Journey to Debt Freedom

Buh-Bye, Sprint.....

2012-01-23T23:23:00.000-05:00

I wish I would have done this 3 years ago when I first started the plan... but I guess better late than never. I have been a Sprint customer since 2003. Hubby and I have grown very accustomed to our dumb phones, and for the longest time, that wasn't something I was willing to give up.

I finally realized enough was enough. We don't use or blackberries for all the frilly extras that they have the capability of doing. Honestly, I talk, I text, and I check email. I try to surf the web, but it's slow, and it's a pain in the tush, so I eventually get fed up and wait until I'm near a computer anyway.

I'm going to pay the stupid tax $120 early termination fee for my phone (his has already passed the contract date) because in only 2 months we'll have saved that much money to make it worth the switch.

We were paying $130 a month for our 2 phones. I checked our usage with sprint, and between the two of us, we barely hit 1000 minutes per month. We decided to go with the $30 plan at Straight Talk which is 1000 minutes, 1000 text, and 30MB of data. They also have a $45 per month plan which is unlimited talk, text and web. I found a phone for $30 for me, and a refurbished phone for $20 for him. A couple of up front costs to save more money in the long term.

WHY DIDN'T I DO THIS SOONER?????

So, the phones should arrive on Friday. I can't wait to activate them and be done with my ridiculously priced Sprint bill....

God's timing = Perfect timing

2012-01-14T11:11:00.000-05:00

I'm a planner. And as a planner, I don't like when I my situation doesn't appear to be going in the direction I would prefer for it to go.

That is basically how I have felt since May, when Jonny graduated. I have been on the edge of my seat, wondering if he was going to get a job, or if we were going to be forced to put my student loans in deferment when his GIBill benefits rand out in December, which we would have HAD to have done, in order to meet other monthly obligations. I didn't want to put the loans on deferment. I want to KILL them. And if I'm not paying on them, then I'm not KILLING them.

Jonny got his last partial month GIBill payment on January 1st. I just knew that for February, we were not going to be able to make it. I would have to not pay tithe (which is not an option) or live on the stuff currently in our pantry (which isn't terrible, but with the new diet we're on, I still need to be able to grocery shop pretty regularly), AND/OR, put the loans on deferment to use that money towards other necessities.

This week, though, God fixed that for us. After 3 years of searching, Jonny will be working full time. This new job is temp to perm, he only has a 1 month trial period, and it's 30 hours a week. He will still be able to work at his current part time job to meet 40 hours per week. In addition to that, he'll be working at the tax office some evenings and weekends. He very well may be working 50-55 hours per week between now and April.

The amount of money he will be pulling in not only allows us to keep our budget where we feel comfortable and won't be stupid by dipping into the emergency fund for non-emergencies (which we had been guilty of doing when times were tight), but it also gives us the ability to properly plan for some bigger expenses that we've just not been able to do yet - such as getting some trees removed from our property. Not only that, but for months where there isn't anything out of the ordinary going on that we have to budget for that even or item, we'll be able to throw about a $400 snowball at the student loans, in addition to the $600 required payments we currently are making.

I am SO thrilled, and we are so blessed. Sallie Mae - You are going DOWN!!!!

2011 Review, Ready for 2012

2011-12-23T23:39:00.000-05:00

2011 was a season of ups and downs. The ups were good, the downs were bad. Suffered some surprising disappointments but finally realized it was God's way of taking a stupid burden off of me.

In May, my husband and I took a 7 day cruise to Western Mexico to celebrate my graduation from grad school (last December) and his bachelors (this May). it was the single most best vacation I've ever been on and I cannot wait to go on another one.

In June, we had to put our Tri-Pawd beagle, Buster, to sleep after the cancer that took his leg returned and consumed him. A month later, we adopted another rescue, this time, a bagel (basset hound/beagle mix) named Freckles.

In July, after 2 years, 5 months and 7 days, we paid off the rest of our 42K in non-student loan debt. This was a big milestone in our journey to getting out of debt. Since then we've been tackling the student loans with a vengeance, between 2 bachelors and a masters degree, we'd like to pay them all off in 5 years or less. However, at our current rate, that's not going to happen. Still wishing for hubby to find a permanent full time job.

In August, I started my own Mary Kay business, it's providing a little bit of extra income, but I have no desire to be the crazy Cadillac lady.

In September, I found out that I have PCOS....and in November I found out that I'm insulin resistant/pre-diabetic. Hubby and I wont be able to have babies until I get this crap under control. Soooo, bye bye pizza, fast food, and processed garbage. I started the eat clean lifestyle (eatcleandiet.com) in November and have already lost 14 pounds. I'm "maintaining" through the holidays and hoping to really get focused after the beginning of the year.

I continue to be blessed in ways that I cannot put into words with the amazing job I have. I celebrated my 3 year anniversary with the company in October, and I'm crossing my fingers for some new opportunities in the upcoming year.

While I can't complain because God has really provided for us....I really hope hubby finds permanent full time work soon. We've made such financial progress, but these student loans are troubling me. If it weren't for the SLs, I could handle the household finances, and we wouldn't have anything to worry about... If you're an undergrad student reading this - PLEASE PLEASE keep/get scholarships, work a part time job and AVOID STUDENT LOANS.

As much as I despise the month of January, I'm ready for it to get here, because the quicker it gets here, the quicker it can be over. On my birthday a few weeks ago, I said 31 was going to be my best year yet, and I mean that. I've got big plans for 2012....and I'm ready to get started.

Black Friday shopping

2011-11-26T19:32:00.000-05:00

Black Friday was not nice to my wallet. However. I spent only money I had, and I bought only things that I really "needed." I did not buy Christmas presents. I did buy Jonny a few new polo shirts, but other than that, it's was "birthday" gifts for myself.

I've been wanting a programmable crock pot for a long time now, and just could not justify buying one for $50. Yesterday, I got one for $20 with a $10 mail in rebate. Thank you, JCPenney! I also bought 2 sets of Store N Lock food storage containers for all the new healthy food that I'm keeping in my house. Whole Wheat Flour, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Flax Seeds, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Rice Pasta, etc. Half opened boxes and bags with chip clips stuffed half-hazzardly in my pantry just wasn't cutting it.

I'm also learning to can. I bought a pressure COOKER, because I was told that a pressure cooker and a pressure canner are the same thing - and they are, but a pressure canner comes with a jar rack that sits in the bottom of the pot. Honestly, I don't understand why companies just don't make combined pressure cooker/canner for everything. For safety reasons, I took the pressure cooker back and bought a Presto pressure canner/cooker from Walmart. It was NOT on sale, and cost more than I really wanted to spend, However, I had a ton of turkey stock that I had to store SOMEHOW. I would have spent more money buying freezer containers, than I did buy sucking up the cost of the pressure canner and some jars so that I could put it up in my food pantry, rather than freezing it all. Plus, I can reuse the canner over and over again. I'm planning to can as much as possible. On the new diet, I am staying away from sugar, and salt when possible, which means its VERY difficult to find spaghetti or pizza sauce that I can buy at the grocery store. So I'm going to start making my own with fresh tomatoes, or start out with canned no salt added tomatoes and go from there. I made my own cream of mushroom soup a few weeks ago and had to freeze it all. I'm looking forward to being able to can the next batch I make. Whoop!

I also bought some black out energy efficient curtains for the living room, dining room and our bed room. Eventually we'll get some for the other rooms of the house. I got a great deal on these curtains at big lots. I found the sizes I needed in colors that matched the paint and decorations in the house, and had no trouble putting them up. I HATE having to use these curtains though, as I prefer natural sunlight. However, I'm hoping these live up to their name and will help keep the heat in during the winter and the heat out during the summer... We will see!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Clean Eating - This isn't going to be as bad as I thought.

2011-11-13T20:53:00.000-05:00

Alot has happened since my last post. I copied my post, with a few changes on some of the message boards that I read, and I got some really positive and encouraging feedback from some other readers. Long story short, I'm now on a path to clean eating.

What is clean eating? In short, it's not eating processed garbage that manufacturers and chemicals have gotten us dependent on. I have been downright furious this week as I've read more and more about the pre-packaged products that we as consumers buy for convenience, without fully understanding the un-natural chemicals that come along with it. I knew that going through the drive through for lunch wasn't healthy. What I didn't know is that simple kitchen stables like butter, cream of mushroom soup, and all purpose flour are processed in such a way that it's quite literally a poison to your body. No WONDER I'm FAT. No, I'm not going on a rampage to sue McDonald's, or anything like that, but I'm pretty hacked off at the thought that "typical" products in my kitchen are the problem with my weight and my health.... all because of the way those foods are processed. They have garbage added to them to make them addictive, to where you come back to it over and over, without even realizing it.

Okay, I'm trying to not turn this post into a rant, so back to the topic at hand. Basically, if it's not as nature intended it, I'm not going to eat it. That means no more macaroni and cheese out of a box. That means no more pizza unless it's home-made with home-made pizza crust - no, not crust from a mix where you add water, or crush from a can. If i want pizza, I'll make the dough and add clean toppings (natural tomato sauce, seasonings, and healthy cheese, etc). No more packaged cereal bars. My list of processed no-no's could go on and on.

In addition, clean eating requires only lean meats. That means no more ground beef. My alternatives are ground turkey, tofu, bison, deer meet, etc. Tofu, surprisingly, isn't NEAR as bad as I thought it was going to be. It has no flavor whatsoever, so it's not gross. I add the flavorings I want, and it's GREAT. I made ranch salad dressing with it this week. mashed it up, added a little milk to make it liquid-y, added some ranch powder flavoring, and it was just like the real stuff, without all the calories and additional crap added in. I bought some ground turkey at Sam's club over the weekend. I found that The Fresh Market carries ground bison....at $9.99 per pound! Yeah, I don't guess I'll be having a bison substitute for beef anytime soon.

Anyway, there's way to much to talk about with this. I'm working on making the change as quickly as I can, but not so quickly that I get burned out on the "rules" that I give up. Most of you know that I've always struggled with my weight. Nothing ever seemed to work. it was too hard, too much work, too much effort. If only I had KNOWN about the GARBAGE in processed foods, I don't think I would have whined so much before. Knowledge truly is power. Now that I fully comprehend just how bad all that garbage was for me, I truly think that this is going to be a process that I can be successful at. Yes, it makes me mad to think I can't just drive through the drive through and get a burger and fries anymore. Actually I can, I can eat that kind of stuff, in extreme moderation, but right now I'm so mad at the turmoil it has caused on my body that I honestly don't know if I'm going to WANT to eat a burger and fries.

I've learned alot over the last several days about healthy grains, cereals, seeds, fruits, veggies, etc, that I can have. There are grains I've never even tried that I'm excited to try now. I've also become an oatmeal protein smoothie junkie. Oatmeal, peanut butter, honey, soy protein powder, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, milk, ice.... YUM YUM.

Weight watchers worked, but it was too much effort. This process is just a matter of learning, and it's really not that hard, at least not what I can tell so far. I bought Tosca Reno's Just the Rules book, which explains in a nutshell, the easy why to learn whats appropriate for this eating lifestyle. If it's got more than 5 or 6 ingredients in it, it's not clean. If you can't pronounce the ingredient (or it looks like something out of a chemistry experiment), it's not clean. Sugar has to go. Honey, agave, maple syrup are substitutions for sugar. I made zucchini bread today with no sugar, and no white flour. I made it using whole wheat flour and honey, and it was absolutely delicious. Not as fluffy or sweet as the last time I made zucchini bread, but it was a whole lot healthier, and knowing what I know now, it's worth it.

Not to mention that the EIGHT pounds I lost this week is pretty motivating. I know that alot of it is water weight, and my body flushing out the fast food and soda garbage I've been eating, but it sure does feel good to know I'm doing something right. I go back to the doc the Monday after thanksgiving. I can't wait to see what my weight reads that day. I'll have been 3 weeks and I'm hoping that he'll be pleased with my progress.

Like I said, way to much to talk about in what I've learned this week. 2 sites I would recommend if you want to learn more is http://www.thegraciouspantry.com and http://www.eatcleandiet.com. I'll write some more later this week about the financial hit for making this change and how it is affecting our budget.

Watch out, world, Manda's gonna do this, and she's NOT going to be FAT anymore. She is going to get healthy, and hopefully soon, there will be a baby in the picture. Prayers for me on this journey, please.

Insulin Resistant with PCOS

2011-11-05T07:51:00.002-04:00

I met with a new doc yesterday - my OB nurse practitioner referred me to an endocrinologist because my lab work showed I had high insulin. After meeting with him, he says it sounds like Insulin Resistance. He says once diabetes develops there's no turning back and he wants me to really work on getting healthy so I can fight it off, since it runs in my family. He is going to put me on metformin, but I go in on monday morning for another fasting lab. Insulin resistence and PCOS is likely the reason we're not pregnant yet - because the old uterus isn't doing what it's designed to do: ovulate.

In order to fix this, he wants me to do 30-40 minutes of exercise every day. I think I can do this, just go for a walk at the park during my lunch break, since it's too dark when I get home at night now. That's what I hate about winter. He also wants me to go on a 1500 calorie a day diet. This scares me and worries me. I feel like I'm being set up for failure. I've never been able to stick to a counting calories diet. But I don't really have a choice, and I don't know how in the world I'm going to succeed. I have to do this or I'm NOT going to get pregnant.

I'm concerned because eating healthy is expensive. The convenience of the packaging of "heathly items" or buying in bulk and it not going bad before it gets used...or something like that. I'm too much of a nerd and I don't want to make excuses, but I feel so overwhelmed right now. This has never ever worked for me before. I did weight watchers for 6 months and while it was great, and it worked, it wasnt something I could KEEP AT. It's expensive to be on a plan that keeps you accountable. Hell, if I could afford a nutritionist and a personal trainier to keep me in check, I'd already be skinny.

One of the girls at work told me to look at it like the getting out of debt thing, which, of course, I CAN relate to, so it makes me look at it in a different light. but getting out of debt has not been easy, and it's not something I feel like I'm a success at yet. I still have over $100 grand (more than my house costs!) in student loan debt between me and hubby, and it's going to take years of more work before its gone and I finally feel successful.... I guess I just gotta look at eating healthy the same way. But it's not the same. As soon as I start to lose weight and feel good, I will hopefully get pregnant, and I'm just going to be fat again. :(

Yes, I'm whining. But I'm trying to get over the initial shock...though I'm not sure why. I'm NOT surprised. I knew it was coming. I just didnt realze that a 1500 calorie diet was going to be the solution. Deep down, I'm excited, though I'm mad. I'm excited because I know that if I can just quit being a baby and just do it, I AM going to lose the weight and feel better. I just gotta quit with the excuses and do it. This is going to suck. It damn well better work, though. The sample 2 week menu he gave me had alot of crap on it (yogurt, peaches, raspberries, BLEGH) that I simply do not like, and I'm going to have to find ways to substitute for things I DO like. Ugh.

Once a Month Cooking

2011-10-30T07:41:00.000-04:00

I couldn't let October go by without making a single post....things are still dragging a bit like I mentioned in the last post, but I have a good feeling that we'll see a turn around before too much longer.

My newest experiment to try is Once a Month Cooking. the idea is that you basically spend a whole day cooking a lot of foods and freezing them for the month so that all you have to do is warm the dishes up and eat throughout the month. No hassle with preparation, no overspending on frozen casseroles and such from the supermarket. You can make these things yourself and pull them out of the freezer.

I already had most of the meat for the dishes below, but I had to go buy produce and things like dinner crescents, cream cheese etc. I spent less than $10 grocery shopping yesterday. Since this is my first month doing this, it will be interesting to see how far these meals stretch - how many, and it will give me an idea on how many meals I need to plan on cooking next month to make it through the whole month. We're getting into the season of soups and such, and to be honest, I HATE canned soup - I'm so excited about the potato and butternut squash soup recipes I have listed below.

So.....when I get home from church today, I'll be busy in the kitchen prepping these recipes for the month.

http://onceamonthmom.com/easy-freezable-chicken-and-biscuits/

http://onceamonthmom.com/toddler-ific-pizza-snack-cups/

http://onceamonthmom.com/chili-cheese-twice-baked-potatoes-recipe/

http://onceamonthmom.com/kaylees-casserole/

http://onceamonthmom.com/butternut-poblano-soup/

http://onceamonthmom.com/chicken-broccoli-rollups/

http://onceamonthmom.com/slow-cooker-potato-soup-recipe/

Please share any recipes that you may know which are easy to prep in advance. Thanks!

What's new? Nothing.

2011-09-05T23:05:00.000-04:00

I haven't written much lately because honestly, I haven't felt like I've had anything new and motivational to share.

When we paid off the car, I thought that things were going to be easier. After all, the only debt we have anymore is the student loans and the house. To be honest, I just feel completely down in the dumps right now. We don't have a complete $1000 beginner emergency fund right now, because LIFE and MURPHY have been ticking away at the money we would otherwise have for that. Our first priority is getting the emergency fund built back up. Heaven forbid something happen and we need that money and it not be available.

We've got a list a mile long of things we need/want to be able to do, and we just can't right now. The weather is getting colder, and the holidays are coming. I am already dreading the seasonal depression that takes over every year when the sun doesn't shine as long.

I'm impatient. We have goals, and I feel like I'm at a complete standstill. I don't want to get into our long list of wants...because truly, they are all wants, with the exception of 1. We have 3 trees in our back yard that MUST come down. They are leaning and they are dangerous, and I need them gone before the heavy fall rain and winter comes and have them come crashing down on my house. The quote we received for that is $1000 and we simply do not have it right now....

The Mary Kay business is going well...in fact, much better than I initially imagined, though I've still not been able to give myself a paycheck yet. The money I make I'm still reinvesting in more product. I just need to wait this out, and do the best I can so that eventually I'll be able to have extra money as a result of the business. The good news is I'm not sinking any extra money into it... so it's not costing me anything more than my initial start up cost. However, it sure will be nice when I can finally give myself a paycheck to throw at debt and/or save for big purchases that we need to take care of.

So... to my readers, I'm sorry I haven't written much lately. I realize that this is a part of the process...there will be lag times that aren't as productive as others, but I feel rather useless during these lag times. I hope something big will happen soon to help re-energize us to push towards our remaining goals.

I'm on a mission to never buy a razor blade ever again.

2011-08-28T22:09:00.001-04:00

No, I'm not becoming a hippie and planning to never shave. I'm just tired of buying razors because they are so expensive!

Razor blades are one of the few things we have remained "brand loyal" to. I've been buying the Gillette Fusion blades in bulk at Sams Club for as long as I can remember simply because they come out to about $2.63 per blade, and unfortunately, even with coupons and sales I rarely have been able to find them for a cheaper price anywhere else. Additionally, my bald husband shaves his head every other day, and there is a specific kind of blade that he prefers - HeadBlade, which is difficult to find. Sometimes I can find them at Publix, but usually I buy them at drugstore.com. He goes through a Gillette blade every 6 days, and a HeadBlade blade every 10. I buy Gillette blades in packs of 16 and HeadBlade blades in packs of 4 (I buy 2), and they both last us about 2 1/2 months. That's almost $60 every 2 1/2 months for razors. I am just TIRED of spending that kind of money.

**Grumble Grumble** I didn't realize until doing the math to write this blog just how BAD it was. I thought I was buying them every 3-4 months. Crrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

About 2-3 weeks ago, we stocked up on blades....and then I found this. I wont be buying the Razor Pro, but I'll probably go with the blow dryer approach since it's a product I already have. I do recommend that you click the link for the Razor Pro, to watch the video on how razor blades break down from being wet with water. Also, if you read the comments posted, one person mentioned leaving the blade in a cup of baby oil between uses. I may try that too, because it seems to me that baby oil would protect the blade more than simply drying the blade would.

I don't know if this works, but Clark Howard swears that he's been using the same $0.17 razor blade for 2 YEARS now. I'm gonna give it a try. I'm tired of spending an average of $20+ a month on razor blades between the hubby and I. I could do a whole heck of a lot with an extra $20 a month if we can make this work. It's just going to be a matter of making it habit to take care of the blades properly.

My new Mary Kay business

2011-08-26T23:08:00.000-04:00

Most of you probably know by now that I've started my own Mary Kay business. I did this for several reasons: first and foremost, I have a mountain of student loan debt to pay off. I want true financial freedom, and we've still got a long way to go. Secondly, I have a huge scary fear of public speaking, and it's a fear I've been trying to conquer for years. I think I've gotten better but it's still not easy. Third....I looked around my bathroom and realized that I had ALOT of Mary Kay product. I've used Mary Kay for as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until I moved to the Columbus area and found a regular consultant (who is now my Director) before I started trying new prodcuts, which I then fell in love with and became a loyal user.

