Slow and steady...

This paycheck we are taking the slow and steady approach to paying down our debt. The house payment eats up a bunch of the money but we will still be able to pay $144 to debt. Not bad! That puts our total amount paid to the Visa for March at $1178.01! Pretty darn awesome! I'm extremely glad to see that we are so close to being under $12,000. Interest will add another $100 or so, but after our regular payment in the middle of the month, it will definitely be under $12k. Yahoo!!!

I am keeping our goal for paying off the credit card at November, but it looks like we might be done paying for it by October! Woo Hoo!! That will be SO awesome. It's been so great to get rid of all our other loans...this Visa is the big monster and so the it feels like the road ahead is a long one. But I'm sure October will come fast enough...thank heavens! I can't wait.

Anyway - that's about it for now. I haven't read any more books - although this weekend I'll be picking up a copy of Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" from the library. They finally have a copy reserved for me! I'm sure I'm going to love it.

I am going to work on a menu for the next week...I'm going to try to be under budget this week so I can possibly buy some nice brunch foods for Easter morning. I'm not sure it will matter though - DH is taking Boys with him so he can play his saxophone at a friend's church and I'll be going to a meeting at our church. So - I won't even really see my family til 12:30pm on Easter. Hmmm...looks like I might be able to just save the 'nice brunch' money and buy a bunch of Diet Coke instead! Ha Ha.

April Budget

DH's love for Excel is rubbing off on me....I've made a budget spreadsheet for the year and for each paycheck. We've got Quicken but I don't like the budget part so much, so I made my own. I know DH could do so much better, but for now mine will work for me. DH has his own fancy shmancy spreadsheet on his computer that he likes but it's way too complicated for me!!

I'm estimating that we'll be able to pay $1500 - $1700 to the Visa in April! Woo hoo! That's including Easter and saving some money for Christmas, along with all the other bills for the month. I've got every dollar assigned right now but you know how life is....there are always variables that you can't count on....Baby's Mom might not bring him a day or two, utilities might be higher or lower, etc. We have done the budget for this next paycheck but not the budget for the month. I've got to find out how many family birthdays we have next month, we also are going to buy some school pictures...those little things.

I also offered a while ago to give my friend a baby shower. She decided (with her mom) that she'd just combine all the baby showers since she lives in another state and will only be here for a week or so. So - the small, intimate, friend shower I offered to give has blossomed into friends, Her family, His family, and anyone else she knows here. Fortunately, her mom has kind of taken over planning the shower but I might be in charge of the invites. Which, I'm guessing, her mom will also take over because she wants them out by tomorrow and that won't happen if I am in charge! I can't get to a store to buy the paper, etc. til Friday night or Saturday when I have a car. And it's yet another thing that I need to figure out how that will fit in the budget. Hmmmm......

Anyway...I'm constantly amazed that managing our money has enabled us to find money to pay for bills, clothes, food, house, tithing, etc.,.......AND pay a bunch towards debt. Awesome! Our money has a purpose now and it seems to go a lot further this way. I've got such a rocker-awesome hubby. He's been so great during this whole journey and I'm so grateful for him....he's my rock star!

More random thoughts....

I started a couple more books this weekend. The first is by Ben Stein (love him!) called "How to Ruin Your Financial Life". I've been getting a kick out of it...how can you not with Ben Stein? Anyway - I love the sarcasm and the way he can call you an idiot without being so mean as to actually call you (me, her, him, them, etc.) an idiot!
"By the way, do you want to know a good test of whether or not you've overused your credit cards and carrying too large a balance? Well, if the banks and credit-card companies are still offering you applications for cards, that shows that everything's fine and you have plenty of reserve spending capacity."
Funny stuff.....!!

The second book is called "Money, A Memoir" by Liz Perle. I haven't gotten very far in this one but it's about "Women, Emotions, and Cash"....the emotional connection women have with money and the struggles that go along with it. I think it will be an interesting read.

DH and I are going to work on the April's budget hopefully today or tomorrow. We have to figure in Easter, dentist, baby shower for my friend, lawn care and a few other things. I'm always excited to do that to see how much we'll be able to pay towards the credit card....I can't wait til it's paid off!!

