Another Dave Ramsey post

Oh Dave Ramsey, how I love you! And my husband loves you too!

I joined his site for a free 30 day trial in Jan. Once the 30 days were up, I figured I could get by WITHOUT the budget. NOT! We got our tax refund, did well with 75% of it, and then it all fell apart. Now just a few days till payday and there is very little to go around. So back onto the site I go. I jumped back on the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. I make sure I listen to him at least once a day. Everyday I am on his fan page on facebook.

So far two months into it, and we have paid off almost $3000! This month we had to go back to baby step one. Baby step one is your beginner emergency fund. Ours is $500. I had to transfer $100 into our checking because I screwed up with it after we got our tax refund. Whatever extra we have after paying all the bills and grocery shopping is going towards Us Bank.

I owe them $450, with a $22 a month payment. I can’t wait to see that $450 gone! And then I will be preforming, plastic surgery… on my card!

As many of you know, I have gone back to work. Is it really what I want? No. Is it what I need? Yes. I NEED to be debt free. I NEED to have financial freedom.

Right now, starting in April when we get back on track with everything, this is how long it will take us to pay everything off, WITHOUT adding any tax refunds.

Total debt left $23411.19 (est)

Total month payments $400

Working 15 hours $384 earned/ $784/ 29 months to pay everything off/ Sept 2012

Working 20 hours $512 earned/ $912/ 25 months/ May 2012

Working 25 hours $640 earned/ $1040/ 22 months/ March 2012

Working 30 hours $768 earned/ $1168/ 20 months/ Jan 2012

This year we got $4500 back in taxes, thats what I am going to use for my estimate for next years taxes.

$23411 – $4500 = $18911

$784/ 24 months/ April 2012

$912/ 20 months/ Jan 2012

$1040/ 18 months/ Nov 2011

$1168/ 16 months/ Sept 2011

So looking at it, the earliest we can be debt free (and this is all just an estimate) is Sept 2011!!! Yipee! Now I have a new goal! To be debt free before my son’s 3rd birthday in Dec 2011. I KNOW we can do this!!!

Corrected W2, Finally!

If any of you have been following on facebook, I’ve have had a heck of a time getting my corrected W2 from an employer. We were able to file because the only thing that was wrong was one number in my ssn. Called the place I worked for and let them know about the mistake. She got all bent out of shape at me because in the maybe 5 paychecks that I got, there was a slip of paper asking me to verify my ssn. Well they had an 8 where there should have been a 3. If you just glance at that, you can see that it is “correct” and then ignore any future pieces of paper. Not to mention, I advised them of the error when I noticed it and they are REQUIRED by LAW to give me a corrected W2. Well the employer wanted to charge me $45 to get it, because thats what the service she uses charges for a reprint. Doesn’t matter. She can not pass that charge on to me.

So after many hours spent at the local IRS office, the IRS sent her a letter stating that she needs to send it to me, for FREE. So it came today! Along with this lovely note.

“Lacey,
Big lesson learned for me, $45.00 lesson. Our payroll company covers its bases by adding on the check that you need to verify you SSN is correct. Because you did not verify it they sent you info to the IRS with the incorrect info, in order for them to correct that with the IRS they have to redo the paper work which is why they charge $45.00, not for your corrected W2 that was free. I have had you info corrected obviously because you said you would pay the $45.00. If you are so inclined to cover any of that cost I would appreciate it.”

I typed that EXACTLY as it was given to me. Don’t even get me started on the grammar and such. On the slips of paper there were NEVER any directions on how to verify that your info was correct (I can across one as I was cleaning), nor a number to call. She states that she only corrected it because I said I would pay the money. There is a mistake there. The IRS says you HAVE to correct ANY errors. Whether I cover the cost of what the company you CHOOSE to use charges you, or not.

Anyhow. I have it. Thats all that really matters.

New changes coming

Well back in Jan I applied for a job, in retail. Hey, at least it isn’t food service!

Two weeks ago I interviewed for it, a few days later I got the second interview, two days later I took the drug test.

And today I got the call that they job was mine if I wanted it! Yay!

