2010 Goals

We made it another year! 2009 ended up being a pretty good year for us overall. I haven't had a chance to do a recap of our 2009 goals yet, but I should have that posted next week sometime. Having a specific list of goals to concentrate really helped us to stay on track and keep motivated.

My list this year doesn't contain as much as last years because we are already very busy next year and we will have the addition of another family member. I don't want to be any more overwhelmed than what I have to be. :)

Spiritually

• Read the Word more often.
• Do a Bible Study on my own. I'm wanting to find a book to walk me through a book(s) of the Bible.

Financially

• We weren't able to pay off our truck (our final debt) in 2009, but we should be able to have it payed of by April of this year.
• Bump back up our Emergency Fund to allow room for medical expenses.
• Save additional funds for our first ever family vacation to Florida in May.

Home

• Figure out a Home Cleaning Schedule that really works for me. This seems to always be on my list of things to do. One of these days, I will finally master it!
• Get the children more involved in the daily tasks of maintaining a clean home.
• Get Rid of Clutter. I absolutely despise clutter, but somehow it has begun to take over my home. It's time for it to stop! This goes for storage spots as well.

Gardening/Food Storage

• Do majority of the garden from seeds, just like last year. This year will be a challenge since I will be pregnant through the entire spring, and up through most of harvest.
• Plant Wave 2, and probably replant Wave 1, of our Orchard. The deer found our fruit trees, and I'm not sure they will survive. :( We need to come up with a way to keep them out.
• Grow my own herbs. I'm going to try this again this year, since last year was a huge flop!
• Preserve as much fruits/veggies as I can.
• Continue to involve the children in the kitchen.
• Build up our meat storage--hopefully by way of buying a beef, and maybe a hog.
• Have meals ready in the freezer for when baby comes.

Self

• Read more books.
• Get on a exercise routine.
• Bring back one of my old hobbies. I used to love to scrapbook, sew (which I rarely did, but loved it), as well as make jewelry. I've not done these things in SO long, and would love to get back into atleast one.

What are your plans for 2010? Let's make this year a good one!

This post is linked to

• The Happy Housewife's 2010 Goal Link Up
• A Beautiful Calling

Monthly Cash Flow Plans

One of the essential tools to our debt freedom journey has been a Monthly Cash Flow plan. I've touched on it before, but I wanted to throw it out there again. They are so important to your financial success, and I just can't sing their praises enough.

The benefit of a cash flow plan is it assigns a place for your money before you get it. That way, when the money arrives, you already know where it is going. It is all outlined for you.

The purpose of a Cash Flow Plan is to outline every single expense your family incurs monthly. If you have some expenses that are yearly, bi-monthly, or just periodically--you still need to add them in your cash flow plan, but on a monthly level. For example, if you pay your insurance every six months, you need to divide that number by 6 and include it in your monthly cash flow plan.

Once you have figured out all of your expenses, now is the time to look over all of your incoming funds. For most people this will be easy, just figuring out your paycheck. For others, there may be multiple streams of income, or a variable income; which at times can be tricky to figure. Try to get the numbers as close as you possibly can. In the end, it will make things so much easier, and truly be beneficial to your journey. Providing an inaccurate number is setting your budget up to fail. Obviously, that isn't what you were going for. :)

After you have figured out all of your incoming funds and all of your outgoing expenses, now you know how much is left over at the end of the month. If for some reason you have more outgoing expenses than you do incoming funds, take a closer look at your expenses and see where you can trim. You may be surprised at how low you can get your numbers, or even what you can do away with!

In the event you have money left over--don't just leave it there unaccounted for! Give it a place to go or it will disappear before your eyes. Almost literally. If you have debt payments, pay toward your smallest debt, and work your way up, otherwise work on building up a $1000 emergency fund. Already have one? How about trying for 3-6 months worth of living expenses? Or start saving for a vacation?

I recommend making a new cash flow plan every month for the first few months, until you figure it all out. After that, I still recommend you doing one about every other month. Doing so will force you to take a look at your expenses again, and maybe find something that you've overlooked before.

I guarantee once you have your cash flow plan established, and you get the kinks worked out, you will be glad you set it up! Before we set up our cash flow plan we were living off of credit cards (using them weekly for gas and grocery expenses). Since setting up our plan at the end of 2007, we've payed off over $26,000 in debt!! Now that's results!


Other Posts of Interest:

• Home Management Binder: Finances Section
• 2009 Goal Updates
• This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday and Frugal Friday.

Finding Freedom Friday: 2009 Goal Update

It is time to take a look back over the goals that we set for ourselves and our homes for 2009. I cannot say how glad I am that I actually set specific goals for myself this year. It truly has helped me!

You can see my complete list of goals for this year here.

This is where we stand right now:

• Spiritually: In the last few months I have really started amping this one up; but I am still no where near where I wanted to be. I've really been trying to study and understand the duties of a wife and a mom from the Biblical perspective. In doing so, I think that I have grown immensely in these areas--although there is still a lot of work to be done. I still desire to read more of the Word and sit aside time to read--and be consistent!
• Financially: Sweet Goodness. Where do I even start. I'm all about keeping it real and honest--so here it is: The summer was a disaster! We definitely could have done a lot worse that what we did. We are still trying to get back into our strict/tight budget, but we are getting there. Thankfully! As of today, our current debt is $11,131.57, with $8805.22 paid since January--or 50% of our goal. I'm overjoyed that we've made it that far. But, I've also come to grips that, at this point, it is highly unlikely that we will hit our goal. That isn't to say that we won't try!
• Home: I've gotten really good at keeping on top of the housework and keeping with my schedule/routine. What a blessing this has been! I'm also almost done with my Home Management Binder, Gardening Binder, Seasonal Binder, and my Budget Binder {which has become a sub-section of my HMB}.
• Gardening/Food Storage: The garden has been going good, although we never did plant my herbs. :( My food storage is coming along quite nicely, and I've got a lot of bulk food stored, as well.

How are you doing with your goals??

**Please remember to link to your blog post, not your homepage and link back here so your readers can see how everyone else is doing.**

Shopping Banks and Interest Rates

When we bought our home and the 50 acres it sits on 5 years ago we had to shop banks to find a "situation" that worked for us. Our case was a lot different than most since not only were we first time home buyers, but we were buying a big chunk of land. Throw that in with the fact that we did not have a down payment, so we were needing to borrow 100% of the loan (not necessarily the best choice).



We knew we wanted fixed rates, and we also knew that we absolutely did not want to pay PMI. PMI stands for Private Mortage Insurance, it is added onto your loan if it is over 80% value of the home. We got around having it by splitting our loan into an 80% loan with one bank and then a 20% loan with a local bank. In doing so, our second mortgage came with a higher interest rate and it ballooned (or matured) in 5 years. Which was this month.



