Ms. Pearl's Journey to Living Frugally

WOW. I have not visited here in over a year! Things are pretty much the same for me. Credit card balances continue to decrease and no new charges. My daughter started dancing in the summer of 2009 so we have been squeezed with those bills. Both of my girls are in high school now and lots of fees etc... so I would say I have fallen dreadfully short of meeting my savings goals.

The only bright spot is that I have not managed to take on new debt. Sigh.

cptacek (spelling?) asked me what great system my husband was using for our budget. Nothing earth shattering...just a spreadsheet. Now, I am very poor with spreadsheets and anything beyond word on the computer but my husband is a genius in my eyes!

I guess what makes our spreadsheets great is that they are REALISTIC and include every penny we spend. I mean EVERY penny. Unlike in the past when I had total control of the bills, M. plans for things in advance. Example, cheerleading camps, pay to play sports fees at school, dance competitions, propane fill ups.

Yes, we now pay our propane bill 100% in full when they fill it up. It is empowering. So, it's not like our system is great, but for us it works really well. We have this summers vacation budget, school shopping budget and next Christmas budget worked out.

If my husbands gets bonuses they will go to the credit cards and a down payment for a new car for me. (used car)And MAYBE living room furniture, we'll see...

Another person asked me what the MEN type 1 gene is. It stands for multiple endocrine neoplasia and it is a disease that causes tumors (benign) in your pituitary gland in the brain, parathyroid glands, and pancreas...also our family's mutation seems to cause adrenal tumors. It is an autosomal dominant gene which means my kids had a 50% chance of getting it from my husband. We have 2 girls and one is positive and one is negative. It sucks.

Fortunately, it can be dealt with by lots of monitoring and surgeries. My husband is 33 and last year had 50% of his pancreas removed because the tumors he had were growing and had a chance of becoming cancer (not the same type of pancreatic cancer in the general public but still scary). MEN affects people differently, there is a chance E. will not have trouble with her pancreas until she is really old or maybe never at all.

Now, my oldest daughter who is 15 is negative for MEN but has Lupus...totally different disease. She takes plaquenil prescribed by her rheumatologist daily plus multivitamin with iron, fish oil, biotin and a specialized herbal supplement from a holistic Dr. She is doing well (knock on wood)

I hope I have answered peoples questions ok.

This Thursday E. has her first appointment at the Cleveland Clinic! Nervous.

In the money department I received an unexpected $560 refund from an insurance policy that was "involuntary terminated." (due to M.'s medical problems I assume)
The money is sitting in the bank. Not sure what to do with it. I need a new pair of running shoes so that will pay for those. I think I will keep the rest in the bank for now. Something will get paid that needs to with it eventually, but I'm going to buy the shoes this week.

I started the Biggest Loser contest at work because I gained 18 nasty pounds since my lowest weight of 128. SUCKS. So that makes me #146! But I reminded myself that a year ago at this time I weighed 176 pounds (eek!) so I have managed to keep 30 pounds off this year. That is an accomplishment!

I look at this contest as a way to motivate myself for that last appx. 25 lbs. I would like to weigh 120-125. I am excited about this. When I lost my weight last year it poured over into other aspects of my life. M. became involved in our budget, the house became more organized and I stopped shopping just to shop. I am doing this with one of my best friends and we both need to lose about the same amount of weight, it is also a contest because the winner gets vacation days and I WANT MORE VACATION DAYS!!!

Well, wish me luck!!!

I can't even remember last time I visited but I decided to update. Things are going well in general. (Knock on wood) We have all but 3 credit cards paid off. Capital One, Bank of America and Chase...that is it for credit card debt. My husband has a great system in place.

We paid for Christmas entirely in cash but on the downside we spent way too much on the girls. One thing I would like to improve this year is SAVING money. We spend spend spend and we need to be saving more.

My husband splurged and bought me an Armani watch for Christmas...it's so pretty and for all the times I say I don't care about brands, well, maybe I do just a little tiny bit. (:

For 2009 we made about 10k less than last year but are definitely on better financial ground thanks to paying down our credit cards! Our total credit card debt today is just under 15k. I think last year at this time it was around 23k.

I have a facebook account now and have found a bunch of old highschool friends. Well maybe more acquaintences but some friends.

We found out a few months back that our youngest daughter is positive for the MEN type 1 gene but that our oldest daughter (the one with Lupus) is NEGATIVE! I wish both of them were negative and I cried for a long time when I found out about E. When we told her she cried and cried and screamed and it was horrible. But we told her to look at her dad, grandpa and aunt, they are all alive and living happy, productive lives...they just have to have surgeries and see the Doctor more than "regular" people. We are dealing with it. She has her first appointment at the Cleveland Clinic on January 14th. Feels like a strange inaugeration of sorts.

Well, I hope everyone here has a terrific new year and I will try to blog more than I did in 09 because it keeps me on track.

GO OHIO STATE BUCKEYES!!!

I have been suffering from insomnia. Terribly. Despite the Restoril I still have trouble falling asleep and the worst is that I cannot stay asleep. It sucks.

