Just after I thought I could brag about a day where we didn’t buy any groceries, it’s that time where we need to stock up for another week’s worth.  The last couple of weeks we really haven’t been using the cash system, and I can tell we’ve spent more than we should have on groceries…but the whole family is sick.  When people are sick the medicine isn’t exactly cheap, and the foods we eat tend to be the higher priced things like juices, fruits, etc.  Oh well, something to possibly account for each year is a "sick fund" or something.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $167.08 (groceries)
• Debt Reduced - $0

Wow, with all of the kids being sick we finally had a day where we didn’t spend any money!  I took some time to start on the taxes today.  Some friends of ours were just talking to us and found out that they’re going to be getting back like $9000 this year.  They have 4 kids, so it looks like they need to adjust their W4 a bit.  I recently did that and it put another $400 in our pockets every month instead of making us wait until the next year for it.  I didn’t do that until very late last year though, so I’m expecting a big return too.  Hopefully it’ll be around the $7000 mark or larger so I can catch up on some bills and get on track with some debt reduction.

Today’s Progress:

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

Today I spent a little time fiddling with some plugins for the site.  Not only do I need to focus on the financial aspect of this blog’s focus, but I want to also focus on what the site provides.  I want to make it easiest on you, the readers, to not only find relevant information, but also to be able to interact and keep up to date with things with as little effort as possible.  Expect there to be some subtle changes going on as this blog adapts to using the new features.

Still quite a sick clan at home, and yet another trip to the grocery store for get-well supplies.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $35.68 (groceries & medicine)
• Debt Reduced - $0

I was going through my bills today, and one of them I just have email reminders for with no paper statement.  So when the reminder comes, I just make sure I pay on it before it’s due.  $200 is what I pretty much pay every time.  (Discover card)  Curious to see how much of that was going toward principal (since I want to display that below in this post) I went to look at how much the finance charges were for the month.  Guesses?  $145.98.  Yeah, that’s like 75% of my payment going to interest.  So on a 6K balance, what does that compute to in interest?  28.99%!!

Holy…

I’ve obviously been slammed by some sort of universal default clause or something.  That’s ridiculous.  I’ll be digging into this some more…it’s just opened the floodgates for me right now.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $200.00 (credit card)
• Debt Reduced - $54.02

Well, as you can see on the site, I’ve put up some adsense ads.  I’m not really into the whole maximize-your-income stuff with the ad placement and all.  I actually went for the non-intrusive feel while still having them in decent places.  I just looked at my site, and said "where do they look like they already fit?" and went with it.  Over time they’ll at least help pay for the site.

Yet another trip to the store for some groceries & medicine for the sick kids.  Our Super-bowl snack list consisted of a box of crackers and some dip.  The kids loved it, we had fun, and we didn’t really have a mess to clean up! 

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $38.61 (groceries & medicine)
• Debt Reduced - $0

Today was a good day for progress.  I’ve finally gotten everything I need to start on my taxes, so I decided to start cleaning up the office to prepare for all the work that needs to be done. 

I just have a hard time feeling organized when everything’s stacked up everywhere with papers from the last two years just all over the place.  So I had to clean up and throw out or shred anything not needed.  Once I had a clear stack of bills needing to be paid, it was much easier for me to start updating my budget sheets.  Then I got to start going through tax stuff.  Yay!  (not)

As far as spending, well, the typical visit to the grocery store is on the list of course…but also a stop at the pharmacy as well.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $23.79 (groceries & pharmacy)
• Debt Reduced - $0