September Update

The agony of living paycheck to paycheck has taken a toll on me, and I believe on Brian too! Although he has not verbalized it, I know that if I'm feeling it he is too. I have found that on many days when I am weak he has been strong enough for us both! I did start my new PT job this month, and so far so good! It's a lot different from what I am doing on a daily biases and that has it's good points. Brian has been a good sport this month and has allowed me to work outside the home for extra money while he has been running kids to and from many different activities. I had to miss a couple of days of work due to a health problem I am having with one of my knees. I have been humbled through this process to say the least. My how I take so many things for granted each and everyday. Just having the ability to get up everyday and get the little things done is a blessing we so often forget to acknowledge, or at least I know I did. I am on the mend though.
We have been more tight for money this month, and mostly because of the extra expenses we have had for various reasons (college stuff, PT bills, Medical bills, eating out a lot more than normal, etc.) This morning while looking through the pantry I noticed how barren it has become. Little extra things we used to keep in there have been used. Not much left to eat in there, don't get me wrong we won't starve however we have kept the grocery bill as tight as possible and now we are seeing the results. Over the last two weeks I haven't been able to walk let alone meal plan and grocery shop. Brian went last week and did really good on the budget! Today I made the meal plan for the next two weeks, which is something different. With weekly income we have been shopping once a week, but there won't be income next week (because I missed a day of work) so it's grocery shopping for 13 days this time. We will follow that by going on a small weekend getaway with my extended family. I have been brain storming on activities, food, shopping and kennel costs for the dog for about 2 weeks now. The trip is paid for (thanks to an unexpected bonus from work). Last year when we went we didn't eat out at all, we took food and everyone cooked saving us a lot of money. It was hard to tell the kids "No" to extra stuff, and to not have the means to buy their fall clothes like always but I didn't die from it. This is a process!!!! Remember it's 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior modification.
Here is the update:
1. Made approx. $500.00 more than projected
2. Paid off two extra bills (one credit card, fall trip)
3. Increased our savings account amount
So onward march we go into the next month!!! Goals for the next month include paying off another small credit card bill. A few medical bills, and an unexpected college bill.

Making it each tough week

       I find myself repeating the same sentence each week, and it is hard to feel like this over and over again. "We only have this much money until the next payday" Brian is becoming discouraged by this reality each and every week, and I feel that way to. We have made small progress and I am happy to report that we have paid off  three smaller debts (beef purchase last fall, credit card, and one of many hospital bills) so I am very happy about that. Once I did summarized the month of July and told Brian, he felt a little better about our situation. I tried to stick to the budget as much as possible, however the first two weeks the kids were back in school tensions were high. We survived though!
Our July goals were met:
1.) We met our income goal.
2.) We aimed to pay off those exact bills and we did
3.) I didn't guilt myself into blowing the budget for back to school stuff.

        I think it's important to record your goals in the beginning of each month so that you have a written plan. Let everyone know what those goals are each month, encourage them to help save money any way possible to reach those goals together. I do our goals by myself still. I tell Brian the plan after I come up with it. Then at the end of the month I give Brian the report. He seems to be okay with this way of doing things, but I think he is in a constant state of disgust about how little extra money we have to do things we want to do. Maybe in the future he will partake in the budget planning with me. I think he is enjoying a little break form all the stress that goes along with our finances, I can't say I blame him.

    Right now I would say we are still in the survival mode. Money is there but very, very tight. Money in the savings account, but not as much as we should have. We are tired of working six and seven days a week and still feel like we have no money. This is the sad and pathetic reality of being a slave to the lender, this is why debt id dumb and cash is king. We are reaping what we have sown. We refuse to give up though, we are pushing through the frustration.

Pushing Through Frustration

I can not prepare you enough for the amount of frustration that will come during unexpected "budget parasites"...... There will be months/weeks depending on how you prepare for your budget when things will appear out of no where. These are the "parasites" that will try to destroy your budget, make you swear, make you cry, or partake in other bad behaviors.... Hang in there and push through the frustration.
This week school starts back (Thank God!) but with that comes the annual school shopping trips. This is one area that Brian and I haven't prepared for in the past. Before this journey we didn't live on a budget. So to put things in perspective we would buy their stuff when we got paid, which also meant we would use bill money to buy stuff... This means bills didn't get paid on time, late fees, disconnect letters, phone messages from creditors and so you get the picture here. THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO THINGS!!!!!! This month I didn't budget for school supplies because in the years past our kids didn't require many items for school. I have received one list of supplies, but now we are dealing with college supplies for the oldest. I could scream right now....... but I won't I will push through this frustration. Being prepared is the only way to win little battles like these. Failing to prepare= preparing to fail.
We do have a school expense envelop, however because we were so behind on our bills we haven't filled them yet. We were planning on doing that this month. So I will have to get creative with the money, I am picking up two extra, extra shifts to help too. Another month of "budget parasites" again. When these things happen to you, and they will, just remember that it takes several months of budgeting to get it right. We have money in our emergency fund, however back to school supplies are not an emergency.
When it comes to back to school clothes, don't fall victim to societies claims of all things new!!!! Your children have been wearing clothes, and shoes all summer, Do they really need a new wardrobe to go sit and play at school???? I don't think so. Be smart, don't think because everyone else is buying their kids new things that you are a crappy parent when you don't. You are protecting your family by being wise with your money.
Tips for back to school

• New clothes are not needed 99% of the time
• Reuse back packs if possible
• Let the kids help pick out school supplies, but let them choose budget friendly items.
• Purchase off brand items if possible, and use price matching at stores. This will help get the best bang for your buck while most stores are having back to school sales.

