We paid off the last of our credit card debt yesterday!
(cue Hallelujah Chorus music)
We still have some medical bills and the IRS bill, but the credit card amount was the biggest bear. It feels so good to know that one isn't chasing us anymore. ;o) The others are smaller and will disappear pretty quickly now that the credit card debt, with its greedy interest rate, isn't eating all our discretionary income.
With the last year's setbacks, we hadn't thought we would finish paying off debt until a year from now. But God, who is rich in mercy, reminded my husband of some stock he had purchased a long time ago through his old company's employee stock purchase program. Since it wasn't attached to a retirement account, the Warrior Poet sold it. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to kill the biggest bear.
I think there is light at the end of this tunnel!
The Warrior Poet is such a romantic. He informed me of his actions by texting me:
I have a surprise for you when you get home. It will probably make your jaw hit the floor. This is not an understatement.
When I got home, I saw that he had made a path through our room with post-it notes. The post-its said:
#1. I love you.
#2. Thank you for loving me.
#3. Even though I am often a big dumb rock.
#4. But sometimes even a blind squirrel... well, you know.
#5. I have a surprise. Very big. When I say big, I mean big.
#6. When you find out about this surprise, you'll agree I was not kidding about the MAGNITUDE!!
#7. Have I ever mentioned what an awesome God we serve?
#8. Because I feel he most certainly deserves huge credit for this.
#9. There are some days when a moment or two of total clarity hits me. Today was definitely one of those.
#10. It felt like scales falling from my eyes.
#11. Well, I have now drawn this out long enough and I see you are giddy with anticipation.
#12. Open the medicine cabinet...
When I opened it, I saw a statement from the investment company and another note from the WP stating that this stock was not connected to our retirement accounts. He then told me he had instructed them to sell, sell, sell, and the amount would be so much.
I could not believe it. It really was a surprise of first magnitude!
(Yes, the post-its were numbered. He is methodical as well as romantic. ;o)
So... I have an awesome God AND an fabulous honey. And I will keep these post-its forever and ever.
Showing posts with label Personal Finance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Finance. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Monday, July 12, 2010
Van Paid, Check!
(Find previous getting-out-of-debt posts here.)
Well, the Warrior Poet and I have sent off our final payment on the van loan. Yippee! It only took us five (!) years. Here's praying that the transmission doesn't fall out before we save up for a replacement!
(Those of you who think you need a new car even though you have to schedule the payments out for sixty months, don't do it! Back away from the salesman. Please pay cash for a beater instead of going into long-term debt for a car. Believe me.)
But God has been good to us. Two years ago, we faced the fact that not only were we $25,000 in debt (excluding the house), we were too undisciplined to get out of debt without personal help. We enlisted the aid of a personal financial coach for six months, who trained us to keep our heads in the game and our eyes on the goal. He was very helpful. He still replies to our occasional emails when things go awry and we don't know what to do.
Anyway, in two years we have paid off over $15,000. We listen to folks on Dave Ramsey that have paid off $50,000 or more in two years, and realize we are not nearly as aggressive as Dave recommends, BUT we have still paid off $15,000 in debt in two years.
(We realized in the counselling sessions that the only way we could get that aggressive would be to put the kids in school and send me back to work full-time. We decided that we were Not In That Bad Of Shape. We were going to do this thing while homeschooling if at all possible, even if it took longer.)
$9700 to go. Yippee!
Well, the Warrior Poet and I have sent off our final payment on the van loan. Yippee! It only took us five (!) years. Here's praying that the transmission doesn't fall out before we save up for a replacement!
(Those of you who think you need a new car even though you have to schedule the payments out for sixty months, don't do it! Back away from the salesman. Please pay cash for a beater instead of going into long-term debt for a car. Believe me.)
But God has been good to us. Two years ago, we faced the fact that not only were we $25,000 in debt (excluding the house), we were too undisciplined to get out of debt without personal help. We enlisted the aid of a personal financial coach for six months, who trained us to keep our heads in the game and our eyes on the goal. He was very helpful. He still replies to our occasional emails when things go awry and we don't know what to do.
Anyway, in two years we have paid off over $15,000. We listen to folks on Dave Ramsey that have paid off $50,000 or more in two years, and realize we are not nearly as aggressive as Dave recommends, BUT we have still paid off $15,000 in debt in two years.
(We realized in the counselling sessions that the only way we could get that aggressive would be to put the kids in school and send me back to work full-time. We decided that we were Not In That Bad Of Shape. We were going to do this thing while homeschooling if at all possible, even if it took longer.)
$9700 to go. Yippee!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Screaming on Dave Ramsey
Around three or four years ago, we discovered Dave Ramsey. We attended Financial Peace University, a class which contains very good advice on managing expenses and getting out of debt. We agreed with the ideas, but it was difficult changing our habits on our own. So, two years later, we hired a personal financial counselor for six months. He helped us tremendously by evaluating our personal financial situation, showing us our "stinking thinking" in some areas, and challenging us to shift our paradigms where acquiring payments is concerned. (I can still hear that guy in my head, which is a good thing.) At that point, we rededicated ourselves to paying off credit card debt, which had gotten to $17,000. Throw in our car note, and the total at the time was $21,000 actually it was more like $25,000 with the car note-- little math error there. Read my previous personal finance posts here.
Anyhoo, all that background to say-- we are still working toward freedom from financial debt. We listen to Dave's show whenever it is on and we are in the van, and just love hearing people tell their stories and scream, "We're debt free!" with their families. We want to be one of those families next December. (Even the kids. When we hear a family scream, one of the girls will say, "That's gonna be us some day," or "When do you think we'll get to do that, Mom?")
Our total amount of credit card debt stands at $10,820, around $900 less than it was in August. With the car note (which is scheduled to be paid in full within seven months) our total to pay off by December is $13,420.
$3,685 of that is with the wicked company that refused to lower its usurious rate of 29.99% last August. Needless to say, this is the account on which we pay extra. It is my goal to have it completely cleaned up and closed by the end of February, and I think we can do it with a tax refund and Mr. Honey's bonus. This account costs us around $100 in finance charges every month. (Contrast that with $11 per month interest on the car note and $60 per month on the other credit card account-- the account that carries the bulk of our debt!)
Once we get that monster out of the way, the snowball ought to speed down the hill, yippee! As long as we stay focused. As long as *I* stay focused. Summer and fall are our most expensive seasons of the year, so we must be very gazelle-intense this winter and spring if we are to meet this goal.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We have not been gazelle-intense like Dave says to be. We have let trips and gift purchases and lovely books get in the way. Murphy has hit us with theft and health issues and car repairs. But if we keep plugging away at it, we will have this debt gone by the end of the year. We will be *that family* screaming, "We're debt free!" on Dave Ramsey next December.
Prayers would be wonderful. If you feel so led, will you pray that I will be disciplined in the little things, that Mr. Honey be kept from temptation regarding occasional large purchases, that the kids will be patient with our frequent "no" to their financial requests, that I will be able to say "no" cheerfully, that the van's engine and transmission will stay healthy, that the house and appliances will remain in good shape, that ill health will not interfere, that Mr. Honey's job will continue stable, and that, whatever happens, we will keep our focus on the Lord.
Mr. Honey's sales position has remained remarkably stable during this time of economic crisis, which is a blessing from the Lord. He has given Mr. Honey determination and stamina to work harder and harder in order to be one of the salesmen that keeps his job, and He continues to provide sales.
We gotta do this. It is hard, and it takes so long, but in a way I am glad it is taking a long time-- I do not ever want to go back to a debt lifestyle, and all these struggles are changing us into people who want to avoid that bondage more than we want stuff. At least, I pray it is so. I see the little ways I sabotage our efforts, and find one more thing to work on. All these 'one more things' add up to a different way of thinking that I hope we will maintain for the rest of our lives, giving us more ability to be a blessing to others.
Anyhoo, all that background to say-- we are still working toward freedom from financial debt. We listen to Dave's show whenever it is on and we are in the van, and just love hearing people tell their stories and scream, "We're debt free!" with their families. We want to be one of those families next December. (Even the kids. When we hear a family scream, one of the girls will say, "That's gonna be us some day," or "When do you think we'll get to do that, Mom?")
Our total amount of credit card debt stands at $10,820, around $900 less than it was in August. With the car note (which is scheduled to be paid in full within seven months) our total to pay off by December is $13,420.
$3,685 of that is with the wicked company that refused to lower its usurious rate of 29.99% last August. Needless to say, this is the account on which we pay extra. It is my goal to have it completely cleaned up and closed by the end of February, and I think we can do it with a tax refund and Mr. Honey's bonus. This account costs us around $100 in finance charges every month. (Contrast that with $11 per month interest on the car note and $60 per month on the other credit card account-- the account that carries the bulk of our debt!)
Once we get that monster out of the way, the snowball ought to speed down the hill, yippee! As long as we stay focused. As long as *I* stay focused. Summer and fall are our most expensive seasons of the year, so we must be very gazelle-intense this winter and spring if we are to meet this goal.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We have not been gazelle-intense like Dave says to be. We have let trips and gift purchases and lovely books get in the way. Murphy has hit us with theft and health issues and car repairs. But if we keep plugging away at it, we will have this debt gone by the end of the year. We will be *that family* screaming, "We're debt free!" on Dave Ramsey next December.
Prayers would be wonderful. If you feel so led, will you pray that I will be disciplined in the little things, that Mr. Honey be kept from temptation regarding occasional large purchases, that the kids will be patient with our frequent "no" to their financial requests, that I will be able to say "no" cheerfully, that the van's engine and transmission will stay healthy, that the house and appliances will remain in good shape, that ill health will not interfere, that Mr. Honey's job will continue stable, and that, whatever happens, we will keep our focus on the Lord.
Mr. Honey's sales position has remained remarkably stable during this time of economic crisis, which is a blessing from the Lord. He has given Mr. Honey determination and stamina to work harder and harder in order to be one of the salesmen that keeps his job, and He continues to provide sales.
We gotta do this. It is hard, and it takes so long, but in a way I am glad it is taking a long time-- I do not ever want to go back to a debt lifestyle, and all these struggles are changing us into people who want to avoid that bondage more than we want stuff. At least, I pray it is so. I see the little ways I sabotage our efforts, and find one more thing to work on. All these 'one more things' add up to a different way of thinking that I hope we will maintain for the rest of our lives, giving us more ability to be a blessing to others.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
One Year Financial Update
I dealt with the nicest credit card customer service person yesterday. She was so helpful that I almost asked if she was a Dave Ramsey disciple who had gone to work at the credit card company in order to help folks reduce their servitude to the banks. She lowered our interest rate, which had been at 19.99% since a year ago (due to a bill last August that we had paid pro rata while beginning to turn our financial ship around) and also helped me transfer a good portion of our other credit card debt to this company with a blessed 1.99% interest rate-- and I do mean blessed, because that other credit card company has been charging us 29.99% and when I talked to them on the phone about reducing their usurous rate* they basically said, "tough luck" and "you made your bed, now lie in it" and other things of an unmerciful and ungracious nature. The accomodating customer service rep also gave us a $30 credit on our account to avoid the possibility that the balance transfer might send us above our credit limit.
All of this adds up to a savings of $155 per month on finance charges for at least the next eight months.
That awful rate on the second credit card bill was eating our lunch, I'll tell you. We hadn't made much progress on our debt for months, despite sending around $700 or more combined every month to those two companies. We were paying $300 per month in finance charges, combined. It was terribly discouraging.
Also, for the sake of honesty I want to mention that we went to paying the minimums for the summer, which has always been the most expensive time of year for us, what with visiting family and friends and preparing for the new school year. This is not what Dave recommends, but I just don't know how to not go see my family every year, especially my 84yo grandparents. But we did not go further into debt to do it. So I guess we aren't living with quite as much gazelle-like intensity as we should, but like I said earlier, I just can't say "no seeing far away friends and family" if there is some way we can visit. (And yes, it is all me. Mr. Honey is much better at being disciplined where travel expenses are concerned.) And we would both rather not have homeschooling be a casualty of our financial stupidity, although the idea of giving it up has been discussed. (And discarded. But it has been discussed. We know that homeschooling puts an additional financial burden on us.) But we are back to putting everything** not necessary for basic living onto the credit cards, and I have a hope that we will have it all paid off in one year (oh, please, let us pay it off in one year).
For the record, we are down to $11,700 on credit card debt, from $17,000 one year ago.
