$27

It’s found money… that went straight to my debt. I know it’s not much, in fact, it’s only .002% of my total debt, but IT IS .002% of my total debt that is gone.

Long story short, we have a history of “finder’s keepers, losers weepers” in our family. I drove my mom’s car the other day, as she is still staying with us from her hip replacement, and I found $27. (Another long story short, we know the money was my dad’s.) I did ask my mom first and she did allow for the “finder’s keepers” rule to be played!

The day after I found the money, I was going to the bank to deposit some money and withdrawal our bi-weekly budget allotments, and that money was deposited and then immediately sent to our credit card.

We are still in massive debt, but that is one small step closer to our goal of getting out of debt.

I don’t know that we will make our goal of under $16500 or not, it’s too soon to tell. It’s also too soon to tell if we will make our goal of paying off a minimum of $605. (We will pay that much (and then some) towards debt, but we have also charged things this month.)

I need to stop charging… or at least really work on decreasing the amount of things I charge!

Still using the credit card is certainly not helping us to get out of debt!!!

$27 doesn’t sound like much, but I am happy with the decision I made to send it straight to debt!

I have some more money coming in from a couple places (hopefully in the next few weeks) and all that money, about $300, will go straight to our debt!

Debt right now

Well, what a mighty hole we’ve dug ourselves.

Now, it’s time to grab shovels (or rolled pennies) and start digging our way out.

The debt we owe our children has continued to (ever so slowly) decrease. We borrowed $1500 from each child and have paid back $650 to each of them. Our car loan has continued to decrease as well. We have a 0% loan so it’s nice to see the payment actually affect the bottom line.

Our credit card is a whole ‘nother story! We charged and we charged and we charged and now we have to face the music.

For 2018, my only resolution, or goal, is to have our credit card balance below $10000 by the end of the year. That gives me 12 months.

Here are our current debt totals:

            $17248.36         Credit Card at 15.74%

            $850                 The Boy

            $850                 The Girl

            $8925.00           Car loan at 0% - payment is $345

Our total debt stands at: $27,873.36. YIKES!

There’s really not much I can say. I have no excuse. I just need to stop buying on credit card and start digging out of debt!

I just redeemed a statement credit on our credit card to the tune of $280. That should at least cover the interest for the month. I also have $500 in payments scheduled to go towards our credit card debt. Any extra money will be funneled that way as well. I’m hoping my next statement will have a balance of $16,500 or lower. It’s going to be really close, and obviously dependent upon whether or not we charge anything this month. (*We did pay cash for our groceries last night, small win!)

In order to meet my goal of under $10000 for the year, we need to pay back a minimum of $604.03 per month, not including interest. It is a doable amount if we are diligent with our money. And in all honesty, we usually aren’t. Including interest, we need to pay back closer to $800 per month and I am a little nervous about reaching that amount. I will shoot for $604 per month first, and then go from there.

I would love to say “debt-free” by the end of the year, but I think that has been my biggest problem in the past: I haven’t been realistic about what we can do. $600 ($800 with interest) towards credit card debt is realistic.

I will try to keep track of my progress each month and find out if I am meeting my goal of paying off over $600 of debt per month and therefore on track to meet my goal of credit card debt below $10000.

I know I say this every time, but, wish us luck.

Meal Planning

In an effort to support my “decrease debt” goal, I am working very hard to manage our grocery budget. Just like most everyone else, our good budget has a tendency to get out of control. And just like everyone else, I realize that the more diligent I am with meal planning, meal preparing, and creating grocery lists, the more likely I am to stay within budget.

Going forward, I want to try to stay within our $500 (plus $70 for a produce box delivered to our house every other week) grocery budget.

This past weekend we traveled to Mariposa for a relaxing weekend with friends. I brought along about 5-7 cookbooks, a calendar, and some paper. I got down to work and meal planned for the rest of January and February.  When I got home, I went grocery shopping for all that we needed for the rest of January (minus our weekly perishables) and a lot of the meat needed for February’s meal planning.

When I meal plan, my life is so much easier. Every day, dinner time rolls around, and every day, I wonder we are going to have. When I meal plan, that isn’t the case. I just have to look at my calendar and see what to take out of the freezer or what to prepare: easy-peasy.

Our grocery trips, since meal planning, have stayed within budget, so far.

                Winco: $100.87

                Costco: $105.45

                Safeway: $14.48 (specifically for my mom)

                Savemart: $10.97 (specifically for my mom)

Our total so far is $231.77.

We received a produce box this week so we shouldn’t need too much more before our next budgeting period.

I’m hoping to meal plan for every month this year in an effort to keep our grocery budget, and my stress level, down.

Locked Out

Hi there.

This time it wasn't my fault! I've been locked out of my account since my last post.

I've even wrote updates that I couldn't upload because I was locked out.

Maybe God had a plan of new year, new me, because I was finally able to get back in today, the first day of the new year!

A lot has gone on in our crazy life. We have been on Christmas break for the last two weeks and we go back to school tomorrow. At least we are supposed to be going back tomorrow. The kids are going back tomorrow. I'm going to be home for one more week taking care of my mother. She is having a hip replacement done tomorrow and she is going to be staying at our house for the forseeable future.

Hopefully this means minimal money spending as we don't have any extra money to spend!

Debt pay off is a priority for 2018... our biggest priority. My goal is to finish the year under $10000 in debt and to never increase our debt total for the entire calendar year.

That's really the only financial goal, or resolution of any kind, that I am making!

Wish us luck!

Happy new year! I plan to post twice a week for the WHOLE year, but I won't beat myself up if life happens!