Nothing horrible is going on; in fact everything is going VERY well. I’m hugely busy, my side biz is rocking, my hours at work are cut back to reasonable (but I’m still managing to gather some overtime, which is much appreciated).

I have spent some $$ the past two weeks but all good spending and planned. I’ve bought some fabric to recover a few pieces of furniture and even managed to find what I wanted in the remnant bin, saving myself much money. Then I found a couple of pieces of furniture at a flea market that I’m thrilled with. They both need lots of TLC, but they’ll be my winter projects.

Financially things are holding steady. Debt is slowly being paid down. Savings are slowly edging up (except for the $275 I had to pull from the E-Fund to cover replacing the thermostat in the oven. Bleah.). I am hoping that by next spring I’ll have the money in my HSA to finish up the dental work that I desperately need done.

That’s about it for now. More updates coming soon!

7 things I have done this year:

1. Started this blog (see I told you I was stealing!)
2. Restarted contributing to my 401(k)
3. Started (and spent and restarted) an Emergency Fund
4. Opened an HSA
5. Gotten rid of 30 items from my house
6. Paid off several items on my credit report
7. Bought a car and paid cash for it!!!
8. (Bonus item: Took the ^%$&%@$ shredding to be shredded!)

1. Lose a final 25 lbs to reach my goal weight
2. Max out my IRA
3. Max out my HSA
4. Make a significant profit with my side biz
5. Pay off my 2nd family debt (now that the one to XH is gone!)
6. Travel overseas (preferably for my business so someone else pays for it!)
7. A private goal that would mean a lot to me to achieve!!

There you have it … my 7 Things!

Spending, Saving & Debt

• Total spend:$80
• Total saving: $0
• Total debt paid: $25
• Thoughts & Comments: Not much to say. It was a very quiet week. I put in a ton of overtime and didn’t spend much other than a small grocery trip and a tank of gas for the car.

Projects & Planning

• Projects: Nothing completed but 3 more started. I finally got all the parts and pieces for my chalkboard, I got a garage sale table for my bench project, got all of my bathroom drawers cleaned out (still need to get the organization part together), and began the process of emptying out the storage room.
• 1000 Things: A handful of old VCR tapes, a bunch of decorative “sugared fruit” from an old centerpiece, and something else that I can’t remember right now
• Weekly Goal: I rocked the eating and exercise this week and I’m down 4.6 lbs.
  

Thoughts & Musing

I really have no brilliant thoughts for this week. I was really busy but I feel like I’m back on track finally, in several areas of my life.  Yay.

I’ve been avoiding the TV today as much as possible. I watched this when it happened, as it happened, the first time. I don’t need to see it again, although I understand and respect those who feel the need to watch and remember.

I’ll be back tomorrow.

Anyway.

I still have the account and it just sits there doing nothing these days. Every now and then I drop in and see what’s going on. Back when Wall Street went crazy last year, AIG was down to $0.33 and I thought about buying $100 worth just for fun, but I decided not to. Silly me. Earlier this year it hit $37 a share. Had I bought 600 shares of stock for under $200 last spring, I’d have enough today to pay off 90% of my debt. (Ok, well, not after taxes, but still … a chunk of change!)

Again … anyway.

I’ve been thinking for a while about whether or not I want to do any playing around with stocks. Truthfully I’m not looking at buying stock as any kind of moneymaker or “get rich quick” scheme. I’m just wondering if it might be worthwhile and … well … fun to buy a few shares here and a few shares there and see what happens.

Last month, on a whim, I followed a link from my ING savings account over to their Sharebuilder site. What really convinced me to make the jump was that with Sharebuilder, I could set up automatic investments in which I could buy fractions of stocks. I didn’t have to wait until I could save up $370 for a share of Apple or $560 for a share of Google. I could choose to automatically invest $20 or $50 or whatever a month, divided among as many stocks as I wanted to (keeping in mind the $4 per trade fee … or the $12 per month if I wanted to really dabble in a lot of companies and upgrade to the Advantage plan).

Maybe it’s foolish to invest $50 a month on what is essentially a gamble when I still have so much debt to pay off. Maybe I should put that $50 towards the IRS each month and wait to invest until my debt is more paid down. But honestly? I’m having fun. I have picked 4 stocks that I like, products that I use or own, and I’m buying little dribs and drabs of them each month. Some months they go up and some months they go down. And I figure $50 a month on a little entertainment, with the possibility of a nice return later, is money well spent.

But I don’t have two incomes. I’m just me. How do those of us who only have one income put that idea into practice? For those of us who are not part of a couple, putting that principle into action means living on half an income.

The first question is could I live on half my income? When I restructured my budget last month, I started thinking in terms of percentages as well as cold hard dollars. I found out that when I stick to my budget, I already save 29% of my income. Debt payment makes up another 17%. So that means I’m actually already living on 54% of my income right now. Huh. Who knew.

If I could figure out a way to shift that 4% from spending to debt payment and/or saving, I’d be there. And it wouldn’t be that huge of a change to my lifestyle.

(Of course if I could finagle a raise, that would help, too!)

It’s something to aim for, anyway.