The strange part is that I'm not sure I am actually sleeping. Does that make sense? I woke (?) up at 2am this morning and felt as if I had been awake (?) since 12am when I went to bed. Usually, around the late morning hours...4 or 5 I fall into a sufficient slumber but this is my weekend to work so I have to wake up around 5:45.

During the week I work 11-7am yet I still have trouble staying asleep as I sleep in the day time. It seems I can at best sleep 6 hours in a row many days...although I do have days when the exhaustion finally overhelms my worries and I sleep 10-12 hours.

So what do I worry about? My daughter #1, then money, the mortgage, the future, my husbands health and on and on. My mind is restless.

Despite the fact our finances are in much better shape than one year ago I still exist in anxiety.

I tried to meditate and pray last night and without sounding flaky I had an interesting experience that maybe I will elaborate upon later. But for now I will keep it to myself.

Once again, I have a busy week ahead of me. The girls start cheer practice and we have Dr. appointments...nearly every week we have Dr. appointments.

Well, this has been a bummer of a post but I need to speak.

On a lighter note, I received two certificates from Dish Network (my provider) for 2 free pay per view movies.

M. received his bonus money yesterday...what a relief. It will be nice to see the BIG BAD chase credit card balance be a thing of the PAST!

My weight is still at 133 because though I exercise a lot I eat a lot. But at least I am not gaining. Yesterday I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes and 56 seconds. I am nearly sure I could have gone faster but I walked for part of that on the incline and once I saw that I was close to 3 miles at minute 25 I kicked it up and was running 7.5 for the last five minutes. This is progress for me! In January I was only able to WALK 1 mile in about 25 minutes.

I have to admit, I love running. Anywhere too, it is such a great way to release tension. Yesterday I was running sprints at 9.0-10.0 and I felt like it wasn't fast enough. Very good for the soul...at least mine.

M. is also on vacation the next two weeks as his brother is in from Nebraska and his sister will be coming up from Georgia next week. We have our nephew staying at out house this week.

The house is fairly immaculate...per our standards, though perhaps not for others. We were going to buy the blinds and curtains for the kitchen but we have decided to delay that til august or september because we have been spending a lot lately...going swimming, eating out. I know, not good but at least we use cash I guess.

I finished the Twilight series in 4 days. I need to watch the movie. My daughters tell me it's not that great, hmm. We'll see. I am currently reading "eat, pray, love" by Elizabeth Gibson. This is a book to digest slowly unlike the Twilight saga so I am taking my time reading it, so far it's pretty good.

OH!

Yes, I have been spending too much on books lately.

Nope, no entry title.

I have been reading voraciously, all kinds of novels. Once I begin a book I feel like a drug addict must, each page pregnant with potent intentions, driving me to continue inhaling the words, to feel the climax and resolution. Strangely provocative sentence I guess.

Spent ten bucks at Walmart for the latest one.

I know, I know, the library is free. But me, the inherently disorganized spirit will forget to return them or worse yet, lose them.

M. is in New York until Wednesday night and I miss him. The girls and I did not follow our menu plan today. Instead of veggie tortillas we indulged in the Digiorno pizza typically reserved for Fridays. I confessed this sin to M. on the phone but he didn't seem too terribly agitated. Though I am sure he will think about it now and then...as he boards the plane, drives home, opens the freezer and sees his Red Baron without it's ever present partner, Ms. Four Cheese Digiorno.

Sigh.

C. went to an Indians game last night and I could see her on the television each time there was a right handed batter. It was very odd. She went with a friend who has access to these seats via his rich boss. Her friend is only 15 and a half but he gets paid nine dollars an hour under the table to do work I am sure violates most child labor laws. But anyway...

M. will not be very pleased with my spending in his brief absence. Bought a smelly candle, a magazine, a book, 3 liters of pop, orange soda in cans, chocolate bars and two bags of cheetos. yikes.

Because I am so tired. Down to the last 5 hours of this crazy weekend. My goal is to stay awake until 11am (and while driving home) and hopefully crawl into bed around 11:20.

I failed to fill my Restoril prescription on Friday so I had my husband do it Sat. Well, turns out my Dr. had prescribed the brand name in a strange dose and our pharmacy, Walmart and CVS did not carry it. They wouldn't substitute the generic (Temazepam) because it wasn't prescribed that way. I paged my doc but couldn't get a hold of him.

I was at work when I found out and started to freak out. I had to go home at 3pm and somehow fall asleep in order to be back at work at 11p and work for 12 hours!

As it turns out, fate/luck whatever you want to call it was on my side. I just happened to be doing rounds with our in house psychiatrist whom I know well. He heard my dilemma and told me he would prescribe them for me! So I dialed the pharmacy number and he called in Temazapam 15 mg. 30 pills with instructions to take one at hour of sleep as needed. Relief!

And they worked beautifully. I do not care if I had to rely on a benzo for sleep because it is the only way I think I could have made it through this weekend.

Maybe my life is out of balance.

That is the deadly side of debt isn't it? And that is why I need to free myself from its clutches.

I think I have escaped the dusty plateau of my stagnant weight story...I am now down to 133.4 on the demon work scale and 131 on the home scale.

