This week has a been a long week for Mary and me, with lots of changes at home and work. I had my wooden floor refinished in the kitchen this week and it turned out beautiful. A few months back it it was determined that my dishwasher had been leaking for some time and literally ruined my floors. Luckily, my homeowner's insurance pulled through, so there was only minimal cost to me for the refinishing of the floors.

 

However, it was certainly a challenge without a kitchen and laundry room all week. We basically lived upstairs in our bedrooms and computer room all week!

 

This week I managed to keep my spending down to a third of what I projected and am proud of that. However, I had  some expenses for much needed parts for my dryer, and a few for the floor I found out during the repairs.

 

Two steps forward . . . one back.

 

Mary and I also used the microwave more than half the time and I still packed our lunches. I also managed to walk the mall and just have an ice cream and window shop without spending more than $5.00. I was rather proud of that.

 

With my need to always be organized to stay on track with my daily life, (When Rhonda's Feng Shui (Fung Shway) gets out of kilter . . . things get ugly!  Ha!), the bills and checkbook got neglected for a whole week and I was finally able to focus on my finances today. I was certain that my balances would be worse, but really the situation was not all that bad!!!   

And, I'm finally finished with the month of gift giving . . . hooray! That is such a relief.

 

Mary is a real partner in our Community America Financial Makeover and worked her babysitting job quite a bit this week. It really helps the household finances with her earning a portion of her own spending money.

 

So this week was not a lot of progress, but look out for next week because my surroundings will be organized once again and I am making up for my lost week!

 

Talk to you all later!!!

We would all love to have daffodils and money. Who wouldn't? So to weed out the dandelions and debt you need the right tools. The tools I use on the CACU website are wonderful and I can't say enough about them, not to mention that accessability to them is free! I have mastered the websites and links and am feeling really good about it. I'm also amazed at the additional time I have for myself, (and the less worry I have). These tools are so wonderful in weeding out those darned financial dandelions!

This week has flown by and I am looking forward to taking some newly found free time to further look into ways to increase my savings. It takes time to review ones finances, and being a single working Mom, well, carpooling and meeting Mary's needs does involve a great deal of my time, (although it is time well spent).

I met with my financial advisor Tim this past Friday and walked away feeling better than when I arrived. I have to remind myself how far I have come. I am already a winner in so many ways. I need to take time to allow my Makeover to be fun, and not let it wear me out by trying to make it happen in a few short weeks.

I have set some goals for myself for the next few months. I am going to attempt to pay as much as I can toward my new HELOC loan, funded by CommunityAmerica, and building my savings!! I was prepared to do all of my shopping at Aldi's, but after price and taste comparisons, I just was not going to be able to do it. A lot of the things were very healthy and priced right, but, many were not after taking time to read the labels and compare to other stores. Mary and I love Aldi's Fit and Active line. The turkey meatballs, ice cream sandwiches and yogurt for smoothies are delicious. But I would put my money on Great Value products over Aldi's after comparing them over the last month.

This week the Makeover families have a LOT of excitement going on with Channel 41 NBC Action News recording a segment about us. Plus, we have our big group meeting this Saturday to learn more about credit reports and scoring. I talked to Tim a bit about my credit score, and it is actually very good, but I'm determined to have a credit score of 800+ by the time the contest ends.

Mary has continued to work hard at being my partner in this contest and is looking forward to summer and looking for a part time job.

Stay tuned next week for the next episode of the Piatchek Financial Makeover! :)

This week's update will be short and sweet . . . to the point!

 

My pocketbook did not see as much progress as I would have liked for it to have seen, as I finally had the needed car repairs made that I have been dreading for weeks. So, $800+ later, I'm needed to kick up the pace during the upcoming week to make up for this loss. A bit discouraging, but I will persevere!

One awesome thing that I'm very proud of is that I was able to pay an extra several dollars on my HELOC loan, AND I'm two weeks ahead on paying ALL of my bills! My goal is to be one month ahead on paying bills during the upcoming months. Another incredible feat is that my charge cards ALL have a zero balance. This is such a wonderful feeling!!!  This Makeover has been incredible!

 

Moving forward this week, I have set some solid goals for myself. I'm going to begin shopping at Aldi's to see if the savings that I have heard about from shopping there are all they are cracked up to be! I'm also meeting with Erin an Tim to discuss how to continue to build my savings.