Spending, Saving & Debt

• Total spend:$1,450
  This included a big service for my car, my bi-weekly share of the house payment, a haircut and other personal spending, groceries, a phone bill, and a few other little household things.
• Total saving: $10
  I have a bi-weekly scheduled deposit into a Capital One savings account. I forgot my password and am supposed to fax in paperwork to get my access restored. I keep forgetting to do it, so I haven’t cancelled the $10 transfer. No biggie .. it’s there and growing and I figure it’s not hurting anything.  Maybe I’ll get to it someday!
• Total debt paid: $325
  I am $250 away from paying off my debt to my XH. Yay. He’s been a doll about it, but I’m glad to get this one paid off first. Two more paydays and it’ll be gone and I can eliminate one whole debt category!
• Thoughts & Comments: It was a bit of an expensive week, but payday weeks always are. Bills and car stuff and … stuff. All of my spending was planned.

Projects & Planning

• Projects: Several projects were started, but none were completed. I’m going to have a tough time meeting my 2011 goal. Honestly, I’ve been a bit lazy. When I have free time, I find myself doing anything other than my projects. Need to get on track.
• 1000 Things: I managed to get 8 things out of the house this week. I’ll list them on the page. I’m happy about that.
• Weekly Goal: Eating totally sucked. Once again there was overtime at work and little cooking. This must stop. I’ve gained enough weight to get angry at myself – nothing fits right any more. So this coming week my continuing goal is eating the way I know I should and getting to the gym daily. I’ve signed up for a series of yoga classes starting next weekend for 6 weeks, so that should help get me moving, too.
  

Thoughts & Musing

No deep thoughts this week. I am really pleased with the financial progress, but it seems to be at the expense of my other plans and goals. I need to be better at achieving balance. I do think that some cooler fall weather would help a lot. I loathe being hot and when I am pouring sweat just walking from the car to the front door, I have no energy or motivation for anything other than sitting. Also something to work on, I guess!

August Goals

• Success! Pay $100 extra towards my IRS debt.
• Success! Review my credit report and find another settlement offer I can take to further reduce my debt.
  I accepted a 25% offer for one of the larger items on my report, plus took another offer for a fairly old item, but I felt better about accepting the offer than about letting it roll off my credit.
• Partial. Go to the gym or work out 3x a week.
  I’m still working insane hours, but I’m getting better about working out again. It’s been cooler, so I’ve been running some and I’m getting back into a regular schedule with yoga.
• Partial. Focus on healthy eating.
  I haven’t done badly the last 2 weeks or so. I tend to be an emotional/stress eater, and so it’s been hard to keep on track. I’ve managed to up my intake of fruits and veg, so that helps. At least if I’m eating and snacking, I’m working on making it healthy stuff.

August Numbers

• Debt – I paid off a whopping $1500 in debt in August, thanks to all the crazy overtime I’ve been working and a nice settlement offer. I ran some percentages and right now I’m putting 16% of my income towards debt. I’m ok with that but I’m looking at ways to increase it to 20% until the bulk of at least the IRS is paid off.
• Savings – Savings was average for August, but I made some changes to my automatic payroll stuff: my 401(k) contribution, my E-fund savings, and my HSA. If things continue on as they are, I’ll be putting away nearly 30% of my income in savings this month and going forward. I’m really happy about that.

August Summary & Thoughts

I feel like I’m back in the groove again. I feel like the last two months of complete and utter stress helped me to rethink and refocus myself on what’s important. Things are starting to fall into place. Onward to September!

I’m going to be a bit ambitious for the month. Maybe it’s not a good idea given the way my July and August went, but right now I’m feeling motivated and ready to kick some ass … so let’s take advantage of it.

• Order copies of all of my consumer reports, including ChexSystems, TeleCheck, and so forth to see where I stand.
• Pay off or settle 3 items on my credit report.
• Go to the dentist (ahhhh!).
• Add at least 10 items to my 1000 Things list.
• Complete 2 items on my Projects list.
• Include at least 2 non fiction books in my monthly reading.
• Take another series of yoga classes.
• Go to someplace in my city where I haven’t been yet.
• Take measurements (ack) and get back to getting in shape.

This is going to mean a good hard push this month, but I can do it. 3 of these things are already in motion, so I’ve got a bit of a head start.

September is going to be a good month; I can feel it.

Spending, Saving & Debt

• Total spend:$216 (gas, groceries, a birthday dinner out, and picking up needed household items)
• Total saving: $0
• Total debt paid: $0
• Thoughts & Comments: Really nothing for this week. I’ve been so busy with stuff that there hasn’t been time to spend anything other than necessities.

Projects & Planning

• Projects: None completed.
• 1000 Things: Nothing removed
• Weekly Goal: Eating  has been so so, but I’ve been able to incorporate a lot more veggies and fruits into my diet, which is good. I’m thinking about doing a juice fast for a few days … haven’t figured out the logistics of that yet.
  

Thoughts & Musing

Getting it together slowly. I updated my sliders on the right there and it’s good to see that my debt is going down. Yay. I still need to figure out where I am with the IRS, since my statements always reflect a month behind. I still think it’s stupid that I can’t check my balance and status online. *grump*

Other than that, it’s business (and life) as usual.