COVERALL UPDATE POST

PIGS: the piglets are no longer piglets! They're HUGE! We are loving them! They're like puppies! Look how cute! This is Ethan with Bacon and Lane Michael with Gerdy! Now the downside to huge pigs is a HUGE feed bill! They are eating us out of house and home! The unfortunate part of that is that we'll have to slow their growth by feeding the fair pig oats in their feed, but the nice part is that this batch (the other 5) will be seperated out from the fair 4 and will be ready for butcher in probably June or July which is much faster than we had anticipated! But we're having SUCH a good time with them!

GARDEN STARTS:  The garden starts were probably started way too early! They're too bit and we had to move them out of their little pots and put them in cut off gallon milk jugs. I hope it gets and stays warm soon because they're simply too big to keep this up!!

Debt Free Progress: Epic FAIL! This summer will be better once we aren't paying for preschool but that's only a couple months! I'm really hoping the Wapak house sells quickly because maintaining 2 houses is killing us! We're making NO progress on becoming debt free but we are maintaining our current status so that's good but still frustrating. I know that our needs are met and even most of our wants...I think it's simply a level of comfort that a little cushion would provide.

Ethan has been slowly needing less of his meds, he's able to concentrate a little better and for longer periods of time, we are thinking of seeing a homeopath over the summer to see if she can't work with him. She said she would provide coping mechanisms for him to use, also foot and hand massage/stimulation, and a few techniques for him to practice and use. I'm putting some serious thought into it. He's started baseball and is LOVING it....he's really grown in his skill set this year, his batting is great, and seems to really enjoy it.

Lane Michael has been amazing with Ryan here lately, I think appreciating him more and just being kind and forgiving. Yesterday Ryan got left in the car with Lane Michael and me while Todd and Ethan went in to get a drink, Ryan suddenly decided he HAD to go in too so Lane Michael volunteered to take him and that's just one example, I'm amazed by the brother he is! He's also started baseball and while his hitting hasn't improved as much, his fielding has! Last night we were outside playing and he was throwing himself on the ground to stop the ball....which is a new skill for him.

Ryan is....God bless Ryan. He is funny, witty, sarcastic....on Easter Sunday we were all eating breakfast, he leaned over to his cousin Jack and said "come closer", so Jack leaned in. Ryan whispered (just loud enough for Jack and his mom to hear) "I watch you while you sleep", leaned back, took a bite, cocked one eye brow and just grinned at him. creepy little dude. He also told the whole school that the Easter bunny was just some guy in a suit. I am raising "that kid". Good news. He has little desire to hang out with the pigs, doesn't want to play baseball and is disgruntled by the disturbance it causes to his schedule. It's a good thing he's cute!

Financial Progress

We are AGAIN credit card debt free....our tax return came in and we were able to pay off 3 credit cards. This time last year I had planned to get and stay credit card debt free. We got there...we just didn't STAY there. One credit card was used for supplies to renovate the Wapak house basement (still a work in progress), one was used to fix the transmission in the Suburban, and the 3rd was used to replace the front end of the Blazer. This set me pretty far back in meeting some pretty big goals. BUT new year, new goals. This year my goal is to maintain the NO credit card debt. I'm not worried about paying off the Suburban right now. I'm more interested in selling the Wapak house, and will reassess our financial goals once that is sold. I have a few things I'd like to accomplish but after we sell Wapak house the first is paying off the suburban and buying Todd a new vehicle (probably a jeep). I'd like to start paying cash for all our vehicles so to avoid going into debt but we all know that isn't an easy feat. A few things we're going to do this year to hopefully change our finances in big ways...obviously selling the Wapak house is going to be the big change. This summer getting pigs will short term increase our expenses (our feed bill should be HUGE), another batch of broiler chicks to butcher and maybe having a side (or 2) of beef butchered for the freezer. We have NO interest in having cows but we have enough friends that have cows we should be able to get one, we're also putting out a garden, nothing big, just enough to get some fresh veggies out of th1is summer....maybe increasing it as we go so that we have enough to can for the winter...last night I made a meal of eggs (from our chickens), potatoes, left over ham, ground turkey, onions, and peppers...this fall there's a chance that meal could be 100% from homegrown ingredients...how cool is that! Oh and dessert was apple crisp (made from apples I canned last fall). Renting a house in the country has really allowed us to trial and error what we are and are not interested in doing long term. We definitely want a fruit orchard (and 2 of each fruit tree is more than enough), we definitely want chickens for eggs and for meat, and I think we're going to love having hogs...the garden will be our next hurdle...how big can we go without getting in over our heads.

