Several New Items Tried – And a Week’s Meals

So as of late I have been working to try new items and streamlining them into our daily day-to-day life, I’ve added to my repertoire if you will some homemade chocolate syrup!

The homemade version uses water, unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla, it’s a little more bitter than the Hershey’s syrup, but I still enjoy it!

Then last night I made some yummy chicken!

The chicken is super simple:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt/Pepper

Garlic Powder

Onion Flakes

Parsley

Basil

White Vinegar

Mix well in a bowl, coat the chicken, saute in a cast iron skillet to brown on each side, finish cooking in an oven heated to 350-Degrees until cooked through.

Tonight we try, bread, cookies and biscuits – so I guess I need to get on it!

But first, I hit the grocery store today to shop for groceries for these meals:

Sun: Spaghetti (was yummy BTW)

Mon: Pot Roast

Tues: Stroganoff

Wed: Hot Dogs/Ham Sandwiches

Thurs: Leftovers

Fri: Pizza

Sat: Roast Chicken

Sub Total Spent: $44.37

WOW!!! I have a lot of items left over in the house from previous items, so I am re-using a lot of items…WOAH!

Tax Refund Week 5

WOW Ok so I vanished for a little bit – sorry life’s been crazy lately…got let go from the project I was working on – and got placed onto another temp assignment through a different temp agency at a local government agency.  Sadly, this one is making $12.00/hr at 37.5 hrs/week vs. the $16.00/hr for 60.0 hrs/week I was working. Sucks, but hey it is what it is…thankfully we have some of them refund left to help live on, and we are…

So here’s the breakdown in spending over the last two weeks:

$180.00 – Regional Acceptance P1

$180.00 – Regional Acceptance P2

Total for Regional Acceptance: $360.00

 

$31.00 – Bourbon Street Cafe, Lunch

$20.33 – Cook-Out, Lunch

$8.56 – Starbucks, Coffee

$33.97 – Mission BBQ, Dinner

$52.97 – Gold’s Gym, Smoothie Card

$7.00 – Impact Nutrition

$2.77 – Gas Center, Energy Drink for Hubby

$48.00 – Bourbon Street, Breakfast

$30.00 – Papa John’s, Dinner

Total Dining: $234.60

$1.00 – Lanier Parking, Downtown Parking

$17.00 – Claire’s Boutique, Earrings

$80.00 – Cash, $60.00 – New Phone & $20.00- Groceries

$5.34 – Kitchen Collection, Candy Thermometer

$5.34 – Cellular Express, Phone Case

$3.20 – Amazon.com, Movie Rental

$3.20 – Amazon.com, Movie Rental

$218.27 – Target, $149.99 Samsung Tablet for Hubby, $49.99 – Replacement iPod for Lara (Mine was stolen while my van’s being repaired)

$5.70 – Target, $4.00 – Prescription for Lara, $1.70 – Bottle of Water

$143.00 – Additional Week Rental Car

Total Misc.: $476.71

$11.55 – Food Lion, Groceries

$6.41 – Food Lion, Groceries

$10.84 – Lowe’s Foods, Groceries

$8.57 – Everybody’s IGA, Groceries

$182.11 – Wal-Mart, Groceries

$11.41 – Harris Teeter, Groceries

$10.79 – Everybody’s IGA, Groceries

$19.40 – Costco, Groceries

$10.66 – Everybody’s IGA

$6.27 – Harris Teeter, Groceries

$149.51 – Wal-Mart, Groceries

Total Groceries: $416.11

 

 

$22.45 – Hobby Lobby, YTA Creations

$11.84 – Hobby Lobby, YTA Creations

$13.46 – Hobby Lobby, YTA Creations

$15.50 – SkipStitch.com, Blade for Rotary

Total YTA Creations: $66.25

Been a full few weeks for sure – I’ve picked up a Smartphone FINALLY for YTA Creations, it’s on my Dad’s family plan, so I have to be extra careful about the Data usage – doing all I can to avoid using it, and sticking to the available Wi-Fi networks when I can. So thus the $60.00 for a phone, a friend of a friend found a used phone for me to get activated, so then I had to pick-up a case to protect it.

