spending habits and listen to advice given to me.
Dave Ramsey said it best when he said:You can read all the books and learn all about how to do it, but until you do, you're gonna get no where.
That isn't an exact quote but you get the jist of it.
I was reading every book the library had on credit repair, debt management, and how to save money when you have none, but nothing was happening. I was learning how but not following through.
Saving with Smarty Pig has made me feel that I can do it. I have gotten 55% of my goal on there now and it feels great. Watching my interest go up and up is a good feeling instead of focusing on bad interest that I wasn't paying back.
People say, it costs you more to save and not pay on your credit cards, but it makes me feel good to have something to fall back on, even if it is $250.
I will focus on paying $5 to every credit card I have today. Seven total bills of $5 is only $35 total. I can handle that. I will also pay off my water bill that is OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!
Majorly overdue is taking back the equipment that the cable company wants back. I need to take it to the other side of town.
We are thinking about having just regular cable coming out of the wall.
Right now, we don't need anything, but come February, we will need digital.
Off to make my payments!
P.S. Add three cents to my $20 challenge for money found on the ground. One at work, one outside my Mom's house, and one at the gas station as I was walking in to pay. Woo Hoo!

Today I am meeting with my mom to look at wedding dresses and such she found on the internet.

Tonight I am meeting with my DS2BH about finances and how we are on saving, spending, and where our money is going.

I recently sold a junk car sitting in my yard next to the shed. It was nice to get some dough and get rid of that eyesore. $150 for a car that started right up and drove was an awesome deal for the guy.



I figured that by that time, we could already be shoveling our way out of debt, getting his credit built up, and buy a house or at least have a nice down payment. Also, I feel that our children could be a little bit bigger and it may mean more to them when they are older than now. Plus, 11-11-11, how cool is that?

Today is Thrifty Tuesday. It rhymes better with Thursday, but that is debt snowball day where I focus on getting debt down and record and update all of my payments and extra payments.
I will grocery shop at a store with great deals. I will buy bread and snacks at the local bread store. Wonderbread is a wonderful place. They have Twinkies!
I have few coupons but have the ads with me and will compare before I buy. Drinks are expensive and that is my main reason to go this store. A gallon of milk is expensive too. They are almost one buck cheaper than the local grocery.
I must get to that. Happy Tuesday.

TODAY IS MONEY MONDAY!
I have already paid $15 to one credit card, $30 to another card, and tried to set up paying off my cable bill, but the lady was uncoopertive so I will call back later today and see who I get on the other line.
Also, I will be focusing on my budget on Mondays. I have called the bank and checked out what checks have cleared and what has not.
I wrote a check for my son's tuition that is due every week. Lunch $ has been sent in. Drinks have been bought for the week.
I hadn't planned for a lot of money this month, so when I get my check in three or four weeks that has all these hours on it, I will be really happy.
I am working 7 days this week, going to school for four of those and getting the little ones off to school and being there for them when they get home for five. I guess money is needed and I can survive.
If I don't post for more than two weeks, then it did kill me.

Monday I will pay all bills due that week.
Tuesday I will do the grocery shopping with coupons.
Wednesday I will get together with DH and compare our spending for the last week and where we can slow down or stop.
Thursday will be Debt Snowball day where I pay an extra $5.00 on all my credit card bills. That extra $5 will get me out faster than I think!
Friday will be a free day to either cook the next week's dinner meals or clean freak the house. I'm guessing the food will overcome.
Saturday I will scope out sales at the stores for items I actually need and will buy them on Tuesday on shopping day.
Sunday will be smooth sailing as all I have to do is go through coupons for the next week's shopping trip.

Listing all items needed from each store before the actual shopping day will help me to add things that I may forget.
I will look at the list that morning that I wrote two days before and add or subtract what we REALLY need. That will be the trickiest part. What do we REALLY need?

