Updates of sorts ... aka ramblings.

We're plugging away. The husband's overtime while a hinderance to our play time, has been very important in our quest to pay down things and keep afloat.

Winter is only a few months away
I just read the latest from the Farmers Almanac and have hit up the Craigslist looking for a snowblower on the cheap. They are predicting over average snowfall for the Great Lakes/Midwest and if it's going to be MORE than last year - we are going to need the help of a machine!

On the Workfront
My busy season at work should be ending by mid-September. We have one more training class starting in a couple weeks so that gives me a little boost in the overtime department. I don't know what it is but my paychecks have been lower than they have been in years. Worse yet, that's even with me not allocating any part of my paycheck to my 401k. CRAZY!

Budgets
The good news is that budget is working for us! We have stayed on course with that for 13 months. We did wind up putting DS's wisdom tooth surgery on the Care Credit and that's the first and only "card" usage we've had in that time too. Not that I'm proud of it - but that price tag hit me for more than I had in the "Medical Fund" envelope.

Working for ChaCha is Working for Me!
They've made some changes over the past month but things are working smoothly! The money I've been making by doing ChaCha will go to help pay for gift shopping this Christmas and through out the year. If you are remotely curious about what ChaCha is you can revisit a previous post about ChaCha ---> HERE <--- If you are interested in joining ChaCha I would LOVE if you would use my email address as a referral. So far I have three gals on my team and there is room for many more!!

If Wisdom Teeth were so Wise ...

Wouldn't they know we didn't need them??

Welp, I had to know they were coming sometime. Our DS had his wisdom teeth taken out today. And wouldn't you know it - our medical insurance wouldn't cover it. Not even a dime. Add to our debt total another $2600.00.

Is that my kharma biting me back for buying the car? Yeah, probably.

Another bite to the budget happens next month in the tune of new tires for the dh's car. He's been driving on baldies since last winter. He'll need them before the Ice Capades of Wisconsin driving season starts again.

Things happens in threes? My Cahoots's final vet bill, Tires & Wisdom teeth out. Thank goodness the dh is on overtime pay still!

August Budget

Welcome August - hope I prepared enough for this!

School Registration:
Registration is later this month for my ds's junior year of high school. Nice thing about high school is the school supply list is pretty basic and simple. Paper, Notebooks, Pens, Pencils, Folders, Binders. We don't need 4 glue sticks, 3 packs of crayons, 2 boxes of tissues and what ever else is on those lists that really doesn't NEED to available on the first day of school. (if at all, but I don't want to get in an argument about that) I've been buying supplies on sale with left over grocery money. NICE!

So simple school shopping, a few new pairs of jeans, shoes, funding his lunch account and paying for his woods class projects. That should cover the costs.

Insurance:
You're going to notice some screwy rises in my car insurance. We bought a new car so now we have 3 cars and 3 drivers - so my ds's insurance will go up up up as a full time driver of my old car. So next month you will also see a new car payment in my debt category also.

Out of Debt Date Changes:
So, of course - this is my blog telling my story about how I'm getting out of debt. See how easy it is - even Wendy can do it. Truth is, we threw ourselves a bit deeper into debt by getting the Mazda3 that I have posted previously about. When it comes to the blog, I feel I should be ashamed because 1) I didn't pay cash for it and 2) I didn't wait until I had my credit card debt paid for. However, in the scheme of things in my real life - it was something I felt justified doing. I keep cars for a long time. My last car (which ds will take over on until it's last sputter) I drove for 10 years. 6 of those years with no payments.

Okay, long story short - you will see car payments starting next month.