month end suckery

well, tracking spending lets you know just how much you suck at saving money.

Between two people, we managed to spend around $4,000 this month. Granted, some of that was due to people visiting 2 weekends this month. And I had expected to spend around $3500, so with that in mind it's not too terrible. However, I want to spend less than expected - not more. But at first glance it looks like some of the overall debt has gone down a little. A progress update will follow soon.

My quest for alternative streams of income is going rather well, if you take well to mean something is better than nothing. I made almost $9 today in alternative income. Now, if I could just do that every day of the month, that would pay for my groceries!

thoughts on goals for April

Alternative streams of income. That will be the focus in April. I must, must, must make more money and there is plenty of opportunity and I just need to seize it.

I also need to get my food spending under control after the super overspending I seem to have had this month. I have already decided to limit my dining out to once per week - including work, which I generally don't have a problem with but sometimes there's just nothing at home that looks good. But, to solve that I'm making lasagna on Sunday that I can take in my lunch.

I really need to looking at my spending tracking spreadsheet and see what else I need to be working on for next month. I already know I spent more on gas for the car than I budgeted for due to the out of town guests. Must get back on track!

Make more or spend less

Work is the one element in my life that is most directly related to getting out of debt. As a result, I loathe going to work because I feel like it is a form of punishment for my debts. And it feels like it is not helping me get out of debt fast enough. Yet, I am trapped working there because of my debt. No matter how much I don't like going there everyday, I feel like I have to because if I don't, the debt will only get bigger and bigger. Ah, the things we get ourselves into. And to top it off, my current job doesn't pay enough.

So, the simple answer would be - make more money or just spend less. But I'm thinking, why not both? What if I can make more AND spend less?

On the 'make more' front, I have had several job interviews this week - however the catch-22 is that to attend said job interviews meant leaving work early. Thus - money lost. Hopefully, something will pan out in that front. In the meantime, writing tripe for Associated Content seems to be paying off. I got a PayPal deposit of $36 yesterday for a handful of articles - none of which took longer than a half hour to write. It will be nice if I can not only keep that up, but increase the amount of tripe that I am writing.

And spend less? That's almost laughable, yet I still am planning on trying. Unfortunately for the checkbook, this month saw 2 weekends with out of town visitors, which equals money spent that otherwise would not have been spent.

So, for April, the overall goal is make more & spend less. Wish me luck :)

doesn't anyone like free money?

In my attempt to throw out into the world what I wish to receive, I set about my blog reading yesterday and planned on clicking on peeps AdSense ads on their blogs, as apparently some peeps clicked away on mine yesterday and it got me all excited. I was surprised to see that a fair share of the blogs I read have no ads on them whatsoever. I admit I was a bit stumped by this. I mean, people, it's free money. Yes, there's a possibility that no one will clicky-clicky or if they do it could take all year for you to reach the payout amount…but it's free money! You don't get that very often. And if you're using Blogger its oh-so-easy to add some AdSense ads to your blog. So, for the love of god, get some ads up so I can show ya some love.

my AdSense ads, m'kay

I don't know who is clicking on the AdSense ads...but thanks! and hooray!

edit edit edit edit edit edit edit? edit! edit! That puts me up to a third of the way to pay out. I can't believe I've edit edit edit edit in just a month.

So yay! And thanks for the love. edit edit edit edit edit edit edit edit edit, edit edit edit edit edit edit :)

**note- oops, all gone cause aparently it will get you banned :(

Looks like we're all in trouble

I was reading an article ( America, Maxed Out), which has a rather scary sentence in the opening paragraph...

the majority of Americans can no longer get by a single day without taking on
additional debt

Yup, that is indeed scary. The article goes on to mention that while our debt has increased over 1,000%, our income has only increased around 1%...yikes! But I was sitting in a job interview yesterday and had to give out the amounts I was making at my last three jobs...and I was shocked to see that it was the exact same amount! And yes, my debt has increased in that time span. How exactly do you get ahead with those statistics on reality?

best laid plans

So much for a food budget. Had friends from out of town visit this past weekend and the weekend before, which totally shot the ole food budget.