Country Living

There isn't anything easy, or convenient about living in the country. My boys don't have friends less than a block away. There's no 24 hour stores, and the closest gas station is 10 minutes away. There are no side walks, I can't go home for lunch every day and start dinner, can't run home to change clothes when I spill something on myself. The kids can't ride the bus home every day and we can't just take a long walk ending in a trip to the ice cream parlor. Instead we have chickens to feed and water every morning at 6 am and again at 4, we have endless yard to run and play. We have a pond to walk to in the summer and an orchard to enjoy in the fall. But most of all what I'm enjoying is this amazing transformation I'm seeing in my children. A few weekends ago we went out of town for the weekend leaving our children with my mom. My step dad was in the wood shop working, Mom was at her store working and all 3 boys were in the house hanging out, watching TV and relaxing. Ryan, about 4 oclock starts getting sick. Big boys jumped in and just handled it! Didn't run out to find Grandpa...they just handled him, getting him to the bathroom, and then settled in with a show, a blanket and a bucket (just in case); when my mom got home she found their bed folded up, their dishes in the sink and Ryan snuggled in. I'm so proud of them for handling this so well. The next day, Lane Michael came down with the same flu, without being asked Ethan fed and watered the chickens. When cleaning out the hog pen the boys worked in the barn for 5 hours straight and the next day an additional 3 hours...never complained, never whined, just worked. I know some of these changes are just mellowing into middle schoolers but honestly I've never been a fan of that age (5-8 grade) and with these guys I'm becoming more of a fan! Their sense of humor is changing, they'rebecoming more independent, they're thinking of ways to help and doing it before being asked! I think everyone might be at my favorite age to date!

We are Project People

We have projects...lots of projects up in the air. all. the. time. Right now Todd has several DIYs going on...he has the Mustang (currently untouched at the Wapak house), he has the basement (currently going untouched ath te Wapak house), we have piglets coming this spring (which means lots of prep work between now and then) and I....I go along for the ride...until I find something to be passionate about. Right now that passion has been sewing...I'm not good at it but I enjoy it. I sewed (successfullly I might add) new stockings for all the kids this year...I sewed 5 coordinating stockings, the same size as Todd and I's stockings (Mr. & Mrs. Claus)...and was extremely happy with the results! And now? Now I want to tackle quilts/comforters for the boys...something simple and masculine...something handmade! Wish me luck!

An Annual Cycle

We set our sights too high. Our goals unattainable. And in the end, we don't buckle down, sacrifice and WORK for it. Debt free. I true desire. I hear God calling me to be debt free, and yet I continue to use credit cards (transmission went out in the Suburband and the Blazer required it's own set of repairs totalling about $4000 in credit card debt). I fall prey to the needs of the world, to material things. This year, I will set a REALISTIC goal. I am giving myself 3 years to be debt free. I have a plan in place. There is a plan A and a plan B. I will work plan A UNTIL plan B comes to fruition.

Plan A. I will take 3 years to slowly change our lifestyle.

Step 1. Cutting first the fast food and impromptu meals out.

Step 2. Stop buying snacks, coffee and non - essentials from the gas station

Step 3. Budget enough to buy my staff 1 lunch OR breakfast each week.

Step 4. Cut the grocery bill by lessening the meat in all but 1 meal each week and using other healthy alternatives to keep our meal quality higher.

