Amazing August Controlled / No Spend Thread

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Rocky Mtn. Saver: 5 NSD/CSD's.

[dakota4600]

4 NS/CS. Mini-D is not behaving well and it is really frustrating. When you correct him he just laughs at you. The joys of being a parent. Last night I was just at the end of my rope and took away his trains for 2 days, that made an impression on him. He cried and begged to get them back, so maybe now he'll realize he needs to listen. We've tried rewards and consequences and neither seems to be helping. He hasn't watched TV since last Thursday because of his behavior and has had different toys taken away. We've offered pizza as a reward for a good report at school and nothing.

[redwagon]

Good luck dakota. Sounds frustrating for sure. Wish I had advice for you!

Rocky - you are a rock star at this NS thing!

Ordered the flooring for the nursery. Finally. Phew. Cost less than $400 and then I'm sure we'll need other materials maybe $100, but labor is free! Way better than the $1500 Home Depot quoted us. Stupid home depot.

[azmom]

Just barging in real quick to let all of you know that my baby girl who was 6 months old when I joined this thread went to her first day of Kindergarten today!

~Happy No Spending

[moneysquirrel]

Update: 7 NSDs

3cats -- So sorry to read about your lost.

Start -- the patio looks great

Dakota -- he is testing you. Remember he has to adjust to back to school routine also

azmom -- Now I am feeling old again. I remember following her progress throughout the year. Of course this news follows several days where the mothers of some of my students remind me that they were my students many years ago as well.

red -- great news on the flooring project.

[dakota4600]

OMG

We are under CONTRACT! 18 days on the market. The offer was for full asking, but they wanted about $4000 in concessions (closing costs, home warranty and our washer and dryer (they are 10 years old so I'm not too upset about losing them), they did want my new fridge, but I wouldn't do that.)) Now, we have to find a new house and close on it in 5 weeks!

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Rocky Mtn. Saver: 6 NSD/CSD's Well, that'll be the end of my CSD/NSD's for now. I'm headed out on vacation for a week and a half, so who knows what'll happen then. I'll try to keep track of any CSD/NSD's I get, though. I want credit for 'em!


Dakota: Congrats!!!

[redwagon]

Dakota - congrats! That's amazing, and gives me hope for when we sell ours. Good luck finding a new place!

azmom - that is just crazy. We're all getting old lol.

[mizbear]

I am dropping in with lots HUGS for everyone and some good news!

5 NSD accomplished! (Obviously have NOT done the grocery shopping)

DB paid me back the $10 he borrowed last month.

DGMs house is sold- closing took longer than we thought but as of tomorrow the house will no longer be ours and they are supposed to be paid within 3 business days. Then the estate will be totally closed before my birthday next month.

I won my county fair competition this past weekend and will be going to the Showdown this Saturday.

Ummm- lots to tell- see what else I can think of.

[redwagon]

mizbear - wow lots of great news!! woohooo! enjoy it!!

[dakota4600]

Yesterday was a CS. I met my girlfriends for dinner and my dinner was $7.50 after tax and tip, which came out of my cash allowance. One reason I love going to Mexican restaurants. I just got a black bean burrito off the a la carte menu and called it good.

I made progress on our loan approval and got the bank all the paperwork. Just waiting to hear back on the final okay, either today or Monday. Our agent is calling to set up showings for tonight. Mini-D is going to my parents so DH & I can focus on the houses. We sent him a list of 7 we want to see and we'll see as many as we can tonight. Fingers crossed one will work for us!

[mizbear]

The house is sold! They even got the check today! All they are waiting for is the refund on the taxes.

[dakota4600]

We bought a house!!!!!!! We looked at 4 tonight and 2 were no go's from the curb, we went in anyway. DH is 6' 3" and he couldn't stand up straight in the basement of one house and in the other there were some odd "rooms" where the ceilings were less than 6'. They were currently being used as bedrooms, but had no closets or windows so weren't really. The third one was okay, but the kitchen was tiny and the ceiling in the master bedroom was about 6' 6" and DH couldn't across the room with out ducking under the ceiling fan. Luckily the 4th one was awesome. 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, huge backyard, new kitchen. Lots of storage space and finished basement space.

We made an offer and within an hour they countered which we accepted. Since it was already 10pm, we'll sign the counter offer in the AM. We close on both houses on 9/18 and get possession of the new one that day and have to be out of ours on the 21st.

[startsmart]

Haven't read much to catch up but I did see that 3cats lost one of her pets so sorry to read that!

Today was the annual tomato festival so I went and picked up some tomatoes, garlic, nectarines, peaches and plumbs. Spent less than $20 including a breakfast burrito from my friend's restaurant!

