Wow! I can't believe that it has been over 2 years since I posted on here. Even though I haven't written on my blog, I've been reading others' entries! Financially, many things have changed over that time. I will give an update in the next couple of days.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Just wishing all the mothers, grandmothers, etc. a great Mother's Day celebration!

Today will most likely be a NSD for me.

I have scheduled for a Direct TV installation tomorrow. I've been comparing both Dish & Direct for a couple of weeks. I have heard good AND bad points about both. Direct TV seems to be a better value at least in my area with promotions, rebates, etc. I just am tired of my ever-increasing cable TV bill combined with less & less channels over the last several years. I should have made a change years ago, but it was just convenient and I was comfortable with it.

Anyway, I hope that I've made the right choice. I know I will save at least $20/month, at least during the promo period of 2 years. I just hope that I am happy with the quality of Direct TV and their customer service.

Like usual, on my way to work, I stopped by the convenience store to fill up my gas tank. It is normally much less expensive there. Today it was 14 cents less/gal. than in this area. I think that's a record difference in the year since I've been commuting there. Of course, it is in a different state, but near a large city. I live in a small town. Oh well, I can't begin to figure out the logic behind the gas price differences!

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After I got home I mowed the yard with the help of DS. Then, I just got finished cutting his hair...the usual buzz cut style. His hair is so thick and grows quickly. I'm happy to have spent the $20 or so on electric clippers about a year ago. It sure has paid for itself.

Have a great weekend!

I just wanted to wish all the mothers a very enjoyable & relaxing Mother's Day!!

Have a great day!

So today was my birthday. It was a nice day even though it was a work day. A bunch of my co-workers took me out for lunch at a buffet restaurant, someone made me carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and the employer & his associates got me a Chili's GC. So yeah it was fun!

My children bought some cake & ice cream to have this evening after dinner. They gathered some flowers from the yard and arranged them in a vase + made me a cute birthday card.

Right now I'm on sugar overload!! I'm glad I don't eat all those sweets very often.

Have a great evening!

I finished my federal taxes Friday evening. It turns out I owe about $900. I prefer to not get a refund, but I would rather not have to pay in at the end of the year. I adjusted my withholding status with my employer in an attempt to *fix* the problem!! I still have to complete the state and local taxes...maybe I will do that sometime next week.

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I have some items I want to list on Ebay. I went through DS's clothes from last spring/summer. I have about 40-50 pieces of clothing to post. I'm working on writing up the descriptions today and may enter the info one day during the week. It is too tedious for me to do all at once.

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I really wanted to work out in the yard this weekend again, but it is cloudy/damp as it rained overnight. Maybe that will be a project for next weekend!

Have a great day!

I got an email today with the discount code that Thriftorama posted about recently; however, if you go through the Upromise link you can save an additional 15% towards college.

I never purchased on restaurant.com, but I am thinking about it.

It seems that I have become an avid hot tea drinker. I have several cups each day. I mainly drink green teas of any flavor, but occasionally drink black tea. I rarely drink herbal teas (because I'm not sure that variety has a great antioxidant content). Since green and black teas have great health benefits, I have been increasing my consumption over the last year.

Anyway, I absolutely love mint-flavored green tea. At the grocery store a couple of days ago, I noticed Celestial Seasonings Holiday display in an aisle. There are flavors such as nutcracker suite and gingerbread spice, but the one that especially caught my eye was candy cane decaf green tea. It was on sale 2 boxes for $5. I bought 2 and had $1 manufacturer coupons for each. So final cost was $1.50 each. The tea has a very strong peppermint flavor mixed with other flavorings like vanilla and is SOOOO addicting!! I think I may have to stockpile this since it is only available during the upcoming holiday season. Either that or I may have to recycle the tea bags and get perhaps 2-3 cups out of one tea bag!! Smile...

Have a nice weekend!!

There is a representative at work today to demonstrate how to use a new piece of equipment. This morning she brought us bagels and pastries from Panera Bread. At lunch time we can choose whatever we would like from a deli cafe in the building.

So nice of her to offer us all free meals!

Have a great day!

Saturday after work I stopped at the grocery store and got some food for lunches this week. I got red and green peppers, apples, strawberries, grapes, cabbage, and cantaloupe. All of which was on sale. I also bought 2 Perdue Oven Stuffers at $0.79/lb. I made some chicken corn soup yesterday.

For lunch today, I made a large fruit cup with some frozen blueberries, strawberries, grapes, and cantaloupe. I had a Lean Cuisine meal which I bought several of those last week for $2/each. The mixed fresh fruit was especially tasty.

Have a great evening!

After I got off work today, I decided to finish the yard work. Then, I got side-tracked and tried to organize the shed in the back yard. It is a small shed with a lot of junk in it that I have saved over the years that is useless to me and to other people. There are some items that may be yard sale material, a few kids toys, some decorations, and baby furniture. But I don't think I have enough to hold a yard sale.

