16 years later....

      I can finally say I am credit card balance free!!!!  Not debt-free, but we are making some progress! At about the age of 20 I realized how EASY it was to get a credit card, and how FUN it was to use it. Even though I was a single mom in college working as a waitress, I had my hair done regularly, brand name clothes, and dined at fabulous restaurants.  HOW could I afford that? V-I-S-A and her sly cousins; namely Victoria's Secret, Express, NY and Company, you name the store, I had the card. And if I had the card I used it.  And if the money was there, I paid the bill. If it wasn't, I played it like Vegas and let it ride.  This has been a well-taught lesson I will NEVER forget. I am still dealing with consequences of actions sixteen years later.
      However, today I have HOPE.  Meeting number two with our money coach will have enough for me to work on and blog about for weeks and it is a beautiful day here in Florida.  We have a reserved deck with food and drinks at the minor league baseball fields tonight courtesy or my teacher's union, and so I have to keep this short and sweet.
      Today, we were able to pay our large Visa balance in full, as well as a consolidation of a few medical bills by taking out a personal loan.  The terms are five years, at 9.24%, but we are budgeting to pay double the payments and finish in 2.5 years.  That will be an interest savings of about $550 per year (an extra half of a paycheck!) and $1500 saved for the remainder of the loan if I maintain the paid off in 2.5 years plan. Can you say "ecstatic"??? I can and I am. If you can resonate with the monkey-on-your-back Visa like I have loathed for years, you should give this option a try.
    Some other juicy tidbits from our meeting I will be posting when it is not 90 degrees and sunny on a long weekend....

• Check out creditkarma.com---It gives you a free credit score, and my favorite part was the report card feature detailing where your credit is suffering and excelling. Bonus? My score was 40 points higher than the bank said it was two weeks ago.  I am wondering if adding my name to my husband's cards is already paying off? Or if old marks just happened to drop off? Or, if it is an accuracy issue. I will be checking again and checking often.
• Open another savings account that you do not touch, and keep as true savings.  I opened mine today with $5 and am going to add money I save via coupons/sales/ect. to set aside as evidence my frugal ways are benefiting our family. I will be posting more on this soon.
• BUMP UP the amount you put in your retirement account.  I talked to an old co-worker who retired a year ago today, and she has me MOTIVATED to retire in my 50's like her. You will not regret saving for retirement.
• Look closely at your paystubs for any other "fat" you can trim.  I want my $25/paycheck I have been paying to the teacher's union and will be leaving the union soon.

Our Real Motivation

    Our kids hopped on their bikes tonight, squeezing the last drips out of a gorgeous Florida spring day.  My husband had lowered the seat on my daughter's free bike scored last night and it was certainly a perfect fit.  I watched her a bit and then crept back in the house to prepare one of the new recipes I had shopped for on Saturday.  It was a winner, turkey meatballs with tomato and mozzarella cheese squished inside, served over noodles and marinara sauce.  My newly licensed driver took one of the littles to the library to pick out some new books, which both littles climbed up into my son's top bunk to read before bed.  A strange leak from the minivan sent my husband to the auto parts store for some free advice and a extra part they had lying around.  After finishing some cute end-of-the year photos for my students at school and cleaning the kitchen, I poured myself a glass of wine and enjoyed the many successes of the day. Tomorrow is a Friday, and I am looking forward to movie night tomorrow (I have a free Redbox code), Saturday brings our money coach meeting (which I believe will have some exciting news!) plus a Jacksonville Suns game that night (free for the whole family, including food, from my teacher's union).  Sunday will be church followed by a trip to the beach (completely free, huge perk of living near the coast), and Monday will be a Memorial picnic/pool party with our best friends (for the cost of lots of corn on the cob, a dessert, and beverages).  But this is what is funny to me; these things are the things I post as ways to enjoy life and spend less.  People might think we do them because we are cheap or free, and they would be wrong. We do them because this is our life. This is what we enjoy. And tonight, at this outlet sale kitchen table I believe I posted about months ago, there is no where else I would rather be. I hope you can all say the same, sitting, reading this, wherever you might be. Enjoy the little things this upcoming weekend!

