Ok so I started crafting again. I finished the order for my Etsy shop and then I made some extras that I have listed on my shop yesterday. Today I was supposed to finish several projects but I didn’t finish them all. So dissapointing. Instead, I did some fabric shopping online for my crafts. I usually buy fabrics once every 3 – 4 months and when I buy, I usually have a large order.
Tomorrow, Sunday, I will have to finish the rest of my project as I really, really need to start selling again on Etsy. Sales have been pretty weak due to lack of posting. I noticed when I post everyday, I get some sales going. I also need to add some variety to my shop. But for now, I am trying to stock up on selling some items that people like.
My goal is, of course, to make enough money from this work so that I can afford to quit my full time job when the baby comes. Or my other plan is to quit my job once I have my second baby–before 35 (I am 31 this year).
Ok. It is late and I am sleepy. Have lots to do before I go to bed: praying, reading books, writing.
Until then, take care.
I will take a break from posting rants about my job tonight.
I am happy to see the money in our saving account grows. The local bank now has $1000 in it and Emigrant Direct has about $3600 in it. We are $1400 away from fulfilling our first phase of emergency fund. I hope to fulfill that before the end of the year although that means big sacrifices, which equals to no exessive shopping during the holiday. Thankfully, that should be easy enough considering we don’t have to buy any gifts for anyone this year. I only plan on getting my best friend and my facialist something small for Christmas. My budget is about $100 – $125 for 2 people. I will be buying my bestfriend a jacket. I went shopping with her once and she told me how she wanted to have a jacket that she could wear to work. We looked for one and she found several but she didn’t think she should get them. I tried to persuade her but she said she’d wait to get one. For my facialist, I am going to get her an assortment of make-ups maybe from Sephora. I’ll try to go to Ann Taylor Loft and Sephora tomorrow to see if they have anything for sale.
I am not sure what to get for my husband. I am sure he’ll tell me he does not want anything for Christmas. Very typical of him. I want to get him something meaningful but I don’t know what he wants.
I have a lot on my Christmas list. But I don’t expect anyone to buy them for me. Not even my husband. I’d feel bad if he buy me something. He bought me a lot of gifts this year already. I think we should scale down this year and skip buying things for each other. We got ourselves Wii and Wii fit already about a week ago. And that cost us a little over $300. We also bought new portable heater ($40) and will need another one ($40). We bought 2 rugs for $200. Just today my husband bought 2 used Wii games for close to $60. I shopped for tons of new undies $150. We need 2 new rugs for the master bedroom ($200) and a bookcase for the family room ($100 – 150). I would like to purchase a real Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving (not sure$$$?). I think I might want a small tree this year just to put inside our family room. Last year we got ourselves big Christmas tree.
So, yeah I think we need to slow down on buying things we don’t really need. Plus, my husband told me that this year’s black friday’s deals aren’t as good as last year’s. I wanted to get a small flat screen TV to put in our master bedroom but I think I can wait on that. A new laptop is also on my list but I think I’ll wait on that as well.
I am actually selling my stuff on Ebay right now. I am going to post some more this weekend. I am just trying to get rid of stuff I don’t need anymore.
I prepared the budget for the following 2 paychecks and I am excited to say that we’ll be able to SAVE a ton of money!!! About $1000 per payday (2 paydays = $2000). We’ll probably use this money to pay off my husband’s CC debts. Or we could save the money as well. I guess we’ll see.
Today was an okay day. I got up feeling not too well. I took some medicine and I wasn’t feeling myself until around 2PM. I went to mass at 12.10 today. I don’t normally go to Saturday’s mass. The church was packed. I lit 2 candles for my prayers. After mass I went to the bookstore/giftshop to get St.Joseph’s statue and some more prayers books. I am going to read some of them tonight.
I bought St.Joseph’s statue because I would like to be able to purchase the house accross the street from our house. To tell you the truth, I don’t know how but I have confident it will happen. Looking at our financial situation, there is no way we can afford the house accross the street right now. Only with God’s will can it happen. I love the blue house so much. It has very large backyard that is perfect for our dogs and cats. There is also a koi pond and mature fruit trees. The garden is nice too. The house is big. I would take out the wallpapers–kinda outdated. The bathrooms could use some fresh renovation as well. Overall, it would make a pretty house. When you are there, you feel like you are secluded yet you are surrounded by other houses. And I love our street so I would very much like to stay on our street/block. I love everything about that house. Seems like only a miracle could make me own that house.
As I write this blog, my husband is on his way to New Jersey. I pray so that God is watching him all the way and that he will arrive in New Jersey safely. I will call him shortly before I go to bed.