Find YTA on Instagram, Click Here Find all of my wonderful finished projects and works in progress on this site!

Then the funds at Target – ugh went to get my stuff out of Silver on Friday from the dealership and found my iPod was MISSING – I am soo aggravated by that – it was in there when I got into the wreck – and when I left it with the tow company the 1st time – there was items moved around on the console when I went in and that was the 1st hint that something was “off”  I am going to file a claim with the insurance company on Monday to hopefully get reimbursed for it, but I feel so very violated.  So I purchased a replacement one at Target and then we bought my hubby a much-deserved Tablet – he’s been looking at them and researching them for a while and he does so much for us, I figured it was high time he got himself something. We bought him a Samsung Tab 4, with an Android operating system – he’s still very much learning how to use it and is getting royally frustrated, but he’ll get it eventually.

So that’s where we’re at currently – waiting for parts to arrive at the dealership for the repairs to begin, they are just cosmetic, thankfully no mechanical damage was done to the engine.

Thanks for Reading my novel!

 

 

 

Tax Refund Week 4

Good Wednesday Afternoon All!

WOW Been a Busy Week for Sure! We’ve had some changes happening here.

1st I was let go from the project outage – hours being cut, so naturally I was an easy choice.

2nd I was placed on a new temp job paying $12.00/hr. – a LOT less than what I was making at the outage.

Just thankful we have the refund to help us some.

So here’s our breakdown for this week

$34.22 – Music & Arts

$19.99 – Gold’s Gym Membership

$8.55 – Netflix.com

Total Bills: $62.76

$7.46 – Hobby Lobby

$7.08 – Ship & Mail Plus

$11.04 – Wal-Mart

Total for Etsy Order #2: $14.54 + $11.04, Addt’l Yarn = $25.58 with a $22.00 Deposit for Order Rec’d 03.15.16

$11.07 – Food Lion

$9.04 – Everybody’s IGA

$5.26 – Everybody’s IGA

$23.71 – Harris Teeter

$167.72 – Wal-Mart

Total Groceries: $216.80

$11.11 – Target, Prescription + Misc.

$11.77 – Once Upon a Child – Kid Clothes

$33.54 – Once Upon a Child – Kid Cothes

$53.17 – Wal-Mart, Misc.

$24.85 – Murphy’s Oil, Gas

$6.17 – Tommy’, Cigs. for Hubby

$49.22 – Clothes Mentor, L – Work Clothes

$17.80 – Sunrise Express, Laundry

$5.00 – Dr. Robbie Adams, Co-Pay

$208.57 -NC Courts, Speeding Ticket

$2.00 – Parking Downtown

$10.00 – Nintendo Digital, Game for Kids

$343.00 – Hertz Rental Car (see below)

Total Misc.: $776.20

$4.82 – PCJ, Coffee

$7.00 – Impact Nutrition

$10.86 – Kilwin’s Ice Cream

$12.14 – Kilwin’s Ice Cream

$28.00 – Papa John’s

$9.04 – PCJ, Coffee

$7.00 – Impact Nutrition

Total Dining Out: $78.86

Ok so in the middle of the week we also received our State Tax Refund, $105.00, so that’s been added back into our budget.

Explanation for Hertz – I was involved in another wreck this morning – this time it was 100% my fault – filed the claim with the insurance and picked up a rental car at their rate so we can still get to work, the gym, scouts and the grocery store.  The cost listed is a $200.00 deposit hold on top of my cost – which for a week is $120.00 + taxes/fees, not terrible in truth.  Final amount will be determined once the repairs are done on Silver.

