I got the mail on my way home tonight and saw that there was an envelope from PPL, our natural gas utility. I knew that this meant they had adjusted our gas budget. So I eagerly opened it because we no longer heat with gas at all.

I was happy to find that our payment has gone from $101 a month to $60! Yeah! I still think that's awfully high since all we use the gas for is our hot water heater and the kitchen stove. But I'll take all the savings in my budget wherever I can get it.

We may have to dip into the Emergency Fund this week. DH made an appointment to get some rust taken care of on his truck and I'm afraid it could amount to more than we have in our car repair fund. We have kept putting this off because the money was always needed in other areas. It's time to get it done before it's so far gone that it can't be repaired.

This truck is a 1989 GMC. It really looks great for its age, but time has taken a toll on it. It's been a very reliable vehicle for us with few repairs. It has well over 200,000 miles on it. Since it is still reliable, we do not want to get rid of it and get anything else and feel it is worth the money to touch it up to make sure it will pass inspection.

If we do have to kp into the EF, our tax refund should be coming in soon and I'll get it back up to $1,000 with that.

I watched the film Maxed Out as a resource for my persuasive speech I have to give in a couple of weeks. Wow! I have to say it presents a very powerful message, especially the interview of the 2 mothers of college students who committed suicide because they got into so much credit card debt.

It's really given me something to think about as far as my use of credit cards. Since getting our balances paid off, we no longer carry a balance each month. But I'm rethinking even that strategy now.

I was hoping to pay an extra $280 on the mortgage this month. Didn't quite get there, but almost. I just wrote a check for $264.66 extra. That brings our total on that debt down to less than $7500.

If I can keep around this amount of payment up, it will be paid off in August 2009. That will be 21 years ahead of schedule!!! That's quite a difference!

I went to my Weight Watchers meeting tonight and according to my weigh in my total weight loss is now up to 37.2 pounds. I am less than 15 pounds from goal.

My next mini-goal is to get to 40 pounds lost. I'm hoping to get there by the end of April. The weight is coming off much more slowly now that I'm getting closer to goal.

Since the weight loss is slowing down I've switched to the Core plan for the next few weeks, at least, to see how I do on that. I've read that quite often just switching plans will jump start the weight loss again. So we'll see how I do with less tracking of what I eat and more of eating less processed, nutrient dense foods.

I have to give a persuasive speech for my Speech Communications class in the next couple of weeks and this week I have to declare my topic. Pretty sure it's going to be "Why You Need a Budget", or something very close to that. It has to be 5-7 minutes long. I don't think I'll have any trouble filling that amount of time.

Budgeting is something near and dear to my heart, since it has turned our financial lives around and given me peace of mind. I don't think that this one is going to be nearly as hard as the last speech I had to give.

Walking Her Home by Mark Schultz is one of my favorite songs. I usually can't listen to it without shedding a few tears.

I was doing a search on youtube the other night and found that someone had made a video with this song using scenes from the movie "The Notebook". That is my favorite movie and I love the book it's based on. My grandfather died with Alzheimer's so it touches a sensitive nerve with me.

If you click on the link be prepared to need a few tissues.

I gave my first speech yesterday. I had to present a print advertisement analysis. Since this is a distance learning class, I presented it in front of my fellow librarians at our System meeting. Glad it's over with! Only 3 more to go.

One of our assignments is to interview 3 people in different aspects of the field we're going into. I am interviewing a public accountant, an accountant for Adelphia Communications Corp., and our very own Jeffrey Strain of Saving Advice!

I still have to present a persuasive speech. I think I'm going to talk about "Why You Need a Budget" or something along that line.

We also have to present a special occasion speech. I don't have the details yet as to what the requirements are for that one.

I have enjoyed this class as far as learning about different types of communication, but could do without presenting the speeches. LOL

I feel like once I get this class behind me, I can handle whatever else I have to do. I am not the type that likes to be the center of attention in a group. I'm more comfortable fading into the background.

Thanks to DH's 14.5 hours of overtime last week and one of my part-time bookkeeping jobs, I'm going to be able to pay an extra $280 on the mortgage this month.

I decided to also start applying the money I earn from Pinecone to the mortgage payment. I've been cashing the checks and using the little bit of money towards my meals while I'm on my work deliveries. I think that I can cut costs here and there to avoid doing that. That little extra will add up, even though it's small.