So my goal is to conduct some "pampering sessions" with hopefully you and a few of your family or friends. By doing this, I'll have to face my fear of "all eyes on me" as I present the Mary Kay products and opportunity.

Also, Mary Kay is currently hosting a Fall Makeover Contest. The winner will get a trip for 2 to New York. You can check out contest details here.

I would really love to host a skin care class for you. This will help me build my business, and you'll earn FREE product in the process. For my friends in Atlanta - yes, I will come meet you, I don't mind the commute. For those of you a few states away, I offer free shipping. I don't currently have the ability to take debit/credt card payments directly through the Mary Kay website, but you can mail me a check, or I can send you a paypal invoice so that you can pay by whatever method you choose. I hope to have debit/credit capabilities through my website very soon, but I'm still working on building up the business a little bit more before I can offer this feature.

Thanks so much for your support. If you have any questions, please let me know.

P.S. Orders placed between now and midnight on August 31st will recieve 25% off of a single item* Sets not included. If your desire is to purchase a set of some sort, you will get 25% off the highest priced individual item. Orders can be placed on my website, by sending me an email or FB message, or you can call or text me.

Yes, it's real.

2011-08-07T23:56:00.000-04:00

It's come to my attention that there are some people who doubt the progress we've made in our journey to debt freedom. Let me address some of the comments I've heard.

I was NOT born into money. I did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I didn't get everything I always wanted, but my parents knew how to give me what I NEEDED - you know, basic necessities. And yes, this included after school activities to keep my butt busy enough to prevent me from having time to become a troublemaker. Band, softball, and Girl Scouts = a child who doesn't get wrapped up with the wrong crowd and potentially damage the rest of her life with drugs, a baby as a teenager or an addiction or some other kind of garbage.

We have NOT been mooching off my parents for the last 2 1/2 years. They are NOT the reason we've paid off $42K in debt. Well, I take that back. They've supported us. They've been cheerleaders. They tell us how proud they are of us because we are taking this action now, rather than getting so far in debt that we struggle the rest of our adult lives. We've paid off $42K in debt by the grace of God's mercies, and our willingness to be taught and disciplined. So YEAH, it is a BIG deal. The last time my dad gave me money was a $100 bill to buy gas for my car and to pay my electricity bill my junior year in college. It was the most humiliating, and yet humbling experience ever, and I vowed I'd never put myself in a position to ask them for money ever again.

I joined the military 3 weeks shy of my 19th birthday. My parents didn't pay for my first cell phone, I did. My parents didn't pay for my car insurance, I did. Except for a few extenuating circumstances, I became independent the day I left for boot camp. After boot camp, I was mortified by my high school friends whose mommy's and daddy's were paying for their cell phone, car, gas, insurance, etc. Sure, they were college students, but their parents were holding money over their head. I joined the military to build my own independence. I didn't want my parents having to "take care" of their legally-an-adult child who should have been responsible enough to pay for her own cell phone bill. Sure, as I mentioned, I had a few hiccups in my early twenties, but the majority of the help my parents gave me was the discipline to take care of myself.

If you're a college student reading this now...it's up to you whether you take offense to this. I have my opinions on this subject, which may differ to yours. I personally feel that if you need a phone, you should be able to pay for it yourself. If you need a car, you should be able to pay for it, the gas, and the insurance yourself. It's the lesson that comes behind paying for these "necessities" on your own. You will appreciate these items more when your own money pays for it, rather than it being handed to you. If you disagree, so be it.

At any rate, it completely makes sense now. NO WONDER our accomplishments havn't meant jack squat to some of you, and haven't made the slightest bit of impact in your lives. You don't take our accomplishments seriously, because you think we're lying about the progress we've made. Well, maybe lying isn't the correct word. Over-exaggerating, perhaps? Do you think we're making a big deal out of something that's not really a big deal because we haven't really done the work? After all, it's just not possible for a couple to pay off $42K in 2 1/2 years when only one of them is working full time. Actually, you would be wrong, because it's very possible. It called discipline. It's called giving up CRAP that's not important. It's called planning your grocery and shopping trips, and not shopping on a whim. It's called a BUDGET. It's called responsibility. We screwed around and got into debt, but now we're trying to make it right. Who are you to knock us down for trying to make something better of our lives?

2 years, 5 months and 7 days later....

2011-07-31T21:37:00.002-04:00

We paid the car off on Friday, 7/29/11. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. This was a HUGE milestone for us, as it's now one less thing for us to have to worry about. We've had a couple of Negative Nellys who were trying to discourage us, but as Dave says, if we're being made fun of, then we're doing something right.

However, with this accomplishment, we reach a "hurry up and wait" point. Jonny's school plans for his CPA test prep have changed once more...hopefully for the final time this time. The latest plan is that he's going to take his final 4 classes this Fall to meet the 150 credit hours he needed to get his CPA license. Originally he was going to wait until Spring to take those classes, due to a particular elective being offered. He was able to get into another class in its place for the Fall. So now the new plan is that in the Spring he'll begin taking the 4 parts of the CPA exam.

He's taking classes at night, so he'll have the availability to take on a full time regular working hours job, IF he can find one. He still hasn't been able to find anything more permanent. We are fairly certain though, that his current employer will keep him through December, but once he's done with Fall classes, if he hasn't gotten something else lined up, then he's not going to have an income anymore. This is a worst case scenario that I really REALLY hope doesn't happen. Since is is a possibility, though, this means we HAVE to temporarily halt the baby steps and build up as much cash as possible. We are entering Storm Clouds mode. Why? Because my income alone is not enough to cover our regular expenses plus student loan payments. If we didn't have the student loans, my income would cover our basic living expenses. But because off the student loans, we don't have the luxury of being a 1 income only family.

So....for the next 5 months, we're going to follow our written budget, pay the minimums on the student loans, and anything extra at the end that would "normally" be applied as a snowball payment to the student loan, is going to be put into our emergency fund. This will cover us so that if we have a few months of him being unemployed, we'll still have a way to pay the bills. I pray though, that he'll find a full time job soon, and we can resume working the baby steps.

Until next time....

Extreme Couponing: Sorority House Style (Part 5)

2011-07-17T20:52:00.001-04:00

Yes, it most certainly CAN be done! Even though the table below has alot of red numbers, indicating that I was over the target budget for that individual item, the few green items held such a significant savings that it offset the red items.

I did take the paper towels from yesterday back to Kmart. The 20% One Day Event at Big Lots had almost all of the rest of the items on the list, including a better deal on paper towels, and because of the 20% discount, I was able to finish shopping today. The only item I didn't get was the Vanilla Scents, which I intend to get early in August. I think that I'll be able to find some Febreze room spray coupons soon.

Total spent so far is $206.93. I need to save about $6 for vanilla room spray, to account for tax, which leaves $38.07. I have been told that the chapter wants to buy a Brita water pitcher and some filters. I need to confirm if they have a pitcher already and need just the filters, or if they also need the pitcher. Once I confirm, I'll be able to shop for these as well.

Here's a picture of what $206.93 looks like:

Item	Quantity	Budget(50%)	Actual After Tax	Comments
Toilet Paper	104 rolls	$36.00	$28.89	27 megarolls = 108 regular rolls
Paper Towels	52 rolls	$25.00	$31.10**	4 packs of 15 = 60 rolls
Trash Bags	400 Bags	$52.00	$32.04	3 packs of 150 = 450 bags
Dish Soap	12 Bottles	$18.00	$18.63**	5 large refill bottles, 1 small bottle to refill and leave on counter
Dishwasher Liquid	24 Bottles	$72.00	$41.34	330 dishwasher packs, slightly less than 1 per day
Bath/Kitchen Hand Soap	24 Bottles	$12.00	$14.98	5 large refill bottles = 24 regular bottles
Magic Eraser	1 pack	$2.50	$3.24	1 pack of 4
Napkins	6 packs	$4.50	$6.48	3 packs of 200 napkins
Kleenex	12 Boxes	$9.00	$9.63**	8 Family boxes = 14 regular boxes
Windex	2 Bottles	$3.00	$3.89
Bathroom Cleaner	2 Bottles	$3.00	$3.46
Kitchen Cleaner	3 Bottles	$4.50	$2.59
SOS Pads	1 box	$2.00	$0.82	Box of 15
Sponges	2 packs	$2.00	$3.96	2 packs of 4
Rags	2 bundles	$1.00	$4.32	1 pack of 18 - didn’t want the girls wasting paper towels to clean counters!
Duster	1	$1.50	$1.56**
Vanilla Scents	???	$5.00	$---	Did not purchase yet
	Total	$250.00	$206.93	** Indicates over budget only because of tax OR bulk quantities and tax.

Extreme Couponing: Sorority House Style (Part 4)

2011-07-16T16:38:00.002-04:00

Finding decent paper towels at less than $0.50 a roll is extremely difficult. I've been casually shopping prices everywhere I go for the last month. If you are payinmg more than $1 per roll, you're spending way too much....but to try to cut that price in half DOES make things very challenging.

Dont get me wrong. I DID find a 3 pack of Dollar General brand paper towels for $1.50 today, which was their regular price. But the size of the rolls were small, and they did not look very absorbent. I couldn't, with a good conscience, buy these paper towels for college students. They would have needed to use more to get the job done, which would have been wasteful.

Luckily, since I'm under budget on the other items I have already purchased, I have that extra amount to use for other items that it's just too difficult to meet the 50% of retail price goal. I finally found a GREAT deal of Sparkle paper towels at Kmart today. Regular price for 8 rolls was 6.79, which is a "good" price at less than $1 per roll. They aren't as high quality as Bounty, but it's a good product. The sale price was $4.99 for an 8 pack. I bought 7 packs for $37.38 with tax, or about $0.67 per roll

I'm torn about this purchase. I know that it was a good price, but it still was not $0.50 per roll, like I wanted. I'm still under total budget, and I'm confident that I'll be able to get the rest of the items I need and not go over the total budget.

I'm going to see what kind of deal I can get at Big Lots tomorrow with the 20% off entire purchase 1 day special they have going on. If I can find a better deal, I'm going to take these back to Kmart. I'm sure I'll get a few more of the remaining items on the list tomorrow as well.

Washington makes me sick.

2011-07-05T19:22:00.000-04:00

"Republicans are insisting they will note vote to raise the debt limit without major spending cuts; Democrats are refusing to sign off on cuts of such magnitude without at least some tax increases as well. Republicans say they won't sign off on any tax hikes at all, including those Obama wants targeting the wealthiest Americans or closing loopholes to corporations."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43645224/ns/politics-capitol_hill/t/obama-warns-against-short-term-debt-deal/

Washington really needs to go through FPU. If you don't have the money, you cannot spend it! Raising taxes on Americans should not be the equivalent of asking for a credit limit increase. Washington needs to make a prioritized budget, and if the program falls below the line of where the money runs out, then that program doesn't get funded. If you need more money to fund more programs, you need to find the individual equivalent of finding a part time job! Hiking taxes on Americans is not the part time job income generator.

Good job, Democrats, you refuse to grow up and realize that you cannot stretch the dollar any further than it will actually go. If you cannot afford it, you cannot buy it. Quit throwing a temper-tantrum and demanding a "raise" (read: increased debt ceiling) just so you can continue to give deadbeats a frikkin handout.

Republicans, you aren't much better. Have you no backbone? "Oh, well, if cuts are agreed upon by the dems, then we'll vote to increase the debt limit." Um, no....no increased debt limit is needed. If cuts are made, then no increase will be necessary. SIMPLE CUTS are needed to balance the budget. Period. No tax increase, no increased debt.

Dumb politicians.

"I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up"

2011-06-29T19:49:00.000-04:00

Behold, a post on a message board I frequent.

I am 28 years old, male
married, 3 kids (3, 21 months, 1 month)
I was active duty military
now I am in the reserves
I am full time in seminary (masters level theological education)
we live off the GI bill, monthly drill pay, and what I make part-time working security about 2,100/month
I have 2.5 years left of the GI bill, after that I have no idea what I am going to do
I have never prepared, pursued, or interviewed for a "real job"
I am interested in real estate
I have no idea what I will do in 2.5 years

After several questions and responses from other users, we find out that this guy has no desire whatsoever to be a pastor. Mmmkay, so why are you in masters level seminary? His response was

my entering seminary was a condition for me to get out of the Army early
I am a chaplain candidate in the Army Reserve
at the completion of my degree I will be qualified to be a US Army Chaplain
if I do that I would most likely join the Reserves
I still need a "9-5"
I have no interest in becoming a "pastor"

My first thought was that this guy, bless his heart, found a way to scam his way out of his military obligation early. But I think there's a hole in his story somewhere, because usually to qualify for those kind of programs, you have to commit to serving a certain amount of time. I mean, I got out of the Navy 3 months early so I could start college in August rather than having to wait until January, but it wasn't on the wings of a special program to make me more valuable to the navy.... it just saved them 3 months worth of giving me a paycheck when my ship was decommissioning and they would have placed me somewhere temporarily anyway.

But besides all of that....I'm really interested in the fact that this guy is living on/using his GIBill to learn a skill trade that he *might* only use 1 weekend a month. That would be fine and good if you could live off the army reserves paycheck you would earn, but last time I checked, a reservist paycheck is only a few hundred bucks, depending on your rank. Why in the world would you fluff around for 2.5 years to learn a trade you have no desire to use, when you could be using that time to learn skills that will help you support your family in the long run?

This is not the first time I've heard of a veteran who didn't use his benefits wisely. Sure, he served, he earned it and can use it how he sees fit, but he's going to be in for a reality shock if he doesn't figure out what he wants to be when he grows up.

Extreme Couponing: Sorority House Style (Part 3)

2011-06-27T23:06:00.003-04:00

I picked up dishwasher pacs and trash bags at Sams Club tonight. I looked over the weekend at the prices at Target and Dollar General for these items, and thought I was going to get a pretty decent deal if I had gone with either of those options. However, Sam's Club had the best deal in the end.

My budget for trash bags was $52.00 for 400 bags, which calculates out to $0.13 per bag. At Target, I found a way to get drawstring bags for $0.11 each, or tie flap bags for just under $0.07 each. I was told to go for best value, but I had to get a second opinion before I did anything else. For me personally, best value trash bags = least expensive. On the other hand, a college student may think the best value includes the convenience of drawstrings. After consulting with my contact, I was told to do whatever I felt was best....

Today, I got lucky. I went to Sams Club to check out the prices. They had their store brand, Members Mark, drawstring trash bags in packs of 150, for $10.68 (after tax). This came out to $0.071 per bag. I figured that THIS was the best value. Drawstring bags at the approximate price I had found for the tie flap bags. Yeah, they aren't name brand, but for goodness sake, it's trash bags. I bought 3 packages for a total of $32.04 after tax.

The next item I bought was dishwasher packs. The list originally asked for the dishwasher liquid that you squirt into the compartment. I personally do not like this liquid because I think it's easy to become wasteful with it, annnnnd, it's way over priced. So I decided to go with dishwasher packs. I estimated that the dishwasher would need to be run once per day. This may need to be re-evaluated, but for purposes of shopping, I had a goal of purchasing around 365 packs.

I had a budget of $72.00 for dishwasher liquid. I converted this to the packs so $72/365 packs = $0.19 per pack. This is the low side of "normal" retail price. The Finish brand packs run about $0.19 each, where as the Cascade packs run around $0.24 each.

Sams Club had Cascade in packs of 115 for $19.96, or slightly more than 0.17 each. This was under budget, but I wanted to do better. Finish brand were in packs of 90 for $12.98, or slightly more than $0.14 each. I still wanted to do better. Plus, the advantage to Cascade versus Finish is that Finish packs are individually wrapped, which means you have to take them out of the plastic wrap before plopping them in the dishwasher. The Cascade ones go in as they are. I currently use Finish at home right now, because they were the most affordable option the last time I bought for myself....but I HATE the plastic wrap. I knew the these college students would not like it. Sooooo, I looked at the Members Mark brand, which was comparable to Cascade. Same type of packaging as Cascade, but came in packs of 110 for $12.88, or $13.78 after tax - This came out to less than $0.13 per pack. BINGO!

My only remaining dilemma with the dishwasher detergent was that I either needed to buy 3 boxes totalling 330 (35 less than the 365 I wanted) or buy 4 packs, which would put me at 440, or 75 over my target. I decided to err on the conservative side today and only go with 3. I can always go back for a 4th pack later if I need to. My total for 3 packs was $41.34.

So my shopping trip today resulted in 450 garbage bags, and 330 dishwasher packs for $73.38. My budget was $52+$72 = $124.00. I came in under budget by $50.62. Whoop Whoop! This under budget stuff is DEFINITELY going to help when I start going for the items that are more difficult to meet the 50% of retail target that was assigned to me. I'm working on the easy stuff for now... Will tackle those more difficult items later on.

So as a recap so far, here are the items I've purchased, and a breakdown of how far under budget I am:

Item	Quantity	Estimated Retail	Budget(50%)	Actual With Tax	Final Comments
Toilet Paper	104 rolls	$72.00	$36.00	$28.89	27 megarolls = 108 regular rolls bought
Trash Bags - Large/Tall	400 Bags	$104.00	$52.00	$32.04	450 Trash Bags bought
Dishwasher Liquid	24 Bottles/365 packs	$144.00	$72.00	$41.34	330 packs bought
Kleenex	12 Boxes	$18.00	$9.00	$9.63	8 Family boxes = 14 regular boxes bought
Totels		$338.00	$169.00	$111.90	$57.10 under budget, or $226.10 under estimated retail

Extreme Couponing: Sorority House Style (Part 2)

2011-06-18T16:16:00.000-04:00

Well, CVS was a bust today. The 30% coupon I had was only good on non-sale items, and the only other coupons I had to stack with were for items already on sale. Even with 30% off of these items, I wasn't finding the deals I wanted to find. I realized that the budget I was given is going to be difficult for some items, especially once tax is factored in, but I still feel confident I can do this.

To break it down a little easier so that I was able to determine if it was a good deal or not, I calculated the unit budget for items. For example: 104 rolls of toilet paper at a $36.00 budget meant I could spend approximately $0.35 per roll. Then you run into the issue of double rolls and mega (quad) rolls. The cost of toilet paper is insanely expensive if you don't have a goal in mind. If you buy toilet paper just to buy toilet paper, you may risk paying over a dollar a roll, which is ridiculous.

So after not having much luck on prices at CVS, we went to Big Lots. I ended up purchasing the toilet paper and facial tissue while I was there because the deals were just too good to pass up. I bought 3 packs of 9 megarolls (9 megarolls = 36 regular rolls) at $9.00 per pack (3 packs of 9 megarolls = 108 regular rolls). This was a total of $27 pre-tax. That comes out to $1 per megaroll, or the equivalent of $0.25 per regular roll. These rolls are HUGE. They are by far the fattest rolls of toilet paper I have ever seen. I'm enough of a nerd that I checked the number of sheets per megaroll to other packs of regular and double rolls, and this was definitely the best deal. My only concern is that the budgeted amount was based on 2 regular rolls per week, so this basically means that 1 megaroll should ideally last for 2 weeks. This is for the bathroom on the main level of the house, not the bathrooms in their individual rooms. Hopefully, it will last as it's intended. At the end of the summer once everything else has been purchased, if there is any money left, we'll re-evaluate if more TP should be purchased.

I also bought Puffs facial tissue - not Kleenex brand. This is another product that if you aren't careful, you will spend an arm and a leg for. The budgeted amount for "Kleenex" was $9, at 1 box per month for 12 months, or $0.75 per box. At CVS, Publix, whereever, tissue is easily $3+ per box, unless you got the generic cheap crap, which I'm trying to avoid if I can (though, inevitably, some items will end up being generics when all is said and done). I knew this was going to be difficult to beat. At Big Lots, there were some value packs of multiple boxes packaged together. The best deal I found was Puffs brand, large family size boxes. There were 8 family size boxes that claimed to be the equivalent of 14 regular boxes, which was more than the 12 requested. I argued with myself for a while if this was an appropriate buy, and I finally decided yes. The cost was exactly $9 prior to tax, but I wasn't worried since I came under budget on the TP, the tax wouldn't be an issue when I went to pay.

So, the total budget for the two items I purchased today was $45 (remember, estimated regular retail was $90), and after tax, the total bill was $38.52...so I was under budget by $6.48. I'm looking forward to collecting coupons and searching deals for the rest of the products, and will keep you all posted.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Extreme Couponing: Sorority House Style (Part 1)

2011-06-17T22:03:00.003-04:00

What girl doesn't love to shop? I have been tasked to buy a years worth of generic household supplies for the Iota Theta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. The budget? $250.