I'm hoping to spend as little as possible next month as I want to utilize all the things that have been sitting in my pantry forever as I keep buying new stuff.

I got two $10 Wal-Mart goft cards in the mail today from MyPoints that I plan on using for groceries. So, that will put a $20 dent in the April grocery spending.

I was reading on another site about keeping a price book for groceries, but I wonder if there is already a site out there that has this information? Anyone reading know of a free site like this?

College says 'no' to student loans

Not knowing any better, I amassed a sizeable chunk of student loan debt during my undergrad years. When I started my master's program, I had (thankfully) learned my lesson and paid for it outright. I wish someone had told me early on about debt, etc like a school in North Carolina that's decided it doesn't want it's students to graduate with debt.

Instead of letting their students go into super debt, they are raising $90 million to offer up as grants for the students. This is amazing. Hopefully it won't prove to be too much of a burden for the school and others will follow suit.

Cash-only spending plan?

My goal is to pay off all my debt and not use credit cards. I know I'll need one for things like airline tickets, but I want to only keep one card and only use it for things like that. Ideally, I'd love to be able to pay cash for everything.

A new article in this week's Dollar Stretcher is about just that! It gives 10 reasons why you should be on a cash-only spending plan. I think the only thing they could have added to it is that when you are spending cash, you are WAY more conscious of where your money is going. Even just tracking my spending and trying not to use the credit cards makes me conscious of where the money is going.

I'm not worthy

MoneyDummy has a great post up about the most AMAZING grocery deal I've ever seen.

If you haven't seen it, all of this was bought using $3 and some coupons:

Two Purell hand sanitizers
Two travel-sized Purell hand sanitizers
Four packages of Hormell delit-style lunch meat
2 Fresh Express salad blends
2 cans of clam chowder
1 package of smoked chicken breast
1 bottle of Newman’s own salad dressing.

Wow. I wish I could score a deal like that.

Good news - a little extra money

I have started the week out $25 richer thanks to a few short articles that I sent to Associated Content last week. (and the penny I found in the lunch room today at work) Yes, the amount the pay per article is kind of insulting when you think about it, however, it's $25 more than I had yesterday. Plus, the articles were something I had already written when I was working on a book idea that I scrapped, so no big. And they pay pretty quick by PayPal too. So, if anyone out there has a little bit of a writer in them...click on my supa cool link and both of us can make extra cash.



I've also got some auctions up on eBay that are going to end with some bids. I love getting rid of stuff on eBay, but boy do I hate eBay itself. Last week (or the one before that?), I sold an old laptop on eBay, the winner paid via PayPal and wanted me to ship to Brazil, even though the PayPal addy was in Florida. So, I told him that I could only ship to the confirmed address, he sends me $147 more to ship it to South America. Of course, I knew this was a scammer and refunded his money, contacted eBay and then sold the laptop to the second highest bidder.

Would you believe that eBay has charged me the final auction fee for BOTH of the laptop transactions?!? They own PayPal, so clearly they can see that the money was refunded. Nevermind the fact that I emailed them about this person. And now his feedback says that he scammed another person that actually sent the item just to have the payment reversed via chargeback. Today, I get an email from eBay that they contacted the fraud guy and he says he paid so I cannot get a refund for the final fee. Unbelievable.

So, hooray for the $25 from Associated Content because I need it to take care of the $17 that eBay owes me.

Coupon frustrations, argh

One of my fave restaurants recently raised their prices to a point where it's not worth it to me to dine there unless I have a coupon. So, I went there today for lunch with a lunch coupon that doesn't expire until the end of April. I used a coupon just like this 2 weeks ago, on a Saturday.

Today, my server tells me that I can't use it as it has to be used on items from the lunch menu, which is onl available for a small window Monday-Friday. Of course, the coupon doesn't say this. And I used the same coupon 2 Saturdays ago.

Talk about frustrating. Experiences like this make me not want to dine out at all.