I am trying not to think about it.
It has slipped my mind for more than a minute, but I can't think of anything else somedays.
I sold some land that I own. I didn't sell it all. After all, you never know what is down the road. There may be a time that I have no where else to go and I will have to buy a trailer and live on my land in the south.
I would prefer to build a house and be financially stable enough to move there and not be forced.
I just want my nest egg to come in.
In school, I have been learning that compound interest works better the longer it is in place.
Therefore, if I place $10,000 in an account now, by the time I am fifty, 24 years from now, I should have a pretty big hunk of change.
Now, I need the money now more than I ever have, but I want to save a large sum for later in life and for my children, should they need it.
How do I get this off my mind? The worse part is not knowing when or how I will receive the money. Does it all come in one check that me and my aunts have to divide? Will they divide it for me, bringing the question of if they stiff me, how do I get my money?
I don't want to think about it. I have been working and that money is helping. But I want to have NO credit card debt and buy a house within the next 5 years.
Is that too much to ask?

For the longest time I believed I deserved money. I didn't want to work for it, even though I am a hard worker. Still, I thought I was entitled to some money. Now that I am working more than one or two days a week, I want my money even more. I have spent an extra $25 in gas just to get to and from work. I also have been buying my dinner from a truck that they have on site. I would take my dinner, but there is no where to put it, fridge/cooler, and there is no guarantee that it would be there after I worked for 4 hours on the other side of the venue.
I have been bringing my lunch to school, saving me not money, but saving me from being hungry. I know better than to buy junk food from a vending machine.
Maybe when I get my degree from college I can get a job that I will have no problems having lunch there and maybe even my own fridge in my office with all the Mountian Dew I can drink!!!
One can only hope!

I have received mail from several credit card companies saying that I am about to go under.
I have set up payment plans for them, with one, I can even get my card active again once paying down my balance.
One plan is $30 a month for 6 months.
The other plan is pay $20 now so that they don't charge the account off and when I get my money from selling my land, pay off a settlement of $450.
That works for me. Why would the credit card company tell me that if I pay $20 every three months that they could never do anything against me.
What about all that interest and late fees that you tack on??!!
Also, I would like to add $.92 to my challenge money before the month is up. I found more change on the ground at work.

I found at least $5.00 worth of change at work this weekend. Thursday was Rush, Friday and Saturday was Dave Matthews, and they were droping money left and right.
My supervisor stayed overnight and combed the lawn where people sit. In one night, or just an hour or two really, she found $8.00 in change and two one dollar bills.
I am envy her. But, I didn't have to stay up all night and she did it so she wouldn't fall asleep.
High five for working three days in a row! I haven't worked more than one day a week in quite a while.
This week is looking good too. Jimmy Buffett is tomorrow and I should be busy all weekend too!
I added the $5.00 to my balance page and will be adding the money to my savings account today.

I can't rave about my interest I am earning in my little piggy!
I will earn 35 cents for this month and by the end of September, they will post over 90 cents into my account.
My piggy at home is getting fat too!
I have put all the change I find at work in there, along with the washer findings and sweeping the floor came up with some things.

Thanks for the support, with over 25,000 people checking out this page, I feel that someone can learn from my mistakes and some can offer great advice on how to get unstuck!

These were the words that my mom said to me last night when I said that we were going to the fair.
I have let some of my bills go that I shouldn't have. Number one being my cell phone and credit cards. Number two being that we can survive without cable, but not without rent and the extra $55.00 that the elementary school charges for full day kindergarden.
I would like to tell all of those frugal-er than I that, NO, I did not go to the fair. The only money spent yesterday was $12.00 for a birthday present for my DH's little brother. He loved it and spending time with him was good enough for us.
I also never mentioned the fair to my two young boys, knowing that they would cry when told that we wern't going, so they don't even know what they missed.
I do.
I won't cry. I've been plenty of times. You can tell that I am a grown up now. I only wanted to go for the food!!!!

After three months of slow work, things are finally starting to pick up. I will be working Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Last week I was to work Friday and Sunday, but after half an hour on Sunday, they asked me if I wanted to go home. I said no, then they told me to clock out and go see the show.
I understand that they were trying to be nice, knowing I wanted to see the show, but I would have rather been paid to see it, than to sit down and see it. I got bored and left early, but only after I stayed for an extra two hours off the clock. I should have watched Brooks and Dunn for free, but I figured that my children need me more and I am not making anything sitting in the grass.

The county fair is going on and tonight is the only night I can go. Should I?
The food is the real reason I want to go, but I am willing to buy tickets for the boys to enjoy some rides. I just have to keep DH away from the carny games that are rip offs. The food will be super expensive too. But, since we will not be going to the State fair, unless my Mom takes them, this will be their only chance this year.

