Oh baby!

So sorry to all of you that are following! I just had our little baby boy and needless to say things have been hectic so I have not had a chance to update the blog. I will try to be better though. We seem to have gotten into the swing of things so it should be easier. Things have been good and so far things have been good financially. People have been great to us and our family has been incredibly generous. We have had so many free meals and the meals last for two to three meals which is even better when you are strapped for cash. I cannot believe the kindness that others have shown us and we cannot wait until we are in a place financially where we can do this for other people. It is so nice to not have to worry about grocery shopping and cooking when you have a new one in the house.

Ta-ta to texting!

Well, on e way that i have figured out I can save money is to not have unlimited texts. Please understand how difficult this is for me as I LOVE to text. My hubby is at work all day and we are able to stay connected through text when we cannot talk. It is also great when I want to tell someone something before I forget and don't have the time to talk or I am in the middle of something. So, I cancelled my unlimited texting and that saves us an additional $15 a month. Wow! That is a lot of money. Trust me though, I definitely used it! So over a year we will have saved $180. Of course i have to be VERY careful about who I text and why. LOL. What a bummer! It is all worth it though because in the end we will be living like no one else!!!

Family

So one thing I have found since we have started having financial trouble is how wonderful family can be. Obviously, we love our families and feel supported by them but going through all of this has made us that much more thankful for everything our families have done for us.

When we moved from Arizona to Texas, we had no jobs and three homes in Arizona that we were struggling to pay the mortgages on. Luckily, my dad allowed us to stay in his basement with our two dogs (boxers) and two cats. That is a lot of animals. Add in the fact that my brother lived there as well with his two cats and, whew, we were always around some sort of furry creature.

We lived there rent free for about a year and I cannot tell you how much that helped us out financially. Not only financially, but our relationship changed a lot as well. It is strange to go back and live with your parents and siblings once you are an adult. The dynamics are so different. It was great for us though. I feel closer to my brother than I have ever been and so does my hubby. They have a bond that they never would have had had we not all lived together. We always had tv night and we would watch our favorite shows together. It was really nice and I actually really miss that. We were also able to spend time with my dad that I will always treasure. Kevin and him became very close as well during that time period which is so nice. Kevin was able to see the dad and know that I have always known. Obviously there were hard times, but overall it was so nice and I would not take that time back for anything.

Once my hubby got a job in the DFW area we were able to relocate but we still did not have a place to stay and no money since my husband had not started his job yet. Luckily, my mom allowed us to stay with her until we got all settled and squared away. Did I mention I was pregnant during most of the time I was living with my mom or dad? Talk about strange dynamics. When you are married and pregnant you are definitely not generally living with your parents. We had plans, but they did not work out in the way we expected them to.

That is the great thing about family. At least my family. I know that my parents had opinions about the decisions we were making but they would always show concern but in the end let us make our own decisions. I am so thankful for that. We have made our mistakes and our parents could see it, but they let us do it and never said, "I told you so". For those of you that know me, I am a VERY stubborn person and trying to convince me to not do something will generally make me do the opposite. I am not saying that is a good trait but I like to prove people wrong. That is why my parents let me make those mistakes. I have made them and now I have learned from them.

My parents have helped us out so much and that is invaluable. When my son needed new shoes and I was not sure how I was going to afford them my mom bought them and brought them over. If it was a change of seasons and my son had outgrown his pajamas, don't you know grandma had gone and purchased some without me knowing. None of this is stuff I ask for, they do it because they know we are struggling to get to a better place and want to help out in any way they can. This time, I feel like we are on the right track and they will not be disappointed when we come to them and say," WE ARE DEBT FREE!!!"

We could not do it without our parents and we will forever be grateful to them. I can only hope that we can be as awesome and understanding as my parents have been.

Consignment Sale!!!

