Debt Runs Me

Emergency Fund - Baby Step One

2011-06-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

Over the last year and half my husband and I have become a fan of Dave Ramsey's program for paying off debt - and staying debt free. We purchased the Financial Peace University Cd's and have listened to them together. I also listed to Dave's podcast through his monthly subscription program.

I think at this point we are able to agree that we want to live without credit cards and debt of that kind. I see the future for being completely debt free but I am not sure my husband believes that long term. But that is okay for now, he is participating in our quest to pay off the credit cards and I am happy with that.

There are a series of baby steps that you go through in order to become debt free and build wealth. Baby Step 1 is to have a $1,000 Emergency Fund. My husband and I have accomplished this step several times. It has really been a struggle. Not necessarily because it is difficult to come up with the money, but rather keeping the money. I tend to spend what I have - that is the reason we got in this mess in the first place. So each time I had the money set aside in the emergency fund I ended up using it to go over my budget. Now back when we first started this journey we were struggling to pay all our minimum payments and there wasn't much left over. Things have gotten better and we now have the ability to put $2-$4k each month towards our debt snowball.

But, the problem is that I am so dedicated to paying off our cc debt that I cannot bring myself to set aside the $1,000 in an account (again). I realize that things will come up but I feel like we have so much availability each month that if something comes up, it can come out of out of our monthly budget and cause us to pay off less that month. I know that is not the ideal way, but that is the way I am going for now. I think once I pay off all credit card debt (hopefully by December 2011) I will go back to Baby Step 1. Then we can move forward with Phase 2 of Baby Step 2 and that is to pay off our cars and student loan. I am hoping to have Phase 2 completed by December 2012!!

June 2011 Budget

2011-05-30T23:10:00.001-07:00

Take Home Pay $8,451

Hubby Allowance $160
Wifey Allowance $80
Groceries $360
Dining Out $160
Household $120
Personal Care $50
Fuel $200
Clothing $100
Gas & Electric $218
Daycare $1,151
Pest Control $35
Entertainment $18
Mortgage $2,536
Security $30
Water/Garbage $85
Life Insurance $60
Car Insurance $150
Gardener $85
Cell Phone $150
Car # 1 $533
Car # 2 $691
Camping Trailer $201
Student Loan $175
CC Snowball $938
Extra Debt Pay Down $165

May 2011 Budget

2011-05-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

$Budget/$Actual

Take Home Pay $9,579/$9,558

Hubby Allowance $160/$125
Wifey Allowance $80/$91
Groceries $360/$320
Dining Out $160/$264
Household $120/$151
Personal Care $50/$48
Fuel $200/$279
Clothing $100/$164
Gas & Electric $218/$218
Daycare $981/$981
Pest Control $35/$35
Entertainment $18/$240
Mortgage $2,536/$2536
Security $30/$30
Water/Garbage $85/$85
Life Insurance $60/$60
Car Insurance $150/$149
Gardener $85/$85
Cell Phone $150/$148
Car # 1 $533/$533
Car # 2 $691/$691
Camping Trailer $201/$201
Student Loan $175/$175
CC Snowball $938/$526
Extra Debt Pay Down $1,463/$1313
Gifts $0/$110

We did go over budget in some of the usual places as highlighted red above. Two major purchases that were not budgeted for this month were $150 for football tickets and $110 for my Mothers Day Gift. Ofcourse, all overages resulted in paying a lower amount towards debt this month than originally planned. Still managed to put around $1,800 to pay down credit card debt.

April 2011 Budget

2011-04-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

$Budget/$Actual

Take Home Pay $9,215/$9,522
Hubby Allowance $125/$143
Wifey Allowance $100/$176
Groceries $450/$727
Dining Out $200/$447
Household $200/$151
Personal Care $50/$0
Fuel $250/$429
Clothing $100/$8
Gas & Electric $272/$272
Daycare $860/$890
Pest Control $35/$35
Entertainment $18/$303
Mortgage $2,536/$2536
Security $30/$30
Water/Garbage $85/$85
Life Insurance $60/$60
Car Insurance $150/$149
Gardener $85/$85
Cell Phone $150/$166
Cable $0/$41
Car # 1 $533/$533
Car # 2 $691/$691
Camping Trailer $201/$201
Student Loan $175/$175
CC Snowball $938/$935
Extra Debt Pay Down $921/$0
Birthday Party $0/$254

This month was really a bummer for me. I was so disappointed at the overspending. My husband and I really lost grasp of what was going on and used our debit cards most of the month. Proof that not using cash can really lead to some serious overspending! These numbers literally make me sick to my stomach. Items in this month that were not budgeted for include some entertainment (baseball tickets, concert tickets, and t-ball registration). In addition we spent $254 for a Birthday Party for my son that I had not budgeted for. Next month we need to get back on track. We barely made the debt snowball this month with $935 towards credit card debt.

