Happy Holidays!

So I'm way behind this year - really REALLY behind. I have Christmas shopping to finish up this weekend, the Christmas letter isn't written yet (it will be I promise because it's family history!) and the Christmas cards aren't ready to go (still waiting on the letter lol). The Christmas tree has been up for a while but the boxes of decorations are still strewn about. Why is this year so disorganized and out of sorts. Someone explained that we had less time because Thanksgiving was so late. But we know it's coming on the same day every year!?! I briefly thought back in November that I should start on the letter but wait....I'll have plenty of time and this is WAY to early. Guess I should have listened to myself!

So I'm behind on that, behind of the blog, behind on a lot. At this point I'm telling myself to be happy, enjoy the season, the things I did get done, and forget those I didn't. That works.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all my friends and family! See you in 2009!

Dinner time and allowances

So our new way of living is making us think when it comes to dinner. Our $100 fast food budget gets used up very quickly with a family of 5. We have only used $30 so far but it has to last us until the 15th. We grocery shopped carefully and made sure we had plenty of food for meals but when it comes to mealtime figuring it all out is tough. Tonight was a prime example. Everyone was home tonight and GG and I started to determine what we should cook for dinner. Tacos? We didn't have lettuce, we had hotdogs last night with macaroni and cheese so kielbasa didn't sound too good. So we went to the freezer to figure it out. We both laughed while walking out to the garage and said wow haven't times changed. Before we would have just said let's hop in the car and find some dinner. No more....we don't have enough money in the budget now for that and we have a family birthday party on Sunday at a pizza place that will use a chunk of it.

The girls are getting involved now too. Last night when we were on our way to soccer practice the girls asked what was for dinner. In the past we would have picked something up on the way home...but not last night. I told them I couldn't afford it because we were on a budget. This was D2 and D3. They immediately said "what? why? are we broke?" I explained that no we were not broke but that GG and I had decided that it was time to get out of debt, not use the charge cards anymore and pay off all our bills. They worried that they would lose their allowances. I told them that no it was a line in our budget and it was the money they would be in charge of budgeting.

Fast forward to TV time after dinner. We have soccer candy bars we are selling and GG wanted to buy one. So he asked Brooke if she wanted to split a candy bar. Of course she said yes. Then he said cuz I can only afford a dollar - want to buy one with me? We had a laugh about how hard it is to spend our free money and we explained how we, as parents, now had an allowance of sorts. D2 had a good chuckle about that thought and then reminded us that when it was gone it was gone and you couldn't borrow on the next weeks either (our allowance rule). Oh yeah....that rule...guess we have to follow it too.

I think this change will be good for all of us.

Blessings? I'm thankful for the communication that GG and I have developed about this plan and for the opportunity to teach our girls more about money while they are young.

Forgot the blessings...

How could I have forgotten to mention my blessings of late.  I am truly thankful for the wonderful friends we have who see the possibilities and the hope inside.  They took a chance and pushed just a little further to pass along the hope that they have found with debt freedom.  We are truly blessed!

I think we are on our way!

First off, if you are reading this and you can qualify yourself as my immediate friend or family please don't worry or fret about the things I'm about to write about.  We are okay, have been okay and will continue to be okay.  But that is all we have been....just okay.  Let's just say we are finally getting our act together with our finances!  

A few months ago a good friend of ours mentioned that financial guru, Dave Ramsey, was coming to our area and would be speaking live.  She and her husband are going and they wanted GG and I to come along.  I was excited.  They have been through the Financial Peace University and are now facilitators of their own FPU group.  I mentioned it to GG at the time and he kind of scoffed at the suggestion.  I gave it a few months.  I brought it up again and he still resisted.  He said he was not interested in going to hear someone tell him something he already knew about what to do with money.  My question was "then why aren't we doing it??"  

A few weeks ago our FPU friends gave us Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" book.  Their way of "paying it forward" and a gift to us.  I was thrilled and started reading immediately.  While they were afraid of pushing their boundaries with GG, I told them to not worry about it, that he would be fine.  I mentioned that to him and he reminded me that he is an information gatherer and one that will read just about anything to learn something (so what's wrong with listening lol).   On that note, I insisted that we sit down and figure out a budget, get our bills together and get going on a plan to get out of debt.  We set a date...Labor Day weekend.