Also, here is an example of that awful thinking that gets me into trouble: A couple of days ago I was at the Kroger and saw a nice seven-piece patio set for $187.99, which included a large rectangular wrought-iron and glass table, four cushioned wrought-iron seats, an umbrella and umbrella stand. This is a great deal in our area for a patio set, and I have wanted one for at least five years. (We have a table that we got for free, but no seating.) I immediately decided I was going to push for buying that table with Mr. Honey, rationalizing that it was such an killer deal and we had the money... in our emergency fund... As I began to talk through the idea, the Lord thankfully revealed to me that a killer deal on a patio set is not an emergency. Shucks. I didn't even notice that until I started trying to convince another person that this was a good idea.
What a sinner I am. This is the kind of thinking that keeps us under the power of the credit card companies, even if we don't go into debt to make purchases. If we are in debt, we need to forego a lot of things and focus on paying off the debt as soon as possible.
So I guess you could say that financial decisions continue to be a struggle for me. Prayers for wisdom and resistance to temptation are appreciated.
This may be too much honesty for some people, and if it is, I apologize. But light dispels darkness, and I want to call my financial sin what it is. I want folks to know that regular people that others think are upstanding quietly wrestle with sin like this. (Only, obviously, I am not being quiet about it. And perhaps there aren't many people that think we are upstanding, but it seems like people think that.)
*The rate on this other account was a result of the same pro rata decision last August, as well as our occasional failure to pay on time despite good intentions, because the payment due date was too close to Mr. Honey's payday and if I didn't get the payment in the mail the absolute moment his check hit our account, it would be one day overdue. I know, I should have called and had them change the due date the first month it happened, but I kept forgetting, and I really despise talking to those people on the phone. How expensive was my carelessness and repulsion!
**I just realized that this sounds like we are charging things on the credit card, but what I mean is that we are putting all *money* not necessary for daily living on the credit card debt. That was a little confusing.
All of this adds up to a savings of $155 per month on finance charges for at least the next eight months.
That awful rate on the second credit card bill was eating our lunch, I'll tell you. We hadn't made much progress on our debt for months, despite sending around $700 or more combined every month to those two companies. We were paying $300 per month in finance charges, combined. It was terribly discouraging.
Also, for the sake of honesty I want to mention that we went to paying the minimums for the summer, which has always been the most expensive time of year for us, what with visiting family and friends and preparing for the new school year. This is not what Dave recommends, but I just don't know how to not go see my family every year, especially my 84yo grandparents. But we did not go further into debt to do it. So I guess we aren't living with quite as much gazelle-like intensity as we should, but like I said earlier, I just can't say "no seeing far away friends and family" if there is some way we can visit. (And yes, it is all me. Mr. Honey is much better at being disciplined where travel expenses are concerned.) And we would both rather not have homeschooling be a casualty of our financial stupidity, although the idea of giving it up has been discussed. (And discarded. But it has been discussed. We know that homeschooling puts an additional financial burden on us.) But we are back to putting everything** not necessary for basic living onto the credit cards, and I have a hope that we will have it all paid off in one year (oh, please, let us pay it off in one year).
For the record, we are down to $11,700 on credit card debt, from $17,000 one year ago.
Also, here is an example of that awful thinking that gets me into trouble: A couple of days ago I was at the Kroger and saw a nice seven-piece patio set for $187.99, which included a large rectangular wrought-iron and glass table, four cushioned wrought-iron seats, an umbrella and umbrella stand. This is a great deal in our area for a patio set, and I have wanted one for at least five years. (We have a table that we got for free, but no seating.) I immediately decided I was going to push for buying that table with Mr. Honey, rationalizing that it was such an killer deal and we had the money... in our emergency fund... As I began to talk through the idea, the Lord thankfully revealed to me that a killer deal on a patio set is not an emergency. Shucks. I didn't even notice that until I started trying to convince another person that this was a good idea.
What a sinner I am. This is the kind of thinking that keeps us under the power of the credit card companies, even if we don't go into debt to make purchases. If we are in debt, we need to forego a lot of things and focus on paying off the debt as soon as possible.
So I guess you could say that financial decisions continue to be a struggle for me. Prayers for wisdom and resistance to temptation are appreciated.
This may be too much honesty for some people, and if it is, I apologize. But light dispels darkness, and I want to call my financial sin what it is. I want folks to know that regular people that others think are upstanding quietly wrestle with sin like this. (Only, obviously, I am not being quiet about it. And perhaps there aren't many people that think we are upstanding, but it seems like people think that.)
*The rate on this other account was a result of the same pro rata decision last August, as well as our occasional failure to pay on time despite good intentions, because the payment due date was too close to Mr. Honey's payday and if I didn't get the payment in the mail the absolute moment his check hit our account, it would be one day overdue. I know, I should have called and had them change the due date the first month it happened, but I kept forgetting, and I really despise talking to those people on the phone. How expensive was my carelessness and repulsion!
**I just realized that this sounds like we are charging things on the credit card, but what I mean is that we are putting all *money* not necessary for daily living on the credit card debt. That was a little confusing.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Seven Months: When Life Gets Busy
Well, this is our seventh month of gazelle-like intensity where paying off debt is concerned. I got quite busy with Other Things this month, and neglected to keep up with our expenses and accounts the way I should have. My neglect (helped by Murphy, of course) caused a few errors.
As I have said before, our month starts on the 20th of the previous month, so at the beginning of February (which is really January 20th), we were able to fill the emergency fund back up to $1,000 and pay around $300 over the minimums on our credit cards.
Then life happened-- Mariel injured her wrist, Mr. Honey's back pain became just too awful, Cornflower's allergies flared up anew, and the van gave us trouble yet again. Add in a hectic schedule of Girl Scout cookie selling and Bronze Award project planning, science fair prep, and piano recital (in addition to regularly scheduled events and projects) and blend with a mom who is pretty good at multi-tasking-- but this is ridiculous! and you have a recipe for simple financial chaos.
So here is the damage:
1) We went more than $150 over our food budget (some of this was eating out).
2) We overspent in the school category by around $100
3) We reduced the emergency fund by around $600 getting the van fixed
4) We triggered the overdraft twice, to the tune of around $70-- I didn't use cash only this month, and also didn't keep up with the checking account register.
Because I didn't account for expenses regularly like I should have, I was quite frazzled by the time I did sit down and reckon things up. I finally got that part done today, and feel quite accomplished about it.
And we are still okay!
We have almost half of a baby emergency fund, and ought to be able to fill it back up on the 20th of this month, Lord willing; we have some money in the car repair, home repair, and doctor/medicine categories; and I am going to scale way back on school spending for the next little while, to make up for my overzealous purchasing of birdseed, science fair boards, double-sided sticky tape, ink cartridges and paper, Girl Scout field trips and audio stories.
Mr. Honey got a traffic ticket yesterday, so that is going to set us back a bit in the new month. Probably around $150. Thankfully, he hasn't had a ticket in awhile, so it won't mess up our auto insurance premium. But now we have to be extremely careful, since we have both gotten tickets in the last few months.
(I have to mention here how very calm I was when he told me about it. I didn't even tense up at the unexpected large expense. I knew we would be able to cover it somehow, because we have a plan. Even though I haven't been following it as well as I should have for the last few weeks, I knew we would be okay. I can't say enough about planning and short-term savings. What a blessing these things are-- with these tools, we are able to use the money the Lord has provided for us in a deliberate way and make something beautiful. I was at liberty to comfort my honey when he felt awful instead of being imprisoned in fear, muttering something while stifling my own anxiety. This kind of interaction is good for a marriage; I highly recommend it.)
I am planning to do the taxes in the next week or two (I'm waiting on one more piece of paperwork), and we will get a refund. With that and whatever Mr. Honey makes over and above his regular amount, I think we will be able to pay over the minimum on our credit cards again, pay off the overdraft, and pay for a few more chiropractor visits for Mr. Honey-- and perhaps set aside a little for summer vacations (I hope!)-- in addition to refilling the emergency fund and filling our regular short-term saving categories.
It does seem that Murphy gave it to us with both barrels this month, BUT-- our house is still standing, our van runs again, Mr. Honey has a steady income, our family is reasonably healthy, and we have good food and clothing in addition to other items we need to meet our school and work objectives. The Lord is faithful.
Previous posts on getting out of debt:
Six Months: God is Good
Five Months: Be Prepared and Don't Be Scared
Four Months: Short-Term Savings Categorized in Excel
Three Months: One Credit Card Paid Off!
Two Months: Baby Step One, Check!
More Than a Month
$17,000
As I have said before, our month starts on the 20th of the previous month, so at the beginning of February (which is really January 20th), we were able to fill the emergency fund back up to $1,000 and pay around $300 over the minimums on our credit cards.
Then life happened-- Mariel injured her wrist, Mr. Honey's back pain became just too awful, Cornflower's allergies flared up anew, and the van gave us trouble yet again. Add in a hectic schedule of Girl Scout cookie selling and Bronze Award project planning, science fair prep, and piano recital (in addition to regularly scheduled events and projects) and blend with a mom who is pretty good at multi-tasking-- but this is ridiculous! and you have a recipe for simple financial chaos.
So here is the damage:
1) We went more than $150 over our food budget (some of this was eating out).
2) We overspent in the school category by around $100
3) We reduced the emergency fund by around $600 getting the van fixed
4) We triggered the overdraft twice, to the tune of around $70-- I didn't use cash only this month, and also didn't keep up with the checking account register.
Because I didn't account for expenses regularly like I should have, I was quite frazzled by the time I did sit down and reckon things up. I finally got that part done today, and feel quite accomplished about it.
And we are still okay!
We have almost half of a baby emergency fund, and ought to be able to fill it back up on the 20th of this month, Lord willing; we have some money in the car repair, home repair, and doctor/medicine categories; and I am going to scale way back on school spending for the next little while, to make up for my overzealous purchasing of birdseed, science fair boards, double-sided sticky tape, ink cartridges and paper, Girl Scout field trips and audio stories.
Mr. Honey got a traffic ticket yesterday, so that is going to set us back a bit in the new month. Probably around $150. Thankfully, he hasn't had a ticket in awhile, so it won't mess up our auto insurance premium. But now we have to be extremely careful, since we have both gotten tickets in the last few months.
(I have to mention here how very calm I was when he told me about it. I didn't even tense up at the unexpected large expense. I knew we would be able to cover it somehow, because we have a plan. Even though I haven't been following it as well as I should have for the last few weeks, I knew we would be okay. I can't say enough about planning and short-term savings. What a blessing these things are-- with these tools, we are able to use the money the Lord has provided for us in a deliberate way and make something beautiful. I was at liberty to comfort my honey when he felt awful instead of being imprisoned in fear, muttering something while stifling my own anxiety. This kind of interaction is good for a marriage; I highly recommend it.)
I am planning to do the taxes in the next week or two (I'm waiting on one more piece of paperwork), and we will get a refund. With that and whatever Mr. Honey makes over and above his regular amount, I think we will be able to pay over the minimum on our credit cards again, pay off the overdraft, and pay for a few more chiropractor visits for Mr. Honey-- and perhaps set aside a little for summer vacations (I hope!)-- in addition to refilling the emergency fund and filling our regular short-term saving categories.
It does seem that Murphy gave it to us with both barrels this month, BUT-- our house is still standing, our van runs again, Mr. Honey has a steady income, our family is reasonably healthy, and we have good food and clothing in addition to other items we need to meet our school and work objectives. The Lord is faithful.
Previous posts on getting out of debt:
Six Months: God is Good
Five Months: Be Prepared and Don't Be Scared
Four Months: Short-Term Savings Categorized in Excel
Three Months: One Credit Card Paid Off!
Two Months: Baby Step One, Check!
More Than a Month
$17,000
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Six Months: God is Good
Remember how I said last month that I had a sense of abundance where finances were concerned, in spite of scary job news and large van repair expenses? Well, we spent more optimistically than we probably should have, so there were a couple of worrisome moments when I thought we might have a problem. Things worked out, though.
(Previous personal finance posts here.)
Our fiscal month starts on the 20th and ends on the 19th, so the past month included our final spending before Christmas. It was difficult, being busy and getting things finished up for the holiday, to stay within limits. For one thing, I didn't get cash for the envelopes when Mr. Honey's commission check hit, and so I was using the debit card and thinking I would keep a tally in my head.