I also have a larger window air conditioner that is in excellent condition, that we only used 1-2 seasons at the most. It has been in the shed for over 5 years. It will no longer fit the windows in the sun room since I got replacement slider windows installed last year. I have a small cash register and some computer equipment to get rid of also. Previously, I have sold some items on Ebay. I have no experience with selling on Craigslist and would appreciate any feedback, both positive and negative in regards to that.

Have a great evening!

My ex-husband and I have been divorced for 1 year in July. My attorney said it was best to bifurcate the divorce decree portion from the financial aspect since it had been many years since we have been separated. So this July, after ex had drug out the financial part of it, and incurred much more fees and costs, he was found to be in contempt. He willfully did not sign the deed for the property over to me, nor did he pay me the $5600 of attorney's fees and court costs, which he was ordered by the court to do. So anyway in July '08, he never showed up in court for the contempt issue. Now, the prothonotary at the court house will convey the property to me by executing a new deed. Ex will still owe me the $5600, but I seriously doubt I will ever see a penny of that.

On another note, back in March/April '08, I applied for child support for my children. At the domestic relations conference, it was determined that my ex was unemployed (got fired in Sept '07 and hasn't worked since then) and also he hadn't filed his 2007 income taxes. Anyway, the court order required him to land a job, but in the meantime he was supposed to pay me about $325/month for his 2 children. Since that time, he hasn't paid me 1 cent for them either. So this past week, I went to court once again because he was in contempt for not complying with the child support order. And guess what??? He never showed up!! He currently owes me about $1300 and now has a bench warrant out for his arrest. I'm not holding my breath on this $ either.

I do not communicate at all with my ex even for the children's sake because he doesn't have visitation privileges. I am just so glad to be rid of him and am much better off financially without having to deal with another person who doesn't contribute anything to society or the personal finances of the household/children.

On Saturday night, my daughter and I were watching Suze Orman at the usual time--9:00 PM ET. According to the announcement during the show, Suze will now air 6 nights/wk to include M-F at 8 PM ET.

We probably will not watch it every night, but my daughter (age 15) and I always look forward to watching it together. Since she has a part-time job now, I've been trying to give her some basic personal finance tips. The Suze Orman show either reiterates some things that I have already discussed with her, or brings up new ideas which prompt her to ask me some questions. I think that this show is a good supplement as a teaching tool to help her to understand finances, budgeting, importance of saving, etc. a bit better.

While I don't agree with everything that Suze suggests, I am happy that it will be airing more than once a week. Our favorite part is the "Can I Afford It?" segment.

Does anyone else watch this show as a family or with your children?

Today I went to a family reunion. I made this salad to take along:

Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad


2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 c. corn kernels
1 1/2 c. avocado, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 c. red onion, finely diced

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, salt, and pepper. Add the corn, avocado, tomatoes, and onion and toss to mix. Serve at room temperature. Serves 4-6. This can also be served with tortilla chips.

This recipe was a hit at the picnic. I have never made it before, but I will make it soon again. It was tasty!!

They also had an auction where you can take wrapped, used or new items. The money then gets donated to the fund so that we can continue to have a family reunion to purchase ice cream, paper plates, napkins, cups, etc., as well as games for the children. I was able to get rid of a few items and reduce the clutter in my house.

It was a fun day!

I'm been having problems every few months with my landline phone service. Usually the problem is something on the exterior of my house with the telephone wiring. The technicians supposedly fix it, then in a few weeks I have the same problem again. The issue is either I don't have a dial tone to make outgoing calls or I can't receive incoming calls. When I try to call in to my phone it connects and turns to a static sound. It doesn't even ring.

Anyway, the beginning of May, I had this exact same problem all over again. Verizon had sent out a service technician to determine if the problem was an external or internal problem. Well they ran a test on the line and it came up that there was a short somewhere. The box outside my house checked out fine, so the technician said he would have to set up an appointment so that I could be home to let him inside so he could check the wiring. Since I don't have an inside maintainence plan on my account (which is $5.99 extra/month), I would be charged $90/hour for them to determine/fix the problem. I did have a Saturday appointment set up for a few weeks ago, and the service technician never showed up. I called the repair center, and apparently someone made an error, since I was told that there are no technicians available in my area code for Saturday appts. Ugh!!

My problem is I didn't want to take off work on a weekday to get this resolved. I guess I really don't have a choice now.

Anyway since emails have gone unanswered, yesterday during lunch I called Verizon again to discuss some of these ongoing issues. When I received my latest bill, there was a charge for the service technician visit for the exterior of $61.50. Now when I scheduled this appt. the technician was fully aware that I would not be home to let him inside, should he need access to the interior wiring. Many times technicians have come out to do work at the outside box and I was never charged a penny. I explained this to the rep and she said, "well, they needed to come inside since they determined the problem was not something on the outside". Anyway, I demanded a refund of the $61.50. So the rep compromised and gave me a credit of $30.75.

