February in review... OUCH!

This is FOR SURE the month that went awry.  It's also the month that we became 100% debt free, so all is good!  :)

Groceries - $720.66 Seriously, $700 is our magic number.  That's $2.45/person/meal if I count the wee one as ".5" (although he actually eats more than the big kid, so maybe he needs to be counted as a 4th person already.).  Plus, that doesn't include snacks.  I'm happy still...  I'm sure the hubby isn't, but what can you do.

We spent $8 of the $25 weekly outing allowance.

We did not have a family outing.

We ordered pizza (Dominos has a gluten free crust - woot!) as our family meal.

Luke & I both more than blew our 2 meals out, since we both went to Dallas (separate trips) to visit for each of our friend's birthdays.  Plus, I had a cake made for my friend.

There was no date night...  haven't had one of those in NINE months now.  /sigh/

Here's the ugly though...  Target.  Our dear old friend that sucks the life out of our wallets...  $133.75.  I don't even remember what all for.  4 trips though.  hmmmm  I do know I got a couple pairs of pants & a shirt.  Against the rules, but I called it my Valentine gift.  (Yep, I can justify ANYTHING if you give me a chance.  hahaha)

There was also $265 forked over to the emergency clinic.  The clinic that looked at me & said "yeah, you need to go to the ER" - after waiting 2 hours for a dr.  Best $265 ever spent.  Not.

I also spent a little money on supplies to make Kasen's teacher a gift for Valentine's Day/the 100th Day.  I have no problem with that expense though.

So, the failure was the amount we spent on our Dallas trips & the Target trips.  Still not horrible, but that's a big chunk of money that should have been put in savings this month.  I mean, it's only the 2nd month of the year & we're already getting lax.  Doh.

The debt is paid off though.

And, yeah...

We do plan on celebrating.

With a Vitamix.

We've wanted one for a LONG time & kept putting it off. 

We're breaking the rules.  Yet again.  

BUT,

We've held off on this purchase for SO long that I'm okay with breaking the rules in March for it.  :)

Hopefully the rest of March we'll stay on track & save, save, save!!

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!

This month may have gone completely off track, but we paid off my car & now we are 100%, totally, completely, absolutely, DEBT FREE.  We've never been 100% debt free before.  We've been "debt free but the house", but this is even better!!  (Well, other than the fact that we're putting money into someone else's pocket for our dwelling place every month, but it's cool.)

I'll try to sit down this weekend  & look up how wrong this month went, but I'm kinda scared!  Plus, we've got a hefty hospital bill headed our way from me needing an appendectomy this past weekend.  Boo.  Oh well, this is exactly why you plan & what you build up savings for, right?  Life happens!

I "stretched" the rules a little...

First, I "stretched" the rules to buy Kasen a new Bible & devotional.  I see NO problem with that, as he's at the curious point in life that I feel is so perfect to feed him all I can about God.  So, while it actually broke the rules, I bent them to where I felt okay with it.

Then, there was today...  Oh Target, how you get me!  I went in for construction paper, crepe paper, socks (for Kasen) & a few cheap gifts for Kasen, and I came out with that + a new outfit.  Oopsie.  The thing is, as I continue to (EVER SO SLOWLY!) get all this baby weight off, I'm running out of clothes.  I have pajama & yoga pants that I wear (too much perhaps), but I really want to feel more "with it" these days & at least put on jeans & a t-shirt.  So, I searched the clearance rack.  I found stuff I liked.  I bought it.  Doh.  I know the rules say to buy used.  I SHOULD be buying used, BUT, here's where I'll justify it...  When we did this Year Without thing before, I had an hour long lunch break to go search for used stuff - ALONE.  Now, I am NEVER (seriously - NEVER) alone, and it gets hard to search through stuff while you have a baby (or a baby & a 5 year old) in tow.  Grabbing the correct size off an organized rack is just easier.  Besides, I spent $20 for a complete outfit, so is it really that bad? 

I won't bring up Luke's trip to Dallas for his friend's bday, it was kinda breaking the rules too...  Well, not KINDA, it did.  