Twice a year they have a HUGE sale in Fort Worth where literally hundreds of people come to consign their children's clothes. It is HUGE!!! I am talking MASSIVE and it is one of the biggest in the nation. I have gone every time since my little man was born and I have yet to be disappointed. One little tidbit to help all the newbies out there, VOLUNTEER!!! If you volunteer you get first dibs on everything and let me tell you, the volunteers always clean house. I estimate that I spent $200 worth of stuff and got about $800. Most of it was Children's Place, Gap, and Old Navy. A lot of the stuff still had tags on them! I got a ton of shoes for my little men and even got a little Huffy tricycle. The Huffy tricycle was $6 but it retails for $60. What a savings!!! I always love going to this sale and look forward to it every time. They have them all over the nation so check them out. They are called Just Between Friends. It is a franchise so I cannot guarantee that they are the same everywhere. I however, love the one here. Above is a pic of all of most of my goodies!

Product Whore

Yes, I said it. I am a product whore. I LOVE products and I am not ashamed to admit it. The problem is I am on a very strict budget and my $30 powder just doesn't fit in. Neither does my foundation, face wash, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, hair care products or any other makeup. UGH! What is a gal to do??? I mean seriously? I know I am being vain and there are much more important things in the world, but I have to have my product!

The hair care was an adjustment and I did cringe when I purchased it for $2 as opposed to my normal $15-$30, but I did do it. And yes, the body wash I got on sale and used a coupon for is more like jelly than a foaming flurry of bubbles. But that is ok, we all have to make sacrifices.

Tonight though, I had to buy makeup from Walgreens. Oh the humanity!!!! I know there are a lot of women that purchase makeup from drugstores all of the time and sometimes it is better than anything you could purchase in a department store, but I used to work for a cosmetic company and so I am VERY particular about what goes on my face. I guess you could say I am a product snob in addition to being a product whore. I don't mean to be, it is just the way it is. I tried to buy an eyeliner but I just couldn't force myself to do it. At least not at this point. Baby steps, right?

Super Stoked

Ok, so I decided tonight was going to be the night that I would go and use my "Register Rewards" at Walgreens and see how I could do. I had $22 worth of rewards and boy was I stoked when I walked out of Walgreens. Never in my life did I think I would go to Walgreens for grocery shopping as I always felt it was a ripoff. NOT TRUE!!! I just bought $45 worth of stuff for a little over $1 after I used my Register Rewards. Woohoo!!!! As usual, I took a picture as I was QUITE pleased with myself. I bought 4 boxes of cereal, 2 boxes of pop tarts, 2 things of Cottonelle moist wipes, 4 toothbrushes, one thing of mascara, and two jars of peanut butter. Do not get me wrong, once we are out of debt, we will not be purchasing some of this stuff, but for right now it is ok. My husband could eat pure sugar and still never gain a pound. The sugary stuff is for him, not me or my little man. So the trick to having a successful trip to Walgreen's is this, you HAVE to wait until things are on sale. The markup is ridiculous there, but when they have a sale it is actually a good price. Use one of their coupons if they have it and then make sure to find any manufacturer's coupons as well. Literally everything I purchased had a coupon in addition to being on sale. So far, the blogs I have really enjoyed have been afullcup.com, thekrazycouponlady.com, and couons.com. If you are not already friends with people on FB you should friend them. STL Mommy is great as is Common Sense Money. They leave status updates with the latest and greatest deals multiple times a day. Hope this helps guys!

Walgreens

Or Wags as the people in the coupon world like to call it. Ok, so I have NEVER been a fan of going to Walgreens to pick up anything other than prescriptions. I have always felt everything is overpriced so therefore I have never paid much attention to it. Well, looks like I am eating my words a lot lately. Who knew they had great deals at Walgreens??? The one that I thought was especially great was their Dove's Men Care. If you bought one men's face and body for $5.99, you received a $6 Register Rewards. I bought two and had to do them in separate transactions in order to get the Rewards twice. So basically, YOU GET THEM FOR FREE!!!! How AWESOME is that? Oh, and I had coupons for $1.50 off each of the body cleansers so I basically made money. I also had to get my hubby some Zyrtec because he has crazy allergies and they were on sell there as well. I was able to get $10 in Register Rewards if I bought two 30 day supply Zyrtec bottles. Oh, and did I mention I had a coupon for that as well??? I finally think I am starting to get the hang of this. So today, I spent a little less than $50 total on everything, but with the Register Rewards I received it came to $26.93. Let it be known that the Zyrtec alone would have been over $40. If I had not used coupons and sales, the total would have been over $75. This is pure craziness!

