One Step At A Time

We have had to add a few more things to the debt snowball. The new Total Debt amount is $21,625.22 so that leaves the Total Remaining at $20,637.89. Three debts got added to the snowball, and two of them we knew were coming and we were just waiting on the final tally to come in. See back in May, our daughter got sick and she had to spend 3 days in the hospital and she had to have a procedure done. After the insurance paid their part there was $1,403.00 left to pay. Thank God for insurance! The third bill is one we forgot about. Felicia was attending a court reporting school here in Dallas that we were paying for on credit (student loans). The last quarter she attended she dropped early because she was in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy and it was hard for her to maneuver with her steno machine. As a result of dropping early, the student loan did not pay for the classes and the school is now charging her for it ($1,508.00). It looks like if we pay the minimums we can have our deb...

A budget is not something you put off. When we do our budget, it helps us stay on track. In the past, I have written about getting off track but even during those times a budget kept us from going overboard. This time around we kept putting it off and putting it off and just kept spending without a plan. This laziness has hurt us and it pushes us further away from our goals. When we got paid on the15th, we did pretty good and had some extra cash in our envelopes at the end of the two weeks. This paycheck, I know we have spent more than we brought in and had to go tap into savings for non-emergencies. When this happens, it feels like I have let my family down. I am the one who is going to set the example for my children and their money. I could always just spin it and tell them that this is an example of what not to do. I know the habits that we are supposed to have that will make this work. It starts with making the budget. Duh! It needs to be done in order to make the money behave. W...

For the past couple of months, I've been learning to sew. I found a book at Barnes N Noble about making sock dolls and I was inspired. I didn't start sewing with the intention of selling my creations. I started out wanting to feel closer to my mother and grandmother (they both make beautiful blankets and quilts) and I also needed the creative release of doing something with my hands. But today I actually made my first sell, a green monkey by the name of Neon . It happened because I made a sock monkey for my best friend and she started getting all kinds requests from people and asking where she got it from. A friend of hers said that she wanted a green monkey for her baby daughter so I said that I would see what I could come up with. Today, she went by to pick him up and my friend said that the woman fell in love with him and her whole face lit up when she saw him. I have to say that I'm a little sad to see him go but knowing that somebody appreciated him so much makes me fe...