Quote from a comment on my blog entry thanking those that helped my friend:

"Why not forego your tithing of $130 a month to your church and give it directly to your friend in need? I always thought you tithed to your church so that money could be used to help those less fortunate in the flock or yourself if you came down on hard times."

I am a bit offended by this. Maybe I'm reading it the wrong way, but I feel the commenter is judging me.

Let me tell you why I tithe to my church. Our church is a very small church, average of about 30 adults right now. It is going through hard times and we are just barely keeping the doors open. If I didn't tithe to the church they wouldn't be able to pay the bills on time. Also, as an elder's wife, what kind of an example would it be for me not to support my own church?

The church does have a benevolent fund with which we help out those in our own church and community who are in need. Just last month we supplied a family with groceries whose husband is not able to work because of health problems. My librarian friend is not in our community, but in another town. I did not ask the church to dip into what is left of the benevolent fund because of that. I have talked to individuals in the church who are willing to help her, but have not approached the church itself.

I did not post about my friend here with the thought that anyone here would offer to help. I posted about her in hopes that it would make each of us aware of how greatly we are blessed, even though we take it for granted. I was more than shocked when people wanted to send things to help her out. After all, I was pretty new here myself, and no one had any idea if I was trustworthy or not.

I don't usually take offense easily, and certainly don't usually stand up for myself. But I guess the judgmental and accusatory tone I read in the comment just set me off. I'm sorry if I have misread your intention.

According to the debt-reduction planner in Quicken if I continue making total payments on all debts of $1,290.85 each month and snowballing the payments as each debt gets paid off, we can be out of debt in June of 2013. This includes the house. By doing this, instead of making the minimum payments, we will save $45,965.10 in interest.

Personally, I know it can be done sooner and at a greater savings because I did not figure in my husband's profit sharing that we plan to apply to the debt or income tax return money.

Today's spending is easy:

$2.65 for a refill on my medicine
$10 for pizza for a late dinner

Just realized that I didn't post my spending yesterday. Let's see if I can remember it:

Tithe: $130
Home repairs: $280.97
Lunch for DS#2: around $7 (out of my pocket money)
Gas for car: $18

2 more Walmart gift cards have come in for my friend. Thank you both so much. She was so touched that you all would be willing to do something for someone that you don't even know. I don't think you'll ever know how much it meant to her. She was just overwhelmed. I think Christmas was looking impossible and now she sees a glimmer of hope.

She told my boss that through all of this she has told her girls that they just need to look at what they do have and be thankful for those things. One of the things she pointed out to them is the friends they have.

That's a testimony to what has gotten her through all these trials: her positive outlook no matter how hard things get.

Finally came up with a list after looking through others' lists and getting ideas:

1. Appeared in a fitness infomercial that aired a few times in 2004.

2. Had 5 kids in 7.5 years

3. Attended college for 1 month then quit and got married

4. Was married at 17 (missed being 18 by 6 days!)

5. Our honeymoon was 2 days at my parents' house while they stayed with my grandparents.

6. 8 days after the wedding my husband went to sea for 6 months (He had just come out of bootcamp in the Navy)

7. Our first home was a pop out camper on the banks of the York River in Virginia

8. Favorite candy: peanut M&Ms!

9. Favorite beverage: Dr. Pepper

10. I like to work Sudoku puzzles and keep a book in the car for times of waiting

11. Odd family fact: one year I turned 10 on the 10th and my brothers were 6 on the 6th and 3 on the 3rd

12. I still have all of my wisdom teeth

13. Have lived in the same town that I grew up in all my life except the 5 years in Virginia while husband was in the Navy

14. Husband and I have known each other since kindergarten.

15. Only time I got in trouble in school was when my husband passed me a note in 3rd grade and the teacher hung it on the bulletin board.

