End of June Wrap-Up

Can you believe June is gone already? There are 176 days til Christmas 2008! I know July is going to fly by for me because Tina, Bryant and my grandbaby are coming into town this Friday the 4th and they will be here until July 20th...that time will go by much too quickly.

Dakota is going to Kids' Camp the 2nd weekend. This will be his last year that he's able to attend Kids' Camp. After this he is officially a youth (as far as church events go anyway.)

**House Shopping**

In the midst of all of this we are in the process of moving. We have waited for many years to have a place to call our own. When I began this blog exactly a year ago I talked about what had happened that had led us to this point. While I am sad to say we are not totally debt-free (as I had hoped) we do carry considerably much less debt and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now the question is....what to do? Is anyone going to let us purchase a home? No, we don't have money for a downpayment but I know there are so many programs out there to help with downpayment assistance. I've been researching and looking at the different programs. I did go to one lender already to see about getting pre-approved and was told we were going to be pre-approved...she needed a couple more pieces of information. After I faxed those to her I received a call from her the next day saying the underwriter was going to turn us down because she noticed that Greg is supposed to pay $1000/mo child support and he only has $923.08 deducted from his paycheck so she looks at that as "current" bad debt every month. When I explained that legally he doesn't make enough for his employer to deduct anymore from his paycheck she told us we need to go back to court and get that changed. Yes I know we need to do that...after years of dealing with child support issues on both sides (mine & his) we both just get tired of dealing with the hassle of it all.

I think my next step is to go talk to a friend of mine who is a mortgage lender to see about getting pre-approved and I am not even going to mention the whole child support issue. It actually came up as a fluke in that other situation and it bit me in the butt!
In the meantime I've been looking at apartments and rental homes just in case we don't get pre-approved to purchase a home right now. We have our "big" dog and it's a little harder to find rentals that accept large pets. I have found a few though and I'm going to look at them this week. I am so thrilled that rental prices have dropped around town! We looked into renting last year about this time and the rent was running from $950-$1300 for the size house we are looking for. Now we are in the $750-$900 range!!!

**CVS ECB**

Did you get your ExtraCare "Spring Spending" Bucks today? I got mine! I logged into CVS to check my account and see how much I earned for my purchases made last quarter. I got an extra $10.00!! Whooohoooo - FREE MONEY!

**Budget Info**

My husband has teased me all month about my "addiction" to CVS. Even though I only went to the store FIVE days out of the entire 30 days of June - I would hardly call that an addiction!

But just out of curiosity I thought I would keep up with my purchases this month...what I got, how much I spent of my own money and how much of CVS' money I used (their ECB) - here's the results -


Food Items:

Chex Mix x 2
Raisin Bran cereal
Milk 1 gallon
Eclipse 3 pk gum
Peanut M&Ms 27 oz
Powerade drink
Gold Emblem bottled water 24 ct
Doritos Nachos x 2
Trident gum x 2
Starbucks Vanilla Frappucino (my dear husband's purchase)
Sobe Life Water x 4

Healthcare/Medicines:

Bandaids 40 ct x 3
Arnicare pain relief
Alavert allergy pills
Tylenol Arthritis 24 ct

Cleaning Supplies:
Swiffer Wet Jet Refills x 2
Swiffer Duster Refills x 2
Dawn dish soap x 2
Lysol Neutra Air x 2
Canned Air car freshener (my dear husband's purchase)

Health & Beauty:
Jergens Natural glow moisturizer x 2
Got2be Spiking Hair glue x 2
Oral B toothbrush
Sally Hansen Nail Coloring Pen x 4
CVS tampons 5 ct
Stayfree pads 32 ct
Colgate Whitening toothpaste & toothbrush
Colgate Total toothpaste
CVS cotton balls x 2
Aussie Hair Gel
Clairol Hair color
Right Guard Professional deodorant
Brut Deodorant
CVS chapstick
Listerine Advanced – 1 liter
Physicians Formula mascara
Listerine smart rinse x 2
Oral B toothbrush 2 pk x 3
Sea Breeze face cleanser x 2
Q-tips 500 ct x 2
Q-tips 625 ct x 3
Huggies Bath Hair & Body Wash x 4

Household Supplies:
Charmin Toilet Paper 9 rolls x 2
Charmin Toilet paper 12 rolls x 2
Duracell Batteries AA 12 pk
Duracell Batteries AA 4pk x 2
Duracell Batteries AA 8 pk x 2
Ziploc Twist n Lock 3 ct storage containers x 4
Ziploc freezer bags 15 ct

Let my money talk...

Out of pocket expenses: $84.69 + $7.58 tax = $92.27

ECB's spent = $139.40