I'm up for the challenge.

I have 2 months until school starts, and over the next two months I'll be searching sales ads, cutting coupons, and shopping for bargains to meet the requirements on the wish list, while coming in as far under budget as possible.

Here's the wish list:

Item	Quantity	Estimated Retail	Budget(50%)	Comments
Toilet Paper	104 rolls	$72.00	$36.00	2 rolls/week x 52 weeks. Preferablely not Scott brand!
Paper Towels	52 rolls	$52.00	$25.00	1 roll/week x 52 weeks. Minimum cost
Trash Bags - Large/Tall	400 Bags	$104.00	$52.00	Daily use, wo trash cans
Dish Soap	12 Large Bottles	$36.00	$18.00	1 large bottle/mo
Dishwasher Liquid	24 Bottles	$144.00	$72.00	2 bottles/mo
Bath/Kitchen Hand Soap	24 Bottles	$24.00	$12.00	2 bottles/mo
Magic Eraser	1 pack	$5.00	$2.50
Napkins	6 packs	$9.00	$4.50	Family Packs, white
Kleenex	12 Boxes	$18.00	$9.00	1 box/mo
Windex	2 Large Bottles	$6.00	$3.00
Bathroom Cleaner	2 Large Bottles	$6.00	$3.00	For All Surfaces
Kitchen Cleaner	3 Large Bottles	$9.00	$4.50	For All Surfaces
SOS Pads	1 box	$4.00	$2.00
Sponges	2 packs	$4.00	$2.00
Rags	2 bundles	$2.00	$1.00	Can be donated old towels, etc
Duster	1	$3.00	$1.50	With wand/extender for ceilings
Vanilla Scents	???	$10.00	$5.00	Spray air freshener

A few clarifications I received after the list was sent to me. Substitutions are allowed. I know I can get smaller bottles of dish soap for next to nothing, and dishwasher packs are a better deal than the dishwasher liquid you can squirt into the compartment. Best value, best deal is the all around goal.

My planned strategy includes utilizing my favorite coupon website: southernsavers.com, for deals at Publix, Target, etc, and also Big Lots. Because these items aren't food items, and wont expire, Big Lots will be a great place to check out if I just can't get a better deal with coupons somewhere else.

This weekend, I have a coupon for 30% off at CVS. I'm going to see what coupons I have for items on the wish list that I can match with the 30% off, to see if I can come under the 50% budget for the items.

I'll make periodic updates over the next couple of months as I find deals and when I'm done shopping, I'll report my total results. Meanwhile.....if you guys come across any fabulous deals you'd like to share with me to help me out, I'd love to hear it.

Sometimes you have to just move on...

2011-05-25T23:15:00.001-04:00

I really needed closure on this. And all I've gotten is silence. So I reached out one last time, and still got nothing...abso-frikkin-lutely nothing.

I thought we were friends, but apparently....I was wrong. Thank you, Lord, for the friends I do have, who love me unconditionally.

What's your most expensive hobby? (Past or present)

2011-04-19T22:01:00.000-04:00

I saw this topic on a message board recently. We all have hobbies. How much money have you sunk into one, and do you have any regrets?

The easiest one I can think of was my paperback book collection. I read/collected Nora Roberts, VC Andrews, John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Christopher Pike, Nicholas Sparks, etc. Libraries, psh, I wanted to own them. I didn't normally buy the books brand new, I searched used book stores, but it was still a hefty chunk of change.

Yep, own them I did. Where they sat in boxes after I moved from my Marietta apartment in 2007, and sat in boxes in Woodstock, sat in boxes in Columbus, and finally, when we moved into our house in Smiths Station, I pulled them out of the boxes and started listing them online to get rid of them for whatever I could. At first, I wanted to save the books in case my future kids had the same book interests as me. Who was I kidding? VC Andrews, even though I read those in high school, were garbage. Filth that I shouldn't have read, and filth I certainly don't want future kids of mine to read. Nora Roberts was the typical smut novel, but those will always be around. The rest...well, I just didn't have room to set them on a shelf, and I decided it was pointless to keep them in a box.

I've sold quite a few in the last few months, but I'll be taking the rest to a yard sale at the church at the end of the month.

What's been your most expensive hobby?

Thinking about starting another blog....

2011-04-11T20:02:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking alot lately about starting a new blog that's not necessarily about my personal journey, like this one, but something designed to be a benefit to others. I'm at a stand still trying to figure out the theme of the new blog. I want this to be a blog that can possibly grow outside the readership of just my Facebook friends.

I've been thinking about finances from the view point of a young military family, or a college student. 2 areas I have personal experience in, and two times of my life if I had known then what I know now, how much different my life would be. The problem is, I'm not sure if I can incorporate both of those and it be effective for both audiences.

If you fall into either of these categories....military (or family) or college student, or just out of college, would you be interested in a blog like this? A blog about finances from a realistic point of view rather than telling you to save 25% of your paycheck when you can barely afford to put gas in your car to get to work? If yes, are there any specific topics within this theme that you would like to see?

If you have any comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thank you!

Continuing to look for ways to save more money...

2011-03-12T07:14:00.000-05:00

Recently, we made some pretty significant changes to our regular household utilities. For starters, when we bought the house, we got ADT security. For ADT to work, you either had to have it connected to a land line, or they had to install a cell box for it to be compatible with your cell phone. With the land line, there was no one time fee, and the monthly cost was $29. The cell box was a $250 one time fee, plus an extra $13 per month.

We figured we probably were going to need a land line eventually, and we hadn't really gotten a feel for the house, to know if we had crappy reception on our cell phones yet, so we decided to get a land line from AT&T for $37 per month. It was more per month than the additional $13 was, but it didn't include the $250 start up fee, which we just didn't have available at the time.

Well, in 8 months time, we BARELY ever used the land line. And on at least 4 previous occasions, when one of us would try using it to call the other, or vice versa, we found that it wasn't working. When I called AT&T to ask about it, they said they saw no issues on their end, and that if they had to dispatch a tech, it was going to cost us an additional fee. WTH? Usually, we got the phone back to working after messing with the connection on the wall, etc etc, but I finally got fed up! There was NO SENSE in having a land line, that sporadically didn't work, to where if my house was being broken into, they had no way to call.

So, we discussed it and decided that we don't really have a need for a land line right now, we should just bite the bullet, pay the extra $250 as a one time fee, and pay ADT $13 more per month and save $37 from AT&T. So we did. Good news? When we called, ADT was running a promotion on the cell box for existing customers, and it only cost $142, not $250. Score!

Then we started talking about cable and Internet. When we first moved into the house, Our cable and Internet was $80 per month, 6 month promotional period, for standard basic cable. After the 6 months, it jumped up to $108. I knew it was going to, but even after it did, I was still irritated with it. So I called to see if they had any promotions, any way we could cut it back down. Nope, nothing. Would not even entertain the notion. The customer service, frankly, sucked. She wasn't polite, wasn't accommodating, and wasn't even sorry (except in a condescending tone). Pisses me off that cable companies have such a damn monopoly. They are the only cable company we can get out here. Our other options are dish, direct TV.

So after a post on FB, and some research, we decided the hell with cable, we were going to get a Roku box (one time fee of $100), with Netflix (monthly $10) and Hulu Plus (monthly $8). For local news channels, we'd need a digital antenna (got one for $90...but there are cheaper options available). The plan was to drop cable TV, and keep only cable Internet, which I KNOW that cable companies have the ability to do, except yesterday, when I went to make the call to do just that, The same rude lady answered the phone again, and with her condescending tone said "we don't offer Internet only, you have to have basic cable as well. We USED to offer that, but people were misbehaving and rigging their cable line to get cable TV without paying for it."

Well, damn, I thought. What was I going to do now? Solution? Eat crow, and crawl back to AT&T, who I had just cancelled my phone service with, and sign up for DSL only with no phone line (which they clearly have marked on their website). Intro rate is $25 per month for 12 months. After 12 months it's only $48. The cable Internet portion of our cable bill was $50. It's a faster connection speed than the cable Internet, and it's a great intro rate, and still a good regular rate, which I wont be hacked off about after the first year is over because it's still affordable. Instead of renting a DSL modem for a small fee every month, I have to buy a modem. Through AT&T it was $75. Yeah, I know, I probably could have gotten one cheaper at target or walmart, or something like that. Whatever, I fell victim to the convenience of buying it through them. AT&T had better not disappoint me though - this DSL connection had better work, unlike the sporadic issues with the phone line!

So, in short, recent one time fees:

ADT Cell box: $142
Digital Antenna: $89
Roku Box: $100
DSL Modem: $75
Total: $406

Savings Per month:
Was paying:
Cable TV + Internet: $108
AT&T Land Line: $37
ADT Security: $29
Total: $174 per month

Will now pay:
Netflix: $10
Hulu Plus: $8
AT&T DSL: $25 ($48 after 12 months)
ADT Security: $42
Total: $85 per month

Savings of $89 per month. The $406 in one time fees will have paid for themselves in only 4.5 months. I think it's well worth the change :)

Life Insurance - Lets try this again

2011-03-09T23:16:00.000-05:00

If you have dependents, you need a life insurance policy. GET ONE. Don't let your loved one lose their house or starve because you didn't prepare for them appropriately!

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/yourmoney/107543183.html

Check out the article above.

Consequences of no life insurance are a NO BRAINER. If the breadwinner were to pass on, how would bills be paid? The article points out that life insurance is less than the cost of a few pizzas per month, or the cost of cable for the year. There's NO EXCUSE to not buy it. Dave recommends that at a minimum, you have 10 times your annual income in life insurance. Why?

I probably actually should buy a little more insurance. The policy I have isn't accurate anymore, based on my salary. Hmmmm.....

VICTORY!

2011-02-12T13:32:00.000-05:00

"Our members are important to us, and we appreciate your patience while this case was investigated. After a full and fair review of the information, we have approved the emergency room services for date of service September 15, 2010. We approved the emergency room services based on the fact that your physician instructed you to proceed to the emergency room...."

WAHOO! I only have to pay my ER copay of $150!!!!!

So close I can taste it....

2011-02-06T22:24:00.000-05:00

We filed our tax return this weekend, and in about 2 weeks, we'll be getting a refund of about $4K. I am incredibly thankful for this refund this year, but I know that in the future it won't be so big due to the recent tax withholding changes we've made. $1K of this will finish paying off the cruise we're taking in May for graduation, and $3K will go to the car. That will leave only $2500 left to pay on it, and I'm trying to think of whatever I can to scrounge up loose coins here and there to pay on it as I can.

I wish I had some stuff I could sell.... :( Maybe I'll be able to scrounge some stuff up over the next few weeks. Every little bit helps.

Emergency Room Bill Part 2

2011-02-03T15:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I got the copies of my medical records from my dermatologist and called up my insurance company to ask them how I needed to go about asking for reconsideration. The person i talked to, Ko, was awesome! He was very very nice, and gave me the mailing address to the appeals department. Told me to do basically what Patsy said in her comment to my previous post. i wrote a letter, told my story, gave a copy of the medical records from my doc (which clearly stated IV antibiotics on it) and copies of the hospital and physicians bills.

So after I got off the phone with Ko, I called up the number on the hospital bill. The woman I talked to was a witch from the get go. She was EXACTLY what Dave commonly describes when he talks about collectors. She wouldnt listen to reasoning, you could practically hear her foaming at the mouth....and all I did was called to give them a courtesy "Hey, i cant pay this bill, but my insurance is going to take anther look at it, and I'll keep you posted." She said that my insurance had ALREADY looked at it and denied it, and I had to pay. This is where it got fun. I old her "No, I don't HAVE to pay, and I'm not GOING to pay. My insurance didn't have all the records they needed. I'm sending those to them, and they will review. I'm working on getting you paid, but I am not going to pay you." So she said "Fine, I'm going to notate your account as refusal to pay and we'll send it on to collections." "Well, do what you have to do, I don't care, you go right on ahead. I don't borrow money, and I couldn't care less what you do to my credit. Threatening me is NOT going to get you paid."

And I hung up. MAN did that feel good!

So then I thought that the physicians office was going to react the same way....but I called them anyway. I explained the same story - my insurance would be re-evaluating it. Their response? "Thank you Mrs Hicks. I'll notate your account. Just give us a call when you have more info for us." Do huh? Stark different responses. Amazing.

Anyway, I got the letter written, and the records copied. I mailed it off this afternoon, along with copies to my doctor and both the hospital and the physicians. At least they can't say they weren't informed.

Emergency Room Bill does NOT qualify as an emergency

2011-01-26T22:01:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry, but a hospital bill for $800 from back in September when I had my staph infection does not qualify as an emergency that I'm going to drain 80% of my baby emergency fund for. Nope, not happening. I refuse to pay it, as you can see below:

Background: On a Friday in September, I started feeling what felt like zit on the inside of my nose, which was strange, because after being on Accutane for 8 months, I don't get zits anymore. By Monday, my whole nostril was red and swollen. So I went to my dermatologist. He said it was an infection of some sort, gave me an antibiotic and told me to come back on Wednesday if it wasnt getting better.

Well, by wednesday, it was NOT better. so I sent in to see him and he looked at it again and said that I needed to go to the ER to get IV antibiotics. The pill wasnt getting the medicine to my system fast enough.

Fair enough, I trust my doctors opinions. So I go. and I sit, and I wait in the waiting room. And finally they get me back there and the doctor takes one look at me, says "eh, it's a staph infection. you dont need an IV. We'll just double your dose of pills to knock it out and you'll be good to go."

um...okay?!?

Soooo, ER doc gave me a prescription for yet another pill and sent me home.

A couple of months ago, I got a notification from my insurance company that they had declined to pay the ER or Physicians bills for the hospital because their review of the situation determined that it was unnecessary for me to go to the ER. Well, sure. If I had known it was just going to be another pill, my dermatologist could have prescribed that. But HE wanted me to get an IV, and the ER had other plans. Therefore, since the hospital did not follow the recommendations of my dermatologist, which resulted in my insurance company declining the bill, who got stuck with it?

Yours truly.

How the hell was I supposed to know that would be the outcome? Thank you, health care industry. You suck. Oh wait, I haven't paid you yet. Aaaaaaand, I don't intend to. I'm gonna wait long enough that you'll be happy to get something out of me, and when I'm satisfied that it's low enough I'm willing to pay, or I'm abundantly rich and can afford it to make you go away, I'll pay it then. But for now? No way. Your screw up for not following doctors orders. I'm not using my $1000 emergency fund to pay for this, and I have other bills that are more important, and I need to save that money for a true emergency. It's just going to have to wait.

Tax Withholdings and Interest Free Loans to the Government

2011-01-22T07:21:00.000-05:00

If you are like most Americans, you are probably terrified of owing the government money during tax season. From the time I was 16 years old, it was ingrained in me that it was better to let the government take out the maximum amount, and hope for a huge refund at the end of the year.

Well, those days are over. I'm finally done giving the government so danged much of my paycheck. I need that money and I need it NOW.

According to The Motley Fool, the average American gets back a refund of almost $3000 a year. That's $250 a month you could be keeping for yourself and using as you see fit. If you're trying to get out of debt like we are, that $250 a month will go a LONG way.

I posted this on a message board recently, and was surprised by the FEAR of some who said they would much rather let the government take too much, rather than risk owing at the end of the year. Uh....what? First of all, you can easily calculate about what your tax liability is going to be for the year. But even if you aren't convinced, you could open a high interest savings account, change your deductions, and sock away that $250 per month to earn compound interest for the year. One, you'd have all that interest built up, but two, you wouldn't have to wait for a refund because it would already be in your account to use, and THREE, even if you miscalculated, and you did owe the government any money, it wouldn't MATTER because you had set the money aside to pay them back! The fear is simply unnecessary.

Check out this calculator. You type in your gross pay, and your current withholding, and what your withholding would be if you changed it. Based on the amount of taxes that were withheld last year, and the amount of credits we qualified for, we could have actually claimed 8, and not given the government ANY money, and we still would have gotten a refund. I'm a little uneasy going that extreme this year, since Jonny will hopefully be working full time starting this summer, and our tax liability will probably change, so instead, I'm going to claim 7 for this year, and see how we look next year, and adjust when our income situation becomes more steady.

Yay for a paycheck raise and a bigger snowball to get out of debt quicker!

End of the Year Stock Up...

2011-01-02T21:56:00.002-05:00

I mentioned on FB a few days ago that I had some good coupons that were expiring soon, so I wanted to use them if I could find good sales to match them with. Here are the results (for simplicity i did not include sales tax - sorry):

Yeeeah. I wont be needing Toothpaste, Laundry Detergent, Toilet Paper, Dish Soap, or Mouthwash for a VERY long time. Hahah! And yes, these are all items I'll use, unlike some crazy couponers who use coupons just for the heck of it.

2010 Year In Review - Looking Ahead to 2011

2011-01-01T10:02:00.000-05:00

2010 was a good year, financially, for us. When the year started we still had $28,513.17 in debt, which were comprised of 2 credit cards, 1 car, and a consolidation loan. Today, our debt is limited to just the car, and we owe a remaining $5,954.12 on it. In other words, we paid off $22559.05 in 2010, or an average of $1879.92 per month. WOW! As you all know if you've been following me for a while, our goal to pay the car off was going to be 2/22/11 - our 2 year anniversary since we started this plan. Unless something significant changes in the next 6-7 weeks, it doesn't appear that we're going to meet that goal, which makes me VERY sad. But, instead of looking at the negative, I must focus on the positive. We're in a much better position than we've ever been before, and 2011 is the year that we're going to knock this out - whenever that might be.

This year, Jonny is still working his part time bookkeeper position, and he's been hired on by Liberty Tax service for the tax season, which will be a little extra income as well. Now that I'm done with grad school, I'm trying to find something easy, part time to do on the side as well to earn a little extra money while Jonny finished school. I delivered pizzas while I was in the military...but I dont think I would feel safe doing that today. I could apply at Publix....my fall back to second job that I've done 4 different times now, and I always leave on good terms, but my concern with Publix is that they would schedule me hours that I didn't list on my availability. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I like having my evenings and weekends free, so I really hope I can find something I can do from home, if anything.

Well, it's time to get the house cleaned up to start the new year off right. Hope you all have a FANTASTIC new year!

OCD Coupon shoppers

2010-12-29T08:49:00.000-05:00

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/video/extreme-couponing-saving-obsessive-compulsive-disorder-12491099

A friend at work shared this with me, and I was mortified. These folks make a full time job out of couponing, but I loved that the one guy gave alot of it to the church foodbank.

And it also makes me sad that they zeroed in on the overweight girl while she buying candy and really unhealthy stuff.

I dont have time to coupon like this. I just look for good deals on things I need. I dont see any point in buying something I'm not going to use just because it's free. If I stumble across it and I have time to get it and I can donate it to a local shelter, I certainly will, but I'm not going to get crazy in order to do it.

Ugh.

Cash Paid for Christmas

2010-12-23T22:39:00.000-05:00

This is the second year that we've paid for Christmas completely in cash. Prior to this journey, we used credit cards for everything.....with no regard for how much anything cost. As long as there was room on the card to buy it, we did. The sad thing is, I bought for people I really didn't have any reason to, either. I got caught up in the spirit of the season, but when you can't afford it, it becomes more stressful when the credit card bill comes in, then warm fuzzies you get from the spirit of giving when you're making the purchases.

We had a total budget of probably less than a third of the crap we spent several years ago. Most of that was spent on Miss Elizabeth, our niece, and the only child currently in our family - well, close family anyway. Some of my cousins have some kids, but we're lucky if we see them once a year, considering how far apart we all live now. I think I've finally got the rest of my family onboard for doing the Secret Santa thing next year. It's just too expensive to buy for so many adults, and those that I've talked to agree that it would be easier to buy a nicer gift for one person than to try to come up with some item that's affordable that they don't really want or need for everyone. Don't get me wrong....I LOVE to give....and I cannot wait until the day I can truly afford to give and it not feel like a burden.

Tomorrow morning, hubby and I will have breakfast and open gifts from one another. I'm going to bake in the morning to take goodies to our families. We have the church service at 5 tomorrow evening, and then we'll be driving up to my parents house in Winder to spend the night, and have Christmas Morning breakfast with them. I'm hoping we'll be able to go to the IMAX at Mall of GA to see the new 3D Tron Legacy movie that afternoon.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

The 7-8 Year Student

2010-12-14T22:22:00.000-05:00

Warning. I'm going to offend some of you with this post. If you're easily offended, you might as well stop reading now.

