Monday Night Money

Check-In: $744.78

That's okay... enough to pay the bills coming due this week. That's about all I'm up to writing right now. We just got my DH home from the hospital tonight (he's been there since Saturday morning). This coming on the heels of my sick 3-year-old son, coming on the heels of my sick 6-year-old daughter, coming on the heels of looking at an ADD diagnosis (possibly) for the 6-year-old daugher, coming on the heels of my sick then 4, now 5-year-old daughter has just completely destroyed the past month and I am just drained- physically, emotionally, and intellectually. The only bright spot in this month was the birthday of my middle child (and boy, is she ever a "middle child"!). So, although it doesn't have much to do with Monday Night Money, I'm going to close with the one thing that made me happy this month: Princess Tippytoes "Fairy Princess" birthday!

Monday Night Money

Check-In: $1217.56
May I say, Wow!
When I checked my bank account, I had to delve deeper, thinking that maybe they hadn't taken out any of the money that I spent this weekend. But they had! That includes taking out cash for this coming week! I have to admit, we haven't been as frugal as we were a month ago. A month ago, it was out of necessity. Now, it's by choice, but by making that choice, I don't have to feel guilty about taking the family out to eat, renting a few DVD's, or spending a little more on Princess Tippytoes birthday party (like buying pre-cooked chicken to use in a recipe instead of cooking and dicing it myself because time was of the essence). Actually, I think I was about on target, budget-wise, for the party if I take into account that I bought some regular groceries for this week while I bought the food for the party. Anyway, looking closer at my account, there's a $130 check out there that has not cleared. The car payment is due, I owe my mom for daycare, and I need to pay my dad the rent sometime soon. So, it's not like all of that money doesn't have someplace to go, but at least it's there for the going!

