Waiting for us at home was a polite letter from the IRS telling us we had goofed two years ago and owe them more, alot more!!! We were just going to be able to put some away for the move/down payment when this came up. I expect to be paying it until next years tax return at whihc time it will eat up the refund we have been planning to help with the before mentioned move/down payment.

Other than the interesting task of getting a 3 year old to sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent the weekend was fantastic. I love cooking over an open fire and impressed my DH a couple times with the things I made. At the end of the weekend I commented that we weren't even tempted to go out all weekend (a biggie for us) because we used a campfire. He agreed that this is a cheap way of restraining him from wanting to go out. I have also started giving him a picnic lunch and his son once a week on his lunch hour which they both love. We're going one more weekend in September and we can all hardly wait. If this is workable we may start looking for camp places instead of hotels on our way East to see the kids and grandkids.

It is frustrating to me how far we are not ahead!! Our EF had to take a break thanks to new tires (yes that is an emergency when you have to get out of town and one is flat) and a night at a hotel while we waited for the tire place to open. Oh well, at least we have it to use and it isn't on our credit cards. We are starting a ministry project that costs us about 500 to begin. That is OK we had that saved for the project and will probably enjoy doing it. What isn't ok is some charges that are on that the money wasn't put away for. We can cover it but I am not happy about it. I will be much happier when the car is paid off. Then there will be alot more play in the budget that we can use for saving for a down payment and building the EF faster. Of course if we haven't been successful in our domestic adoption we will probably opt to keep renting and try to adopt internationally. Expensive but we aren't geting any younger and need to get this done soon. The car has about 5 more payments. I am planning on doing it in 4 at worst. I suppose I should be encouraged as my DH says, 4 years ago we were into big negative numbers on our balance sheet and now they are positive, small but positive. He's right but....

In an effort to build good habits in our DS2 we are having him start a bank account. This year for his schoolwork we ar edoing a weekly community helper. We have done the usual police, fire, ambulance, lifeguard stuff and are turning to other jobs. I had planned on starting his allowance when he turns 3 (5 weeks) but since we are doing banking as a community helper decided to go a couple weeks early. Our local bank has a "JOhnny Appleseed" account that insclude a passbook, has no minimum, gives birthday cards redeemable for coupons to local stuff, and has a drawing for a prize twice a year. You get a ticket for the drawing for every deposit you make. We plan on giving him his allowance (50 cents)weekly and having him save 10 cents every week. I am past the bank every week so we can stop for him to make his deposit easily. He will also put 10 cents in the charity box. (we'll start those community helpers later this month). The other 30 cents is his to spend. I plan on "needing" to go to the dollar store every month or so so he can spend if he wants to. He has started showing an interest in money and can tell the coins apart and count pennies. I am going to see that he gets his money wiht a different coin configuration every time so we can have another lesson. I realize some of you think I am crazy and I will be told that he will never remember it. I am learning lately that they remember the bad stuff best but I am hoping to build a habit that will last him a lifetime. By the way, for those of you who do not believe in allowances, yes he does chores too. He sets the table and when he is three it will involve more than the utensils. He also helps with other things like emptying the dishwasher and collecting trash.

I spoke with a member of my family last night and my heart just ached for her. They are at the get a car or walk point and she is frustrated because they ran into the same thing 12 years ago when they bought their car. To her minimum wage isn't a challenge it is a daily way of life. I remember being there, it isn't a fun place to live. I remember being so tired of everything that you just want to give up. It was very educational and I hope I never live there again. What I remember being th emost frustrating was that we were in debt and there was no real light at the end of the tunnel. I felt like we would be in debt forever. Not that we have much now but I can at least give my kids and grandkids birthday presents that are useful to them (OK maybe they don't think they are useful but I try) without going into debt. I wanted to suggest that they try saving a car payment for a year and ride the bus but she wasn't at the listening point. Sometimes you can't even lead them to the water.