Tomorrow is Sunday. I am going to try to go to the 8 o’clock mass. Class is at 9.10AM. I need to do laundry so I might do that right after I finish class. Then I want to go to the Southern Women’s Show. I plan to come home around 3PM. Cook dinner and then relax with the dogs through the evening.
Today is a blue Saturday because my husband is not here with me. He will be in New Jersey and will be back Wednesday evening. I cannot wait to see him again.
Last night, I paid off all my CC debts. I am a little embarassed by this but I used some of the money that my mom sent me to pay it all off. Once we get the rest of the money (first wire was $10,000), we’ll pay off my husband’s CC debts. After this we should only have the mortgage and the car payments (which are quite high $625 for 2 cars). But the plan is to pay off the car payments by March 2009–this is also assuming my company does not piss me off again. I am hoping and praying and begging to God to help me win the lottery.
My husband went to his part-time job about 30 minutes ago. He made $140 on his paycheck for his part time job. Yay. I think he should be able to get in average of $500 – $600 per month from that job. Not too bad for a part-time job he likes to do. And now that our CC debts are almost gone, that money will be going toward our EF.
Well. I am going to get ready for my Wednesday class at church. It is going to start soon. I will be back in a couple of hours to continue this blog.
Today was good and not so good.
It was good because I had the time to go to church to attend the Novena Mass. Though I am not a Catholic yet, I do believe in the Catholic teachings and church. I have accepted Jesus Christ in my heart. Today I prayed to Immaculate Virgin Mary. I asked her the same thing I have been asking her for months. I have faith that Virgin Mary will hear and answer my prayers. She did before so there is no doubt she will do it again for me. The mass was very nice. I always love going to Monday’s Novena mass. It’s quiet and peaceful in there. And I always have the time to pray for Virgin Mary.
After I came back from church, I got the news from my boss that they wouldn’t allow me to take vacation in April—another girl in my department is pregnant and she is due in April. My boss asked the vice president and pretty much the vice president was hinting that if someone wasn’t there when the company needed him/her, then that would mean that person shouldn’t be there.
Ok so here I am in the middle of this stupid thing. My families wouldn’t understand the situation here with my company and my company wouldn’t care about the last wedding in my family and the fact that I haven’t visited my families since the year 2000. Why would they care? All they care is that we work to death.
Tonight I have to call my mom and try to explain this whole thing. She’s going to be upset and I wouldn’t know what to do—yeah I know why don’t I just quit my job??? how’s that. I can stay with my family all year long if I want to. *SIGH*
I am so frustrated right now. I cried in the bathroom of my office today. I was just too frustrated. I don’t know how to get these 2 sides to understand my position. My family is going to hate me and my office is going to think I am a bad employee. Great.
I hope that my sister would change her wedding date–I doubt she’d do that. I don’t want to be blamed for anything bad that might happen later on.
I hate to be in this situation. I will pray again tonight to Virgin Mary. She’ll help me.
The local TV station was having a contest to win Sex and the City DVD and 2 soundtrack CDs. All we needed to do was to email the TV station with 3 infos: name, age, and phone number. So I entered. This was about a month ago. Yesterday someone from the TV station called me to let me know that I have won the contest!!!!I won the new Sex and The City DVD and 2 sountrack CDs!!! They also tossed in another DVD: LA Confidential as a bonus. I was so happy. I am a huge big fan of Sex and The City and I had thought about buying the DVD but decided to wait. Then when I saw the contest on TV I thought I’d entered to see if I could win it. And I did. I actually already owned one of the sountrack CDs so I am going to Ebay the one I won. Or maybe I could do a contest here on my blog to win the extra CD I have. I’ll think about that.
Today was payday. My direct deposit won’t be until next payday so today I received another actual paycheck from the payroll guy. I deposited to my bank account on the same day. As of today we have a little over $2200 in the bank ($2000 in checking and $200 in saving account). This is outside our Emigrant Direct account. My husband also received his paycheck today for almost $1000. We will be depositing this check tomorrow. Our checking should be a little bit over $3000 by tomorrow evening. Also on October 15, my husband will receive his first paycheck from the part-time job. I am not sure of the amount yet.
Things we need to pay: mortgage ($1300), utilities ($250), and WaMu ($50). Gas (for 2 cars) and groceries should be another $150. I think we’ll have a big chunk of leftover money this month which we would need to save to pay for installing privacy fence in the backyard.