Weekend Weigh-In: 02/16/08

Weigh-In: 289.7

Yup! That's it! Up only .3 lbs! Why am I excited? A little background...
This has been a week from you-know-where...
It began with me not feeling great last weekend- just some sinus stuff that, while not making me super-sick, made me really tired and made me lose my voice. I had to go to work on Monday with no voice because we had a meeting set up with a parent from you-know-where... a meeting that was ever-so-fun because I had no voice to speak up for our classroom or to even voice my opinion.
On the heels of this this meeting, I flipped roles from teacher to parent and went to Miss B's parent-teacher conference... a conference that was attended by myself, her teacher and, the principal (you know it's not going to be good when the principal makes a special point to attend your child's conference). Actually, the conference was pretty much what I expected- we're all concerned about her difficulty attending and the effect on her school work. She's getting straight C's, but she's at an accelerated magnet school for kids at or above grade-level, so that's not so bad, but it could be better if she were able to focus on her work and complete it in a timely fashion. As I said, I was kind of expecting this. There's a family history and we've seen these things when we're working with her at home, but it doesn't make it any more fun to go through or deal with.
On Sunday night, Miss B had begun to complain of a sore throat. Since my DH was staying home with the other two kids on Monday anyway, I kept her home from school, figuring she was getting the same thing I had. Then came Tuesday night- when Miss B's inhaler was doing her no good and we had to make a trip to the ER. Two nebulizer treatments and a dose of steroids later (about 5-6 hours), she was doing better, but still wheezing some. We got home about 2 am. Wednesday morning, after another dose of steroids, antibiotic, and nebulizer treatment, she was still coughing and wheezing, which led us to the doctors office. Well, she must have been doing pretty badly because the doctor gave her another neb treatment there (with 2 meds now, instead of 1) and another dose of steroids! She increased all of her meds and instructed us to give her neb treatments every hour for the next 3 hours, every 2 hours for the next 6 hours and then every 3 hours until we saw Miss B's regular pediatrician for a follow-up on Friday. And there went the rest of our week!
So, to get back to the original topic: why am I so glad that I only gained .3 lbs?
1. It was a stressful week and stress tends to be a trigger for my eating when I don't really need to be eating.
2. Miss B was out of school for the week, I didn't take her to the bus, so I didn't get my usual walks in. So, I didn't get much exercise in this week either.
3. It was Valentine's Day. Although I didn't get any chocolate hearts full of candy, there were LOTS of goodies around. Since I didn't know how many (if any) students were bringing treats (since I wasn't there to send a note home reminding parents to send treats), I picked up a box of donut holes for the students and a dozen donuts for the staff in our classroom. And wouldn't you know it that this is the first year that every single student brought something! There were cakes and candies and juices and cookies and donuts! It was a sugar-filled mine field!
4. On Tuesday morning, I ate breakfast at Burger King with 2 of the kiddos while running errands. On Wednesday night, I ate dinner at Burger King (chosen by Miss B, her consolation prize for missing Valentine's night at LOGOS when her brother and sister got to go). On Friday night, we ate at Golden Corral (a buffet). Since I figured this week's weigh-in was already shot, I might as well go all the way. DH and the kids have been asking to go here for a while, so I figured that it was a good time to go. Now, what I ate there wasn't horrible, but I'm sure it was far from healthy and, like many people, I tend to eat too much when I'm at a buffet.
So, after all of that, I told myself that, no matter what, I would step on the scale this morning. I could have sloughed off a little longer... after not writing for a week, what's a few more days? I probably would have done that in the past, but I'm on a quest for truth and accountability now! So, although I fully expected to see a few-pound gain, I stepped on the scale this morning. I had already told myself that it was okay... that there were times in life when it was okay to fall off the wagon and that this week was certainly one of them. And, I told myself that there's nothing wrong with chasing down the wagon and hopping back on, just like nothing had happened. And, I'll be darned if all of that talking to myself was for nothing! Now, it just irritates me a bit because, just think... If I hadn't written this week off and said, "Oh well, it's already a lost cause," I wouldn't have made some of the choices that I did and I would have actually had a loss! Well, forewarned is forearmed, they say, so next time I'll know. When a crappy week head's my way, I'll know to perhaps count a day as a loss, but not the whole week. Next time, there will be no excuses!

life on hold,

blog on hold due to major sickness.

Asthma + Bronchitis= NOT A GOOD THING!!!!

Hopefully we'll be back next week, better 'n ever!
In the meantime, head over to Oprah's site (gosh, never thought I'd be offering that advice!) and download- totally FREE- Suze Orman's book... something about women and money. I've never read any of her stuff, but I've heard from/ read from plenty of people who swear by her stuff. And it's FREE, so what can it hurt? It was Oprah's giveaway today. She wanted to do a giveaway for all the viewers at home, so this is it. From my understanding, you can download the entire book from her site. I'm heading over there to do it right now.
PS- I think you have until 5 pm on Thursday, February 14 to do this.

