Another one bites the dust.....well two

Picture taken by Renae Forehand

We have paid off the van and the bike!!!!  We paid the van off a year early.  Paying off both will add $400 to our debt snowball which will allow us to get the remaining debt paid off faster.  We paid them off using the money we received from our tax return.  We did some calculating and found that paying off these two would yield the best return on investment.  It would give us the largest amount towards our debt snowball than any other two debts we have.

This is a very awesome event for us but we knew that as soon as we paid the van off something was going to happen.  We paid the van off last Tuesday and guess where it was yesterday.

Luckily we have an emergency fund and we were able to pay the $417 cash and not go further into debt.  Even though we had to fork out $400 it still felt good to pay for something in cash.

We've had a bunch of small wins like paying off three small credit cards two weeks ago.  This is the first big win in our snowball and it feels great!!!

-  Live like no one else so that later one you can live and give like no one else.

Stupid with zeros

Have you ever done something stupid financially and regret doing it years later.  Over the last couple of days I think I have figured out my worst financial decision ever.  It happened about two years ago.

I had new car fever.  I was tired of driving my 2009 Honda Civic to and from Mobile due to how loud the cabin was on the interstate.  I somehow talked Callean into letting me be stupid.

I traded in the Civic in on a 2009 BMW 328i.  I was so happy at the time.  But what I didn't realize is that I probably made the worst financial decision of my life.  I traded in a car that was almost paid off for a $24k car.

I really enjoyed driving the BMW.  It's not called the Ultimate Driving Machine for nothing.  But it was very expensive to own.  We started getting really serious about the total money makeover so I started looking at what debt I could payoff or reduce.  So I looked at getting rid of the BMW.

We ended up trading the BMW in on a Jeep Compass because we wanted a second vehicle to transport the 5 of us around.  

The issue with the Compass is that within the last 4 months the value has dropped $4k and I am putting 3k miles on it a month.  

Now two years later I wish I didn't pay my stupid tax kept the Civic.  Guess I'm just stuck with the Compass and a shovel to get myself out of this hole.

Success, well a little….

WOOHOOO!!! We paid another card off today… so that now makes #5… Merry Christmas to us J or Roll Tide to us CIMH. Justin really wanted to go to the Bama game this weekend and the cost of tickets was the same amount as our current credit card we have been working on. So we decided to stay home and use the money to pay off big #5.

We will be at a slight Gazelle intensity coming up in the next few months we are scheduled to pay off #6 and 7 in Feb and April.  It really feels nice to see that number change, we have been kind of stagnant the last few months chopping away at #5 but it was worth it. 

Having that debt snowball really does help. For those of you who are going what is a debt snowball I will tell you. The snowball effect is when you take the min payment of the card you just paid off and roll it on to the next card you are working on, and so on and so on.  So say your first card has a $25 min payment and you pay it off and the next card has a $20 min payment you add the $25 to the $20 and you are paying $45 on the second card. And when it is paid off you roll the $45 on to the next card and add it to it’s minimum payment. Something else that will help is adding what we call snowflakes. You finish your budget and you still have and extra $30 that you don’t have to use for anything then add it to your snowball that month and get the card paid off even a little bit faster. And that is how that works

So just wanted to share our little win, feels great and going to keep on keeping on. Just have to make it through Christmas without completely blowing the budget. So if you get something small this year I apologize in advance. No worries because in a few years when we are debt free we will make up for it J

And MOM stop stalling and get on it… Dave Ramsey is your friend, you can still hate him haha but he knows what he is talking about. I agree with dad you don’t need a new tree, just get dad to make you a platform for it with whatever spare parts he has in his shop J you can get a bigger tree when you are debt free.  I want you and dad to come to Nashville and do you debt free scream too J Lets do this!!!! Love you Mom ;) 

For those of you who are interested in Dave Ramsey you can check out his website at www.daveramsey.com 

He is also having Christmas give aways you can enter in daily for free, who doesn't love free cash this time of year. You will win so much for you and then you get to give the same amount away to a friend. hint hint ;) j/k seriously though go check him out if you are tired of always paying the man and want to get out of debt. Live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later.  