401K Update

2011-01-22T09:55:00.000-08:00

The last time I posted about my 401k, I believe I had just around $30,000. At the time I had no intentions of switching jobs - so I was assuming that I would become fully vested in all of the money. Well I did end up switching jobs so I will have to take a hit on some of that money, however I will still be ahead in the long run.

At my previous job I was not contributing at all to my 401k. My employer was contributing 3%. At my new job my employer contributes up to 4.5% as a match. There was a 90 day waiting period to start the 401k so I have just recently began to receive contributions with my current employer. I am currently contributing 4.5% and receiving a match of 4.5%. I want to have as much available as possible from my paycheck to pay down debt, but I cannot pass up free money. The best part is that my employer contributions are 100% fully vested from the start! I think that is pretty awesome. I am happy that I am currently saving 9% of my income towards my retirement. Once our debt is paid off I would like to start having my husband begin contributions of some kind too. His employer does not provide any contributions to retirement savings.

Currently, my vested portion of my 401k balance is around $38,000. For a long time my goal was to have my 401k balance be higher than my credit card debt. It just occurred to me that I have reached that goal! That is exciting but given our other debt - overall our net worth is still in the negative. So the total amount of our debt is greater than the total amount of our assets. It wont be long for that to change so I will tell you when that happens. Untill then, it will be exciting to watch this money continue to grow.

Goal # 1 - Stick To The Budget

2011-01-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

In just over one year, my husband and I have managed to pay down just over $20,000 worth of credit card debt. While a little stressful at times, it really hasn't been a terrible experience. For me the hardest part is knowing that we could have done more. Yes we have paid down quite a bit - but we have also spent money that we probably shouldn't have too. We haven't made a ton of large purchases, but our every day spending could still be cut back quite a bit. I went back through YNAB and looked at any large purchases we made in my blogging absence. We made two - we purchased the new mattress ($776.50) that I blogged about in a prior post and we purchased two brand new iPhone 4s ($300). I love and enjoy each of those purchases every day. To spend that much over an entire year time period is a huge improvement over where we were before. In the past, we have been out for a Saturday stroll and come home with $3,000+ worth of furniture on a whim. Now, any new larger purchases are thought out and researched.

I think the biggest area for improvement in our everyday spending is in our groceries and dining. In groceries I try to stick to spending around $90 per week. That is for a family of four. I think I do relatively good job at this. I shop at the more discount stores like Winco and Super Wal-Mart. Occasionally when I do visit other stores I try to stick to the items that are on sale. Lately I haven't been planning out my meals and making a list before I shop and that has contributed to an increased grocery bill. I also get lazy many times and decide to pick up take out - even when I have the food at home to cook. This not only leads to increased expense for dining out - but the food in my fridge goes bad as well. Currently our dining out budget is $40 per week - we always exceed that budget line item - always. Lastly, my husband and I each get $25 per week for fun money. Pretty much 100% of that money goes to lunches for each of us.

So in the next coming weeks I would like to try and focus on staying within our budget line items - focusing first on the food items. As I reconcile by budget in YNAB I will post about our progress for the month and how we are doing.

That Beautiful Ring

2011-01-20T21:17:00.000-08:00

So I have spent quite a bit of time writing about all of my money failures over the last year or so - and there have been many. I decided to write about a money success....well sort of. Some time in August or September of 2010 I received the Costco Magazine at my house. This wonderful little magazine comes every month and features a lot of the new items that will be in stock in the warehouse. I love this magazine. Normally I sit down on the couch and read through it for less than an hour then toss it in the recycle bin (hopefully before my husband sees it).

Usually, I don't really have any desire to purchase items in the magazine so its never been a big deal. In fact, I have curbed my Costco spending dramatically over the last year. Where I use to go in and drop up to $300 at any given time - for the entire year of 2010 I spent $1,132. I think that is pretty good! Of that amount about $186 was for X-Mas, $311 for clothing, and $130 for groceries. The rest was on household type stuff and gifts. Still room for improvement - but certainly better.

So back to the magazine - I was saying that I don't usually really have any desire to purchase items out of this magazine. But in this particular issue there was this ring......a beautiful diamond ring. To this day I lose my breath just thinking about it - that is how amazing it WAS. Total diamonds were somewhere around 1.5 carats - the main diamond in the shape of a heart. I would say it had kind of a vintage setting with more diamonds wrapping down the side. It was beautiful. So I told my husband that I wanted that ring for our 5 year anniversary (coming up March 2011). For the next several weeks we would pop into Costco to see if they had it in stock yet and never had any success. I continued to talk about this ring so my husband finally called Costco to ask when they would be getting the ring in stock. It wasn't something that they stocked regularly but they offered to have the buyer send one to our town so we could look at it. The day it came in I rushed over to Costco without my husband and tried the ring on. It was perfect and I bought it on the spot....$1,743.59. I wrote a check and went on my way.

