The Ware's Get Out of Debt

Little Money Mircales

2011-05-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Lord has certainly provided for us over the duration of our marriage and ultimately, our lives. As of late, the money has been in a little tight in part the to the amount coming in (though we have plenty of work...it is the timing of finishing the work with invoices coming in and bill due dates) and some of the choices I have made (this is probably a bigger culprit). Regardless, the Lord is faithful and about 2 weeks ago, I experienced a cool little money miracle.

2 weeks ago, we celebrated Ethan's birthday. We were in the middle of a pay cycle and I had no money. I'd previously invited our family over to celebrate Ethan's birthday on Sunday with pizza and cake. The whole week I was so stressed out trying to figure out how I was going to pay for the pizza.

Several weeks prior, we had a handy man come out to fix our faucet. In January, our faucet broke and I bought another from Lowes. Jeremiah spent hours trying to get the first faucet to work and decided the faucet was defective. So, I went back to Lowes and got a different faucet, same model. Brought it home, put it on and still, the water pressure was low. We figured it must be something in our pipes. It took us until the end of April to finally get a handyman out to look at in because we didn't want to spend the money to pay someone else to review the situation. The handyman also spent more time than he should have and decided that the second faucet was defective! Are you kidding me? Bummer. We figured it was just an $80 loss we'd have to take as I didn't have the box for the faucet and didn't think I had the receipt.

2 weeks ago, in the middle of my money stress, I happened upon the receipt for both of the old faucets while I was putting the receipt away for the new faucet. I generally save all the receipts. I don't know why I didn't look for it before...oh, wait, yes I do...my guess is that the Lord knew I would need the money for Ethan's birthday weekend and somehow, it conveniently slipped my mind till then. God is so good! But, wait...the story gets better....

When I went to Lowes to return the second defective faucet, I knew the purchase had been made on the business credit card (house repair/office repair). Again, I figured the refund would be put directly onto the card and I was fine with that as it would be helpful in the balance on the card. Sigh.

While giving my story to the clerk, she was completely nice and understanding. She reviewed the order, scanned the receipt and gave me back $85 in CASH! I almost cried. Maybe this is their standard procedure, however, coupled with my stress and prayer, I am certain this was from the Lord just for me to show me, once again, His amazing provision. $85 was just enough to allow me to by some groceries, birthday decorations and pizza!

Long Overdue Update

2011-05-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Geez-wiz! I can't believe it is already the middle of May. So, what are we up to?

March was a huge month of purchases for us: We bought a new dishwasher and a new mini-van. Well, it is new to us. We paid for both items in full with cash!

April was a month of family visiting from distant lands coupled with our wedding anniversary. For our anniversary, instead of going out...we opted to stay in with steak, crab legs and an assortment of dessert from Bashas' bakery. It was wonderful. I even received surprise flowers from my sweet husband and he enjoyed a gift as well.

Now we are in May. We continue to take cash out for our grocery and blow purchases, although we are giving a spin with putting gas on a card for the points earned with intention to pay it off every month. I have already scored a $100 Kohl's gift card. Hopefully, this will not be a snare and if it is, then I will have to relinquish the idea of getting "free" gift cards in the mail. As it is, I must confess, we have a small balance on the credit card. Jeremiah enrolled in business network, which has been awesome for him. With the dues (which are pretty nominal), lunches out with others and using all of our resources (save for our emergency fund) to buy the minivan, the credit card has been our tracking method for tax purposes...and has successfully grown a balance. Just being real...Boo! Lord willing, that will pay off in the next month and we will be back (finally) to paying down those pesky school loans.

If anyone out there is still checking in on our blog, we'd love to hear from you to learn how your quest for financial freedom is working out and anything else you might want to share.

Need cash?

2011-03-23T10:57:00.003-07:00

Sell something. A few days ago, I needed cash and realized I had a whole box of books left from graduate school that I had been holding on to on the off chance I just might need them. Well, I hadn't touched them in about 3 years and while they were all loved books...I decided it was time to let them go. I still have the titles stashed away. If I need them again, I can always re-purchase. Simple living is better living. Less is more. I took them to our local half-price books and sold them. Did I make as much on them as I would've liked? Absolutely not. Do I appreciate having cash in my pocket that I didn't have previously? Of course. And yes, my heart about crashed into my throat as I walked away from my beloved books.

With $17 extra dollars in my pocket, I just made a trip to Wal-mart to buy some additional organizational items to make my life easier. Living on a budget isn't just about telling your money where to go, it is about making your whole life easier! Financial freedom = Freedom all the way around.

Need cash? Go sell something today!

Need cash?

2011-03-23T10:57:00.001-07:00

Coupon Sense

2011-03-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

I recently re-joined Coupon Sense ($30/month in subscription to the site and newspapers). I tried it a couple of years ago and failed miserably. So, I gave up. A friend started the program and after seeing her grocery list of items that I totally would have bought, I decided I might as well give it a go one more time. Getting started is a bit of a learning curve and it has taken almost a whole month for me to really get the hang of it. Overall, I think it is going to be a long-run homerun for our family. On average, I have saved about 50%. It takes about 2 hours to get ready to shop in sifting through the site and cutting the coupons. In those two hours of work, however, I saved our family $97 today while spending only $27. Works for me!

Here is what I bought today:

Free items:

3 Dial Hand Soaps
Fry's toilet cleaner
Fry's aspirin
Fry's brand toothbrush
4 boxes Ronzoni Healthy Harvest pasta
4 boxes Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta
10 bottles of vitamin water
1 Pure Protein bar
3 bottles Frank's Hot sauce

Under 25 cents each:
2 packs Orbit Gum
1 Butterfinger snackerz

Under 50 cents each:
Kim and Scott's Soft Pretzels
Daninon Yogurt
Smart Balance Peanutbutter (they were out of this item, I had to get a raincheck)
Smart Balance cooking oil
Philidelphia Cream Cheese cooking sauce
2 packs Kraft Singles Cheese

Under $1:
Rizt Munchable rounds
2 boxes Post Cereal bars

Under $1.50:
Reynolds Aluminum foil (nonstick)
2 boxes Capri Suns
Annie's Salad Dressing
Kraft Salad Dressing
2 bottles of Lysol Wipes (they were actually out of this item, I had to get a raincheck)

For raincheck items, I bought other things I needed like Activia yogurt.

What makes it all worth it...is this great instructor I have ended up underneath who has a team that goes shopping at all the stores. On Thursdays, he posts his lists on the site along with the coupons that match so I just copy a lot of ideas from his list.

Change in Plans

2011-03-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading our blog for a while or read a lot of it recently, you know that the best thing about a plan is that is can always be changed. The 10 year plan is still in effect in the Ware family, however, it has become increasingly apparent that we need a bigger vehicle. Since we do not want a car payment, we've decide to push back paying school loans for just a little bit longer and save around $6k so we can get the vehicle outright and continue the trend of no car payments.

In August of 2006 we were on track to be free of car payments, then a mishap on the interstate landed us in an emotional fast track decision to getting a new car thus leading to two car payments. I don't want to be in that place again...feeling pressure to get a vehicle because we must have one right away and leading to several more years of car payments. If you've read any Dave Ramsey stuff...car payments are not a natural part of life. We don't have to have them to be able to drive a great car.

Anyway, we are anticipating a nice chunk of change from the Federal government, i.e., our tax return, within the next 24 hours. The new plan is to put the tax refund into savings straight away and come up with the rest ASAP, purchase our used-new car and get back on the path to pay those school loans.

Martha V. Mary

2011-02-10T13:55:00.001-08:00

I confess, I am definitely a Martha. Check Luke 10 for the reference. After finding myself in the midst of a "Martha" crisis over the past few days, reading my Bible and picking up the book, "A Mother's Heart" by Jean Fleming, I have resolved: I will chill out!

It is very difficult to change thought patterns. I tend to define my day by what needs to be done that doesn't necessarily need to be done. Things like cleaning the dishes, grading papers, dusting, making beds, making dinner, etc., tend to frame my definitions of femininity and what "mother" looks like. I've resolved to be more present with my kids. I see both of them modeling attitudes that are a bit repulsive and I can only guess that they are modeling me.

If the laundry doesn't get done...guess what? It doesn't get done. Let me tell you, though, I am only about a day into it and changing those thoughts is really tough. Only the Lord can help me, change me. I am learning that being patient of my own accord is not enough because when I try to be "patient" mommy all day long, by about 5pm, this mommy is a basket case of anger and frustration. Patience must develop as a fruit of the Spirit that can only come from Him. I look so forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do in my life. I don't want to look back with regret.

Guess what? Again, I surrender.

Back in the Saddle

2011-02-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

After almost a year's break from making BIG payments...we are back in the saddle. I just made a $500 payment on Jeremiah's school loan bringing it to $7343.67. Let's see how fast we can make that go down to $0. Stay tuned...

Health Savings Account

2011-02-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

We have a health savings account (HSA). For the most part, I am really pleased with it. We have a high deductible ($5000), but our well visits are covered in full, we are able to save for medical expenses to grow tax free and our monthly payment is SUPER low ($293 for a family of 4). Our sick visits aren't covered. That stinks! Silver lining, though, is that I have become more aware of the crazy additional charges marked by doctors and since we are saving for expenses on a monthly basis, I feel some freedom in being able to go for a sick visit when needed.

Do any of our readers have an HSA? If so, what do you think about it? Any tips?

Along the lines of our HSA savings is the idea of saving for big expenses on an annual basis. We recently revised our annual savings so we are putting $280/month away to save for various items like car insurance, registration, life insurance, home appliances, etc. Saving like this is such a big help to avoid big budget busters that deplete your emergency fund or worse...make you take out a credit card (shriek!). If you aren't saving...do it! Make it a priority!