Totally Target

I am a HUGE fan of Target, but rarely do I go anymore because it seems like they do not have the best deals once you start couponing. As much I hate admitting I am wrong, I just might be. There is a website totally dedicated to coupons and deals for Target. The website is www.totallytarget.com. Obviously in order to get the best deals you have to really do your research and you cannot shop all in one place. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have found this website though. I LOVE Target and was having withdrawals from not being able to go anymore.

Email

Ok, so obviously I am a big couponer and one way to get coupons is to sign up for their newsletters, etc. Well, I don't know about you, but I hate it when I have stuff that junks up my regular email. My solution, create a separate email just for your couponing pleasure. I have created one and it has been fab so far. I even have a "coupon folder" in my email in case I do not have time to print off the coupon but want to remember that that particular email has coupons in them. Hopefully this tip helps you guys out!!!

Laundry

I have to let you know, it is very handy having a super handy man around the house. Kevin seems to be able to fix things that I would have no clue how to do. For whatever reason, he seems to fix basically anything. If you don't have one, get one!!! = ) Having him around has definitely saved us some money. Kevin was able to repair the washer in about 15 minutes (with the help of his little man) once he was able to get the part. So, total we spent $20. AWESOME!!!

Another way for you to save money is to make sure to do your laundry on the weekends or after 7. There is a premium to do your laundry during the weekday. We have never done our laundry during the weekday which is actually harder than you would think, especially for a stay at home mom. It is so hard when the laundry is piling up and it is a Monday morning. Usually by the time 7 rolls around I am giving my little man a bath and getting him ready for bed. By the time that is all done I am too exhausted to do laundry so I have to wait until the weekend. Oh well!

Our Weekend...

We have had a BIG weekend this weekend. We used our "gazelle like intensity", as Dave would say, and we have accomplished step 1. YAY! We are so excited and VERY proud of ourselves as it has not been an easy journey. We have had to work hard and get rid of things that were sometimes hard to part with.

Kevin sold his mountain bike for $500 and we sold our dining room table and chairs for $550. Bam! Step one down!

Before we were even able to sell the stuff we already had a setback. Our heater stopped working with the weather down in 30's and lower. Ugh! $250 later (yikes) we were feeling a little down and we may have even had a little tiny pity party for ourselves. Just a little one though.

Luckily the guy that came out to fix it was extremely nice and very honest. We had three guys come out last year to try and fix our heating issue and NOT ONE ever truly fixed it. We thought it was just because we had a heat pump and not a gas heater. WRONG!!! Apparently when you have repair people come out, sometimes they will switch wires around so your AC works, but come winter time your heater will not and you will be forced to call them to come out. LAME! This guy showed Kevin what he meant and said that it looked like that was what had happened to us. The nerve of some people!!!

Ok, so fast forward to today. We are hanging out at home and I am trying to get some stuff done around the house and prepare the nursery. Super excited and ready to wash all of my little man's old clothes and start organizing them. I take the clothes I have in the dryer out and start to open the washing machine so I can switch those. Wellllllll, they were still SOAKING wet so I decide (genius that I am) to do a rinse and spin short cycle. Guess what??? Our washer is broken!!! REALLY!!!! Cursing and beating of objects probably would have taken place had my little man not been standing there. Ok, not really.

In a way, it is all kind of funny. This is the way I am choosing to look at it because otherwise I just might break down and cry. Things seem to keep happening JUST as we are starting to try and get our debt under control. I mean come on! January we had to pay for all sorts of doctor's visits and medications between the three of us since we all got sick at the same time. Now a broken heater in the middle of winter AND a broken washer? Sheesh!!!