At the time we had some money saved up that we were going to use to pay down the credit card debt. I just figured I would treat myself and we would end up paying less to the cards. I got to my car and put the ring on - hoping to feel like a million bucks. But instead I only felt....guilty. Guilty for spending that kind of money on something I did not need. I have my wedding ring set and I love it! This ring was for my right hand. I literally felt sick to my stomach the next day. My husband really didn't want to buy the ring - but he really lets me do whatever I want and doesn't say much. I talked to him about it and we agreed to return the ring. So off to Costco I went the next day and returned the ring. Was I sad? Yes. But I actually left with a smile because I knew I could now go home and make a substantial payment to my credit card. And that is exactly what I did....with my refund of $1,743.59.

January 2011 Budget

2011-01-19T22:10:00.000-08:00

So my guess is that you all want to see my updated budget. It will be interesting to see how it has changed over the last several months. I will try to include comments on the items with drastic changes from the last time I posted a budget. I actually have all the information saved in YNAB so I may cheat on the blog and go back and post the budgets in between.

January 2011 Budget

Take Home Pay - $8,785
Husband Allowance - $100
Wife Allowance - $100
Food - $520 (Includes Groceries & Dining) - we have bumped this up by a little more than $100
Clothing - $150 - also bumped this up by about $100
Household - $160 - doubled this category
Personal Care - $50
Child Care - $780 - increased due to new working hours
Mortgage - $2,531
Fuel - $200
Gas/Electric - $272
Storage - $40
Trailer #2 - $147
Insurance - $142
Security - $30
Water/Trash - $85
Life Insurance - $60
Car #1 - $534 - got a new car - more details to come
Car #2 - $691
Internet/Phone/Cable - $40
Cell Phone - $150
XM - $18
Bugs - $35
Gardener - $40
Student Loan - $175
Minimum Credit Cards - $734
Additional Credit Card Payments - $1000
(1) I received a pretty substantial increase in pay in August 2010 due to getting a new job - approx $20,000 more per year. My husbands income also fluctuates greatly depending on overtime or no overtime.

It Has Been A Looooong Time

2011-01-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

Hello!
It has been a really long time since I have posted to my blog. I stopped for many reasons. I was really frustrated with everything. The comments were hard to hear and the constant negative feedback was pissing me off. I realized shortly after that everything people were saying was true. But it was frustrating none the less. I am back again for more punishment. Comments are back on and ready for the torture.

On a serious note, we have made some excellent progress. This has been for a variety of reasons - large spike in income, windfall of money, sticking within our budget (most of the time), hard work, and a desire to pay this debt off once and for all. If all goes as planned, we should have our credit card portion of the debt paid of in 2011. For those of you that are not familiar with my blog - we started with $51,688.87 worth of credit card debt when I started this blog back in January 2010. I just realized that today is the one year anniversary of this blog...to the day.....weird. But currently we are sitting at around $28,764.61. That is over $22,924.26 paid in just one year (its actually more than that if you consider interest). Isn't that amazing? I think its pretty amazing - go me!

A New Month Always Brings New Hope

2010-06-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

I am really beginning to love the 1st of the month. It is on this day every month that I get a fresh new start. I get remotivated about staying within my budget. We attempt to use the cash envelope system so I also get to pull out large sums of cash for our monthly spending. Unfortunately this often leads to shopping and over spending. By the middle of the month I have gone through all our cash and am scrambling to get through the next two weeks.

Managing your money is a tricky thing. I have mentioned it before, but I think it warrants mentioning this again, I do this for a living! I am in charge of the entire Accounting department for a large organization. I am extremely knowledgeable in Finance and Business. I am a super cheapskate when it comes to spending within our organization. We have no debt and a sizable "emergency fund". But in my personal life it is a whole different story. Its not that I don't know how to balance a check book or keep track of the spending. I actually probably make it too advanced and spend too much time. My problem is that I can stop spending money.

So paying off debt has been an ongoing learning process. It is not an easy process, but I can attest that it does get easier. Now I get frustrated about overspending on dining out when it reaches $200 for the month. But in prior months $400 was not possible and sometimes it would be as high as $800. So I have to keep everything in perspective. For May I mentioned to my husband that we spent around $200 on dining out. He got excited and put up his hand for a high five! I realized at that moment that progress is to be celebrated as well. And we are certainly making progress.

But progress has not come without a lot of trial and error. The first positive step we made was to listen to Dave Ramsey. I purchased his audio cds for Financial Peace University and they helped us tremendously with coming to the conclusion that we could not afford not to be debt free. And it was then that we were also introduced to the cash envelope system. Not using debit cards is the single biggest improvement we have made with our finances. I cant tell you how much I dreaded reconciling our checking account because of all the transactions!!! I would wait several weeks and it really became an issue of just finding out how much damage was done, rather than trying to stay within budget. We are by no means perfect, but our cash envelopes have certainly made things easier.