Anyhew, that’s about it from us this week! One more large bill due, the taxes on Silver so we can get the tags renewed.  That’ll be next week’s payout, think I’ve spent enough this week.

 

 

Ugh…The Mortgage Mod Went Just as I Figured It Would…

Just to remind everyone – we were going through with our what? 4th Attempt at a Mortgage Re-modification, you can read about it in these posts:

Checking In…Where Are We…And Some Random Thoughts…

Thoughts on the Modification…

Well Here We Go Again…Into the Grinder of a Modification

So we got the letter from Citi yesterday and under the FHA Home Affordable possible (yes you read that right, possible) modification we have to first pay three (3) payments of $860.14/month with the first payment due 11/1 – YES in just two (2) weeks they want us to come up with $861.00! Um WHAT?!?!? I have other bills – including, oh I don’t know, EATING, due before that time…no I am not mis-prioritizing things, instead I have already scheduled our monthly car insurance, $81.72/mos drafting 10/24 first and then maybe, just maybe I could give up some funds toward this mortgage payment, BUT BUT wait for it – UTILITIES are due! Oh yeah those pesky monthly payments, right now we owe

Progress Energy (Electricity) $250.00

CFPUA (Water, Trash, & Sewer) $182.00

AT&T (Phone & Internet) $125.00

Grand Total Due: $557.00

Then you know the weekly expenses

Groceries – $200.00 x 2 = $400.00

Gas – $40.00 x 2 = $80.00

Cat & Dog Food – $40.00 x 2 = $80.00

Jimmy’s Money – $20.00 x 2 = $40.00

Friday Pizza Night (the cost of which is equal to groceries) $25.00 x 2 = $50.00

Brigades – $60.00 x 2 = $120.00

Mid-Atlantic Finance (Bessie’s Payment) – $75.00 x 2 = $150.00

Grand Total: $920.00

Between the Two: $1,477.00

Over the course of the next two weeks we’re estimating an income of roughly $1,630.48

That leaves what? $153.48

So where exactly can we afford $861.00??? Someone please tell me?!?!?!?

So here’s how this is playing out – today my Hubby is going to call Citi and see if in fact they need that initial $861.00 on 11/1 as the letter indicated, and if so then we have to figure out what our options are,

Option 1 hubby suggested taking out a small loan to cover the mortgage deficit over the next three months, so roughly $2,500.00 and that would only be done if the cost of the payments was reasonable – note this is NOT something I am on board with.

Option 2 would be the allow the foreclosure process to begin and pray we don’t get kicked out of our home for an extended period of time, allowing us to save money and rebuild our credit while remaining in our home.

Option 3 would be to walk away, find a cheap (ish) apartment here in town (so we could continue our current jobs) and move – this would mean a change in schools for the kids, which I don’t like but if push came to shove that’s where we’d go.

Option 4 would be file for Bankruptcy, he’s thinking Ch. 11 so that everything is put on hold for 5 or so years, but someone told me this morning that Chapter 11 is mostly for businesses…so not sure how this would play out.

Option 5 would be to bail on everything and head back to MD where we have family that can help us…

I don’t really believe we’re here…we try and we try to keep our head afloat, previously rent always took priority in our lives, but then again we’ve never been in a situation where we didn’t get paid time off and a stagnant salary…so now that’s changed some and I am hopeful that now we can work with the change in my income situation and prevent the losses of income.

On that note we did decide last night that we’re going to do what we can to bring in some overtime – for me I’ll log in an hour or two here and there on my rest and yoga nights and some on the weekends and he’s going to see about overtime in the salon at work just so we can bring in more income.

Thoughts?

UPDATE:

Spoke with my Hubby after he talked with Citi and as they’ve explained if, Yes the payments are due on the 15th of the Month like any normal payment plan for a mortgage, so that gives us 4-Weeks aka 4-Paychecks to come up with the $861.00 due or $215.25/week for this month and each subsequent month during the trial period.

