Christmas Time 2015

So sad to say, but December has always been a stressful time for me. As a child of God I know the true meaning of Christmas all to well, but this world sure does make it hard to make it through this season without worry. And yes I know that scripture tells us to worry about nothing and pray about everything, so this year I applied that to me life literally..... I prayed that I wouldn't worry. I worry about things that I'm sure many of you all do as well, bills, buying gifts for others, all the extra stuff that shows up like dirty Santa games, gifts for teachers, party supplies, Christmas dinner and many more behind the scene things. I try to be a rational person, so I really shouldn't worry about things that aren't that important to me, but I still do! I want to do Christmas simple..... Get our children gifts and spend time with our families and that's it, accomplishing that is still a challenge to me every year. I'm writing this now in January so clearly we survived. But that's just it, I survived, I don't just want to survive I want to thrive through Christmas. Make it what it really is..... The most wonderful time of the year, the birth of our Lord and Savior. So now it's time to talk about the budget for December.
Going into this I am still working at two part-time jobs, which have no benefits. Brian is working at his full-time job as well as working at his part-time job as well. Working extra in December was very challenging because we had all the "extra things" to attend. Christmas play practice, holiday parties at work, Nutcracker play practice, Cheer stuff, haven and Hunter both had birthdays and on and on it goes. So where we are used to working 5-6 days a week that was cut very short. Some weeks I only worked 2 days*** that really stinks your paycheck up! But like I said, we survived.
We were able to make it through the month, because we saved for the storm. According to Dave Ramsey, you need $1000.00 in the emergency fund, we have found that for us we save a little more than that for an emergency within the emergency! It depends on your family's situation, we knew back in October that the next few months could be hard on us so we stored up. When I left my previous job, we knew that it could take me a little while to find something else and get started. So I would just say that do whatever is best for your family in your situation.

Brian and I started participating in Christmas Club saving about five years ago, and this has made a huge change in how we buy at Christmas. Before we had the idea that we would put money back a little at a time and well that was never the case, because we didn't have any extra money to put back. Then we headed into the Holiday season with no money, which meant we either put it on a credit card, or we used bill money to buy Christmas. Just saying that out loud is embarrassing! Oh the dumb things we used to do......
So here's the nitty gritty;

• We closed out the month with the lowest monthly bring home pay since starting back in May.
• We still managed to pay all the bills on time, and cash flow Christmas
• We ended the month with a $55.00 decrease in our savings
• The most important part, I ended the month with 2 new jobs. One is Full-time with great compensation and full benefits, the other is part time and less than 10 minutes away from home.
• We were also still able to continue tithing even though we were down in our income.
• We didn't pay off any extra debts, but I am still okay with that given our situation.

Goals for January;

• Maintain.... This is key, because I don't start me new jobs until February, and April
• Keep a positive attitude despite my frustration with a smaller income for the next month or so.

Goals for 2016;

• Stay the course.... every time I get a little discouraged I look back at where we were and then I can keep focusing on where we are going! 
• Plan to plan our work and work our plan..... we want to reach our debt goal for May, and then celebrate with a vacation this summer.

Thanksgiving During the Month of November

November was a challenging month for us. More so for me I suppose, Brian didn't express that he had worries as much as I did. I've learned that he keeps most of his worrying on the inside, as for me, well lets just say I vocalize 99.9% of mine. Challenges included a significant decrease in our monthly income, I think this month has the lowest amount of gross income in the past seven months we've been on this journey. I resigned form my full-time position at the end of October for personal reasons (that I don't want to share here on this blog). It was out of character for me, and we maintained the rest of the month, and have still managed to move forward into November. We are facing Christmas and four birthdays in the next 2 months here at the Merrick house. We also love this time and both Brian and I have a hard time not splurging during the holidays. Hopefully we will continue progressing despite the holiday season.

Monthly Outcome

• increased savings by 1/3
• paid off 2 medical bills
• Cash flowed an extra expense for my school

We are pressing on for December, I have had a few really awesome potential job opportunities and I'm just waiting to where it is that God wants me to be. I do want to say that despite being down one full-time job this month we were able to tithe more than we have since the beginning of this journey, this is proof that God blesses us even more when we are faithful.

October Update

October was the second highest month for us in grossed pay. We worked very hard, and we had a great month for bonuses. This was a blessing, especially considering our expenses for our family trip. We also met our goals for the month. October was also a rough month emotionally for me due to some unforeseen changes with my employment. Without going into a great amount of detail I will just say that I am praying for God to open another door for me in my career. I have left the Family Practice were I was working, and I am waiting to see what God is going to do with my future career as an APRN.
Now I want to also say that this little job adjustment of mine would not really have been possible had we not saved extra money in addition to our emergency fund. According to Dave's plan $1000.00 in the emergency fund is acceptable, and everything else should be put straight toward debt. We have changed this step for us by adding to the emergency fund every month and including that in our monthly budget. Christmas is coming up and I am starting to worry about the outcome. Although we have saved a little all year it seems that we never have enough, maybe this year it will be different. I would like to still pay off debt, even though we have double the expenses with our shopping and all.

GOALS: Made above what we budgeted again, Three months in a row. Met all of our expenses, and paid all bills on time even early. Paid off 3 major bills, 1 credit card, 1 medical bill, and 1 unexpected college bill. Increased our savings account.

GOALS for next Month: Bring home projected income, maybe more. Will be anxiously waiting to see the result given I'm out of a full-time job. Try to pay at least one small bill off this month. Increase our Christmas savings money by $500.00. Save for new tires for the vehicle, hope to purchase them with cash by the end of December (in the 14 years we've been married we have always financed our tires, what an accomplishment to pay with cash). We also have to pay to have the boat winterized.

I will keep you posted on our progress, please pray that God will provide me with a great new job opportunity.

Trips on a Budget

Every October we travel with my extended family to TN for a long weekend filled with shopping, fun, and memories. We have participated in this tradition for 13 years now, and we know a year in advance when, where and how much it will be. Do you think we are ever really financially prepared for this event? Well of course not, we are normal people remember? Every year we say "next year we will put money back so when we come down we will have the funds necessary to shop til we drop, and let the kids run wild on go-carts, and roller coasters" then life happens and before you know it we are leaving in 2 days for our trip, it's not been paid for, and we have no money for the fun stuff, not even enough to eat out. This is where we used to mess up every year, we would shop (a little), and let the kids play (a little) then come home and find that we had spent bill money on our trip, and the cycle goes on and on....... Creatures of habit remember? What does Dave say? "Finances are 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge" I want to recap our trip from a financial perspective.
The Good;
Brian and I discussed the money plan twice before we left for our trip. We both decided what activities and shopping we wanted to do, and we planned our meals too. I am proud of us for doing this, I think it was a big help this year. We did have our trip paid for prior to us leaving, that's a plus too! We also had a decent amount of cash on us, and we planned on using cash only. We collaborated on what activities we thought the kids and our pocket book would enjoy. We stuck to the eating out plan.
The Bad;
We did use cash on almost everything we purchased, however there were a few stores we used our debit card in, and before we knew it we had spent much more than we had planned on. We bought clothes for the kids mostly, and both Brian and I got a few items of clothing too. Nothing elaborate, but things that we needed. However, we should have saved more money. I underestimated how much money it takes to buy clothes these days. We ran out of a few food items that required us stopping at the store to get a few things.
The Overall;
Mostly I am proud of us, and how we managed our trip this year. I added our total expenses up for this year, and plan on increasing our budget for next year's trip by double. One day we will get this process down to a science, but I cannot tell you how proud I am of both my husband and I. Our behavior is changing for the better! 

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!!!