She proceeded to tell me that the service technician closed out the repair order and the computer stated that the issue was resolved. WHAT???? If he determined that the problem was in the inside and there is no documentation that an appointment was made to gain access to the house, then I think it is safe to say that the problem with my lack of dial tone/inability to make incoming/outgoing calls is still existent. Within the last week, I decided to add the inside wire maintainence plan to my account, thinking it would pay for itself since this problem is recurring every few months. Since the phone company claims they were not aware I was still having a problem (even though they don't have record of repairing my line), I will not get credit for several weeks of no phone service. In addition, even though I now have this service plan and I report now that I have these same problems, it would not be covered under this plan because it is a pre-existing problem!!!! I asked how it could be pre-existing if the original repair order was closed and stated as resolved by the technician.

Well, needless to say I left the rep know that after Verizon comes out to repair the inside line, I will be shopping around for other phone service. She said, "well I can forward you to a supervisor because we certainly don't want to lose you as a customer". I declined and told her I have had too many issues with them and would most definitely be closing my account with Verizon. I'm just not happy with them and they aren't very accommodating/customer friendly.

So now I'm not sure what company I want to go with. I currently have internet with Verizon which is working perfectly. I was researching doing cable, phone, and internet, but those packages are fairly expensive. Does anyone have any ideas about Vonage for phone service??

Yesterday, my DD and I had the opportunity to spend the day together. My DS is camping with a friend this weekend. I really miss him, but it is nice to occasionally have some time with DD. Normally, I have more time to spend with DS due to the fact that DD has had a job now for about 10 mths.


So anyway, I went to do the Staples mystery shop. I bought a pack of pens for $6.19 of which I will be reimbursed $5, plus I get a shopper's fee of $17 for doing the mystery shop and entering the info online.

We went to Isaac's Deli for lunch, which is one of DD's favorite restaurants. I spent $21.53 including the tip. We were never at that location before. The atmosphere was nice, and we were there mid-afternoon so it was not busy.

Since DD is getting a different job(as a waitress in a local restaurant), we had to go clothes shopping for some white, button down shirts. At Boscov's, we bought 4 shirts and a pair of jeans. With the 30% off discount the total was $55.21. We also stopped at Kohl's and she got a swim suit and 3 shirts for $66.03 which included using a 15% off coupon.

Even though we spent some money, we had a nice day and bought items that she will need in the near future.

The balance on this CC I previously transferred from another CC with a 0% interest offer for 1 year. I have been switching this balance between cards for a few years to take advantage of the 0% offers, but the charges on the card were from living expenses that I accumulated while I was in college. The 0% offer expired on May 1. I am happy to have paid the balance of $5800. in full.

Now I will just use this Discover CC for automobile expenses (gas, maintainance, etc.) for the rewards and pay it off each month.

I have a Citibank CC that I use and pay in full each month for any other expenses. Since I get rewards for any purchases on this card, I use it for the balance of any purchases I make during the month. It is easier for me to track expenses this way.

I still have a Home Depot CC with a 0% offer on it until 1/09 that I used to purchase replacement windows. Other than that I do not have any other CC debt, and I will pay that in full before the offer expires as well.

I've completed and submitted all of the paperwork/notarized documents to get my professional license in a nearby state. My application just needs to get approved by the State Board, then they will issue me a license. It was a bit expensive ($555 total), but with the difference in the pay rates between the states, it should be well worth the investment.

I filled my tank with gas yesterday. A local convenience store (actually the only place in this town that sells gas) just re-opened after being closed for 3 months. The gas is a bit less expensive, $3.53/gal., as a promo price. Other places in nearby towns are selling it for $3.69/gal.

I received my Rite Aid Single Check Rebate check in the mail yesterday for $58.21. I deposited that in my checking account.

Tomorrow I will head to Rite Aid for my weekly FAR items, and also run some other errands.

Today my co-workers are taking me out to lunch for my birthday. I think I will choose Red Lobster. I could really indulge in those garlic cheddar biscuits!! I also put in a request for chocolate cake with peanut butter icing!! Yum!! It should be fun!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

This morning in the mail, I received a notice that my children will no longer be receiving benefits from social security under their father....effective immediately. Since he was collecting supplemental income through the government due to a disability, my children were eligible to receive a portion of that amount. He was working as well as receiving this income. He doesn't have a stable work history or high earning potential (due to his lack of education).

I received over $500/month over the last 3 years through SS for the children. I thought that was more than he would be ordered to pay in child support for the same time period.

I went to the domestic relations office today to do the intake paperwork for a conference with their father. So I will have to wait and see what happens in a few weeks.

I received a $20 refund check from Stopzilla which I purchased recently online.

Also, I found Perdue Oven Stuffer Roasters for $0.79/lb. I bought two of them and froze one. I roasted the other and made a pot of chicken corn soup.

Hello!

I have been a member of this site for almost a year, but have never set up a blog. I have posted on the forums for several months. I enjoy all the advice given at this site and am always open to suggestions regarding personal finance and frugality.

I currently have some credit card debt, a car loan, and student loans. Initially it was difficult for me to adjust my finances since being separated for years from my husband, and more recently being now divorced from him. He didn't contribute much to the household income due to health problems and other issues that prevented him from holding down a job consistently.

Since this life change I've now worked my way up to saving at least 25% of my income in various mutual funds, a Roth IRA, and savings accounts, on a regular basis each month.

So long for now, I will make another entry within a few days.