Weekend Weigh-In: 02/09/2008

Weigh-In: 289.4
Down 2.7 lbs! :)
Woo Hoo! What else can I say? I'm excited and encouraged! Things are moving in the right direction again. Not having those donuts yesterday was so worth it! The feeling of looking down at the scale and seeing an almost 3 lb. loss is much better than the feeling you get from eating a Homecut Donut- and anyone who's had Homecut Donuts knows that's saying a lot (still-warm coffee rolls might come close)! I must admit, I was a bit leary of stepping on the scale- feeling bad because this has been very busy week, neccesitating a few trips to a drive-thru or the food court at the mall. It has also been a very snowy week, with more snow coming almost daily (but not enough for a snow day). The daily delivery of snow and ice has wreaked havoc on my daily walk after the bus stop plan. I have no doubts that I will pick up that plan once the weather reaches an even keel again, but I missed doing it this week. I only got to walk once or twice in the morning this past week. I have also not gotten the exercise bike back into the house yet and now that plan is on hold until after Princess Tippytoes' birthday party next weekend (which is, ironically, the reason the bike got taken out of the house a few years ago). So, over-all, I'm feeling optimistic and happy. My goal for this week is to plan my meals. My sister has been doing this and blogging about it here. Seeing what she spent on groceries last week has inspired me to get my butt in gear and plan my meals! Her grocery bill for herself, DH, and a teenage son was $20! Granted, she has some stuff stock-piled and one of the perks of her job is getting food that the store can no-longer sell, but an average grocery bill of $20 would be a great boon to our budget! I have no illusions of getting my grocery bill down to $20, but I do believe that we could lower it by planning meals based on what we already have at home and then supplementing with our trips to the grocery store. This past week, I spent about $50 on groceries. I didn't feel that was too bad for a family of 5, but when you add in a trip to the food court one night and a trip for 2 through the drive-thru another night, it doesn't look quite as good (about $30 for the food court, but only about $6-$7 for the drive thru trip for DH and I). Just because we actually have money in our bank account again doesn't mean that we should spend it. That's a trap that's waaay too easy to fall into! Okay, I'm off to meal plan. If I get the chance, I'll pop back on to share with you.

Well, after visiting and messing around with Tickerfactory for an insane amount of time, I could not find anything that adequately conveyed the "Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your Emergency Fund grow?" theme. So, I abandoned it in favor of the "Godzilla-scale Piggy Bank, stomping the evil Debt City" theme. Okay, so the city doesn't really look that evil, but that's just what they want you to think. Debt doesn't look evil either. In fact, all the commercials make it look nice... Hey! Buy stuff! Then you can be just like everyone else, while still remaining uniquely you, and you will be happy! (Those "priceless" commercials of a certain credit company have got to be the worst of these money-can-buy-happiness messages!)

THEY ARE WRONG!

Does having more month left at the end of your money make you happy?

Does wondering how you will buy diapers or formula for your babies or how you will put gas in your car because the bank balance is super-negative make you happy?

Does waking up exhausted in the morning because you were tossing and turning half-the-night with dreams full of financial anxiety make you happy?

Does realizing you could have paid off several of your bills with what you ended up having to pay in overdraft charges this month make you happy?

Does not being able to provide the "extra" things for your children make you happy?

Does being stuck renting houses, renting furniture, or paying exhorbitant interest rates because your credit is so bad make you happy?

Does having a nervous, anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach everytime you check your bank balance make you happy?

Dave says...

So, I've been talking about this Dave Ramsey guy a bit. I bought his book, Total Money Makeover, and I've been working my way through it. Actually, I began working my way through it, got tired of reading about him busting a lot of financial myths that I never believed in anyway, and skimmed my way to the actual "Babysteps", as he calls them. In the Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey has 7 Babysteps to begin your journey to Financial Peace. I'll go through these steps on here as I get to them, but if you're the kind of person that likes to skip to the end of the book, click here.
The first Babystep is to save $1000 to start an Emergency Fund. Save $1000. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200- unless you're going to put it in this Emergency Fund! Save up $1000 dollars as quickly as possible and keep it liquid. Do not make it too easy to access (IE- do not link it to your checking account so it can get eaten up by your overdrafts) and do not tie it up in something that will make you reluctant to use the money when you need it (IE- a CD or similar fund that has penalties for early withdrawal). The goal of this emergency fund is not to sit there and make you money. The goal is for it to be there when you need it for a true emergency. He even goes so far as to share what one woman did. Once this woman had her emergency fund, she got ten $100 bills, framed them, and wrote "In case of emergency, break glass." and hung it in a difficult to access, inconspicuous place in her house (the back of an over-stuffed coat closet or something like that). I thought that was amusing. The point is, it's there when you need it. It's your security blanket- your beginning of peace- to know that you have something there to smooth the unexpected bumps in the road. So, if you scroll down, you'll see a new ticker- my "Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your Emergency Fund grow?" ticker. Have a gander...