I think old Newt has some good points here.

I found this cool list of 100 things you can make yourself at Simply Thrifty. She has links to make all sorts of things you can make yourself including, crayons, a guitar, a lava lamp, cheese, a hula hoop, potato chips, socks, donuts, peanut butter, pudding pops, beer , chocolate kisses, pancake mix, dog treats, etc…  Check it out!

I need to make some pudding pops!

photo credit: trekkyandy

I just got my electric bill and it’s only $102! I’ve never seen it that low before. Normally I’m happy if my electric bill is under $300. Now I’m wondering if the meter reader made a mistake? In April my bill was $218. I haven’t changed any appliances.

Since I started my debt reduction plan, I’ve been going around making sure lights are off and getting on my kids about turning lights off. I’ve also been line drying towels and bedding. Those are the only changes that have occurred. Now I’m wondering if I’m going to get hit with a large electric bill next month? Could turning off most lights cause this kind of drop in an electric bill?

I can’t believe how much I LOVE paying bills online.  I just set up all my credit card payments for the month and it only took me about 15 minutes.  Now I’m done worrying about due dates, late payments, and lost payments.  I can’t recommend paying credit cards online enough.  I’m a happy woman!

Today I went and recycled my cans and bottles.  I ended up getting $50.71!  Woo hoo!

December 1994, I was involved in a head-on crash. I was driving on a curvy mountain road and a man who was speeding, in the USA illegally, didn’t have a drivers license, and was uninsured crossed the double yellow lines and came into my lane and hit me head on, totaling my car. I had my oldest with me, who was at the time 4 years old. We weren’t hurt too much, I had broken several bones in my foot, some broken toes and had bruises everywhere. My daughter, thankfully was fine.

My insurance company was more than generous with my car payoff. They gave me $200 more than what I had paid for my then two year old car. I really couldn’t complain.

I was wiped out for 7 months. I had developed an extremely painful bone infection in my foot and almost lost my foot. I had three surgeries (even had a morphine drip) and ended up having a “main-line” IV put in my neck that went straight to my heart. Finally seven months later, after six weeks of IV treatment my bone infection cleared up and the open wound on my foot finally healed.

Imagine my surprise when I got the call from my insurance agent saying they were going to settle with me for the maximum payout of $100,000! I was a newly married 24 year old. The most money I’d ever had prior to this was maybe $500.

So where’d all the money go? $10,000 went to my health insurance (they threatened to sue me for reimbursement of medical costs), $20,000+ went towards paying off my husband’s credit card debt, $5,000 for a backyard play system, and $5,000 for a tractor. I gave $5,000 to my mom for putting up with me and all the pain I’d been in and $1,000 to my Grandma to help her out. I also spent $200 on a D&B bag for myself. Over the years we spent another $20,000+ fighting to keep custody of my husbands daughter from his first marriage. I know another chunk of the money went towards a good down payment on a NEW (I was a sucker) Suburban. We still have a lot of that value and it’s now in my husbands truck. I’m not really sure exactly what happened to the rest of the money. I guess we piddled it away.

Look where I am now, this isn’t how my story is supposed to go. We had the best start, a better start than most people will ever get and still here we are up to our necks in debt. I wonder if I’ll ever FINALLY learn to be financially responsible?

The good news is in the next two years I’ll be paying off a vehicle and a travel trailer as well as being done paying child support for my husband’s daughter (her mother doesn’t even own a house and can’t afford to live on her own yet sends this child to boarding school and we get stuck paying for more than half).

In three years I’ll be done paying for our family vehicle.  So over the next three years I should be able to clear up $2,280 a month that I can throw at my credit card debt.

My credit card debt is well above average, no doubt about it. I’ve been asked how it got this high. This sounds bad but I’m not really sure how it got this high. Other than the two credit card checks I used last month ($3,000), I really haven’t used my credit cards in YEARS.

Here’s some things I know we charge in the past 13 years and the approximate purchase year. Most of them seem like stupid needless purchases now and I regret most of the purchases.

$4,000 Master bedroom set - 1998
$4,000 Computerized Sewing/Embroidery machine - 1998
$2,500 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we no longer own - 1996 (regret)
$2,500 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we no longer own - 2002 (regret)
$3,000 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we currently own - 2005 (regret)
$5,500 Tires, Wheels and adaptors for a vehicle we currently own - 2006 (regret)
$2,000 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we currently own - 2005 (regret)
$1,200 Quilting machine with frame - 2001 (regret)
$1,200 Treadmill - 2002 (regret)
$10,000 (guess) for various trips/short vacations - 1995 to 2005 (regret)

Those are all the major purchases I can think of right now. They add up to $35,900, that’s far short the $41,000+ I owe right now. I’m thinking the majority of the other purchase were for gasoline. I guess I’m still paying for gas I burned 12 years ago. That’s really dumb.

