Saturday, April 26, 2008

Savings Savings Everywhere

I opened 2 new savings accounts today. I'm going to do what AMBELLAMY does and have a savings account for everything I want to save money for.

I went to bankrate.com and chose my top 3 banks. I tried to open an account with iGObanking, but they denied me. That's cool because they wanted too much information. I hate when banks ask about my job. Why?

So I ended up at ING Direct because everyone says how easy it is to open an account with them. I didn't want to use them because their interest rate is on the lower end, but I'm not saving this money to keep. I'm saving it to pay bills annually or in a lump sum. So anything I earn will be great. Plus it will probably take me a while to build the balances up and with low balances the interet isn't going to have that big of an impact. I also opened an account at OnBank.

Yesterday My Heart Was Broken

I had an appointment at the home ownership organization yesterday. I wasn't exactly sure why I needed to come back, but I was sure the loan consultant knew. Last time I went I had to wait nearly an hour for him. This time I called ahead to make sure that he would be ready on time. He told me that my appointment had been given to someone else. I was annoyed. I felt like someone should have mentioned that to me. I showed up 15 minutes early and I still had to wait over 45 minutes.

I'm not a very patient person. I believe that you should respect my time the same way I respect yours. I try to arrive early and I normally do. I believe that the person I'm meeting should do their best to see me on time. I don't mind waiting up to 15 minutes after my appointment time. Anything other than that is rude and uncalled for. If you have clients in your office you need to explain to them that you have another appointment waiting and you'll need to see them again to finish their session or you need to schedule your appointments further apart.

Secondly it's always hot in their waiting room. They don't have a fan or air conditioning or even blinds to block out the sun. They don't offer you water or hand fans or anything to make it more comfortable.

Finally, you have to park at meters and the first time I got a ticket because I was late 2 minutes.

Anyway I was completely annoyed and to make it worse she didn't even have a client in her office. I believe she was eating lunch. She said she was reviewing my file. Okay, so why not review my file WITH me? Oh and BTW the guy that I saw last time only had yesterday's clients waiting 3 minutes past their appointment time. Can you believe my luck?

That wasn't the worse part. The worse part was that I was completely disillusioned about my ability to purchase a home in the near future. The last guy said he could qualify me in a couple of months if I wanted to get a multi-unit building and rent out the other units. She said that I'm no where near being able to get qualified.

My DTI is 48% because of my car and they can't count my child support until they get a copy of the court order. So my income was reduced significantly because of that. She said my DTI needs to be below 40% based on my VERIFIABLE income. My VERIFIABLE income before taxes needs to be $6000 while I'm paying off my car and $5000 after. Finally, I need to save at least $7,000 to cover closing costs, taxes, insurance, etc.

My heart was broken because that seems impossible. I immediately began thinking about all the time I've wasted taking a class here and there without completing a degree. I can lower my DTI. I can save $7,000, but how in the world am I supposed to gross $5000 a month without a college degree or any formalized training?

I don't know what I'm going to do about that. In the mean time I'm going to work on the things that I can accomplish. Maybe in the process I'll finally figure out what I want to do, get my degree and get a job where I gross $5,000.

Friday, April 25, 2008

BL @ Work Is Over

I got a note in my mailbox at work from the teacher that's running the contest. She said that it's fizzled out and that she'll return my money if I want her to. I said yes because even though I've weighed in each time, except for last week, I haven't been exercising or eating right.

I weighed myself this morning and I was down 3 lbs. from the last weigh-in, but still up from the original number.

I am still going to push myself to join 24 hour fitness. I read my horoscope somewhere and it said it's not enough for me to know what to do. I need to put it into action. Wow! That's me - 100% knowledge 0% action. LOL!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

I'm Trying to Stay On Top

Children
I've been feeling like I'm on the verge of being overwhelmed for over a month now. There is so much to do. My oldest daughter is graduating from elementary school and going to middle school. The middle schools in our district aren't very good, so I'm trying to get her into one of the local charter schools. We've been writing essays, making copies, filling out applications, attending informational meetings, etc.

On top of that her birthday is May 7th and last year when my life was simpler I promised her that she could have a slumber party with 3 of her best friends at a hotel. So, I'm also party planning. Her birthday is during the week, so we are having the party next weekend. I pre-planned most of it, but now I have to do all the shopping and I hate shopping.

The science fair is coming up and this year both of my darlings are doing projects. They are picking them out as we speak and I'm sure right after the party we will get right on that.

Work
Work has actually calmed down just enough for me to try to catch up on some of my data entry, but they keep trying to find other things for me to do. It's driving me a little nuts.

Home
Tomorrow I have another appointment with the Homebuyer's Organization. Maybe I'll actually get some concrete information about my situation this time. That reminds me that I really need to get a handle on things and get that second job before the summer. I'm thinking about applying at a bookstore, since I love to read.

Money
My sister repaid the loan I gave her. I'm happy about that. So in a few days once the check clears my EF will be back at it's proper balance.