(There are a lot of things floating around in my head. Just the other day, I was trying to focus on the song service in church while my mind insisted on thinking through an article on habit formation. I would marshall my mind and get back to thinking about Jesus' love and mercy toward us, and ideas about guiding children would pop into the middle of it. An undisciplined mind is a terrible thing.)
Anyway, the cash system is a good system because it is solid. There is no doubt that you have reached the end of the grocery budget when there are no more dollars in the envelope. Needless to say, using my check card, I spent more dollars than I would have using cash, and caused myself the headache of additional reconciliation of the checking account.
In a related situation, while Christmas shopping, I spent from the checking account without first transferring gift money from short-term savings to checking. I thought I would transfer the money later, but I got busy. And forgot. We nearly had a big 'oops', but Mr. Honey was able to make a transfer for me just in time.
Thankfully, we never had an overdrawn moment. We did, however, go a little overbudget in our spending and have to rearrange things.
If you have been following our financial journey, you will remember that Mr. Honey got the word from the boss that he needed to sell, sell, sell if he wanted to keep his job come February. He has been under a lot of stress and strain, and has been working almost constantly. The week before Christmas, he made a sale that put him over the top! Calloo, callay!! So his job is a little safer than it was a month ago. Last week, the company laid off 1000 people internationally, and Mr. Honey was *not* one of them. (Some of the folks that *were* laid off could ill afford it, though. Who can afford to be laid off, anyway?) This was the first time Mr. Honey's company has had a mass layoff. They didn't even do that during the Great Depression.
The week before Christmas, Mr. Honey expressed frustration with his phone. He had $50 from a Craigslist sale that he was saving for something else, but he decided to put it on a new phone instead. He listed a couple of other things on Craigslist to make up the difference between what the phone cost and his $50, and we decided for him to go ahead and get the phone and we would cover the cost using money from another bucket until the items sold. However, purchasing the new phone ended up costing more than we thought it would. Those telecom companies get you coming and going. (They also told Mr. Honey he would have a $50 credit for all the hassle he has gone through with his phone-- then later I found out that credit will be applied *at some point* to our phone bill, not directly to the purchase of a new phone. And then when we received the bill, it was over $100 more than it should have been and he had to spend a good forty-five minutes letting them know that they had put one of our phones on the wrong calling plan. Erg.) But now Mr. Honey has the phone he needs, and Triss has my old phone (I got Mr. Honey's old phone). She is paying the monthly add-on fee ($10) herself.
Mr. Honey's monthly commission paycheck arrived the week before Christmas, and was less than I had planned for it to be. Living on commission is so exciting! I redid the budget for the month, and we ended up only putting a couple hundred dollars into the emergency fund, bringing it up to not quite half the Babystep 1 amount of $1000. (In November we had to use most of the e-fund to fix the van.)
Christmas was joyous and peaceful.
About two weeks into January, Mariel slammed into a metal light pole while running a race with some friends at the park and split her chin open, which required Urgent Care attention. Then, this week, she fell on her wrist while roller skating and fractured the growth plate of her humerus, requiring x-rays, a splint and a sling. We went to a nearby free-standing emergency room for that one. We have spent around $85 on doctors for her so far this month, and $12 on pain medication. She has more doctor visits and possibly a consultation with an orthopedic surgeon upcoming, so our doctor bills will be significantly more than usual this month.
Mr. Honey has been having lots of back problems and has finally found a chiropractor that will work for him. (We pay chiropractors a specialist copay.) He is going to be receiving adjustments a couple times per week for the next month or so, and that will also raise our doctor bills. (He feels awful about this, but I just want him to be free of pain. He sits up late until his eyes won't stay open because his back hurts so much every night. I really hope this chiropractor will be able to help him.)
The Lord has provided for all these doctor bills! Mr. Honey's commission check this week was several hundred dollars more than we were expecting. Great work, Honey!
When I paid the bills last night for the beginning of the new month, I was able to put aside money for the doctors, finish refilling the emergency fund to the Babystep 1 level of $1000, and still pay $300 over the minimums on the credit cards.
The best part of all is that when these needs arose, we are able to take care of them with cash. I know I keep going on about how wonderful it is to just have the cash and take care of it, but we were so foolish for so long that I feel amazing comfort every time I tense up at an unexpected expense and then realize I can relax because we have it covered. I can't tell you how I felt both times Mariel hurt herself, when I realized that I could just comfort her and not have to worry about where the money was coming from. I could even treat her to a small something special as a get-well gift.
The car still needs some repairs and I have that money in the short-term savings account. The kids are due for eye exams and well-child visits, too. I think we'll do those in February, after the dust settles from our recent expenses.
Our monthly clothing budget is $25 per month. I know that is pitifully small for a family with three growing children, but you would not believe the volume of clothing other families give us. (And we love receiving so many nice things! We pass the things we can't use to other families.) Still, the smallness of budget does leave a little to be desired, especially on hard-to-fit items, like jeans. I took some of the extra money from Mr. Honey's commissions this week and purchased Triss two new pair of jeans on sale at Burlington Coat Factory. She really needed them, as she had only one pair of jeans, and those were at least an inch too short.
We also made a purchase from the Erskine family business, Living Books for the Ears, which came out of our school budget. They are discontinuing a lot of their materials in anticipation of the new law from the CPSC, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. They asked that each order be at least $50, so I spent a little over that and got some wonderful audio books and radio shows, including history stories, Shakespeare and classic literature retold as radio plays. My parents fixed the kids up with mp3 players at Christmas, so my plan is to load these shows and stories onto their players and they can listen whenever they want. We have a few CDs of this type already, and the kids love listening to them.
(I am disgruntled at the poorly worded CPSIA, and get so disgusted with the way the people on Capitol Hill jostle around and grandstand and blame each other when they really need to just *fix* the thing, but that is a post for another day.)
So, it's been six months since we started our new gazelle-like intensity. Our credit card balance has gone down around $5,500 since July, an average of almost $1000 paid off per month. At the beginning of the process, we couldn't see how we would be able to pay more than maybe $100 over minimums each month, but God has been faithful to bless our efforts. We have a little over $11,000 left to pay off, and if we continue the way we have, we will be done with credit cards in thirteen months (or less, given the way the debt snowball works). This is a big improvement over my expectation when we started, which was that it would take us over two years to pay of our credit cards.
After we get those finished, we still have our car note. (Very aggravating paying a car note on a vehicle that has over 100,000 miles and is beginning to fall apart. Please be cautious if you decide to finance a new car. Or just drive a beater until you can pay cash for a late-model, low-mileage used vehicle, like Dave says. Don't do what we did.)
Once we get that finished, it will be on to pay off the house!
I wonder how long it will take?
(Previous personal finance posts here.)
Our fiscal month starts on the 20th and ends on the 19th, so the past month included our final spending before Christmas. It was difficult, being busy and getting things finished up for the holiday, to stay within limits. For one thing, I didn't get cash for the envelopes when Mr. Honey's commission check hit, and so I was using the debit card and thinking I would keep a tally in my head.
(There are a lot of things floating around in my head. Just the other day, I was trying to focus on the song service in church while my mind insisted on thinking through an article on habit formation. I would marshall my mind and get back to thinking about Jesus' love and mercy toward us, and ideas about guiding children would pop into the middle of it. An undisciplined mind is a terrible thing.)
Anyway, the cash system is a good system because it is solid. There is no doubt that you have reached the end of the grocery budget when there are no more dollars in the envelope. Needless to say, using my check card, I spent more dollars than I would have using cash, and caused myself the headache of additional reconciliation of the checking account.
In a related situation, while Christmas shopping, I spent from the checking account without first transferring gift money from short-term savings to checking. I thought I would transfer the money later, but I got busy. And forgot. We nearly had a big 'oops', but Mr. Honey was able to make a transfer for me just in time.
Thankfully, we never had an overdrawn moment. We did, however, go a little overbudget in our spending and have to rearrange things.
If you have been following our financial journey, you will remember that Mr. Honey got the word from the boss that he needed to sell, sell, sell if he wanted to keep his job come February. He has been under a lot of stress and strain, and has been working almost constantly. The week before Christmas, he made a sale that put him over the top! Calloo, callay!! So his job is a little safer than it was a month ago. Last week, the company laid off 1000 people internationally, and Mr. Honey was *not* one of them. (Some of the folks that *were* laid off could ill afford it, though. Who can afford to be laid off, anyway?) This was the first time Mr. Honey's company has had a mass layoff. They didn't even do that during the Great Depression.
The week before Christmas, Mr. Honey expressed frustration with his phone. He had $50 from a Craigslist sale that he was saving for something else, but he decided to put it on a new phone instead. He listed a couple of other things on Craigslist to make up the difference between what the phone cost and his $50, and we decided for him to go ahead and get the phone and we would cover the cost using money from another bucket until the items sold. However, purchasing the new phone ended up costing more than we thought it would. Those telecom companies get you coming and going. (They also told Mr. Honey he would have a $50 credit for all the hassle he has gone through with his phone-- then later I found out that credit will be applied *at some point* to our phone bill, not directly to the purchase of a new phone. And then when we received the bill, it was over $100 more than it should have been and he had to spend a good forty-five minutes letting them know that they had put one of our phones on the wrong calling plan. Erg.) But now Mr. Honey has the phone he needs, and Triss has my old phone (I got Mr. Honey's old phone). She is paying the monthly add-on fee ($10) herself.
Mr. Honey's monthly commission paycheck arrived the week before Christmas, and was less than I had planned for it to be. Living on commission is so exciting! I redid the budget for the month, and we ended up only putting a couple hundred dollars into the emergency fund, bringing it up to not quite half the Babystep 1 amount of $1000. (In November we had to use most of the e-fund to fix the van.)
Christmas was joyous and peaceful.
About two weeks into January, Mariel slammed into a metal light pole while running a race with some friends at the park and split her chin open, which required Urgent Care attention. Then, this week, she fell on her wrist while roller skating and fractured the growth plate of her humerus, requiring x-rays, a splint and a sling. We went to a nearby free-standing emergency room for that one. We have spent around $85 on doctors for her so far this month, and $12 on pain medication. She has more doctor visits and possibly a consultation with an orthopedic surgeon upcoming, so our doctor bills will be significantly more than usual this month.
Mr. Honey has been having lots of back problems and has finally found a chiropractor that will work for him. (We pay chiropractors a specialist copay.) He is going to be receiving adjustments a couple times per week for the next month or so, and that will also raise our doctor bills. (He feels awful about this, but I just want him to be free of pain. He sits up late until his eyes won't stay open because his back hurts so much every night. I really hope this chiropractor will be able to help him.)
The Lord has provided for all these doctor bills! Mr. Honey's commission check this week was several hundred dollars more than we were expecting. Great work, Honey!
When I paid the bills last night for the beginning of the new month, I was able to put aside money for the doctors, finish refilling the emergency fund to the Babystep 1 level of $1000, and still pay $300 over the minimums on the credit cards.
The best part of all is that when these needs arose, we are able to take care of them with cash. I know I keep going on about how wonderful it is to just have the cash and take care of it, but we were so foolish for so long that I feel amazing comfort every time I tense up at an unexpected expense and then realize I can relax because we have it covered. I can't tell you how I felt both times Mariel hurt herself, when I realized that I could just comfort her and not have to worry about where the money was coming from. I could even treat her to a small something special as a get-well gift.
The car still needs some repairs and I have that money in the short-term savings account. The kids are due for eye exams and well-child visits, too. I think we'll do those in February, after the dust settles from our recent expenses.
Our monthly clothing budget is $25 per month. I know that is pitifully small for a family with three growing children, but you would not believe the volume of clothing other families give us. (And we love receiving so many nice things! We pass the things we can't use to other families.) Still, the smallness of budget does leave a little to be desired, especially on hard-to-fit items, like jeans. I took some of the extra money from Mr. Honey's commissions this week and purchased Triss two new pair of jeans on sale at Burlington Coat Factory. She really needed them, as she had only one pair of jeans, and those were at least an inch too short.
We also made a purchase from the Erskine family business, Living Books for the Ears, which came out of our school budget. They are discontinuing a lot of their materials in anticipation of the new law from the CPSC, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. They asked that each order be at least $50, so I spent a little over that and got some wonderful audio books and radio shows, including history stories, Shakespeare and classic literature retold as radio plays. My parents fixed the kids up with mp3 players at Christmas, so my plan is to load these shows and stories onto their players and they can listen whenever they want. We have a few CDs of this type already, and the kids love listening to them.
