Redefining Perfect

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I haven’t done weekly updates, I admit…but I HAVE gotten better about posting in general *LOL*  But, I figured weekly was too much.  I’m sticking to monthly updates.  It’s easier to keep track of the credit issues that way. So anyway, onto the goals and what I’ve done about them!

Goal #1 Body Image
1. I have lost six pounds.  I’m down to 151.  My jeans are fitting differently, but I don’t think it’s because of the weight so much as the:
2. I’ve started doing yoga just about every day. I did not exercise every day in January because there was the whole broken toe to deal with, and getting used to kids being home…but I did start it and really liked it.  This is something I’m keeping up with.
3. I have cut BACK on my pop drinking, but not enough.  I still have bad days that I drink a LOT.  I’m also not drinking more water.  Hopefully that will get better.
4. I have also cut back on my grazing.  I still do it, but not as much – I often try to replace food with a cup of coffee, but it doesnt always work.

In all I think this goal is going well.  It’s not perfect yet, but I’m happy with the baby steps I’ve taken. 

Goal #2 Finances
1. I did start keeping a check register…
2. And we started out strong w/ the budget
3. I’m still using the debt tracker spreadsheet…

But over all this goal went kerplunk before we got more than two weeks into January.  I blew my grocery budget, we only lived on ‘cash only’ for one week. We didn’t follow any sort of budget and I didn’t track the spending like I should have. 

Our goal is refocused for February.  We have our tax refund coming in, but we’re still going to live on the budget while we pay some things off, and fix our truck.  Hopefully we’ll do much better this month.

Goal #3 Home & Family
1.  I made vague meal plans – but didn’t write them down…
2.  I blew our grocery budget within a couple of weeks (not severely, but I definitely went overy by at least $50)
3. I’ve done fairly well with starting the cleaning.  The ktichen at least.  I’ve done dishes almost every day, and doen a good cleaning of it once a week.  I need to improve. I started doing the laundry once a wk (mostly) – but putting it away is not good.
4. And I’ve made tons and tons of breads…more than we needed some weeks.
5. We’ve had a few family game nights.  Not quite every week…but we’re working on it.

On a side note about this…this goal has evolved a bit.  I’ve decided to start homeschooling the girls – and am strongly considering homeschooling Brandon, too.  This has led to me doing some PT-HS w/ Brandon (it’s helped that we’ve had so many snow days).  So, as we approach that goal, this goal will shift and change a bit.  I may end up with my own goal set aside for homeschooling.  For now, I’m goign to keep on the track I’m going. 

In all, I feel our family unit is stronger already – and that was the main goal for this…so we’ll keep working on it!

Goal #4 Personal
1. I’ve started writing again – not quite twice a week every week, but this past week I’ve gotten closer.
2. On that end, I’ve rewritten 6 chapters of the novel and am pretty happy with what I’ve done so far.
3. I’ve gotten better about posting here again, even though I’m struggling some days for posts.
4. I haven’t officially re-opened my writing blog yet, but I’m close to it…I’m just wrapping up the site’s design and adding in some pages that I think are needed.   Hopefully that will come soon.

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Total wrapup: I’m feeling mostly good about how January went.  Not completely great because of the financial road bump…but over all with all four goals – I’m happy.  Baby steps is the point of this…so I’ll focus on my accomplishments and just hope to do better next month!! 

Because I missed yesterday’s post because of my FANTABULOUS* webhost – you get a twofer today! 

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First an update on Hell (or potty training).

Yesterday I leared that the secret of potty training is in the underwear.  When I went grocery shopping on Thursday night I swung by Wally’s baby dept to pick up some diapers and big girl underwear.  At home I knew we had Dora and generics…but I was prepared to get the same – until I saw them.  “My Little Pony” underwear.  The girls have recently gotten into their ponies so I snatched up a set of them.

Yesterday morning I started.  I showed them to Angel and got her on the potty.  After a while she went and we got up.  She started walking around pinching her knees together within about 10 minutes and went back on.  It was on and off for a few hours….but she had no accidents at all yesterday.  She went on the potty several times.  She hasn’t learned to cue me, we’re still going on on my determination, but she’s on the right track.

To add to the mix, Riley decided she REALLY wanted in on those pony panties…and started sitting on the potty, too!  We talked Daddy into going to Wally’s and picking up some for her…and he found TINKERBELL! Riley’s new PJ’s are Tinkerbell, so she’s all over that. 

