A Snowball's Chance in...

The bad news:

• Due to certain changes (to pay schedule, benefits alterations, and - mostly - losing a freelance gig), our monthly income has been reduced by $551 per month.
• This change reduces our debt snowball from $718 a month to $167 a month.
• Plus, we've had to stop the snowball repeatedly to cover other expenses. Like $1,300 to fix the van. Like to have a baby (the LAST baby, silly, not a NEW baby - yet, ha). Like to reshingle the house this summer. Like the curtains I bought and haven't hung up. Gah.
• Meanwhile, we've run up against our biggest debt yet, the student loans. They currently have a balance of $15,553. It's like chipping away at a granite wall with a fork. A plastic fork.

The good news:

• Boy am I glad we were snowballing that money in the first place! Imagine if I had to cut $551 out of our actual budget.
• I'm also glad we were snowballing at all, since we're in a much better financial situation than we were two years ago.
• Those expenses? The van, the grumpy baby, the curtains? We've cashflowed them. No new debt, and that's a great thing, yes?

While I'd like to be making more/faster progress on paying off the debt, I think it's time to redefine "success" around here. Sometimes, in some seasons of our lives (and the economy), just keeping our heads above water is a success. Glug glug.

The Original Pancake House

I don't, generally, trust other people to cook gluten free for us.

But we were out of town. And we haven't been to a restaurant as a family in so long.

And The Original Pancake House was advertising their new gluten-free menu.

So we gave it a try.

And? Yum. (At least I thought so, my kids got banana pancakes and weren't in love with that, though I think they'd like the plain buttermilk ones more.)

It's been three days and we haven't had a reaction yet.

Verdict? Success!

Thank you, Original Pancake House, and we apologize for the noise and mess.

How about you? You down with OPH? (And, I apologize for that also.)

The lovely and talented Sarah of Everyday Gluten Free said, "I'd love to hear how you got from separate checking accounts to where you are today!"

The marriage of one Gluten Free Frugal and one SuperDad is a mysterious and magical thing. HA ahhh ha ha! What I mean by that is, "Uh, I don't really remember."

Back in the day, I felt pretty strongly about each of us taking responsibility for our "own" stuff. I had MY money and he had HIS money and never the twain should meet. We were both making minimum wage or just above. I was a seller of movie tickets and he was an artist of sandwiches. That year, for my birthday, he bought me candy bars and crossword puzzle books. (BTW, do I remember what he bought me last year for my birthday? I do not. But I was thrilled with the candy bars. Actually, who isn't thrilled with candy bars? Crazy people, that's who.)

Time passed. Blah blah. It happened to be that I was making more money that he was. Like, by double. And splitting everything evenly wasn't really working anymore. Plus, I believe now, marriage isn't a "split" thing, it's a "share" thing. There shouldn't be "his" and "mine," there should be "ours" (except the comic books, I don't really want those, but thanx, mmmkay?), and so we put it all together. And that made moving to one income so much easier.

Now SuperDad is a very excellent type of person, and he doesn't spend money on silly things (well, other than comic books), and we all know that I'm ultra cheap a very reasonable shopper. So, that helps us, as far as that goes.

If there's one single thing a couple can do to succeed with money, it's to get on the same page.

And how are things going? A) I wrote a check for the entire cost of my braces (which will be reimbursed through my flex spending account). They asked if they should wait to cash the check, and I said, "Nope. It will be fine." How cool is that? B) It took SuperDad 10 days to pick up a paycheck. I asked what he wanted to do with it, and he said, "Whatever." A paycheck that we don't *need*? What is that?

These things didn't happen because we have so much money (BWAHAHA! As if!), but because we're on top of the money we do have. And that? Rocks!

The end. (Who is sorry she asked? Sarah is! Hee.)

Minivan Driver

So we bought a minivan yesterday. This one right here.

I think we got a great deal - it's older, a 2001, but with only 28,000 miles on it. The final negotiated price was $8,500 - of which we had $4,785 in cash (thank you, tax return). The rest came from our home equity line of credit. I know, I know, but I think we can have it paid off in the next couple of months, since:

• We still have one of our cars to sell for $3,000-$3,500 (you want a slightly used Dodge Stratus, don't you, yes you do! Haven't you always wanted to shout, "I drive a Dodge Stratus!"? Yes, yes you have wanted that.)
• We'll hopefully be getting a $1,200 tax rebate in Mayish?

This will melt the debt snowball a bit, but I'm thrilled with the purchase, I feel like we have a real handle on a short-term debt, and I think we've got something reliable to transport our whole family.

Yay!

