money talk

So, Stephan slept in his new bed last night, and did really good.... better than me at least. he went to bed about 8 last night (which is about an hour late for him) and slept until about three. I heard him rustling around, and then he cried, so I think he crawled out of bed and got confused. I put him back in his crib just so that I could sleep without waking him every time he turned over. Today, at nap time, he crawled into his baby bed and got into his sleep position (which is any position that looks like it would be impossible to fall asleep in). I picked him up and put him in crib though so that I would not have to worry about him waking up to soon.

The other day we got a bunk bed from one of Chris's dad's friend. One of the pieces was broken, and Chris welded it today. We got the bunk bed set up so that now we actually have a place that our guest can sleep on. The bottom is a full, and the top is a twin. It makes the room look a lot more like a room and not a mismatch of things thrown together (although there is still a bit of that). Stephan loves pulling up on things, and on this new bed he can stand on the lower bed, and just reach the bars of the top and pull himself up... he seemed to like that.

Chris is pulling a 12 hour shift today. He is working as much overtime as possible so that we can pay off all our debt. That is our new thing, and it is making a HUGE difference. When we first got married, we had sworn off all credit cards, and we did really good for the first few years. Then I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out, I could not eat anything. The cost was 800, we only had 400 in the bank, so we got a card called care credit. It is only good on medical bills and vet bills. Well, several trips to the dentist, a few animals spayed and their shots, and it got up to a 1000. The next card we got was Ritz camera store because we wanted the camera, and we knew we had student loans coming in. We bought the camera, and then got it payed off right away, but we did not cancel the card. A few years later we sold the first camera to buy another camera, but the new camera got put on the card, we were suppose to pay it back and we didn't. the money went to something else. That card had about 400 on it. Then we moved, and needed a washer and dryer, so we got a Lowe's card. We bought the washer and dryer and had it paid off with the following tax check. However, we then bought a house, and racked up about 3500 with new fridge and stove, paint... well, all the stuff we needed to make the house so that we could live in. When we moved into the house, I really wanted a couch, I had been for a long time, I figured five years, it was time. So we went out and bought that on credit adding another 1000 to debt. We also bought a sleep number, but got that paid off. We owe about 50,000 on student loans, and another 60,000 on the house. So, that is where we stand. On top of all that we had a ton of medical bills from when I had Stephan and various other visits to the doctor that up to about 1500 more.

I was going through the bills, and I always get really mad at the interest they charge. on half of just my student loans, (about 30,000, so around 15,000) they are charging me about $2.50 a DAY... and this is a cheap loan with about a 5% interest. Now, lowes, that is the one that really makes me mad. We owe 3500 total, our monthly payment is 98 a month. SIXTY of that is interest we pay every month. That means we are only paying 30 dollars out of the hundred that we are giving them.... that makes me sooo mad, how are we ever suppose to get anything paid off when they are taking 2/3 of my money to line their pockets while we struggle to make the payment. So, at this point I knew that we needed to make some changes. About three years ago my dad gave me a book on fiances by Dave Ramsey (EVERYONE should read this book). The book promptly went on a shelf where it was forgotten about. As we were doing our best to come up with ways to fix our fiances, I feel like I was guided back to this book that had been collecting dust. I read the book, and wow, the difference it has made. We started following Dave Ramsey's plan about two months ago. so far we have paid off about 600 in medical bills, another 600 for propane that was unexpected (this is the first winter with propane, so it was expected, just not that much) 1000 on a house loan, we paid off Ritz (which was down to 200) we paid off the car (another 400 when we started the plan) I paid my mom back 100 for some help she gave me with Christmas presents... and some other stuff I can't think, it comes to about 3000 though. Tax loans is about 2000 of the stuff we paid off, the rest is the budget we learned from Ramsey. Our monthly expenses has gone down from about 1700 to 1300. I can't believe how fast that things are working out, by this time next year we should not have any credit cards. It will take several years to get the student loans paid off, but I suspect that we can have the majority paid off in about 5 years... something I never dreamed possible. The book has literally changed out lives, and I'm so grateful for my dad for giving it to me, and for being guided to it from our prayers.

If you are still reading, and still interested, here is the basic system. Ramsey says to have a zero balance budget. you budget EVERY dollar, that seriously cuts down on excess buying. this isn't to say that you can't have anything, you simply have to budget it. the next big step, and this is what really did it for us, and that is the envelope system. We figure out the budget, move the bills money into a bills account and promptly pay those. then we figure out how much we need for living, which is 250 every paycheck (every two weeks). 150 goes to grocery, thats an envelope, 50 goes to gas, that is another envelope, 35 goes toward non-food items (like toilet paper and tooth paste) and the other 15 goes towards eating out. This is what works for us, the point is to put yourself on a fixed budget. Then, everything else goes toward your lowest bill. For us that was Ritz at 200, when that gets paid off, you throw all the extra money (plus the payment that previously going to Ritz) and put it to the next bill. this creates a snowball effect that gets everything paid off really fast. One of his main points is to use cash... it has power. You are less likely to buy a candy bar at the gas station when you only have 50 for gas.

ok, well, know that you all about my fiances, I'm going to bed!