10,000 and 2

10,000
It's been a big last few weeks for us! We opened a $10,000 envelope which means we've paid off $10,000 of student loan debt since January 1, 2012. It was a huge milestone for us, we kept looking at our refrigerator and having to remind each other that, we've almost paid off $10,000 this year!! It was a strange but great feeling. The note inside the envelope told us to turn in the change from our change jar and cash it in for a date. Usually that's a pretty good chunk of change...except we recently used some of it to wash both dirty cars! We scraped up around $18 in change and went to see the final Bourne movie in a theater with leather recliners! It was a much needed night out together.

2
Ethan is now a 2 year old! He is also learning about money now that he's so big. Ethan has 5 chores that he can do to learn responsibility in our family and when he completes one of those chores he gets a sticker on a chart. After all 5 chores are complete he gets to put 5 pennies in his bank. We like it because it's a good way to get him to help out the first time asked and he also works on some fine motor skills by putting pennies in a slot. As he gets older these 5 chores will be ones that he will do without pay because he's a part of our family and then do some more challenging chores for a commission. Pennies work great since he has no concept of the value of money, we just want him to get excited about helping out.

YTD Debt Pay-off: $10,027.33

Total Debt Pay-off: $34,027.33

Just Say No!

Say goodbye to the $9,000 envelope. We didn't get too attached because it was only on our fridge for 10 days. HELLO $10,000 envelope! It's wild to see that huge number hanging on our fridge in a short 8 months. We are on our way to pay off $10,000 of debt this year.  Read more about our envelope system to pay off debt here.

We are going to celebrate our son's 2nd birthday at the end of the month. One of the words he loves to say (like most 2 year olds) is "NO!" He learned it from us. We know that our success is due to saying "NO" to lots of things. Saying "NO" these last 8 months was hard at times, but in all actuality, the progress we've made in such a short time made all of those NOs worth it. I don't even know what we wanted to say yes to over the last 8 months, but I'm sure if we would have said "YES" instead, we would have nothing to show for it now.

Check out my budgeting tips and make your money mind. After you decide where you want your money to go, say "NO" to everything else. You will be amazed at what you can do with a little NO therapy!

YTD Debt Pay-off: $9,000
Total Debt Pay-off: $33,000



Budgeting Tips

It's been enjoyable watching the Olympics these last few days. The teamwork, athleticism, coaching, victories, near loses, and world records make me want to soak in every second of the coverage.  I especially love the commentators and post-event interviews. *thick sarcasm* If I hear the word "catastrophic" one more time...anyway, the negative comments remind me of the disdain we have heard from people around us about our search for victory. Not everyone sees the road we are taking as a good thing. In a world where having stuff is a measure of success, we look very unsuccessful. We look stingy, poor, like tight-wads...sounds fun, huh?!

"The Lord doesn't see things they way you see them. People judge by the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

We are intently training for our debt-free victory just like the athletes did. The secret to our success is the budget. It is the workout plan, it's the measure of our discipline. We budget every dollar that comes in on paper before we spend it in real life. I know that sounds too easy to really work, but month in and month out for three and a half years we have lived on this kind of budget. The best part is that we get to decide where our money goes. It's not restricting like we first thought it would be, it's very freeing. Our money is planned out so when we spend money, it's guilt-free. Right now we chose to put all our excess money toward student loans. We could certainly take that money and go on a vacation because it is still our money, but we are sticking to the plan.

 

 "Children do what feels good, while adults devise a plan and follow it." ~Dave Ramsey




Quick Budgeting Tips



1. I use excel (paper and pencil work too) and write down our payday and income for the month.

2. We start by taking our tithe out first (10% of our income we give to our church)

3. Next we take out living expenses (rent, water, trash, gas, and electricity)

4. We now budget food/toiletries

5. Deduct money for transportation (insurance, gas, and oil changes)
6. We take out daycare expenses next
7. We pay minimum payments on all our debts (the smallest debt gets special attention at the end of this list)

*Now that we have the "necessities" taken care of we can budget for things that are nice but not mandatory
8. We pay for 2 cell phones and wireless Internet
9. We each get spending money each month for things we want. We call it BAM!
10. We also budget date night money each month
11. For miscellaneous expenses we budget a different amount each month for haircuts, gifts, or whatever we have planned for that particular month
12. Finally, we pile all the remaining money onto the smallest debt we owe. (More here about the debt snowball)


Our latest small victory is paying off another $1,000 of debt this week. We opened the $8,000 envelope and it told us to enjoy a KC sporting event. We, however, decided to go to the zoo instead! It felt like a sporting event walking to Africa and back!

Don't worry...that lion is behind glass! She looks pretty ferocious!

Rawr!!

YTD Debt Pay-off: $8,720.36

Total Debt Pay-off: $32,720.36

Summer Fun

This summer I decided to teach summer school. It's not how I want to be spending my highly anticipated time off, but it boosts our income and helps our debt-free plan. We found out that opening one envelope is fun...but opening two envelopes in 4 days is even more fun!! Speaking of fun...we do have it! We just plan for our fun in advance rather than pay for it afterwards. This makes the fun stuff guilt-free and regret-free. BONUS!!

Here's some of the fun we've been having.

The Color Run KC-
We found out about this crazy 5k run that throws a colored powder on you every kilometer. Chris and I ran with our best friends Ryland and Lauren and plan on doing this 5k next year too!

