I was not cut out of child care

I have taken up a babysitting gig to make extra money. Now I must preface this by saying: I love the mommy I'm helping out and I love the kids I'm watching. But no amount of cuteness can make other kid's poop ok. Seriously. Not to mention snot, omg, I hate snot. I don't mind wiping my child's face but watching a child that doesn't "belong" to me lick his/her snot rope off their upper lip is gross.

My mother was a daycare provider for years. She would have 10 kids at a time (including my sis and I). How she wiped other's poop, snot and other bodily functions is beyond me. She even potty trained them. NO THANK YOU! She was (is) a rock star! In-home daycare is how she made the down payment for the house I grew up in. I thought about it for about a day. If I could take up babysitting full time I would have the money for our emergency fund and extra to start paying down the debt. And I would never have to get out of my jammies or leave the house. Imagine the money I would save on gas and a new business wardrobe! But after a good day of thinking I decided I don't like poopy diapers. The Boss only poops once a day, I had no idea I was completely spoiled by her turd like poops that practically come out without smearing.

So here I am, watching Finding Nemo for the 3rd time this week and periodically wiping snot ropes off of lips that don't belong to me. Thank goodness this is only for 4 weeks and only 4 hours a day. LOL yea....it's only 4 hours a day and I'm whining about poop and snot. Clearly, daycare provider was not on my list of occupations when I took my career placement test in community college.

Actually, it's Pinterest and Blogger but whatev
 

But all poops and snot aside, the Boss has had to get used to other's touching her toys. She generally hates people messing with her shit. So at least a little forced socialization and environmental invading might be good for her. And she naps like a mother fucker after they go home, sooooo score for Mommy!

Step One: $1000 Emergency Fund

Three weeks ago when I decided to start this financial journey I had $125 in our WF savings, $237 in the credit union savings and about $300 in our checking accounts. This isn't a great start. In the Total Money Makover Dave Ramsey says "...a high percentage of people can't write a $600 check (for something other than normal bills)." We are very close to being part of that percentage. Well after a week of fighting with Sexy Manboy about our finances we were convinced we had to get started, Now.

http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-step-1/

The idea is to make a budget and allot an amount from the budget towards the step you are currently in. We are in step one: $1000 Emergency Fund. After you have allotted what you can from your budget, finding "extra money" is the next step in building the fund. Since I haven't been successful in actually writing our budget yet, I am looking into the extra or found money aspect. I remembered that Sexy Manboy empties his pockets every day into his Harley-Davidson piggy bank/tin. I grabbed that and my piggy bank and started rolling...
Can you believe it??? $109.50 in a tin on the  nightstand! OMG! I practically RAN to the bank to deposit those sexy little rolls.

There it is, $109.50. Beautiful.
 (don't mind my terrible iphone photo, this is my first blog)

This weekend I had a huge yard sale. I sold clothes, some furniture pieces that were no longer needed, old sunglasses, shoes, I even sold a strobe light from when my sis and I were cool in middle school. Oh and lets not forget my Nintendo DS games, my actual DS was stolen from work about 3 years ago. I have been holding onto the games as if I was going to replace my gaming system from 6 years ago.  As for my Slumber Parties business, I put out my lingerie (new with tags) and the bath and body products and made a few dollars there too. In total I raked in $143!! Not bad for being up at 5:30 am. Of course, I ran to the bank again. This time I deposited $103, Sexy was leaving for a work trip and needed some cash. But damn it I am so excited, we are more than half way there!

So here is how we stack up as of today: Our Goal is $1000
$250.13 WF
$237.36 CU
$109.50 Coins in my house!
$103.00  Yard Sale
$699.99 TOTAL (omg over half way there)

I still haven't made a budget, I still am struggling with how much we get paid and our expenses. I'll get there, but in the mean time any cash I "find" goes in the emergency fund. It's kind of a backwards way of doing it but you haven't seen my so-called budget yet. I'm still reducing expenses and trying to make that shit work.

How did I get here?

I am a 30 year old stay at home mom, married twice and divorced once. I have a mortgage, car payment, credit card payments, until recently a gym membership and, of course, marriage counseling. Every week I get pissed off that I might have a $100 to last the week or until my husband's next pay check. My husband, Sexy Manboy, works hard and almost always puts in a 60+ work week. So how on Earth did we manage to get to this financial situation? Seriously. I got irritated with the balances with our checking account and happened to come across a blog that stated they had used Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps to get out of debt and start saving for college and retirement. I was intrigued, so like a good consumer I started looking on amazon for his books. Then I thought "well shit, i'm already broke. Should I really be spending money to find out how to get out of debt?" I drug my broke ass to the public library. I got the "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey and about 1/2 way through I was ready to shave my head and drink the Kool-Aid.

He looks like a nice trustworthy guy :)
http://www.daveramsey.com/home/

Forced to actually look at our financial status made me realize we are easily $11k in debt just with credit cards. WHAT THE FUCK?! How did we do that? Hadn't we paid them off? Aren't we making bigger payments? nope. We pay the minimum payments every month, no more no less. We don't even go around buying expensive shit.
Here's how we did it: I decided that I was going to start selling sex toys. So I got started in a direct sales company, purchased the kit on my credit card and started charging business supplies. Car magnets, a HUGE window decal complete with my phone number and website. Then I decided that my parties weren't successful because I didn't have the stock available the same night, c'mon no one wants to wait for their Bangin' Butterfly?! Soooo I charged that shit too. Before I knew it I had a $7900 (and some change) credit card balance. FUCK. That is a scary damn number. I'm also an active member of a mommy's group in my town, of course this means spending quality time with my kid and spending quality dollars on lunches, bounce houses, bowling, mom's nights in/out, baked goods, toys and whatever the else we think we need or want at the time.


There you have it folks, I am a spender. I have read the book and have convinced Sexy Manboy to cooperate and get our money back on track. I even purchased "Financial Peace: Revisited" in case I need a refresher of the steps or to be reminded that I'm doing this because I have no control over myself with a credit card. I am hoping to keep this blog as a motivator and maybe it will motivate others, or at least give you all a big fucking laugh when I am plugging away at my credit card debt and I'm dying to go to In-n-Out. My goal is to have the credit cards paid off in 12-18 months. Currently, We have $596 towards our $1k emergency fund. My biggest obstacle is trying to figure out a budget. I don't know how to write a budget. How did I get to 30 and never wrote a budget??? Really? I wanted to blame the parents for this but lets face it they told me not to use the credit cards, start a savings account and they have always lived within their means. They set example and I ignored it. Good Job, Claire.