Struggling to be debt free

The furniture bill is paid in full!!!! I am debt free (except for my mortgage) once again. Not a dime of interest was paid and I am now the proud owner of a sofa, chair, ottoman, etc.  Happy Tuesday!!!

Yesterday was payday and I was able to put $1,903 on the furniture bill.  I now only owe $1,316. It's so close to being paid off!! As a reminder this is the 0% interest furniture financing that I did at the end of last year.  I have until January of 2018 to pay off the balance in order to not incur interest charges.  My tax refund will be $1,484 so I should have enough money to pay off the furniture.  Also, my sister (We live together) has agreed to give me some money to pay on the furniture.  She wants to give me $1,000, but I am thinking maybe $700 would be sufficient as it would leave me with a good amount of money left over to put into my retirement account. I can't wait until that balance is at 0 and I can get back to focusing on my retirement account. 

I have been traveling so much for work over the last 2 months.  I have 3 more trips before the end of March and I think I currently have over $1,200 in travel reimbursements pending.  I will definitely have over $2,500 by the end of the month (which is approximately 1/2 of a month's take home pay for me). I really hate having travel reimbursements as it has been an ongoing struggle to get them paid in a timely manner.  Additionally, when the reimbursements are paid, it is in a piecemeal fashion. (I may get 1 or 2 after about 60 to 90 days.  Then another 1 or 2, etc, etc.)  The whole process sucks.  I'm trying to get out of a trip on Monday, but I will see what I can do.  I think my assistant is irritated with me for failing to ask her to set up a telephonic appearance earlier, but I do what I can.  At least she had a week to coordinate it. Due to the slow reimbursement process I had to temporarily pull $500 out of my emergency fund to fund my ...

1. Complete taxes- DONE 2. Balance my checkbook 3. Finish staining that dang fence-DONE 4. Trim around the driveway 5. Treat the house for termites and other pests- DONE 6. Spray the weeds in the sidewalk cracks- DONE 7. Relax and read a book 8. Clean bathroom-DONE 9. Clean room-PARTIALLY DONE 10.Go into work-DONE I did most of the things on my list.  I will balance my checkbook today because payday is tomorrow and I need to make sure everything is where it should be.  I could not trim the driveway as my sister loaned our trimmer to a friend. Hopefully, I will get to that one day this week. I will be out of town a few days this week so I may have to wait until this weekend.  But when do I have free time to relax and read my book?!!! I am getting a refund this year on my taxes to the tune of $1,484.  All of that will go towards paying off that furniture I purchased and hopefully in April I can start focusing on funding my retirement accounts for the year ...

I made a few goals earlier this week, for this weekend.  Here is the current status: 1. Complete taxes- I have started, just never finished. 2. Balance my checkbook 3. Finish staining that dang fence 4. Trim around the driveway 5. Treat the house for termites and other pests- DONE 6. Spray the weeds in the sidewalk cracks- DONE 7. Relax and read a book It's only Sunday morning so, hopefully I will get a few more checked off the list before the end of the weekend.  I think I will add the following items: 8. Clean bathroom 9. Clean room 10.Go into work I spent most of Saturday helping my mom at her house.  Getting her mailbox painted, pulling weeds in her rock garden, pulling the rocks away from the foundation of the house, going to look at storage sheds for her backyard, fixing a few boards on her deck, running to the store to buy a new rug pad, cleaning the living room so that we could put down a new rug, etc.  Wish me luck guys!

Just popping in to say hello and good morning! There is not much going on here, I have just been traveling for work.  I need to spend some time cleaning my house and getting my finances in order.  Hopefully I will get all of that done this weekend.  It's only Wednesday and I am already dreaming of the weekend.   Here are my weekend goals: 1. Complete taxes- I have started, just never finished. 2. Balance my checkbook 3. Finish staining that dang fence 4. Trim around the driveway 5. Treat the house for termites and other pests 6. Spray the weeds in the sidewalk cracks 7. Relax and read a book Okay, that's all. Gotta head to work.

I haven't posted a work update in quite some time.  This is, basically, because I try not to think about work when I am not at work.  It's just too stressful. Work is the same as it has been for years.  I continue to look for a good quality job to apply for, the problem is I can't find one that will pay the same amount of money that I am making now (or more) in my town.  Unfortunately, the largest employer in my city is the State. The State has wonderful benefits, but the pay is generally subpar. I am also very wary of private law firms only because the 3 I have worked for have been awful.  I hear horror stories from my cohorts regarding firms they have worked for in town.  That's why I am generally considering positions where my law degree would come in handy, but would be different from the day to day practice of law.   I just haven't figure out what that position is, but hopefully I will.  For those of you who don't know, my boss is be...

In February I made several goals and I don't think I accomplished many, if any of them. 1.Get taxes done- FAIL 2. read 1 book - FAIL 3. lose 2lbs- haven't weighed 4. figure out what needs to be organized=- FAIL 5.try to stick to budget- PASSISH 6. plan 2 social events - FAIL 7. feel less depressed about life. - PASSISH Although a short month, February was a rough month.  I'm so glad it is over.  I'm ready for Spring, yard work and less traveling for work.  However, I have to get through March, then the travel should slow down for awhile.  I won't go through all the detail, but most of you know about my plight with travel voucher reimbursements (having to wait 2-3 months for reimbursement).  One co-worker actually told me she had $5,000 outstanding at any one time. That is simply an amount of money that I cannot afford to have outstanding for months and month.  I am hopeful that March will be a better month for me goal-wise. So here are my Marc...

I was able to put an extra $195 principal payment on the mortgage for my March payment!  My mortgage balance is now down to $215, 503 (from $216, 127)!   My goal is to have the balance into the $214,000s with my end of March payment (for the first of April). I am slowly but surely chipping away at the mortgage.  I can't wait until the balance falls down into the $100,000s.  I'm pretty sure this house is not my forever home, but I want to make a nice profit when I sell (instead of writing a check). I can get rid of the PMI when the balance is down to approximately $197,000 so I have quite a long way to go.  I pay off approximately $6,000 of principal a year, so I have about 3 years to go (roughly).   I think I can get the balance down to $197,000 in about 2 years from now because I intend to dump as much extra as I can onto the mortgage this year. I received a comment via email  (I rarely check my email guys, I'm sorry) from Emily about ways ...