(I am disgruntled at the poorly worded CPSIA, and get so disgusted with the way the people on Capitol Hill jostle around and grandstand and blame each other when they really need to just *fix* the thing, but that is a post for another day.)
So, it's been six months since we started our new gazelle-like intensity. Our credit card balance has gone down around $5,500 since July, an average of almost $1000 paid off per month. At the beginning of the process, we couldn't see how we would be able to pay more than maybe $100 over minimums each month, but God has been faithful to bless our efforts. We have a little over $11,000 left to pay off, and if we continue the way we have, we will be done with credit cards in thirteen months (or less, given the way the debt snowball works). This is a big improvement over my expectation when we started, which was that it would take us over two years to pay of our credit cards.
After we get those finished, we still have our car note. (Very aggravating paying a car note on a vehicle that has over 100,000 miles and is beginning to fall apart. Please be cautious if you decide to finance a new car. Or just drive a beater until you can pay cash for a late-model, low-mileage used vehicle, like Dave says. Don't do what we did.)
Once we get that finished, it will be on to pay off the house!
I wonder how long it will take?
Monday, December 15, 2008
Fifth Month: Be Prepared and Don't Be Scared!
(Go here to read all my updates on our attempts at gazelle intensity, or click on the label, "Personal Finance" in the sidebar.)
This month was a pretty big challenge financially. We spent over $700 on car repairs, and still have a few hundred dollars' worth of maintenance to take care of. (Thanks to the buckets, we have the cash for it. I'm just waiting for the right time to take the van back to the shop.) Also, Mr. Honey, who is in sales, has received instructions to redouble his efforts on the job, Or Else. Anyone who has been in sales will understand the challenge of making quota at any time, and in this economy it can be downright difficult. Mr. Honey is working all the hours he can to produce the additional sales needed. He has been given the beginning of February as a deadline.
As Triss' Brownie troop leader used to say, "Be prepared, and don't be scared!" That's our motto, with the Lord as our provider. This morning, while thinking about our situation, I realized what a huge blessing Mr. Honey's employment has been throughout our marriage. He has worked for this particular company for eleven years, and was steadily employed before that, too, with only short times of unemployment. The Lord has provided for us thus far, and will continue to do so.
Thus far the Lord hath led me on
Thus far his power prolongs my days
And every evening shall make known
Some fresh memorial of his grace.
(I just want to say here that I really don't think they will let him go if quotas aren't met. He will just move into a less lucrative position. And the man is working like the dickens-- if anyone can make the numbers, he will.)
We have decided to pour all our money (after bills, buckets and credit card minimums) into the emergency fund, just in case. We plan to take it all out and put it toward one of the credit cards after February comes and goes and the Lord continues to bless Mr. Honey with work and a sufficient income. If He has other plans, we will change ours accordingly.
Other than the van and the scary job news, our month went well. We paid over $1100 on our debt (this was before our van had its breakdown and we had to go into the emergency fund to pay for it-- this month we will replenish and add to our emergency fund, while paying only minimums to our debt). In spite of van woes, I had a sense of surplus the whole month, what with gas prices being so low.
I took Triss to The Picture People to get her portrait made with her bunny-- her belated birthday gift-- and it ended up costing us only $5 for a sitting and three sheets of pix, after our Portrait Club discounts and coupons. That was pretty nice! We had cookies at the Nestle store in the mall with some of the extra.
I am just about done with the Christmas shopping, which hasn't been extensive. I had a great idea for a gift for Mr. Honey the other day, although we hadn't planned on doing gifts for each other. I'm still going to do this for him, but I can't tell you what it is because he reads the blog occasionally. He is going to love it, though, and it will be a comfort while he is out on the road every day seeking sales. Hee hee! I can't wait for him to open it.
(I have a few project-gifts I am almost done with too, but I can't say what they are because I don't want to spoil anyone's Merry Christmas.)
We had an amazing gift arrive anonymously last week for the girls. I wrote about it here. (They are still going strong with it, wanting to examine *everything* under the light of the micro/magnascope! Hmm, there's an applicable scripture there somewhere...)
My mom told me today that she heard the gas prices are starting back up. I trimmed our gas budget by a couple hundred dollars last month (Mr. Honey drives a lot for his job), and was thinking of trimming it more this month, but now I think I will hold it here and see what happens in the next few weeks. We got a gallon of milk for $2.15 today at the store, and I assume it was so inexpensive because of the lower gas prices. (I thought they had the gallon jugs sitting on the half-gallon shelf at first!)
That's about it on the financial front. Thanks for reading this far. I know I am long-winded.
This month was a pretty big challenge financially. We spent over $700 on car repairs, and still have a few hundred dollars' worth of maintenance to take care of. (Thanks to the buckets, we have the cash for it. I'm just waiting for the right time to take the van back to the shop.) Also, Mr. Honey, who is in sales, has received instructions to redouble his efforts on the job, Or Else. Anyone who has been in sales will understand the challenge of making quota at any time, and in this economy it can be downright difficult. Mr. Honey is working all the hours he can to produce the additional sales needed. He has been given the beginning of February as a deadline.
As Triss' Brownie troop leader used to say, "Be prepared, and don't be scared!" That's our motto, with the Lord as our provider. This morning, while thinking about our situation, I realized what a huge blessing Mr. Honey's employment has been throughout our marriage. He has worked for this particular company for eleven years, and was steadily employed before that, too, with only short times of unemployment. The Lord has provided for us thus far, and will continue to do so.
Thus far the Lord hath led me on
Thus far his power prolongs my days
And every evening shall make known
Some fresh memorial of his grace.
(I just want to say here that I really don't think they will let him go if quotas aren't met. He will just move into a less lucrative position. And the man is working like the dickens-- if anyone can make the numbers, he will.)
We have decided to pour all our money (after bills, buckets and credit card minimums) into the emergency fund, just in case. We plan to take it all out and put it toward one of the credit cards after February comes and goes and the Lord continues to bless Mr. Honey with work and a sufficient income. If He has other plans, we will change ours accordingly.
Other than the van and the scary job news, our month went well. We paid over $1100 on our debt (this was before our van had its breakdown and we had to go into the emergency fund to pay for it-- this month we will replenish and add to our emergency fund, while paying only minimums to our debt). In spite of van woes, I had a sense of surplus the whole month, what with gas prices being so low.
I took Triss to The Picture People to get her portrait made with her bunny-- her belated birthday gift-- and it ended up costing us only $5 for a sitting and three sheets of pix, after our Portrait Club discounts and coupons. That was pretty nice! We had cookies at the Nestle store in the mall with some of the extra.
I am just about done with the Christmas shopping, which hasn't been extensive. I had a great idea for a gift for Mr. Honey the other day, although we hadn't planned on doing gifts for each other. I'm still going to do this for him, but I can't tell you what it is because he reads the blog occasionally. He is going to love it, though, and it will be a comfort while he is out on the road every day seeking sales. Hee hee! I can't wait for him to open it.
(I have a few project-gifts I am almost done with too, but I can't say what they are because I don't want to spoil anyone's Merry Christmas.)
We had an amazing gift arrive anonymously last week for the girls. I wrote about it here. (They are still going strong with it, wanting to examine *everything* under the light of the micro/magnascope! Hmm, there's an applicable scripture there somewhere...)
My mom told me today that she heard the gas prices are starting back up. I trimmed our gas budget by a couple hundred dollars last month (Mr. Honey drives a lot for his job), and was thinking of trimming it more this month, but now I think I will hold it here and see what happens in the next few weeks. We got a gallon of milk for $2.15 today at the store, and I assume it was so inexpensive because of the lower gas prices. (I thought they had the gallon jugs sitting on the half-gallon shelf at first!)
That's about it on the financial front. Thanks for reading this far. I know I am long-winded.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Four Months: Savings Categorized in Excel
It's been four months since Mr. Honey and I had our first appointment with a personal financial coach, and began anew to chip away at our debt. As of this week, we have paid off approximately $4,200. That leaves around $12,500 to go on credit cards.
Update: That looks so funny-- what I mean to say is that we still have to pay off $12,500 in credit card debt.
This month we celebrated three birthdays-- Triss' and Mariel's birthdays occurred the same week as my great-aunt's funeral and kind of got lost until October, and Cornflower's birthday is at the beginning of November. It was tough to insist that we were only spending $30 on each birthday, but we must have been parental enough, because they didn't give us a hard time about it (actually, we have really sweet kids). Each girl got to decide what she would do for her birthday, within that limit, and both Mariel and Cornflower decided to have one friend over for a sleepover with homemade pizza and a movie and birthday cake. (An unexpected perk: because they limited their celebrations to one friend apiece, we were able to give nice goody bags and individual attention to the friends.) Triss blessed the hearts of her father and I by requesting that we spend the evening out with just her for her birthday.
We went through the kids' winter clothing this month, passing down items and giving away things that don't fit any of the girls. We managed to come out pretty well-- we only had to purchase one coat! (We get hand-me-downs from generous friends.) We will most likely need to purchase another one come January, as well as a couple of pairs of jeans, the way these girls are growing, but we will have enough money in the clothing bucket by then.
The 'buckets' are my favorite part of our new way of keeping track of things. We have two savings accounts-- the emergency fund and the short-term savings. Our emergency fund has the $1,000, and the short-term savings has everything else. We have an Excel spreadsheet for the short-term savings, divided into categories:
Car repairs
Clothing
House repairs
Doctor
Medicines
Haircuts
Schoolbooks
Gifts
Back in July, we figured out the amount we must spend in each category per year, and divided by 12 to come up with the monthly deposit in each category.
An aside: When we first attended Financial Peace University three years ago (yes, we went to classes, and we still crashed and burned-- we really did need a personal coach), I was sure we didn't have a Nerd in our family. I thought we must both be Free Spirits. But, as you can see, once I learned Excel, I realized and embraced my Nerdy tendencies. I am living proof that you can be a Nerd, and still have trouble balancing a checkbook.
We purchased Triss' and Cornflower's Christmas gifts in the last week, and now only have Mariel to buy for. We have put a strict limit on Christmas spending just like we did with the birthdays. Our coach recommended we get gifts only for the children this year, and give everyone else a nice card. :deep breath: This is really going to challenge my pride. Just thought you'd like to know.
Anyway, we knew how much we could spend on the kids' Christmas ahead of time, and already had the money in the Gift bucket, so when opportunities presented themselves, I was able to move on them. So exciting! Mariel's present is forthcoming, as soon as Mr. Honey finds the deal he is looking for.
This year, we planned and had money in our account for Christmas. What a concept. Why didn't we do this before? I know why-- because whenever we would put a little away for Christmas or birthdays, we would have another need-- car repair, or clothing, or doctor visits, etc.
We have had similar occurrences this fall, but since we divided short-term savings into categories, and predetermined the amount to deposit in each per month, the car repairs and medical needs haven't derailed our Christmas budget. That Excel spreadsheet is my friend.
(Our van is in need of more repairs, too. I am taking it to the shop in the morning for new brake pads.)
On the downside, we had to pay an 'excessive activity fee' on our short-term savings account this month, because I was transferring money online rather than at the bank branch. By federal law our savings account is only allowed six transactions per month via Internet, telephone or checks. ATM or bank branch transactions are unlimited. We had to pay $10 for not reading the fine print.
But, all in all, it was a good month.
Update: That looks so funny-- what I mean to say is that we still have to pay off $12,500 in credit card debt.
This month we celebrated three birthdays-- Triss' and Mariel's birthdays occurred the same week as my great-aunt's funeral and kind of got lost until October, and Cornflower's birthday is at the beginning of November. It was tough to insist that we were only spending $30 on each birthday, but we must have been parental enough, because they didn't give us a hard time about it (actually, we have really sweet kids). Each girl got to decide what she would do for her birthday, within that limit, and both Mariel and Cornflower decided to have one friend over for a sleepover with homemade pizza and a movie and birthday cake. (An unexpected perk: because they limited their celebrations to one friend apiece, we were able to give nice goody bags and individual attention to the friends.) Triss blessed the hearts of her father and I by requesting that we spend the evening out with just her for her birthday.
We went through the kids' winter clothing this month, passing down items and giving away things that don't fit any of the girls. We managed to come out pretty well-- we only had to purchase one coat! (We get hand-me-downs from generous friends.) We will most likely need to purchase another one come January, as well as a couple of pairs of jeans, the way these girls are growing, but we will have enough money in the clothing bucket by then.
