I started Paying off my old DEBT!

Okay but I am slightly discouraged if you look at the numbers

I take home $457.50 a week

$325 goes towards shared bills (rent, groceries, utilities etc...)

$50 a week is towards CareOne ($181 a month)

$25 a week towards Savings

Which leaves me almost $60+ a week leftover.

Keep in mind - I still have to pay my CCs, Car Insurance and a couple of other things every month.

Am I doing okay and the right thing? I know any extra is going towards paying off my debt.

But honestly, I still like to buy things :P and would like to have things too.

Well, I am really annoyed about my financial decisions lately.

*Bought a Laptop (Laptop interest over 25% I believe)
*Need to pay off CCs again (2 total $675 both with interest over 25%)

So what I am going to do is take out the $900 and pay $200 on each of the CCs ($300 CC and $375 CC) and put $400 towards the laptop and then pay the rest off in payments on both.

I already have $25 a week going into my Savings and I am sure I can come up with ways to make extra income.

Then after I will contact CareOne (they are already knocking the down the door and calling me and I will let him know I am interested and to give me a minute)

Anyway I was also reminded of the Suze Orman segment of "Can you Afford It" when the chick had BIG BUCKS in her Savings and still had ton of CC and Student Loan debt and she told her what is the point of having a BIG Savings if you have all this Debt??? So I agree. Plus I am sure Suze would have DENIED me getting this new Laptop Oopsy!

More later in as The Jackie Financial World Turns later :P

Well now I have two! I know some would say I should sell one or give my old one away but the first one I got for free and it still works and its mine, the second one is the new one I got from Dell.

Well, I tried to Cancel with Dell and it was too late.

I bought a $67 ($39 for the cord & the rest for the Fedex Next Day Shipping) Laptop cord to fix my Toshiba and it worked again, we had originally took it apart because we thought the pin was broken on it. It wasn't. The Laptop cord just was broken.

So I got my new Laptop and its Beautifully PINK (It cost me a total of $768)

I am going to make payments on it and I am still putting $25 a week in Savings. I am going to try to have it paid off in about 4 months. So I would almost have to pay $200 a month. Which doesn't seem to much and if I have any extra money I can go ahead and pay it towards it as well.

I think it will all be fine though.

But Last weekend, I finally got ALL My Bills together that I had been receiving at my parents and my house (old debt, medical bills and some new debt) and decided to organize and throw away duplicates and keep the most recent to start paying on every week. WELL starting Friday (or tonight) I am starting to PAY IT OFF WOOHOO!!!

I am actually trying to pay these bills that give you the online option and some are just so difficult so some I may have to call about and find out what happened to the debt of it and see who now owns it...etc...I am also going to contact CareOne to help me organize my debt and pay it off quicker, I had such nice feedback from a rep I called a year ago and would like to get in contact with CareOne and actually sign up for it this time even if its not the same rep.

Ugh frustration, a lot of these debt collectors I will need to call and not all offer the online pay option, oh well, my consequences for ignoring stuff...

GUESS WHAT?? My Laptop isn't broken, its actually the power cord that needed to be replaced (again, this would be the third time) so I may cancel my $700 Laptop order with Dell. And still keep the money in my Savings, I am still undecided but I normally just like to buy things I need.

Well I manage to pay $4.52 tonight, I will need to call on the rest of the debt collectors to see what I can do.

Oh I have the form filled out for automatic deduction into Savings, now I just need to turn it in. Its going to be $25 a week.

I don't know about everyone else but the way the economy is going and the world right now I am anxious about putting more money in my Savings. Just contemplating when and how much...

Right now I technically have 3 Savings accounts. One is connected to my Checking account, I have another one COMPLETELY separate (no card or anything) on my second Savings and my third Savings account I have through ING.

Savings#1 has about $300 (supposed to be used for a Trip to Vegas)
Savings#2 has $1,005.17
Savings#3 has $394.70

For a Total of about $1699.87

I have a Savings Goal of $3,000.

