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.