At the end of the trial period HUD will step in an pony up our back-due amount, roughly $10K less the 3-Payments we’ve made and the monies currently sitting in our un-applied funds account.  IF we can make these three payments then and only then will the underwriters move forward with a HUD Home Affordable Modification with our final monthly payments yet TBD.

I’ve done out the budget for the first payment and I am not sure still about paying the utilities…but we’ll figure it out…

What is it with Cars/Vans and Hemorrhaging Money? As if Stressing Over a Mod Isn’t Enough…Let’s Add this to It!

So here I thought for sure that with the Mortgage Modification underway I’d only have that to worry about…see these two posts:

Well Here We Go Again…Into the Grinder of a Modification

and

Thoughts on the Modification…

I thought for sure that the Gods and Goddesses wouldn’t dump any more on my platter…but oh no, No No Nope No No Nope…we now have this to add to it, so here’s what happened on Tuesday morning on my way to work after I dropped my daughter off of work I got this bright red light on my dashboard telling me “Engine Coolant HOT” um Oh My Friggin GOD are you kidding me?!?!?! So I proceed onto work as per usual, however the road I am on is full of traffic, so I turn off to take an alternate route only to have the van decide not to run correctly, like I couldn’t accelerate properly.  So I turn off, make a U-Turn and head back to my house.  I open my engine hood and pull open the coolant area and BAM a chocolate colored goo spouts out and gets everywhere…ugh…ugh…ugh…it’s in my coolant area, in the transmission area, and just all over.  So I clean it up as much as I can, and call my mechanic.  He comes over and it’s the Radiator/Water Pump = $380.00 with labor…ugh…so I have to put it on the back burner until Friday when we get paid…send text to my boss telling her I am having car problems and I wouldn’t be in for the rest of the week.

The bright side here is two sided:

1. One of my amazing co-workers was willing to bring me my computer while she was out on a company-related errand!

2.  My hubby was home from Grooming school for two of the three days I was working at home, so I was able to spend the time with him.

I’ve lost more hours of pay, but tried to make them up as the week went, though I was only able to make-up some 3.0 hrs. of the 7.0 hrs. I missed on Tuesday…ugh…

So now the mechanic took the van on Friday morning, got the parts necessary, flushed the tranny fluid and replaced the parts needing replacing and brought it back to me.  So I took it and did our normal Friday evening stuff, the engine temp. stayed normal, then as we were heading back home from our Pizza place she started this shake-shake-shake thing shifting to 1st gear…ugh…ugh…ugh.  So he called me to check on the additional money he needed for the transmission fluid, $30.00, and asked how she did,  told him what happened and he said he’d get with me this morning, Saturday, and we’d figure it out.  Had to drain my Merrill Savings account to pay this to him…and keep funds in the account for my Hubby to use for groceries for the week.  I only budgeted the $380.00 he initially quoted me.  So then this morning, it was another $22.00 gone he used it to put this transmission stop-leak thing in the fluid and it should work.  Well it did for the errands I had to run:

1.  Pick-up a Trumpet Rental for my Son, $74.00 ($14.00 more than budgeted)

2.  Costco for some groceries, $25.00

3.  Wal-Mart for Groceries, $101.00

When we got back our neighborhood BAM she started the shake-shake-shake thing coming off the many stop-signs I have to go through…ugh…ugh…ugh…

I seriously wish I knew what the heck was going on and why now that my hubby is out of town this is suddenly happening…ugh!

I am out of money

I am out of time

I am out of energy to handle this right now

I am DONE!

Week Ending 01.26.14 Budget, Another Surprise Gift!

Our area was recently hit with a pretty bad ice storm, something the Wilmington area is not adept at handling, needless to say we were all house bound for four days last week, Tues through Friday – though I was able to get out on Thursday evening and hit the gym, the roads were still semi-clear, semi-not clear, if that makes sense?  LOL!!! Either way I am thankful I took my computer home Monday night because I was then able to work at home all week last week and didn’t lose any paid time, in fact I managed to a 1/2 hour of over time, not too bad in all honesty!