The Budget Meeting

2011-01-30T17:56:00.000-08:00

Even though we have been doing a budget for over 7 years now, I still feel a bit of anxiety when we come together to go over the numbers. Just check out the above picture. The anxiety is rooted in the fact that Jeremiah makes most of the money and I largely organize it and, of course, spend it! He is more of a nerd than I am. I am much more free spirited because I enjoy the hunt and the purchase. My inner-nerd really only blossoms to see how much money I have available to spend.

I confess: This picture was staged and taken by our sweet daughter, Hannah. It is, however, how I felt like the meeting might go as we sat down in front of the numbers. Jeremiah asks a variety of questions and I humbly answer. I must say, "I love my husband!" He is so gracious and easy-going with me. Is he firm in his assertions on how we should do our finances? Yes. Does he hold me accountable? Yes. Does he trust me? Yes. I am so thankful for my life partner.

In a married relationship, it is important to remember that finances can be one of the more prominent dividing factors in the relationship. Sometimes it seems like a choice must be made to keep the money separate to keep the peace or put the money together and get no peace. The problem with both options is that peace really doesn't avail either way. From a Christian perspective, marriage equals one flesh. As money is a pervasive part of daily lives, it is hard for me to understand how keeping money separate (his money and her money) allows for a fulfillment of the one flesh relationship.

If you find yourself in a situation where money is an issue between you and your spouse...I strongly urge you to openly share with each other. Start your budget and get on the same page with your finances. Heck...take a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class. Trust me...I watched my parents struggle with money conversations and I have had plenty of experience conversing with my better half about money...you can do this. Start today and get a budget meeting under your belt.

New Year, New Plan

2011-01-19T18:25:00.000-08:00

Did you know that I like to plan? If you're new to our blog, you'll probably see a lot of these types of posts...about planning and budgeting. One of my favorite parts of 2011 so far has been a hot date with my sweet hubby at our favorite restaurant to revise our 10-year plan.

We made a 10 year plan about 5 years ago. As we were 5 years into the 10 year plan, it was time to sit down and dream again. We moved up some of the later goals and dreamed on some new goals. So. Much. Fun.

Dreaming for your life is imperative to creating and living the life you want. I believe that. During our visit, it was a great time to share our heart with each other, renew our commitment as life partners and create one crazy-ambitious plan. I'll post it here. Please be sure to keep asking how we're coming along on it and please keep us in your prayers. Submitting all our plans unto our Lord...Here it goes!

**Beginning 2011

Year 1: Have another baby, pay off school loans (19k), buy a new dishwasher (this dishwasher should have already occurred in 2010, however, we might have spent the money on a new TV and entertainment center. Oops!)

Year 2: Buy a new family car, fully fund the emergency fund, Build Sanctus Studio so we are not reliant on Jeremiah as worker bee

Year 3: Buy new family car #2, couples vacation to Napa, Bring Sanctus Studio to W2 business with employees and office location

Year 4: Have baby #4

Year 5: Establish summer home in KY

Year 6: Maintain Kim's employment without reliance on the income

Year 7: Disney Vacation

Year 8: Focus on paying off house

Year 9: Focus on paying off house

Year 10: Pay off house and buy a bigger house

Deal of the Day

2011-01-05T05:53:00.001-08:00

This actually happened last Tuesday, but I am still over the moon about it.

I went to Kohl's on a quick hunt for new shoes for my Ethan-man. I put his shoes on him that morning and he responded with, "Ow!" At that point, I realized that his poor little toes were scrunched up to the top. So, of course, what does any good mother do? She races out to buy some new shoes.

While at Kohl's I found some super cute Carter's white sneakers that light up on the sides for $22. I had a $25 gift card that was supposed to be used for me, but I figured it would be alright to use it on Ethan since I didn't feel like making the rounds to all the stores to find a less expensive pair. I happened to look over to the clearance section and saw the exact same pair of shoes a size larger marked down to $11.99. This was the only pair marked at this price. So, I took them both to the register to see what the deal was.

This is where is gets good: I asked the cashier if I could get the smaller size at the clearance price and she agreed. When she rang up the clearanced box, however, it rang up at $2.99. For real? I said, "Uhm. Could I buy them both for that price?" Without hesitation, the clerk agreed!

Deal of the day: I bought 2 pairs of Carter's light up sporty sneakers for $6.54! I saved $54! And, we are good to go for shoes until at least the middle of summer (I hope).

Woot! Woot!

Over. The. Moon.

Again, my friends, this demonstrates the power of asking. Just ask, you never know what you might deal.

Christmas Prep

2010-12-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas! It has been my favorite time of year since I was a young, young girl. This year, however, for the very first time I understand why for some moms, this season is not the best time of year. Christmas preparations coupled with young children can make one feel a bit frazzled. Can I get an "Amen"?

We have 2 little kids. Ages 4 and 19 months. I pray that our family will grow and this means that my Christmas stress for the next several years will likely increase. You see, little kids want all of your attention all of the time. It doesn't matter if you have 1 kid or a gazillion. Regardless, at least 1 is going to want everything you might have to offer whenever there is a second to offer it. Such as been the case for me this morning and every day of my life since the wee ones were born. I love them so much and loving them means that this mama must organize herself in such a way as to meet my holiday dreams and stay sane at the same time.

And of course, this ultimately means organizing my money/spending. Our daily lives are fueled by monetary transactions from the time we wake and flip on our lights. This year I did well by buying many of the Christmas presents in advance and have thought of some additional ideas for the next year to make this holiday season less stressful.

First, this year I am getting a hold of a big bin and every time I see something on clearance that might be a gift candidate for someone, I am going to buy it and put it in the bin. I am thinking $5 or less. I bought in advance this year for specific people. In 2011, I am going to buy throughout the year and designate them out in November. Some might have a problem with this idea because it seems like I am not thinking each person for their specific gifts as I buy them. In retort, I will think about each person when I decide who gets which gift. It will be a well-thought process of designation, I assure you.

Second, I am going to enforce the 3 gift or less rule for each family member from each family member. We have so many gifts under our tree and being one who likes to keep her home simple...our playroom and closets are about to get a burst of items that will need to be cleaned, washed, sorted, picked up, etc., etc. Ba-hum-bug? Maybe just a tad. Please don't confuse this for being ungrateful. I am very grateful for all of our Christmas gifts and I am excited to see the faces of others as they open theirs. If you read our blog for a while...you know I like to shop! In the gift buying, I just feel concerned that we are missing out on the beauty of what we are celebrating: The Birth of Our Savior!

Third, I want to pull back and focus on the reason for this season. I want my heart to be light, full of rest and relaxation in pursuit of walking with Jesus. Easier said than done, I know. Remember the story of Martha and Mary? How many times I walk through my day and realize how closely I resemble Martha. This season and today, I want to be Mary.

"Lord, let me rest at your feet and learn from you. We make your birth so complicated with all the 'must-do' items. Allow me to be selective in my time this week. I want more of you. Please fill me up."

Thanksgiving Blessings

2010-12-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was full of blessings. There was a span of about 15 minutes, however, in which I received 3 distinct blessings.

The budget has been pretty tight here since October or so. Over Thanksgiving my parents came to visit. We had a wonderful time with them and of course, they showered me with love in so many different ways. I love them so much! During their visit, we elected to go to the mall one day for lunch and to walk around a bit. This posed a bit of a conundrum for us as we were out of money. My parents assured me they would take care of it, but they had already given so much during their stay. I figured we would be as frugal as we could, but what I didn't realize was that it wouldn't be of our own volition.

While standing in line at Chick-fil-A, I decided to order a sandwich the fries and soda. I decided I would just share it with the kids. After we ordered, a woman came up to me completely out of the blue and said, "We got an extra sandwich. Do you want it? They won't take it back. " While she was trying to give me the sandwich an employee in Chick-fil-A was trying to tell her what she could do with the sandwich, but the lady was intent on giving me the sandwich. I accepted the sandwich. As I write, it is just now that I realize how we were completely surrounded by other people, but it was to my family and me that she wanted to give the sandwich. Blessing 1.

As I sat down to our table, my parents left to go get their food. Within this entire time, Hannah was asking (begging) to ride the carousel. The carousel is $3 to ride for one child. I have 2 children and no money. I told her it wasn't gonna happen this time. Again, completely random (or was it?), a stranger came up to me and said she had 2 extra tokens to the carousel. Did I want them? I accepted the tokens. Again, we were surrounded by people and children. This woman chose me out of the sea of people to give 2 tokens. Blessing 2.

When my parents came back to the table, I said, "You are not even going to believe what just happened to me." I revealed the entire story. My dad replied with, "God is good! God is good!" Blessing 3.

Our Lord is in the details and what feels like mundane action. He takes care of my family and me at every turn. I fail miserably on most days giving him even a quarter of the praise he deserves and yet, everyday, my life is full of amazing blessings. I praise the Lord for his faithfulness in my life.

Read the Fine Print

2010-11-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

About 6 months ago I signed up to participate in a dental discount program through our dental provider, Bright Now Dental. At signing, I was provided with 1 simple brochure about the program. From my understanding for a one time $25 fee my whole family would be able to get exams and x-rays free of charge with each 6 month visit, we would pay for our cleaning and additional services would be rendered at a 40% discount.

I went in for my 6 month check-up 2 weeks ago and the verbal communication about the program was significantly different. The office manager explained that the free exam and the x-rays were only for the first visit after signing up for the program. Hmmm. Really? I asked her if she could show that to me in writing. The big deal was that I had only budgeted to pay for my cleaning at $35. The office wanted to charge me $87. Big difference.

Together, the office manager and I went through the brochure. The verbal did not match the written. We went round and round until finally she was so flustered with me that she agreed that the written was unclear and she would allow me to pay what I had planned to pay for while waving the other fees for that morning.

I called to follow-up on the program 3 days ago because Jeremiah has an appointment this Monday and I needed to budget appropriately. The office manager explained the program to me again to state that the brochure was only an example of what a visit might look like. The program was indeed verbally different than what was written. I asked over and over if this was written anywhere. Is there a fee schedule I can see? Is there a disclosure statement? Are there terms and conditions I can read? Nope. Nope. Nope. The manager was very kind and I appreciated her patience with me. I was kind as well and we concluded with a thank you.

