I am an official employee of Weight Watchers now. I started training as a receptionist last Monday and will have at least 4 training sessions and then can begin working at meetings.

Both the receptionist at my regular meeting and my leader assure me that I will have many calls to work as a substitute receptionist until a job opens up at another meeting. They told me I'll need to learn to say no so that I don't get overscheduled. That will be nice.

The pay is not great, but just the accountability for my own weight and chance to help others reach their weight and health goals will be great.

When I weighed in at my Weight Watchers meeting Monday night I had lost a total of 49 pounds and am now 2.8 pounds away from my official goal weight.

My leader gave me information about a meeting next week that will give information about working for Weight Watchers as a receptionist and/or leader. I am going to attend the meeting because I am interested in being a receptionist. If I did that, it would at least pay for my gasoline to get to the meeting each week. This would be my 3rd part-time job that I have and would be something I think I would enjoy.

I got an email today that the statement was available for the Discover card that we use for home improvements. I was glad to see that our $20 cash back bonus was available to redeem also. I immediately had that transferred to my ING account and designated it for gasoline.

Today our stimulus payment was deposited into our checking account. I have it ready to be transferred to our home repair account on ING Monday. I'm transferring it there with the hope that we won't need it for repairs and that I'll be able to apply it to the mortgage instead. That's probably a pipe dream, but I'm going to hold onto it.

Still haven't heard a word about my term life insurance application. I've forgotten now when I even started this long, drawn-out process.

Still waiting to get the bill for DS#2's helicopter ride. I've heard to expect to owe about $3,000 after the insurance has paid.

DH filled up his truck today and that came to $75. Yikes! I heard Dave Ramsey say this week that these rising gas prices should not hurt your budget. Well, when you're still digging out of debt it puts a pretty good squeeze on it.

On a brighter note, my speech class is finished. I gave my last 2 speeches this week and now am just waiting for my final grade. I'm enrolled in Business Law for the fall semester and will take one more class if I am able to get financial aid. Still haven't heard if I will or not.

I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our stimulus check into our checking account. I've checked several times every day this week.

I had planned on using the check to pay down the mortgage, but with the unexpected car expenses, rising gasoline costs and the need of a new roof on the garage, it's going to just be transferred to savings for right now.

The garage roof has been leaking for a couple of years and is desperately in need of replacing. DH reminds me that we need to replace it now before it runs into more repairs. Good news is that he can do it himself, saving labor costs.

He also replaced his radiator in his truck last night. So that saved the cost of paying someone else to do it. It's great that he is so handy with things like that.

My car repairs this week didn't amount to much. The mechanic could not find anything wrong and did not even hear the creaking and groaning while turning slowly. So all I paid was $23 for the time they spent on it. That was nice, but the sound is still there. At least I can be assured that it's not something that's going to fall apart on me while going around bends. I hope.

Last night at my Weight Watcher's meeting I weighed in and had lost another 1.8 pounds. That is just incredible to me since I'm getting so close to goal and I didn't feel like I did nearly as well on the Core plan this week. I went over my weekly points because we attended a birthday party on Sunday. But I did do a lot of walking on Saturday- 10 miles! So I guess that helped.

I have also realized that I'm lactose intolerant and since I've started drinking soymilk instead of skim I've noticed a huge difference in how I feel. I have a lot more energy since I've cut way down on dairy. I am still finding out how much lactose I can tolerate. I found out that 1/2 cup of cottage cheese is too much and even 2 tablespoons of cream cheese set my stomach off the other day. So it will be a matter of trial and error. I take at least one calcium supplement every day to make sure I do get some calcium in my diet.

So 8.4 more pounds until I hit my official Weight Watchers goal. After that, 6 weeks of maintenance and then I will not have to pay anymore to attend meetings.

I would like to be a receptionist once I am a lifetime member. That would pay for my gasoline to get to the meeting and be an accountability factor to keep the weight off.

I got my Discover Card statement today and we have earned our first $20 cash back! I am having it sent to our bank account and it's going on the mortgage. Of course, I said that about the $250 we earned on the Chase Rewards card and that ended up going for DH's paint job on the truck. I'm going to 'forget' that this money is extra so that I won't be tempted to divert it if something comes up.

I had mentioned in a previous post that DH's truck was getting some body work done that was long past due. He had taken it up and asked for a written estimate, which we never got. But the guy doing the repairs had looked at it and told him it would be between $900 and $1000.

