the value of sacrafice

For the last few months, I have been considering getting rid of tv all together. I was not sure this idea would fly with Dan, especially during football season, but after finding out it would save us about $60 a month, I had to run it by him.

At first, he was not on board. He works long hours, has a 3 hour commute EVERY day, travels for work each week and has multiple meetings he attends and has very little free time or hobbies that he is able to keep right now. Watching tv is something he enjoys and felt like he would be giving up everything.

We talked about the benefits our family would get out of keeping the tv and the benefits our family would get from giving tv up. The benefits from giving up the tv where much greater and held a much higher value. Not only would we be able to save money, allowing us to reach our goals of getting out of debt sooner, but we will also have more time together and with the kids. Watching tv, even if it's together, does not have much quality to it. Those things seem pretty obvious, but as we started to talk, we both realized there would be so many "hidden" benefits. We will gain more understanding of discipline and sacrifice and it will teach us how to better prioritize. Our kids see our choices and they ask lots of questions. Through us, they are learning the same things we are and will take what they learn with them in life. It's not just about giving up the tv. Each time we choose to sacrifice together for the common good of the entire family, our marriage strengthens and the entire family feels supported and loved and encouraged from each other. There is less stress and everyone seems to be happier.

The key though, is to have the right attitude and heart about it, otherwise the opposite will happen. I did not want to cancel tv until both Dan and I were in complete agreement, or the entire thing would backfire and we would take steps backward instead of forward.

Right now in our life, keeping the tv seems foolish. I will be calling to cancel tv on Monday. Dan and I are both excited to see how our life will change (for the better) once the tv is gone. I am sure I will miss HGTV and Dan will miss weekend sports, but our family is going to gain so much more.
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new bills and some changes

We just got a few medical bills from some testing I had done early last fall. I am still waiting for our insurance to review one of the tests. The current medical bill is just under $900. I am anticipating at least another $500. We decided to start putting money back into a health savings account (something we have always done up until last year) to pay that off and plan for anything else that might come up. We need to put about $80 a month into that account. That decreases our monthly "extra" some.

When I did the $5700 balance transfer from citi bank to the new discover card, we picked up a monthly payment. I am not sure exactly yet what the payment is, but I believe it will be in the ball park of $130.

I just got our other discover bill in the mail. They raised the min. payment from $104 to $143. Not a real big deal since it's still paying down our overall debt, but it still takes away from the extra we have each month.

Our energy bill was also higher this past month by about $60. Our heat bill is very reasonable, but our electric bill is rediculous. Our water heater is a horrible waste of energy and the computer tends to be on a ton. We are going to try a few things different next month to see what kind of a difference it makes, but for Feb., I will be $60 short on our extra.

I also applied our $200 savings for our waterpark trip in a few weeks to the Citi card, so I will need to use some of the February's extra for that as well.

Taking all that into consideration, we are still on target to pay off the citi card by April 1st, provided our tax return is at least $1200.

I am sure each month will bring changes and surprises that are not always predictable and when that happens, we will just have to adjust a bit.

I don't think I need to use the sale of the Alero (which is still for sale) to pay the Citi card at all, so all that money can be applied to the next bill of choice. :)
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BIG payment today

We received our 401k check in the mail yesterday. $10,924. This is the smaller of two 401ks that we have. The penalty was less than the interest we would have ended up paying on credit cards without cashing it out. We will not be touching the larger 401k.

I found out that our 0% interest rate on the Citi card actaully expires March 1st, not April 1st, so we decided to take all but $500 of our savings (yes, we took half our emergency fund) and made a big payment on the Citi card today.

We paid $12,700 on the card today! I can only imagine what the credit card company is thinking!! I am sure they were looking forward to cashing in on interest from us. Too bad for them!

We now have a balance of $3,376 on the Citi card. I will still apply the regular month payment and the $500 extra we have each month in the month of February. That should bring the balance down to about $2600 by March 1st.

Our overall debt is now under $100,000. Whoo Hoo!!!!

We will slowly build back our $500 emergency fund to $1000.
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choices

Since starting this process, it has been very hard not to want to point fingers and blame each other for why we are even in the financial mess we are in. It's easy to be angry and hold grudges. It's easy to say hurtful things when we feel hurt or wronged ourselves. It's easy to make comments that can be destructive to our marriages. Even though it can feel really good in that moment to "make a point" or "be right", it's temporary, because it was the wrong and selfish way to handle the situation. That "good feeling" soon turns to guilt and embarrassment and nothing good will come of it.