Step 5. Communicate more effectively with Todd about our finances, our needs and our budget.

Step 6. Stick to my budget
a. I have $1798 coming in from the girls last month with us. I want to use that money to pay off our Care Credit card before it starts building interest, pay off right now is $1200 leaving $598 which will pay $500 for a weekend get away from my husband and I (essential) and put $100 in savings.
b. I have used a tax return calculator to see that our return SHOULD be close to $7000 but I will figure on $6500 because of the fees for H-&-R Block to do our taxes. I will use $4300 of that $6500 to pay off the suburban leaving us with $2200. I will put $1000 in savings, we will purchase a new TV (ours is literally 11 years old) and with the remaining money will buy new clothes for Todd and I (we are both in careers now that require us to dress a certain way - him a teacher and I'm the director...time to grow up). What is left will be snow balled into the remaining 2 debts.
c. our $7000 of credit card debt. When Todd is off for the summer, our fuel bill will be cut nearly in half and our child care costs will be down by about $400/month. I am hoping to leave the fuel money for him to do summer activities with the kids, and that $400 can be snow balled onto the larger credit card. but with also paying off the suburban, that frees up $150 to try to snowball, however when the girls went home, we lost their check (over $1700 a month which was used mainly for their care but also for the rent of the house we're living in now so we're really losing money from the budget making it harder to snowball that money when we don't really have it to use).

Plan B. Everything about Plan A goes out the window depending on HOW plan B goes. Plan B comes into effect WHEN we sell the Wapak house. If we can sell the house for what it's worth, it will have enough left after we pay the mortgage and realtor fees to pay off the credit card debt and maybe start a down payment for our next home, however since we use VA home loans, we don't need a down payment so we may use that for Todd's new truck (he's got his eye on one already).

Either way, life is changing. Right now. Not after the checks start coming in. Right. Now. We will make coffee before church and take it in our go cups. This is not any ones fault but my own. Todd is on board but I am the problem. He has the self control I lack. He is cooperative and forgiving. This is on me and it changes today.

Fair 2013

Chickens

We got chickens...26 chickens to be exact! Fair is coming but as soon as it does we'll lose probably 6 chickens and then another 8 will head to the butcher. People are in love with these feathery little creatures! We have 14 broilers (chickens to be butchered) and 10 layers (hens who lay eggs) and 1 rooster who was going to be a pet but he'll have to head to be butchered too...he's becoming increasingly aggressive. Anyway, the kids love them and have been great at caring for them! The bigs boys feed, water, collect eggs, clean pens and do all the basic care. the little kids have lost interest now that the chicks look like chickens! At any rate we're having a great time with it.

My Desire to be Debt Free

I have consistently been in debt for the last 12 years. Mostly vehicle loans and credit cards, stupid decisions! So a few years ago I decided I was done with this mess! This debt is out of control! It never got bad, never even half of the national average but bad enough that it made me angry! So when Todd became a student, the year Ryan was born (actually within a month of Ryan being born) I decided that if it hadn't been for the debt, maybe the it wouldn't be such a blow when someone is laid off, forced to take medical leave, or any other emergency that may come up! So for the last 2-3 years I've been working on being debt free. It's been a struggle (especially with a husband who's a student in a college that's an hour away). So we made a plan and we stuck to it. Until we didn't or couldn't. Buying the suburban right in the middle of this great plan of mine hurt. set us back. But that's ok, we readjusted our spending AGAIN and set a new plan. One we will stick with. and soon we will be debt free (except for our mortgage). We paid off the credit cards and most of the blazer with our tax return, now we're snowballing everything we have at the remaining balance on the Blazer, taking the monthly payments that we were putting towards the credit cards and applying them to the Blazer. We will then take the pell grant Todd should be receiving and putting that towards the Suburban. and then snowballing the blazer and credit card payment towards the suburban. and May 2 we SHOULD be 100% debt free save the mortgage! Paying off $16,000 of debt in 4 months! I will try to update again in mid-May to let you know if we made it!

