Some changes I made thus far this year:

1. Started off the year with a spiritual Daniel Fast & it made all the difference. Also, it forced me to stop eating out & enjoy cooking healthy, whole foods at home.

I went into 2013 with a renewed sense of hope & the fast just really opened my heart to what God has in store for me in every area of my life.

2. Transferred my credit card debt at Capital One to Pentagon Federal @ 0% interest for 18 months.

3. Attended the inauguration & visited with family. I had a wonderful time.

4. My second job that I have held for 4 years will end in April due to the hospital closing. I have worked at this hospital in some capacity since 2000. I'm just waiting & praying to see what I should do on that.

I've been wanting to start a small business for some time now. I am excited to see what the future holds on that.

I'm anticipating that I will get some extra income in the next month from working during the hurricane. This will help fund my vacation & the hours I will miss working at my second job while on my vacation. I will save the rest in my savings. I plan to fully fund my Roth IRA in January with cash in savings.

I've been a busy bee traveling here & there. I have a few more trips planned, but will settle down next year. Traveling isn't free unfortunately. I want to get back to blogging, but not much is happening with me. I'm in a steady state of paying off debt & saving. Same strategy as always.

I will probably lose my second job soon so I'm looking for a replacement. Last month I paid off my car so that's $327 less in monthly loan payments for me. Yay!!!

New limit of $17,000 to TSP ($16,500 to TSP in 2011)

$5,000 to Roth (EFT completed today for market open on Tuesday, have always maxed out my IRA)

Pay off credit card debt completely (this is the big one, and I'm determined to see this one completed by the end of the year)

Pay off car (on track to have my car paid off long before the end of the year, can use the money to help pay off other debt)

Continue to pay off grad school loans with the help of my employer's student loan repayment plan.

I'm not too worried about paying additional on mortgage until I complete the previous goals.

It's May, already! Time flies the older you get. I understand that all too well now. Well, I'm on my same course with my finance with some minor changes. I decreased the amount going to savings to increase credit card payments. I think it's a good move.

I am also back to working my regular schedule at my second job. The hours were never cut short fully as people have been needing time off for maternity leave and what not. So I have all the hours I'm used to having plus some more as things pop up. I am grateful to have not just one, but two jobs in this economy.

I have had a great birthday and the Saints won!

I am updating my progress on my 2010 goals, which remain unchanged or 2011.

I completed goal #1 in January 2010.

I will complete goal #2 with my last two paychecks this month.

I am working on goal #3, but it's hard to pin down my monthly expenses. I am tracking on Mint.com, but my expenses seem to vary widely from month to month depending on what's going on. So I'm just averaging those expenses. I think $20,000 would be reasonable start to rebuild my emergency fund to, and I'm not far from that.

Goal #4 has not been completed at any time this year. Maybe next year.

I am working on goal #5 and with my employer's help, the graduate school loans will be paid off quicker.

No, this isn't about me paying off credit card debt, which is still a major challenge and obstacle for me at the moment. It's about my credit union phasing out their Visa credit cards for American Express. I don't know why they're doing this. I just received an Amex card in the mail for the same limit as my Visa card. I activated it, which I shouldn't have, and they closed out my Visa card. On my credit card report it says account closed at customer request. The heck it was! I started too see very soon that many businesses do not deal with Amex. It's a real pain. Everyone takes Visa, not so with Amex.

It's strange how out of nowhere I get an email regarding a blog that I posted a reply on years ago. Don't know what triggers that.

Took two trips in May which I thoroughly enjoyed. One to Virginia to visit my sister's new baby and one to visit to the Twin Cities to my friend.

I'm getting anxious about my credit card debt. I really need to get that debt down. I'm not used to carrying credit card debt and it makes me uncomfortable. I am really going to focus on paying it off in these coming months.

I've been stressing about my debt a lot - but doing very little to alleviate it. This month I bought plane tickets for 2 separate trips next month. I also need to book a hotel for the second trip. Thank goodness I can get very nice hotels for very low prices at Hotwire.com. I love that website. I've had much better experiences with that website than with Priceline.com.

I'm going to have to curb my spending after these trips in order to pay down my debt like I'd like to. It's not a lot, but I have far less worries when I'm debt free.

My parents welcomed their first grandchild March 21st. My niece Laura Elizabeth is just precious and I can't wait to meet her next month.

My mom and I attended the strawberry festival last Saturday and I really enjoyed it. I need to take advantage of all the great festivals in this area. South Louisiana in particular has the best food festivals. We missed the oyster festival last month - hate oysters - but will go next spring. My sister sent me an e-mail about the crawfish festival. That should be fun.

I was just doing some financial homework online and realized how very long it has been since I posted a blog here.

I am doing well, both personally and financially, though I wish that I could be more focused and disciplined when it comes to my credit cards. I think that will be my big challenge in 2010.

Things going on with me:

I am still working my second job and enjoying that additional income. I've been thinking about adding another income source. I think it's good to have several sources of income. It provides security, as long as you aren't dependent on all those different sources of income. I would sell Avon, but worried that I would spend it my income buying Avon for myself, family, and friends!

I have been attending a church that I really enjoy. I am becoming more involved there. I have enjoyed my spiritual growth in recent months. I definitely feel more at peace.

I have lost 13 pounds since joining the YMCA in September. I hope to lose at least 13 more by the end of summer and even more beyond that. I am a slow loser because I do enjoy my food! Obviously.