The rest of today should be a no spend, lots to do around the house for the week ahead but I'm also going out to see a band tonight. We'll see where I end up grabbing dinner then it's off to the airport to pick someone up.

The dogs are in need of baths and my car is filthy! Hopefully I can get those chores done today if I have enough energy.

[mizbear]

3cats- HUGS!

I didn't win but met some awesome people.

I also had a serious cry when I saw myself on video.

dakota- Congrats on the house!

[pointy]

Update: 9/23 NS and 10/28 No QVC...
3cats: Hugs to you!!! Sorry to hear about your loss.

[ses]

Welcome, celtophile. We can always enjoy new friends in our journey to collect NSDs.

I have internet at home today! Hopefully the extreme heat will stop soon and this will not continue to be a problem.

3cats-- your post about Cocoa brought back such a flood of memories about TJ. He was such a part of my family for 20 years, it is still such a tug on the heartstrings at times. You have all my sympathy.

I did something today I have never done before. I ordered a recliner online. It was one-third the price of any I could find locally. I am going to keep the chair it is replacing and have it reupholstered. Onyx might kick me out of the house if I tried to get rid of it. If I really like the new chair, I may buy another to have a matching set. You have no idea how hard it was to spend that money. You all were sitting on my shoulder during the entire process.

Dakota--congrats on the quick turn around on your house! It is wonderful how things fell onto place. I know you have wanted this for a long time.

[Honeylioness]

Ladies, first I want to apologize for not being around much the last few weeks. Things here are rather ... hectic, and stressful .. I will get to that later.


3cats - I am so very sorry to hear about Cocoa. I am glad you were able to be with her so that she passed being held in loving arms. Give yourself whatever time you need to grieve her passing.

nuttinhoney - Good job on posting your debt and being open about how much you owe. As for owning a house - I am hearing from more and more people that with the current economy it is actually better for many to become, or remain, renters since then the cost of large repairs are not yours.

Even with my condo I can relate to that at times. The owners would LOVE to have things fixed or replaced - however financially we just cannot afford them right now.

As your family will soon be getting a regular paycheck I would like to make a couple of suggestions. 1) Be sure to have a set amount each paycheck transferred automatically into a savings account. 2) Work out a written plan on how you can add a bit more than minimum to the highest interest rate card each month to get it paid off. 3) Give yourselves permission to spend a bit of money on something fun or frivolous out of the first month's pay to celebrate making it through the last months.

dakota - WOW .... great news! That sure went fast on BOTH houses!

SES - I notice I have issues with my internet connection during the summer as well. Not so much a temperature issue here as a humidity one. When the humidity gets to a certain level the building's wiring and equipment start "glitching".

mizbear - Thanks for the good news update! I hope you feel less stressed soon.

[mizbear]

I want to send more hugs to everyone.

I am going to be posting an updated budget soon. As I said I have "sold" my car to my father. He is making the payments 2 at a time so that he will have it paid off in half the time. I plan on using the extra money for a few things and sticking the rest in a can. (It's going somewhere safer- but I can't put it in the bank due to my current situation)

[mizbear]

Okay- This is what the budget looks like now with my father paying for the car-

Monthly Pay- 912

Rent- 168 (It went up but DM is paying the difference)
Car/Renter's Insurance- 77.80 (Father may be paying this also)
Utilities- 125
Cell- 45
Tuition- 55
Meds- 20

Of the 77.80, as of the end of September, only 63 of that will go towards car insurance.

The car is remaining in my name for now, that way if anything happens to my father, I get my car back. My DB won't be able to get my car. Once it is paid for, we transfer it to my father's name.

My mother has made me the sole beneficiary of her life insurance and my brother is the sole beneficiary of my father's. We have both been told to split the policies- but my parents have told me if my brother doesn't- don't feel obligated.

DM and I have decided that going with 1 car is the best right now. I drive us everywhere anyway.

I have a list of things I want to do with the extra money.
I think I am going to keep making some payments on the car to get it paid off ASAP, get my gym membership opened back up so I can get this weight off and get the guitars fixed or replaced so I can focus on that.
Plus I need the computers updated and have some business stuff to do.


Any suggestions-
Questions?

[moneysquirrel]

Update: 10 NSDs

Dakota -- Great news on the housing front.

Mizbear -- Seems as things are progressing for you

Honey -- When does your student arrive or did she already?

Start -- you continue to amaze me

SES -- Back at school -- heat in the 90s + rain at leaving time -- usual routine

celtophile -- Welcome. If you have any questions please ask one of us will chip in with an answer.

Past my bedtime -- good night all!

[Honeylioness]

Okay ... as promised, or threatened, however you wish to see it ... here is a brief re-cap of some events from the last couple of weeks.