The 'buckets' are my favorite part of our new way of keeping track of things. We have two savings accounts-- the emergency fund and the short-term savings. Our emergency fund has the $1,000, and the short-term savings has everything else. We have an Excel spreadsheet for the short-term savings, divided into categories:
Car repairs
Clothing
House repairs
Doctor
Medicines
Haircuts
Schoolbooks
Gifts
Back in July, we figured out the amount we must spend in each category per year, and divided by 12 to come up with the monthly deposit in each category.
An aside: When we first attended Financial Peace University three years ago (yes, we went to classes, and we still crashed and burned-- we really did need a personal coach), I was sure we didn't have a Nerd in our family. I thought we must both be Free Spirits. But, as you can see, once I learned Excel, I realized and embraced my Nerdy tendencies. I am living proof that you can be a Nerd, and still have trouble balancing a checkbook.
We purchased Triss' and Cornflower's Christmas gifts in the last week, and now only have Mariel to buy for. We have put a strict limit on Christmas spending just like we did with the birthdays. Our coach recommended we get gifts only for the children this year, and give everyone else a nice card. :deep breath: This is really going to challenge my pride. Just thought you'd like to know.
Anyway, we knew how much we could spend on the kids' Christmas ahead of time, and already had the money in the Gift bucket, so when opportunities presented themselves, I was able to move on them. So exciting! Mariel's present is forthcoming, as soon as Mr. Honey finds the deal he is looking for.
This year, we planned and had money in our account for Christmas. What a concept. Why didn't we do this before? I know why-- because whenever we would put a little away for Christmas or birthdays, we would have another need-- car repair, or clothing, or doctor visits, etc.
We have had similar occurrences this fall, but since we divided short-term savings into categories, and predetermined the amount to deposit in each per month, the car repairs and medical needs haven't derailed our Christmas budget. That Excel spreadsheet is my friend.
(Our van is in need of more repairs, too. I am taking it to the shop in the morning for new brake pads.)
On the downside, we had to pay an 'excessive activity fee' on our short-term savings account this month, because I was transferring money online rather than at the bank branch. By federal law our savings account is only allowed six transactions per month via Internet, telephone or checks. ATM or bank branch transactions are unlimited. We had to pay $10 for not reading the fine print.
But, all in all, it was a good month.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Personal Finance Mini-Update
We prepaid Mariel's orthodontic work in full this week. We received around 15% off-- part of that was for paying cash, and the rest was an adjustment the insurance company made for some reason I don't really understand.
Just to say, ask for a discount when you pay cash up-front for something that expensive. I was a little embarrassed to ask, but now I am glad I did. Our savings amounted to over $250.
Also, the girls and I got free hot drinks at Barnes and Noble Cafe tonight. h/t Money-Saving Mom, thanks! (Follow the links to a coupon for a freebie.)
Just to say, ask for a discount when you pay cash up-front for something that expensive. I was a little embarrassed to ask, but now I am glad I did. Our savings amounted to over $250.
Also, the girls and I got free hot drinks at Barnes and Noble Cafe tonight. h/t Money-Saving Mom, thanks! (Follow the links to a coupon for a freebie.)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Three Months: One Credit Card Paid Off!
Time for a financial update at the end of our third month of gazelle-like intensity.
This month we went on a weekend trip, a vacation, had company, paid off a credit card and finished saving up for Mariel's braces-- all in the same month the economy spiralled, or whatever they are calling what the economy did.
The two trips, one of which was to a town a couple hours from our house, were paid for by God's provision. (It's all God's provision, I know, but this was special provision not earned by our hands.) We did spend some money out of the gas and food envelopes (money we did not need to spend at home because we were out of town). The trip to California, which was a mixture of joy and sorrow, seemed to be a time of confirming the Lord's love and care for us, and I am so glad we got to go. The weekend trip was for my great-aunt Lois' funeral. She was every inch a lady, and a wonderful woman too-- one of her grandson's epitomized her character by saying, "She taught us to help others, to be generous with our time and money-- but never pay too much for peaches." Exactly. What a blessing to have known her. She was 93 and had outlived almost all of her friends, as well as all of her siblings but one-- my granddad. She is part of the reason I habitually bought my little girls white shoes at Easter to wear through spring and summer, and black shoes at Labor Day, to wear through fall and winter. The custom is classy and I do admire class. Aunt Lois had oodles of class.
Mr. Honey's dad came to town for a few days after we got back from California, and we had a lovely time showing him our neck of the woods (or is it our neck of the prairie? I don't know). Using a (rare) expense check that arrived at a great time, we got to take a guided tour of the Stockyards in Fort Worth, and also visited a local nature preserve and museum. We were able to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase a year-long family membership to the nature preserve rather than just day tickets. It was only a little more, and I used money from the Education Bucket to cover the additional cost. It really is nice not to be spending everything up. Having the "buckets"-- categories in short-term savings-- is a paradigm shift for me. Using Excel makes it easy to track how much is in each category.
In other financial news, we received the refund from the old mortgage escrow account and used it to pay off the smallest Visa bill, fill up the "bucket" for Mariel's braces, and make an additional payment on the second Visa bill. (We had three Visas. The hazards of credit-card-surfing. Hey, now we have two. Yay!)
We experienced one hiccup in the form of a $25 overdraft due to faulty arithmetic on my part. I was able to clear it up quickly, though. And of course, I wasn't happy to be paying for the speeding ticket I got at the beginning of September. But we were able to pay for it and I am taking a defensive driving course so our insurance doesn't go up. It will actually go down because our company gives a discount for people who take such courses, whether or not taking the course is the consequence of a speeding ticket.
Going forward, we should be able to start pouring at least twice as much as the minimums on the remaining two credit cards. Mr. Honey and I had a serious talk about his industry and the economy, and he seems to think his commissions will stay constant for the time being. He is watching for certain negative indications in his bigger accounts, and if he starts seeing those, we will have to switch from paying off as much debt as we can to saving as much cash as we can, just in case. For now, though, I am glad to be getting rid of debt as fast as we can. I want us to be a cash operation. :O)
Now that we have the cash to pay up-front for Mariel's orthodontic work, I am going to ask the dentist if he will give us a 15% discount. I don't know if he will, but it doesn't hurt to ask. We have the full amount saved just in case he says no.
Because of the nature of Mr. Honey's job, and the way things are so spread out in Texas, gasoline is a huge expenditure for us-- around 18% of our total budget, can you believe it? We are enjoying the lower gas prices. I filled up the minivan for under $52 the other day. I can't remember the last time I did that.
For reference, Dave's book recommends 10-15% of the income go toward transportation total-- our total transportation costs are over 25%. Way off, I know, but what can we do? It would be even higher if not for Mr. Honey's company car. His company provides a stipend for business expenses, but it is not even half of what Mr. Honey spends on gas on a monthly basis. We are so glad to see gas prices go down, even temporarily.
Our credit card debt, which was around $17,000 three months ago, is down to around $14,400. We also have the car note and the mortgage. When we refinanced, the mortage debt went up by a few thousand, too, so I think we just moved things around a little the past couple of months. But now we can really get after it, Lord willing.
This month we went on a weekend trip, a vacation, had company, paid off a credit card and finished saving up for Mariel's braces-- all in the same month the economy spiralled, or whatever they are calling what the economy did.
The two trips, one of which was to a town a couple hours from our house, were paid for by God's provision. (It's all God's provision, I know, but this was special provision not earned by our hands.) We did spend some money out of the gas and food envelopes (money we did not need to spend at home because we were out of town). The trip to California, which was a mixture of joy and sorrow, seemed to be a time of confirming the Lord's love and care for us, and I am so glad we got to go. The weekend trip was for my great-aunt Lois' funeral. She was every inch a lady, and a wonderful woman too-- one of her grandson's epitomized her character by saying, "She taught us to help others, to be generous with our time and money-- but never pay too much for peaches." Exactly. What a blessing to have known her. She was 93 and had outlived almost all of her friends, as well as all of her siblings but one-- my granddad. She is part of the reason I habitually bought my little girls white shoes at Easter to wear through spring and summer, and black shoes at Labor Day, to wear through fall and winter. The custom is classy and I do admire class. Aunt Lois had oodles of class.
Mr. Honey's dad came to town for a few days after we got back from California, and we had a lovely time showing him our neck of the woods (or is it our neck of the prairie? I don't know). Using a (rare) expense check that arrived at a great time, we got to take a guided tour of the Stockyards in Fort Worth, and also visited a local nature preserve and museum. We were able to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase a year-long family membership to the nature preserve rather than just day tickets. It was only a little more, and I used money from the Education Bucket to cover the additional cost. It really is nice not to be spending everything up. Having the "buckets"-- categories in short-term savings-- is a paradigm shift for me. Using Excel makes it easy to track how much is in each category.
In other financial news, we received the refund from the old mortgage escrow account and used it to pay off the smallest Visa bill, fill up the "bucket" for Mariel's braces, and make an additional payment on the second Visa bill. (We had three Visas. The hazards of credit-card-surfing. Hey, now we have two. Yay!)
We experienced one hiccup in the form of a $25 overdraft due to faulty arithmetic on my part. I was able to clear it up quickly, though. And of course, I wasn't happy to be paying for the speeding ticket I got at the beginning of September. But we were able to pay for it and I am taking a defensive driving course so our insurance doesn't go up. It will actually go down because our company gives a discount for people who take such courses, whether or not taking the course is the consequence of a speeding ticket.
Going forward, we should be able to start pouring at least twice as much as the minimums on the remaining two credit cards. Mr. Honey and I had a serious talk about his industry and the economy, and he seems to think his commissions will stay constant for the time being. He is watching for certain negative indications in his bigger accounts, and if he starts seeing those, we will have to switch from paying off as much debt as we can to saving as much cash as we can, just in case. For now, though, I am glad to be getting rid of debt as fast as we can. I want us to be a cash operation. :O)
Now that we have the cash to pay up-front for Mariel's orthodontic work, I am going to ask the dentist if he will give us a 15% discount. I don't know if he will, but it doesn't hurt to ask. We have the full amount saved just in case he says no.
Because of the nature of Mr. Honey's job, and the way things are so spread out in Texas, gasoline is a huge expenditure for us-- around 18% of our total budget, can you believe it? We are enjoying the lower gas prices. I filled up the minivan for under $52 the other day. I can't remember the last time I did that.
For reference, Dave's book recommends 10-15% of the income go toward transportation total-- our total transportation costs are over 25%. Way off, I know, but what can we do? It would be even higher if not for Mr. Honey's company car. His company provides a stipend for business expenses, but it is not even half of what Mr. Honey spends on gas on a monthly basis. We are so glad to see gas prices go down, even temporarily.
Our credit card debt, which was around $17,000 three months ago, is down to around $14,400. We also have the car note and the mortgage. When we refinanced, the mortage debt went up by a few thousand, too, so I think we just moved things around a little the past couple of months. But now we can really get after it, Lord willing.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Two Months: Baby Step 1, Check!
Well, we are two months into our renewed efforts to get rid of the debt. This month was dominated by efforts to refinance our house. Yes, we fell for the ARM advertising 3+ years ago. We got a 5-year ARM with a very good interest rate, but it was set to adjust in 2010, and I guess you can say we received timely warning from all the poor souls whose ARMs adjusted after three years. We won't be doing that again.
I am thankful that we were able to refinance, what with falling home values and all. We are now in a fixed mortgage with a good interest rate. Locked in, whew, and if anyone needs the name of a good loan consultant, let me know. We have had at least five closings in our sixteen years of marriage, and this was the best and smoothest loan process, with the kindest, most patient people I have ever worked with. I even accidentally scanned and emailed four or five blank pages to them among the other paperwork they needed, and they didn't even mention it. When I brought it up, the nice lady laughed and said, "I wondered what had happened!"
When we closed on the ARM a little over three years ago, we had a pushy loan consultant and a horrid title company that had us come and wait in their office for two hours one evening only to tell us to come back tomorrow; when we came back the next day, the person closing our loan got impatient and rude with us for having the gall to actually read the documents we were signing. (That should have clued us in as to the deal we were about to commit to.)
We have one less thing to worry about now. That feels good. I keep reminding myself, however, that this does not mean we are closer to being out of debt. We actually went a little further into debt. It just means we don't have to worry about interest rate where the mortgage is concerned.
