Update

Income:
Craft Fair: $57

Expenses:
Craft Booth Fee: $20

Net Profit:
Craft Fair: $37


Craft Fair this weekend wasn't as good as I had hoped. But earned a little cash.

Also closed 2 credit cards that had zero balances this morning. Hope that was the right thing to do and won't affect our FICO score too much. We now only have one credit card left and it has a zero balance. I don't think I will close that one. I just feel better keeping it around in case of emergencies. After all, our Fully Funded Emergency Fund isn't in place yet. I know Dave Ramsey wouldn't approve, but it makes me feel safer.

I did open an ING Direct account. Got a $25 bonus just for opening the account (with an initial deposit of at least $250). My plan is to use the ING Direct account for our "extra funds" from high commission months, our $1,000 Baby Emergency Fund, and money we are saving to replace the heating system, etc. All this kind of stuff. The balance will go up and down as we move funds in and out of the account.

I will keep our Emigrant Direct savings account to put all the funds that would normally be in our Debt Snowball paying off our last debt ($23,000 Home Equity Loan). Our target "snowball" amount is $1,100 a month. We are temporarily not paying it to the debt but instead putting it into savings "just in case" (i.e. due to the bad economy - no commissions, or God forbid - a layoff, etc.). The reason I decided to put this money in a separate account is that I need the gratification of watching an account go up and up month after month (like watching the debt amount go down and down month after month). And this way, any time I earn a little extra cash I can funnell that extra money into this account. I am hoping this will give me the extra momentum that I need right now. It was driving me crazy watching our 1 savings account go up and down all the time - not giving me any real sense of accomplishment. Now I can focus on growing this account as large as I can. I hope to "get gazelle" about it!