Free To A Good Home....Beautiful Words!

        There is no such thing as a free kitten. Agreed.  However, keeping your eyes open for other free items (that are not alive) is a way to enhance your life without budging your bank account.  Tonight, we dropped our kiddos off at their Wednesday night gymnastics classes.  Walking through the lobby was a rush of putting my daughter's hair up, getting shoes into the cubbies, and I paid no attention to a bike parked right in the front lobby.  Soon, I realized my daughter's water bottle was still in the car, so I rushed out to get it.  Doing this forced me again through the lobby where we saw the bike seen below, along with the note, "Free to a good home" This bike just happened to be a girls bike, with a kickstand, and a Schwinn, nonetheless.  The seat was up a bit too high,  but can easily be lowered to my girl's perfect height.  Confession, someone easily could have just taken this bike to resell online.  But my daughter actually needs a bike, as her Disney Princess bike she received as a Christmas Gift two years ago now has its training wheels removed with no kickstand to keep it up.  She has also grown considerably from then four, to her now six and a half.  You may recall, my son recently upgraded his bike via a $6.99 Diego bike found nearly new at Goodwill. Now, my daughter has upgraded, too.  I imagine tomorrow night's free family fun will be a bike ride after dinner!
        So keep your eyes open for things people are giving away. We actually keep a free table at my work for people to place goodies for grabs.  My son's daycare has a free table as well.  Emails are another big way people give away their goods in the workplace, and I have even seen Facebook posts offering up items (although they usually aren't in my state!)  Try to pay it forward by passing on your quality items to a new owner....for example, I have a coworker at work who is going to inherit some boy things for her new baby boy to be from my three year old's clothing collection he has outgrown.  Maybe it is time for you to create a free table at your school or workplace, and maybe you can start the trend to  find some things for free you would have had to buy anyways.  I am certainly happy I will not need be bike shopping for a while!

                                                                        

Have You Enjoyed Your Kids Today?

Working outside the home is necessary for this mama, but like all working moms, I feel guilt over the time and attention I spend away from my little children.  Since I cannot change the need to work (although MANY stay-home-moms have tried) and truly, I enjoy my work, I need to bring back the balance.  How I do that is by taking time every evening to enjoy my children.  Honestly, I could enjoy my children spending money! I would love to take the kids out to dinner, or a movie, Chuck E. Cheese, or an ice cream outing...I really would love to.   But we are competing to win this financial race and so we are choosing not to spend freely.  Instead, we are finding free, or cheap family fun every night.  This week, we have done the slip-n-slide Sunday, before bed games on Monday, and tonight, a 100-piece puzzle.  The time is precious to me because you can see the pure joy on my kids' faces. They love having "mom-time" and attention.  The dishes can wait until the kids get into bed and so they did.  But now, my bed is calling, my kitchen is clean(ish) and my kids are snug in bed knowing their mom had fun with them tonight (and every night!)

Better Than Money??? Time!

Lately my blog has been finance heavy--absolutely due to the Money Makeover we are competing in, but even before that, the stress and pressure of making our budget balance (without pulling out a credit card) seemed to take a lot of our time and attention.  However, today is a good day to refocus and remember the most important things in life are not things. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. As the shirt I wore to work today states, "Your life is your message to the world. Make it count." which is a homage to one soul gone too soon.  This past Sunday, our pastor's wife shared her decision to leave Facebook and I felt many of the same things she shared.  Staring at others' highlight reels on Facebook as you compare it to your behind the scene tour leads to nothing positive.  Although I am not ready to go Facebook free, I can see the enormous drain on my too little time.  I don't want to miss my children's youth staring at screens.  For now, I plan to limit my daily time on the computer to a minimal amount.  I also plan to go through the settings and limit the feeds of many individuals who do not promote what I hold dear to me  hiding their posts, lessening my time to read my newsfeed.  Typically, I try not to spend much time on the computer/smartphone when my children are awake---especially when they want to play with me!  I can't make my children grow slower, and I can't get these moments back.  There is an idea I love, and I will be  making this for my own children this weekend hoping to be a reminder of this very post.