It was a long trip but worth it. I got to see my oldest sister, my niece and her family, Shamu and several rockets. We didn't do the Disney thing because I won't spend that kind of money until I am sure my kids will remember it for the rest of their lives. It is a once in alifetime thing (if then). We did go to Sea World. Tickets to this attraction are about 62 dollars per adult. We chose to pay 20 dollars instead. To do this we had to attend a free breakfast hosted by one fo the local timeshare people and let them talk to us for 90 minutes. The breakfast was so so but beat the cold cereal we had been eating in the room (it was free too) and the talk was interesting. The tour was beautiful. The savings over the 2 hours was 80 dollars. I figure that was 20 dollars per hour per each of us (plus breakfast for 3) so we made out. Because we saved the extra I felt better about spurlging on the fish (yucky looking little things) to feed the seal, rays and sharks. The next day we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We paid for the "standard" admission (31 per adult) and spent the day seeing cool stuff. DS2 learned alot so it was worth it. I never realized how big that place is. The rest of the trip included lots of walks to see neat flowers, birds, and visiting family. We ate most of our meals in th ehotel with stuff I had brought. We did spurlge aon a couple things, but were carreful to keep in our "vacation" budget so we didn't run up credit cards. All in all we did very well that way. Some of the trip will be paid for by my DH company because he had to attend a conference the first 2 1/2 days. That means to car, hotel and all his meals were covered during that time, as was his airfare. My MIL gave us the money to cover DS2 and my airfare because she found out we weren't going because I was too cheap and wanted us to go along. All in all it was a nice week but we are both TIRED!!!!

Last month I paid what I thought was the last payment to the hospital on my DH broken wrist (it only took 2 years!) I paid the usual payment because they had agreed to credit my account (should take forever to pay that one off!) with the rest. Instead I receive a check from them. Of course I got a letter complaining that I hadn't paid anything on my account that month. I called and the girl said she decided not to credit my account with the balance but that any future payments would be credited to my account instead of being sent back. I opened an emmigrant account and am awaiting the letter confirming it so I can figure out how to give ing referrals. , and apply for the "refund" through SA site. I hope I did everything right.

Not very far admittedly but every little bit helps. DH got a bonus. We put half away for our trip in the fall and I am starting an ING account in his name with part. I'll use one of our invites so we get extra money. Then when the time limit is over we can use the money for something else (like part of a car payment) In addition he got a raise. We are raising the percentage that goes into our 401 K with part of it, raising our tithe as usual (we add a percent every August) and using the rest (about 1@ percent)to pay the incredible heating bills etc we are getting! I am so thankful we were able to pay off the CC debt because the heating bills would have made even minimum payments tough. They tell me spring does happen here and even summer for a day or two but not until most places are sweltering. Oh well I'd just complain about the AC bill if we lived in a warmer place.

I was telling one of the Mom's who brings her DS to playgroup about my "car deals" and she said she was going to go after the Lowes card. She also said she got a 10 dollar card to Tractor Supply in the mail and didn't shop there. She gave it to me and we got a 50 # bag of bird seed for free. DS2 can't wait to feed the birds. We picked up stuff for the road at Aldi's which cost but not as much as stopping for food would. I sold two books at half in the last two days. I thought I was done selling books since I hadn't sold any in a couple weeks. I have to put my stuff in vacation mode before I leave.

We had to go into the next town (about 25 minutes by car)to get tennis shoes for DS2 last night so I took the ads I had gotton for car deals with us. We visited two dealerships and as a "special promotion" received two gift cards for $5.00 each. One from Lowes (going to my son in law in case supplies for his project run over) and one for Walmart (using that one for adhesive for DS2 scrapbook). We were honest and upfront with the guys, we aren't in the market but the potential (we are trying to adopt a sibling group) is there for us to need a bigger vehicle). We also found tennis shoes and sandals on sale for DS2. The cost of gas is far outweighed by the gift cards especially since we needed to go anyway. Today is DH last day of work until we get back from our trip on the 24th. I like scheduling around holidays! I also filled out a form (courtesy of my points) for a $20 gift card to Lowes (also going to son in law) becasue I signed up for some thing I can cancel and not owe on. All in all not a bad day, especially for my son in law!!!!

The worst part of being sick is how much it ends up costing us. We don't pay anything fo rthe scripts the doctor has written Thank God, there are 4 to date and will be at least 3 or 4 more today. We are paying a mint for OTC stuff that only helps mask symptoms for a bit. We are on our 5th bottle of orange liquid and only because when I saw how much we were using I stopped taking it!! We have bought three different kinds of pills and at least two or three pediatric medicines since this started 2 weeks ago. The really bad part is I am not cooking as much as I should. I give in when DH wants to go get a pizza or go out. He is trying to save me work and I appreciate it but we are killing our budget this week.
I finally took three huge bags of clothes to the goodwill of stuff he won't wear and I don't need anymore since I never expect to be a "professional" again.

I went online today and discovered that my sharebuilder bonus has been credited to my account. That is a free $50.00. I have made two purchases of stock through them and after getting my email set up the account to use the 50 next Tuesday to purchase more of the same. The catch will be remembering to reset my account back to the smaller amount every month when this transaction goes through.