Now let me point out that my dream job is being a stay at home mom. I love being home with my son. But I HATE, HATE being in debt. Dave Ramsey (are you sick of me mentioning him yet?) says to get “gazelle intense”.  Well this is me getting “gazelle intense”.

After doing our budget we fall $160 short each month. I expect to make between $500 and $600 a month. After the monthly stuff is covered, I will be snowballing.

The first bill to get snowballed will be Us Bank. I will cut up the card and send it to them the day after I pay them off!!!

Things that will be paid off soon!!

Life has gotten SUPER busy around here! Lots of stuff going on that I promise to share, but in another post. 🙂

We filed our taxes earlier this week. Tuesday to be exact. Now I am just hovering over my bank account waiting for the money to magically appear.

1. Continental Loans   *I hate to say it but this is how we paid for Christmas this year, and bought Jesse some much needed rain gear. $408
2. Dr Sturges   *This is our family Dr. I’ve been making $25 a month payments but I am going to feel SOOO good to have them caught up and paid off! $349
3. 2000 Ford Focus    *My parents have been WONDERFUL about letting us drive this car but not make payments on it. I did however promise to pay them off with our tax refund. $1950
4. Us Bank Credit Card    * We are going to send them $200, about 1/2 of what we owe
5. Health Savings Account  * I am going to open a HSA so we can put money away to help with Jacob’s check ups and everything
6. Savings Account   *Per Dave Ramsey, we will be starting our emergency fund with $500

Total Amount of Debt Gone    $2907.00

Total Amount of Month Payments Gone   $127.00

Total debt paid since Jan 2010   $3271.15

So in two months we will have paid off over $3000 and started our emergency fund!! It feels SO good. I love being able to shave some money off of our monthly payments. It makes living just that much easier. On the plus side we are going to have some money left over, so we are going to get Jesse some new glasses, a new dinning room table (Kmart has one for $150 for the whole set, I’m going to look on craigslist first), a new phone (his battery sucks and he scratched the face of his) and maybe dinner out for my birthday.   I am already looking forward to my return next year! I love being able to pay things off.

Whatever we don’t spend will go towards Us Bank. Its our goal to see that one gone in a few months!

Who I am

All of this makes me think about what is important in my life. I purged my friends’ on Facebook. There are people that I have recently met and people I used to know that I don’t talk to. And quite frankly, don’t care to.

In 20 days I will be 25. Half way to 50. I am a wife and a mother. And what is important to me?

Having people that I know care about me. Ones that truly are there to listen. A shoulder to cry on. Willing to take any help when it is offered at no cost to them. Ones that I can laugh with. That I can be me with.

Who am I?

I am shy and outgoing. I am loud and quite. I am polite and respectful. I am loving and caring. I am opinionated and open minded.

And if you have a problem with this, then go somewhere else. As I get closer and closer to 25 (which I realize is no where near a midlife crisis), I know more about what matters.

I think the best example in life is the generation that will soon be lost. Our elderly. Every so often I go and play BINGO. I love it. I sit and listen to these ladies. And they are not afraid to tell it like it is. So why should I spend the rest of my life “playing nice”? That’s not to say that there is no room for diplomacy. But I refuse to surround myself with people who are fake. People that you have to walk on eggshells around because you might hurt their feelings. I would never set out to be rude to someone. But if asked, I am not going to sugar coat things. I never have. And no0t planning on changing either.

This leads me to think about the kind of people I want around my son. The things that I want him to pick up. Right now we are working on curbing his biting (so far he has only bit Jess and I) and hitting (he has only hit the dog or mommy and daddy). But just because he is doing these things now, that does not mean that I want to have him around other kids who do the same things while the parents stand by and do nothing.

More often than not, I am scared to death. Of doing something wrong, of messing my kid up…..

I hate being in social situations. Yep, hate it. I would much rather sit behind a computer than talk to people face to face. Unless of course we have become good friends. Then I could talk to you for hours!

Stealing, Lying and More

I’ve been slacking in a major way about writing on here. There has been a lot going on here.

