Getting to Savings

So I hope you are doing well with your savings and paying down your debt.  Even after not having a regular 9-5 job I am still making sure to work on my bills and putting a little away.  It is not as much as I used to do to the circumstances but I have not given up.

I have stayed dedicated to using my surveys and other income earning opportunities.  I just finished buying more medical stuff for my daughter using the points I had and I am on my way to getting her the birthday gifts for her sweet 16.  I am so excited to realize I have more in the bank now than when I worked a regular job every day.  I knew as a kid I was meant for something different but as I have grown and had a child I felt like I needed to fit into the mainstream world.  After the recent events it just confirmed that I am not meant for a typical job.

As I am looking for my great idea, I continue to use the extra income so it does not get eaten up in a month.  Been there done that and it is not fun. So I have given you a few of my favorites so far and now her come a couple more.  These take a little longer to add up but it does add up and you can use them simultaneously so between the 2 of them you can cash out $60.  It may not seem like a lot but when added to the other earnings it can make a difference.   I just used one to buy my daughters expensive vitamins.

You open emails, watch videos, and can take surveys.  The first one is Inbox Dollars (http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=ref17133614&s=7).  The next one is Send Earnings (http://www.sendearnings.com/?r=ref4476777&s=7).  Each email is $.02, videos depend on the video, and surveys vary as well.  It will not make you rich but again it adds up.  Each cash out is $30 so again the two together mean an extra $60.  Who couldn't use an extra $60.

Ok time to go make some money.  No excuses.  My daughter was in the ER and I knew it would be awhile so I took my laptop and while she watched TV or was getting a test done and the Dr's were not there, I worked on making money.  Remember Instagc that I told you about in the previous post's?  Yeah I have made over $100 this year just using that.  It doesn't include the other sites at all.

We are on this journey together and we will make it.  Share your stories, ask questions we are here for eachother.

Feelings Are In

So now that I have officially announced that I am pregnant I am having backwards emotions. I am feeling overwhelmed.  I am not feeling the attachment I thought I would.  I am more scared than anything.  I so worried about what is going to be affected and if I am going to regret this.

I am going to be a single mom again.  I worry that my daughter is going to regret the new baby.  What if I can't take care of the new one.  I am so freaking out to tell the truth.  I really have no anything right now.  I know this sounds harsh but as parents we should be able to express our real feelings. Not ever pregnancy is rainbows and sprinkles.

They can be very scary and draining.  Things can go wrong or like me you may have no clue that this is still possible so it is total shock.  Why do we have to pretend that it is all wonderful if that is not how we feel. People keep saying that I will be more into it when it gets closer.  Well what if I am not?  This is a real concern of mine,  What if my older daughter doesn't connect with it.

There are just so many things running in my brain.  Doing it alone is much harder than the first time.  I thought I would be ok but the truth is I am petrified and that is my reality.

How To Pay Your Bills

Ok so now we have talked about saving some money, so now we can talk about ways to pay bills.  Everybody has bills to pay, the ability to pay them is what what causes the issue.  When you have very little to work with it can become very difficult.

I get paid biweekly.  I make roughly $175 a week after all my deductions.  This is definitely not a lot and then paying bills makes it even more challenging but it can be done with a little skill.  First make phone calls.  Some times if you call you can get companies to adjust your payments.  You can get it switched to a different day if you have too many due at the same time.  You can ask for a cheaper plan on cable or phone. Sometimes you can get a better interest rate on a credit card.  Even if they say no you still have to call to find out.  If you don't call you don't know.

next you have to know your minimum payments and your due dates.  Most of your payments are going to stay the same every month.  This is the payment and due date. Once you know what these are you need to start getting your mind wrapped around when and how much you will pay each pay date.  Not on the due date but on the pay day that falls before it is due.  For example you have a bill that is due the 20th but you get paid on the 10th or the 24th.  Well anything that is due after the 10th is getting paid on the 10th.  If you have anything that is due after the 24th then those bills will come out of your second check.  There may be some weeks that you have less money but making sure your bills are paid is what is important.

Eventually if you are paying off a credit card or something like that it will be paid off.  Then you can use that money to pay off the next thing.  There is debate over whether you should pay off the smallest balance first or the highest interest rate item.  I personally feel that it is better to pay off the smallest balance item first.  This way you will get something paid off quicker and that money can go toward the next item.  The faster you can pay stuff off the sooner you will have more money.