Initially we were very worried about the balloon, because at that time anything can happen to our interest rate. 5 years ago we had no idea what the rates would be today. But, with the market being in the state it was in, we were excited to see our rate drop. To our surprise, when it came time to sign the paperwork and renew our loan--our interest rate remained unchanged. What?! We've always paid on time, and our credit is spotless.

We decided called around to other banks to see what their rates were--maybe we were getting the best. Wrong! One bank (actually credit union--I've already spoke their praises here as well as many other times) offered 2% less! We called our original bank, which is local, and told them that we had their interest rate beat, but we would love to stay with them if at all possible so we wanted to see what they could do.



And you know what? While the credit union offered 5.5%, our local bank offered 5.9%. Close enough for us! Who knew that a few phone calls worth of shopping the rates would be able to save us almost 2% interest?? Now, because our second mortgage isn't much, in the end it doesn't make a huge difference (especially since our payment was left the same as when it started)--but it does make some. I plugged everything into a Loan Amortization Chart, and it basically saves us just about 3 months worth of payments. Works For Me--I'll take what I can get!!



Be sure you know the rates of the banks around you. It could save you money in the process. Shopping banks and Interest Rates Works for Me!





This post is linked to: Works for Me Wednesday

Why Do I Choose to Stay at Home?

It’s no secret that we’ve been on a crazy mission to pay off all of our consumer debt. It’s been a wild journey and at numerous times during this course, I’ve wanted to speed it up and go back to work outside of the home. That would be the quickest way to get this all out of the way, right? Not necessarily so.

Let me back up here to give a little background. I worked for a major cell phone company, and was paid very well, especially in this area. As the senior sales representative and Store Manager, I worked long hours. At this point we also lived in a neighboring town, and my home was literally 22 miles from my office, making my hours even longer. I was exhausted when I came home and had very little gumption left to tend to my children or my house. On top of that, after my father’s passing, we decided to finally get married and buy a house in another town. Stress was at it’s maximum. I was planning my wedding back in my hometown (2 hours away) and trying to close on our new home and move out of the current one. That was when we decided that enough was enough. We came to the conclusion that after the closing was final, I wouldn’t be returning to the work force. On paper we knew we could do it financially, and that was all that mattered. I just knew that everything from that point on would be easy sailing.

When we made the decision for me to stay home, we had no credit card debt, just vehicle loans. By the end of 2007, we found ourselves fully reliant on credit cards for our everyday purchases such as gas and groceries. Quite honestly, I’m not fully sure exactly how we got to this point, which makes it even more embarrassing. We constantly toyed with the idea of me going back to work at the cell phone company, but quickly remembered how much stress it brought with it. Finally we decided to enroll in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, which was being offered by our church.

This was the best decision we’ve ever made financially. While many of his teachings are “common sense” ideas, the way it was delivered and all of the ideas combined is just amazing! Continually through this course Dave mentions taking on extra jobs to help pay the debt down quicker. While I can see where this would be of great benefit, we decided completely against this approach , although it has been very tempting!

First off, if I were to go back to work next week, everything as we now know it would change. For instance, to beef up our debt snowball, I lowered our grocery budget and started making everything from scratch. If I were to go back to work, this would be no more, and our grocery budget would feel the effects of it, as well as our waistlines. In addition to the added grocery costs, I would also have to add in additional fuel costs for me to be able to drive to town everyday, as well as day care fees. Roughly all this adds up to about $900/month or roughly $225/wk! So, while off the bat going back to work may seem like a good idea, the very paper that told me I could stay home, is telling me that should stay home.

If that wasn’t enough reason to firmly ground us in our decision, the relationship that I have built with my children is. When I was working they spent roughly10-11 hours a day in day care. I didn’t know them then, but I do now! I’m now in a position where I am able to be the mother and wife my family deserves. The decision to stay home was a hard one, but we are financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually better off because of it.

**While I know that staying home was the best decision for my family, I also know that it isn’t for everyone. I say these things from our experience, and not out of judgment. :)**

Be sure to head over to Amy's place and check out her series, "Mommy, Come Home!", for her story, as well as others.

Finding Freedom Friday: 2009 Goal Update

It's a new month and time to check in and see how we've all be doing on our 2009 goals. I don't know about you, but this has really helped me stay accountable to myself and to everyone else for that matter. Although things aren't going exactly as I had planned, we are still taking steps forward.

Here is how we are doing so far:

• Our federal tax refund came back and we put it to good use! A huge portion of it went to our debt, bringing it down to $13083.17 with a total of $6592.72 paid since January (38% of our goal)! While we should be closer to the 50% mark at this point in the year, I am most definitely not complaining!

• In addition to a lump debt payment, we added a big chunk to savings. We originally wanted a total of $4000 in our savings (Max out of pocket for health, vehicle maintenance, home maintenace, etc.), but we've changed that up a bit. We've decided instead of having our full max out of pocket for health expeses set aside that we would put $500 instead. I know that that is a far cry from the original $1500--but at this point our debt snowball is of decent size that when a medical bill arises we can pay it and we used that extra to get our currrent debt number down. Also, we still have the base emergency fund of $1000. We also had in mind to set aside $1000 for vehicle maintence. My husband recently had to have some work done on his truck as well as a new set of tires. After everything was said and done, there was close to $700! So, our new amount that we are shooting for (as long as no other expenses come up) is $2300. We are 70% there.

• Our garden is in full force. You can see all my garden updates here.

• As of Friday morning I start Jillian's 30 Day Shred. It arrived in the mail today (I got it for free with my swagbucks!) and I'm dying to start it! And I just may be dying when I start it. :)

Everything else is going really well! 2009 has been a really productive, memorable year so far--and I'm anxious to see what the rest of it brings. From here on out, the 2009 Goal Updates are going to start being bi-monthly instead of monthly, hopefully that way I will have more to report.

How are you doing?

Finding Freedom Friday: 2009 Goal Update

Goodbye April. I think I may miss you, sorta. Not a huge fan of all the rain and all that jazz, but all in all you were pretty good to me.

It's time for another update on my 2009 Goals. Again, if you haven't made goals yet, it's never too late. I encourage you to set a couple for yourself and be sure to come back and share with us. Consistently looking at my list has definitely kept me on track this year, and I'm loving it. Just because I've been staying on track, though, doesn't me that I've been necessarilly succeeding in all areas.

As will everything in this Earthly life, nothing is for certain. I set out with big intentions for 2009, and I hope to make it my best year yet. Frankly, that is all that I can do.