This month will have a challenge. We are going on vacation with all kids and grandkids. We hope to come home with the same CC balance we left with (60.00 because we needed an IPass for tolls and didn't want to open our bank account to them) I went through DH closet and discovered all but one pair of pants are too small. (He has gained some of what he lost over the last two years) Unfortunately I can't just say well no clothes till you lose it and I can't get that size at thrift stores or goodwill so we are going clothes shopping. I was going to do a major amount of baking before we leave but decided to save the money (and calories).My sharebuilder account was added to yesterday (first Tuesday of every month) which makes me feel good. I paid the bills online yesterday which is nice and isn't. On one hand it is more accurate but on the other still seems like play money because I am not filling out checks. Oh well. Our budget has been met for another two weeks. We have meat in the freezer from our last share pick up that we didn't eat due to lent and we will have a pick up while we are gone (Thank God for nice people who have freezers, I'd hate to miss that savings) So our grocery bill will be radically down for the rest of April, which is good since our travels take us to several major shopping districts that I am not normally near. No I'm not compulsive but there are several things we do without until we get to a "big" city (real city) and then we need to stock up or do Christmas shopping, depending on what is on sale.

I think it will take until after May (at least of this year) to see some flowering in our budget. I am now paying medical bills and we just went to the doctor yesterday again. Of course that was the only doctor we had almost paid off. Someday I want to pay bills and not have any continuing charges for next month. Since we paid off the CC last month we of course have residual interest to pay off this month. On a positive note, our case study should be done in the next week or two, just waiting for recs to come back in the mail. Our plans for Pittsburgh are going well. It will cost a bit but we need a break and it will be awesome to see all the kids and grandkids at once. Not to mention the newest arrival. Now if we can just get everyone healthy. I have been thinking about the car and van payments and I really wnat to start adding to them. The money I am paying the doctors would have been nice but oh well, guess it would be more expensive if I hadn't let them work on me. (DH would be pricing child care and funerals)

I haven't been on here for awhile. I have been checking my favorite blog (Princess Perky)and the site however. I haven't blogged because nothing is new, we have colds, the case study still isn't finished and we are still broke. I did figure out how much we owe in medical bills but it is a depressing number (a large depressing number) Oh well at least there is no interest and they all are taking payments. Actually on a plus note 2 of the Doctors offices will be paid off this month. That only leaves three and the back taxes my X stuck me with to pay monthly (and the vehicles of course) My goal (not sure it is realistic but am trying) is to have everything paid off by the end of 2007 so we can look at going into the mission field. Pittsburgh is in less than 3 weeks (17 days to be exact) and I can hardly wait to hug the rest of my kids, grandkids, and meet the newest arrival. I am looking forward to seeing my sister and brother and their family also.

We changed our deductable on DH W4 and it did raise our paycheck a bit. He is hoping for a raise so we didn't get too carried away with how high we went. We have a deduction that carries over from last year so we know we will be able to at least break even wit the IRS next year. I think we will be able to pay the bills and still eat this pay period. I am so looking forward to cheaper gas bills and paying off the medical bills so there is some money in the budget. We didn't go on the yearly pay plan with the heat bill because we thought we would be moving before summer. Now we arent' but it isn't cost effective to go on until next winter whihc we expect to be ouw last winter here so we don't want to go on it then either. I need to add up all the medical bills and see exactly how much we owe and how long it will take to clear them. After our trip to Pittsburgh we will be making double car payments which will help also. There are 11 months left on the car I plan on paying it off before our trip to Washington DC.

The IRS came through! The tax refund hit the account yesterday and the CC bills are paid in full!! We also put money away for the trip to DC and the trip to PGH. All we have left are two vehicles (lots of interest) and the medical bills (no interest). I am afraid we will be adding a couple when we go to the dentist (my mouth has hurt for weeks now) but will cross that bridge when we come to it. I even remembered to hang laundry yesterday! Next project is to pay off the newer vehicle. We only save 175 if we pay off the car and it will be paid off in December anyway so we want to hit the van hard with cash. I am going to try double payments and see if we can swing it.

To all who wrote me a Happy Birthday message, Thank you. It was a neat day until my DH got sick. He stayed home from school today he was so sick. DS2 is thoroughly enjoying his recovery. He's feeling better after sleeping until 1030. Tomorrow is payday and I will be paying bills online for the first time! It is free through my bank and there is no expiration on the free thing. I like it since I was buying a book of stamps every payday! My MIL sent me a check for my birthday this year for the first time, now to figure out where it should go...