I can't wait to get my Stimulus Rebate, so I can repay my Savings account for our Spring Break Vacation. Some of it will go toward my car note. I slacked on that a bit this month. I'm also going to put a little aside to repay my mom. I can't wait until I have it all saved up to pay her. She's not expecting it and I think she'll be so happy.

I've been buying bottled water by the case and keeping it in my car for lunch. I usually go through 2 cases a month. I've been saving the bottles because my mom recycles. She takes all her bottles and cans once or twice a year. I decided that I'm going to recycle my water bottles and put that money into my money games account.

Books
I've been listing more and more of my books on Paperbackswap.com. I have a bunch that I need to mail out right now. So far all the books that I've ordered have been in excellent condition. So I've been trying to read at least 30 minutes each evening with my little darlings. I read for a few hours on the weekends to relax. I've been going through about 2 books a week.

BL @ Work
I was supposed to weigh-in unofficially yesterday, I think, but I forgot again. I've really got to start making my health more of a priority. My head is hurting right now and I hate that because I rarely get headaches. Of course I'm sitting here typing like an idiot instead of trying to figure out what's wrong with me. I guess I better go.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

BL @ Work Week 8

I didn't weigh in this week. My youngest daughter had a fever all Tuesday night and I stayed home with her on Wednesday. I will weigh in on my scale this Wednesday, since I didn't think about it last week.

I think I've lost a few pounds. I've been eating at home more and I've been watching what I eat a little. I still haven't done any exercise, but I found an exercise buddy at work. Maybe this week I'll get around to actually taking her up on her offer to exercise and use my free 30 day 24 hour fitness pass.

I won another book!

I just finished reading one of the books I won on another blog. Yesterday I got an email that I had won another one. So far all the books I've won have been really interesting reads. I've also started using my Paperbackswap account. I've already mailed out 8 or 9 books. I've received 3 and there are 3 more on the way to me.

Once I started using the site I discovered that you can trade any book. It doesn't have to be a paperback and it doesn't have to be fiction. It's actually a really cool site and all the books I've received have been in really good condition.

Flagstar Verify Account Funds

Over a month ago Flagstar sent verification deposits to my checking and saving accounts at another bank so that I would be able to make transfers between institutions. I've had this done by other banks before and it's no big deal. They usually make the deposits and a few days later they withdraw the funds. Well Flagstar still hasn't withdrawn the funds. I mean it's only about $3 over the four accounts, but it's throwing off my balances. I keep forgetting how much is in each account and now it's been so long that I have to search for the transactions. I guess they are going to let me keep those little amounts. So maybe next month I'll allow myself to add it permanently into my balance.

Suze Orman's Save Yourself Money Market Account

I opened a Suze Orman Save Yourself account in April 2007. I'll give you a little background on the account if you haven't heard of it. In February 2007 Suze's latest book, "Women and Money" came out. In the book she gave a code that allowed her readers to open a money market account with Td Ameritrade. The deal was that you would get $100 free if, within 30 days of opening the account you set up monthly automatic deposits in the amount of $50 or more for 12 consecutive months without making any withdrawls.

Well I did it. On the same day I sent my 13th monthly automatic deposit, Td Ameritrade gave me $100!!!!

A few months ago they started offering the same deal for people who wanted to open an IRA instead. I think it was a great offer. Unfortunately the last day to open a Save Yourself Account was at the end of March. Maybe they will bring it back, or maybe they are regretting the offer now that the economy is not doing so great.

Monday, April 7, 2008

BL @ Work Update

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted my weigh-in results. It was not intentional. Thanks, Heather for reminding me.

I have only been weighing in on the officials days which are every other Wednesday. Here's the breakdown so far.

Week 2: - 2.5lbs.
Week 4: +2.0lbs.
Week 6: +6.olbs.

Overall I'm up 5.5lbs.

It's my own fault. I haven't been exercising or watching what I eat. I've been eating out a lot more again. Week 4 my Aunt Flo was visiting and that was fluid. Week 6 was the week after Spring Break and I probably did gain a couple of pounds while on vacation. I'm sure at least half of it was water retention because I had misplaced my blood pressure medication and hadn't taken it in almost a week.

We don't weigh in again until next week and I plan to get in at least a couple of days of walking. Especially since I'm supposed to go out to dinner with the ladies from my old job this week and out to dinner with my best friend next week.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Considering Book Giveaways

I went through all my books this weekend. I ended up with 39 books that I listed on Paperback Swap. There are a few more that I didn't get to. So far 7 have requests pending. That's great because for each book I send off I can get one.

I also found some PF books that I am considering giving away on this blog. It probably won't be until next month after I finish paying to ship all these Paperback Swap books.

I also have a small stack of books that I'd like to donate to the library. I owe them a ton of late fees. I wonder if they will take the books instead of cash?

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Another Free Book!

I won another book today and the author of that blog pulled my name as her blog's entry into another blog's contest. I'm sure that was quite confusing.

I was thinking today, that although most of the books are fiction I might give them away on my blog when I'm done with them. I like to collect hardcover books, but not paperbacks. Or I guess I could use them to finally put my PaperBackSwap membership to good use.