Sunday, November 1, 2015

Budget, scrimp, save, repeat

Excuse me while I play with my blog setting and such.  I'm having a pretty good time checking out features I didn't know where there.


Anywho, I have spent the last few days trying to figure out if it is at all possible for me to live as a "stay at home mom".  You know, the hardest job in the world!  Ok, but really, I think it may be possible.


I went to the library (hello, free books of all sorts, yes!) and found a book on managing finances, digging out of debt and living a frugal, but fulfilling, life.  Now, you may thing that this book would be EXTREMELY boring, but, you would be wrong.  Surprisingly, it is quite a fun book to read and there are a lot of cool things in it.  It is a little old (2007) but I believe the ideas in there are adaptable.
For those interested, it is called America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money. It is written by the parents of 5 (yes 5) children who are debt free, living frugally off of cash on a fairly small income, but not missing out on life.  Their name is Economides.  How is that for irony. 


As I was saying, its useful, and I enjoy the read.  It is also written so that you can read from front to back, or only use it as reference for the things that apply to you.  There is a very good chapter about reducing debt.   Let me tell you what, I wrote down all we owed and we have a LOT more debt than I thought.  Then I did a budget (using both of our "current" incomes, in case I am able to return to work; it could happen).   When I budgeted out everything, I found out that we have enough money left over to be able to put almost 200 dollars a month towards eliminating debt. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH.   So why are we so deep in debt?


Well, because we don't pay attention.  We don't.  We fall behind on bills because we simply do not pay much attention.  We should be ahead of the game but we are lagging because we were not paying any attention to our spending trends.   Let me tell you, if you want to know why you are struggling paycheck to paycheck, sit down and evaluate where all you money goes.  It's eye opening.


I don't know if we will be able to carry on with just his income yet, but I know that in time we will get there and I fully believe that in 5 years we can be completely debt free (with the exception of our mortgage, maybe)  Basically, by the time our oldest son is a teenager, 13 years old, we will be out of debt and on our way to being financially free. 


In the process we are afforded a chance to teach our very young children (8 and 6) the value of money and how to save it.  We can show them from an early age how to spend and save properly so that they never end up in this situation.   We can get ahead of them going to college and actually have some money build up for that.  Essentially, we can get them ahead of the game.  That is something I look forward to.  Maybe, just maybe, we actually will be able to retire at some point and take a driving trip around the states.  Wouldn't that be fun.


I have amassed many tips and hints, and I would definitely not mind sharing my ideas and being the recipient of others.  If you are interested in being free and digging yourself out of debt, maybe we can work together to get all of us where we need to be.  I am not going to tell you it will be easy, I expect for the first few months, and around big events like birthdays, it will get a little tight and stressful.  At least at first.  I figure by this time next year we will be well on our way and things will be getting easier each week. 


If you are game, let me know, I'm all over helping everyone out and getting it so that they can actually enjoy their lives and money instead of just throwing it at bills for stuff you bought 3 years ago!!

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