One Year of Blogging

WOW! I've been blogging for a year. I can't believe it!

This is not a high traffic blog. This blog is not read by anybody me. This blog is not monetized. This blog is not a "how to" blog. But, this blog is mine; and I love it!

I have written over 100 posts all about my finances and our journey to get out of debt. This will be a great diary to look back at when we finally do achieve debt freedom.

I'm beyond proud of myself that I have actually kept this up for a year; and I've mostly stuck to a "schedule" for the calendar year of 2017. For 2017, my goal was to post, on average, 2 times per week, or 8 times a month. There was only one month, April, that I didn't meet that. In April 2017, I only posted 7 times, but we were out of town for fully 1/3 of the month, so that's not too bad.

I have really enjoyed blogging. But I have enjoyed it for me. This is my little tiny corner of the internet; my tiny corner of the PF blogging world. This blog isn't about anybody else or for anybody else.

As I'm sure you noticed, I am not the most tech savvy of people. My blog is so very basic. I use a free template on a free site, and that's enough for me. I don't know how to create separate pages or tabs. I don't have an "about me" page.  There is no page tracking my debt progress. There are just stories. Stories about my life, stories about our struggle to get out of debt, stories about the state of our finances. But I love my little blog. And I will love having this record of our debt payoff journey when we finally reach the finish line.

This Will Never Be a How To... Blog

I am a personal finance nerd. I love reading personal finance blogs. I love reading about someone else's journey to get out of debt. I love reading about how someone else pays for different things. But I don't love when someone else's blog turns into a "how to" blog: "how to get out of debt", (like there is only one way), "how to travel hack", "how to credit card churn", etc.

I think it's okay for someone's blog to just be their story and to just stay their story. Some of my favorite blogs have become my least favorite blogs because they changed. And no, I don't think change in and of itself is bad. But I do think it's bad when it becomes preachy and they stop telling a story and start telling you how to do things.

Everyone's journey is different and to tell someone how to do something implies there is only one way.

Personal finance blogs are supposed to be just that, personal. There is not one-size fits all, so there is no "how to" anything. There can definitely be a "how we" or "how I" did/do something, but I feel like bloggers forget what being in debt was like when they started out. I never want that to happen to me.

That's why this blog is all about my journey. It's all about what I go through trying to get out of debt. It's about what I do with extra money. It's about how we budget our money. It's about us; and it will always be about us!

I love this blog and I love having a record of our journey to get out of debt. And that's what it will always be; a blog about how this brunette is getting out of debt!

What People Owe Me

To my friends and family, my our debt is a secret. They know we have a mortgage and they know we have a car payment, but they don't know we have any credit card debt.

So when I buy something for someone, I put it on credit, and then I have to wait for them to pay me back.

Recently, we bought tickets to a play (for next June) for 5 different couples... and we charged it. We were seeing some of them on this week and we sent a reminder for them to pay us, and some of them did, but some of them didn't.

Prior to being payed back, we were owed $1252.70. Some people did pay us back this week (and we loaned a little bit more money to someone else) so now the total we are owed stands at $1051.48.  All of that money will go towards our credit card debt. But the problem is we have no idea when we are going to get that money.

And our friends and family don't know about our credit situation so they are in no hurry to pay us back. Throw in the fact that I'm embarrassed about our debt so I'm not pushing anyone to pay us back and you have an interest free $1000+ loan with no definite amortization date.

The largest loan is to my mother. Obviously I can't push my mother to pay me back. Normally I would write off loans to my mom, but nearly all of the money is for gifts for other people that I bought online for my mom because she doesn't have a computer or internet access. And I don't feel like it is my responsibility to pay for gifts for my brothers/sisters or nieces/nephews. (Side note - my mom is in huge credit card debt too. I don't know the extent of it, but she absolutely buys beyond her means. It is to be noted, however, that she rarely buys anything for herself. The vast majority of her debt is from buying gifts for friends and family.)

I do think if I was more open about my credit card debt, our friends and family would pay us back quicker. They would realize we can't float loans to them indefinitely. However, I'm ashamed and we keep our credit card debt secret, we even talk as if we didn't have any. (Heck, I'm not even totally honest with my husband about our debt. I pay the bills and I imply we don't have any debt. Shameful, I know!)

Anyway, as we get paid back, all that money will go towards our credit card... whenever that is.

Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day!!!

I just wanted to take a quick minute to thank all the soldiers currently deployed, away from their family, that allow us to have the freedoms we have today!

We live in a great country, even with its flaws, and I am so blessed to call the United States of America my home!

Happy birthday, America!

Be safe and have a great day!

Unusual Spending for July

Just like all the other summer months, July is going to be expensive.

Because I'm a teacher, we spend our summer days gallivanting all around Northern California going here or there. And it gets expensive. We also take our family vacation in the summer, again, because I'm a teacher. (I would love to travel in the off-peak time, but until I retire, that's just not feasible.)

In the month of July, we expect to have to pay for: school supplies for the coming school year, first-day-of-school outfits (including new shoes) for each of The Kids, car insurance for the next year, and our summer vacation. We don't have a whole lot of extra expenses, but what we have is going to be pricey.

Luckily, for a lot of this stuff, we have money in our budget envelopes. As always, I don't think it will be enough, but it will definitely be enough to defray some of the costs.