Thanks for reading!!! and Happy Thanksgiving next week!!!

Gazelle intensity well more like sloth intensity …

Gazelle intensity well more like sloth intensity …

       Total money makeover… ugh well we are starting month 4 of our total money makeover and starting month 3 of our budget. Well they keep saying once you see stuff getting paid down you go into Gazelle intensity but that has not happened for us. It has been VERY hard to stick with the budget and get out of our old habits. I do have to say we are doing better than when we just went out and spent whatever we wanted but it is very hard.

Our biggest problem is un-foreseen expenses or forgotten expenses. Like car tags and HOA fees, cell phone upgrades, and lunch boxes where old one tears up. palm to face I do have to give Justin props he wants to upgrade so bad but he is still sticking with his Iphone 4 (Justin says not for long or we might have to replace a window also). So he is 3 behind the times. If you know my husband you know that is very unlike him.  

And now here we are on our zero based budget where you account for every penny made towards a specific bill/category of spending. And to add to our lack of Gazelle the government shut down has caused Drill to be cancelled so that is less income we have to remove from the budget and re work our expenses and not sure we will have enough to really make up the difference. I guess this is why step 1 is so important. Having the $1000 emergency fund. Does a shut down count as an emergency huf.

But like I told my husband we are going to keep going and carry on. It may take us longer then we had anticipated to pay everything off especially with insurance rates possibly going up and Drill dates being cancelled. I do have to say this though with patience, sacrifice and our determination WE will no longer be a slave to our debt. 

I know I wanted to write this blog so you could follow our progress and to hopefully motivate you but this blog is not very motivating. I actually need some motivation from you guys... Just having a bad week, as most Americans are I am sure. I want to try to encourage everyone to become debt free, cut up your credit cards, have an Emergency fund and finish baby step 2 and work towards baby step 3. If all of us are able to make it through step 3 and save up 3-6 months worth of salary then these Government shutdowns won’t cause as much havoc in our lives.  I really do wish we had found Dave Ramsey 10 years ago when we started this journey called Marriage.  But we can’t change the past we can only change our future.  Hmmm Maybe we should all vote for Dave Ramsey for President so he can get this country out of debt the right way lol.

Ok getting of my soap box. Hope you guys enjoyed the read, sorry if I got your blood pressure up talking government but that is where we are at this week. Praying for all those being affected and that our government can pull their heads out of their butts and get something resolved and quit messing with our money. Trying to get ahead here, Just saying… There I go again lol… ok I’m out of here… Oh wait I will leave you with one tip. If you do choose to go out to eat one thing that can save money is to drink WATER. It is free and good for you. Ok I have been helpful J Remember to go be a weirdo and “Live like no one else so that later on you can live like no one else”~ Dave Ramsey 

You Talking to me?!?

For years now Callean and I had always felt financially trapped.  A lot of it we have brought it on ourselves and we were looking for a way out.  In real life there is no easy way to fix stupid.  I started looking around the internet for help on how to get out of debt.  I ran across a guy named Dave Ramsey.  I started reading his website and started thinking that this could work if we worked hard and stayed motivated.

I found out that Dave had a podcast so I found his channel on iHeart Radio.  When I turned it on the first words out of his mouth was "Hey you with the BMW.  You're so worried about what you're driving.  So worried about trying to impress people you don't even know or like.  When you pull up next to someone at a stop light they could give a flip what you're driving." I was like, man he's talking to me.  I thought to myself, "Justin you are so stupid.  He went to commercial break and when he came back on he said "You make $##,### (exactly what I make a year) and you can't do anything.  You're stuck.  You could change the lady's life sitting next to you at church by giving her $100, but you can't because you're broke.  You're broke because you've done stupid with zeros. " Wow.  I was definitely meant to hear this.  I felt so ashamed of myself.  I immediately called Callean and said we need to try this.