For several months I have been pulling out our entire cash amount towards the 1st of the month for our monthly spending. But for reasons I have mentioned above, that's not working. So this month we are trying to take it weekly. Each week I will pull out the amount of money that we have allotted in each category for the week. And I can only spend that amount until the week is over. I am very hopeful about this and think that it will help to further get our spending under control. Currently our monthly cash allowance is around $800. That includes groceries, eating out, personal care, clothing, allowances, and household goods. Any fixed expenses and our gas comes out of the checking account. I am excited and think this will work out really well. I will keep you posted on our progress! Coming Soon.....June Budget.

Organizing Sure Saves Money

2010-05-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

In the absence of a second job, I have had more time to work on things around the house. In April I was off for a week during Spring Break. I spent that time going through and cleaning my garage. My husband and I have lived in three houses since we have been together. There were boxes in my garage that had not been unpacked since I moved into the first of those three houses. So during my week off I went through each and every one, with most of the items going into the yard sale pile. We also went through every closet, cupboard, and nook in our house and added to the pile that way too. A great neighbor down the street always organizes a neighborhood yard sale in April and it could not come at a better time. The Friday night prior we set up everything on tables and neatly labeled everything with prices. At 5:45 a.m. Saturday morning we opened the garage and the selling began! Immediately we had about 10-15 people and it never really slowed down. By 11:00 a.m. we were almost out of stuff, so we packed up around three boxes for goodwill and closed up shop. The best part is that we had an addition $490 in our pockets. It was well worth the effort to get everything organized.

The one thing that was not included in our yard sale was clothes. I have never had much luck with selling clothes this way, and decided not to take the time to sort through them. But, it was on my list of things to do around the house and I finally accomplished it this week. Being organized certainly saves money. If you know where your stuff is, and what you actually have, you can save a ton by not buying the same thing. For example, now that the weather is warm in California, my son needs some short sleeve/shorts pajamas. I was going to go out to the store to buy some, then I made a commitment to go through all his clothes before I bought anything. My first step was to actually complete all the laundry. Now I do laundry every week, but don't always make it to the bottom of the hamper. This weekend I was actually able to accomplish that. I also went through all the clothes that had been packed away since last season. I get a lot of boys clothes donated from two different sources so I don't always remember what I have. Well after a few hours of sorting and organizing I was happy to find out that my son has at least 10 pairs of pajamas to get him through summer. He also had at least 25 short sleeve shirts and another 15 pairs of shorts. All clothes that are to small got donated to Goodwill. I was stunned! But excited at the same time because now I don't have to purchase any clothes for him for the summer. Next on the list is to do the same thing with my daughters clothes. I hope to come up with the same result.

Communication

2010-05-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

Today is day 115 of not using my credit cards!

Over the last few days my husband and I have had some really good conversations about money. The name of this blog is called Debt Runs Me, not Debt Runs Us. That is because I am typically the one who is worrying about the money. My husband is very care free and doesn't really worry about our financial situation. In fact, he is not totally convinced that we can pay off our credit cards and live without credit card debt. He basically takes his monthly allowance and leaves the rest to me. That is both good and bad. It is good because he does not hinder my debt paying desires. Bad because he doesn't really hold me accountable for my spending. He never asks questions, just goes with the flow.

A few days ago I told him that I really needed him to be more active so that I could curb some of my spending. Keep in mind that we have drastically cut our spending vs. three months ago. However, I typically spend our budgeted monthly amounts pretty quickly. We use the cash envelope system, but I hold the envelope. After about mid month I find myself pulling from wherever during shopping. So we sat down and discussed our strategy going forward. Promptly on the 1st of each month we will pull out our cash amounts for spending (roughly $700+ each month). I will allocate them to the envelopes but leave everything at home. This will hinder my ability to just stop on a whim and shop for household items, etc. Instead, my purchases will need to be planned. We WILL NOT use our debit cards!!!

In addition to that, we discussed a little more about our debt paying strategy. We agreed that we are making a commitment to pay off debt. We also agreed on a plan to tackle our budget over the next few months. We are really going to be stretched thin. Basically we have cut our amounts to the bare minimum for our spending and have pretty much hit what will be rock bottom there. Our budget is not really flexible. What is flexible is any weekly overtime hubby receives. We have started a wish list for items outside the budget, which pretty much includes everything at this point, except toilet paper. Over the next few months we are going to sit down each Friday and determine how we are going to spend that overtime. Do we want to pay down debt? Put money towards savings? Purchase something off our wishlist? Save for bigger purpose? Once our budget grows a little then additional cc payments will be automatic and we will still have the discretionary overtime spending. This week we have $70. Unfortunately we are currently over budget due to the birthday party I discussed a while back. So we will use that money to help make up for those expenses.

I am excited about our talks and am hopeful about future discussions. Talking about money with hubby really helps me stay accountable to my spending. He is extremely intelligent and asks great questions! Just one more step in the looooonnnnnggggg journey to financial freedom.