July 4th-

Chris and I were both off on the same day and this rarely happens. So we planned a fun day as a family. It was over 100 degrees outside so we had to be creative. We spent the morning at an indoor toddler playground called Little Monkey Business and Ethan played so hard! We ate lunch at one of our favs...Culvers and then went to a afternoon movie. Ethan has never been to the theater and we weren't sure how he would do. We watched Brave and he watched it for about an hour and then...not so much! After that we spent the evening with some 100+ people from church for dinner and fireworks. Great day off!

Say "french fries!"

Our next planned fun: we're going to Branson, MO to visit Silver Dollar City and during that trip we will get to spend some time with my parents too.

YTD Debt Pay-off: $7,238.53 FUN!!

Total Debt Pay-off: $31,238.53 (over halfway to the finish line!!)



Stretchin' Our Dollars

We opened another envelope on June 15th! We have now paid off $5,108.58 since January 1, 2012. This is a big milestone in our debt-free journey. The note inside was encouraging. It reminded us that this process is slow, but worth every step. There are 5,280 feet in a mile, so if every dollar we paid off was equal to 1 foot, we are just about 1 mile out of debt. Our debt balance at the beginning of the year puts us at a little over "6.5 miles" in the hole! We're climbing out, and every dollar counts!

Here are some ways we save a few dollars here and there to make our income go farther:

1. We make our own breakfast, lunch, and dinner instead of eating out. We budget a few meals to eat out and they become even more exciting now that we rarely eat out. (I'm talking 2-3 times a month)

We also meal plan so we are only buying food we need for the meals we are going to cook. I like "roll-over" meals, because left-overs aren't always very exciting. For example: If I cook a roast in the crock-pot, the next night I can do beef and noodles or bbq beef sandwiches and make a totally different meal. My best friend Lauren rolls over spaghetti and meatballs to meatball subs another night. Genius! (less cooking too, by the way!!)

2. We grocery shop at Aldi for about 60% of our food- our staples (milk, eggs, pasta, baking mix, cake mix, seasonings, dressing, condiments, etc), some fruits and veggies, and low-cal popcorn and fudge bars come from here.

3. We price match at Walmart- we only price match things we normally buy, we don't buy things just because they are on sale!! These usually include boneless skinless chicken breast, chips, toilet paper, laundry detergent, and fruit. So for these items I bring in another store's ad for the week and show the cashier that the same item is cheaper and Walmart matches the competitors prices. Then I don't have to go to 4 different stores to get the best deals.

4. We buy store brand items on almost everything- diapers and wipes included. Even our son is in on this adventure!! :) Bonus: since my husband works at Target we get an extra 15% off!

5. We pay cash for groceries, dinners out, and special occasions. This helps us have a firm stopping point when we spend in these areas. We realistically look at each month and budget accordingly. Every month is different and we learned early on that we had to build in life to fit each month. Some months we are out of town several days and our grocery bill is smaller. Other months we add to it because we are having people over for dinner or need to make a side or dessert for a party and we need to make sure we have enough.

YTD pay-off: $5,108.58
Total Debt Pay-off: $29,108.58

What a week...

We moved to our new apartment one week ago. One week ago, we left our nice, comfy, air conditioned apartment. We left that nice, comfy, air conditioned apartment to live in an apartment that didn't have working A/C. This apartment didn't have working A/C until today...one week later! It's been a long, 85 degree week. I'm glad I waited until today to post about the move. Otherwise this post would look alot different!!

Through all of this, Chris and I had to daily remind ourselves why on earth we moved. Seeing the goal, dialed in the purpose of living in a older, cheaper apartment for us.

Here's the list:
(I need this handy when people look at us like we are crazy and say "why???" when we tell them we moved here)

1. Increase Margin- our income is maxed out at this time so we need to reduce expenses...$300 to be exact!

2. Decrease Risk - if one of us loses our job or something happens medically, we are more likely able to pay bills, food, utilities, and rent here than the other place

3. Increase Intensity- we were comfortable at our other apt. Living here will give us motivation to pay off debt quicker and save for a house sooner.

4. Further from Normal- 70% of people live paycheck to paycheck, so broke is normal! We haven't lived that way for over 3 years and don't plan on going back now!

5. Learn Contentment- we are learning already that we can make do with little. I want this same attitude when we look for a house someday, we want to make do with little then too.

 6. Our Desire to Give- we are filthy rich compared to most of the world, even at this apartment. Why do I deserve this extravagance when others have nothing? I'm ready to give like no one else!!


Debt Pay-off Update: paid off another $1,000 and opened another envelope on May 4th!

YTD Pay-Off: $4,228.60
Total Debt Pay-off: $28,228.60

One Down...Two to Go!

Chris and I celebrated a milestone this past week, we paid off one of our student loans. We have slowly knocked off debt after debt to get us to this point. We have followed the snowball principle and only paid minumum payments to all of our debts except the smallest one on the list. We attack the smallest loan and then roll on to the next one. Because we have lined-up our debts in order of amount, naturally these last two are going to take awhile to finish off, they are our largest amounts. We will be even more happy to pay them off since they have been along for the ride these last few years.

With all of the talk about student loan forgiveness going on right now, it makes me want to take care of my own mess even more, I don't want tax payers to pay for my loans. Chris and I signed paperwork declaring that we understood that the money we use for college we will pay back. It's hard to hear all of the college grads who think because college was expensive they shouldn't have to pay for it. I agree, college is expensive, but I chose to go and now I pay for that choice. I also learned along the way that I hate debt and because I learned that lesson the hard way, I don't plan on getting any more student loans to finish my masters degree. 

Total debt pay-off: $27,847.52
YTD debt pay-off: $3,847.52