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Archive for October, 2012

Hosting Christmas? Not this year.

October 21st, 2012 at 02:35 am

I finally decided to opt out of hosting Christmas this year. I've hosted more than 12 Christmas parties for the extended family over the last 15 years. And it stresses me out! And that makes me crabby. It also makes my chronic disability much worse. And then I thought about it on the financial front. Between the cleaning lady (don't laugh - it saved my marriage), making sure the bar is stocked, and providing the main dish, etc. it can really add up. Everyone is very generous in contributing but as a hostess you still have to ensure that everything from the Christmas crackers to the ice are on hand. I felt I had to have everything covered in case someone didn't bring the right amount.

I also host a late Spring family event every May/June.

So I'm free! Some guilt but I think it's better than the stress. Are any of you in the same situation where you fulfill an obligation and then come to resent it? Any confirmation that I am not being a selfish cheapskate is appreciated - oops, guilt is creeping in...

New side bar updates and the importance of an emergency fund

October 16th, 2012 at 03:13 am

I am doing yet another happy dance, or perhaps to be current, the Gangnam dance (google it if you don't get the reference). I finally have the line of credit under $10K. I am fortunate to be able to get a good mileage payment for all of my meetings and that's helped a lot. In an effort to get the balance under $9K for the end of the year I am doing all sorts of things for extra cash. Tomorrow I have another food tasting event that pays $20. Lots of Pinecone surveys that I do as soon as they come in. I'm also cutting down on expenses for lunches - last week I spent $3.57 in total for the whole week. Mostly because I had three days where others bought me lunch. And I brought my lunch to work the other two days.

I want to thank you all for your support on this journey. I'm so grateful to read your blogs and get new ideas as well as your feedback.

On another note, I added $70 to my emergency fund. I'd rather put the money toward the line of credit to cut down on interest costs but I received good news about my sib. Some of you were on board when I asked for support when my sib had a liver transplant. Well, she needs a new one as this one is failing. We just found out she may get one in the next 6 months! Good Lord, I thought we were a few years away but the guide lines have changed and she's been put on the short list. I was laughing with her yesterday about it. Darned organ failure! It really messes up the finances :-)

Haven't blogged recently, but I have a plan

October 4th, 2012 at 04:01 am

The original plan was to pay off $5K on my line of credit. Looks like I'll only hit $3,500. And I'm ok with that. The original balance was $12,500 and it looks like I'll get it to $9K by year end easily. So I needed to set new goal. My goal for the rest of the year is to see how much extra income I can generate to decrease the balance from $9K. Perhaps I can gather another couple hundred bucks. Join me on my journey to see if I can hit a few hundred bucks in the next 10 weeks. The good news is that I'll likely get a $1,000 tax refund in Spring of 2013 so that will bring the balance down to under $7K. Since I paid off my debt in excess of $8,700 this year it looks like I will be debt free by the end of 2013!

Amazing.