My blog is no longer listed under "New Blogs" on the main page. Does that make me an old-timer now?

The balance in the change box is decreasing rapidly. DD#2 was asked to go to the last home volleyball game with a friend and needed money to get in. Then DS#2 needed an extra quarter so he could get in. So just when I was close to breaking $5, I'm at just above half of that now.

Came home from work early today to get a dessert made for DH for his men's meeting tonight. He had also come home early to work on the kitchen addition since it was one of the few days this week with no rain or snow. Got his paycheck ready to deposit tomorrow morning and have a transfer set up for tomorrow into the Amboy account. That will bring us to $255 for the EF.

Ordered DS#2's Christmas presents today so that's one more down. I've got a bid in on an Ipod on Ebay for DS#3. I'll bid up to the amount we spend and if it goes above, I'll look at other options for him.

I submitted a request before I left for work this morning with Zander Insurance for applications for both DH and I for term insurance. By the time I got home they had already called. I returned the call and they have sent the applications in the mail and we'll be contacted soon for the paramedical exam.

DH doesn't qualify for the company we originally selected, but they recommended another that he would qualify under. It's not much more a month and compared to what we have now is still a great deal.

I have been worried for so long about something happening to one of us because I know we don't have near enough insurance. This will really help ease my mind.

The first thing I did when I got home today was to get my Amboy account activated. I think I've even figured out how you transfer money to and from it also. I'll give it a try on Thursday when DH gets paid.

I'm thinking that I'm going to follow Dave Ramsey's advice and get our EF back up to $1,000 before I pay extra on the CCs again. I really do have a much better peace of mind when I know that money is there. I'm finding that I'm not sleeping well at night because I keep waking up and thinking of all that could happen that there wouldn't be money for. Not good, I know, but that's how I am. I like to have that little nest egg available.

Got paid another 10 cents for doing laundry. Added it to the change box.

I have been waiting all weekend for the small deposits to show up in my checking account from Amboy so that I could verify them and get my new savings account going. Well, wouldn't you know, I just checked and they're there, but the email and password are in my home email and I can't access it from work! I wish I'd thought to email a copy to my Yahoo account so I could have done it now. Oh well! I guess this evening will be soon enough. I'm just ready to make some "real" interest and not that piddling little 1.24% we've been getting!

I needed to stop by the grocery store on my way to work so I had some food here. I got 2 Yoplait Smoothies (65 cents each), bananas (3 pounds for $1), salsa, cracker jacks, honey roasted peanuts and a king size Reese's Cups for a total of $9.77. I'm trying to get my diet gluten-free to see if it helps with some symptoms I've been having. So I'm trying to concentrate mainly on meats, dairy, veggies, and fruit. I already have an apple, cherry tomatoes, and a potato at work.

Had to give up 60 cents out of my change box for youngest DD's library fines at school.

Also paid DH's life insurance for the month. That was $58.75. Need to get busy looking into term life insurance!

That's how much I got "paid" for helping with the leaves yesterday afternoon.

DH came home from working 8 hours of Saturday overtime and immediately started raking the yard so I felt badly. I had cleaned house all day, but thought we could chat as we worked. After he raked several piles our middle DS and I bagged the leaves. We found a penny at the bottom of one of the piles so that is going into the change box.

When I went to get the mail I ran up to our Dollar General to get DH some deoderant and the kids some chapstick. They didn't have the deoderant so I just ended up with 3 tubes of Blistex that came to $3.18.

Added .65 to my change box. This is change from sending a package to Canada.

Ordered my oldest DS's Christmas present. That went on the CC but I have the money in savings so that will be transferred over and paid off on Monday so that it doesn't add to the total. 2 Christmas gifts down, 4 to go for the immediate family! I will get my parents a gift certificate to a restaurant, as always. Last year we tried to get them each a gift but they just ended up returning them so we decided might as well stick to the tried and true. We will also get my aunt a gift certificate but it will be to the grocery store in town. She is disabled and lives on a fixed income so this is the best way to help her.

I got an email a little bit ago that my Amboy account has been opened!

I have to verify the small deposits, but I went online and they aren't posted yet. I'm hoping after 2 this afternoon they will be there. I'm anxious to get going on this savings fund.

Last entry of the day, I promise!

I'm excited about opening the Amboy account so I sat down tonight to determine what budget category I could shave $5 off of a week to contribute to the account, along with whatever overtime money I put in. So I decided since my car is newer, hopefully it won't have as many repairs as my husband's 1989 truck. I cut the car repair account to $15 a week. So at least $5 a week will go to the new Amboy emergency fund. Better than nothing!

I also started saving any change that I have in a box that is on the top of my computer desk. Each day I will put any change I have in my purse and whatever change I "earn" for doing laundry. When it gets to a decent amount, that money will also go into the EF. Now to keep others out of it!!!

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Also, just wanted to add that I'm so glad I found this site! I tried a blog before but just couldn't find anything to blog about! But get me started on money and I could probably blog all day!

And I think it's really going to keep me motivated to save and pay down the debt!

My financial goals are:

- pay off the small credit card and use it only for the things that are billed to it (youngest daughter's flute payments, mail-order medicine, etc.) or that will be paid off each month.

- get the big credit card paid off as soon as possible. Any extra income that is not going towards the house repairs will go toward this. There will be a profit-sharing check in early December. After tithe amount, the balance will be applied to the CC.

- go through Christmas with no added debt. I faithfully put aside money each week towards gifts so the challenge is not to spend above that amount.

These are the debts we have and that I am working on getting paid off as quickly as possible:

Credit Card #1: $408.93
Credit Card #2: $6,122.14
Livingroom Furniture: $2,187.79
Husband's truck: $1,040.00
My car: $16,097.04
Mortgage #1: $9,420.53
Mortgage #2: $45,450.29

CC #1 should be paid off this month or next month at the latest. This card is normally used only for things that get charged and paid off monthly and for ordering gifts.

CC #2 is the one I'm concerned with most. Right now it has 0% financing so I'm working on getting the balance down as far as I can before interest kicks in.

The furniture payments are 0% interest also as long as they're paid off by a certain date. I've made a note to myself to make sure that is done so we don't get hit with all the interest at the end.