get my finances in order

7.73 for supper tonight/lunch tomorrwo – not too bad. chicken drumsticks on sale for 79 cents a lb, bbq sauce on sale, and 5 ears of unhusked corn for 2.00.
2.16 red bull – to push me to go to 1 hour strength training class at 5:30, then drive 30 miles, see my mother, drive 5 miles and be home to do housework and yardwork, and cook supper
looked at my phone and I did have one call yesterday – husbands pref plat bill who I had already arranged to pay before 5/23, but the bill is o/s so they called me again anyway
Today, just osme political opinon outfit called, but I hung up when I heard their automated speech
Not too bad today so far

My phone had no missed calls, but if my husband looked at it, it would have taken them off as missed. I was glad no one called me though. I left my phone in the car this morning so I wwould not have to hear it ring. Won’t be able to this afternoon though, it will get too hot in car.

wound up chewing 9 1/4 pieces of gum yesterday because I did not go to bed until 10pm. Did take off 12 loads of leaves, so that made me feel good. walked 10 minutes on lunch break, ran 20 minutes after work so that made me feel good too. Plan to rake more leaves today, and go to 1 hour prepaid strength training class after work.

Wound up spending 15.00 on 12 pack cokes, gallon milk which turned over and leaked in car, and 6 pack beer. husband did not buy anything for house with his 13.00 – I think he bought beer, cigarettes and when I called him before I left work he said he bought only a power ade to drink becasue we did not have anything left to drink at the house (we have bottled water my mom bought us).

Husband was not thrilled with saving cans to sell. He says they become an eye sore when you store them and you don’t get hardly anything for them. I’m still doing it though, becuase I believe something is better than nothing. Almost threw away the red bull i finished yesterday, took empty coke cans husband left around house, pulled some out of the garbage that I had thrown away the day before, took bosses leftover can from yesterday off his desk and cleaned out and put in separate trash can until I grab it before I leave work today. Saw a large beer can in woods on my dog walk this morning I will grab when I get home, then it’s cleaning out the shed garbage cans to find more cans.

don’t want to spend any money today – i do not think we have anything left to eat at the house, so something will have to be bought. will try to do it on the cheap – look at cheapcooking.com for ideas. I have a few staples on hand – can chili,dry noodles, some kind of cream soup – maybe celery, crackers, eggs, butter, poh curly q french fries!

My mismatched diamond earrings were not worth bothering with for the jeweler. Of course, the earring my mother gave me 30 years ago is real, the one my husband gave me 20 years ago is not. Jeweler told me to hold onto the real one and if I had another lot to bring in, include it, but by itself it was only worth a 1.00. I lost one of each pair, so I used to wear the remaining of each set even though one was in a different setting and smaller.

At least I checked on it. Now aluminum cans will be my focus, even though I know it won’t be a lot of money. Something is better than nothing.

Hope that I will not have to spend any money today. Only have 3 pieces of gum left with me for the rest of the day after I finish the piece I am on now. It should last till at least 12:30pm, then I can drink a hwole bottle of water, then work a little, then eat my lunch, then walk, then work a little, and maybe it will be 2:30 by then.

My husband stayed home from work – I had to call his boss to tell him. Normally I check my phone before I leave the house to see if my husband calls me, because he gets mad if he can’t reach me and he needed me to drop off something from the house on my way to work. But since he was home this morning I didn’t check my phone and actually left it on the nightstand. Can’;t wait to see which creditors called when I get home today.
only chewed 7 1/2 pieces of nicorette Tuesday also, same as Monday. Took off 5 loads of leaves when I got home so that made me feel good, as well as going to 4-h Strength training class for an hour, and I called Jan before I went into class becasue I got there a little early – could not wait to leave work.

Still have some red bull left from yesterday so I won’t have to buy another today. going to wait until 5 pm to drink it to motivate me to go run. Brought my diamond earrings today; will make myself go to jewelers agin. Plan not to spend any money today if possible. Know we are out of milk, and cokes, so I may have to call husband before I leave work to see if he bought anything with his 13.00, since he does not have to go to work. Hopefully he is taking off the scrap metal today – that will be 120.00.