With that being said, I've encountered some bumps in my plan, mostly in terms of my financial goals. I do not like bumps, generally, but I'm taking these bumps as they come. Thank God for that. Goes to show that all the prayers I've put in for help with my patience and my issues with perfectionism and control have not gone unanswered. I must continue to remind myself that although I've set these goals, everything happens in God's time--not my own.

Let's take a look back at April:

• Financially:
  
  
  
  • We were able to pay extra onto our debt this month, which I am ever so grateful for. $250 extra to be exact!! This brings our total debt down to just over $16000, with $3592 being paid this year alone. Wow, oh Wow! This puts us right at 21% of my goal for this year.





• I do not have an exact total for my grocery spending, but I do know that I did not go over my $300 mark. Yippee! I've been buying tons of fresh fruit and veggies and am at the point of making all of our bread products. What a great feeling this is!





• With our busy season approaching, I do feel as if we are being too careless in some areas of our spending, in addition to some unexpected costs that we have encountered with the garden and some outside projects. I hoping that we can gain our control back now, before we are knee deep in busy-ness, because then it will be too hard. If you are in the same boat--be sure to check out the upcoming FFF topics. I can't wait to see what you all have to offer!




• Home/Gardening:




• First and Foremost (since this could knock out a lot of my goals)--Willie and I have some major, major decisions to make in the next few months. When we moved here, I was not the biggest fan of our home. The main reason we bought it was because the 50 acres that it sat on was absolutely beautiful and the house had lots of potential. We knew we would have to build on, and we were okay with that. After starting FPU and reading through The Total Money Makeover, we knew that it was essential for us to get rid of our consumer debt before we went any further with our addition. Knowing this has really helped feed the fire under me to get our debt gone! But.....with the current state of the economy and the interest rates being so low, we would be able to build onto our home (almost doubling it) without increasing our monthly payment. That is huge!! We had originally planned on our payment jumping quite a bit. So, our big issue is do we wait and risk the interest rates jumping back up, or do we go ahead and jump in and get it over with now? I've been praying.....





• The garden is doing amazing! I hope to do an update post later today with all the happenings.





• I have actually stuck to my day to day duties for awhile now. What a relief this has been to actually be on top of things instead of feeling behind and out of whack everyday. Just in time for summer..!!



• Personal Goals:




• I have yet to buy a scale, but I know that I've lost weight. Which is huge to me. I'm thinking of cashing in some of my Swagbucks to get Jillian's 30 Day Shred video. I know a handful of people that just rage and rage about it, (A Cowboy's Wife and MommySnacks to name a few) and I'm wanting to amp things up a bit.
  

So, how are you doing on your 2009 Goals? If you haven't made your goals yet--hop in now and let us know what you are striving for.

*Don't forget to check out the rules to linking up, you can find them on this post.

Be sure to check out other goal updates over at Money Saving Mom.

Finding Freedom Friday: 2009 Goal Update

I find goals play an integral part to my success in any aspect of my life, whether it be goals for the day, my goals as a wife/mother, or goals that I set for a year. Taking a look back periodically really keeps me on the right track, and keeps the goals (and where I am at in attaining those goals) fresh in my mind.

If you haven't had a chance to set goals for yourself for 2009, I encourage you to so, now. It isn't too late--I promise! :)

To see the whole list of goals I made for 2009, you can go here.

Here is my update:

• For my spiritual goals:
  • I'm still trying to find the time of day that works for doing my devotional. I would love to get in the groove of doing it first thing in the morning before everyone wakes up, but 5:30 comes really early!



• As far as Relationships go:
  • Thankfully there is Facebook! I've gotten a lot better with communicating with friends back home, and family using it. Although I would like to get better at actually setting aside time to see them, for now I'm okay with Facebook. It's better than before!
  • I am doing tons better in terms of patience, and am praying that it continues to get better.



• Home/Gardening:
  • I'm doing better with getting all my housewifely duties done, but I'm still in search of "my routine". I hope to get this down in the next week or so.



• Monday of this week, I became the proud new owner of fruit trees! Not so funny story, though--we picked out Gala and Jonathon Apples and Keiffer and Bartlett Pears (since you have to have more than one variety to pollinate). The place we went to is close to the city, so just under an hour away. I was showing Kaitlyn the trees, and realized that we ended up with a Golden Delicious Apple instead of a Bartlett Pear! Agh. Now, on the search for a Bartlett Pear! :) While we were there, we also picked up our second blueberry bush.



• Learning about nutrition got kicked up a notch when we learned out DH's cholesterol. I must say, that over the past few weeks, I have learned a lot and have adjusted our diets accordingly. I'm sure that I have much more to learn, and I'm eager to learn it. For now, though, I will focus on getting his numbers where they need to be.



• Personal Goals:
  • I do feel as if I'm getting healthier. I'm on a mad mission to lose weight (which was jump started by DH's results as well as Janet's plan to get fit.)



• Since I have been crazy busy over the last few weeks trying to get the garden ready, I haven't had much time to read books. So, I still have room to improve here.



• Financial Goals:
  • Not so great. Willie isn't getting the hours we were used to. Thankfully he still has a secure job and we are provided for. The only "issue" is our debt has barely budged. But, I'm definitely not complaining. We are blessed far beyond measure, and the Lord continues to provide for us during this time, and I am ever thankful for that.
  
  
  
  • I did go over my grocery budget for March. I spent about $284, so $34 over. I stocked up big time on strawberries, various different flours that I normally wouldn't buy (rye and oat), as well as bought far greater amounts of fresh fruit. I am, however going to increase my grocery budget to $300 for the coming months, because I'm needing to stock up on canning jars, as well as continue to buy great amounts of fresh fruit. Hopefully by July I can bring this number back down.

Now is your time to share.

How are you doing on your 2009 Goals? If you haven't made your goals yet--hop in now and let us know what you are striving for.

This post is linked to Money Saving Mom.

Making Your Own vs. Store Bought

This topic is very near and dear to me for numerous different reasons. It all actually started when I started taking a closer look at our grocery budget and seeing where I could trim. From there I realized that basically everything that I relied on the grocery store for (which was everything), I could make at home. Yes, you can make almost anything at home. That does not necessarily mean that it is economical to do so, but with a little bit of time, research, and maybe some added umph--you can make anything.

This newfound discovery got my wheels really turning. Why was I buying all these things from the store and giving someone that I didn't even know the authority to play in my food, or add whatever they wanted to into my cleaners. Granted, these companies are regulated by the government, but that just wasn't and isn't enough for me. Especially when you take into account how many food recalls we have had and also knowing that certain ingredients have a potential for causing cancer.