So Daddy came home with Tinkerbell panties and a new potty chair so we could do both girls at once.  Riley had two accidents yesterday, but overall did well- and Angel had no accidents.  We’re going to stick with it over the weekend and pray for the best!

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A brief update here on what’s going on with this. 
1. For Body Image I managed to work out 3X (so far) this week.  I’m heading down to the gym in a couple of hours. I learned that I can do yoga, pilates and the ball alternating here at home, but I crap out on cardio. Going to the gym gives me a way to do that AWAY from here (i.e. an excuse to get away) – without being annoyed by too peppy hosts. Give me an elliptical!

2. For Finances: First week of living on a budget was tough. We aren’t used to saying “No, can’t buy it I have $5 left.”  The end result was happy, though.  It looks like at the end of the month we’ll have a little cash in savings.

3. For Home & Family: We had sit down dinners I think 3 times this week (I didn’t keep track).  I made dinner (taking pics of some of it) and cleaned as I went – the kitchen stayed mostly clean 3 out of 5 days.  We had family game night just last night.  For the cleaning portion, I found and adjusted for myself a chore list. I haven’t fully put it into effect, but I had Archie laminate it so I can reuse it. It will become a habit eventually, but it’s something I’m working toward.

That’s it for the week.  Overall I’m very happy with the baby steps I’ve taken.  Hopefully they will continue on. 

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*And by FANTABULOUS I mean awful, horrible,  no good, very bad…I’m very unhappy with them at the moment…and unless I’m granted a free year I’ll be taking the terrifying leap of trying a new host. 

Goal #1 was Body Image

Finances have always been a challenge at Casa de Perfect.  We’re impulse buyers.  I haven’t used a check register since I worked at the bank 3+ years ago (seriously…I do not keep a register).  We live paycheck to paycheck and shouldn’t need to.  We have no savings to speak of and credit card debt – not as much as when we got married, but enough. 

So, once again…my Big Dreams, and the Baby Steps to them.

Big Dreams
1. Pay off our Credit Card debt.
2. Get a decent size savings account.
3. Start paying toward principal on our mortgage
4. Get a newer second car (and give away the Mazda as it was given to us)
5. Get a bigger house (con’t from #3 ) – this is a big, faraway dream, like 2 years at least.

Baby Steps for January
1. Start keeping check register again
2. Continue tracking extra principal paid on truck
3. Track spending on a budget sheet
4. Live without debit cards – cash only
5. Using tracked spending as guide, set a budget for February
6. Get back to clipping coupons and making/following grocery list
7. Use debt tracker I found for excel (Loving it so far)
8. Gather all things needed to run taxes ASAP.

I have many many more dreams, big and little…but these are keynote for now.  The credit card debt, along with my weight, will all be tracked on another page here.  I’m working on setting it up now. 

Again, if you want to play along go ahead and steal the banner.  I’ll be doing weekly updates

Tomorrow’s Goal – Personal/Family.

I believe tomorrow will be the last…unless I come up with something else in the mean time

 

Well, when you’ve been kicked, it’s hard some days to find the joy. After learning our car is terminal over the weekend I’ve been struggling with my usual cheery disposition (really, I am the optimist in this house, believe it or not!).

Over the weekend we went to the movies – $40 gone. I remembered I still have to buy a present for my nephew when I thought I was done with Christmas presents (looking at another $10 there at least). I have the expense of Christmast dinner (ham is EXPENSIVE!! Sheesh! And I thought our turkey breasts at T-day were bad)…and other random things. I’m looking at our currently stable savings (small though it is) and trying to figure out how long it has left to live. At this point I’m figuring 1 – maybe 2 – weeks before it’s DOA.

Erik calls from work says he’s going to pay on his account at work (he works for a water purification/water softener company – from which we regularly buy salt for our softener, and filters for our R/O)…and then take out $20 for his carpool buddy to help cover gas costs (he and I agreed $20/2wks)…and the $30 for my remaining Christmas presents.

In a panic, thinking of our cash levels, I pull up the account. I expect to see a certain moderate amount in our account (on hold until mortgage is paid on Friday)…instead I see $200 MORE than I expected.