Just a note...

We paid another $72 last night on the Visa. How awesome is that? This month we paid off the LOC, the Home Depot, saved $1,000 and put over $1,000 on the Visa. I'd say that's a pretty successful month!

Two Random Thoughts...

First Random thought:
My mom paid for our Costco membership as a 'thank you' for DH doing their taxes. A very kind thank you. I know she wanted to do something nice for DH to show her and dad's appreciation - I think the Costco membership might have been because she feels sorry for us. I've said to her a few times that our renewal is not in the budget this month. I've also told her, though, that we have a tight budget because we will be debt free by November...she might have forgotten that part. Anyway....I am so proud of DH and I for working so hard. This debt-reduction plan has been extremely challenging and, well, pretty much the opposite of easy! Anyway - it came to me last night that this means that the reward at the end of this journey will be that much sweeter. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward....right? Already I have found so much satisfaction in how hard we have worked to knock out so much debt in two months. We've paid off FOUR loans! This is one big, huge, pat on our backs! Good job to us!

Second Random Thought:
I was thinking this morning that I've been struggling with the 'no car loan' issue. DH wants to keep going and pay off the car ASAP after November. While I've liked the idea, I've just been selfish and wanting to have a new (used) van. I think in the back of my head I've been thinking that maybe we could just save 1/2 the money and get a loan for the rest. But this morning I must be feeling the effects of DH's commitment and perseverance....I think it would just be better to fix the old clunker sitting in the driveway and then saving money for a van. This car might take $500 - $2,000 to fix (I have no idea at this point). We could save money up to fix the car and use it until it doesn't run anymore or until we have enough saved to buy a decent used van...whichever comes first. I'm pretty sure I've waffled back and forth on this issue in the last couple of months, but I'm a lot more dedicated now to staying debt free than I was even one month ago. We'll see. DH gets back from his business trip today and so we'll chat about it soon. It doesn't really matter right now anyway. We've been fine (mostly) with one car since December...I can do it for another year! I might regret that statement, but I'm sure it can be done!

SOSDD

As my dad always says....SOSDD....Same old (stuff) different day. Not much new again today. After Baby leaves, I'm off to deposit my babysitting money, run a couple of errands for a church activity and then back home.

I've done my menu and grocery list for next week and I think I'm set....even though I'm cooking a fairly expensive dinner on Saturday and then taking dinner to a family of four on Monday. The dinner on Saturday is expensive upfront, but then I can make a ton of extras and stick them in the freezer for leftovers. Mmmmmm......spring rolls! My mouth is watering already!

Anyway - just listening to Dave Ramsey while I'm typing this....I find it very inspirational to keep focused on debt payment. It's sometimes tempting to pad the envelopes with extra money - especially the grocery envelope! BUT....thank heavens for teamwork because DH & I are accountable to each other and so all extra money goes to debt. It feels so good to make those extra payments. So far, this month, we've put about $962 on the VISA (including our regular payment). I'm so proud of us!! It will be over $1,000 after the babysitting money is paid on it. Woo Hoo!!

Another debt payment...

I paid another $134 on the VISA this morning. We finally got our gas bill yesterday and it was $36 less than what we budgeted. I can't wait to get rid of this last debt monster. What a relief that will be! November is not that far away!

That's just about it for today....I know....boring! Nothing too exciting.....other than having all the bills paid for this month and food in the house. That's such a good feeling!

I am feeling extremely grateful today for DH's awesome job and his ability to provide for his family. I'm grateful for DH, our kids, the house, food, clothing, car, neighbors, friends, family, religion...all of it.

Turning down money....

Today Baby's Mom and Dad brought Baby and a check over (yes, they remembered to pay me this week!). They paid me for yesterday even though they didn't bring him. I thought that was a really decent thing to do and I totally appreciate the thought. So, what else could I do? I gave the check back and asked them to write me another for just four days worth of work. I had to fight him on that, but he finally took the check and will bring me another tomorrow. The funny thing is that if I was still working for RSIC (Ridiculously Stupid Insurance Co), I'd expect that pay and I'd accept nothing less! Oh well...what do you do?