Still not satisfied, I wrote to Bright Now Dental via their "contact us" link on their website. By the way, the office manager would not provide me with any additional contact information for anyone who might be above her. In my comment I explained my situation.

Now let me clarify, I am happy to pay for the services. The issue for me is the verbal versus written communication and the fact that we are a budgeting family. I do not want to go in for my annual check-up in another 6 months and find that something else has changed. Also, I kind of felt like some false advertising had taken place. Even Jeremiah questioned my motives. He wondered if maybe I just misunderstood the brochure. He read the brochure over lunch and sure enough, I wasn't losing my mind or being irrational. Go figure!

Well, 2 days ago. Suzanne Harms, one of the head honchos of Bright Now Dental called me. She was very kind, asked what was going on and she AGREED with me. The brochure was unclear and vague...the writing DOES need to change. Elation filled my spirits. She offered to allow Jeremiah to come to his appointment this Monday and only pay for what we thought we were getting with the program. I agreed. She also offered me a refund for my visit. I declined as I had already only paid for what I had planned. She gave me her personal cell phone number. The most interesting part is that I am the first person to bring this to their attention.

I am still pretty happy about the outcome. I strongly encourage others to make sure you understand the terms and conditions of any program with which you enroll and in kindness, take action if the program does not proceed as you thought it would. Keep asking questions, be willing to be wrong and also, be willing to humbly be right.

"No" days & "Yes" days...

2010-11-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get so tired of always telling my daughter that she can't have different items when we go to the store. True, she generally wants everything she sees and I generally have to tell her, "No" because the money is otherwise budgeted or we just don't have it. Hannah and I have discussed several times that there are definite "no" days, but occasionally, there will be "yes" days. Today was such a day for a "yes".

We went to Wal-mart. Of course, she wanted just about every thing she saw. Upon leaving Wal-mart, we agreed that she could have a $.98 lip gloss and a girly lunch bag clearanced at $4. She had asked for this lunch bag since the middle of summer. As we left Wal-mart, she said to me, "Mommy, you are being such a good girl today! You're a great mom." Well, wouldn't you know? (Smile)

I often have to remind myself that I need to create situations for saying, "Yes" since I am usually inclined to say, "No." It is important to have the cash available to do so and make sure I am in the proper mental mindset. If I am stressed, she will more than likely end up with a lot of stuff she doesn't need and I will more than likely end up with buyer's remorse. So, calm waters are key "yes" days.

Likewise, it is important to be mindful of "no" days. Some days I do not go shopping with my darling first born to avoid the brawl of "want" and some days I take her along to teach her the enjoyment and discipline of looking without buying. I know she is still little, but consistency is key. I truly believe the idea that much of the way we are parented is caught and not taught. I just hope I am setting a good enough example. Lord knows, mama likes to shop and purchase!

New Habits

2010-10-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I went to a MOMS meeting at Spring of Life Christian Church to listen to Charlotte Steill, a professional organizer, talk about...organizing. She provided a lot of interesting information and sent me into this month long quest of organization. Charlotte Steill use an organizational triangle of habits, products and systems. (See, I took good notes. You really should check out her website, though, if this grabs you.

Her first nugget of wisdom: When organizing, go into the room and take everything out of it.

I have gone through just about every room in the house and purged A LOT in the name of definition and de-cluttering. Just ask my husband. He laments a bit, but mostly cheers on the streamlining of our home. Makes me happy! There is still 1 closet to do and 1 room: The linen closet (which won't take much time) and the kitchen (which will most likely take an entire day).

Second nugget of wisdom that really works for me: Developing habits and systems to make my life more efficient and effective are worth it.

I feel completely stressed when I walk into a cluttered and chaotic house. For this reason, I am compelled to live with less. The less there is to keep up with, the easier it is to keep up with. Purge. Purge. Purge. I've told my husband and the kids, "If you can't find it and I don't know where it is, we probably don't have it anymore."

There are 2 habits/systems that have really paid off over the past few weeks. (Sorry, Charlotte, if you ever read this...I get habits and systems confused, so I cannot differentiate between them well here).

Habit 1: Run the dishwasher every night, regardless if "one more" dish could fit in there in the morning.

A dirty kitchen absolutely drives me bonkers. I can't work unless the kitchen is clean. Ok. I could probably work, but it would drive me b.o.n.k.e.r.s....bonkers. Running the dishwasher every night means, generally, the dishes are emptied in the morning and I can systematically put dishes in the dishwasher during the day without watching dirty and clean dishes pile up.

Habit 2: Fill the gas take to full every Saturday.

Filling the gas tank doesn't have much to do with home organization, per se. It is just a new habit that I really like. Since we pay for gas with cash, we always just put $20 in at a time so we wouldn't have to deal with the change. The outcome was filling the tank more than once a week. With little kids and using cash instead of a debit/credit card...it is a real pain. This brings me to a 3rd habit.

Habit 3: Envelope Resurrection

I'd gotten pretty laxed about envelopes and consequently had money spilling from one fund into another fund all in the name of shopping for my "needs". Ha. Ha. Now that I have the envelopes up and running well, keeping the change from the gas isn't that big of deal.

So, there you have it. New and improved habits for the Ware family. All in a day's work, huh?

Budgeting

2010-10-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, I gave a talk at my MOMS meeting about life planning and financial planning. Among my discussion was the importance of budgeting. Jeremiah and I have been on a budget since before we got married, so it has become a real part of our lifestyle. It is hard for me to imagine living without a budget. After my talk and listening to the discussion amongst the ladies, I realized how much budgeting is really not necessarily part of everyone's lifestyle and how many questions there are about the whole process. What it really boils down to, from my perception, is that people make budgeting a lot more difficult than what it needs to be. This is logical, however, because money in itself is a very complex issue. If you are one of those who isn't living on a budget and you want to be OR if your budget just isn't working, please feel free to contact us. We aren't official financial advisors, by any means, but we'll be happy to sit down with you to sift through your stuff and help you put together your big picture.

As a side, we will be doing a 3 week mini series at our church start November 17th and we are slated to do a full 13 week Ramsey course, Financial Peace Univeristy, in the new year.

Where are the Ware's?

2010-10-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

It has been over a month since I last wrote and longer since I wrote something meaningful. So, here goes. Where are the Ware's today? If you asked us that question earlier today, I probably would have told you that I was about to run away. In a word or two...we are stressed. We're working REALLY hard. In the midst of some life changes AKA my mom moved across the country, I find that old habits die hard. Habit #1...when I am stressed or lonely, I spend money. I try to find countless ways to improve my life on my own and that generally means the spending of money on food, hobbies or assets. This time...it was on that entertainment center and 47 inch flat screen TV we'd been dreaming of for some time. I feel terribly guilty in saying that we have a little bit of debt to pay off in the next 4 weeks or so. I don't think we bit off more than we can chew and it will get paid off quickly...but, suffice it to say...I am weak right now. I'm human and I messed up just a little. I am totally responsible for my actions and I MISS MY MOM. The TV is pretty sweet, though, just saying.

Ok...I am done whining.

In other events, we really are continuing to bust it! Our company is thriving. At the top of our whiteboard I wrote the verse, "May the favor of the Lord rest upon us; establish the work of our hands- yes, establish the work of our hands." Psalm 90:17. Following that is "Committ to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3. God has been so faithful. As we find ourselves in the midst of more work that we can really handle, growing pains are definitely being felt as we are seriously considering how we can get it all done, how we might build some form of residual income and how we can perserve our family life in the midst of it. I think we are doing a pretty good job, but that is really because of the Lord's grace. I tell you...if we weren't praying together and separately (among other lifestyle habits), I think we would be feeling some serious spiritual and emotional struggle.

Of course, God has been in the little things as well...like the $140 credit I had no idea I had at my doctor, the sudden decrease in the cost of Jeremiah's cholesterol medicine and the ability to stretch Hannah's preschool payments out through May to reduce the overall monthly payment.

We have yet to make real progess on our emergency fund or the school loans...we will, though. Soon. Stay tuned...Hopefully, more posts will follow sooner than later.

Babysitters

2010-09-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

We are looking towards securing a teenage babysitter to sit for us on occassion. The kicker is that I am really not sure what to pay, I really don't want to pay anything and I want to make sure I pay decently so as not to offend or make her not want to sit for us anymore. What is reasonable? Minimum wage?

I think it is really important to couples to find moments for themselves. These moments can come in the form of time together when the kids go to bed or when they are otherwise engaged. Along with these though, you need to get out and go for a date! Do some of the cool stuff you did before you got married and definitely before you had kids. Courting matters (at least I think so)!

With that said, a couple kind of needs to budget for these outings, which means we need to add to our budget or take from something else in our budget to make this babysitting thing fly. This could be viewed as a real killjoy because it doesn't seem that romantic to "budget" for a date. I am choosing, however, to look at as premeditated romance and a signal that I care about my relationship with my spouse. Works for me! How about you?

How I Realized the Importance of Intentional Planning

2010-08-27T08:14:00.001-07:00

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed." ~Proverbs 16:3

When I was pregnant with Hannah I called into a radio station to talk to Dr. Randy Carlson. He is a counselor on Family Life Radio and runs a program every afternoon where people call in with various questions. At the time, I was really struggling with how we were going to have a baby and maintain our finances. I was working at ASU as a graduate student and we were pretty dependent on my income. My heart's desire was to be a stay-at-home mom, but I didn't know how on earth we were going to make that happen, especially since I had just spent the past 2 years of my life working on a degree. So, I called Dr. Randy with my struggle.

Dr. Randy Carlson encouraged me to close my eyes and think about how I envisioned my life in 5 years and again in 10 years. What did I really want? Where did I see our family? Then, after figuring that out, I needed to make a plan to get there. I shared this with Jeremiah and on short trip to Yuma, AZ to visit my grandparents we began to really plan our lives.