Check Out the Debt Snowball

My goal this month had been to pay more toward debt than we did the month before. But, life happened, as it is wont to do. The brakes went out on our car. And then we got a flat tire and the tire guy was like, "People. Please, for your safety, don't just patch these again." So, we dipped into the emergency fund to fix our car. And while we didn't meet our debt-paydown goal, we also didn't have to use credit to pay to have our car fixed. And that's a success in my book.

We think we can have the emergency fund back on track by mid-January, and then we'll really get rolling on the debt paydown.

Speaking of Consumerism

We've finished our Christmas shopping.

We had a $500 budget. We had $500, in cash, actually saved for Christmas. Our list was 25 people long, including the two littles that live in our house.

All told, we spent $531, only slightly over. And the overage mostly had to do with me completely forgetting to plan for a couple of people.

It's amazing how much of the Christmas season I spend thinking about how I should spend more, and worrying that people will be hurt that we haven't spent enough on them, and caring (a lot) that maybe they've spent more on us than we have on them. And I would bet I'm not at all alone on that.

But the thing is? I can't even remember what I got for Christmas last year. I can't remember what I bought for Christmas last year. How ridiculous is it to overspend our budget, to put ourselves into debt, to make payments on things that we can't even remember?

The kids visited Santa yesterday. E asked for Wizard of Oz dolls and footie pajamas. D asked for a new Wiggles Dance Party DVD (for months he's been sad that he broke the VHS of this). I'm proud that they didn't ask for a single thing just because they saw a commercial for it. In fact, they very rarely see commercials at all, and usually only at other people's houses. I know we won't always have such reasonable requests from our children, but this year, before they're old enough to be conscious consumers themselves, I plan to enjoy it.

$40 Grocery Budget

It happened that we only had $40 to spend on groceries this week. I know other people who are able to pull this off every week, but this is a very tight budget for us.

Here is my dinner menu:

Chicken ranch pizza (with homemade GF and non-GF crust) - recipe to come, maybe
Hamburger rice meal
Grilled cheese sandwiches (on GF and non-GF bread) and baked beans
Taco soup (made from leftovers)
Pancakes and peaches
Mashed Potato Pups

Thanks to SuperDad's supermarketing, we only spent $36 of our $40 budget.

We bought:
Chicken (a very small amount is really needed for pizza, which is nice)
Shredded cheddar
Ground beef
GF Bread
Baked beans
Hot dogs
Fruit
Veggies
Pop
Diapers

We already had:
All-purpose flour
GF flour
Ranch dressing
Rice
Beef bouillon cubes
Bread
Cheese slices
All ingredients for taco soup
Pancakes (frozen leftovers from last time)
Instant mashed potatoes

NoLoBuMo=Less Christmas Stress

Normally this time of year, I'm feeling pressured to spend and rush and plow through my Christmas shopping. The decorations have been up in the crowded stores for weeks, and usually I'm feeling like maybe I should have Christmas-themed plates and towels and bedspreads, and maybe my hodgepodge tree isn't good enough that maybe I should have an ALL GOLD tree this year, because Target makes it all...so...beautiful!

But not this year. I haven't even really been in a non-grocery store since Halloween. And this is the least amount of stress I've ever experienced before Christmas. I haven't at all felt the need to outspend my budget or exceed my planned shopping list. I've felt that my dishes and towels were quite good enough, thankyouverymuch. I'm worrying much less about what I could have, and having more gratitude for what I do have.

I think, so far, this has been the best benefit of all.

Nearing the End

We're on our final days of the NoLoBuMo challenge. There is a ton of food that I'm craving right now, because I can't have it (mmm, psuedoMexican). My right glove has a giant hole in the index finger and I can't replace it. A few of my windows are still curtain-less because we haven't gotten around to making our own curtain rods. And I could *really* go for a McDonald's iced coffee.

But our budget is in really good shape, partially because of all of the stuff we didn't buy. I lost five pounds. I reacquainted myself with some local businesses I haven't bothered to support in awhile. And I've gotten lots of helpful advice and tips and ideas and lentils from people reading the blog.

Overall, I think it was a great success, and I really learned a lot. Really, for the first time, I had to stop and evaluate every single purchase. There was suddenly a speed bump between "I need new curtain rods" and handing over my check card at Wal-Mart. In that way, that level of thoughtfulness is very similar to beginning a gluten-free diet. Like there was no more mindless spending for us this month, someone on a gluten-free diet can't just eat mindlessly. Every bite, every package, even when it's an item you've bought a hundred times, must be checked and rechecked, because your health depends on it. Our finanical health depends on thoughtful spending in exactly the same way.

NoLoBuMo - Week 2

Grocery Shopping!

I'm starting to realize how unbelievable it is that we have not only one, but TWO locally-owned grocery stores. The store I hit last night is a chain - a chain of seven stores in the nearby counties. And that fits my criteria as "local."