I have some friends who constantly whine and moan and complain about how long it's taking them to get through school. They gripe about finals and beg for a pity party about why it's going to take them another 3-4 years before they can graduate. And these are folks who have been in school 2-3, 4 years already. So why is it going to take them so long to finish?

Stupidity, that's why. These folks changed universities, or majors, or a combination of, when they were already at least a junior in college. Hello? Really. I mean if you are already THAT far into your education, does it really make sense to change your major or university to pursue something else, and basically have to start all over? The folks I have talked to about this situation always say the same thing "my previous classes didn't transfer, or they all became electives and now I need new general level classes."

Say what? Okay so if you had been SMART and took the "standard" generic level classes your freshman and sophomore years, more of those classes would have been transferable to another school or major. But I'm guessing you were too big for your britches and dove head first into those lower level major specific classes, which DO become electives when you make the SILLY choice to change majors after being 75% of the way through anyway.

Here's an idea: If you're going to put yourself in a position where you're basically starting over from scratch and are going to need another 4 years of school anyway, why not finish the degree you started, and then go to grad school for your passion?

"That's not a fair assumption, Amanda. You're just being mean." No I'm not. I'm being realistic. I learned about halfway through my junior year that I really wanted to work in finances rather than computers. But there was no way I was going to change my major or university that late in the game. So what did I do? I finished what I started, thats what. After I graduated, I worked in IT for a year and a half. It sucked. I hated it, and I went back to grad school for more education in the field I was now interested in: finance.

I spent 7 1/2 years total in school, with a 1 year break in the middle. I have a bachelors AND a masters. Why any doofus would go to school 8 years non stop for a single bachelors degree is stupid. If you're going to spend that much money on your education, you might as well make it worth it. 8 years for 1 degree is a poor financial choice.

Now, before you get all up in my case about this, I'm not saying don't change your major and or university. What i'm saying is, if you don't know for certain what you want to do with your life, play it safe and take generic classes that are probably transferable over many different types of degrees. And do some soul searching EARLY on, if you think you may want to do something else. Eventually, though, you're going to reach a point that it doesn't make sense to change your major. you might as well finish what you start and go on to grad school afterwards.

//end rant.

My mother tried to kill me

2010-11-28T09:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, mom and I went on our yearly Christmas shopping trip to the north GA outlet mall in Commerce. I had my cash, I was being good. Mom had her debit card, she was being good too....Until we got to Lane Bryant. She picked out 3 or 4 outfits and the total bill was $115 or so. The cashier asked if she wanted to save an extra 15% by applying for the credit card.

I looked at my mother (who went with me to the Dave Live event in 2009) absolutely horrified. "Mother, don't you do it....." She broke eye contact with me and said "yeah, why not?"

It took every ounce of composure I had to not have a hissy fit in the store. It doesn't make it any better in my eyes, but she did turn around and pay it right off right there in the store. After we left she was like "but I saved $15!!!!" and I was like "I don't care, I don't think it was worth it, and you know that...." I also said that if the bill comes in and it has $0.01 penny of interest on it, she had better call and raise hell.

I was completely mortified by the whole situation. I think she thinks I was being a drama queen about it. I don't think she realizes just how upset I was about it...

She's a grown woman. She can do what she wants, I guess....

Disheartened and feeling discouraged

2010-11-16T23:19:00.000-05:00

I was working on our budgets for the next few months tonight, and the more I look, the more I can't seem to figure out how in the world we are possibly going to be able to meet the February 22nd goal of having the car paid off. I think we're still going to be a good $4000 shy. The reason for this is part of the money from Jonny's final semester of student loans that we were going to throw at it, we've had to decide to set aside in a savings account for him to take the Becker CPA prep courses, and exams later in the year. At first we were going to try to set a monthly sinking fund account to cover those expenses, but we need such a large bulk of money to pay when he registers, there's really no way for us to do a sinking funds account and make the amount of money we'll need on time for him to register.

Additionally, our regular monthly income is going to be decreasing due to the change in Jonny's GIBill status for his final semester in school. That's at least $400 less per month that he's going to be bringing in, than before...

He's going to try to get picked up by a tax firm for the upcoming tax season again this year. Hopefully, he'll be with a more recognized company and will be more successful this year than last.

I'm just down in the dumps. I got great news on the work front today....I wish my personal success would spill over to him. It's only a matter of time. One day he's going to be soo successful. I'm just tired of the hurry up and wait. It's been 2 years since we made this transition. TWO YEARS. Hey Obama, where are those damn jobs you promised us? My husband needs one, thanks. I'm irritated with myself because I won't allow myself to be excited about the progress we have made because I'm mad at the road blocks still in our way.

I shouldn't be this upset. Our original debt free date when we started was November 2013. Even if it's May or June before we're done, we'll still have cut that time in half. Why cant I just shut up and be okay with that?

I'm tired of being in debt. I'm tired of struggling. I am scared of what next summer and beyond is going to look like, if he's not working full time and the car is not paid off. I NEED that car to be paid off. At least with it paid off, my paycheck will cover all of our other regular monthly expenses. No, I wont be able to pay student loans when they come out of deferment, and heaven forbid, I have to turn around and ask for a hardship deferral, but I don't see any other way around it. I feel like we've worked so hard and come SO far, only to be running into a brick wall again, and it SUCKS.

The National Debt

2010-11-11T23:08:00.000-05:00

After watching this 30 minute version of the documentary I.O.U.S.A., my ~100K in student loans doesn't seem so bad...

What I didn't expect, being the conservative Republican that I am, is to feel such a disgust at GWBush... I'm a very graphically minded individual, and the charts this documentary showed made me cry out in disgust as I watched it. Our amazing country, which borrowed only when necessary for war, and turned around and paid it right back, got stupidly addicted to debt....and individual Americans followed suit.

I didn't realize until watching this video how the Bush administration's cut of interest rates, which lead to stupid folks buying houses they couldn't afford, and the tax cuts, which were TOO aggressive - so aggressive that it DIDN'T actually result in a higher income, had the astronomical effect that it did....

I've been a long time Bush supporter, so this video shed some light that certainly bruises that support. While I don't believe he is to blame for everything that is currently wrong...the consequences we are suffering as a nation now, because of practices enforced during his term, are sickening.

According to the documentary, by 2040, our debts projected to be 244% of the GDP....completely unacceptable.

I'm too disgusted to write anymore.... I strongly recommend you watch this video.

Christmas Shopping....have you started? Here's an idea that may help.

2010-09-28T20:45:00.000-04:00

I learned of another cool way to save money that you all may be interested in: Discount Gift Cards.

www.PlasticJungle.com
www.CardPool.com
www.GiftCardRescue.com

From these websites, you can "sell" unwanted giftcards and buy new ones at a discount. Many people sell/trade in their store credits. There are a LOT of well name merchants on here, so if you know you're going to be doing alot of shopping at places like Kohls, or Old Navy, Home Depot, etc, you may want to buy a discounted gift card before making your purchase.

I havent been able to find grocery gift cards yet, but if I ever do, it's alllllll over :)

Check it out....

Another way to save money on groceries....

2010-09-18T21:21:00.001-04:00

Cook with ingredients you already have in your house. Novel concept, eh? Even if you think you dont have very many ingredients to work with, www.supercook.com begs to differ.

All you have to do is create an account, and you can enter in the items you already have in your kitchen. Remember EVERYTHING. The site will pull up a list of starters, entrees and desserts based on what you enter. It will also list recipes you can cook if you are willing to go out and buy just a few extra things.

I found this link on the DR message boards, so decided to give it a shot. I'm tired of making the same old thing week after week, so maybe this will help me save money and try something new at the same time..

Responsibility

2010-08-30T21:23:00.000-04:00

Even though Jonny and I ended up with a messload of debt before we figured out how to take control of it, I can honestly say that unlike some people, we never EVER attempted to get out of our moral obligations for things we had purchased using credit. NEVER. Even when his scum of an ex-girlfriend allowed a car he co-signed on to be repossessed, we paid the $900 or so that was left after it had been auctioned. Granted, if we had the DR knowledge back then, we probably could have settled for less, but now we know better.

This is why it makes me ILL when I hear stories of people who let their homes go to foreclosure, filing bankruptcy, or just going to collections because the bill is not important enough to pay. Now I realize that extenuating circumstances is one thing, but stories like the post I made several months ago about people who stopped paying their mortgage so they could start eating out and driving their boat on the lake again, is another.

There are people I know who never paid outstanding tuition, or they filed bankruptcy because they racked debt up and got in over their head. Rather than being responsible and hunkering down to get it done, they begged the government to forgive their stupidity. What irritates me even more, is many of those same individuals go right back to their old habits once they have a clean slate, and they do it all over again. They start using credit again because it's EASY. And the people who tell me I'm a freak because I'm working my butt off to reach that ultimate level of financial peace. Yeah, you may never understand what it's like to pay cash for something that you appreciate much more because you worked for it, rather than getting selfish instant gratification on credit, even though it ends up costing you more later because you're paying interest on your card.

After a year and a half, I cannot imagine life as it used to be. I cannot imagine using credit cards to buy dinner, or a pedicure, or a movie, or a music CD. I cannot imagine a $400 clothes shopping spree just because I'm "bored." I cannot imagine going to the tanning bed to pass time between classes. I can't imagine wondering around Target aimlessly for no reason, throwing things in my cart just because.

My life has been forever changed. Even when we're out of debt, I think alot of things I used to pay for on stupid tax, will not be able to be justified to pay the price. Yes...the point of financial peace is to be able to buy what you want, when you want, and not worry about it....but what I'm trying to say is that things that were previously important to me when I was being stupid is no longer important. The things that are important now is retirement, a paid for education, paying cash for a car, paying cash for furniture, paying CASH for major home repairs, paying cash for vacations and experiences, and that vacation not following me home on a credit card.

CDs, clothes, and tanning beds are no longer important.

I just bought a brand new set of pots and pans through pampered chef. I got a deal on them because I bought them through hosting a party. Sure, those kinds of things are overpriced to begin with, so that you will host a party, and bring in more orders....I get it, and I'll play the game. Yes, they were still expensive, but the quality is much better than any crap I could have gotten at WalMart or Bed Bath and Beyond. It was emotionally painful to write the check to pay for it, because it was alot of money. However, I thought long and hard about which items I purchased...which items were important now, and which items could wait. Had I been buying it on credit, I wouldn't have had that tough conversation with myself about what was important now and what I could afford now...I would have just bought it all.

Getting a "Get out of jail free" card and a clean slate does not equal financial peace. Paying off debt that is legitimately yours and changing your attitude to determine whats important versus what isn't, does.

Only 4 Digits....EXCITING!

2010-08-28T12:20:00.002-04:00

$9,984.46. That's the amount that is left to pay on Jonny's car. The consolidation loan at $320 a month has been paid in FULL!

If we continued to pay only the minimum payment on the car, it would be December 2013 before it got paid off. This is completely unacceptable, and we are going to snowball this amount by as much as we can. Christmas doesn't look like it's going to happen....so our modified new goal is February 22,2011 - our 2 year FPU-aversary.

I'm not going to lie - that is going to be HARD to do...because of the house situation, our sinking funds account got raided, and some of those bills are going to be due before too much longer. I actually need to reconfigure our sinking funds accounts, but I just haven't been able to do that just yet.

I'm still not quite certain on our new monthly budget with the new house, and utility expenses, but here's a best guess so far:

--------Charity--------
Church                             330
AXiD                               10
--------Housing--------
Mortgage/Tax/Ins                   613.76
--------Utilities--------
ADT Security                       28.99
AT&T Land Phone                    35
Water                              50
Trash Collection                   16.95
Cooks Pest Control                 37
Alabama Power                      175
Cable TV/Internet                  85
Sprint Cell Phone                  143
--------Food--------
Food & Household                   400
--------Transportation--------
Gas & Oil                          350
--------Personal--------
A Blow                             200
J Blow                             200
--------Debts--------
Car                                276.11

Disclaimer: The totals do not list our entire monthly income, and this budget is not $0 based....I still have extra to spend, but if I don't find somewhere else that I need it, it will be snowballed to the car. I've also left out paycheck allotments to our savings account and sinking fund accounts which fund our life insurance, car insurance and tags, and home repair expenses.

We're more than 3/4 done!!!! Only 4 digits left in our non student loan/mortgage debt. Jonny's working hard to find a full time, or a better part time job/internship with a CPA firm this fall. Please keep him in your prayers. His military benefits income will go away once he graduates, and so we'll need to be able to replace that income with a job in order to start paying on the student loans at that time.... I'm slightly stressed about repaying the student loans, but not as bad as I would be if I still had all this other consumer debt...so for that, I'm grateful.

Dear Chase....

2010-08-25T23:50:00.000-04:00

Dear Chase,

Please issue a refund for the credit balance on my account.

Also, please close my account effective immediately. I no longer use credit cards and do not wish to keep it open.
Now that I have moved into a house, I no longer care what my FICO score looks like, so please don t try to change my mind. If you need to list a reason for account cancellation, you can put Dave Ramsey.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Jonathan Hicks

*************

Dear Jonathan Hicks,

I sincerely regret that you have chosen to close your account ending in 9771.

I have closed your account as requested. Also, a refund check for the credit balance will be mailed to the address
listed on your account and should be received by September 13, 2010.

Please destroy all cards and checks associated with this account. Remember to contact any merchants with whom you have authorized recurring charges to this account and make alternate arrangements.

Although you have chosen to close your account, please consider Chase for your future financial needs.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center.

Thank you,

Vanita D'souza
E-mail Customer Service Representative
1-800-436-7927
Account is owned by Chase Bank USA, N.A. and may be serviced by its affiliates.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! Now THAT is Financial Peace. No More Chase. No More CUofGA....the only credit card we have left "open" but currently not in use is the NavyFCU Visa, and that's only because we're still paying off debt and do not have our fully funded emergency fund in place. This is Jonny's security gland, which I totally get. Once this last $13K is paid off, and the FFEF is built up....NavyFCU Visa will be going bye bye too...

FINALLY...

2010-07-30T02:04:00.000-04:00

With the house situation, we hadn't made any true progress on our debt in the last 2 months because we were holding our funds for the house situation. Well, now we're in, it's painted, I have *some* new furniture, but for the most part, we're working on getting settled in. I am excited to see what our monthly utilities are going to look like, because if things go like I think they will, we'll be saving on our regular monthly expenses now, and will require the budget to be adjusted, which will give us a bigger snowball payment each month. That's the plan, anyway.

I also recently opened yet ANOTHER checking account. This one is with USAA and it's going to become our primary checking account....sort of.

Remember how a few months ago we started on the "month ahead" plan? Well, it's working out fine, but I've realized that I'm a little OCD about the money I'm using this month, mingling with the money that I'll be using NEXT month. I know, I know, it sounds corny, and it shouldn't matter since I have a budget. But it does matter. It's a mind game, that's kind of kicking my butt so what I've decided to do is starting with August, I'll let my paychecks deposit to my Regions bank account as it always has. Right now, I'm transferring all the spending money I have for August to the USAA account and will pull out cash each week for my weekly expenses (gas, groceries, blow money, etc). I'll basically leave Regions alone during the month and won't touch it at all until after the final paycheck for August has been received. After it's been received, I'll immediately transfer it all over to USAA to use for the month of September, and the process, will start over...

This way, I wont be tempted to pay September bills early, which will jack me all up with my budget, and whats been spent for THIS month, and what's been spent for NEXT month....and all that mess. I'm certain this will make it easier to manage....

Oh! You may have noticed that I changed the debt thermometer recently. That's because the $50612.50 total figure was the total figure of all my debts prior to us really starting the plan - maxed out CCs, total car loan prices, etc...). I mentioned when we started in Feb 2009, that we had ~$42K in debt....so I decided to change it to reflect only what we owed when we started and how much we've paid during that time.

I guess that's all for now... :)

Sweet Home Alabama

2010-07-17T01:11:00.000-04:00

When this Georgia Girl returned from being in the navy, she swore she'd never leave Georgia again.

So much for that.

Jonny and I bought our first home today in Smiths Station, Alabama. Our home is located not even 10 miles from the state line. Benefits to buying in Alabama include lower taxes, lower insurance and a whole lot more house for alot less money. We bought our 1279 sq ft house, as a foreclosure for $100K. When we looked at houses in GA, the houses that were in this price range were much smaller and not near as nice.

Smiths Station AL actually runs on Eastern Time, even though Alabama is Central time. It's a good thing, too, because it was going to SUCK trying to adapt to living in one time zone while working in another.

I don't have any pictures of our own yet, so for now, I'll cheat and post this one that I saved from the MLS listing. You can tell this pic is from the winter because there are no leaves on the trees.

We got our entire earnest money deposit back, so today, we went SHOPPING! I bought 3 new tables for the living room to match the coffee table I already have. They had to be ordered, so it'll be about a week and a half before they come in.

Here's the coffee table I already had. I bought it from Big Lots in 2005 with 2 broken tiles that I replaced at Home Depot. It's an Ashley Furniture piece - the collection is called Antigo.

Blogger is not cooperating for me to upload alot of pictures, but the 3 new tables I bought today match this one. 2 end tables, and a sofa table. Pictures of the finished product will come as soon as we're moved in and set up.

We also looked at rugs while we were at the furniture store and I had just about given up when we were walking out and I found the $99 rug section...which of course NEVER have anything good to choose from. YEAH RIGHT! I found one and it was GREAT. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture yet.

Tomorrow will be a busy day - more shopping, more prepping, etc. This is such an exciting time, and I'm so glad to finally be able to do this..... YAY!!!

Grand Canyon University: Financial Aid CRAP.

2010-07-13T00:53:00.000-04:00

Dear Arman,

I emailed yesterday, and I called, and the lady I spoke with told me that you were going to call me back. I didn't hear from you.

I wanted to let you know that a check for $706.54 arrived yesterday. While I am grateful, this is nowhere NEAR what I expected it to be.

For starters, I am taking 3 classes for Summer term.

Marketing Management: $1455.00

Management of Working Capital: $1455.00

Sales Tax: $6.23

Canyon Connect?: $75.00

Investments: $1455.00

Sales Tax: $6.23

Canyon Connect?: $75.00

Total for Summer: $4527.46

HOWEVER, that doesn't even include my military scholarship, OR the Post 9/11 GIbill payment that the school should have received on my behalf. The military scholarship should have reduced the cost of the classes from $1455.00 to...what? I'm not even sure how much the scholarship is.

Nevertheless, according to the NSLDS, $6873.00 was disbursed for Summer term. So not even taking into consideration the scholarship or the GIBill, the cost of my attendance was only $4527.46.

$6873.00 - $4527.46 = $2345.54. I only received a check for $706.54. Where is the remaining $1639.00????

I've been a student at this university for over 2 years now, and I have NEVER had this much trouble. I am trying to graduate in December, and I should not be having to jump through so many hoops to get my financial aid sorted out. I do not understand what the problem is. PLEASE process my scholarship. PLEASE disburse the rest of my loans, and PLEASE send my post 9/11 GIBill benefits ASAP. We are now finishing the 3rd week of the SECOND 8 week session of summer term. It's going to be really pathetic if my summer aid has not been fixed before I have to go through this mess again for Fall term. If I had the money available, I'd pay cash for Fall just to avoid going through this again.

Please help. If you haven't learned by now, I'm a VERY persistent individual and I am not going to give up on this until I get some answers. I promise I will leave you alone if SOMEONE would just answer my questions and quit giving me the run around.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Amanda Hicks

Reality of our wish list....

2010-07-11T13:50:00.000-04:00

5 days now.... Jonny and I spent the day together yesterday, driving around, pricing items we're going to need to paint and clean and get the house ready. There's so many things we want to do to the house, but we've got to remember to take it slow and only do what we can actually afford to do,when the time is right.

3 years ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to open up a new credit card at home depot, lowes, or kohl's and buy everything we "needed" to make the house perfect. But because we don't use credit anymore, we're going to have to do things little by little, as we have the money to be able to afford to do it.

Sure, I would love to buy a new bedroom set, and new living room furniture, replace out current bathroom theme, replace the carpet in the master bedroom, get new faux wood blinds instead of ugly plastic ones, get a new front door with a window in it to allow in some more natural light, refinish the kitchen cabinets, etc etc etc. Yes, that's our wish list that we've come up with so far. But the fact of the matter is, we cannot afford to do all of that right now, so we have to prioritize.

For now, we're going to paint, and we're going to rent a carpet cleaner from publix to clean the carpet in the mater bedroom and throw a rug on the ugly stained spot. I priced carpet at Home Depot yesterday, and even for one room, for the kind of carpet we want is going to be about $500. I've got other things more important to spend $500.

