Well at least they are honest

Was I really dumb enough to buy not one or two, but multiple items from a place called Conns? At the start of this journey, Adam and I had 3 Conns accounts for various items. In the past we have purchased from them many times, the first was a 19” TV when I was 18. How exciting, my very first financed purchase on my own. So proud, I actually still have that TV, somewhere… I can’t say that Conns has been bad to me, but man if you don’t make the payment on or before the day it’s due when they open they are calling you nonstop all day. Seriously I have never been late with them in 10 years and I have purchased many items from them yet the feel it’s necessary to harass me the day a bill is due. That’s why they were #1 2 and 11 on our list. Not only because we have paid them down, but because just seeing that number come across my caller ID is enough for the nervous twitch in my eye to kick in. No I don’t want to set up a payment over the phone, I would like to go by the store wade through the used car salesman rejects and physically hand over my payment coupon and payment. I like that feeling. I love to have a receipt in my hand with the payoff; I don’t like being pressured into paying over the phone. We have one more account with them which was in the number 11 spot but has moved up to #1, and the payment was due yesterday, which I didn’t have time to pay on my way home from work. With the fear of the nonstop phone calls escalating, I ran in on my lunch break and paid three payments. HA! I was pleased with myself that I had outsmarted them and hadn’t even gotten one phone call, which was odd. Then as I was walking out, smug grin on my face, I remembered that they only have Adam’s cell for that account.

Houston we have a problem!

This past weekend, we decided that now is a good time to start working on things around the house to spruce it up. I wanted to paint the kitchen red and blue and off we went to the local home improvement store to get the supplies. Not only would this be a fun family project, but it would also keep us at home and busy instead of itching to run around. When we got to the store I paid with my debit card, well my son who is 6 saw and asked if I was paying off our debts, yes he has gotten on the payoff debt wagon too J. I told him yes that we still were on our family journey and that I was not paying with a credit card. He then asked how much were on credit cards, as in how much credit was on them, and I told him it could be different amounts hundreds or thousands of dollars. He then looked up at me and said WOW, I hope I get $1,000 on my credit card. YIKES!! That was a scary moment for me. I had to tell him that it was better to have no credit cards and to use your own money, that credit cards weren’t our money but other people’s that lend it to us and we have to pay back plus some. It’s hard to explain to a 6 year old, especially when they see their parent’s using debit cards and giving them gift cards. To them it’s all the same thing, a way to buy Pokemon cards.

Lord Give me the Strength

Tonight will be my first huge challenge. I have overcome the malls and the grocery stores and the kids saying "I want, I want", but tonight I go to the Houston Rodeo, which I have dubbed my favorite holiday. The food, the drinks, the candied apples, and cute children's clothing and the boots. Oh I LOVE cowboy boots. We are also taking the kids so I know they will want to ride the rides and be sucked in by the carnies to play the games. What do I do in times like these? maybe make a "rodeo" savings account like most people have "Christmas" savings accounts? Should I wear my hat and tip it low and let Adam guide me through all the shops?? Three years ago I got so excited about the rodeo I went out and bought a horse. yes a horse. I guess when I bought a the new car I heard horse power and wanted the real thing. I grew up riding horses so it wasn't so far fetched for me to want one and to introduce my children to them, but seriously I live in the burbs, a horse doesn't really fit in the back yard. Thank goodness I couldn't keep him that long because we had a hurricane on the way and I was so scared he might drown or something that I sold him. we were told that the hurricane was going to be as bad a Katrina so a horse drowning was a legitimate concern. it turned out to be a good thing that I sold him because we were without lights or water (i don't mean hot water, I mean we had no water period) for over 10 days, then I go back to work my boss has me get everything caught up then lays me off, eventually she ended up laying everyone off and starting over, so i couldn't take it that personally, but still kick me while I'm down why don't ya.
So back to tonight, the rodeo. I'm thinking envelope system? leave debit card at home? rely on the hubbys glares as I walk into the little shops to keep me from spending?  where pants so tight that I can't possibly enjoy the fried oreos and pickels? I have 5 hours to make a game plan. Wish me luck!

