Saturday, June 13, 2009
2009-06-13
things are going good. still don't feel like we're getting ahead. but we are no longer falling behind. it's hard to come to terms with the fact that there is literally no money left at the end of the bills. if we don't want to juggle and if we want to do it ramsey style then we have to come to grips with that. and we finally have. it's been a year since we took the course. and we're just now realizing this? o well. we'll be debt free soon enough.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
2009-03-08 part 2
i want to say that today was a momentous day for us. and i should probably thank dave ramsey and fpu for bringing my husband and i closer together. i'm not saying things are all perftect and fully of hearts or anything. but, today, for the first time ever, ryan and i prayed together. we pray at every meal--one of the kids or ryan does. i def pray alot during the day. but he and i have never prayed together. it was nice. i'm hoping that this is something we will start doing on a regular basis. it's something we should do anyways. he and i do separate devotionals. we read out Bibles at separate times in separate rooms. and we pray separately. but i'm hoping that will change some and we'll start praying together.
anyways, it was an awesome way to start our financial session today. we redid our quicky budget and our debt snowball. we have a def plan now! the cool thing is that we have kept up with every bit of our spending thru a budget and a register (thanks to YNAB) and put it in catagories for almost a year now. so we KNOW what our monthly average is on everything. there are def some areas that we can cut back on. for instance, we spend an average of $300 a month in "blow money." seriously? we do not need to be "blowing" that much money every month. no we do not. i do think we need blow money. just not $300!!!! maybe $50? prolly even less.
ok, so it's gonna be HARD. we are seriously struggling but we have a plan and that's a good thing. with hard work we can dig our way out of this mess. it's not as bad as it seemed at 4am this morning. and ryan is def not as stressed as he was-- so that's a good thing.
anyways, it was an awesome way to start our financial session today. we redid our quicky budget and our debt snowball. we have a def plan now! the cool thing is that we have kept up with every bit of our spending thru a budget and a register (thanks to YNAB) and put it in catagories for almost a year now. so we KNOW what our monthly average is on everything. there are def some areas that we can cut back on. for instance, we spend an average of $300 a month in "blow money." seriously? we do not need to be "blowing" that much money every month. no we do not. i do think we need blow money. just not $300!!!! maybe $50? prolly even less.
ok, so it's gonna be HARD. we are seriously struggling but we have a plan and that's a good thing. with hard work we can dig our way out of this mess. it's not as bad as it seemed at 4am this morning. and ryan is def not as stressed as he was-- so that's a good thing.
2009-03-08
when are we gonna get ahead?
ryan is so stressed out. the only time he ever gets irritable, cranky, and just down right mean is when he is stressed about money. last night at 4:30 in the morning we had a huge fight. it started because of the dog. she wanted out. i nudged ryan to let the dog out and all hell broke lose. he was just being mean and saying i never do anythign around here and he's tired of cleaning up boston's poop. ya, i know. random. anyways, i reminded him that boston is not perfect and that i have to clean up accidents 95% more times than he does. and that cleaning accidents is part of parenting. then i told him i was tired of him being mean and short tempered and his hard words to everyone and that i knew all of this wasn't about getting up to let the dog out or cleaning boston's messes. and he admitted what i already knew. that he is super duper extremely stressed out about finances.
we are not gaining any ground. as a matter of fact we are losing ground. the fact that he is not getting any over time is killing us. the bills are piling up. actually, we are now behind. and we've not been behind since way before the kids were born and we were both users. when you use, everything else comes second. anyways, i'm stressed too. but i know that not being nice to my family isn't gonna help the situation.
well, it's sunday and that is our day to sit down and reevaluate our fpu workbook. we've decided to start doing this every sunday afternoon. hopefully we'll get things straight soon.
ryan is so stressed out. the only time he ever gets irritable, cranky, and just down right mean is when he is stressed about money. last night at 4:30 in the morning we had a huge fight. it started because of the dog. she wanted out. i nudged ryan to let the dog out and all hell broke lose. he was just being mean and saying i never do anythign around here and he's tired of cleaning up boston's poop. ya, i know. random. anyways, i reminded him that boston is not perfect and that i have to clean up accidents 95% more times than he does. and that cleaning accidents is part of parenting. then i told him i was tired of him being mean and short tempered and his hard words to everyone and that i knew all of this wasn't about getting up to let the dog out or cleaning boston's messes. and he admitted what i already knew. that he is super duper extremely stressed out about finances.
we are not gaining any ground. as a matter of fact we are losing ground. the fact that he is not getting any over time is killing us. the bills are piling up. actually, we are now behind. and we've not been behind since way before the kids were born and we were both users. when you use, everything else comes second. anyways, i'm stressed too. but i know that not being nice to my family isn't gonna help the situation.
well, it's sunday and that is our day to sit down and reevaluate our fpu workbook. we've decided to start doing this every sunday afternoon. hopefully we'll get things straight soon.
Friday, February 20, 2009
2009-02-20
well, yesterday my alternator decided to die. no warning really. i am very thankful that my husband is a mechanical genius. really i am. i have no clue what a shop would have cost and i'm glad i don't have to find out. the part alone cost a fortune! i can't imagine having to pay someone labor on top of that.
when ryan first looked up how much the part was gonna cost it was $129. but when he pulled the old alternator he found out that we have a bigger one and therefore needed a different one than the $129 one. the one we needed was $192. what could we do? we HAD to have it. i HAVE to take bray to school and back. so he went to the store to get it. when he was at the register he made a comment to the cashier that the part was really expensive. he said the old man running the register must have felt sorry for him or maybe it was just his lucky day cause the guy gave ryan his employee discount. 20% off. so it wound up costing $166.42 as opposed to $192 + tax. so hey, not as good as $129 but still better than $192. plus NO LABOR charges!