We're going to use Mr Clean Magic Erasers to clean the kitchen cabinets for now. They need to be repainted, but that will have to wait for now. Eventually when we repaint them, we'll replace the handles and knobs because I don't like the yellow gold color - I want silver or white.

The ugly wallpaper in the guest bathroom will have to stay. It's not a priority, but it will eventually be changed.

While our mortgage, rent and insurance will be less expensive then paying rent - this wish list more than makes up the difference. It's all good though, because I'm hunting for deals, thrift mall, flea marketing, and yard saling to see what I can find. I'll be able to do a little something new each month until we've finally fixed everything we want. I cant fix it all at once, but I can have fun fixing it all over time....and that will be an adventure.

Friday, Friday. I cannot wait.

My prayers have been answered. :)

2010-06-28T21:06:00.000-04:00

So, my FINAL student loan finally posted to the direct loans website. I emailed Adam, my lender with Met Life this morning, to inform him. I asked how it may could affect my loan, and asked what I needed to do to make sure the mortgage loan process ran smoothly.

Long story short, the loan is listed as deferred until October 2011, because the school listed the last day of the school year (4/29/11) as my last day of classes, even though I technically will finish classes in December 2010. Because October 2011 is more than 12 months out, the loan will not count in my debt ratio. Additionally, Adam confirmed today that my credit check was good for 90 days, and Met Life will not be re-pulling my credit just prior to closing.

Hallelujah, Praise Jesus!!!!

If that weren't big enough news today, we also got a blessing in disguise. Apparently, there were a string of burglaries in Lee and Russell Counties over the weekend. The thieves were targeting vacant homes with for sale signs in them. Ours was one of them (even though the sign said "sale pending." What was stolen? The AC Unit. Because we're under contract, Fannie Mae is going to have to buy us a new one. SCORE!!!!!

I cannot WAIT for closing! I'm so excited to get out of this apt complex. It's gone downhill quick. Since our car was broken into a little over a month ago, there have been several other break ins, including a flat screen TV that grew legs and walked away last week.

Thank you God, for getting us out of here...

Student financial aid, military benefits....and waiting

2010-06-20T03:08:00.000-04:00

First things first - I wanted to let you all know that the Dave Ramsey ELP in Auburn, Jason Young with Cotton States, gave me a great rate of $469 a year for homeowners insurance. Yes!

I am so anxious about closing on this house, and the lending aspect of it. Because the loan will be in my name only, that has put a great deal of stress on me for the "what ifs" about it going through. Deep down, I feel like everything is going to be okay. I've had a good feeling from the get-go, and I feel certain that things would not be falling into place like they have been if it wasn't meant to be. But at the same time, I just hate waiting to make it official.

The VA will be sending me some education benefits....hopefully sooner rather than later. Once I get this money, I'm going throw it all at the consolidation loan we've got. That loan has a balance of about $6700 right now. The military benefits will eat about 2/3 of it, and the remaining amount should be paid for with my student loan refund disbursement for summer...

Oh wait - yeah the school has been ridiculous to deal with this summer. I have called and emailed, called and emailed and got nowhere. On Thursday, I emailed my slacker of a financial counselor one more time and I basically told him I was tired of dealing with the crap, and I was 2 seconds away from filing a complaint with the department of education. I don't have a copy of the email with me, but I wish I did - I'd share it. I copied a few other folks at the school, and I guess my barking was FINALLY loud enough this time. On Friday, the assistant director for financial services called, luckily, while I was on my lunch break, and we talked for about 45 minutes. When I got back to the office, there was an email with new forms waiting on me to fill out. I was most disgusted with the whole situation because my so-called counselor assured me time and time again that he had all the necessary documents he needed from me to process my aid, but yet, the asst director had me fill out new forms because the ones he had on file were incorrect.

By Friday evening a new award package was posted to my account. I was told that I *should* receive the funds within 2 weeks....July 2nd. Worst case backup scenario if they don't arrive by then - I can transfer the balance of the loan to a credit card with my credit union. It's certainly not ideal (gah! credit cards!) but the rate is actually lower - 10% vs the 12.25% that my loan is currently at. The only reason I haven't transferred it before is the loan balance was still too high to transfer and I didn't want to transfer just a portion of it. I'm holding off on actually doing this transfer though, and will only do it if I absolutely need to shuffle funds around - as you'll see why by reading further....If I do shuffle the loan balance to the credit card, it would be primarily to decrease my debt ratio, because the minimum monthly credit card payment would be significantly less than the consolidation loan payment, and 2, because the interest rate is lower. Even still transferring to the credit card would be a VERY temporary last resort in the even that the funds don't arrive when I need them to, and I would pay it off once they DID finally arrive.

Like I said, I pray and hope that the military benefits and aid arrive sooner rather than later....I need that money to pay off the consolidation loan that I have. I need that consolidation loan paid off to I can decrease my individual debt ratio. This is only a problem because my pre-qualification was so tight, that there's no wiggle room for anything to go wrong....and the fact that my summer financial aid had not posted at the time of pre-qualification, and I'm not sure if my lender took that information into consideration when he pre-qualified me. I was up front and honest with him about it, but I really don't know if he included the last bit of my student loans into his calculations.

This sucks. If the student loans were going to be deferred for at least another year, they wouldn't have to count them in the calculations. But because they call come out of deferment in May, they have to count them. And the thing that sucks even more is that each of the student loan lenders are reporting level repayment options, even though I fully intend to do the graduated repayment option (smaller payments for the first few years, which will get increasingly bigger) so that I can snowball the "extra" money I have each month at paying a bigger chunk at one loan until it's knocked out, and then I'll snowball the next one, and so on and so forth... The other strike with these student loans being in deferment, is that the reason they are all reporting a level repayment option is because I'm not allowed to request a graduated repayment plan until they come out of deferment.

Thank you student loan lenders, for telling my mortgage lender that my debt ratio is higher than what it ACTUALLY will be when I start making the payments because you wont let me go ahead and sign up for the graduated repayment plan. And thank you, GCU, for f*ckin' around and not doing a damn thing until I barked so loud that the asst director had to contact me and promised to expedite my aid. I should hope so, a full 7 weeks into a 16 week session of classes when I should have been paid in full by the end of week 4!!!! If I had been paid at the end of week 4, that damn consolidation loan would have been paid off already and my debt ratio would have dropped significantly anyway, and the summer disbursement would have appeared on my credit so there would have been no question if my lender included it in his calculations for my pre-qual. Of course, my lender did say that he thinks I'll be okay - he specifically told me not to do any shuffling right now. I wont do anything (expect actual payoffs) without asking him first. The last thing I need is to shuffle money around in a way that looks shady and they drop my loan altogether and financing falls though.

Moral of the story: Don't take out student loans. If I had it to do all over again, I would have only taken out the tuition cost only while in grad school...I didn't have the option to pay cash. I only went back to grad school to get my dream job. I got it, but it would have been stupid to drop out of grad school, so I've continued forward. December cannot get here fast enough.

Homeowners Insurance

2010-06-15T22:59:00.001-04:00

So today I met with my lender to sign my life away on a bunch of forms. He told me that I needed to start shopping for homeowners insurance to be added in with my escrow account. The first quote I got was with Progressive. Our auto and renters insurance is through progressive, so I thought it would be simple. Yeah right. The quote was over $3000 a year...and everyone - and I mean EVERYONE I have talked to has said that it should only be about $600 a year.

I checked out USAA and State Farm - which were both about $1200 a year.

Geico was $850.

I still haven't found a quote for ~$600. I did, however, request that a Cotton States provider contact me. There's an agent in Auburn who is endorsed by Dave Ramsey, so hopefully I'll have some better luck with him. In the mean time - if any of you have ideas on who I should check out, let me know. Thanks!

Wish List

2010-06-13T22:49:00.000-04:00

Well, Jonny and I have been talking about things we've got to do to the house, and making our wish list.

Paint Living Room
Paint Master Bed/Bath
Carpet for Master Bedroom
Remove Wall Paper and Paint Guest Bath
Paint Dining Room/Kitchen
Blinds/Curtains

Funny story about the living room...I wasn't planning on painting it, because it looks like a light tan color....to me anyway. Jonny said "Um, no, it's pink." So when we were at the inspection on Friday I looked at it close, and I have to admit, it's one of those weird colors, that *could* be pink. You all know how much I DESPISE pink. When it was tan, I didn't care, but PINK? Heavens no. If there's any chance it could be mistaken for pink, it's gotta be changed.

So, we've decided to paint the dining room and kitchen a yellow color, the living room will be green - like guacamole green, and our bedroom will be a blue color. I'm not sure about the guest bathroom color yet - probably a tan or off-white color.

Also, because we're moving from an apartment to a house, we have a wish list of furniture and decorative items and other things that we will need:

sofa table & mirror
leaning bookshelf or bakers rack
art for over fireplace
area rug (pref 8*10 but 5*8 will be okay too.)

Eventually, I'd like some new dinnerware, cookware, and flatware, but those are further down on the priority list. For everything else, I am planning on yard-saling it, and trying to find super deals between now and then. I do NOT want some ugly flower based area rug. I prefer something modern or contemporary - circles, stripes, squares, whatever...and hopefully something with some green in it to go with the walls. I found one at Lowes that I'll be okay with if I don't find something else soon. If you guys know of anywhere I can find these things in a great deal - please let me know!!!

It's becoming VERY easy to dream big right now, and the temptation is definitely there to go out and overspend on things we "need," but we aren't going to let the dreams consume our lives. Okay, so I may have some flimsy ugly blinds with no curtains for a little while, but eventually, I'll be able to acquire everything I want.

Just doing the waiting game now....

We're buying a house!

2010-06-12T00:10:00.000-04:00

UPDATE!!!!

Those of you on FB already know this but...we found a house!!!

So after some hiccups with prequalification, we finally got word on how much the bank was willing to give us right now. We weren't sure if we wanted to hold off and wait until we could pay more debt down, so we could qualify for more, or look within the parameters they would allow us. We decided to go ahead and look, because there may be something perfect for us, and at this price range, the payments would be low...

We found one last Thursday that was slightly out of our price range, but we decided to put an offer in on it anyway. We thought the seller might be motivated to sell, and maybe we'd be lucky. Nahh. We were a little bummed, but figured it wasn't meant to be. In fact, we turned around and went looking at houses again on Sunday, and THAT is when we found "the one..."

It was the second house we looked at on Sunday. We both were very impressed. Pros about the house? 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a separate shower and garden tub in the master. Covered Carport, hardwood (okay, parquet) floors, Vaulted ceiling, BIG kitchen (yes!) Separate dining area from the great room, fireplace, storage shed...and something we just found out today after getting a layout of the ploy of land...a BIG BIG YARD. I see the clearing of some trees in my, er, Jonny's future....

So on Monday, we put in an offer, and after some back and forth banter, we became official. So then we started jumping through the VA Loan requirement hoops. the house is a Fannie Mae foreclosure, and they aren't paying for anything extra...They are taking care of the termite letter and that's about it. We ha to get septic records from the county, and scheduled a septic inspection. If the inspection comes back good, we're good, if not, we'll have to pay to get it pumped. Our buyers inspection was today, and everything was minor fixes that we'll be able to handle easily. So the next stop is the VA Appraisal. Our inspector informed us of a few things the VA appraiser may ding, but then again, s/he may not. So at this point, we're still in the waiting game. Once the appraisal is done, and we know what the VA requires to be fixed (if anything) then we plan to ask Fannie Mae to do the repairs, but we figure they probably wont, so more than likely, we will have to pay for those things to be fixed before we'll be allowed to close.

The crappy part of this whole thing, though, is that Alabama is a right to rescission state - which means that for foreclosed homes, the original owner has a year to pay up to be current and then they can reclaim their home. Say WHAT? So in order to protect ourselves, we have to buy title bond insurance, because we don't know how long its been since the house was foreclosed on. And...it's 1% of appraisal price....which is 121K. So I have to have $1210 at closing for title bond insurance. Crap. Well, in the grand scheme of things, that's not so bad. We're already shelled out our escrow and the payment for the septic inspection and buyers inspection....if things go well, we wont have to do anything else until closing, with the exception of any repairs the VA appraiser may require, which we anticipate will only be a few hundred bucks, if that.

So that's about it. We're now in a hurry up and wait situation. 34 days until closing. I pray that the VA appraiser doesn't find anything that we aren't already aware of, and that the septic is not in crappy (no pun intended) condition. Hopefully all will go well, and we'll close on time.... Weee!

Here's another one

2010-06-02T13:53:00.000-04:00

Lunch is over, so I don't have time to really comment on this one. Just going to shake my head in disbelief.... STUPID. How do you not know how mcuh student loan debt you're taking out????

http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109701/placing-the-blame-as-students-are-buried-in-debt?mod=edu-collegeprep

Irresponsible Home THIEVES

2010-06-01T15:28:00.003-04:00

If you've read my previous post, you'll see that I cannot qualify for [clarification: as much home as I would like] due to lenders tightening up their reigns. Why? Because of asshats like these:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Owners-Stop-Paying-Mortgage-nytimes-4276925797.html?x=0

Foreclosure has allowed them to stabilize the family business. Go to Outback occasionally for a steak. Take their gas-guzzling airboat out for the weekend. Visit the Hard Rock Casino.

“Instead of the house dragging us down, it’s become a life raft,” said Mr. Pemberton, who stopped paying the mortgage on their house here last summer. “It’s really been a blessing.”

You know what? If you buy a house, and you don't pay on it, guess what that makes you? A THIEF. Yes, a THIEF. You promised to pay, and then you stopped. HOW DARE YOU???

And yeah, I know there are people who may be reading this who have either gone through a foreclosure, or know someone close to them who has. I'm not one bit sorry for my comments. Yeah, the economy sucks, but there is ALWAYS a way to work on your obligations, even if you cant quite meet them. To stop paying on your house so that you can have fun on your boat, or go to an upscale steakhouse is DISGUSTING...

Actually, I should be thanking you. Thank you for forcing the lenders to not be allowed to sucker me into buying more home than I can afford. Thank you for forcing the lenders to hold me responsible, and for me to have realistic expectations on a home I can afford so that if something ever happened to me in the future, I wouldn't be so down on my luck that the only way to go boating or out to eat would be to take on the personality of a thief and STEAL from the lenders.

Good GOD I'm in a mood. This article fired me up. These selfish people are going to get what's coming to them...one way or another.

Grad School had better be worth it....

2010-05-30T20:49:00.000-04:00

Those of you who follow me on facebook may already know most of what this post is about. Thursday evening, we went to look at houses with our agent. We looked at probably 10 houses. We found one that we loved. It didn't have "everything" but it had almost everything, and we were happy with it. We wanted it, and we wanted it badly. Asking price: $129,900.

Jonny and I discussed it Thursday night and decided that we wanted to offer the asking price, if the seller would make a few updates for us and pay all closing costs. On Friday, I called a lender to get preapproval so we could put in an offer. Long story short, we didn't qualify for that amount. Collectively, between the two of us, we *should have* qualified, but because of the housing market, lenders have toughened their criteria. Jonny not being full time, and only working at his part time job for 3 months meant that they would not count his income in the approval process at all. So therefore, it was all on me. Well, I didn't qualify for that amount by myself because of my student loans, and when they are going to come out of deferment and be due. Gee, thanks grad school.

I really do understand it from the lender's point of view - I just wish they would have counted Jonny's income because that is how much on the fence I was being able to qualify.

But I guess it's a sign that it's not meant to happen yet - or at that price. Truthfully, that was just a smidge over what I really wanted to pay. The problem is that of the other homes we looked at Thursday night that were lower in price, I was really not impressed. I don't mind a little bit of elbow grease, but it needs to be almost move in ready, and if I'm going to have to replace ALL the carpet because it smells like cat piss, it had better be a bargain. I'm not going to pay alot of money if I'm going to have to put alot more money in to it to make it work. I don't mind ugly paint. I don't mind ugly 70s wood paneling on the walls. I dunno - I really don't think our wishes are unrealistic in our price range. I know there has got to be something out there in the low 100s that has potential. And I'm determined to find it.

I thought our realtor would be upset with us, but she wasn't. In fact, we saw her at church this morning and said she would be in touch with us later this week. She said she had other agents looking for us, and she said she is determined to help us find what we're looking for.

Nonetheless, we're going to keep on plan of paying as much of our 2 remaining non-student loan debts off as quickly as we can (hopefully by Christmas) so that if we haven't found a home by the first of the year, those 2 debts will not factor into our preapproval process, and hopefully we'll have more options available to us. On one hand, I've learned that the kind of home we "really" want,is probably most realistically in the 130-150 price range, but on the other hand, there just might be a diamond in the rough out there....perhaps a foreclosure that the bank just wants off it's books....with some cosmetic upgrades, it would be good as new.

So, we continue to look, while continuing to pay down our debt. The right one will come along, and when it does, we'll be ready for it.

House Hunting

2010-05-24T21:32:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I wrote, but I wanted to give you all an update. Jonny and I are still hard charging to get out of debt, but we made a decision to go ahead and start looking at houses. The market is awesome right now for buyers, but things are starting to turn back up - thankfully. However, we realize that we really do need to go ahead and start getting our feelers out there if we want to make this happen before the buyers market goes away.

We're going in with a mindset that we're not going to settle. Our goal is to get something affordable on my single income alone, especially since his full time job status is up in the air, and we still don't know for certain what he will be doing a year from now. I am hoping that whatever we get, with taxes and everything, our payments will hopefully be about $850 a month, if not less.

We wanted a realtor who was experienced in this area, and we wanted recommendations. I got rec for a lady at our church and we sent her our mile long wish list. She replied "No Problem," and she also understands that we aren't pushing hard core to get into a house right now, unless the right opportunity presents itself. Yeah, we just resigned a lease at our apt, but it's only a 1 month fee to break it, which we could handle.

Miss Mary (the realtor) has already sent us a few listings that she matched to us based on our preferences, and Thursday night, right after work, we are meeting with her to go look at these houses, and maybe a few more. I'm so excited. Jonny's in May-mester right now, and his classes are in the mornings, so we both have the evenings to go look at these together. YAY!

I hate that we've pushed up our plan...I really did want to wait until next Spring. but something - a gut feeling I guess you could say, is telling me that now is the time to do it. The market is picking back up, and I don't want to miss the train. We're not going to get more house than we can afford, but I'm ready for a place to call my own.

If it's meant for us to get one sooner rather than later, we'll know. Just because we're looking doesn't mean it's going to happen right away.

I'll keep you all updated. More to come - I promise.

Update on Buster...

2010-05-11T15:43:00.002-04:00

So as I mentioned in the previous post, Jonny had to take Buster to the vet today about his newest lick spot. The good news is, there is no surgery as far as knives and stitches and things like that involved. We're doing 10 laser treatment sessions which are supposed to help disintegrate the spot, heal it up, and somehow affect the skin to where he won't have the urge to lick anymore. Psh, I guess we'll see.

Good news is that I don't have to buy anymore darn Atopica at $50 a box. Doc is switching him to prednisone which is much less expensive ($16 for 4 months worth of pills).

My poor little pain the butt child...Ugh!

When it rains....

2010-05-11T00:07:00.004-04:00

...it pours.

In one swift kick, $2000 I had saved up for the trip to New York next Spring, and AXiD Convention next Summer has been wiped out.

Columbus State didn't disburse Jonny's financial aid this year as he requested them to, and he had no way of knowing that it had been over disbursed for Fall and Spring. Instead of splitting it in 3 installments for Fall, Spring and Summer, they disbursed it in 2 installments for Fall and Spring....So guess who had to come up with $2000 fast, to pay for summer tuition?

The good news is, we had it, and we didn't have to pull out a credit card to go do it, or apply for a personal loan to cover it. It didn't kill us...but that was by far, the biggest chunk of our actual savings that we had at this point, due to the fact that in Baby Step 2, you aren't really "supposed" to save. I guess it's a darn good thing I had been saving that money though, because without it, our alternatives for paying for his summer session didn't look too good.

I'm not worried, I'll build it back up in no time.

Of course, Buster is being a pain in the ass again. Jonny's gotta take him to the vet tomorrow. He's licking at his right back paw - you know, the only back paw he still has. In one week, ONE WEEK, he's licked up a dime size spot on it. Last time, we ignored it because we thought it was like the one he had on his front paw a few months after we got him that ended up being nothing, but after the snowball problem with the cancer that it ended up being, we're taking him in ASAP this time. Hopefully, they can stick with with cortisone to make it stop itching, or they can remove the spot before it progresses any further. I'm so tired and frustrated. I love my Buster, but good grief this is alot to deal with.