Be good little girls and boys and you will be Rewarded

I have found this to be true. Adam and I are sticking to the budget, throwing all extra money at the debt snowball, and any cash we have at the end of the day goes into a big water jug, and I know I saw a $5 and a $20 in there. Well today I get home and check the mail and to my surprise I have a bonus check in there from my old job. It was totally unexpected but nice, and it will save us a month on our debt snowball. I see it as a motivator and a blessing. I have found that God has a way of providing, and this is a prime example. I listen to Dave Ramsey's radio show every day now and hearing all of the people calling in with their stories and problems and they feel so down and out. It's sad to hear how many people have buried themselves, but it's so motivating to hear that for the most part he can take this problem that is literally consuming the caller's lives and make sense of it and offer options and solution. I can literaly feel the weight being lifted from them and I get a little bit of hope from each caller that my family can do this as well.

I paid off 7k in debt this weekend

According to The Total Money Makeover, the first step is to make a budget and stick with it. Man I have never been happier to start pinching pennies. It feels nice that we are choosing to be cheap rather than having to be cheap because we can't afford anything. the next step is to get a 1k emergency fund. Check :-) now that feels good, and I have no desire to touch that money. Since the decision was made to get out of debt, I have been planning and making calls and writing lists and rewriting lists and coming up with plans of attack. We listed our debts smallest to largest and man it wasn't pretty. The final calculation was over 50k in debt including the one car we do still owe on. I knew to get motivated and to stay at it we would have to pay off several of the smaller debts at once to feel like we actually accomplished something. We bought a 3 paneled display board and wrote down the steps outlined in Dave Ramsey's book and used the large center panal to list our debts in order of payoff. Thanks to careful planning and Uncle Sam, we were able to pay off 11 items in full. This will give us over $500 each month to apply towards the next debt. I also have my little boutique Tuu Tuu Cute which will bring in a little money as well. Adam is lining up side jobs and we are finding things every day that we don't use that could be posted on craigslist. I have become a mad woman again, and the bills bag is back out. I don't care if i'm the bag lady, ill also be the lady who has no debt and can afford to focus on my own business, stay home with my children and have another baby as well as a fully funded savings account, and my children's college education paid for. Since we no longer have the $570 car payment, and I am saving at least $400/month working closer to home, and now I'll add $500/month from paying off these first debts. We will be out of debt in no time. With the new budget we will be able to live off of adams paycheck and my checks can go directly to debt. Now I have to admit that I'm on a little high from being able to pay off so many of the little items, so now we will start to attack the larger debts, but it won't be the immediate statisfaction of paying off a $200 in full. One debt may take several months to pay off until we get to the next one, so this may be where it gets to be not so fun and seem like there's no end in site. These are the moments I will have to find my own motivation, and I think being stuck in a cube all day will make it easy to find this kick in the pants. 
When I go on a diet, I usually try to motivate myself by saying, when i lose 5lbs, I'll buy myself a new shirt, when I lose 15, ill buy a pair of new shoes. This type of motivation usually doesn't work so well because ill lose that 5lbs go by myself a new shirt then next month im buying another new shirt because i have gained and lost that same 5lbs. Why should I reward myself for reaching only part of the goal. If I have 20lbs to lose, why should i reward myself at 5? I should reward myself when I reach 20lbs and have kept it off for a few months. Same goes with paying of debt. Oh when I pay off 5 things we will be rewarded with a weekend in San Antonio. Ok we go to San Antonio, spend too much money that could have been going towards debt then break out a credit card that has already been paid down or off to live on. Isn't that just dumb? Seriously we could have stayed our butts at home, use that money to pay down more debt kept the paid off cards paid off and enjoy a nice week long vacation somewhere when we have no debts and have all the cash to do it. Man, what a smart idea ;-)