Two and a Half Goals Met

I recently listed my financial goals here:

http://www.diabeteslossandadoption.blogspot.com/2011/12/cyclical-personality.html

and then later decided that we may be able to reach our goals faster if I went out of order a bit. So, I went ahead and put $2000 into savings (rainy day and emergency fund), paid off the ATV (which I had planned to do at the END of this year) and paid off our larger credit card ($3600) leaving us with only the smaller ($3000) credit card which I'd like to have paid off before Todd starts his fall quarter, allowing us to save up for Christmas, instead of using out of the savings account. I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel!

And my official soapbox rant of the day: I will NEVER again go into debt for FUN! Never! Ever! Seriously! We've been paying a long time on an ATV that doesn't even live at our house and we don't even get good use out of! I'll never again spend years making payments on a non-essential! GAH!

ok, stepping down!

Tax Time

While I don't agree with the way our tax structure is set up, right now in our life, we financially benefit from it. This year we should get back enough to set some into savings, pay off the ATV, pay off my credit card, pay off medical bills, have our cars worked on and even buy my new front load washer and dryer. We expect to get our return on or around February 6th...I'll start funneling that money immediately into the various debts and savings. So this time next month we should be down from 4 debts to 2 debts and medical bill free (temporarily as I have some dental work I need done, Ethan is getting tubes and Todd is considering getting a vasectomy). I don't necessarily want to make this information public but it's part of the path of becoming debt free.

Dave Ramsey's Snowball

In order to be debt free (save our mortgage) by the time my husband graduates from college we are practicing the Dave Ramsey Snowball method. We have 4 debts plus medical expenses. I posted last month that I was thinking I'd like to pay off credit cards early in the year and then concentrate on the small ATV loan we have...instead we have decided that we'd start with the small ATV loan since it's a smaller principle balance but a larger monthly payment. We currently owe $2000 so it won't take long to eliminate that debt and the rest will follow, I can funnel that money straight to one of our 2 credit cards...so while I'm changing the method I'll use to eliminate debt, the end result is the same (though hopefully it will happen faster if I start with the ATV payment vs. the credit card). Also I'm hoping that building the savings account will allow us to avoid using credit cards in the future. However, when my husband graduates (tentatively) in the spring of 2013 he will not only be debt free but also will have NO student loans for his bachelors degree so if we absolutely have to use one small credit card to get there, I am ok with it....although will do just about anything to avoid using them! I'm hoping we can also put away a few hundred dollars to use if/when a foster child arrives for their immediate needs until we get them set up with any services they may need.

Credit Card Debt Free

Todd and I rearranged some things and decided that instead of putting all the vacation money into a savings that will earn little to no interest while we pay interest on credit cards, we would pay off the credit cards and save up for the vacation. We need $1500 and already have $300, so in $1200 we can take our vacation! I'm not sure if we'll go in May as originally planned...I'm not completely comfortable with pulling everyone out of school...maybe instead we'll go closer to the end of summer as people start to get restless....it would also put a few more months on Ryan which at this age could make a huge difference in how he fairs. At any rate, we are now credit card debt free! WOOT WOOT! Now we're just a 4 wheeler away from all our small debts being paid off and only having Todd's truck loan to battle!

This & That

Debt Free Living

In the interest of making big changes in our lives, we made a big decision last night that we've been struggling with for nearly a year. We "own" a 4 wheeler...and by own I mean we are paying for a 4-wheeler. A 4 wheeler that lives in the country at my Mom's house. We enjoy it...the 2-3 times a year we use it. It's not worth $176 every month. We regret ever buying it. We received a lump sum of just over $9000 a few years ago and used that money to pay off my van, and instead of then sticking that money toward other debts or savings, we bought the 4-wheeler. Todd had always wanted one and I had always wanted to get him one. what a waste. So now we're hoping to break even and sell it for what we owe. ugh. But on the flip side, we could have $176 free up every month which gets us $176 closer to our goal! Now to find a buyer!

