I HATE money! Absolutely hate it! The Bible says it is the root of all evil. I say it is also the root of all frustration! John and I started our marriage debt free except for a house mortgage and one car loan. We were blessed! We just didn't realize or appreciate that and soon racked up credit card debt. We have been debt free twice since then! The last time was when we committed to the girls. We put their adoption on a credit card. I don't really recommend that...I think God wants to provide other ways for adoption fees, but I wasn't involved in the adoption world like I am now and didn't know all the outlets available. Then when the adoption failed, John and I both were angry and pretty well "spent" our frustrations since it left us in debt and broken.
Now we are even more in debt! It seems no matter how hard we try, the more in debt we get! For the past year or so, we haven't made progress because we were in denial of how much debt we had! But I was convicted several months ago about our debt and have been tracking everything and trying with all my might to come up with ways to pay it off! I was so excited and ready to climb this mountain....then the extra kids came. God blessed us beyond measure with donations of food, and even some monetary donations that have helped with the expenses, but it still wasn't enough to cover the extra cost. I don't regret one penny that we spent, and I would do it all again in a heart beat (they are with their new family now...haven't had time to post about that....and I miss them, but am sooooo excited for them and their new family!). However, it took the wind our of the sail of my resolve to get this thing done!
I am praying about getting a second job on weekends....maybe Starbucks. I think it would be a break from every day life, and maybe give us the extra umph we need to get over this mountain! But it will mean time away from my family and added stress I am sure to an already stressed life.....but we HAVE to get over this hump and get this debt paid off! Having any credit card debt just makes it too easy to add to it! We need to cut up the credit cards, but we have to have one for John's work. It is the only one we use, but it gets used for other things. It has been removed from my wallet! No chargin....period! Not even Christmas, and that may mean some people get IOU's for Christmas.
I have analyzed our spending this month....there is no extravagance! In fact, it stuck to the bare necessities...didn't even use the clothes budget for clothes as every one's closet is full (except Toben who needs more jeans, but for now I will just have to wash a load of jeans mid week to make it last!). And we are broke with the next payday 15 days away!
I know my cyber world is full of friends who are debt free and live much more admirable financial lives than we do! So post away! Tell me your secrets! How did you get out of debt? What sacrifices did you make? How do you stretch your dollars to make it work? I am ready to eat rice and beans and beans and rice if I have to. My family is probably another story, but they may just have to get over it! Tell me your secrets! I need them today!!!
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5 comments:
Have you thought of once a month cooking? We did this with great success. Also try paying off the smallest credit card first then snowballing that to pay for the next one. I will post more later.
Irene
Money can make quite the mess of things. Hang in there! YOU CAN DO THIS! You have done it before, and you can do it again.
I can only imagine how the credit card with Addy and Eden's adoption on it is a reminder to you of that situation. I know you have come so far in your healing of that situation (and I am in awe of you) but I know that you know it would be easier if that was gone.
I'm really sorry that having those 3 extra Liberians took a toll on your finances. That is really unfortunate, and that shouldn't have happened that way.
I agree with Irene, "Snowball" your debt. It is a great way to go! Debt goes down and you feel like you have traction right away. You get amped up and take the bull by the horns. You see results right away!
Ok, so you asked for secrets. Here are a few ideas that worked for us both for getting out of debt and in saving for our adoptions. It required sacrifice and discipline, but you can do it. Some of them might not work for you for one reason or another, and you may already do some of these things, but I'll list some. Keep in mind there are only a few things that you can actually change. You can change:
*The way you spend (using credit cards)
*The amount of money you make (extra jobs)
*Spend less on certain budget items (Food, Gas, Gifts, Entertainment, Clothes, Misc) Some budget items are just fixed.
*Cutting up credit cards is a good idea. Stick to that. No more charging things (except John's work stuff). If you don't have the cash, don't buy it. You say the credit cards are out of your wallet? That is great. Out of reach, out of sight, out of mind.
*Getting a second job is a good idea, but only if it doesn't put too much stress on you (well more stress than the debt causes you). Jeremy took on side jobs like crazy for a whole summer. I took care of everything else at the house. It was a total sacrifice, but it was so worth it. You can rack in a lot of dough this way.
