Visit, Donate, Be AWARE!

As many of you remember, my younger brother suffered from testicular cancer. Together with my aunt, I helped to start "Back on the Board Foundation." Awareness and financial donations are now what we're after. Read Adams testimonial and don't forget that (as Adam tells me) "it's ok to talk about your balls!" - even if you don't have 'em! lol.

www.backontheboard.org

Closing Up March

Last night I headed to Best Buy. I purchased a phone there on 3/6 for $99.99. In order to get the phone I had to sign up for another 2 years on my contract. Not a problem since Sprint will either go under or get some friendlier CS reps one of these days. I LOVE this phone. It’s a purple Lotus LG, totally adorable. Anyway, I am entitled to $75 towards the purchase of a new phone with my last contract. Best Buy wouldn’t honor that, but because the phone was so cheap anyway, I let it go. When I got my $174 (wtf?!) bill however, I called Sprint and asked them to credit my account with the $75. They said no, but they did call Best Buy and tell them to give it to me.

This all got a bit wonky but in the end I walked in last night and got a manager. I explained how I could just return the phone to them (still inside 30-day policy) and buy it again from a Sprint store or he could do something to help me. They returned $46.87 to me in cash.

So ~ I got a $299.99 (original price) phone for $53.12.

Of course I bought the final season of Angel while I was there for $17.99 so technically I got ~30 but still  I saved $18.00 on Angel so that was a deal too.

It looks like this job will be winding down soon  I will be so sad to leave cuz it’s really great here.

DS has bowling tomorrow and starts baseball the weekend after that. I’m so excited that we’re getting to the fun stuff. I love watching sports and going to games. I’m going to the Phillies game next Friday too with DS, DS’ brother and his mom. Should be all kinds of fun!! Anyway, we’re also heading to Jersey to visit family and friends Saturday afternoon. Haven’t been there in a while and I miss my peeps!!

I got a $5 check in the mail from Sycovate so that’ll go towards the high cell bill as well. I don’t like this new “pay one month ahead policy” - $174.00 is just too much money. I had budgeted $100 because of activation, etc. but they double charge you when you change your plan. Yuck. I can’t wait for May because I’ll be officially over the “humps”.

April Extras:
$70 – for the park where I’m holding DS’ bday party in May
~25-30 – Easter stuff (including eggs, basket items) *WAY lower than what I usually spend. I LOVE Easter.
$74 over budget on cell phone

I’ve already started Xmas shopping – so far I’ve got 4 items for each of my two DSisters and DXSM (lol, darling ex-stepmom who is like my mom). Anyway I have 12 items total and have spent roughly $7.00. I have budgeted $15 each. Got a few things for DS as well but I think they may end up in the Easter basket. My goal is to have Xmas done by the end of the summer, except for DS of course.

Guess that’s all for now all.
xoxo-nklsmom

Can you Relate??

My aunt and I were talking last night about money. Two generations – although she’s only 15 years older than I am. We’re both single parents – she lives in CA and I’m in PA. She said “whoever said money can’t buy happiness is just plain ol’ wrong!” I wanted to argue with her, to tell her that there’s no buying my son’s smile, a sunny day, a crisp fall evening. But she was right. We got into discussing the following:

• Healthy/Organic foods are more expensive than “junk.”
So we are spending more and more money to stay healthy. If you’re like me you’re living on half health/half junk. I can’t afford to keep completely organic so I buy a bit of both. My son is a health nut – weird since he’s only 6, but his favorite meal is salad. It’s getting harder and harder to spend the money on healthy items now when grocery prices are rising as well. If you’re healthy = you’re happier.

• Health Insurance – Lack Thereof
Those of us without it (yes I’m getting it but haven’t had it in months) are in a state of panic. My medications alone are almost $200 a month. This leads to “can I afford it?” Then there’s the concern that when the script runs out the dr’s won’t refill without blood work or consultations. This runs into the hundreds if blood work is included. Let’s not forget that those of us with insurance have to worry about co-pays as well. Maybe it’s not as big of a stressor but it’s still a concern for some people. (This is why I’m starting a co-pay savings account). Health scares and worries lead to ulcers or just plain ol’ anxiety = NOT HAPPY.

• Mental Health
Yesterday my aunt was having a bad day, she felt bad and just wanted to take a half day to regroup. Something she should be able to do considering she is single-handedly raising her daughter and still has her adult son at home. With all the day to day stresses she has with work – she should be able to. Her moan?? “I can’t afford to do it without stressing about the money I’ll be losing.” How sad that we can’t just take a mental health afternoon without worrying about what it would do to your purse-strings. I know that most people have holiday/vacation time, etc. but even then it’s something to worry about. (Remember millionpennies wanted to take a day but stressed over actually getting sick and not having the time to take then??) Being able to take an afternoon to lay around and do nothing = HAPPY.