I suppose I could have asked to see the manager, but it just wasn't worth it as the server had already made us wait 20 minutes just for our bill. I really didn't want to wait another 20 for the manager. And there are some places where you know that it would be a wasted attempt, and this is one of those places. *sigh*

starting a business

Over at I Will Teach You to Be Rich there is a great post that's an interview with a woman that quit her job and started a vineyard. As someone that wants to start a business in the near future, I found it to be a good read that touched on something that I think you don't hear very often in talks about entrepreneurship.

The hardest thing about pursuing a dream is that it isn’t convenient.

Simple, yet so true.

I've actually been jotting down business ideas over the past few weeks myself. I definitely plan on trying to make something happen this year, it's just a matter of what not when.

The spreadsheet of doom

Budgeting is tough work.

It's true.

As of now I only have a rough budget, since this is my first month tracking my spending. Thankfully I've been really good about remembering to write down what I spend, and sometimes just the thought of having to add something to what I lovingly call "The Spreadsheet of Doom" will be enough to make me not spend any money.

But it's hard to try to fit into the parameters I want to give myself. For instance, I would like to spend no more than $300 a month (for 2 people) on groceries and dining out. After a trip to the store tonight, that only leaves $17 for the rest of the month. Oy vey. So, maybe I'll do better next month?

It's also frustrating when you do not have the amount of money coming in that you want/need. While it is frustrating, I am optimistic that something will come through that is a good fit for me both personally and financially.

And until then, I'll keep plugging away at The Spreadsheet of Doom.

eBay $0.20 auction listing fees today only!

For those of you looking to up your savings/debt snowball, eBay is having a promo today where are listing fees for auctions are only $0.20!

And now, off to post some auctions myself...

extra money update

Sold something on ebay, which earned me $19.22 after all their fees, which is a small amount but every little bit helps.

Job update - started new job this week, but it doesn't pay all the bills. Basically, I just took it until I find one that does pay the bills. Meanwhile, I'm also looking for a nights/weekends job so that I can really attack this debt stuff hardcore. So not fun, but I'm telling myself that it will all be worth it when I don't have to have a job that pays a certain amount just to cover bills.

Grocery shopping, argh

The one area of my budget that I always seem to have problems with is the grocery part. I seem to have no problem lowering the electric, gas or water bills, but try as I might I just can't curb the grocery spending.

I make sure I don't shop when I'm hungry. I read the sale papers. I plan my meals. I use coupons.

I'll have a few trips where I don't devitate from the list, use loads of coupons and score some schweet deals. Then I'll have trips where I end up with 2 bags of stuff that cost over $40!

It's rather frustrating.

I think I need to be better about using what is in the pantry and just going to the store for things like milk & fruit regularly. I say this because my pantry is stocked and I went to the store tonight because I needed milk and bread and ended up spending $35. So, that's it. I need to make better use of things that I already have. Maybe that should be a goal for next month?

An end to no-downpayment lending

My brother bought a $225,000 house last year with no money down. He works in a cell phone store and his wife gets fired from jobs regularly.

It is no surprise that he has had to take on roommates to be able to cover his mortage payment.

Many people tried to tell him he was making a huge mistake when he was getting the house with no downpayment, but he would not listen.

Apparently, he's not the only sucker. In fact, so many people have defaulted on this sort of loan that Countrywide has stopped giving people these ludicrous no-downpayment home loans.

No doubt there will be loads of people mad because they can't get a loan with payments that they cannot afford. Now, if only these evil credit card companies can be taken care of.

Feng shui to improve your cash flow?

Why not!?! A new article up at Bankrate points out that feng shui can, and is, being utilized to improve cash flow.

The woman profiled in the article mentioned that she has a corner of her office "energized" via feng shui for money, abundance and power.

"Whenever I need a check to come in, I talk to Lakshmi and light candles for
intention," she says. "If I light a candle and say I need a check to come in
today, it usually will show up that day."

So, this almost seems kind of like she is throwing her needs/wants out into the universe and waiting for it to come to her. Reading this article actually made me think of the million dollar experiment that I read about on Steve Pavlina's blog, which I think he called something along the lines of 'intention manifestation' or something the other.