ATM Frustration

2010-05-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how frustrating money issues can be when you are struggling to stay afloat. Yesterday I was very frustrated about money and felt like I was going to go over the edge. On my way to work I stopped at the grocery store to purchase a few Mothers Day cards. This is also the store that I usually withdrawal my monthly cash from. It was payday so I went ahead and made my withdrawal for $500. I put the money in a small wallet in my back pocket and proceeded into the store to make my purchase. I usually don't ask for a receipt, and I never count my money at the machine. I usually count it when I get to my car. So I pulled out $20 from my wallet and made my purchase. The cards added up to $25 (a completely separate money issue) so I pulled out another $20. I completed the transaction and then pulled the wallet out of my back pocket and put it in the bag with the cards. I glanced back at the register on my way out (as I normally do to make sure I packed all my stuff). I got in my car and counted my money and I was $140 short!!!!!! My first instinct is that I was shorted by the ATM machine. But because I went into the store I couldn't help but trace back to think if there was any way I could have dropped the money. I guess it is possible that I dropped it, but I doubt I dropped 7 $20 bills without noticing. My other thought is that maybe the machine wasn't done dispensing before I walked away. I don't normally ask for a receipt so there really is no "confirmation" that the transaction is complete. I remember looking at the screen and thinking I was done but I don't recall what it stated. So I have been sooooo upset about this since yesterday. I immediately went back in to the store when it happened and notified them of the problem. They reconciled the machine and there was no overage of funds. They are going to do some further research to try and determine what happened. In the meantime I have filed a dispute with my bank and they have issued a temporary credit. It could take up to 45 days to research and they basically told me that no news is good news. They will contact me if they need additional information. I just don't think I could have dropped that much money and not noticed. I sure hope that things work out and it is determined that I was shorted at the machine. Because of the money situation that we are currently in, $140 is a big deal! I guess I will just have to wait and see. Either way, what is done is done and I need to just stop running the scenarios in my mind and just deal with whatever outcome. I'll keep you posted!

May Budget

2010-05-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

May Budget

Take Home Pay - $7,884

Husband Allowance - $90
Wife Allowance - $60
Food - $400 (Includes Groceries & Dining)
Clothing - $50
Household - $80
Personal Care - $40
Child Care - $625
Mortgage - $2,531
Fuel - $260
Gas/Electric - $229
Storage - $40
Trailer #2 - $147
Insurance - $141
Security - $30
Water/Trash - $80
Life Insurance - $60
Cable - $60
Car #1 - $622
Car #2 - $691
Internet/Phone - $42
Cell Phone - $180
XM - $18
Bugs - $35
Gardener - $80
Student Loan - $175
Minimum Credit Cards - $923
Additional Credit Card Payments - $195

I Quit My Job!

2010-05-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well its time to confess....that I quit my part-time job a few weeks ago. I typically am a very responsible person and fulfill my obligations, but teaching online is something I could not do anymore. I taught one full class and then could just not do it anymore. There are just so many household/family items that I could not get done. In the evenings as soon as my kids went to bed I was worried about getting online to my class. Many times I would be online for several hours only to go straight to bed. Then either Friday or Saturday night I would have to spend hours grading. I just really started to resent it. My husband helps out when he can, but he also works many hours of overtime. So we discussed it and agreed that it would be better for our family that I quit. When I say better, obviously it is not better financially. This decision dramatically changes our plans for debt repayment (around $780 per month). But I don't care. My stress level has decreased, my husband and I rarely have arguments now, my house is actually clean, and I get to spend more quality time with my kids. And that is something that money cannot buy.

To Comment, Or Not To Comment

2010-05-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

Today I am celebrating 105 days since using my credit cards. Some may think that it is not much to celebrate, but for me, it really is. I have been using credit cards consistently for over 14 years now. What started off as small purchases here and there my first year of college, ballooned into using the card to purchase pretty much anything I wanted. I have purchased gas, clothing, food, dining out, furniture, vacations, home decor, toys, gifts, concert tickets, you name it! I would say prior to January 19th, 2010 we were spending close to $800 a month on our credit cards in addition to random large purchases of $1,000 or more. This is in addition to our fixed rate loans for cars, trailers, etc. The day I started this blog my credit card debt was $51,688.87. Today it is $44,098.32! So again, for me, that is a reason to celebrate!!!

In the short time I have been writing I have found this blog to be both very inspirational and also detrimental to my success in debt. Inspirational when I receive encouraging comments from kind people such as Jennifer and Mrs. Fitz. Also encouraging when someone comes across my blog that is struggling with the same demons, and they find their own encouragement in my words. Detrimental in some of the comments that have been less than encouraging. There will always be someone in the world who has better financial habits than I do. I applaud them and strive to be that way. Unfortunately in blog writing (and reading) a lot of assumptions are made that may or not be true. Comments related to those assumptions are frustrating at times. Frustrating because they are inaccurate but also frustrating because they are accurate.

I have found that these comments have limited me. I have not been posting as freely as I intended to in the beginning. At times, I don't want to post, or leave out certain facts for fear of ridicule. And by doing so I have completely eliminated the purpose of it in the first place. I want to be able to share my financial struggles completely, not only to have a record for myself, but to help others as well. So for this reason I have decided to give this a go one more time, without the option of comments.

