Our savings plan!

Before I get to why I'm so excited about my bank accounts, I have a really quick update. I get to knock a little off of my old cable, but not because I really did much. I called the company to find out if they could work with me on this old bill so that I could get it paid off, and they informed me that they had actually not credited me back my old modem, so that knocked off quite a bit of my bill. Instead of owing 200, I now owe 114. I'LL TAKE IT!!

Now the FUN stuff!!  We are now the proud owners of 4 bank accounts and brand spanking new cash box! Exciting stuff, right??? I know that I am visual, and I know that, at this point, I cannot be trusted to keep all of my money together without spending it.So we have decided on multiple bank accounts. They currently have no money in them, but no less, I have them setup and ready to go! They are Car Fund (we have been VERY luck to have my husbands for going on 8 years, and plan to drive it until it quits...but I don't want to go into more debt when it decides to die on us), Debt repayment (one of my debts only allows 4 payments a month, and so this one is just necessary right now), primary checking (for obvious reasons), and our sad little emergency fund (that I intend to fill with our next commission check).

Yes, friends, it really s that bad. That is all the money I currently have to my name. Awesome, right? We all start somewhere (she said with a lot of embarrassment) 


We also ordered this cute little thing off amazon for $26:

Or rather, I ordered this cute little thing without my husband having seen it first. I hadn't meant to order a pink one.  I didn't even realize they HAD pink ones, but when I saw that it was also four dollars cheaper than its boring grey counterpart, well... how could I NOT click add to cart???

I had a little balance on our amazon gift card, so it was covered by that.

My plan is to use this for birthdays, money the kids earn, tags, and Christmas envelopes. I didn't think I needed to store these things in the bank, but didn't want to have a largish sum of money just laying around the house either. I feel much better knowing that it will be locked up and somewhat protected (now to find a place to hide it!). Am the only one who is this neurotic about keeping cash in their home??

Finally, we went to the dollar tree to pick a few envelopes and found these awesome, durable, snap envelopes. They seemed really sturdy and were 2 for 1 dollar. I had planned on just getting the plain paper ones, but at 2 for a dollar, why not get some cute ones???!! (I am starting to see why I am in so much debt here...) 

Out of pocket total for getting a bit more organized wast less than 5 dollars. I'm good with this!

Eating an elephant sucks

 I have NO patience. Seriously. None.

It may very well be the reason that I have failed time and time again with this whole debt payoff. I lose focus and motivation and scrap the plan.

I am hoping that this blog and chronicaling my journey will help with that. Meanwhile, I'm not off to a FANTASTIC start. You see, I am days away from having my 3rd child. I am on maternity leave, and without a paycheck for the next 8 weeks.

Knowing this almost 10 months in advance, most people would save for such an event. Did I? Nope. Nothing. Nada. Awesome.

I think we'll be okay if we are extremely careful, but it sure isn't leaving a ton of room for that pesky little debt snowball that I am so excited about.  Even so, I have still managed to take care of a few small debts. I forgot to post this at the end of March, but here is where I landed at the end of the month.

Radiology    0/50
Fines          0/100
Old cable bill  200/200
Hospital    254/339
CC1            0/300

CC2              754/800

CC3             2250/2250

CC4               3000/ 3000

School (mine) 5245/6000

School (hub)      8,580  /17400

Van                    12,500/21,000

House               97,000/99,000

For a total of 

 

I am down a total of $1,151.00 for the month of March.

Trying hard to focus on progress and that whole "eating an elephant slowly" business, but ack. At this rate, it will take way too long. 

First budget meeting!

The hubby and I sat down to have our first 'official' budget meeting last night, but I'm not sure it went the way I thought it might. I pictured things getting heated, both of us having ideas and goals for our money, but that's not the way it went, and actually, I'm a little dissapointed.

My husband seems a bit disinterested in the subject, and says that I can do whatever I want. The problem is that while he doesn't spend a lot of money, when he does spend, it's usually spur of the moment. For example, our son is completing his pinewood dirby car for boyscouts, and my husband needed to "run out for a few supplies" last night after our budget talk. He spent nearly 100.00 dollars of our already strapped budget.

Again, this is a rarity for him, but it does mess things up quite a bit. When he fails to take an interest in how the money is spent, I take the weight of rearranging our budget to make it work. At any rate, our budget won't begin until the first of April as we have already shot ourselves in the feet for this month. We failed to budget our last paycheck, and are now seriously paying for it. Literally. We somehow need to have necessary car repairs (unplanned for) and pay all bills from our end of month pay.

Here is where we will pick it up with the first April paycheck. I am going to try the 1/2 payment method, and because I don't (at this point) trust myself to leave money in the back until I need it, I am going to pull out that half and place it in its own envelope to be redeposited when the bill comes due.

