Crossed My T's - Dotted My I's

It's official. We closed on our HELOC refinance last night ... during more snow!
Our rate was a little lower than I was quoted. NICE! So we have officially moved that HELOC to our BS6 plans which leaves us to concentrate on our last two credit cards. My teaser rate is over in April on my largest one - THAT kind of scares me. The Citibank one is kind of like Sally Mae to some people. It's been around so long it's family. THe APR is close to nothing so most of the payment goes to principle and I'm paying probably $5 a month to finance charges.

I'm just worried about the whole "crumbling bank" theory. I want to get them outa here before they turn around and scr.. me.

WEATHER REPORT: MORE SNOW. We're supposed to get whapped by "substancial" snow tommorow night. Thankfully it's sunny right now. We haven't seen a whole lotta sun lately. I'll take it. I know it won't melt any of this, but at least it gives the illusion of being warmer.

E-mealz : I wound up joining & saved money doing it!

I talked about it last week that I was strongly considering trying the E-mealz because my weekly meals really needed a pick me up. In fact, I haven't even posted my Weekly Menu because it's basically the same things I had already posted. B..O..R..I..N..G!!

I was listening to the Friday Edition of The Dave Ramsey Show and I heard the advertisement for E-Mealz again. I was on my way home from my weekly shopping excursion. I spent $1.04 OVER my weekly budget. I found it ironic because that's what it would cost me a week to join E-mealz with the code: DAVE. No joke.

What is it?
E-Mealz is a menu planning site that not only comes up with a meal plan, it gives you recipes and a shopping list for 7 meals a week.
You can choose between Kroger, Publix or Walmart and your menu plans are built on what is on sale that week. I chose to do the ANY STORE PLAN because I bop between stores so much and although I do have a SuperWalmart close to me - it's not my first choice grocery store.

They also have special needs for families such as LO-CARB, LO-FAT or POINTS SYSTEM for families or ANOTHER plan if you are just cooking for 2.

Although I have a basic outline of my Weekly Menu this week because I went shopping yesterday instead of Tuesday because we are supposed to get "substancial" snow again (man I am so incredibly tired of SNOW), I downloaded my first week's menu.

What's the Menu Look Like?
Sounds pretty good -

1. Mexican Meatloaf
2. Spicy Pork Tenderloin
3. Raspberry Chicken Salad (using rotisserie chicken that I can get FREE at work!)
4. Sausage Fajitas (using smoked sausage that ALWAYS goes on sale)
5. Chicken and Rice bake
6. Cauliflower Cheese Soup
7. Tater Tot Casserole

And recipes look very easy too. Not that I will do 100% of my weekly meals based on this, but it sure puts a few more options into my boring menu list and doesn't seem to cost an arm & a leg.

I'm sure a brunt of the shopping list may be done at Aldi, but I 'll let you know how I do with the recipes and what the price list comes up to be.

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families
Enter Code: DAVE for $2.50 off membership! ($12.50 for 3 months)
That's $1.04 a week for weekly meal plan, recipes and organized shopping list.

Hey, Guess what. It's snowing.....AGAIN!

Oh boy is it ever snowing. Everything is closed -- they are closing highways because the plows can't keep up. No worries. I'm home, hubby's home, the boy is home....we are all snug in the house....and BORED! Well ds not so much...he's got XBOX LIVE. So he's entertained.

So far since the snow started yesterday I've:
Baked Brownies, Beer Bread & Zucchini Bread
Made Spinach Crab Dip, dinner last night, prepped dinner for tonight and set up the crock pot for tommorow night.
OH! And homemade hot cocoa for when the boys came in from shoveling earlier.

I've had it with the kitchen today.

I did had on the tv and started watching Oprah. I don't usually watch daytime tv at all... I save myself for night time sitcoms, Lost and begrudgingly American Idol. Today on Oprah, they were talking about the book: The Secret. I know it got a lot of hubb-bubb last year. I never really catch on to things brand new I guess because although I had heard about it -- I never intended to read it.

Has anyone read The Secret? What did you think about it? Of course, because it was on Oprah today the auctions on ebay closing anytime soon have got bids up the ying yang. Tell me that lady doesn't have power over people! YIKERS!

The Refinance Insurance Policy (update on the refi)

The rate was locked on Wednesday and my paperwork is all in and accounted for. I just have to wait for our virtual "closing". (closing by phone - sounds like)

We were offered so many choices and so many variations of those choices. I wanted to stay with the bank we are currently doing business with. We might have been given better rates, but I felt more comfortable sticking with the same company.

What we chose to do was:
Keep the original loan at 5.99% -no changes made
Refinance the HELOC and LOCK it at 8.90%
No Appraisal Fee
No Pre Payment Penalty
No Closing Costs.
15 year loan

Basically it's the same APR and monthly payment as I'm paying now but it's over a little longer stretch and it's NOT ON A VARIABLE!

A lot of my options involved refinancing the whole thing together in which either my APR went up plus I had closing costs or the APR went down BY A HAIR and I had closing costs. This might not be the best route for everyone. I felt it was a good insurance policy for us against an uncertain future of the economy. I will sleep better knowing that the $30k is on a fixed rate for the 15 years and that it's being moved into BS6 where it belongs!!!

Sky is a little brighter today

Despite the 6 inches of snow that got dumped onto us overnight, today is going to be a great day!

As promised, February would be the month of payoffs.

Today, I have written the check that will pay off our 5 year loan with Chase - in only 2 years 7 months! The second auto transfer to Chase knocks out our $7,600 credit card!

The story of our multiple credit card problem is a simple one. When the card you are using gets too close to the limit -- you surf it over to a card with a low APR and a lot of space to hold the loan. Then what? You charge more -- surf it to another card, charge more - surf it to ANOTHER card. NO MORE! We started our Total Money Makeover "OFFICIALLY" in July and we haven't charged since!

So far we've paid off:

1. My son's emergency root canal and crown
2. Discover Card
3. Chase Card (which was a surfed Citibank)
4. Chase Car Loan
5. Chase Card (a potent storage card with a teaser APR about to expire)

We are going through with the refinance on the HELOC so as soon as that closes the sky will be even more bright! Then we wage war against the two debts left. B of A (which will be painful because of the APR) and my Citibank with silly incredibly low APR.

Hope everyone has a bright day!