My New Stimulus Plan

I finally got my husband to agree to let me start paying off all of our bills early! I spent most of my day yesterday planning a budget and actually writing down 3 scenarios of how we can pay off our debts early.

We have 5 financed accounts (Mortgage, signature loan, 2 cars, and a student loan that I co-signed for someone on) that we pay on in addition to regular household bills (utilities, insurance, phone, etc). Thankfully, none of this is credit card debt! But, that's a ton to be paying on! Don't get me wrong, we don't have a problem paying our bills and we most certainly have not taken on more than we can handle (even if I were to quit my 2nd job) but we both have jobs that are not so much, economy proof. So I feel that the less we are actually obligated to the better off we would be if, God forbid, something should ever happen.

The first option I came up with is to pay a couple hundred dollars in addition to the obligated amount for each account. That would permit us to pay off everything slowly at one time, with the last payment being made in June of 2011.

The second option is to pay at least $1,000 in addition to the obligated payment on 1 account until it is paid off while maintaining the regular payments on the other 4 accounts. In this scenario, 4 out of the 5 accounts would be paid by November 2010 and the 5th account paid off in 2011.

The third option is to keep putting money in a savings account until the balance in the account is high enough to pay off one of the accounts. Then, build it back up again and start over. The appeal to this is that if one of us does loose a job during the course of this, then we would have the money to live on.

We ultimately opted for option #2, as option #1 is too hard to keep up with and option #3 is not far off from what we are doing now and we have not been successful. It is too easy to build that savings account up and use the money for a new TV or a new deck, etc. I plan to continue to save 100% of my income from my second job. Being that my husband is on commission, I based his income on the smallest check I have ever seen him bring home. Anything he brings home over that amount we can either save or use as 'fun money.'

Things are going to be tight until about November of this year which is when our first bill will be paid. When that particular bill is paid off we will have an additional $250 to toward our everyday living. A lot of people would say that I should take the $250 and put it towards one of the other accounts, but I am being realistic here. We spend a lot of money! And, while I am trying to do better, I know that if we don't give ourselves some leeway this will never work. We are in this for the long haul!

Wish us luck on our little journey! If we don't make it in the exact time frame I will be okay with that. Just making headway will be good for me!

By the way, for my research I used Bankrate.com and mint.com (although mint.com required too much information and work on my part so I quickly abandoned it!). Both are great sights.

If anyone has ever done this or has used any of these methods, please let me know how it was. Or, if you have any suggestions or advice I am all ears!

Update

The past few days I have been a little anxious. We are going on vacation Sunday (Whoo hoo!) and I feel like I don't have anything done. I went to buy some clothes yesterday during lunch, but didn't really find anything. I bought a shirt, which I think I will be taking back. I have gained back so much weight and I am so disappointed in myself. Because of the weight I am self conscious in clothes again. I have consumed and enjoyed every brownie, chocolate chip cookie, Reese peanut butter cup, and any other form of chocolate that has been put in front of my face, therefore, I have only myself to blame, But, dang it has been good!

If I can't get myself back on track soon then I will quit talking and trying all together. Only because I know how annoying it is to listen to someone whine about not working out or eating too much. There is nothing to it but to do it. One day I will get back to it and in the meantime I don't want to be 'that' person. With the weather warming up maybe I will have better luck.

To visit the Vegas thing again... I am so nervous about going. I know that I am going to forget something. We don't have a direct flight, so I am worried about not making the connection for some reason and then there is the whole thing about being in a city I don't know. I think I would feel better if there was a big group of us going, which is what usually happens when I go on vacation. Not that I don't have confidence in my husband and myself to make it, but it is a bit overwhelming.

I just have to keep telling myself that if we miss our flight and get lost or something bad happens then we will be together. After all that is what this vacation is all about!

Past, Present, Future

When I was in 8th grade my English teacher made us write a time capsule letter about all the things that were going on in our lives at that time and who we were or were not friends with and anything we felt that was important. She said that in 5 years she would mail the letter to whatever specified address we thought we would be at in 5 years and the thought was that we could see that most of the things that happen in 8th grade are irrelevant and also as a funny reminder of how much you grow up (or not) during that time.

I left the 8th grade several years ago but I have thought about this letter from time to time. At the time, I gave my parents' address for Ms. Stitle to mail my time capsule letter to, but - something I would not have guessed in 8th grade - I moved out of mom and dad's house (before 5 years had past) and shortly after that the house was foreclosed on so mom and dad were not there to check the mail. Therefore, I never got my letter. Whoever lived in that house probably got a kick out of my 8th grade letter, if it ever made it!

Dove has their Real Beauty Campaign and they have done a similar project. One of their journalists has written a letter, present day, to herself when she was 14 years old. I thought I might take a stab at it. I wrote a letter to myself when I was 14 and I also wrote a letter to myself in ten years, when I am 37.

I won't post the letters here because they really are irrelevant as they were in 8th grade. The general public doesn't want to hear about my teenage insecurities or about my fears for the future! But, I challenge you to write a letter to yourself, either in present or past tense. You might be surprised at what comes out on canvas.

Blogs of Note

One of the blogs that I follow is bakerella and she was nominated in one of the categories for this year's Bloggies. I have never heard of Bloggies before, but I went to the page to vote for my dear bakerella because I love cake and she does excellent things with cake. There were several categories with nominees, so in order to make an informed decision, I spent the better part of my day (when I was supposed to be working!) checking out blogs. These are probably some of the best blogs out there for them to have been nominated. Some I liked and some, not so much. But, as you can see, over there to the right are several new blogs on my linklist. I am going to leave them there and see how many prove to be worthy on a long term basis. I must admit that for me to go through the trouble of adding them to the list, I think they are pretty awesome so it looks like I will be spending a lot of my time reading. But, reading is what I have always done so no biggie.