See what I mean when I saw ice storm:

 

I took this picture while out with the kids during one of my breaks – we had sleet on top of a thin layer of snow!

BUT my gracious grandparents saw on the news that we were getting this horrible snow/ice mess and they sent us a check for $200.00 to help out with whatever expenses we took on because of the weather – well it’s helped us re-stock some groceries we used up! Ha being home together really ate into our food supply, especially because we didn’t plan on being house-bound for four days LOL!! So Thank-You very much Grandpa & Margaret! A Thank-You note will be heading their way shortly!

On that note, to why we are here – the budget – being home meant we didn’t spend as much money  over the course of the week, but then we got out and bam everywhere I turned we were running  out of stuff, needing to get a hold of things and oh yeah my son had his 11th Birthday on Monday  so we purchased some Birthday presents for him – Lego Chima stuff from Target he wanted with a  gift bag/tissue paper the total came to $49.52, not too shabby – I had $42.00 in cash in my savings  box at work, so in actuality we only spent $7.52 on his birthday, not too bad!

So here we go with the budget:

$23.15	Remaining from W/E 01/19/14			$471.21	Lara W/E 01/26/14 Salary, Pay Date 01/31
$158.11	Amt. Spent			$320.53	Jimmy W/E 01/26/14 Salary
$(134.96)	Avail. Starting			$791.74
$10.01	Gas Purchase, 01/23			$(134.96)	Avail. Starting
$10.00	Kids’ Dental Co-Pay 01/28			$791.74	Total Pay
$4.01	KTC			$656.78	Avail. For Bills
$4.38	McDonald’s			$200.00	Gift from Papa & Margaret
$8.51	Shop & Go			$856.78
$17.67	UPS Store			$10.00	Payment for Cookie Shipping
$2.57	Red Box			$866.78
$2.66	Target
$49.52	Target
$10.00	Wal-Mart
$3.10	Food Lion
$17.09	Snapfish
$10.24	Hobby Lobby
$8.35	Starbucks
$158.11

 

The added bonus of being home is that the check I wrote for the Brigades on Monday the 27th was basically cancelled out for their tuition last week and will carry over into this week and I only have to pay for (1) day this week, $20.00 there, so not too shabby! I am semi-happy about that.  What I am on pins & needles about though is finding out whether or not we’ve been approved for a scholarship/reduced tuition under their new fee program…we should hopefully, cross our fingers, find out this week!

$866.78
$132.00	Progress Energy
$734.78
$84.50	Credit Accept
$650.28
$20.00	Brigades Boys & Girls Club
$630.28
$200.00	Groceries
$430.28
$25.00	Dinner, 01/31
$405.28
$25.00	Cat & Dog Food
$380.28
$25.00	Jimmy’s Money
$355.28
$40.00	Gas
$315.28
$225.26	Citi
$90.02
$5.00	Austin Co-Pay
$85.02	$85.02
8%	$6.80
$6.80	$78.22

 

So that’s where we are right now – how do you all cover additional expenses when you miss pay???

Anyone?

Images borrowed from:

http://www.womanist-musings.com

http://www.lego.com

Week Ending 08.25.13 Budget….We Actually Sat Down and Forecasted Out Through Thanksgiving!

I seriously must have been out of my mind, but we sat down the other night and did forecasted budgets through the end of November to try and make sure we’re capable of paying our mortgage each month – how is it that we’re struggling so much? Once upon a time we used to be able to afford rent/car payment, etc. with no problem – now it seems that we struggle at every single turn….I hate this, thus the reason for this blog, so I can see what we’ve done, where we might need improvement and how we can correct the problems we run into time and time again – I’ve noticed the main string through everything is our extra spending, in other words those debit card transactions done after the budget is done…those are what’s killing us week to week – I think after adding up the last (5) weeks we saw something like $415.00 in extra money spent with only $100 being put back from birthdays (his and mine)…that’s still $315.00.  We narrowed it down even further and found that $132.00 of it was excess groceries above and beyond our $170.00 budget – so we’ve upped the weekly budget for groceries to $200.00 (OUCH!) in hopes to eliminate some of that – if we come in under budget that week the monies will go into my savings box and put back into the checking account at the end of each month.