When I pay something off I like to use the 50/50 rule for the money that would have went to that payment.  I put half of that payment toward the next bill to be paid off and the other half in my checking or saving.  The reason for this is it makes you feel better and more comfortable about moving forward.  You want to feel like you are freeing up your money so if you give yourself some then it is extra money each pay period so you feel  like you are succeeding.  If you can put more toward paying off the bill that is great but you don't want to feel like you are never going to get any where either.

So here are some small tips for paying bills.  If you have more questions or suggestions please share.  Lets get saving.

No Card No Problem

So I explained to you how I have ditched my Debit Card and use cash now.  I do have a couple credit cards for emergency purposes.  I would just like to clarify that.  I love using cash for many reasons.  I can see it go.  I know exactly what is happening to it.  When it is gone it is gone so there is no over drafting my account on accident.  As stated in my article about how to save money we don't have it helps me build up my savings with out even noticing it is gone.

When you use your debit card you just swipe but you do not really have that connection of giving it away.  When you have to physically give it to some one it clicks a little different and when they hand a little less back than what you gave them, that is a connection.  If you are out shopping and only have a certain amount of cash on hand to spend you know you can not go over.  There is no picking up a few extras because you know you don't have it.

Another question is now how do I pay my bill?  Well there is the old fashioned method  Write a check and mail it to whom eve you need to pay.  This does require buying stamps and with a few companies envelopes.  If you have a Dollar Tree near you this  is a great place to save money on stuff like that.  Then there is the newer method.  It is electronic withdrawal which the company can set up over the phone or you can set up an account with the company and make a payment each month or  there is .online banking.  I still have a checking account for certain things so I use my online bill pay.  My money get directly deposited in my account on pay day and then I go into my bill payer and tell the bank when I want the money o be sent to the company I am paying.  It is super easy and convenient.  You can even make payments to people so if you need to pay back "Aunt Jackie" who you only see like maybe once a month you can put her in your bill pay and then she will get a check right from the bank.

You have many options to help deal with this new adventure.  It does take some time and a little effort but if you stick with it you will find that you will see progress that is actually getting you some where.  It didn't happen over night but slowly I have figured out what is working and I am getting there.  Next I think we will talk about how to tackle paying bills in general especially if you get paid less than weekly.  Thanks for reading and lets get saving.

How Do We Save Money We Don't Have

So there are articles everywhere on how to save money.  They explain how to save a bunch and get your debt paid off.  The problem you ask?  Well they always use big number like saving hundreds or thousands at once.  Sometimes it is even you should save 50% of your income.  Well if you are like me you don't have that kind of money.  If you put that much in savings your bills would never get paid off.  So what is the solution?

Well I have tried a lot of things.  One thing that was useful was the envelope system.  This is where you take out the exact amount of money you will spend from your pay check and label an envelope for each thing you would spend money on.  For example your car loan, groceries, eating out if you intend on doing that.  You only take cash out of the envelope that you intend on using it for.  Once the envelope is empty you have no more money for that particular activity until you get paid again.  In theory it really does work, if you can stick with it.  I was able to for  little while but then I found myself sneaking a dollar from this envelope to go to the other envelope and then I gave up.  If you can do it then by all means go for it.  Just wasn't my thing.

What did work you ask?  Saving the money I already had.  Didn't I just say I had none to save?  Well that is the trick.  First you get a jar and a savings account.  Preferably find a saving that you will earn decent interest from.  Then comes the easy part.  Say you have a $20 and you spend say $13.75,   You now have 6.25 in change.  Take the $1.25 and put it in the jar.  Every time you get coin or dollar bill you put it in the jar.  You are less likely to miss small change than you are trying to put away a $10 each time.  Then when your jar is full you take it and put it in your savings.  Then the best part it is so easy.  You leave it there.  For me it is a little easier because I work at a bank so I can deposit mine as soon as I get them.

The beauty of this is that you don't really notice your money going because it is such a small amount at a time.  I mean will you really notice that $.20 cents is not in your pocket.  Most likely not.  It is actually nice to not carry around loads of change.  It adds up quicker than you think.  Before you know it you will have saved $100 easy.  Now you have options once it builds up.  My advice?  Leave it alone as long as you can.  Although if you have saved $100 and have a bill that needs to be paid off then do it.  The nice thing is what you can do with that extra money.  This will be the topic of my next post.