Getting desperate to have this mortgage behind us!

I just checked the status of our Federal tax refund. It says we should get it around April 8th.

I plan to put part of it away in an ING savings account for Christmas gifts and the rest will go toward house repairs.

I would rather put it on the mortgage, but DH says we need to redo the main part of the roof and we also need to buy more siding, which isn't cheap.

We had good news in the mail today. We got our auto insurance renewal documents and our car insurance went down. Not a lot, but every little bit helps. So I was able to adjust the budget a bit. I took the money we save on car insurance and redirected it to doctor bills.

Yesterday I got an email from Jeffrey congratulating me on winning the $10 ING Invite Conversion auction. Today the $10 was deposited into my Electric Orange account. I debated on what to do with the unexpected $10 and decided that it will be most appropriate to apply it to our next mortgage payment. So the money has been transferred to my local checking account and will be added onto my payment at the end of the month.

Thanks to Jeffrey!

I've been spending the morning going over my budget. I had to adjust our gasoline budget upwards, of course, because of the increase in prices. That meant taking away from some other area. The only place to cut it was from house repairs. This house needs a lot of work so I've been budgeting $10 a week towards it, but that had to go. I'll still be applying some there from DH's overtime, as long as that lasts. The rest of the OT will continue to go to paying off the debts.

If things continue to get tighter, the next step is going to have to be cutting out the retirement contributions. I would do mine first and put DH's off as long as possible. I really hate to do that, even though I know Dave Ramsey says to not contribute to retirement until debts are paid. I just hate to lose that match that the company kicks in. It seems like such a waste. But, on the other hand, if I did that we'd be out of debt a whole lot faster.

It's just a really hard step for me to take.

I have to interview 3 people in the accounting/finance field for my Speech Communications class. I have contacted a public accountant and she has agreed for me to interview her. I would like the other 2 interviews to be in different areas of finance, but can't decide who. I had thought of contacting the Smith/Barney office near here and seeing if I could interview someone from there. I also wanted to interview the owner of a small bookkeeping business, but it looks like they've closed their doors. No one is ever there when I go by.

I can do one phone interview but the other 2 have to be in person. I am going to have to quickly get to work on this. I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone might have.

I was using the Stumble! button on Mozilla Firefox last night and it took me to the Money Crashers website. I really like what I saw there. Lots of good articles on personal finance.

Imagine my surprise today when I went there and saw that our own Jeffrey Strain was mentioned in today's article! Check it out!

Today I got a week's worth of groceries for $20.20. DH gets gift certificates for businesses in the Chamber of Commerce for perfect attendance at work. This time he got $100, so he told me to use that today to pay the grocery bill.

That will really help out because he had 2 unpaid days last week because he had the flu. That was going to be a hard hit to the pocket book when the check comes out on Thursday. This will soften the blow a bit.

We have received 10 inches of snow and ice since Friday afternoon. The road conditions are still treacherous and it doesn't appear as if the state is going to do anything about it soon. Yet we traveled to church today, which is located 4 miles from us, in another state. This state always has better road conditions than our state. Sure enough, their roads were totally clear. Not a trace of snow or ice on them at all.

Why is that one state has such a difficult time keeping up their roads, yet the state just north of it can consistently keep their roads safe for motorists? Perhaps our state should take some lessons.

My job includes making book deliveries a couple of times a week. My routine is to head first to the McDonald's in town and get a large Diet Coke to take on the road with me. My reasoning for this, instead of taking a 24 ounce bottle of pop that I have at work, is that it's easier and safer to pick this up to drink with a straw, than it is to unscrew the top on a bottle of pop while driving. I don't take water because it tends to make me have to stop several times along the way to use a restroom, where pop doesn't have that effect on me. And some of the places to which I deliver are quite remote and have no such facilities.

So, I pulled into the McDonald's drivethru on Thursday morning and placed my usual order. Said no to the breakfast burrito that was offered and was shocked to read $1.90 on the screen! I had just made a delivery earlier that week and paid $1.69. I commented to the person that took my money that the price took quite a jump and that this would probably be my last visit for my Diet Coke.

I'll be finding a cheaper option in the future. I can get reimbursed for my expenses on the road through my CE account, but have been using that to take college classes instead. I'm not giving up my education for a Diet Coke!

I found my access key to download YNAB to my laptop. I thought I'd give this another try. I like the concept of it, but just never stuck with it long enough to make it work.