There were more points to the discussion but these stuck with me. It’s amazing how much of life revolves around thoughts of money. Do you think in a similar fashion??

xoxo-nklsmom

Help Ladies

I finally had a chance to sit down and figure out the funds. It looks like I’m at about $3800 in cc debt and $1750 in a personal loan. The loan isn’t under fire right now so I can wait until next years taxes to return it. I brought it down from $2250 and will leave it there for a bit. The friend that I owe has even mentioned perhaps working some of it off with administrative work so that is something I’m waiting on too. The cc debt is not good. Because I hadn’t paid on them in a while the interest rates are sky high. I have a state refund coming for $262 (maybe – the person that did my taxes hasn’t finished that part of things). If it does come in than I am going to eliminate one of my cc’s and have that extra each month to apply to the other cards. There are 4 in total. The highest is at ~1700. Looking at it from the stand point of what I am currently doing – It’s going to take me almost 3 years to repay. The others should be done in about a year. I am considering asking my dad to get a 0% cc and letting me put the debt there and paying ~200-250 a month on it. I will not go there until I find a permanent position so that’s on the back burner for now. Here’s the #’s

CC1 - $621.49 ($75@ mo)
CC2 - $1851.91 ($50@ mo)
CC3 - $452.14 ($30@ mo)
CC4 - $257.55 ($30@ mo)
Midas - $391.37 ($35@ mo)

Dental - $703.00 (25 @ mo) 0%
ER - $335.00 ($15 @ mo) 0%

You may wonder why I’m paying the highest amount to CC1 when the limit is lower than CC2. I rcvd papers stating that in May my interest rate is going to spike so I’m attempting to get rid of that asap. I’m gonna go ahead and list all my bills below. Any hints would be appreciated.


Rent $875 – no, I can’t move, lol.

Car $214.17

Cell $89 – no home phone/includes internet since I don’t have it at home.

Elec $150 – on the high end, but it’s what I budget

Thyroid meds - $26 – currently have no insurance but will soon and this will go down.

CC payments ~200

ER $15

YMCA family $14 – keep this because I get financial aid for DS’ summer camp

Dental $25

Blockbuster $4.23 – got this so DS can get 2 movies a month since I have no cable anymore

Health Insurance $35 – have made one payment to get it started

I am also going to be contributing the following:
Car Insurance Savings - $20@wk
Co-Pay Savings - $5@wk
Long Term - $10@wk
Short Term - $5@wk
Gifts - $5@wk
Car - $5@wk


I currently bring in ~$540 @ wk. These numbers are hesitant and savings hasn’t been implemented yet. I am hoping to start all this in April. Let me know what you think.

Gas and groceries are generally around 200 a month.

Help!! Xoxo-nklsom

and here's the kicker

Life has certainly been interesting lately. I have been working as a temp now for a few months – and have job security only until the end of the month. I love it here and hope hard that I get to stay on. DS has run into a few problems since I started – including his first trip to the ER for stitches.. Thanks to the icy playground, he and I have matching scars on our chins! Lol. He might look like DXBF but he’s all me in other ways lol.
The best bud from Oregon came and stayed with me for a week last month. We hadn’t seen each other in 17 years before that. Thanks to mysp*** we found each other last year – and were nothing more than friends in gym in jr. high. Now we talk daily and it was amazing to see her.
I haven’t had a chance to save a penny – got about 4 months behind on the cc’s and my interest rates are sky high – was able to catch up with my taxes but the balances are being charged like crazy – I still owe the cable company $100 and had it turned off. Thanks to the bad pay history I now have to put a deposit down if I sign back up. It’s messy and awful to comprehend but I got myself into this, with the help of a poor economy of course. I’m losing it half the time, but I’ll pull thru. My old mantra was “debt free by 33” and I since I have about a year and a half to go, I might pull it off.
That’s about all for now peeps.. Will try again soon 
Xoxo-nklsmom

No Time

I'm alive and well people. I had to get rid of the net since I was out of work for so long. I am working as a temp right now and will try to check in more often. It's been hard trying to stay positive and keep my chin up - but I'm doing it! :)
Hope you're all doing well and I promise to spend a day in the library soon so I can read and update :)
xoxo-nklsmom

Turkey Day

I'm in California - have been for almost a week now - and it's the same as always. I feel like I've had a very emotional time tho.. too much to figure out in too short a time. I do however, feel like I'm going home knowing myself just a bit better than I did when I got here. I know I'm not making much sense, but coming here this time had a few different meanings this time. Coming "home again" is rarely easy and this time - well, this time I put some pieces together that have been a long time coming.

My sister drove us to the airport last week and got in her first accident. The overpass on the way to the Philly airport was the scene, snowy roads and a skid the cause. Plowed head first into the guard rail. We got a ride in a police car to the courtesy gate.. long darn day let me tell ya. I was sick (still am actually) and had back pain like you wouldn't believe the first few days. Its amazing that I can still say it was worth it! lol.

Visited a few friends, argued with others :) California is a great place to visit but boy am I glad I don't live here anymore. We drove past a cute little house the other day, 2 bedrooms - ONLY $3500 a month in rent. Sheez! I got a notice before I left that my rent was going up $25 starting in 09. I can't even complain after seeing that rental sign. I'll deal with my $875.

Still no news on the job front but the financial situation is so bad that I have to find something when I get back - anything at this point. I couldn't do much before I came here but now I can start immediately and work 14 hour days if I have to. Man, I can't believe how bad this is getting. I've still been sending resumes from here and nothing!

Hope you're all enjoying your holidays. Will check back in when I get home Saturday :)
xoxo-nklsmom