Also, we now have one credit card paid off and only have a balance of $1250 on the other credit card! This is AMAZING!

I love watching this all unfold. It's an amazing journey starting from a place of such waste and true "living in the moment" to get here....thinking ahead, putting thought into our financial moves, thinking long term and not responding to immediate satisfaction.

Ethan this weekend

This weekend I had the following conversation with Ethan (it's recorded on my Mom's facebook page but I'd like to have it here too):

me: even though we're hanging out at Grandma's house tonight, she won't be there

Ethan: why?

me: she's going to a party

Ethan: what kind of party?

me: a grandma party

Ethan: what will they do there?

me: dance

Ethan: Grandma can't dance!

me: Grandma's a good dancer!

Ethan: yeah like this *imitates a grandma dancing with a walker*

Ethan: who will she dance with?

me: the grandpas

Ethan: unacceptable!!!

Blessed Beyond Belief

Today we received a TRUE blessing. The boys missed the bus, so I just figured I'd take them on my way to work. No Problem. We walked out the door at 7:48, enough time to get them to school and be at work right on time. My van didn't start. crap. Not good. Tried again. Nothing. So Todd {since he was home (blessing number 1)} put his Blazer nose to nose with my van and charged my battery...20 minutes later it still wouldn't start, so Todd put everyone in his truck and delivered them to school and me to work, then went to get my battery to have it tested to see if it was good (blessing number 2 - we thought it was only the battery) (blessing number 3 - - we have the money in an emergency fund if something big is wrong). The battery was fine...but there was corrosion on the battery not allowing the power out of the battery. (blessing number 4 - - nothing was wrong). Todd cleaned off the battery and all was good. We didn't dodge a bullet this morning, God was our bullet proof vest!

The Little Stuff Adds Up

We've discovered that we're wasteful. (well, I have anyways). Yesterday on my trip to a thrift store, I was rummaging through their little boys clothes...I found a few decent items for them, and then I turned around...the men's rack...I mozied on over to see if anything caught my eye. Carhart jeans, Aeropostale khakis, Levis...all in great condition...all in Todd's size...I snatched them up...all of them! 6 pairs of pants (jeans and khakis) for Todd and 3 things for the big boys all for less than $27!! JACKPOT! Then Ethan's coat ripped...and Todd's bookbag ripped...then the zipper on my knee high boots broke....easily $100 to fix these things! But instead, Todd found a shop to fix the bookbag, coat AND boots for $40! They'll also take all the jeans that have been ripped at the knees and turn them into shorts (for a fee of course)...and next year they'll take their new school jeans and put patches on the knees and reinforce them so they don't go through them! I'm hoping these "small" changes will make a difference. I'm generally pretty neutral regarding the Duggars but their saying "buy used and save the difference" definitely resonates with me. My problem is that I don't have time to find the great garage sales and hunt through thrift stores...but when I do find a deal or a bargain and need the item (or will need the item) I definitely snatch it up! I also try to pay it forward...I send all my hand me downs to girls at the church...although, they "could" afford to buy their own "new" baby clothes, I figure why hassle with it, when they can benefit from it? What are the "little" things you do?

7 Baby Steps

I'm at the very beginning stages of becoming financially smarter and having more freedom. It's been laid upon my heart for a long time to not have debt. This is something I feel convicted to do.


Roman 13:8 let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another


I trust that God put this law into place for good reason, and I trust that in a pinch He will always provide, he does after all love me more than the birds of the sky. But I want to be a good steward with my many (many) blessings. I think when it comes down to it, my main goal is to be a good steward (this may have something to do with my clean house obsession).



At any rate, since Todd has joined my financial team, we have started taking a more serious look at our future and at our current situation and things we can do to change our irresponsible habits. Which is where the D@ve R@msey 7 baby steps came in.



