June

We had a few things come up this month that drained our emergency fund and then some. New vacuum, new stove, another much needed shed, summer pool pass and family bikes. Some where emergencies and some, admittedly, were not. Either way, we are glad we purchased the things we did. We took out a personal line of credit to pay for a few of these things. That will show up on the July spread sheet. I does bother me that we took out the line of credit. The whole point is NOT to do that anymore. I think we both have been feeling drained by everything. We are going on out 20th month from when we started and I have to say that it is wearing. The money being so tight is frustrating. Most people on this plan are looking at 18 months at the most before being debt free. We still have another 2.5 - 3 years to go. I am okay with a little set back now and again. If buying family bikes keeps us going...then I'm okay with that.
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accepted an offer - bittersweet

We have some very good news, although, it really is bittersweet for us.

We received and accepted an offer for $5,500 less than our current asking price just a couple days ago. We are THRILLED to finally be selling, but have to bring a check for $33,000 to the closing table. Our tenants have already signed a new lease somewhere else, so if we did not take it, we would more than likely have to list the house for rent again and go through the hassle, time, expense and headache of trying to find new renters and possibly go a few months without any rent at all. Then we would continue to lose money every month knowing that we will NEVER get that money back. It should take us about 3 years to pay this new loan off. For it to make any sense for us not to sell and take the hit now, our house would have to appreciate more than what we lose on it every year ($8,400). The market is not changing anytime soon. I can't wait to close that chapter of our lives. One more step down!!

As much as we hate to do this, we will be taking the money out on a line of credit. We should have 12 - 18 months interest free. When that is up, we will juggle things again, just like we have been doing up until now. Without having it all done yet, I think the payments on that line of credit will be about $900. That is $200 more than the difference between what our monthly payments were and what we received in rent. We will need to re figure things just to make sure it all works out. Our tight budget is going to be about as tight as it can get, but we are so happy knowing we are continuing to pay things off.

I will be making a seperate spread sheet for this new debt. I have been keeping our mortgage on the condo off the list of debts up until now and since this is part of that, I want it to be listed seperatly.
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May

As you can see, we are applying more to each the mobile home loan and the van loan, but we are getting a much better interest rate at 3.99% on each of them as well.

The condo is still for sale, although our tenants are very uncomfortable living in something that is for sale. They wanted to start looking for a new place. We have had very little interest on the condo at this point, so we didn't want to risk losing them and not selling. We lowered the price of the condo another $4,000 and gave our tenants $300 of their rent for May to let us keep on the market for the next month. If it does not sell, we will take it off and keep our tenants. We are praying that the Lord will send us a buyer but are content knowing that it just might not be in His plan right now. I guess we'll see what happens.

We will start paying back our subsistence loan at $125 a week starting in July. With that, gas prices going through the roof ($3.98) and all the extra payments we are making on the other loans, our budget is going to get very tight again and will stay that way for at least the next year. The good news is I re figured when we should be out of debt. We are on track to out in just over 2 more years. Sounds like a long time, but we have already been at this for a year and a half so it's really not that bad at all.

Thank you Lord for everything you are providing us!

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MLS - here we come

As you all know, we weren't able to sell our house when Dan was laid off a few years ago. The market dipped so much that we would never be able to sell for even close to what we owed on it. Our solution was to rent it out while we waited out the market in hopes it would come back. We are $700 short every month between what we get in rent and what the payments on that place are. We really didn't have another option at the time, so we moved into the trailer to make up that difference and it's been a great solution under the circumstances.

A couple weeks ago, we got a late Saturday night call from our tenants saying the furnace went out. Being 4 hours away makes those calls very stressful. There was not much we could do but pay the weekend premium for a service call and have the furnace fixed. The bill was over $450. It was stressful but it got our wheels turning and we decided to reevaluate renting the house vs. trying to sell.

We found a realtor who went out to the condo and gave us a market evaluation. The number was low. It doesn't look like it will change much in the next couple years either so more than likely we would sell for about the same price in a couple years as we could sell for today. It seems to make much more sense to take the loss now and just be done with it.

At $700 a month, we lose $8,400 a year. And that is not taking any repair costs or travel expenses into consideration if something comes up. And I think it's fair to put a price tag on the stress of trying to be landlords at a 4 hour distance. We have already lost almost $13,000 with what we are short every month in rent and expenses and we are going to lose at least $25,000 in the next 3 years if we keep renting. That is a given. And that's assuming we have little to no expenses in repair costs and we keep the renters we have for the duration of the next 3 years. It wouldn't be that bad, but because we took out a loan with no money down, we pay A LOT on interest each month. Less than $200 goes to the principle. In 3 year, we will have only paid down the loan about $7,500.

