Routine, Re-education, and Ramsey

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk. My favorite photographer.

I am thankful for the end of Summer. Sounds crazy, but I need routine. Summer routine is what do we do today and there are plenty of daylight hours to get out and spend money. Fall brings school. Fall brings sack lunches and night time showers for the kids with morning showers for Jen and I. Fall brings shorter days. Homework. It brings to our family the season to enjoy the crisp air and stay inside more often. I am thankful for the end of Summer.

I have one reader who had personally thanked me for being honest in what you read here. So, honestly, we have been paying the snowball, but that is about it. We have not completely collapsed, but the vin and vigor I had in March has weakened here in September. The good news is that we are very close to eliminating our Dell account. A couple more payments and we will be rid of this company forever! Our tech will be paid off. The projector, the camera and 50mm lens. The three computers and 22″ wide screen monitor. All paid for. All still working by the way. All still in use. Double Yea!

Hey, I received the following email tonight from the leader of our Financial Fitness class that started this whole thing with Jen and I back in March of this year. It reads:

Graduates, Post-Graduates, Drop outs, held-backs, home schoolers, and juvenile delinquents! We are starting the Financial Fitness groups again. (oh no! not financial fitness!).  If you are interested in revisiting the scene of the crime, please send me an email and we will find a time that will work for all.

PLEASE, if you have a hard cover copy of the book, and you are not going to participate in the next round, please bring it to church and give it to Cece this Sunday. Also send me an email today and let me know you have one. I am getting ready to order books and don’t want to over order. PLEASE let me know ASAP. We will be planning a get-together for all three groups sometime in October.

Looks like I will be going back to re-education camp. Dave Ramsey style. It is a short commitment of time with some of the greatest small community accountability that I have encountered. Besides, I need my teeth kicked in again. Sort-a like a scared straight event to get me…us….back on course. Or…I’m getting back on the bus.

Hello

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk

It’s been a week after hosting our garage sale. Almost a week after our camping trip followed by a day long adventure in LegoLand, Carlsbad. Elizabeth and I visited more than 10 garage sales this morning. Aimless shopping. The only aim really is spending time with my daughter. Sharing tips on seeking bargains, boys, Jonas Brothers, friends, school, and why her brother is a pest.

On one of our last stops, she found a small roll of police barricade tape. The woman simply gave the tape to Elizabeth. She plans to use it on her door hoping to send a message to her little brother. We spent less than 20 dollars spending more on her brother buying him a Bushnell telescope and tripod for $2.00 and a Jr. Nike golf bag filled with lefty golf clubs for $5.00. Ben does not golf, but his buddy Ian does.

It’s around noon and we are staying close to home today. School begins next week. We start the family Fall schedule on Tuesday. Today is homestead laundry day followed by a DIY lawn mowing. I’m going to grab a bite to eat now and simply wanted to say hello. So, Hello.

Garage Sailing Lessons

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk

After many months of talking about it, planning a weekend for it, and gathering stuff for it, we had a garage sale today. The kids were very excited. To be honest, I was worried that the kids had their expectations set too high. Elizabeth had purged her room from Barbie dolls and books. She is growing up and has a passion for her Nintendo DS (which we bought two weeks ago at a garage sale). She had boxes and boxes of stuffed animals, books, and dolls. Benjamin had a blankets worth of toys that he had grown out of.

It was a lot of work with the signs, the stickers, placing an ad on Craiglist, getting change from the bank, and checking tips on hosting a garage sale. Ideally we should have snowballed any money earned. We never talked about that. Both Jen and I knew that we were most interested in purging stuff and pricing it to SELL. Any money earned would be used towards a three day camping trip planned for the following….three days.

We awoke at 5:30 and started setting up at 6:00 a.m. We had a ton of stuff. We had a morning rush of buyers with a short break followed by another rush followed by a short break. This pattern went on until 10:00 a.m. We placed a 1/2 price sign out and kept busy until noon. We closed up shop by 1:00 p.m. Jennifer and I earned $120.00. Elizabeth earned $61.00 and gave me $5.00…more on that in a bit. My son earned $24.00. Yes….we earned the money because it was work! I must have demonstrated a hand-held Oreck vacuum cleaner five times before the last person bought it.