Not sure when we will be actually going to Vegas because my Partner's Mom is sick and I still need to figure out where my dad is (He is technically homeless always and I want to help him so much and I just hope he is ok somewhere in Vegas. Plus we want to make sure that we can get a Good Deal.

I now make $14.70 but I am also getting another Raise on June 1st...so I think it will be easier to decide how much to Save then...

In the Billing Dept that I had been promoted to last October 2007, I did not get my pay for it. The reason for that is, you have to Certify. Which means I have to pass a certain number of Billing Calls and hitting Quality points before I would get my Promotion Pay...and I had three chances to Pass. Well, the first two times they put in in February I failed. And if I had failed the third time I would be sent back to my prior department. So anyway, 7 months later I FINALLY GOT MY PAID PROMOTION I CERTIFIED!!! WOOHOO!! On top of that but the yearly raise in due in June so I will be getting that as well!

Plus I am waiting on my stimulus check. I am thinking about living a paycheck behind and beef up my Savings...Right now because of my Taxes last year I have about $1,000 combined in two Savings accounts. $300 in my ING and $700 in my regular Credit Union.

With my Daughter's check that is going to start her Savings, $100 of her $300 is going to go for her down payment for her teeth again (she has two new teeth growing in and we have to remove the other two).

I am going to take inventory of everything that I receive a monthly bill for and see if I can drop some unnecessary items from being debited from my account.

I had received my Tax return today and paid few good sized bills...it made me happy. Smile Now I don't have to worry about paying them unless I use them (my credit cards) plus I don't have to pay my Car Insurance till June now.

My Taxes are done and I am getting back
$4507.

I owe
Utah State Tax $598
Mother $450
Partner $610
Credit Cards Pay Off $600 (YES!)
Car Insurance $231.40
GRAND TOTAL: $2489.40

I will have $2017.60 left over.

Last night I was watching Suze Orman and watching her made me realize how I need to kick my butt about my debt.

Well I did get PROMOTED to the Billing Dept at work. Today was the last day of Training, tomorrow I start in my new Dept. Still working on Business though.

I realized that I am adding Value to myself by signing up for my 401k NOW and not later, as well as getting Health Benefits and depositing money back into my Savings. Pleased with myself.

I also want to get my daughter a Savings. She is 4 and I want to get this for her really bad. Plus, I had added her as a Beneficiary everywhere, every time when I sign up for a new Financial Account.

I want to knock out a few big things too in the process:

Chase MC $246.41
National City CC $326.44
Car Insurance $360.39 Optional: $133.51

(I had some issues with them and now I have a HUGE Cancellation & Reinstatement fees from them)

At my Job we had donations for United Way, as a contribution through your paycheck, last year I did the one time option and this year decided to do $2 a week towards the Community Fund via Payroll and then had her verify that the money would go directly those in need and not for 'administrative' costs.

I will also being contributing 2% OR 3% of my weekly income for my 401k, my job will match 3%.

I will be getting Health Insurance through my Job also, although I am already covered, but that coverage won't last forever.

Then the last thing I am going to is put $25 a week into my Savings - Direct Deposit of course.

Lastly I MIGHT possibly get Promoted. I am not depending on it so it will help with all the stuff above.

Well playing around on MyPoints, I decided to get a Car Insurance Rate Quote from various Auto Insurance Companies. Well most of them were $60+ and to my Surprise one is actually $33. Right now I pay about $50+ a month for my Auto Insurance. So I am thinking of having that same company do another quote for me to make sure it is accurate with the Insurance I have now.

Since my Insurance I believe is $51 A MONTH, my SAVINGS would be $18 a month! Which I could put back into my Savings.

Speaking of Savings - After I go back to work, I would like to Deposit $30 a week into my Savings Account with Direct Deposit.

Not sure though yet, how I will do it.

