The Hustle of Sistah Ant

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Dear readers, have a merry and blessed Christmas!  Be safe, and have a good time.  I’ll catch you on the other side of the New Year’s countdown.

Remember my escrow threat? 

The leak and the ceiling have been fixed for a week now.  Isn’t that something?  Threaten to take away somebody’s income, and all of a sudden you have their undivided attention…

He’s still a slumlord.

I spent too much.  My savings goal for the month is shot.  I wanted to just get presents for my mom, dad, mister, and grandma.  But I wanted to give things they’d really appreciate and get something out of, and busy listening to Mister Ant and Mama Ant, instead of my inner miser, I didn’t cheap out on them, although I could have.  I got people what they asked for instead of just thinking of something on my own.  I just sat down and did the math last night.  I’ve spent over $100 on each of my recipients.  Shame on me.  I didn’t set a budget or anything.  And too much of the money I should be saving will be spent on ensuring that I enter 2009 with no credit card debt.  Darn it.  Mister Ant told me to get over the guilt, think about how happy I’ll be when I give my gifts, and take solace in the fact that all my bills are paid.  But I still feel like I should have done a better job of controlling my spending.

I can’t say enough about having an extended warranty.  I’m so glad I have it.  When I took my car for inspection the other day, they told me that my car failed because one of the dashboard switches is on the fritz and needs to be replaced.  Cost for parts and labor?  Over two hundred dollars.  This means I’d have to come up with the money to get it done by the end of the month when my 2008 inspection sticker expires.  I told the inspector I’d pick my car up that evening and get it fixed at the dealer’s.  I suspected that my warranty would cover it, so I called Honda Care and they said that the repair is covered under my extended warranty.  Sure, I have to go to the dealership, again.  But it’s definitely worth over two hundred dollars for me to go there before bringing my car back to the inspector to pass inspection.  Yay!  Go warranty!  I’ll be done with this foolishness by the weekend, just in time to miss the last-days-of-the-month rush at the inspector’s shop.

I did okay over the weekend, but not as good as I could have. 

I spent $20 on pizza.  This is coming out of my groceries budget, so that’s $20 less that I have to spend on real food.

I went $6 over my $50 holiday spending budget.  However, there were some good things too.  I went holiday shopping at Forman Mills, where you truly do get more for your money, so I bought twice as much stuff as I thought I would be able to.  I don’t know if Forman Mills exists outside of my area, but anyone within earshot of a Philly radio station knows all about it.  Think Marshall’s or ValueCity, but in a warehouse.  My mom used to take me there when I was a kid, and I remember that was the place to go back in the early nineties for gear when you didn’t have a lot of money… I’d been meaning to go there for a while, but you guys know I don’t shop.  It took present-hunting to get me out there.  Man, I love that place.  Another good thing is that I sent out my Christmas cards, and I already had a book of stamps and leftover cards from last year.  I cut my list down to the number of cards I already had, so what could have cost me maybe $20-$30 dollars ran me about a dollar and some change this Saturday.  I’m almost done shopping - my other recipients will get cold hard cash, and I want to get one more present for Mister Ant.  This time last year, I was done.  Sheesh.

I spent $20 more dollars on a credit card over the weekend on a business expense.  One of my goals for 2008 was to look into generating a side income, and I know there’s only a few weeks left in the year, but better now than never.  I started laying the foundation for a possible side income yesterday.

I did it.  I didn’t know how I’d get through December, but I have a plan. The holidays and my car inspection, among other things, made this month more of an adventure than another hum-drum month.  But the key was looking at the calendar, taking account for upcoming expenses, and being flexible.

Now, if I can just stick to the plan…

Thanks for being patient with me during my little hiatus.  I promise, it’ll be worth the wait for more regular posting!

Dear readers, Sistah Ant needs to take a break.  It’s so important that I needed to refer to myself in the third person.  It’s so important that this blog will not post regularly until January 2009.  That means that although I’ll be around, I won’t post daily.  But I’ve got a quite a few surprises for you up my sleeve, and I can’t wait until I’m back at full speed!

Anyway, for an update of my status, by the end of this week, I will have paid all of my bills for December and set aside money for my car inspection.  But I have big debt on my Visa to pay off by the end of the month.  We’ll see how much I am able to force myself to contribute to my savings and IRA - I think this will be a hard month, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

There’s a lot on my mind right now.  Missing time from work for important meetings and a doctor appointment this week will make my next check smaller.  I’m not finished Christmas shopping.  I still haven’t taken my car to the shop for its inspection.  I still have Christmas to travel for.  And I’ve got to pay this month’s bills and clear the balance off of my credit card.  I’ve been really distracted lately and I haven’t dealt with any of this by budgeting.  To my credit, I know better than to go spending money all willy nilly without a plan, either, so I think I may have spent about six dollars since I got paid last Thursday.  But it’s cool.  Today, I’m going to get down with a calendar, my online bill pay, and a calculator, so I can plan this stuff out.

Heard a story about a young couple who bought a house.  Three years later, they put the house on the market.  The listed price is $24,000 higher than what they paid for it.  They should be making a $24,000 profit, if they sell for the listing price.  But they won’t.  Because even though they stayed in the house for only three years, they took out a big home equity loan.  They only clear a $600 profit if they sell the house for the listing price.  They initially had the house listed $45,000 higher than what they paid for it, but the house only lingered on the market, and they wound up having to cut the profit on their asking price by almost half.  Wow.  That is just so sad to me.   To think, if they just hadn’t taken out the loan on the imagined equity in their home, they’d probably have a nice pretty check right now.  Instead, their house is still on the market.