Getting Out of Debt Progress

I am always going to remember 2012.  It's the year that I found Da.ve Ram.sey.  A girl that I used to work with mentioned him a couple of years ago and how much his teachings helped her start to manage her money.  I was curious but never really acted on investigating him. 

Back in June I decided that we needed to do something.  I had been in my new job for 8 months.  We were making payments on everything but clearly we weren't getting ahead or making a dent in our mountain of debt.  My boss had given me an Ama.zon gift card for my birhtday so I decided to download one of Da.ve's books on my Kind.le.  I blew through the book and was so inpired by the Ba.by ste.ps because they seemed manageable.  Playbacks of Rich.ard Drey.fuss in the movie "What.Abou.t Bo.b" were in my mind.  "Bab.y steps, Bob, bab.y steps."  Dav.e's plan was broken down for me in baby steps, I could do this! 

The first baby step is to Save $1000 in an emergency fund.  Now this was probably not the best choice but we found ourselves in a triage situation when we began.  I had pretty much been in charge of the finances but R had a few things that he was in charge of.  Everything transferred to me and I found that we had some past due issues with some of R's things because he was struggling with the consistency of his business (not to mention, he's terrible with money and still an issue in our marriage)

I made the choice to get caught up on everything first because there were some bills that needed to be paid YESTERDAY!  We paid our association dues, paid off the bunk beds that we had on credit that the deadline for no interest was about to be up, and a past due credit card of R's.  Once we got everything up to date we were able to start building our emergency fund.  

 I taught a college course this past quarter and it allowed us to begin building our emergency fund and pay cash for two different car repairs that would have previously put us in the poor house.  In November I got a Chris.tmas bonus that allowed us to finish our emergency fund, pay off two more credit cards, and pay cash for Christ.mas!!!!!!

So as we stand right now we have a zero-based budget every month (every cent accounted for), $1000 in our emergency fund and we've paid off 5 bills.  We are currently working on bab.y ste.p #2 which is Pay Off All De.bt with the De.bt Sn.owball.  You keep rolling the extra money you are saving from paid off bills into the payment for the next lowest bill. 

I use the budgeting sheets that Da.ve has on his website and when we started there weren't enough lines for all the various debts that we had but when I was making January's budget I only had to add one extra line in the space provided for debt.  We also have our deb.t's listed in order from lowest to highest on sticky chart paper hanging in our bedroom.  I love being able to cross off debts or change the amount owed to a smaller number!!!!      

I have high hopes for 2013!!!!  Baby steps do make it more manageable!  I wish that I would have gotten on the bandwagon years ago but we're on it now and making wonderful progress.  If there is one thing that I could curse my parents about it's them not teaching me how to handle money.  You can't just let your kids "figure it out" because society leads them down the wrong path.  We are going to teach our boys about money and be sure that we don't push them out in the world without the necessary skills they need to succeed!  

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

I'm Still Alive :)

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've written!  I suppose this should be one of my new resolutions this year since I've totally fallen off the wagon of writing.  I can't believe that it's already almost Christmas!  This year has gone well, though it's been tough.

I'm a little low right now because we've been trying to get pregnant for 6 months and so far nothing!  It's much harder when you have a million things going on and are dead tired at the end of the day!  I'm starting to think maybe I'm nuts for wanting this.  Baby M is 4 and by the time we'd have #3, he'd be 5.  He's starting kindergarten next September and we'll have no daycare expenses! 

I'm finding gray hairs left and right so that has got to mean that I'm getting pretty old.  I never thought that I'd have to worry about grays this early :(  My energy seems to get going down hill and even though I've been working on for a couple months I don't think that I've lost that 10 pounds that I've been meaning to shed.  

I did have some big accomplishments this year but I just feel like I'm running out of time and there are some things that I really want to get done.  Here are some of the BIG accomplishments of 2012:

1) We didn't end up running a full marathon this year due to my job getting insane right around the time when heavy training needed to happen but R and I did complete the 1/2 marathon and I shed 11 minutes off my time :)

2) I landed an internal grant at my job with a group of full time faculty.  So in my first year I secured a $20,000 grant to help our teacher preparation students with test prep sessions.  I am coordinating everything so it's a big undertaking but I know we're making a positive impact.