Some of the best conversations happen in the car on the open road. We had about 3 hours together with my rather large baby bump. The conversation was full of dreaming and some contention. We dreamed about where we wanted to live, our children and of course, our livelihood. Jeremiah punctuated his desire to start his own business within the following 5 years and I underlined my determination to be a stay-at-home mom. I didn't see how we would possibly even think about owning our own business and raise a young family while keep our heads (and our marriage) above the water. We didn't write down our plans at this point, but we sure prayed and kept our ears and eyes open. The outcome was the blessing of my job at Rio Salado. I still had to work at ASU after Hannah was born for one semester. Thankfully, my grandma graciously offered to watch her for free on the mornings I was away and I was able to transition from working at ASU to Rio Salado with few glitches. I am working from home now while the kids nap or are otherwise engaged AND I am a stay-at-home mom. God is good!

Fast forward a couple of years to January 2008. At this juncture, we moved on from verbal agreement to actually writing our plan down and posting it on the refrigerator. Among these plans were starting Jeremiah's business. The key word is "start". If you would have told me in 2006 or 2008 that we would be have our own business with complete self-employment for Jeremiah by 2010, I would have laughed in your face! I was filled with trepidations about the whole thing, but I still kept myself open to walking with the Lord, doing the work that we could do and through petition allowing Him to work. It was a HUGE leap when Jeremiah approached his former employer with his plan for Sanctus Studio and eventually resigned from his full time position. HUGE! The only thing that would have stopped us was fear and fear is not from the Lord. Living in fear is not a way to live. Anyway, it has been within these past couple of months that I have really come to appreciate the action of purposeful and intentional planning.

Intentional planning is about creating a goal for your life. We should not just try to achieve the goal, we should stride toward it with everything we have. In the everything, for us, is the Lord. He has been so faithful in his sovereignty, kind, correcting and forgiving when we make mistakes as well as generous with his mercy and love. What a friend we have in Jesus!

I am confident that we will continue to plan for the rest of our married life. It really is a simple process and the list should be simple. Don't write down every little thing you can possibly think of so that you become overwhelmed, but consider what matters most to you. Look for the little and big ticket items that will be meaningful. Remember that plans can always be re-evaluated. Here is our plan as we had into year 5 of our 10 year plan:

5 year plan
Get out of debt aside from the mortgage
Decide where we want to live for the majority of raising our kids
Be settled

10 year plan
Year 6/7: Begin paying off mortgage
Year 6/7: Decide about having more kids
Take a fun family vacation (possibly overseas)
Run another marathon

A Handy Husband

2010-08-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

OK. So, I have said this already to a few people, but I thought I would write it down so that everyone could read it. Praise the LORD for a handy husband!

When I was dreaming of my husband as a little girl and then crafting my desires for my husband as I got into high school and college, I never thought to put "handy" on my list. It didn't dawn on me that I might want my husband to be one who could fix a toilet, replace a flat tire, install a ceiling fan, etc. I guess maybe I just hadn't had enough life experience to know that I would want a handy attribute to his make-up. Well, thank the Lord I got Jeremiah. He is very handy! I am so glad that when things break in our house or I get an idea for something I am not equipped to do...my husband can most likely do it or find a way to get it done.This meets financial needs, of course, because the fact that he is handy saves us a lot of dollars in maintenance for various items.

I have a fantastic husband and he serves me daily in my needs and taking care of what I cannot do. Thanks, babe!

Remember the Sabbath Day...

2010-08-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

...and keep it holy.

About a week or so ago, Jeremiah and I had separate convictions about the Sabbath Day. For me, I was reading to Hannah out of her story Bible before bed. As we always do, she picks out the story she wants to read based on the pictures. On that night, we read story of how God gave Moses the ten commandments. As Hannah and I scrolled through them, the commandment about remembering the Sabbath day stuck out to me. I considered it for a few minutes and then the night time routine progressed.

The next morning, while we were running Jeremiah brought up that exact same commandment. Amazing. He talked about how our world might change if Christians did a better job remembering the Sabbath day (of course, he was including us in the mix). We talked about it for a while. His main point was how much our financial futures might be impacted if we simply didn't spend money on Sundays. What if we planned ahead and just stayed home? What if we didn't consume? Interesting. So, with that we have set out to be more mindful of how we use our time and our monetary resources on Sundays. I don't want to become rigid about it. Christ died so we might not live under the old laws, but still...remembering the Sabbath is a commandment. It is one of the big ten!

Anybody else have a take on this? I'd love to hear.

Budgeting

2010-08-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to pay day tomorrow and another opportunity to do our budget. I am not being sarcastic or joking. I feel like I really screwed up our budget the last two weeks and I am so ready for a chance to do it again. Budgeting is so important for me, especially the idea of budgeting every single penny. For some, this feels like a straight-jacket approach to finance. The trick is that you have to budget money for fun so you don't feel like you're in a straight-jacket. For us, the category is known as "blow". AKA money to blow on random stuff that comes up. When the money isn't budgeted, I tend to go on a bit of a spree and then I feel completely out of control!

Last pay period, we really did pretty well. We paid for the car repairs, paid a sort of large bill from a sub-contractor and managed to stay out of credit card debt (Thank you, Jesus). The problem is that we spent about $240 dollars extra in food and random stuff. I swear taking a vacation was SO MUCH FUN, but it really has taken us a full 2+ weeks to get on top of everything again.

So, as the checks come through tomorrow I resolve with the Lord's help and the Spirit's prompting to be a better manager of the money I hold in my hands.

As a side, I must give a huge shout-out to my hubster, who is having a banner pay-period for these last two weeks of work. He is doing so well and working so hard. I continue to be in awe of his drive to see our company blossom into something sustainable for the long haul.

Here is the cute guy now with the two other little cuties in my life, Hannah and Ethan:

Blessings. Blessings.

2010-08-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the LORD has been GOOD to us this week.

First, we submitted an invoice to a client that was not due until the end of the month. When we aren't expecting checks, going to check the mail does not carry the same amount of anticipation. So, when Jeremiah went to get the mail yesterday, I figured it would just be ads. To my wonderful surprise, the decently-sized check was in the mail just 5 days after we sent the invoice. Praise the Lord!

Second, our mortgage broker contacted us about 2 months ago about the possibilities of a refinance. Together, we concluded we wouldn't be able to touch the loan for 2 years since Jeremiah is newly self-employed. Out of the blue, our mortgage broker called this week and said, "You know what, if you're still employed, we could refinance." I told him to run the numbers and let me know. So, the broker contacted me today. We can refinance for a maximum of $1200 out of pocket from a 6% loan down to 4.75%.Sweet. The kicker is that we won't have a payment in September, therefore, we can use the currently allocated mortgage money for the payment to close the loan without changing our budget one penny. Super Sweet!

I am telling you...God is good and He is faithful. Try Him! You won't regret it!

Emergency Fund Withdrawal

2010-08-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

Thank the Lord we have an emergency fund. The bad news is that with the car repairs and the end-of-the-month bills, we had to make a withdrawal from the emergency fund. The good news is that we have an emergency fund! Praise the Lord for good planning. So, that brings our emergency fund to $1200 from $3k. (Cry with me...). Here is the plan to bring that fund up to the $9k-$12k we need for a fully funded emergency fund:

Starting in August, our budget is allocated to put at least $500 a month into the emergency fund. This was the minimum we had allocated to put on credit cards. Now that those are gone and have been gone since March 2010, we are back on the wagon to fully fund our emergency fund and pay off the schools loans (a little under $20k). With petition and thanksgiving, I am prayerful the Lord will continue to increase our income and manage it well. It ALL belongs to Him. May God have the glory for the riches (monetary and non-monetary) in our lives.

We'd love to hear more from our readers. How has God been blessing you this season?

A Week with Little Money

2010-07-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

This week has been a week of very little money. We haven't spent much because we didn't have much. I started this week with $8 and change in my wallet. On Monday, I spent $8.36 at the vegetable market. So, that was about it. Many thanks go out to my mama who took us to the pool this week and provided a lovely day out for our daughter today. A small check came through on Monday as well, which allowed us to go ahead and take our gas money out so Jeremiah could get to a meeting. We have splurged a little on the gas money to go out some today and purchase a little dessert.

That's it...just a little progress report.

Wheels turning...

2010-07-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

We just left a meeting in which an body of believers is trying to decide whether or not to: A) Assume more debt to stay afloat while trying to rally the troops or B) Take the default route, see what happens and try to rally the troops.

What would you do? What would Jesus do?

This situation is tricky with different, passionate arguments. The big picture, though, is that at some point, we must as a body of believers choose to get out of debt and live without debt. We must take this test of endurance to understand that the tortise wins and gazelle intensity is the only way to go (quoting Dave Ramsey).

The borrower is slave to the lender...why would we choose to live in slavery?

If your church is big and you have some debt...you are still enslaved to this world, some creditor calling your name. If your church is small and doesn't have debt, just think of how God could grow a small church into someting bigger! Work the baby steps. For a small sample of what this might look like, check out one of Jeremiah's previous blogs: http://thewaresgetoutofdebt.blogspot.com/2008/03/mini-motivation-babys-r-us.html

Tight. Tight. Tight.

2010-07-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

We had a budget committee meeting this afternoon. Members present were Jeremiah and Kim. Vague participants were Hannah, Ethan and CoCo (our female Pom). Wooly (our male Pom) has zero interest. Suffice it to say...We are tightening our belt. Back to beans and rice (mostly serious). August and beyond is back to very frugal living.

Details to come...

Car Repair...

2010-07-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

We took the Saturn in this morning to have a once over on it from our vacation. To the tune of $639 we will be getting repairs. That is with a 10% discount. We are also putting it on the business credit card to pay off in August. By the time this road trip draws to the final conclusion we should have a ton of points on that card. Sigh. Here's what I am thinking now:

1) I am glad to get the repairs done. Turns out there was one thing that really should have been done before we left...by the grace of GOD, it didn't harm us on vacation. The car is paid off and getting the repairs accomplished is less costly than buying a new car. We really need this car to last for at least the next 3-5 years.