How To Make a Visual Reminder
1. Get a clear, glass Mason jar.
2. Write your child's name on the jar.  If you have multiple children like me, you will need a jar for each of them.
3. Do some math...52 x the number of years until they graduate high school. (for example, Danica, my oldest, would be 52, Kayleigh is 6 so 52x12= 624, Levi is almost 4, so 52x14=728.
4. The product (benefit of being a teacher, I remember what a product is! The answer when you multiply, if you forgot!) represents the number of pieces of candy you will put in the jar now. It represents how many weeks you have left to make every moment count.
5. Take out a piece every week to maintain the relationship and to remind yourself this time is not forever. You might want to eat the candy, or simply throw away, especially 10 years down the line.

If you are opposed to candy (14 year old candy...yuck?) think of other representations you could use from the craft store, like beads or stones, ect.

I will post my children's jars later this weekend after visiting the craft store so you can see more visually what this could look like.

Now, I am going to shut my computer, and stay off it for the rest of my evening.  I hope this post spoke to you and is used for positive changes with our too little time. Good Night!

How to Be Excited About Groceries

1. Read your favorite cookbooks. Choose a few recipes to try this week for something new.

2. Dig in your freezer, peek in your fridge, poke through your pantry; taking an inventory of what you already have and need to use up.

3. Write a list for what you will need to complete a weekly meal plan.

4. Speed clip coupons, clipping only the coupons you are about to use on this trip to the store, or might possibly use on this trip to the store.

5. Shop using your list, but allow yourself to divert due to unexpected buy one get ones or sales. 

        Shopping tonight was actually a pleasure (funny because that is our local grocery store's motto).  I do most of my family's  shopping at Sam's Club because frankly I can't beat the prices.  However, sometimes the large quantities really add up in my cart and I can't get the variety I need. Lately, I have been a bit bored with food--probably for this very reason.  Starting my grocery list with a cookbook read-through really got the ball rolling on what types of food to buy this week.  It also helped me clip coupons quickly with out an overwhelming pile of coupons in my hand at the store.  But the best part?  I only spent $77.xx for my family of five to eat for 5 or 6 days.  Our budget is $125/week, but this was just set today after meeting with our money coach.  It appears groceries in our budget are impossible to track due to combining purchases with household items, clothing, ect.  We are going to track groceries-only for a month and see if this goal is realistic.  But for now, I get to be excited for a good start to groceries for the week!  I used about $10 in coupons and had lots of store BOGOs in my cart as well. The whole process only took and hour and a half as well, done after bedtime so I didn't miss family time on a Saturday night.  Here's to hoping my family loves some of the new recipes we are trying this week too!

Do You Know Your Spouse's Credit Score?

           This morning I had a most unpleasant surprise.  My husband and I had our first meeting with our money coach for the Vystar Money Makeover competition. We went over our current debts, our spending this past week and a half, and our credit scores.  Shockingly, my husband has a much better score than I do!  What is amazing about this is we have been been married nearly nine years, we combine all our income and bills, and truly we should have similar scores.  What is especially crazy is that I PAY the bills and do the budget. How could that be??!
              What we discovered is we have five credit cards, but only one carries a balance.  My name is only one card (with a terrible, close to maxed out budget), and my husband's name is on the other four (with no balance, or a balance that is paid in full each month)  . My name, unfortunately for me, happens to be on a nearly maxed out Visa (which is chilling in my freezer, not being used, and on an aggressive as I can be payment plan).  To lenders, my husband looks like he has a lot of credit available to him that he is not using. What I look like to lenders, is like I have a small amount of credit available because my card is close to maxed out. What is absurd, of course, is that we are equals financially in our household and our scores should be similar.  There is no my card, his card, my account, his account in reality. But according to the credit bureaus, apparently there is.
              The fix is easy, and has already been done.  Calls were made to each lender. My husband added me as an authorized user on all the cards in his name. This should improve my credit score significantly.   In about two months, I am hoping to recheck the credit scores and be more equally yoked.
              Although the contest we are in does not award a prize for biggest credit score improvement, credit scores impact how much it costs for your home, car, insurance and certainly low credit traps you making it oh so easy to stay poor.
              So of course, my advice to you is check your credit scores with your spouse.  I am hoping you do not experience what I did this morning (embarrassing!) but on the off chance you do, here's to hoping this maneuver can help your situation, too.