I decided yesterday I could start saving my drink cans and cash them in when I get a bunch. another way to make a little money

I should get some kind of points reward for having to go over all the same info with the same creditor within a hour time span. They don’t note anything on your account unless you make a payment, and I am telling them I do not have a checking account becuase I cannot afford the 28.00 nsf fees if I don’t have the money in the account at the time of the draft. Even if the payment was returned my bank is still charging me 28.00 to return it.

wasted that 2.00. drinking some of red bull now. will try to save rest for tomorrow. Instead of calling old navy, I called belk because they were the ones that called my phone this mornning. going to go 2 months past due on the account in 4 days. Told them I would not be able to help it becuase I have to pay my house note this friday so I don’t go two months past due on it. Told them I would pay something on May 4, but it wouldn’t be the 87.50 minimum they want. Total due is 188.00 and I told them I would try to get it up to date by May 18.

I normally never want to spend my money on the lotto, and don’t know why people that don’t have any money do it. But I did it. After boss leaves early for the day (again – and co-worker did not even show up today) I’m going to scratch it off and see if i won anything.

decided to face my fear of embarassment again and see if I can find the two little diamond earrings I’ve had for 30 years and bring to jeweler to sell.

I bought 30 gas and 2 on lotto. Bought the cat food, gave in to temptation and bought a red bull. didn’t want to blow off exercising again today. bought 5.00 sunscreen – is this a luxury? preventing cancer mainly, my mother has had it. also for my melasma because I noticed the brown spoltches coming back on my forehead this morning – i ran out of sunscreen about 6 months and have not bought anymore so I could save money.

It wears on you; I have to remember that this is not a permanent situation. I don’t know which one just called but I could not answer because I am at work.

I paid old navy 20.00 by checkfreepay at the grocery store on my way home yesterday, and got a 55.00 money order that I am mailing today to be able to stay in Chase debt repayment program with no interest, fees and this one 55.00 a month payment.

Today I have to buy cat food. I knew I would run out last night, but yesterday I bought dog food and small bag cat litter. I removed one litter box yesterday – hope there is no poop on floor this evening – and don’t plan to but it back. So now I have three litter boxes, 2 have the clumping litter I bought last Friday and one has the clay litter I bought yesterday. Had to feed a few cats some roast my mother gave me – they are 16 to 18 years old and the dog food I gave to them was too hard/big for them to chew up. I plan to eat the roast beef on a sandwich for supper tonight.

Stopped and got beer on way home also last night. Ate very lean last night – 2 very small slices of pizza, small slice of chocolate cake from my mother, and beer. For lunch today, I brought the few Green beans grandson did not eat, last slice of pizza, and rest of chocolate cake, and tea from my mother. Have 3/4 apple left from yesterday and a few pretzels.

Only had 7 1/2 pieces of nicorette yesterday – very good for me. But I did go to bed at 8pm!!! That helped alot, and I slept till 7:15 this morning, was very tired. Soon as I got in after stopping at grocery store to pay old navy and get money order, and stopped by to check on mother, I raked and took off about 6 loads of leaves, feed dogs, cleaned out two litter boxes and refilled one litter box, scooped out two. took sheets out of dryer and moved washed clothes to dryer and dried. cleaned my coffee pot and blender and set up for this morning, washed out side the frig shelf and bin that raw chicken leaked into, but did not put it back yet. wiped the kitchen floor by hand with a rag (no mop) and wiped down my kitchen counters. Set my clothes out for today, which I turned out not to wear becuase I put on black underwear and was about to put on white shorts over that!!! Did not call Jan; have been putting that off since I got her letter and new phone number Friday. Left my husband his 13.00 for today to spend, and asked him to please not order any more movies for a while, becuase I got an e-mail from directtv yesterday while at work and saw he had ordered one – 19.99 charged to the cable bill. That’s why I have to pay 240.00 a month for cable. ridicoulus. I turned my phone off so he couldn’t use it – he has once or twice taken it without me knwoing and downloaded things that put 70.00 extra on my bill. I don’t do that – my bill is 45.00 a month; his bill is already 125.00 or more a month.

I have to remember this is not a permanent situation. Creditors will get paid and they will stop calling. I have to have patience, courage and focus to get through this. It wil be stressful but I will do things to relieve the stress.

Last night I went to bed early, after I took a hot bubble bath while reading a good book I got from the library – knwo its good because I found my self talking outloud several times when things happened – oh my gosh! Ican’t believe that! all while I was eating my pizza and drinking beer, with chocolate cake for dessert.

