Arrgghhh

Okay, somehow I was just trying to fidget with my layout a little and then I totally lost all my stuff. I was able to get back to what you see now. I was thinking that I had lost all my widgets....that would have been a total bummer. I will have to play a little more another time to get my blog back to where I want it.

We have been doing good. We have managed to swap some debt around so that we currently are all on zero percent offers....the key will be to pay them off before we get off the zero percent. Emilia got a B on conduct so we are extremely happy. She has only had one A and maybe two B's most of the time she fluctuates between the C to F stage. Her academic grades are great though. We just got a progress report and she still has all A's. We are trying to encourage her to manage her behavior better....but we will see.

5 more ......

When Emilia started school last year it was a struggle to get her out of bed. (Still is) We have tried various tactics, including an alarm clock which she just sleeps right through. Currently it is Steve's job to wake her up. He goes in an tickles her, even when she wakes up grumpy she eventually giggles with him. Then I come in and take over helping her to get dressed. At some point last year we taught her to ask for "5 more minutes" and that after the five minutes she would have to get up without any problems and that worked for a while. Well the other morning I was waking her up, trying to let Steve sleep in because he had been called out during the night. Without even opening her eyes I hear her mutter...."5 more weeks" At this point, I figured she didn't even know what she had said, because she was barely awake. When I got her fully awake, I asked her if she remembered what she had said and she did. Then she proceeded to negotiate....if she wasn't allowed 5 more weeks, how about 5 days..... On the way to school that morning, I told her that if she wanted she could stay in bed all weekend long, she was so excited and wanted to do it. Of course then I mentioned that she wouldn't be able to go to the end of the year banquet for her basketball league, Needless to say she quickly changed her mind.

Skybus.com

Skybus.com is a fairly new Airline based out of Cleveland OH. The offered flights from Cleveland to select cities in the US for as little as $10 for the first ten seat (on select flights). They are able to offer such low rates because they charge for any extra things you need -- checking luggage, blanket, pillow, snacks, priority seating. If you are someone who just takes carry-ons and don't need all the extras then you can really make out. They have recently started to base flight out of Greensboro as well. I have had some good things and bad things in my experience with this airline.

I was able to fly my parents round trip from Los Angeles (Burbank, CA) to Greensboro, NC for under $400. I did not experience any issues when I booked their flight.

I recently purchased tickets for my family of 4 to fly the opposite way to visit them in June. We had to fly seperately because the kids and I are heading out for two weeks and Steve could only take off for one. After I bought the tickets ($120 going out, $120 coming back) for a total of $256.50 each, I went back to buy Steve's ticket and noticed that the day going out for me and the kids was now saying $100. That means that they over-charged by $20 each. When I bought Steve's ticket it was ($100 out and $120 bac) which should have totaled $220, but was totaling $240.

So all in all, it seems like I paid $80 too much. Even with that overcharge I still was way under any prices that were being offered through any other airline. I have emailed their customer service, because they do not have a phone line (one of the ways they are able to save money) so we will have to see what happens about getting a refund.

End of Month Round-up

Okay so it is the end of the month.....here is the total paid off from Jan 1st to Jan 31st. $1,040.46. Now mind you some of this was money from a balance transfer cash left over from Dec, so in actuality about half of that was from our paychecks. Still it is a great start. Looking forward to February when I have three paychecks and Steve has five. We will be able to really knock down some debt. Meanwhile we are trying as much as we can to lower our interest rates.

Weight Loss

Just wanted to drop a quick note. Since around Sept. when I realized how much I weighed I have tried to watch what I eat and did attempt to exercise more. I didn't do so good on the exersice issue. I mostly contribute the weight loss to the fact that we have stopped going out to eat so much. I have lost 16.5 lbs. I know about 7-8 have been in the last 5-6 weeks. I am so excited. When I stepped on the scale this morning I had to do a re-weight because I didn't believe it. It has been a few weeks since I had weighed myself. I had to go running out to tell Steve to add some veggies to my lunch and I only ate 1/2 of the pasta he sent for lunch. Now mind you that half was probably more than one serving, but I can usually eat all that he send. And when I wanted a snack.....didn't have anything at work (will bring some in) I choose a bag of peanuts instead of the wonderful donuts, danish, candy bar and other junk that is in the vending machine. Now to stay on track.....

My Awesome Husband

So last July Steve got one of those 0% credit card transfer offers, which we gladly took and transferred our other cc balances to it. Well, do to error on our part we missed the first payment (yes sad, but true) and this resulted in our interest rate jumping to 32%. Yikes and holy moly….Well we have dutifully paid the amount owed, but let me tell you it hurt. Not because of being unable to afford it, but because seeing that much money go out the window pained me because I knew that the interest amounts that we had transferred from were much lower. It felt like jumping out of the pan and into a volcano, forget the fire. Every “money blog” or article recently has talked about how now is the time to refinance…your home, your car and your credit cards. On their advice I asked Steve to call his CC and to ask for a lower rate. I have called other cards and sometimes it has taken me saying to cancel the card if I can’t have a lower rate. Steve and I figured that if we could not get a lower rate we would pay it off with the tax return and cancel the card. I just got off the phone with him and I am not sure what all took place, if he had to pull out the “we will cancel” or not, but he got us BACK TO 0% until July and then it goes to 11%. Got to love it – He is good.
My goal is to pay off all credit cards and to cancel any that has an interest rate over 13%. I am going to see if they will lower rates, but I have no issue with canceling the cards. I know our credit rating will initially take a hit, but I think it will be better in the long run.

Stories From the Past

Is it true?? You know what I am talking about, those stories that we grow up with and then wonder how much of it was true, or over the years has it grown. This is a story that I recalled and asked my mother about and here is what she said:

James age 5 yrs.

We moved to Bell Gardens in 1985 from Whittier, CA and James would have just turned 5 years and Kenney would be 6 months old at the time. James started kindergarten that September and I was still home at the time, not having started back to work yet. It was the first day of school for everyone. The first day of school is oatmeal for breakfast, a tradition handed down from my mother. Eric, Sharon and James would all be going to the same school nearby. Although the school was only a few blocks, a major highway was between home and the school. Being Kenney was so small and Sharon & Eric older and more experienced (ha!) everyone ate and was packed off to school. School would have started around 7:45-8:00 am. Around 9:00 am I heard a noise at the front door, and when I came out of the kitchen from cleaning up, there stood James. Alarmed, I asked him if he was okay. He said he was fine, that the teacher had asked everyone in class to write their names and as he didn't know how, he decided to walk home. (I am sure that she asked this to see what level of experience the children had.) I asked him if his school knew he had come home, and he replied he didn't know. I called the school and told them that James had walked home. I packed up Kenney and we took James back to school. I went to the classroom and spoke with the teacher. The teacher indicated that James was in the classroom and I explained that no, he had walked home and I was bringing him back. The teacher wasn't even aware that James was missing.

**What is funny is this is exactly how I remember the story going....yikes, I would not have liked to have been that teacher. Of course mind you this was 25 years ago, but had it been recently....heaven help the school had the media gotten a hold of it.