The Go Green Challenge Comes to an End

First let me start out by saying I DID use my debit card on Monday and Tuesday of this week to get gas and groceries, but I refrained from any unessesary spending which was very tempting while I was out and about. My girlfriend gave me $3 bucks so I wouldn't have to use my card to buy a book that I so desparately wanted which was cool because I haven't put the book down yet!

All in all the challege was a great sucess. I learned many many lessons and figured out that as long as you have a plan for your money it always works out. For the month of July I will be holding a yard sale with my best friend, and hopefully will generate enough cash to go clothes shopping with at the outlet mall.

I am also looking forward to couponing. Ever since I started collecting them I have formed a habit of checking to see if what I need from the store has a coupon. So far I haven't been able to save anything with a coupon but hey its only been 3 weeks, so im going to give it time. Going green brought me closer to my kitchen which was a welcomed experience as well. I look forward to doing a budget in July and all the way through becoming debt free. I would like to say thanks to Young Mogul In Training and her friends for doing the challenge with me and hope you got as much out of it as I did!!

Until next time, use cash and go green!!

Facing Giants (my own)

Yesterday was a particularly interesting day as I decided I was going to face some things I had been putting off due to fear.

As you all know my home had an offer placed on it over a week ago. For the most part I have been blessed to supply everything the realtor is asking for considering they basically need your whole life when doing a short sale. However as of late my realtor hasn't been so pleasant and each day my frustration has been growing. Well I decided that I need to put an end to the madness! Throughout the process of purchasing my first home and selling it now it has never been pleasant. One of the reasons I got my real estate license was so that I COULD be the good agent and people wouldn't have to put up with the agent that bites! I currently don't actively sell real estate but it is one of my future goals when all this debt is paid off and I have built up a hefty bank account. Anywhoot so I wrote a letter to the company expressing my concerns and my good friend helped me draft the letter.

Im usually not so good at confrontation but its something that I feel God is bring out of me because as I get older things like this will come up and if I don't face it (just like the car situation) I will be left with a mess on my hands. So here is the letter I wrote....

Dear Mr. Jon Swords,

This e-mail is being sent to inform you that, I have applied and paid for the home inspection for 12851 Riverview St which is Scheduled for July 1,2010. I would also like to make you aware of several issues that have arisen in my attempts to sale my property, namely, my dissatisfaction with
the service I have received from my agent John Lewis.

First, is the issue regarding the property not being able to be entered at the time the agent wanted to do a showing. I received an email days later stating there was a chain on the door. When I contacted Mr. Lewis regarding not notifying me sooner, His response to me was "I did not have your number". This was extremely disappointing as the sale of the property is important to me and should be important to your company as well. I had expected that any time there would be an issue regarding the property, at the very least the real estate office would be contacted in order to obtain my number on file in order to schedule appointments.

Second, I do not appreciate being told things at the last minute, i.e. being informed about the inspection cost and fees regarding the law firm's negotiation of the short sale. It is unnecessarily
stressful to receive news that has financial ramifications for me that is likely information my agent could have shared earlier.

Finally, I question Mr. Lewis's level of professionalism. When communicating with me about the inspection cost and law fees, he made racially offensive comments about Detroit's former mayor. He insinuated that I am on a first-name basis with the former mayor and that if I had a problem with
paying for the inspection, that I should take it up with Kwame. I am a black woman, who was raised in the city of Detroit but find it highly offensive that someone I have a business relationship with--Mr. Lewis--would make any hint of associating me with someone who has been convicted of a crime.

Based on the issues above I would like to request another agent to complete this process. Though we are in the final stages of the sale of this property, I expect professionalism and good customer service from the agency. My experiences are not enabling me to give good reviews or referrals
for your agency. I desire a more positive and professional relationship. If your company cannot provide me with another agent, I have made arrangement to do business with another company.

I look forward to being in communication with you regarding the new agent who will be assigned to work with me to sale my property.

Respectfully,

Kimike Clark

Oprahs Debt Diet

I caught my first episode of the debt diet series yesterday and it was pretty good. If you get an opportunity please tune in, as they talk about a lot of things that Dave Ramsey covers!! Not to mention the entertainment value is pretty appealing if you have been on this journey for a while and can remember some of the same struggles....

Go Green 'Money cometh my way"

Its a funny thing how God works!! Yesterday I had put the last of my go green challenge money into the gas tank, all $13 dollars. The day before I had spent $20 bucks on a new outfit and the plan was to not eat out for the next 7 days! Well low and behold yesterday I recieved $80 dollars!!! It was totally unexpected but perfect timing. I ended up using half of the $80 to take my 2 girlfriends to dinner and I do have plans for the other $40 bucks but im going to try to be as wise as possible with it.

So over the last couple weeks I have received a total of $125 semi extra dollars!! Getting all this money has reminded me a lot of the old days when I use to budget and what Dave Ramsey would refer to as "found money" when you have a plan for your money, you always end up with extra or more some how. When I use to budget that was always proven to be true so its nice to have the feeling back. So with the help of loving people my go green challenge just may be a success!! stay tuned!!

