Progress On the Credit Card!

Made a little progress on the credit card this month! The lower balance one anyway.

Our balanace was at a little over $2300 (less than I thought it was!). I sent in a $75 payment from our checking account (wish it could have been more) but then I used our rewards from the card to send in an extra $105!

So, our new balance should be right around $2155, as long as the card wasn't used by my husband recently without me knowing.

Shopping, June 24th

I had an amazing night last night shopping!! I got a ton of stuff for super cheap, and I feel great about it :)

My almost entire trip! Total Before Coupons: $328.98 Total After Coupons: $184.10 (and 22.60 of that was tax)

(Do you like my little Skittle thief?)
Walgreens Trips (4 trips total)
Renu:7.49
Herbal Essence: 2.99
2 Boxes cards: 3.00 (1.50 each)
Skittles: .89
Nut Roll: .50
Total Before Qs: 49.72
-1.00 Herbal Essence qs (x4)
-4.00 RRs (x7)
-2.00 RR (x1)
Total After Qs: 15.72
Got Back:
(x4) 7.50 RR
(x4) 2.00 RR

Target Trip One:
Car Seat: 48.50
5 Puffs: 8.20 (1.64 each)
6 Nexcare: 8.94 (1.49 each)
12 Old Spice Body Wash 47.88 (3.99 each)
6 Johnson's: 11.82 (1.97 each)
4 Mountain Dew 2 Liters: 4.00 (1.00 each) ~not pictured
1 Aquafina Water: 5.96 ~not pictured
Total Before Qs: 143.21
- BOGO Old Spice (x6)
- 1.00 Nexcare (x6)
- 1.00 Johnson's (x6)
Total After Qs: 107.27
Got Back: 20.00 in Target Gift Cards


Target Trip Two:
12 Old Spice Body Washes: 47.88 (3.99 each)
9 Pampers Wipes: 17.73 (1.97 each)
Remember Me DVD: 19.99
Total Before Qs: 90.60
-BOGO Old Spice (x6)
-2.00 Pampers (x9)
-8.00 DVD
-25.00 Target Gift Cards
Total After Qs: 15.67
Got Back: 20.00 in Target Gift Cards

Cashwise Trip:
Lucky Charms
2 Boxes Mac and Cheese
4 boxes Quaker chewy bars (1 not pictured)
2 boxes Pop Tarts (1 not pictured)
3 Swiss Cake Rolls (1 not pictured)
2 bags marshmallows
2 packs Keebler cookies
1 box Keebler graham crackers
Total before qs: $26.XX (not exactly sure, can't find the receipt)
-1.00 Keebler cookies (x2)
- 1.00 Graham crackers
-.40 marshmallows (x2)
-.60 Swiss cake rolls (x3)
-.50 Mac and Cheese (x2)
Total After Qs: 22.XX
Not my best trip, but the hubby just "had to have" pop tarts and chewy bars for breakfast, and the girls just "had to have" swirly mushroom cereal (the Lucky Charms)

And My Best Score of the Night:
FREE FREE FREE bag of groceries I won on Cashwise's Facebook page!
I'd say this is at least 50.00 worth of groceries being they are all All Natural products!

One Debt Down!

Well, I have paid off one debt this month! I sent $115.46 to the one doctor bill, paying it off completely. It's actually pretty exciting to me. I can now use the money I would have normally paid towards this bill to pay higher on the other doctor bill. Which means I will pay that off in half the time now! Yay!!!

And I did send $50.00 to that bill, so that one's new total should be $438.29.

I also sent in a payment to one of the credit cards but I don't know completely how much came off the total. I'll know when I get the next bill. I haven't paid the second card yet since it's not due until the first off the month and I will pay whatever we have left in our checking account to that card.

I think next month I am going to send a bigger amount to the doctor and try to get it paid off in two months. That way I can just focus on these two pain in the butt credit cards and try to get the one gone by New Year's. Keeping my fingers crossed!

My Carter's Order Arrived Today!!

I got my Carter's Order via UPS today! I was so excited to see all the cute clothes I ordered online. I spent $112.98 on 65 pieces of clothing! So, a little less than $2.75 per piece. I think I got some great deals, especially since it was Carter's!

My Whole Order!


Grandma's Four Piece Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00


Mommy Three Piece cardigan Set
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $5.00


Grandpa's Sidekick Piece Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00

Monkey Four Piece Gown Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00

Puppy Four Piece Gown Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00

Dino Four Piece Gown Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00

Monkey Three Piece Set
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $5.00

Handsome Lion Three Piece Set
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $10.00
Bananas Monkeys Three Piece Set
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $10.00

Pink Panda Three Piece
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $5.00

Heart Butterfly Three Piece Set
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $5.00

Daddy Loves Me Three Piece Set
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $5.00

Panda Four Piece Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00
Bear Four Piece Gown Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $5.00
Kitty Four Piece Gown Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00
I Love You Four Piece Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00
Lamb Four Piece Gown Set
Originally: $24.00 Paid: $7.00

Little Sister Four Piece Set
Originally: $17.00 Paid: $0!! (I had a $10.00 off code)

Yes, I ordered some girls' clothes. I figure with those prices, I will just put them away and save them for the next baby (if it's a girl) or if I don't have another little girl (which I really want another girl!!) I will save them for my sisters' babies if they have girls!

