December and Year-End Recap

What a month!

I think this month is normally a big expense month for most families because of Christmas. For us, it was made even bigger because we took a trip to Utah to visit my family. However, because of our generous boss and one other Heaven-sent blessing, we were in the black by the end of the month. But that doesn't mean we were very wise this month. We were a little zealous in our gift giving. Overall a good month.

In 2010, we made a huge step in paying off our debt by starting this method of tracking our spending. We still have a very long way to go. For 2011, I want our total debt to be below $15,000 by the end of the year. In order to do that, we only need to pay our CC the way we have been, and to not put anything else on them. It's definitely achievable as long as nothing crazy and out of the ordinary happens (knock on wood).

Happy New Year!

Black Friday...

What a month! This isn't the recap, more my thoughts on this silly shopping tradition we have. I've participated in Black Friday shopping craziness in the past, but the last 2 years I've realized that most of these door-busters and deals aren't really that great - or at least the ones they want you to spend the big bucks on aren't that great of a deal. This year, Tony got up and got a great deal on batteries and poinsettias and one or two great gifts. He spent less than $100, didn't wait in any lines (Home Depot and Fred Meyers) and came home feeling good about what he got. This month was a very tight month for us anyway, but at the end of that day we were on our last $20.

Honestly I don't see what all the hype is. People get trampled, you're low on sleep, tempers are running high and often lost, and its FREEZING! Is it worth it? I totally understand getting a deal on a few select gifts for family or friends, but for decor or things for yourself - there are WAY better deals on the days after Christmas sales.

It was a great Friday for me, I spent the day getting all of my fall/thanksgiving decor down and setting up for Christmas! I enjoyed eating leftovers and plenty of pumpkin pie. But mostly I enjoyed sleeping in and saving money (by not spending it).

Again I just want to say how THANKFUL I am for budgets and tracking spending! I can only imagine the damage we could have done if we weren't being consciously aware of our finances.

Sobering

So for fun tonight, since my son is deciding not to sleep anyway, I searched on Google trying to see if I could find our blog. Sadly no. A huge waste of time. I did find a lot of other bloggers, doing exactly what we are doing. I looked for fun to see what other people were doing and how much debt they had. At first I was a little impressed with us, the next lowest number I saw was over $10,000 more than we had. Then I looked at their breakdowns, about $15,000 of it was in car loans. Unfortunately for us, all of our debt is in plastic. We don't have hardly anything to show for it (like a vehicle). It was a very sobering night. Glad we're doing something about it though and not just wishing and hoping.

October Recap

This month was a curve ball (as noted in our last post). We only worked about once a week. Thankfully, because of our budget we were able to stay within our means and didn't overdraw or default on any bills. And spectacularly we are back in business! The last few days of last month, our boss informed us that we have enough projects to last through the year. Plus, Tony got another job at a jewelry store in the mall - doing sales, which he loves and is so great at (I wish I had half of his skills).

Because of the skimpy month ahead (based on our hours worked last month), we didn't pay anything other than the minimum due on our credit cards. We actually even closed another credit card so that the minimum payments and interest would be lower. This also helps to prevent us from putting more on that.

When we started this 2 1/2 months ago, I had a dream to finish paying off our debt within 2 years. That was a very lofty goal considering almost all of our income would be going to bills and debt, and thus far I'm seeing that at our current status, this goal cannot be reached that soon. More like 3 years. Still a great accomplishment if we can achieve it.

It's been a great month though, still spent a little more on eating out than we should and "unnecessary expenses", etc. The great feeling of staying within our means in irreplaceable!

A Twist of Fate? Or Bad Luck.

Amber: it's funny how things happen in life. Is it luck or fate or the Universe laughing at us? For the last 3 years, my husband has been working as an apprentice to an appraiser, getting enough hours and experience and taking classes so he can get his license. For the last 2 years I've been working with him as the Office Manager. We have never had a lull in business, if there was a panic it was because there was too much to do and we were coming up on deadlines. Apparently the joke has been on us, though. Four weeks ago our boss went on vacation for 2 weeks to Hawaii, we made sure that all of the projects were completed by then so that she could relax and not worry about work. We have NEVER had an empty project list. We were excited for the break as well. Then our boss came home from vacation... still no projects. Here we are two weeks later and have only worked 5 days in the past 30. We are feeling a little anxious. Based on just these earnings, our income is going to be less that 50% of what it is now. We're not worried about paying $1000 on our debt now, we're worried about surviving. Tony has been looking for another job, something flexible that will allow him to go back to appraising when needed. I have been putting more efforts in my direct selling business, Discovery Toys. We haven't really felt the panic yet because we're riding the paycheck from last month. But in a week or so, we'll feel it. The funny thing is, when we were talking with our boss, she said this is usually how the appraisal business is, busy in the summer and slow in the winter, we've just never experienced this and so she's never brought it up. If only we'd known, maybe we would've saved more for the winter... or maybe not. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Perspective

Amber: It's interesting how $1000 in credit card debt can seem so much more monumental when it's on my bill than when its on my boss's bill. At my job as bookkeeper and office manager, part of my duties are paying the bills. My boss has 4 or 5 credit cards as well, and her bills usually have $1000 - $2000 each month also. The big difference is I write a check for $1000 or $2000 almost every month, for each credit card. When I'm writing those checks, $1000 seems like nothing, like a normal $50 payment for me. I was thinking about it recently, if I was my boss, I could pay off all of this debt in about 4 or 5 months if I wanted to. That makes me feel a little helpless. I have to keep reminding myself that we're in way different stages of life. Someday I'll be on the other end of this debt and my perspective will be different, about spending, money and probably more.

Recap September

So this month was our first on our budget/Debt Diet. It was exciting and interesting. I updated the budget every 2 or 3 days or so and we were able to stay within our means and pay extra on our cards this month. It was not the amount I was hoping for, but it was a lot better than the last 3 years have been.

It's amazing how old habits are hard to kill. Even though we were trying to stay within the perimeters we had set for ourselves, we overstepped what I thought was reasonable. For example, we spent $87 in "dining out" and even though we were eating extremely healthy (baja fresh), that is more than I used to "budget" for and more than we need to spend in a month on outside food.

Another thing I forgot to configure in my budget was "unexpected items" - which is hard to plan for, but I didn't even think about. Our brake pads needed to be replaced, and luckily my husband is awesome and replaced them himself (even though he'd never done it before), saving us half the cost. However, adding that to our other "unexpected costs" and "necessary/unnecessary expenses" and we were off of my projected dream payoff amount for the month.

Overall, it was a great and successful month. On to October!!