Ugh! Kids can reck a budget so easily!

First off..I love my boys dearly, but boy can they put a wrench in one's budget quicker than a squirrel can run up a tree!

My 14 year old lost his retainer. Ugh! We have torn the house and cars upside down trying to find it. No luck. So we called the orthodontist. He has to have new molds made and they want payment up front. So next Monday I will have to pay $250 up front. They will bill our insurance and they may pay all or some, but it will be awhile before we get that money. We warned the boys that we would only pay one time for lost retainers. After that the buck falls to them! Our 11 year old lost his once and hasn't since...that was more than a year ago...so I think he learned his lesson. We should get our tax money tomorrow and we get paid on Monday. So after Monday I will post what we are able to do with our return. I do not expect much :(

Taxes filed

Our taxes were completed and efiled. But the news is depressing. We will not be getting back as much as we had hoped. This will mean a lot of changes in our goals. Payday is this coming Monday. I am hoping my husband and I can sit and crunch some numbers, write up some budget goals and see what we will be able to achieve. It does not look like it will be enough to pay off our credit card like we had hoped. This is going to make for a tight year and we are going to have to crunch some numbers, sell some goods, pray for overtime and bonuses to come through.

On the upside....we close on our refinance tomorrow (if the blizzard heading our way does not interfere with the lawyer making it to our house!) Our interest rates lowered and we will be looking at a smaller mortgage payment and a smaller amount of time. We will also get one month with no mortgage payment. So that will help in some ways on our savings and payment goals. I also have been having no trouble sticking to our food and personal budgets. Feeling in control of something feels good. With sticking to our personal budgets, selling a few things on ebay, having a yardsale, and one month off from a mortgage payment....who knows perhaps our goals will be achievable.

I just really hope we can find time to sit and do this.....put the budget to paper kind of time. That is always such a struggle. By the time the kiddos are in bed and it is peaceful enough in our home to discuss such issues..I am too wiped out to do it! Well...keep watching and hopefully we will be posting soon some concrete goals and budgets :)

Credit Card limits lowerd again!

So disgusted with our Kroger credit card company. My husband thinks I am crazy to let this bug me, but it truly does. I know we don't plan to use our credit cards, but it still is insulting for my limits to be lowered.

Yesterday, I got a letter in the mail from Krogers. They lowered our limit from I believe it was close to 6000 to 2700. We currently have a CREDIT of $30.00 with them. My husband accidentally overpaid them. We keep wondering if they will pay us interest?? I am not holding my breath!

This year alone, I have charged around $3000 with our Kroger card. We have paid it off and we have at times paid interest charges. So I was sort of shocked to get this letter lowering my credit. This is the 2nd card, of the 4 we have that has done this to us. It just seems insulting. I also think it lowers our credit score. Which really irritates me cause we are in the middle of a refinance. My husband assures me and so did the mortgage company that our loan is already secured based on when they we applied.

Still this angers me. I mean our tax dollars have bailed out these banks big time yet I still feel us regular good paying customers are the ones being screwed over by them.

My husband keeps saying that I am taking this too personal and the bank holding the card is just punching in numbers and looking at numbers. Then he adds..."Who cares! We are not using this card ever again anyway!"

So, am I alone in this...does it bug you when this happens to you?

Scary Mail

Kind of disgusted today. Opened our scary mail to discover our new Visa card from our Credit Union. They mailed us a letter about a month ago saying that our credit union card was switching over from a MasterCard to a Visa and our interest rate was going up from 13.99 to 14.99.

Did we do something wrong? Have we ever gone over our limit? Have we ever made a late payment? NO, NO and NO! So why do they do this...ugh it frustrates me that our government gave these gut sucking companies extra time before the new credit card laws take effect. I knew when they handed out that 6 month grace period these companies would screw everyone over that they could. Are they picking on the people who screw them over? No, they pick on their good customers. The ones who actually make their payments and make them on time. I mean come on! I have heard all the news of the new fees coming our way. You know, the ridiculous ones..such as fees for not using your cards. My husband said this will be our last card. The fees are becoming to scary to keep track of. We are determined that we will be paying it off and building our savings to a decent amount like $10,000. Then cut the puppy up.

I am tempted to apply for a introductory 0% card. Just to transfer this over. Do you think that would be worth it?

P.S. Happy Halloween...we are trick or treating in costumes from our stash...no money spent on this holiday...except for a bag of candy for the treaters. Hope yours is spoookilish!

Not wasting my time with Half.com/amazon.

Thanks for everyones tips on where to sell stuff without paying fees. However, most of my books are only going for $1.00 or less. I don't feel it is worth my time. Besides, it could be months before they are sold and we need to get this stuff out of our house. I have some curriculum stuff that I will sell when the boys are finished, but most of it will just go to our upcoming yard sale. We are planning to have a huge neighborhood sale in May. I honestly can't wait for this sale! I hate clutter and my corner in my basement houseing yard sale stuff is nothing but clutter!

On another note. I am happy to report that our first project in our basement is complete. We built a network closet. It houses our main household computer, battery back up, and office files. We dry-walled, painted, put up shelves, put in a zillion outlets (all hooked up to a special battery to handle a possible surge), and put down armstrong stick tile flooring. We still need to put up a ceiling, but we will wait until the other rooms are completed to allow for easier access to the wires. I took video, but I plan to show that at the end. A simple before before and after video.

The best part is---we have done all of this without using any credt cards! We are still credit card free! I am really proud of this little fact! We are really pacing out the projects and using our cash flow to pay for it.

Last night was another terrible night with kids waking up other kids...all this does is confirm how helpful kids having their own rooms will be! I really can't wait!