Ramblings

It was an interesting weekend.  We got our bikes, drove downtown, parked and then rode our bikes to the Oklahoma City Arts Festival.  They hold it at the Myriad Botanical Gardens, which is so beautiful.  Ah… We ended up spending $20 on food which wasn’t too bad because the food was deliciouso! 

I keep letting people borrow money from me.  I don’t know what the deal is.  People who have never asked me for money have asked me.  If these were Christian people then I would feel like I was doing good but for the most part these are ladies with children whom are still living the life that is “glorified on BET” clubbing, smoking, drinking, etc.   They get a job, lose a job, they’re unemployed for a while then they get another job.  Then my sister who is a good and naïve and Judgmental (rolls eyes) devoted follower of Christ has asked to borrow $500 on top of the $600 that she already owes me.  The $500 is for a car, it’ll save them gas because they will not have to drive back and forth everyday to take her husband to work.  That’s sounds smart and I’ll let her borrow it but it’ll be the last time.  I’ve also let her use my credit card to buy food and gas until her and her husbands checking account balance is out of the red.  It sounds horrible, huh.  Well then she tells me that she used the credit card to buy her and her daughter some clothes for her daughter’s birthday.  She said she didn’t have anything to wear and she wanted to look nice.  **Shakes head** I had to tell her about herself then.  I don’t know if she’ll ever get it.  Pretty soon I’ll cut my ties and she’ll have to do it on her own and stop making excuses.    

Happy Monday

Sometimes I really Love Mondays.  Sometimes I put things off for days and days but then after a couple of days of rest and relaxation I have the strength and motivation to get those things done.  Ahhh, sweet relief.  Then I wonder why didn’t I just do those things in the first place if they were so easy.

To Write

Daydreaming.  When I get bored at work I pull up my budget spreadsheet and think of ways to save money.  A goal of mine is to become a published writer.  I’m still working on completing a manuscript and I think publishing is at least two years away but in the mean time I’m thinking about what I would do once I started getting income from my books.  I have no credit card debt but I do have a hefty student loan ($54,000) and a nearly $100,000 dollar mortgage.  Common sense would say throw the money at the student loan first.  But I’m thinking no.  First I would tithe 10%, and then I would fully fund my 401k (minus the monthly amount I need to get my match).  Then I would fully fund my kids’ college fund up to the tax deductible amount for the year ($5,000).  Then I’d start paying off the smallest loans first.  That way all of the money from said check would be tax deductible.  Only after all this is done would I start paying off my student loans and mortgage.  I love to write, I hate to edit but thinking about what I could potentially do with the income from writing a novel is really motivating me to complete my first manuscript.

April Networth Statement

I’m back.  My exam is over.  Lord only knows if I passed.  But here is my net worth from earlier this month.  I calculated it a while ago, I just never submitted the sucker.  My net worth is still going up.  Woohoo.  Although, the next two months might be tight because I’m withdrawing a good portion of my savings account to get the other two tires for my car and pay for my upcoming trip to Wiscon32.  I have enough saved up in my vacation fund to fully pay for my hotel and food!  So I won’t have to charge a single dime. 

 

Assets	March	April		Difference	% change
Checking+Savings	$6,169.00	$6,600.00		$431.00	6.53%
Home	$124,500.00	$124,500.00		$0.00	0.00%
Rental	$70,000.00	$70,000.00		$0.00	0.00%
401k	$3,884.34	$3,889.57		$5.23	0.13%
529	$134.00	$169.00		$35.00	20.71%
Roth	$475.00	$501.48		$26.48	5.28%
Misc (Car, etc)	$7,000.00	$7,000.00		$0.00	0.00%
Total Assets	$212,162.34	$212,660.05		$497.71	0.23%
Liabilities	March	April		Difference	% change
CC	$500.00	$100.00		-$400.00	-400.00%
Home	$98,512.00	$98,350.00		-$162.00	-0.16%
Rental	$66,859.00	$66,807.78		-$51.22	-0.08%
HELOC	$9,363.00	$9,290.00		-$73.00	-0.79%
Student Loans	$54,595.49	$54,518.20		-$77.29	-0.14%
Total Liabilities	$229,829.49	$229,065.98		-$763.51	-0.33%
Net Worth	-$17,667.15	-$16,405.93		$1,261.22	7.69%

 

Self Made Pickles

I’m in a pickle, I loaned out $400 a week ago.  When I was loaning out the money, I thought, “well, I’ll be over budget but I’ll just use my cc to make up for the difference”.  Dang it!  Old habits die hard.  So I will try my best to stay under budget spending as little as possible.  Currently my cc balances are $867, my checking acct balance is $1,117, which leaves me with $250 for the rest of the month.   Maya’s birthday is on the 28^th.  I guess I’ll just have her party on April 1^st.  $250 isn’t bad but when I factor in gas and groceries it leaves very little breathing room.  It’ll be hard but I can do it.  When I get that $400 back, I can put half of into my efund and half into my vacation fund. 

Coupon Monster

The coupon monster is once again tempting me to go shopping.  I have $20 off coupon for Gap, Old Navy, or BR.  And a 15% off coupon for BR that expires today, and a $20 off $100 from Gap that expires at the end of the month.  I almost went shopping today.  And I deserve it, dammit.  I’ve been studying so hard this week.  The BR coupon expires today and there is this $130 dress that I so am in love with and with those coupons I could save so much money and get it now for like $100.  I was dressed and ready to go shopping.  The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I had to go to work.  I called in to work so I could sleep a few extra hours, but I did not want to use sick leave to go shopping.  Thank goodness for that small work ethic.  Whoo, crisis diverted.  Atleast for now.  I am gonna wait to go shopping until later in the month next month.  Apparently, they wait until the middle of the month to send out coupons.

Emergerncy Funds and Financial Peace

I’m in the boring stage on my road to financial freedom.  The bad debt is paid off and I’ve started the long process of bulking up my emergency fund.  Yesterday, as I was talking to my sister I was reminded why having an emergency fund is so important.   My sister is two years younger than me.  She has a husband, four kids, and operates a home daycare.  Like millions of others, her household operates from paycheck to paycheck with no savings.  She gets the bulk of her pay from DHS and this week they made a booboo and did not give her the correct amount of money.  I’m not sure what she was supposed to get but she only received $17. 

I found out about her situation because my mom was complaining because my sisters was coming to my mom’s house for food.  My mom survives off $600 per month from social security.  I can’t imagine owning a daycare and not having enough money to buy food for the kids.  I can’t imagine not having enough money to pay for gas.   Even when I was poor and in school I had credit cards to pay for food and gas if I needed it.  But she has bad credit and no chance for a credit card.

I talked to her about it and she told me she was scared.  She had filled out pay day loans but no one would loan her any money because of her credit.  Since I hadn’t paid my tithes from my IncomeTaxRefund, I gave her that money.  She was happy.  I was happy.  We’ve had the budget and emergency fund talk before but of course something always happens where she didn’t do what she was supposed to do.  I’ve been there.  I think this was her wake up call.   To help her on her way to financial freedom, I’m going to the book store to buy Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.  I haven’t read it but I’ve heard good things about it.   It uses biblical principles and she’s very religious so maybe that will help her relate money to the Bible.  Talking to her has made me even more motivated to bulk up my Efund.