16. Husband used to chase me on the play ground in 4th grade and I would come home and tell my mother that I wished he would leave me alone because I hated him. :-)

17. Husband chipped my tooth in 5th grade.

18. Husband and I started dating in 10th grade because he asked me to the Christmas Ball

19. Never went to the Christmas Ball

20. Can't believe I made it to 20!

I got up at 4:20 this morning to exercise only to find DD#1 sleeping on the couch for some reason. She should be at college. No idea yet why she is here as she's still sleeping. I'm sure she'll be up within the half hour because the younger kids are starting to arise and get ready for school. Soon music will be playing and there will be lots of traffic through the living room.

So that totally messed up my exercise plans since the living room is where I exercise.

I am taking the day off today because the repairman is supposed to come look at our refrigerator. It's one of the models that was included in a class action suit against GE. The icemaker has too much build up of moisture in the dispenser so that you have to open up the freezer and pull out the ice cube drawer to get the ice. The icemaker makes too much ice so that every time you pull the drawer out you get a shower of ice cubes that go down into the freezer and rain out all over your feet. Very annoying.

We have had the worst time getting this fixed. We contacted GE months ago and they told us the local shop to call to get it fixed. When I contacted the local guys they said that what GE is doing is just replacing the freezer door. Fine.

After 3 months (and not hearing a word) we contacted them again. They said they were waiting for all the pieces to come in. Pieces? We assumed the door would come in one piece. More waiting. No contact.

Finally we attempted to call GE's hotline for this problem. It took over a week and cumulative hours on the phone punching buttons to answer the automated menus and an average of 45 minutes on hold before my husband finally reached a real live person. They had no record of us being on the list to have this fixed! Grrr....

So today we have our 2nd repairman scheduled to arrive to see if we can get this fixed. Needless to say, we are not real eager to purchase anything else from GE.

Also scheduled to do a service call today is our furniture repair guy. We noticed a few weeks ago that the couch has a big piece of metal sticking out of the back. I have scratched myself twice and DH ripped his shirt on it. It's still under warranty (barely) so they are coming to get that taken care of.

This afternoon DS#2 has a hearing test. Then in the evening I'm off to take DS#3 to the Vo-Tech school's open house so he can check out their computer tech program. Busy day, even without going to work!

Today's spending:

Medical: $15 for DS#2's ears, $2.65 for medicine for me (can't believe it was that cheap!)
Lunch for DS#2 & me= about $12 (came out of my pocket money)
Groceries= $89.24 (put on cash back card)

Dinner out was free. We had forgotten that my husband's company had given each of the employees gift certificates LAST Christmas and we hadn't used them all. So we treated ourselves to dinner at a nice restaurant. And unbelievably they gave us the cash back that we didn't use. It was over $15!!! I assumed they'd just issue new certificates that we'd have to use there. So I've got $15 towards next time.

I did remember to use my new cash back card when I got gas yesterday. I see when I got home though that they didn't charge me for the Coke I bought, so I need to tell the owner that when I go back in again. I know he saw I had it, must have just forgot to add it to the bill. I had mentioned to him that I had just activated the card, so I hoped it worked. He told me he wasn't worried because he knows where I live (one block away). Ha, ha. So when I sat down to enter things in Quicken last night I had to chuckle that I had inadvertently "shoplifted" the Coke.

Today's exercise was a 1 mile walk and some resistance band work.

Today is a day of doctor's appointments. DS#2 is going to work with me and then off to see the ENT at 10. His ears have been plugged for many months now. He just finished up an antibiotic for an ear infection about a month ago and the ENT said to come back if the ears were still plugged. They are.

After his appointment I'll take him to school and then come back to work until it's time to go to my annual checkup. Oh joy. The favorite day of the year for every woman, right? Ha! Well, best to get it over with.

So I'll probably get to come home a bit early because there's not much sense in heading back to the office for just an hour or so.

Then tonight is date night for DH and I. We usually go out for dinner and then get groceries. I know...terribly exciting and romantic. That's what you get after almost 22 years. :-) We like it though because it does give us a night out and also combines the trip for necessities, so I guess we're being frugal in that aspect.

There's not much in the grocery account because of paying for the Angel Food Ministries groceries I'm getting on Saturday. So my challenge today will be to keep us within our grocery money limits for the week.