Well I just barely logged back into my ING Account after a million years and Updated my Account information and I saw I had earned a TON of interest and still had my money in there...but I also have another Savings account that I cannot touch that is supposed to be used for random checks I received and I would like to Deposit into both Savings but not quite sure how I plan on doing this...what I want to do is possible do automatic transfers every week from my Checking to my home Savings account but then again I earn higher interest with my ING Savings account...not qute sure how I want to do this....

MONEY GOALS:

401K
DD Savings
ME Savings
Pay off Debt
Some type of CD and Investing such as Sharebuilder.com
PLAY Money!
MAKE More Money

Hmmm....need to write this down on paper

IT is painfully hanging over my head. I decided against Debt Consolidation for the time being because I think I cannot afford $80 bucks a week towards paying off my old debt. Every time when I attempted to think about fixing my debt, my head hurts and I feel sort of helpless. Although I know I am sure there is something I can do. Just not sure how I am going to go about this yet. Sigh. On top of that I want to sign up for my Job's 401K, open up a Savings Account for DD and start putting $$$ back into my Savings. I am failing at all of these things right now, PLUS I want to pay off my Secured Card again so I can use it for things again. My Relatives keep insisting the B word and I just couldn't ever do something like that. Like I always say, I OWE this money to them. They don't owe me anything.

I also want to go to College badly . I am looking into Grants and Scholarships before I consider a loan. I want to get my Bachelors of Science in Sales and Marketing and take Online Courses. My Job has Tuition Reimbursement but I do not see myself there for another million years and still have BIG Goals and Dreams to be an Entreprenuer and that I am working on DAILY.

Sigh there now I whined my sorrows about Finance will be getting all of that sorted. Sigh.

I finally took the Initative to ASK to Reduce My Rate for my Bill of $102.90 since I am a Good Standing Customer...and here is what happened....

Billing says oh I don't know, let me get you to Sales....so I speak to the Sales Dept and I told the lady the same thing..."I am a Good Paying Customer, I pay on time every month is there any Promotion I can use right now to reduce my Rate?" and she says "Oh let me check your area and she checks my area, which is SLC and she says "Oh it looks like we are very Competitive in your area, there is a Promotion you can do without having to get the phone" So now my Bill dropped down to $73!!! I am So Happy! They were so Friendly, I was so Friendly! I told the Sales lady, I really appreciate it and everything! I am just so happy now!!

I HIGHLY Recommend Comcast!

Well at the advice of my Beau, I began using my Check Registery for my Purchases on my main Checking/Debit Account. I now right down everything I use on the account.

I am expecting a $34 Refund Check for my Daughter's pictures that came out crappy and a $10 Total from Pinecone for Surveys. I also cashed out MyPoints for myself as a Birthday Present...I had enough for a $50 Gift Card.

Las Vegas was Great, we lived off of Comps and we had a Free Room for a couple of days...we also won which means everything we did in Vegas was absolutely FREE

I feel bad for taking the $400 from my Savings account but I plan on replacing it again later plus with extra that I have been keeping in my main account just fear of going in the red again.

I also started working on my Business...going to try to boost it a little bit more.

I got my Taxes back and I put $1300 in Savings and paid something that I cannot remember LOL. $1,000 of it is to fix my daughter's teeth once I find a Pediatric Dentist.

Plus I went to Wendover, Nevada (I live in Utah) and won a total of $1,000 on the $1 Slot Machines with the tip from my new Beau

My Norton 2006 Anti-Virus was just telling me how my 2006 had Expired...I had just purchased a bunch of $5 TVs from Office Depot.com, you know Stockpiling and so I decided to check out a Friend's site because I missed the Game! LO and BEHOLD! There is a Overage of $7 and Rebate CC for Norton Anti-Virus! So I made sure I purchased it tonight before the deadline which is tomorrow 12/09/06...and now I am sitting here filling out my Rebate form, wondering where my 2007 software is so I can submit my form with the UPC Code LOLOL!