I am expecting my first niece in 9 days. I'm so excited and I love her already! We went to Virginia a couple of weeks ago to participate in a surprise baby shower. We had so much fun.

August 1st Sallie Mae was once again in my life. Yep, back to paying student loans. I finished graduate school in December so the grace period has ended. On the bright side, the sooner I'm paying the sooner I get her back out of my life!

Funny how that works right? I'm finding that what I didn't want to happen is happening. The more money I bring in from working PRN, the more money goes out. Granted, it's going towards paying off debt, but I hope that I can return to living on a lot less if or when I return to just working my one job.

I'm always looking ahead as well!

My 2009 goals remain the same as my 2008 goals. Contribute 20% to TSP, build savings to 6 months' of income (I think I currently have about 4 months' income), pay off credit cards, and pay down my car and graduate school loans. I need to do better on paying off the credit cards, otherwise I'm doing pretty well on accomplishing my goals for 2008 and beyond.

So how are you coming along on your new goals for 2008? I'm doing well so far. I updated my Roth contributions and the first increased contribution went out on the 15th. My 457 contributions have remained steady until I hopefully get a new job, and a raise. I opened a CD on the 5th as part of my emergency fund. I haven't received any tax forms yet. I'm waiting on receiving my tax refund to pay off my credit cards. So far, so good.

So my final payment to Sallie Mae was finally processed after 4 days. Unfortunately, they also processed my regular automatic payment. So I have a credit sitting in my account that they refuse to return to me until they finish "processing" my loan. In 30-45 days! Never again.

As well, they always credited my extra payments that I sent through the mail to interest as well as principal. Now I'll pay the principal online and save myself the postage. My graduate school loans aren't to be in repayment until six months after I graduate at the end of 2008.

So I was looking at my Sallie Mae account. I have three loans, only one in repayment. I was looking at the measly $304.97 balance and I was like, why exactly am I not just paying this off? I have about $1500 in my checking account. So I made a payment online for the entire amount. So long Sallie Mae, you are outta here, girl! Well, at least until I have to repay my graduate school loans, ha!

I decided to write down my goals for 2008.

EMERGENCY FUND:

Contribute $245 to my three accounts. My goal is $15,000 in 3 years, my current balance is just over$5,000.

DEBT:

I have about $2,000 on a credit card. I will contribute $500 plus the amount of my monthly purchases every payment.

My original Sallie Mae loan is now at $300. With automatic payments my loan will be paid off in about 4 months. My grad school loans will begin repayment 6 months after my December 2008 graduation.

My car payment will be $326. After finishing with the credit card balance I will contribute the extra to the car payment.

RETIREMENT:

Continue contributing $400 biweekly to my 457. That is an annual contribution of $10,400.

Continue to fund my Roth IRA to the maximum. That will be $5,000 in 2008.

HOUSE:

My payments are $313 biweekly. I occasionally get a few pennies interest from a savings account and will transfer to principal. Otherwise, my payments will continue as is for this category. I'm more focused on the other debt.

CAREER AND SCHOOL:

In somewhat related plans, I want to focus on school and looking for a new job. I'm off this week since I worked the holiday (12 hour shifts for 4 days) and I'm writing papers and taking civil service tests.

The lady asked why I wanted to take the test again since I scored so well. I told her that I wanted an 80 on the test. I scored a 74. She said that few people score so well and I must be a perfectionist. I'm not. What I am is really motivated to move on to a better position.

I took another test since it hadn't been 28 days since I took the one that I wanted to retest on. Next time I'll take a different one again. I'll keep taking them until I'm where I want to be.

What are your goals???

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University on CD is on clearance and I bought it. I've been listening to it in my new car. I enjoy listening to him, I don't pretent to believe or follow everything he advocate, but he inspires me to do better.

I'm determined to pay off my student loan and credit card in 3 months. I will then attack my car loan and grad school loans. Repayment isn't for 18 more months on the grad school loans so I will concentrate on the car loan which is at a low 4.94%. The grad school loan are at 6.8% and the student loans in repayment are at 7.25% with a $300 balance. The original balance was over $7,000.

My car loan came in at about $17,300. The grad school loans will be $20,500, but I'm getting several thousand back once the tuition is paid. I guess I will put it on the car loan before the grad school loan.

I just bought Alicia Keys new CD at Best Buy online. Just $9.99 and free shipping!

I sold my car Tuesday for $2,000. I'm happy to have it sold. I probably could have gotten more if I had been patient, but I wanted it done with and I was trying to do something good. It was somewhat of a stressful transaction for me and next time I'll know what to do differently.

I'm using the money to pay off my credit card and student loans for good. That will be such a good feeling. I was thinking about using it to pad my emergency fund, but Dave Ramsey has inspired me to get Sallie Mae out of my life!

Turned on the heater last night. 68 degrees is a little hot. I'll have to try lower the next time I need it. I may ask for an electric blanket for my birthday or Christmas.

I got my bill from Chase. It was as large as I expected what with the car repair and dental bill, but I'm not able to pay off all of my monthly charges yet as I was planning to do. I thought I would have enough overtime to cover it, but apparently not. After I get my third check for August I may be able to cover it.

I was thinking of the high interest rate that I'm currently paying and thinking of using some of the balance of my loan money to pay that credit card off once and for all. The loan rate is much better than my credit card rate. I'm now pretty excited about the prospect of getting rid of that debt - finally!