My ebay sales are about over. Just one more person needs to pay me. I found a couple other things to sell last night when I was putting things away. The half sales have been nil for a week so I don't expect much more there. I think I will put th eothers in a garage sale. (Half didn't recognize them as listable and ebay charges to list) I need to clean out the file cabinet and a couple cupboards. Again if I knew how many or what gender/age child we were getting I'd know what to put away for our first garage sale. The IRS refund is due next week. We plan on paying double payments on our van as that is the most interest we pay. The car will be paid off in 11 months but paying it off early saves only about 175.00 so we're concentrating on the van. Depending on the number of kids we adopt we may need to consider a larger vehicle and would want to pay cash for it or at least not have any other payments at the time.

Our state tax money came in, only took 5 days and one was a weekend day! WOW. I paid off two fo the credit cards with it. Only three more to go. We put 10% aside for our trip over Easter too. If we haven't had an addition to the family by then we are going to visit some extended family in Pennsylvania.

I am reading the Total Money Makeover and have decided to make some changes. I am going to stop saving for a down payment on a house. That money from what I am selling and what i already have is going to go onto a bill right now. I will keep DS2 college going though. He says we should pay off the medical bills even if there is no interest but I think we will make a payment on them and pay off the high interest stuff first. DH has agreed that we will limit how often we go out to eat to once a pay period unless one of us wants to foot the bill on our allowances. I will continue to have a sharebuilder account but it is funded out of my allowance. I am going to keep the account my down payment money was in but I will add to it only out of my allowance. We are also committed to being more careful to stay in the budget. He refuses to let me get a job (even at night while he is home with DS2) and I don't think health wise he should get a second one so that leaves us with one income. He is looking ofr another job which will raise the income and cut down on travel expenses to see grandchildren.) I am going to keep selling anything I can and look at making some crafts to seel at a show in the summer. Christmas gifts for his family will be homemade as are birthday presents. Our children and grandchildren are the only ones we are buying for. We had a visit from a caseworker yesterday and there is a chance we will be adopting a sibling group instead of a single child (WOW HURRAY!!!!) that means we need to sell the car (first we need to pay it off) and save for an inexpensive large van. So Now the challenge for us is pay off CC (with income tax money), pay off car, pay off medical bills, pay off van. Then we can think about saving for a house. Hope the IRS money comes soon!

The IRS rejected the SS number! HR Block said it takes a year for the SS to contact the IRS to update records. They thought they could solve the problem however. I sold a couple more things on ebay and a couple got paid for so the debt to us for the original deposit is down to under 104. Progress, even slow progress feels good. I am going to check and see if they cleared up the SS problem next.

My DH went to the SS office and discovered they had lost our paperwork for DS2's SS #. However due to a major communications problem (theirs not ours) we now have a SS number in his name. SOOOOOO.......
I spent a great deal of time online the other evening trying to do our taxes. I discovered that no sites, even the ones who want what I considered big money for simple taxes like ours recognized one of the forms we had to use. So I gave up and we went to HR Block. I had a coupon for 25.00 off and it still cost us 127.00. I'm delighted however. you see they "found" $1000.00 that we were told we couldn't claim. It seems we were told wrong and our refund is now much better!
In addition, I had several auctions close today and a couple of them are already paid for. I sold another book too. This means that the original 250.00 we used to start the account is almost paid back (less than 111 to go)then we get to raise the amount for a down payment,and we could get our refund back in a week. Needless to say we are delighted!
They filed our state taxes as well (was around 30 for the fee) and got us a couple more dollars there too. All in all a good return on our investment.

My ebay stuff seems to be doing well. Out of 14 items, 8 will sell. I keep getting emails form people overseas about the fire helmet and stuff. I'm surprised at how low it is going. Oh well, I'll never need a white hat again. Half finally came through with my first payment. I put it towards paying back the 250 we started the ing account with. I had hoped to "overlook" that amount but we need it elsewhere. I've sold several more books and one CD on there as well so the next payment is coming along nicely. I started my sharebuilder account also. I have purchased DS2's wardrobe for winter 2006-7 already. The sales have been great (50 to 75% off) and I've gotton a couple outfits off of ebay. I've spent less than $30 and he's completely outfitted including pants, long sleeved shirts, sweatpants and sweatshirts, long underwear, sleepers, and undershirts except for a coat and good suit (and socks and shoes) Still, I am happy with the small amount I spent to get him set. I can make him shorts for the summer (have to purchase a pattern but can get that on sale)

I placed several items on ebay , 2 ceramic dragons, a miners lamp, fire helmet, ems overbelt, intubation kit, medic bag and fire boots. So far enough has been bid to cover the placement costs at least. Gave the turnout gear to my niece for her birthday. I think that is the last of stuff I have for ebay. I did find some cd's to put on half later this week. Can't do alot right now as DS2 is still under the weather. I have 6 books to mail out tomorrow. I believe that brings the total to around 100.00 but since it isn't in the bank yet I won't count it.

