So I went out of state last weekend to do bridesmaid dress shopping, everything went great, lots of fun with the bride and the other bridesmaids....then on the long drive home I get a text that the wedding is postponed?!!? No details. WTH. Thank goodness I didn't pay for my dress yet! Hoping everything works out because the Bride and Groom are really the best and so great together.


Then totally separate.....we thought it was weird that our family friend (FF) was moving out of our rental #2, he isn't buying a house, or moving in with someone new....he told MO he was moving because "he is a wanderer, and he has been there too long and needs to move on".....super weird. He only pays $600 a month for half of a 4 bedroom home, with fenced yard, hot tub, 2 stall garage, etc. It's a great deal and I can't image he can get a better deal somewhere else.

Then a few days after FF gives his notice, my BIL calls to tell MO, that his wife told him she wants a divorce....and she is moving into an apt with her BF....our FAMILY FRIEND/TENANT. Everyone is shocked and upset. I have thought for a long time that SIL and FF were too close, and I even called her out on it once, but of course she denied it and said they were just friends. UGH. I feel so terrible for my BIL, FF was one of his best friends, and he had no idea about anything. Also BIL's brother (a 3rd brother to MO and BIL) was living with FF this whole time that the sneaking around was going on! Very brazen SIL I have....

We found some amazing clearance deals at JCP! TONS of items at $1.97 and some at .98!!

Plus I applied for a JCP card to get an additional 32% off!

These items are all for resale and all joint with my Mom.

Total spent was $122.64, total potential sales $576.00, total potential profit = $453.36!!!!

We saved over $2000 on this lot!



Hard Plastic Flower Sandals (Bought 8)
Regular Price $22.00
Our Price + tax = .70 each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 3 for $5.00 each on FB on 7/5/20

AZ Boys Cargo Shorts (Bought 19)
Regular Price $34.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $10.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 2 for $10.00 each at 5/5/17 rummage sale
*ETA - Sold 1 for $10.00 on FB on 6/4/17

AZ Boys Cargo Shorts - Husky (Bought 5)
Regular Price $38.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $10.00 each for rummage sale)

TG Girls Cotton Shorts (Bought 15)
Regular Price $18.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 4 for $5.00 each on FB on 1/1/17
*ETA - Sold 1 for $5.00 on FB on 4/23/17
*ETA - Sold 3 for $5.00 each on FB on 4/30/17
*ETA - Sold 4 for $5.00 each at 5/5/17 rummage sale

Total Girl Jean Shorts (Bought 1)
Regular Price $26.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $10.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold for $10.00 at 5/5/17 rummage sale
Profit = $8.57

AZ Girls Midi Shorts (Bought 2)
Regular Price $26.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $8.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 1 for $8.00 at 5/5/17 rummage sale

Total Girl Skirt (Bought 1)
Regular Price $20.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold for $5.00 at 5/5/17 rummage sale
Profit = $3.57

Total Girl Bermuda Shorts (Bought 1)
Regular Price $30.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $10.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold for $10.00 on FB on 4/16/17
Profit = $8.57

AZ Bermuda Shorts (Bought 2)
Regular Price $26.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $8.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 1 for $7.00 on FB on 1/1/17

Total Girl Bike Shorts (Bought 2)
Regular Price $12.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $3.00 each for rummage sale)

Xersion Running Shorts (Bought 1)
Regular Price $20.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $6.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold for $6.00 on FB on 1/1/17
Profit = $4.57

AZ Crochet Tank (Bought 1)
Regular Price $18.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)

AZ Girls T-shirts (Bought 10)
Regular Price $16.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $4.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 2 for $4.00 at 5/5/17 rummage sale
*ETA - Sold 1 for $4.00 on FB on 7/8/18
*ETA - Sold 1 for $4.00 on FB on 8/13/20

Xersion Racerback Tank (Bought 1)
Regular Price $18.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold for $5.00 at 5/5/17 rummage sale
Profit = $3.57

Total Girl T-shirts (Bought 10)
Regular Price $16.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $4.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 5 for $4.00 each at 5/5/17 rummage sale
*ETA - Sold 1 for $3.00 on FB on 5/13/18
*ETA - Sold 1 for $4.00 on FB on 7/1/18

Total Girl T-shirt (Bought 1)
Regular Price $18.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)

Total Girl T-shirt (Bought 1)
Regular Price $20.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)

Total Girl Fringe Tank (Bought 2)
Regular Price $18.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 1 for $5.00 on FB on 4/30/17
*ETA - Sold 1 for $5.00 on FB on 7/16/17
Profit = $7.14

Total Girl Sequin T-shirts (Bought 6)
Regular Price $22.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold 4 for $5.00 each at 5/5/17 rummage sale
*ETA - Sold 2 for $4.00 each on FB on 5/13/18

Total Girl Flowy Tank (Bought 1)
Regular Price $24.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $6.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Sold for $5.00 at 5/5/17 rummage sale
Profit = $3.57

Total Girl Cold Shoulder Top (Bought 1)
Regular Price $24.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $1.43 Each
(Marked $6.00 each for rummage sale)

Total Girl Sequin T-shirt (Bought 1)
Regular Price $24.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
After reviewing receipt, cashier did not ring this up
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $0 Each
(Marked $6.00 each for rummage sale)

Iron Man T-shirt (Bought 1)
Regular Price $20.00 Each
Clearanced to $1.97 Each
After reviewing receipt, cashier did not ring this up
Final Price After Additional % off + tax = $0 Each
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)

My 2002 Chevy Malibu hit 200,000 miles! Pretty good for a car I paid $4K for in Feb 2008...9 years ago! I hope it keeps trucking for another 100,000!