I am realizing now more than ever, that the toughest times in our life is not only when we are challenged the most, but when we are given the best opportunity to grow in wisdom, strength and kindness. Going through this journey is challenging. It's not just about the money, it's about our marriage and our life.

I was reminded of what God says in this devotion. Every situation we are given in life comes with a choice. And each choice comes with consequences that will either bring blessings to our marriage and family or it will bring destruction. With God's help, the choice is ours!


"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." Proverbs 18:21

I often hear my husband Scott say something to my sons that brings a smile to my face. "Have you told your mom you love her today? Don't ever forget you have the best mom in the world." When I hear him praise me to our sons, I feel encouraged and appreciated. From my husband's example, I've learned to be careful about the words I say not only to my husband but also about my husband.

Today's verse tells us our words can bring "death or life." In our marriages, this means our words can either tear down our spouses or build them up. I've been noticing lately if I'm more likely to say words such as, "I'm married to the greatest man." Or do my words tend to be critical, such as, "I told you so," or "You don't even try to understand me"? What about you and your words to your husband? When you speak to your husband, do you fill him up with praise or make him feel like he's not measuring up?

Now let's consider the words we say about our husbands to others. What kind of things do you say about your husband to your children, best friend, sister, or mother? I tend to be a venter when I am angry or frustrated with my husband. Sometimes I turn to others because I'm seeking validation for my angry feelings. Often I vent when I haven't taken the time first to deal with the situation with God. I'm learning that if I go to the Lord first in prayer, pouring out my heart to Him, He changes my heart and brings me to a place of repentance and calmness. Then I'm able to let go of my anger and move on or talk to my husband in a loving manner.

Scripture gives plenty of evidence that God's words have the power of life. In Genesis we're told God
created every inch of the world with His spoken words. John 1:1 tells us that Jesus is the Word. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus heals countless people with the power of His words. In a similar manner, God wants our words to bring life to our marriages. We can choose what we will sow—words of life or words of death—and we will reap the consequences many times over.

So will you take some time today to consider the words you use to and about your spouse?

Dear Lord, let my words to my spouse and about my spouse draw us closer to one another. Teach me to communicate in ways that build my husband up. Help me hold my tongue when I'm about to say something that will tear him down. If pride, stubbornness, selfishness, or any other sin is preventing me from speaking words of life in our marriage, Lord, I confess that right now. Make me aware of any words of death I've spoken in our marriage , and as the Holy Spirit brings those to my mind, help me confess and turn from them, especially any words of divorce. Guided by Your wisdom and love, may our words to and about one another build a protective wall around our marriage. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Ephesians 4:29, "Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift."

Psalm 19:14, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer."

I have a wonderful husband. He truly loves me unconditionally. Sure, he may have faults, but so do I. He is a blessing. He is someone God handpicked for me, because He knows he is what I need. I love him very much. I am looking forward to this journey with him, I look forward to changing our life and our family and growing through this together and no matter what life brings, I look forward to spending the rest of my life with him.

I Love you Dan!


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February

Each month I am going to list the previous month's balances and the new balances of all credit cards and bank loans. These will be super fun and motivational posts to see how much progress we are actually making. The debt will be listed in the order we plan to tackle them.



Debt------------ January -----------February----------- Payment ------------Paid down
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kohls--------------- $920--------------- $0 (whoo hoo) --------$930----------------- - $920

Citi bank------------ $22085.04---------- $16076.76----------- $335----------------- - $6008.28

Discover #1--------- $5180.09----------- $5076.09------------- $104----------------- - $104

Discover #2--------- $0------------------ $5985---------------- $0------------------- + $5985

Chase #1----------- $6586.99------------ $6480.06------------- $195----------------- - $106.93

Chase #2----------- $12418.46----------- $12290.30------------ $249----------------- - $128.16

Van loan------------ $6723.86------------ $6583.02------------- $167----------------- - $140.84

Mobile loan---------- $17774.02----------- $17490.82----------- $369----------------- - $283.20

State bank loan----- $26047.05------------ $25610.35----------- $607.97-------------- - $436.70

Total debt---------- $113,282-------------- $111,162


When I did the transfer from Citi bank to Discover #2, there was a $275 balance transfer fee. We will pay zero interest on that card until it's paid off (provided we pay it off by Feb. 2011) so we will save a ton more than we had to pay.

Last month we paid $2,966.97.

We paid down our debt $2119.83.

That's a difference of $846.84.

The balance transfer amount was $275.

That means we paid $571.84 IN INTEREST ALONE!!!!

We could do a lot of things with $571.84 each month. Someday soon we will be able to. : )

The Citi card is the next one to tackle. The Citi card has 0% interest until April 1st, so instead of paying extra each month, I have been putting our extra into a savings account to see just how much we can save until then. I have $1400 extra put away to pay on the Citi card.

