Welcome to the latest series - Restructuring Debt

I am excited to embark on this series of posts because interest paid toward debt is one of the largest obstacles to gaining traction for one's own Debt Freedom March.

Of course, one way to eliminate the interest is to sell some stuff and become debt-free. But I recognize that for some people, they have debt that they are going to have to focus on and just pay it off. If this describes you, then I trust that this series...
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I was talking to a good friend of mine a few days ago and she mentioned that she just purchases a new living room set. She went on to explain that a furniture place near us is going out of buisness. Everything was 60% off and they are ready to deal. Wow, I was ready to go. But then reality set in. Where was I going to get the money? From the emergency fund? No. From the money I have set aside for the work that needs to be done to the bath room? No. Crap! I decided to be a grown...
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I have ambitious plans to beautify the outside of our house. Part of this is to eliminate grass,because I hate mowing, and since all of the full sun on our property is in the front, build beds large enough that I can secretly grow vegetables behind the flowers without raising the ire of the neighbors.

And then there's covering up those glamorous sink holes that showed up last year!
Here is the plan. The dark areas are the new beds. Now that the roof is finished, my goal...
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I like seeing how my spending breaks down, but I don't always feel the same way about what bills go to which categories. The four main categories I use are:
Household/grocery expenses
Spending/entertainment
Mortgage/utilities
Debt repay

Most things are no-brainers (mortgage and condo fees go in Mortgage/utilities, credit cards and student loans go in Debt repay, Netflix and travel savings go in Spending/entertainment, medical and education go in Household/grocery), but others...
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If you will remember, at the first of the week I mentioned I finally opened a separate savings account (earning 3%) for a my $20. challenge account. I didn't have much hope for adding much to it because I already have my budget trimmed down pretty good. Guess what? I got my electric bill. I budget $87.00 per month for it. My bill was $71.56! So I can add $15.44 to my $20 challenge account!! I was practically jumping for joy!!!
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Well the day after the horrific meeting I have one volunteer for cookies, one for decorating special events, and one for talking to parents.

All from the new girls, but all wonderful people.

There is no way I could do this scout stuff without all the other volunteers doing work behind the scenes mostly without titles.

So go hug your nearest volunteer, they make a difference not only to a kid, but also to the rest of the volunteers!
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I sold a textbook yesterday. I made $100.00

I will be selling six more books on amazon.com today. I am also talking other students to let me sell their books for them, for a nominal fee of course.
The old fashioned way of making money by selling your stuff really works. I never made any money on eBay, but this seems to be working well. My book was only online for three hours. I will be finding some electronics or movies at home to sell too.
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No one bothered to read my blog yesterday and no one noticed that I put that it was Debt Thursday.
Today is Thursday.
Boo Hoo
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I stayed a little late at work yesterday to prepare some rebates. I had thought the due dates were not clear when I realized one was to be postmarked yesterday! So I went to the post office. Gah.

Mailed $90 in rebates, cell phone and computer related - will help the bottom line.

Looking at the credit card bill and feeling better able to tackle it, though we maybe weren't the best this month. We could have saved another $100-$200 through extreme diligence. We can try...
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It seems many things are going awry in my world: I've waited far too long for my bathroom countertop to be replaced/fixed; I must redouble, singly it seems, my efforts to be better organized; and the first bid for remodeling our kitchen came in.

How much of this is my fault? The organization of the house and calendar planning, and the bid for the kitchen, as they are self-initiated. I don't have the patience to deal with other people's incompetencies right now, but I have to.

Understand...
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Today DH drove me to work and on the way back got stopped by the police. got $240!!!! ticket for windows being too tinted. What the.... we did not tint it - we bought this car used and never imagined....



few days ago we got another stupid ticket - DH did not put new registration sticker on and it expired in the middle of August (it had 08 08 in big letters so we did not notice). He had already renewed the registration, and the new sticker was in the glove compartment....
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BF's Cigarettes: $5.30
Can Food For Pup: $3.20

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For the THIRD day in a row... I didn't buy food at work. YES!

I've made a total of $8.30 in ChaCha earnings since I started... that's approximately $8.30 than I would've made sitting on my laptop before!

Me & the pup are going to his x-ray appointment tomorrow. I should already be in bed, as I have to get up about 6am to get ready and get there in time. And probably move...
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A good result of that terrible co-worker incident I blogged about a while ago was that my supervisor's boss got pissed off and told me to find a training class anywhere in the country and get my butt to it. That was 2 weeks ago tomorrow and I started the class in Chicago on Monday! It is a good class. I am learning Java (YEAH) which is awesome. I've never done any object oriented programming before, and I've tried to teach myself from books a few times and I just didn't get...
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I am now proud to say that I hold three jobs. My first job (the one that pays the bills) is of course the one at the oil and gas company.

My second job is the 3 1/2 hours on Friday afternoons at the gym.

My third job, which I just started today, is with ChaCha as an expeditor. In slightly over 90 minutes I made $3.30. I know, not a whole lot of money - but it's money I wouldn't have otherwise made in that time period.

I wish we had Firefox on our computers at work...
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I saw this job and thought of you. I know it is not what you usually do (editing) but it might be close enough since the benefits sound incredible???

Full time employees are eligible for the following benefits:

* Health/Dental/Vision/Life insurance
* Disability (short and long term) options
* 401(k) Plan with Company match
* Flexible Spending Plan
* Transit/Parking Plan
* Gym membership reimbursement
* Paid vacation time
* Holidays,...
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Managed another day without spending money. Aside from taking The Midge to karate, I didn't go anywhere today.

The French dip sandwiches I made yesterday in the Crock Pot were delicious, so I ate one again for lunch this afternoon.

Tonight I'm making lemon linguine with prosciutto and I also made a peach cobbler for dessert -- both of which should provide another yummy lunch tomorrow.

I do need to make my monthly run to Costco tomorrow, though. It's also my volunteer...
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After an earlier blog entry about my son and receiving some of the advice I got from fellow savers, I've made some steps over the summer to help train the kid in financial matters. He was destroying the budget this summer and it had to stop. I feel like I tried so hard to teach him financial foundations as he was growing up, but he wasn't interested before and now, at 19 years old, he still doesn't seem interested. And because I try to 'help' him financially by giving him money,...
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I've heard a few stories about waitresses receiving large tips ($1,000+) from customers. I have a story similar to that myself:

Sunday I was serving in the restaurant between the two banquets I had to work that day. I had two customers come in together and one of them had a two-for-one coupon. Their bill (after one entree was discounted) came to $8.54. They tipped me $10!!

Obviously quite a bit less than $1,000, but I thought the customers were being more than generous...
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Woohoo!

Thanks everyone for you advices and encouragement. The paperwork process will take about 1 month though. But what the heck
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Make several pints of crabapple jelly and syrup last night. Also picked some beans to freeze.

Got the kids all registered for homeschool coop. It starts next Friday. Tution and supplies total $76--thats for all of them, not each. Not bad for a semester-that incldues everthing. I dare say that is a lot less than a lot of public school families spent on clothing, shoes and supplies.

They meet once a week on Fridays through late November, then they will have their winter...
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