*OOOHHH, I just read this cool idea in a book I am reading. It is geared toward helping the working mom (which I know you are and this book is fantastic) and suggested she find a stay at home mom to cook meals for her once a week. I am thinking that while you are making dinner for your family if you made another batch for another family with a working mom and put it in a disposable container and you delivered it, or they picked it up, then they could pay you. Some work, but a way to make money without leaving the house.
*Cut out all eating out, Starbucks, etc. I am serious, only cook at home. Sure this will be hard and isn't convenient as it takes more time, but it will cut back on the food budget. We saved hundreds this way. It was so worth the extra effort. We made double batches of recipes (you may have to make quadruple for your family) so that you can just reheat left overs (like soup) rather than having to cook every night.
*The average American spends $8 per day on food. For a family of 6 that is about $50 per day. Find out how much you are spending and see if this matches up. We wanted to get under $8 a day per person so we had a competition of who could make the cheapest meal. Now before you say no more "Mac and Cheese" we stipulated that it had to be healthy and well balanced. it was fun trying to figure out what would be cheapest.
*Make a grocery list ahead of time. I know we have about 4 grocery stores to choose from around here (Safeway, Albertsons, King Soopers, and Walmart). The ads come out on Sundays or Wednesdays. I just take a few minutes looking at each of their store ads (not available for Walmart, but you know what is cheaper there and what isn't) before I went shopping. I usually hit two grocery stores (as I was already driving around town for other things, not making special trips) and bought the things on sale. I'd even stock up and freeze things because I got such a good deal. That also cut down grocery shopping in the future.
*What you buy at the grocery store can make a huge difference. try to stay away from frozen, pre-packaged, convenience foods. They almost ALWAYS cost more per unit/pound/ounce versus the unprepared version. Yes, this does mean prep time can take longer, but you will see it on the pocket book.
*Clean out the pantry. This is a VERY EASY way to save on groceries right off the bat. We bought the absolute minimum and ate all that we could out of the pantry until it was about 1/4 as full as it was. We felt like we had done some spring cleaning and saved money because we weren't spending money on food. We were eating food we already had bought. This may be easier with just 2 people versus 6. We also took a real look at the 1/4 of the stuff that was left and tossed some because we realized we would probably never have eaten it.
*You know we live a ways out of town. We cut out any unnecessary trips into town to save on gas. I lumped all my errands together, wrote them out in order of how I would do them to minimize gas usage.
*We put a cap on birthday gifts for each other of $20.
*We had allowance money allocated for each of us that we cut in half. We just did without.
*We stopped going to the movies. We stopped renting movies. We played board games and cards that we had at our house. Not only were we spending more time together, but we were saving money. This also helps if you take a second job, it provides lots of quality family time. We read books. We went for walks together.
*We cut off our cable bill. YEP, we have 9 channels and that is enough for us. Now we don't have a home phone, so we are on a bundle. We just have the internet. But the bundle packages are often a good deal if you have a home phone and internet. We watched less TV and again saved money and played games and read books.
*I shop at the thrift stores on Saturdays, because up here they have a lot 50% off already cheap prices. I just put it on my errand list. I buy things at really good deals before I'll need them, because I know when I will need them I won't find the good deal. This would work for pants for Toben.
You probably know all this, but I thought I'd list off any idea I had in case anyone else was reading and wanting some. Some of these worked for the two of us, but might not work for a family with 4 kids. I'm hoping others post ideas that I can borrow/use.
I worked at Macy's last year as a temporary holiday employee. I enjoyed that because it was part-time (at night) and temporary! So I was able to work and know that there was an end in sight! The only problem is that you WILL be tempted to buy EVERYTHING especially since you get a discount as an employee, but I would do it again!
We shop in bulk at Sam's for all of our non-perishables and freezer items (even cheese, lunch meat and bread). We also don't buy any beef. We eat ground turkey or deer meat instead. Beef is just too costly. It is a special treat for us when we do eat out which isn't often. Also buying whole chickens and boiling them helps. You can bone them and season the meat to use in all different types of ways. One more thing we've done is cut way back on our breakfast meats. Eggs are great protein and sausage and bacon though yummy treats aren't essentials.
I just read in an article that a way to cut back is to not eat meat everyday. Apparently people saved a lot on their budget.
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