I'm depositing the check today for our son's tuition that I put on our CC for him. I'll give that a few days to clear and then get that $963 off of our credit card. That will make me feel a lot better.

Spending amounts:

$16.00 for a haircut
$24.00 for gas for the car
$10.00 on DS#2's lunch account

I don't know which of you it was from Indiana that sent the Walmart gift card for my librarian friend that arrived in the mail today, but I wanted to say a huge thanks to you! I know your "real" name but don't want to post it here, for obvious reasons. Just know that your gift is going to be hugely appreciated and will be a real blessing to her. I know of a couple of other things coming for her so I'm going to wait until they arrive and then take them all at once.

Thanks again!

I called the gas company today and had them put us back on the budget. I had forgotten I was going to do that in September. That week that we had to use the ventless heater when our pellet stove was down really messed up my budget. Just using it one week doubled our gas bill! So I'm back to $83 a month for gas. I'd rather handle it that way than have it be all over the place.

Thought I'd start posting my exercise here each morning so that I'm somewhat more accountable to getting it done. I don't usually have that problem, but you never know...

So today I got up at 4:15 and did the Fluidity Beginner workout. Tough one. I haven't even tried the Intermediate workout yet and I've had them for months now.

I already know that today's expenses will include filling up the car with gas. I do get to use my new Chase Freedom card though, so that I can start working on that free $250! I just need to remember to use it when getting groceries too. I'm so used to using my debit card for that that I'll probably forget.

We should be hearing soon if we are accepted for the term insurance. The paramedic said that it would be about a week. If so, I need to begin figuring out how to cash in the whole life policies we have and cancel the other term insurance we're carrying on my husband which is much more expensive than what we've applied for.

My spending today amounted to $1.58 for a large Coke at McDonald's on my way to work. I woke up with a sore stomach and knew the Coke would make it feel better. The 2 cents of the change went into the cash box and the rest of it into the console in the car so I have change for parking meters.

My Chase Freedom card arrived today. I was hoping it would because I need to fill the car up tomorrow and wanted to begin using it. I will continue to put aside the money for gas and groceries just like I always do and then just pay the balance each month. I'm anxious to see how long it takes to earn the cash back. I plan on letting it build to $200 to get the extra $50.

I made the awful mistake this morning of wearing pants to work that are just a tad too snug to be comfortable. Why did I do that??? I know better.

So now here I sit feeling miserable. My boss is not here today and I really don't have much to do (obviously, since I'm blogging instead), so I could leave early and go change into something more comfortable.

I'm resisting the urge to go to the LLBean site and order myself some jeans. I know that that is not going to help the problem right now and I know that I have pants at home that fit just fine. So why am I tempted to pull that CC out of my wallet and order?

I think it would be cheaper to take half of a sick day and just go home...

Hmmm...sick of tight pants day?

Today was a no-spend day.

After church I took DD#2 back to school. DD#2 and DS#2 went with me. On the way back DS wanted to stop at Burger King for his dinner. I stayed in the car and let him spend his own money. I came home and had oatmeal. Tasted better since I didn't have to shell out any cash for it.

$34.88 at Dollar General for deoderant, cologne, milk, etc.

$298.98 for car payment

$29.95 on CC#1 for registry cleaner program

Spent most of the day yesterday, after taking my exam, on cleaning up the computer and trying to get it to work correctly. It has been EXTREMELY slow for ages. I did a search for a registry cleaner that had good reviews and found Advanced System Optimizer. I paid the $29.95 for it and downloaded it and got to work. Five hours later it was a different computer! There were so many duplicate files on it and all kinds errors. I had been using different registry cleaner and sypware/adware programs but obviously they weren't working up to par.

I hated to spend the $29.95, but it looks like it was worth it. I was seriously thinking we were going to have to buy a new computer. I have to have one that works in order to take my online courses to get my degree. Glad this worked and I hope it continues!

The exam went pretty well yesterday. Actually, I'm nervous because it only took me a little over an hour. We had 3 hours in which to take it. Usually the exams that I have no idea what I'm doing are the ones that I score in the 90s on. So I'm half afraid that I since I feel pretty good about this one, I must have really messed it up.