Fast forward to Labor Day weekend.  We did some labor, had some rest and then got down to business.  We have always been current on all of our bills and over the years I have had various plans to keep everything on track.  But it's never been a "couple" thing and I was sick and tired of always feeling like the meanie for having to say we didn't have enough money.   But times are changing!  We sat down together and came up with a plan. We wrote out a budget and got our act together.  

The FPU friends had hoped to get us to a class, to a live talk with Dave Ramsey or at least on the program.  They passed along some CDs of Dave's radio show - I have been listening faithfully and loving every minute, every suggestion, every piece of advice.  I would come home and share little tidbits with with GG.  His response surprisingly was "so what things are you going to learn to teach me" and my jaw dropped (he still says he doesn't want to go but I have hope that we can at .  I started with the little things....let's make a list of our bills...let's make a budget...let's start living our wage (as Dave would say).  And he listened.  We gave ourselves a budget of $50 each for the first half of the month.  We compromised and we listened to each other.  It was great.

So now we are on the road.  Last night I mentioned the idea of building our emergency fun (Baby Step 1) to him and he said he thought that it was a good idea.  We're about half way there on that one.  I started looking last night for some extra income opportunities (things that I had already been doing but now I was the one actively looking instead of waiting for them to call me).  I came home today to hear him say "hey I found this new company that I think we both ought to look into as a way to make some extra to actively get this going."  He gave this suggestion without me saying a word.  Nothing. Nada. Zip.  I feel like he's got it and he's heard my vibes about the baby steps I want to work on.  Yeah!

One thing we are learning...it's much harder to spend cash on little trivial things.  That $50 we each have - that's for coffee on the road, snacks when we are out, and lunches on our own.  We each bought a coffee today and a lunch since we were on our own and couldn't get home for lunch. That was tough.  Watching that cash leave our hands was difficult but somehow gratifying.  GG even laughed and said he no longer will take a free latte's for granted...he'll look forward to that bonus.  We both laughed about how easy it is to spend when you don't really know where it's coming from or going to.  

Well I'm sorry I've rambled on enough tonight but I had to share.  Keep watching for my updates - I think this is going to be a ever changing process and it feels great.

Saturday, August 23rd

Busy Saturday but got a lot done. Had a good breakfast, watched a movie and played a computer game with GG. What a multi-tasker! Then GG and I both went to work cleaning our rec room downstairs. This room had been a storage area for D1's room and all her belongings while the carpet was being replaced. She has been working on it quite a bit lately (yeah!) but a cat had gotten trapped in that room overnight and unfortunately used a corner for the litter box. We had just found that out and needed to get it cleaned out and the carpet cleaned pronto to avoid long term repercussions. So we spent the afternoon dejunking and cleaning and finished the room (at least for now). All 3 girlies are gone (D1 had to work and D2 and 3 were having a slumber party at their cousins) so we were able to work without interruptions. Got that done, did a little grocery shopping and just finished dinner and the second movie.

The movies today: Bill and Fool's Gold. Both were light hearted movies with pretty good story lines. Fool's Gold had a few "Macgyver" scenes that were a little hokey but overall it was a good one.

Multi-tasking became a subject of chatter today. I used to be one that could do many things at once or at least I thought I could. But the last few years I have noticed that I have to fully concentrate on reading, watching tv or a conversation to fully participate. I thought for a while that it was because of the noise that had to be monitored with each activity. With the TV running constantly in the background (something I am aiming to change) I think I have learned how to completely tune it out in order to concentrate on the subject at hand whether that be a conversation, a newspaper, or a book. But I am finding that if I am doing one thing I do not hear the others. GG was talking to me the other day and I found that if I caught a glimpse of the TV or was in the middle of reading I would not hear a bit of what he was saying. This alarmed me and made me wonder if I was slipping a little. GG laughed and told me he didn't think that was it. We agreed that it was probably just something we have learned to do over time and that our focusing has changed over the years. I do want to hear less of the TV though.....

Blessings for today...my parents made it back from their vacation safe and sound.

My Dad goes in for knee surgery on Monday - say a few prayers for him would ya?