Day 251 and nice relaxing Saturday

Well, this has been a pretty nice relaxing day. I got up and did my workout, then worked on homework until Tom and I left to go get groceries. Then after grocery shopping, we watched a little TV and then I worked on homework some more. I've finished all of my assignments that are due tomorrow night, and submitted all of them except one, still need to proofread it again before I submit it. Since I have a busy weekend when the next unit is due, I'm going to start working on that stuff right away. I want to be able to enjoy my weekend without having homework hanging over my head.

I had to stop and use my inhaler during the workout this morning so I'm taking a break from it tomorrow and then resuming on Monday. Tom thinks I shouldn't try to do so much at once. Maybe I'll start out just doing the Walk away the pounds stuff on MWF, and work up from there? I don't know. I just want to keep this amazing energy I've had since I started!

Day 250 and the latest debt update

Here is the latest debt update with what we're paying today:

DLO: $14.40-PAID!
DLO: $34.11-PAID!
Radiology: $37-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $46.15 (August 2007)-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $40.55 (November 2007) PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $21.50 (February 2008) PAID!
Dr. Office: $79.20-PAID!
Dr. Office (June 2006) $105.02-PAID! Dr. Office (March 2008, Tracy & Tasha)-$63.44-PAID! Dr. Office (August 2008, Tasha) amount yet to be determined.
ER Doctor: $93.54-PAID!
Dentist: PAID!!! Dentist: $27: PAID!
Auto parts store: $161.73-PAID! Auto parts store: $100 Josten's-PAID!
Second half 2007 real estate taxes: $148.64-PAID!
Hospital: $261.16-PAID!
Car loan: Balance: $1279
House: paid $2680.48
Credit card #1: $2970-paid $450
Credit card #2: $1104-paid $150
Credit card #3: $990-paid $150
Credit card #4: $899-paid $529.19 (balance $370)
Credit card #5: $908-paid $125
Credit card #6: $2509-paid $375
My student loan: $12, 913 (in deferment due to my full time student status)
DH student loan: $53, 248(in forbearance
As of September 19th: $8432.20 in debt paid off!

Look at the car loan! It's getting down close to $1000! We should have it paid off by February! Then our plan is to start saving that money to replace the van.

I am getting pretty frustrated with one of the credit card creditors. We've been sending them payments for months. Every month, I request an updated balance and they have yet to reply, but they sure cash those checks! I am hoping to be able to call them today during naptime and talk to someone. The other ones (with the exception of #4 who stopped charging us interest and fees when we started the payment arrangement) are just kind of holding steady and not really gaining ground. But now that we've been paying on them for several months, I plan to get in touch with them and request they lower or drop the fees so they don't keep accumulating. As of this month (once we send in all the payments), we'll have made 6 payments in a row on them. So maybe that will help them work with us.

Day 249 and "Going Green"

Unless you live in a cave, you've probably heard the phrase "going green" used a lot lately. I see it everywhere, including in my latest HomeLife magazine that the church distributes. The article was titled "It's Easy Being Green" and gave several tips for "going green". A couple of them we already do in our house, like using compact fluorescent bulbs (aka CFL bulbs). We've replaced almost every light in our house with those. Another was cooking on the right size burner. Well, I have a gas stove and they're all the same size so that's not a problem. LOL. The number one was ditching the bottled water. Well, we refill gallons of water at the grocery store, but we don't usually buy the little plastic bottles. It suggests getting a filter pitcher if you don't like the taste of your water. Another is using canvas bags at the store. I shop at Aldi's where you have to either bring your own bags or buy theirs. I have a bunch of their plastic bags that I reuse over and over. Well, I had a huge DUH moment about that recently. I go to all these child care conferences and they're always giving us tote bags. My friend started shopping at Aldi's and mentioned she was using her canvas conference bags to bag her groceries. That was a "why didn't I think of that" moment! The one that most caught my interest though was eating locally grown fruits and veggies. It got me to thinking maybe I should hit some of those farmer stands I see set up.

I did my Walk away the pounds DVD again this morning and made it through the whole mile workout, plus the kids and I took a walk this morning. I plan to let MaryAnn walk me again after supper tonight too. LOL.

Day 248 and Exercise

So last night I decided that I was going to get up this morning and do my Walk away the pounds exercise DVD that I've had forever and have used maybe once or twice. I've been thinking alot about my health lately and I want to make some changes. Anyway, I made it just a little over halfway through the 1 mile portion which I thought was a pretty good start. Then Tom and I took MaryAnn (our beagle) for a walk tonight. Only with MaryAnn, you don't really walk her, she walks you. LOL. I read recently that walking a dog or pushing a stroller burns more calories. I've got both of those covered easily. The kids LOVE to get out and walk, we usually walk several times a week. At any rate, the exercise this morning helped me start out the day with a lot more energy and the walk tonight felt really good. So, keep your fingers crossed that I can keep it up and that my asthma doesn't become a problem again!

I was thinking that walking is the ultimate frugal activity. It's fun, it's relaxing, and Tom and I got to have a nice long talk as we walked. When we had our club meeting last week, one of the new members that came was talking about the fitness center they're going to be opening here in Pond Creek. I am interested in joining, but I thought to myself, should I spend money on this when I'm not even using the DVD that I already have? So if we decide that we can work it into the budget to join, at least I will have got off my tail and done something else first!

Day 247 and these lovely days

Wow, the weather was just almost perfect today! It felt so nice to be outside. (except for the mosquitoes, but well, I tried to ignore them, LOL). My sinuses were still bothering me today but my headache never got anything like it was yesterday. I felt like my head was going to explode.

As of today, our total debt paid off is over $8000! I'll post a full update at the end of the week when Tom gets paid. Our baby EF is up to $485. I had another $40 drop-in payment today to add. We're almost 1/2 way to the $1000! Praise God!

Day 246 and a killer headache

I have a killer headache today so I'm going to make this short and sweet. The baby EF is up to $445 today after the parent of a drop-in from last week paid me $50 (she wanted to pay ahead because she forgot to bring me a check back by last week, LOL). I added it to the EF.

Have a great week everyone.

Day 245 and Forgiveness

Today our Sunday school lesson centered on forgiveness. The lesson was in Matthew where Jesus tells the story of the king who forgave his servant a huge debt, but the servant would not forgive a much smaller debt of someone else. Which of course brings me to my problem from last week and what to do about it. So far I haven't been able to do anything because anything that has come to mind is neither Christian nor professional. However, how can I not forgive someone something so small when I was forgiven so much? The answer is, I have to forgive. That does not mean that I have to let it happen again, but I do have to forgive them. Forgiveness is a hard thing, isn't it? It shouldn't be. But it is. It's something I struggle with everyday. So...continue to pray for me as I work to forgive and move on.

For those of you in my neck of the woods, wasn't the sunshine wonderful today? With the breeze, it felt like a fall day. I cannot believe that the first day of fall is just a few days away!