I have my budget entered and now I guess I need to go back and enter in my transactions for at least the month of February. It probably would be wise to spend the extra time and do the entire year so far so that I have a more accurate view of our finances.

I have to wait up for DS#3 to get back from a date anyway. Might as well make the time productive!

Today was not my day. It started out by me forgetting to take my lunch to work so I had to end up buying a slice of pizza while I was on the road doing a delivery.

Got to the library. Got out of the car and slipped on the ice and fell flat on my left side. Both hands were full so I couldn't even break my fall. Get into the library, and since it's Thursday and the library director works, our lights were not on. (She can't be bothered to flip on the 2 switches at the end of the row that she turns on). Marched up front and turned the lights on and told her I'd fallen. She laughed. That really made me happy. It is her responsibility to call the borough and get them out to sand. She didn't bother.

On my delivery I came around a bend and was face to face with a semi. A state truck was pulled off the road on the opposite side with it's 4-ways on so the semi had come into my lane to go around it. Thank goodness the System Jeep has good brakes!

Get to my delivery place, unload all the books and audio books onto my cart. Start up the ramp into the library and get halfway up and slip on ice. Managed to catch myself so that I and the cart didn't go sliding to the bottom.

Yes, it was an exciting day. Not one I'd care to repeat again. I hope I'm able to get out of bed tomorrow. I'm already feeling the effects of the fall.

I did have to sort of chuckle at my one delivery stop. I was checking in the books and realized that the radio station that was on was playing Bad Day by Daniel Powter. Couldn't have been more appropriate.

As I was working in Quicken tonight with DH's profit share check I was listening to my songs I've bought on ITunes and Casting Crowns song, "American Dream", came on. I had to put aside what I was doing for a while and listen to it.

What we discuss here about personal finance is all very important, but there are more important things in life. How many of us are so busy trying to get out of debt that we tend to neglect our families? Just something to think about.

Take a look at the video on YouTube:

American Dream. I think it will give you something to think about.

Today DH received his spring profit share check. I am sending half of it to our gift savings account to cover gifts for the year and the rest is going in the house repair fund toward the new roof.

I would much rather apply the entire thing to the mortgage, but I know that we would then be in trouble later on and be tempted to borrow. So for now, it will sit in our ING account and earn some interest.

I had mentioned e-mealz in a previous post. It is a site that, for $5 a month, provides you with menus and a grocery list for your dinners for a week. You pay for 3 months at a time and a new meal plan is posted once a week. My plan is available on Friday so when I log in I print out 2 copies of the menu and grocery list. One I place in a sheet protector in a 3-ring binder for future use and the other is the one I write on and mark up.

They have several plans to choose from. I chose the Point system meals for any grocery store, since I am counting Weight Watchers points to lose weight.

This will be our 3rd week using the plan and it appears that our average expense is $120 per week. That's about what we were spending before for a family of 5 and not having nearly as nice of meals as we are now.

Everyone in the family is really enjoying the meals. There is a lot of variety and the side dishes are wonderful. Our side dishes before amounted to opening a can of corn or beans. Now we have mandarin orange salad, honey-kissed slaw, oven roasted veggies, etc. Much tastier and healthier.

I think the thing that makes it most worth it to me is that I no longer have the dilemma of "what is for dinner?" and then wondering if I have all of the ingredients. It is a huge load off of my mind. That alone makes it worth it for me.

I like having a list of exactly what I need for each meal when I enter the grocery store. I am not a shopper so, for me, the grocery store is a mission. Get what we need and get out in as short a time as possible.

My grocery bill could be considerably less if we didn't drink as much milk as we do!!!

I think I finally figured out DH's retirement website. What a pain that thing is! I see when I logged on that they are in the process of developing a new site. Thank goodness!!!

I have been wanting to reallocate his investments for ages, but each time I finally managed to log onto the site, I was so confused that I had no idea what to do. And I would get so frustrated that I'd just about be in tears, so I'd just give up. Today I finally took the time to sift through everything and saw the link I needed to do the changes.

He has had this plan since 1991 and the money seems to do absolutely nothing with the only allocations that were available to us until recently. Just this year they finally added some more options and I knew that I wanted to get his investments out of where they were and into a targeted fund account.

So now everything (I think) is in the targeted fund account. We'll see how that does. I sure hope it does better than what it has been doing all these years!