Today I am going to prepaid 4-h strength training class for an hour after work. Hope to get home in time enough to take off at least two loads of leaves, walkt the dogs becuase I did not yesterday (did this morning), and bring my frig shelf and bin back inside, finish washing husbands clothes, dry and put up, and put up the things I dried last night. Wash and dry my clothes also. Would love to iron, but not enough time. Have cluttered up kids closet with old toys their mom passed on to me, and I want to bag some up and give to lady in town for her grandkids, so that I can get into the closet again – a walk in closet that you cannot walk into right now. and I have to unload my dishwasher so I can reload it. Cook hamburger helper no. 2 of 3 soI’ll have plenty for lunch tomorrow. Will porbably be out of milk, but that’s ok because I used up last of banana in my smoothie this morning. Need to change my bedsheets, dogs get hair on it each night and it has to be changed almost daily. Spencer the catneeds a bath to control fleas and I need to vacuum also, and wash the outside dogs bedsheets and put new ones down.

Is that it? Is that all? no, still need to call jan and lots of other things. But I would really like to go to bed early again. Take some benedryl and lay down at least before 9pm.

I decided I would call one creditor per day, try to keep things under control that way. I called Victorias Secret and could not believe they were so willing to move my bank draft from 4/27 to 5/11 for 125.00, becuase I owe them 260.00 total in payments, 1400.00 total balance. I told them I planned to get my bank balance back to positive before May 10, so their May 11 draft should be ok. Then I would call them back after the 125.00 went through to plan another payment.

Boss and co-worker left early today (again, also Friday) so I decided to call FMCH about my medical bill – I had been paying them 10.00 a month, but now owe them for two months. I noticed on my bill a new charge, 15.00, that was only over 30 days old. All the others were over 120 days old. The hospital is where you call for billing questions, but she was no help at all. She was saying, it at least it sounded like it, that the clinic had applied October 2011 co-payment for a doctor visit to something else I owed in March 2011. So when I went to the Dr in January 2012 and paid my 15.00 co-payment, it was applied to October 2011 co-payment that was due. A complete mess; I’ve kind of decided to pay 10.00 before the next bill on may 13, then when they send me a complete bill again I can look over it. They make it so confusing you can’t follow the trail of charges and payments. But if they screwed up I don’t want to pay an extra 15.00. I only owe them 27.23, if the 15.00 new charge is correct. If it is not correct, I only owe them 12.23!!!

I looked for more jewelry to sell last night, but I got everything Friday, and that wasn;t much, but the 110.00 I got was great.

Amazon store called me several times today. I tried calling them back before I called VSC, but when someone got on the line I could not hear anything and said hello about 15 times before I hung up. Luckily they just called back and I explained to them that I had already called them and arranged to send them 92.00 before May 15, and no I did not have a checking account that I could schedule it from becuase I have to pay the VSC 125.00 5/11, and my health insurance is going to try to draft again on the 29th and it will fail and I will have to call them to do manual drafts of two months premiums for me and my husband before May 20 or the policies will cancel.

I sent bank lady an e-mail today after I talked to her croonie by e-mail Friday. They charged me 56.00 to return the Blue Cross drafts on the 15th – bitches. I asked and they would only waive 28.00 of the 56.00. I guess that was better than nothing. That reminds me I need to add that to my budget worksheet, and also the 12.00 monthly checking account service charge they charged me.

I got Chase paid 79.00 so I am still in good standing in their debt repayment program, I got a mo for electric bill and will mail it out this afternoon. I bought a BIG bag of doogfood for 13.00, instead of the little bags that last me three days for 5.00, sometimes 5.49 or 6.00 if I buy it at the grocery store. I need to clean and refill two litter boxes, but I am only doing one today and bought a 1.00 bag of generic clay litter – the smell , I know. I ran out of contact lens rewetting drops and I can’t wear my contacts without it so I bought some. Will try to use sparingly – putting far away so I can’t reach for it over and over every day. Really went through some nicorette gum over the weekend – just one piece after the other. Really going to have to cut back the rest of this week so it will last a minimum of 10 days – that is 10 pieces each day if it lasts that long. I want it to last longer! I have chewed three pieces so far today since 7:15 this morning. Trying to drink whole bottle of water between pieces, and not chew any right after I eat, or while I am drinking anything.

Could not make the old navy payment becuase the bill did not have the full account number printed on it – will try this afternoon at grocery store on my way home, and if not then I may be able to do it before work in the morning. Radio Shack stops taking payments at 4pm.