2) We did away with our monthly savings for big items because we really didn't have any big items in our budget that required savings. In addition to the fact that I have a difficult time leaving that money alone when it isn't needed in the near future. I am thinking that maybe we should bring that aspect of our budget back. With a surprise $639 to come up with, it would have been nice to have some car maintenance savings. (Jeremiah...I know you have been saying this for years. Sometimes, I just have to learn on my own. Wink.) I was anticipating it would be more like a couple hundred, not over six hundred. So, maybe we should ear mark $50 for the car, $50 for appliances and possible start next year's vacation savings?

Any readers out there, what items do you save for? What items should you save for? Let's brainstorm.

Vacation Total

2010-07-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

We're back. We actually got back home a week ago, although it has taken a full week for us to recover and get back on a semi-routine schedule. I know everyone is just dying to know how vacation shook out for our finances. If you're remember our pre-trip expenses total was: $1375

While on our trip...

Gas/Car Maintenance: $514.05

Grocery: $326.17

Out-to-Eat: $208.13

Recreation: $198.07

Hotel (2 nights): $100

Total: $ 1347.42

GRAND TOTAL: $2722.42

AND it is all paid off!

We had an absolutely wonderful time on vacation. God truly blessed us in safety, fun and finances. With his blessing, we have been able to pay for our entire vacation and NOT touch the actual vacation money we had set aside in our emergency fund for vacation. That leaves us with 3k saved in the fund. As August approaches we are gearing up for an exciting time of filling the emergency fund to the brim and paying off our school loans. Stay tuned...

Plastic. Plastic. Plastic.

2010-07-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

And that's all I'm gonna say. Well, just a bit more...

We are putting vacation expenses on the business credit card to keep track of expenses since we can write-off the trip to KY and back (Jeremiah has clients there). We will pay the card in full with vacations savings when we get the bill. While we haven't gone overboard...it is very EASY to pull out that little sucker.

How much to prepare for a 5000 mile road trip?

2010-07-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well, if you own your own web-based business and you work for an online institution, then it is going to cost a little bit up front to get ready. Here is our list of pre-trip expenses:

Technology Needs:
GPS: $135 (TigerDirect.com)
Dual Screen DVD Player: $175 (Best Buy)
Verizon Broadband Modem: $225 (Best Buy)
Pre-paid month-to-month for broadband: $60 (Best Buy)
DC-AC converter: $13 (Woot.com special)

Technology Total: $605

Traveling Needs:
Vision check for J: $400 (included 2 pairs of glasses and the exam, Sears)
New Windshield: $200 (EKG Autoglass)
Car prep: $70 (Big O Tires)
Cooler and Food: $100

Traveling Total: $770

Grand Total: $1375

Wow! That is kinda a lot. I honestly didn't realize it was that much since we paid for it little by little. The good news is that the technology investment is truly an investment. We plan to do more traveling now that we can work on the road. And this trip was a good motivator to finally get Jeremiah to get his eyes checked (the man was quite limited in his vision...seriously couldn't see the TV sitting on the couch) and to get our window replaced in the Saturn. I have been driving with an ever increasing crack in the lower middle of the Saturn windshield since H was born, which would be about 4 years. Yikes!

In addition, to buy tickets for the 4 of us to go to one place, it would be at least $1000. We would arrive to the location more quickly, but we wouldn't have a car for transport for all of us once we arrived. Also, I did an itinerary to do this same trip, only flying and the trip was well over $1800 without rental car. Doing that itinerary is what cemented our decision to do a road trip. I might also mention that I am not a big fan of air travel.

I am saving the receipts from our gas and lodging for the trip, so I will post the actual traveling total when all is said and done. For now, I can definitely say, this trip has been a blast. So fun to be with our kids, seeing new sights and making memories that can't be bought.

Taking Care

2010-06-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

As I was washing up my recent produce purchase, I thought about how thankful I am for the Superstition Ranch Market. The market is a fruit and vegetable market about 2 miles from us and they have amazing prices on fresh produce. Part of our lifestyle includes eating A LOT of fruits and vegetables. We have our fair share of ice cream, bread and beverages (Kool-Aid included for the kids), but I always try to serve a fresh fruit or vegetable with our meals and make them available for snacking. Given this desire in our daily menu, if we didn't have the market, our grocery budget would be significantly higher or we wouldn't fine dine and we might possibly grow in our girth.

Being able to get out of debt is an exercise in self-control, which is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit. We must remember that these fruit do not come on their own, but are manifested in us by the Holy Spirit. When we turn our lives over to Jesus, He is able to produce good fruit in us. (See Galatians 5:22-25) Self-control is pervasive in daily living from getting out of debt to the choices we make with our bodies and how we use them, how HE uses them.

Another daily ritual of mine is to read my little flip over calendar from "The Power of a Praying Parent" text by Stormie Omartian. June 24th was: "Nearly everyone struggles somewhat in the area of proper body care. We do our children a disservice if we don't support them in prayer as well as guide and instruct them in healthy practices so that they don't end up miserable". Today, June 26th reads: "If your children are young, start praying for them to be attracted to healthful food and to desire to exercise and take good care of their bodies. If your children are older, begin right now to interceded on their behalf." You see, it is never too late and I certainly don't want my children to end up miserable (that word really got me). Never too late to take care of your body and never too late to get out debt.

So, I bring debt, food and health together to conclude that they are closely related and the way we model how we care for each of these impacts the little eyes watching, both children and others looking in. We are not perfect in our modeling of any of these. If we were, we wouldn't be human. Of course we slip now and again. Humbly and thankfully we remember:

"Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Spending LOTS of Money

2010-06-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

The past month I have spent more time in Best Buy than I have in my entire life! As we prepare for our 2 week road trip across the country, we have indulged in a variety of must-have-items to allow us to continue our work while we spend many hours on the road. Before we leave, I'll post the grand total. Our hope is, however, that these items will more than pay for themselves by affording us the opportunity to do more traveling with our children and maintain our livelihoods. We have always wanted to travel, but been hindered by work and finance.

Our spending spree continues by making sure that we have enough money to cover our expenses. We have a business credit card that we have used several times, but we are sure to pay-off the balance with each cycle. The reason we have used the card is to help us keep track of our expenses and we earn reward points. Not sure how Dave would feel about that, but I am pretty sure the people at Crown Financial are ok with it. Using a credit card is definitely not as painful as using cash and after our big trip, we will definitely not be using it as much (if at all). The spending freeze will come. For now, though, the money is going out of our pockets not to debt, but to items we never would have considered buying a few months ago when our credit card consumer debt loomed.

"Lord, help us not go back to that place and be disciplined in our money management."

Prayers are welcome for our trip, both in traveling mercies and money management.

$20 off just for asking!

2010-06-22T16:53:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we got the sale price on a dual screen portable DVD player at Best Buy though it was not on sale.

3 weeks ago we looked at Best Buy for a portable DVD player to take with us on our road trip across the country. While there, I found a player that was $159. I didn't realize that $159 was the sale price. So, I budgeted $175 to include tax. Last night we went to purchase the player and it was priced at $179. I was really confused and I swore it was $159. We spoke to the sales clerk and he instructed that it may have been on sale. I asked if we could get it for that price and he encouraged us to go to customer service. Off we went...straight to customer service.

The clerk at customer service looked it up and said that indeed it was on sale 3 weeks ago. I asked, "Is there any way we could get it at that price? We came here specifically tonight to buy it at $159." He thought for a moment and said, "Sure, why not?" Sweet!

And here it is:

Don't ever be afraid to ask for a bargain. You never know till you try.

What really matters.

2010-06-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

While I was in high school, there was a quiet and friendly janitor who suddenly passed by his own hands. Before his death, I saw him in the hallway while I was getting books from my locker before going home. His sudden death impacted me and I wrote about the details for a senior paper.

Recently, a pastor at our church suddenly passed in the same manner. Our Senior Pastor shared the sad news last Sunday at church with the entire congregation. I don't know the specific details, much like I didn't know the details of our high school janitor's passing. I also didn't know the pastor very well, if at all. Just in passing and allowing him to lead our worship for the past year and a half. Despite not "knowing" him, I am grieving.

Our blog focuses on getting out of debt. Our family chooses to get out of debt for 2 primary reasons. 1) We want to own our money - tell it where to go. We're tired of giving it to someone else, some entity or some thing that we have used up and for which are still paying. 2) We know that all we have comes from the Lord and we want to bring him glory through his blessings and we cannot do that when we are slaves to a lender. For instance, the pastor at our church leaves behind a wife and 2 children. With earnest desire, we want to help them. Jeremiah had a brilliant idea that if every church member gave $100...we might be able to pay-off their mortgage. Can you imagine having that kind of power if a whole church body is out of debt? Jeremiah wrote a "Motivation" series on this blog in 2008. You can check out one of the "mini-motivations" here. So, that is still the financial stuff. What goes beyond that? Now for a moment, I'd like to expand beyond the getting out of debt scenario to focus on what really matters.

I keep thinking of the "what-ifs". What if I would have written to him when he resigned? What if I would have asked more questions? I was afraid of disrespecting his privacy. What if...? What if...? What if...? The truth is that we can't live in the past. The pastor was living this time last week and now he is not. The truth is, though, that he is in heaven now. He is whole and He is healthy...but the life he left behind. This is the source of my grieving.

What really matters beyond getting out of debt, beyond money, beyond fortune, beyond all of the earthly treasures is that which persists: LOVE. When my sister got married, the pastor commented that it all comes down to love. When you know someone is about to pass, you let it all go and you focus on the caring, the cherishing, the forgiving, the loving and the LIVING. As I write various scriptures come to mind. One of them is 1Corinthians 13:

The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

And the chorus from "Because He Lives":

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because he lives!