Remember if you have ideas please share.  We are in this together.  You may have a suggestion that I have not even thought of.  Thank you for reading and see you next time.

Lets Do A Recap

   Ok so now that I am back online we are going to recap my original posts to make sure we are either still on track or get back on track.  No matter where you are the important thing is that you keep working. I have had times where I have either pulled from my savings or just stopped doing what I needed to do to keep it going.  What matters is that you get back to what you were doing.  The important thing is to get out of debt and be free of the trouble it brings.

  So first you have to have a goal.  A real reason that this is so important to you.  Whether it be to buy something, have a big nest egg, or you are just tired of struggling.  You have to have a real reason or it will not be as important to you and you will not try as hard.  Everyone needs to be on board with this if you have others in your household.  If you are single then you are going to have to work hard to keep yourself committed to the final goal.  This is not going to be easy but when you are able to achieve your goal because you worked so hard it will be totally worth it.

   Now that you have decided why, you have to do.  Set up a plan.  Pick a credit card you want to tackle first or maybe it is your car loan that you want to eliminate.  What ever it is that is going to be your main priority until it is paid.  Even if in the beginning you only round the payment up to the next dollar.  Say your payment is $50.51 then you pay $52.00.  Even if you did only that for a year you would pay an extra $5.88. This is $5.88 less you will be charged interest on.  If you get a raise then you need to decide what extra you can put toward that bill.  You will do all that you can to pay off that extra bill.

    Next this part is something you will have to decide on your own.  Some people swear by it, I myself have never been able to follow one.  I am talking about a budget.  Some people really like them and use them religiously.  It is a blue print of how you will spend your money each month.  It only works if you actually do it every month and stick to it.  That is my down fall,  I really have a hard time redoing every month.  If you are the type of person who needs structure this may be the right choice for you.  If you think you can handle it month after month and stick with your plan then you may not need one.  This part is totally a personal choice.  You can always try it and if it is not for you then do it your way.  As I have said before the most important thing is that you do it.

That is all for the recap.  I hope you will come back so that we can finally do our next piece,  Ditch The Debit Card.  I will be talking about why I have learned it is better to go all cash while trying to eliminate debt. I hope to see you back soon.  As Always feel free to share your thoughts and ideas.  We are all in this together.

Great News

Thanks to the wonderful people at Rent-A-Center I have a laptop again.  I will be picking up where we left off on my debt help series.  I am very excited to get back to this so that I can share how I am getting my life turned around and back on track.  I hope you come back and learn some steps that have helped me so much.  I will do a re-cap of what I talked about before and then we will get into Ditch the debit card.  I know it sounds crazy but i have been without one for 2 months now and doing great.  See you soon!!!!!!

Saving Money and Getting Out of Debt: Have an End Goal

So you have made the commitment to save money and get rid of your debt, now what.  Your next step is to have a final result for why you are going to make this commitment.  You have to decide why saving is important to you.  What is in it for you?

What is it you are saving for?  Do you want a new car, or maybe a house.  Maybe you have kids and want to be able to pay for their education.  Maybe you are just tired of giving your money away to fees every month.   What ever it is you have to know what your working for.

This is important because if you are not working toward a goal you are more likely to go off track.  You will use excuses about why you will do it later.  You just tell yourself you will do it later.  Or just give up because it is not worth it.  With no goal you have no purpose and that can lead to failure.

For me it is being able to provide better for my daughter.  I want to be able to be able to send my daughter to school without taking out a bunch of loans.  I want to be able to not worry about my future when I am older.  I want to know that I will always be able to take care of myself and not burden my daughter when I am older.

What ever you reason is use it as your motivation for this journey.  It will help you when you fell like giving in to extra spending.  It will be the center of your change.  Make it something good to, something that will really keep you going when you want to give in.  Believe me, there will be times when you will say all this is too much and I just want to give up and do what everyone else is doing.

I am happy to have you on this journey.  I hope you will continue to follow me and find your freedom. 

