Happy belated anniversary

2/2/08 was a VERY monumental day for Mr. Producer and I.

It was B.I.G.

Bigger than Christmas big.

Bigger than Disney world big.

Bigger than wedding day or baby big (well almost)

2/2/08 was the last day of guilt in our lives.

2/2/08 was the last day of panic, the last day of frivolousness, the last day of paying 1800x more for anything than it is worth.

2/2/08 was the LAST TIME WE USED A CREDIT CARD FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!!!!

Yes, you heard me (or rather, you read me) correctly.

F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

E.N.D. O.F. T.I.M.E

D.O.N.E

Not even a back-up. No emergency card, no gas card, no hidden ones tucked away for there-is-a-major-diaper-sale-going-on-and-I-have-to-stock-up -NOW-sale.

N.A.D.A.

Now, to make this more understandable to some of you who either have never had a credit card (stay away, far, far, away) or who have one and constantly pay it off (they are still a bad idea even then) or who have become debt free, we were credit card addicts!!!

Yes, ADDICTS!!!!

That seems kinda harsh you say. Well, when we 1st meet, Mr. Producer had 2 credit cards and I had 2 credit cards. Not so bad, maybe even manageable. The 4 become 6 and 6 became 8 and our credit cards multiplied faster than our children did until we ran into real problems. We decided that we needed help. We signed up for credit counseling and in just 5 long, err, short years, they were paid off!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! And we swore we would never get another credit card AGAIN!

B.U.T..........................................................................................................

The house needed a new roof. Mr. Producer was a SAHD+I was a teacher+we had NOTHING in savings+Home Depot/6 months same as cash=BUMBUMBUM...............

It always starts out innocent. I will pay it off before the 6 months (we had furniture we were going to do this with and sold it after 5 years of owning it before we even paid it off:( I will pay the balance due every month, I will double the minimum payment.

Then life happens and you don't, or rather we didn't.

1 child became 2, then 3 and 4 arrived along with a whole lot of grocery bills, medical bills, clothes bills, diapers, you get the idea.

Before we knew it we had 1 gas card, 2 dept store cards, 3 visa's, a mastercard, a platinum mastercard and a TA-DAH Discover card (man we thought we were IT)! Now not all of them were maxed (actually on 3 were and a couple did not have a balance) but I could see where we were headed!

Enter Stage left: DAVE RAMSEY!!!!!!!

I do not think God had ever picked a more opportune man to walk into my life. Dave did for me what no other man could (sorry babe)! Dave, oh Dave!

If you have never read or heard of Dave Ramsey, you need to immediately call 911 and have them check your pulse, then ask them to deposit you at the library so you can check out a book by him!! Dave Ramsey, envelopes, baby steps and all things cash rock! If this makes sense to you then you get it, if it doesn't then you need to get it!

Anyway, this wonderful short little message was just my opportunity to say happy belated anniversary to myself, Mr. Producer and Dave Ramsey!!

Here is to living like no one else so later we can live like no one else!!!!!

Thankful Thursday

I had to post how thankful I am for a discount dry-goods grocery store that is in our area. They have boxed and canned goods items. These items are discounted for a variety of reasons; discontinued, crushed or damaged boxes/cans, almost out of date or out of date items.

I purchased a total of $182.50 worth of items B.U.T. I only SPENT $61.25. YEP - I SAVED $121.25!!!!!!!! WooHoo!!!! Can I get a high 5??!!!

Here is a pic of all see the stuff I bought.

All the boxes of snack stuff are the 100 calorie count. The cereal has some unhealthy choices but (again with that word) this is the only junk food my kids get and this stuff will last 6-8 weeks.

Now, those of you that live close and will admit to feeding your kids the occasional junk, email me and I will tell you where it is at. Those of you that live far away, I recommend you check into some place near you that has a discount dry goods store. We have been going there for over a year but this is the 1st time that I actually priced the stuff immediately afterwards at the grocery store.

As for the 2nd picture, this is just to show you how big the pile is compared to what I bought at our local grocery store (where btw, I spent $36 and saved $18 - not that great compared to SCTB). The SMALL pile on the right that starts with the eggs and milk is the stuff from our local grocery store. Other than the milk, eggs, banana's, and peas, I had a coupon for everything else, including the bag of potato's.

Yes, for those of you wondering why you see no meat or produce, we stock up on meat when we see it on sale and I get the produce at a produce stand and am trying to join a co-op and my son is in 4-H.

So, to those of you who are wondering how we can manage to provide for 6 (7 if you include cat) of us with food and essentials (toilet paper, shampoo, razors, litter, etc) on only $55o-$600 monthly (2 in diapers, pampers only b/c anything else makes them break out - the same with shampoo and lotion, has to be J&J) here is our secret.

Do we do good? bad? ok? From my frugal readers out there, let me know what you think!