We sat down that night and discussed what we need to do to do the Total Money Makeover.  I bought his book and started reading.  The book was a HUGE eye opener.  Everything stupid we've ever done was discussed in the book.  He discussed the way to be wealthy would be following the 7 baby steps.

Baby Step 1 - $1000 emergency fund - DONE!!!

Baby Step 2 - Debt Snowball - This is where we are and will be for a while.  I will post specifics later so everyone can see our progress.

The key to the success of this process though is a zero based budget.  If you still have more money going out than coming in then you're not making true progress.  This has been the hardest part for us.  We have done pretty good this month following the budget but its been tough.

This is how we started our journey to a total money makeover.  I was meant to hear that on that podcast.  I'm glad God spoke to me through Dave Ramsey and hopefully we can stay motivated to live like no one else so later on we can live and give like no one else....

The start of our journey and budget oh budget

Money, bills, income, and the dollar signs $$$$ most people do not like to talk about their money. It is tabu in todays society to talk about ones money. Well Justin and I have decided to start writing a blog about our journey so that maybe us coming out in the open will encourage others to start taking control of their lives and getting out of debt. Aren't you tired of money controlling your every decision and causing arguments among the married couples. We decided we were and are projected to be debt free in 4 years not including mortgages if we maintain our pace with no extra income.

How are we going to do this you might ask? Well if you don't already know we are following Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. We are on baby step 2. See link for the list of all 7 baby steps and more information. (http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/) We are in the second month but actually our first month of our true zero based budget. It has proved a little difficult to get into the groove but we are starting to get it.  We have paid off 4 out of 21 bills. This includes credit cards, student loans, 2 car loans, and some store cards.

The hardest, most difficult thing to accomplish and continue to accomplish is following a spending budget for grocery shopping and not going out to eat.  We have went from spending an average of $250-$300 a week to $150 a week and now I am cooking at home just about every night. This money is for food, diapers and anything else we need from Wal-Mart.

Now the first thing we did to help us actually leave Wal-Mart with $150 worth of groceries and not a ton more is MAKE A LIST. This begins with a weekly menu, this way you know what exactly you need to buy. The second thing that has helped us is a budget app on our iphone. I must admit this is a pain in the butt but it is what has truly made it possible to know what we are spending before getting to the check out. It allows you to enter every item, price plus tax into the app and it keeps a tally for you. Like I said it is a pain in the butt but worth it.

Thanks to that app we have had to put items back that we could wait on and not buy the unnecessary stuff. I almost cried the week I had to put my cookies and swiss rolls back. All I have to say is thank God for my thin mint stash in the freezer or I would have went nuts that week.  And I am not afraid to say we have had Ramen soup on several occasions for dinner. Lucky for me the kids and Justin love it. Our other low cost go to meal is Tuna sandwiches and mac and cheese. Another kid favorite.

Finally tonight however, when we were doing our shopping we had all needs and even a few wants and were ready to head to check out and still had $6 left in our weekly budget. Oh you should have seen our faces, SUCCESS, finally felt like we were getting this spending and buying under control and it is going to be possible to survive. Now what we should have done is checked out and banked that $6 towards our credit cards. Well that was not the case lol. I offered to get Justin some chocolate candy he had looked at but my wonderful husband went and picked up my favorite Blue Bell ice cream "Dessert Trio." Since I have been cooking almost every night since we started this journey I allowed the special treat :) Now next week might not be as successful since we will need to buy diapers but it is getting easier. I forsee another Ramen soup dinner night next week ;)

Thanks for reading and we will continue to try and post how we are doing. Next projected payoff of a bill is set for December. Going to be a great Christmas present to change our 4 to a 5. Just remember to be a weirdo and Live like no one else now so later on you can live like no one else.