Please do not get me wrong, I know that these are pretty trivial things and it could be much worse. MUCH, MUCH worse. It does not stop it from being frustrating since we are actually trying to get ourselves out of the predicament we are in. We may have to use the emergency fund the day it actually got fully funded, Oh well, such is life!!!

Free entertainment is hard to find

So another thing that we are trying to do is to cut back on how much we travel and use the car. This is hard because it keeps Mommy and little buddy cooped up in the house all week. We are used to it, but still, it is nice to get out of the house every once in a while. Kevin will not be using the car to go back and forth to work very much this week so the little man and I are going to take advantage this weekend and go do some fun stuff. Does anyone know of good, free things to do with children??? Right now we have decided on going to the Amon Carter museum. I would really like to take him to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History but that is $14 and, well, that is not in the budget. I looked on fortworthchild.com for free events but it does not seem like anything is really happening around town.

Out with the old...

Ok so it is out with the old and in with the new...eventually. We are downsizing our non-necessities right now and as hard as it was at first, it is kind of liberating now. In a weird way it feels really good. Granted, our house will look very bare but that is ok. We have all we need and if we had not gotten ourselves into this mess we wouldn't need to do it. We will have no table to eat at because we are selling both of them. That is right. No table. When I eat lunch I eat at my son's table with him in one of his tiny IKEA chairs. You can only imagine how comfortable it is for a lady that is 7 months pregnant. Haha. I am just thinking of it in terms of it being a bonding experience. = ) We also sold the kegerator which was also a sad day. I bought that as a Christmas gift for Kevin many years ago so it had some sentimental value but we figure we can always buy another one when the time is right. The thing that was very hard to let go were my Louis Vuitton bags and shoes. I did keep two of them but I am consigning two purses, a toiletry bag, luggage and my shoes. I figure it is going to a greater good...getting out of debt. I think a tear rolled down my cheek as I dropped them off at the post office. = ) It is all ok though because it is all just stuff and we can replace it later if we so choose once we are out of debt. We still have some other things we are going to sell and hopefully that will bring in some extra cash so we can get our Emergency Fund going and then start on our Debt Snowball. This is all very exciting. I will post some pictures as a memorial for the stuff we once had...

Triple Coupon Days

Ok, so I have determined that this is the way to go as far as grocery shopping. Although I am not completely sure how the triple coupon thing works. You can stock up on so many great things that are non-perishable. They had Annie's mac and cheese on sale for $.99. Combine that with my coupon for $.50 off and triple it and voila, free mac and cheese!!! Feels amazing. I was able to get many different things for next to nothing. It is a lot of work, I am not going to lie. You have to get all of the grocery stores ads and see what you would like, then go on line and look for coupons for the items you would like. We went and spent $25 but saved $27. That is what I call awesome!!! I am actually looking forward to next month because I think I can do really well now that I am getting on my feet with the whole coupon thing. In the end, grocery shopping is much cheaper at your local grocery store as long as they have double and triple coupon days.

The easiest way that I have found to organize my coupons is to get a small and compact filing system. I am posting pictures of mine so you can see what I mean. It will be easy to keep it in the bag or the car. I plan on keeping mine in the car so I have the coupons all of the time. That way if I go out to pick something up I don't forget anything. I made my own categories as you can see, but I already know that I need a few more but do not have the room in my filing system. Hopefully this helps someone else out there.

Grocery shopping

Not so fun when you are on a tight budget. Let me tell you, everyone in this family LOVES food. We like to eat and we like to eat well. We very much like to try and eat as healthy as possible but as we all know, the healthier the food, the more expensive. Bummer! So I have decided that Costco is my friend. They do have a lot of organic and free range food for sale at very decent prices. I went there the day that Kevin got paid and was very proud of myself as I stuck to our budget. I got only the necessities which is very hard for a pregnant lady to do. I am hungry all of the time and they had samples of things were so delicious! I resisted and ate my samples but did not purchase the items.