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Whoo hoo!! One down!

Yay!!!

After finding a few more things to return to Kohls, I used the last subsistence check and an extra $40 and paid off the Kohl's card.

Now we have $25 more each month to apply to the next bill!!

So who can't wait to look under the little pull-off tab when your Kohl's mailer comes to see what % you got, hoping you finally got a 30% off? (doesn't getting the 30% off feel like you just won something?) And when you do finally get one, how many of you think that you HAVE to go shopping and use it because you could not possibly waste it. LOL

It's really easy to shop just because we have a coupon, and it's even easier to buy things we don't really need just because of the "great deal" we got on it. Those 30% off coupons (or even the 15% or 20%) can be very helpful IF you were already planning to buy something and IF you pay off the card with cash the second after you make a purchase. If you don't pay it off right away, you end up paying more in interest than the savings was in the first place.

I will always get excited to check my % off, but I will use those highly envied 30% ones much more wisely in the future!!

the budget

So here it is....The Budget.

Not sure I have ever been this "out there", but it's important we are honest about everything. It's a bit overwhelming, but we now have a great plan to deal with it and that feels really good.

I hope we can be an inspirtion to anyone who is reading this. Without asking, I would imagine our total debt is much more than the average family, so if we can accomplish getting out of debt, anyone should be able to.

When it comes right down to it, we have misused the gifts God has blessed us with. It was never our money to begin with, it was His. Now we have to make our selfish choices right.

I think it's very important to realize this process is so much more than just getting out of debt. It's a humbling experience that is teaching us both many things and those things have a value far greater than either of us ever realized. We may gain financial freedom through all this, but God has a bigger plan than just that. We are already starting to see that plan unfold.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!


INCOME

Combined income.................................................$1,260 per/week
Rent from our condo.............................................$900 per/month
Dan's plasma.......................................................$120 avg. per/month
(one more $850 subsistence check in February)

Based on only 4 weeks each month
our monthly income (minus plasma income) ...............$5,940 per/month

BILLS

Mortgage............................................................$1,394 per/month......$151,000 balance
Condo dues ........................................................$99 per/month
Mobile home lot rent, taxes and garbage.................$277.50 per/month
Storage unit.........................................................$40.00 per/month

Mobil home loan....................................................$369 per/month.........$17,774.02 balance
Van loan..............................................................$167 per/month.........$6,723.86 balance
State bank loan (3 ccs consolidated last year)..........$607 per/month........$26,047.05 balance

Van insurance......................................................$62.71 per/month
Alero (car that is for sale) insurance .......................$24.75 per/month
Condo insurance...................................................$11.74
Mobile home insurance...........................................$48.16
Life insurance.......................................................$135.11
Excell energy........................................................$192.59 per/month
Water bill.............................................................$128 per/3 months
Charter (tv, Internet, phone)...................................$124.71 per/month

Chase card...........................................................$249 per/month..............$12,418 balance
Chase card...........................................................$195 per/month..............$6,587 balance
Discover card........................................................$104 per/month..............$5,182 balance
Citi bank card........................................................$333 per/month..............$22,085 balance
Kohl's card............................................................$25 per/month................$920 balance

Subsistence debt...................................................$10,200

(As of right now, Dan will forfeit any yearly bonus until this debt is paid off. We may have to make additional payments in the future.)

Family debt...........................................................$5,400

(This is an amount a family member lent us to pay off a loan with a very high payment right after Dan was laid off. It's not something that will need to be paid on until all our other debt is paid off.)

That brings our total debt (as of January) to...................................$113,282 (not including our condo mortgage)

Budget

Our monthly income is..............................................$5,940 (not including plasma)

Our monthly bills are................................................$4502.27 (not including money to live on)

That leaves us with.................................................$1,437.73

This budget may need to be tweaked a bit, but here is what we are going to start with.

Living expenses.......................................................$150 per/week
(food, diaper/wipes, toiletries)

Church offering........................................................$50 per/week
(we plan to increase this over time)

Gas.......................................................................plasma card

Misc. fund..............................................................$25 per/week
(house/car repairs, clothes, entertainment/vacation, charitable givings, birthday/Christmas fund)

Total expenses........................................................$900 per/month

Extra.....................................................................$537.73 per/month

There you have it. We will apply at least $500 extra each month to the first bill we tackle.

Goals

Since we have started this, we have paid down our total debt by almost $3,000. It's a great start, but we have a LONG way to go.

