We are headed to the airport to put my oldest son on a plane to Colorado. In early December his girlfriend drove out there for a job. It took her three days. Her car completely died half way there. She ended up trading it in for a new one. Then she had to load all of her stuff from her car to her new car and drove the rest of the way in to Vail.

We also have family out there who own a Million Dollar company that my kids are the beneficiaries to.

This will be fun for Jonathan. I know he misses her, actually we all do. While they are out there, they are going to a concert and our favorite restaurant, Casa Bonita.

He will be home on February 10th, unless he finds a job and stays until his girlfriend drives home. You just never know with young adults.

I am going on Friday to pay all of my taxes. The rest of the Summer taxes and the Winter taxes, which are actually due on the 14th of February. So a total of around $870 will pay off that debt on Friday. That gives me 7 months to save for the Summer 2008 taxes.

Then I am paying off the attorney and Lowes the beginning of March.

On my way to being debt free.

So me and my youngest son share a cell phone. He is 13. We have had this cell phone for about 2 years and have a really low monthly plan. Now, even when we got really chatty, it has never been over $60.00.

But recently, I had it added to my AT&T bill. My AT&T bill covers satellite, land-line, internet and cell phone. Well, I just got the bill and when they added the cell phone to my bill plan, they somehow took off all of my blocks (internet, texting, etc.) which we don't use on the cell phone.

So my bill was $163.00 just for the cell phone part. I about croaked. I call customer service and stated that I didn't understand the bill. She pointed out that there was over 400 text messages and quite a few downloads to MySpace. What. You see, every little cute girl thinks that my 13 year old is the cutest boy and they keep e-mailing and calling him, plus they wanted some pictures of him downloaded onto myspace, so they could always look at him. He really is very adorable.

So, I told the lady at customer service, that this phone used to have a block on it, just for those reasons. She said she could help me. Perfect. She re-instated the blocks and took $113.00 off my bill.

As for my son, he said he was sorry. I mentioned that he needed to let all these girls know that they are limited on how many times they can communicate with him.

As we joked about it, I said, to give them all a different day and tell them, they can only talk to you twice a month. Sorry, but you are too young to date and you have way too many girls wanting your attention. He, of course, just giggled. I am in trouble, but at least the blocks are re-instated until I decide on a different plan when he gets a little older.

I really am not a gambler, but did play Keno last night when I met my husband for a drink. I won an extra $35.00 to add to the Challenge.

Prev. Total $936.90
Keno win $35.00
New Total $971.90

Does anyone here have a UPromise account. I just went to check mine and it states that the account has been closed.

I tried the "contact us" link, so I could inquire about why it was closed; and still got the same screen that my account had been closed.

Does anyone know anything about what happened to UPromise. I didn't have a lot in that account, but I am curious.

Got a $25.00 bonus added to my E-trade accounts. I will add that to my $20.00 Challenge money.

Prev. Total $911.90
Add funds $25.00
New Total $936.90

I have an ING account, but the interest rate right now is down to 3.65%. I was noticing that Shore Bank is offering 5.00% and a $25.00 bonus. I like the bonuses. I just got a bonus from E*Trade for $25.00 for opening an account with $1.00.

Is anyone else jumping around to different online accounts, or staying the course with the Online Bank they already have.

Just so I can get them off my sidebar, I am putting some totals in my blog.

Past Property Taxes:
Winter'06 $310.30 pd 2/14/07
Sum '06 $883.76 pd. 9/13/06
Winter'05 $355.52 pd. 2/6/06

Past Beach Job Totals:
2006 $1280
2005 $1100

Just a note to myself of my 2007 Christmas Total, so I can take these off my side bar.

Christmas 2007: $1408
Christmas 2006: $1285
Christmas 2005: $1425
Christmas 2004: $2400

I receive a rebate from a movie purchased at Christmas time. I will add that to my $20.00 Challenge

Prev. Total $904.90
Rebate Check $ 7.00
New Total $911.90

Sold some of my jewelry for $104.90. I will add that to my $20 Challenge Money

Prev. Total $800
Add $104.90
New Total $904.90

That is my goal. I have close to $23,000 in debt that I want paid off by December 2009. I am giving myself 24 months in which to do this. I need to put around $960 towards debt each month for the next 24 months. I started this in January 2008, so I will give all an update come January 2010.