In other financial news, we completed Baby Step 1. Yay! It feels like the bow of this financial ship is finally heading in the right direction. With all the struggle and time and other resources it has taken to get moving in the right direction, all I can say is, we'd better not turn back around!
Now we can start eliminating the credit card debt. I'm so excited that I want to do the budget for mid-October through mid-November right this minute, so I can see how much we are going to knock out of that debt.
Mr. Honey and I were talking the other night, and decided that when we bought our current house five years ago, we became frugal weekend-warrior types rather than dedicated soldiers. Back then, we were very good at spending little.
When we moved into this house (which I beg leave to mention is a beautiful yet modest home by the standards of our area) I had a sense that we had "arrived", that we were entering the American Dream portion of our married life, and I stopped being consistently careful with my spending. I think I misunderstood the concept of the American Dream!
Anyway, I always wonder how things get the way they are, and have been pondering our current situation-- two people who try hard to get things right, and yet sink into debt without any major crisis to point to as a cause.
It is a lack of self-government, that's what it is. Well, with the Lord's help, we will remedy it.
Nowadays, we worry about whether we are getting everything we can out of life, even if we go into debt to get it. But some things are going to have to pass us by if we are living within our means, and there is nothing wrong with that. This doesn't mean the Lord doesn't love us, nor does it mean life cannot be rich. There are so many beautiful opportunities for living in the simplest of situations, if your eyes are open to see them. Many days, mine are not. But I am waking up a little more. There have been a lot of teachable moments at our house lately.
I am thankful that we were able to refinance, what with falling home values and all. We are now in a fixed mortgage with a good interest rate. Locked in, whew, and if anyone needs the name of a good loan consultant, let me know. We have had at least five closings in our sixteen years of marriage, and this was the best and smoothest loan process, with the kindest, most patient people I have ever worked with. I even accidentally scanned and emailed four or five blank pages to them among the other paperwork they needed, and they didn't even mention it. When I brought it up, the nice lady laughed and said, "I wondered what had happened!"
When we closed on the ARM a little over three years ago, we had a pushy loan consultant and a horrid title company that had us come and wait in their office for two hours one evening only to tell us to come back tomorrow; when we came back the next day, the person closing our loan got impatient and rude with us for having the gall to actually read the documents we were signing. (That should have clued us in as to the deal we were about to commit to.)
We have one less thing to worry about now. That feels good. I keep reminding myself, however, that this does not mean we are closer to being out of debt. We actually went a little further into debt. It just means we don't have to worry about interest rate where the mortgage is concerned.
In other financial news, we completed Baby Step 1. Yay! It feels like the bow of this financial ship is finally heading in the right direction. With all the struggle and time and other resources it has taken to get moving in the right direction, all I can say is, we'd better not turn back around!
Now we can start eliminating the credit card debt. I'm so excited that I want to do the budget for mid-October through mid-November right this minute, so I can see how much we are going to knock out of that debt.
Mr. Honey and I were talking the other night, and decided that when we bought our current house five years ago, we became frugal weekend-warrior types rather than dedicated soldiers. Back then, we were very good at spending little.
When we moved into this house (which I beg leave to mention is a beautiful yet modest home by the standards of our area) I had a sense that we had "arrived", that we were entering the American Dream portion of our married life, and I stopped being consistently careful with my spending. I think I misunderstood the concept of the American Dream!
Anyway, I always wonder how things get the way they are, and have been pondering our current situation-- two people who try hard to get things right, and yet sink into debt without any major crisis to point to as a cause.
It is a lack of self-government, that's what it is. Well, with the Lord's help, we will remedy it.
Nowadays, we worry about whether we are getting everything we can out of life, even if we go into debt to get it. But some things are going to have to pass us by if we are living within our means, and there is nothing wrong with that. This doesn't mean the Lord doesn't love us, nor does it mean life cannot be rich. There are so many beautiful opportunities for living in the simplest of situations, if your eyes are open to see them. Many days, mine are not. But I am waking up a little more. There have been a lot of teachable moments at our house lately.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Frugal Recipes
(Updated to add two eggs to the cornbread recipe. :blush: Thanks for letting me know, Senora Smith!)
The two recipes I can claim as truly my own (although lots of other folks serve them, too) are beans and cornbread, and biscuits and gravy. These are part of my family's culinary heritage, such as it is-- when you look at these two meals, you can see it isn't incredibly illustrious. But frugality can be found within it!
So there you have it. I also like to take a look at what we have in the house and then plug it into the Ingredients page at Allrecipes.com. I did that last night and came up with a tasty mushroom and pasta dish flavored with red wine vinegar and garlic. I varied it a bit because we did not have portabello mushrooms, and it was still yummy.
I know it is still a little warm for soup, but soup is such a great frugal meal. One of my favorite vegetable soup recipes is from Saving Dinner. Sometimes I simmer it on the stove instead of making it in the crockpot, and sometimes I use extra potatoes if I don't have a turnip, canned beans if we don't have fresh, etc. I use the "What's in my hand?" method of cooking, a la DHM.
By the way, the DHM's blog and the Frugal Hacks blog are two excellent sites for frugal recipes. I also like Hillbilly Housewife. Her Family Bread recipe is a good one for making several loaves at once without the benefit of a mixer or bread machine. Some of her recipes seem a little on the unhealthy side, but I just adapt with substitutions when I see the need.
As you can see, these recipes are heavy on carbs and light on proteins. I have not found a good, cheap solution for proteins. Beans just aren't enough for our hypoglycemic-prone family. Lately, I have been focusing on providing proteins *first* when I shop, and then filling in around the edges with the cheapest healthy veggies, fruits, breads and grains that I can find. This means making a lot of breads from scratch and eating unimaginative vegetables such as carrots and potatoes. But you would not like to meet my family when we are not getting enough protein. Grouchy!
The two recipes I can claim as truly my own (although lots of other folks serve them, too) are beans and cornbread, and biscuits and gravy. These are part of my family's culinary heritage, such as it is-- when you look at these two meals, you can see it isn't incredibly illustrious. But frugality can be found within it!
Beans and Cornbread:
1 or more pounds dry pinto beans, picked over (This means you made sure there weren't any stones in there.)
Water to cover (My grandmother taught me to put enough water in to cover your thumb knuckle when you put your thumb into the pot so that it is standing on the top of the beans. This way you don't have to refill the pot with water too many times during cooking.)
Salt
1. Add beans and water to pot, and heat to boiling. Boil for two minutes straight.
2. Drain the water. Add fresh water to cover. Add salt (you have to decide on your own how much salt you want. My grandmother puts in a tablespoon per pound. I put in about half that. Grandmommy also adds three slices of bacon or a ham bone if she has it. I like to do that because it adds flavor, but we usually don't have any to spare, so generally I leave it out. The beans still taste good.)
3. Bring the beans to a boil again, then reduce the heat to simmer (This is around level 3 out of 10 on my stove's heat dial.)
4. Simmer the beans at least an hour to an hour and a half. Check it every so often to make sure the water hasn't boiled down. If the water level looks too low (ie., the tops of the beans are in danger of peeking out of the water) add more. (I just add regular water from the tap. It soon heats up.)
My favorite cornbread recipe, with variations:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour (I have used only white, only wheat, and a combination. It turns out fine each time. Different, but fine. To keep things in perspective, this is a day-to-day kind of meal and not a special thing for holidays.)
1/2 tspn salt
2 tspns baking powder
2 tbspns canola oil
4 tbspns melted honey (Sometimes I only put in half the honey. You can even leave it out, but we don't like it that way. That is how the Ingalls ate it, though!)
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I have used dairy milk and soy milk and either is fine. I have also used reconstituted dry milk and evaporated milk. They all work.)
1. Combine all ingredients, dry first, and then wet
2. Pour into a greased pie dish
3. Bake at 400' for 20 minutes.
********
Biscuits and Gravy
2 cups flour (We use various kinds, which changes the taste a bit, but they are still good and filling.)
1/2 tspn salt
2 tspns baking powder
1/4 to 1/2 cup butter (Margarine is even better in this recipe-- makes the biscuits lighter and more fluffy. Traditionally, I make it with butter. However, a pound of margarine runs around .68 in our area, as compared to 2.50 for a pound of butter. If you are trying to turn around the financial ship, switching to margarine for awhile certainly helps. We go through around a pound of butter per week-- more if we are baking. You can also use oil if you are out of butter-type items. My family doesn't like it as much this way, but it still gets eaten.)
2/3 cup milk (dairy, soy, reconstituted dry, evaporated. They all work. I suspect you could even use water or broth, but I haven't tried it.)
1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Cut in butter, then squish it around with your hands until the flour resembles coarse crumbs (I never can get that result with a pastry cutter.)
3. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, and stir it in until the mixture becomes a dough ball (If I am in a hurry I just dump the whole amount of milk in and stir. It still becomes a dough ball. I hope this isn't too shocking for culinary experts.)
4. Knead gently five to ten times.
5. At this point, you can roll it out onto a floured surface and cut it into biscuits with a cutter or a cup, but I don't. Too much clean-up when I am in a hurry. I make it into a dough ball, smash it so that it is around a two inch thickness, and put it into an oiled pie pan. I turn it over once or twice to coat it with oil, then cut it into triangles, like pizza or pie. Or scones.
6. Bake at 400' for twenty minutes.
How to make Okie gravy (we call it Okie gravy because Grandmommy was raised in northeastern Texas, and apparently Oklahomans weren't always held in high esteem by Texans. Okie gravy is sometimes known as red-eye or country gravy. As I once read in a cookbook, this gravy would make cardboard taste good.)
Meat grease (Traditionally, this is grease from pork bacon, fried chicken, fried pork chops, or sausage. We only eat turkey bacon at our house, and try to stay away from fried items except for an occasional treat. I have learned that you can make Okie gravy from the minute amount of drippings left by turkey bacon if you add a tablespoon or two of oil. Not olive oil, that tastes funny. I use canola oil.
Flour
Milk (I have used soy milk as well as dairy milk. Dairy milk tastes the best, but original soy milk works too. Not vanilla, that is gross. Don't ask.)
1. Heat drippings and oil to medium, then add enough flour that it looks a little like batter. (If you add too much and it looks like dough, you can add a bit more oil. This will mean more milk and result in more gravy, so keep that in mind when you are estimating your flour.)
2. Scrape the drippings (you can add bits of meat here too) and flour/oil mixture and let it brown for a minute or two (I was once making biscuits and gravy with a dear old mother in Israel in the backwoods of Tennessee, and she scorned the white Shoney's gravy, saying country gravy ought to be *brown*. The way you get brown gravy is to brown the flour/oil mixture.)
3. Once it looks brown enough, add milk. (I generally add around a cup, then stir and let it thicken. If it is too thick, I add more milk. If I cannot get it to thicken, I put some flour and water in a cup, stir it well, and then stir it into the gravy to make it thicker. It's a balancing act.)
4. Turn the heat down to very low, and finish making the rest of your supper.
So there you have it. I also like to take a look at what we have in the house and then plug it into the Ingredients page at Allrecipes.com. I did that last night and came up with a tasty mushroom and pasta dish flavored with red wine vinegar and garlic. I varied it a bit because we did not have portabello mushrooms, and it was still yummy.
I know it is still a little warm for soup, but soup is such a great frugal meal. One of my favorite vegetable soup recipes is from Saving Dinner. Sometimes I simmer it on the stove instead of making it in the crockpot, and sometimes I use extra potatoes if I don't have a turnip, canned beans if we don't have fresh, etc. I use the "What's in my hand?" method of cooking, a la DHM.
By the way, the DHM's blog and the Frugal Hacks blog are two excellent sites for frugal recipes. I also like Hillbilly Housewife. Her Family Bread recipe is a good one for making several loaves at once without the benefit of a mixer or bread machine. Some of her recipes seem a little on the unhealthy side, but I just adapt with substitutions when I see the need.
As you can see, these recipes are heavy on carbs and light on proteins. I have not found a good, cheap solution for proteins. Beans just aren't enough for our hypoglycemic-prone family. Lately, I have been focusing on providing proteins *first* when I shop, and then filling in around the edges with the cheapest healthy veggies, fruits, breads and grains that I can find. This means making a lot of breads from scratch and eating unimaginative vegetables such as carrots and potatoes. But you would not like to meet my family when we are not getting enough protein. Grouchy!