Not sure what it is that makes people seem to think they need to take advantage of me, but it seems to be a pretty common thing. Although what matters is that my family loves me.

As some of you know I have been babysitting for a second income. This has been a blessing and a huge ball of stress. The kid is 10 and comes from a broken home. Dad isn’t in the picture much and mom works full time. To top it all off, he has ADHD.

I had watched this kid back in May of 2009 and thought nothing of him. He seemed nice. So when I applied for and got the job, I truly thought it wasn’t going to be a hard job.

Oh how wrong I was!

I started with lying. He was ALWAYS lying to me. Over stupid things. “no i didn’t have any homework” “yes I took my pill” Then of course the lying and sneaking got worse as it usually does. I got there one day and he had a friend over. I asked if his mom knew about it. His answer? “Well she would PROBABLY say it was okay.” But she didn’t. In fact, she doesn’t even know that he is here!

His punishment followed the typical. Grounding, the taking away of items. But none of it works. Nothing gets through to him. Oh he cries, and apologizes and then goes back to doing the same thing. He even went as far as to change his shirt one day when I caught him coming home late. What? Did you think I wouldn’t notice?

He got in trouble enough that his mother told him that he would not be getting  a puppy. This also follows me babysitting him an hour earlier. I need to point out here that up until this point I start babysitting him about 2 hours AFTER school lets out. At first I figured he was in an after school program. Nope. Just alone at home for 2 hours. Now, he is only alone for 1 hour. Back to the puppy. He said he wasn’t getting the puppy, I asked why not. He lied to me. Wouldn’t tell me why. Of course I find out, I always to. Christmas rolls around and his mother sends me a picture message. Of a new PUPPY they got. Are you kidding me lady? Your kid lies, sneaks and STEALS and you give in. Awesome.

That brings me to the stealing. First off, the lying has not gotten any better. Taking notes from my friend Kiersten, I now introduce 20 push ups every time he lies to me. Everyone and awhile I think to myself “could have swore there was a $5 in here” or “maybe I used that $10 I thought I had”. Eventually I come to the conclusion that I am slowly losing my mind.

My in laws visited this weekend. Everyone loaded up in the car and ran to Wal Mart. I got hair ties, and hair dye for my upcoming birthday. The kid’s mom had paid me for the weekend. $100. So I broke the $100 and got back $50, $20 and $10. Just threw those into my purse (usually I would have put it straight into my wallet). Anyhow, Monday rolls around. Jess and I go to the grocery store. I go to pay for our order with the $20 I KNOW is in my purse. Can’t find it. Well I figure its in my purse, but its a mom purse and I am forever losing things. So as soon as we get home I dump my purse out on the table. I have my change from the grocery trip but am missing the $20 and the $10. My husband is not stupid enough to take money and not tell me. We are on a budget and he has NO reason to steal from us. I get to thinking that maybe this isn’t the only money that is missing. So I go through the envelopes we have on the computer desk. I find $10 missing from one of them. Are you kidding me?? I just put 2 $20’s and a $10 in there on Friday.

At this point I sit down and write one of the worst emails I have ever had to write to someone. I ask the kid’s mom to ask him about it. I feel like I am losing my marbles. There is NO way I could have lost $40! She emails me back with “I swear I didn’t take it”. Now this kid has no qualms about lying to his mom. None what so ever. I can remember him saying to her “I swear I took my pill”. Yep, lying about that. Well now I am starting to wonder. Part of me wants him to have taken it. I want to know that I am not nutso. But at the same time, I don’t want him to have taken it. What a slap in the face with an F*you. I remember back to him being here on Sunday. He sat on the couch all night. Didn’t even try and get Jess and I to play a game with him. Could it really be that easy? While Jess is on the phone with his parents, I start tearing my couch apart. Cushions go flying. Nothing. So I pick it up and move it back. Got down on my hand and knees…. and…. FOUND it!! Or $35 of it.

Now I have to call him mom and tell her that I can no longer work for her. Lie to me all you want, but steal from me? Not when I have taken you into my home, done what I could to make you feel comfortable. Fixed you meals that you liked, played with you, allowed you to interact with my baby. I cried, she cried. I was hard, but I did it.

