A Dime at a Time

Navigating life and finances

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Our Cash Envelope System

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Trying to do a better job at keeping track of where our money goes!

I’ve always admired those of you who keep track of every penny spent.  Although in 2017 I felt we were very good at avoiding unnecessary spending, admittedly, keeping track of every dime spent in every category wasn’t a strong point.  I have set out to change that for 2018 by tweaking our cash envelope system and also writing down what I do spend in a small notebook. [Read more…]

Snow days and other happenings

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Today is a snow day, as will be tomorrow.  My boss called me earlier this morning to say she was keeping the office closed. We are currently under a Winter storm warning which is expected to dump over a foot of snow in our area.  I won’t deny that I was relieved with her decision to close the office as I wasn’t looking forward to being out on the roads today.  Thankfully it shouldn’t hurt my paycheck as I’ll take vacation time to cover the lost hours.   [Read more…]

2018: Off to a busy start!

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Some work-related, some self-created, and some of it just life in general!  

Wow, I can’t believe it is already almost the middle of the month!  Where does the time go?  In spite of my utter lack of posting over the past few weeks, Hubs and I have stayed on the straight and narrow with our quest to dig out of debt.  So, other than keeping our noses to the grindstone, what have we been doing since 2018 rolled in?   [Read more…]

Final Numbers for 2017

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Despite the many challenges 2017 brought us, we still made progress!

With all of our payments now accounted for, I figured I best slip in one last update for 2017.  We drew the final line in the sand just twelve months ago.  Hard to believe we have already been at this digging out of debt journey for an entire year!  Starting debt was $55,749.69 (ouch, I know!) and finished the year t $46,408.39.  Ouch on that final number, too, but dumping $9,341.30 is still quite remarkable considering the year we had. [Read more…]

Merry Christmas!

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Two very special Christmases.

On this Christmas morning, I can’t help but to take a moment and reflect on two very special Christmases.

For Hubs and I, the first one is by far the most important as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.  The holiday isn’t really about the presents, the lights, the tree or even Santa.  It is about an incredible gift given to all those who believe and accept Jesus into their heart.  Nothing under the tree can compare to the incredible gift of God’s Son to us.   [Read more…]

2018 Monthly Minimums

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18 for 18!  

With 2018 just around the corner, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I’d like to see accomplished in the coming year.  2018 will be our second year on our journey to debt freedom, and I’m feeling optimistic!  Although we didn’t pay off near as much as I’d hoped in 2017, we are still in a far better position than we were 12 months ago, and I genuinely believe from this point that it will only get better. [Read more…]

Nine to Five

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The adjustment of working more hours.

Okay, so my hours are more like 11-5 (yesterday) or as for today, 11-2.  I also haven’t seen that old movie Nine to Five in what now seems like forever, but hey, I like the song and this business of going to work every day makes me feel like I’m working 9-5.  Lol.

My additional hours are still not set, and I doubt they ever really will be.  Fortunately, it isn’t an on-call type of position, so I do still have some flexibility.  The job calls for anywhere from 5-20 hours per week, which makes it a perfect addition to the very part-time hours I was already working.  Keep in mind that I do still work my side business and work full-time for a couple of months during the Summer at my seasonal job.  I still need to figure out the logistics of next Summer but will cross that bridge when I come to it.  For now, I am happy with more money for snowballing our debt! [Read more…]

Facing the Numbers

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To win our war on debt, we need to know what we are battling.

It has been quite some time since I updated our numbers.  The last third of this year has been one thing after another with our finances.  Starting with major car repairs, transferring balances and medical bills of over $4300, I knew our debt would go up.  Adding to all of that, with Hubs being off for an entire month, we lost a twelfth of our income.  Despite that, there are good things.  Now with most of our debt being at zero-percent interest, we will see more progress.  Hubs again has a clean bill of health, and you certainly can’t put a price tag on that!  As for the lost income, it has been a long time since Hubs and I have had an entire month together.   [Read more…]

It’s a new day!

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What a difference 24 hours can make!  

After a self-induced restless night, I made it through yesterday.  It was no surprise that I felt tired most of the day, but only getting a few hours of sleep does that to a person.  Despite my lack of sleep, the day turned out okay.  While not my usual type of post, I’d say that blogging away my stress was indeed therapeutic.  I feel it helped me identify what was stressing me out, at which point I could then do something about it.  And I did! [Read more…]

Dear Stress, please go away.

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Blogging away my stress.  

Ugh, I hate it when money and life stress me out.  You would think that after all this time on this journey, nights like these would be a thing of the past.  Nope.  Here I am, stressing yet once again.  Usually, I would get up and blog about something with a more positive nature.  Not tonight, though.  For this post, I have decided to blog about the why behind my stress.  I think in doing so, it will equally serve to help me work my way through the woes keeping me awake.  Or at least I hope it does!   [Read more…]

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