Which just goes to prove that I am nowhere near ready to have a baby, even though ever since Baby Kallie was born (yes, Anna, I blame you, for letting me hold her when she wasn't even 2 full days old yet), my clock has been screeching at me like a wild banshee. Financially, emotionally, and physically, I cannot do a thing about it right now. So I'll just continue to wait. And wait, and wait.

Jonny and I are reconsidering looking at houses. I'm not sure if it fails under the "we're getting impatient" mentality, or if we just feel like it's finally the right time. I think the market is proving that there are alot of potential homes out there for us that I could easily afford on my income alone, and Jonny's full time status not be an issue. Even still, we don't want to jump the gun. If you know a good real estate agent in the area, please let me know. I don't want some random person who is going to rake us over the coals, or someone who is going to force us to buy right away. I want someone who will let us do this at the pace we set, and show us good deals in the price range we provide, with as many of our wish list items as possible.

Good news for the week: I made a 100% on my first marketing assignment. Woo Hoo! Hopefully I can keep my grades up this term. This two class thing is already stressing me out.

When We're Debt Free....

2010-04-24T21:53:00.001-04:00

I thought it would be fun to make a list of things we want to do once we're debt free. We've cut back on so many things that were "normal" before we started this journey. Some things I miss...some things, I have learned I can do without. It will also be interesting to see what things we actually follow through with once we are debt free, or if this journey will have taught us that just because we can, doesn't mean we should. <--this is a lesson I'm grateful for, and I'm sure there will be things that I'll say I'm going to do when I can finally afford it, but when it comes down to it, I'll say "nah, I cant justify spending my money on that."

tanning beds.
trips to the day spa.
movie night at the movie theatre...you know, current movies, not the dollar theatre.
dinner at restaraunts...more than once a month.
clothes shopping...just because I want to, and not because I need something.
going to the mall for no reason, and leaving with several bags of stuff.

^^ Those are things I used to do stupid with credit cards, that I cannot wait to do again, with cash this time. Here are the things I'm looking forward to:

house hunting.
house buying.
shopping for appliances and furniture, lawn equipment and tools for said house.
decorating and organizing the house.
buying a truck...just a beater truck - something to tow a camper.
yes...a camper. but I have to have a house first.
have a massive sinking funds account for things like car replacement, and other big purchases that someone normal would use a credit card on.
random weekend trips.....or week LONG trips. Australia? Yes yes.
having a fenced in yard....and getting another dog.
Giving like no one else. I cannot wait until I can donate money to my church, and my sorority, and school, and other charitable causes...I'm actually REALLY looking forward to this...

Oh yeah....and babies. *sigh* yes. I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that I've got babies on my mind, and another year before I can do anything about it.

Adventure Bootcamp

2010-04-24T15:55:00.000-04:00

What in the world did I get myself roped into? One day this week, I heard Anna and Andrea talking about Adventure Bootcamp. Before I could stop myself, my mouth opened and I said "Can I join you?" So after talking to hubby about the cost ($204.99 for 12 sessions) and getting the okay, I signed up.

Today, I went out and got some new running shoes, a yoga mat, and some 3lb weights. Our first session is bright and early Monday morning at 5:30am. I'm really REALLY concerned that I wont be able to keep up with everyone, and will feel like a miserable failure, but I'm going to go and do the best I can. I'm not going to let the money go to waste, so I've got to make it worth it...

Wish me luck!

Homemade Laundry Soap?

2010-04-20T18:01:00.000-04:00

I've read about this on the Dave Ramsey forums, and some of the frugal money websites I've participated on, but I haven't actually gotten around to trying it yet. Why? Because you need a 5 gallon bucket, and I dont have one, or the space to store one. PLUS, using coupons, I'm stocked up on laundry detergent at least for another year.

Nonetheless, I wanted to post a link to this story because I believe it's got alot of truth to it. They have a point - how did people in the olllllld days clean their clothes? Here's an idea - with WATER. If you like the smell of laundry detergent, this may not be the best option for you though.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109349/do-it-yourself-laundry-detergent

Amanda's gonna try again...

2010-04-14T11:22:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, my employer started a new health initiative to get all of us healthier and happier, and all that jazz... One of the sessions that week was a lunch and learn from a nutritionist. Work paid for us to each have a health assessment done, which included standing on this machine that looked like a scale, but instead of measuring only your weight, you had to stand on it barefoot, and it sent electrical currents through your body to determine your muscle mass, your water weight, fat mass, etc.

This assessment was SUCH an eye opener for me. It confirmed a lot of stuff for me - for example, just because I'm 5'8 does NOT mean that my ideal weight is 150 pounds, which is what standard weight charts tell me. Because I DO have very large bones, and large shoulders (I'm built like a linebacker, lol) and a lot of muscle, I realistically only need to get down to 205 to be considered "Healthy." Now granted, I'll probably try to get down just below 200 just for numbers sake, but that makes my target weight a lot more achievable and doesn’t feel so impossible anymore.

The nutritionist offered other services, such as a metabolism test, which tests your metabolism to see how much your body burns just on it's own, and how many calories per day you need to eat to lose weight, versus what you've been eating to maintain your current weight. So on Monday, i met with her to take the metabolism test (you breathe into this machine for 10 minutes and it's able to calculate everything out for you). What I learned shocked me:

My metabolism is actually fast. It's smack dab in the middle of "normal" and "very fast" This basically means that is I cut back on the amount of calories I'm eating, my metabolism will kick in and help me lose weight quicker than it would if it was only "normal." The downside of that is apparently, I've been eating so much garbage which is why I haven’t been losing, but rather, maintaining.

I also learned that I have 142 pounds of solid muscle, which she said was very good, and will work in my favor.

She's put me on a 1800-1900 calorie per day diet, which may sound like a lot to you guys, but you gotta remember I'm a big girl - and truthfully, I've been eating much more than that. She's helping me work on portion control. She gave me 1 week worth of sample menus that I can use to plan my meals, and what ways I can substitute one item out for another.

She has an 8 or 12 week program that you can sign up for with her, but honestly, I just cannot afford to pay that right now. So my plan is to go back monthly for follow up visits with her. The cost for that is only $35 a session, which I can swing to have accountability for my follow ups.

In addition, I signed up on SparkPeople.com to keep track of my food and exercise. SparkPeople is COOL because you can plug in your nutrition and fitness goals, and it will help keep track of where you did good and what you need to improve on daily. So for me, my nutrition goals are 1800-1900 calories, 200-275 carbs, 25-50 fat (she's got me on a low fat diet), and 125-200 protein. The other AWESOME thing about sparkpeople is that after plugging in these goals, it will offer sample menus to me as well, which also fall within those parameters. If you don’t particularly like the meal they have suggested, you can click on it, and pick out a different one. if you pick a meal out, but there's one or 2 things on there that you don’t have or won’t want to eat, you can click on that individual item, and it will give you a list of appropriate substitutes which have close to the same nutritional value.

Yesterday was my first day following it. I went over my calories - but not by much. I has 1981 calories yesterday, but I feel good about it, because that's a whole lot better than the 2500+ that I had been eating.

If I stick to this plan, I should lose 1.5-2 pounds per week. I might be able to reach my under 200 plan by the end of the year. WOOO HOO! Plus, she stressed that it's important to not deprive myself, and splurge every now and then, in order to avoid completely falling off the wagon. Jonny and I are going camping this weekend, and I'm going to have a fatty lumberjack breakfast with sausage egg, cheese and hash browns over the fire. That's okay, that’s one meal. I'll eat healthy the rest of the weekend, you know?

I'm trying to look at this the same way I am attacking my debt. I'm being intense about paying off the debt, but every now and then, I have to go buy something I don’t necessarily need. If I can treat them equally, I think I can be more successful this time. Weight watchers "worked" for me, but it was too hard to stay on the program. With sparkpeople, and a range of nutritional values, and meal options planned in advance, hopefully I can quit letting food control me, and I'll eat what right not just what happens to be within reach.

I haven’t been as good about getting to the gym as I had hoped for, so she's starting me off slow - I just need to make a commitment to workout at least once a week for now. That should be easy enough because I play softball with the church, but I don’t want to count that - I still need to start making it to the gym...

I'm tried of my weight being a roller coaster, and I'm tired of falling off a plan. Maybe the metabolism test and the AWESOME news that my goal is not THAT far out of reach will be the motivation I need to "getrdun" this time.

Coupon Swap List

2010-04-06T00:26:00.000-04:00

I love love LOVE seeing my friends getting into this couponing thing as well. I've been talking to several folks about starting a coupon swap list, but we havent seemed to actually do it yet, so here's the place to start. If you have particular items that you want to stock up on, list them below, and those of us who dont use those coupons, or may have extras can make arrangements to send them your way.

Here's my list (for now).
Prilosec
Wheaties Fuel Cereal (this stuff is to DIE for)
Gillette Fusion razors and blades
Sister Schuberts frozen breads
Frozen Pizza coupons (any kind...Jonny and I have pizza night once a week)
Birds Eye Steamfresh meals

I can't really think of anything else that I really use on a regular basis, but if I do, I'll add to the list below....

I want to tell you all about my Target Trip this weekend.

Dishwasher Disposer Care - On Sale $1.99 - normal $2.49 - $0.55 coupon - total savings on each $1.05 (bought 3 of these, used 3 coupons) Spent $2.88, saved $2.10

Betty Crocker Cake Mix - On Sale $1.00 - normal $1.29
Betty Crocker Icing - On Sale $1.00 - normal $1.29 - $0.75 WYB (when you buy) cake mix and icing together. Bought 2 cake mixes, 2 icings, used 2 coupons. Spent $2.50, saved $2.66

Clearasil Face Wash - On Sale 20% off - $5.59, normal 6.99. $1 coupon. Bought 2, used 2 coupons. Spent 9.18, saved 4.80.

Crest Toothpaste - $2.99 each, coupon for B1G1F - bought 2. Spent $2.99, Saved $2.99

Oral B Toothbrush - $2.99 each, $1.50 coupon, bought 2, used 2 coupons - spent $2.98, saved $3.00

*Big Deal Here*
Crest 3D Whitestrips (this is one of those things that I probably would have never bought, but at the savings, I thought it was worth trying. I may never buy them again after this, but like I said, figured I would try them. I don't advocate buying things JUST to use coupons - it's stupid to spend money on stuff you dont need, but I figured I could afford this deal to try it out...)
Regular Price: $22.49. Manufacture Coupon: $10, Target Coupon $10. Bought 2, used 4 coupons (2 store, 2 manufacturer coupons) - Total Spent: $4.98, Total Saved: $40.00 <--talk about EXCITING!

Ore Ida Hash Browns - B2G1F - $2.50 each, $0.75 coupon. Bought 3, used 2 coupons. Total Spent: $3.50, saved $4.00

Archers Farm Coffee - 5.89 each. Get 1 International Delight Coffee Creamer free with purchase of Coffee. 0.55 coupons to use on the creamers. used 2. Spent $11.78, saved $5.04.

I had a couple other random items - birthday present for my niece, etc...but my total spent was $56.58, total saved $76.57.

This stuff is addicting!

Slimey AFLAC Agent

2010-03-31T20:34:00.004-04:00

My employer officers us an allowance of $20 bi-weekly towards the purchase of any AFLAC policies. When I started at this job, Pre DR, I signed up for the accident policy, and the cancer policy.

I verified today that the cost per each is 14.97 for the accident policy, and 26.67 for the cancer policy bi-weekly. If I were to cancel the cancer policy, my employer would drop my benefit to the 14.97 for the accident policy, but it's no money out of my pocket. if I cancelled both, it would still be no money out of pocket, but they wouldnt give me that additional benefit. Additionally, this has been a pre-tax benefit, so really, in th last year and a half, I've only been paying $20 or so out of my own pocket, bi weekly. Well, thats $40 a month I'm paying towards a policy that dave says I don't need.

So I figured that I could cancel that policy and use that $40 a month to pick up an additional life insurance policy through zander instead, because I don't have enough.

Well, this slimey aflac agent starts giving me the run around today. Tried to make me feel guilty about wanting to cancel, and I even told him "Look, I know you're a salesman, and it's your job to sell to me, but I don't need this policy." and he was like "Why not? Who have you been talking to?" and I told him, "My close, personal friend, Dave Ramsey." He paused for a minute and he said "I know who Dave Ramsey is, and I know what he teaches, but he's wrong about not needing cancer policy. There's a little girl in my church who got cancer, and we paid out $50K cash to the family. Would Dave Ramsey tell you to give that $50K back?" and I said no, but he would tell me to save my $40 a month to use it for something better, like life insurance or paying down debt, especially since my health insurance will cover cancer..."

So then he goes into overdrive, and says "Well, your company uses the cafeteria plan, and IRS code 125 blah blah blah....something about it being pretax dollars you can't un-enroll until open enrollment (which is in december)" and I said "Um, You can't ENROLL until open enrollment, you can opt out, at anytime." and he said "With anything else, yes, but not this." and he went on to say "Tell ya what I'm gonna do, I'll talk to your employer and see if they are going to allow you to do this, but they might get audited and fined by the IRS, so I'm going to recommend that she not allow you..."

I pressed record on my phone about halfway through the conversation. He was really beginning to tick me off now - trying to scare me in to it - how can an insurance agency, or my company force me to continue to purchase a product that I don't want any more? Is he right? Or is he just pushing my buttons, trying to keep my business?

OH! The other thing I told him was that i was planning on keeping the accident policy, because it was a free benefit to me, but realistically, it hadn't done much for me anyway, except payout a single $60 claim from having my yearly exam. He said that my cancer policy had the same benefit - I could get a cancer screening every year, and they would pay me $75. And I said "So let me get this straight, I should pay you $26 every 2 weeks, so that I cn get a $75 check from you once a year?" and again, he stumbled, "Well, yeah, but if you get cancer, we pay you cash....blah blah EFFING blah."

So, I emailed my HR lady to tell her that he was going to be calling, and I told her that he said he was going to recommend to her that I not be allowed to opt out until open enrollment. I'm calling BS. This stinks. What an @$$.

Jonny got a job!

2010-03-26T00:17:00.000-04:00

This picture best described what I'm feeling right about now.

Tomorrow, Jonny starts a job as a bookkeeper for a property management group here in Columbus. One of his professors recommended him. It's 10-15 hours a week, and it's going to be an extra few hundred bucks a month. He interviewed on Monday and they offered him the position yesterday.

Oh happy day for more money going toward our debt snowball to pay that sucker off even faster. It's financial/accounting experience, and it's current, and it's going to look great on his resume. YIPPEE!

As we quicken the pace with getting stuff paid off, I find myself becoming more and more gazelle intense. My snowball calculator estimates a debt freedom date of November 2011. I've already set a personal goal of this Christmas, but I'm hoping I can shave a couple of more months off of that. Maybe by our anniversary? October 6 - we'll have been married 3 years. That would be AWESOME. With a few extra hundred dollars a month, I feel confident we can make it happen, if we just...don't spend everything we budget, and throw it at the debt at the end of the month....

I wish I had some crap I could sell. I have boxes and boxes of books that at one point, I care about keeping, but now I don't, and I cant find a way to get rid of them AND make a profit. I could donate them, but I'd rather keep them if I can get any money off of them.

I'm going to have to go through my clothes and see if there's anything I can offload at Plato's Closet. Maybe I can do that this weekend....

Until next time...

We're already there!

2010-03-22T23:24:00.002-04:00

Well, in my post last week about the month ahead plan, I lied. I said the money I had coming in from the GIBill was about $2000.

Wrong. It was $4000. And it arrived today.

Oh my gosh, I cannot even express how excited I am. The money is sitting in our account, waiting for April 1st, when I'll go ahead and pay everything. I don't even care when payday is, because it doesn't matter.

I don't have to temporarily pause my debt snowball, and I don't have to wait until June to implement the month ahead plan. WE'RE ALREADY THERE!!!

The only downside of this is that it's KILLING me to not throw that entire amount at our debt, NOW. That's 50% of our remaining consolidation loan debt, and as much as I would love to throw it all at it, I really believe that getting on the month ahead system is going to help us be in a better position.

Now, let's see how this job interview situation with Jonny turns out. That will be a treat to see if that results in more income.

YEAH!

Student Loans, Buying a House, and Babies

2010-03-18T22:05:00.000-04:00

Okay FINE. I'll address the stupid student loan/house/babies situation, since so many people are riding my tail about it.

My undergrad student loans were not that bad. $22K. My grad student loans are going to be about $47K. Jonny's are going to be about $36K when all is said and done, for a total of $105K.

Surprisingly, that number does not bother me, because we have a plan. The plan, as I've mentioned before, is to have the car and consolidation loan gone by Christmas. Maybe earlier if Jonny can find some more permanent steady income before then. My undergrad student loans will come out of deferment in December, my grad student loans will still have a 6 month grace period. Jonny graduates in May 2011 and he will have a 6 month grace period as well.

My undergrad student loans are in an interest only repayment bracket, for the first 5 years. I'm not sure if that will change since I defered them for 2 1/2 to go back to school, However, because I will have no other debt at that point, I plan to use the amount that was going towards the debt snowball and build up the fully funded emergency fund.

But Amanda, that's not Dave's plan. You're supposed to be COMPLETELY debt free except for the house before you move on to Baby step 3.

You know what? Stuff a sock in it. Daves plan is about making changes. It's MY total money makeover. It's making smart financial choices. I am smart to know that I cannot continue to live life with a measly $1000 emergency fund. I must have more. Plus, my total money makeover is about LIVING on a budget......not isolating yourself from life and the rest of the world to stay on a budget.

Do you really think it's fair, or right, that we should have to wait to get a house just because we have student loan debt? We have made the decision to wait until we have a house to start having a family. Being debt free isnt a prerequisite to having babies, but it's a prerequisite to getting a house? Say WHAT? Yes, There are nimrods on the TMMO forums who believe this. It's okay to have a baby in an apartment. Babies dont cost anything. LIKE HELL THEY DON'T. Mind you, these are the same folks who already had houses before they started the process, so for them to wag their fingers at me like tsk tsk shame on you for not knocking out that student loan debt before getting a house, is ridiculous. Psh, to think that it's okay to have a kid and more expenses that way, but it's not okay to buy a house? So in other words, you're trying to discriminate against me because I didnt do stupid BEFORE starting the process to crawl out of debt by buying a house and then getting gazelle instense. Tsk tsk shame on me for pausing temporarily so that I can get a house and start a family. I guess my eggs just need to wait another 6-7 years and shrivle up because I must be student loan debt free first, is that it?

Yes, I realize that this is because of limitations I have put on myself. I realize that someone people are perfectly happy popping out babies while they still live in an apartment. I would not be. I know how I am and that's just not me. Jonny and I are not going to go buy some big fancy smancy house - we just want a home. But we want a home before we work on a family. Don't piss on my parade and the accomplishments we will have made by paying off $42K in STUPID DEBT because we have decided to hold tight temporarily, to the debt that is going to better our careers before moving forward.

Some people are just SO narrow minded. How dare you bark at me about temporarily pausing my debt snowball to get a house, when you have NO room to talk because you already have a house and are still in debt?

At any rate, to close everything up - the plan is that after we finish the consolidation and car loans, we will do our FFEF, and then buy a house next summer. If we have a downpayment, which I would like, then great - if not, it wont be the end of the world because we've got the VA Loan guarantee. Once we're successfull in a house, guess what? We will go back to being snowball intense and will work on knocking out that student loans at a rate of about $1500-$2K a month (and find time to have a baby in there somewhere too). If we do this, we'll be debt free but the house by ~2016. However, whats going to be REALLY awesome is if Jonny does get a great paying job and we can knock it out even faster. I really dont think that's a bad timeline to shoot for, but anything quicker depends on circumstance.

So yeah - if you want to tsk tsk me because I'm slightly deviating from Dave's plan, you go right ahead. Who are you to talk anyway?

The Month-Ahead Plan

2010-03-14T22:22:00.001-04:00

I am sick of my cash flow problem. The money is budgetted appropriately each month, but the fact of the matter is that with only 1 steady income, the money is not there as quickly as we need it to get through the month. As a result of this, during the first half of the month, I am ashamed to say that we have "borrowed" from the emergency fund, to have cash for expenses such as food and gas, and then paid back that which we borrowed when the paycheck for the second half of the month comes in.

This is dangerous, and I'm sick of having to do it. What is going to happen if we do have a Major Murphy visit after rent has been paid, but before Paycheck #2 comes in for the month? DISASTER!

