Better late than never

Am really trying hard to stay focused and making sure that I tell my money where to go!!

Goals for 2013:
Computer Savings: $780 now $76
EMF: $1405 Now $426
Reduce debt by: $4815 paid $0
(extra payments)
College Fees: $525 now $0
College Books: $110 now $0
DD Savings: $835 now $584

Now that I have them up here I am hoping that I will be able to make more regular payments towards each of them and "see my progress".
The extra debt payment is my snowball amount which I want to start applying once the EMF in funded to $1405 - can't be worrying about the Murphy again. (he had his turn with the car tires last week - enough already!)

Take care everyone - sad to hear about and see the results of the Bomb blasts in Boston...

Last night I was clearing my desk after studying and came across my salary payment advice for end of March, and realized that I have been so distracted with studying that I hadn’t adjusted our budget yet to include the 7.2% salary increase for 2013.

Pulled out my budget from 2007, when I returned to a salaried position in the nursing to see what how our budget has changed.

Very interesting exercise, not much has changed except that our rent has increased and of course, the cost of gas and food etc. but not enough to explain why we have not 1.) finished paying off our debt or 2.) saved more money in the EMF!!!

I think I have just become a bit too comfortable the past 2 years or so – it amazes me how quickly I fall back into the old patterns. So from today I am going to start tracking the “savings” I make by doing and not doing certain things and putting a value to it – I am tired of just drifting along.

So here goes… this weekend:
Cleaned apartment – saved $20 by doing it myself (home help is inexpensive here so a full day costs $20)
Coloured my hair – saved $27
Gym – 2 visits saved $5.56
Recycled left over paper from DD’s school books - $2
Borrowed DVD’s from a friend - $9.33
Total: $64.89

Now that makes me feel like I am doing something worthwhile

Now back to the books

$4294 paid in full since April last year – just can’t believe that this outstanding tax is finally paid! It has been outstanding since April 2009 but I was just not able to pay and then finally last year I called them and made the necessary arrangements.

I actually had another 2 months to pay off the remaining $1000 but decided to just go for it and clear it – so that’s what I did.

My reasoning whilst I was setting my budget for March 2013 was I looked at my situation:
now that I have the new car (yes I got it on Tuesday last week!! ) and it has a 5 year warrantee and maintenance plan and...
I have medical insurance with enough in the savings portion for acute/emergency events and... there is enough money to cover all our regular monthly expenses so...
I decided to use most of our EMF to get rid of this monthly budget item – so there is a grand total of $100 left in the EMF!!!

At the end of March, I will get the EMF back to where it should be and then start snowballing the rest of my debts – roll-on December 2013.

We got paid today, so for the salary period for February we managed a total of 12 NSD – a record for us. It definitely made a huge difference to the way that I had to plan our meals and make sure that we used what we had – it reduced number of errands & saved mileage/gas.

For the month of March we are going to try for 14 NSD and hopefully as we get more organized we will get better at achieving them.

I found February to be especially challenging and am really pleased that it is now nearly over – I don’t know why I felt so pressured most of the time, tired and just somewhat unsettled. Maybe the car story, maybe because we have been so busy at work, DD just starting high school, I’ve just started studying again – who knows?

The past few days have been better, we seem to be working out a routine that works better for DD and myself – things are starting to feel more manageable and DD has been helping more around the house.

Even small daily improvements over time make a big difference - this is what I tell myself

Will update the side panel next time… take care…

For the first time since the end of 2009, I have internet access at home again - had to stop it to save myself - had to stop the access to online casinos!!!
Now I have it again but no longer have banking facilities which allow me to transfer money to the casinos AND online gambling is now illegal in South Africa.
Jeez I can't believe I just said all that without hesitation to people I don't even know - oh well it's the truth.
My life has changed so much - going back to nursing was a great challenge but now I love it and have even gone as far as registering to upgrade my qualification to a Degree Status in Nursing Science.
This will take about 4 years and lots of $$$ but worth it in the end (part-time).
On the financial front, have made progress but not as much as I would have liked but I have to remind myself that dealing with an addiction AND getting used to working in a structured environment again is no easy task but I did it.
Really want this year to be the year when I say "I AM DEBT FREE!"
And the only way it is going to happen is by using this blog and your support and encouragement to get there.
We are still in a rented apartment, so as soon as the debt is settled we can start saving for the deposit on a new home.
Unfortunately, we had a challenge at the end of 2012, our 15year old car died on us - was only worth $2,265 but required $2,831 worth of repairs AND it wasn't even economical to run - a real gas guzzler. We managed to sell it for $2,800 even though it was not running to the mechanic who was looking after it - I was relieved to see it go - there were more repairs on the horizon and on a nurses salary, no way was I going to pay more on that car!!!
So now we are borrowing a car from a friend of mine and hoping that they will sell it to us - that will solve another challenge. Here's hoping.
Other than that we are happy and content, life has been good to us the past 4 years and DD and I have settled nicely into a normal life (vs my old life of addictive behaviour).

So what are my goals for 2013:
1. Purchase a car - cash only
2. Pass all the courses/modules I have registered for (6) with 70%
3. Finish paying off debt by the 20 December 2013
AND
4. Be happy and full of gratitude for the journey I have taken in my life even with the ups and downs.

Speak to you tomorrow!!!!!