We hosted Thanksgiving and had 22 people to our house, all 20 that were invited were from out of town and we were so happy with the turnout. Unfortunately we had a somewhat comical series of events. My Mom came up the day before to help me with some last minute cleaning and prep for cooking and she stayed the night. The next morning we put up the Christmas decorations and started getting the food ready, my Dad and Step Mom came and started helping MO with the turkey. Right around then my Mom started feeling terribly sick. Thinking she was worn out from cleaning, cooking, decorating, I told her to go lay down as the rest of the guests wouldn't be there for an hour or so. She went to lay down and then I was told the turkey was too big for the deep fryer . This is an hr before we are supposed to be sitting down to dinner. So they keep messing with the turkey, then one of my aunts comes a little early to help out, she goes in the house then comes out and tells me I better go check on my Mom cause she is not doing good. I go check on her and she is in so much pain she can't even speak other then to say she needs to go to the hospital. I live in a teeny tiny (3000 residents) town and we only have one place to go with a one room ER. I get her out to the driveway just as 3 cars full of people are pulling up my driveway! I yell sorry we have to go and tell them to go inside and MO and Step Mom are now in charge of Thanksgiving. We go to the ER and after about 2 1/2hrs of tests and pain meds she is diagnosed with kidney stones. My Mom has had 3 children with no epidural and she said she would rather have another baby any day then go through that again! Luckily they were able to give her some excellent drugs so that she could be comfortable after that and we were able to go home and eat. Everyone else was done eating by the time we got back, I was happy they were able to get the turkey cooked and we were then able to enjoy some quality time with out family! It all ended up ok, but was an interesting hosting experience! My Mom had surgery today for the kidney stones so she can get back to normal.

My paychecks have been amazing with the OT and I am going to keep working 15hrs a week as long as I don't get burned out. MO has started coaching season for girls Bball so he is very busy as well. We had to pay $2500 worth of yearly insurance our 2 rental houses, so my OT is mostly going towards that right now so that we don't have to take so much out of savings to cover the bill.


I am so loving having a clean house and all the Christmas decorations up. I have about 30% of my presents done and I think will get another good chunk done this weekend.

Our weather has been nuts the past few days. In 3 days we got 20+ inches of snow and now that dang wind is blowing it everywhere! I haven't left the house in 6 days and plan to stay hunkered here at least till the weekend. So thankful we have a snowblower! MO has pulled more people out of the ditch then I can count and also had to pick up many of his employees to drive them to work. School was closed for 3 days, but is back in session today.

Hope everyone had a good holiday and is staying safe and warm!!

Well the rummage sale is over for now (details on that in a separate post to come soon). As I was putting things out I pulled out any expired or broken items and set them aside so that they weren't in the sale. Some of them I will keep as I don't care if they are expired for my personal use, and some of them I put up for free on FB, others I tossed. I also went back through my entries and updated so that I know those items were disposed of and that is why they weren't sold.

I usually try to stay away from items that expire, especially medicine for this very reason, so most of these were probably free or tax only as I don't like to get medicine in case it does expire before I can sell it.

The good news is the items I put on FB for free went quickly so at least people are getting use out of them!

Kept:
Acne Free Brand Terminator Cream
AcneFree Oil-Free Acne Cleanser - Expired
Advil Travel Packs (2) - Expired
Anti-Diarrheal - Expired
Colgate Travel Packs (12) - Expired
Crest Be Inspired Toothpaste (1) - Expired
Crest Be Inspired (3 Joint) - Expired
Revlon Lipgloss (looked dried up in package, but once I opened it and moved the wand around a bit it is perfectly good to use so I will keep this)
Robitussin Medi-Soothers (4) - Expired
Zarbes Naturals Seasonal Allergy Relief (6) - Expired


Free on FB:
Accu-Check Nano Diabetic Meter - Expired
Almay Shadow Stick - End is broke off and I don't use eye makeup
Comfort Patches (6) - Expired
CVS Diabetic Test Strips (3) - Expired
Hemorroid Gel (2) - Expired
Hemorroid Ointment - Expired
Nicotine Patches (2 boxes) - Expired
Zegerid OTC - Expired


Tossed:
Elf Lipglass - Dried up

I'm a farmer and I made some sweet cash from my crops!





I had mentioned in previous posts that I had a major excess of zucchini from my garden. After trying lots of new recipes, shredding/freezing some for baking this winter and unsuccessfully trying to give away to friends and family (could only get rid of a few this way). I had about 7-8 BIG zucchini left and already have about 8 bags in my freezer for personal use so I don't need more myself. I decided to process the rest rather then letting it spoil. So I washed, peeled, chopped, shredded with food processor, measured into 2 cup serving sizes, bagged into freezer bags and labeled.