3) I taught my first college class.....English Review.  It was a class for students who didn't test into Comp 1 and needed extra help with writing.  Their final paper was a three page paper that a review panel looked at and scored.  If they passed the review then they passed the class.  I started with 15 students and ended with 8.  Of the 8 papers I submitted to the scoring team I had seven pass, so that was great results for my first time teaching!  

4) I have a second grader and a preschooler, how time flies!  They are both doing wonderful and are very advanced for their age/grade.  I think that comes from having a former teacher as a mom and a dad that has a love for learning anything and everything!

5) R got elected to village council.  He ran this past November and was elected.  It was very exciting to see him give in to his political science background.  He has the heart to make our village a better place to live :)

My job is pretty crazy right now but that's for another post.  I will be attempting to post more often :)

 
 

Where is Time Flying????

I cannot believe that it's already almost March!!!! Little Man is almost 7 years old!!!!! Baby M is almost 3 1/2, WHOA. Time is just flying by so darn fast!!! I wanted to do a little update on my New Year's Resolutions, mainly to keep myself in check!

• Run a full marathon-My husband and I are going to sign up for a full at the end of June and we have begun our pre training :)- We are signed up for the marathon and full out marathon training starts this week!!!! I am very excited but also very nervous. Part of me is like "damn straight I can finish a marathon" but then I keep having flashbacks to how my body felt after just 13.1 and that makes me kinda nervous!
  
• Read 52 books this year- I love reading and I received gift cards for ebooks for Christmas so I am going to get started on this goal. I am not going to say a book a week because I just want it to be an average. I am also going to keep a running list so that I can actually keep track of how many books I read.- I read 4 books in January but then sorta pooped out in February. I was sick so I didn't read as much at the gym. I seriously need to get on the ball and get back on track!
  
• Reduce credit card debt-it's a continuous struggle with unexpected life events but I took on another job and will still online tutor to try to work on reducing the debt and saving for the future!- My Thirt.y-one business is turning out to be really successful so I'm earning lots of extra money! We are almost done paying off the bunk beds we got the kids so that will free up an extra $100 per month and then I'm looking forward to hopefully getting a tax refund to jump start our debt pay off!!!
  
• Drink 8 glasses of water per day-I don't drink nearly enough water and I feel parched on my most days because of it. My skin, hair and nails are in rough shape and I know my body needs the water!-I am not doing great with this but I have been drinking more water. I need to be sure that I'm monitoring my intake more closely especially now with beginning marathon training!
  
• Stop biting my nails- Now that I am in a professional job I want my hands to look nice. Due to not drinking enough water and constantly chewing my fingers my hands look terrible. I am going to really try to take care of my nails and cuticles so that I have healthy hands in 2012!!!-I have been more conscious of this and gotten some really great hand lotion that is helping. They are looking better but I still have a long way to go!
  
• Have more sex- It's true......I need to have that sexual connection with my husband more because our relationship needs that intimacy. It's our 7th year of marriage and damn if I am going to go through that 7 year itch!!-Things have been going pretty good :) Still trying to be more conscious of not waiting until 11pm to go to bed but rather start the routine much earlier so I'm not so exhausted when I crawl into bed.
  

I'm Back!!!!!!!
I am finally getting around to posting my progress from the last year on the resolutions that I made for 2011 :) and hopefully begin blogging more as I share my resolutions for this new year!

Progress from 2011

• Take the G.RE and decide on a PhD program, possibly begin my program this fall. It has always been my dream to get my Ph.D and pursue a career in higher education teaching college. I am going to study, take and hopefully score well on my G.RE this year. I have begun researching what field I would like to get my Ph.D in but I need to finalize my decision and start the process to apply. With all the changes this year in my job I did not complete this resolution but it's still in the fore front of my mind and it will happen someday, just not in the near future.
  