One of the more interesting things I noticed in the article was the mention of Donald Trump utilizing feng shui. I mean, if it works for a gazillionaire like Trump....

Making money through deception?

In reading the archived posts over at the Unusual Business Ideas That Work blog, I came across a post regarding a guy making mad cash by passing himself off as a screenwriting expert. Living with someone that into screenwriting, I was a bit surprised that I didn't recognize the name Skip Press.

So, I consulted Google....and found a link that appears to be reviews of his books, which basically say he's been defrauding people of their cash for books that are not accurate.

It's sad really. That someone would trick people out of their money by just declaring themself an expert. And the rest of us? Ah, we just go work mind-numbing jobs. :)

I've been reading a lot lately about how people have started their own businesses and no longer have "real jobs." I've been trying so hard to think of what it is that I know enough about that could be utilized in a business. The conclusion for me is, do I really know any more about this or that than anyone else? Clearly it doesn't matter, take Mr. Skip Press for example. People pay for his services. That's a bit disheartening. What if when I realize what it is that I can do, I find that some fraud has already claimed that little piece of the pie? Wanting to do more with your life than work the same 9-to-5 job is quite the chore. Kudos to everyone that's trying to make something happen.

***update*** A search on Amazon for Skip Press also shows him as the author of a modeling book.

Money and jobs

Luckily I scored a job from my interviews this week. Not so luckily it pays about half as much as I want/need/am worth. However, I am taking it since I currently do not have a job since I just moved. I'm looking at it as providing me with some sense of security while allowing me to be picky when searching for THE job. Thankfully it is a job where there is supposed to be a lot of overtime available. So, that will help a bit. I think I will also look for another night job for a while as well. I'll just have to see how the OT is, as it would be more worth my while to get massive amounts of time & a half.

Without any overtime or another job, working 40 hours a week gets me a little over $2000/month after taxes, but my bills excede that by about $1300/month. I just got my MBA, so I'm really looking for something that pays well. I've also had some business ideas that I plan on working on, but that takes time. and capital. However, most of the ideas I've had are low start-up costs. The way I figure it, if you throw enough at the wall, something has gotta stick. My other half responded to this thought with the point that shit also sticks to walls. Oy.

In other mon-ay news, I've also made some more sales on eBay, which brings my net total to about $530.

Ford giving bonuses to employees

I have a small amount of money in a Sharebuilder account that I opened a few years ago. I have my money split between a few different stocks, one being Ford. That stock has taken quite the beating of late so I was a bit surprised to read that Ford is giving all employees a bonus despite their financial problems.

Now, on one hand the MBA grad part of me thinks - kudos to them for trying to boost morale among the employees. Of course, when one gives a bonus like this it sets up an expectation. I think this was a bad move on Ford's part because now when they rebound from this dark hour their employees will expect larger bonuses for weathering the storm.

The stockhold part of me thinks - whoa, wait a minute here. I've been losing money, albeit a small amount due to my small investment, but lost money is lost money. Where is my morale booster? I'm the one that invested in the company.

Credit card companies say "I'm sorry"

I found an interesting article in the Washington Post where credit card companies are having to testify in Congress about their sneaky tactics. Apparently there was a many months long investigation regarding this stuff, with the following conclusion:

"Clearly, some companies have stepped over the line," the subcommittee's ranking
Republican, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota

Uh, it took an investigation to come to this conclusion. Must be nice to not have to worry about having to use credit cards for this or that like most people. :)

The article did mention that Citibank has said they will do away with the wicked "universal default" clause...too bad none of my cards are Citibank ones.

When will you be debt free?

Found a nifty little debt payoff calculator over at CNNMoney.com, and by nifty I mean scary.
By no means do I plan to pay only the minimum on my credit cards, but I put in my credit card debt and asked it to show me the info on if I only paid the minimum and here's what it told me:

Your plan summary
• By making minimum payments only, it will take you 68 years and 7 months to pay off your credit cards.
• Based on your current combined balance of $27,578.52, you will pay a total of $56,597.06 in interest.