I put it up for sale on FB for $2.00 per 2 cup bag......I SOLD OUT! 35 bags (70 cups!) SOLD! So that is $70!!! Hoping the nice weather we had over the weekend will produce some more as I have several more people that put in orders for at least another 20 bags, but if not was still a very nice and quick $70! Only took me about 1 1/2 hrs to process all the zucchini, so a really nice hourly wage!! Also it was about $10 per zucchini!

Wow I can't believe how fast this summer is going! Living in the Midwest we wait so long for those summer months and then they always fly by so fast!

Things are good and busy. Pretty much the usual. I have been doing well on my 3 softball teams and that is super fun, but will be happy to have a few nights back when the season ends for sure!

We have been spending tons of time at the lake on the weekends, getting lots of outside time, swimming, using the and fishing. I even caught my first fish, a really nice walleye! Here is my view from the paddleboard this weekend, relaxing with my book and a beverage! Let me tell you I was acrobatic not to dunk my book or phone!


I have a garden this year for the first time in about 10 years. It is our first summer in our new house and I found out quickly the garden is too small! But our corn, 2 kinds of squash, and peas are coming in nicely. Carrots and watermelon don't seem to be doing too well. Next year I will be better prepared (I have no tools to plant this year and actually used a kitchen spoon to plant! All my gardening tools are still back in the shed at my old house.

Still no OT at my work. Going on 7 months now. I really hope that when the weather changes the OT comes back. Not only is the money extremely helpful, but we are currently working on items from 7/1/16.....20 days behind!

The next few weekends will be filled with several softball tournaments out of town. Hopefully we can keep our spending to a minimum for food, gas and lodging.

I started tracking every penny spent a few days ago. I haven't done that for a few years. I think it is already helping with reigning in spending.

Dietbets are going ok....I need to lose about 3 more lbs to win the next set. I think I have about 10 days to do that, so I need to make sure I continue to make smart choices. I started running outside as well as on the treadmill. Not far yet, but have to start somewhere!

Our new puppy is adjusting very well and the 2 dogs are best buddies already. Here is a pic of their first trip together to the lake. And a little snoozing pic.



I have no idea why this keeps loading upside down....I tried it like 4 times and it just wants to be difficult....

We got an adorable new puppy. She is an English Springer Spaniel the same as our current dog. We named her Suneigh (Sunny) to go with our other pup Reigny (Rainy).

She is too darn cute!

My birthday is in June and I previously had always taken off the whole week. It's nice to have the time to relax and also to get stuff done around the house, etc. But this year MO has to work so I don't want to burn up the whole week of PTO when he won't be around to enjoy it with. My BD is on a Tuesday, so I decided to take off the Monday-Wednesday and go back to work for Thurs-Fri.

For that Monday I am going back to my home town an hr away and I made a rt eye apt, yearly exam, and a haircut. My rt eye exam and yearly exam will be free under my insurance so good to get those out of the way, and I also have an allowance for glasses to use at that time too.

I am hoping I will also have time to go to lunch with a friend and take my nephew to do something fun. He is going to be turning 6 and his BD is the day after mine.

Then on my BD I will go get my free lunch at a yummy local Mexican restaurant and have softball that evening.

Wednesday I can sleep in and relax before going back to work.

Excited for some time off!

We have had a young man living in our basement for about 2 yrs now. When he moved in shortly after MO and I started dating, he was an employee and friend of MO's, since then he has gotten a new, higher paying job, but continued to live in our basement and pays a flat $400 a month. About a year ago the first guys cousin got placed up here by his job and moved up here, he was supposed to only be here a few weeks and it ended up being around a year (I can't remember exactly when he moved up). He was also paying $400 a month for rent. This was great extra money for us, and we always treated his rent as extra income and put it directly into savings or towards debt. Yesterday the cousin was laid off of his job so moved back to his home city till he gets his next assignment. Shoooooot!

That was super easy extra money and was a huge help in meeting our goals.....oh well. We are planning on making that extra room into a workout room as it is very large in the basement so it is cooler, and also has hard flooring so easier for working out. We will move the elliptical, total gym and weight bench in there soon.

Going to try to get back into FB sales to try to compensate for that missing income.

Well we have a new vehicle! We discussed it thoroughly and I think we made the best decision for our family. I really love it!



So we got this 2004 Jeep Liberty. Per Kelly Blue Book the value is $6460, the dealer had it priced at $5900, and we were able to get them to go down to $5200. We tried for $5000, but they couldn't go down that far, however they did through in a free car starter which is definitely a great bonus here in ND!

I really think we got a great deal. The biggest factor that pushed me towards the purchase was thinking about when one of our other vehicles does die, will I be willing to spend $15K-$20K for an SVU type vehicle? No I wouldn't. I just think that is way too much to spend, even if I can afford it and I already have the money saved up, I just can't spend that much on a vehicle for myself. So the fact that the type of vehicle I want is available for only $5200 is something I didn't want to pass up after I weighed the pros and cons.

