still hanging on...barely

I am still looking for a job, I am still broke, I lay awake all night worrying about finances, how I am going to buy food for my kids, how I am going to buy school supplies etc. I used the little bit of money I saved up over the past week to buy dinner at the store for the past two nights, my sister got another loan and I used that to buy diapers for my daughter, dinner last night, and dog food, it took all of it so I am still broke, I am worried about buying the supplements for my children that they need next week. I am still looking for a job I applied at seven places this past week and I have four more applications to turn in today. I am going to hopefully get a job during the day and put the kids in daycare then I am going to also try to get on overnights somewhere for awhile and work both jobs until I out of this rut.

finding light at the end

I am very far from finding light at the end of my long dark tunnel, but I did find hope. My children are on special diets and I have always found it hard to put them in daycare for various reasons. My mom works at a daycare and they will take my children and I can bring their food, so now i am on a quest to find any job with any hours that is in my town so that if I have to I can walk to work. I am also going to find another job overnight to see if I can get out of debt at lightening speed so that I can save money, buy a house and live happily ever after.

still haven't bought anything

It has been about three days since I have bought anything and then the only thing I bought was food for dinner. I never leave the house hardly anymore it is easier to save money when you don't go anywhere. It is also better for my sanity to not have to take the kids anywhere. I am still saving a little bit everyday to pay bills. I am also still looking for a job. I have applied for two so far and have heard nothing back. i am trying to get a job before school starts so that I can buy school supplies and shoes for my children without having to get a loan. I am afraid I am going to have to get one anyway to cover bills that are going to be due end of the month.I did manage to pay off one of the beds last week. that brings our furniture bill down to $100 a week which saves us $160 a month. I am not going to really see it though because i have to pay back loans end of the month.

so far so good

so far this week I have managed to put at least $1 in savings everyday, I talked to my credit card company and they are not going to charge off my account, they are giving me 1 month to come up with about $130 to get caught up, then I will not use it, I am going to pay off my debt one bill at a time, I am clearing out the house of all the stuff i do not need and I am not buying anything unless I have an immediate need for it. The kids are going along fine with it, they are sharing a room now, and starting next month we will be splitting the bills 4 ways so I will be savings on rent and utilities. i am still looking for a job, it is going slow. I am hoping to have one before school starts. i feel better since we have less stuff in the house. too much stuff can suffocate you. Now everything has a place to go and I am not tempted to buy extra stuff. i will keep posting on how things are going.

getting down to the basics

I am watching my spending, I have only spent $21 in three days, I am just buying things we cannot live without, and I am living without some things that I really need. I am going to pay off one of the furniture bills this week. Next week i am going to have a garage sale and I am going to send all of the money I make from it to my credit card. Tonight I am going to look for a job overnight so that I can make more money and still take care of my kids during the day. I am also not buying any junk food anymore for me,I am not wasting a single penny on anything that doesn't have to do with survival. I am cleaning out the house and selling anything that I am allowed to so that I can get out of debt faster. I have always lived simply, and I have always been somewhat poor, but I am really getting back to the very basics. I have discovered that peace of mind, not worrying about debt, credit problems and not having collectors clog up your phone lines and mailbox is far more important than stuff, I have also decided that since my children have not outgrown their clothes yet that I am not going to buy them school clothes this year, just shoes, supplies and my son will get a haircut. I am going to continue to post about my successes as well as my failures until I am living in a brick home on my own land and my credit score is almost perfect. $40,000 left to go.

The weekend on a budget

I like to go to garage sales, it is a hobby of mine, but this time I went with just $30 in my pocket and I promised not to go over. I just bought what I thought I could use, I got some clothes for my children, I bought a monkey from Aladdin, still in the box, I bought a few toys for my daycare and I got my mom some movies and books for her daycare and I got her a weed eater and I spent $32 I went two dollars over but that is not bad at all. I am proud of myself. everything was on a budget. we took the kids to the local theme park and got the special season pass for everybody. I already had mine and everyone else had theirs so I just bought my kids theirs. So now even when we are broke we will still have something to do. I bring my own food and drinks for everyone in a back pack, and with the kids being on a special diet we would have to anyway, but it saves us a ton of money. I bring bottles of tea and Capri suns and two kinds of chips and the older kids bring their own in their bag, the park charges $2 for a small bag of chips, I can get a great big bag for $3 at the store. I am still broke and money is still tight, but I am going to make it through to the end. I have my eye on the big house in the country. today I am going to try not to spend any money at all. I will report tonight.

making a new start

I haven't posted for awhile because I have been busy and I kinda fell off the wagon in saving and getting out of debt. If anything I am in even more debt now than I was. my student loans are going to default in about 3 months and I do not have any more options to pay them back. I do not bring in enough income to take care of my children and help with the utilities and rent here. I have four loans out now that I am paying back, one was for my sons birthday so that I could give him one, the other three are for various things like food, clothes etc. I am trying not to buy anyhting that I do not need, I did buy my son a power wheel because the one I got at a garage sale did not work and I knew that he would not understand why he got one and can't ride it, my daughter's works that I got at the same sale. I am also still buying most everything used when I do buy something. i got my son a dog in january, he is part boxer and part lab so he cost about $100 a month to feed and my daughter has a cheweenie (part daushund part chihauhau) she cost about $10 every three months to feed and we still have the cat but he doesn't cost much to keep. another new expense is that because my son is adhd and autistic, and my daughter is adhd I have put them both on the gfcf diet, it cost a fortune to feed them and I am still coming up with ways to feed them for less they are both doing better and are coming off their medicine, so it is worth the expense I am also no longer going to give myself a year to do it all. I am going to give myself till the end of my sons fifth grade year, he will be going into third this year so I have three years to get it done. I am going to quit eating out, quit buying junk for me and make more stuff from scratch. I am only going to buy school pictures in the spring and I am not doing book clubs this year, I am going to pay off my loans and get slowly weened away from borrowing money, I am going to then start paying my credit cards and get them to be at a zero balance then I am not going to use them. I am going to start saving first by saving my change then go up from there. I will report here every night and share my expenses, my purchases for that day and why I made them and what I should have done differently. This blog will be my accountability person. I am starting on 6/20/2009 and I shall conclude this blog on 6/20/2012
by then I should be debt free and own my own house in the country and also own my own daycare center where I will be a partner with my mom.