I've been reading on the MTMMO forums that many people operate under the "Month-Ahead Plan." Basically the idea is that you build up one month's worth of income and you have that money sitting in your account, and then, on the first of the month, you already have every bit of money you need to pay your entire expenses for the upcoming month. You could essentially pay your entire month bills on the first, and pull out the cash you need for the month on the first. By doing this method, it wont matter when your paychecks for the current month come in, because you'll be paying THIS month's bills with LAST month's income.

So for example, if my usual monthly income is $4000, then I need to build up a reserve of $4000 in my account before the first paycheck of the month even comes in. Then on the 1st of the month, I can pay all my bills for the upcoming month, and withdraw cash for my cash envelopes - gas, food, and blow money. For safety's sake, I would probably actually only pull out enough cash for each envelope to get me through 1 week at a time, so that I wouldnt accidentally spend my entire month's grocery budget in the first week, etc.

It's going to be very very hard to look at my checking account and see a large available balance of $4000 or so from month to month, and not throw it to my debt snowball, but I think that this is the best way to take control over the cash flow issue. I need to start paying THIS month's bills with last month's income, rather than struggling to make this month's income work for this month's bills.

The plan to put this into place is to back off the debt snowball for a month or two and resort to paying only the minimum balance due on my consolidation loan, and car loan. I have some money, approximately $2000, coming in from the Post 9/11 GIBill within the next several weeks, and Jonny is still bringing in some money from his job at the tax office. If I have calculated everything correctly, I should be able to be on the month ahead plan starting June 1st, which is only 11 weeks away.

There are many more plus sides to getting a month ahead. I can stop relying on each bi-weekly paycheck and I can set up more allotments through work, to where certain funds go into particular savings accounts already, rather than into my checking account and manually transferring the money when it's time to put it in. My $300 a month Sinking Funds could become a $150 per paycheck allotment that would automatically go into my sinking funds account. Instead of having to wait until the second half of the month to pay the church my monthly tithe, I could pay the entire tithe at the beginning of the month. I could even FINALLY set all my regular bills up on AUTOPAY, rather than insisting that I pay them on a specific day of each month, because I know it's a day that the money is available. <--I'm a little iffy on that one, I'm afraid I would become sloppy, and not double check the bills to make sure they are right and that I'm not being overcharged.

At any rate....I've been digging my heels in about this one, but as I tried to come up wth my cash flow plan for April and May, I was thoroughly depressed to learn that, once again, I would be forced to borrow from the emergency fund in order to have the basics covered: food and gas. Bummer. I guess it's time to put my big girl panties on and just DO IT.

What are Sinking Funds?

2010-03-14T19:17:00.008-04:00

Sinking Funds are defined by Frugal Dad as follows: "In the personal finance world we can use sinking funds to help prepare for large, infrequent expenses that come along throughout the year. A prime example of such an expense is car insurance. Many insurers allow customers to pay monthly premiums for a convenience fee (my company charges $4.00 per monthly payment). I can easily save $24 by rejecting the monthly payment arrangement and agreeing to pay once every six month, when the auto insurance policy renews. But this means I have to come up with a hefty sum of money twice a year to cover the premium. This is where sinking funds can help."

Dave has a great form for such Lump Sum Payment Planning that works beautifully. The idea behind it is that you list your pricier infrequent expenses (you know, those things that you only have to buy every so often - usually only once or twice a year) and rather than having to come up with a large chunk of change when it's due, or paying a convenience fee to give the company the honor of setting you up on an installment plan, you save the money in your own savings account in the months leading up to when that bill is due, and pay it in full, with cash.

Our current sinking funds are $300 a month, for a total of $3600 over the course of the year. This includes auto insurance, renters insurance, car tag/taxes and fees, car maintenance (tires, oil changes, other services), and life insurance. Here are our yearly expenses on these items:
Car Insurance: $1300
Amanda Life Insurance: $350
Jonny Life Insurance: $450
Car Tax/Tags: $300
Renters Insurance: $350
Car Service/Repairs: $850
Total: $3600.

We actually had our car service and repairs a little less (only $700) when we initially started working on this, but when we divided the total amount out by 12 and our monthly savings were to be $287.50, we decided to round it up to $300. This way, if something happens and it's a little more expensive, we've got a little more wiggle room in there.

If you're first starting out, and trying to get your sinking funds caught up so that you can go forward with the correct monthly amount, you'll need to figure out how many months you have until that expense is due, and how many months portion you are behind on that item. Lets look at our example again, from a monthly standpoint, and taking into consideration when our due dates are:

Car Insurance: $1300/12 = 108.33 per month, Due in May and November ($650 every 6 months)

Amanda Life Insurance: $350/12 = 29.17 per month, Due in January

Jonny Life Insurance: $450/12 = 37.50 per month, Due in November

Car Tax/Tags: $300/12 = 25.00 per month, Due in December

Renters Insurance: $350/12 = 29.17 per month, Due in October

Car Service/Repairs: $850/12 = 70.83 per month, Varies.

Total: $3600.

To clarify, I have a separate savings account that I dump the entire $300 per month into, and I keep track on an excel spreadsheet how much belongs in what category.

For illustration purposes, let's pretend that I just got my tax return back, and rather than putting that amount towards our debt snowball, I wanted to get current on my sinking funds before putting any remaining amount towards debt. This way, starting next month, I'll just need to add the budgeted $300 to the sinking funds savings account. How much money would I need to put into the SF account to bring me up to speed?

Car Insurance is due in May. There is only 1 more month between right now and May, so to get caught up, I need 5 installments of the car insurance. $108.33 * 5 = $541.65

Amanda Life Insurance is due in January. I have 9 months between now and January, therefore, I need to pay 3 installments: $29.17 * 3 = $87.51

Jonny Life Insurance is due in November. I have 7 months between now and November, therefore, I need 5 installments: $37.50 * 5 = $187.50

Car Tax/Tags are due in December. I need 4 installments: $25.00 * 4 = $100.00

Renters Insurance is due in October. I need 6 installments: $29.17 * 6 = $175.02

Car Service/Repairs due dates vary. You can start with the current month and only add $70.83, or keep in on a calendar year basis. I'm going to assume this is a calendar year thing, and save up from January through December. Therefore, I will save 3 installments now, which will catch up January, February and March, for a total of $70.83 * 3 = $212.49

Now, I'll add all these installments up: $541.65 + $87.51 + $187.50 + $100.00 + $175.02 + $212.49 = $1304.17 needed in my savings account for the month of March. In April, I will add $300 to it. In May, I will add another $300 to it, but I will also pull $650 from it, to pay my semi annual Car Insurance. In May, I'll add another $300, etc etc etc. Car service money will be pulled from it as needed, but make sure you don't spend more than you've currently built up for the year for car repairs. If you need more than you've built up, you'll need to budget to pay it back in future monthly installments.

Here's a list of other Sinking Fund expenses you may need to consider budgeting for:

Real Estate Taxes
Homeowners Insurance
Home Repairs
Replace Furniture
Medical Bills
Health Insurance
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
Car Insurance
Car Repair/Tags
Replace Car (You should watch this video! As for the skeptic comments by users - just remember that the stock market AVERAGE is 12%. No, it's not 12% right now, but over a period of time, thats the average. Don't over-think the concept because of technicalities, or you'll end up just being another boring NORMAL person. Be WEIRD!)
Clothing
Tuition
Bank Note
IRS (Self-Employed)
Vacation
Gifts (inc. Christmas)
Other

*If you're reading this on Facebook, please go to http://proverbs227.blogspot.com/ to read the original post for links to videos and other websites.

Mr Murphy is trying to attack me....

2010-03-02T20:11:00.000-05:00

During the first week of March in 2007, my desktop computer died. It was spring break my senior year. I had 8 weeks of classes left and I could NOT survive 8 weeks of classes with no computer.

So...on March 7th, my bestie Cynthia went with me to purchase a new one. I bought an HP Pavillian dv9000 laptop.

Today, it fried. I think it's the graphics card, but I have no way of knowing for certain until they look at it.

I called Fry's to verify the date of my purchase and the warranty info. Leap Day back in 2008....yeah, would have screwed me over. My warranty is valid until 9pm on Friday the 5th (so I guess a 3 year warranty is really a 1095 day warranty when you add in leap days....)

To make matters worse, since I now live in Columbus, and not the Atlanta area, there is NO Fry's location nearby. None, nada, zilch. I have to make the 135 mile drive 1 way to take it in to the store, because they will not allow me to ship it.

CRAP.

Luckily, the store is open until 9pm during the week. I guess I'll be getting off work at 5:15 tomorrow and will be making the trip to Atlanta.

Murphy tried to get me to go out and buy a new one. After all, it's mighty tempting considering you can buy a netbook for less than $500 these days. But that was the old me. The new me will spend 2/3 tank of gas round trip to get the darn thing fixed rather than buying a new one.

Proof that it never hurts to ask...

2010-02-27T09:34:00.000-05:00

I received a rent renewal notice from my apartment complex earlier this week. I was dreading getting this notice, because I just KNEW they were going to increase my price. Well, to my surprise, they did not.

A little background: When we moved to Columbus, we were not yet on this financial kick to get out of debt. The "plan" was to get an apartment for 6 months, and hopefully by the end of that 6 months, be ready to move into a house.

Yeah right! Well so anyway, when we signed the 6 month lease in October 2008, our rent was $730. If we had committed to a 12 month lease, it would have only been $685...but we didn't want to be "stuck" here for 12 months because we just knew we were going to be house hunting right away.

6 months came. 6 months went. By then, we were attending FPU and knew that this temporary living arrangement was turning out to be a little more than temporary. We re-signed a new 12 month lease, but as with most apartment complexes, they up your price every renewal. We were now paying $750. Bummer.

So our current lease expires May 8th, and the renewal notice offered us 12-14 months at $750. Yay it wasn't going up, but BOO because I still felt like we were paying too much. There are banners outside the complex that says 2 bedroom blowout starting at $570. I also plugged my address and stats into Rentometer.com and was told that I was paying too much for the area of town I live in, with the features I have.

According to the apartment complex's Rent.com info, the floor plan I'm living in now goes for $650-$850. So I WAS right in the middle of the range. But geographically, the other complexes in my area are still much cheaper.

I didn't want to go through the hassle of having to move again, but I REALLY wanted to save some money. So I just picked up the phone and called. and I said what I've told you here...and they asked "Would you stay for $700?" (which was already the price I had hoped I could talk them down to.) I said "Absolutely."

Man, that was easier than I thought! We're going to re-sign a 14 month lease this time, which will get us through July 8, 2011, and saving $50 a month - that's like getting 1 month free! Plus, we already know it's going to be next summer before we are house hunting, so by then we can do month to month, or work out some other arrangement to stay longer if we need to.

$50 a month more to my debt snowball. Yahoooooo!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'm hitting the road to go to the ATL to see Mom and Dad. I'm suffering withdrawal - it's been over a month since I saw them :( Boo.

1 year later....a reflection,

2010-02-21T22:52:00.000-05:00

February 22, 2009 we took the first step to taking control of our finances. We started off with 6 credit cards, 2 Car loans, and a consolidation loan, over $42,000 in debt, and a whole messload of bad habits. Here is a reflection of things we've changed as a result:

In the past year, we paid off 6 credit cards, and a car. All we have left is the consolidation loan, and the second car. Total debt paid: $22,290.06
We no longer use credit cards.
We have a written budget... and we actually stick to it. If it's not budgetted, we dont buy it, unless it's an emergency....
...which brings me to my next point. We have an emergency fund. Luckily, we haven't had to use it except for a couple of vet related expenses. Once we use it, we halt the debt snowball until the emergency fund has been replenished, and we continue with the snowball.
I don't go shopping out of boredom or "I Wants" anymore. If I find something I want, I save up blow money if I can justify having it. Many times, I do without. Sometimes Jonny has to tell me that my want is actually a NEED...such as clothing....when you go 6 months without buying clothes, it becomes a need to add a few new pieces to the wardrobe. However, I used to buy clothes ALL the time, and I knew this was a weakness for me. Therefore, I still try to avoid clothing stores while I'm still in this pursuit to get out of debt.
Because of our written budget, we do not eat out to the tune of over $800 a month in FOOD. Good grief I was depressed when I first realized how much money we were wasting by eating out. Our eating out and grocery budget is now less than half that (due in part to coupons).
I've become a better cook, and I brownbag more lunches for work, rather than swinging by the drive through.
We saved up, and paid for a trip to California right after Christmas (to see family) entirely in cash. Flight, rental car, hotel, food, and activities while we were there, etc. The trip did not follow us home in the form of a credit card bill. Woo!
We pay for things like auto, life and renters insurance in cash now. Rather than swiping a credit card when the bill comes due, I save up an appropriate amount every month in a savings account deemed as sinking funds for these expenses, and then when the bill comes in, I transfer the money and pay it off, rather than charging it.
As far as entertainment goes - we've gotten creative. Date nights at home with a good movie and dinner, or movies nights at the dollar theater. Camping at the local state park is CHEAP for a weekend. As soon as tax season is over and I have my husband back, we'll be going camping this spring. Yay!

Goals for the upcoming year:

To better manage our budget by using cash envelopes for our non-bill related expenses. Now that all the credit cards are paid off, our monthly cash flow with regards to the paychecks are going to be easier to manage because.
Find more snowflakes (unexpected income, or "found" money) that can be applied to the debt snowball.
Pay off Consolidation and Car Loans by Christmas.

Hope you all have a great week!

Big News, More Couponing, and updated budget

2010-02-14T22:09:00.002-05:00

Fabulous news! As most of you already know, we paid off the last 2 credit cards, and for the first time in over 10 years, we have NO credit card debt whatsoever! All that we have left is a consoliddation loan, and to pay off Jonny's car. We feel very confident that we will be able to do this by Christmas, and will be able to spend Spring building up our fully funded emergency fund, as well as a down payment on a house. Our goal is to be house hunting by Summer 2011! WEEE!

We've also cut our food and household budget because of the use of coupons and looking for savings. I looked back at my post from about a month ago, when I said I had spent $89, and just shook my head. These days, my shopping trips are more in the $40 range, and I have become successful at "flipping" my bill. I dont go shopping for what I need that week anymore. I go shopping for things that we use, but are also on sale. I stock up on non-perishable items. For example: Hamburger Helper. Normally $2.00 a box, today, they were 10 for $10 ($1 each) and I had three $0.75 off 3 coupons. So I bought 9 boxes for $9.00 - $2.25 = $6.75. 9 boxes at normal price of $2.00 each would have been $18.

I don't buy things just because I have coupons or just because they are on sale though. I buy things that we use, but the key to couponing is definitely to not be brand loyal. I have stocked up on laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, and personal toiletries in the last month and have spent just a little bit of money doing so. They are all different brands, depending on what was on sale when. I have a good 6 months of toletries and laundry supplies stocked up right now.

I also buy more "treats" now, because I can. Jonny and I LOVE brownies....we dont make them all the time, but I'd rather buy them when they are cheap, rather than when I'm having a hankering for some, and end up paying $3 or $4 a box for the "good stuff." Today, the Betty Crocker Hersey Brownies were B1G1, and I had a $0.75 coupon off 2. Price came out to $1.02 per box. So, in short, todays trip to Winn Dixie prior to them swiping my loyalty card was $83.33. After swiping the loyalty card, and applying coupons, it dropped all the way to $37.80.

I look at grocery shopping completely differently now. If it's not on sale, if I don't have a coupon, and it's not something I can't live without for the next week, the I don't buy it. Such a different approach to grocery shopping than I used to have...

I'm still trying to find a cheaper way to buy Gillette Fusion Blades, which is one thing we ARE brand loyal to. Jonny and I both use these, and currently, we buy a pack of 16 at Sams club for $42, which comes out to $2.63 a blade. I've been looking at target, walmart, cvs, publix, winn dixie, etc, for a better price, but even with a $3 off coupon (cant use coupons at Sams), the cheapest I have found at those places are $3.00 a blade. So...until I find a better price, I guess Sam's Club will win for this particular product. If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know!

Here's the new budget. Since the last time I posted, we have lowered the cable bill, lowered the food and grocery bill, upped the medical bill. The snowball has changed as a result of no more credit card debt, and anything left over at the end of the month will also be tacked on to the NFCU Loan until that one is knocked out as well.

--------Incomes--------
A Disability 123
J Disability 123
GIBill 1518
Paycheck 1051 (after tax)
Paycheck 1051
Svgs Allotment 100
Svgs Allotment 100

--------Charity--------
AXiD 10
Church 300

--------Saving--------
Savings 443
Sinking Funds/NFCU 300

--------Housing--------
Rent/Water 794

--------Utilities--------
Electricity 150
Mobile Phone 142
Cable 85
Storage 40

--------Food--------
Food & Household 300

--------Transportation--------
Gas & Oil 125

--------Medical/Health--------
Medical 75

--------Personal--------
A Blow 100
J Blow 100

--------Debts--------
Student Loan 126
Corolla Loan 276
NFCU Loan 700

February is going to be a fabulous month.....

2010-01-31T23:25:00.000-05:00

Oh thank goodness January is over!!!! January is our busiest month at work, and even though I still have quite alot to do in the upcoming weeks prior to my counterpart's maternity leave, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted and things will hopefully be easier this week and going forward.

I'm really looking forward to February for several reasons. Next weekend is the annual women's retreat for church at Callaway Gardens. This is my first time going. I didnt go last year because Jonny and I hadnt been going to the church for a full month yet and I was not comfortable going with a bunch of ladies I didn't know at that point, but I've been looking forward to it this year ever since they started talking about it last summer.

Tax season is in full swing and Jonny finally got his first few customers at the office last week, so that's GREAT for our financial situation. We actually filed our own taxes on Friday and when it comes in, we are going to be able to pay off the last of 2 credit cards. After that, all we'll have left is a previous signature loan, and a car loan. Depending on how tax season goes with Jonny will determine how quickly we can get those two debts paid off too. The quicker they are gone, the quicker we can work on our FFEF (fully funded emergency fund) and then work on a down payment for a house. I think that things are going to fall into place at just the right time for us. The economy hs nowhere to go but up, and by the time we have a down payment saved up, I'm certain that we will be able to get a GREAT deal. I hope we'll get a fab deal on a foreclosure that we can invest a little bit of elbow grease into to call it home. Fingers crossed that it'll be next summer....

Whoops, sorry. Got off on a tangent there. Well, like I said above - we're going to be paying off our last two credit cards this month. We're also going to 'Bama next weekend to see the in-laws for a superbowl party. NASCAR season is almost here! Daytona 500 on the 14th, only 2 more years until we're planning on being there LIVE!

I've also got to get started on the whole Crossroads Career thing at St. Mark. Aimee, Shannon, Hannah and I were all talking about it back before the holidays, but the holidays just drains you, and with January as busy as it was, I just knew I couldn't put any effort in it during January. So it's time to get the ball rolling for this. I pray that it works out and we can get the funding we need to be able to start this ministry.

Finally, as I mentioned in a previous post, I recently joined the YMCA. I am sad to say that I've only been twice so far, but in my defense, it was closed for a few days last week because they were moving to a new location. That location is open now, and I am planning on getting my butt up in the morning to go, and finally get this habit formed of going. I need to figure out what group classes I want to attend, but I'm afraid to just show up and have them kick my butt and me not be able to keep up with the rest of the class. I've heard alot of people talk about Zumba...I may have to try that for starters. Besides - I'm afraid of Karen and Hannah (from work, who both teach RPM and Body Pump) *grin*

Why I Tithe...

2010-01-26T14:35:00.004-05:00

So, one of my good friends yesterday sent me a message yesterday asking me some questions, and it inspired this particular post because I wanted to explain why I tithe, in case there are more people out there with the same kind of questions.

I feel like tithing is not an option, but rather, a necessity. The bible gives us instruction to tithe to the church. A Tithe is a 10th of your income. Anything more or less is an offering, a gift. So don't call it a tithe if it's not.

When Jonny and I first started attending St. Mark, for the first few months, prior to starting FPU, and even into the first month or two, we gave what we "could." We knew it was important to give, but 10% of our single income while he was not working was enough money that if we kept it for ourselves, it would make things easier...

That's not entirely true. In our experience, tithing is like an emergency fund; it's Murphy Repellant, as Dave calls it. When you have an emergency fund in place, your emergencies are less severe, and less frequent. Prior to having an emergency fund, a flat tire, or medical bill, or other kinds of unforeseen expenses would have been put on a credit card, because that was the only way we were able to handle it. Since creating the emergency fund, emergencies don't appear to happen as often - and when they do, it's only a minor inconvenience, rather than a catastrophe.

