Creditcardfree's Personal Finance Blog

If you or someone you know is a deployed service member with children and in the reserves or national guard of any branch, please check out this

Below are two pictures of the dollhouse we are constructing. This is just the walls and floors. We have much more to do. Tonight we went to Lowe's and spent about $17, for paint and liquid nails. The paint is for the trim that won't be very easy to spray paint. The liquid nails is to adhere the nearly 1000 shingles to the roof!! I still have yet to dye them, and I just might attempt that tonight.





Oh yes, we do have some doll furniture that seems to work very nicely. It's pretty old handed down to my girls from a friend of their grandma. Perfect since it is free!!

I converted more money from DH's Rollover IRA to a Roth. $5,650 to be exact, bringing our total conversion amount for 2010 to $18,882.

This year is the perfect year to get most of our Rollover money converted to Roth's because most of our income will be tax free because of the deployment. We have another $5K that is eligible to be converted, but I'm electing to do that in 2011.

Prior to deployment, I knew to the penny how much our paychecks were going to be. This works great for budgeting!! And I'm the type of person who likes to know these things.

Now...as deployment has begun, I find that the paychecks are a bit of a mystery. DH was paid on the 15th and I was able to see the amount a week prior, but not the details. The amount was about $850 more than normal. So what exactly is that $850 for? I won't get to see the details until later this week. And it's bugging me!!

We are expecting more funds during the deployment, but I don't yet know the particulars. I expect in another month the paycheck amounts will become stable again. This will help tremendously with my planning. And we know how I love to do that!

Right now, I'll just keep operating under the assumption that the paychecks will be at least what we are used to getting. All the extras will be a bonus!

I took the girls to see Toy Story 3 today. We all really enjoyed the movie. There were a couple of parts with Mr. Potato Head that just cracked me up!

It was pricey. We probably could have skipped the popcorn and pop that we shared since we had just eaten lunch. I will remember that for next time. I spent $19.50 just for matinee admission and another $12.75 for the snacks. Luckily, I have the money for this outing.

I used to work in a movie theater as a teen. In fact my husband worked in one as a manager and eventually ran projectors as a part time job. Up until three years ago when we moved here, we were able to see free movies for the entire time we have been together!
We love to watch movies, but I just cringe when I pay those prices!!

I've definitely done my share of sneaking in water and a snack in recent years. I'm not sure why I didn't do that today. Oh well...just a reminder to do that in the future.

How many of you regularly see first run movies in the theater?

Our van loan balanced dropped below $17,000 today when I made our regular payment of $496. With $438.82 going to principal our new balance is: $16,823.47.

Yipee!!

In other news: my mother purchased a doll house for my daughters that has to be painted and put together with glue. It's like a construction project!! It is a bit overwhelming especially when they would like it done NOW. We now have zero excuses for being bored this summer.

Finally after a couple of months of nearly zero progress on our emergency fund I was able to add $430 today.

New Balance: $1861.63

My plan going forward is to add $430 each month for the next 6 months of the year. This will push us to $4,441.63. Sometime late summer or fall we will sell our car for $2500. (This is a planned sale to our neice.) This puts us about $60 shy of our goal, but I expect with interest earnigs to meet the $7K by the end of 2010!

All of our other extra funds will go towards paying off the van loan. I'm looking forward to that!

I went on a little spending spree yesterday. We bought two pairs of capris and a pair of flip flops for my youngest at Old Navy. Spent about $25. She's been wearing last years capris...and the are just too small!

I bought a gift for MIL and a friend. Spend another $25. I also bought a cherry tomato plant as well as three knockout rose bushes that were on clearance for $5 each. Again, another $25 including the Miracle Grow that I threw in at the end. I probably don't need that stuff since mother nature has been providing lots of rain lately. Anything and everything is spouting quickly!! Now things need to dry out a bit so I can get things planted.

Payday is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting the finances in order and maybe make a little progress on the goals.

