Fruitbowlk's Personal Finance Blog

I finally order my computer so I can start to move on to the next major thing which is fully fund my EF. It's been hard try to get pass the three month mark but I know I will do it. I going hard on this to make it to my 6-8 months I would like to save.

We went to do our taxes which turned out the be the largest we ever received to date. And I was not impressed. The tax preparer being to tell me how we could get more at the end of the year. I told her I didn't want more at the end of the year I wanted more in my paycheck through out the year she had nothing to say. Isn't it funny when you have finanical peace Income refund checks are not the light of your day.

I love the fact that I have a 10 year old paid off car but it is giving me hell. Everytime I turn around it has to be fixed. I will admint some of the breaks are my fault but Please give me a break. I am doing very good with my savings but this car keeps draining it. It is taking me way too long to get my EF where I would like it to be. I would like to move on and start to save for my house. They have such great deals out there now. I want to pull my hair out.

Thanks for reading my rant.

I never thought about my net worth until I started reading the blogs. It's exciting to see how your net worth changes.(especially if it going up)

I have done really well this year and I have decided to work on these for the upcoming year.

1. Keep up with my monthly budget.-Completed

2. Save 3 to 8 months of expenses in savings.-Five months

3. Fully fund my Roth IRAs -Nope

4. Start a College funding for my child.-Nope

5. Continue to save for a house down payment.-Work in progress.

We cash in my dd coins every year and this year we saved 188.00 to be deposited in her saving account. How exciting.

Just found out I will be receiving and end of the year bonus. I think I will be going to get my IMac with this bonus. I'm excited.

It's that time of year again where I can cash out my vacation time. I am able to cash out 40 hours. I'm excited. I will be adding this to my EF.

I just went to see and life insurance/financial advisor and he was very inpress with what I have going on. I was laughting on the inside. He asked did I have someone advising me with my money. I said Suze Orman/Dave Ramsey/Books. lol And of course you guys. I feel good. I have to admit I have never been in a better financial situation and it feels great.

I met my Christmas Fund goal. Yahoo.

Knock on woods. I'm doing better with my EF. I'm back to my starter EF. I hope nothing comes up where it has to be depleted again. I also came up with a conclusion. I will take all the money I have saved in my other funds and put them towards my EF. I'm so far away from my goal of 5,000 by the end of the year. But doing the above will get my very close. I never know what might happen to push me to my goal only time will tell. Wish me luck.

I sold my dd old clothes and got $85.00 for them. Really more than that sold but I had to pay the people that sould them a percentage. But it's all good because we made a little profit andt he clothes are out of my way. The money will go towards my dd savings account.

I started going to Savers club meeting through my credit union every month and it's great. Next month we will focus on shopping and saving.

Man it has been a while since I have had money left over after I paid all my bills. A whopping $600. I spent $300 to take a weekend vacation and is going spend $100 to pay on my cruise and the rest is going to savings. I feel so blessed. It is great to be debt free.

It seem to be so hard to keep my emergency fund above 1,000. My goal is to have 5,000 by the end of the year but I losting my hope. I have to come up with another plan so that I can meet the goal. It think i am going to a slump. I still saving very well but it seam like i'm going backward instead of fowards I get to get excited about savings again.

Man everytime I think I have a handle on things I get screwed. So I have made an appointment to get my car it's yearly inspection. I know I need two back tires and my axle fix. Now i have to get my side mirror fix. I broke it this morning try to back out of my job's garage lane. I was in the wrong lane. I'm so pissed. I hope it doesn't cost me more than $500. I was hopping for $300 at first.

I took the train for the first time yesterday. I had to go to dc for a class. I think it might be one of the ways that I might start traveling. Do anyone take takes trains and buses in stead of driving? Is this cheaper or more expensive than driving yourself?

I told my siter I would watch her son for her on the weekend while she works and she offer to pay me twenty dollars. So now I will be using the extra money to replish my vacation account.

So that That I'm debt free I'm going full force with saving for my EF. The payments that I was making to my cc company I'm just going to transfer that payment into my ef. My goal is to have aleast 5,000 in it by the end of 2009. That will live me alease 4 months of Emergency savings. I'm aiming for 8. I will update everytime I meet a month worth of savings.

I can confirm that I'm debt free and it feels amazing. Join with me to do the debt free dance,clap and shout. This board has been a great help.

I'm back from my Vacation in NYC. And I spent a good amount of money but it's all good. I'm happy to be back at home with my dd. Next inline is to pay off my cc debt this friday/Monday and then pay $250 to hold my stateroom on the cruise.

I'm and so excited, electrifying, thrilled,and exhilarating I can't use enough words to decribe this feeling. I have busted my butt to get to this point and it took under two years from the day I got serious about getting incharge of my finances. It's so many thing I am going to be able to do with this extra money. Increase my EF, Save for my dream house start my dd college fund, or vacation ect. I have a whole new mindset of how to treat money and I'm feel so blessed to have come across people to show me the right way to go.

For everyone that doubt that you can be debt free or doubt that you can be in charge of you money I'm a living witness. And it feels GREAT!

$675 that including the towing fee and the oil change. I guess I have to start building back up my EF.

yea after dropping my dd off to the sitter buy car just went dead. I got the sitter son to jump it and it took me a few extra miles and I broke down again. So I just went ahead a dcalled a tow truck company. Which cost me $60 dollars and I didn't have cash on me and I had to transfer funds. They think its the alternator. Not sure how much that going to cost me. Well I'll be updating Thank GOD for the EM since I don't get paid until next week. You have to love the unexpected.

I just order my credit report and fico score to see where I am at. I disappointed in my score which is 653. I could have swarn that this is the same one from last year but i don't remember. I have been busting my butt to pay off my debt and not to have any late payments but I still have a low fico score. Now I see why DR rants and raves about the fico score. I'm not really sure how to improve it after I'm debt free? and not using credit anymore. I will have to bring it up to get a good rate when i go to purchase my first home. What is a lady to do?

Well since my PC died on me and I have decided not to buy another for 6 months to a year. I will have to put my account on hibernate that will save me $35 a month in bill money.

I have a few more steps before I will be buying a house but it's never to early to start research. I went to my first first time homebuyer seminar and I really enjoyed it. I hoping to start saving for my house by the end of this year and hopefully I will be moving into my new home in two years. They say you can save as little as 3.5 % but I'm aiming for 20%. This is a very exciting step for me and I pray all works out well.

Ok so yesterday I spoke with the travel agent and she told me that the cruiseline cancelled the cruise that we where suppose to be taking next year. I'm hoping that we get another one going but if not I'm thinking about treating myself anyways and getting me some diamond earring that I have always wanted but have been in debt so I could never afford it. When one door closes another one always opens.

Wow it seems like this day took forever to get to but It's here. I'm so excited. Everyone says it easy to get into debt and hard to get out of and it takes a min to get into debt and years to get out of it. Both is so true.

We had a snow storm last weekend and yesterday I went to the pump to get gas and they wasn't excepting debtcards. I don't carry Cash on me. I had to find and atm machine just to put gas in my car. I might just start keeping a $20 in my car just incase something like this happens again.