Baby Step 1 - - $1,000 emergency fund

step 1 - check



Baby Step 2 - - Pay off all debt using the snowball system

we'll be starting this process with our tax return, we will be debt free by 2013, this is exciting for me because also in 2013, Todd will be graduating and able to start looking at teaching positions, which will help with our next baby steps.

Baby Step 3 - - 3-6 months of expenses in savings

I've always kept our budget and expenses so that we can live off one income if necessary, which proved to be a blessing when Todd was laid off from truck driving just a month before Ryan joined our family. I have said it before and will say it again, God does not work in mysterious ways...this layoff forced our hand on Todd furthering his education. Our family has been happier even with less money and eventually it will pay off. But there are still expenses that would need covered in the case of some catastrophic event (one of the 5 of us falls ill or something along those lines). Our monthly budget "need" includes our mortgage, car payments, electric, phone, insurance, cable, heat, food and medication grand total of $3,127 (of course we would cut back if necessary but right now that is our monthly budget) so for 6 months of living expenses saved up we would need $18,672 (or $9,381 for 3 months), this number is for our current budget (not our debt free budget). And in an effort to remain debt free we will start saving immediately for a truck for Todd...I want him to have exactly what he wants, meaning we will want a pretty good cushion to work with. So for this step we will probably save $10,000 and then start on the truck savings account of $15-20,000 (maybe more depending on what he wants).

Baby Step 4 - - Invest 15% of household income to Roth IRAs and pretax retirement

This step is scary for me...investments (because I know so little about them) scare me...research will need to be done.

Baby Step 5 - - College funding for children

We will have 2 in college at once and as soon as we get them through their little brother will start. Todd and I have agreed, disagreed, fought and finally compromised on this. We have decided that for HS graduation they will get a *nice* laptop to see them through college and we will buy their books, we will fund *some* living expenses but we expect great things from our children, including working while going to school. We will be happy to help them during this time in their life but we think they will be more apt to buckle down if they are not handed a free ride. So we will save enough for books and laptops but not tuition...

Baby Step 6 - - Pay off your house early

We bought our house at a great price with a decent interest rate, our house payment is $746, it would be easy (by this time in the 7 step program) to put an extra $250 to the principle every month.

Baby Step 7 - - Build wealth and give!

I'm very excited to get to this step! To be in a place in life where we can live comfortably, and build wealth, have something to leave our children with, maybe have a place on the lake for them to spend weekends and holidays. This step is worth the first 6!

All Work and No Play

All Work and No Play Makes…

Makes me irresponsible
Makes me feel guilty
Makes my children sad

We planned a vacation for Disney this spring. We had planned to take a small chunk from our tax return to pay for this vacation. But as the check is significantly more than we expected we have a lot of thinking to do. We could pay off most of our debt. We have a significant amount of medical bills (now I know how people are ruined financially by medical bills) So in interest of full disclosure our tax return this year will be $10,000. Writing/seeing that number feels wrong. Feels like it’s too much, like somehow our taxes had been done wrong (I trust they were not, as she showed us the break down). We have 4 debts on top of medical bills right now. It looks something like this:

$2100 in medical bills
$9700 for Todd’s truck
$3700 for an ATV (never again will I go into debt for fun)
$3300 for one credit card (1)
$3300 for one credit card (2)
$1500 for vacation

We would like to put some into savings, so that if an unexpected emergency comes up we don’t have to go back into debt to survive it. My problem lies in the I know financially we would be better off to skip vacation altogether and pay off debt and set up an emergency fund. But for the sake of family sanity I know we need it. The boys have talked about it since we decided to go in November. I want to be medical debt free (those bills are important to me). So what I’d like to do is pay off medical bills (2100), put aside vacation money and a savings (total $2300), leaving $5600 to mess around with. Obviously the ATV has a lower interest rate than the credit cards so we could split that and put $2800 on each credit card or pay one off and put $2300 on the other leaving only $1000 to pay off. In the grand scheme of things this makes the most sense. My family hasn’t been on vacation since we went in 2008 to Cedar Point for a week…we need this. I want this for them. So I guess the break down will look like this:

10,000 tax return
1,500 vacation
800 savings
2,100 medical bills
3,300 credit card
- 2,300 credit card
-------------------
$0 total

Dave Ram.sey said to budget every penny and be flexible. I’ve got the budget every penny part but being flexible is not my greatest quality. But I’m definitely working on it!