sadly, that was money that was going into the emergency fund.
yesterday, i did eat out for lunch. i normally have a slimfast for breakfast and i forgot to take it with me. i had a sewing class until 12:30 and then i had to pick up the kids at 2. when i got on this side of town, around 1, i was really hungry and shaky. i decided to stop and get lunch because i didn't think i could make it until 2:30--which is when we would get home after picking up the kids from school. it's a good thing i stopped and ate. because immediately after i picked up the kids is when the alternator went out. and we didn't make it home until 5:30!
i did spend $10 at the sewing class. i bought some strips of fabric. there are a couple of birthdays coming up and these strips will be perfect for the outfits i want to make. if i can make 4 outfits and one quilt out of these strips for gifts then that's great! $10 for 5 gifts ain't too shabby. LOL
this morning, bray cleaned out the rest of the breakfast food so i bought indyanna and boston a delux big breakfast at mcdonald's. they split it. it still chaps my hide though. for what i spent on one meal, i could have bought a weeks worth of frozen pancakes for them. PLUS syrup! for lunch we are eating here!
TOTAL SPENT YESTERDAY: $185.36
auto zone $166.42
hoss bbq $8.13
sew southward bernina $10.81
TOTAL SPENT TODAY:
mcdonald's $4.86
when ryan first looked up how much the part was gonna cost it was $129. but when he pulled the old alternator he found out that we have a bigger one and therefore needed a different one than the $129 one. the one we needed was $192. what could we do? we HAD to have it. i HAVE to take bray to school and back. so he went to the store to get it. when he was at the register he made a comment to the cashier that the part was really expensive. he said the old man running the register must have felt sorry for him or maybe it was just his lucky day cause the guy gave ryan his employee discount. 20% off. so it wound up costing $166.42 as opposed to $192 + tax. so hey, not as good as $129 but still better than $192. plus NO LABOR charges!
sadly, that was money that was going into the emergency fund.
yesterday, i did eat out for lunch. i normally have a slimfast for breakfast and i forgot to take it with me. i had a sewing class until 12:30 and then i had to pick up the kids at 2. when i got on this side of town, around 1, i was really hungry and shaky. i decided to stop and get lunch because i didn't think i could make it until 2:30--which is when we would get home after picking up the kids from school. it's a good thing i stopped and ate. because immediately after i picked up the kids is when the alternator went out. and we didn't make it home until 5:30!
i did spend $10 at the sewing class. i bought some strips of fabric. there are a couple of birthdays coming up and these strips will be perfect for the outfits i want to make. if i can make 4 outfits and one quilt out of these strips for gifts then that's great! $10 for 5 gifts ain't too shabby. LOL
this morning, bray cleaned out the rest of the breakfast food so i bought indyanna and boston a delux big breakfast at mcdonald's. they split it. it still chaps my hide though. for what i spent on one meal, i could have bought a weeks worth of frozen pancakes for them. PLUS syrup! for lunch we are eating here!
TOTAL SPENT YESTERDAY: $185.36
auto zone $166.42
hoss bbq $8.13
sew southward bernina $10.81
TOTAL SPENT TODAY:
mcdonald's $4.86
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
2009-02-18
i could put in here that i paid a bill yesterday. but i don't want this to be about bills. i am wanting to be accountable for the extra/unnecessary/frivolous money we spend.
i did, however, buy 2 books at paperbacks plus.
TOTAL SPENT YESTERDAY: $ 2.71
i did, however, buy 2 books at paperbacks plus.
TOTAL SPENT YESTERDAY: $ 2.71
Monday, February 16, 2009
2009-02-16 part 2
had to withdraw $20 from atm. no extra fees for that though. needed $3 to get into bray's basketball game. and i owed mom $15 for some soaps i ordered before going gazelle! which also reminds me that i ordered some lotion and face cleanser that i will have to pay for when it comes in. $45. should have paid for it before we went gazelle! it's really messing with the finances now.
total spent today:
game and mom: $18
total spent today:
game and mom: $18
2009-02-16
it's early in the day and i'm already stressing about bills for this pay period. ryan only got 4 hours of over time this pay period and that is not good. we're used to at least 20. at the very least. i know that God will provide for us though. i'm just gonna leave it up to Him.
ryan gets paid every two weeks. i would love to have two paychecks in the back at all times. available for paying bills. for instance, i would pay februarys bills off of januarys paychecks. that would be nice. and is a goal that i've added to my little sidebar thingy.
when ryan gets home today we are going to get out our fpu book and do the lists in the back of the book. i can't think of the names of them right now. but you know, the ones where you list out all your monthly bills and then the one where you list out the things you could pay off. like credit cards, or car payments or whatever.
i'm excited about really going gazelle on this. we will do it this time. i am pretty stressed about it but we can do it. i'm tired of stressing about money.
*so far today, i've said no to $15 basketball pictures for bray. i felt bad but, the truth is i can take a picture of him and print it at walmart for under a dollar! to me that is money best put towards bills or the emergency fund*
ryan gets paid every two weeks. i would love to have two paychecks in the back at all times. available for paying bills. for instance, i would pay februarys bills off of januarys paychecks. that would be nice. and is a goal that i've added to my little sidebar thingy.
when ryan gets home today we are going to get out our fpu book and do the lists in the back of the book. i can't think of the names of them right now. but you know, the ones where you list out all your monthly bills and then the one where you list out the things you could pay off. like credit cards, or car payments or whatever.
i'm excited about really going gazelle on this. we will do it this time. i am pretty stressed about it but we can do it. i'm tired of stressing about money.
*so far today, i've said no to $15 basketball pictures for bray. i felt bad but, the truth is i can take a picture of him and print it at walmart for under a dollar! to me that is money best put towards bills or the emergency fund*
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