money-saving-in-the-works

I know its been awhile since I’ve posted anything about our debt reduction plan, but I have some good news about it. We have managed to pay off the loan from Hubby’s Dad. He wasn’t expecting it, but since I got a $4,000 child support payment last month, I went ahead & paid him. We had to be sneaky about it because he usually refuses being paid back. So Hubby decided that a good way to do sneak it to him was to put it in his Father’s Day card. Hubby’s mom agreed with Hubby, I thought it was a little corny but went along with it anyway. His dad was happy to have cash instead of some gift that didn’t have a lot of thought put into it.

We’ve also been paying extra on the car. Instead of $70/week, we were paying $75/week up until this month. This month I bumped it up to $100/week & the car should be paid off on the 25th. That’s paying the car off 2 months early. I know, not as good as some people can do but we are doing alot better than some people I know. After this month, I have to decide what I’m going to do with the monthly car payment money. Hubby wants to get him a pick-up truck to drive back & forth to work, while leaving me the care, but that’s not really feasible until I get my license. I think what I’m going to do is up the debt payments to $300/month & save the other $200/month towards a new truck. By the time I get my license, we should have enough to put a good amount down if not buy a truck out right.

Edited to Update 6/20: I called the car company today & got an updated balance. The payment from the 17th hasn’t cleared yet, but after that does we will owe less than $200 on the car. Woo hoo! We have less than a week till we own the car free & clear!

On Sunday, I got a copy of All You! magazine. This is the first time I’ve ever bought it, I know it has several coupons in it. Some are worth more than I paid for the magazine itself. I think I’m going to keep buying this magazine. I read it before cutting the coupons out, there were some pretty cool articles in it. I was interested in the Grocery Contest. This contest is simple, you have $25 per person per week for groceries. Just groceries, no cleaning or personal hygiene items. You have to keep your receipts, just in case you win. The grand prize is a $1000 grocery card, probably to WalMart or somewhere pretty well-known. That’s just my idea on the prize, who knows I may be wrong & they give you a card to your favorite supermarket, no matter how small it is. That would be nice!

The contest started on July 13th, the day after I got the magazine. So I didn’t have much time to decide whether I wanted to participate in the contest. I joined it. I figure there’s nothing to lose by participating, and if I win, I have gained something. I think I can do it, especially since my budget for groceries, cleaning & hygiene stuff is $200/week. So far this week, I’ve spent about $21. I have a bit of an advantage over some other participants, I buy & cook meat in bulk, usually once a month. And the Saturday before I got the magazine was my cooking day. So I have a freezer full of cooked hamburger & shredded chicken. I just hope that doesn’t disqualify me, since we are supposed to be buy all the groceries for the 4 weeks.

Today I walked to CVS Pharmacy to hit their 3-day sale. Unfortunately, they were out of it all! But I got rainchecks for the free after ECB glue, notebooks, & scissors. I did manage to get some other things though, so it wasn’t a complete waste. I spent $9.53 & got back $12 in ECBs so today was a great trip! They have milk on sale for $2.69/gallon & you get a $1 ECB back too, so I got me some milk today. There’s a limit of one on the ECB though… Even without the ECB, $2.69 would be a good price for milk if United didn’t have it on sale for $2.50 this week.

I know I said I walked to CVS, and I meant that. I left at 7:15 this morning, so I beat the heat. But it was still killer on the walk back because it was humid & CVS is a little more than a mile away from my apartment. Unfortunately, I didn’t walk into a nice, cold apartment when I got back either. The A/C has been acting up since the beginning of the month. It took 4 service calls to figure out the problem! Turned out, someone had crammed an old air filter into the duct instead of changing it. I never even noticed it, even though I change the filter every month. The technician said that it wasn’t my fault, that it was a really old (1-2 years) filter & the maintenance guy should have checked the A/C unit better after the last tenant moved out. But when we moved in, the manager’s secretary told me that they hadn’t had a proper maintenance guy in months. Well it wasn’t when we moved in exactly… It was more like a couple months later, but its the same idea, ya know?

kittens! The cat we ‘adopted’ in December is pregnant… According to my research online, she’s just about ready to have the little buggers too! Everything I’ve read says that cats don’t really start showing until the last 3-4 weeks of pregnancy. Oooh kitty!

She was a stray, so she still has a desire to play outside many days. She is the only cat we have so I know that she had to have gotten out while she was in heat. I’d told my oldest monster not to let the cat out, but apparently she did anyway. There is no telling which of the other strays around here is the father. Ooooh kitty, again!

I am definitely going to take her to the vet & get her spayed after the kittens are weaned. I’ve been through a little of pups and now I’m going through a litter of kittens. I think my animal population quota has been filled. LOL!

She’s been really affectionate lately, always sitting at my feet when I’m at the computer. Of course, that could also be because under the desk is about the only safe place from my little monsters. Looking at her now, her belly is a little lopsided. One side is bigger than the other, so I’m thinking she’s going to have an odd number of kittens. Plus, my oldest pointed out that she has an odd number of nipples… Very odd, if you ask me, but I’m not about to check for myself. I didn’t like being poked & prodded when I was pregnant, so I’m not about to make my cat suffer that indignity too!

*sigh* I’m so not looking forward to having baby kittens around. Its hard enough keeping my youngest 2 kiddos away from our semi-adult cat (I say semi-adult because I don’t think she’s full grown just yet; if she is, she’s a small breed) I can’t imagine how hard it will be with baby kittens! Tiger is very tolerant of the little ones usually, but being pregnant makes her a bit more scratchy.  I know that her protective instinct will increase once the kittens are born, but I’m hoping that it only takes 1 or 2 encounters with full-out protective-mom Tiger before the girls learn to leave the kittens alone. I know our cat, she will only scratch or bite if she feels seriously threatened.