On the debt front....I'm still waiting to get the gas bill before I can pay more to the VISA. Hopefully it will be a lot less this month since Feb/Mar was quite a bit warmer than Jan/Feb. I will have $80 tomorrow ($72 after tithing) but we've got a nephew birthday party on Sunday and Easter is also coming up. DH and I will need to sit down and discuss upcoming expenses that aren't exactly part of the budget.

I listened to a bunch of Dave Ramsey CDs yesterday. On the subject of budgets, he said it would take about 3 months for the budget to really work....basically, plan on failing the first couple of months. We've stuck to our budget but pretty much only because DH is hard core. He doesn't budge an inch when he gets his mind set on something (I know where Boy #2 got his temperament!! Ha Ha). Anyway - as exasperating as that is sometimes, I am so glad that being stubborn is one of his characteristics. It has served us well with this debt reduction/budget plan we've been on. Good job, babe! You ROCK!

Oops...

When I estimated that we'd be able to put an additional $250 on our credit card, I forgot a couple things so the estimate has gone way down! I forgot that we budgeted $50 for a trip to the dentist for Boy #1 and also $50 for a celebratory dinner for DH & I.

We've been working on this budget for almost two months and we've been incredibly disciplined so we are rewarding ourselves with a date. We rarely go out to eat, so this is a special treat. Two months isn't really that long of a time, but we've had a big bonus and a big tax refund that could have been blown on less responsible things than paying down debt. I think we deserve a night out!!

Today, Baby's Dad called to say that Baby's Mom is taking the day off because he got a tooth or two over the weekend so he's grumpy. First timers....hahaha. They said that they didn't want me to have a grumpy baby......like I've never dealt with one of those before! Anyway - that takes 1/5 of my paycheck for the week. Which is okay because I'd much rather spend the day with just my boys at the park. Next week, Boy #1 goes back to school after having 3 weeks off and since we've had Baby both weeks he's been off track (and assuming we'll having Baby again tomorrow), this is the only weekday that it will be just Mom and Sons. I'll have to make it loads of fun!

So anyhoo - I don't feel bad at all about only the paying the minimum on the VISA because we've paid down a ton of debt this month and we got our emergency fund started at $1000. Not too shabby! Good for us!

Book Review

Not much new on the financial front today - status is the same as yesterday. Just waiting for bills to come in so we can pay more on the VISA.

I'm going to start listening to the Dave Ramsey CDs and last night I finished another personal finance book, "The Family CFO" by Mary Claire Allvine, CFP, and Christine Larson. I use the term 'reading' loosely. I skimmed over more than half of the book. It was a bit too gimmicky and involved for me to really get into. It was ALL in business lingo which was too much for me. I think you'd have to have a degree in business for the book to make sense. The caption on the front of the book says "The couple's business plan for love and money". It was definitely a business plan - not much to do with love and I think the 'couples' part might be in there somewhere, if you look hard enough. So, I realize that not being able to learn from this book might make me a little bit on the dull side, and I'm okay with that! What can you do?

The last chapter in the book is called "Better Sex Through Financial Management". Their parting pieces of advice are 1) Define your priorities. 2) Treat your family like a business. 3) Simplify. 4) Do your own best practices survey (asking people you respect how they manage their money). Hmmmm...my DH would be severely disappointed! Okay...I was severely disappointed! Ha.....ha....ha. Anyway - I took one thing that I liked from that book (the couples retreat) and now I'll return it to the library. I'm sure it's an excellent book for those people who LOVE business and can't get enough of it. For me....the regular stay-at-home-mom? I'll stick with Dave Ramsey, David Bach, and any other book I find helpful and we'll call it a day!

A Change of Plans....

Today is payday...woo hoo! DH proposed a change of plans which I readily agreed to. Instead of paying $1200 to the VISA, we put $1000 in a savings account for our emergency fund. I feel much better having that bit of money put away for a just-in-case cushion. As of right now, we've only paid the minimum payment on the VISA but we should be able to put a bit more on it. It all depends on a few bills that haven't come in yet...we've budgeted for them but don't have the exact amount yet. On Monday, we'll have one more week of babysitting money, so hopefully we'll end up paying another $250 or so on the VISA.

