May Wrap-Up & June Goals

May Wrap-Up

I'm disappointed with May's progress. I received my Stimulus Rebate and yes I put mostly all of it in my savings account, but it was to replace money that I had previously spent. Therefore I didn't use it to boost my savings. I used it to bail myself out. I barely put any of my excess funds toward debt repayment. I can't say that Mother's Day or my eldest daughter's birthday were the reasons for my lack of progress. I spent a lot of money eating out in May. That's senseless because I had $44 left in my grocery budget. I'm seriously going to start sinking if I don't get my act together. So in June I'm going to try something different. I'm going to post my June Goals here and hopefully at the end of June I'll have accomplished them all.

June Goals

1. Do not charge more than $100 on my credit card.
2. Save at least $28 in my money games.
3. Replace the $79.13 that I owe my Christmas Fund.
4. Save at least $49.39 toward repaying my mom for my previous car.
5. Save at least $6.87 in my ING account.
6. Pay at least $150 extra on my car note.
7. Don't go over budget on my youngest daughter's birthday.
8. Lose 8 pounds!
9. Take a lunch at least 2 days each week.

Wish me luck!

Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate

I got my rebate on Friday, the same day that I got paid. It was awesome to see so much money in my checking accounts.

I spent all of it except for $60 on debt or savings. I'm so proud of myself. Last year I would blown the whole thing on clothes, electronics, food, hotels, etc. and I wouldn't have anything to show for it in 6 months. Hopefully in 6 months I'll have some decent interest to show for my discipline this year.

$5 Obsession!

I'm realizing I have a new $5 obsession. LOL! Well, not really, but lately I've been doing a couple of things in fives and it seems to be working.

Even though I have a list of things to try for my Money Games each month. I usually end up saving the new five dollar bills. They are so pretty!

This past week I decided to spend no more than $5/day. It's been going really well. I usually spend it on lunch because I haven't been to the market. This entire week I spent less than the $5 and I put the excess in my money games each night.

I'm going to the market this weekend, so next week I shouldn't spend much at all. I just remembered that I'll be proctoring for the next 2 weeks at school again. They have breakfast bars, fruit, chips and water for us. That means I don't have to buy some of those things when I go to the market. I'm going to buy a couple just in case they run out at work and don't replace it. It'll save me lunch money, grocery money and gas since I won't drive to the food place or home. I'll go up to my office instead. This will also help me in the BL @ Work contest. Yay!

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.

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.

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.

March Wrap-Up

Part-time Gig

Nothing manifested. My old job never got back to me about working 2 hours in the afterschool program and I'm not one to push. My brother still hasn't brought the information on this real estate thing he wants to do. I've already reminded him, but I think he has a lot on his plate right now.

Bank Accounts

I finally got all my automatic deposits and withdrawls re-routed to my WAMU account and I closed my PICU accounts. The fees were killing me and the branch is too far from home. It was perfect when I worked around the corner, but lately it's been more of a burden to maintain those accounts.

I need to call Flagstar because everytime I log in to check on my CD the APY is different. Of course it's lower because of the economy, but it should lock in the day I open the account and remain the same until the account matures. The rate was 3.86% the day I opened the account and now they are showing it as 3.51%.

Spring Break

Today is the last day of our Spring Break. The girls and I spent four days and three nights at a hotel. I took $450 from my Birthday fund to pay for it and $100 from my checking padding and I put another $100 on my credit card. I booked the rooms on Priceline so they were about $75/night. The food is what killed me. I need to budget for it next time. I also need to set limits on how much we can spend on each meal. My plan is to pay back this money from my Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate.

Money Games

I used some of last month's $49 to pay my $30 fee for the homebuyers program I joined. This month I didn't do as good. I only saved $28. Honestly I look at any savings as a victory, considering my not too distant past.

Mom Car Loan

I finally came up with a plan to pay my mom back for my previous car. Instead of putting all my extra money into paying off my current car, I'm going to put a little aside for her. I'm only going to put either a full months car payment of $308.68 or a half months car payment of $154.34 toward my car. Anything over those increments is going to repay my mom. I know it sounds confusing. Let's say I have $360 for debt repayment. I'll put $308.68 toward my current car and the remaining $51.32 toward my mom. If I have $500 then I'll put $463.02 toward my car (1.5 months) and the remaining $36.98 toward repaying my mom.

Just A Thought

I was thinking yesterday about how I am repaying my auto loan. I don't know if I'm going to do this, but here's the plan. As I posted previously, my next car payment is not due until June. I have $829.68 budgetted to pay each month. Instead of sending those payments in April and May I would like to send just the interest that I'm being charged during those months. I would like to put the rest of the money into my savings account and let it earn a few cents of interest. Then in June I would send all the money I had budgetted from April, May and June which would be the equivalent of 8 months of payments. So the next time I could save the money and earn 8 months worth of interest.

Flagstar Bank

I opened my first CD today. Well I did it on Sunday, but the money transferred yesterday and the account is official today. It's a 6 month CD and the rate is 3.86%, the APY is 3.91%. I put $500 of my Christmas fund in it so it could earn a little more interest and be a little further out of my reach. I haven't touched it so far, but it's better not to temp myself.

I also opened a money market account with them because they had a phenomenol rate of 4.18% with an APY of 4.25%. I used the other $100 in my Christmas Fund for this. Their MMA has free checks for life and it comes with a Visa debit card. I think that's awesome because I don't have either of those with my Save Yourself Account and the interest rate is much lower on the SYA account.

Yay for me!

E*Trade Holding Strong

E*Trade is holding strong with a rate of 4.02%. I'm so glad that I have them. I'm sure that soon enough they will be below 4%, but at least they have held on for a few weeks longer than the other institutions.

Now I'm looking into CDs. At least I'd like to put my Christmas fund in one for 6-9 months. It looks like I can get the best rate on 6 months. That works for me.

I would really like to open a few CDs and have one maturing each month. I would keep rolling them over, but if something came up then I could pull the money out without a penalty. That's not possible right now since I still don't have a part-time job. I'm thinking in the worst case scenario I should have one before summer. That's only a couple of months away. I would really like to increase my EF to $2,000 this year and eventually begin a long-term EF that will have $20,000.