I don't know what it was like to live the life of the janitor at my high school and I don't know what it was like to walk in the Pastor's shoes. The death experience brings the greatest challenges to my faith. It is overwhelming to me that our bodies hold the essence of who we are and that essence can be snuffed out. To be here one moment and gone the next. My mind longs to understand what is unseen. To engage in sense-making, I must cling to the hope I have in Jesus. I hope in Him because if I hope in anything else and I am wrong I will be separated from Him for eternity. And if I hope in Him and I am wrong, then none of the other options seem that bad to me. More so, I hope in Him because of His truth displayed historically through the Bible and other evidence. I hope in Him because of the miracles He has displayed in my life.

Life is precious and it is such a gift. To be here and gone the next has bittersweet consequences for the living and the dead. If you read this and feel irritated with my profession of faith, I encourage you to continue to search the crevices of religion and spiritually to find the Truth. I do not wish to engage in debate because in the end, everyone makes their own choice anyway.

Love is what really matters. Don't forget. Out of this tragedy, I am encouraged by my own volition to share that your life matters. Every single person is so important. Please know that you are loved.

To my high school janitor and to my worship pastor, Jason, you are loved...I will remember you.

Budget Organization

2010-06-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

The truth of the matter is that Jeremiah is the one who taught me how to pay bills and organize our life. When I was growing up I know my mom juggled our family's daily financial life and I saw her do it, but I never really took the time to learn how to "pay bills" until I had bills. My dad and mom worked with me to learn how to create a budget and purchased the materials for Jeremiah and I to take our first Financial Peace class. The did a lot of things right, but this is one of the best parental decisions they made for me as a young adult.

Thanks to Jeremiah's natural finesse for organization, I learned how to keep a filing system with important documents. I could've figure it out, but he got me on the right track. I share all of this to say that organization and simplicity is a huge KEY to GETTING OUT OF DEBT. Sample A is above: Our Filing System.

Our system is easy and important. Last winter I finally went through all of the papers from 2008 and 2009 that had accumulated to develop this box of magnificence. Every time I have to comb for a piece of paper, I am so thankful for my efforts because I can always find what I need. Within these papers are receipts, numbers, notes, etc., all stored for safe keeping.

Sample B is our budget. I don't have a picture of it, but it is SIMPLE. When you are trying to get out of debt, as I mentioned before, you must have a plan and you must keep it simple. Don't get hung-up on transferring balances all the time or master minding a plan to pay off weird sums in weird time frames. Focus on one thing at a time and PAY IT OFF.

If you are with us in trying to get out of debt and stay there...keep it up. I can tell you for sure that life without consumer debt is AMAZING. I can't wait to see how it is going to feel when we get our complete 3-6 months of living expenses put together, pay off the school loans and tackle the mortgage. Can you imagine living without a mortgage? Wow. That day is coming for us and we look forward to it!

Wal-Mart Saga, continued...

2010-06-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post to share that the manager from Wal-mart called me last week after my incident. After the infraction took place, I posted to Wal-mart's customer site to give feedback. The manager was very kind and validated my dissatisfaction. She encouraged me to ask her any questions I had and so I asked her everything I could possibly think of regarding price matching. I still find it cumbersome. But, anyway... We concluded the conversation with a thank you and she encouraged me to give Wal-mart another try. I was pretty impressed with her conflict-resolution skills. I guess that is why she is a manager.

I have been back to Wal-mart despite the anxiety I feel about seeing "Jane" again. It is a continued lesson for me in learning how to apologize and forgive. If Jane and I should meet again in the check-out line, I'll be sure to post on the blog as to how it goes.

Estimated Taxes

2010-06-11T22:03:00.001-07:00

As new small business owners, we have entered into the zone of paying our own taxes. This is one of the reasons I (Kim) was scared to death of owning our own business. The idea of being responsible for figuring out the mathematics and schedules for paying our own taxes was beyond me. I am not a math guru, despite my love of budgeting numbers/money.

When our business, Sanctus Studio, commenced about 2 months ago into a full-fledged thing, I looked up how to do estimated taxes. I tried to follow the instructions on the form myself, but failed miserably. I finally called the IRS. The woman I spoke to explained that I really didn't need to worry about the most recent estimated tax deadline because we hadn't made any money yet, which is why I was scrambling. We didn't have any money and I didn't know how much to pay. Duh. If you don't make money...you don't have anything to tax. Again, duh.

Now, we are in June and we have made some money. Estimated taxes...here we come. I called the accountant we worked with to first set up Sanctus Studio. She was very friendly and affordable at $100/hr. According to her calculations, we ought to be paying in about $1500 per quarter for federal and $150 per quarter for state. As just an "estimation" we don't have to pay quite this much. We could just pay a couple hundred and survive without penalties with plans to pay the balance come April 15th for federal. For state, we don't have to pay anything quarterly and we will not endure penalties come April 15th.

From each payment for Sanctus Studio, I put aside 10%. So, we have about $1000 saved. This will be our tax payment. I just can't scrounge by June 15th to find the extra $650 (Federal and State). $1000 will be fine, don't you think? Then, I'll start saving more like 12-15% of the coming pay checks to prepare for the April 15th tax bill.

Back to being scared...one thing I have learned through this process is that looking at the big picture of running a business can be overwhelming. One must take one step at a time. In doing so, you'll be well on your way to mastering the whole canvas.

Saving for Diamonds...I mean a Dishwasher

2010-06-09T15:53:00.000-07:00

While I am completely excited about saving for a new dishwasher. I will be even more excited when we are saving for some beautiful diamonds to wear on my fingers, ears, wrists, ankles and neck. Sigh. A girl can dream.

Delayed Gratification - Saving for Dishwasher

2010-06-09T05:37:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah here. Yes, I'm actually writing a post on this blog before Kim beats me to the punch.

Today I'm writing about delayed gratification - a concept that is very important for people trying to become or trying to stay debt free. It is so easy these days to drop a couple hundred dollars on a much needed or wanted household item, such as, a dishwasher. And it's even easier for people like us who no longer have consumer debt like credit cards and car payments. Just a couple months ago we were giving our creditors about $1000 dollars a month of our money and now we're not.

We could easily go buy a dishwasher today, and believe me when I say that we do NEED one. Dishes are coming out looking almost as bad as when we put them in. And, yes, we do scrub them (every single dish) before putting them in. We pretty much wash our dishes twice. I think this is the dishwasher that came with the house when it was built in 1998.

Back to the lesson...

Instead of just going to buy a new dishwasher, I am choosing to save a little each month for 4 months. At the end of 4 months I will have the cash saved up to purchase that brand new dishwasher. WHY am I doing this when I could go purchase one today? Because we continually need to teach ourselves to DELAY GRATIFICATION.

This is important for Kim and I right now, because we no longer have a "steady" paycheck, we are trying to build our 3-6 months living expenses, and we're taking a road trip pretty soon. Delaying gratification provides security for us, and at the same time ensures that we have the money to pay for the dishwasher WITH CASH in a decent amount of time. We're not waiting 2 years or long enough for it to become an emergency, as was the case with our dryer purchase. Our cash stays in our pockets longer to make living life a little bit easier.

Just like Dave Ramsey's baby steps, saving for this small item will help us be more disciplined when saving for larger ticket items - like a minivan... or Tahoe!

So be different - save up the money for your next big purchase even if you have the cash available today.

Related Scripture: Luke 16:10 (NIV)
10“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?"

Price Matching at Wal-Mart

2010-06-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I had a "loud" argument with a cashier in the front of the store. Her name is "Jane". I went to Jane's lane to purchase groceries, a glue gun and glue sticks. My intention was to price match my milk, eggs and ground beef. I offered to give Jane my ads, but she declined in order to look at her own ad. She explained that she was unable to price match the ground beef because it was in a 1lb package. The store, Fresh and Easy, was selling their ground beef in a 2lb package. Walmart does not carry a 2lb package. I told Jane I would not purchase the groceries because I can go to Fresh and Easy and buy them at their sale price while being able to use my coupon. I purchased the glue gun and glue sticks. I am sure I was visibly frustrated. I chose to come to Walmart to save time and use the ad matching system. I had my 2 young children with me and I was trying to squeeze in some grocery shopping to meet our family's needs and time schedule. Jane suggested getting a manager to come explain. I declined.

After working with Jane, I went to get a Redbox to use the free first Monday code. While at Redbox, I decided I would like to speak to a manager to find out the reasoning behind not matching pound price versus packaging and pound price. On my way to customer service I saw Jane repeating the episode to another cashier. I did not see "manager" on the clerk's name tag. After speaking with a supervisor and being explained the "like-item" policy, I started to leave the store when I saw Jane telling the story to another cashier and clearly mimicking me. I walked up to her and said, "Please stop gossiping about me. I am still in the store!" From that point we had a rather loud conversation. She explained that she needed to tell other people about the ad because obviously other people were matching the price since there were few packages of ground beef on the shelf "back there. "

I understand Jane's need and desire to tell other's about the policy, however, the loud mimicking of a customer in front of other cashiers and customers is completely unprofessional and hurtful.

Reflecting on the situation this morning, I was very frustrated yesterday when the beginning of the ordeal took place. I felt like she was eager to pounce on my misunderstanding of the ad matching policy. I made a quick decision not to purchase the groceries because I could purchase them at another store, although I did buy the glue gun and glue sticks. I admire rule followers and am one myself. I felt very defensive and am not proud of my behavior. I am sure that if anyone who knows me saw the ordeal they would have been embarrassed for me and surprised by the temper in me. I am glad I stood up for myself (even though I wish I might have handled myself a little bit better) and whether or not it made any difference to Jane, I'll never know.

One thing I do know, however, is that the ad matching system is too tricky and cumbersome for me. I'll stick to going from store-to-store to get my deals. My absence of shopping for groceries from Wal-Mart probably won't make a difference to them, but at least I've made my stand and now others know about it too.

