While it’s been fun having the blog on wordpress.com, I’ve decided that I’m taking this blog and several others that I maintain and merge them into one Big Blog at www.dontbeapicklebump.com.

The great thing is that I’m still using WordPress but will also have added flexibilty and control over the presentation of my writing and pictures. So come visit me and check out the new digs. There’s still some construction going on, but it’s all good!

I’ve paid off $31670 this year. Yeah me!!!!

Did you know that even if you are done with college, you can sign up with UPromise.com?? I didn’t until recently.

With UPromise, you can link your Credit/Debit Cards to earn additional money that can be used to pay off your student loans. All kinds of purchases (dinings out, travel, general shopping), can help you earn money to pay off your student loan debt. You can also get coupon savings that will be loaded directly to your grocery/store cards.

For me, with the planning that I’ve done about coupons, their use will earn me double savings to be applied towards debt.

We’ve all heard of Dave Ramsey’s Snowball Debt Plan. But have you heard of snowflaking yet? Snowflaking is when you save little bits of money here and there (through couponing, selling things, taking online surveys, etc.) and apply it to your debt. You can read a basic primer about it on I’ve Paid for This Twice Already…. .

So in addition to a debt snowball, I’m  going to work on some serious snowflaking so that I can pay down my debt even faster. I’m taking the money I save with coupons and moving it into my savings account. On the 15th of each month, I’ll take the money and pay down additional debt. 

I also plan on signing up for Upromise since I can use that money to pay down existing student loan debt. It makes sense to take advantage of everything that I can get where I want to be!

I’ve started couponing to help stretch my $$$$ a little further. It’s amazing what you can do with a little work and some tiny slips of paper.

Deals I got this weekend:

Macy’s:
Shirt that was reduced from $54 to $27. I had a $10 off coupon for any purchase over $25.00. So that dropped the price to $17. With tax it came to $18.10.

Barnes and Noble
Purchased a Calendar and a book. I had a 15% coupon for any one Item plus I got my normal 10% discount for my card. I saved 6.66 total on the order and I walked out of the store for $32.73.

Walgreens:
Used their coupons for ribbon, medium shirt boxes, and gift bags. Total came to 17.10 before the coupons. After the coupons were applied I saved $7.46 and walked out of the store for $9.14

While I was home visiting my family over the Thanksgiving Holidays, I discovered that someone had the routing numbers to my personal bank account. I had a charge for $39.95 show up on my personal account from a company called “MB XL Entertainment.” These folks are apparently in the porn industry from the searches I’ve read on the internet and from what I’ve seen in my reading, they’ve been very active the past month or so all over the southeastern US. I’m still trying to figure out how they got my information. I had to freeze my bank account until I got home.

Do you know how hard it is to freeze an account when you are away from home? It basically took an act of Congress to get the job done, but I promised the lady at the bank I’d come in as soon as I got home to take care of the Affidavit for Fraudulent activity – which I did this morning.

That was the easy part. The hard part was determining where I needed to file the police report. Was it in the town I used to live in because that’s where the check appeared to be from? “NOPE.” said the League City PD “You need to go to your current jurisdiction.” So off I went to the Houston Jurisdiction where I live. The gal behind the desk checked with an officer and told me “No, you need to go to the city where your bank is and file the report there.” So off to Friendswood I go and I wait – for an hour- for an officer to see me. He told me to go back to the Houston PD and talk with a supervisor. So that’s what I did – only I ended up talking to the police chief of my little burg in Houston.

It seems that they aren’t quite sure what to do with internet check fraud. See in Texas apparently, it isn’t a crime that you take someone’s check until you actually forge the check and use it. However, since there is no actual check with an ACH transaction, no one appears (at least in my area) to know what the heck to do and who you need to file a complaint with. I was really hacked off by the time I was done. I spent 4 hours today trying to get my complaint filed. I got my case number only because I pitched a hissy fit but I got it done. I set a fraud alert on my credit accounts as well.

First Choice Power’s Motto should be changed from “Simply Better” to “Simply the Worst”. After I moved back in November 2007, I no longer needed their services since my new place had utilities included. After receiving a rather confusing bill in January from them because KwH were missed when they switched to their new billing system, I paid the amount I owed them and was told I should expect my deposit refund mid-March at the latest. I marked it on the calendar.

Mid-March came and went. At the end of the month I called them again. And found out that a payment from August had been reversed because their third party payment processor had a problem with their processing system. So what was supposed to be a $200 refund turned into approximately $73. I received no notice from First Choice about what happened with the third party processor because officially I was no longer on their customer rolls. But I was assured by their customer service person that I would be receiving my refund shortly. April came and went – again no check arrived in the mail so I called at the beginning of May.

I was told that there was a note in my file that my refund papers had been sent to the credit office on April 30th and that I should get my check within 7-10 business days. Ten business days have come and gone and I have yet to receive my check. So I called again this evening. No one can give me an answer as to why I haven’t recieved my check yet. I will have to call in the morning because the credit office is closed after 5.

It’s been almost seven months since I had service with First Choice Power. I feel like my money is being held hostage. Every time I call, no one can give me a good answer as to why I haven’t received my refund check and honestly, I doubt I will ever recieve the check.  I’ve spent at least 45 minutes on the phone each time I’ve called trying to get the appropriate answer to my questions. All I’ve gotten are a bunch of arbitrary dates as to when I should be getting my money and empty promises that I should get it soon.

$527.64

The first two weeks of tracking is complete. Overall it went pretty well. I ended up re-allotting some things to food. Food is my biggest budget item right now and this is an area I really need to work on. I got lazy because I’ve been sick a good chunk of the last two weeks and ended up re-assigning money from other categories to cover the eating out.  But this has been a good first round of this exercise. I will continue to refine this exercise over time. Next reporting on this will be in two weeks

I started planning the next two weeks this evening. I did put the payment for Angel Food Ministries in this paycheck. As I started looking at my cupboard and the stuff I already had in the freezer. I realized I have enough food to get me most of the way through the next two weeks without buy more except for some odds and ends as well as fresh produce.  

Check out Angel Food Ministries if you are looking for a way to stretch your budget.

My sister Patty told me about Angel Food Ministries (http://www.angelfoodministries.com) last week. This organization is a Non-profit org that helps folks put food on their table without breaking the bank. THERE ARE NO INCOME CEILINGS to participate.

Look for a location in your area by visiting their web site.