My Great Shopping Trip Yesterday!

We headed out to our local stores in hopes of picking up some great deals last night, June 15th. I think we found some awesome finds! And in case you're wondering how this will get me out of debt, well, the more I buy for super cheap or even get for free, the less likely we will run out of something important and have to pay (GASP) Full price.

My Loot from Last Night: One bag Science Diet Dog Food, 11 tubs Pampers Wipes, 3 Gillette Razors, 2 Schick Razors, and 8 Hallmark cards (3 for Father's Day) Total Before Coupons (with tax): $95.49 Total OOP: $40.00, plus $24.00 in RRs (Which means all of this was really $16.00!)


Wipes on Sale at Target: $1.97
Used $2.00 off Pampers Wipes q from P&G insert
Total: Free! With .03 overage since they just pushed the qs through


Gillete ProGlide Razors at Walgreens: $9.89
Used $4.00 q from P&G insert
Also got back $5.00 RR
Total: .89 after RR!


Schick Hydro Razors at Walgreens: $7.99
Used $5.00 Schick q from Smartsource insert 6/13
Also got back $5.00 RR
Total: They paid ME $2.01 to buy each of these!


Cards at Walgreens: 3 of them were for Father's Day, totaling $8.17, the other 5 were .99 each, so 4.95 for 5
Got back $2.00 RR for buying the 3 Father's Day cards there.
Got back $4.00 RR for the .99 cards!
The Father's Day cards weren't that great a deal, but since we love our Dads (and I love my husband) I was okay with paying more for their cards :)
Now, the .99 cards were a good deal to me! .95 for 5 cards, or .19 a piece!!

We plan to go back and shop some more on Thursday. I'm hoping they restock wipes, Nivea body wash (which they were out of), Schick razors, and .99 cards by then!!

Welcome

So, it has come to this. Blogging my way out of debt, hoping that by giving a tell all of my debt and my spending will lead me to a life with no credit card balances. Hey, maybe this will help someone else out as well. Who knows.

I'm Bree*, a 24 year old stay at home mom of three. Yes, I could get a job. But I won't. I am the type of person who believes my rightful place is at home with the children I gave birth to. I want to be here, and I will try anyway I can to be able to stay at home. Besides being with my children, I love to take pictures, scrap book, watch movies, read, and most of all, SHOP. Yup, that's one of the many reasons we are in debt. Sad to say, but so very true.

I am married to Will*, a 26 year old mechanic at the local automotive shop, and a farm boy at heart. He has recently starting milking cows a few nights a week and has big plans to buy said farm sooner or later. He wants sooner, I want later. The farm isn't small, with over 700 acres of land, 40 cows, and a bunch of pigs. I personally hope to get out of debt before we move to the country, but we'll see how that goes! My husband is a spender as well. He's kind of clueless about budgeting. He likes to just buy things and not think of how much it costs and just what that money could have been used for instead.

We have three kids, two girls and a boy. Elle*, the oldest, will be 5 in a few months. She's smart, sassy, and a tomboy all around. She loves being outside and has no problem feeding cows. Kennedy*, my middle baby, is 2 and a half and just starting to get that horrible attitude. She's super adorable, very sensitive, and has been a Momma's Girl since the day she came into the world. She is a little Princess, but loves to get dirty. I'm still crossing my fingers that changes one day. Denny*, my baby boy, is 9 months. He is a busy little man who loves to find out just what things do. He crawls and cruises the furniture, and gets into anything and everything possible. He already loves the out doors as well and will crawl out the door if left open for him. It's hard to believe he's 9 months already. I'm already getting baby fever. Which is bad, since we just don't have the money right now to pay hospital bills for another baby. 9 months, I give myself 9 months to get some money for another one!!

We also have a dog, Zee*, who we love. She's like a member of the family. Well, okay, really, the kids love her more than I do, but I still like her. I think I'd like her better if she wasn't such a hyper creature. She's a good dog though, besides being so full of energy.

We live in a tiny little town not anywhere near the great stores to shop at. It's nice and quiet, an easy place to live. But, it's also small with a lot of older people and not a lot to do. Kids wise, it's kind of dull. Shopping, well, we have to drive to shop. We have our house up for sale (remember that farm Will wants), but I'm sure it will sit on the market for awhile. Is anyone buying houses these days?

As for the debt, well, we owe:
$13,500 on one Credit Card, we'll call it CC1
$2,600 on second Credit Card, we'll call it CC2
$115.46 for Denny's doctor bills, we'll call it Doc1
$488.29 for Bree's doctor bills, we'll call it Doc2

We also have our house loan, but I don't really consider that bad debt. It's just kind of a fact of life and we'll worry about it once we're in a better situation. Our debt may not sound high to some people, but to us, it's too much. We only have a $37,000 income (before taxes), so it really hits us just how much we've put ourselves in debt. It's time to buckle down and get this gone.

Well, I hope you enjoy reading about my journey and can take some information from it as well. I am always up for new suggestions and ideas as well, so feel free to comment!

****Names have been changed to protect the ones I love!****