Plan Your Work & Work Your Plan

2010-06-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

...and that pretty much goes for everything. I am an advocate of planning, which should not be mistaken for rigidity. Planning allows for flexibility, allows for goal achievement and in the end, allows for less stress. Take, for example, grocery planning. Every 2 weeks, I receive between $260-$240 for groceries as allocated per our budget. Now, I could not look at the ads, make my list in my head and jump in with both feet at the first store I see OR I could skim the ads, consider my needs/wants and jump in with both feet. My guess is that I will have more fun with option #2.

First, skimming the ads allows me to jump in more effectively and efficiently. I'll know where I want to go and I won't be disappointed with the selection when I get there.

Second, considering my needs/wants allows me to establish a goal. So, when I am finished with my shopping I will inherently know the awesome feeling of accomplishment because I knew where I was going to end before I started.

Third, jumping in with both feet (in my world) means: Ready. Set. Go. Get the BEST deals you can find! Therefore, while shopping if I see something that wasn't quite on the list or an alternative to another item I have the option of a purchase.

Jumping in without a plan is stressful to me to say the least. Planning is fun! Join me in creating a plan for your life. The plan should not become your master or straight jacket. Give yourself permission to break the plan or change the goal, but remember, in the end change just means a new plan.

Considering the Children

2010-06-01T21:49:00.001-07:00

As a stay-at-home-work-from-home mom, I am not very good at staying home. I am the type of gal that needs to be on the go...so, we generally try to leave the house once or twice a day. Being an on-the-go type, I love to shop. Ha. I simply cannot spend my time browsing stores only, though, because my adorable oldest loves to BUY things. She has realized the immediate gratification of the purchase. Some days she is able to purchase and some days she is not. The days of not are sort of trying for me because it becomes a life lesson day in which I explain why we can buy things sometimes, why we cannot other days as well as the consistent difference between "need" and "want". She is bright kid and thus, seems to be getting the hang of it. Not being able to shop every day of my life (and believe me, I probably could), begs the question of what else shall we do. Seriously, what else shall we do?

Considering the children, here are some fun things I have found to do that do not require the possibility of spending money:

1) Go to the library. Our library has a cool room where kids can be loud, play games and read books. If we time it right, we can also make it to the story time.

2) Free tours at various locations. For example: we have been to a teddy bear making factory and visited an art museum.

3) Get out to the back yard. My kids LOVE to be outside. They play on their own, really, and I supervise.

4) Bake something in our own kitchen (I know this doesn't get me out, but it is something to do).

5) Visit model homes. It is air conditioned. You get great decor ideas and my kids love to explore the new scape.

6) Swimming, of course.

7) The park is a good treat, but we are getting to the time when it is too hot to go at a reasonable hour.

8) Get a hold of an active moms magazine. If you live in the Phoenix area, there is literally a magazine that lists events around the valley for each day of the month. You can get them at the library. Gem!

9) Play dates with others.

10) Rent movies from the library and watch them at home. I love curling up with my kids in the late afternoon to watch a movie. Close all the curtains and turn off the lights...you can't even tell you are at home.

Any other ideas out there? Post them. I'd love to know.

How to get it done...The debt, that is.

2010-05-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

Recently, we have received some questions about finance. Here is a summary of where you might start:

1) I HIGHLY recommend taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class. He also has a book, "The Total Money Make Over", and a website: www.daveramsey.com. We took his class before we got married and have taken it 1 time since then and facilitated it once. It took us a good 5 years before we finally got serious about our debt. Dave's class was imperative to learning how to budget, function on a cash-system (no credit cards) and understand the baby steps to building wealth. If you do nothing else...take a Dave Ramsey course. It is $100 to take a class and get the materials. The class runs 13 weeks. The good thing is, the fee is a one time deal. So, you can take the class over and over again for the rest of your life.

2) Get $1000 in the bank for emergencies. Don't let it be a part of any other savings plan. Put it in a money market or general savings account. Don't touch it, except for emergencies.

3) Get on a budget and stop using credit cards. Once you figure out your budget, you will want to start a debt snowball. This is where you pay off the card with the smallest balance first. Then roll that payment on top of the payment for the next smallest balance.

Example: Card 1 has $100 on it. You pay $25 a month. Card 2 has $500 on it. You pay $50 a month on it. Once you are done paying off card 1, you roll $25 on top of $the $50 for card 2. So, now you are paying $75 a month on card 2.

The snowball was really helpful for us. At the end of paying off our debt, we were making at least $1k payments a month on the last card.

4) Put God first in your finances. We strongly encourage tithing 10% on your gross. The tithe is pre-law, pre-Moses. It is the only area in which God tells us to test him. We have made various amounts of money over the 7 years we have been married, we have always tithed and we have never had not enough. He always takes care of us and He knows our hearts. Dave Ramsey also teaches an excellent lesson on tithing in his class.

If you are not a believer, I still encourage you to give to something to some charitable organization. People with clenched fists do not build wealth.

These are the 4 steps I would start with. In the end, getting out of debt is a test of endurance and it is all about the intensity you are willing to apply to it. Remember, for a little while, Jeremiah delivered pizzas.

Just Ask

2010-05-26T09:08:00.001-07:00

There is a lot of power in asking a question. We recently signed our oldest up for preschool, which included a $75 registration fee. Yesterday, I was looking through the bundle of coupons that came in the mail and found a coupon for this preschool for free registration. "Dang it!" I thought. "I could've saved myself $75!"

I stewed on this for quite sometime. I knew my check had not gone through yet and I wondered if just maybe the director would honor my coupon despite my payment. So, I called her. The worst she could say was, "No." As luck would have it, I got her voicemail. I was thankful for this because this would allow her time to think about it and I wouldn't be putting her on the spot. I want to keep a good relationship with her since this is a new endeavor and she will be helping rear my child for the next year or so. Anyway...she called me a few hours later and said, "Of course we will honor the coupon." YAY!

I am heading there this morning to trade off the coupon for my check. $75 saved! Now, that is the power of asking. You don't know until you ask. Try it!

Our Work

2010-05-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

Psalm 90:17

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us- yes, establish the work of our hands."

This week I have been taking one big, huge chill pill. We have had family in town and it has been wonderful. Being that I am a stay-at-home-work-from-home mom, I still have work to do as an adjunct faculty member for a community college. This week, I was supposed to have 2 classes open. On Monday, only 1 class opened. Enrollment issues have delayed the start of my second class, which means my paycheck will definitely have a slight lull for the next 2 pay periods or so.

In this matter, I have 2 choices. 1) Be super anxious waiting for class #2 to open so I can continue my paycheck status or 2) See the blessing of a relaxed work week so I can spend the time with my family. This week I largely chose option #2. There have been moments when anxiety has crept in, but for the most part, I trust the Lord in this situation and know that he will provide the work, establish the work, accordingly.

Trust is difficult to come by in this life. Jesus has never left us hanging in all the 7 years of our marriage and we have continually had just enough. As Romans 8:28 tells us: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Amen.

Sincere Desire

2010-05-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Last week I heard a pastor on the radio explain that people who do not sincerely desire to have faith will not see God. This meant a lot to me as I thought about the scores of people who hear God's word, see His actions and enjoy various depths of relationships with Christian people, but fail to know God. It brought new meaning to me in light of the verses that talk about the veil which covers the heart, eyes and ears of unbelievers...it has to do with desire and ultimately, our individual will. If we do not desire, we will not receive. I think the same is true for other areas of our lives, including getting out of debt.

Jeremiah and I really wanted to get out of credit card debt. It was such a tremendous roadblock of bondage for us. It seemed to be one of the items that was keeping us from realizing dreams like owning our own business. Now that the roadblock of consumer debt is conquered, we find ourselves in a liminal space (a space of transition and openness) where we must question: How badly do we want to get out of the rest of our debt (school loans and mortgage)? The answers is: We do while realizing that we are in a crazy time where we cannot be as aggressive as we like.

Items coming up include:

1) Getting our emergency fund fully funded given our new employment state.
2) Taking care of some house hold items put on the backburner
3) Preparing for our famiy vacation across the country to see family

In conversation yesterday, we made a tentative plan that the getting out of debt process would relax until July after our vacation. We aren't going to go crazy, but we are taking a little breather (sort of).

Planning is key to living...I am a big planner and a huge fan of Dr. Randy Carlson's show, "Intentional Living". If we are to make any of our dreams a reality we must A) "Let (y)our gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:5-7) and B) make a plan to set before the Lord. If it is in His will...doors will open and if not...doors will close. We owe it to Him and ourselves to at least create a path for our lives so we have direction for our desires.

In closing, this applies to believers and non-believers. I know this post is a bit on the spiritual side, but that is who I am . I love Jesus and He works His way into most of my posts, some more than others. The application to all comes in the knowing that we all have dreams, aspirations and desires.

The Bottom Line: We all need to check the desires of our hearts and make a plan. AND when plan and desire come together, watchout because a powerhouse just might errupt.

Verses about the veil covering:

2 Corinthians 3:15-18 (New International Version)
15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit

Temptations & Needs

2010-05-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

If you think it will be easier to live when you are out of debt because you can "afford" other things, you would be wrong. I want everyone to know that temptation looms, especially for one who is a shopper or hunter, if you will.

We have family coming to visit us in the next week. When family comes to visit, my husband and I always start thinking of all the little (or big) things we could do to improve our home before they arrive. Even though, they would be none-the-wiser, it matters to us. It is easy to let temptation get out of control when it is under the guise of being "better" for another. So, then competing with the Jones' creeps in and before you know it, your mind has lusted, coveted, fantasized, you name it, about the:

1) Grass for the back yard
2) Screen doors for the sliding doors
3) Screens for the windows
4) Minivan or preferred Tahoe, Suburban, Durango, anything nice with a third row
5) Trinkets of organization for the kid playroom
6) Etc. Etc. Etc.

This is where I am today. Thank goodness my husband is a reigning force of wisdom and will prevent many of these temptations because A) it would require his involvement and B) it just is not in the budget.

True, some of these items are sincere needs. Really, 2-5 are sincere needs that would improve the quality of our lives. Are they so needed that we will be in a state of chaos and disaster without them? No. (Bummer, huh?)

