About Me

Hi, my name is Angela and welcome to my blog. This is a place where I write about my life in an honest and open way.

I am 36 years old, single, and a Christian. God gave me a heart to work with children and so I spend my day teaching kindergarten. It is my fourth year teaching and although it is hard I love it. I currently go to a college for my BA in Elementary Education which keeps me busy. Between work and school there is not much time left but I enjoy serving and helping others, watching netflix, or reading a good book.


Friday, April 29, 2011

Spare Change

I always try to save my change but I eventually decide I need it and so I roll it and spend it. In an attempt to save more I bought a five gallon water jug to fill. I have filled it slowely mostly because I don't use cash very often. Several months ago I started converting the six dollars I make wed night helping with nursery at my church. I then put the change in my container. This has Mede it add up more quickly.

Then a couple months ago when I started following Dave Ramsey and making smarter financial choices I decided that my change container either for my future wedding ( no I don't even have a boyfriend right now but a girl can plan) or if by 35 (6 years away) I am not married I am going to Ireland. So it is my wedding or Ireland fund, both of which can be thousands of dollars sonstarting to save now seems very smart to me.

Well as I have been adding money I have been vetting antsy about knowing how much is in it. See I had this friend and one of the things we did the day before her wedding we took several small jars of change her soon to be husband had been saving to be converted to cash. It was over $100 and they used it to tip the caterers, dj, and photographer.

The container I have is barely full maybe an inch tall and it is probably 20" tall. But I just kept thinking about it so I got some coin rolls and sat down one evening while watching tv and rolled all my change. It came out to about $150 which is a lot for just saving my change and a few dollars each week. Now for either of my goals $150 won't pay for much but it is a start. I put all of my rolled coins back into the container ( still rolled because who wants to re-roll change. I don't really know how I will get them out later but should fun trying to figure it out. :)



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On a side note, speaking of weddings, I was kind of happy when I saw that Prince Willliam and Kate Middleton are both 29 and they only just got married. See I am not that old maybe I should move to Europe to find a husband. ;)

Busy Busy Busy

Written on 4/27/2011

I mentioned it before that my schedule is very busy. Last weekend was Easter and honestly my head never stopped like I wished it would. I have been so busy that I haven't been spending enough alone time with God. I try ever week at least once to have time alone with God but lately even in my time set aside my brains runs so much and I haven't been feeling the closeness. I want to continue to keep working lots of hours but I need to make sure God remains a top priority.

I have a co-worker who is Jewish and took several days off for Passover. It makes me really think about how she is so dedicated and spends such time to thank God for... I think it is for slaves that were saved by God. And I am remembering that God sent His son to die for me and then He rose from the dead three days later and I just go about my business like nothing important was happening. I should be the one taking days off work to spend time and praise God for incredible things He did to save my soul.

I worked all day Friday till about 10:30 pm and then almost all day sat and then went to bed early for church sun morning. The problem was I was volunteering the whole time. I got there at 7am to help with breakfast, went to the first service but had to leave early to help again with the food. Then went to second service which was a different sermon but I was up and down from that for the food. Then third service I was in nursery. Don't get me wrong I was happy to help. In fact other people were supposed to help and only one showed up and she was late so I was deffinitly needed but I have to remember that sometimes I need to say no to things.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Posting

On the itouch I got for Christmas I now have an app called Note Master. I got the free lite version because I love free. It allows me to just write notes. I have been using this when I have spare time to write out blogs. It is great because I can write them whether or not I am connected to the internet. Then I just have to e-mail them to myself and post them here. You may have noticed that I just posted three, ok this one makes four blogs at once. I wrote one today and the other two are back dated. I hope going forward I will continue to use this method to post my blogs because the biggest reason I haven't been posting is I just don't have time to sit at home in front of the computer and write it. But I do have other random times through out my day with nothing to do and that is the perfect time to jot down some thoughts. Hopefully next will be a posting about my Easter.

Money

I am trying to figure out how to pay down my debt. Dave Ramsey says to pay the lowest balance off first but I am stuggling with that. I have a debt of $1400 that has no interest, I have the car I am buying from my brother for $5200 also at no interest, and then I have a credit card for $7700 at an interest of 26%. I am paying so much in interest that it is hard to pay more on the lowest when I know what the cc is costing me in interest. I tried to apply for a new cc with B of A. I don't know what they might say. I really just want a lower interest rate for the $7700 I owe. I did make a payment on the $1400 and instead of my regular $100 I paid $150. That will at least shorten that debt from 14 months to only 9 months.

I keep wanting to ask Teel if he would be ok with me paying off the car normal while I use any adtl money toward the cc debt. I already know what he will say so I don't ask. But honestly I need to redo my budget for next month. I now have a car payment and increased insurance and the minimum pmt for the cc is higher then I thought it would be (actually higher then the guy at citi bank said it would be.) So now who knows if I will even have enough each month let alone extra.

