Dimples' Divine Domain
My journey to financial empowerment.

........well kind of. LOL! My birthday is this Saturday. I will be *cough* 27. Damn I'm getting old. Anyhoo. Thanks to some very nice sales and some extra moola, I was able to splurge a lil something-something on myself. Here is what I have bought....so far: HP All-In-One Printer -> $42.74 Bought this beauty from Buy.com. It was on sale for $45 and I used a 5% off link. Free budget shipping. Definitely needed this since I plan on picking up some major side gigs in 09 will also be working on helping Sweet Pea start her very own business. Lane Bryant had a wonderful sale on bras (B2G2) and panties (5/$25). I found a $25 off $75 coupon code on the net and placed an order for 4 new bras, 5 boy shorts (my favs) and a couple of cute earrings for a grand total of $60.92 (including $7 shipping). I received a $10 birthday gift certificate from Old Navy. I also had a $10 reward certificate from a month or so back. After both were applied my total was only $10.70. Her

Finally. Its times like these that I LUV free shipping. Majority of my purchases were made just this way. Here is how my budget turned out: Person Gift Budget Actual Mom Cell Phone $30 $30 Sweet Pea Bike $25 $35 Sister L $25 Target Gift Card $25 $10 Sister E Cookware Set (stainless) $25 $25 Niece Clothes $20 $15 Brother Jordan Hydro IV Slides $25 $25 Godson J Crayola drawing set & mini football $10 $7 BF K Book $0 $2 BF's son N Personalized duffel bag & football $10 $14 BF's son J-R Clothes $5 $7 Adopt-A-Chi

Uh yes....you heard right. This family of 7 lives on $44K/year. I know SINGLE Americans with no kids who can't won't live on that. Oh and get this....their last name is Economides. Here is the article: Meet the family who live on $44K a year — debt-free The Economides clan of Arizona reveal how to recession-proof your finances By Mike Celizic TODAYShow.com contributor updated 10:26 a.m. ET, Thurs., Dec. 18, 2008 http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28295159/from/ET/ They’ve been called cheapskates, tightwads, misers, and just plain weird. But names that others would consider derogatory are embraced as badges of honor by Steve and Annette Economides. The couple and their five children bill themselves as “The Cheapest Family in America” and “The Frugals.” On Thursday they showed TODAY viewers how they, too, can have everything they need and live debt-free in an expansive home in one of America’s tonier neighborhoods — on less than $45,000 a year. “The economy is in a tailspin, and

DECEMBER 08 BUDGET INCOME HR fixed my W-2 error which was costing me about $100 per paycheck. I'll get the overage back via my tax refund. AUTO I am finally going to get some tints on my car. I have been meaning to get them for the past two years and never had the time or money (or both). My gas budget ia at $200 but I hope I spend way less than that. FOOD *cough* @ that "Dining Out" budget. You would have thought that I would have learned my lesson by now. But I can't surrender the white flag just yet. I Went grocery shopping and used COUPONS! Three of those jokers helped me save $5. I printed the coupons from online. I am going to sign up with some coupon sites and also look into signing up to get the Sunday paper or just buying one here and there. DEBT Just paying a minimum and a half on them and see if I can do some damage with the money I have left after everything is paid. My student loan monthly payment went up to $157.10. Not quite sure why. Gonna cal

*cough* My November Budget Results: Income: I had $93.99 left over from last month. I brought in an extra $352.21 that consisted of blog income and my 401K distribution from my past employer. I missed my income goal $200. The HR department has had their share of errors since the contract started. They some how entered my W-4 information incorrectly and I was getting taxed at a higher rate then I should have. They fixed it on the paycheck I received yesterday. Rent & Utilities : My water bill was higher than expected. Everything else was ok. Auto: I only spent $152.18 of my gas budget. $152 on gas!!!! Aren't recessions supposed to be a sad time? Why can't we have a great economy and low gas prices? Food : I went over my grocery budget by $117.89. But I have several good reasons why. $60 went to groceries for Thanksgiving dinner when I went to my parents for the holiday. $20 went to rolls I had assigned to bring for the Thanksgiving luncheon we had at work.

Here is a printable $10 off $25 coupon from Macy's for this Friday and Saturday, Dec. 5th and 6th. Coupon is good until 1 pm on both days. Have fun shopping and keep to those budgets!

I mentioned my initial goal of $35o for Holiday gift shopping in a post I did in October. Well I reached my goal last week but winded up using giving $300 of it to my mom. Long story short, my mom is the only one paying the bills right now (mind you both of my parents work) and I wanted to help her out. Anyways as of this moment, I currently have $50 in my Xmas gift fund account. After redoing my list, I have set my budget to $300. Xmas List 1. Daughter - $25 2. Niece = $20 3. Mom = $30 4. Sis #1 = $25 5. Sis #2 = $25 6. Bro = $25 7. Adopt-A-Child (8 kids) = $125 8. My Bestie's 3 boys N = $10 J = $10 J = $5 TOTAL = $300 Thanks to the Xmas good ies I purchased on sale last year and saving all my decorations and tree, I really had nothing to buy for decorations this year. :-) Definitely keeping that a tradition. My daughter and