I did a spreadsheet this morning of all the payments we've made to debts since D-day. We've paid over $10,000 in about 7 weeks...that is including regular payments, tax refund, and bonus money. Wow - I can't even describe the relief that soon we won't have to worry about this last debt monster and we currently don't have to worry about the four other debt monsters we've paid off.

So....seven weeks is not that long of a time considering DH and I have been married for over 12 years. But as time goes on, my belief that finances must be done together is becoming greater and greater. This belief is pretty firm - you will be more successful if you do budgeting together and if you have goals together. I don't see how you can fill your potential if you do these things separately. What a difference it has made for us, anyway!

Two more down!

This morning, DH got his bonus so we immediately paid down some more debt. We paid off the LOC and the Home Depot! YAHOO!! There's an extra $106 per month that we can put towards debt, which means that we've added about $300 per month just from paying off four of our loans. That rocks!!

We are scheduled to pay off our last loan, the VISA, by November. We'll be getting an 'extra' check in May and another in October so we might be able to knock it out a week or two earlier than we are planning. This is so exciting! What a great feeling to pay down these monsters.

So...tomorrow (payday), we'll be able to pay down another $700 or so on the VISA and a little bit more on Monday when I get paid again (assuming they remember...hahaha). Next week my paycheck will be half of what it normally is since the mom is going off-track. I will miss the money for those three weeks that she's out of school, but it will be really nice to have a break from babysitting.

Since it's my turn for the carpool, I'll be walking to and from school. It will be fun to get some exercise, some fresh air and some sun. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with my plan!

Just as a side note...I'm feeling humbled this morning that I've got such a great guy. He's got a heart of gold - no matter what he tries to tell me or anybody else. I know the truth....I <3 u!!

Fences and Frontline...

If you want to watch a fascinating show about credit cards, go to:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/.

I don't know how to make it all pretty so you get the ugly link. I was reading "the bizarro world debt elimination freak show" blog (http://bizarroworldfreakshow.blogspot.com) and that's how I came across the link to PBS.org. Like I said - I don't know yet how to do the pretty links...I'll have to ask DH how to add them in later....

Anyway - this Frontline show makes me want to hurry even faster to get rid of this credit card debt. I can't wait for Thursday - payday and bonus day! We will be able to knock off two more loans and really dig into the last one. I asked DH this morning if he and I could go out to dinner with a little bit of the money - just kind of a reward as well as a date night for us. We both need it! He needs a night out more than me, but I'm not going to pass up a date with my honey! He ROCKS!

Anyway - it's mostly quiet on the financial front, other than the fact that I told our neighbor that we won't be going in on a fence this year. It's the year of debt elimination and so there's just no room for any new fences this year. She was totally cool about it, which is good. So - that's it for now! More to come later...

Budgets and Butter...Peanut Butter, that is...

I did our grocery shopping on Saturday...I spent about $90 for the week for our family. I splurged and bought the kids a bag of raisins, which they LOVE. Anyway - I forgot to buy peanut butter! How did this happen? It's traumatic, really. I mean, how can a family with three young boys and one grown-up boy live for an entire week without peanut butter? The problem is that I have only two dollars and some change. If only I hadn't bought those darn raisins! Ha Ha. Anyway, I might be able to buy a small jar of the store brand peanut butter....just enough to get us through the week. Let's hope it's on sale!

Last night I tried a new recipe and I'm pretty happy with the results. It was Double Herb Roasted Chicken and Potatoes. Here's the breakdown: Chicken $4.50, Potatoes $1.10, Basil $1.15, other ingredients I had on hand (peas, salad dressing, s & p, olive oil) - total cost of dinner for five people $6.75. Not bad for a nice Sunday evening dinner! That is definitely our most expensive meal of the week. Plus, we get a new recipe to put into our rotation of dinners. Can't complain about that!