Get ready

Ok so I have been working on saving money and paying bills.  So far I have learned how coupon and got 2 laundry detergents for $.84 for both not each but both.  I paid off my car loan one of my credit cards and the loan I got for my phone.  If you want to learn how I did this and see if I can help you then come back starting Monday June 2nd where I will start posting what I have learned and done to start turning my life around.  We all need a boost so I am here to give one if you are ready to take it.

Time To Find My Purpose

So it is going on two years since I came back from down south.  Two years since I found out my husband was cheating on me and wanted to end our marriage.  It has been a long all most two years and nothing has really changed.  I am still alone and broke.  I have so many ideas all the time but never act on any of them so that is not good.

I was not born to just get by.  No one is.  We all have a purpose here and we are destined to do great things really.  We all have that one thing we are meant to do, and we are meant to do it in a way no one else can.  The problem is life starts happening and we lose sight of these things.  We start to doubt our abilities in life.  It is tragic how many people go through life and never meet there potential.  Well no more.

Before I die I will find my purpose and I will be great at whatever it is that I was destined to do.  I need to start by getting my self organized.  You can not have a productive purposed life with clutter every where.  This will be hard at first.  I have gotten very disorganized over the years.  I guess it is due to the drama in my life.  You start to show signs outward when you are conflicted outside.

I need to get back into a routine.  I need to get my physical self back under control as well.  I lost weight and was very happy, then all hell broke loose and I have gained almost 10 pounds back.   It is more like I am just getting by in life waiting for things to happen.  It is time to start making things happen and do my best each and every day.

So first on the agenda is to get organized and get moving.  Having disorder and no movement at all is useless.  I can't get forward if I am not moving in the first place.

Getting Ready For The New Year

So it is almost here and I am getting my lists and such together.  I have a big list and so I have a lot of things to do to make those things happen.  There are many small things I will have to do to get to my goals.  With out a plan I am not going to make my goals so  I am putting in the hard work and this year I am going to make these goals happen.

So here are a couple of goals I will be working on this year.  I am going to get my house cleaned and organized.  If you don't already know when I moved back to MI I had to move into my parents house which they left all of their stuff here when they moved.  I am left with cleaning it up and repairing anything wrong with it.  Unfortunately I am part time so I do not have a lot of money so it has been hard.  I plan on making it happen in 2014.

I also plan on losing 30 pounds at least.  If you saw my previous post you know that I am  going to be sharing my weight loss journey over the next year.  It will not be easy and I must admit I am not off to a good start but I have some things in place to get going so I plan to make this year the year I get back to a healthy weight.

I also have a goal to save $5,000 by the end of the year.  I think of all my goals this will be the hardest.  Being part time I do not make a ton.  I will however be getting child support so that will help with my daughters expenses so I can put that money aside once I start receiving support plus I am selling items on Ebay and I am doing surveys.  I have also gotten back into couponing so that save me money.  I also have some other things to make extra money so I am working on it being enough to put stuff away toward this goal. 

So plans are in place but the real challenge will be doing them.  I am the only one that can be held accountable so I have to work hard or it will not get done.   What are your goals for this year and how do you plan to accomplish them?  Are they small or is this the year you go for the big one?  Whatever your goal do it.  Make this the year you make it happen and we can do it together.  We can cheer eachother on along the way.  Lets make this year count. 

Starting Again

So I was doing really well with the blog and then got distracted but I see many people are still looking.  I am going to get back to it and we will see where it goes from there.  I have been up to so much this year.  I have been just so busy and working on so many different things. 

This year I started out separated and not feeling to happy.  I am now only three months away from my divorce and doing ok.  I have gone back to church more often and I am feeling much better in my faith now.  I am learning a better way to pray and to trust God even more.  It is nice when you can just feel great about things. 

 My job not so awesome but I have one and right now that is a bonus.  I can kinda pay my bills and I can feed my daughter and myself so that feels good.  My car is almost paid off so that will be nice when I am done with that.  It will be extra money to put toward some other bills.  I have been turned down for full time three different time so that has been a little crushing for me.  I applied for another one but not getting too excited about it because I have a feeling I am not getting which has a lot to do with the position itself and a little with my employers.

I have reduced my medications drastically which has been a very nice change for me.  My daughter has been having less seizures which is very exciting and her grades are up from last year along with her reading skills improving this year.  This is something she has struggled with for years.  She also got nominated for the new Leadership club at school.  She makes me so proud.