We are behind on our goals. It is a bit frustrating. I know by the end of the year we will be close to meeting them, but it is hard not to see progress. Right now, I'm seeing the most progress on the van loan simply because I'm making our regular payments!

We have plans to sell our car to a relative as soon as August for $2500. That money will go to our emergency fund goal. If I count that right now, we would have close to $4000 of the $7000 that is our goal. I would need to put about $430 towards that goal each month, for 7 months, to meet the goal by the end of the year. That is definitely possible with the cash that will be coming in from deployment.

The emergency fund goal is really our first goal, even though a part of me really wants to get going on that van loan debt. I just need to face the fact that the loan won't be paid off by the end of 2010, but early 2011.

Well, just writing it out makes me feel better. We are so blessed to be able to make such great progress on these goals in such a short period of time. I need to remember that, right?

We're going swimming today!! It's going to be near 90 degrees and crazy humid. I'm even getting in half price with a coupon from our Entertainment book. The total admission for the three of us will be $6!! I will probably splurge a bit and get a snack while we are there.

After it cools down a bit later, I HAVE to get out and mow. It's a jungle out there and we are getting rain nearly every day. And thanks to the fertilizer DH put on a couple weeks ago, it is growing crazy fast!!

I've been able to have two video phone calls with my husband via Skype. He was calling from Starbucks after having purchased himself a cold Frappuccino! Weird war.

It appears the extra pays are about to start kicking in next week when he gets paid. That's probably the only thing I really like about this deployment. Those extra funds will help us to meet some of the big goals we want to accomplish this year. I will hash out the particulars on payday and see if there really any extra to put towards those goals. It has still be a very expensive month.

How is your June working out so far?

My 13 year old daughter has her dad's cell phone for the next year while he is away. In the last two days, over 100 texts have either been sent or received now that school is out for the summer.

Late yesterday, I added an unlimited text to her phone for $10 per month. Unlimited to Verizon customers, plus 500 to others. So far the friends she is texting with are with Verizon. I was hoping to go with the $5 plan, but that was only for 250 texts, which didn't seem like enough.

Joys of a teenager with a phone!

I finally got word that my husband is in the desert where it is 120 degrees. I received an email from him letting me know he arrived safely. Thank goodness for technology!

I've been doing pretty good after having quite a few rough days before he arrived home on a pass and then a terrible time saying goodbye. Who wouldn't? I think once we get into a communication schedule, hopefully by phone or skype, I'll be much better.

One day at a time. Hmm...just like finances! Oh, and he seems to be on some sort of crazy spending spree this month having already spent $260. I hope that is it until next week, I'm having a hard time keeping up.

The girls and I planted our garden today. It is a little later than I would like to have started it, but it is in.

We planted tomatoes, bush beans, sugar snap peas, onions, a strawberry plant. The tomatoe plants seem to have come from last years tomatoes that I composted. The beans and peas were started from seeds that I actually had leftover from last year. Do you think they will grow? When I was at Home Depot yesterday they didn't have the seeds I wanted, so I decided to try the leftovers. The onions are also from leftover seeds from the year before.

The only thing I have bought new was the strawberry plant. We had one last year that spread quite a bit, but it is struggling to come back. I bought the new one to please my older daughter who loves strawberries. We'll see how many we get?!

We also have a little bit of a mystery plant. A pumpkin, squash or goard also started itself from the seeds of one we composted in the garden last year. It will be fun to see what it turns out to be! We kept two of those that sprouted. We didn't want those to take over our small 8 foot by 8 foot garden.

We are schedule to get quite a bit of rain over the next week or so. This should give our garden a good start. How many of you plant fruits or vegetables?

Two vehicles. And now only one driver for awhile. It's really hard to drive two cars, when you don't really like the other one! It is the one we are selling to my neice later this summer. She's working hard to save her money for the car.

In the meantime, I notified our insurance company that only one of us needs to be insured for now. I received a $22 credit. Obviously, an extra driver doesn't add too much to the premium! I just paid for six months in April. Once we sell the car the premium will drop much more, at least until we replace it.