Check Your Email

1.       My husband has two email addresses, one for real people,  and one he uses for a junk email of sorts when companies ask for his email.  That way, his real email box doesn't get overloaded with spam and junk email.  Originally, I thought that was quite smart but never got around to setting one up for myself, and now I am at the point that is not what I want. I actually WANT to see the emails from companies I buy from. Why? They save me money.  Of course, the disclaimer is they only save you money IF you were about to buy from them anyways.  Today in my email box alone I had:

• $1 gift certificate to Amazon
• 75 cents of a Redbox Code
• $20 in free Shutterfly Money
• Free nailpolish with Special K cereal purchase

.     2.     Truthfully, I may or may not cash in on any of these opportunities because they do require I spend money, and any email that persuades you to buy something you wouldn't ordinarily buy is doing its job and not truly saving you money.  However, if hubby and I were already planning on renting a Redbox,ordering something off Amazon, making a gift on Shutterfly, ect.  checking our email first could save us real money we were planning on spending, which is real savings.  So check your emails, and check them often. Fight the temptation to spend to save, but embrace the savings for the things you were going to buy anyways without the discount in your email box.

      3.  If your email gets crazy crowded like mine, you can just search the company before you make a purchase and see if you have any emails with potentials savings codes inside. Plus, remember to open the email before you decide if there is an offer to save inside.  It is not always possible to tell from the subject line. 

       Let us know if you see any good email offers in your inbox that save you real money this weekend!  I am hoping I actually need  to use the Redbox coupon at some point this weekend for some relaxation time with my husband.

Answer the Quiz on the Right Side of the Screen!

I'd like to know how much credit card debt my readers are dealing with so I can share techniques that match where we you all are at.  How tapped out are we? Please let me know in the quiz!

It's Like You Get Paid to Clean

I know I have posted before about cleaning out things actually saving your money...cleaning your fridge will have provide a few goodies you forgot you had, cupboards are like a bank account of food, and digging through your closet can be nearly as good as shopping.  Today, my husband discovered the power of cleaning out his man space in a side room to the house we have as an outdoor storage room of sorts.  Crazy circumstances led to this...my younger daughter caught a horrendous stomach bug and was at the point even water wouldn't stay down.  Typically when the kids are sick, it makes more sense financially for me to stay home because I have oodles of personal time saved up I will likely never use.  However, I have had a crazy influx of substitute teachers in my classroom in the past month due to a jury duty summons, fabulous family visitors from out-of-state, my husband needing a driver to an invasive procedure, and dentist appointments.  I truly needed to be at work today.  So we bit the bullet, and my husband stayed home, likely shrinking his next paycheck.  Our competitors in the VyStar Money Makeover are probably not sweating going up against us at this point.  I asked my husband to see what he could do to help today, in between nursing our little girl.  However, he made me a happy woman when I came home to see what he had done! As he organized his stuff, he was able to locate things we already had, that we needed, but had lost in the shuffle (and properly put them where they belong so they can do their job.)  His hidden gems of the day:

• New weather stripping he found for the door---the old stripping was torn away by a frisky cat trying to claw his way into the house.  This could be double valuable, as no need to buy again, and replacing seals the house better for air conditioning season.  He also hung this with his time today.
• New refrigerator bulbs were hanging out in there too, forgotten about---somewhat silly, but our fridge has a lot of bulbs and it was so nice to have the ice and water dispenser lit again.
• Hose for a pressure washer---Nice score, I was actually imagining we might have to go buy another (after the money challenge of course) after buying a replacement hose a week or so ago didn't work.  There was a random loose hose there and in an amazing feat it actually FIT our pressure washer.  Bonus: Hubby USED the newly fixed pressure washer to clean the sidewalk up to the house AND the door mat cleaned up well (saving me from spending another $12 at Target to buy new).