Well, today we got a phone call that it's not all done but the body shop has got a lot of work coming in so we could come pick it up, pay for what is done and they'd finish the rest in 2-3 months.

The total for what has been done? $1378. The balance of what still needs to be done? Another $800!!! A far cry from a total of $900-1000. I could see if the entire truck was being done.

So needless to say, the car repair fund is bottomed out and the $250 that I just got and was going to apply to the mortgage has been gobbled up along with our federal tax return.

Still, I am counting my blessings. It's only money and after the week we've had, it's not a big deal. I keep telling myself that we could have been attending a funeral this week. I'll gladly pay the $1400 for the truck instead.

We earned enough points on our Chase Freedom card to redeem them for a check for $250 this month! This money is going straight to the mortgage.

I knew last month that we were getting very close to being able to claim that money. We could have had 4 $50 checks last month, but why not wait a month and get the extra $50?!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Last weekend I worked on ours and the 4 kids' taxes so that we can get our refunds back. Each of the kids, except DD#1 made out well and are getting quite a bit back. DD#1 owes more than her federal return will be because she worked in one state, but lives in another. They didn't withhold enough to cover her home state tax and didn't take her 1% wage tax out at all. Of all the kids, she's the one that needs money the most!

We aren't getting nearly as much back this year because we could only claim 2 of the kids for the credit and we aren't getting the Hope credit this year. But that's okay. That's the reason we changed DH's withholding, so that we got more money through the year. What we are getting back will most likely be saved for a new roof.

I sat down this morning to figure out how much I could pay on the mortgage payment that is due tomorrow. I want to pay $604.16, but looks like I'll only be able to pay $307.48, maybe a bit more depending on how much overtime is in DH's paycheck. But that's more than the minimum I have to pay of $235.34 so I guess that's better than nothing. The oven repair set me back this month and then the unexpected ER visit and DD#2's new medicine that she's taking for migraines.

I should be getting my first paycheck for the new bookkeeping job in a couple of weeks, so I'm planning on putting that on the mortgage.

And I've been told that I may be getting another bookkeeping job. I guess the librarian at the library just across the border in NY state is pushing for me to do their books for them. I went over a couple of weeks ago and helped her treasurer get their QuickBooks set up. When she heard that I do a monthly report for the libraries so that they know what they're spending, she was interested. Right now they pay an accountant to do their books. All he does is figure payroll and then inputs the yearly information into the annual report. He doesn't give them a monthly report so she never knows exactly how much she's spent on collection items or anything else for that matter. So keep your fingers crossed that she can convince her board to hire me!

According to Voice of America DH and I could be getting $2700 we weren't counting on this year. That's banking on reports that it would be $300 per child, with no limit to the number of children.

I reran my Quicken debt reduction planner, and if that is correct, mortgage #1 can be paid off this November and the car payment could be retired November of 2009.

We received an unexpected check in the mail today for $129.60. It is a rebate from our escrow account.

Guess where that check is going? Right into the checking account to be applied to that very same mortgage balance! I'll be making that payment on the 29th. Can't let much time lapse or something else will come along that will claim that money!

My side job is getting to the point where I need to start thinking of a name and slogan. I was thinking of naming it "By the Numbers". What do you think? Any idea for a short slogan to put under the letterhead? This is just off the top of my head. I really haven't put much thought into it.

I made an extra $75 today! I met with a NY state treasurer and installed QuickBooks for her and helped her begin to enter in transactions so they would be more organized for their Annual Report. It took us 3 hours, so I don't think that $25 an hour was bad pay at all. I will use it to pay down the mortgage.

I wish I could get more of these side jobs!

I just sold my Fluidity Barre that I had posted on CraigsList! I am $100 richer now. I'm hoping to put that money on the mortgage this month.

I was surprised at how many inquiries I had on the sale. The girl that bought it drove 3 hours one way to come pick it up.

I'm glad to have it out of the way and hope she enjoys it.

I tried out Craigslist for the first time last week. I have a Fluidity Barre that I haven't been using. I enjoy yoga more and so the Fluidity Barre has just been sitting propped in a corner for months now. So I decided to try to sell it. I really didn't want to go through Ebay and pay the fees and then have to figure out how in the world to ship it, so Craigslist seemed like a good option to finding someone that would be closer and able to pick it up.

I got an email from someone about 3 hours away who is thinking of driving to my place of work to buy it from me.

I'm asking $100 for it, which for the little bit it was used is a good deal. I told her I would also throw in other workout DVDs that I have for free. That would clear some cabinet space for me also.

