This is pretty nifty for anybody who has a cell phone plan! It analyzes your cell phone usage based on how many minutes/texts you tell it you use and then it tells you the best plans you can get : ) Thought it might be of interest!

So I went to do my usual Sunday bill paying routine (I wait until Sunday... sorta seems to ruin the weekend if I do it Friday, so if I can wait, I do.) and pulled up my nifty Excel spreadsheet... I always do it on the computer, the whole "human error" thing was too much with me writing and adding and subtracting, so it was easier this way.

So I pay a bill. Look at the spreadsheet and wonder "hmm, my car payment isn't on here!" I panicked, as it would have been due like 10 days ago, and I swore up and down I paid it. Logged on to the online account banking dealie, it had cleared a while ago. I figured I must not have put it on my spreadsheet, but at $300 I thought that was very, very, odd, especially since I always double-check, even more so if it's a big thing like that! Then I look at the spreadsheet and realize that my car insurance, which I know 100% that I paid, was not on the spreadsheet as well.

So I start to panic. Did my computer shut down and reboot and not save it? How would I know what was paid?! So I start poking around and realize there's a SECOND check register spreadsheet that's the same up until mid march, except it seems as if I was sometimes using one, sometimes using another!!! ARGH! It's only by some MIRACLE that I wasn't bouncing checks left and right.

I print them out and sit down and figure out what was really paid when and fix it up. Then I look at the "balance" column and realize that it says $702.74! Having that much in the middle of the month with all the bills for the week paid?!?! That's never happened. ... I could go right ahead and pay all the rest of April's bills at this very moment!!

I figure one of two things could be going on. 1) I must look at these and figure out where a mistake was made somewhere and there's something that I forgot to transfer to the "real" spreadsheet, or I put a second deposit in by accident. 2) Being that I was mostly working this month off of the spreadsheet with the much lower numbers on it, I THOUGHT we had WAY less money than we really did and I kicked everything into super duper frugal mode so we'd scrape by with just enough to pay the bills this month, thinking there was like $200 in there (that's what the other spreadsheet showed)

So yeeeaaaahhh.... This stinks, It should be easy being that I don't use a debit card, so it's only checks and deposits, but no....

Guess I'd better go take a second look at this nonsense. >: (

I really, really must stay focused. There's something about spring that just screams "SPENNNNNDDDD!" to me... it always has. Probably because there's so much that I'd love to do with the house. A garden. Paint. New wall hangings. New dining room table. A patio set. All this I know won't make me as happy as paying off debt, it what I tell myself. And I know it won't.

Although I have been getting a tad bitter and cranky lately about one thing. We really have cut down on so much and buy the bare minimum. One thing that's been frustrating me lately is that I haven't been buying my nice expensive and well working face wash OR makeup (the foundation stuff. I couldn't care less about what mascara or eye shadow I'm using.) I recently ran out of both around the same time about a week and a half ago. Now I am not really that vain and can go the whole day without so much as glancing in a mirror, but one thing really gets on my nerves: acne. Due to crummy face wash and crummy makeup, I am SO broken out and oily and just.... icky! I hate it! I feel like I'm 15 again : ( I just cannot justify going out and spending a bunch of cash on it right now.... even though it really is making me miserable. I've been trying some homemade remedies and facial scrubs and stuff with things made from around the house, but it's just not working. I have a feeling it's this stupid makeup that's making me do it.

Bah.

So I'm feeling pretty good right now. It was just a good weekend. Weather is getting nice.

And in the financial sense, I'm feeling pretty good too : ) we're still FAR FAR FAR from our goal, but I see little baby steps have come a long way. I was cranky the other day due to the Wamu bill coming. I paid off $3000 last month and thought my new monthly minimum would be lower than it was. It was roughly $300, now it's roughly $192 or something. But I guess $100 is a lot for it to go down. The balance is about $6,400 now, so that really is a huge dent : ) Yay!

The JC Penney card will be paid off this month. I only owe $72 for it to be paid off. Yay! One less thing to worry about.

I'm madly in love with our new foster dog. I know not everyone is a crazy dog person like we are, but this is the kind of dog that changes lives. Seriously. Seeing the abuse this dog went through (missing patches of fur that is now scar tissue due to being set on fire by the @#&$ who had him before) and seeing how happy he is now, just to be alive and be a dog... it's great. If we were more financially stable right now, I'd be a foster failure and keep this guy! I'm sure when we are ready for a second dog though, there will be another shelter dog with a bad past looking for a home (although wouldn't it be nice if there wasn't and they all had homes by then?!)

I paid a bunch of bills a few minutes ago... for the first time in a LONG time, I'm on time with everything and the next bill due isn't due until the 18th. HAPPY! Amazing to see the steps we've taken... I can FINALLY see a light at the end of this tunnel of debt!! We really do still owe a ton of $$$, but one thing at a time...