Dimples' Divine Domain
My journey to financial empowerment.

This mom is kicking budget booty left and right. The private school that my daughter attends is coordinating a summer camp for the grade school kids. The were offering summer camp for grades K thru 12 for $88/week. Definitely better than the $110 I was looking at paying to just keep her in plain old daycare. So if my daughter is starting kindergarten in August she should qualify for the camp right? Wrong. Well that is what the one of the pre-K teachers told me anyways. So being who I am I decided to speak to someone who actually had authority to say yes or no, the summer camp director. After some chit-chatting that lasted 15 minutes I was able to get my daughter enrolled into their summer camp program for the summer. I had to pay a $140 registration fee that covered all the summer field trips and activities and others things like gas, lunch, and snacks. I will then pay $88 a week for summer camp. I don't have to pay for weeks that she will not be there (which is perfect sin...

Remember in my " My Money is acting Funny! " post I talked about how some of my budget categories would be increasing in June? And how I was going to work on finding a way to combat some of those? Well I was able to get my monthly internet bill lowered back to the original $19.99 I have been paying for the last year. I called Brighthouse earlier this week and requested that I be put on another promotion with a lower rate than I currently had ($29.99) or I would cancel my service and go with someone else. Within 5 minutes I was put on a current promotion that was running for new customers, $19.99/month for Roadrunner Lite. I was also able to keep my current internet plan and speed (which is a bit faster than Roadrunner Lite). Now to work on the other stuff.......

OMG!!!! Beautiful Tear Jerking Heart Wrenching Explosive Awesome Just plain........DAMN!!! I am so late on this because I don't have cable and I usually catch up on my fav shows on Friday and the weekend. So I saw the part 1, House's Head, earlier this evening and it left be mystified and wanting more. But I could not, for the life of me, find part 2, Wilson's Heart. So I put my detective cap on and did some spy work on google. AND I FOUND IT !!!!! I am all cried out........................

I just received the following comment from Anonymous on my " Crockpot Recipe of the Week: BBQ Riblets " post: "ok, seriously, WHERE are you shopping for this meat for so cheap? Do you hunt it down yourself? You dating a butcher? I'm impressed and thoroughly intrigued by your cooking. See, now i'm hungry...lol " LMBAO!!!! No I do not hunt my food nor am I dating a butcher. I am just blessed to be located near some very inexpensive stores. I bought the package of riblets on sale at a Dollar General supermarket (there are only 3 in Florida). I also shop at a farmer's market and they are also super inexpensive.

BBQ RIBLETS (whole) Ingredients: 1 package of pork riblets = $1.96 Dimples' Special marinade = $1.00 - 2 tsp of red pepper flakes (adjustable to the level of heat you want in the dish) - 2 tsp of garlic powder - 2 tsp of onion powder - 2 tsp of salt free seasoning - 1 tsp of black pepper -2 tsp of chopped parsley -1/2 cup of italian dressing Dimples' Special Low Sodium BBQ Sauce = $1.00 (or just use your own fav BBQ sauce) - 2 cups of low sodium ketchup - 2 capfuls of white vinegar - 1 tsp of chili powder - 2 tsp of garlic powder - 2 tsp of onion powder - 1/3 cup of brown sugar TOTAL COST = $3.96 (approximate) Prep Time = 5 minutes (marinading riblets overnight is optional) Cook Time = 4 hours on high or 7 hours on low Directions: Make marinade. It should turn into a nice paste. Clean riblets and then put them into a gallon size ziplock bag. Pour in marinade. Close bag and massage riblets until they are thoroughly covered in the seasoning paste. You can either marinate...

The past two weeks have been real hectic. I was working on a important project that took a lot of my time and drained a lot out of me. I was hitting the sack no later than 9:30 on most days. But it is complete and I am done with it for good. Now let us get into this funny money business. Remember my budget for this month and the highlighted fields? If you don't then here it is again: My expenses have increased by $75 since last month (technically it increased by $510 if you count the car note but I am focusing on the categories that were pretty much stagnant for the past several months) . My rent went up from $650 to $700. The promo that I was on for my internet ended and I am now paying regular price. Food prices have increased and I had to increase my grocery budget in order to keep up. I am outside of my home more than usual and I have to resort to using my cell phone more than usual. I had to upgrade my plan after two months of excessive overages. On top of all that m...

I had to realign some of the due dates. Changes will be in green. I may hold off on school this year. With everything going on my job I am not sure if I want to add school on to my list of ish to deal with. CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR 2008 GOALS: * Become a Lead Engineer on one or more projects. – 11/1/08 * Increase knowledge and skill level in following programs: + AutoCAD – 7 /1/08 + Pro E Drafting – 11/1/08 + Access – 6/1/08 + Oracle – 8/1/08 * Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. --> I took the test on 4/12 but I won't get the results until July. – 7/08 * Initiate steps to obtaining a graduate certificate in the following program: + Applied Operations Research – 7/15/08 * Complete online certificate program at AMBAI for following programs: + Management and Business Administration Certificate – 8/1/08 + Finance and Investing Certificate – 9/1/08 TASKS: - FE EXAM: > Register for the April FE exam - 1/11/08 > Study with co-workers - 1/08 à 4/08 ...