I would have to say that yes, making my own has definitely saved us money! For a lot of the recipes that I post and for all of my menu plans, I try to post the cost breakdown so you can see that making food from scratch is easy, frugal and delish. Doing the cost breakdown has really gotten me to see just how much money it has saved us.

Currently the only other thing that I make from scratch, other than food items, is my laundry soap and fabric softener. I cannot even begin to tell you how much this has saved us. There are no additives, and no perfumes in the laundry detergent. The fabric softener, because I use conditioner, does have perfumes and such--but I've been using diluted vinegar with added essential oil with success. This method does not have the perfumes/additives. I do not make any other cleaners right now, because I still have a big stock of the commercial things from couponing. But, isopropyl alcohol and vinegar (not together) should be your best friend.

Of course there are other things, like curtains, clothing, toys, gifts, etc that you can make at home. All of which, in my opinion, fall right along the same lines.

Doing these things has granted me great amounts of freedom. I hardly rely on the grocery store for anything. I have the base ingredients at any given time to make almost anything you can dream up. That in conjunction with couponing, I rarely need anything other than basics, which grants me the freedom and reliance from the grocery store. Not being there so much saves me money on impulse buys, which is helping me find financial freedom. We're all human! :)

And on top of all of that, yes, I can notice a difference in our health. I feel better, and I have slimmed down a bit. Although, I'm on a mad mission to lose more!

Let me add here, that I was never one to be any form of domestic. No way, no how. Didn't want any part of it whatsoever. Money was made to be spent, and the stores were created for you to spend it. Thankfully my views have changed! I still have very little patience and desire fast results. I say all this so that you know that "making your own" isn't always time consuming (which is what I always thought). Sure, the first time you do it, it may take a while, but once you get it down, it will be second nature. Kind of like tying your shoes. When you first learn, it takes about 12 days to tie both shoes. Now, I'll bet that you can tie them in your sleep with your hands tied behind your back.

I'm no domestic powerhouse, or professional homemaker, but I strongly encourage you to attempt to make your own "something". If you are already making something, make more "somethings", venture out and see how many things you really can make. It's a great feeling knowing that my family depends on my hands, and not someone elses.

If you have any questions about where to start, how to begin, or anything at all--I'm more than happy to help!

Now is the time for you to share. Please remember to link to your post and not your homepage. And please keep it on topic--I don't like deleting links!

What is your take on Making at Home vs. Store Bought?

1. Changing Reflection

Finding Freedom Friday Topic: Making Own vs. Store Bought

As part of our journey to lead a more frugal and simple life, I have found great pleasure in making many things for my home. This includes curtains, food, cleaners, gifts, and our very own garden..amongst other things.

As part of the Finding Freedom Series, I would love to hear how you have found freedom with making things for your home and family.

• Has it saved you money over the store bought counterparts?

• Why did you choose to make it?

• In what ways has it helped you to find freedom?

• Financially?

• Peace knowing what is in it/Where it came from.

• With time? (Managing better, quality time with family doing projects)

Do you notice any differences in health?

Those are just a few ideas to get your wheels turning, feel free to address whatever you like. Be sure to come back Friday with your post and link up with us!

Also here is what you can expect in the next couple of weeks for Finding Freedom Friday:

• April 3rd: Finding Freedom With Goals: 2009 Goal Update
• April 10th: Finding Freedom With Organization
• April 17th: Finding Freedom With Time Management

I'm open to any and all suggestions that you may have for upcoming Finding Freedom Friday topics. You can leave a comment with your suggestions, or you can drop me an email (phendricks @ centurytel.net).

I'm looking forward to all your responses!

It's Party Time! Excellent!

It's party time! 5 Minutes for Mom is hosting their annual Ultimate Blog Party, and there are lots of great prizes at stake (any of which I would love to win!). Be sure to check in on the action, if you haven't already!

Come on in for the party, and sit down a relax for a bit.

Partying will wear a girl out! Help yourself to some Blueberry Streusel or anything else you can find around here.

I'm Phoebe and I love to talk about all things frugal, including gardening, cooking from scratch, and our quest to getting out of debt. We're learning all about the simple life and it's many pleasures, and I would love for you to join in! I also host a feature called Finding Freedom Fridays where we all gather to share different frugal ideas and help each other find freedom from debt. Be sure to come back and share your tips!

I won't keep you too long, but feel free to subscribe to my blog feed, or you can catch up with me on Twitter.

Be sure to visit all of the other parties goin' on and get in on the fun!

Budgeting: How's it Working?

**I'm working on adding Mr. Linky--he's being tempermental and doesn't want to show up! In the meantime--leave your link in the comments, and I'll add 'em all in when I can fix it!** After much frustration--he popped up!



This week for Finding Freedom Friday we're talking budgets. A very important topic when it comes to wanting to get out of debt. Or get control and maintain control of your finances.


Considering that these blessings are not actually ours in the first place, and knowing that God has just entrusted us with them--we should try to honor Christ in every financial decision we make.

I'm not perfect. I never will be. Actually no one will be. But, we should always do our best!

Anyway, our budget/cash flow plan has saved us an untold amount of money. I really wish that when I first set ours up about 7 years ago that I would have make it do the work, and not me work to keep it. Because of this, it only lasted a few weeks--maybe a month or so. This is definitely key. Don't make your budget unrealistic, or it won't work--so you will give up. It is essential to continually go back and look at your numbers and see if everything is working, especially in the beginning stages of budget living. We've been on ours, strictly, since September 2007. I evaluate it bi-monthly, if not monthly.


February was a month full of disappointments for us financially, and we went askew in a couple of places. I don't think this was at fault to our cash flow plan, rather it was just not thinking things completely through, and our good old friend Murphy. We all know Murphy, right? I don't really care for him much!

This month we are keeping a really tight watch on how much satelitte TV we watch. We have toyed with the idea of cancelling it numerous times, but have just never done it. Even though our bill is only $9.99/mo, we have been known to rent pay per view movies at $5.99 a pop! If we were to get rid of it, we wouldn't be able to do that, and we would then have to rent from the local store (constantly get free rentals, or very cheap) which would take planning ahead. Just dropping our satellite alone, we would save $120/year, but if you add in our movie rentals our total saved a year would probably be closer to $300. Big difference!


Implementing our budget has not only helped our marriage (no unneeded stress over money), but we look at things completely different now. I appreciate our blessings far more than I ever did--because I see where they are going. We think things through (generally) before we do them, and make sure that it is the right decision for us.

You can read more about our journey here.

