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The Goal: To become debt-free in one year. Think we can do it? Join me as I attempt to cut expenses and increase income to meet my debt-free deadline of June 18, 2008.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'finances'
Why Tracking Expenses Important When Paying Off Debt
My first goal in my quest to pay off my student loan debt is to track every penny I spend in the month of January. It’s tedious. It’s sometimes hard to remember. And it’s hard to wait a whole month before really setting up the budget. ...
2010: A Look Ahead
I always love the start of a new year. There’s just something about starting fresh. New goals. New opportunities. New focus. Yesterday I shared how I felt I had dropped the ball a bit in my effort to pay down debt. This year, I want to refocus o...
Passing Down the Frugal Gene
It’s almost 2010, and people everywhere are snatching up 2010 calendars in an effort to get organized. Except for my daughter. Oh, she uses a calendar, but she doesn’t buy one. She makes it. By herself. And she’s made her own calenda...
12 Days of Christmas – Revisited
With this being Christmas week and my schedule being busy, I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for original posts. So I thought I’d bring out some of my favorites from years past. Two years ago a bunch of bloggers got together to bring you ...
“You Need a Credit Card to Establish Credit”
I was watching Dr. Phil yesterday afternoon, when he interviewed a young couple. They had become engaged, but the young lady hadn’t yet told her mother. But that’s not what jumped out at me. During the course of the conversation with Dr. Phi...
Prepare for Next Christmas with SmartyPig
Christmas is coming quickly, and if your financial habits are like my past financial habits, you’re starting to wonder how you’re going to pay for Christmas. It’s not a fun feeling, and it’s one I understand. I’m happy to say I’ve chan...
YNAB 3
In a few hours my YNAB giveaway will be over. I promised to let you know about changes that will be made when YNAB 3 comes out (probably by the end of the year). I’m so excited about this! Mac Compatible As I mentioned in my last post, YNAB 3 w...
You Tell Me: Overdraft Opt-In Rule
Yesterday the Federal Reserve enacted a rule, which would make it mandatory that banks allow customers opt-in to overdraft protection, rather than automatically enroll customers, as is the current practice. In other words, consumers would have a...
Budgeting is Easy with YNAB & a Giveaway!
Last week I mentioned that this time of year is when a lot of people let their budgets slip a bit. The easiest way to stay on track with your budget is to have an easy and effective way to keep track of your budget. My favorite budgeting tool is Y...
Don’t Wait Until January to Think About Budgeting
It’s November, and people are thinking about buying Christmas presents, shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, and all the other little expenses that go along with two months of holidays. There’s a temptation to bury your head in the sand, pull out t...
How to Move Your Bank Account With Confidence
Today is the day. Almost two months ago, I declared I would do it. I’m changing banks this afternoon. My husband and I have banked with Washington Mutual, now Chase, for 14 years. It’s time to start a new era of banking. We’ve decide...
Are You Prepared for the Worst?
Over the weekend I learned some devastating news. A friend that I had lost touch with a while back lost her husband Saturday morning. This is a young family with 4 young children. You don’t expect news like this. Since I had lost touch with ...
The Bank Fee Smackdown: Big Banks vs. Little Banks vs. Online Banks
Banks charge a wide variety of fees these days. If I were to speculate, I would guess that the highest fees would be charged by the small local banks, because they would be in the most need of revenue. I would also surmise that online banks woul...
Watch Out for Pesky Bank Fees
This week I will be doing a series on banks, fees, and what to look for, if you’re in the market for a new checking account. Stay tuned all week for the skinny on fees at major banks. Ever since my banking fiasco, involving my Taylor, Bean, &...
PremierWest Bank: Banking Done Right
Since I’ve spent so much time complaining about banks lately, I thought I’d highlight a bank that’s got it’s act together. Premier West Bank is a bank that’s local to Oregon and Northern California. They’re actually based right here in ...
The Real Final Chapter: Chase Comes Through
I’m pleased to report that about an hour ago I received an email from the Chase Executive Offices. Upon further review of my case, they have decided to credit me back the remaining $98 in overdraft charges, due to the fact that I have been a ...
Chase Bank Round 3: The Final Chapter
For those who aren’t familiar with my recent financial saga, I’ll give a quick recap. For the full story, click on the links. August 27 – I deposit an escrow refund check from Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker into my Chase checking account. Augus...
Chase Just Lost My Business
Here’s the latest update in my fiasco with my Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker bounced escrow check. I’m not happy with Chase right now. In fact, as soon as this mess gets straightened out, I will be transferring my money to a local bank with a g...
Is Your Escrow Money Safe? Maybe Not.
You buy a home with an FHA loan. Every month, you pay not only your principle, but PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance), and property taxes. When property tax time comes around, the mortgage company takes the money you’ve been paying every month ou...
5 Steps to Paying off Credit Cards
Last year my husband and I paid off our credit cards. Finally. We had dreamed about paying off our credit cards from the day we got married. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a plan at first, so paying off our credit cards remained a dream. Event...
Look at the Big Picture
I’m writing this post from an airplane, flying from Seattle to Chicago. I’ve got a great window seat, and looking down at the earth below, I see mountains and valleys, lakes and little patches of snow. There are mazes of roads, winding around...
Five Steps to Making the Nuts and Bolts of Your New Budget Work
This is a guest post from Joe Plemon who just started a biblical based blog on personal finance called Personal Finance By The Book. Joe had started a series on budgeting this week and this post is the third installment. The final installment w...
You Tell Me: How Far Would You Go?
I’ve seen a similar question asked on a couple of different forums I’ve visited. How far would you go to get out of debt? For instance. Would you: Take a second job? Cut out all vacations? Sell something of importance, such as a family heirl...
How to Protect Yourself Against Unemployment
I love statistics. Last night I decided to go on a hunt to find out about unemployment rates in the United States. What I found didn’t surprise me. Unemployment rates are up. And Oregon has the highest unemployment rate in all 50 states at ...
Just Eat Your Vegetables!
Friday night I made what I thought was a delicious dinner: Corned Beef Roast with carrots and potatoes in the crockpot. My husband and I quickly gobbled up our meal between talking about our day. My daughter got a pass on dinner, because she wa...
Frugality: How Far is Too Far?
The following is a guest post by DebtKid, who writes about his journey to get out of debt, and achieve financial stability. He runs a small software development company in Seattle as well as working as Product Ambassador for LendingClub.com 2am in th...
Ask The M-Network: To Buy a House…or Not?
This post is part of the Ask the M-Network series. If you have a question for the M-Network, feel free to ask via my contact form. This week Katharine asks: Hi, I will be graduating from college this May. I have about $47,000 in student loan debt a...
You Tell Me (and a Giveaway): Taxes
Last week I finally filed my federal taxes. I’d had them almost completed for a couple of weeks, but I was waiting on some final information from my husband. He brought it home, I entered it into Turbo Tax, and sent my federal tax form into...
Ask the M-Network: Student Loan Debt
This post is a part of the Ask the M-Network series. The Debt Guy contacted me with this problem: I have currently taken some steps to attacking my debt situation. I have accrued $120,000 in student loans and my own personal finances are indebted. ...
Kyle’s Coupons: Time to Set Aside Childish Things
“The time has come to set aside childish things.” Whether you agree or disagree with the policies of our newly inaugurated president, he really nailed it on the head with that line from his inaugural address. Let me explain. I think one o...