I went shopping at Walmart today. I bought annual flowers to put in the pots on my porch and deck. Flowers always make me happy when I see them. I will put one near my kitchen window where I can see them while I wash dishes.

I bought 5 six packs, two accent plants and a bag of potting soil. I had a $5 gift card that I received in the mail from Walmart, because they remodeled the store. I spent $11! I figure money well spent since it will be a nice treat all summer long.

I also received a $3 payment from Pinecone Research today as well. Yipee for extra cash!

We earned a pathetic $12.11 on our money market account last month. I am adding this to the emergency fund goal.

New Balance: $1,431.63

We are paying quite a few big bills in cash this month so there likely won't be any additions to this goal in June.

I'm not focused on finances right now. Yes, the bills are getting paid. I'm just not spending much time calculating all the inflows and outflows. Or whatever.

I have said my final 'see you later' to DH yesterday. Within the next 10 days he should be in another country working. Many tears had been shed. Even the girls.

Now we wait for communication from him. This is likely to be one of the hardest parts. The not knowing where he is or when we will hear from him.

I will try to keep myself busy, but it may not be with finances. I have plenty of cleaning that could be done. A lawn to mow. A garden and flowers to plant. Things to sew. Or I may just sit and relax with a good book.

This weekend looks to be spendy. DH's home for the weekend and that means we'll be out doing more. We are going to dinner as a family tomorrow night.

Yesterday, he wanted to see Iron Man 2. Not too bad. The writing was a bit cheesey! We went to the early show while the girls were in school, and did buy popcorn and a drink. I brought my own water from home!We skipped lunch.

We also picked up a headset he can use when he calls us on Skype. Skype will be a lifesaver this deployment. And it's free!! He also needed a new cover for his Ipod.

We did take a free bike ride last night as a family and our plans are not really firmed up for the rest of the weekend. I just know the probability of spending is pretty high!

Update on the house painting: The house should be done today! I'm pretty picky, so I have had them go back and redo some areas. So far it is a great improvement. In the end, I think it will be money well spent.

With my husband away, I only filled up the gas tank once in 27 days! I didn't check how many miles that equated to, but it was between 200 and 300.

So it looks like we will be spending about $40-45 on fuel each month for the next year. That is nice!! We are probably saving around $100 each month because he isn't driving to work daily.

1) DH will be home this weekend on a 4 day pass. It's likely the last time I'll see him before they fly out. It sounds nice, right? Well, it is an emotional mixed bag. With all the training, I've had too many goodbyes this year already.

2) I was able to reduce my gym membership while DH is away from $73 to $49. They offered to reduce it while he is away. Very nice!

3) I had to start on some prescription medications, which will cost $22 per month. Makes the gym membership savings about a wash.

4) Our painters are finally prepping our house for painting. We had too much rain over the last couple weeks, so things have been delayed. Gives me more time to come up with cash!!

5) My youngest daughter is going to play flute next year in fifth grade. I will rent to own the instrument at about $35 per month. This will begin in September.

6) End of month payday arrives early on Friday! Of course, that just means that money has to last longer.

My last post was about the ebay challenge, too. However, since that post I have sold an item on ebay and one book on half.com!!

New sales = $5.72

Not big bucks, but the little amounts do add up!

2010 Ebay Challenge Totals
January: $201.89
February: $46.40
March: $55.50
April: $4.74
May: $265.99

Monthly average: $114.90

Unless I make a sale on half.com, I expect that will be the final total for May. I'm only $25.48 away from meeting my minimum for June. I think I can do it!!

I added $14.72 this week for a sale made on half.com and a sale made on ebay (that I hope to be paid for soon). The new totals are below:

2010 Ebay Challenge Totals
January: $201.89
February: $46.40
March: $55.50
April: $4.74
May: $260.27

Monthly average: $113.76

I'm still meeting my monthly goal!

I did some sewing yesterday and today. I primarily made a couple of new things. However, the other one was a used item that I repurposed into something else. I made a tote bag or reusable shopping bag out of a t shirt!

