The Professional Domestic

Cakes and Other Goodies I Have Done so Far This Year

I can’t believe I haven’t shared a cake update yet this year! To be honest though I haven’t done as many as last year because of my mom’s brain hemorrhage.

Here are some cakes and such I had fun doing:

500 cookies for Caledonia’s Memorial Day 250 celebration

End of year Elementary School retirement desserts Banana Cream Bars

Believe it or not this was for a 10 year old!

My favorite this time was the fish cake lol!

The one that gave me the most issue was the two-tiered wedding cake. It was hotter than hockey sticks that day and I just couldn’t get a smooth finish on it plus I was rushing!

Phew that was a lot, and I didn’t even take photos of all of them! I’ll update again soon 🙂 -MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – in the 3000s

Photo by http://www.kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

I was able to squeak out paying another $1000 on our one credit card account. This was originally the largest amount owed between the three cards but now has moved to the middle of the pack. Balance on it now will be $3335.93 after Friday’s payment. Although this card has come a long way, for some reason it is still making me so anxious. Everywhere I look there are things we really need done around the house and this year was the first year in three years I haven’t had a designated home maintenance project lined up. In the last three years we have:

2023 – New Kitchen Flooring Installed

2024 – New Kitchen Countertops and Range Hood Installed

2025 – New Storm and Back Entry Doors Installed

The other projects we desperately need to get done are going to cost way more than these three combined probably and we may need a Home Equity loan for them. I don’t want to take a loan out having this credit card debt hanging around.

That’s it for now. Will update again soon!

-MM

SAL-Heirloom Bride Ornament 11

Time for another 3 week SAL update!

Here is where I left off last update:

Here is where I am now:

She’s finished! A happy dance for me this time.

I started the last ornament and made some progress on it this week. Here it is:

You can start to see a teapot and teacup emerging.

The goal is to get it all stitched and maybe even sew the last 4 ornaments to complete the entire set of 12. We’ll see. I am in the middle of canning season so stitching may be a wonderful quiet time project.

That’s it for this update. Thank you Avis for organizing this group. We are all working on individual projects so please visit each one to see who is working on what.

See you in 3 weeks!

SAL-Heirloom Bride Ornament 11

Time for another 3 week SAL update!

Here is where I left off last update:

Here is where I am now:

These ornaments are so tedious with many small amounts per color. I have one more ornament after this one and I will be glad to move on to something else.

That’s it for this update. Thank you Avis for organizing this group. We are all working on individual projects so please visit each one to see who is working on what.

See you in 3 weeks!

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Week 3

Week 3 was a tough week. I usually sit at the computer on Wednesday mornings and pay any bills that need to be paid for the week and I did not do that for the 8th. This caused a chain reaction and suffice it to say created a shortage the next week for the 15th. PLUS we had two repair bills, one for a pressure release valve in the basement and one to repair a broken axle on the riding lawnmower. Soooo today when I paid bills I was not able to pay anymore to our debt like I wanted. Bummer.

I am not going to dwell on it though. Everything I see for next week’s paychecks give me every indication that I will again be able to pay another $1000 towards the credit card debt.

I do have an interesting story to tell you though! When I was chatting with our plumber as he was repairing the pressure release valve on the water line he said his son had had his first birthday! Oh, how wonderful for you all I said! Being a baker, I know people tend to have a lot of people at first birthdays nowadays so I asked him, almost with a wince how many people they had at the party. He said well we invited 185 people….WHAT??! Then he said it was regrets only so about 120 people RSVP’d but only 80 something showed up but they had enough food for the 120 people.

I just shook my head at him. He said he asked his wife why they were doing this and she said because everyone does. That statement right there is why everyone is in debt. Let me repeat myself…people doing something because everyone else is doing it is one of the reasons debt occurs. A one year old, unless this child is a miracle baby, does not need a party for 185 people. I told our plumber he should have put the money they spent on that party into a college fund for him/her.

I could go on about the nonsense that is going on today with the overwhelming pressure others put on us to do something we can’t afford. I remember even 20 years ago thinking why am I doing this when it came to yearly school and sports photos for our son. I did greatly reduce the package I bought down to an 8×10 and 4 4×5’s and that was it. And do you know what? I never did anything with them. They are still in the package they came in because I was never a “display pictures on the wall” kind of mom.

I’ll end my thoughts right there before I get into trouble.

I’ll update again next week!

-MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Week 2

There are two methods of thought when it comes to paying off credit card debt. The “Snowball” method and the “Avalanche” method.

The snowball method is when you pay off the credit card with the lowest balance first regardless of the interest rate which would give the debtor quick satisfaction. Once that credit card is paid you would roll that payment into the next smallest balance.

The avalanche method is when you pay off the credit card with the highest interest rate first. Once that credit card is paid you would roll that payment into the next highest interest balance.

I have decided to create a third method which I would like to call the “Blizzard” method which incorporates a little of both of the other methods. I feel like nowadays we get some pretty decent forecasted warnings of impending blizzards so we can prepare for them. This is the same type of method I have taken with our credit card debt. I was bothered most by the highest balance credit card, it was keeping me up at night. Instead of paying off the lowest balance card which was $2600 I wanted to plow as much money into the highest balance card which at the time was $15,500. After doing a balance transfer and combining 2 cards, I had a year with zero percent interest. After the zero percent offer was done, I had paid about $6000 off on it bringing it down to about $9500. I went a couple of months with the interest rate at 23.99% and was drowning again so I called the credit card company, and they lowered the rate to 7.99% for 6 months! (It can really pay to ask for a reduction in interest rate) Now after a few shorts months I have that credit card balance down to $4200! So, if you can prepare yourself with getting the interest rate lowered and do a balance transfer to get yourself ready for the “Blizzard” you can then plow as much money into the highest balance card. (I love these snow references lol)

Now that the highest balance card is down to $4200 that means I have paid off $7454 of debt so far this year bringing me just $2500 left to reach my goal of paying off $10,000.

I still have three credit cards, but one card is $4200, one is $2600 and one is about $5800. And guess what? Because of my “Blizzard” method my credit score has soared to 805! Pretty amazing right?

I’ll update again next week.

-MM

SAL-Heirloom Bride Ornament 11

Just a quick update on #11

Here is where I left off last update:

Here is where I am now:

Not a ton done but progress is progress right?

I am sorry to report that Sharon is taking an extended break. Best wishes to you Sharon and we all hope you will be back soon!

That’s it for this update.

See you in 3 weeks!