I think we shall call this month - the shortest month even! - the month of "whatever".  I mean we're still not blowing money like crazy folks, but we aren't following the rules either.  You can't win them all though, can you?

I guess Dave Ramsey wins...

LOTS of thought has gone into this decision...  maybe too much thought even...  but paying off the car makes the most sense.  When we add up the months of not making the & the months of not having to pay for "school" for Kasen (only 3 more months of tuition left!!), we're going to have a nice chunk added to savings.  PLUS we're adding a significant amount every  month now, since we're not blowing it on silly stuff, so all added up, we'll be good.  Plus, we'll be DEBT FREE.  I already feel the relief!!  

I am taking money out of this to pay for swim lessons for Kasen, as I plan to spend a lot of time at both the pool & beach this summer, but other than that, this money is going to lift a big burden off our back.  FREEDOM.  ...Plus, I truly hope to STAY debt free (but the house we'll buy soon enough) this time.  I will run my current car into the ground, then buy what we can afford.  I hope.  Life happens, I know, but this is the plan.

So, there you go.  Option #2 is the winner.  Which is what most of you told me to do - that makes YOU winners!  :)

Who cares what Dave Ramsey would do - what should WE do?

In all honesty, I am a huge Dave Ramsey/Financial Peace University fan.  Anytime someone has asked me for help getting out of debt, that's the direction I've sent them.  However, we don't follow all of his "rules" because we happen to be very financially disciplined when we need to be (totally not a brag, just a statement).  We don't pay off smallest debts first, we pay off highest interest debts first.  We just don't need that gratification to motivate us.  We don't do the envelope system, we just buckle down.  ...and last summer we really broke his rules, and bought a new (to us) car.  Long story short, it was the best thing to do in the situation we were in.  

So...  here's the deal.  We have sold something fairly valuable & have a chunk of money to do *something* with.  I/m not sure what we should do though.  There are 3 options on the table.  

Option 1 - buy land in Dallas.  This is an ultimate goal of ours, we want a big chunk of land to use as a getaway & we'd like it in Dallas so when we visit for holidays, summer, etc, we have our own space & don't burden family with our chaos.  

Option 2 - use the money + a little in savings to pay off the car we bought last summer & be 100% DEBT FREE (since we're currently renters).  Which would feel great, no doubt.  100% debt free sounds pretty darn amazing, huh???  Our car payment is 300something/month.

Option 3 - put the money in savings.  We will be buying a house at some point in the near future.  Perhaps when this lease is up in July 2014.  (Although renting just a little longer to save even more is still an option, so who knows.)  While this chunk of money won't make as much interest for us as we're paying on the car (that's where Dave Ramsey would have a fit, lol), we all know how much money mortgages suck out in the long run & having more to put down on a house would be a really good thing.  Remembering that the car payment is $300something/month, in 17 months that won't equalt what this chunk of money is.

So, I'd say that while I orignally made this deal so that option #1 would happen, I've kinda shelved that idea. I'm really torn between option #2 & option #3 though.  So, what do you think you would do (Dave Ramsey rules aside)?

January is gone...

1 month down, 11 months to go.

How'd we do?  Well, I used both of my meals out (I counted the food at Chuck E Cheese as a meal out & the $10 in tokens as entertainment), Luke used 1 of his.  We used $10 out of the $25 allowed for weekday outings.  We used our 1 family meal out, but did not use our family out (thank goodness for nice weather, we got to play outside FOR FREE instead!).  

Then there were groceries.  OUCH!!!

$692.20

BUUUUUUUT... let's remember that I was shooting for $600 originally & implemented major food changes as of 1/1...  It's really not *that* bad now, is it?  Plus, there were 5 weeks in the month, so 5 deliveries from Farmhouse (those average about $100.week).  Really, it's not terrible.  I'm okay with it.  3.25 (Graham does like to eat, but I think it's safe to call him .25 for now) people eating all at home (save the 3 meals accounted for above), that's really a good number.  That $2.31/meal (I think).  Considering how well we eat, that number is looking even better!!