Apparently Erik got a bonus at work. No one told him *lol*

So our random joy for today is a bonus!! It’s not a huge one (not like the one he got two years ago, unfortunately), but it’s bigger than last years crap…and enough to cover our date night this weekend, AND Christmas dinner!!

Now if UPS would show up with his present…and the other one would make it before Christmas I’ll be totally joyous! (One gift was mailed standard USPS on Saturday…God willing it will get here before Christmas day!!)

Our car went BOOM.

Our ONLY car went boom.

Our only car to pick up daddy in tomorrow went boom.

Our only car to take Molly to preschool and pick up daddy in went boom.

Our only car to take Molly to preschool, K to her CF Clinic, and pick daddy up tomorrow went boom.

Have I said…

CRAP

Well, it looks like our Christmas, and our pocketbook have been saved! We don’t physically have the money yet, but it has been withdrawn from DH’s 401K. We can fix Dh’s car now, and this means we can sell my car (this is bad and good) to CarMax, pay it off and get that bill, and the cost of insurance off our backs!! This translates into HUGE relief.

On top of that, our Christmas will be nice for the first time in 5 years. We can get our ‘big’ gift for Denver (space camp! Whee!), and a few others (It is SO hard to shop for a 10 year old boy, you know that?). We can round out the girls toys (right now they are primarily clothes)….AND…*gasp* BUY FOR EACH OTHER!!

AND, I can buy the supplies to make the girls holiday dresses…and purses for the rest of my fam (I’m still hoping mom’s sweater will be knit in time…but just in case…hello pursy!).

We’ve been waiting on news for over a week on this! The thought of getting this money has been a glimmer of hope for us! We need it…and a good Christmas. It’s been far too long! (Plus the added money every paycheck that he can’t pay into his 401K will help, too).

Well, we are attempting to dip into DH’s 401K now. If we get approval for the withdrawal, there will be positives and negatives to it.

Positive: We can take the car to CarMax and sell it, and have the money to cover the difference. I.E. We don’t have to turn it in as a voluntary repo (which we have been considering)

Negative: We’re taking money out of the 401K

Positive: We’ll be able to catch up ALL of the bills.

NEgative: DH can’t make ANY 401K contributions for 6 months after the withdrawal.

Positive: We’ll be able to fix our one remaining car (it needs breaks, has a bad oil leak, etc.)

Negative: Uh…

Positive: Christmas will be covered for sure.

Positive: HUGE weight off my shoulders, and our finances with the car out of our hair…which means we can, in fact, go through with the SSI appeal.

This entire article is exceedingly true for our family. We haven’t started going to the food pantry yet…but it has been in my thoughts. Wal-Mart reducing it’s prices are about the only thing keeping us (somewhat) afloat right now:

Groceries paycheck to paycheck

Well, we got the second denial today. The one for Molly (as we were expecting it to be). This time, though…all I could do was laugh. They claimed that the medical evidence supported a good rate of growth currently (not a total lie, I suppose)…but then it said that there wasn’t any problem with her communication and that she was 100% intelligible!!! WTF? I don’t know HOW they got that, since she said NOTHING during the Speech Evaluation…and I certainly never said anything like that in response to the questions she asked me!!

I have called a lawyer and have an appointment on the 29th to find out if either case is viable and if they’ll take me on. Keep the fingers crossed!

On another bad note. K had her nutritionist appointment today. She has lost ANOTHER 7 oz (after losing 8oz last appt). That’s one pound in two months. She can’t eat anymore except liquids and baby food…the poor child is starving. I don’t know what they’re going to do.

On that note…in the good realm, the feeding study has been moved UP to Monday thanks to a fluke w/ scheduling!! So, Monday we have our feeding study…hopefully they can tell us SOMETHING!!

We got one of the two SSI decisions in today’s mail. The government has decided that my daughter is disabled…but not enough to receive assistance. She sees 5 specialists, can’t eat properly, and receives regular speech, physical, and occcupational therapy…but she isn’t disabled enough for us to get assistance for her. I was blown away. I am also broken hearted. I swore that if they turned her down, I would fight it, appeal it…but we can’t afford to wait. It took them five months to come to THIS conclusion. We have gone through every last penny of savings…we do not have the money to go through a lengthy appeals process. They won. I feel completely defeated. I have to go get a job…so that we can pay our bills.

I expect Molly’s decision any day now…and my optimism is gone. The eternal optimist is no longer.

I never thought I would feel this defeated this early on.