• Leave work at 4pm at least 3 days per week so that I can get home at a reasonable hour and spend time with my family. I work far too hard too hard for how much they value me at work so I need to make it a priority to get as much done throughout the day as I can so I can leave work at 4pm and not waste time there.- Quit that crappy job and took a new one, got laid off from the new job, and got another new job that is by far the dream job. I leave work everyday at 4:30 because those are my hours and in case I didn't make it clear enough, I LOVE MY JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
• Have a sit down family dinner at least 6 nights per week. This is extremely important to me because I know it's so very important to having a healthy family that communicates and shares their days with each other.- We have been sitting down most nights for family dinner and it's been great! I am not sure if it's averaged out to 6 nights per week but we've had some wonderful dinner time memories over the past year!
  
• Cook dinner 3-4 times per week leaving the rest of the nights to my wonderful husband. I love to cook and with everything going on this past year the job of cooking has flown out the window and it makes me sad because I love it and lately it's seemed more like a chore. I want to get that love of cooking back this year!-I cooked a lot more this year but I hope to increase it to more this upcoming year. I would love to tackle more of Rach.ael Ra.y's 30 minut.e mea.ls :)
  
• Reduce my credit card debt by 50% this year. I will have to online tutor at night and sell things that are unnecessary to daily life but I'm going to vow to find a way to reduce my debt this year!- After taking a new job and working part time along with subbing, then getting laid off this did not happen. It's going to be a continuous goal for quite a few more years.
  
• Run and workout at least 5 days per week. Even if it's just a walk around the neighborhood I want to stay active to help reduce stress and improve my health.- I have been working out a great deal and I think that I pretty much fulfilled this resolution on the average :)
  
• Find a new job by the end of 2011. I want to find a position that will value my talent and be happy that I'm a part of their workplace.- YAY!!!!! I did this :) Not only did I find one new job in 2011.....I found TWO!!!!!! I am valued for my talent and incredibly happy right now!
  
• Read at least 24 books this year. I am part of a book club but I really need to carve out time to read each day so that I can meet this goal- I am not sure how many books I read because I didn't keep track... whoops! I read a great deal but I'm not sure if I hit that 24 book amount.
  
• Run a full marathon. I'm thinking the Charle.voix marathon since I ran the 1/2 last year and it was awesome.- I trained for another 1/2 but got sick and also didn't have the money to run it but this will be on my list this year!

So here goes nothing.........The New List for 2012!!!!!!

• Run a full marathon-My husband and I are going to sign up for a full at the end of June and we have begun our pre training :)
• Read 52 books this year- I love reading and I received gift cards for ebooks for Christmas so I am going to get started on this goal. I am not going to say a book a week because I just want it to be an average. I am also going to keep a running list so that I can actually keep track of how many books I read.
  
• Reduce credit card debt-it's a continuous struggle with unexpected life events but I took on another job and will still online tutor to try to work on reducing the debt and saving for the future!
• Drink 8 glasses of water per day-I don't drink nearly enough water and I feel parched on my most days because of it. My skin, hair and nails are in rough shape and I know my body needs the water!
• Stop biting my nails- Now that I am in a professional job I want my hands to look nice. Due to not drinking enough water and constantly chewing my fingers my hands look terrible. I am going to really try to take care of my nails and cuticles so that I have healthy hands in 2012!!!
• Have more sex- It's true......I need to have that sexual connection with my husband more because our relationship needs that intimacy. It's our 7th year of marriage and damn if I am going to go through that 7 year itch!!

This is the list for now.....we'll see if I need to add anything in the next couple of days :)

Baby M is 3!!!!