The t shirt was a Life is Good shirt that unfortunately met it's match by my cat's claws. Yep, the one in the picture. She looks so innocent, too. She just doesn't like to be picked up. The claw holes just made it unwearable.

I turned the shirt outside in and stitched up the bottom of the shirt. Turned it right side out again. I cut the sleeves and the collar off. I also trimmed the back of the shirt down to match the front collar. I now have a new tote bag...for free!!

I also used an old gift card as a scrapper earlier today. What kinds of things have you repurposed?

The dance and tumbling recital for the girls was last weekend. Today, it was time for preregistration. Yikes!

I paid in full for each of them to take a 30 minute class each week for the next school year. Only set me back $808. They waived the $90 recital fee with full payment. That is a 10% savings. And I don't have to think about money for that activity again for quite some time.

In other money news, I received my second Pinecone survey payment this week and made one small sale on half.com. I will net only $1.70 on the sale, but it is $0.70 more than if I had sold this item at the garage sale! I will add this to my ebay challenge totals at the end of the month.

Today is a mow and sew day here at my house. I'm only sharing because I really plan to do both of these things and they rhyme!

In previous posts, I've mentioned that my husband will get a twice monthly allowance of $200. This has really worked out great from my perspective. I think this is primarily because his spending is a known quantity. I also do not need to track each receipt and record each purchase. What a relief!

I mentally set aside $200 on payday. So far he has pulled the money out in cash soon after. I record that transaction when I see it. After that it is our regular bills and any spending I need to do.

Honestly, $200 is likely way more than he needs. He did spend the full amount the first payday, however. I have to ask how he stands this time, next time I talk to him. I know he cut back on cigars and stopped drinking pop. That will help financially a bit.

The really great news...he's coming home on a four day pass next week! I can't wait. Of course, the time will go entirely too fast, but we'll enjoy every minute of it.

I mentioned in my last post that I was looking to sell some books for cash. I found three that could be sold. The rest of the online companies were not buying what I had, so they are listed on half.com in hopes someone may want them.

I am selling each book to a different company! They are paying the shipping. I expect to receive a total of $6.29 in my paypal account once they are received and processed. It's not a lot, but it is something towards my ebay challenge goal. I will add it to my totals once the cash is received.

Here's are the companies I used this time:

I made a Goodwill donation today of three boxes. Yes, primarily leftover garage sale items. I did keep some things for our fall sale. Probably too many things!

I did finish sorting the books and clothes from my sister. I kept a shirt and a pair of pants. I also pulled two books to read. I will attempt to sell them at the next sale.

While sorting books yesterday, I attempted to see if any could be sold on the cash for books websites. There seemed to be two or three that I could sell. I just need to decide if it is worth my time for $3.

Yesterday was a no spend day. Today I purchased a sympathy card and a couple of stamps. Money well spent.

I put one item on ebay Sunday and it already has two bids. If it sells at its current price, I will be happy, but I expect it will go up a little bit. So...even happier!!

I received a $3 Pinecone Payment in my paypal account. I love how fast that is. There are no fees to receive the cash!!

My sister brought quite a few books to our garage sale. Some sold, but there are plenty left. I'm going to check today if any of them can be sold online for cash. I will also take them to the used book store if needed. She said I could have the money!!

My sister also had quite a few clothes that didn't sell, but are very nice. I'm going to try a few on. Maybe I'll get a new wardrobe! If they don't work for me, I will also consider putting them on ebay for some cash.

I know it may not seem like it from my posts, but I am still working on our emergency fund goal. We are getting our house painted, which wasn't originally a 2010 goal! So, right now, I'm collecting funds for that project before focusing again on the emergency fund.

I would likely have at least $1000 to add, if it were not for the painting. Ah, wouldn't that be nice to add to my sidebar? But, the house painting comes first. If they ever get started! It has been power washed, but it has been raining off and on the last week, so they haven't shown up. Maybe this week!

I think once much of the extra deployment money starts flowing in we will see more progess on our goals!! I'm looking forward to that.