Like I said, in our experience, tithing kind of feels like an emergency fund to us. When we started tithing - rather than giving a small offering, our finances seemed to fall into better shape. We "found" money we didn't know we had, and we learned to better manage the money we DID have, so that it stretched further, and wasn't such a tight squeeze to make ends meet. Over the summer, Jonny had a temporary job which helped kick start some of our debt. Sure, it wasn’t permanent, but by that point, we had been living on one income for over 6 months, and the budget we had worked, so we continued living on that budget, and his extra income from that temporary job went only to debt (and, the tithe that was required from it).

I've listened to Dr David Jeremiah on the radio at night in regards to what it means to tithe, and why it's important. Dave says some similar things. Basically, what they've said is that our money is not ours. EVERYTHING we have is because of God. Yeah yeah, I know some of you out there are rolling your eyes about the freakish religious aspect of this post by now and how I must be a brainwashed Christian. Um, no. Just because someone is a Christian doesn't mean they are a brainwashed psycho. I'm not trying to change your mind, just letting you know why I feel it's important to tithe.

My church has been wonderful for me, and our transition in Columbus. I swore after I left the military, I'd NEVER leave home again. Well, I did - sort of. Yeah, it's only 2 hours, so it doesn’t really count, but 2 hours is still far enough away from my friends and family, that I get a little homesick from time to time. I've gotten really involved in the church, and it's helped make Columbus feel more like home. So in one sense, I feel like I owe it back to the church, for helping me. Here's an analogy that my sorority sisters will love: The same way that a sorority is fun and games, but needs money to operate on - a church has a responsibility to the community. Guess what? The church needs money to fulfill that responsibility.

I have friends who say "I can’t afford to tithe." Really? 10% is enough to make or break you for the month? If that's the case, you really should look at where your money is going and cut some unnecessary expenses. You don't NEED a cell phone at $150 a month, catch my drift? If you can’t afford to tithe, then Christ "can't afford" to reward you for being good managers of the money He gave you. We've all heard the story of the master with 3 servants, who gave the first servant 5 talents, the second 2 talents, and the last one 1 talent. The first 2 used their talents and made them grow, and I think, if I remember correctly, they at least doubled their money at the end of 1 year. The 3rd guy buried his talent in a hole for fear of losing it, and the master was displeased with him because he hadn’t used it to do anything with.

Basically, it's like this. If you can’t afford to live on 90% of your income, you can’t afford to live on 100%. If you can't show God that you are smart with your money, He has no reason to reward you with more. People say they can't afford to tithe, but I say; how can you afford NOT to? Yep, my 10% a month is a big chunk of change that could certainly go towards my debt snowball. But as luck would have it, if I didn’t give that 10% per month to the church, my financial luck would diminish. I'd have broken down cars, and medical expenses, other unexpected costs that my poor little baby emergency fund couldn’t not Murphy Repel for me, and then I‘d need that 10% - OR MORE - to cover those catastrophes. I am not willing to take any chances. God blessed us when we started obeying. Why would I start disobeying now?

http://www.daveramsey.com/article/daves-advice-on-tithing-and-giving/lifeandmoney_church/

Coupon Junkie

2010-01-23T00:31:00.001-05:00

I went to a couponing class last night and I learned SO MUCH about how to save alot more money on my groceries and household goods. Apparently, there is a difference between combining coupons, and stacking them. Combining means using 2 manufacturer, store, or competitor coupons at the same time. Stacking, on the other hand is when you have a manufacture coupon in conjunction with a store coupon and possibly even a competitor coupon. Combining is not allowed. Stacking is.

If you wait until items go on sale - especially B1G1, and stack with a manufacturer coupon, store coupon, and competitor coupon at the same time, you may end up getting your item for mere pennies.

Some couponers make a game of trying to flip their bills. This is when you save more than you spend. I had a small shopping trip tonight, but I had my first flip! I bought 4 items: 2 bottles of Aleve ($3.49 each), a bottle of All laundry detergent(6.49) and a bottle of Clorox bleach(2.19). Total Regular Price: $15.66.

I had coupon for $5 off 2 bottles of Aleve. New price, 1.98.
All detergent was on sale for $5.99. I had a $1 off coupon. New price: 4.99
Bleach was free with the purchase of All. New Price: $0.
New Total: $6.97 + tax.
Savings: $8.69.

I could get used to this.

I talked to Jonny, and we're going to clean out the front coat closet and make rooms for more shelf space in there for household and pantry items. The coupon class taught me that the way to save so much money was to buy it with stacked coupons, while they are on sale, and to stock up as much as you can when they are on sale.

Ebay is a good place to find coupons if you're too lazy to look for them yourself. Southernsavers.com is a good site to check out for upcoming coupons that will be available, and what the best way to use those coupons are.

I cant believe I never knew you could stack coupons...and use competitor coupons. Oh my goodness.

New Goal: Cut my Grocery and household budget in half. By doing so, I'll have an extra $200 a month to put to the debt snowball. Lets see if I can make it work :)

Going to the YMCA!

2010-01-06T14:03:00.000-05:00

So I think I'm going to join the YMCA here in town. Unlike my unsuccessful attempts at working out and getting healthy in the past, there's no contract to join, so I wont be wasting money. There's a one time registration fee, and a monthly draft. You have to give a 30 day notice to cancel membership, and that's it.

I'll get a discount through work. Right now, I'm just going to sign up as an individual. Jonny has access to the gym facilities at CSU, so there's no reason to buy the family plan if he's going to work out at the school instead. So for an adult, I'll have a $40 registration fee and a $26 monthly draft. The classes are free, and there are 3 YMCAs in the columbus area, so I'll have access to them all with my membership. They open as early as 5 am, and close at 9pm, so there will be plenty of hours of the day that I can go.

I'll have to work these fees into our budget, but I'll be able to make it work. Besides, $26 a month is less than a weeks worth of eating fast food for lunch every day, which I'm not doing anymore. Yay for found money!

Speaking of fast food, I've only eaten fast food once, since January 1st, and that was Zaxby's lunch on Saturday the 2nd. I want to see how long I can go without succumbing to the fast food junk. It'll be a help physically and financially.

My brown bagged lunches arent the healthiest in the world, but I guarantee a can of chef boyardee is alot better than a double cheeseburger and fries. One thing I remember from being on weight watchers is that eating healthy is EXPENSIVE. Buying fresh produce and salads, this that and the other. It was terribly expensive to be eating such a small amount (and having chocolate cravings). It's difficult to make strides financially and healthwise at the same time, so I'm having to learn to balance. Financial is my priority right now, so hopefully I can make the healthiest affordable meal choices possible going forward.

Now, if I could just get off the soda and start drinking more water...ugh.

I want a house....and babies

2010-01-04T22:42:00.002-05:00

...and right now, I just can't.

When Jonny and I moved to Columbus in October 2008, we got an itty bitty apartment, with an itty bitty kitchen, an itty bitty bathroom, with an itty bitty lease (6 months). "It's temporary," we said.

6 months came. 6 months went. Still no job for the hubby. This situation has turned out to be not-so-temporary.

Since beginning FPU, we have learned that we need to trust the process and finish baby step 2 and 3 before we worry about getting a house. We has saved up almost $4,000 for a down payment. We used it to jump start our debt snowball.

I'll be honest. I come home to my apartment and look around and think, "I wish I had a house..." There are certain people out there who have been, to say the least, not very friendly about our journey. "Debt is normal" they say. You'll always have a (house, car, etc...) payment. No. We won't. As sad as I am that I dont have a house now, I'll appreciate it that much more when the time comes. NO, I don't want a starter home. NO, I don't care jack squat about building equity and using it to roll over to move again. I only want to move one more time in my life, and that is to our permanent home. (Yes, I realize things may change, but that is not the plan. We'll cross that bridge if and when we ever come to it...) I don't have the time or the patience to house hop to build equity and roll it over. I don't have the income and credit right now to get a house on a single income.

The good news is that this gives us time to really figure out what we want. We've considered building, but as time goes on, we hope that time will be on our side. We hope we'll be able to find a really good deal on a home that may not be perfect, but will have potential for remodeling as to become perfect.

I hate being 29 years old, in debt, with no house, and no babies. I've done stupid, and now I'm paying for it (no pun intended). However, as much as I complain, I'm glad I'm being forced to take things slow. We WILL save up a 20% down payment and apply for only a 15 year mortgage. How cool will it be to have our home completely paid for before the kids go off to college?! WOO!

Buying Groceries

2010-01-04T01:39:00.000-05:00

We went grocery shopping today. Bought some stuff at Sams Club (the only wholesale club here in Columbus) and some other items at Winn Dixie.

I like Sams because I can get items that we use alot of in bulk and freeze it. We get 90/10 ground beef at $2.89 a pound. I bought a 7 pound package, and separated it into 9 smaller ziplock bags. I used to separate it in 1 pound portions, but over the last several months, we've realized that a whole pound of ground beef for the recipes we're cooking is a little bit more than we need. So we decided to package them a little smaller - 3/4 pound packages or so. This way, we get more meals out of the same amount of beef. Even for recipes such as Hamburger Helper, 3/4 pound of meat will be plenty.

Wholesale Clubs are great for getting deals in bulk. I got a 5 pound bag of rice for less than $5 (which I separated into smaller ziplock bags, too) and a pork roast that I cut in half before freezing. I'll be able to put it in the crockpot with some veggies for an easy yummy meal. We also buy hot dogs and separate them in smaller packages and freeze the rest. We do the same with bread and buns. My deep freezer is the best $160 investment we ever made, because we have the ability to buy in bulk and don't have to worry about it going bad before we can use it all.

I wasnt able to buy chicken breasts today. The Sams brand fresh boneless skinless chicken breast were on sale $1.77 a pound, but they were out. I was told they'd be getting more in on tuesday, so I'll have to go back. I could have gotten the name brand for $1 more per pound, but I can wait 2 days to get the better price.

At Winn Dixie, I bought things that you can't necessarily get at Sams. I'm trying to get better about brown-bagging my lunches for work, and cutting out the fast food. My Blow money was going towards lunch - fast food lunches, and thats one thing I'm trying to cut back on this year. I know I can cut out fast food, I've done it before, I can do it again. I bought cans of soup and some of those microwave meals for a decent price. A $2 can of soup is cheaper than a $5 value meal at the drive through (and it's more healthy). I also use coupons - but I ONLY use coupons for items I would have bought anyway. There's no point in buying a random item with a coupon if it's not something you need. However, even if I have a coupon, I still compare the store brand price. If the store brand is cheaper than the name brand, even with the coupon, I'll buy the store brand. I bought Chef Boyardee Ravioli cans for 10/$10 today. Usually, they are $1.25 each, and the Store brand is $1 each, but today, I was able to get the name brand product for the store brand price. YAY!

Using store sales, and coupons, I bought $120 worth of groceries tonight for only $89. I also like that WD allows you to buy BOGO (buy one, get one free) items for 1/2 off if you only buy 1 of the items. Publix (the other big grocery chain in my area) doesn't allow this - you have to buy both items to get the sale.

I'll probably go to "the bread store" one day this week. The bread store is a discount bakery. 1 day old bread that is no longer on shelves at the major grocery stores. I dunno about you, but I can't eat a loaf of bread in a single day, and if bread is only 1 day old, I would much rather buy it at the discount bakery - where I also get a 10% military discount. Woo! I can get a name brand loaf of bread that's normally $3 a loaf for about $1.20...sometimes less. I can also get bagels and buns. I usually spend about $12 at the bread store - and I come home with 6-8 loaves of bread and several packages of bagels or buns in the process. It's a STEAL! Here's another blog I found about the benefits of going to a discount bread store: http://getoutofdebt.org/1123/where-to-buy-really-cheap-bread

Our Current Monthly Budget

2010-01-03T01:39:00.007-05:00

---Totals---

|Budgeted| 4133

|Income| 4133

---Incomes---

GIBill 1581

J Disability 123

A Disability 123

Omega 1153

---Charity---

Church (147*2) 294 (2 * 10% of pretax earnings)

AXiD 10 (Donation to AXiD Foundation)

---Saving---

Sinking Funds 300 (Car, Life, Rent Ins, Car Tags)

Savings 443 (Vacations, Clothes, Car repairs)

---Housing---

Rent/Water 795

---Utilities---

Storage 40

Electricity 130

Mobile Phone 142

Cable 110

---Food---

Food & Household 400 (Groceries, household)

---Transportation---

Gas & Oil 125

---Medical/Health---

Medical 45 (Copay and prescription)

---Personal---

J Blow 100

A Blow 100

---Debts---

Student Loan 126 (interest only, for now).

Corolla Loan 278

NFCU Loan 325

NFCU Visa 100

CUGA Visa 270 (Next in the debt snowball)

Those of you who are familiar with $0 based budgeting will understand that every dollar must have a name to it. It took us about 3-4 months to lock in a good budget. Sometimes some numbers need to be shifted, or altered slightly. For example, phone is usually $141.23, which leaves me with an extra $0.77 but I prefer to round up rather than rounding down.

I'm trying to find a way to trim the fat on my budget some more. Downgrading our phones are not an option, we use them both too much, and it's not something we are willing to cut corners on at this time. I would love to find a way to save on cable, but I need high speed internet due to my online classes. I think I can cut the food and household budget, but I need to get better about finding coupons and deals for things we actually use and need. If I could cut $50 or $100 from there, I would put it toward our debt snowball to pay it off quicker....

I think one way I could do this would be by tracking how often we're purchasing certain household items - Prilosec, razor blades, stuff we buy in Bulk at Sams that last "a while" but I dont really know how long "a while" is, I just buy it when we run out...

Hmmm...Just thinking out loud at this point...

*edit* I forgot to mention, and felt I should clarify...the reason our savings is so much is because we REALLY do not use credit cards anymore, and over the last year, I've learned that my "security gland" that Dave talks about in his book, is pretty big. We have this money going to our ING savings account, in which we have multiple savings accounts bookmarked for certain things - summer vacation, graduation cruise, AXiD Conventions, hair appointments, major car services, etc etc. Daves book will tell you you aren't supposed to save in baby step two, you're supposed to be knocking out debt. That's correct...but his plan is also about changing your lifestyle. If you go SO gazelle intense that you don't leave yourself wiggle room for fun, you could fall off the waggon and revert back to bad spending habits. As you can see from my previous posts, I KNOW that I am prone to this, and so in order to avoid it, rather than paying that extra $400 a month to debt, like someone hard core would probably say you should do, I put it to savings so that we can have fun and not feel so deprived. Some folks may disagree with this and say I'm not intense enough, but I look at it as no different than an additional sinking fund. We have cut back on so much already that I am not ready to cut back further, and feel so restricted that I can't be successful. We're successful right now, doing it this way, and I want to keep it like that.

okay, off my soap box now... :)

How and Why?

2010-01-02T12:31:00.004-05:00

$42,000 in debt. How did we ever end up in this kind of mess, you may ask. It's from a combination of several things. For starters - it's "The American Way" to have debt. It's the American way to have credit cards. It's easier to spend what you don't have than it is to have discipline to save up for what you truly need and or can justify spending the money on, and pay the credit card when it comes in the mail later.

This mentality will overwhelm you. I know EXACTLY where my problem started. It began with the military. I was working a full time job, making good money, and the only bill I had was my cell phone bill. While I was in the navy, I got department store credit cards - target, jcpenny, old navy, etc. I had "some" sense and realized I was getting in a little over my head, so when we went on deployment, I paid those cards off, and cancelled them.

However, I still had no idea about Dave Ramsey, or the common sense approach to money. I really had NO IDEA what in the hell I was doing. I had a paycheck, and a cell phone bill. I had no savings in place, I lived paycheck to paycheck. I went to the mall, I bought clothes, I went out to eat with friends, and I went to the movies. I bought DVDs, cds, and a laptop. When I was overseas on deployment, I paid for the experience. I told myself I may never get a chance to visit those countries ever again, and justified blowing my money on "stuff." Rather than having a budget, I spent until it was gone, and then when it was gone, I used the credit cards.

When I got out of the navy, my habits didn't change, but my financial responsibility did. I no longer had free housing and 3 hot meals a day that I could revert back to if I ran out of money. I now had rent, and utilities to pay. I had to pay money at a laundromat to do my laundry (something I also had for free in the military). It got to the point where I couldn’t afford everything I "needed" so I applied for more credit. I was also in a long distance relationship with Jonny at the time, and had plane tickets to buy to go see him. It didn't make sense to spend 18 hours round trip in the car when I could fly and it only is a 4 hour round trip travel. I needed those extra 14 hours.

Before I knew it, I had more credit cards than I honestly can even remember. Jonny went on deployment and was getting paid tax free, and we used some of the money to pay down the debts we had built up. However, when he returned, we built the debt right back up. Swipe Swipe Swipe went the credit cards. We didn’t learn our lesson.

Jonny got out of the navy in August 2007, and we were married in October. He started school, and found a job, but he wasn’t making near the income he had made before getting out of the service. School was important to him, and finding a banking job that was flexible with his school schedule was impossible. In December, after many nights of tears, and the realization that the 1 step forward 2 steps back approach was not working to get our debt down, we applied for a consolidation loan. At the time, we had $18,000 in credit card debt, plus the 2 cars, which was an additional $17,000 or so, so approximately $35,000 in debt, December 2007. We got rid of the department store cards, and kept only the Visa and Mastercards. However, it wasn't enough. Within the next year, we had reverted back to our old ways. The credit cards that we had consolidated were racked back up, only this time, we still had the consolidation loan to pay as well. WHAT was it going to take to make us learn?

Fortunately, I got out of the job situation I was in and found my calling. In October 2008, we moved 2 hours south to Columbus GA and started rebuilding our lives. Jonny left his job in Atlanta to be with me, and started school at Columbus State. January 11, 2009 we were church shopping and were visiting St. Mark UMC. In the bulletin, Financial Peace University was being advertised. By this time, I had heard of Dave Ramsey, but had not attended FPU. I figured God was trying to tell me something. We enjoyed the church, and became regulars (we joined the church in July). In February we started attending FPU, which changed our lives forever. It's a good thing too; due to the economy, Jonny was having a hell of a time finding a job...and that was when we hit rock bottom. FPU saved us. With it, we learned how to live better on 1 income, than we had been on 2.

TBC...

Current Financial Situation

2010-01-02T01:26:00.003-05:00

In February, we started FPU with 6 credit cards, 2 car payments, and 1 consolidation loan (previous credit card debt). We also have student loan debt, that I will honestly admit that I'm being an ostrich with my head in the sand about right now. I'm paying the interest on my undergrad loans right now, but that's it. I'm focusing on all debt other than student loans while I'm still in school working on my MBA. Once we have the 9 debts above paid off, then we will worry about the student loans. Those 9 debts totalled just over $42,000 in February. Today, they total $28,513.17. In 10 1/2 months, we've paid off $13,486.83, and are down to only 2 credit cards, 1 car payment, and the consolidation loan.

Did I mention that this has been on 1 income? Yes, my husband has been unemployed, but it's not because he hasn't been trying. He had a temporary job during the month of July working at Fort Benning, but that's about it. In September, he started taking a tax class, and became certified as a Professional Tax Consultant in all 50 states. Last year, we used Turbo Tax to do our taxes. Had it not been for this class, we would have missed out on some exemptions and deductions we were eligible for. We filed an amended return right before Thanksgiving and got back an additional $1500 this week. If you're looking for someone to do your taxes this year - I have someone I can recommend for you!

He is hoping that he'll be successful this tax season. We're planning on using every bit of his paychecks toward debt. According to our Debt Snowball calculator, if nothing changes, and we continue to pay our debts as they are right now, November 2012 is our debt free date. I want to speed that up. I want a goal on 16 months from today, er, yesterday. May 1, 2011. I want to have all of this debt paid off by the time Jonny and I are both out of school, so that we can start looking for a house, and start working on the student loan debt.

We'll see how it goes....I'll discuss our monthly budget, and ways we can trim the fat and put more money towards our debt in a future post...

Until next time...

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda...

2010-01-01T21:05:00.001-05:00

With the beginning of 2010, I vow to keep the journal I should have started in 2009. February 22, 2009, to be exact. That was the day that Jonny and I began our Journey to Debt Freedom via Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.

My intent for this blog is to hopefully summarize the last 10 1/2 months, and go forward with the rest of our journey to getting debt free. I'll also post resources I come across for knocking out debt. I want a record of our good days, and our bad, and what we did great, and what we need to improve on.

There may be a little about getting in shape thrown in here as well, as spending money on food is also a key part of our journey. I need to be honest with myself when I eat fast food, as I am CONFIDENT if I could cut fast food completely out of my life, I'd probably drop 20 pounds instantly.

At any rate, I hope you will enjoy my story, or offer insight as you see fit. I've got lots of resources that I've come across to share, but it may take me some time to get everything listed.