So here you go...the rebirth of Debt Runs Me....Uncensored.

Weddings Are Expensive!

2010-04-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

As you may remember from a previous post, my husband and I will be attending a wedding this weekend out of town. The actual wedding is on Saturday and the reception is on Sunday so we have to stay at least two nights. The location is around 2 1/2 hours from our house. The bride and groom are from a different culture than ours so we are very excited to learn about weddings in this culture.

I made a budget when I first found out about going. Basically this budget would include fuel, food, gift, and hotel expenses. We priced out a hotel on priceline and luckily got one that has a pretty good breakfast included so I was happy about that. The total for two nights is just under $100. There will be food of some sort on both days so we really only have a few meals to buy. We know for sure we are stopping by a cafe that we both love and will probably do a cheapy meal for the other. I am hoping to squeeze the fuel into our monthly allotment but this will require watching our driving through the rest of the month. Lastly we were able to get a really great wedding gift for less than $20.

What I had not planned on was purchasing clothing for both events. Neither my husband or I dress up for our jobs and we really dont have many dress clothes. The ones we do have are a little tight, if you know what I mean, or dont fit at all. I probably could have gotten away with things I had but my husband definently needed something. I spent about $40 on my outfits and my husband spent around $70. Not too bad, but this entire experience is turning out to be around $350. It is sort of bitter sweet. Its not my friend so I am not emotionally attached to going, but my husband is. I guess what I am getting at is that there are a million other things I would want to spend $350 on, namely debt reduction. But there are things in life you just have to do so I will go and make the best of it. If nothing else, my husband and I get to have a few nights alone without the kids, so that will be worth it I think.

April Budget

2010-04-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

April Budget

Take Home Pay - $9,215

Husband Allowance - $105*
Wife Allowance - $75*
Food - $580 (Includes Groceries & Dining)
Clothing - $50*
Household - $80*
Personal Care - $40*
Child Care - $775
Mortgage - $2,531
Fuel - $260
Gas/Electric - $229
Storage - $89
Trailer #2 - $147
Insurance - $141
Security - $30
Water/Trash - $80
Life Insurance - $60
Cable - $60
Car #1 - $622
Car #2 - $691
Internet/Phone - $42
Cell Phone - $180
XM - $18
Bugs - $35
Student Loan - $175
Minimum Credit Cards - $923
Additional Credit Card Payments - $1,195

I'm Back!

2010-03-31T19:42:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted here and I apologize to those who have missed me. It has been a little crazy trying manage working two jobs, having two kids and a husband to take care of but things are going pretty well.

My part-time job is going well but is taking up my late night Internet time that was previously used to post on my blog. I am thankful, however, to have the opportunity for this part time job and am glad I listened to the advice given me by posters on the blog to accept as many classes as I can. I really struggle with balancing a second part-time job with my other responsibilities but I am hanging in there. I have classes lined up through June so I am happy about that. They have always been pretty consistent so I plan on continuing to teach until my credit card debt is paid off (expected date January 2012) and then probably stop.

After credit cards are paid off we will still have some debt in car loans and student loans but according to our budget by that time we should be paying an additional $1,200 per month above minimum payments to our credit cards (which we will snowball) and I'm good with that. That will be an additional $2,223 each month over the minimum payments. I think debt payoff and life balance is extremely important. That is also why we live a little bit in the process. I realize there are those who can live to the bare minimum for years in order to pay off debt. I am not that person. I did not get in this situation overnight and I can attest that it is not easy to change your ways overnight either. But I am trying and my husband is trying and together we will make it through.

Just for an update......we have not charged anything to our credit cards since I started this blog on January 19th. Which means, we are living within our means. Now we certainly aren't doing as much as we would like to with those means, but have made some good progress. When I started this blog our credit card debt was at $51,688.87. At the end of March (just a little over 2 months) our balance is now $45,132.15. That is a total of $6,556.72 paid down in 2 1/2 months. I think this is a great improvement considering we were at times charging up to $1,000 per month. It could have been more, of course, but it also could have been a lot less. I am proud of the accomplishments so far. These credit card payments were made with minimum credit card payments budgeted for, additional payments above our budget, items sold on eBay, and tax refund money. The plan for right now is to be below $30,000 in credit cars by the end of December. It is an ambitious plan, but I would rather aim high and barely miss then aim low and meet my mark. I figure I am still better off. Originally I had only planned on paying $3,000 above my minimum payments for the year. We have doubled that. At that time I was scared to commit because I did not want to give up some of my spending habits. Well I have given up most, but still have a weak moment every once in a while. But were plugging along and very happy to be making progress thus far.

Sold Our Trailer!