I haven't been to this store much lately, but I was under the impression that it was too expensive. Let's see what I actually found out, compared to the same items I bought at Wal-Mart:

• 0.57 more for a gallon of milk (and I was able to buy more locally - as in from North Dakota rather than Illinois. Choosing the more local option may be what I end up doing, as I haven't actually found local resources for things, though help on this would be much appreciated!)
• 0.42 more for ground beef (0.39 more than the local source I found last week)
• 0.23 more for waffles
• 0.29 less for apples
• 0.59 less for grapefruit
• 0.51 more for pasta sauce
• 0.15 more for tomato soup
• 0.27 more for baked beans
• 0.49 less for diapers, maybe? I'm not sure exactly on the cost per diaper comparison, but I was pleasantly surprised to find affordable diapers. Of course, I do have cloth diapers we could also use.

Overall, I spent 21 cents more to shop at the "expensive" store versus Wal-Mart. Overall, $2.57 cheaper than the "cheap" local store.

PLUS, really, truly, you cannot underestimate the customer satisfaction derived from the child-sized shopping card that kept my little one busy and happy for an entire hour. I was very impressed.

And, if anyone is interested, here is my dinner menu this week:

• Lasagna and lettuce salad (I usually make the kids corn noodles and cheese with sauce and cottage cheese for dipping)
• Macaroni and cheese and baked beans (again, corn noodles for the kids)
• Porcupine meatballs (recipe to come, if it turns out), green beans, bread
• Ring bologna, baked beans, cream corn
• Waffles and fruit salad
• Breakfast biscuits (probably just ham/egg sandwiches for the kids)

You may notice that we often have at least two meatless meals per week, and we often have two breakfast-for-dinner meals per week, which helps to keep costs down.

Seeing a Connection

Noticing that the weeks I blow it on the budget.... I blow it on the diet also. Hm.

That doesn't, however, take anything away from the $320 our debt went down in October. I'd love to see that going down more quickly, but we have averaged $755 a month for the last 4 months.

How I Bought Groceries with a Snowsuit

A few weeks ago, I decided to splurge. I had money saved in my "clothing" account and E needed a new winter coat. She has SuperDad's monkey arms, so her 3Ts are all getting too small. Not really a good thing to have in a coat, per se. I shopped and shopped and I shopped and shopped. Then I went to bed and dreamed about shopping. I dreamed about $8 snowsuits and matching boots and hats.

The best deal I could find was a $35 coat that felt like it was made for California "winter" not real live actual winter. So I decided to just bite the bullet and order a full coat and snow pants set online. $56. I could gag on that amount, considering I bought her last set at a department store end-of-the season sale marked down to $14 from the original $90. Oh. The shame of full-price. Anyway, I ordered the snowsuit.

And, immediately after that, of course, every store finally got their winter coat shipment. Hi, "Use your patience," much? And the one I ordered came in the mail and I wasn't so overly impressed with it. It wasn't as thick as I wanted. I swear that the people that make snowsuits have never actually seen snow. You know how in movies, snow will just land on someone's head and sit there all a-sparkly-like and never melt and turn their hair into a hat-o-frizz? This snowsuit was made for that. Hollywood snow.

Anyway. As I've mentioned, we were very bad at managing our money this time, and we were out of money for food. And cat litter. And most importantly, diet pop. So, do we whip out the credit cards? Do we borrow from our emergency fund? Or do we return the snowsuit and have faith that the bargain will come along?

Of course we returned the snowsuit.

And then, yesterday, I went to the Salvation Army. And found a coat, thick enough for actual winter, that looks brand-new, that matches the snow pants she already has, in her size. For, get this, $2.99. Praise the lord! I also bought two sets of heavy, insulated drapes to help keep some of the heat in, and some fabric, the same fabric I used to make our very favorite and much bed-hogged blanket. Total spent? $10.29. Total left over for food (shipping wasn't reimbursed, of course)? About $40.

YAY! (Okay, getting that a Salvation Army coat wouldn't feel like a success to most people, but at this point, every time we don't use the credit card when we would have just a few months ago feels like a major success to us.) Also, it was definitely about $40 worth of pain in the [neck], as I had to stand in line, with two tantrum-throwing little kids, with no stroller, carrying about 40 pounds of heavy drapes for 30 minutes! And at 25 minutes? Three teenagers bud (budded? budged?) in line in front of me. ARGH! To be rich! ;)

Making a Payment

Today I sent off, to the student loan company, a check for $74.33. It doesn't sound like much, but it's squeezed out of our tight budget. It's made out of the name brand foods that we didn't buy and the restaurants we didn't enjoy. It's made out of hand-me-down clothes and thrift store shoes. It's made out of driving the same paid-for car every day for years. And it will go directly to principal and is hopefully the first of the many extra payments that will eventually pay off these loans.