We are going to use the last subsistence check to pay off the Kohl's card. That will give us another $25 per/month. Our extra per month will then be $560. We should be able to apply all $560 extra (that's in addition to the regular payment we already make) to the next bill, but I need some room in case the budget is too tight, so I am just going to plan for $500.

Dave Ramsey talks about needing to have a log jam plan. Doing something somewhat drastic to really get things moving. Sometimes it can be really slow at first. Here is our log jam plan.

The Citibank card has a very high balance of $22,085. Normally it would not be the next debt to deal with, but as of April 1st, that card will go from 0% interest to 30%. We decided to take a penalty on one of Dan's 401ks. We will apply $10,400 to that loan from the 401k. It will bring that debt to about $11,685. I have already set up to make a $5,700 transfer to a different card with 0% until January of 2011. Once that is done, the debt will be down to $5,985. Our goal is to have most of that paid off by April 1st and here is where we plan to do it.

With everything that I have been selling and the extra jobs I have taken on, I have saved up another $700. $500 of that will be applied to the bill. If we apply the full $500 extra each month, we will have another $1500 which makes $2,000. We have a table saw, scrapbook supplies and anything else I can find that we plan to sell over the next couple months. We should be able to sell another $300, if not more. That makes $2,300. There is an extra week in the month of March, so Dan will receive one extra paycheck and so will I. That's another $1,260. That brings our total to $3560. We are not sure exactly what out tax return will be yet. Dan claimed more this year than he has in past years. We are hoping to get around $1500. That would bring the total to $5060. We are hpoing the Alero will sell as spring gets closer, and that sale will give us more than enough to pay off the remainder of the bill.

Are you wondering where the extra $200 from the $700 I have saved up is going? We decided to take advantage of the timeshares we own (which we rarely do), and take the kids to a waterpark for 2 nights in February. It will be a VERY cheap mini vacation. It's only a couple hours from where we live. The hotel and water park is included in the timeshare and the $200 is for food or extras that we might need. Our goal will be to spend very little of it and bring home the rest, but we wanted to budget for it in case we needed it. We are all looking forward to a few nights away. We decided it will be easier to stay on track with little mini rewards along the way. Ones that are budgeted for of course.

If you are wondering why we don't just sell our timeshare, we have tried. I had it listed with an agent and even had a buyer last year. The deal feel through and now we are still stuck with it. I guess other people are just smarter about buying these things than we were. ;)

We will list all of our loans and credit card payments each month and the amount we paid on them along with the new balance. It will so rewarding to see them decrease each month.

I hope you all stick with us to see if we can accomplish our first big goal!!
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bringing in extra

Ever since starting the Total Money Makeover, it's has been pretty obvious that I need some kind of a job. Dan's schedule is really tough and limits my options. He leaves at 6am and does not get home until at least 8pm or 9pm Monday - Thursday. In addition to his regular work day and commute, he has church meetings, plasma, weekly work trips and other meetings that he has to attend each week. We miss him a lot during the week and cherish our weekends together. I really did not want to take a job that would require me to work weekends. Although getting out of debt is a big priority right now, spending time together and as a family is extremely important.

So, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to do daycare again. With 3 small children, I was very hesitant wondering if I would be stretching myself too thin, but decided to place and ad and if the right family and right situation came about, then it could be a good decision. The first and only family that contacted me needed part-time care for one 2 year old girl. What they were looking for fit our family perfectly.

Her first day here will be the week after next. I am really looking forward to it and so are all 3 of our kids. She seems to be a very sweet little girl with extremely caring and responsible parents. I am confident this is going to be a really good thing.

Dan has also been able to give plasma 1-2 times a week. It does not always work out due to their hours and his work schedule, but it's still helping a lot. We decided that the amount he makes giving plasma, $20-$50 a week, would be only used as gas money. They pay you in the form of a visa card, so it works out really great for me to keep the card and use it when I need gas for the van. The money he makes is more than enough to cover the van's gas driving around town and the occasionaly trip we take to visit family or any other extra driving we might need to do. It's turning out to be a great plan.

Keeping with the theme of finding ways to bring in extra money I have been selling, selling, selling. We have been rummaging through the house and storge unit finding eveything we can to sell. I was able to sell another $350 last month. In the sell pile where movies, cloth diapers, kids boots, a paper trimer, golf shoes, shower curtain and a Leapster TV system. Everyone has things to sell if they want to! I keep thinking I am running out, but manage to come up with more each time I try to.

In addition to all that, I was asked by one friend to help out with care for their son for a few weeks while their regular sitter was out with a broken arm and another friend ask if we could do some house sitting while they were away on vaccation. These extra little jobs will certainly help as well.

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