2010-03-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

Today we finalized the sale of our first trailer! We originally purchased this trailer in 2008 for over $10,000. With sales tax and registration fees the total loan started out around $11,000. I loved this trailer. It was a tent trailer but very spacious and it made camping a lot of fun. But for some reason, I thought we needed more. So last year we purchased another bigger trailer just before our July 4th trip. The primary reason was because the new one had almost a full kitchen and it would make it a lot easier to plan meals, etc. A bigger fridge was a plus as well - no more hauling ice chests.

I talked my husband into purchasing the second trailer because we had plans to rent out the first. And we did that for several months last summer. My plan was to take any extra money and continue to pay down the trailer. But with a tent trailer, the rental process became very time consuming and we were not able to meet our customers needs for picking it up with my husband's work schedule. So earlier this year we determined the number of nights we would have to rent the trailer just to break even and it wasn't worth so we decided to sell.

Now I know that many people feel as though we should sell both trailers. And I do agree financially, however camping is an amazing "local" vacation for not much money. There is no better feeling then to see the joy on your kids face then when they are having fun camping. It also provides a relaxing release from the stress of every day life. The place we like to camp most is around 45 minutes from our house. So while we could live with either trailer we decided to put them both up for sale if the opportunity presents itself, then we would sell either.

Well the first trailer sold officially today. The good news is that it sold. The bad news is that we had to bring money to the table, about $1,600. This month the overdraft line had been reduced to around $462. and this will bring it back to about $2,000. However, overall we reduced our debt by $7,000 by doing this. In order to not fall further behind on our debt repayment plan we have decided to take the amount we were spending on trailer #1 all this time ($196) and keep it as a commitment in our budget and then for the next nine months add it as an additional payment to our credit cards. Not the ideal situation when selling something, but a good lesson in buying things new. Overall we are very happy with the outcome and realize that this is just one more small step towards financial freedom.

401k

2010-03-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

I realized I have not been posting as frequently, and as long as I am teaching that will probably continue. Lets just say we had a terrible weekend as far as spending goes and I will post on that soon. However I dont recall ever discussing my 401k account. I dont have as much as I would like to have in my 401k but prior to having kids and getting married I put 10% of my income away for a few years. When I left my job about 2 1/2 years ago it was around $19,000. In the few years with growth and contributions of 3% by my employer it has grown to around $35,000. I do not currently contribute, but would like to start as soon as possible. Hopefully as soon as the credit cards are paid off that can happen as we are trying to put every last dollar to paying off debt. I am going to make a final decision in July when I know exactly how much my increase is and I might try to at least put away 3% of my own. My husband does not currently contribute, nor does his company. I am currently about 60% vested in my company portion and will be fully vested in a few more years. I do not plan on leaving my current job before then.

Costo Here I Come!!!!

2010-03-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Costco has always been a huge downfall of mine and I have articulated that in previous posts. I made a commitment to not renew my Costco membership since it expired in January. And honestly, I have struggled greatly with that decision almost daily. Initially it was because of all the items that are less expensive than the grocery store. But for the majority of items, spaghetti sauce, meat, etc. I have found that I can actually get them cheaper by shopping the sale papers. I am also not tempted at the grocery store to buy things I want but dont need (outdoor patio sets, kitchen appliances, toys, etc.) so there is a savings in itself.

One purchase that has continued to bother me is pull-ups. Yes, I could be using regular diapers for the potty training task but in my mind each month is the last month I will be using them so I continue. Even with coupons I cannot find a comparable price to Costco. Costco also has both night time and day time pull-ups in one package and after not using the night time for a month or so, we can tell the difference. Tonight I needed to go buy pull-ups and I just could not commit myself to buying them somewhere else.

Prior to my membership expiring I had regularly purchased my gas at Costco as well. I never compared the prices much I just knew I was getting the best deal there. Since then I have been purchasing my gas at Vallero. Both of them are relatively close to my house and I do not have to go too far out of my way for either one. I am confident that the quality difference between the two is significant but dont know that for sure. So I did a quick comparison today. Vallero $2.96 vs. Costco $2.79 - that is almost 20 cents per gallon!!! I typically fill up my tank once a week, my husband once every other week. Each of us have a gas tank around 23 gallons. At this rate, by going to Costco we save around $300 a year! 78 fill-ups at 23 gallons each, saving 17 cents per gallon adds up. So much that my $50 renewal fee MORE than pays for itself with gas.....if I can limit my purchases in the store.

So my husband agrees with my logic (and the need for pull-ups) so we head off today to renew our membership at Costco. The funny thing is that we literally ran out of gas on the way. Literally! Luckily we were not too far from home and although it was raining our neighbor passed us along the way and offered us a ride. I ran out of gas because I was trying to stretch my gas tank as far as possible. And in part because I was just scatter brained and forgot to stop. Maybe that was a sign not to go to Costco, I dont know, but we went anyways.