I hope DH is in a good mood when he gets home. I have to get a couch out of the living room for my Momma's yard sale this weekend. I can't forget that on Friday she wants me to stop by in case she has to use the bathroom. I hope she doesn't drink a lot of water.

As you can see, there is a little pig on the side of my blog's page.
This pig is a lot fuller than my little pig at home.
I broke down yesterday and took $2.50 out of him so that I could get more than $10.00 worth of gas.
I thought I got good gas mileage since I drive a stick shift. I was wrong. Maybe it's because everytime I get $15.00 worth, I only get 3.34 gallons. Add it up, that's $4.499 a gallon!
At least the pig on here is getting fat, and I do plan to eat him later, for those of you that thought I was getting Thanksgiving dinner early and fattening it up. I will eat this one at a store where they sell chest freezers for a good price. I was pricing them, and all of the sudden, as soon as the summer heat hit, the prices went through the roof.

Hey, there are over 24,000 hits to my site! Thanks for the support!

I bought a pig.
It looks so cute.
I tell myself that he needs to be fed everyday or he will die.
I put all the change I can find in him, and he still smiles at me.
I was feeding him some green stuff, but that got expensive.
I am also trying to quit smoking, and by putting the money I would have used to buy cigarettes into my pig, I have saved a little dough.
I still smoke, and don't get to feed the pig a lot everyday. I still feed him and try to smoke less and less.
Every little bit helps.
My smarty pig account is helping too.
You can check it out on the side bar.
Start your own, ITS FREE!!!!!

For the last two weeks I have done nothing but school. Today, Friday the 13th, I get to work tonight. And it is an early call so I should get an extra hour or so. This starts a few weeks of working that I have not had for a while. You don't know how depressing it is to pick up your bi-weekly check and see five hours on it. Last Monday's check was okay, for 28 hours, but that is for two weeks. This is my lucky day and many more work hours are to come. After finals, I can work all day, except for the weekends, where my children have little league baseball. That still leaves my Saturday nights open to work, and that is when most events are anyway.
DH has been asked to start working overtime soon, and I will be pushing towards it. Now, I know that I will be doing extra around the house to make him happy when he gets home, when I am tired from working, but he makes twice what I do and works twice as hard. I can make that sacrifice.

I have saved and scrimped for rent this month. I only bought gas, paid for daycare for the week, and only bought lunch one time, spending $6.52 total.
I think that we can make it. As long as my DH check is as large as it should be, we will be okay.
My Grandma told me to come and get her credit card to buy my Grandpa his Father's Day gift. I would be happy to go and get him something that he wants.
He never asks for anything anyway.
He deserves it!
He asked for a weed eater, gas powered with a metal blade and a strap to keep some of the weight off his arms.
That will be nice.
She will be happy that I won't ask her for help with rent, even though I will ask her to write the check.
Thanks to that woman, and my Mother a time or two, I have never been late with my rent in over 4 years.
Thanks!

I have been lax on reporting my "found" money, off the ground, in the laundry, and saved monies from not using gas and savings on purchases.

I have not been making any purchases other than necessities, so there is not much to report there, as well as the change that I find on the ground, but the money saved from not using gas in my vehicle will be posted more often.

Monday was one of those days and I will enter $5.00 for that day. I believe that Saturday will be another no driving day.

$0.25 found in the bottom of the washer. At my boy's little league game, a little girl found a dime in the dirt.
What a beautiful day to find money!

Finals are next week and I couldn't be more thrilled. I am doing great in my classes and I am looking forward to a week out of school.
I do wish I were working more often. Right now, I can barely pay the rent, with DH making $15.00 per hour.
That is sad. For 4 years, I made everything happen for $6.50-$8.00 per hour, and that includes all food and extras that were purchased in that time. I am a little resentful that DH has money in his pocket now, while that whole time and now I have nothing but change.
He does know that it is rough and I am not working as much now, but he doesn't think that he should have to give all his money to the family. I know you need gas money, I know you want to buy lunch with the guys at Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Que, but that isn't fair to me or the children. I didn't have "spending money" forever. I still don't and that is why my credit cards look the way they do. I have put my foot down and refuse to borrow any money from my mother or grandmother. I think that he will have to exhaust his parents and family the way I have mine.
With him working so much and making twice what I did, why are things so hard? What is happening that I didn't see before?
I'll make it, I just don't want to stress anymore.