I have also been working on getting my business up and going strong.   I have made some changes to what I am doing and I hope I can get things going so I can work for myself and have more time with my daughter.  She is growing up to so fast I want to get as much time with her as I can before college comes around

Well that is a quick catch up of some of the things that have been going on with me since I have been absent from writing.  I hope I can keep you interested and get things going on the blog regularly again.  Thanks for reading.

Never Enough Time In A Day

I have so much to get done but there is not enough time in the day.  Between working and trying to earn extra money plus my other normal stuff I need more time to get everything done.  I have multiple side jobs so keeping track of all of them is tough.  I have to cut down on some of my ways of earning extra income so I can really put more effort into the ones I really like.

I have church in the morning so no staying up really late tonight either.  So after that I have a been to church I am meeting with one of the ladies to help me grow my faith, then an open house in the afternoon then getting ready for work after that and trying to catch up on some more stuff.  I think I need to get an assistant just to help me get through my emails.   I may even need a to-do list to remind me to do my list.

So I am still sorting out the different survey sites but a lot I have already stopped a few because they only wanted to pay you for buying other sites items.  If I had the extra money then I wouldn't be trying to take surveys to make more so I didn't need them anymore.

Well that is it for tonight I have to get to bed and I still have to make the bed before I can do that sooo off I go to get some sleep.  Have a great day.

Another Day of Tested Patience

So today really worked my nerves and sadly I made a comment this time.  I am not proud of it but 3 people were verbally ganging up on me and it was all I could take.  I didn't yell or anything like that but I did let them know that the way they were talking to me was less than appreciated.  They really didn't talk to me the rest of the day.  Which honestly was fine by me at that point.  I have to work again tomorrow and I am not really looking forward to it.

I did get to talk to a coworker that no longer works in our office and he made me feel better and just reminded me to keep positive and my faith and don't let the rest get to me.  I know that is what I am supposed to do so I am really trying.  I want to have a more positive experience at work so I am trying to keep positivity in my own day.  I will at some point not have to worry about others because I will be so comfortable with myself.

Totally off subject though, the survey money making is hard.  My inbox is overflowing and I can not seem to catch up at all.  I keep staying up so late to work on them I am over sleeping but still not getting enough sleep.  While I do not have a favorite yet, I do have some tips in case anyone out there is thinking about it.

1- Set up a separate email account just for surveys
2- Make sure that you have at least 3  hours a day if you sign up to a lot
3- Be prepared to see a lot of the same thing from different places
4- Don't expect to get rich right away

Another thing I found out about today in case you have not heard of it is Ibotta.  It is like Shop Kicks but they pay you cash.  You can get it from the Play Store for your phone.  I have already earned a couple dollars just by looking at the grocery items they have on there.  It seems pretty easy so if you have a smart phone and shop I say give it a try.

Also I am highly recommending that if you shop at Kmart then you need to make sure you are part of their program.  It earns you money to save on your next purchase.  Yesterday I got a new shirt and between the program and the gift card I had I got the shirt for $0.30.  It is totally worth it.  Plus if you are a member and you do a layaway by the end of next week you get it with out the maintenance fee.  That is a good thing as well.

I am going to end for tonight. Sorry it is all over the place tonight but I am really tired and typing things as I think of them.  Going to get ready for bed and try to get some sleep tonight.  Have a great day.

Working Hard And Getting Nowhere

So I have been doing the survey thing and it is actually getting very overwhelming.  My inbox is filling up faster than I can do the surveys.  I have over 500 emails now and every time I take one there seems to be about 10 more that show up.  I am still on ones that arrived on Tuesday and here it is Saturday so it takes a lot of patience. 

I still have not found my favorite yet but I have found a few that I am not a big fan of.  It is hard to qualify for the surveys or they are really long and seem to go nowhere.  I started on last night and after like 45 minutes it still kept going and I was only 50% done.  I finally gave up and went to bed since it was 3 AM.  I can say for sure that if you are a person who needs sleep then you may want to think about this before you do it.  Or if you can not sit still for long periods I would not recommend this to you either.

I am going to get back to work now so that I can come up with my favorite list and pass it on to my readers. This is my last real day of vacation so I also want to do some other stuff as well.  Tomorrow we will be getting ready for a new work week and we have Church in the morning so no staying up too late tonight either.