I haven't been around much for months. I am still here and still paying down our debt. We will have the furniture paid off next month as long as the overtime continues like it has. Then it will be time to start on the car.

I decided to pay off the car since I checked the Blue Book price on it and it was nowhere near what I had thought it was. So since it is a depreciating item and the house isn't (well, depends on your take on the news lately!), I decided the car was the next debt to focus on.

I am in the middle of my accounting applications class and really enjoying it. Right now we're learning QuickBooks, which I use every day at work, so it's been a breeze. Next up is Turbo Tax. I'm really looking forward to that one.

Today we went car shopping with DS#2. He will be getting his license back soon since it's been 6 months since his last seizure. He has a job, but no car so he's looking for some wheels. It's very hard to find a car in his price range, but he's searching. He's found quite a few on a local site so we checked them out today. One of them is a strong possibility.

I found out a few weeks ago that I'm getting a nice merit raise next year, along with a cost of living raise. That will really help with the budget. I reworked my spreadsheet so that the items that are desperately under budgeted will have more funding.

We got quite a bit of home improvement work done this summer. That's why the net worth chart took a dip. We put on siding and a new porch roof. Now we're working on the kitchen addition.

Guess that's about it for now. Just wanted to drop in and say I'm still here. I hope to have more time to blog from here on out.

I just finished my 2nd survey for Pinecone Research. It took forever for me to finally get chosen for a survey but now it seems like my name is in the queue for them. Small amounts earned, but every little bit helps. I'll probably put the money toward paying off the furniture since that's what I'm working toward right now.

Rolled $6 in change this morning and deposited it in the Emergency Fund after work.

Came home from NYC with the worst sinus infection I've ever had. I've been sick all week and seem to be getting worse. I'm now on antibiotics but woke up this morning with very little voice. The family is enjoying that.

Tomorrow there is a motorcycle dice run to benefit Sydney, my cousin's 18-month old daughter that had the seizure. She has been off of life support for quite a while now and is still breathing on her own. Her eyes have begun to respond a bit to light even though the doctors said it would never happen. She's had a feeding tube inserted and the family is either going to bring her home next week or take her to a nursing home near them.

Getting anxious to get that $248 paid to drop our total debt below $70,000.

DS#2 called from camp tonight but a thunderstorm was rolling in and we lost the connection. DH had time to ask him if he was taking his seizure medicine like he should and that's about it.

DS#2's salvage title FINALLY came for his wrecked Toyota so I faxed that right off to the insurance company so they can mail him the check. Maybe that whole mess can be done soon. It's only taken 3 months...

I put 2 exercise DVDs up for sale on Ebay this morning and happened to think to check on them around noon today. Imagine my surprise to see that they both had bids on them for over $25 when I had made the starting price $7.50! As I investigated further I see that only 2 people have bid on these DVDs and the same person outbid themselves a couple of times. Both people joined Ebay May 3rd. It just seems fishy to me.

Who in the world would pay over $25 for an exercise DVD??? I will hold back my excitement at making so much money until I find out if it's legit or not.

We hit the jackpot today when we got our mail! Our long-awaited state tax refund was there AND DH's check from Prudential for the cash value on his whole life insurance! So totally we had $6252.09 in our mailbox! A nice little sum, indeed.

I got right to work and started assigning each dollar a job. It really wasn't that hard though. The $901 from the state is being held to pay for DS#2's replacement car this week. He'll reimburse us when the check for his totalled car comes in the mail. The rest of the money went to pay the Discover Card almost off. There is $208.85 left to pay on that and then that debt can be retired. Woo hoo!!!

A very good mail day.

We have to decide if we want tax withheld from DH's cashout payment from his whole life insurance. My thinking right now is not to have the tax withheld because I think that we will have more than enough in our normal withholding to cover it.

We got a much larger refund this year than we expected because of the 2 college kids so I think that that money will more than offset the taxes owed on this amount.

DH called Prudential last night to have them send him the surrender papers for his whole life insurance. Of course, they were not happy and gave him a hard time about it. He finally told them that they might as well not waste their time going through all the numbers, just to send the papers. So I should be getting a fax at the library today and hopefully we'll be able to fax them back tomorrow. Hopefully the cash value check will arrive within the next month. Soon the Discover card will be paid off!

We received a letter today confirming that Zander received our payment for DH's term insurance, that it is now in effect, and that we can now begin the process of cashing in his whole life policy. Yeah! The cash value on his policy is over $4600. That will take a big chunk out of what we owe on the Discover card!