Cents And Simplicity's Personal Finance Blog

I was asked about the tetanus and the purpose.

All plasma is used to make various life saving medications.

Tetanus Immune Globulin (TIG) is a vaccine that contains tetanus toxin antibodies derived from the plasma of donors previously vaccinated with tetanus toxoid. This vaccine is considered to give "passive immunization," meaning that the antibodies are supplied at the time of immediate need.

Plasma is used to create life-saving therapies for people around the world.

Without these vital plasma-derived medicines and therapies, many patients could not survive certain diseases. Products produced from plasma treat bleeding and breathing disorders, shock, burns, trauma and immune deficiencies.

Today is payday.Dh is paid twice a month. First check covers rent,food,gas,minor things. Second check covers everything else, utilities,debt,etc..

In my last post I did forget to mention a few expenses..insurance,netflix.
The check included 5 hours of overtime.Very helpfull in getting this debt paid.
I did pay off a small card 269.38 today which was not listed in the last post.
Super news is the taxes have been done via turbo tax and that CC#1 will be paid in full by the end of Jan.!!!


DH got me a side job yesterday. Photographed some product for an individual who sells on ebay. $75, although I will not be adding it to the challenge. It goes towards debt!!

"Apparently I have a reputation at dh work", So he says, another individual is inquiring about some wedding photography in June. We shall see.

On a sour note- I did not donate plasma at all this week. Tuesday I was snowed in.Thursday I simply threw in the towel, plus I was working on the side job. That puts me down $65.

Monday I begin the job search!

With the income that we have now.This is my short term debt reduction plan.

cc#1: 1,933- gone by end March.
cc#2: 2,827- gone by end June.
cc#3: 2,936- gone by end Oct.

There's more but this is the short term focus goals. With adding in more income from a second job I hope to see these banished before the dates listed.

Posting this I feel will make me more accountable.

By looking at my spending I can see where I can cut back more. I need to set a mad money amount and not go over that.

I want to add a note about our tithing. We only got serious about this three months ago. Shame on us. Before that we were giving only occasionally. It is now priority. Since the giving began we have seen suprise new $$.
~ a refund from the endodontist over $100
~ dh has overtime, which is unheard of for his ever increasing penny pinching company.
You don't even know what a huge blessing the overtime is!!
I know that we can do far more with 90%, when we give 10%, than we could ever do with 100%. Since giving we have put away $400 into an EF account. I have the challenge going as well.

It's going to be an exciting year as well as a valuable lesson learned year. It is such a huge priority to us. We don't want to be held down. We have dreams, goals and a new life that waits for us just beyond the shadows we currently stand in.
So the journey begins.

Money.Money.Money. Or perhaps the lack of money. It has consumed me. Correction.debt.it.consumes.to much of a persons energy and time!

Dh and I have a story. I am ashamed to share it. Trust me, I HAVE learned my LESSON! I don't want to get into all the details. Lets just say. We were debt free. It was the first time we had money, extra money. There was a business venture that didn't work out. Now we have debt, partly from stupidity,partly from giving to people who didn't deserve our favor and partly to stupidity. The crying is long over, but the debt remains. I am determined beyond everything to banish roughly 21,000 of debt ASAP- I may be over optomistic in thinking it will be gone by the end of '07.
Dh income alone will not do it- the addition of plasma $$ will not be enough. Therefore, I must return to the world of barely above minimum wage work. I'm not even sure where I'll begin to look.
I will begin looking next week. Dh is working overtime this week, so next week it is.

So, where the $ goes-
So far this month:

Rent:795
Groc:146.50
Gas:51.82
Cleaning:4.78
Makeup:7.86
stationary:5.53
fabric:5.65
Internet:19.99
Cell Phone:30.00
Clothes:5.99
Yarn:19.95
Oilx3 changes:41.71
Medicine:2.18
Power:113.79
mad $ at goodwill:27.16
Paid off 1cc:98.95
___________________

The rest of the month looks like this.

Tithe:270.00
Total min. cc payments: 527.00
snowballing:300 towards smallest cc to be paid off in March.

gas/groc:135ish

I have $5 more dollars to add to my challenge.The plasma center has offered me to be on the tetanus program. I got the shot, recieved 5 bucks. If my levels to anitbodies are high enough after several weeks I will be on the program which will give me 5 extra bucks a week.Which in turn means more tetnus shots to keep up the antibodies.

New Total: $155.37

Yesterday I did the grocery shopping and saved $5.97 in coupons.

Today, I received $7.84 from ebook drop plus a $5.00 pinecone check. I'm adding $18.81 to the total.

New Total:$150.37


Yesterday we stopped off at the goodwill and the hubbers found two bmx bikes for $8 each. He had some of his own $$. He bought the bikes hoping to fix/clean them up and sell to a local bike shop.
He thinks it will make a profit?? I'll let ya know how it turns out.

Day Three
Donated plasma on thursday, received $5 more than expected. The bonus amount runs through Jan. So, I'll be adding that $5 each week through Jan. I also found .12 in the camera bag before mailing it out.

Day Four

We are switching our internet service. Ordered the new service online. The special stated $19.99 for six months. A rebate on the modem and a do it yourself installation with no hook-up fee. Call to set up the account and they state I'll have to pay the hook-up fee. I decline- get the run around etc... I decided to call back today and go for it anyway. We would still be saving $60 a month over what we pay currently.
So, I intended to pay the $49.95 fee but it worked out in my favor after all. Adding the $49.95 to the challenge money.

Adding:$55.07
previous: $76.49

Total:$131.56

I'm not adding the monthly internet savings to the challenge because I need to do this for debt reduction and that's where those funds will go.

My ebay auctions ended today. I sold 4 things for a profit of $51.49.
Items sold were, two pair of jeans, a camera bag, old melamine dishes

I have a large roll of white photography paper sitting in my shed that I'm going to put in the local paper. Hoping to bring in $25 for it. It may take a few weeks or I may have to hold it over for the spring garage sale.??

I know we had funds left over in our checking account from last year. Dh has $$ in his wallet. I'll be adding it up and dividing it among various savings accounts and envelopes. I may try and sneak an extra $20 into the challenge, if it's there.?

Adding: $51.49
Start: $25

TOTAL:$76.49

So my challenge starts with $25 that I will receive today from donating blood plasma plus I have a purse in the works to be sold, items currently on ebay with bids.

We were given a $20 GC for the grocery store two days ago. I'm keeping that thing until I spot a super deal on meat or tuna or something. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a good deal.I'm not adding it to my challenge figure as I see it saving me $$ off my grocery budget. If I come in under my $200 grocery budget for Jan. I will roll my underbudget amount to my challenge.

Day One: $25

I'm new here, but stepping right up to the plate and taking full accountability for my financial state and financial future.

Here I will share my $20 Challenge results. I'm currently thinking about various ways to increase the money. One thing I will do for sure is make a purse from left over fabric and see how it sells on ebay. The purse was cut out last night and it will be sewn today. If the financial payoff is successful I may do it again.

Let the challenge begin!