Dimples' Divine Domain
My journey to financial empowerment.

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...

I woke up the following headlines this morning: * DHL to cut 9500 jobs and close US service centers * Government provides record aid package to AIG ($150 billion to date and aren't these the same folks who spent $23K of that money at a spa???) * Circuit City files bankruptcy * Fannie Mae posts $29 billion loss in 3rd quarter * Wall Street falls, unable to shake economic woes Let’s keep it real. Things aren't looking too kosher in regards to the state of our economy at the moment. More and more of our tax dollars are being shelled into companies. Companies who seem unable to get their shit together long enough to get themselves out of the hole they dug themselves into. Well, I'm tired of worrying. I haven't really felt the sting from this economic crisis. Yet anyways. I have lost a few thousand dollars in my 401K account and I have had a couple of credit card companies try my patience by skyrocketing my AP...

MG! Is that an updated budget on DDD?! The one she promised us MONTHS ago?? (you know that is exactly what was running through your head) LOL! It's been a minute since you have seen one of these but alas they are back. It is back to the grind for me. No more free for all months with no spending limits or boundaries. It is time for me to reign it in and get cracking. I applied a major dent to my credit card debt and am on a roll. As long as a follow the plans that I have laid out I should WILL be debt free by the beginning of February. Once I cross that milestone off my list I can then focus on house hunting and my Home Fund. One major key to my success is keeping to a solid budget. Especially when things have changed since the last time you established one and you have more wiggle room when it comes to $$$. So here is what I have laid out for November: CATEGORIES SUB-CATEGORIES BUDGET INCOME ...

Yesterday was my first day at the new job. First three hours were spent at HR going through a benefits presentations and creating my employee file. Benefits Summary: Great medical, dental, and vision plan. Only $120 a month for me and my daughter. Even though I have been used to paying zilch on the medical coverage front, the $120/month is a lot better than I thought. Hit the nail on the head here or way off? The company is only offering 2% towards my 401K and there is no additional match. I think I am going to elect to have 0% of my salary applied to my 401K. There is 2.5 months left on the contract which equates to about 5 paychecks. The company's retirement plan only allows roll overs if the account is more than $1000. Any account below that will be required to cash out. Even if I do the same percentage of contribution I did with my old employer (4%) and plus the 2% from the current employer, $840 max would be contributed to my 401K by the time the contract ends. So I...

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.......

One important step I take towards becoming debt free is to find extra money to pay down my debt. I have been doing this from the beginning. There are many different ways to find that extra money but one way that can work for a majority of people is to trim the fat off of your expenses. First, track your expenses. If you already have a budget in place then your golden. If you don't, then track what you spend on bills in one month. This is what my monthly expenses looked like a year ago: BILL Amount Rent $800 Cable $70 Electric $160 Phone $60 Cell $90 Car Note $532 Daycare $410 TOTAL $2122 Second, analyze your monthly expenses and find areas where you can "trim the fat". If you are willing to make sacrifices then do so. Analyze each category and find cheaper alterna...

As you all know, I decided to trade-in my vehicle for a less expensive one . I currently pay $532 a month for my 2006 Honda CR-V. Ridiculous I know. I called my credit union on Monday and applied for a $10K loan over the phone. The loan officer called back in 2 hours and said that I had been approved. She put me in touch with a company the credit union worked with that would be able to get me a car at a wholesale price. The guy took my info and looked up the trade-in value of my car. He called me back and said that the trade-in value on my car was $13,500. Mind you, I owe a lil over $19K. I would basically be almost $6000 upside down on a loan for a used 2001-2003 car. Can we say UH NO!!! Dude advised me NOT to go this route and to just keep paying down my car for a lil while longer. He kept it real and I appreciated that. I am so glad that I decided to talk with his company first instead of going to a dealership with my freshly approved loan and walking away just plain ignor...

I was posed a very good question by Millionaire Mommy on my new budget post : "I have to ask, have you considered reducing your car payments by driving a less expensive make/model? Or is your life energy (time price tag) a good fit for you in this category?" I never considered getting another car. I thought the only way I could reduce my car note was by refinancing my loan to get a lower interest rate and hence a lower car payment. I seriously never even thought about getting another car. I really would like to look into this. Especially if it means of having my $532 car note cut in half or more. I know so much more than I did when I purchased my car in December 2005. Back then I had just graduated from college and landed a good job and my only concern was to get a nice, reliable car. I see roadblocks though: 1. I may wind up upside down on my new loan. The Kelly Blue Book trade-in-value of my 2006 Honda CR-V is $15,500 yet I owe $19,157. I could sell my car privately...