What's new? Nothing.

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.

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.

Yes, it's real.

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....

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)

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)

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.

"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.