We need to buy new school supplies for each of The Kids. They each need a new backpack, binders, pens, pencils, art supplies, etc. and The Girl also needs a new lunch box. I also need school supplies for my classroom. Mainly I just need to buy all new art supplies: scissors, colored pens and pencils, and some crayons. Usually I also need writing pens and pencils, however last year I received a generous donation from my father-in-law's work, so I am covered in that area. Typically, we tend to need binder paper and copy paper and some notebooks as well. We try to buy them at the beginning of the school year when stores have the best sales. We actually have over $400 sitting in our "school" envelope, so we might be able to cover all our needs with that money, but backpacks can be very expensive so we will have to wait and see.

We don't go out and buy all new school clothes at the beginning of the school year, because it's so hot when we start school, The Kids don't need them yet. We do, however, let each kid pick out a new outfit and pair of shoes for the first day of school. I have been trying to fund our "clothes" envelope to pay for these items, but I can never fund that envelope as quickly as we spend it! We currently have just over $400 in this envelope as well and I think it should be enough money to get what both of The Kids need. The Boy often wears a pair of shorts he already owns and just picks out a new shirt. The Girl always wants the whole she-bang! I think we might have enough money for first-day-of-school outfits this year, but we will need to continue funding this envelope as they will need "cold-weather" clothes in a few months.

Our car insurance policy is up in July and we are switching our insurance providers. With our old provider, we had to pay our premiums every six months, with the new provider, you pay for 12 months at a time. We are going to pay the whole years premiums at once. We do have the option to pay monthly, but with that option, we pay interest. We currently have around $2000 in our annual expenses account, but our premiums are almost $3000. We have to make up the difference. And it's an expensive difference. We will have to cover the extra money using our savings account (not our emergency fund, which stands at about $1850, but using profits from the sale of the old house). We won't have the same issue next year.

Our last unusual expense for the month of July is going to be our family vacation. We will be traveling for two weeks throughout the Southwest United States. We will visit several national parks, museums, and create a ton of memories. We will be paying for it with money that would normally go to pay our mortgage. Our first mortgage payment in the new house isn't due until August 1. So we are going to pay for our vacation with the money we aren't using for a mortgage. Essentially, my June paycheck, which would usually be for a mortgage payment, is instead funding our trip. We will actually charge everything for the trip and just pay for it when we get home. The money will just sit in the bank until we are ready to use it.  Because this is a road trip, about 6-8 weeks ago, we started setting aside all of our left-over gas money at the end of each budget period. We currently have $330 for gas on the trip. (We will also have money leftover from the week we leave and we have budgeted money for while we are on the trip.) We are hoping that having the gas money will help defray some of the costs for our vacation!

Overall, we don't have a lot of unusual expenses, mostly because we are spending half the month on vacation, but what we have has the potential to be very expensive. I really hope we can keep the costs down!

June's Unusual Spending: A Recap

June... how did we do? Eh....

We didn't do horribly, but we didn't do great, either. As I predicted, June was crazy expensive!

We bought a lot for the new house. We bought mattresses and box springs for all of us, a new bed for The Girl and new bedding for both kids and the spare room. We paid for all of that out of some of the profits from the last house. We bought garbage cans and soap dispensers for The Kids' bathroom only. I  We haven't found soap dispensers or towel racks or fixtures that we like for the master bathroom yet, so we are still on the lookout. As far as furniture goes, I finally ordered bar stools for our island counter. They came to $1000 for 5. My mom is paying for two of them as a housewarming gift so we only had to pay $600. That also came out of profits from the old house. Things for the house are coming along and they are expensive, but eventually we will have bought everything we need and not need to buy anything else... eventually. I'm looking forward to "eventually".

Camping was great. It's not my favorite thing, but it is a cheap vacation. We bought the food for camping right out of our food budget and same with the gas. For The Husband's father's day gift, we gave him some different Starbucks items from the grocery store and a gift card to the movies to go see Cars 3 as a family. It wasn't too expensive and any time we can make something"family time" and make memories, we enjoy.

The Lodge was pretty inexpensive, mostly just gas and food which we paid for out of our normal budgeted envelopes. The same with The Girl's dance recital and pictures. We had more than enough money in the "kid's activities" envelope to pay for everything we needed to buy. (I love that we have been funding our envelopes pretty well and I love having the money for something that we need to pay for!)

Since I wrote this, I have only seen my niece who graduated high school. I gave her a card and did put some money in there from the "house petty cash" jar. I will be seeing my nephew on the 4th of July, and I will give him the same amount of money from the same jar. (Note to self: really must include “gifts” in budget again!)

It was a costly month, for sure. We did pretty well, overall. Of course we spent more on "house stuff" than I even imagined! Hopefully, we can plan well for July!

Where Did You Go?

I know that blog writing is personal, but as a reader, you get attached; and when bloggers just stop writing without any warning, I miss them. I wonder where they went. I still check their blogs regularly and hope there will be a new post.

I know it's a false sense of friendship, but as your read someone's blog, someone's story, you feel like you know them and cultivate a friendship with them. And then, when they just disappear, you feel like you've lost a close friend.

Like most of the personal finance community, I love reading PF blogs! And I get sad when they just disappear. I understand we all write for different reasons; and I understand we all have real lives outside of our blogs. But, I wish bloggers would say goodbye.

I know life happens and most bloggers don't consciously decide to stop writing. However, when you realize that's what happens, as a reader, I wish you would give us a heads up and let us know that you won't be blogging anymore. That would save my time, energy, and heartache sadness.

When and if I decide to stop writing, I will say goodbye. And nobody even reads this blog. I will say goodbye for me.