Voting for the Bloggies is over (I think) and they will announce the winners in March. Hopefully, Bakerella or one of the others will let us know who wins which categories. I wish everyone luck and if I never hear the winners, at least I have some new awesome-ness to follow.

Gesh, I really need to start working more while I am at work!


On another note - my running partner told me today that she is pregnant. probably won't be much running going on with her now. What did she have to go and get knocked up!? Just something else for me to use as an excuse! I am going to get my butt in gear really soon. I promise. Again.

My Turn Day

http://www.worldsuperheroregistry.com/

My mom always told me that there were angels walking around among us, but she never said anything about superheroes. According to the website, a superhero is defined as someone who wears a costume to do heroic deeds and has personal motivation, meaning they can not be a paid representative or work on behalf of any organization. I do not qualify because I never wear my costume out of the bedroom. (HA HA! OK - bad joke.)

This is a network of people that actually fight for justice and try to make the world a better place. In order to be added to the registry, you have to be a confirmed superhero either through media coverage or some sort of verification, which means that pretty much, your good deeds have to have made the news or some other notable source in order for you to make the cut. You also have to have performed your crime fighting or good deed while in costume. Personally, I have never, not once, seen a news story where a masked crusader or a dude in costume was the person that saved the day so I just have to take their word that these are real Superheroes.

This website is fun(ny) to look at and it is not really serious (I don't think!) but I think they are on to something. If you think about it maybe we should all be superheroes and try to make our world a better place.Tuesday, February 10th is My Turn Day. The premise behind it is to do a good deed or help a charity, preferably something that you have never done before, but anything will do. Or maybe it is not that big of a deal - maybe you are going to start recycling for the first time or knit socks for all your sister's kids or something.

On that day announce what you are going to do and then DO IT. I know a lot of us don't have a lot of time or resources, but most of us are in a position to do something. I know that with the economy the way it is everyone is trying to save and may not have much to spare, but I think that is even more of a reason to try to help out. Now, more than ever we can sympathize with needing some help or just needing something to feel good about for a change.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you going to try to participate and what ideas you might have. I am taking a page from Crystal Chick and I am throwing down the gauntlet - for every comment I receive about your intentions for My Turn Day, I will donate a can of food to the Food Bank (yes, they collect food all year round, not just Thanksgiving and Christmas!). So tell your friends and family and every other online buddy and get them to leave me a comment sometime between now and February 10th.

P.S. You are not required to perform your charity in costume, but if anybody makes the news or will send me a picture of you performing your good deed in a costume I will send you prize!

Upward and Onward

For the second half of the month at the dealership, I have not had a lot of sales. I have been kind of frustrated with it and was going to go in to work a couple of extra nights last week, but the wreck kind of got in the way of my regular life last week. I had to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday I just wanted to go home from my day job and go to sleep. I was not in the mood to go to work. I went in and got nothing. Ughh! I was so mad. Saturday we were so busy we could not keep up with traffic. Saturday, I got nothing. My husband, however, sold two cars on Saturday. I was so mad!!! I went home Saturday night, had a beer and ate ice cream for dinner. I was a big baby about the situation, really.

Normally, we are not too busy on Sunday so I went in with the attitude that I was going to go in and whatever happens, will happen. My husband and I even went to lunch about an hour after we got there because we just didn't want to be there. Shortly after we got back from lunch I sold a car. Whoo hoo! I took another couple of customers after that and sold another car. Whoo hoo x two!

I am back on the upward swing with my sales, it seems. On the other hand, still no workouts to really speak of. We tried out a new place to eat and it was so delicious we ate there twice over the weekend. We also ate out a couple of times in addition to this new place. As I mentioned earlier, I had beer and ice cream for one meal. Plainly, I am doing great with looking descent in Vegas in a few weeks. HA HA HA HA!

I know this has nothing to do with anything else I have written here, but let me just say that I love waking up next to my husband in the mornings. During the week when I have to get up early, I miss not being there to wake up with him. OK - enough mushy stuff. Have a good day!

So Many Thoughts...Not Near Enough Chocolate

I am living off of Ibuprofen and chocolate these days. Bad food, couch surfing and stress have been the only things on my menu this week. This was supposed to be my week to re-boot and start over. Unfortunately, instead of restarting my new lifestyle, I have restarted my original lifestyle that I followed for the first 25 years or so of my life.

I have had some bad stuff happen over the course of this week and I am stressing completely. I wonder if I were following my healthy lifestyle would I be handling these situations and conversations better. I acknowledge that running/exercising and eating healthy keeps me in better mental health as well as well as physical health. With the way things are right now I am back to wondering if my thoughts and viewpoints are those of a 'normal' person. Am I seeing things the way anybody else would? I am back to the point of questioning every move I make or every decision in front of me.

The good news is that I have not slipped back into a depression. Whoo hoo! I hope that is just a memory in my life now and not something I will ever go back to. I have also not had a drop of alcohol over all of this. I am not naive though, today is Friday and before the weekend is out I will probably have a beer or something. It will not be in direct response to me having a bad day or being depressed or upset. I find that to be a good step in the right direction.