Finances...

Ok so I want to be debt free. So I’m going to use numbers that aren’t real and lay out our “budget” and would like some suggestions…so here’s our “budget”

Income:
VA $755
Todd $1800-2400
Lynne $1600

Total $4155-4755
(Todd used to make more like $2400 but his runs have been cut lately)

Payments:
Church $280
House $715
Electric $200
Heat $69
Cars $601
Insurance $165
Credit Cards $175
Gas $250
Medical $250
Phone $170
Cable $40
Day Care $200
Food $600

Total $3715

Difference $440.00-1040

Again these figures aren’t accurate but let’s pretend…so we have a difference of $440 to play with…our debt break down is this:

House $88500 still owed
Truck $15700 still owed
ATV $6300 still owed
Credit Card $2700 still owed
Credit Card $2500 still owed
Credit Card $2400 still owed

Total $118’100

Ok, so we almost always pay $800 on the house but the house is the one bill that I’m not worried about paying off right now…So I’m thinking that if we pay minimum payments (the $715) and take that extra $85 and put it towards the first credit card listed, when Todd’s income is more than $600 we put that amount towards the first credit card, and when our medical bills are less than $250 the extra goes to the credit card. I would like to have all of our credit cards paid off by October 2009, a very obtainable goal. Then I will concentrate on the ATV and finally the truck payment…but my problem is this…Todd’s income is way lower than it used to be (as almost everyone’s is) so when do I start saving, we’ve always known that if necessary we can live off of my income or his because we would cancel the extras and make all of our food from scratch…it would be tight but it would work. We’d make it work! But it would be so much easier if we had those credit cards paid off. If we didn’t have $7600 sitting over us in debt…that debt is dental expenses and Todd’s truck driving school so it’s not like we put Christmas on the credit cards or a new big screen TV…his job has made us more money than it cost us, so it was worth it, but I hate having it over us! I would like for one to be paid off by our tax return and one to be paid off by March, and the third to be paid off by October…but again, with his diminishing income, it makes me nervous not to have it done now! So, I’m open to suggestions. What do you think? I want honesty and if you think my feelings will be hurt, first of all, it’s VERY hard to hurt my feelings and second, just leave your comment under anonymous!

On Our Road to Debt Free

I love my husband. He's a good man, my best friend and a great Daddy. But as my financial partner...let's just say he's lacking. We own my van free and clear, and our '73 Mustang free and clear (we bought it two days ago), we owe a substantial amount on the Blazer, the ATV, three credit cards and our house. The amount owed on the credit cards isn't a large amount but enough to make me uncomfortable sitting there like that. So, I know I've said this before but I want to be debt free with the exception of our home, and at most one vehicle. We could at any time live on what I bring in (the smaller income) if necessary...I would like for it to never come to that but that would be nice. So, here is my plan of action in writing so that I will obey it. Every week I will pay a little towards the credit card with the highest interest rate, instead of starting double house payments this month, I will start putting money towards the credit cards with the highest interest rate, then move to the ATV and finally the Blazer. After this week we will no longer owe $175 to daycare every week, now we will only owe like $50 for after school care, so every week that will free up $125 so that's a really good place for money to go, every week pay an extra $100 to our credit cards, we could even rotate them, but I think I'd prefer to go one at a time to make it look like I'm getting somewhere faster...and after the first is paid off, I can apply the monthly payment plus the principle payment to the next card, and if I do that every time I'll only gain momentum! I have lots of goals, I would like to have all credit cards paid off by December 2009...I need to be realistic about this, and hopefully I can get this done...I'll let you know how it goes!