If I Was A Boy and My Go Green Challenge

I am a beyonce fan (don't judge me lol) and if there was any song I could relate to right now it would be "If I were a boy". I hate it so much when men KNOW they can take advantage of you JUST because you are a woman!! My initial thought when the situation came up (Which I will share in a second) was see if I had a boyfriend none of this would have happened. But then I recanted that statement and told my self I just need to learn to think like a man.

The story:

As you all know I brought a new car a few months ago. Since then the old car had been sitting at the mechanics shop ever since then. So recently he called me and told me to come get it. So since I knew the car wasn't worth much, which is what he has been telling me for the last two months. I called someone to go pick it up! I get a call today saying the POLICE are at the shop and my mechanic wants to take me to small claims court if I don't bring him $50 bucks. I had to go to the bank and get $50 bucks to keep the peace. When I get to the shop he starts going on about how mad he is at the guy who came to get the car (basically he took it out on me by charging me the money to keep the car). Then he goes on grilling me about who I sold the car too and how he could have gotten me $150 for the car!! hello you told me it was worth 0 DOLLARS!! Im not a mind reader.

Point is I believe I was seriously taken advanage of and it makes me wonder, how many other times I have been taken advantage of. Thankfully it wasn't over a lot of money but I really believe I need to step up my game as a woman and learn the tricks of the trade so it doesn't end up costing me MORE money.

Black People and Debt Freedom

I would like to start this post by saying, I don't have any statistics, no hard core facts or research. This is just my observation of things going on around me every day.

If you know anything about me you know that I am a big fan of wealth building and debt freedom. I have developed this passion over the last two years and its continually growing. While I have enjoyed the process of becoming debt free myself, I have enjoyed helping people more. But one thing I have noticed over the years is that black people don't wanna get outta debt!!!

I remember last year going to a Dave Ramsey Live event and seeing over 5,000 people in attendance. I think I could count on 2 hands how many black people I saw. Now I know the economy isn't the greatest but I do remember those tickets being $10 bucks at one point in time. Heck me and my family went for free due to volunteering. There is a lot of free information out there about getting out of debt yet it seems my people don't care and this frustrates me. I was talking to my pastor about the issue and his words were "you know we don't like to pay for stuff" Thats a funny statement because I see people all the time with the latest cars, clothes, and shoes everyday.

I used to think nobody wanted the information because most of us had it all together, well over the years I learned that certainly isn't true. So what is it about our culture that can't grasp the need to not leave debt to our families? My pastor was telling me how if we didn't charge or slap Dave Ramsey on everything then maybe it would sell. I am pretty confident in my ability to teach this stuff but Dave Ramsey has a little bit better track record than I do. My passion for this stuff is serious and I just hate that people miss out due to stubbornness. Over the next year I plan to work at getting this information out to my church family. I hate not having to charge money knowing I PAID my own money to get the materials in the first place, not to mention the stuff works if you actually apply it.

There will be a time when I can stand in front of an audience and be bold enough to say "cut it out". Im working courage but seriously this is bugging the crap outta me. At any rate, im determined to make it out of the race and PROVE what can be done when you build wealth, give and save. If I eventually gotta pay for people to go through financial peace my self I will, thats just how much I care about this.

So I ask, why do you think people shy away from becoming financially stable?

My $25 Dollar Living Room!

So my living room is 95% complete thanks to my mother who is queen of bargain shopping. This whole room has been empty (minus the tv and stand) for almost a year up until now. When I moved into my place I had nothing, zippo, zilch, nada. This was my first place since living in a college apartment complex with roommates, furniture and drama included lol.

I was so happy to have my own place, that I didn't even need furniture I was just happy to be living on my own again. Last year was a very trying time in regards to becoming debt free, I had very bad credit so not too many people would rent to me, and I lived with 2 other girls which I can safely say they were the spawn of Satan no kidding!! But looking back through the sacrifice I mad it and now slowly coming full circle.

This living room is very important to me because it represents my sacrifice and testimony in that when you WAIT things will eventually fall into place. There has been many a days when I wanted to just say bunk it and buy all new furniture and go nuts at ikea or something but I held back. Funny thing is I prayed for furniture that wouldn't cost me and well God hears ALL prayers because 2 months after I prayed that prayer it came to pass! My living room needs a few more touches but the bulk of it is complete and I am so very proud and thankful for my momma and her looking out for me. So here is the break down of cost, who says you can't design on a dime!!

Couch - Free from freecycle.org which is a website were people just give stuff away. The couch came in almost like new condition and all I did was brought new stuffing for the pillows and re-stuffed them.

Chairs - Free from a friend of a co-worker. There are 6 chairs total which I have sitting at the table I brought from a yard sale a while back ago. Eventually I want to buy a nice set but for now it works!

Coffee table- $5 bucks at a yard sale. My mom found this table and its actually a super cool table that the people purchased from Ikea. Its my favorite part of the whole room.

Tv stand - $20 walmart- my ex boyfriend gave me the t.v and I refuse to purchase a new tv right now but when I am debt free its on and popping!

Eventually I want to buy a rug, and hang some pictures, and wall art, so how did we do?

(the view outside my window)