Rules to Linking Up:

• Link to your post, not your homepage.
• Please be sure to include a link back here so that all your readers can get in on the other tips as well.
• Stay true to the theme of the week so that readers get quality content.
• Tell everyone you know so we can make it a success and can all profit from it.
• Have fun! ;)

Financial Update

It's February which means it is time to do my financial check up from the month of January. I don't know what it is, but the months just seem to disappear, where are they going?



January was a great month for us! I am absolutely astounded at what we were able to accomplish. I do not know how we were able to do these things, I just know that God has truly blessed us!



I set a lot of goals for 2009, that included more than just our finances. I will include an update on the rest of my goals later this week.



Here are the financial goals that we set for 2009:

• A total of $4000 (including EF) in savings for health expenses, and vehicle/home maintence. Currently, we just have shortly over our $1000 emergeny fund (EF), but we hope to be able to finish this with our income taxes.
  
  
• Bump up our contribution to our Christmas Club account. As of 2/16, this was accomplished! This will be such a relief when the end of the year comes.
  
  
• Pay $17500 towards our debt. I know we can do this, but it sounded overwhelming to my husband, so I put it in perspective of a monthly payment to him. We had a lot of makeup to do from our December fiasco, so my "mini goal" for January's debt payment was $1050. I am overjoyed to say that we were able to pay $1315.57! This leaves us with just one debt payment (we have successfully paid off our lawn mower purchase) which is a GREAT feeling. This puts us ahead for February. My February "mini goal" is $1150, so I now only need to accomplish $884.43 to remain on track. A great feeling it is to come into this month ahead!
  
  
• Continue Couponing. I am, but I'm not. I've definitely slowed down a lot, but that is because my stockpile is already pretty big. And, there really hasn't been all that great of deals around for me to put all the effort into it.
  
  

To see how others are doing for their Financial Goals, visit Money Saving Mom.

How are you doing on your Financial Goals?

2009 Goals & Challenge

**If you want to see other's goals, visit The Happy Housewife, or Biblical Womanhood.**

I've never been one to make New Year Resolutions. When I did, I would just make them to make them..generally not a whole lot of thought into them. I would find myself either forgetting them in a few months, or just not able to attain them.





I have, however, always been goal oriented. So, I've decided that this year I will make a list of goals in all aspects of my life and seek to attain them all year. Basically, not a whole lot different from any other year..other than that I'm looking at all areas of my life and posting them for the world to see!





Since I have taken up a frugal lifestyle and began to implement many more things in my day to day life, this entails many a goal at this point. There are areas of my life that need more work than others, I seem to be broken in some areas! :)




Spiritually

• Actually set aside me and God time in the morning. I have a yearly devotional that I plan on using as a starter. I hope that this will refresh me for the day and set my focus on Him throughout my day.


• Become more knowledgeable with The Word. I read the Bible, but I don't know the Bible, if that makes sense. I also know that this isn't something that I'm going to be able to accomplish in just one year, but it is something that I find very important to me in this season of my life.


• Know Him more. I truly need to rely on my Creator for more things, instead of trying to handle them on my own. I need to turn all things to Him, instead of just things that I want to. This is so incredibly hard for me, if you haven't been able to tell, I'm a bit of a control freak.

Relationships

• Wife: Be his help meet. Be more understanding.


• Mother: Patience! I've really been trying to work on my patience, as well as yelling. I grew up in a home that it was okay to be yelled at, and while I've never been a fan of it..I've noticed that I, too, yell. I really don't want my kids to remember that from their childhood. Also, I need to be more understanding. My oldest has behavioral issues. I've touched on them lightly before, but not in depth. Quite frankly, we're unsure. Sensory perception? Mild Autism? ADHD? All? None? Anyway, both patience and understanding are key here. There are times I lack both, and throw in yelling. Not good. *Now, I don't want anyone to get the impression that I continually yell at my children, because I do not. But, in my opinion, a child (or anyone for that matter) should never be yelled at. Sometimes I lose my cool, and it just happens. I'm sure we've all been there.* Spend more time with them doing things they want to do.


• Daughter: I will admit that I am not a very good daughter. Period. This area needs a lot of work. But, I am happy to say, that things have drastically changed (for the better) within the last year. Praise God! My mother and I used to be very close, before 2 things happened. I made choices as a young adult that she didn't agree with, and my father passed. When dad died in 2003(great health, very unexpectedly in the middle of the night) things crashed to the ground. We both said things that are just hard to get past. I was not a Christ follower at this time in my life. Thankfully I am now, and I am forgiven! :) I need to remember that life can change in the blink of an eye.


• Sister & Friend: I live away from all of my family and most of my friends. I really need to communicate with all of them better. End of story.

Financially

Oh how I love talking finances! :) This area though is a toughie. Our original goal was to be consumer debt free by January 1, 2010. But, at this point that would mean that we would have to pay over $19,000 in debt in a year. Hmm. That is close to $1600/mo. Something about that just tells me that it probably won't happen. So...Plan B.

• A total of $4000 (including EF) in savings for: Health expenses, and vehicle/home maintence. I talked about this a little bit here, but I'm going to throw it here as well since it is still our goal for 2009. Just hopefully one that gets crossed off soon!


• Bump up our contribution to our Christmas Club account. No, this doesn't have to do with our Budget Massacre! I actually want to go ahead and set the money aside for Willie's annual trip as well, since it falls at the same time. As I outlined here, the money that goes into my Christmas Club account goes for Christmas as well as our personal property/real estate taxes.


• And, as far as our debt goes...I think that it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say pay of $16000 of our $19000. I'm seriously tempted to put $19000 so we will push ourselves. I'll compromise with myself and put $17500.

Home

• Finish painting the interior rooms.


• Update flooring in the Living Room. (Orange Shag just isn't my thing, ya'll. Don't be jealous! :)
  
• Make it a haven.


• Fall in love with my home! I think that this is very important. You have to love your home in order to want to stay in your home and be comfortable and at ease.


• Be more efficent in my housework and day to day duties.


• Finish my Home Guide, Budget, Gardening/Food Storage Notebooks *More to come on all these later*


• Continue Couponing...Of course!

Gardening/Food Storage/Cooking

• Oh wow. After all the learning from last year, and all the fun we had..we are really looking forward to this year. We plan to do organic (atleast try to) and switch to all heirloom seeds (if the budget allows these things).


• Build Greenhouse/Permanent Garden Beds. I loved the idea of these type of beds versus the typical row garden.


• Plant beginning stages of our orchard.


• Grow our own herbs.


• Preserve all our own veggies, fruit.


• I want to get my 3 months of food storage up. I currently stock a lot of the typical food storage items (powdered milk, flours, sugar, etc)...just not in a 3 month stockpile.