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Coming Up...
I have had several emails requesting inexpensive recipes, and there is a blog post (or two) developing in my mind on the subject, but what with it being the second week of school and the first week of fall piano lessons, etc., etc., I haven't had time to type.
I am very excited to say what is in my head, though, and expect to be able to get it down in the next few days. So, coming up, I hope to have a blog post on how our family balances frugality with health in eating (still very much a work in progress), in addition to a post with our favorite frugal recipes.
Stay tuned!
Friday, August 29, 2008
More Than a Month
We are well into our second month of renewed efforts to stay within budget and attack debt. The new is definitely wearing off! But I am ashamed to need novelty in order to do what is right. I am fighting it! And praying. The written goal thing definitely helps. When I see where we can be in a couple of years if we stay focused, it is easier.
Last pay period we dealt with a car repair; this month it was dental expenses-- cavities, and a bill left over from a crown I had done awhile back that the insurance company wrongly excused us from. They corrected their error. I have had so much dental work done this year that I have gone over the maximum they will pay for me. Help, my mouth is falling apart. :o)
We were able to pay the bill this week, and I thank the Lord for that. We paid cash. We did not put it on payments. It is gone from our life.
Mariel's teeth are ready to begin orthodontic treatment also, and we are saving up money so we can pay cash up front.
We did much better with our grocery money this pay period-- I haven't spent all of it yet. That is one of my mini-goals-- to have money in the grocery envelope even at the end of the pay period.
And we have had some blessings in the form of home equipment this month-- we received a lawn mower and a new (to us) refrigerator!
We have been wondering for the past year when our fridge is going to give up the ghost. The new fridge is the same size, two years younger, has a working icemaker and is free! It was my parents' and they got a new one. We still have to pick it up from them.
The lawn mower came from our next-door neighbor, who moved this week. We had offered to buy it from him, and he came over the other day and gave it to us. He wouldn't accept any money. It is a manual mower (you know, a rotary mower). We also have a mower we borrowed from my dad when ours died a few weeks ago.
I always feel a like a little kid when people do these kind things for us. I feel like as grown-ups, we shouldn't need help. But I guess I need to get over that feeling, because we all need help sometimes.
Update: I forgot to mention that our dishwasher stopped working this week. But ol' Murphy isn't getting us down, because I married a handyman. He repairs things like this for a living, so he pulled my dishwasher out this morning, fixed the problem and is putting it back together. Yay, Mr. Honey!
Last pay period we dealt with a car repair; this month it was dental expenses-- cavities, and a bill left over from a crown I had done awhile back that the insurance company wrongly excused us from. They corrected their error. I have had so much dental work done this year that I have gone over the maximum they will pay for me. Help, my mouth is falling apart. :o)
We were able to pay the bill this week, and I thank the Lord for that. We paid cash. We did not put it on payments. It is gone from our life.
Mariel's teeth are ready to begin orthodontic treatment also, and we are saving up money so we can pay cash up front.
We did much better with our grocery money this pay period-- I haven't spent all of it yet. That is one of my mini-goals-- to have money in the grocery envelope even at the end of the pay period.
And we have had some blessings in the form of home equipment this month-- we received a lawn mower and a new (to us) refrigerator!
We have been wondering for the past year when our fridge is going to give up the ghost. The new fridge is the same size, two years younger, has a working icemaker and is free! It was my parents' and they got a new one. We still have to pick it up from them.
The lawn mower came from our next-door neighbor, who moved this week. We had offered to buy it from him, and he came over the other day and gave it to us. He wouldn't accept any money. It is a manual mower (you know, a rotary mower). We also have a mower we borrowed from my dad when ours died a few weeks ago.
I always feel a like a little kid when people do these kind things for us. I feel like as grown-ups, we shouldn't need help. But I guess I need to get over that feeling, because we all need help sometimes.
Update: I forgot to mention that our dishwasher stopped working this week. But ol' Murphy isn't getting us down, because I married a handyman. He repairs things like this for a living, so he pulled my dishwasher out this morning, fixed the problem and is putting it back together. Yay, Mr. Honey!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Moving from Legalism to Submission
I enjoy reading practical Christianity-type books, probably more than I ought. I want to address a misunderstanding that formed in my mind through reading Christian-wife self-help books. I am not going to point the finger at any particular book. I simply want to tell my own journey.
When Mr. Honey and I first got married, I did the bills. I liked it that way because I liked knowing where all the money was. Mr. Honey didn't mind me doing them at all. We talked about big stuff, and if we couldn't come to a meeting of the minds, I let him make the final decisions. I occasionally filed a protest, but still submitted to his thought on the subject. We usually agreed, anyway.
After Triss and Mariel were born, I began reading a lot more of these Christian-wife books, and decided that I was too much in charge at our house. I had read that if I backed off, Mr. Honey would take over-- that he was only letting me be in charge because I was so insistent. We talked about it, and Mr. Honey took over the bills. But eventually, he gave it back to me. I was home all day and able to track spending and make phone calls, and I spent the most money of the two of us anyway. But it didn't sit well with me. I was the wife-- being in charge of the money gave me too much power, I thought. But he didn't feel that way.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
I resented it for a long time. But finally, the Lord began showing me my error. Mr. Honey and I are one flesh. That means we are like one body.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
I remembered the portions of the New Testament where Paul talks about the church body, with the members being like different parts of the human body.
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
Each part of the body has its job.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Mr. Honey is the head. Perhaps I am hands, doing the work once the principles have been established. I am subject to him, but that doesn't mean he has to micromanage. (When Mr. Honey supervises, he prefers to allow liberty as far as the person can handle it.)
I began thinking of kings and lords who had stewards to take care of their treasures-- and wasn't it Joseph who was Pharaoh's right-hand man, so much so that Pharaoh didn't even know what came in and what went out?
Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
I realized I had not been a faithful steward to Mr. Honey, and I had not shown reverence toward him. In fact, I was beginning to get very disgruntled, which did not help matters. In my energetic and opinionated efforts to 'do it right', I had instead done it wrong. I had clung to a construct instead of living faithfully.
Now I am trying to get it right-- doing budgets and banking and learning to use Excel spreadsheets for money management. Mr. Honey is free to do his work and trust me to manage in the way that he would like. We have many discussions about money, not always fun, but necessary. And he leaves me to present the budget and pay bills each month. I am the part of the body that does the bookkeeping. He is the part of the body that okays or vetoes decisions.
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
(All scriptures were taken from Ephesians and 1 Corinthians.)
When Mr. Honey and I first got married, I did the bills. I liked it that way because I liked knowing where all the money was. Mr. Honey didn't mind me doing them at all. We talked about big stuff, and if we couldn't come to a meeting of the minds, I let him make the final decisions. I occasionally filed a protest, but still submitted to his thought on the subject. We usually agreed, anyway.
After Triss and Mariel were born, I began reading a lot more of these Christian-wife books, and decided that I was too much in charge at our house. I had read that if I backed off, Mr. Honey would take over-- that he was only letting me be in charge because I was so insistent. We talked about it, and Mr. Honey took over the bills. But eventually, he gave it back to me. I was home all day and able to track spending and make phone calls, and I spent the most money of the two of us anyway. But it didn't sit well with me. I was the wife-- being in charge of the money gave me too much power, I thought. But he didn't feel that way.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
I resented it for a long time. But finally, the Lord began showing me my error. Mr. Honey and I are one flesh. That means we are like one body.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
I remembered the portions of the New Testament where Paul talks about the church body, with the members being like different parts of the human body.
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
Each part of the body has its job.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Mr. Honey is the head. Perhaps I am hands, doing the work once the principles have been established. I am subject to him, but that doesn't mean he has to micromanage. (When Mr. Honey supervises, he prefers to allow liberty as far as the person can handle it.)
I began thinking of kings and lords who had stewards to take care of their treasures-- and wasn't it Joseph who was Pharaoh's right-hand man, so much so that Pharaoh didn't even know what came in and what went out?
Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
I realized I had not been a faithful steward to Mr. Honey, and I had not shown reverence toward him. In fact, I was beginning to get very disgruntled, which did not help matters. In my energetic and opinionated efforts to 'do it right', I had instead done it wrong. I had clung to a construct instead of living faithfully.
Now I am trying to get it right-- doing budgets and banking and learning to use Excel spreadsheets for money management. Mr. Honey is free to do his work and trust me to manage in the way that he would like. We have many discussions about money, not always fun, but necessary. And he leaves me to present the budget and pay bills each month. I am the part of the body that does the bookkeeping. He is the part of the body that okays or vetoes decisions.
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
(All scriptures were taken from Ephesians and 1 Corinthians.)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Food Thoughts
It really is not necessary to buy four boxes of Rice Krispie treats, four packages of Keebler cookies and eight boxes of cereal (four Special K and four Raisin Bran/Crunch) in order to save money. I did this.
I did have a use for the cookies-- dessert for a dinner we were going to. And the family really enjoyed the cereal, but we went through more milk than usual, which is expensive.
The Special K with freeze-dried strawberries is pretty good. And the Rice Krispie treats were a hit with the kids at church (until they were trumped by the Queen's Ring Pops. ;o)
I am getting a $10 rebate. I paid around .75 for each box, if I am remembering correctly, between the discounts at Kroger and Walgreens and the rebate.
I actually had clipped what I wanted and set these particular coupons, unclipped, next to the trash, following my new 'clip only what you would normally buy' policy, but then I saw what great deals I could get. I remembered the invite to dinner, and how seldom I bring dessert for church lunch, and how hard it has been lately to get up early *and* make breakfast.
The DHM has written a great post at Frugal Hacks on how spending money is not saving it, which I was so glad to read. Triss and I especially enjoyed the commenter who remembered the saying about the elephants and the quarter. (Two elephants for a quarter is a good deal if you have a quarter and you need two elephants-- otherwise it is an outstanding debt and a backyard full of elephant dung.) I sometimes fall directly into the trap of marketers and retail games. You really can save money with coupons, though, if you are careful.
(Updated to add: I have to tell the great deal we got at CVS this week. Mr. Honey and Cornflower both needed prescriptions and I had two coupons for $30 gift cards for prescription transfers. I was able to transfer both prescriptions and received the gift cards. I used one of the gift cards to pay for the second prescription, and then purchased a month's worth of Tresemme shampoo and conditioner for the girls and I. We have a lot of hair at our house, and are trying to stay away from parabens. Tresemme was on sale at CVS this week, and is the only inexpensive shampoo/conditioner I have found so far that does not contain parabens. And I still have more than half the second gift card left. So this deal turned out better than my frivolity with the Kelloggs products.)
We received a little cash for our anniversary, and after an nice, inexpensive meal at PeiWei, we spent the rest on meat, cheese and other protein sources. We tend toward hypoglycemia at our house, and have been eating a *lot* of beans. No one else has complained at all, but I am heartily sick of pintos.
So now we have meat for a month. Yay! I am not making meat meals every night, but it is nice to know it is in the freezer.
I did have a use for the cookies-- dessert for a dinner we were going to. And the family really enjoyed the cereal, but we went through more milk than usual, which is expensive.
The Special K with freeze-dried strawberries is pretty good. And the Rice Krispie treats were a hit with the kids at church (until they were trumped by the Queen's Ring Pops. ;o)
I am getting a $10 rebate. I paid around .75 for each box, if I am remembering correctly, between the discounts at Kroger and Walgreens and the rebate.
I actually had clipped what I wanted and set these particular coupons, unclipped, next to the trash, following my new 'clip only what you would normally buy' policy, but then I saw what great deals I could get. I remembered the invite to dinner, and how seldom I bring dessert for church lunch, and how hard it has been lately to get up early *and* make breakfast.
The DHM has written a great post at Frugal Hacks on how spending money is not saving it, which I was so glad to read. Triss and I especially enjoyed the commenter who remembered the saying about the elephants and the quarter. (Two elephants for a quarter is a good deal if you have a quarter and you need two elephants-- otherwise it is an outstanding debt and a backyard full of elephant dung.) I sometimes fall directly into the trap of marketers and retail games. You really can save money with coupons, though, if you are careful.