Alright, with that being said this weeks’ budget is slightly different as I have some extra expenditures that are on this week as back in June I won tickets to see Maroon 5 & Kelly Clarkson in concert in Raleigh.  I am taking my baby girl with me tonight and we’re going to enjoy the concert and then crash in Raleigh for the night vs. trying to drive the 2 hours back to Wilmington.  I am very excited about this! I know the $120.00 I have set aside for our hotel and misc. spending is putting an overall dent in our budget, but I figure anything I don’t spend out of our misc. spending monies I will put back.  I am also taking the extra $40.00 cash for gas and $47.00 cash from our savings box with me, so I may not even touch the $60.00 I have budgeted for Misc. Spending.

Honda Civic Tour Shout Out

So I am running low on time, I am leaving early today so we can make the 2 hour drive and get settled into our hotel before having to head to the Pavilion for tonight’s show, so here goes the budget for the week:

$456.84	Remaining from W/E 09/01/13			$501.20	Lara W/E 09/01/13 Salary
$116.50	Amt. Spent			$245.46	Jimmy W/E 09/01/13 Salary
$340.34	Avail. Starting			$746.66
$9.78	Sweet Frog			$340.34	Avail. Starting
$10.56	PetsMart			$746.66	Total Pay
$17.05	Home Depot			$1,087.00	Avail. For Bills
$3.20	Party City			$40.00	In From Merrill for Lara’s B-Day
$7.54	KTC			$1,127.00
$3.52	Target			$5.17	Adj.
$10.17	PetsMart			$1,121.83
$26.56	Wal-Mart
$5.89	PCJ
$3.18	PetsMart
$2.13	Food Lion
$1.92	Office Max
$15.00	GS Troop #1327 (Check)
$116.50

And the overall budget with the breakdown – we’re not sending the money to Citi right away instead I am holding off on sending that until next week when I have a bulk payment to send to them:

$1,121.83
$70.00	Brigades Boys & Girls Club
$1,051.83
$5.00	OT Solutions
$1,046.83
$5.00	Tate & Kirlin, 9/10 Auto-Draft
$1,041.83
$170.00	Groceries
$871.83
$25.00	Jimmy’s Money
$846.83
$25.00	Dinner, 9/6
$821.83
$80.00	Gas
$741.83
$25.00	Cat & Dog Food
$716.83
$59.39	Hotel in Raleigh
$657.44
$60.00	Misc. Spending For Lara & Ashley
$597.44
$113.19	AT&T
$484.25
$350.00	Citi
$134.25
$61.14	Amt Spent 9/6-9/8
$73.11
$5.00	Cape Fear Peds, 9/17
$68.11

And with the cash withdrawal:

$1,121.83
$70.00	Brigades Boys & Girls Club
$1,051.83
$5.00	OT Solutions
$1,046.83
$5.00	Tate & Kirlin, 9/10 Auto-Draft
$1,041.83
$340.00	Cash for Week
$701.83
$59.39	Hotel in Raleigh
$642.44
$60.00	Misc. Spending for Lara & Ashley
$582.44
$113.19	AT&T
$469.25
$350.00	Citi
$119.25
$61.14	Amt Spent 9/6 – 9/8
$58.11
$5.00	Cape Fear Peds, 9/17
$53.11

So there’s that and I am off! I’ll be offline until tomorrow, Wed at around noonish when I get home from Raleigh!

Enjoy!