Updates, Vacations, and Staying on Budget

It has come to my attention that I skipped an entire month of updating. I thought about going back and doing an update for June too.... but ultimately decided that I'd just consider my hand slapped and move right along into July.

Our three week vacation has come and gone, and if you read my main blog, you'll know that it could not have possibly gone any better. Truly. We've been home for almost three weeks now, and I'm still a little awed by it (and still a little tired by it.) In hindsight, was it really the best idea to take such an expensive vacation when we're trying to pay off so much debt? Probably not. Was it 100% worth it anyway? Absolutely. And the great part - financially speaking - was that it held no unpleasant surprises when it came to money. Husband worked for weeks and weeks on a budget... figuring gas money, hotel money, food money, entertainment money. Over and over he'd make these little tweaks here and there until he finally pronounced it finished.

Anyway, when all was said and done, and we'd visited all our people and gone all our places and bought all the souvenirs... we added up all the receipts. And we were over his proposed budget by barely $200 ($80 of which was an unplanned nose piercing) Pretty amazing really. I couldn't even begin to make a budget like that, but he did it well, and even seemed to enjoy it (which might have something to do with the fact that he is involved in making budgets for a living, and I am not)

Of course, facing expenses now that we're home is another story. There are suddenly a lot of them, from Cub Scout and basketball and gymnastics registrations, to Diamondbacks games and birthdays and an unschooling conference. It'll work out, and we'll get there. Of this I'm sure. And I am very, very thankful that we're able to do all the things we do with not only not going further into debt, but also continuing to pull ourselves out - however slow it may seem at the time. Still, it is frustrating to have that constant feeling of, "Next month we'll get back on track."

I need to say it though: Next month we'll get back on track.

Total debt for July (only because our most recent payments for the trip are not yet reflected):
Up by $1334.69

May Numbers and Car Repairs

It's been a bad couple of weeks to be a vehicle in this household. First was husband's brakes. Next was a pricey timing belt (and some other things I can't remember) on mine. This past weekend husband's transmission went, and yesterday mine decided to simply not go after it had been stopped at a red light.

Some of it has been paid for, and some of it has not. Coupled with trying to prepare for nearly a month long vacation, it's made for a financially stressful spring. Still, we're making (slow) progress, even if it's of the two-steps-forward, one-step-back variety.


Total debt for May:
Down by $586.10

Upgrades, Downgrades, and April Numbers

Wow, what a month we had. Lots of financial ups and downs in a short period of time. And in the span of just a few days, we traded in my Sequoia for an older (but nicer) Land Cruiser, which netted us around a $3000 savings in car loans, and spent $2500 on a host of repairs for Mike's truck.

I keep thinking, "next month will be a calmer month", but we have an upcoming conference to pay for, and of course our nearly month-long trip this summer. Clothes to buy, car maintenance to be done, hotels to book. Lots of little details that I'm trying not to stress about just yet.

All told, our total debt still went down for the month, and I have hopes for at least a modest reduction next month as well.

Total debt for April:
Down by $715.01

Living Paycheck to Paycheck

We live paycheck to paycheck, and we always have... no matter how much we made, and no matter how much we owed.

For the past 5 years, Mike has gotten paid twice a month. And twice a month, the paycheck is completely spent on paper even before we get it. By design, one paycheck is somewhat tight. We pay the mortgage with that check, and like most people our mortgage is far and away our highest expense. The other check is much more comfortable, or at least it would be if we didn't devote SO much of it to extra debt payments. That's the check we use to pay for any "extras" for the month... birthdays, entertainment, new clothes... anything above and beyond. We try to plan for as much as we think we'll need, and the rest goes to debt. It's a good system, except.. sometimes it's not. Sometimes we find ourselves misjudging and scraping through, and it is a horrible feeling that I'd hoped to never have to repeat.

I get frustrated sometimes, knowing that we're keeping things so tight by choice now, and that if we weren't aggressively paying off debt that we'd be fine; that we'd be comfortable; that I wouldn't have that constant "Can we afford this?" hanging over my head every month. But then I think: We created this mess, so it's our responsibility to get out of it. And just because we can go back to minimums and live it up, doesn't mean we should. We have no business living all free and loose with our money as long as we have any kind of debt. We should feel tight. We should send all our extra money to our credit cards.

And for better or worse, whenever I falter, I hear Dave Ramsey's words in my head:

"If you will live like no one else, later you get to live like no one else"

March Update and GOOD News

The last time I updated, I was worried, daunted, and stressed out. Today I am hopeful, humbled, and grateful. Somewhere along the way in our A/C replacement process was the suggestion to have an official inspection done for hail damage. (We had a very severe hailstorm a few months back) Last weekend we had someone from our insurance company perform said inspection, and this Thursday they sent out another guy, specific to A/C repair. And the verdict is: DAMAGED. And because the unit is such an old model, repair is not an option. Which means.... replacement is covered by our insurance. Covered by our insurance! AND, because they offer a trade-in value of $300 for the old unit (which they use for scrap metal), we will barely have to come up with any money out of pocket, even for the deductible.

I'm sort of still speechless about it. It all really does work out.


Total Debt For March:
Down by $3303.01

February Numbers & Setbacks

The good news is that our debt went down for February, even with birthday parties and out of town visitors.

The bad news is that our A/C (which has been admittedly on borrowed time for awhile now) has died. Gone. Kaput. Finit. I feel like I say this a little too often, but... this is where an emergency fund would come in handy. And we have no such fund. So we - and by "we", I mean my husband - called around to a bunch of places, and got several estimates. We've chosen the company we want to go with, and now it's just a matter of getting it scheduled, and weeping while we write the check. Our debt reduction plan is going to be set back at least a couple of months while we deal with paying for this. :( But it's life. And we'll move on.


Total debt for February:
Down by $1111.49

January Numbers

The new couch, camera, and computer took more of a hit than I was anticipating, even though we came up with extra money. My hope for February is that it is a calmer financial month. We have two birthdays to plan, and out of town visitors to look forward to ... but even all of that shouldn't be on the scale of what we've spent the past two months getting things replaced.

Total debt for January:
Down by 698.20