Payday 1 and 2 for my husband will look the same:

Mortgage: 400
Van: 200
Insurance: 51
Cell: 125
Groceries: 200
Gasoliene: 125
Internet:  25


This will leave extra money on my husband's second pay period that will all go directly to debt.

My paycheck will be as follows (not 1/2 payments as I get paid monthly). Mine is primarily going to be used to pay down debt.

Cap 1 (me): 80
Cap 1 (hubs): 80
Credit card (me): 50
Firestone card:  50
Student loan (me): 50
Electric bill : 150
Gas Bill: 150
Water bill: 86
Fun money for month: 200
Eating out: 200

Everything else is going to directly to our debt. It isn't perfect, and I'm sure it will change a million times, but it's a good place to start.

An honest look at my money

My numbers are not great. My debt is high and my income is low...only not so much. My income is decent actually, and I should be in MUCH better shape than I actually am. The problem is that  I put 50 dollars to this debt, 75 to that debt, 40 to another debt, and so on like that until I have no money left (umm...edit here..I honestly thought this was true until I typed out my numbers below... I actually have unaccounted for dollars that could go toward debt. So embarrassingly bad with my money here).

 I never really make traction on a debt with paying all of the minimums, but there isn't much leftover after I do. 

Here are my real numbers. I am awful with numbers (big surprise,eh?). I can't make sense of them or keep them straight/organized. 

Income comes from my job and my husbands. 

Income 1 (mine): 2,552.00 paid monthly (teacher salary)

Income 2 (hubs): 1,180  paid the first of the month

                             1, 350 paid the middle of the month  (He also gets a monthly commission check                                     that I don't usually factor in because it can vary greatly.) 

So for the month we bring in (after taxes and insurance) $5,082.00 without commission included. 

Our expenses break down as follows:

Mortgage: 794

Electricity: 160

Gas Bill:   190 (this time of year)

Water:    86

Cell phones: 250

Car Insurance: 102

Daycare:  800

Car payment: 400

CC1: 75

CC2: 79

CC3: 80

CC4: 40

Groceries: 600

Gas: 400

Student loans: 200

Medical bills: 100

Entertainment: 300

Eating out: 250

Unaccounted for: 176

These are raw as they are numbers without having made any adjustments to them. Keeping it real here. 

I think if this were a dear abby column, I would sign off here as "desperate for help". Husband and I have a date to sit down tonight and figure out how to improve these numbers and divide them so that they are paid as we get paid. 

Small debt down

Money management has never been my strength. I keep trying, but I just can't seem to make sense of it. Tax returns came back, and we didn't get a whole lot back (I know...I know...this is supposed to be a good thing), but it was enough to knock out a debt on my list. So YAY! I do feel a bit panicked about my husband's car. It's giving way on us, and I have not prepared for the eventual outcome. I loathe the idea of taking on more debt, but I'm not really sure what else to do....aside from pray that it lasts us until we can pay cash for another one. 

I shouldn't have jumped down so far, but we found that we had a few items in our garage that we had financed with our Lowes card (the card we paid off), and could easily return them and have our card credited. 

Obviously this was a good idea, and from there, we only had a little left. It felt good to get at least one crossed off, so I went ahead and finished it. 

  

Radiology    50/50
Fines          100/100
Old cable bill  200/200
Hospital    339/339
CC1            0/300

CC2              800/800

CC3             2250/2250

CC4               3000/ 3000

School (mine) 5245/6000

School (hub)      8,800  /17400

Van                    13,000/21,000

House               97,000/99,000

Ground Zero...Again

I have struggled for most of my adult life with staying on track when it comes to financial goals. I have tried and failed to break away from debt more times than  can possibly count. I have come so close, and then given up. Time and time again I repeat these patterns, and every year, I swear it's going to be different.
I think this is usually triggered by filing my taxes and realizing that I actually made a decent amount of money...and where on earth did it go??? I don't know how to make it different, but I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep getting up and remaking up ground lost due to debt fatigue (is that even a thing?).

This is actually going to be the first time I see these numbers (at least in a while). I have been avoiding them, actually.

Please note that every single one of my credit cards have also been maxed out. Spending has always been my main means of dealing with my anxiety (which is a different conversation). At the heart of this, I have a lot to work on!

Radiology    50/50
Fines          100/100
Old cable bill  200/200
Hospital    339/339
CC1            300/300

CC2              800/800

CC3             2250/2250

CC4               3000/ 3000

School (mine) 5245/6000

School (hub)      8,800  /17400

Van                    13,000/21,000

House               97,000/99,000

For a grand total of