I have been trying to figure out the free sample process. I read about the bloggers who find a way to have a constant stream of samples coming to their door but I always end up only finding the ones that are for heartburn medicine or cat food (btw-we don't own a cat).
For once however, I stumbled across free samples from P&G. I ordered the ones for Downy Unstoppables, Cascade Dishwasher Tablets, and one of their brands of paper towels.
Now those are some samples I can use!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Stockpiling Cash in 2012
DH and I just found out that we are expecting! We are super excited but also a little bit nervous because of our student loan debt. We have decided to follow Dave Ramsey's recommended advice and only pay the minimums on our debts and stockpile cash until the baby is home and healthy.
So I am trying to decide if I should pick up some extra work serving tables a few nights a month. That was the original plan before the BFP. Do you all have any advice?
With DD5, I worked until 38 weeks coaching gymnastics and serving tables as well. But this time around, I am 5 years older and I am already feeling much more tired than I remembered with DD5.
I think I may give it a shot and if it doesn't work out so be it. First priority right now is Baby. Second priority is student loans.
So I am trying to decide if I should pick up some extra work serving tables a few nights a month. That was the original plan before the BFP. Do you all have any advice?
With DD5, I worked until 38 weeks coaching gymnastics and serving tables as well. But this time around, I am 5 years older and I am already feeling much more tired than I remembered with DD5.
I think I may give it a shot and if it doesn't work out so be it. First priority right now is Baby. Second priority is student loans.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
My Meal Plan 1.08.12-1.14.12
I am trying to become more organized and proactive within our home in order to save more money. So I am attempting something that has never been done before in our household . . . weekly menu planning. It makes sense right? Schools plan their menus, prisons plan their menus, and we well, look in the cabinets and fridge, decide nothing looks that great and decide to hit the drive thru for some fast food. (BTW-This is not a budget friendly habit).
This week I will start off small and only plan for dinners. Next week, I will plan for both breakfasts and lunches. Note-Dinner is the time when we normally screw up and go to a restaurant. So I am not super concerned about those right now. So here is my very first menu plan!
Sunday
-Swedish meatballs and pasta (I already have all of the ingredients)
Monday
-Spaghetti and Meatballs with Salad
Tuesday
-Crockpot chicken breast with diced tomatoes and rotel, served as tacos with sour cream, lettuce, and cheese
Wednesday
-Fish sticks and mac 'n' cheese
Thursday
-Pinto beans, ham, and cornbread
Friday
-Baked Ziti with Salad and breadsticks
Saturday
-Italian Baked Chicken with Salad and breadsticks
Hopefully, I will begin to see some savings by cooking at home instead of going out to eat. All money saved from this experiment will go towards paying off wells fargo! I will be posting my recipes during the week so please check back!
This week I will start off small and only plan for dinners. Next week, I will plan for both breakfasts and lunches. Note-Dinner is the time when we normally screw up and go to a restaurant. So I am not super concerned about those right now. So here is my very first menu plan!
Sunday
-Swedish meatballs and pasta (I already have all of the ingredients)
Monday
-Spaghetti and Meatballs with Salad
Tuesday
-Crockpot chicken breast with diced tomatoes and rotel, served as tacos with sour cream, lettuce, and cheese
Wednesday
-Fish sticks and mac 'n' cheese
Thursday
-Pinto beans, ham, and cornbread
Friday
-Baked Ziti with Salad and breadsticks
Saturday
-Italian Baked Chicken with Salad and breadsticks
Hopefully, I will begin to see some savings by cooking at home instead of going out to eat. All money saved from this experiment will go towards paying off wells fargo! I will be posting my recipes during the week so please check back!
My Reading List for 2012
I have decided to structure my reading for 2012 in order to a). condense the amount of time I spend reading and 2). to cut down on my amazon purchases. I think this will be beneficial in many ways but primarily because I want to use the money that was spent on amazon to be diverted into paying off my arch nemesis . . . wells fargo. So without further hemming and hawing, here is my TBR (to be read) list for 2012.
January:
Money, Possessions, and Eternity
February:
The Merchant of Venice
March:
Heaven
April:
Your Money or Your Life
May:
Interior Castle
June:
The Money Class
July:
Little Girls In Pretty Boxes
August:
Present Value
September:
I Don't Know How She Does It
October:
A Rose For The Crown
November:
The Piano Teacher
December:
More Than A Housewife
So, what will you be reading in 2012? Do you make a set list and read from it? Or do you just grab whatever you are in the mood for?
January:
Money, Possessions, and Eternity
February:
The Merchant of Venice
March:
Heaven
April:
Your Money or Your Life
May:
Interior Castle
June:
The Money Class
July:
Little Girls In Pretty Boxes
August:
Present Value
September:
I Don't Know How She Does It
October:
A Rose For The Crown
November:
The Piano Teacher
December:
More Than A Housewife
So, what will you be reading in 2012? Do you make a set list and read from it? Or do you just grab whatever you are in the mood for?
