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I just added about 20 books to my account to get rid of over at Paper Back Swap (click the link to see the books I have listed).  I’m eager to get rid of the clutter and I know I won’t get much for them on Ebay, so I figured I could get some credits so when I get the urge for a new book, I can just redeem a credit on the site instead of paying upwards of $10 for it in the stores.  Seeing as I currently have 54 books on my bookshelf that I still need to read…I won’t be in the market for new books anytime soon.  That still doesn’t stop me from getting them though…how do you think I accumulated 54 books that are unread?

So…it’s not exactly MONEY related, but it’s still an effort to clear the clutter in our home office (which is the MOST cluttered room of the apartment because it’s the catch-all area) and makes me feel better knowing that I will be getting (essentially) free books down the road for listing my used ones now.

Well, I went ahead and redeemed my 3,500 points through MyPoints for a $25 Applebee’s gift certificate.  I figured we could use it to counter balance our “dining out” category in the budget, since we never seem to be able to control that aspect of the budget.  And it’s never MEALS out.  It’s always a quick bite here, or coffee there.  That stuff adds up.  If we go to Applebee’s Sunday through Thursday, we can get 1/2 off on there appetizers, which means we can both eat for under $10 total.  Have you seen their nacho platter?  That baby is HUGE and for around $4, it fills us both up.  Add a cheap beer for hubby and a soda for myself and you’ve got a meal.

Also? I love the new budgeting spreadsheet I got.  It’s EXACTLY what I wanted. It lets me track my daily spending, and it automatically carries those amounts for each category over into the master budget so I can compare how I’m doing at any point during the month.  Good stuff.

I’m just needing the motivation to not overspend this month, because we’re already budgeted to spend more than we bring in for the month.  And we have traveling to see family for the holidays coming up and I just hope I can curb my urge to shop and spend money.  Like last night, we spent $40 on a tiny Christmas tree and some decorations and stuff.  We didn’t need this stuff.  We could’ve gone without decorating for Christmas.  But my goodness how it makes the atmosphere in the apartment so much more appealing.

*sigh*

I just have two things to say before I sit down and really hash out a budget we can stick to.  I’ve tried and failed too many times to count, so I’m going to put some effort and energy into this.

1. I just purchased a great looking budgeting tool (basically an excel file with graphs and daily/weekly/monthly budgeting) for $9.95.  I looked around for a long time and it appears to be what I’m wanting.  Let’s hope it serves its purpose.
2. I have a job interview tomorrow for a full time medical receptionist position.  It’s a Monday through Friday position starting at $10/hour (which is $2.60 more than I’m making now).  I really think this is a job I could love.  And it might even qualify for my spring internship that I need to get my Associate’s Degree in Human Services.  So please…cross your fingers.  I need this, badly.  I didn’t even apply for the position…the lady found my resume on a job bank and sought ME out.  She sounded interested on the phone and was impressed with my background working as a pharmacy technician for a few years (knowledge of some of the privacy practices and whatnot associated with the medical field).

Ok. Off to master a budget.  I hope.

Logged into hubby’s credit card account online and decided to redeem some of our points for a $25 Burger King gift card, which will help for a week or two on his lunches.  He drives all day for work (he’s a computer tech that works on a ton of retail and financial accounts throughout our county) and so it’s not always feasible for him to come home and eat lunch (although he tries when he’s in the area).  So the gift card will help out a bit in that respect.

I have almost 4,000 points to redeem at MyPoints, but I’m hesitating because I don’t know if I want to wait until I have enough for a $50 gift card or just redeem now for a $25 gift card.  If I redeem by the end of the month I get a free $15 FTD gift card, so I’m thinking I should just go ahead and redeem now.  Then there’s the problem of deciding what gift card I want to redeem my points for!  Last time I did Walgreen’s and Game Stop (for a Christmas gift).  Maybe an amazon gift card would be nice. Or a gas card, although that would only fill up the car once.  I don’t know…

Good news is that the Emergency Unemployment Compensation extension went through.  Ok, so it’s the SECOND extension, but still.  You can read about it here if you’re not familiar.  Basically, I’m eligible because I’m currently UNDERemployed (meaning I’m able and willing to work full-time but can only find part-time low paying employment).  So while I’m still actively seeking full time work (put in 6 job apps this week), I will at least be able to pay my bills.  This extension will be automatic as long as I’m still underemployed when the first extension runs out (the first week in January) and will grant me an additional 13 weeks of compensation.  This will put me through April 1st, 2009.  What a relief, although I hate depending on this type of assistance.  I truly do.  Michigan is a bad place to be looking for jobs right now, let me tell you…

In an effort to still try and decrease our bills and such, I am dropping our Netflix plan down from the $16.99/month to the $8.99/month.  This will still give us access to the live streaming online and through our XBox 360 (which is really convenient!).  Plus we can get free rentals through Redbox on Monday nights, and Family Video has really cheap rentals and great deals all the time if we feel the need.  So even though it’s only saving us $8/month…it’s still SOMETHING.