So Elizabeth owed me $5.00 from the Nintendo DS that I bought her at another garage sale. She and I are early rising folk on Saturday mornings. I take her sailing a couple of times a month in the summer. Garage Sailing that is. We hit the road with a few dollars following signs around town. These are the moments that we get to chat about her life.

She had been saving for a Nintendo DS. We started a 401DAD plan where I agreed to match her funds if she saved 1/2 of the cost of a new unit. That was until we stumbled upon a used system. It was black and looked well cared for. I bought it for $40.00 which included 7 games. She was excited, but the 410DAD plan did not apply to used purchases.

Later that day we took the seven games that appealed to the prior owner, a young boy, to GameStop. Elizabeth was given $61.00 in store credit. She gave me $20.00 in store credit which I gave right back to her. She owed me $20.00 for the balance of the DS. She bought two games and was the happiest 10 year-old girl on the block. She still owed me $20.00. It bugged her. She did not like the feeling of being in debt. Wow!

She worked off her debt with me down to $5.00. This morning she earned $7.00 early at our garage sale. She kept $2.00 and gave me $5.00. The very best part about it was watching her reaction when she told me that she was debt free! My 10 year-old was debt free. The very worst part about it was soon after, we talked about debt and she asked me why her mother and I were not debt free. Ouch. I should have taken that teaching moment to talk about debt. I did not. I did not know what to say. She was right. She knows were are working on it. She knows that is our goal.

She went on to earn another $56.00. Her mother took her over to GameStop where she bought another DS game. She was maybe $2.00 short of the amount needed for a second game. She could have, but did not ask her mother for the balance to meet what she needed. She did not want to go back into debt. She kept the money.

I am beat. It’s 7:35 p.m. I worked in the sun all day. We had fun. When it was over, we pulled out the camping chairs and sat in the shade out front of the house. We talked. We shared disbelief over what we had been able to get rid of at rock bottom prices. We sold stuff and spent time together as a family and met some great local folk. I learned yet another lesson in debt….from my daughter. I hope it sticks with her. It will with me.

Mobil Money

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk

Jen and I use a gas card to purchase well…..gas. It’s one bill that is paid off each month. Before discovering Dave Ramsey we paid more than the minimum, but always carried a balance. The debt rose to $3,000.00 or more….so we paid it off and simply purchase and pay the end of the money.

We received a jaw dropping letter from the card carrier today. It was a check for $1,200.00! We were invited to deposit the check to use anywhere we wanted. The card company would process a $60.00 check fee and the $1,260.00 would be added to our account. Sorry. No thanks! We buy gas and nothing but gas. Thanks, but we don’t need an added $1,260.00 at +21% interest.

The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.

Summer is coming to a close. I have one week of work and then 10 days off with the family. Once that is over, I head back to work, Jen heads back to class, and the kids back to school. This summer has been what it has been. It started with the passing of my mother-in-law. We slipped away from medium core debt reduction to the same old grooves that we had before Ramsey…but a funny thing happened.

The core values remained core values. We ate out, but remembered and were convicted that the only time we should see if the inside of a restaurant is if we work in one. We don’t. A core value is know what your owe to say no to more debt. A saying I have heard and often use in my local church community is the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. What’s your main thing?

Both Jen and I welcome the Fall. She had the summer off from work with the kids. She would seek another three months off, but we both agree that the next nine months bring routine. School. Homework. Rest. Ramsey.

Ways in which we spend to celebrate

A cause for celebration

A couple of things happened this week in the family which called for a celebration. Both of which lead to spending. This triggered a thought about the ways in which we spend to celebrate. You see school ended recently. My wife teaches 2nd grade in public education. On her last day of school, we celebrated. How? We went out to dinner.