Yikes. Next I asked it to tell me how much I'd have to pay a month to pay the credit cards off in 2.5 years. The answer - $1077. Currently I pay out about $630 in minimum payments. Ah, lots of work to be done.

Grocery bills and your budget

An article on MSN about how to lower your expeditures at the grocery store says that the average US household spends 13% of their budget at the grocery store. Story here. I've only just started my spending tracking this month, so I am anxious to see what the breakdown is for me.

We have people coming into town to visit over 2 different weekends this month, so the challenge in my budget will be not overspending in the 'dining out' category as they will be staying with us when they are in town. We're trying to be really good now, knowing we will be dining out with 2 different groups of people soon.

If anyone has any Kroger grocery store in their area, tomorrow is the last day for the 'all coupons under $2.00 will be doubled' promotion.

ebay - we have a love/hate relationship

In an effort to de-clutter my life and make some cash I've posted some things on eBay. I love eBay in the respect that it is an easy way for me to unload my crap and it's also a great way to find cds of non-American artists (like Laura Pausini). But I hate, hate, hate the actually selling part of selling stuff on eBay. It never fails, when I put something (like a jacket) on eBay with a starting price of $0.99 that I get a gazillion emails from people wanting me to measure this and that for them. Um, hello, $0.99. Oy vey. Don't get me wrong, I understand not wanting to spend money on something that won't fit, but if the auction says that the item is still in stores then get thee to the store and try it on in the size offered.

In other news, I am up about $475 from my eBay sales. All from selling an old laptop. I plan on banking it for living expenses until I find a job. If I can land a job soon, then I can put it towards my highest interest rate card, woo hoo!

A step forward, then a stumble back

Yesterday I took some of my tax refund and paid off my smallest credit card balance. I plan on banking the rest to live on until I find a job. Thankfully, that should not be too long as I got 2 calls today for interviews.

Sadly, I also got some of those hospital bills in the mail today. One is $71, one is $135, one is $404 and the other is $897. There should be a few more coming in at around $300 total also.

Upromise pays you in cash?

Holy crap, I just read over at Consumerism Commentary that you can get UPromise to send you a check for your balance instead of transferring to a student loan or putting it into a college savings program. This is great as my student loans are my lowest interest rate items so I could really use that balance to pay down the higher rate items!

sometimes you just have to spend money

Ah, as much as I'd like to live off water and Ramen noodles and never spend money on anything...sometimes you just have to spend money.

I recently moved and needed to get either a mattress to sleep on or a futon/sofa sleeper. I did some research online which told me that the sofa sleeper was pretty much outta the picture as it would be too costly. After a lot of looking around the cheapest COMFORTABLE futon I found was $199 for the mattress and $99 for the cheapest frame. Then I began the hunt for a full-size mattress. I started at Sam's where it was around $180. Furniture stores averaged about $225 for the cheapest and Sears/JCPenney were around $169. I don't have a vehicle that could transport a mattress which means paying for delivery or paying to rent a truck. Cost of delivery from retail stores = $60. Cost of renting truck = $19.99 + mileage.

So, I resigned myself to the sad fact that I would get a mattress instead of a couch-like item, but it was going to save me $$ so it was cool. Before placing the order at Sears I decided to pop in a Big Lots and see if they carried mattresses, as I knew they carried furniture. Voila, a mattress for $159. Cost of shipping = $60. Argh. A quick check online and I was off to buy the mattress at Big Lots for a 20% discount. Thank you SlickDeals.

Cost of mattress after tax = $136.63
Cost of rental truck after mileage/tax = $29.64
Total cost of mattress = $166.27
Booyah.

Debt Roundup #1

When I looked up my credit card and car loan debt a few days ago and discovered that it was under $50,000 for 2 people I thought it wasn't too bad. Then I looked up the student loan info. Two undergrad degrees + one MBA = hella debt. So, it's worse than I thought, but not impossible. It just might take a bit longer than I'd hoped.

Current total debt:

• Car loan = $12,897.43
• Credit cards = $30,466.74
• Student loans = $154,346.77
• Total debt = $197,710.94

Actually, I know that there are some recent hospital bills, of which I will have to pay 20%, so this total is almost accurate. I suspect I'll get those bills in the mail by the end of the month and be able to update accordingly.