I’m hoping with the new month, it will bring a newfound sense of control over my finances despite the obstacles in our way.  Let’s hope my optimism stays strong throughout the month, huh?

I was able to sell some stuff on ebay for $290.  After giving a portion to a friend (part of the auction was something he added), the PayPal fees, and paying for shipping and handling on the item, I’m able to send the remaining $253 to credit cards!  I also have 5 other auctions pending on Ebay at the moment (nothing too impressive, but it should rake in a few bucks).  And I will be listing another larger auction this weekend that SHOULD rake in quite a bit of income if all goes as planned!

Also, just cancelled out an older cell phone that I had kept active because it would’ve cost more to close it last year when I switched services (due to contract still having a year left on it) than it was to drop it down to the emergency plan and just not use it.  So instead of paying the $200 to close it, I paid about $2/month to keep it active…until today.  Just called and closed it, so now I won’t have to worry about that pesky little bill each month. Not a huge deal, I know. But still.

I’m enjoying the One Dollar Give donations each morning!  It really does feel good to wake up and donate each morning while I eat breakfast.  Like I’m doing something right and good, despite the fact we’re tight for cash.  I don’t feel stressed that there’s $31 going to charity this month outside of our regular bills.  Instead, it is strangely satisfying.

The winter semester of classes is coming to an end (finals are next week) and so I went online and prepared to sell my books back to the college (better than standing in long lines to do it next week after finals).  For the four books I’m selling back, I will be making $65.94, which is about half of what I paid for the books at the beginning of the semester.  Book buy backs are such a rip off in that respect.  But…it’s an extra bit of money to set aside for when we go visit my brother and his family in January (Las Vegas here we come! again!)

And as a side note, because I haven’t talked about it yet…our trip to Las Vegas we have planned for January was purchased with the travel vouchers we had left over from our trip cancellation back in September.  We had to pay a rebooking fee of just over $200, but we won’t need to pay for a hotel since we’ll be staying at my brother’s house for the week.  And we won’t be dining out, aside from maybe one nice meal, because we’ll all be splitting cost of groceries and cooking at home.  It’ll be a much more relaxed LV trip.  Planning on going to the mountains, Hoover Dam, maybe the Grand Canyon, bowling…and MAYBE one Cirque de Soleis show since we didn’t get to see one when we were there in September.  I’m curious to see how it will end up, financially speaking.  We’ll be flying back home on Dave’s 26th birthday, so I’m sure our nice dinner and Cirque show will be to celebrate his birthday while we’re there (as well as some good ol’ drinkin’ at the brother’s house!).

Anyway…that’s kind of where things stand right now.  Hubby is bringing in bigger checks lately due to lots of overtime, which is very helpful considering my hours have not improved.  Worked 8 hours last week, and 11 this week.  I think I’m schedule for 10 next week.  *shakes head*  Trying to stay positive!

Well, I made my first $1 donation for the One Dollar Give today. The first charity in the spotlight is Compassion International and you can find more info on it here, as well as info on how to donate. It’s very easy (just use Paypal!). See how much of a difference we can make in the lives of others.

It was a great way to start my morning.

Ugh. November was a bad month for us.  Looks like the first few months of my PF blogging went well…then the last few went horridly wrong.  I feel defeated and hate seeing all our numbers drop into the red (when I say this…I mean our checking account mainly, as it will be dropping into the red by February if something doesn’t change, meaning we won’t have enough INCOME to stay afloat).

And I know some people have it worse off than us, and that makes me feel guilty for complaining.  So be thankful for what we have, right?  My husband has a great job that pays well and has decent medical benefits (which I need).  And even though my part time minimum wage job isn’t what I WANT right now…it’s something and it brings in a small income that can put some food on our table.  Be thankful for that, I know.

So anyway, on to the review of November!

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on what my job means to me and how we’re dealing with the small income.  It’s a theme that ran through the month a few times…

I even had some “fun money” saved up that I went shopping with and it felt amazing to spoil myself a bit, even though looking back I probably should’ve saved that money or sent it to a credit card…trying not to feel guilty as guilt will do nothing for me at this point.

For the first time, we decided to winterize our windows, and I thought it was working well at first but after a few weeks of it getting colder and colder (and snowing), I can say that it has only helped a TINY bit.  Very sad.  Very chilly, still.  I’m not so sure we’ll be doing this again next year since it really doesn’t seem to making a huge difference.  We’ll see.

I got some great deals on some books from a book club I had to finish fulfilling my obligations for, and also got our Christmas photo cards for super cheap by using a promo code!  We’re talking 1 penny per photo card, limit of 20.  Which was JUST how many we needed and they turned out great.  I actually just addressed ‘em and got ‘em all ready to send out last night!

And I guess the biggest news is that we will be PAYING OFF CREDIT CARD #3 (since starting this blog).  The last payment of $420.04 will be sent on December 1 and that will be one more card out of my way.  Getting through all these smaller balance cards has been very easy…it’s the bigger ones (particularly my husband’s credit card that has over $14,000 on it) that I’m worried about.  Ugh.