(Updated to add: I have to tell the great deal we got at CVS this week. Mr. Honey and Cornflower both needed prescriptions and I had two coupons for $30 gift cards for prescription transfers. I was able to transfer both prescriptions and received the gift cards. I used one of the gift cards to pay for the second prescription, and then purchased a month's worth of Tresemme shampoo and conditioner for the girls and I. We have a lot of hair at our house, and are trying to stay away from parabens. Tresemme was on sale at CVS this week, and is the only inexpensive shampoo/conditioner I have found so far that does not contain parabens. And I still have more than half the second gift card left. So this deal turned out better than my frivolity with the Kelloggs products.)
We received a little cash for our anniversary, and after an nice, inexpensive meal at PeiWei, we spent the rest on meat, cheese and other protein sources. We tend toward hypoglycemia at our house, and have been eating a *lot* of beans. No one else has complained at all, but I am heartily sick of pintos.
So now we have meat for a month. Yay! I am not making meat meals every night, but it is nice to know it is in the freezer.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Husband and Wife
I have been flipping through our copy of the Tightwad Gazette III, looking for ideas to use in the turning around of our financial ship. I came across an article that I remember reading perhaps around nine years ago: "Equity in the Home". It is not an article on interest rates and refinancing, but on how to divide the chores between spouses.
She presents one thought that has stuck with me for almost a week:
I completely agree with her. I don't think this means the SAHM has to be working her fingers to the bone every second her husband is at work, but yeah, we shouldn't be slouching around.
Do I contribute the same amount of hours working as Mr. Honey? I don't want to divide it down to the last bean-counting, but do I spend enough hours working?
I have to say that my husband is a workhorse. He works hard, he works long hours, and he has a long commute to work. And he does paperwork when he comes home at night. I did work that hard when the kids were smaller, but they are growing up now. They have reached the stage where they are chore-doing assets rather than chore-creating liabilities.
So he is driving all over creation every day, meeting and greeting and delivering and fixing, and coming home and doing paperwork. I am at home every day, planning, cleaning, supervising, correcting, paying bills, driving kids places, fixing dinner, taking care of clothes. But I have three able assistants. I am pretty sure I have the cushier position. (After all, I can stop down in the afternoon and have a snack and write a blog post.)
Amy Dacyzyn points out that "being a stay-at-home parent is a privilege that many working parents desperately want but have yet to achieve." I do not want to forget that. I don't want to get into tit for tat thinking either, but I do want to pull my own weight. I am able to do some things now that I couldn't a few years ago.
She presents one thought that has stuck with me for almost a week:
Very simply, each spouse must contribute the same number of hours each day to productive activities that directly contribute to the well-being of the household...If your family has one wage-earner, the stay-at-home spouse should expect to work an equal amount of time at home, from the time the wage earner leaves until he or she returns home.
I completely agree with her. I don't think this means the SAHM has to be working her fingers to the bone every second her husband is at work, but yeah, we shouldn't be slouching around.
Do I contribute the same amount of hours working as Mr. Honey? I don't want to divide it down to the last bean-counting, but do I spend enough hours working?
I have to say that my husband is a workhorse. He works hard, he works long hours, and he has a long commute to work. And he does paperwork when he comes home at night. I did work that hard when the kids were smaller, but they are growing up now. They have reached the stage where they are chore-doing assets rather than chore-creating liabilities.
So he is driving all over creation every day, meeting and greeting and delivering and fixing, and coming home and doing paperwork. I am at home every day, planning, cleaning, supervising, correcting, paying bills, driving kids places, fixing dinner, taking care of clothes. But I have three able assistants. I am pretty sure I have the cushier position. (After all, I can stop down in the afternoon and have a snack and write a blog post.)
Amy Dacyzyn points out that "being a stay-at-home parent is a privilege that many working parents desperately want but have yet to achieve." I do not want to forget that. I don't want to get into tit for tat thinking either, but I do want to pull my own weight. I am able to do some things now that I couldn't a few years ago.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Praise
I don't want to go into too much detail, but would like to praise the Lord a little for His mercy toward us regarding our finances.
I had four last things on our homeschool supply list that I needed to purchase: an algebra book, a book on writing poetry (The Roar on the Other Side), a metronome for Mariel (ours works intermittently), and the next Apologia curriculum for Triss. I had $58 in that bucket, which I figured would just about cover the algebra book alone. I had space in next month's budget for the Apologia, which we don't need until Sept 2, but I wasn't sure what I would do about the other two needs. I looked at the poetry book as less of a necessity, but cringed every time I thought about putting it off, because Triss is doing so well with her poetry.
Tonight, I was able to purchase everything but the Apologia curriculum with that money. Everything. I am still amazed. And it took exactly all of it, isn't that funny?
We also had a pretty tight weekend where food and gas was concerned, but we made it through with prayer and cooperation and a little shuffling of envelopes. I have been praying a lot more now that I am not throwing my hands up and spending money without thinking when we need something. We had a dentist appointment on Thursday and several dental-related expenses fell into my lap that I hadn't counted on. I just sat in the car and prayed, "Lord, I can't wait to see you take care of this, because I know we can't!" (I found out the next day that Mr. Honey, who is in a commission pay structure at work, had a very good month. We should be fine.)
I hope this isn't too much detail. But I want to document the ways the Lord blesses us through this process. I just know the novelty of 'living like no one else' is going to wear off, and I want to place Ebenezers in the blog for us to refer to when we forget about the Lord's past provisions.
I had four last things on our homeschool supply list that I needed to purchase: an algebra book, a book on writing poetry (The Roar on the Other Side), a metronome for Mariel (ours works intermittently), and the next Apologia curriculum for Triss. I had $58 in that bucket, which I figured would just about cover the algebra book alone. I had space in next month's budget for the Apologia, which we don't need until Sept 2, but I wasn't sure what I would do about the other two needs. I looked at the poetry book as less of a necessity, but cringed every time I thought about putting it off, because Triss is doing so well with her poetry.
Tonight, I was able to purchase everything but the Apologia curriculum with that money. Everything. I am still amazed. And it took exactly all of it, isn't that funny?
We also had a pretty tight weekend where food and gas was concerned, but we made it through with prayer and cooperation and a little shuffling of envelopes. I have been praying a lot more now that I am not throwing my hands up and spending money without thinking when we need something. We had a dentist appointment on Thursday and several dental-related expenses fell into my lap that I hadn't counted on. I just sat in the car and prayed, "Lord, I can't wait to see you take care of this, because I know we can't!" (I found out the next day that Mr. Honey, who is in a commission pay structure at work, had a very good month. We should be fine.)
I hope this isn't too much detail. But I want to document the ways the Lord blesses us through this process. I just know the novelty of 'living like no one else' is going to wear off, and I want to place Ebenezers in the blog for us to refer to when we forget about the Lord's past provisions.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Blessings
I saved $40 the other day by repurposing an old bookcase that has been used for storage in the garage for the past year or so. We have an Ikea Pax closet in the schoolroom that is used for game and school supply storage, but it had only one shelf. I desperately needed more shelving. We have no more wall space in the room for storage, since our schoolroom has two tall windows on one wall, a door opening into the kitchen on another wall, and double doors opening into the entryway on a third. Oh, and the wall with the kitchen door also has a large classroom chalkboard on it (we got that for free from the Baptist church in a nearby town a few years ago. I'm glad we got it. We use it *all* the time.) Anyway, not a lot of storage space. I had to make the closet more efficient. But to purchase three or four more Pax shelves from Ikea would be $40. So I thought, "There has got to be a solution in this house." I headed for the garage, and voila-- the little old bookcase caught my eye. It was just the right size to fit in the closet and hold supplies and games.
I used to repurpose, make do or do without a lot more, when the kids were smaller and Mr. Honey's paycheck was less. I'm not quite sure how I got out of the habit, but I think it had to do with getting more busy and moving away from trusting the Lord and into quick and pretty fixes.
One thing I can say for the past couple of weeks-- we have seen the Lord moving in our lives. And to remain calm and trust in Him is my goal. He has been providing all the time, but I often miss the blessing of *seeing* it. I don't want to miss that anymore.
I used to repurpose, make do or do without a lot more, when the kids were smaller and Mr. Honey's paycheck was less. I'm not quite sure how I got out of the habit, but I think it had to do with getting more busy and moving away from trusting the Lord and into quick and pretty fixes.
One thing I can say for the past couple of weeks-- we have seen the Lord moving in our lives. And to remain calm and trust in Him is my goal. He has been providing all the time, but I often miss the blessing of *seeing* it. I don't want to miss that anymore.
Coupons, Cars and Stuff
I thought I'd post a little on how we are doing with the turning of the financial ship. We are halfway through our fiscal month.
We have been selling stuff and I have been doing a little networking for piano students. It struck me today that perhaps people don't want to start musical instrument lessons with food and gas expenses currently higher than folks are used to, so my thoughts have turned toward tutoring as another possible way to earn a little extra money. I'm not sure how to start, though. I am going to have to do some research.
Since groceries is an area I have some control over, I have been working on couponing a la The Simple Dollar. I have used coupons in the past, and when I try to save them all I end up getting confused. So I am clipping coupons for things we use and organizing them according to due date only, the way The Simple Dollar folks do. And I have some things I like to buy, but generally don't (this was true before we decided to attack the debt fiercely) that I will only get if I can get them free or for up to 25 cents:
Packaged cereal (I generally keep old-fashioned oats only)
Juice
Protein bars
Yogurt
Gum
Mints
Fancy tea (anything but Plain Ol' Lipton)
At least, this is always my intention when couponing (when I am not couponing, it is not a temptation because we just don't buy those things). But then when I see that the item is on sale and I have a coupon I sometimes take leave of my senses and don't do the math properly and end up spending more money than I am willing to spend. I get tricked by the coupons sometimes. So I have to be careful. I'm not even clipping the candy bar coupons this time, even though you can use them to 'pad' your CVS purchase and receive ECBs (Money Saving Mom is a good place to read about this if you are unfamiliar with it). I figure if it is too frustrating to quantify in my head while shopping, I am probably losing on the deal. Like Mr. Ramsey says, only do deals you understand. But it is a challenge to remember this when you see that something you have a coupon for is on sale. It's like getting a match in Go Fish, lol! You want to put it down and get credit for it!
We have also stopped buying coffee. We found we were spending at least $10 per week on coffee and accoutrements (cream and sugar). So we decided to forego the pleasure for the time being. Maybe after I get stockpiled a little we will purchase some. Or if I get some good coupons!
In other money news, we had to repair our car (almost $400 worth) immediately after beginning our new gazelle intensity. Isn't that always the way? But we were able to pay cash. The car has been running just fine since the repair almost two weeks ago.
We have been selling stuff and I have been doing a little networking for piano students. It struck me today that perhaps people don't want to start musical instrument lessons with food and gas expenses currently higher than folks are used to, so my thoughts have turned toward tutoring as another possible way to earn a little extra money. I'm not sure how to start, though. I am going to have to do some research.
Since groceries is an area I have some control over, I have been working on couponing a la The Simple Dollar. I have used coupons in the past, and when I try to save them all I end up getting confused. So I am clipping coupons for things we use and organizing them according to due date only, the way The Simple Dollar folks do. And I have some things I like to buy, but generally don't (this was true before we decided to attack the debt fiercely) that I will only get if I can get them free or for up to 25 cents:
Packaged cereal (I generally keep old-fashioned oats only)
Juice
Protein bars
Yogurt
Gum
Mints
Fancy tea (anything but Plain Ol' Lipton)
At least, this is always my intention when couponing (when I am not couponing, it is not a temptation because we just don't buy those things). But then when I see that the item is on sale and I have a coupon I sometimes take leave of my senses and don't do the math properly and end up spending more money than I am willing to spend. I get tricked by the coupons sometimes. So I have to be careful. I'm not even clipping the candy bar coupons this time, even though you can use them to 'pad' your CVS purchase and receive ECBs (Money Saving Mom is a good place to read about this if you are unfamiliar with it). I figure if it is too frustrating to quantify in my head while shopping, I am probably losing on the deal. Like Mr. Ramsey says, only do deals you understand. But it is a challenge to remember this when you see that something you have a coupon for is on sale. It's like getting a match in Go Fish, lol! You want to put it down and get credit for it!
We have also stopped buying coffee. We found we were spending at least $10 per week on coffee and accoutrements (cream and sugar). So we decided to forego the pleasure for the time being. Maybe after I get stockpiled a little we will purchase some. Or if I get some good coupons!
In other money news, we had to repair our car (almost $400 worth) immediately after beginning our new gazelle intensity. Isn't that always the way? But we were able to pay cash. The car has been running just fine since the repair almost two weeks ago.
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