These are just a few things that we are doing this school year to help stay on budget. I am also proud to say that our kiddos have been very positive about the lack of school shopping we have done. When I asked Haven if she would use a folder from last year she happily replied " yes mommy, this will help us get out of debt" and that my folks is encouraging!!!

Making a creative dinner for two nights

Feeding a family our size has it's challenges. Buying our groceries on a tight budget is the biggest challenge. This week we only budgeted for dinner at home a couple of nights, due to kids activities and other things. So I tried to keep our grocery bill even tighter this week. So I decided to make the same meal for two nights, but who wants left overs all the time? This is where you have to get creative. Maybe there is a meal that your family loves that is easy on your wallet, try fixing it two different ways. Here is what I did this week; three pound roll of hamburger $9.00, French Bread $1.00, Extra large bottle of spaghetti sauce $5.00, bag of salad $2.50.

 First night spaghetti, salad, french bread. With plans for tomorrow night as follows; baked spaghetti, salad, french bread. Dessert cupcakes left over from the football cookout! Not totally different but enough different that the kids aren't complaining.

Two meals, two nights for 7 people totaling $17.50/2.50 per person is good enough for us!

Being the bad guy....

This debt free journey comes with many, many sacrifices. Most of which appears to be all sacrifices when you begin and you find yourself so far behind that you are three laps ahead. I find myself the bad guy 100% of the time. Most of the time this doesn't bother me I try to stay focused and be the leader in this area of our family life, but to be honest with you sometimes it just stinks!!!!!! I find that Brian is the free spirited one in our finances and I'm the dictator. He is always trying to find away to let the kids have what they want, and I'm always telling them no. So I have been the bad guy for the past three months since this began. I have said no so much that now I find that when I say no, Brian just gets this look on his face. I can't tell if his look is one of disappointment, unhappiness, or one that just says "I'm going do whatever I want, and I will get my way".
Last night while we we're sitting out on our boat, Brian said "We have to get Harrison a shotgun before this fall" and I just said "oh no we don't, that's not in the budget". then I just got the look!!!! It made me so frustrated, I just quit talking about it. Then as we we're leaving I said "you should save your spending money and buy him a gun with that money" Brian replied " I think I will just do that." Nothing else was said about it and that's that.
I was thinking about that as I fell asleep last night, and here is what I have concluded. I feel very alone in this journey!!!! Yes Brian is not spending money, and Yes he is working OT shifts but I feel like that is all he is doing!!!!! No one is encouraging me on my bad days, no one is saying "hey we are really doing a great job at this" I find the only encouragement I am getting is through Youtube and blogs about others debt free journey. It makes me angry that Brian is not as involved as I think he should be. Today I feel like I am up against the world when it comes to our financial mess. I hope that I master the art of being the bad guy.......

Encouragement

I want to share this small post with you about encouragement. A week or so ago Brian and I were talking in the car about money, imagine that right, needless to say I believe the conversation was about tithing and how I felt that we needed to give faithfully and how I thought that would help us in many different ways. Brian commented that according to "Dave" you pay debt off first then you give like crazy. I corrected him in saying that is not what "Dave" said. The truth is all of it is God's money anyway, and that I felt like we we're intentional in paying bills, and trying to stick to our budget but that we didn't pay God first, and he wasn't included in our budget. Brian didn't say a whole lot back, and I just changed the subject.
So this past week after I prayed and pondered for a several days over it I decided to sacrifice a few things and pay our tithe first. I did this without consulting with Brian, because when I am paying bills I still don't explain to him what we're paying each week. He doesn't go out of his way to ask me, so I don't go out of my way to tell him. The past two paychecks Brian hasn't inquired about the bills. I have just sat down and sent them off myself. No problem.
Here is the encouraging part I wanted to share with you, I have been in my new job about three months. I gave to God first this past week, and prayed that there would be enough money to get through til Friday. The very same day that our tithe money cleared the bank, I got an unexpected bonus at my work, that was more than my tithe. Not to mention that we went over on our grocery bill this week, and we still have extra money in our account to apply next week! I cried on my drive home the other day and Thanked our mighty God for all his mighty blessings and faithfulness... Keep the faith even through the storm.

Plastic Surgery

"Plastic surgery" is Dave Ramsey's way of saying cut up all the credit cards. This is another area that is challenging for most of us normal people. For me it is a sense of security and although we don't use them now, we have in the past thus we must do operation.... We use them as a crutch when really the emergency fund should be what we use in... well an emergency! So cut them up if you have them. You don't encourage recovering alcoholics to hang out in a bar, or a pill head hang out in a pharmacy so use common sense here people. Git rid of the plastic.....

Yes, this is what's left after plastic surgery, however not all of these cards had debt on them. They all went through the shredder, and accounts were closed!!!!