I sold two more and they weren't out of the 10 I put on yesterday! I hope the deposit that they were to make yesterday appears on my statement soon so I can transfer it to my house account. We are starting a fund for his education as soon as the SS number appears in our mailbox. We are having a set amount taken out and put in every month so we don't need any start up money. We looked at all the "socially conscious" funds we could find and ended up with the Timothy fund. I'm going to put more books on now in case I have to log off and remake his bed (again) I checked some of the stuff I have to sell on ebay and found out what similiar things are running. I hope to put them on this weekend. I have to sell my turnout gear including a cairns helmet. I hope I get something close to what it is worth.

I went to the bank today and put the money from selling the furniture and the coins I had rolled in and then came home and transferred it to our ing account.
Original deposit: 250.00
They added: 25.00
Furniture: 200.00
Coins: 9.00
Total: 484.00
We're on the way to a house payment.
I found that the coins I had carefully rolled were opened and dumped into their machine so I don't have to roll coins anymore. I can get rid of the wrappers and coin holders and just go with a jar.
I put 10 more books on half today and one sold from last time. Still waiting for the SS number so we can file. I can hardly wait to pay off the CC cards. I'll still have doctor bills but at least they don't charge interest.

I wasn't sure we'd be solvent after this weekend was over! Saturday we spent lots of money. DH "needed" an expansion card for his palm, OK I realize he really did need it because his work stuff won't load without it and we did get it on sale. We picked up a couple learning things. DS2 is outgrowing everything length wise so we went to a couple thrift type stores and found some clothes and boots for him. I got really good deals on almost new stuff so it isn't as bad as it could have been. The bad part is that we ate out instead of coming home. It was fun though and I am cooking Valentines dinner at home to help make up for it. On the savings side, I opened my ing account and will get the bonus and sold a couple more books. I have 91 on there right now and at least that many waiting to go on. I also sold some of the furniture we don't want to take with us when we move to a local antique store. She's picking it up tomorrow and I will get the money then.It goes straight into out account for the down payment. I dumped change into the can as well. We're still waiting for the SS number so we can file taxes and get the CC debt paid off. I have been wracking my brain to come up with what to do for the $20 challenge and am still dry. It doesn't pay to do books except for the ones I already own and am willing to get rid of. I read some blogs today and am glad to see I am not alone in my frustration. If I could figure out a good way to do that I'd make plans to adopt a set of twins. Right now we can't afford the overseas fees. I'm also reading some things that intrigue me. People really do mystery shopper stuff and it pays? I have tried a couple fo the freebies on the list but it didn't seem to be worth while. Maybe I'll try again. now that I have an account I'll total it every time I add to it. Right now it is still at the $250.00 I started it with.

Still waiting for the SS number so we can file. i did the bills today and we are solvent still. Some months are tough. Paying off the CC will help once the tax check comes. I put 18 more books on half. I had 25 in the stack but it doesn't read all my ISBN numbers. I sold 2 more. I hope to get around 50 dollars from them when the middle of the month comes. One of my ebay listings will sell too. I contacted a local antique dealer to come look at some furniture we don't need. I'll have her appraise the piece my DD wants too so she has an idea of it's worth. DH had his interview and we will hear at the end fo the week. Don't know which way to pray! Guess we'll just trust him to work his will and go from there. I make up the grocery list for two weeks today and am not looking forward to it. We've about drained the cupboard this week in an effort to not spend or waste. Tonight I have to make dinner for a couple who had a baby at church and SH will deliver it so we will be having eggs and muffins. Used the zuccini I never remembered was there as well as some old carrots to make the muffin. They were great and saved DH and I from getting a treat at the store. Yesterday I did laundry and as I took stuff out of the dryer I kept thinking I could hang that, not that etc. Approached DH on the idea and he agreed I could but I don't think he realizes how much we could save. He is being tolerant though. We line dried a lot of stuff when we had a 4 room apartment so I don't see why I can't now. I've been turning off lights every day that I used to leave on so I hope our electric bill will go down. Found a sweatsuit (pants and top) for $2.00 per item and appliqued a ram on the front for my grandson for one of his Christmas presents. Then took a denim shirt ($7.00) and appliqued an antelope on it for his Dad for Christmas.

I'm on on a Saturday because DH is cutting down trees. I sold 3 more books on half and a set of magazines on ebay. Hurray. I am going to start a savings account (as soon as I have a minimum amount) for a down payment on a house. We hope to be in a position to buy in 2007.