Friday, January 6, 2012
Superpoints----What is it?
So many of you have heard about swagbucks already, put a lot of you probably have not heard of superpoints yet. It is much like swagbucks except instead of searching to get your points, you click the "Superlucky" Button. I have been doing this for about 2 weeks (averaging 2 minutes a day) and have already been able to redeem $10.00 in paypal cash. Will it make me a millionaire? Probably not. BUT-it does provide some extra cash and I am on the computer at that time anyway. Why not make a little bit of extra spending money (or in my case, loan repayment money) in your free time?
I am listing the invite token below. As far as I can tell, you must be invited in order to join superpoints. If you decide to join using the token, please comment in the space below so that I can put up a new one for other readers. Thank you! (Note, if the link does not click, feel free to copy and paste).
http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/6epcso
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
My Goals for 2012
As we are now in about one week into 2012. I stumbled across a blog post at one of my faves, www.moneysavingmom.com. The author has decided to outline her goals for 2012. Encouraged by her organization and ambition. I have decided to list my goals for 2012 as well. Please feel free to share your goals as well!
Reading:
I plan to read 12 books on my TBR (to-be-read) list. I will share these in a later post.
Financial:
Get BEF (baby emergency fund) to $1,000.00.
Pay off Student Loan People 1.
Pay off Chase Private Loan.
Pay $5,000 to Wells Fargo.
Marriage:
Continue semiregular date nights.
Set goals together and include an accountability plan.
Business:
Continue to grow my personal business
Continue to blog regularly (i.e. 3-4 days per week).
Household:
Get organized and declutter.
Complete at least one load of laundry everyday including putting it away (the hard part it seems).
Parenting:
Have one night a week where DD picks our family activity and there are no cell phones, TV, or other distractions.
Begin a read aloud series with her in order to help her to learn to love to read.
Spiritual:
This will continue into 2013 but I have decided to fully convert to Catholicism. RCIA should begin sometime around August.
Learn the rosary from memory.
Recite rosary, meditate, pray daily.
Read my daily verses.
So it looks like 2012 will be full of goals. What about your plan for 2012? What do you plan to do?
Reading:
I plan to read 12 books on my TBR (to-be-read) list. I will share these in a later post.
Financial:
Get BEF (baby emergency fund) to $1,000.00.
Pay off Student Loan People 1.
Pay off Chase Private Loan.
Pay $5,000 to Wells Fargo.
Marriage:
Continue semiregular date nights.
Set goals together and include an accountability plan.
Business:
Continue to grow my personal business
Continue to blog regularly (i.e. 3-4 days per week).
Household:
Get organized and declutter.
Complete at least one load of laundry everyday including putting it away (the hard part it seems).
Parenting:
Have one night a week where DD picks our family activity and there are no cell phones, TV, or other distractions.
Begin a read aloud series with her in order to help her to learn to love to read.
Spiritual:
This will continue into 2013 but I have decided to fully convert to Catholicism. RCIA should begin sometime around August.
Learn the rosary from memory.
Recite rosary, meditate, pray daily.
Read my daily verses.
So it looks like 2012 will be full of goals. What about your plan for 2012? What do you plan to do?
Monday, January 2, 2012
So What's The Game Plan?
I come from a family of football coaches. As was expected I too have gone into coaching sports although I chose the more feminine sports of competitve gymnastics and all star cheerleading to coach. One important thing no matter if you are coaching football or chess, is to have a game plan.
Outlined here is my plan for getting the student loans paid off. I am attempting to use a modified Dave Ramsey approach to debt repayment. I will go further into the Dave Ramsey method in another post. For now, however I will let you know what I have decided to do for my family.
1). We will continue to contribute to liquid savings every month. Right now, we have $10 in our savings account at the bank and some loose change scattered on the kitchen table. So far, so good.
I have no idea how much will we actually contribute to savings each month but I would assume we are trying for $25 every two weeks or $50/month.
2). I want to pay off Wells Fargo first because of all of the student loans, they suck the most. They won't negotiate the payment AT ALL or the payment terms AT ALL. So I have decided that they need to get the heck up out of here.
3). We will snowball our debt payments as each debt is paid off. More to come on the subject of snowballing BTW.
4). One of us will get a substantial pay increase in order to pay the loans off sooner.
5). Sell the degrees to someone who actually believes that degrees are the answer for a better life. IMO, they would get the raw end of the deal and demand their money back.
So what is your plan for paying off your debt? Do you have ordered steps? Or are you just making the payments every month until you don't have to any more?
Outlined here is my plan for getting the student loans paid off. I am attempting to use a modified Dave Ramsey approach to debt repayment. I will go further into the Dave Ramsey method in another post. For now, however I will let you know what I have decided to do for my family.