Where did we screw up this month?  Well...  the boys had gift cards for Toys R Us.  Since I was there, I went ahead & bought a bath mat for Graham to be able to sit in the tub (don't buy one there, they are totally overpriced) along with some bath toys, a toy scooper/storage thing (boy do I need a second one though!, these boys love their bath toys!), and Kasen picked out some Legos, Bionicles, & a 3rd Wii remote.  I totally miscalculated, thinking we were over the gift cards by about $15 (which was less than the bath mat, so it was fine because I considered that mat okay under the rules - safety first! :p).  We actually owed $23.  I COULD have put something back, but I called it a screw up, paid what we owed, and left.  Oh well.  It's not like we went crazy in Toys R Us, $23 broke the rules, but didn't break the bank.

Luke bought NEW clothes *gasp*, BUT, he turned them in on his expense report.  Hopefully they will actually reimburse him, we shall see...  Apparently the trade show he went to last month required that he wear black slacks.  Can you believe he didn't own any?  Crazy, huh?  Apparently black isn't his color.  He broke the rules, but it was a situation where he really had to look good & he didn't have time to go search thrift stores for good quality slacks.

I returned something to Hobby Lobby (something I had bought last year but didn't need), and while I'm sure I should've saved the $13, I decided to treat Kasen's teacher to a latte that afternoon.  At least I'm considering others while breaking rules.  Or did that break a rule?  Not real sure about that one.

So, there's month 1.  I don't think we did too bad really.  $23 + a latte was the damage?  (Assuming those clothes get reimbursed anyway.)  I'll call January a fairly successful month.  Yay.  We also got a nice chunk put into savings in January, which more than doubled what we had.  Woot.

GAH! Groceries!!

After much thought, I told Luke I wasn't ready to set a budget on groceries until I have a handle on this gluten free thing.  Between that & getting used to our new way of getting meat & groceries, it's crazy.  

Here's what sucks.

January 17th...  

$465.32

HOLEYMOLEYTHAT'SALOT

I still have 2 more Farmhouse deliveries this month too.  Eep!

I shouldn't need anything else from the "regular" store though, except milk (I got shorted a gallon this week!) & maybe cheese.  Hopefully that's it.  Which means I shouldn't go too over budget, but it still sucks.

In other news, I took back some of Graham's duplicate Christmas gifts today & got a few outfits for him.  That was cool.  I also took some stuff I didn't need back to Hobby Lobby, though I'm concerned because it doesn't show a refund in my account yet...  hmmmmm...

I think that's about it right now.  I feel like this may be a lot more boring than the first time around.

I went to Target.

It's like the beginning of a horror movie...  

I went to Target.  

*GASP*

"Don't go down the stairs!!"  

aka "Don't look at the end caps!!"

I didn't.

Whew.

I did buy some storage boxes, since the hubby cleaned & organized the oldest's playroom (yet again, will we EVER get a handle on the Legos???).  Not sure if that was really okay per the rules, but they were just the cheap ones, I didn't get fancy like I'd live to.  So, we'll say it was okay.  Okay?

Other than that, I only bought the stuff I was planning on going to the grocery store for.  Win!  Well, sort of, since they are more expensive than the grocery store.  You can't have it all I suppose.

This week I also used up one of my 2 meals out.  I took the boys to Red Robin (gluten free buns!!) for lunch on Friday.  It was fantastic.  It helps that we've gone gluten free because my eating out choices aren't the same anymore.  It really is helping me not WANT to go out.  I mean, what good is a steak without buttered bread?  What good is CFA without nuggets?  (Actually, it's not all that bad, but I'm making a point here!)  I really wanted a burger though.  So, I had one.  I have 1 more meal out I can use for the month if I want.  I wonder if I could finish the month without using it...  I might...

7 days in...

7 days in & no problem staying on budget so far!  The oldest keeps asking to go to the store to buy stuff (Christmas money is burning a hole in his pocket!), but I keep saying no.  I'm mean like that.  I really don't need any potential temptation.  Plus, the littlest is sick, so we don't need to go out & share germs.  I'm considerate.  Sometimes.  

