The Tuition Refund Check Arrived!

I'm happy to say that the tuition refund check arrived in the mail! That didn't take long at all. I'm still nervous that they're going to tell us it was a mistake and we'll have to pay it back or something. Until then, it's getting deposited. (The hubby and I chatted and he is in support of us depositing the check and having a little safety net - yippee!) We've now fully funded our emergency savings account! Sweet!

I came across this quote the other day on The Quest to Be Financially Abundant and I liked it and wanted to pass it along. Her advice was to -

Ask for what you want and be open to receiving it.

I love it! I think it's great advice. I'm asking the universe for help to get out from under this debt and somehow things are falling into place. I know it's still early and there's a long road ahead of us, but there's progress and hope. Right now, that's all I can ask for :)

My Weekly Money Check-Up

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a ticket I got a few months back. I went to court and had the payment postponed, but I finally had to pay it... $450.

2. Today I am thankful for my strong legs. They helped me bike the 3.5 miles into work this morning. We are now in our new apartment and luckily a friend gave me her bike for FREE this weekend, so I was able to ride that in today! I felt like a kid riding down the street with the wind in my hair. I think I may need to invest in a helmet though. Not sure how much that will run me but it's probably worth it. I recently learned that an old acquaintance was riding his bike down in Florida and got hit and died. It really makes you think how safety comes first.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was got to ride a bike again for the first time in manyyyy years!

4. I will consider this week a success if I get all of our boxes unpacked! Our place is very small and we have a hard enough time just maneuvering around the furniture and each other, but when you throw a few dozen boxes in there as well, it's like a bomb went off! I'm going to challenge myself to get 1 or 2 boxes unpacked nightly. My goal is to have it completely done this weekend.

5. One thing I appreciate about my mom is her thoughtfulness and her sense of humor. (I picked two!) She is always doing sweet things for family members and remembering special days, even if it's just with a small gesture. Her thoughtfulness is appreciated. I also love her sense of humor! She is quick and witty. She's given all of us her fast sense of humor and I really appreciate that.

9 months from now!

I won't be giving birth... but there will be a celebration :) If all my late night calculations are correct, we will be done paying off our credit card with the highest balance and interest rate in January!

The current balance is at $20,319.

This card has two interests rates on it, one for our purchases (16.99%) and one for cash advances (23.99%).

Our new target deadlines are as follows:

• CC # 3 - Current balance of $952.04 @ 15.15% will be paid off next month!
  
  (I debated saving this one for last since it has the lowest interest rate, but decided that we could use the momentum to really get us going - so this one will be first!)
  
  

• CC # 1 - Current balance as mentioned above will be paid off in January 2012.
  
  

• CC # 2 - Current balance of $17,702.19. This card has two interest rates as well : 15.24% for purchases and 19.24% for cash. The plan is to have this paid off in June 2012.

For those following along, this pushes our timeline up by 6 months - from December 2012! I AM ECSTATIC and ever hopeful that my rough calculations of interest payments are fairly accurate. I'll keep a close eye on statements as we move forward to check that we are on track to meet our goals. Honestly, I know the jury is still out on whether we should spend money to take a vacation while in debt, but these dates are not even calculating in those additional paychecks, so it could be done even earlier if we decide not to indulge along the way.

I liked this saying I recently found and I wanted to share it:

"Hard Work + Good Choices + Wise Decisions = Success".

I know it seems like common sense, but doing it can be tough. Print out the saying and put it up on the fridge or mirror or use it as your screen saver as a constant reminder. We can all do this! It's not going to be easy, but it's going to be worth it. Stay positive, stay focused and you will be successful in the end.

I may not update for a few days since this is the weekend we move. I'm scheduled to have Friday and Monday off so I likely won't be back until Tuesday. Enjoy the weekend!

Packing, Selling, Moving & Letting Go!

This week has been very productive! We have packed a ton of stuff. I am personally very proud of the amount of "stuff" I was able to let go. The amount of items that we donated to good will was enormous! I was a bit torn on trying to make cash on some of the items, but the time and energy required for me to post it, package it and ship it were just not worth it at the time. I keep telling myself that it's going to someone less fortunate who could use it.

We were able to sell a few of the larger items though and make some extra cash, which we will use to pay for the actual move.

• Last night we sold our smaller couch, which isn't going to fit in the studio. We paid about $520 and sold it for $250. We also sold a couple of coffee tables to this person for $10.
  

• Tonight the new renters plan to purchase our refrigerator for $200. That's about 1/2 of what we paid and we used it for 2 years. I'm happy with that amount.