Debt

WooHoo! I really got excited tonight when I realized that we have paid off $7100 in debt in just 6 months! I really have NO IDEA where most of that money has come from, but I am glad that we got it! I am even more excited about that fact that I got offered and have accepted a tutoring job. It doesn't start until late September to mid-October but since this money will ONLY go to paying off our debt, I am just ecstatic to have it. I am also thrilled to be back in action. There are few things in life I KNOW I am good at an teaching was/is one of them. I love my kids but am also excited to be needed in some capacity other than mommy and wife. I get to do something for me and boy am I tickled pink. The goal is with the money I am earning to put it straight towards more of our debt and at least get our final credit card paid off definitely withing 1 year from today, but I am hoping we can attack it with "gazelle intensity" and get it paid off by Easter? Wishful thinking? Maybe, but hey you gotta set goals. Imagine how I would look and how much richer we would be if I attacked the 2 trouble area's of my life (weight and spending money) with "gazelle intensity" but we shall save that for another post. Figuring our how much debt we have paid off has reawakened the desire in me to be debt free. I can't stand these bills that hang over our heads and prevent us from giving back and doing things as a family. We may never eat PB&J or go to the city park after we are out of debt :-) I have also been challenged today by an unknown source. I read a strangers blog, yes I am a voyeur of blogs unknown, and she has 6 kids ranging in age from 2-14 and she spend $600 monthly on food and essentials. Now, I thought I was doing pretty good with us only spending $600 monthly on these things, but the gauntlet has been thrown down and I am feeling challenged to take $100 off our monthly budget? Can I do it and still feed my kids healthy food? I am not sure but I am up for the challenge!!!!!! Now, if only the babies would get potty trained, oh the money we would save........everything in due time!

Like an alcoholic

Sometimes I think we are nuts. I guess the beauty in this is that we are crazy together but man, I think we invite temptation. 6 months ago, we (DH&I) made the pact to cut up and FOREVER forgo credit cards, store accounts and even car payments for that matter; we have quit debt in general. We still have quite a bit of debt but we are diligently (some months more than others) working to pay that off. This came as we started in a debt reduction/financial peace program given by Dave Ramsey. This is the perfect program for us. Many years ago we were in big debt and we worked our way out if it with the help of a credit consolidation program. After we completed that we slowly began to acquire debt again. This time we have promised ourselves, our families, God, friends, everybody that we ARE DONE WITH DEBT!! If we don't have cash, we don't get it!!!!!
OK, so our living room couch (which is probably 20 years old and reupholstered 10 different times) is falling apart in a big way. The cushions are ripped, the zippers are broke and now the front part, that holds up the cushions that you sit on, is broken. Suffice it to say we have come to the conclusion something needed done. As we were discussing this with our family, they said if we could find a replacement couch for $100-$200 they would help us out. Excited at the prospect to be shopping we head out (sans kids:-) on a couch hunting excursion. After stopping at a few thrift stores we think, let's just stop at a we-want-you-in-debt furniture store. Maybe, yeah right, they will have something on clearance. With the knowledge, stern warning and agreement that we are NOT going to buy anything if it doesn't fall into our price range we head in. Store #1 we walk in and DH says "Do you smell that?" "The new furniture smell" I ask? To which he responds "No, the smell of debt"!! SO TRUE!! We wander around store #1 and don't find anything even worth thinking about! YIPPEEEEEE!! Go us. Feeling pretty brave and untouchable off to store #2 we go. We wander around store #2 and are close to leaving when we both spot it at the same time. There it is. The answer to our couching prayers. The holy grails of sofa's. It is love at first sight from across the store. It seems like a marriage made in heaven when we see the price. IT IS IN OUR PRICE RANGE!!! This can't be happening. A brand new couch; beautiful, soft, comfy couch in our price range! Surely this is meant to be. But, as we stand there and debate the matching chair (it too on clearance and just as wonderful as the couch) and call our family to see if they would also help pay for the matching chair (we just have to have it-they match), someone else swoops in. Now, they didn't snatch it up immediately, they talked of going up a little more to something not right off the showroom floor. As they talk, we call. When we get no answer, we talk. After much debate, we promise that if we decide to touch our emergency fund money for the chair WE WILL PAY IT BACK IMMEDIATELY. We shake on this and say let's do it. Then the salesman tells us, the other couple is taking that couch, if we want another it will be from the back not the floor model and it will be $200 more!!! We immediately walk out. As we are getting in the care, we decide that we are like alcoholics walking into a bar. We would not have passed up that drink, we would have promised to only have 1, but we would not have said NO! That is where, God, fate, the spirit of DAVE RAMSEY came in and took the temptation away from us. THANK YOU!!!! Not all was lost, we went down the road to another consignment and found a great couch for $70! So with our resolve back in place, our near fall off the wagon only known to us and our checkbook still in the black, we pay for our new couch and thank God that he saved us from that drink!!!