Dimples' Divine Domain
My journey to financial empowerment.

I received my offer this afternoon . :-D I tentatively accepted the position because I wanted to fully understand what exactly was on the table. I was able to get off work an hour early and headed to the HR office. I only had to renegotiate a couple of items. Once I was satisfied with everything I accepted the position. My new position is higher than what I applied for and I also received a 3% pay increase. I signed my offer letter, took my benefits package, and left that office one happy lady. My new salary, which will be a little over $75,000 per year, opens new doors and opportunites and offers a shorter and better paved route to those goals I have set for myself. Here is a list of some of those new/revised goals: - I will be going for my MBA come this spring. - I will be credit card debt free before the year is over. - I will be a home-owner within the next year. - I will have my personal loan paid off before the end of 2009. My detailed plans on achieving each and every goal is to...

SWEET PEA Thanks to all who left a comment on my last post regarding school lunch versus bag lunch. This is the 3rd week of school and after trying out both bag lunches AND school lunches I have came to a decision: I will make lunch for Sweet Pea 4 days out the week and allow her to get school lunch on Fridays. Reason: During a 3 day period I allowed Sweet Pea to get school lunch. Guess what she had? PIZZA each and every day. Even the 3rd day I told her to eat something else. Needless to say bagging it is the best way for me to ensure that my daughter gets a nutritious meal. And she actually prefers it. WORK I had my interview with the company that will be taking over the main contract come this October 1st last Monday. Wanna hear something interesting? I was interviewed by my current supervisor and her boss. LOL! They had there interviews about 2 weeks before and were offered the equivalent to the positions they hold now and of course accepted. Needless to say the interview...

To all my fellow mommies out there: Is it better to pack your kid's lunch or let them get lunch at school? I am on the fence with this one. My daughter starts school this coming Monday and I am not sure which one I want to go with. On Monday I was set on letting her get her lunch from the school cafeteria, especially since I was told that I would need to set up a lunch account through the school. I called the company that handles the lunch accounts and based on what they said, I am not sure on the idea of it now. I would not have any control on what my daughter eats. Giving a 5 year old free reign on what exactly she gets to it is not a good idea. On top of that there is no way to control how much is charged to the account. If Sweet Pea wanted to buy 3 lunches and 10 snacks she could. The lunch account is charged via a card (like a debit card) and supposedly the teacher is given control of the cards. Not to sure I like this idea. I have no idea where the cards will be kept ...

uhhhhh..........Hey.............yall remember me? lol!!! I know. I am so bad. It has been busy and hectic in Dimples' world. I haven't done a post in about 3 weeks. Did yall even miss me? *sniffles* Anyways. How is everyone doing? I hope you all are doing great financially, physically, spiritually, and mentally. Let me catch you guys up on what has been going down in my world. WORK Work has been going great. With almost three weeks under my belt I have completed 3 major projects and I am set to submit two more this coming Monday. My coworkers are definitely interesting, lol. I am definitely enjoying the new challenges. My supervisor has expressed the fact that she is extremely impressed with my work and my progress so far. We had a one on one today and she let me know that once the new contract began she had a lot of big plans for me. We talked about potential conferences and seminars that she would like me to attend and some certificates and training she would...

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...

Ok, is it just me or is food not lasting as long as it used to? It is the 14th and I have already gone grocery shopping twice and it looks like I may need to go again. Are you serious!?! Are they altering the food to make it not last longer so that we HAVE to go buy more?!!?? No. Even though I may be spending around the same amount dollar wise each shop, I am not getting the same amount of food. Hence having to go grocery shopping for the third time and I'm half way through the month. Needless my grocery budget looks to be a bust this month. I may need to increase it to $125 in August. I also haven't been using my crockpot like I used to. Closing out on my old job and getting prepared for my new job, swimming lessons, and dealing with the death of my grandmother, I haven't had the time to even prepare a decent homemade meal. My funds are definitely feeling this. I gotta get back on my budget hustle. I start my new job on Monday and will have to adapt to the n...

I gave my two week notice on Monday. Supervisor wasn't to cool with me leaving but he said he was extremely happy for me. I spoke to the folks in accounting at my current employer and I do anything with my 401K until annual distribution packages are sent out and that isn't until February 2009. Needless to say that cashing out my 401K is no longer an option. The only reason I entertained the idea was to ensure I was in a good financial state come October 1. I will either roll the money into my the 401K account I will have with my employer at that time or I will roll it into a traditional IRA. I have some time to think about it. Thanks to all who were concerned about my initial decision to cash out my 401K. Please realize that I would only entertain this thought in the case of an emergency. ' The folks at the new job can't wait until I start. Seems like news of me coming on board has spread like wild fire and I had a director stop me in the hallway on my way to lu...