Ok, wives, this might need to be a honey-do list for you to add for your men!  Clean out the outdoor storage spaces!

Power in Planning

Events are coming up in our family...Mother's Day, my son's 4th birthday, and our 9th wedding anniversary are all within the next month.  I love to recognize these special events, but if I don't plan well, the stress of what to do and how to celebrate turn into last minute quick decisions. Quick decisions tend to be costly.  So bring on the planning!  Prizes and goodies have been stored away in my closet from the awesome endcaps of clearance I find at Target to use as goody bags for my son.  Our anniversary dinner has been planned out and we will splurge at the restaurant we had our reception at, since we haven't been back since the weekend we married.  But this week, is Mother's Day, and that means it is time to plan.  My family will want to make me a nice meal--and frankly, I will want to eat it!  Strolling through Sam's Club, I saw ribeye steaks, reduced for quick sale....$28.xx is still pricey for a single meal, but it could save me from a pricey restaurant trip (with five of us, a meal out is a minimum of $40 at a sit-down fast food) AND will be a meal I couldn't afford at a restaurant anyways (sit-down steak restaurants for our family would be pushing $100).  I also have a Groupon to use for a portrait studio, so I can treat myself to a new pic of my kids (appointment scheduled for Thursday!) which I only paid $25 for.  I also have my own mother's gift planned and paid for---but my mom reads my blog so that is all I can say about that for now. If you are a mom, or treating your mom this Sunday, take some time to plan something out of the ordinary to set the day apart.  Saving money is great, but truly moms are better!  

The Proof Is On My Dashboard...

Would you believe the post about the traps of credit cards was my most read post EVER?!   Do you know what that tells me?  Many of you, like me, have made financial mistakes. But you are here now.  That means you still have hope, like me.  I am certainly glad I am not alone, but also, I will be out of the trap in two years according to my plan.  I just want to say, I would like see you on the flip side too.  Make your plan, and work your plan.  Leave your credit card at home if you need to, to stick to your budget. Freeze it in a block of ice if you want to slow down its accessibility. Remember, each swipe is stealing away your financial future. It is not easy, I almost thawed my ice cube out a few weeks ago for something very important to me. But choosing not to pull out the credit card allowed me to go another way.  If you need the credit card to go out to eat, go another way: we like to do a rotisserie chicken or order a pizza as an escape from cooking--with a family of five, this is much cheaper!  If you need a credit card to go to the movies, go another way: I never took my 6-year-old to the theater to see Frozen---but when it came out we bought it, popped our popcorn, picked out a bag of candy from the store, and saved huge in the process (along with watching it 20 times) . If you need a credit card to buy a new outfit, go another way:  Search high and low in your closet, check out a thrift store (you will be SHOCKED if you have never been. People are crazy shopaholics and they go donate expensive, unworn clothing.) Pedicure time? Go another way: Try a foot bath and and an expensive foot scrub with professional nail polish.  Craving coffee? Go another way: skip the coffee house and brew at home, I have awesome vanilla syrup along with my Keurig that makes the perfect cup for 75% less. I know it is not the same, but if you are reading blog this because you have gotten yourself stuck in the credit card trap, you honestly should try going without some of these splurges while you dig yourself out.You will be amazed that seeing debt drop dramatically feels just as fabulous as lives splurges.