I want to feel bad about it. But I can’t. I tried so hard to educated this kid on why trust, truth and honesty were so important. It fell on deaf ears.

I am dealing with the anger, hurt and disappointment I feel. I have sat and prayed about this each day since Monday. I babysit tomorrow and Friday and then I am done. I lose the income. This hurts almost as much as the kid stealing and lying to me.

Goals for Feb

I have come to realize that I need mini goals for each month in order to keep me on track for my overall goals.

1. Work out two days a week, back to back. So if I work out on Tuesday, I need to work out on Wednesday. Eventually I want to add a day a week or so. I just need to get back into the rhythm of doing this.
2. Set a cleaning timer (thanks FLY lady!). I hope that this will help me to get what I need to get done during the day.
3. Eat breakfast. Such a small goal but important to losing weight.

A month into 2010

How many times are resolutions made and a month later, you have no idea what they were? So I thought I would recap my resolutions, and possibly revamp them just a little bit.

1. Lose baby weight (I’m sure this is a goal that many people make) by my birthday in Feb. I only have 10 pounds to go.
   * I haven’t done so well with this. In fact, I haven’t worked out much this month. Didn’t help that I have gotten sick twice now.*
2. Pay off Snap On, Les Schwab and Us Bank. Get rid of Snap On and Us Bank. *So far so good. We paid off both Snap On and Les Schwab this month*
3. Start a medical savings account, and put money into it each month, even if that is only $10. *The plan is to do this when we get our tax return back, so maybe another month or so*
4. Add $25 to Jesse’s car payment per month. Over a year this will result in an extra payment and 1/2. *We decided not to do this but to add that extra to whatever is the bill of the month*
5. Save $5 every time we get paid. I know this doesn’t sound like much, but I have a very, very hard time saving money and its a small amount but you have to start somewhere. *Again, rather than just saving $5, we are saving everything extra and what we don’t use for our day to day living*
6. Use the money from the savings each month and drop it onto a bill. *This we are doing and its why we have managed to pay off two bills already*

My mini goal for February is to work out two days in a row. If I can do two days, then maybe I can do three.

Debbie Downer

I have a dog named Todd. He is 6 years old and a border collie/ black lab mix. And I am having to find him a new home. Every so often he will snap at Jacob and I am worried that one of these days the snap will become a bite. Friday someone is coming to meet him. I hope it works out. I am very sad about this as I have had him since he was a puppy. He is SO smart and a wonderful dog. Just not as great around little people as I was hoping.  Also its not fair that he doesn’t have a nice back yard to run and play in.

Jacob and I are both sick. He has a cough, I have a cough. Its not fun at our house right now.

We’ve done pretty good at sticking to the budget. I know that next month will be better. And eventually it is just going to be second nature.

A Visit From Murphy

Murphy’s Law that is!

Used my phone today and turned around 10 mins later to use it again and it was the black screen of death! No matter what I did, it wouldn’t turn on. It wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t the only phone that I have. I’m kicking myself for selling our other phones when we upgraded.

So the money I had set aside to pay off Les Schwab went instead towards a new phone. And I sorta financed it. Because I have been with the cell phone company since 2006, I had a $100 equipment replacement line. The phone I got was $109.99 with a $50 mail in rebate. Anyhow, this will add $20 a month to our cell phone bill for the next 3 months.

Now I could have gone with the $50 phone. However I would have been coming back in two months or so and spending the money to get the phone I got. Its nothing super fancy.However it has a camera, a micro sd card and a music player, all the same things my other phone had.

Mine is White with Aqua. Its pretty!

But I do feel guilty. But I babysit this weekend. So I will have the money to pay for the Murphy visit and to pay Chapman. Ugh…

I’ve applied for a few jobs, hopefully I will get an interview soon.

Its not that I want to go back to work, I don’t. But I want to be out of debt so we can purchase our first home and start trying for number two. I want this bad enough to sacrifice for a little while, so I won’t have to sacrifice for the rest of my life.