I also had deposited those Checks which brought my total up to $268 and I got a Jerky Check for $15 that I need to Deposit and have some more Pinecone Checks coming in...

*Get myself out of the Financial Blunder I had put myself in.

*Pay off my Parents in 4 weeks because they helped me get my all weather tires.

*Pay off my CC again.

*Pay ALL my Bills before anything else.

*The BIGGEST OATH OF ALL is do not sign the list to go home early anymore.

Jacquelyn Butler 11/28/2006

All the Checks I get in the mail for doing little things like Surveys, Jerky and Rebates etc...all go in my $20 Challenge Savings account.

Right now I will be Depositing:

$12.00 Rebate Check for Gillette Razor
$9.30 Cash Crate Check
$5.00 Pinecone Check
$1.50 Jerky Check
TOTAL $27.80

Which will bring my Challenge up to:
$257.77

I will be looking for more ways to get Checks in the mail

Jacquelyn

I need to Buy a Printer LOL, now I REALLY do in order to Print Rebate Forms...I have no clue on how to hook up a Printer...I am going to buy The Gillette Razor and I already purchased the Rayovak batteries so those will be my first two Rebates...I will probably do the Colgate Total also...I also have a Coupon for the toothpaste I think. Then when I receive them I am going to add them to my new Savings account.

I HAVE NO EXTRA COUPONS! I am so mad! I did not get any Stockpile Coupons! But at least I know My Bill will not be that much BUT STILL! I guess I will need to get some as soon as the Ad comes out. DUH!

I decided the $40 from my Daughter's School that I do not need to pay anymore is going to go into her Savings Account.

I OPENED up a Savings and PHYSICALLY put my $20 Challenge Money into my Savings today!!!

ITS SO AWESOME!!

I have:

$150 (Loan was Paid back to me)
$8.61 (Jerky Business check)
$20 (For the initial $20 Challenge)
$40 for my daughters Daycare that was reduced by $40 a month for turning 3!
--------
= $218.61

and I opened it up at My Credit Union and told the Bank NOT to link it to my Checking account and I want NO ATMs or any kind of Card. That Account is ONLY for DEPOSITS.

PLUS I am EXPECTING $100 from Rent.com and
$5 Pinecone Check.

Which will bring my TOTAL up to: $323.61

I LOVE THIS CHALLENGE!

I am right now thinking of a thought out Plan for a Customized Life/Home Organization Planner. I was going to buy one but I decided I can customize my own and Save Money in the process by adding things that I think I need & want in it.

Then my Budget, I almost have everything figured out as it to what is coming in and what is going out every month. But first I have to wait and see what my Raise/Promotion entails. I want to live a Paycheck Behind.

I am also looking at my Debt. I am ready to start Paying it off. I need to obtain my Credit Reports first to see where I stand.

I am VERY Excited about Couponing, Winter Gardening and everything else in between!

I FINALLY feel like I have my Life under MY Control, well at least I am to that Point. I just need to do some more Organizing. Hmmmm....

I want to Save Money, Make MORE Money and Pay off My Debt.

I started Paying My Debt TODAY that I was Ignoring and staring me in the face every time when I checked the Mail. It was a Medical Bill from an old city where I had lived.

I told them take $10 out every Payday (which is every week) and put it towards my Bill. I FEEL SO GOOD! I have been wanting to do it for a while now just never did it.

Also, tomorrow I am going to get a Direct Deposit form at work and put $100 a week into my Savings account.

What a way to turn around the day!

Jacquelyn

Well tired and cranky. Personally I do not like being Employed. I have a Great Job though, so I count my Blessings. I discovered today we will be working Mandatory Overtime in my new Job Position. 10 hours a week. 2 hours a day that equals to.

Not bad really because I will get Paid my New Raise and Get Paid Overtime but sometimes you think which is MORE Important? Time OR Money? I will be working from 11:30 AM to 10 PM. Which means ALL that time my Daughter will be at Daycare/Preschool.