The Step Before Step One - Fall Down Go Boom

Or in adult termanology have something happen to you that changes your way of thinking in an instant. (Now it's time for me to be brutally honest and admit things that aren't so plesant) For us that was coming home from spending $300 at Ikea to see that Lightning Mcqueen had gone bye bye. I had been contemplating letting it go back for a while, but that was just a thought. Since working so far away was taking away my income i had fallen behind on my car. I had made a payment online to catch it up and even be a little ahead but since I did not call and speak to someone the payment was applied too late. I wasn't upset, it was more like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I'm not saying that it was a great moment or that it isn't going to follow me around for years, but the feeling of no longer having $600 payments was such a relief. We immediatly got the payment that I had made refunded and bought a cash car. My husband works for a car store so we were able to get a quality car, paid in full. it also dropped the insurance by $50. I was also able to get a job that is right down the street and great benifits.
This is the thing, we had done all of this spending and were riding high but it didn't last, now we have so many monthly bills that we can't afford to do anything, and if things don't change, it will just get worse. I used to live at the mall, serious shopping addiction, now I can't even stand to step foot in the mall. all the people, the kids, the noise, the girls dressed like skanks trying to "ask you a question and try this scrub from the dead sea?" The thought of shopping is exhausting, heck debt is exhausting. The stress, the worry, the writing of the checks and typing to use online bill pay. Yawn, i seriously just yawned thinking about it. Now comes step one. Open the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and read it.

Light Bulb On!

So, I have never blogged before, but I feel like this journey needs to be documented. For readers and most importantly for me, when I get that shopping itch and I just "need" a new pair of shoes, I can look back and remember all of the sacrifices my family has and will be making to reach our goal of debt free.
So let me start by saying this. I used to be obsessed (seriously) with paying bills the moment I got them. I had notepads, spreadsheets, I even had a bag that was attached to me 24/7 that I called my "bills bag" It was a cute Victoria's Secret tote that was my second purse. I had some credit cards, but they were all paid in full WAY ahead of time. I had never received an overdraft or late fee in my life, and I was proud. I was 21 when I had my first child, got married (Adam), got pregnant again and bought our first house, dragging my poor hubby along for the ride. oh you know he loved it :-). So here we are going on our happy new family journey when it happened. Adam made fun of the bills bag and called me bag lady. I know it was a joke, but that bag didn't hurt anyone. It had kept us on track and on budget and gave us the ability to have good credit and o live within our means. After that the bills bag and its contents were discarded in the back of  my closet, while I attempted to be less type A, and to relax a little. Oh i received a bill? i'll put that on the counter and pay that later, hey let's go shop! credit card approval? why not, let's go out to eat, sure we can afford to finance something else. This was my new attitude and mama was finally fun. I was getting caught up in the "American" way of spend spend spend and all financed so what great way to extend on that idea? well of course a New Car (in the price is right voice) I was the cool mommy with the brand new Lightning Mcqueen red 4 dr Civic Si, with all the bells and whistles and it's awesome (sarcasm here) $570 payment. we also had another car with a $400 payment. So that put us at 5k in bills every month including daycare and home expenses. Mommy and Daddy worked so it was all good. The first time we had an over draft, it hurt, oh i cried about it and promised to make changes, got the Dave Ramsey book, Total Money Makeover, read about half of it, put it in the closet. It happened again about year later, but it didnt seem to hurt as bad, then it became a normal part of life. I got a new job with a very long transit and 3-4 tolls a day, and that added up quickly, i was basically working to afford to work with travel expenses and daycare. It really hit me when I had to miss my son's first recital and asked my mother in law to volunteer in his class because my job wouldn't let me take off. I sat on the other end of the phone tears pouring down my face as my husband held his phone in the air so I could hear my son sing. This was the day I vowed that things were going to change. Working full time so far away and always being broke just wasn't worth it. Luckily thanks to a great friend, I was able to get a job close to home, like literally right down the street, so now I am able to attend some things. But I'm still sitting at a desk all day making money just to pay bills on debt and have nothing left because we chose to not be smart with our finances. I want to have another baby, but I refuse to do it if I can't be home with my children. I'm not going to work to pay someone to take care of my children. So the Total Money Makeover book was dug out of the closet and so begins our journey to being debt free.