1) I have a local friend whose husband died three years ago at 49 from brain cancer. she has four kids 18-24 scattered in the area and a psycho mother living in her house. For many reasons she has not worked in the last three years and the house is in foreclosure. She found an agent to work with her on a short sale ... but was incredibly stressed about trying to clean the house out of useful, and broken items. So I offered to help.

I go over a couple of times a week to help her clean out closets, cupboards, dressers etc. We now have piles ready for storage, boxes for donation, I am putting schedules in place for her to meet up with businesses to recycle old appliances, computer cables and peripherals etc.

The upside is she is really grateful and it feels good to be able to help .. and I have several other people who have expressed interest in hiring me to help them do the same type of things. Who knows, I may have a new side business.

2) There is a woman I know on line, at another site, who posted week before last that she was trying to find someone who could foster her two elderly cats. She has several medical conditions that made the local police call Adult Protective Services because she could not even get herself to the toilet. So she is in a rehab facility while they try to get her to a place where she can be returned home with visiting nurse care.

So last week found me driving the 30 miles to where she is to meet her and get directions to her house. Then I headed over there and loaded her cats and their "stuff" into my car and then back home. It has been an interesting adjustment so far with these two cats - Barra who is 13 and Ben Nevis who is 15 and has pretty bad arthritis in his back legs.

A part of me did wonder if I just acquired two cats permanently because of their owner's issues.

3) We have an arrival date for my new student ... August 23rd.

4) I decided before Pauline arrives I needed to take advantage of having the room unoccupied and emptied BOTH walk in closets .. went through all the boxes and sifted out a LOT of items I no longer want to use .. these were picked up by a charity last week.

5) This is the most stressful thing ... and instead of rehashing the entire thing here is the link explaining what is going on with David.

livingwiththelioness.blogspot.com/2012/08/david-
please-come-home.html


I would appreciate any and all prayers you can all spare that these situations resolve as they are meant to ... and without me losing my mind or home.

[WholeLottaNothin]

Oh Honey! I am so sorry to hear about David. I will keep him in my thoughts and prayers for a safe and speedy return to you.

Thank you for your advice on my budget situation. I really appreciate it.

5 NSDs

[redwagon]

Honey - hugs.

[startsmart]

Honey - Hope he comes home soon!

Today's my monthly day off! I may end up taking a call with a prospective client but hopefully not. Going into the city to meet some friends, have lunch, play around the Botanical Gardens and shoot some video (slightly work related lol).

Last night was fun, when it finally cooled down enough to work I focused on that for a few hours and ended up talking with Blue Eyes until pretty late. Which was fun being at Mom's house and all! The dogs are all here and barking up a storm at cats or something - I'm glad to be heading out so I don't have to deal with them today

Only one more month until I get to Florida for a week with blue! A bunch of us rented a condo for the week so we're going to have an awesome time!

Yesterday was a NSD but today will definitely be a spend for BART tickets, lunch and dinner/drinks.

[dakota4600]

Yesterday was a spend. We had to pay for the home inspection. The worst thing they found was brown recluse spiders in the unfinished basement area and the garage. We'll ask to have those areas treated before we move in and we want them to have the AC checked out, because the inspector said it was making louder than normal noises.

Honey - I hope you find David, one of my dogs twisted out of her collar once luckily she freezes when she is scared and didn't run off.

[redwagon]

dakota - ::shudder:: good luck!

start - enjoy your day off!

I got my first blind inquiry for freelance editing services off my website! Only took a year, but still very cool! It's not a big project, but it's a new area for me (cutting a 13k word paper down to 8k words) that I'll be able to put up as experience and a service to offer other clients.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Rocky Mtn Saver: 8 CSD/NSD's. Yesterday was a big ole' spend day because my friend took me to her favorite used bookstore and it was awesome! We spent about 1 1/2 hours browsing for books, and I spent way more than I should have (even after putting a couple of books back). ;D Oh well, that's what vacations are occasionally for, right?

[Honeylioness]

Okay.... Ladies and Gentlemen. As I think you all know, I was laid off in November 2011 and have been working towards finding a new job since. And yes, looking for a new job is a job in and of itself. Anyways, I got a call this afternoon and I have an interview tomorrow - Friday, August 17th for a great company with excellent benefits, a doable commute and a stable business history.

So I have a request - if you can I would appreciate any/all prayers, karma, thoughts, positive energy or money to bribe the hiring manager (just kidding ... okay, only a little bit kidding) for tomorrow at 11:00 am EDT. As I will be a "mom" again next Thursday with an extra mouth to feed it would be a great time to finally land a new job.

Thank you all so much for your support and allowing me this self indulgence.

[redwagon]

good luck!!!