Admission: We’re foodies

Now I like going out to eat as much as the next guy. We are foodies. We admit it. If you have ever met us, you would not even have to ask. We like to chow. The problem is, I don’t have the culinary knowledge to whip anything up other than the 6 or so dishes that I have rotated in and out of the menu for years. So…we celebrated the end of the school year for Jen and the kids by going out. As we have done, you can schedule going out into your budget. We did that, but it doesn’t take much for us to break the budget to have someone else serve us dinner. At a cost of course.

Food less celebratory spending

The second cause to celebrate did not involve food. It was an achievement celebration. See the video attached.

The Flickr video is better quality than the YouTube video:

The second celebration was the day that my six-year-old son took the training wheels off of his bicycle and learned to ride two-wheeled. He took to riding without training wheels within minutes. I had tried to teach him months back, but he was not ready. This week he was ready. We celebrated with a trip to the bike shop. Ben’s bicycle did not have a kick stand. His bike was held up with the training wheels that he ceremonially threw away at the park where he learned to ride. So off we went to the bike shop. A couple of impulse buys there not including the kick stand and we walked away spending $64.00.

This week I recognized celebratory triggers for my spending. Who wouldn’t want to treat their family members to celebrations? No one. Go ahead and celebrate! Just grab the mile-high view the next time you celebrate and recognize if it is an excuse to spend outside of your budget.

This not so cool house

This not so cool house

Of course the air conditioner in the house is on the fritz. Just a day after asking an a/c friend how his side jobs were going. Looks like we need to ask him for a visit to figure out why the unit is dripping water and the platform is damp and what in the heck is that intermittent noise. Awe heck, I just unplugged the thing and pulled out the fans from storage.

We are on a level pay plan with the electric company. We pay over $300.00 a month in electricity alone. We have paid the bill entirely in the past several months when not paid by my mother-in-law. I have been shutting this and that off when not in use. I can’t blame the kids entirely. I still however; cannot understand why my son needs the light on when taking a bath in the late morning.

We have a large home and I am constantly turning off lights and replacing them with high efficiency long lasting bulbs. We do have two refrigerators and a separate freezer. We should get more in tune with using only one of them more wisely and unplugging the other. The stand alone freezer has aged ice cubes and old ice cream. Maybe it’s time to unplug that as well. The more I type, the more ideas I have for saving electricity and the slower I type because of all of these ideas. Must save electricity.

I wonder if we can get by without the a/c after all…….naaa. Bummer, looks like the emergency fund will need to get tapped. The good news is that we should not have to use credit to get that cool house we once enjoyed.

Snowball Receipt

Snowball receipt

June gloom

Jen’s mother

June gloom. I have an admission. We had June gloom. The bills are current. The budget is not. I may have shared that Jen’s mother had been ill for several months. Backing up a bit, we moved in to care for her mother nine years ago when Jen’s father passed away. Her mother had hip replacement surgery a year or more before her husband died. She had been unable to walk up the stairs of her two story home for a couple of years. Jennifer and I were in a small 2-bedroom condo across town raising a toddler. Soon after Jen’s father passed away, we moved in with her mother. We cared for her. She cared for us. Earlier this month on her 78th birthday, Jen’s mother passed away after a long slow battle of several different ailments including dementia. Although she had been in managed care facilities since October 2007, we miss her.

Losing it

Gloom. Our minds were busy. Hearts were and still are heavy. We crept back to losing some steam of the debt end journey. Forgotten were the staples that kept us on course. An example would be as Dave Ramsey would say, “On baby-step #1, the only time that you should see the inside of a restaurant, is if you work in one.” We ate out a bit. Comfort food and all. Our church family really stepped up and were a great source of encouragement. We received MANY cards, telephone calls, and dinner delivered to the house. We had just lost it.

Summer savings

The gloom less news was that we met the goal of saving three months of salary for Jennifer to cover her salary this summer from teaching. Unlike most conventional public school teachers who spread their salary across the entire year, Jennifer is paid only 9 months of the 12. Our goal was to save at least $10,000.00. We met the goal only with the tax return and irregular savings of $1,100.00 a month. This would be less than her take home amount each month, so the double savings is on. We have to budget for less income from her salary, plus continuing on with the budget developed from our financial fitness class taken last March.