If we sell now

Our loan is at $149,000. We are hoping to sell for $130,000. Add $8,000 realtor comission and $1,200 title transfer etc. and we are looking at around a $28,000 loss.

If we sell in 3 years

Our loan will be down to about $141,500. Let's say we can sell for $135,000 (and that's a big if) and then add the same comission and fees, we are looking at about a $16,000 loss. But we will have also lost $700 a month over the course of 36 months which amounts to $25,200. Now we are at $41,200. That amount is assuming we never pay for another repair bill and our renters stay that long. It's assuming the place is in the same condition in 3 years as it is now. That's assuming the market goes up some.


We can't sell for what we owe, but we have paid off so much debt the last 15 months, that we can cover the difference for what we are thinking it might sell for. We decided that taking the loss now is going to be better for us in the long run. We both decided we would much rather make a $700 loan payment then come up $700 short between rent and expenses each month. It is the same monthly dollar amount and will end up being less overall if we sell now.

The benefit to selling now is that we can close the door on that chapter of our life and move on. We can eliminate the stress involved with being landlords and the risk factor in renting out a house. We also eliminate any surprise expenses in repair bills. A loan payment is a secure debt. When it's done, it's done. Renting the house with hopes we can sell for X dollar amount down the road is a huge risk. What if the market drops again? What if our renters move out? What if our renters decided to trash the place? What if the furnace needs to be replaced next time and not just fixed?

We are thinking we will end up taking around a $28,000 loss if we sell now. After weighing the pro and cons and praying about it, we decided to put it on the market and see what happens. The only way we can see continuing to rent as a better choice would be if the market picks up a great deal in the next couple years. No one knows exactly what is going to happen, but I think it's safe to say it's not going recover for what we would need it to.

Our original lease agreement is not up for a year and a half, but our tenants are very understanding and have agreed to move out early if we sell in exchange for $900. That's to cover a security deposit on a new place for them. We have agreed to give them a 60 closing date if we accept an offer and they will give us a 60 notice if they find a new place to live. This is risky for us. We thought a lot about what would happen if our renters move out and we don't sell. We priced the condo "aggressively" and are very optimistic that it will sell in the next couple months.
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get involved and be proactive

After a few more calls to the bank, I was able to lower the van interest rate again and lower the trailer interest rate as well. Both loans are now at 3.99%. I am determined to get the most out of our money right now. It pays to call and see what you have to do to get your interest rate lowered. Even if you can't, it doesn't hurt to try.

Here are a few things to remember.

Make sure you ask them what you need to do to get the best rate possible. There are lots of hidden discounts they don't disclose unless you ask. Most banks offer a discount for multiple services and to set your payments up through auto pay.

If you can, offer to make larger payments and/or shorten the term of the loan. This alone can get you a much better rate.

MAKE SURE you ask if they are charging you for loan insurance. This is insurance in the even of a job loss or disability. As I found out, they will often times quote you a payment amount and just tell you the insurance is included, leading you to believe you aren't paying for it when in fact you are.

I am really starting to look at this process as a challenge. Who can get out of debt the fastest and who can save the most in interest in the process. It's been 15 months since we started this, and I am STILL finding ways to save and cut.
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March

Yay!!! Tons of progress this month.

Now that I have our final balance, I added the medical debt into the total which is on track to be paid off in September.

The van loan is next. We hope to have that paid off by August.

Can't believe we have come this far in only 15 months. Can't wait to see where we are at in 15 more!!
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medical bills

It was really hard to know exactly what our medical debt would end up at last year, so I always just put a ? by that debt in our chart. Now that all the bills are in, I can see what we have left to pay.

We had about $1,800 from the end of 2009 and $4,000 from 2010. Of that total, we have just a little over $2,500 left to pay. We are paying between $320 and $440 a month on them right now. It won't take very long at all before those are also paid off. Then we can snowball that amount onto the next debt.