Obviously I tried not to spend too much money so I would have leftover cash for the rest of the month. I thought I did pretty well. I spent about $80 and I have budgeted $150. Pretty good I think. Well, that does not include me having to buy our little man diapers. It just so happens that he has extremely sensitive skin and we cannot use regular diapers on him. We have to use special organic diapers for him. I decided to go ahead and try this thing called G-diapers which is a cross between a cloth diaper and a disposable. Very neat concept and environmentally friendly. Did I mention we are a bunch of hippies at heart??? The only problem is that it is an expensive startup. It is around $30 for 2 pairs of the outer cloth diapers. YIKES! I figure that now would be as good of a time as any to try and buy them as they will hopefully save us money in the long term. Well, what I am getting at, is that with spending minimally on groceries I still have a week and a half until the month is over and I have no more money. Pair that with my son's trip to the doctor and his three prescriptions and I am technically over budget. DARN IT!!!! I am trying so hard!

Of course there are going to be things that we cannot foresee such as illness, but it is our first month to really try and stick to our budget and I failed. Big fail! Regardless, I am so proud of us. We are taking this very seriously and we even had our "budget meeting" last night to check on our progress. I am proud to say that we have literally cut our grocery bill in half. No kidding. Last month we spent over $600 on groceries. Now, just so everyone realizes, it was the holidays and we had people over so that was probably more than we normally would have spent but honestly, not by much. This is definitely a very trying experience, especially for a hungry pregnant lady, but it is very satisfying at the same time. Who knew I was capable of restraint??? Not me.

New beginnings!

So we are starting 2010 off with a bang. At least we are trying to. We have decided that enough is enough and we are putting our foot down on debt!!! We have had a very rough last few years financially and we cannot seem to recover. After hearing my mother tell me how great Dave Ramsey is and how I really need to read his book, I succumbed. Let me tell you, I do not regret it. He is fabulous and I am a convert. Curses! I totally hate it when I get sucked into things like this, but he makes sense.

Both my husband and I decided we were going to go forward with this and we sat down and set up our budget. Well, let me me tell you a little something about how we budget. We have always "budgeted" with the greatest intent of actually following through with our plan, but somehow we always failed. Call it what you will, but we have never been disciplined and that was our problem. We would always convince ourselves it was ok to spend a little extra here and there and that was what kept getting us in trouble. We would say, "Oh, but we totally deserve this" or "We never do anything for ourselves". This is all true, but not when you are trying to get out of debt.

Anywho, we have set up our budget and although we are only in the first month I am very proud of us. We have made many sacrifices already and we are sticking to our plan. I was driving by Sonic the other day and was telling myself, "I have one dollar in change, I could go get a hamburger off of there dollar menu and no one would ever notice." Well, I would notice and realized if I had to convince myself it was ok, it was not. I did not get the burger and instead bought my son bananas as we were out of them. Afterwards, I felt great. Granted I ate the same thing I had for the last three days, but you can't get ahead if you don't sacrifice.

I think one of the hardest things for us is that we are a younger couple with a 19 month old and one baby due in March. We want so much to give everything to our kids, but we cannot at this point in our lives. Do not get me wrong, our kids have everything they need, they just do not have everything we would love to give them. We have one car between me and my husband so most days I am at home alone with the kids. This is not a bad thing, but sometimes I feel very guilty that I cannot take him to the park or to a class where he can socialize with other kids. Does he realize what he is missing out on??? Absolutely not, but that does not take away from the guilt that we have as parents.

We want more for our kids and that is why we are doing what we are doing. It is going to be a long hard journey, but I am actually very excited about it. I have become the queen of coupon clipping. I have always been a bargain shopper so not much has changed in that respect, but now I am hardcore about using coupons and not buying things unless I have a coupon for it. Only time will tell, but I think this is going to be a very positive year for us!!!!