Everything's Coming Up Green

Archive for the ‘Finances’ Category

I am supposed to be keeping you updated on our grocery expenses. I have not done so well as of late. So here is the update for January. We have one week left in February so I will wait on that.

In January I spent 182.24 and saved $10.65 which leaves us $67.76 under budget. Ya, there was only one week in there that I used coupons. I was quite tired especially coming off the holidays. We are tracking well for February and will come in well under budget this month as well. I look forward to sharing it with you. I am considering reducing our budget to $200 a month. I’d like to spend even less. Hopefully by the end of next month we will be moved out to my parents’ house in the country. I will start out combining both our budgets for the month and after a couple of months will review if we can reduce the combined budget. Part of my contribution to the house will be doing most of the grocery shopping. My mom is a teacher in the city 35 minutes away and her school is a test school with longer hours. She often doesn’t have the time to shop and never has the time to shop sales with coupons. I am very excited to bless them in this way! I will also be making the majority of the meals so that will save money as well. How are you doing with your budget thus far? Are you right on track or have you blown it? It’s only February so it’s not too late! Keep trying, you will get there!

Here we go people-2010. It is January 14^th and we have an entire year ahead of us. Joel and I had our discussion at the beginning of December, and since then we went from strong plans to things looking like they were going to all fall apart to just this weekend finally finding resolution with the changes in circumstances. The last couple of weeks before the new year I was less than excited about the upcoming year. Save the joy of a new baby girl, it felt as though it was going to be another year of dreams and desires left unfulfilled. But God always has something up His sleeve. We have our plans, God has His. And somehow, if we are willing to, God reconciles the two and we can walk forward with confidence. So looking forward to the New Year here are our financial goals. Some of them are drastic, some are ambitious, but I am confident that with the Lord’s help we can accomplish every one of them.

Goal #1

Transfer credit debt to a 0% interest card.

We did this last year and were quite happy with having our entire payment go toward the principal. It enabled us to pay almost $2,000 on our principal. We have received several offers for 0% interest for 12 months, so we won’t need to track one down. This will be completed in January.

Goal #2

Save $5,000 to buy a new car.

We bought a car last summer for $700. We have had to put in $250, so $950 total. We were able to pay cash for all of it. That, my friends, was a wonderful feeling. It has served its purpose and we have for sure gotten our money’s worth out of it, but with kiddo #2 coming we need a more reliable car that has better storage. Our plan is to be able to purchase a car by May at the latest. My car hasn’t been doing so hot so we may end up taking out a small loan in order to purchase the car early and then pay it off as soon as the money comes in. I hate to do this, but with the heat only working when you go over 45 mph and having a baby in the back with another due in just a few short weeks we may not have a choice. Especially if the weather continues in the mid west as they say it will. We shall see. The Lord loves to work in mysterious ways!

Goal #3

Sell our house in the spring.

This is one of those big, crazy goals. We are planning to sell the house as is. It needs some work, but we/I (I because Joel was ready to get rid of the house as is and cut our losses long before I was. I felt like it was a reflection on us, when really is not. Life happens and we move on) have come to the conclusion that we do not have the time, resources or money to fix it up the rest of the way. It has great potential though and we are praying that God brings us the right person with a vision for the house. After we sell the house we will then move in with my parents in order to save money and pay off debt. This also allows us to help my parents and grandparents with “the farm” (really its 5 acres with two cats and a dog, but there is a lot of property to keep up with). I am actually really excited about this transition. Though I enjoy having my own space, my family lived with my mother’s parents on two separate occasions when I was a child. It was a wonderful experience having my grandparents so involved in my life. I will also confess that I am not a city girl. I loved living out in the country and am excited for our girls to experience that even if they are really young. We are choosing to “live like no one else so that later we can live like no one else”.

Goal #4

Pay off our $8,000 in debt.

 After the setback last year in our debt reduction due to having a child, getting pregnant again, and Joel switching careers, we are ready to knock this debt out of the park. Achieving this goal goes hand in hand with two of our other goals-Goal #1 and Goal #3. Being able to put everything towards the principal is huge, so obviously a 0% interest card really helps with that.  Also selling our house will allow us to sock a large chunk each month towards debt. Our goal is to be completely debt free by the end of 2010, and that is after we save for a “new” car. I think we can do it though! We sooo badly want to be debt free and start fresh sticking everything extra into savings.