What's it Worth to You?

Getting out of debt! What is that worth to you? What are you willing to do? What can you do? These are the questions we ask and are still asking ourselves weekly. What more can we do and are we truly doing enough?
I have to laugh at our craziness. We have a timeline on a bill that needs to be paid. We can't use credit, so we are left with cash. Well, we have no spare cash to put towards this. SO we once again looked around the house. What can we live without? Here's a reminder..... Everything we have is a material item. We need our beds so those stay. We need our kitchen table and appliances so those stay. We need the washer and dryer, stay. Couch? Hmmm! I think we can live without the couch. We do have two nice little chair things we can sit on that are already a part of the living room. So we agreed on a price and put the couch, actually a very GINORMOUS (complete understatement) sectional from the La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery up for sale. I looked online and discovered the exact couch is new for 2,599. Yikes. That is over double what we pd. I then looked at the couch in detail and noted the things that were wrong with it and posted in on the local Craig's List. We had it sold, the people showed up after renting a uhaul and decided they didn't want it because it was not a solid brown. Downer. I was flooded with emails in response and hit the few that said "we want it no matter what. Have the cash and can pick up asap". So we went to the next and it was sold. Again. We delivered to them today and to my surprise they obviously did not measure like I said they needed to do. Sure enough the sectional was way to big for the living room there but they said they will make it work. LOL! So I walked away with the money for it. I was pleased.

Once you sell that first item it's easy to feel great and think, "Now what can I sell?" So we are selling our stationary bike and whatever else we find in storage that we have been living without for the past 7 months. I will keep you posted.
Just remember that if we can sit on the floor for a few months while watching tv, which we shouldn't be anyway, plus it's summer, than so can you. Well, I am not saying go sell your couch, but find things that you have around your house that you CAN LIVE WITHOUT. Sentimental things, heirlooms and those things passed down keep for obvious reasons. NO complaining until you have tried everything you can. Try your best to sell something before running to someone to borrow money. You will feel so empowered. Any feedback? Do I have any readers? I guess if you quit posting people quit reading. If I'm not suggesting realistic things for realistic people then there is no point in putting this out there. I will anyway, even if for one reader. If anything for my own documentation of our journey.

So what's it worth to us? Being debt free! Bottome line!

Have a great summer selling things on the Internet, at garage sales and however else you can. Clean house, less clutter and less debt. Go sell!!!!!

Lots and lots!!

So this week marks a lot of things that have been happening. We celebrated our daughters 7th bday,(which we spend a whopping $5 for sidewalk chalk for her as her gift) Only because we bought the food for two meals for family. That was WAY more than we thought it would be but there are a lot of us between both families. My cousin got engaged, someone close to me is pregnant, (Can't say who yet), my daughter was asked to be a flower girl in my cousins wedding, my sweet hubby is graduating from college with his Bachelor of Arts Degree in management. We are smitten about this. (God has been good to us during this journey)! I am feeling better from my cold, my sister and I are beginning a journey to lose weight, and I am down 4 pounds in 36 hours. Just by cutting back.

The meals in this house will change drastically. No more fatty, greasy, and unhealthy cooking. Maybe a splurge every so often but come on, being this big isn't fun. My knee hurts, I'm tired all the time, no desire to get out in the sun in shorts (my favorite thing to wear) and tired of not treating my body like a temple. God has blessed me with working parts and I ought to make use of them to my best potential. So my meal plans will look different. I will include recipes if anything spectacular. And cost effective of course.

Meal plan:
Monday-Hot Dogs
Tuesday- Rice-a-roni, apples, and bread
Wednesday-hot dogs at church (mmm, kids aren't tired of em yet)Pinewood Derby night!
Thursday- Roast, veggies and homemade rolls or french bread
Friday- ?? Up in the air. If home then Mac and cheese, from a box. ;) Salmon for me!
Saturday- RJ graduation, something quick, not sure
Sunday- Dinner at in-laws ?

We are living scarcely this next few weeks. Doing the zero balance budget is a great way to be accountable to the extra spendy but makes for being bummed when you want to splurge but there isn't enough $ to do so. We have about 30 bucks for emergency food buying. We will live on what is here, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, etc... The freezer will be empty like the fridge is now. We are resorting to what is in the freezer and cupboards. But it will be enough. Just gotta get creative.

