As I was hoping to get by two days in a row without spending any money, I realized that my car’s gas light was already on for two days in a row.  Guess it’s time to bite the bullet and just fill the car.  That’s one of the advantages to having the same car for over 10 years, I really know how far I can push the limit on it when it comes to procrastinating the fill-up.

Perhaps this reveals a little habit of mine though…living paycheck to paycheck really lines up with living gas tank to gas tank.  The procrastination of every little thing that takes money away from me to the point where I’m almost late…or stranded.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $35.46 (gas)
• Debt Reduced - $0

After two days of spending what seems like WAY too much money, we’ve finally gone a day without spending anything.  Unfortunately, the biggest reason we aren’t spending any money is because we simply don’t have any!  That’s right, living paycheck to paycheck is THE LIFE FOR ME!  (that’s sarcasm if you couldn’t tell) 

The wife is really getting onto me about wrapping up the taxes, which I’m doing tonight.  Getting that refund to us will allow us to seriously apply the cash-envelope system and not feel so strained with the timing of our bills vs. our paychecks once we get our budget buffer in place and our starter emergency fund put together.

Here’s to a late night of taxes!

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $0
• Debt Reduced - $0

I took my first shot at doing my taxes today.  It was quite an eventful morning for me.  Let’s just say I’m kind of excited, but I won’t let it go to my head.  One thing I’ve discovered about paying WAY TOO MUCH interest on our mortgage is that it ends up beefing up my deductions a LOT.  To the point where there’s an extra few THOUSAND dollars that are going to end up being refunded to me.  It’s one of those YAY moments followed by the gross realization that I’m still throwing away a ton of money to end up with such a large refund.

I’ll post more about the tax results this coming week.

As for spending, it’s yet another reminder that I’m dumping over $400 in interest into my second mortgage.  This was a consolidation of a bunch of credit cards I had that were out of control, but it’s really just sitting there not making any progress.

Needless to say, it’s very depressing and motivating at the same time.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $7.56  (interest & rebates from checking account)
• Spent - $605.12 (car insurance, cell phone, 2nd mortgage, groceries)
• Debt Reduced - $32.83 (2nd mortgage)

Today I was a nervous wreck.  We’d just finished the whole cheap Valentine’s routine where we didn’t really spend any money on anything.  But the biggest concern was waiting for the mortgage check to clear right after my direct deposit showed up in my account.  Maybe I should post some more about all the skills I’ve gained in timing things just right while living paycheck to paycheck.  I’m amazed at how well I’m able to pull it off, yet disgusted at the whole idea of being just one day from a late mark on my credit report every month.

So, today our mortgage payment went through just as the money showed up.  Nothing bounced, nothing late…all is well again and we can rest our minds yet another payday.  I really need to get on the ball with our taxes so we can get our budget buffer in place.

Here’s another disgusting thought:  I’m paying over $2000 in interest every month for that 1st mortgage.  WTH were we thinking!?!?  What a waste, I’m so ready to be rid of this debt.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $2562.39
• Spent - $2137.41 (1st mortgage)
• Debt Reduced - $110.92

One thing I’ve noticed the last few years is how much it costs to ship something.  As in a box full of clothes, or an oversized valentine card, just anything.  We shipped a couple of boxes today to some family to put the hand-me-down system into effect for some of the kids.  It cost us $30.34!  For two boxes that aren’t even that big!  Wow.

To top it all off, today the USPS announced the penny increase in the price of stamps from $0.41 to $0.42.  Talk about convenient timing for today’s topic.  ;)  Maybe I just never really knew how much it all cost because I never really did a lot of shipping, but it sure seems expensive to me.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $30.34 (shipping)
• Debt Reduced - $0

Well, as much as I’d like to say this is a great milestone for me, paying off the $6.09 on my Menard’s card just doesn’t seem to feel like I’ve made much progress.  LOL!  It does feel nice to have yet another 0-balance card though.  The less distractions and clutter the better.

So the rest of my extra money this week goes toward another credit card.  I don’t really have a snowball set up, but I’ll have one set up once we get our tax refund.  I have 3 credit cards all with about the same balance, but we’ll see where all of our balance floating to 0% offers takes us first.  So for now I’m just paying over on each card as much as I can.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $272.93 (Menard’s, cable, credit card)
• Debt Reduced - $103.48  (Menards, credit card)