According to my calculations, I am currently paying out about $1865/month in minimum payments. Ouch. That needs to stop. My highest interest rate is a Chase card that just got raised to 29.99%, current balance is $2973.

In other news, I submitted an idea for a t-shirt I had to T-shirtHell.com and if they pick it up and sell at least 10 shirts I get $200, which would pay off my lowest balance credit card ($154.64).

Plan of attack - pay off the lowest balance first to free up an extra $15/month to apply towards the highest interest rate debt. Then focus on getting it paid off.

inspiration

I''ve been reading Zero dollars, a little talent and thirty days, which was left as a link for me in a comment.

It's quite a fascinating read. And inspiring. I'd heard of Cafe Press before but never really considered utilizing it. I admit I was turned off my the low amount of profit you'd make if you priced items competitively. What I'd failed to realize was that the profit amount was low because there was no risk on my end. Yes, that's right I have nothing to lose by opening up a Cafe Press store. I need to get to work!

profitable business idea - tshirts?

I've been toying with some possible business ideas and found some interesting info about t-shirts. One of my fave t-shirt sites is TShirtHell.com and apparently it is the most visited t-shirt site on the web. The guy who runs it is a millionaire and apparently that took less than 3 years. I'm not sure exactly how long that took. He started it in October 2001 with 10 designs and press from October of 2004 referred to him as a millionaire, so it happened somewhere along the way.

I also found some info on BustedTees.com, which I had never heard of. Seems Urban Outfitters has bought some of their designs in the past. They started in March 2004 and in an article from July 2005 they said they had sold 100,000 shirts online with a profit of $11 each and 75,000 shirts through retailers for a profit of $2 each. Wow. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Getting things in order

As depressing as it might be, I've begun gathering up totals for my debt. Not counting student loans, here's what I'm looking at so far:

• Car loan balance = $12,888.56
• Total credit card balances = $30,356.85

Ouch. That's a total of $43,245.41...without student loans! Curse those credit card tables at college. And those credit card applications that fell out of every freaking overpriced textbook I had to buy.

Next step, add up all the student loan debt, look at interest rates for all bills individually as well as minimum payments. Then - devise a plan. Oh, a find a new job.

blog reviews - get paid

For those of you that have substantially more blog traffic than me, check out ReviewMe where you can get paid to review stuff on your blog! Also, PayPerPost is another I've found.

Good luck!

starting the overhaul

The whole process of getting out of debt is related to a desire to lead healthier lifestyle. With that in mind, it only makes sense that to generate a healthy financial well being, you must also generate a healthy physical well being. So, I signed up for the free gym membership offered by my apartment complex and am on my way to being healthier in all areas of life!

Someone else's success story

Just found a great blog post about how someone paid off their debt in 26 months!

Post at Change Can Be a Good Thing

Quest goals for March

Here's a list of the things I hope to accomplish in March, in no particular order:

• Find a job for now so that I will have some money coming in
• Come up with some business ideas
• Have at least one business idea that I can work on
• Make some money online via things like AdSense
• Sell stuff I don't need on eBay
• Stop buying stuff I don't need
• Minimize dining out and only order water to drink when I do
• Try to pay off at least one credit card

See how much money I need to make to live each month

Selling stuff on eBay will be no problem as I have stuff I need to get rid of. Finding a job for now shouldn't be too difficult. It probably won't be an MBA job but just a crappy $15/hr type of job, but that will suffice....for now. However, having to take a job to pay bills will reduce the amount of time I can spend working on the quest. Rock, meet hard place. I should also mention that I do not live alone, so I'll be supporting two people. My other half is a writer and could conceivably make some cash but no guarantees there. Yes, yes, I know she could get a job, but I promised her I would give her a year to focus on her writing because if she can sell something the quest will get to play giant leap frog on the cash front. She also shot an independent film last year that she is editing now and good things could come from that. But for now, no cash from that avenue, just from me.

Next step - figuring out how much I owe, and how much I have to pay out for living expenses, etc. each month.