My weakness: I love Tupperware. I use it for everything and rarely use baggies. Saves me unnecessary $ on lunch Baggies that get tossed just to put bread or a sandwich in one time. I could spend on Tupperware like mad. It is lifetime guarantee. For life. They will literally replace anything that breaks. As long as you didn't put it in the microwave when it says not to. ;)

SO I am smitten this week with a lot of great things happening. God is good and remains faithful in our home, family, schools, friends, and even in our budget.

Have a great week and continue to find changes you can make to save money and not charge on credit cards. Summer is coming. Are you having a garage sale? If you haven't used it in the past year or worn in in the last 6 months, it must go. I'm having one soon. :)

Monthly Wrap Up

This month flew by now that I look back on it. It seems that we wait impatiently for those paychecks. As I mentioned before we are not impatiently waiting due to needing the money because we are strapped but to use the money to be good stewards. We are giving more than ever before to our church. Sad reality but it was the truth. We were inconsistent, undisciplined and selfish. We thought we didn't have any extra. Ugh! What a sickening thought. We had it so wrong. Our tithe is the first check that is written on payday. Not a second thought about it. It is Gods money to begin with. He has blessed us with enough to live and give and to pay down debt.
I am still in total shock at what we are doing. We have officially been on our TMM challenge for 1 whole month. In the month of February we have paid over $6000 off of our debt. It is awesome.

You may be wondering how. Well, I will tell you. First we did our taxes and due to the number of kids we have, the write offs we had and the amount of clothes donated from all the kids we have, we had a nice return. On top of that we have managed to "come up with" much extra. We even had a few set backs. New to us, but very old truck, needed new tires, difficult built car needed wheel barrings, and not to mention the Tahoe deductible to get repaired.....

We continue to try and sell items on our local Craig's List. We have had spectacular success in this. We have made easily over $1200 (a guess at this point, but I'm sure it's a bit more) in just 6 weeks. We have sold things in and around the house and garage that we either, do not use, have not used, or know we will not use. We have sold things that we can do without. We use digression in our sales and what we sell but we try selling before donating. We are stocking up for a huge garage sale.

As of today we have NO MORE TV. It is cancelled. We are off to reading more, talking more yeah, yeah, it can be done with even me...., and blogging more. ;) Yay for you, right?

Finally, we get the paycheck, estimate our gas for the vehicles, food for the next two week according to my meal planning, and then pay the bills. Minimum on all but the one small one. After seeing how much money is left in the checkbook we take that amount and pay the next little thing/s off/down. That is how we are electing to take care of it. February brought a lot of Dr bills that were left over from 2 kiddos surgeries and a record high of visits, not to mention that darn deductible. Those are gone, paid, adios forever! (Well, I guess till the next dr visit comes along.... )

If anyone is reading this I urge you, beg, whatever it is, to sit down and write all your spending out. (Of course if you are as sick and tired as we were of being controlled by our money and debt). We all "think" we have a budget but really getting a bill and paying it, even if you know what money you have on debts and where it is going, isn't a budget. A budget is taking control of your money. Telling it where to go each and every pay period. Give it a try.

Again, we are on a zero balance budget. We have very few dollars in our checking for the next 9 days. What if something comes up and we need money? Well, we have the cash for gas, a little for misc food items to complete a meal, and grabbing a quick bite from McDonald's doesn't quite fall in to the emergency category. IF something does come up then that is why we have our emergency fund. We can walk into the bank and borrow from that. But only in an emergency. Car repair, unexpected medical bill, household repair, etc... That's an emergency.

Have a super first week of March. And by the way, we managed to celebrate our DD 5th bday on a small amount of money. We bought 3 boxes of cake mix, 2 cans of frosting, marshmallows, candy drops to make/decorate cupcakes (for 3 different "parties"), and three books as her gift for a total of $25.00. The books alone were almost $21. I spent 4 bucks on cupcakes, and a few hours to make and decorate. But this was all she got and she was FINE with it. Cutting back on the bday parties is A-OK with us. She has had just as much fun too.

LITTLE changes produce BIG rewards!!