The Tale of the $1100 iPod

Yesterday Josh called me last night to ask me if he could by an iPod. The story behind that is some guy returned it full of rap music without a receipt. Therefore Wally World is unable to return it to their distributors. They just sell the item at a generous discount to their associates. The proceeds then go to the Children's Miracle network. So we ended up paying $100 for this iPod. I told him that it was up to him if we bought it or not. A guy with a decision about electronics will inevitably buy whatever it is.

We get it home and I checked it out. Since the thing was full of Rap music I wanted to get it hooked up to the computer so that I could get it off. I insert the disc and wait for it load. A pop-up came that said we need windows 2000 or XP. We have Windows ME. Now we have been looking at computers for a little while now. A couple times when I was off and even last month the computer has crashed and had the computer restart in DOS mode and unable to start up. So last night was the straw that broke the camel's back. We bought a new Dell.

The thing is this time we are going to take VERY good care of this computer. We are going to keep our spyware up to date and our virus protection current. We cannot afford not too. Especially if we will be getting a bunch of new music off the internet. We will also back it up so if it crashes on it we won't have to go back to square one.

Bracketnesia

Every year I fill out a NCAA bracket. Every year I fail miserably! Yet, each year when March Madness hits I succumb to the hope that I will do better this year. I have even started filling out 2 brackets. Trying to hedge my bets. In the end, I end up losing anyway. It is only a 3 dollar pool, so what do I have to lose? Not much in the grand scheme of things. Although each year I enjoy the last minute victories and the Cinderella teams. It is worth the $6 ride.

Other news from the week...... I have to apologize to my mom. I didn't tell her about the extent of our money troubles. I guess the way I saw it was we didn't want anyone to know at the time how hard the times were. Since it was all repaired rather quickly I thought it would be OK to talk about. I know that she felt like I didn't want to share this with her but I would share it with the internet. Really that wasn't the way that it was. Mom, I am REALLY sorry!!! Along money lines, Josh thinks that his bonus is going to be taxed as regular pay instead of a bonus! Don't ask me how they get around it. I think that we will be credit card debt free this time next week!!!!! yeah!!!!!

I have really started to research houses in the Madison area. I am pretty well aware of what are high prices and what kind of prices to expect where. That should really help this time next year when the house hunt has begun! I will continue to look around until then! Of course we will save, save, save!!

I also had a little mishap this week. Friday I was walking out to my car and in the shadow of my car was and ice patch. I ended up slipping and pulling some muscles in my leg and butt. I skipped the pool that day and went to the pool yesterday, but I am still pretty sore. I really hope that I didn't mess stuff up too badly.

The final excitement for the week was, I had a chance to go to England, but graciously asked another co-worker before I committed. I knew that he may want to go. Plus, I have to update my passport and didn't think that I could do it in 3 weeks. We don't have copies of our marriage certificate. We never requested official copies of it. So I have sent out for those and have the passport papers all ready to be sent so that I can get a new one. So that I don't have to pass up that opportunity ever again!

I Feel Lighter Today

The weight is starting to lift off our financial shoulders. 2005 was the year to recover from the wedding and get our lives completely meshed. It took a while to get my spending habits and Josh's spending habits synced. Sometimes they still aren't. Also, we had to start to figure out how to pay off the mass amount of debt Josh piled up in college. He was paying minimums and not getting anywhere. His money was a HUGE taboo until we got married. He often felt like I was snooping and that it was none of my business. When it came close to the wedding he finally came clean. We made some smart decisions and consolidated a lot of it and paid off the smaller balances. So besides store cards with don't always have a balance, we had 2 cards with the money on them. I also saw the end of the tunnel on my car loan and started paying almost double the payment to get rid of it sooner.

All was well and good until I went on leave which happened to be the same time as Christmas. Then the nightmare of not getting my disability happened and we had to dip into our savings to make ends meet. I had to sell stock to pay the bills for February. It wasn't pleasant. It was just an incentive to really pay off all the debt that we can and to save, save, save.

I FINALLY received the check from my disability back pay that I was waiting for. We were able to put the money back into our savings that we took out to pay our bills while I was off. The check was also sizeable enough to pay off the balance of my car loan and leave us a little extra.

Here is the financial plan: Use our tax returns and my bonus to pay off Josh's card. Then we will use his bonus + 1 or 2 months payment to pay off my card. Then all the debt that we have is school and 1 car loans. Paying only that AND our monthly bills we should be able to save up enough so that next year around this time with our savings, tax returns and bonuses we should have a nice down payment so that we can buy a house. That is the goal. I have been wanting to buy a house since before we got married. We just had to pay things off first. I want to be able to afford a house that we don't have to completely remodel when we move in. I want to be able to paint and buy window treatments and still be able to afford furniture to fill the house. I know the financial responsibility of home ownership and being an adult is great. I want to go into it as prepared as you can be. I don't want to have my children see the money struggle the way we saw my parents. I have waited this long for my house I can wait another year can't I?

Nap Time

I am so tired I don't know what to do with myself. Since I have been back to work I have been wiped out everyday. Being at the pool 3 times a week tends to wear me out. This is my pool workout:
15 minutes water walking
10 minutes skipping
8-10 minutes side lunges with wings (walking sideways, not crossing legs, wings are to provide resistance)
3 reps of 20 step-downs/leg
2 reps of 20 hip side to sides (in and outs)
5 reps/leg of balancing on one leg for 30 seconds

Then the other 4 days a week I do these at home:
2 reps of 15 bridges with squeezing ball between my knees.
5 reps of balancing on L leg for 20 sec
3 reps of 10 side steps with resistance band around ankles
2 reps of 10/leg skaters touch (touch backs) with resistance band around ankles
3 reps of 8 side leg lifts with resistance band around knees
10 reps of tummy suckers holding 10 secs/lift. These suckers are hard if not damn near impossible.

I have piles of books to read no wonder I can't get to them huh? Things are getting easier, but I am definitely keeping busy with it all. The bonus is that between all the pool stuff and not snacking so much at work I am starting to lose weight again. I pretty much maintained my weight (within 5lbs) while I was off. Which I am proud of, but now I am at the low end of what I was right after surgery.

RENT

I really liked RENT! I liked it a lot! I love the rock n' roll soundtrack! I thought that it was touching and funny. I really enjoyed the performance. I am glad that I went to see it! My complaints have more to do with the Overture center. We were sitting in the second row from the top. So, not that great of seats. I don't know if it is the way the music should be or if they were having technical difficulties but you often times couldn't understand the singers or even hear them over the background music. Therefore it was hard to understand the plot at times. We got together at the end of the performance and were able to put the plot together. Now that I understand the plot I am going to see the movie and see how it compares and to fill in any things that we missed. I bought the soundtrack (could only find the movie version) from Wal-Mart this morning on the way to work. I really enjoyed the songs and thought that I should own the soundtrack. Being able to hear and understand the words I appreciate the music even more.