We renewed our membership and ate dinner there ($6.08 for three of us, my daughter was not there). We then spent a good amount of time going through the store. I had a wonderful time "spending" money in my head. There was a great camping stove/oven that was $149, boxwood plants that would surround my non-existant front courtyard beautifully for $14.99 each, a kids fort for $999.00, all of which I may have considered buying prior to my commitment to pay down my debt. I even had a few things in my cart at one time but ended up taking them out. Final purchases - one box of pull-ups and ground turkey (cheaper than I could find at the store even with sales). That was it! Success in some readers eyes, maybe not, but it certainly was in mine. We also both filled up our tanks with gas and headed for home.

They did have really cute bathing suits for my daughter that I considered buying. They were $10 each and very good quality suits. She swims a significant amount during the summer and I am confident that none of her suits from last year fit. I will probably go back and make that purchase this week. But for now, I am still within my budgets for spending this month. No major unplanned purchases, although I am not sure where to allocate the Costco membership.

February Debt Breakdown

2010-03-02T23:23:00.001-08:00

You may have noticed that I have added a detail listing of my debt breakdown to my blog. I plan to keep this updated as I make significant extra payments, or at least monthly. In addition I will be posting monthly debt updates here to have a record of my journey to debt freedom. Please note that I have chosen to only focus on the c.c. debt at this time. Once that is done I will focus on the car & trailer loans, student loan, and mortgage debt. My plan is to have the C.C.s paid off in 2 years. This is a VERY aggressive plan but I figure if I aim high and almost achieve it, I am still doing better then aiming low and achieving.

Here is what the end of February looks like:

Overdraft Line - $1,157.05
USAA C.C. - $8,809.86
Credit Union C.C. - $8,371.55
Citibank C.C. - $4,523.42
Chase C.C. - $6,451.91
Chase C.C. - $8,635.06
Chase C.C. - $9,090.30

Total C.C. Debt - $47,039.15

Total C.C. Debt Paid since January 2010 - $4,649.72
Debt Paid Over Minimum (net of interest) - $3,299.26

My original goal this year was to live within our means, make our minimum payments (snowball style) $923 and pay and additional $3,000 down on our credit cards. Thanks to honest readers who told me I should be more aggressive, I have upped my additional debt payment goal to $10,000. I am currently $6,700.74 away from that goal. Yikes, that is about $670 per month over the next ten months. We CAN do this!

February Review

2010-02-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

Wow! February is finally coming to a close. It sure has been an interesting ride this month. Let me first start by saying that I am very proud of the accomplishments of my husband and I. We certainly were not perfect, and there is room for improvement, but three important things happened this month.

We stuck to it
We did not use our credit cards
We built up our e-fund and paid down some debt

And for that I am very happy!!! Today marks 40 days since I started this blog and the same amount of time since we have charged anything to our credit cards. I knew going in to this that the first six months of this year would be challenging as we struggle to reduce our expenses and in the absence of me teaching. Now that I have two classes lined up, that helps a bit. I have already created our budget for March and updated it to include the additional income.

Now, a few comments about happenings in February:

We were fortunate to have sold some items on eBay $475
We had some refunds coming $95
My husband earned overtime $220
My husband won a poker tournament $225
We received our tax refund $3,269

Expenses this month that were not included in budget:

Birthday Party Expenses $60 (party in April)
eDiets Subscrition $14 (cancelled)
DVD & CDs- $26 (area for improvement)
Computer Repair $110 (virus attacked)
Dog Vet Bills & Grooming - $109
Household Items - $24
Field Trip $13
Movie Rentals $6
Gifts Given $81 (WOW!!!!)
Fun Money & Eating Out (area for improvement)

Savings e-fund balance $1,000
Other savings $1,500 (remaining tax return)
Additional Debt Payments $1,500

Looking forward to cutting back even more and doing even better in March!!!

Got A Teaching Contract! Yeah!!!

2010-02-26T06:58:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I received an offer to teach a class starting 4/6/10. I believe that persistence pays off because I had kindly been checking in with the scheduler via both e-mail and voicemail. There is an electronic system for scheduling but if another instructor cancels, classes do come up that way as well. I have not officially taught a class since November of last year. I had another class scheduled in December that got cancelled (out of my control) and then I declined a class in January because I did not feel comfortable with the material. I am approved to teach nine different classes in a cluster but some are very advanced and did not feel I had the appropriate experience.

While I was kind of bummed that the class did not start until April (no income in March) I was happy to be back in the loop so to speak. Prior to November I had been getting classes pretty regularly - one after the other and sometimes two at a time. Two at a time proves to be very difficult while working full-time. Then this morning I got an e-mail to see if I could take over a class that starts on Tuesday 03/02/10. Woo Hoo!!!!!!! I am so excited I can't stand it. Not necessarily because I want to work my booty off, but because I have listened to those comments in a previous post and realize I need to push myself until this debt is paid off. This is a class that I have never taught before so it is going to be a busy weekend for me!

So my March budget just changed........each class pays about $1,000 but is paid in increments. I should receive around $525 in March. Since we had already worked out our budget without that income I am going to try and put all of that to debt.