We have a two stall garage, but each of the stalls is double depth, so we can fit 4 vehicles in there. So MO cleaned out the back corner and parked his Cavalier there, and cancelled the insurance on it. We won't be driving that car at all at this time. We then parked the new Liberty behind the Cavalier, and we will be driving that sparingly (trips, car pools, when we need 4WD etc.) We plan on mainly driving my Malibu to work for MO, softball, errands etc. Once that car dies then we will put the insurance back on the Cavalier and start using it again. (Yes we will make sure it still gets oil changes, tune-ups when needed). Cancelling the insurance on the Cavalier will save us $200 per year, which will cover about 1/2 of the insurance cost for the Liberty. We did discuss selling one of the cars, but the small amount we would get for them really wouldn't make sense. They are worth way more to us as drivable vehicles, then they would be to sell them for $1000 or less.

We will be taking the money out of savings to pay for the Liberty, so no new debt. We also discussed that we will not be going to the casino until we have our savings back to the $5K it was at before we purchased the new vehicle. We should be back to where we need to be by the mid/end of summer, and then full steam ahead on bulking up savings!

My husband has gotten a wild hair about getting a new (to us) vehicle. I don't even know where this came from..... I really want to continue to focus on getting things paid off.

We currently have 2 cars and 1 truck. All 3 are 2002s, 14 year old. All 3 have well over 150K miles (my car has 191K, not sure exactly what the other 2 have, but I know it's over 150K). And honestly that doesn't bother me at all. They get me where they need to go. As long as I have heat/AC and hopefully cruise control I am fine. They all have minor (and a some major) cosmetic issues, but otherwise fine. I don't mind spending a few $100 a year for tune up issues, you spend those on newer cars as well. Also we have no kids, so we don't have to worry about space issues for day to day or trips etc.

The vehicle he wants us to get is a 2004 Jeep Liberty. It is $5900 and 99K miles. He thinks they will go down on the price. As far as the miles, yes it is a lot, but it is also almost 100K miles LESS then what I am driving now. It looks super nice, we are going to test drive it tomorrow. I almost hope I hate it. MO wants me to have a nicer vehicle with 4 wheel drive (we live in ND and an hr away from the closest city) and also thinks it would be nice to have something bigger as whenever we carpool with anyone we always have to ride with others instead of driving since we have small cars (Malibu and Cavalier). Since we live an hr away from anything we do carpool frequently. We would not be trading in any of our current vehicles as we need a truck, and both of the cars are worth far more to us then they would be as a trade in.

Like anyone else, of course I would love to have a nice, new to me vehicle. But I want to get rid of all this dang debt! I told him IF we do like it and are considering it....#1 He needs to show me where we are fitting 4 vehicles in our garage. #2 Explain to me why 2 people (one of whom works from home!) need 4 vehicles #3 We will not take out more debt, so we would be draining savings. #4 How much will insurance be on the new vehicle #5 NO CASINO

Seeing it typed out makes it pretty darn clear to me that this doesn't make any sense. I will have to work on him. I feel bad saying no as he works so hard and doesn't ask for much, and our vehicles are soooooo old, but I really just think this is an unnecessary want right now.

I ran this by my WIR friends and they had a good suggestion to get him past this want of rather then getting this "moderate" upgrade now, save up and when one of the cars does die, get something we REALLY want and we can have for a long time. I like that idea. I guess we will see how the test drive goes, but definitely leaning towards waiting as long as possible.

We are back from Laughlin/Vegas! We had a great trip, the weather was wonderful the entire time (high 70's/low 80's), we had some delicious food, lots of time together and lots of fun gambling, relaxing and exploring!

We were able to use comps, coupons, and gift cards for most of our expenses so we spent less then $50 for food the whole 5 days we were gone.

We didn't win gambling, but our goal was to bring home 50% of what we brought and we were able to bring home $1000 more then our goal, so that was great!

I am glad to be home on a Friday so that we have this weekend home to recoup before having to go back to work, and I got the whole house clean before we left, so we just need to unpack the suitcases and do laundry and catch up on sleep! I am also hoping to get our garage cleaned out so it is functional and ready for a rummage sale.

Working on a debt update and $20K Savings update this evening!

My parents own several rental properties and one of them is a 4 unit that is in the neighboring town to me (About a 15 min drive for me, about 90 mins for my parents). They have had some really terrible luck with their renters lately and have finally gotten the scummy (drug charges, child neglect, etc.) property managers evicted, as well as another unit evicted. Since MO and I are now a lot closer then my parents, we are going to take over as the property managers and take care of renting the units, collecting rent, lawn maintenance and general repairs. They are going to pay us $250 a month for collection the rent and getting it rented, and then an hourly rate for any additional services (painting, repairs, etc.). This should work out good for us to get some extra cash and for my parents to have someone they can trust making sure everything is running smoothly up here.

