Friday, March 13, 2009

Catching Up

Wednesday was a half day at work for me and so I rushed home to get as much done as possible before everyone came home from school. I was able to run into the local Aldi's and I can't say how much I love that store. They have been stocking so much more fun things including their new 4 pack probiotic yogurt. Years ago when they first came to our town the selection was very limited and I wasn't able to buy a lot of items but now I do all my shopping with them and supplement what they don't carry. Saves me a lot of money.



I also was able to get some recycling to the bins. We have curbside recycling but not for cardboard. Plus plastic bags do sometimes end up coming home from the kids or my husband so I do like to save them and drop them off at the local grocery stores pickup bin.



Then I almost forgot to watch Oprah! I was so busy cooking and getting some little organizing projects done and it wasn't till a little after 5pm that I remembered. It was really a great show and I may have to try the cinnamon chicken recipe. And the pizza...mmm!

Yesterday I was so tired after work that I slept most of the evening, ate, got the kids homework checked and then went right back to sleep. The weather has turned cold again- though no snow - and it was just nice to snuggle in bed with Peanut.

Today is payday for both me and Jeff and so we will have to sit down and review our debt plan. We put together an excel spreadsheet with the balances of any outstanding bills to pay off and estimated when they should be paid in full. So far we've been on goal and it's really nice when we can print out an updated sheet after a bill is paid off. We own some rental properties and the past few months we've had tenants not pay. One of which we may have to evict due to non-pay for several months with no communication. I don't want to do this but since they've ignored our attempts at contacting them I guess we have no choice. The loss of their rent forces us to use our own savings. That's ok once in a while but now it's become a pattern and I would rather sell the home than lose our money. So our debt reduction plan has hit some bumps here and there but we aren't too far off track. We set up our budget based on our salaries and only use the extra money from our rentals as bonuses toward repayment. Even if we didn't have the rentals, our budget would remain the same. We aren't as strict as we should be but then I don't think it would work for us. Check out some other great ideas from Pheobe's website.

I have been really good this week with cooking dinners and keeping the house clean. Even when I came home on Tuesday to find my father-in-law had come into town and was spending the night. Just a quick clean up around the house was all I needed to do. I haven't had any yelling matches with the kids so that is AWESOME! I am really learning to read my warning signs and halt them! I was able to take the dog for a walk twice this week due to warm weather so I think once the weather turns warm consistently this will be no problem. Still haven't worked my faith time in- plus we slept in on Sunday and missed church with the time change. I need to work this into a priority.

It's Friday the 13th -second in two months so looking forward to the fun today!

3 comments:

Phoebe @ GettingFreedom said...

Ha! I had forgotten that it was the 2nd month in a row for Friday the 13th. Hmm.

I think it is only normal to hit a couple bumps in the road. Hope you all can find a solution, though! My parents had rental properties when I was growing up--and I remember they faced the same frustrations.

Thanks for sharing.

momstheword said...

I totally understand about the tenants. We had some friends that had to do the same thing. The tenants weren't paying and our friends were eating through their savings to pay for it themselves.

Rochelle said...

I know it's a risk be a landlord but I feel so bad. If they would only call us back and make some attempt I would stop the eviction.