I think by now we all know the country is in a bad financial shape. And there is no easy way out. Almost everyone is feeling it. My husband and I have been trying to seriously cutting back on a lot of stuff. I promised myself to eat leftovers for lunches for the next 6 months (March 2009) or until we are debt free. I’d allow myself an occasional treat to buy lunch (maybe twice a month). But I’d like to save this for when we celebrate someone’s birthday at work or other events similar to that. Otherwise, I’d just bring lunches from home and eat them at work. In just a few weeks I already started feeling the impact on our budget. Also another thing I learned is that I do not need to shop a lot of grocery items for me and my husband. Often time I buy more than what we really need. I figured if I could make 3 different meals per week for my husband he can eat them for dinners and lunches for that whole week. Same for me. I am easy when it comes to foods.
I cannot wait to get the money from my mom. We can pay off our CC debts. And then we’ll be able to save at least $2000/month (not to include my husband’s part-time job income). I know with this amount of money leftover each month, you’d think we won’t have to skimp on anything. We are trying to save as much money as possible in 6 months to eliminate all debts completely except for mortgage by the end of March 2009 so that we could afford to live on my husband’s income alone. Perhaps we’ll refinance our mortgage next year to get a lower rate that way we can pay off our house sooner. We also need to fix up our house badly and this needs to be done next year. I just hope that nothing breaks in our house this year.
Our EF needs funding as well. As of right now, we only have about $3300 in our Emigrant Direct account. I’m trying to send $125 every 2 weeks to the account for now until we pay off our debts then everything will go to savings–pretty much our EF until it hits my target amount. Our goal is to lower our monthly expenses to $2500/month starting April 2009. What I would like is to eventually save a year worth of living expenses ($2500 x 12 = $30,000). With hardwork and determination this should be able to achieve.
I thank God our financial situation is okay. It might not be the best but I am so thankful that both my husband and I still have our jobs. We are still able to save little bit at a time. And most importantly, we are healthy and happy together. I’ll keep on praying for our financial freedom; the day when we are able to not worry about money and be able to help others.
For readers of this blog, I hope you find yourself in a good financial situation, good health and many happiness.
Two more days to payday. Yay. I have been very good for *almost* the past 2 weeks. I brought lunches from home and at them at the office building cafetaria. During lunch hours, I sometimes have time to walk to the library or the park. Because of this I have lost 3 pounds in the last a week and a half. Both my husband and I save a lot of money by bringing our lunches from home and eating dinner at home. Tonight, I got free dinner. I went to a class held at my church and they provided dinner for free. So I thought, what the heck, I’ll go for the free dinner and extra knowledge!!
Not much happening since earlier this week really. Work is fine; so far so good. I cannot wait to get it through March next year. The time when we will finally pay off all our debts except for the mortgage. I am so looking forward to that day. In less than 6 months my husband and I will be debt free!!!!!!!!! What a feeling that will be. And knowing that for the rest of that year we’ll be able to live on my husband’s income alone is a very heavenly feeling. I gigle everytime I think about that. I have this big huge smile on my face just imagining that moment in March 2009. We’ll be able to save all my paychecks. Wow. Amazing.
You know another thing I want to talk about this evening is the power of prayers. I know some people don’t believe in God and it’s fine with me, but for those who believe in God… isn’t God amazing? I mean, I was experiencing some really hard times earlier this year and I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed… and God answered my prayers. It was beyond happiness to me. I felt that I started getting to know God very well at the beginning of this year. Everything just happened. Just like that. And I turned to God. He has been helping me with everything in my life ever since. The power of prayers, my friends, please do not underestimate it. God hears our prayers.
Whenever I feel down or unhappy, I always seek comfort in the words of God. I now have the habit of reading the bible before I go to bed. I also read the Novena prayer before I go to bed. Sometimes, I read it during lunch hours. I read it over and over. The words are so beautiful they bring tears to my eyes sometimes.
I didn’t know what I was looking for in life before. Then I asked God for guidance. He’s been holding my hands ever since. I feel at peace. I feel comforted. I feel safe. I know that no matter what happens in this world, God is watching me and protecting me. Now I feel that I have a purpose in life.
Lately, with the way economy is going, I have seen a lot more homeless people on the streets. There is this one old man who “lives” inside a bus stop close to my office building. I see him twice everyday; in te morning and in the afternoon. Sometimes I see him 3 times! this is on one of those occasions when I decide to go somewhere with my car. Anyways. This man is always greeting everyone; good morning, good afternoon, have a good day, have a bless day, etc. So one day, I asked how he was doing and he replied, I am hungry and all I want is foods. Normally I would just pass him by but that day I stopped. I looked at him and I said, well you know there is a food bank close to here where you can get foods. He said, yes I went there this morning. He didn’t ask me for anything. I don’t know why I pulled out my wallet and I gave him the last $20 I had that day. I said, spend this on foods please Lord is watching you. He thanked me many many times. I left him and while walking to my office I thought in my head…. what if he spent that money on alcohol???? I assured myself what matters was my intention. I had good intention for him. He did not ask me for money. I gave him the money.