Right now the 2 units that are open are trashed. Carpets are all garbage, many holes in the walls that need to be repaired, all walls need to be painted. Also the shed and garages are full of junk and the yard is a mess. My parents, myself, MO, and both of my brothers have been working to get the units ready for renters. MO and I will not be taking over as property managers until everything is settled and in place for renters. So once all this work is completed, most months we should only have to collect rent (and mow in the summer). So far we have painted all of one of the units and taken out the old carpets. MO and I spent 3 hrs on Saturday cleaning out the large shed of garbage, tons of broken glass, a mountain of mouse droppings and 1 mouse skeleton (GROSSSSS!). I know once we have everything in shape, MO and I can keep it looking good and things should roll smoothly.

We did make $160 in Feb for helping so once we get paid for that we can add that to savings, and I am sure we will get some good hrs in for March too.

I cleaned out the fridge to make room for Super Bowl goodies and I had to finally let some things go that I no longer considered edible.

Here is what I have tossed so far in 2016:

26oz of expired skim milk
1/2 qt heavy cream
Small box of breakfast sausages (I believe 6ct)
2 teeny tiny peppers
1/4 Family Size Container Chobani Yogurt

Still pretty happy with how this is going as I am paying a lot more attention to what we are using or having to toss. I am going to suggest to MO to get smaller size milk from now on. The heavy cream was kind of a fluke as we do not normally keep that on hand and it was bought for a recipe. I tried to find something else to put it in, but didn't find anything I especially wanted to make before it turned non-liquidy...ewwww.

Making sure to stay on top of the dairy and produce.

MO and I went to the casino this weekend to celebrate finally having full renters in my old house. We weren't doing too well so decided to just call it a night early. On the way to the room MO saw one more game he wanted to play so we stopped and it let us play for a long time which was nice. It was 10 hand deuces wild, and we got dealt a Natural Royal Flush, betting .25 a hand, which pays $200 a hand! So 10 hands x $200 per hand = $2000! We were so excited!! After that we played a bit more and ended up coming home up $1770! We will put the money in savings for a very short time then use it to pay my property tax bill at my old house (rental #2). Cheers!

Up until now, just the basement of my old house was rented. Since I still had a lot of belongings there I still paid the heat/electricity, water and internet. One of MO's friends was renting the basement for a flat fee of $600 and that was working very well as I trust him so was ok with my belongings still being there. Plus we were able to get some much needed repairs done while still having some rent coming in. Now that I am finally out of there I let him know that if he stays rent will increase to $1200 as of March 1, or if he moves out, I will raise rent to $1500. I am ok with losing the $300 a month to have someone I trust in my property so was really hoping he would stay. Got great news yesterday, MO's brother is going to be moving in to the other half of the house, he is friends with the current renter and will be paying the other $600 a month!

This is awesome! So that will be an extra $600 a month in rent, plus they will now be resp for heat/electricity (est $100 per month) plus internet ($55 per month). So that is an extra $755 per month in my pocket!

AND I still get the benefit of having people I trust in there!

Well now that I don't have OT, at least I have about 10 hrs more a week to continue working on unpacking, cleaning, organizing and working out!

Since I work from home I get reimbursed for my internet service, but I have to submit the bill monthly for reimbursement. I went through all of my statements today and matched them up with my paystubs to make sure I didn't miss submitting any, and I have been reimbursed for all of them, so that is great and now those can get filed away.

MO and I started entering our taxes on Turbo Tax a few days ago, just wanting to get a general sense of where we are at since we had so many big changes this year. We don't have everything entered yet, but looks like we should be getting a refund of $1000-$2000 which would be great. I was very worried with having the rentals that we would have to pay in this year, but since it is the first year and we have a lot of expenses for getting them up and running it isn't going to hurt us on the refund side.

I also need to overhaul all of my files and move 2014 and 2015 papers from my yearly file to my permanent file. I usually do this every January, but last year at this time I was still dealing with a lot of stuff from XH and just didn't get around (or care to) do it.

I always like to update my giftcard inventory after Christmas, always have a few more to add at that time!

I have used a few CVS cards since last time I updated, I had 3 E-certs that were just printed on paper so was glad to get those ones used because I was worried about losing those.

Next weekend I am going to a movie with my SIL's and shopping with my Mom, so should be using at least 1 movie ticket and hopefully find some after Christmas Deals as well to use some of my gift cards on!

We also have $188 in cash back rewards with Discover Card right now. Normally I would cash in for CVS giftcards by now, but since I can't shop there as often living an hr away, I figured I would wait till I am almost out before I get more. Also we are planning on going to Laughlin in April and there are a few restaurants (Outback Steakhouse and Bubba Gump Shrimp) there that we don't have here and we would definitely use the rewards for that.

The new ones I added are in bold.