1). We will continue to contribute to liquid savings every month. Right now, we have $10 in our savings account at the bank and some loose change scattered on the kitchen table. So far, so good.
I have no idea how much will we actually contribute to savings each month but I would assume we are trying for $25 every two weeks or $50/month.
2). I want to pay off Wells Fargo first because of all of the student loans, they suck the most. They won't negotiate the payment AT ALL or the payment terms AT ALL. So I have decided that they need to get the heck up out of here.
3). We will snowball our debt payments as each debt is paid off. More to come on the subject of snowballing BTW.
4). One of us will get a substantial pay increase in order to pay the loans off sooner.
5). Sell the degrees to someone who actually believes that degrees are the answer for a better life. IMO, they would get the raw end of the deal and demand their money back.
So what is your plan for paying off your debt? Do you have ordered steps? Or are you just making the payments every month until you don't have to any more?
Student Loan Total: January 2012
As we previously discussed, in my first post, DH and I have mondo student loans. We owe more money for education than most people owe for their house. So I thought I would break the student loans down by who we owe and how much we owe. That way I can give a running cumulative total as we track the progress.
Student Loan People #1: $1779.49
Student Loan People #2: $18,562.89
Direct Loans #1: $20,997.42
Direct Loans #2: $63,319.09
Chase Private Loan: $7,300.92
Wells Fargo Private Loan: $46,072.17
Which all adds up to a GRAND TOTAL of : $158,031.98
Hope you all are ready for a long ride in paying these bad boys off. A long the way, I hope we can all share some encouragement amongst one another. I will be sharing ways that we are actively trying to pay down this debt and share some of my favorite blogs/financial books with you.
So, have you done your debt calculation? Feel free to share in the comment box below if you have any financial goals for 2012, or if you have any questions for me.
Student Loan People #1: $1779.49
Student Loan People #2: $18,562.89
Direct Loans #1: $20,997.42
Direct Loans #2: $63,319.09
Chase Private Loan: $7,300.92
Wells Fargo Private Loan: $46,072.17
Which all adds up to a GRAND TOTAL of : $158,031.98
Hope you all are ready for a long ride in paying these bad boys off. A long the way, I hope we can all share some encouragement amongst one another. I will be sharing ways that we are actively trying to pay down this debt and share some of my favorite blogs/financial books with you.
So, have you done your debt calculation? Feel free to share in the comment box below if you have any financial goals for 2012, or if you have any questions for me.
Why my student loan(s) suck . . .
As we begin the new year of 2012, I take pause to say that student loans suck! I am dedicating this blog to my journey to be rid of my student loans and my Dh's student loans.
A little background before we begin . . .
I decided to major in well, who am I kidding? Like I had a major at count 'em 3 different schools in two different states. Did I graduate? That would be a resounding NO! Did I party like it was 2003? I sure did. Did I take out two student loans to finance this over the top, never ending spring break? You bet.
Enter DH, he chose to go to an out of state college in the beginning and then transferred after two years to a private college (because that was smart) to get a liberal arts degree financed by (how did you guess?) student loans. Then on top of that, decided to get a Masters and then went A.B.D. in a social science before realizing the social science professors make the salaries equivalent to lunch ladies. These two very special degrees were subsidized by both private and federal student loans.
Q: But, JB? Why did DH take out student loans when most grad students get a stipend?
Honest Answer: Because the social science stipends are barely enough to buy Cheetos let alone pay for living expenses.
Now we are collectively out in the real world and much to our dismay, the federal government, Chase, and Wells Fargo seem to want their money back.
This blog will be dedicated to tracking our progress of paying these banshees off. Stay tuned for my next post as I reveal just how much we have to pay off.
A little background before we begin . . .
I decided to major in well, who am I kidding? Like I had a major at count 'em 3 different schools in two different states. Did I graduate? That would be a resounding NO! Did I party like it was 2003? I sure did. Did I take out two student loans to finance this over the top, never ending spring break? You bet.
Enter DH, he chose to go to an out of state college in the beginning and then transferred after two years to a private college (because that was smart) to get a liberal arts degree financed by (how did you guess?) student loans. Then on top of that, decided to get a Masters and then went A.B.D. in a social science before realizing the social science professors make the salaries equivalent to lunch ladies. These two very special degrees were subsidized by both private and federal student loans.
Q: But, JB? Why did DH take out student loans when most grad students get a stipend?
Honest Answer: Because the social science stipends are barely enough to buy Cheetos let alone pay for living expenses.
Now we are collectively out in the real world and much to our dismay, the federal government, Chase, and Wells Fargo seem to want their money back.
This blog will be dedicated to tracking our progress of paying these banshees off. Stay tuned for my next post as I reveal just how much we have to pay off.
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