Woke up at 4:30 am and got in 45 minutes of exercise. Weight is now 133 according to my home scale and 136.2 according to work scale...the discrepency? Who knows but from henceforth the work scale will be known as "The Demon Scale." But hey, still a minor drop so I will take it.

Went on a 12 mile bike trip last night with C. and M. Was great. Then we came home and ran/walked one mile and then I did 45 minute tape. I know it sounds OCD but that is it for the weekend as far as exercise goes because of my work schedule.

I plan on taking my first dose of Restoril around 2pm this afternoon so I can go home and hopefully fall asleep for 7 hours then get back at 10p and drag myself into work for another 12 hours.

I WILL get through this and the extra 4 hours will be put toward my new tire fund. Husband had to get up and fill my tire with air this morning just so I could get to work. We are all tired of this!

Our plan to pay off the three credit cards remains in place and I can't wait to see those demon balances go away. Almost like a screw you to the credit card companies...even though it is our own fault we got into this mess. But the 25% we are paying on the chase card feels like robbery.

Our garage sale netted us a profit of 46.45. This was after the money we put into the ingredients for the cookies and the cardboard signs. Of course, it is all gone. Used 30.00 to buy two solid oak nightstands for our bedroom...and they look so pretty! Eventually I want to sand them and paint them white but I have enough house projects to keep me busy for awhile!

I will try to post some pics of our house soon.

I cleaned the living room yesterday and rearranged the furniture. Love it. Should have done it months ago. Surprisingly, M. likes it too.

E. remains in Port Clinton up by Lake Erie. She calls or we call twice a day. So far so good. Luckily my busy schedule keeps me from worrying too much about her.

Well, I better get to work! Have a good Saturday everyone!

I am experiencing lots of mood swings this summer. One minute I am basking in the relaxing hum of summer and the next I am ready to cry.

Is it my hormones?

My girls are growing up but I think it is more than that. On July 2nd they get their genetic tests drawn and a few months from then we will find out if they have what their dad does. MEN type 1.

Now, there are far worse genetic diseases to have but this is no piece of cake. My husband has half a pancreas, no parathyroid glands, 1/4 of a thryoid gland and he is 32 years old!

I am mostly worried about C. because she is the one with lupus...what will her body do if it has to deal with MEN too?

I know this is not money related but these worries have consumed me lately.

It's funny though. When my girls were younger (and me too) I never would have thought I would have any kind of strength to deal with minor tragedies. But when you are living with these chronic illnesses in your family you get used to it. But sometimes something inside me cracks open and I just lose it. Is that normal?

I was thinking the other day that as a mother I am becoming my daughters past. They are moving forward so quickly and I am watching them leave and it is the most painful thing ever. Loving your children hurts. It is the best thing in my life but at times the most angst filled.

Well, those are my ramblings for the day.

Is paid for and renewed for the next two years! All CEUs complete. One less thing to worry about. (my nursing license)

Spent 13.21 at Walmart today for junk food.

My brand new Trek Bike (hybrid ladies 7000) has been ordered using 98,000 Mariott reward points. Can't wait to get it!

We had steak for supper...it was delicious but I feel like a fatty. I will have serious damage control to do this week. ugh, I hate overeating on the weekends, I gotta get control over that.

We went over the budget tonight and we will have to increase our auto insurance in October when C. gets her permit. I have no idea how much it will be. Does anybody? She has a 4.0 GPA so that gets us a discount right? I hope so.

We have been thinking about giving her my Toyota next April for her car and then me getting a new car. But she has to get a part time job to help with insurance and gas.

Happy Father's Day!

I got paid yesterday. Made $300 more than usual thanks to the extra hours I picked up. $109 of that will go to renewing my nursing license and the Continuing Education units I had to pay for.

I am on vacation in precisely 35 minutes! I will be off the next 7 days. Have no big plans. Wednesday is the garage sale and I STILL have a lot of work to do to be ready for it.

I am a little upset with my husband because all of a sudden he seems to want to spend money. Wants to buy C. a trampoline for 350.00 and I think that is foolish...we need to put that money on credit cards.

Also, he doesn't seem to think some new furniture and getting the cats declawed is a priority...at all! I am going to have a talk with him because I had to cancel a friend's baby shower at my house and move it to another location because I was too embarrassed of my living room.

Now, I am not being superficial, well maybe a little, but our couches are a hundred years old, torn to shred by the cats and are all stained up. They are out of style and just nasty. My oldest daughter doesn't even want to invite her friends over!

Now, the outside of our house is very pretty, most people driving by would probably never assume our living room resembles a bachelor pad. But it does and I am sick of it and the idea of spending money on a trampoline just gets me a little agitated.

So, I plan on going home soon and calmly discussing this with my husband. Wish me luck.

p.s. I am down to 135 lbs! yay!

Not spending much this week. Gave C. 30.00 today as she went shopping with a friend but she only spent 7.00 on food so that's good.

Spent 30.10 on gas and another 5.00 on gum and water...silly but I needed some gum. Husband has not spent any money this week!

All bills are up to date and paid. H. wants to get our bikes this weekend but I am still so hesitant to spend that money even though it is an investment we will so enjoy. hmm...