We were able to make a ton of progress this month. It so motivating and exciting to see how much we have accomplished in such a short amount of time, but we would not have been able to accomplish anything if it weren't for all the blessings God has given us. We are thankful for good jobs. We are thankful for good health. We are thankful for supportive family and friends. And most importantly...we are thankful for grace and the gift of our Savior.
We are going to change a few more things in the month of March that I will post about soon.
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My wonderful husband has been into online programs like memomail and memolink since before I met him. A few years ago, he decided he wanted to save Hom Depot gift cards so he could buy himself a nice table saw. It took him about 3 years, but he finally had enough to purchase a $550 table saw. He was so excited that day. He paid with all $5, $10 and $20 gift cards. The stack was a few inches thick!! :) I saved a few of the gift cards and made him an ornament that year.He has only used it a handful of times and as of our move, it had been just sitting in our storage unit. We decided to put it on craigslist and see what happened. We had a buyer the next day. It was a sad day for Dan. He waited SO LONG to earn it. In the end though, we both knew it was the price to pay for being irresponsible with our money.He was able to sell another tool to the same guy who bought the table saw and I sold a big box of scrap booking supplies just a few days before that. Dan made a stop at bank after selling the saw and we made a payment together online right away. It felt really good!!We were able to pay an extra $575 on the Chase card. That is the next card to eliminate. It's the last card with a high interest rate at 15.9% . It's awesome to see the total debt on that card start to go away!!!I have another 23 craigslist postings and plan to add a bunch more over the weekend.lovelovelove
We are back from our mini vaccation to the water park. The kids had a blast and Dan and I really enjoyed getting away to help break up Wisconsin winter boredom. Spring is ALWAYS a welcomed season around here!!We ended up budgeting about $125 for gas and anything "extra". This was in addition to all the food we brought, and that came out of our weekly living expenses. The kids really wanted to order pizza while we were there, so that was the one thing we really spent any money on. One of the boys ended up getting a fever while we were there, so we also spent money on a thermometer and a few redbox movies. I had bought the kids the game mousetrap for a Valentine's gift right after Christmas and got a great deal on it. I think it was $7. I also got them each a $1 mailbox at target's $ spot and we helped the kids filled them with Valentines from each other. (It's amazing how excited they each got over a packet of hot chocolate and a quarter when it comes on a Valentine.) While we were there, we got a call from the timeshare people wanting us to sit in on an hour presentation in exchange for a $75 visa gift card. At first was said NO (we know all too well what those presentations are like) but after talking about it we decided we really wanted the free $75, so we stopped in on our last day. As soon as they realized we were only interested in learing how to sell or rent it, the presentation went quick, although, they did try to get us to spend another $6300. We said no thanks and took our gift card. Whoo Hoo!!!When we got home, I had $25 still in my wallet, an almost full tank of gas and a $75 visa gift card!!!The kids had a lot of fun, but we could have easily spent hundreds more if we wanted to. Everytime we went to the waterpark, we had to walk past 2 gift shops, a cantine and right though an arcade. I could tell the kids would have loved to play some games, but we just told them we didn't bring money for it. That's not anything new for them to hear, so it didn't really phase them. They are not spoiled or greedy and rarely expect things from us. They were perfectly happy playing mousetrap. It think it just goes to show that spoiled, greedy kids are raised - not born. It makes me glad my kids don't get everything. Our oldest boy was really eyeing up some candy at one of the gift shops. We told him he could buy it if he used is own money. He has been diligently saving for an electric train. The candy was $3. He thought about what he wanted to do for a while. I was very proud of him when he decided it just wasn't worth his $3. He knows it will take longer to get his train if he spends any of his money. It feels so good to know what we are teaching them will benefit them through the rest of their lives.Here is how was saved money on our vaccation. We had a plan and a budget and we stuck to it.
We planned for and brought all our own food. Other than pizza (that was budgeted for), we did not buy any food or drinks.
We passed by the cantine and gift shops.
We said no to the arcades.
We spent quality time together as a family without all the "stuff".
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Yay for us!!!
After applying all $2400 from selling the Alero, I was still able to apply enough today to pay off the balance to the Citi bank card. I was under the impression that the entire balance of that card was at 0% until March 1st, but I was wrong. There was a few thousand on that card that we were paying interest on, so intsead of the payoff amount being $976 like I thought, it was $1050. (We are definatley NOT an exception to the couples out there that could use improvement in communicating, but we are steadily learning and working on it. Just one of the hidden blessing through this process.) Our goal to have that card paid off was April 1st, but we were able to do it much faster. Next card....here we come!!!!I have been doing some extra daycare, selling a little here and there and staying under our weekly budget which is were the extra $$ is coming from. I still can't believe how much we are saving each month just by planning out what we buy before we spend any money.lovelovelove
I was really frustrated last month after realizing we pay almost $600 a month in interest. For some reason though, that amount was just not adding up to me. I went back and looked at all our cards and realized that one of the cards we thought was at 6% was actually at 16.9%. Well, that was just not going to do, so I got on the phone to the bank right away. There was no way for us to secure the amount on the card, but the bank was still happy to do a blance transfer from the Chase #2 card to their bank credit card at 8%. That's a lot better than 16.9% and because I have banked with this particular Credit Union for over 15 years, I trust them a lot more than I do Citi bank. Our payment that was once $249 to Citi bank, will now be $360 to the bank. We are prefectly fine with that because it is still paying down the debt over all and saving us about $70 a month in interest. I REALLY DISLIKE INTEREST!!!I also gave the 2 boys and Dan haircuts and saved a $45 trip to Sports Clips.All in all, it was a pretty good day for us!!ETA: Dan wanted me make sure I added all the coupon clipping he did today!!! I just love him!!!
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Wow. That did not take nearly as long as we thought it would. We are VERY grateful it is now sold. The balance of the Citi card is currently at $3376. Once we apply $2400 to it, the new balance will be $976. Looks like we will easily make our first big goal of having that card paid off by April 1st!!! And even soon than planned!!!We can also cancel insurance on the Alero which will save us another $25 a month.lovelovelove