So he's totally not a baby anymore. I'm going to have to come up with new ways to refer to my children because Baby M and Little man just don't fit, lol. We had a great day today. His party was last Sunday and of course he chose Light.ning McQ.ueen for his theme :) Today we went to the park, went to an indoor play place, and opened some more presents. We let the kids pretty much do that they would like for their birthdays so of course we had Happ.y Mea.ls for lunch and played a lot of games and stayed up late! Here is a cute picture of Baby M from his birthday. On Sunday we get to go to my grandpa's 90th birthday so we're pretty excited about that!!!! I feel so blessed to have my grandparents still alive and that my children get to know their great grandparents. It's not the norm these days for that to happen!!!!

And Then There Were 9

Got a little bit of good news today...... They recalled more teachers and there are only 9 of us left that haven't been recalled. It's not great and I probably won't be recalled before school begins but I thought there would be more around 15 that were left. 9 is a little better than 15! I'm still hoping that maybe as the year progresses they will need teachers. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Floundering

I'm supposed to be setting up a classroom right now. I hear all my teacher friends talking about getting up early, going to meetings, putting up bulletin boards, meeting their students, etc... and I'm home. I knew it was going to be this way but knowing and actually going through it are two very different feelings. Going through it makes me feel like a bit of a failure. Now I know that I'm not a failure so no need to leave me uplifting positive messages (not that anyone reads this anyway, who am I kidding) I really thought by 31 years old that I would be almost 10 years into my career and have some stability. Which I totally would have had if I was still in FL. Around this time of the year I really miss FL. Keeping my fingers crossed that something good will come my way. I'm so sick of being in debt and not having the money to support my family. I'm sick of feeling like I'm never going to be successful. Ugg...after writing this I have to pick myself back up and go on with my day because I've had my 20 minutes or so to feel bad and that's all I allow myself each day.

Everything is Going to Be Alright

I haven't posted in forever....well like 6 months. It's not that I haven't thought about it but it just seems like it's been hard to say exactly what I was thinking. I know that seems weird but it's the best way that I can explain it. I have several drafts of blog entries that I haven't posted but none of them seemed to be right to publish. Now seems as good of time as any to explain my past 6 months.

1. Quit the charter school in February and it was the best feeling in the world.
2. Took a job at a public school and had the most amazing experience of my life being in charge of the math intervention program and pretty much doing what I needed to help the struggling kids without being micromanaged.
3. Got my pink slip and the end of April and hoped for the best keeping a very positive attitude because if anyone knows, it's me, that crying, feeling sorry for myself, worrying, etc... doesn't help the situation. It was far enough out and so much could happen that I have to say I wasn't really worried about it.
4. Had a great rest of the school year and was so happy that I was a part of such a wonderful staff. Said goodbye to everyone in hopes that a miracle would bring me back on staff in the fall.
5. Started collecting unemployment....it's $315 per week and will last for 26 weeks.
   
6. Had and am continuing to have the most wonderful summer of my life. I am truly blessed to have had so many fun times and memories with my kids this summer, life just seems perfect.
7. Mid July they called back 160 teachers (242 were laid off).
8. The beginning of August the situation really started to set in because I realized that if I don't get called back, which it absolutely doesn't look like I'm going to, things will be really hard come the beginning of Sept.
9. Went to the substitute teaching meeting at my local school district so that I could sub this upcoming year if need be.
   
10. August 18th they called back only 20 more teachers.......did I mention that I'm DEAD LAST on the seniority list!
11. Started finding a lot of jobs posted for the different school districts and have applied for them all along with applying for jobs that are in higher education.....the phone hasn't rung once.
12. The charter school people went back to work today and I'm still so glad that it's not me!!!!!
    

So now I'm at the point wondering what to do if something doesn't "work" out. It seems like though we've gone through hell the past 3 years.....yeah it's been 3 years!!!!!.......that things do always seem to work out. The problem is that we're so far in the hole from all the rough time that we've had that we have yet to get ahead! I'm keeping faith though that things will work out and that something will happen because I'm working so hard and have kept my chin up for so darn long when I could have just given up. I've been hearing of people left and right that are just ending their lives because times are tough but I know better. I know that even though things seem impossible that nothing is impossible in life. It may seem bad but if you stay positive and work hard things will be okay.

I'm keeping faith!