I did go to HEB on Friday, and spent $100 (gasp!!) on gluten-free snacks & a few other things.  That brings our total to $125 so far, plus whatever the final total is for Farmhouse Delivery (so, I'm thinking right around $200 as of tomorrow).  Speaking of Farmhouse Delivery, tomorrow is our first delivery day.  I can't wait to see how awesome it is.  Plus, I'm tired of seeing a bare fridge.  Sadly though, there are still some staple-type things we need.  I swear I feel like I'll never get ahead on grocery related stuff!!  There are ALWAYS things we need from the store!!  Groceries are definitely our biggest money suck.  I wonder how typical that is...

Oh!  Funny thing, the other day I took the oldest in to open a savings account at our bank.  The next day the lady that helped us called me.  Turns out, we're eligible for a 5% cash back credit card from them.  She had some line about how rare & awesome that is, but I had a line about not wanting a credit card.  She tried to guilt me into it, but I don't really do high-pressure guilt trips.  ESPECIALLY for credit cards.  We do have a credit card that we use, but it's paid off every month (hubby uses it to pay for work expenses that he gets reimbursed for & we use it fir gas).  We originally started using it so we'd get points to pay for our Costco membership, but that doesn't work now, so we use it for other fun things.  Anyway, we sure don't need another card, we don't really even need the one we have.  

Anyway, I thought it was really ironic, here I am trying to teach my 5 year old about savings & that flags us to receive a credit card offer.  You just gotta love banks.  ;)

So, here we are...

Day 2 of this.  Again.  ;)  

We just got back from out of town & came home to a pretty sad fridge & pantry.  BUT, the good thing is, we get to start over with that stuff too!  Budget AND diet?  Oh my!  We're gonna try a gluten free trial (can you try a trial??), to see if it improves our son's ADHD/ODD.  I mean, it can't hurt!  So, we have to rid the pantry & fridge of some stuff anyway (straight into daddy's belly, of course), so a new start it is.  

This week we're gonna manage with what we have, which is meat & frozen veggies.  I'm about to get really creative I suppose.  I did send the hubby out tonight for milk, cheese, creamer, & bananas.  $25 of the grocery budget is now gone.  

((I budgeted $600 for January, which the hubby says is too much.  What do you think??  There are 3.25 (lol) of us here, and we all eat 3 meals + snacks here almost every day.  I think $600 is actually cutting it close.  That's $5.95/day/each to cover all the food for 3.25 of us.  I think he doesn't realize how expensive meat & produce can be.))

My plan is to use this awesome service I found - it's local (organic) produce, meats, dairy, etc.  I figure if I get the bulk of our food from them, I will stay out of the grocery store & avoid grabbing stuff not on a list/we don't need, and I'll be supporting local farmers.  Win, win.  To have my weekly food needs delivered to my doorstep...  can't beat it!  Of course, it means a different style of eating - more focus on 3 meals & less focus on snacks.  We'll have produce & cheese to snack on & I'm sure I'll hit Costco for a few other things, but no more free-for-all grazing all day.  Good for the wallet & the belly!  ...let's see how long this lasts!

So, here is a screenshot of my cart: 

I was fortunate enough to get the membership fee waived & $10 off the first order, score!  Still, I'm looking at about $95 for next week's dinners...  and I still don't know what I'll be feeding us for lunch.  :/  I guess tuna on gluten free crackers??  I've got a lot to figure out.  There's that pesky breakfast meal to serve too...  sheesh.  I'd love cheap, healthy, kid-friendly, gluten-free ideas for breakfast & lunch if you have any!  

As for dinner, I figure a whole chicken can stretch for 2, maybe 3 meals (I'll do breasts one night, legs/thighs one night, and then a soup or something with the rest), the ground beef should last 2 meals, we can do eggs one night, and maybe a night of just veggies.  Salad for some lunches (depending on what's in the bushel next week...), wienies & carrots for a lunch, maybe soup one day...  idk, I'm sure we'll figure it out since I'm leaving myself no choice!  Oh, the stress!

Anyway, food is really the only item on the plate (haha, ha) at the moment.  Obviously, since we're only 2 days into this thing, we're on track & doing great so far!