And one last subject for now...my change box. Remember I moved it so the kids would stay out of it? Well, I went to put 3 more pennies in it last night and discovered that all the quarters that were in it were gone! Turns out DS#2 took them to wash the car that he borrowed from a friend to go to the dance Friday night! So now I need to recount and start all over again! I think I made it pretty clear that everyone is to STAY OUT OF MY CHANGE BOX!!!

Today is my 3rd exam in Accounting 2. The test is actually here, not late like last time. I am having an extremely hard time making myself study for it because I've studied so much. I'm spending an average of 3 hours a night, after work, on this class. Can't wait for the end of the semester.

I woke up this morning with my carpal tunnel really bothering me so that will make it interesting for the test. As I type all the fingertips of my right hand are numb. Very annoying!

Quicken tells me that my car payment needs to be made today, so I have the check all written out and just need to subtract the total from my budget book and enter it in my spreadsheet as an expense for the month. This is my 2nd payment and we still haven't gotten our payment book! Guess I'll have to make a phone call on Monday. This payment takes the amount we owe below $16,000! Progress!

Don't panic! It will be paid next week. LOL!

DS#1 emailed that he owed that amount on his college tuition and couldn't do his scheduling on Monday if it wasn't paid by then. He hasn't gotten paid for his job on campus all semester because he's been slow about getting his direct deposit set up. So next week he'll be getting over $1,000. So I called the university and put the payment on our CC and he'll pay us back next week and I'll make the payment immediately.

I put it on the Amazon awards card so hopefully we'll at least get a $25 gift certificate to Amazon out of it along with the Christmas presents that have been purchased (and paid off) on it. This gift certificate is DH's to spend.

Thought that title might get some attention. LOL!

Part of my job is a sort of bookmobile/delivery service. One of those deliveries every quarter is to the county jail. Today was the day.

The jail only houses male inmates, so you can imagine that I get some interesting comments when I go in. But I also get many good comments. I usually have at least one inmate that will call out a thank you to me as I go by their rec room on my way to the library/conference room.

I actually don't really mind going there because I know that, for the most part, the service is appreciated. I am always saddened though as I go through the books that have been there for the quarter how many of the young adult titles have been read. Most of the faces I see are teenage/early 20s. What a way to start your adult life.

According to Quicken there are no bills that I have to pay today. So hopefully today will be a no-spend day. Of course, usually just the time I think that one of the kids needs lunch money.

Today I am forcing myself to get back out and start walking in the mornings. My mother made a comment to me yesterday that really hurt my feelings. She told me that I "used to look good". I know I've gained 40 pounds over the past few months, but I can't help that my thyroid decided to go on vacation. But after thinking about it I decided I can fight back. So I'm rearranging my schedule. (I am very much a schedule person.) I'm going to get in a good power walk at least 3 mornings a week and do toning on 3 days.

So new routine is up at 5, devotions, out for a half hour walk (about 2 miles) at 6 and then back home in time to start getting kids up and around for school.

I have been exercising faithfully with taped workouts but the aerobics just doesn't do it for me like a plain old walk does. I lost the 40 pounds before with walking and toning so I will do it again. I will get the weight back off.

My first goal is to get to 170 by my birthday in January. That averages to 1.5 pounds a week.

I opened up a free account with FitDay and have started to log in my foods. I know that I have an extra challenge with the thyroid issues but I'll do my best.

I spoke to my librarian friend on the phone yesterday. Her neighbor managed to temporarily fix her electrical problem. He thinks she'll be okay until spring and that to get it fixed properly then will be about $1,000. I would be nervous with a temporary fix.

The refrigerator is definitely dead. Too many power surges, I guess.

A friend from my other forum emailed me yesterday to say that she had sent a package out for me to give to my friend. I have never even personally met this forum friend, so this is really kind of her. Our women's group is going to figure out something to do for her when we meet next Tuesday. My husband has said that he will take the wood he has split and stacked that we aren't going to use this winter so that she has heat and doesn't have to worry about that.