Without a Map

This pay period, we did a bit of traveling, and never ended up going to the bank for cash. We didn't plan it this way, but that's how it worked out. We kept the money in our checking account and used the debit cards for everything. I was a little nervous, because how that usually works is that we spend and buy and buy and spend and then finally get around to balancing the checkbook, only to see that we've spent everything in our savings as well.

But. Like someone who has been on a diet for awhile has a pretty good idea of how much to eat, we knew what to spend. We are now two days from pay day, with $16.54 in the checking account, and $576.00 total in the various savings accounts (Christmas, taxes, etc.).

We'll be going back to the cash budget with this next pay period, because I like the way it gives me an idea of where the money is going and where we might need to adjust. When it's all lumped together it's too easy to spend the gas money at a restaurant, for example.

I also think, for the first time, that SuperDad is managing the photography business the right way. This will be the second year he's published a calendar featuring his local landscape photography, and instead of just putting those printing costs on a credit card, he had the money in his business account and paid for it. Sure, some of that money was allocated towards the annual income tax, but he's borrowing from his own account rather than on credit. PLUS, he's already sold enough calendars to make up the printing costs. Woo!

Check In

Three months ago, we were spending all of our savings every month. AND dipping into the next paycheck before the current pay period was half over. I didn't know what we were going to do. Send SuperDad out into the 9-to-5 world? Shut down his photography business? Put the kiddos in "cay dare"?

OR. Reign it in. Quit it out. No more extra spending (and being visious about labeling things "extra"). Making savings a priority. A cash budget. Taking a $20 bill to the store, and knowing there were no credit cards or debit cards in my purse to back me up, just in case. Not give up the lifestyle that matters to us so that we can have more stuff.

And here is where we are, three months later:

1. $1000 emergency fund!
2. Credit card debt GONE!
3. Last weekend's trip out of town, paid for, in cash.
4. Next weekend's trip out of town saved for.
5. New glasses, paid for in cash (Um, okay, so they only cost $25 thanks to my awesome insurance. But previous years? I just bought whatever I felt like, even what wasn't covered by insurance and paid with my credit card.)
6. 1/2 of Christmas budget already saved.

Not too shabby for three months' time.

I was concerned that by making the budget a priority, things would start falling by the wayside in other areas. Like that I couldn't focus on losing weight or organizing the house if I was focusing this much on the budget. But I've really found that by making the budget a success, I've felt much more capable in every area of my life, and things are starting to come together rather than fall apart.

How Far We've Come

The last year or so was rough, budget-wise. We were routinely spending more than we earned. We had no savings. We we struggling.

But I decided it was time to reign it in. We needed a budget, and we needed one now. And we needed to decide it wasn't okay to spend all of our savings every month. And it wasn't okay to just whip out the credit card when that money was gone.

Since we've moved to a cash budget envelope system, we are now living within our means. We have paid off our credit card (WOO!). We have begun to build up our savings, including almost achieving a $1000 emergency fund. And soon, we'll start paying down our remaining debts.

Now, if I could just apply these principles to my diet. Hmm... diet envelope system, now there's an idea. Or not.

The Check is in the Mail

How bad is it to write a big check to pay off the credit card and then have to scrounge around on the floor of my car to find enough change to buy a stamp to mail it?

Windfall

Is something techncially a windfall if you have to work your butt off for it? I don't know. Anyway, SuperDad is sealing and repainting his grandma's basement after recent flooding. For this, she is paying him $5000. Yes, that is a crazy amount. Yes, that is still half of what she was quoted for a professional to do the work.

She gave us $3000 so far. The other $2000 will come at the end.

We already "wasted" $200 because I bought a new outfit, new shoes, we went out to eat for my birthday, and SuperDad bought some supplies for some other work he is doing for his sister. Here is our budget for the rest:

$2100 PAY OFF CREDIT CARD WOO! (Is it okay to put "Woo" on the check? Ha.)
$20 because our water bill was more than we saved for it (baby pool?)
$75 to have the oil changed on the cars (It probably won't cost that much?)
$45 bills from the dentist coming
$460 fun trip out of town in September
$60 misc stuff we need around the house that we've been putting off buying
$40 renew our web site domains
$1100 new camera lenses (Business expense.)
$500 new clothes for me WOO!
$25 long story work clock thingy
$300 save up for the first 4+ months of preschool expenses
$75 other/who knows

Dave Ramsey says that once you start dealing with your money the way you're supposed to, you'll start seeing surprise blessings coming in. Hmm. Yesterday? I got a $45 divident check in the mail from the insurance company. How about that.