So later that day I saw him again on my way to the parking garage. The man was there. Sitting on the bus stop bench. He had a smile so big on his face when he saw me. When I was about to pass in front of him he said to me, Miss I would like to show you something. I stopped and he showed me a backpack filled with canned foods and crackers. He bought foods with my money!!!!!! He said to me, this should last me for 2 weeks. And again, he thanked me many many times.
I wish I had a lot more money to help homeless people. Not just to give them money but perhaps I could open a shelter for them. Perhaps I could help them to get back on their feet with some sort of job trainings. I can’t imagine the live of those homeless people. Winter is approaching soon. Where are they going to go for warmth and comfort? I don’t know. Maybe I am naive but I believe in the goodness of people. That we should help others when we can. I help people whenever I can because I want to help. Because I have a tiny hope in my heart that someday, when that person I help is back on his/her feet that he/she will help others. And many others that he/she helps will help many many others.
My husband is going to help his grandma to move her stuff to New York. She has decided to move to NY. I think her families have requested her to move up there–where everyone (her sons) is pretty much. My husband’s grandma is going to live in a nursing home. She is almost 80 years old I think.
My husband’s dad called him today to find out about grandma’s moving plan. And he mentioned something about my husband’s aunt plan on moving to NY as well. She lives in our state but different city; about 45 minutes from where we live.
My husband’s families have always been asking my husband to move to NY.
I thought about it. I did like the idea. But then something struck me. How the heck are we going to haul all our pets? And how are we going to afford a house in NY? If I move to NY, I am not about to live in the boonies. No way. If I move to the city, I want to live in the city.
We are in a debt reduction mode and we just talked about a plan to eliminate all debts–mortgage included–by year 2015. We owe $145,000 on our mortgage. With our current plan, it is highly possible to eliminate that by 2015–and we will still be able to save my bonuses and both of our raises.
Where in NY will I find a job that gets me $100,000/year? Just for me. And as for my husband, I would very much like him to make way more than me. Ok, how about $150,000/year? Then it would be very possible for us to afford a house in the $500,000 – $750,000 somewhere close to the city in NY. But if no one can guarantee these salaries then forget it. Forget about living in the city. I am happy and very content living in the smaller city where we make over $100,000/year and we live on one salary—and!! and!! with our current plan, we should be able to retire with millions before we hit 60!!! How awesome is that.
I love where we live right now. We live so close to work–mine is only 5 minutes drive. We make good salaries. We own a house–that will be paid off in year 2015. The weather is nice all year round–no snow, no sleets, nothing crazy. The beach is only 20 – 30 minutes away. We are surrounded by water. It’s super. I love it here. I really do. The one thing I absolutely love about this place is that it is so laid back here. I don’t have to worry about catching up the subway or bus. I can park my car where ever I want. I can go the groceries whenever I want. I don’t have to be on anyone’s schedules. Everyone is nice and warm. I just love it here.
I love New York–to visit. I adore New York–for its glamorous life. However, the place where I am now is where I belong until I am ready to retire. I am not moving to New York. By that time, I will be moving to Savannah, Georgia–where I can sit back and relax in one of their pocket parks.
So I woke up at 7.30AM this morning–early for weekend at least. I got ready for the home and patio show in town. My husband bought 2 tickets already and we thought it’d be good to check out what they have since we are renovating our house anyways. We left home around 9 to have breakfast at Panera. Spent $7.50 for 2 breakfast sandwiches. We then went to the home show. Parking cost $5. The show was huge. There were so many vendors. Everyone seemed to want you to be their next customer. We watched many demonstrations from cooking (selling cookwares) to floor moping and anything in between.
The show was good in a way because you get to compare many different vendors offering the same service. We actually found a business who can refinish old claw foot tub for $595–inside and out. Others offering the same service would charge more–around $800. I also made an appointment for a handyman to come out to our house next weekend–need help in installing privacy fence. I entered into so many drawings–hopefully they won’t spam me. In summary, the show was good and we actually spent hours at the show.
Tonight, we are going to the movie to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I am so excited. Right now my husband is watching football game on TV. It will be over in less than an hour and after that we’re going to get something light to eat before going to the movie.
So exciting.