• Hopefully tomorrow we'll be selling our elliptical machine. We paid about $700 a year and a half ago and we have an offer for $350. I'll take it! It was just collecting dust anyway, plus there's no way it will fit in our new place.

So, if everything works out, we'll make $800! Looks like the moving truck will run about $200 when all is said and done and we'll get some day labor help for about $100 (I think). I'm hoping we are able to put $500 towards saving or our debt pretty quickly!

It's truly amazing how much stuff we accumulate. Things will be different in our new place, that's for sure! I plan to have a recycling bin near our front door so any unnecessary papers get tossed in there automatically. The amount of papers I went through in this move was unbelievable. I never want to have to do that again. Our shredder continually kept overheating in the process! We probably have enough confetti type shredding to take care of New York City for the ball dropping on New year's Eve! Honestly!

So, although it was tough, I let some items go that I didn't think I would and guess what... I'm still alive! I feel lighter. I'm actually happier to not have as much STUFF weighing me down. I hadn't used many of the items for years and just kept holding onto them, thinking "one day, one day I'll use this again." Well, that day never came and I'm okay with it. Letting go can be very cathartic. I'm ready for the next phase of my life. Peaceful, happy days with less clutter.

Is it a bad thing to hide money from your spouse?

I have some exciting news!

My niece got word from her financial aid office last week that there appears to be a credit in her tuition account. It looks like an overpayment was made! She let me know that it's likely close to $1000 and that if I'm interested I could have it since I was the one paying into her tuition. Um, hello, YES PLEASE!!!

I was so excited that my first impulse was to tell my dear hubby! But something stopped me...

I started to think about how we don't have anything put away into an emergency savings account and how this would be a great start for us. I started to recall how I've noticed some traits from my husband that make me question sharing the news of new-found money with him. Whereas I'm a planner and enviously read other blogs where people actually plan out their meals for the week, my husband prefers that we go to the grocery store on a nightly basis (which I see as a waste of time and money). He has no problem with an empty fridge or completely empty pockets or wallet.

There's an excitement for him in the idea of living on the edge with nothing but the shirt on his back to get him through. This makes me nauseous and very nervous! He has this mentality that "everything will always work out". I love that about him in one sense but in another this phrase frustrates me because I'm typically the one making it work out!

I'm not angry about it and I don't really want or expect him to change, I'm just thinking that I need to quickly and quietly bank this money or else it may disappear into oblivion and we'll have nothing to show for it. I considered putting it towards our debt too but I constantly have this low grade anxiety when I think of us without a safety net and I think funding our emergency fund first is the way to go. If secretly locking this money away somewhere helps me get rid of that feeling, I think it may be worth it!

On the other hand, I want to be completely open and honest with my husband. I don't want to be dishonest or hide anything from him but too often I've seen money burn a hole in his pocket. Believe it or not, I'm actually the better one with the money! I'm the one who does the budget and looks at our bills. I enjoy it and he doesn't have much of an interest. If he ever were to ask if we had money in savings, I would be honest and tell him we did. I just don't know that I should volunteer the information beforehand.

Nothing is finalized yet and until I actually see a check for the credit, I'm hesitant to believe that there really will be one. I still have some time to decide how to move forward. What do you think?

Questions : Is a secret a bad thing when you believe it's for the overall good?

My Weekly Money Check-Up

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on the deposit on our new place.

2. Today I am thankful that we found a new place to live that is so affordable! This will really help us make a dent in paying off our debt.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was got 3 stars on every level of Angry Birds! Okay, hear me out... I just found this free game on my work phone and have been playing it at night for fun. Lately, it's become somewhat of a competition between my hubby and I, to see who can get the highest score. Well, in between packing this weekend, we were able to get 3 stars on each level. It's really not a huge deal, but inexpensive fun for us and it brought us some happiness and enjoyment.

4. I will consider this week a success if I successfully pack everything up and move without being too much of a witch. I don't know what comes over me, but the stress of a move really gets me going. I'm usually very mild tempered and easy to please, but when moving, I become a stressed-out basket case. I'm hoping to make it through this week without becoming one!

5. My favorite TV show growing up was The Brady Bunch. I really enjoyed watching this show when I was younger. I thought it taught some valuable lessons.

TGIF!

Hi there! Just a quick post to wish you all a Happy Easter! We don't have much planned besides packing... and lots of it! I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and a nice Easter if you celebrate it.

Enjoy and see you next week :)