• Continue to make from scratch and the switch to whole grains. I would love to expiriment with grinding grains, but I don't know that I am that ambitious quite yet.


• Cook more healthy, more nutritious meals. Learn more about nutrition/vitamins.


• Have the children assist more in the kitchen and garden. I tend to be a do it myself type of gal, sometimes it seem to be easier for me to just do it. This is how I grew up, and as an adult I'm having to learn all these things on my own. (With friends of course!)


• I would love to be more self-reliant. Entrust God to bless us with our harvests.

Self

• Let go of my perfectionism. This gets in the way a lot. More than I care to admit.


• Become healthy. I have some minor health ailments that need taken care of.


• Lose weight. For real! I'm thinking that once the above is taken care of, that this one will be easier.
  
• Read More books that I am interested in. I love reading to my children, but sometimes it seems those are the only books (other than the Bible) that I read. Definitely need to broaden my horizons here!

While this list may seem overwhelming, we are doing some of these things now, just on a smaller scale. So, in the big scheme of things, I don't think it is too much. As the year progresses I will come back and update in blue on our progress and or challenges.

Overall 2008 was a great year for us, and I look forward to all of the things God has in store for us in 2009.

I'm interested to hear what goals or resolutions you are making this year. I challenge you to make atleast 12 goals, so that we can work on one a month. My plan is to focus on a set of goals a month, since some goals will take all year, and less on others.

Would you join me?!

A Budget Massacre, Indeed

I know that I said I was going to be on break...but I couldn't stay away any longer! Plus, my husband is gone on his annual hunting trip to Iowa, and I began plugging numbers and going over things. Which brings me to this..........


I created this blog to not only share our journey to becoming debt free, but to also hold myself accountable in my budget. The good and the bad. Thankfully, it's mostly all been good...until now.





December, my friends, was a budget massacre. So, if you are a lover of numbers as I am, you may want to stop reading. 'Cause it is getting ready to get ugly in here.





Apparently the funk that I was in for the better part of December affected me more so than I thought. But, I'm over that funk (thanks, Mom!) and I'm back with a vengence for the month of January.





Thankfully December only had 3 goals...but I must say I didn't do good on either one! :( Here was December:

• Of course continue to pay off the truck. Nothing extra went here this month, which pains me...but it's true.


• Replenish the EF. I actually did. Then DH needed money for a trip he goes on every year after Christmas. We had that money set aside, but Willie decided that the kids needed more for Christmas (!) and I caved in. Agh!


• Stick to the $300 Grocery Budget Do I even want to go here?! Hmm....I don't exactly know what I spent to be honest...which I really don't like...but I had no form of organization (other than a menu plan) this month. My receipts are here, there and everywhere they are not suppossed to be. I'm a number control freak, and I feel so lost and out of control here. But, in all honesty, I don't think that it is as bad as I think. I did not go shopping the week of 12/21 like I should have..instead I put it off a week. This means that I've been able to live off of my stockpile for the last week (other than milk), which is fantastic. My cash left for grocery expenses is $73. The kids and I got snack food for dinner one night as well as other stuff we really didn't need.....But..I used the debit card (!) at Walgreen's to the tune of $48.97. So, I really should just have $23. I will see what I can pull together. Fingers Crossed!

In a nutshell...here is the damage:

• Roughly $300 overspent on Christmas. AGH!!! I was really trying hard in this area....but temptation gave in. The only upside to this is that some of the things they got were things they needed. Not much of an upside though, since the toys far outweighed the "needs". They are getting older and the toys are getting higher for sure. MUST GET BETTER ON THIS! This includes....I don't even want to say it....


• $100 in CC debt. Oh No Way! Yup, you read it right. DH was trying to hide a purchase he made for me...so he put it on the CC instead. Boo! (But..I LOVED his gifts!!)
  
• $200 EF void. Blech! Thankfully, Willie worked a lot of overtime the last few weeks, so this should be replenished fast. Also, we've not drove a whole lot the last few weeks..so the extra money from our gas budget can go here.
  
  
• Bad organization=lost receipts=no rebates. To the tune of, oh $50 or so. Bad news...but I'm on a mission. Must find receipts.

Now that I am left with the bits and pieces of the massacre scattered all over my house...the only thing I can think of is making it better. Fixing it. So here are my goals for January:

• Put the gas budget back to $300 This is where it was at before the gas prices went through the roof and I had to jack it up to $400. I've been monitoring the spending here and it is consistently lower than the $200/wk.
• Drop the grocery budget to $250. I've been thinking about it for a while, and I've been coming in under the $300 for the last few months...so now that I need to catch-up, I think it is as good of a time as any to drop it.
• Pay extra on the truck. Honestly, I don't know that I can do it for January because of all the catch up I need to do and the fact that my van is probably going to need a major repair in the coming weeks. When it rains is pours! :)
• Either sell or donate all my cluttery goodness. This goes for all the clothes and toys that I've been meaning to get rid of for how long now?! My cheapness is getting in the way here...and sometimes I just wonder if I should just give up on selling it, and just donate to a free store so a needy family can take advatage of it. What are your thoughts here? Should I just go ahead and donate all this stuff and get it out of my hair, or should I go ahead and attempt the whole E-bay thing? Nonetheless, it must go soon!

Dropping those two areas will grant me an additional $150 to throw at the damage. Essentially that will rid the CC debt (again!) and give a little extra to put back into the EF. Hopefully Willie's overtime will take care of the rest of the EF, and then I can focus back on the original goal of paying extra on the truck by mid-month.

I want to thank all of you for all the encouraging words and support. As you can tell December was not my month. I was here, but I wasn't here, if that makes sense. I've never been like that before, and thank God that I'm not there anymore. It's over and it is time to move forward. I WILL be debt-free and this WILL NOT get me down. If anything, it made me stronger.

Financial Update 2008

As a whole, 2008 has been a great year for us. We tightened our spending belts, tightly, and God has filled us full of wisdom! (You can see some of our month to month check-ups here)

My husband and I never really wrote out our goals for 2008, but we knew basically what we wanted. Now that alot of our headaches are out of the way, though, I plan to have a set list of 2009 goals by Mid-Decmeber.



I know that, atleast for us, if we have a plan..on paper, of what we want to achieve, we will be more likely to push ourselves to attain it. I'm constantly plugging numbers here and there, this way and that, so I know what we need to do to get whatever our goal may be.



Goals are important. Period.