I searched yesterday for grants and loans for my friend to get this problem fixed and found a loan through Rural Development that can be taken out for 20 years at only 1% interest. She definitely qualifies for it because the "very low income" limit was over $22,000 for a family of 3. I'm going to stop on my delivery today to drop that off to her and talk to her. My boss and I are both willing to help her through the process in any way we can. I think now she's just overwhelmed and it all seems too much.

Health exam for the term insurance is over. Yeah! We should hear in about a week if we can be covered or not. If we do get the insurance I'll have to decide what to do with the money we'll be getting from the whole life insurance cash value. I would like to take it and pay down the CCs. It would come within about $600 of paying them off. I have a feeling that DH will be wanting to use the money to fix the house up though.

I need to sit down today and figure out how much I need to pay extra on the CCs that has been added because of Christmas gifts. I have the money in savings just need to transfer it over and get the payment made.

Today is a delivery day for me at work so I'll be on the road. That probably means buying lunch. Sometimes I take a lunch with me. I'll have to see what I have available to pack. Get tired of PB&J all the time.

I'll be making an extra $40 this month from my side job as a bookkeeper for the library in town. They want me to come up with a budget for them for 2007. At first they wanted to pay me $20. I don't think so. DH told me to tell them $100. I knew that would never happen. Of course, I'm not going to count on the money until I actually see it. I was supposed to get paid extra for doing a salary projection for them because of the minimum wage increase and never saw that money after spending a few hours working it up for them.

Tonight's the paramedic exam for the term life insurance. I just finished my "lunch" (it's 10:30 a.m.) because we're supposed to fast for 12 hours, but the examiner told me since he's not meeting us until 5:30 to just stop eating as early as we can. So I ate my turkey sandwich extra-early. Now to get the water down so hopefully it's easier to take my blood. I do not bleed well for blood work. They've had to syphon it out of me before.

Got my weekly deposit into my Amboy account set up for Friday.

Made the last payment on DS#2's broken thumb from last October! Paid! Yeah! Just that little bit paid off is an encouragement.

Today is a paid day off for me that doesn't count against my vacation time! The library is the voting center so we are not allowed to be there. Okay with me! LOL!

So how am I going to spend my day? Sitting in the car dealership getting the things we've found wrong fixed before the warranty runs out! :-( But at least it will be done. They're also putting my snow tires on so I'm ready for the snowy, icy hills that will soon be mine to drive.

I'm going to take my book to read, my accounting to study, and if it's going to be too long I will ask for a loaner car to go do my Christmas stocking shopping and get it done.

On the change box, that is.

I've been ever so carefully adding up my savings as I've been adding to it only to find that DH and the kids are taking from it without my knowledge to buy treats at the convenience store 1 block over!

Oh well...guess they have to get dessert one way or another since I hardly ever bake anymore!

Well, the applications for the term life insurance are here and mostly done. The appointment has been made for the paramedical exam. That will happen on Wednesday after work. So we'll see if we're accepted or not. I just wonder how stringent their health guidelines are? Neither of us have major medical problems. Both of us do have high blood pressure though.

I hope we are accepted because it would sure ease my mind a lot!

No, not me, my son's, and actually it was over a year ago that it was broken. That's how long it's taken my to pay off what the insurance didn't cover. But when my husband gets his paycheck next week, that bill will be paid in full. Finally!

I've been thinking about what my financial goals are going to be for next year. By the time January 2007 rolls around I should have the small CC paid off with what's left of my husband's profit share check he'll get early next month. So I'll be concentrating mainly on the other CC for the year.

My plans for the profit share check are:

- tithe
- get EF up to $1,000
- will probably have to use some to finish paying for tires for my car
- remainder on CC#1

According to my Quicken Tax Center we will be getting about $1,900 back in our tax refund this year. Not my choice, but can't convince hubby to claim more dependents than what he already is. So that will also be applied to the CC.

So according to my calculations I should be able to have CC#2 paid off next year. Let's hope!