But no matter how dire my financial needs seem to be right now…I will be participating in a charity event this month for The One Dollar Give, and that somehow makes me feel calm and good about the world and myself.

What Was Spent?

Our grocery budget was WAY higher this month than any other month because I was trying new things.  New ways of eating, new recipes, new foods.  Healthier and more fulfilling…which also, unfortunately, also means more expensive most of the time.  We spent $411.23 on groceries, which is over $100 per week. This will be a bit more under control for December, I hope.  Now I know what new foods I like (and don’t like) and how I can incorporate them into healthier meals more cost effectively.

Dining out is always our hardest category to control and I don’t know why.  It doesn’t FEEL like we go out to eat all that often.  This month we did have a few meals out, and when Dave was away hunting I grabbed some quick meals so I didn’t have to cook for myself.  We went shopping a few times and grabbed coffee and snacks.  Turns out we spent $190 on dining out this month.  That combined with our grocery total means we spent about $600 JUST ON FOOD. That’s how we USED to live, before I started this blog.  Horrendous…

Our fuel costs have been going down each month! With gas prices dropping pretty much on a daily basis, we only spent $142.62 on gas in November.  And this included a trip up state to see family, plus 2 round trip trips to the father-in-law’s house about an hour away.  Not too shabby!  It’s nice to be able to fill up the car for under $30!

Medically, it’s been a busy month.  Two specialists, a few visits to my regular doctor, some lab work, and a few prescriptions put me at $103.23 for doctor copays (and not all the bills are in yet) and $27.10 for meds.

With it being November and all, we DID start (and almost finish) Christmas shopping.  We also have 6 birthdays in December (all immediate family…parents & siblings), so we got that out of the way too.  Total spent was just over $400 for all the birthdays and all of our Christmas gifts except for 2 that still need to be purchased (and won’t cost more than $20 I’m guessing).  No wonder I feel so broke, lol.

The Nitty Gritty

Now here’s the rough details and numbers that show how we fare. We were $44,584.52 in debt when I started this blog on July 1st. Let’s take a look at how things are going for us after 3 months of trying to cut back.

• Credit Cards came in at $23,373.93 on 7/1/08 and are now down to $19,826.59, which is a decrease of $3,547.34 or 15%. We accrued $173.65 in interest on all of our credit cards combined.

• Our student loans started at $7,391.68 on 7/1/08 and are now down to $6,820.18 which is a decrease of $571.50 or 8%.

• The car loan started at $13,818.91on 7/1/08 and is now down to $12,258.46, a decrease of $1,560.45 or 11%.

• Overall assets went up by 16% since 7/1/08 (including our checking accounts, so this fluctuates as bills are paid and whatnot). Overall liabilities went down by 14% (from $44,584.52 to $38,403.14). This makes our current net worth -$26,815.56.

Practically finished our Christmas shopping today.  Spent more than I thought, but it’s out of the way.  We also have 6 birthdays in December (all immediate family…parents & siblings), so we did $25 gift cards to each person.  Still need 2 more Christmas gifts for the father-in-law and then we will be done.

So after adding up the receipts and putting it all into Microsoft Money (my budgeting tool of choice) I realized how broke we really are.  Even after trying to keep it conservative for the holidays, it’s apparent that if something doesn’t change (soon) we will be in trouble (soon).  Forecasting shows that by February we will be going into the red…and that’s only counting our necessary bills (not even groceries or gas or anything of the sort).

I need a new job, badly.  I worked today and they sent us home halfway through our 8 hour shift because we were so slow.  That means I only worked SEVEN hours this week.  And I’m only scheduled for 11.25 next week.  I can’t do this…it’s stressing me out and I can’t afford to be stressed (my medical condition is already bad enough as it is and stress causes it to become worse).

I hate coming here to vent and complain…but it’s my personal finance blog, right?  And right now?  My personal finances are falling apart.  Looks like if things don’t change and if I don’t get the extension on unemployment benefits, then we’ll have to start cutting things out and trimming our credit card payments back to the bare minimum (and racking up interest in the process).

It’s been a rough month.  I knew things were getting bad, but I didn’t want to face them.  Now I know if I don’t tackle it head on, we could be in serious trouble come late winter…

I wish I were stronger and able to cope with this!  Goodness.

Many of you have probably already heard of this, but I’m jumping on the bandwagon a bit late.  Head over to One Dollar Give to see what we can all do to make a difference in the lives of others.  As bloggers (and non-bloggers) if we all give just $1 each day to a different charity throughout the month of December, can you imagine the difference we can make?

Just wanting to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving.  We are heading to my father-in-law’s house this afternoon and will be back tomorrow evening (in time for me to be to work at 3am…I hate retail).  Enjoy the food, enjoy the company, and enjoy the relaxing weekend that I know many of you will have!