Applebees $20.00
Applebees $25.27
Barnes & Noble $5.00
Barnes & Noble $10.00
Bed Bath & Beyond $10.00 - Christmas Gift from work
Bed Bath & Beyond $10.00 - Christmas Gift from work
Coldstone $15.00 - MO BD Gift
CVS $10.00
CVS $10.00
CVS $10.00
CVS $25.00
Drug Store $25.00 - Restaurants.com Deal
Drug Store $25.00 - Restaurants.com Deal
Drug Store $25.00 - Restaurants.com Deal
Drug Store $25.00 - Restaurants.com Deal
JCPenney $25.00
JCPenney $45.00 - Christmas Gift
Lowe's $25.00
Lowe's $50.00
Massage $50.00 - Christmas Gift
MasterCard $100.00
Menards Rebates $45.94
Menards Rebates $69.32
Menards Rebates $114.91
Menards Rebates $146.87
Menards Rebates $146.87
Menards Rebates $214.12
Movie Coupons $10.00
Movie Coupons $10.00
Movie Giftcard $10.00 - Christmas Gift
Movie Giftcard $10.00 - Christmas Gift
Movie Giftcard $10.00 - Christmas Gift
Old Navy $25.00- Christmas Gift
Scheels $5.93
Scheels $25.00
Scheels $50.00 - Christmas Gift
Target $5.00
Target $5.00
Target $5.00
Target $10.00
Target $20.00
Target $50.00
Target $50.00
Texas Road House $50.00
TGIFridays $25.00
Walmart $10.00
Walmart $11.36
Walmart $20.00
Walmart $35.00
TOTAL = $1581.72
Up $421.55 from last inventory.

Can it be true!!!!!!?????

Testing with a picture of my dog when I told her she couldn't sit on my lap right now.

For those of you that know my back story and drama of my life the last few years.....you know I got divorced due to lots of issues stemming from XH's alcoholism. One of the biggest issues was his infidelity. I don't want to get into the whole big shabang, but basically as we were starting to enter divorce territory, I was informed by several people that XH had made sexual advances at them, and they hadn't told me because they didn't want to "rock the boat" so to speak as from the outside everyone thought we were happily married, and they also thought their encounters with XH were isolated incidences, and they blamed the alcohol. As I was hearing about these more and more, I began to wonder if my MOH (from wedding to XH) from our wedding had ever had anything happen as she was with us ALL the time. Keep in mind this was about 2 years ago now, and I had tried to call her and text her to ask her about it, she wouldn't answer, and when she responded via text she pretty much told me to F off, and told me she didn't want to be involved in our problems. It was totally shocking as I had just asked her if HE had hit on her, I didn't imply in anyway that she had done anything wrong, but her response pretty much shows me that she did...why else would she get so defensive? I had other good friends that he had hit on, and when I asked them about it, or some of them came forward on their own, they apologized for not telling me right away, but I assured them it wasn't their fault that XH put them in an awkward position and as long as they rebuffed his advances I don't feel they did anything wrong as that was a tough spot to be in. Also MOH knew XH was a cheater because she was with on a birthday bus trip I planned for XH when he kissed someone else's girlfriend in front of other party guests! So even if she thought any altercation with him was isolated before, once that trip happened she knew that he was a chronic cheater and could have came forward then IF she wasn't also guilty. And now, 2 years after all of this went on, I now know that XH had inappropriate contact with at LEAST 12 women while we were married, and sent me inappropriate texts while I am now married to someone else and he is having a baby with someone else, and MOH STILL tags him in stuff on FB??? Good friend huh??? So the whole situation is heartbreaking. I am over losing XH, I have someone so much better who appreciates me and chooses me, not alcohol, not other women, not anyone or anything else. But it still hurts a lot to lose MOH, even though, especially typing it out, I can see that she is a terrible person and probably has been to me for a long time without me realizing it. We have been friends for about 15 years, been on lots of trips together, supported each other at family functions, weddings, funerals, baptisms. And I do love her. But I just can't take her awfulness anymore, so yesterday I finally unfriended her on FB. Not sure what the repercussions of that will be yet, as I am good friends with her siblings and parents as well, and we are still on a softball team together. I am guessing she won't even notice as she hasn't "liked" or "commented" on any of my pics or statuses in over 2 years, but constantly "likes" XHs status (which thankfully I don't see anymore since I blocked him) and also tags him in stuff all the time.

I feel she is the last person in my life that I kept even though they were hurting me cause I really wanted her to just one day tell me what happened and say she was sorry, and I would have forgiven her. But I know now that is never going to happen so time to let go and move on to people who care about me and my happiness.

So cheers to mental health and letting go of those that hurt you.

My SIL came and kept me company while our hubbies were hunting together this weekend. We got through a LOT more boxes of misc. stuff. Found several more giftcards!

The new ones I added are in bold.

Applebees $20.00
Applebees $25.27
Barnes & Noble $5.00
Barnes & Noble $10.00
CVS $10.00
CVS $10.00
CVS $10.00
CVS $50.00
CVS E-cert $5.00
CVS E-cert $5.00
CVS E-cert $5.00
JCPenney $25.00
Lowe's $25.00
Lowe's $50.00
MasterCard $100.00
Menards Rebates $114.67
Menards Rebates $146.82
Menards Rebates $214.12
Movie Coupons $10.00
Movie Coupons $10.00
Scheels $5.93
Scheels $25.00
Target $5.00
Target $5.00
Target $5.00
Target $10.00
Target $20.00
Target $50.00
Target $50.00
Texas Road House $50.00
TGIFridays $25.00
Walmart $10.00
Walmart $11.36
Walmart $20.00
Walmart $35.00
TOTAL = $1160.17

As MO and I are still unpacking and organizing, I am making sure we have a central place for important items that we don't want to lose! I bought this AMAZING cute desk and file cabinet set (Wish I could post a pic for you!) it is painted turquoise and distressed look, the top has an old tan world map imposed onto it....hard to describe without seeing it, but trust me it's adorable! The file cabinet is also wooden and painted the distressed turquoise, and it has a mail holder built into the top and the slots are perfect to used to keeping all of our giftcards. We have a lot of them floating around right now since we received quite a few for wedding gifts, as well as random ones from before.