The summer is coming and for me an hourly employee at a school that is a little worrisome. I know God is going to take car of me but I am not sure where my money is going to come from. In fact instead of putting anything over my normal amount I make toward my debt I should save it incase I come up short over the summer. Especially aug; my sister would have moved so no sat babysitting and no summer camps so I really have no guarented pay for any of Aug. And honestly that isn't that scary to write. God has taken care of me every step of the way. I have several families that love to have me babysit for them and with kids out of school I am sure I will be needed.

What I really need to do is sell my car. I still haven't even cleaned it out. I have to do that and then put it on craigslist. I need to sell it and get it off my insurance. I was thinking of putting the money right toward the car but now I want to out it in savings to hold till aug and then If I don't need it for bills then put it toward the new car. I wonder how Teel would feel about that seeing that I said I would put it toward the car several times. Hmm, I will have to think about that. Now off to work, I have a kid to wake up and get ready for school.

Gazelle Intensity

Originally written on 4/19/2011.

Either you know exactly what I am talkin about or you have no clue. So for those that don't know it is a Dave Ramsey statement. Who is Dave Ramsey? He is the latest financial guru and is also a Christian. I have been going through his financial freedom class at Living Streams Church sunday mornings. One of his things is paying off your debt with a gazelle inensity. As in when a gazelle is running away from a lion so it doesn't become dinner. You should go after your debt with the same intensity as the Bible does say "A debtor is slave to the lender." (I am paraphrasing here.)

I have been doing this. I have been working as much as I can not passing up any oppurtunities unless I really have to. A couple times I have even booked babysitting jobs back to back with no break in between. Then when I realized I needed a new car I started looking for new oppurtunities. The problem is that I am worn out and exhausted. Sunday morning I woke up late and turned over and went back to sleep; I slept 15 hours and I wasn't even sick.
Last night I got home from nanning at 10pm and left the house at 5:30am. I have this app on my itouch that tracks how restfully I sleep and I didn't sleep well at all last night. In fact it looks like I was awake for a half hour because I was moving so much but I don't remember being awake. I think it's the worst I have slept in awhile. Though last night I ate Taco Bell right before bed so maybe it was that.

Really the problem is I start eating out a lot more and buying gas station soda's more often when I feel run down like this. Even now I am sitting at an Islands restaurant eating lunch and breakfast was curtousy of circle k. So I am making more money but just spending it almost as quickly as I earn it and I am eating even more unhealthy this way too.

So I need to slow down. This gazelle is too tired and needs a break. I have paid off one credit card and payed off a line of credit I had out. I still have plenty of debt but nothing is past due and I have a budget that will keep me working toward my goal. Ok, the only thing past due is my home loan but I couldn't pay that even at gazelle intense so it doesn't really count.

So for now time to pay my bill and head back to work.

New Car

Originally written on 4/6/11.

I am getting a new(er) car and I should be excited but I am not. Maybe when I start driving it? Maybe after I sign the paperwork? But right now I think about how I am putting myself more into debt. How I have been trying so hard to pay down my debt and now I am adding a new debt. I need to redo my debt snowball and add this in. The car is $5760 spread over 4 years for payments of $120. I was going to do a 3 year plan but with the increase in insurance I feel safer with a lower monthly payment. Of course I can pay it off early. I am hoping that I can sell my car for something decent and then I can put that towards the balance. I worry that if I make extra payments I might get confused so I am going to make a spreadsheet to write all payments down on. My brother is very organized so I don't really think it will be a problem but I want to be organized. Hmmm, and I don't have checks right now but I should probably get some to make this easier and more trackable.

The car isn't new but it is pretty exciting to have a car with a cd player and working windows. I think the most exciting is that I can now go visit my dad up north!! I love road trips and haven't been able to take one in two years. Plus in a couple months one of my best friends is moving near the Grand Canyon so I will be able to go visit!
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I love even the idea of getting to go up north. In reality I probably can't go till the summer but it is exciting that I don't have to try to figure out renting a car anytime I want to go on a road trip. I miss road trips.

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I didn't have time to post this last night so here is a little update. After conferming the mileage and things the car is a few hundred dollars lower making my payments even more manageble. I do have to pay for change of title and the cost to transfer my registration and plate. And while I am at it I have had my personalized plate ten years now and it is faded so I want to get a new that doesn't look so sad. The question is do I skip brunch with my sister tomorrow or wait till tuesday to do it all? I really want to hang out with my sister but I would love to have the car for this weekend when I have a few across town babysitting jobs. I think I will double check and confirm my brother is still free tomorrow and if so call my sister. We will try another time it is silly to go when I know I will be stressing about cars all weekend if I don't just get this done. Oh wow! The idea of transfering the car to me is making me feel a little sick to the stomach. Aparently I am a bit nervous but a $5000 purchase is kind of a big deal. But I know that it is the best choice right now and I am thankful to even have it as a choice!