With all that being said....our round about plan for 2008 was:

• To get our $1000 Emergency Fund in place. DONE
• Pay off all credit card debt...and NEVER EVER use them again. DONE
• Stick to our monthly cash flow plan DONE
• Slash grocery budget to $250/mo (I was really wanting to have this done by December's budget...and I just don't think it's gonna happen)
• Grow our snowball We've chunked it up a bit by paying off debt...but we've really not went out of our way to earn extra money so that we could slash the debt faster. I was really hoping to have a yard sale this summer...but I never did. As well as taking some of our things to consignment shops, or Ebay. We'll definitely need to work on this! My house is in dire need of a de-clutter, too!
• and continue to roll it! DOING IT!

The whole budget/money accountability thing was all new to us this year, so I think we did great all in all! I'm hoping that next year will be even better (God willing...we should be debt free this time next year!) and we have some hefty goals in mind to be able to attain that. I like to see how far we can push oursleves. You never know what you can do until you set your mind to it! :)

Next month I will post our 2009 goals.

Our Journey Part 3

I've already covered how we lowered our monthly bills, and our grocery and frivolous spending. Doing so made us realize there was no reason for us to have no money left at the end of the week. We were doing it to ourselves.



Before we could put our little snowflakes to good use, we had to determine all of the yearly expenses. Our insurance is a monthly payment, so that wasn't a deal for us...but one of our main budget hiccups was our personal property/real estate taxes. They doomed us every year. While ours may be lower than some, it is still a considerable amount of money to have to come up with at one time, and right around Christmas at that. And speaking of Christmas, sometimes that would set us all askew as well.


My solution to this problem, since they were both "due" around the same time, and Christmas time at that...was a Christmas Club account from our credit union. We set a likeable, reasonable goal for our Christmas spending, and divided it by 12. Then, we took our tax total (wish I could have decided a likeable, reasonable amount on that! ) and we did the same. Added the 2 numbers together and that was what needed to go into our Christmas account monthly. Since my husband gets paid biweekly, we decided to go ahead and set our Christmas Club deposits to be automatically withdrawn, and deposited directly into the Christmas Club Account. This way we do not miss that money.

This has worked out really well for us. Not only do I have all the Christmas money that I need (I've also bought random things and stashed them all throughout the year), but I also have my tax money. For the first time ever, I'm actually waiting on them to mail me the bill! It is a great feeling! Also...the best things about the Christmas Club account....I got interest on that money!! I called around to all of our banks, and they offered 1/3 the amount of interest as our credit union. So, if this is something you want to try, I recommend looking into what it takes to be a member of a local credit union. Generally, it is just a small minimum deposit, like $25.

Anyway, so once we had our monthly bills figured out, our grocery, gas and blow money, and our once a year bills out of the way.....



We put the little snowflakes of money to good use.


We made a snowball!



But, before we could start throwing the snowball, we had to figure out who we wanted to throw it at. So, we made yet another list! All this list making may sound redundant, daunting and excessive...but in the long run it isn't. To us, it was such a wake up call to continually see these figures written out on paper. I've kept some of my original lists (I have a file folder for all things budget related) and to look back on the little side notes and the figures is just astounding. I urge you to make these lists even if you feel it isn't necessarily important.



This list was basically everyone we owed money to. Hospitals, Credit Card Companies, our vehicle loans, everything other than your mortgage. List it all seperately with the total amount owed and the minimum payment amount monthly. If you know the interest rate, write that down as well. Then, we organized our list by the smallest debt to the biggest debt.



We then took our snowball amount, which was now minus the tax/Christmas money, and added it to the minimum payment of our smallest debt.

At the time, in our case it was a local hospital bill. I had already set up a payment arrangement with them in the amount of $30/mo. So, I took my extra money (I'm unsure at this point what that exact amount was, so I'm going to throw a number out there) of $60 and determined that I would pay $90/mo to the hospital. That annoyance was soon out of the way and we moved to the next one. Amazingly enough, that was also a medical bill. The minimum on it was also $30, so I added the $90, from the first snowball, to the $30 minimum. This made the snowball amount to be $120. We continued to roll it, and roll it. ANY, extra money you receive (tax returns, overtime, ebay sales, yard sales, whatever it may be) needs to be thrown directly at the debt. I never let it sit in the account until tomorrow...I transfer the money immediately. I've tried just letting it be, thinking I would transfer it tomorrow....well tomorrow never came, and before I knew it, we had spent it.

Our little annoyances were gone in no time. We were seeing massive amounts of progress, which is why I believe we were able to stay on track.



When we first started our journey, our list of annoyances was close to 10. Now granted, 4 of those were medically related. Today, our annoyance list stands at 2! :) We've had such an amazing amount of weight taken off of our shoulders.

One thing that we are currently working on, in addition to our $1000 emergency fund (which by the way, you should establish before you snowball your debt) is an account for occurances we've noticed hit us every year. This includes:

• Medical Expenses. We've decided to have our "max out of pocket" amount from our health insurance company, in an account. While we have never actually had to pay that much in medical expenses, we might have to. It would be nice to have it all saved up so we wouldn't have to worry about it. $1500
• Home Repairs. It's inevitable. We are homeowners and there is always going to be something that needs to be fixed. We've set a $500 goal for this.
• Vehicle Repairs/Tires. My husband drives a new truck (that is our biggest annoyance, btw) so that shouldn't be an issue. But, I drive an older van. She's been pretty healthy...but again, you never know. You might as well be prepared, because you never know when it will happen...and you don't want to be thrown off track. Also, we live on a gravel road...so we go through tires like nobody's business! This amount we've set at $1000.

Hopefully we will be able to finish these accounts with our tax return this year. This should help us continue to stay on track and avoid those hiccups that set us all askew. Sometimes those hiccups take forever to recover from, and in the meantime you get all discouraged and it is hard to get back onto the budget. Saving up for those things should avoid it.

This journey has been such a learning expirience for us. We look at things so much differently than before. We've changed somethings since we originally started, but our new ways work better for us, for now. I'm sure we will continue to change the way we do things as our situation changes. This is just a list of the things that we have found helpful to us...everyone is different and so is their financial situation. Somethings that work for us, may not work for you.

I would love to hear how some of you manage your money/budget.

**As a disclaimer...I would also like to add, that I could sit here all day and say that "we" did this, and "we" did that. The truth behind the matter is that we prayed continually. I continually asked for strength, for wisdom, for financial savvyness. It was tough at times, but I knew that although I had these things/money in my possession, that everything was truly all His. I prayed that I would be a good steward of the things that He blessed me with. It was Christ who gave us the strength, the willpower, and the resources to get where we are now. And we continually pray that we would stay on track and get out of this debt pit we got ourselves into. I firmly believe that there are better things/causes for our blessings to go to other than some multibillion dollar bank. I would rather further His Kingdom, than continue to be so wrapped up in mine! :)**

--Bonus points if you know where that last line came from!--

Check-up & Question

It is almost October, can you believe it? Where has this year went to?