The rest of the week we'll eat spaghetti, tacos, Navajo tacos...nothing fancy, nothing expensive. This grocery budget is still a challenge, but I'm getting in the groove of things. I really like the fact that we have kept our $400 cushion in the checking account and haven't touched it once. It really is exciting to know that in a matter of months, we will be in charge of where our money is going. I asked DH the other day if I could save my babysitting money for a few months after we are revolving-debt free. I have wanted to buy something for a really long time but it's just never been in the cards. I can't tell him what it is, but I can say that its not for me and that I think he will be extremely happy when we get it. I'm really excited about it and I can't wait to be able to purchase it. I'll let you know early next year (or Christmas time, depending on when everything gets paid off!) what it is and DH's reaction...

Looking forward....

So I've been in a bit of a funk this week. Lots of personal stuff, friends having lots of personal stuff...you get the idea. So I'm going to pull myself up by the bootstraps and get back into a groove. The good news is that on the financial front, things are AWESOME!

DH found out a couple of days ago what his bonus will be...sounds like it will be a really good one! So, on Thursday, we'll be able to finish off the LOC, finish off the Home Depot, and start on the VISA. Our goal is still to have everything paid off by November, but we are both hoping it will be sooner than that. I'm looking forward to it, whenever it is!

We figured out the other night that we will have given ourselves almost a $10,000 a year raise by the time this is all said and done. That's not all from debt....most of it is, but some of it came from getting rid of some things that we don't really need. The "Latte Factor" as they say.

I started reading a book called "The Family CFO". It has a ton of business jargon (duh) which means that I have skimmed over much of the first couple of chapters....no offense to the authors, I'm just a simple minded girl with no background in business. Anyway...one thing that I really liked and that I badly want to start in my marriage is a yearly retreat. The idea is that many businesses will have yearly retreats, some for a couple of hours, some for a weekend, some for anything in between. Those retreats are spent away from the business where there will be no interruptions and the focus is purely on whatever topic they come up with...usually goals or motivation, etc. This book talks about combining the yearly retreat with a weekend getaway. What a fabulous idea! So - we go on a getaway, just the two of us, discuss our goals for 90 minutes and spend the rest of the time just being together, reconnecting, and having fun. I talked about it with DH and he seemed to like the idea also. I'd like to make it an anniversary trip but that may not happen this year...unless we can pay everything off by September 19! Anyway - this is something I'd really like to do - I thought it was a great idea!

Excerpt from Getting Green blog

Getting Green - Information For Those Who Want To Be Millionaires: "You know that you're going to have to buy things within a certain amount of time, yet most people think that they don't have enough money to save for such things. This is because most people don't budget their income and just let their money slip away from them rather than telling their money what to do on paper on purpose."

I really like that last sentence...telling your money what to do on paper on purpose. Money does tend to slip away so easily without a plan. Well...even with a plan it can slip away without discipline! But I'm learning that the money has to have a purpose and a place to go. Otherwise it just goes away. And that's no good. Thanks Getting Green for the reminder of the importance of a budget plan!

Coupons and groceries

So...we canceled our subscription to the newspaper which means I don't get the Sunday paper with the coupon inserts anymore. I just tried looking through ads for two stores where I don't really like to shop and it about drove me crazy. I don't really have the patience to inspect all the tiny, fuzzy pictures searching for an item that I can only hope is on sale...I just tried it and it gave me a headache! My friend recently suggested that I plan my weekly menu around what's on sale at the grocery store. So - I thought I'd try it and 1) I've got the headache as a souvenir and 2) I found it SO tedious. What a baby....I know. I think I'm a bit like my second son...he has to be pulled, prodded, and bribed into each change or new adventure.

Is this one of those things that I've got to learn to accept as a mom on a budget? Is there a way around scouring the Internet and ads for good deals? I've read and heard about people who go to the grocery store and walk out with $50 worth of groceries that they paid $5 for. Really...how do they do that? How do they do that without spending hours finding the best deals and driving to 50 different stores? Hmmm...I think I might be a bit grumpy about this whole coupon thing! Better change my attitude before my next trip to the store!!

Payments and Perfume

Today we were able to pay another $177 to the LOC.....WOO HOO! We'll be able to pay off the remaining $419 next Thursday and then that loan will be gone. What a relief! We are knocking down this debt faster than I thought...yea for us!