I think the biggest reason why we are have accumulated so much debt is because for the first 10 years of our marriage, my husband worked overseas. When he’d come home on days off, I wanted him to have whatever he wanted, I really couldn’t tell him “no”. So we’d spend with cash and then when he’d go back to work I’d try and sort it all out. If I came out short, my credit cards where there to help me out. While my husband was at work he had a horrible eBay habit that was costing me literally $1,000 +/- a month. To compensate, I’d sell stuff on eBay and the more I sold the more he spent.

Okay, let me have it!

On Friday my oldest daughter was awarded an $1,100 scholarship for a JC about 35 miles away. She’s changed her mind about moving to Chico and attending a local JC there. I’m not sure if she was looking for a way to opt out of moving to Chico or not. Maybe she actually put a budget together and figured out that she can’t afford both rent and eating. Now that she’s received this scholarship she’s decided that she needs to live at home. I’m not really sure what to make of her change of plans. I’m relieved and at the same time I’m hoping her staying doesn’t have anything to do with leaving her boyfriend.

The scholarship should pay for her unit fees and all her books for a whole year. She’s pretty excited about receiving it.

Now for the bad stuff. The JC that the scholarship is good at is about 35 miles away over twisty mountain roads. It actually takes an hour to drive so she’s looking at a two hour round trip commute on school days. In the winter there are days when chains are required, there are also days when there is extremely heavy fog on the mountain. There’s also the added mileage/wear & tear to her car and of course the ever increasing cost of fuel. I’ve decided to just stay out of it and only offer my motherly advice if I’m asked. You know what they say - pick and choose your battles.

I have to admit it, I’m thrilled she’s not leaving home. The thought of her moving out, being broke all the time and taking on unnecessary debt didn’t sit well with me at all. I also feel as though she’ll have a better chance of actually getting her RN if she can go to school full time and work part time.

The new Guinea Fowl are here! We had a great hatch! Our hatch rate was 83%, this early in the egg laying season, I was thinking I’d be lucky if we got 50%. We ended up hatching 13 keets. Aren’t they cute? If all survive, I’ll end up having 18 guinea’s. They are the best guard dogs ever and they eat gophers and snakes too.

Last night my husband BBQ’d some steaks. I had bought a whole chicken on sale for $0.88/# and I had him BBQ it. I then skinned it and shredded up the meat, added some BBQ sauce and now my kids are going to have BBQ’d chicken sandwiches for the next few days. I got the buns on sale for $1 a pack. So for about $7, plus stuff I already have on hand (tortilla chips, carrots, etc.) I’ll feed all four kids for three days - that’s about $0.58 each lunch. I’m so excited and they are all thrilled to have such a great lunch!

I’ve been blogging about my debt and life in general since February 19, 2008. Now I’m going to give an update, the good, the bad and the ugly, you are going to see it all.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t updated my Credit Card debt for over a month. There’s an a reason for it, as I’m sure some of you have guessed.

Last month I came up short. Yep, I even bounced a few checks (the bank honored them). I ended up using two credit card checks. $1,500 for my property taxes and $1,500 to bring my checking account back into balance. I’m totally embarrassed to admit this, as I’m sure you can imagine. The total of $3,000 is locked in at 3.9% until the balance is paid off.

Today my total credit card debt stands at $41,501. That’s a $901 increase from when I started tracking it back in February. I’m not happy at all with myself, I know I can do better. Other than using the two convenience checks I haven’t charged a single thing.

Now for the good news. I paid off my state taxes as of February the balance was $9,276. I also paid off my husband’s truck. Back in Feb the balance was $4,459.

All together I’ve paid down $12,834 since February.

I found a really cool article the other day and I’d like to share.  It’s a very simple plan to help control impulse purchases.  I know I’m guilty of making them.  Unfortunately, my credit card balances reflect my impulse buys.

Lets say something you are wanting to purchase costs $100.  If you followed the plan, you would have to put off the purchase for one whole day and during that time research the item and look around online to see if you can find a better price and read product reviews.  After a day of cooling off if you still think you need the item, it’s a wise purchase, and it’s within your budget then go ahead and make the buy.

If the item you are considering purchasing costs $1,000 then you’d put off the purchase for 10 days.

Right now my budget doesn’t really allow for any purchases, other than everyday needs.  I’m in a very tight spot financially.  I still LOVE the idea of putting off purchases and giving myself a much needed cooling off time.  I’ll be applying this same strategy but in $20 increments.

If you are interested in reading the whole article you can find it here.

I feel good about paying the truck off.  I didn’t think this would even be possible until next year.

I still have to pay off two more vehicles, a travel trailer,  my boat, and of course, my credit card debt.  I’m making slow and steady progress.