I'm done with my grocery shopping for the month, and Walgreen's has already started their new month, so I might as well just call it October. I've already switched my Calendar, too. I promise I'm not trying to rush the month, just preparing myself for the new one! Ha.



Anyway, Septemeber was a really good month for us. I started my new budget of $300 for groceries and we paid off our credit card. I have to admit, that was definitely the highlight for me. I was also relatively worried when it came time for me to do my grocery shopping last week, I was afraid that I would totally blow my budget. I did go over, if you notice on my sidebar, but I have an explanation. And it is valid. Atleast I like to think that way.



Saturday we had a hayride at church, and I was asked to provide a pot of chilli and to bring a dessert. The dessert that I chose was not frugal, but it was definitely worth the price tag. I think the final tally on the dessert was close to $9, and that doesn't include the milk to make the pudding. I guess I could have chosen a more frugal dessert, but this one feeds a lot of people, and everyone really likes it. And I used the pudding to get me free OM beef hot dogs with the kraft coupon from All You magazine. They were going to expire soon..so I had to use them for this dessert. right?!



Nonetheless, that is alot of money for a dessert! And, I had to buy extra hamburger and chilli beans. So, considering I had all these extra expenses and I only went over by $2, I still think it was a success. Considering this, I really hope that I can come in under budget for October. I'm still leaving it at the $300 mark for a few more months, but I do plan to have it around $200 by January.



We have a lot of projects going on around here (finishing the neverending laundry room makeover, living room redo, and we have to finish removing the downed trees from Ike) so we are using some of the money we were throwing at the credit card to get these stresses out of the way. When these are done, we will throw all of it at the truck with gazelle intensity.



If everything goes as planned, and God willing, our debt (everything but the house) will be gone at the end of next year! Yay! Then we will be able to do the addition to our home with little to no debt added. I've really tried to be patient with this, and hopefully I can continue to be patient. When we bought our home 4 years ago we bought it knowing full and well we would have to build on. We were going to do it right away, but we were not smart with our finances, and we bought a brand new vehicle instead. Thankfully, we went through FPU shortly after that, and instead of borrowing the money to build on, we decided to wait until all of our other debt was gone. Which is why I have been waiting so long. It is for the best though, and I know that...I guess I just get selfish sometimes. :)

Here is my plan for October:

• Since our baby EF is funded, and we don't miss the money we alotted to go in there, I'm going to keep saving it. I'm wanting to get a "stash" up to the tune of our max out of pocket for medical expenses. It is a hefty amount ($1500), but having this will prevent us from using our extra money, or our regular EF for medical bills. I'm hoping that this will be fully funded, amongst other "funds", with our tax return next year. Honestly though, not holding my breath for it.
• Keep throwing any and all extra money at the truck debt. We should have all our "stresses" out of the way this week and be able to fully focus on the debt for the rest of the month.
• Keep the grocery budget set at $300. I'm really thinking that I can get this atleast $25 under. That is my own personal side goal.
• And, I really want to get over my fear of selling on Ebay. Honestly, I don't know why it frightens me, but it does. The part that gets me is calculating shipping. That sounds strange, I know, but I don't want it to cut into my profit, and I want to do it efficently.

So, with that being said, if you sell on Ebay, and have success...share your shipping tips with me please! I have tons of childrens clothes/toys and misc. household garb. I've tried CraigsList, but I've had no luck. I think mainly because the town or "area" I live in doesn't have its own listing. I would love to get rid of some of our things and make some additional money.

Help me, please!!

Yippee!!

I'm jumping up and down in my seat!

Why?!

Because this family is Credit Card Debt Free!! I just made my last payment, and it feels GREAT! This actually comes two weeks earlier than expected. My husband has had an incredible amount of overtime the last few weeks, so I threw at my credit card and told it to GET LOST!

Now, time to attack the truck with gazelle intensity!

I'm on it.

Check-up

Can you believe that it is September?! Wow. September is a lot of things for me. First, Labor Day. What a nice end to Summer. That and eight years ago on Labor Day, my oldest son was born. *sniff*



Hard to believe.



Also, fall is near. Fall is my favorite season. So cozy. Pumpkins. Apples. Cider. Bonfires. Oh the joy.



This September marks another thing to remember. Just one year ago my church offered the FPU courses by Dave Ramsey. Before these courses I had no earthly idea who that man was. Today, I owe a lot of my sanity to him!! In the last year, my husband and I have paid off over $16,000 worth of debt. Wow. To see that written out is just amazing!! What else is amazing is we have had no change in our income. It is the same today, as it was last year when we were thinking we were flat out broke. All our bills were being paid, we just didn't have anything extra to play with (so we thought). We've even managed to save close to $300o in the process. Amazing. That is what that is. To see how much the Lord is rewarding us for our attempt to be good stewards, just floors me.



The light at the end of the (once) neverending debt tunnel, has never shone brighter. The end is near and I love it!



August was pretty good for us. We could have done better, but my addiction to paying bills sorta got in the way. I had forgotten about some expenses that came up, and used the extra to pay extra on the CC, only to figure out we needed it somewhere else.



OOPS!



However, we are currently only about $350 in CC debt. This compared to the $7000 in January. This would be gone, but we used the CC to buy Willie's mom her 50th birthday present. She had a ton of old home movies on Beta, but no working Beta machine to play them on. We found one for her on Ebay, and was suppossed to be reimbursed by his siblings, but we never were. So, there we were. Moving on.



Basically the rest of our debt is the lawnmower we just got, and our truck. If we stay on track, which we have been, we should be completly done at the beginning of 2010.



We have had some set backs, but it is nice to know that even with those, we are still on target. My original goal of being CC free by the end of August didn't happen. This goal however was in place before we bought the lawnmower, so I was thinking it would have to be moved to September anyway. So, September it is.


Then, we are going to snowball this money onto the truck. Originally we were going to put it on the lawnmower (which this would be what Dave Ramsey recommends since it is the smaller debt) but we want the truck debt down and gone.


My main goal for September is to get my grocery budget down. This is a struggle for me for one reason or another. I get good deals and all, but it seems as if I still buy too much food. I probably have enough food for a year, not including my meager stockpile. Okay, maybe just 6 months, but still! Currently we spend about $400/mo in groceries (this however is down from pre-Dave Ramsey. We were spending $600 plus and didn't even know it or have anything to show for it). Hopefully, in September I can get this down to $300, and then we will go from there. I really want his number to be at the $200 mark.


And really, that is about it. Just a question to throw out there though, how much do you spend on groceries and how many are you buying for?