Getting ‘Chased” by Disney

We have skipped renewal of the family annual passes for Disneyland. Each year prior to March of 2008, the four of us had annual passes for as far back as I can remember. We would spend upwards of $600.00 a year on passes. One year we bought four unlimited passes which were over $300.00 each. Of course we could not really afford this, so we opened a Disney Chase Visa to pay for the passes. We fooled ourselves into thinking that we would use that Visa card only on Disney purchases. We racked up $4,500.00 on it and then CONsolidated it into a CONsolidation loan. So 18 months ago the card was not closed and I have since spent another $2,300.00 on non-Disney related purchases including the Wii.

The good news is that the Disney Visa is next in line to be roll into the debt snowball. The emphasis on CON is mine. I have since learned that consolidaing debt without addressing the spending issue sans budget, is asking for trouble. We have two such loans to which make up 2 of the 6 debts listed in our snowball debt list. They are numbers 3 and 5 on the list.

Memorial service

This coming Friday is the memorial service for Jen’s mother. Until then, I have been watching out for my wife through the grief process. She has not gone into crazy spending mode. She never really has. Ever. Unlike me who is the one that finds comfort in buying, she does not. Thank you soooo much God! We are doing ok aside from that. When a family member passes on, you hear the same heart felt question. It goes something like this. “So, how are you doing?”. I have been answering honestly with, “Better than we deserve.” God gives you peace that passes understanding. If you have peace and cannot understand why, perhaps that’s God’s gift for your soul.

Right now

We have guests over right now. The girls are in the ice cold Jacuzzi. The boys are playing video games. The women are at the kitchen table learning something called a Cricut Machine. I’m once again checking in with you about our debt end journey. So how ‘ya doing?

Her pressure. My pleasure.

Her Pressure. My Pleasure.

Taking stock today about personal finance, I was reminded about something that my wife said. She told our Financial Fitness class that she did not feel the pressure of handing the finances that she once felt because I was working with her on the financial responsibility.

My wife took the responsibility of paying the bills. She held the checkbook. She was the one who later wanted to try online banking. I was resistant to online banking even being the family technogeek. I was the one who set the account up, but I would not log on to see the status of the money. I actually had forgotten the user name and password and had to ask her for it.

Prior to our recent debt free journey, I would sit with her while she would go over the bills and input those who she would pay by debit from the checking account. She knew that I had little to no knowledge of how much money was left. This led to my ignorant ability to believe that I could buy now and pay later. What damage could another “small” payment of $10.00 a month do? We could afford that. Right? The problem was not out of control spending, but I would open an account and spend a little thinking I could pay it off.

I did this with computers and clothing. I still use each item and get much use out of them. An example is my 3-year-old Dell computer. It still works great. It has a 15″ flat panel monitor. It runs WinXP Home. It is perfect…..for my daughter who now uses it. I of course bought a Vista ready Dell computer. It was a steal at $299.00 and another $100.00 spent in upgrading the RAM on my own. Dell is the snowball that we are rolling to paying off very soon. It has the smallest balance of the five debts that we have listed. The car being the largest debt.

Aside from the clothes, my family would benefit from what I would spend. That is another lie that I would tell myself. They would benefit more from debt freedom and saving to buy versus what I was doing. Once my wife saw that I had broken the cycle and admitted this to her and myself, she felt the relief that she was not in this battle against money alone. She had the pressure. I had the pleasure.

My advice to those starting out on the path to debt freedom is that you have to work together. Your mate is not your enemy. Work together. Admit mistakes to one another. Pinkie swear and spit shake on the budget that you create. Sign the budgets that you agree to. When you make a new budget, don’t throw the old budget away. Post it in your home where the two of you can see it, but family and friends cannot see it. Unless you need that level of accountability. Then, start your own PF blog and share your mistakes.