Because that just doesn't seem to be feasible, I am putting my tax return, $20 Challenge money and my summer job money towards this goal.

I have been transferring some cc debts to a 0% interest cc to help with paying down my debt.

I am also saving money every month in my Freedom Account (which helps pay some of the above i.e., property taxes, kids schooling, etc.) and in my ING account (retirement account) while paying off my debt.

Hopefully, my Jeep will hold out till it is paid off so I can save in a vehicle fund for a newer one. I have a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 90,000 miles on it, so I should be good to go. It does need an oil change or two and will need new tires in the next 6 months.

I can actually see the end of the tunnel. Two years is not that far away.

Received a $50.00 rebate check in the mail today. Adding that to my challenge money.

Prev. Balance $750.00
Adding Check $ 50.00
New Balance $800.00

Is it a good idea? I figured that if I transfer a credit card balance, drawing high interest, to another credit card where the interest is deferred until February 2008, that I can save so much more by not paying interest and put it towards paying off the new credit card.

Then, closing the old credit card, so I am not having so much credit available. I know that my credit score will be lowered a little by closing a credit card, but should rebound fairly quickly, because I am never late on any of my credit cards, loans or mortgage.

Anyone have any comments or concerns, please advise.

In keeping with my no bad financial decisions in 2008, I am asking for advice.

I have some really nice fine jewelry. A couple diamond rings, gold necklaces and such.

I was wanting to sell/pawn them in order to use the money towards my goals (pay off debt)

I found something like this online

http://www.thingswebuy.com/?adsource=google&ad=pawnshop02&gclid=CKzLqIfW3JACFQGzGgodBhvtWQ

and was wondering if anyone has ever done something like this. They are with the BBB.

Any suggestions as to go about how to unload items that I will never use and are worth some bucks, is appreciated.

So I totalled up all of my categories.

My electric and natural gas usage/bills went down from a year ago. That is good news considering that prices have went up.

Groceries for the 2007 year totalled $5,316.41. I am working on bringing that down. I don't think that is bad considering it is for two adults, two always-eating teenagers and two cats. That does include all household items, including water softener salt, laundry supplies, etc.

Eating Out totalled $1,864.94 for the year.

My gas usage in my 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee was $2,301.52 for 2007

I spent $1,408.00 on Christmas 2007

I got a raise of $66.00 per month, which I have added to my ING direct deposit, starting January 2008.

Homeschooling costs were around $1200 for the school year. We do a lot of museums and field trips which causes our eating out bill to be higher. My kids also take private classes in Algebra, Science, Literature and Music, plus buying books, equipment and musical instrument maintenance added to the cost. I also put one son (now 22) through 3 years of college.

Big purchases for 2007 were new livingroom furniture, a small chest freezer ($75.00) and a 1/4 cow (which is to help in my grocery budget)

The 1/4 cow cost me $285 (including processing) and gave me 49 packages of beef (steaks (Porterhouse, T-bone, Sirloin, Chuck-eye, Rib and cubed), roasts, ground beef and stew meat). We only eat beef about 3 times a week, so this should last about 4 months. I am now looking into purchasing organic poultry to add to our meat stock.

Started my $20.00 challenge with a settlement check of $750.00 and looking forward to more rebates and ways to add to this challenge.

Goals:

*To save more in my ING account

*Rebuild my "Freedom Account" to add additional categories from $200/month to $400/month starting March 2008

*Not make any stupid financial mistakes in 2008

*Pay off 5 to 6 debts this year, so that I can be totally debt free (except mortgage) in two years. Starting debt for 2008 is $22,696.29.

*No new debt

*Finish foyer, outside siding on cottage and new deck.

Happy New Year 2008