Escaping the Trap of Credit Card Debt

Can I just say, I was educated well.  My parents did a fabulous job. I took personal finance classes as an accounting major before switched my major to elementary ed. Not to mention the oodles of books I have read on finance along with the money pages in every newspaper.  I know finance.  I know what one "should" do to balance ones' budget.  But knowing what to do is easy, doing it is not.  And so has the trap of credit card debt entered my life.  We have a handful of cards and most we are able to pay in full each month avoiding interest---however, after paying them in full our account is quite low so there is always a chance we may have to pull out a card to make it to the next payday.  TRAP.  We have one for our mattress (deemed a NEED by my husband's chronic back pain) that is interest free for five years, making it so easy to just pay the minimum payment. TRAP in a nice, sweet, wrapped up package because I never stress it and my money is not being wasted on interest (yet).  Then there is the one. The monkey on our back.  Frustrating, big, and hard to pay off with a megabank that refuses to refinance the card to a lower rate. TRAP! TRAP! TRAP!  This is the card I showed a picture of frozen on ice in an earlier post this year.  Thankfully, it is still frozen, and so the balance is dropping nicely.  A few months ago I did something I rarely do. I read the ENTIRE bill, rather than just the balance, and payment. I read the fine print.  Depressing? Yes, that is probably why it hadn't been done sooner.  Before reading the little letters and numbers, the history of the card is that is had been close to maxed out for about 7 years.  I would use it as my fall back and purchase with it when the checking account looked a little low. It was only $100 or $200 every month, but coupled with the minimum payment, the result was a balance that didn't change.  Fast forward to the day I read the whole statement.  I noticed the truth-in-lending:  Paying the minimum payment (which I was close to doing each month, but usually just rounding it up $20 more or so) would take 22 years to pay off the card.  That made me want to cry as I mentioned about this, it is a MONKEY ON MY BACK!!!  But the next line was a silver lining. It said if I paid only $60 additional a month, it would be paid off in 36 months. Like 3 years (I had to grab a calculator because it seemed unbelievable to me!) And that is what I have done the last few months. It is helping, about $700 paid down so far.  Today though, I have even more hope.  Writing out the budget for June with a few items slashed and cut back, I realized I will have a bit more to pay toward the card. I started wondering at the new amount I am going to pay, how long would it take to pay it off?  I used the credit card calculator http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/credit-cards/credit-card-payoff-calculator.aspx  and I now down to 2 YEARS!!! Here is a summary:
December 2013, minimum payment was $180--I was paying $200, balance owed was $7600, and stuck there due to occasional use of the card
January 2014, credit card was frozen in a block of ice, and not used since.
February 2014, credit card statement was read, and new payment of $268 would cut 19 years off of payments, payments of $80 more than the min. payment, and only $68 more than I used to make began
May 2014 bank rate calculator was used, and payments of $350 will begin in June 2014. Card will be paid off just two years!
June 2016 I will have an extra $350 a month and a credit card without a balance!!!
What is your next step? Look to see if you are caught in any similar traps and make your escape plan! Go read your credit card statements, if you have to learn the hard way like me....

Money Diet Day 1

Experts claim when you write down what you eat and count the calories, you tend to eat less.  This tedious routine has helped many people lose excess weight.  That is the same mentality happening here.  We are on a two week period of recording ALL EXPENDITURES. The results will be turned in to our money coach as a way to zone in on the "fat" in our budget.  I am still quite curious about what will be said by the money coaches and where they see our waste, and I will be sure to post it here.  Today, we have already spent $70.07 on a tank of gas for a minivan, and $4.94 on my husband's lunch.  Oh, and the mortgage cleared today as well as my kids' gymnastics bill and an auto parts purchase.  NOT the best start, I am afraid....I need to rein it in so we have a chance at winning!!! I am hoping I can make up for lost time(and money) this weekend with a super-slim grocery store bill, meal plan, and free/cheap entertainment.  Let me know any great cheap meals your family loves as well as any fun things happening this weekend that will let us enjoy life as a family, as well as give the other competitors some real competition.  I challenge you to try a money diet with me and see if you find any fat in your budget, too.