So with all this EXTRA Money I will be Saving, Paying off Debt and using it towards My Business. Because I will escape the Rat Race.

Jacquelyn

Ok now that I have a Promotion, I need to consider living a Raise Behind and also putting away $40 since my Child Care went down which would equal to an extra $280 a month.

I also want to use my Secured Credit Card to Pay off my Debt as well. I figure since I get Paid Weekly and my Secured Credit Card is Monthly I could figure out a good Monthly Budget in order to pay it all off every month for every penny I spend on Debt since that is one of the original reasons why I got it.

Right now I put Diapers and Gas on it and pay it off every time when I get the Bill. I think I could figure $60 bucks of Debt being Paid off a month and put that in my Budget for Bills. I just do not want to overwhelming myself and then end up screwing up my Secured Credit Card and my Debt also. You know what I mean?

Groceries I think I could manage. I want to budget myself $50 bucks a week and use all the necessary coupons. I really do not need to cook for my daughter and myself but I still like to cook and do not like to deny myself Good Food. KWIM?

Now my Business, this is going to be tough as far as how I need to figure out how much I am going to want to Budget. Hmmmm...I will still need to think hard on that one...I was thinking maybe $20 bucks a Payday.

Hmmmmm........

I LOVE this whole Coupon Gig, I know it may seem like I am doing one at a time but I am just trying to figure out how I am benefiting and seeing if I am using correctly so here is what I got for my Hot Pocket Coupons:

I *believe* the Store Sale Price is
6 for $10 (I will need to double check)

Plus I got one Store Coupon for $1.00 any two Hot Pockets and another Hot Pocket Coupon for 1 for .40 cents.

I figure if I buy two boxes at the Store Sale Price of $1.67 x 2 Boxes = $3.34 and I use my Coupons for $1.40 I will have PAID $1.94 for both boxes.

The Retail Price I Believe is $3.99 each box.

I went Grocery Shopping and I did not have Coupons and I looked at the Store Sale Ad and didn't see anything in particular I wanted to buy but here is what Happened:


I looked for Store Sale prices and found a few good deals down the aisles.

SPENT: $40.72

According to Receipt SAVED: $3.11 (which is 7%)

Looks bad on paper but the reality is I SAVED MORE:

For Example:

I bought 2 cans of Olives for $1.07 each

$2.14
Store Sale Price: 2 for $3
SAVED: .86 Cents

Maruchan Cup Noodles
Purchased 4 at 29 cents
Store Sale Cup o Noodles: 3 for $1
PAID: $1.16 for 4 compared to $1.33 for 4.
SAVED: .17 cents

I am sure there are a couple more examples but those are the two I can think of right now.

Hmmmm...

I have a Point Card from there with more than enough Sandwiches but I am not touching it. Instead of Subway I made Hamburgers and ate Cereal.

Tomorrow I am bringing leftovers for Lunch. Fish Sticks. Today I had one of those $1 Lean meals that I had purchased for Lunches but then I got sick of them.

Friday we are having a Luncheon at work during Breaks and Lunches so I am going to eat there.

I am more or less anxiously waiting to get into my Aparment.

Called Car Insurance and left a message since it was after hours and asked them to leave me a Message as is to when my direct debit goes out every month.

Called the lady from the Apartment and she told me there is no reason for me not to be Approved. The anticipation is killing me.

Friday is PAYDAY LOVE getting Paid every week!

I am getting an extra $300 as a Housewarming Gift from my Grandparents to use for my Apartment.

Apart from that money by Friday I will also have $625 saved for my Apartment.

Spent $1.25 today on a Candy Bar.

We had talked about Coupons on Friday and about Growing Veggies in Cans and she said she was going to bring me some tomatoes but she forgot but she brought me Coupons from her Sunday Paper! She knows how I am getting my own place and I was asking her about Coupons and the store. She is going to bring me tomatoes from her Garden this week too!

Jacquelyn