DH is nice enough to let me make all the payments. Maybe he really doesn't care about doing it which is just fine with me....I enjoy it. I'm a nerd that way, though! Just ask my girlfriend across the street. She gave me an awesome pencil sharpener for Christmas...it was one of my favorite gifts! (After, of course, the Tiffany jewelry and perfume and sweater). I told you I am a nerd!

Anyway - it just makes me happy to see these debt balances go down instead of up. After all this is said and done, we can watch our savings balances go up instead of nowhere. Now that's the way it's supposed to be!

So I'd say the keys to our progress so far has been honesty with each other about where our joint money is going and the envelope budgeting. I feel like we've come a long way in 6 weeks and I'm excited about our financial future. Now if I can just talk DH into that water softener....

Credit Cards & Cruise Ships....

Well, baby's mom paid me yesterday when she came to pick him up. Thank goodness! I SO did not want to have to ask for money again. So there's another $180 to the LOC once it's been deposited.

DH will be getting a bonus on the 15th or so...who knows how much it will be, but we're hoping for a good-sized check. That, of course, will go straight to debt. First to the Home Depot, then to the credit card. Our goal is to have our CCs paid off in November, but hopefully it will be sooner with any bonus money coming in. There's also the two 'extra' paychecks - from getting paid every two weeks as opposed to twice a month. That should help put a dent in this debt.

Our original goal was to have everything paid off by March 2008. We've now changed it to November 2007 and hopefully it will be even sooner with those other checks coming in. Woo Hoo!! I can see the cruise ship at the end of this debt road! Here we come!!

March Goals...and ramblings....

So February was a GREAT month for debt reduction. I'm really happy with how much we were able to pay off and how disciplined we were. It was really hard sometimes, but I'm thrilled at the overall outcome. Some of the highlights for February....
*we stuck to our budget for groceries (which was a challenge - especially the $30 week!)
*we paid off the Student loan, the Vespa, and most of the LOC (thanks in a huge part to our tax refund but lots of it to discipline)
*best of all...DH & I are talking openly about our finances and working together as a team.

I told DH the other day that all this money going to debt is bittersweet....sweet because we are digging our way out of this hole, bitter because all that money could go towards something fun. That sounds like I'd rather buy fun things now even with all this debt, but that's not what I mean. I mean that it's bitter because if we (and if I) had been smarter with our money, we wouldn't have the mess we have....we wouldn't have to be paying all this money to debt because we wouldn't have any! But my sweet DH had such a positive attitude. He said that you can't think that way - IT is what it is and we are doing our best to change it so we are never in this mess again. I was surprised a little bit at his 'glass is half full' attitude. I tell you what...it's just what I needed to hear...especially from him. It meant more to me than I can explain. What a guy!

So - looking forward in March...more debt reduction! We will be able to pay off the rest of the LOC by mid-March and some of the Home Depot balance. By the end of the month, we should be able to pay off the remainder of the HD card and move on to our biggest balance which is the credit card.

I was hoping to mail my babysitting money in to the bank today but the parent's forgot to pay me again. This is the second time in two pay periods that they haven't paid me when they said they would. I hope the mom pays me this afternoon because I REALLY don't want to ask them for money again! They pay me in advance, so I don't feel like I can be too antsy with it. I was, however, really hoping to be able to pay another $180 to the LOC. I guess it will have to wait for a day or two...

I decided yesterday that I have a deadline for growing my hair out. I'm trying to grow it out to donate to Locks of Love. My MIL has breast cancer and she lost all her hair. Her sons shaved their heads in support of her and I told her I'd grow my hair out to donate. It's proving to be more difficult than I thought. I'm just not looking my best these days and my hair is just one thing I'd like to change. Anyway - what does this have to do with debt reduction? We figure that we plan to have all debt (except car and house) paid off in November, so that's as good a time as any to get an all-around fresh start.

Slowly but surely

Today we were able to knock off another $400 of debt. It's SO exciting and in a way, a little bit frustrating. Frustrating that we can't just pay it and be done with it. The desire to be debt free is there....can't that count for something? Maybe I can call to see if the bank will just write off the rest of the debt because.........can't they see how sincerly sorry and repentant I am?!? Do you think it will work? Okay - maybe not. But wouldn't it be nice and easy?!