Applebees $20.00
Applebees $25.27
Barnes & Noble $5.00
Barnes & Noble $10.00
JCPenney $25.00
MasterCard $100.00
Target $5.00
Target $5.00
Target $5.00
Target $10.00
Target $20.00
Target $50.00
Target $50.00
Texas Road House $50.00
Walmart $10.00
Walmart $11.36
Walmart $20.00
Walmart $35.00
TOTAL - $456.63

We have a Uhaul rental set up to move my furniture from Rental #2 (My old house) to our new home on Nov 1. Lots of packing up and purging to do before then! I have been unpacking MO's stuff and putting tons of stuff for sale on FB to get ready of misc items that we do not need. Made about $30 this week selling what I would call "junk" (Don't tell MO I call it that!) LOL! I also packed and moved my shoes to the new house, and managed to part with 6 prs, 3 to the trash, and 3 to sell. I sold one so far. It always feels so good to get rid of unneeded/unused items!

Nov will be our first month paying 3 mortgages. Saying that makes me feel a little nervous, but with the renters we have, we are actually only paying $500 OOP total for all 3 mortgages, so as long as everything goes fine with our renters we should be smooth sailing.

I am also changing my car insurance and home insurance to be added to MO's and will have some small savings with that. MO is having Escrow taken off of Rental #1, so that payment will go down, and we should also get a refund check to put into savings.

Working about 10hrs a week of OT (my job has unlimited OT) so that helps the bottom line as well.

Test!




Sad pics are still not working......it has been a couple of months now, has anyone heard anything on this or know who we can contact to try to get pics back?

As if I needed another reason to LOVE my Discover Card....a few weeks ago I called them to change my name since I got married last month. Not only was the process painless (as is everything with their customer service!) but now I received a wedding card in the mail from the rep that helped me change my name and address, a very sweet note from them, as well as a $15 Discover Giftcard! I have had a Discover as my credit card of choice since I was 17 and will be a happy and loyal customer for life!

I would like to sell my old wedding set. I have never sold any jewelry before, so I am looking for any suggestions on where/how to do so. I checked with the retailer where the set was purchased from (Zales) and they stated that they do not buy back jewelry, but that they would use it as part of an exchange it for an item of double the value paid for the rings. So the ring was $5000, XH paid cash so they discounted down to $3500. So Zales will give me $3500 credit towards a $7000 purchase. If I was in the market for more jewelry, then I would say this isn't a terrible deal, but I don't need anymore jewelry, and certainly not $7K worth!

I also went to a pawnshop, just to get an idea on what they would pay....$400! UM no thanks!

MO also tried to look online about selling it, but that didn't seem to promising either.

I realize I will not get anywhere near what the ring is worth, but I really don't think I would want to sell it for less then $2K. It is a beautiful set, 2 carats total, and I have all of the paperwork for it.

I am back from vaca to Denver! We had a great time and got to see sooo much! The trip ended up being a group trip of 8 friends/family, with many more meeting us at the football game.

We went to the Vikings/Broncos game, Black Hawk Casinos, Dinosaur Ridge, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (AMAZING!), ghost town, and dinosaur museum. Everything went great and the people in Denver were so friendly. We ate too much, drank too much and spent too much..... = Great Vacation! We spent time with MO's family, but also had a whole day alone as well which was wonderful.

Now FINALLY after a year of craziness,(moving to a new town and work at home employee, getting engaged, getting married, finding a renter for my house, buying new house, finding renter for MO's house, trips to Las Vegas, Boston and Denver...all of these things occurred in only a 6 month time frame!), we may have some normalcy for awhile. We will be settling into our new home, enjoying hunting season, and getting ready for the holidays.

Sooooo...as you know if you read my blog, I got divorced last year after 7 years of marriage, 12 together total (XH wanted the divorce, I did not, I believe when you get married, you stay married, and you figure out your issues, not run away from them...Though now I am so happy that I did get divorced.) We had a LOT of problems, all stemming from his alcoholism (I am not a perfect spouse, but I was willing to work on and fix anything to save our marriage, he was very clear that he would never stop drinking). We divorced as amicably as you can considering it is a divorce and I did not want it, we had no children, we split everything evenly, no lawyers. Shortly after I got divorced I met, well re-met MO (My One) and we started dating, I moved to his town, got engaged, and last month got married. I have had very limited contact with XH. He still gets some mail at my old house (I have reminded him many times to change his address, he moved out in May 2014....so a year and a half ago.....ridiculous!) so I occasionally text him to pick up his mail, but other then that I never initiate contact with him.