I will start adding the balance that we owe on medical debt to the chart starting next month.
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taxes are done

I am so excited!! Along with the $400 payment I made last week on the Discover card, it looks like our tax return will be just enough to pay that sucker off!!!! Then it's on to the van loan.
Whoo Hoo!!!
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yay...a better interest rate

I have been calling around to see if anyone out there would be able to give us a better interest rate on the condo we still own. From what I am understanding, that loan carries a higher risk because it's not our primary residence. The condo has also lost value over the last 2 years and so the combination of the two does not qualify us to refinance. Our tenants (who we love by the way) will have been there 2.5 years next April. If you remember, we signed a 3 year contract with them. The plan is to put it on the market next April in hopes it will sell by the time their lease is up. If not, they have already expressed interest in renting from us for longer than the 3 years. We really have no idea if or when it will sell, so we figured we might as well see what we can do about a refinance. We are bummed that we can't take advantage of the low rates right now, but in calling about the condo, I ended up asking about the van loan and the mobile home loan....something I don't think I would have thought to call about otherwise.

We ended up refinancing the van loan. We had to shorten the term of the loan (which is fine because we plan to pay if off in this next year anyway) and increased our payments by about $100 but we were able to lower the interest rate to 4.1%. YAY!! Any little bit helps!

We were not able to go ahead with a refinance on the mobile home loan right now because apparently there are some new Federal laws that the bank needs to sort through before they can go forward with any mobile home loans of any kind. They hope to have that taken care of in about a month. If that happens, it looks like we would be able to cut the interest on that loan as well.

Dave Ramsey is not a fan of the whole credit score thing because inorder to have a high one, you need to have a history of borrowing money. However, because we are making such big payments and have paid so much off, our credit scores went from really good to excellent. That and having less overall debt is why we were able to get better rates now.
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meal planning

I was asked to touch on the topic of meal planning in one of the comments a few posts back. I guess I don't really do a lot of traditional meal planning. I would say about 80% of what we buy is staples. I don't make a lot of "recipes", so there is not a ton of planning that I need to do. Not much that we eat requires a ton of ingredients either. We just eat as healthy and as simple as we can. Nothing is very fancy at our house, but that is how we like it.

I would say the biggest thing we do to keep our budget down is avoid the typical kid foods and packaged stuff. Lunchables would be a perfect example. Not only are they terrible for you, they are SO expensive. We don't buy anything, other than granola bars, that come individually packaged. It's just a waste of money.

Instead of individual yogurt cups, we buy a big container and use bowls. And I have about 7 little containers for the kids lunches at school. Applesauce is the same thing. It's so much cheaper this way and there is a lot less garbage.

Individually wrapped string cheese is another good example. A lot of what you are paying for is just plastic. I buy blocks of cheese and cut it into little squares.

I used to buy boxes of individually wrapped oatmeal until I realised how easy it is to make ourself. We buy a big container of whole wheat oats and add anything from apples, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, nuts and a little brown sugar. The kids love it. It's healthier and we can make triple for the same price.

I think a lot of parents tend to spend way too much money on "kid food". It's just not necessary. And where you save by not getting sucked into the fun packaging, you can afford to feed your kids more healthy choices. I see tons of parents purchasing fruit cups in syrup thinking it's a good choice, but a fresh pineapple or cantaloupe will cost less and give you more fruit. I can easily get either of these two fruits for $1.99 if I watch for sales.

We don't buy things like sugary cereals, cookies or juice boxes. (well, I do get juice boxes for special occasions like camping trips, but not often) These type of foods really add up.

My kids have learned to love things like hard boiled eggs and humus and crackers. And a typical snack around here is pretzels and a raw veggie or a fruit. None of these types of things take any planning at all.

As the kids get older (especially the boys) and Dan is home more for meals, I am sure we will start making bigger, more planned out meals. But for now, homemade soup and sandwiches, chicken and rice, breakfast foods, and spaghetti are big hits at diner time. I try to always have these things on hand and we just eat what we feel like for that day.

I try a new recipe about twice a month and I am asked to bring a dish to pass here and there, but other than that, there is not a ton of meal planning at our house.

Sorry I couldn't be more help. Like I said...we keep things pretty simple around here.
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couponing

Let me start by saying that we have always tried to use coupons when we can, but with all the hype about "couponing" going around, I started to read lot more about what it is, how to do it etc. I have a friend who passed along all her tips and ticks as well. It seems like I use the concepts in a lot of our other shopping, but not nearly as much with groceries. It's pretty simple really, it just takes some time and dedication. It's basically just using a store coupon AND a manufacturer coupon only when the item is on sale and stocking up when the item is at it's rock bottom price. The idea is to never have to by anything full price again.

I went to Target a few days ago to see how good I could do. (I really need to credit Dan here for finding and printing most of the coupons I used) I think I had about 40 coupons and ended up saving at least $50.