Here is my updated 2008 Goals list. All updates are in red. DIMPLES GOALS FOR 2008 FINANCES *Eliminate CC Debt (current standing: $10,007) -Using my debt snowball plan ---> I will need to recalculate this. I am not sure if this will happen by October. *Double Emergency Fund to $6,000 (current standing: $3069.42) -Once I pay off all my credit cards, I will redirect all money left over after all bills have been paid to my E-fund until I reach $6K. *Get car loan balance under $15K (current standing: $19899.55) -My car payment is $392 . I have been paying $532 for the past year. I am bumping the payment up to $435 for 2008. ---> I changed this one. See all changes in red. *Look into hiring an accountant to do my taxes. ---> Negative. Didn't need an accountant. Did it all by my self. *Obtain $300K in additional life insurance. -Research additional life insurance and find affordable plan with good company. *Increase credit score to 700+. *Change to paperless b...

If you haven't received your stimulus payment yet, then check out the following: WHERE'S MY STIMULUS PAYMENT? The IRS online tools works just like their " Where's my refund? " feature. Just enter the required information and receive an up-to-date status on your stimulus check. I still haven't received my payment yet and I have been seeing news stories of payments being deposited into the wrong accounts. So I used the feature to ensure that I hadn't gotten duped out my moola. My payment should be in by tomorrow morning.

12,001,181 How much money will you be worth? Oh yeah baby!! I can wait 10 years for that. Try the test here .

CARIBBEAN CHICKEN (whole) Ingredients: 1 whole hen = $2.89 Dimples' Special Caribbean marinade = $1.00 -1 cup of Mojo Criollo marinade ($1.89 a bottle) -2 tbsp of curry powder -1/2 cup of balsamic vinaigrette -2 tbsp of italian seasoning -1 tbsp of chili powder TOTAL COST = $3.89 (approximate) Prep Time = 10 min Cook Time = 4 hours on high or 6 on low Directions: Make marinade. Chicken should be thawed over night. You can either marinate your hen over night or for 5 minutes. What ever fits your schedule. Pour half of the marinade over the hen and some inside it's cavity. Place hen in crockpot. Pour remaining marinade into crockpot and evenly over the hen. Turn on crockpot on at the high or low setting. Cover and let it cook. Results : The chicken is actually for this upcoming week's dinners. I have a busy week ahead and will not have time to cook. So I am making some dishes ahead of time. This hen should make about 3 dinners. Making it today allows me to ma...

Relax today and enjoy yourself!!!

MAY BUDGET The categories highlighted in yellow are uncontrollable increases in my budget from April. I am hoping to spend less or none of the categories highlighted in pink. My budget tells me two things: I need to get rid of this debt pronto (lottery anyone) and I need to bring in more income. MAY GOALS Career - Update resume - Start job hunting and apply - Practice for upcoming interviews (I haven't done an interview in 3 years) Business - Obtain domain name - Look into starting a website - Order business cards - Network - Start business plan - Research Finances - Bring in more secondary income - Spend less - Reevaluate debt payoff plan Health - Plan and start exercise regimen (gosh! I swear this is ALWAYS on my goal list...lol) - Do a detox - Look for a spa or clinic that does colonics Spiritual/Emotional Health - Start meditating again - Read - Plan a mini vacay for this summer (perhaps in June)

Steve Madden is having a hot sale . Mmmhmm. Check out how to get an additional 15% off here . I want these but only size 4's are left. And these but they are out of my budget range.........of ZERO!!!! I mean with the 15% off they would be $36.51. No shipping. Hmmmmm.......... NO!!!! Can't get 'em. Won't get 'em. NO MAM!!! Plus, I would wreck my ankles trying to werk these snitches. Yes......it is for my own good. OH MY GOD I WANT THEM. I WANT THEM NOW!!! *ahem* night..............

April went pretty smoothly. I need to control my spending. Thankfully, I brought in a nice chunk of extra money to cover my spending. Alrighty, shall we begin? Income: I had $84.53 left over from last month. I brought in an extra $277.98 that consisted of blog income, Revolutionary Money Exchange referrals, Vindale Research , and two sales on Amazon. left over from my tax refund. Rent & Utilities : I had to pay my cell phone twice this month. I was wondering why I had so much money left over from the previous month. Turns out the payment I made in April did not get processed. So I winded up paying for my cell phone twice. Luckily I had the money ready in my account. Auto: No car payment this month. Yay! Food: I went over my grocery budget by $13.19. Due to my health situation I had to clean out the unhealthiness in my fridge and restock on spices and condiments. Debt: I made regular payments and paid down a credit card. Misc: I went way over my beauty budget...