He occasionally texts me something random, when he sees something that reminds him of me, etc. This occurs about once a month, and I either ignore the text completely or respond nicely (but platonically), and don't prolong the conversation, answering with few words and no more then 1 or 2 replys (unfortunately I have a very hard time ignoring people because I know how much it hurts my own feelings to be ignored). We are both always nice to each other in texts, but I end the convo quickly and don't "reminice" with him.

Now a few days ago he texted me:

"Soooooo I have something I need to tell you before you see it on FB"

My reply "Let me guess. You got your girlfriend prego."

"Wow you are good"

He then continues to text me several more times about how he was so surprised and yadda yadda yadda. Meanwhile I don't respond at all and go on to have a complete and total breakdown including crying till I puke. XH and I tried for 7 YEARS to get pregnant. I can't even start to count how many drs visits, tests, DOLLARS, tears, depression.....and after all the testing we were told very clearly XH IS THE PROBLEM, XH CANNOT EVER HAVE CHILDREN. His numbers were outrageously low for every sperm test. My tests all came back clear and good to go. That all occured after about 2 years of trying, after that he wouldn't talk to me AT ALL about trying invitro, donor sperm, adopting, etc. So for the remaining 5 years of our marriage I waited for him to be able to talk about it and find out if I would ever get to be a Mom....that obviously never happened. After we were in the process of getting divorced he told me "I guess I don't really believe in that other stuff (children from non natural conception)....REALLY?!?!? Well that would have been nice to tell your WIFE 5 years ago!! Or maybe before we got married!! UGH!!!!!! So now he dates some girl (who already has 4 children and lives on the other side of the US) and a few months later she is pregnant.....WTF. Let me be clear I am not upset that he is having a baby with someone else. I am upset #1 because if HE CAN have kids, it sure seems like I am the one that can't. And #2 WHY IN THE HECK ARE YOU TEXTING ME ABOUT THIS??? I didn't text you when I moved to another city, I didn't text you when I got engaged, I didn't text you when I got married, I didn't text you when we bought a new house.....why not? Cause it's none of your business anymore and we don't need to know anything about each others lives! And he knows darn well how painful the baby topic is for me, so I guess he is just trying to be spiteful and hurt me.

So I have my mega breakdown, MO was not home, he was actually at my old house that we are renting out as we had coed softball that night so he went down to get some things done before our game. I get myself together and go down there, still not responding to any of the texts since the first one from XH. I go to softball and try to buck up, his life doesn't effect me so who the he!! cares. My parents come to the game, MO is on my team, and my super awesome BIL and SIL as well. At the end of the games I go get my phone out of my bag, and I have 5 missed texts, 3 missed calls and a VM from XH. The texts are things like "Bummed that you didn't respond" "Well hope life is good to you, I love you always" "I love you"... The VM is a long, clearly drunk VM of "I love you's and I miss you's and everything will be ok" Well that is awesome. For the last 6 months of our marriage when I said "I love you", his response was "I know". NOW he wants to give me "I love yous" BULLSH!T So it was terrible, MO was obviously outraged as he should be if someone is telling HIS WIFE that they love her and miss her. I didn't respond to any of the texts or call him back. That was a few days ago and I havent heard a peep since. Most likely he doesn't remember as he was definitely drinking. So I am torn between sadness and anger. How dare he do that to me. I just got married, I clearly moved on with my life but he feels the need to bring me down. I really hoped that getting divorced would be the rock bottom he needed to get help for his alcoholism, clearly it wasn't. I talked to my Mom and she made a good point about how lucky I was that I didn't get pregnant with X as then I would have been doing that all alone too, and having to explain to my kids why Dad punches holes in the wall, and can't walk straight or slurs his words.....true true.

So there is my drama fest for awhile....I was so mad and upset about it I had to wait a few days to even post this. XH and I still have our car insurance together (since we were amicable with each other it didn't seem like a big deal to temporarily leave the vehicles together and continue getting the multi-car discount) but now I will move my insurance and apparently will need to block XH's phone number, which is not something that I wanted to do, but he obviously doesn't understand what is acceptable contact, which I should have known by now since that is another reason we got divorced....SIGH.

Yeah I am married!!!

On Wednesday right before I took off to the Lake for the wedding weekend, we closed on the new house. FINALLY! 1 more hr and they would have had to redo all of the paperwork with my new last name!


Wedding went without a hitch, we were expecting rain and thunderstorms all day, forecast said up to 90% chance of rain/thunderstorms. It stopped raining around 9am, and not a drop the rest of the day! It was overcast all day (which we were fine with as long as it wasn't raining) and then about 5 mins before the ceremony the sun came out and it was beautiful! Wonderful!!

Everyone had a great time, we had burgers (with cheese right in the patty), beer bacon and cheese brats, hotdogs, lots of different picnic salads, and cheesy hashbrowns. Adorable sunflower cupcakes and smores for dessert.

Then we had games set up (beanbags, horseshoes, volleyball, laddergolf, crochet, etc) for everyone to play on the beach followed by a bonfire. Volleyball was very popular and super fun! We are exhausted and happy come the end of the evening.

Since MO (My one!) and myself both already had our own homes and all the normal home items, we did not register for gifts, we did receive a few presents, but mostly cards with cash or giftcards, which will come in handy for furnishing and decorating our new home.