An example would be the granola bars we usually buy. They are normally $2.99 a box. They were on sale for $2.50. Then I had a $1 off each box coupon and a buy 2 get $1 off. They ended up being just $1.00 a box.

I know in the past Dan has been able to get the $3.50 box of Cheerios for right around $1 a box as well. These are the sale I will start paying better attention to and stocking up when we can. Finding a place to put it all could pose a challenge for us though. There's only so much room in this little trailer. ;)

We will never be able to save as much as some because we stay away from a lot of the processed type foods that you can get for almost nothing. That is one thing Dan and I won't compromise on. Just cuz it's cheap (or even free) does not mean it's good for you.

So, I've got my coupon binder ready to be filled and I want to dedicate the next couple months to "couponing" with groceries to see how much we can really save. Thankfully, we live within about 2 miles of 5 major places to get groceries, so we won't have to haul all over to get to the good sales. Gas should certainly be taken into consideration.

This idea of couponing is not really all that new to me though. This is how I have always shopped for the kids clothes and toys. I have a tub of both boys and girls clothes that are the next couple sizes up then what they currently wear. Whenever I find a good sale or hit a great rummage sale, I stock up. Old Navy was having a 40% off clearance sale the other day. Boys long sleeve t-shirts were marked down to $4.99. 40% off that made them $2.99 and I had another 20% off coupon on top of that. I ended up getting the shirts for $2.39 a piece. I bought 3-4 for each of the boys and put them away for next school year.

I wanted to link to a site that I found very helpful.

http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/

This is the link to the Old Navy Coupon I was referring to. The coupon I always shop with is $10 off $50. I only buy $50 so it would be the same as 20% off. If you don't get that coupon right away (or a better one), just refresh the page and try again.

http://www.oldnavyweekly.com/

There seems to be many places out there to print online coupons. As I find good sites, I will link to them. Feel free to add a coment if you have a site to share as well. :)
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good bye for good - RCU cc!!!

So .... I finally did it. I cut it up.

One of the scariest and most liberating things I have done in a while.

(We have been happy customers of RCU for about 15 years now. They have helped us in so many ways over the years. I really have nothing but great things to say about them and would recommend their services to anyone, but ..... a credit card is still a credit card... *sigh*)

I have been holding onto it as a safety net (which is the whole point of the emergency fund), but all it has done is get us into trouble. I think I was afraid to really just live on cash alone. It's a whole new way of life and although we have been doing a really good job of buying with cash, we were still using the card here and there. It's just too easy to spend when you don't have to cough up the money on the spot. It took me a while to do it, but I am so glad it is done. There have been way too many months where that card ends up with a + on it. I am super excited to see the amount on that card start to go down again!!!!!

It's really sad to know I am not even close to the only person out there that has been brainwashed to fear living on just cash. Credit cards bring some kind of false security which in reality does the complete opposite. This whole process is relearning an entire way of thinking and doing things. It's getting rid of bad habits and taking comfort when you learn a new healthy one. And most importantly, it's learning discipline.

Sadly, Americans have learned they can just have what they want when they want it. Few people earn what they want before they buy it and that is getting everyone into a lot of trouble. I'll be honest, I think is the hardest part of this whole process. Selling things we don't need or want anymore is easy. Working more is easy. Coupon clipping and watching for sales is actually kind of fun, but wanting something and having to say NO can be very difficult at times. In return though, we will gain contentment. That is better than any "thing" we have to say NO to!!
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Blessings - Our New Baby

I just realized that I didn't even post with the news of our newest family addition.

Niyah Grace - October, 16 - 8lbs. 3 oz. 20 3/4 inches

These pictures were taken when she was just 2 weeks old.





She is about 8 weeks here.

It's amazing to me how much the LORD continues to bless us.....day after day, year after year.
God is good!!
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February

Wow.... it's been a long time since I was on here. It's about time I update this thing. :)

Well, as you can see, we did not make as much progress the past few months as were making earlier in the year. Part of me feels a little bummed, but the other part of me looks at the overall picture of what we have accomplished in just a little over a year and I could not be happier. We have been paying such big payments on medical debt that I decided to add that amount to our chart as well. When I see the grand total, I just smile. Not only are we that much less in debt today than we were a year ago (which is awesome), but it represents everything we have been through as a family to get to this point. We're doing it!!!!...and we're doing it together!!!

If I could give just one piece of advice to anyone else who is in our shoes, or to anyone who might happen to read this, it would be to NOT GIVE UP!!! Know that you will have set backs and you will struggle some months, but keep going....you will get there!!!
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January

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December

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