So, Lord, I pray for a spirit of contentment because you are enough, enough for me. You have blessed us so richly, blessings too numerous to count. Be my strength and shield. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Final Financial Peace Class at Spring U

2010-04-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

Over the past 13 weeks we have facilitated a Financial Peace course at our church, Spring of Life Christian Church in Mesa, AZ. Last night was the last class. The topic was "The Great Misunderstanding" in which Dave Ramsey provided insight on the ownership of our money, tithing versus offering and the purpose of building wealth.

Quick summary:
Ownership: All we have belongs to God.
Tithing v. Offering: Tithing = 10%. Tithing is pre-law and first shows up in Genesis 14. Tithing is not a salvation issue. Tithing is a demonstration of the attitude of your heart. Offering comes after tithing. Tithe, take care of your household, give offerings.
Purpose of building wealth: So that we can give!

Dave Ramsey provided a lot of motivational stories about people who had built wealth and were enjoying the blessing of giving...big gifts. One story was about a $10k tip to a server so she could go to college and another about a $10k gift to a couple so they could adopt.

The greatest blessing of facilitating financial peace has been the opportunity to watch God grow other people and see his handy work, once again, in our lives. For those present last night, the class collectively paid off $30k+ in debt. That was about a 12% decrease in the overall debt load. So proud of them!

Overall, I was reminded of how blessed we are to have come this far in our journey. When the "wants" of this life start to rage, God is great at reminding us what really matters. Getting out of debt along with many of life's other challenges is not a race to the finish, but a test of endurance. We concluded the night by encouraging our group to keep taking Financial Peace. Once you take the class one time, you are a lifetime member and can take it whenever you want for free! This was our 3rd time and I am sure a 4th, 5th, 6th, etc., will ensue. As for our family, we resolve to continue to tithe with a glad heart, budget our money, and get out of debt so we can hit the other baby steps. 10 or 20 years from now I know God will have done miraculous things and we look forward to riding with Him.

Romans 5: 1-5
Peace and Joy 1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Budget Considerations for a Small Business

2010-04-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

I want to record our current process of budgeting for our business so we can remember how we "began".

Well, we don't have much of a budgeting system. We have very few expenses right now. So the biggest thing is making sure we deposit each check in there, then write ourselves a check for what we need and put aside dollars for taxes.

Short. Sweet. To the point.

Updates on the Ware's

2010-04-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

Since our big victory with paying off the last credit card, you're probably wondering where we have been. Have we fallen off the wagon? No. Are we enjoying the fruits of our labor? You bet!

The scenery and dynamic of our lives has shifted quite a bit since paying off the burden of consumer debt. It is amazing what God can do when we are not enslaved to a collector. So, what has He done?

Well, within about a week or so of paying off the card...Jeremiah became fully self-employed. We are the proud owners of our own little company, Sanctus Studio. It is a web development company. You can check it out: www.sanctusstudio.com. God provided us with funding to sustain during the interim, plenty of work to sustain for quite some time and a marriage that can withstand the test of platonic, romantic and business partnership. It has been an exciting journey with stressful hiccups, but so worth it! We are enthusiastic to continue to grow closer to the Lord as we learn more and more how to depend on Him to see what He is going to do with our lives day-by-day.

Relating to our debt: We decided to take a detour from school loans to save up our 3-6 months of living expenses given our new employment status. The school loans are at something like 1-3%. So, not that big of deal. We hope to save the 3-6 months of expenses as quickly as possible and then hit those school loans. I am confident we can do both quickly!

Stay tuned for more...I (Kim) have been very busy with my own work and child-rearing, that it has been difficult for me to post little tid-bits throughout the weeks relating to finance. I think about them often, though. Keep checking with us...

We are out of consumer debt!

2010-03-22T22:00:00.001-07:00

Here is the victory post: WE ARE OUT OF CREDIT CARD DEBT! PRAISE THE LORD!

On January 1st, we had $7062 left on that card. As of March 22nd, we have paid off the whole thing. The Lord has been faithful and we look forward to embarking on the next leg of our get-out-of-debt journey: School Loans! We are coming to getcha'. (Insert cunning laughter).

God and Pizza

2010-03-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

God is in the details, I tell you. Last Tuesday, I was supposed to meet some friends for lunch at Barro's with the kids. I went to the wrong Barro's...I even got out of the car and was sitting inside when I realized I was at the wrong one. We hauled back in the car and drove about 5-7 minutes to the correct Barro's. All the while, I was cursing myself for even going because we were supposed to be at another location in about an hour and our lunch would be rushed. Upon arriving at the correct location, the baby fell asleep in the car. I had to get out the stroller, put him in there, get the 3-year-old out and make my way into the restaurant. The worst part was that it was packed with business people, so now I had to wait in line. Great. Huffing and puffing a lot of hot air, I felt so frazzled. When it was just about our turn to order, the clerk called out, "I have 2 pieces of sausage and 3 pieces of pepperoni. Who wants them?" I looked around. "Uh. I do." I said. I strolled up and got 5 pieces of pizza for free. I bought a soda and got my lunch, in total, for $1.75. The detail is that I only had $20 left for groceries for the whole week. I was planning to spend about $6-$7 for pizza leaving me with less than $15 for the week. Thank you, Jesus. He topped off the blessing by allowing my husband time to leave work and come join us for the "free" pizza. The lunch actually went by pretty slowly. I didn't feel rushed and we left just in time to make it to the next stop. Also, by the time we left, it was pouring outside. So, the hubster was able to tag team with me to get the car and get the kids in without getting completely soaked.

God is good all the time, even and especially when we aren't expecting it.

We just have to trust Him.

Do you?

HUGE Payment

2010-02-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

We just made a payment of $3055 to our credit card. Hip-Hip-Hooray! This payment is our WHOLE tax refund plus some from our last paycheck. That's right, folks, didn't get to enjoy a darn dollar of our tax refund on a new TV, vacation, shoes, MP3 Player...NONE of it! We couldn't be more thrilled, though. The huge payment brings our balance down to $1144. If all goes according to plan and prayer, we should be able to pay off the balance with the next paycheck. That means we will be driving paid-for cars and no consumer debt. Amazing!

We are so thankful to God for his provision. We are thankful for our work and our income. None of this is possible without Him!

Taxes are filed. Woo-hoo!

2010-02-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

We filed our taxes tonight. According to the IRS schedule, we should see our refund deposited into our checking account between Feb. 26th and March 5th. So, it will probably be March when the credit card is completely paid off, rather than February. Oh well, no biggie. We didn't really think it would be quite as soon as March when we were setting the outlook for 2010 back in December. So, we are thrilled. With this credit card done, we will just have the 2 school loans and the mortgage. That's right...both of our cars are paid off. We have titles in hand. No car payments and Lord willing, we will not have a car payment ever again.

We keep crunching the numbers over and over again to make sure that we are correct in our assumptions about paying off the credit card in the coming weeks. It really is surreal. We have lived our entire married life (almost 7 years in April) with credit card debt. Now to tackle those pesky school loans. I cannot tell a lie, tackling those seems a little daunting and tackling the mortgage seems even more so. With the credit card paid down so low, it kinda stinks to face reality and jump back up a couple of thousand to count down another stinking debt. We will do it, though. With the debt snowball, we will intentionally allocate at least $600 a month to the smaller loan and when that is paid off, we will intentionally allocate at least $700 a month to the last one. With those kinds of payments, they will be gone by the end of the year (we hope, we pray).

Stay tuned to more on our debt elimination. I can't wait to post the BIG victory post that the credit card is no more. And what I really can't wait for is the trip we are going to take to Brentwood, TN to stand in Dave Ramsey's office and scream that we are debt free when we are debt free and believe me, we WILL be debt free one day sooner than later.

If you're interested in learning more about why we are on this journey...Jeremiah posted some epic posts at the birth of this blog. You are welcome to look through the archives to check it out.

Under 5k on the LAST credit card

2010-02-14T19:51:00.000-08:00

Victory post: We are under $5000.00 on our credit card with a new balance of $4649.00. With the Lord's help, our tax refund, and the next pay check, we hope to post that we are under 2k by the end of February! Yay! This card is almost DONE!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2010-02-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

We are a co-sleeping family. We have tried a few times to depart from this lifestyle, but ultimately we come back to it. It is the most natural progression for us and we are very happy. With that said, we have worked into a great routine of putting the kids down to bed in which we both lay down with them until they fall asleep. I usually nurse Ethan and Jeremiah cuddles Hannah. Lately, Hannah has grown used to Jeremiah's need to get up to work and has simultaneously become a bit territorial with me...wanting me to stay in bed and NOT leave. Sweet girl. So, tonight I told Jeremiah that he could get up to go ahead and work and I would stay with the kids. When Jeremiah didn't leave right away, Hannah said, "Remember, Daddy...don't you want to get out debt?" I could have died laughing right there. Obviously, this kid understands the mission.

Pay Day...Again

2010-01-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the 8 month old survived with 3 diapers from last evening until this morning when my husband went to the gym and stopped by Walmart to get some Luvs. I had 2 diapers and called my mom to scrounge up one she had for a "rainy day" from when Hannah was in diapers. So, that diaper was about 2.5 years old.

Pay Day has come and gone for us. I am so incredibly thankful. Good news: All the bills are paid and we paid an extra $1700 on the credit card in addition to the $900 we paid earlier in the month. Grand total on credit card debt paid: $2300. If all goes as planned and prayed, we could seriously have this card eliminated by March or April. Praise the Lord.

Bad news: I have trouble holding onto money that we put in a separate account to "save" for annual expenses. I always leave enough in there to pay for the big expenses that are coming up, but anything not "noted" seems to be fair game. I confessed to my hubby this little problem and though he did not berate me, he affirmed that it had to stop. So, I am gonna take that debit card out of my purse. It needs to be out of reach. Really, I should put it in his wallet so that when he is at work I can't sneak it out of hiding because he has it about 10 miles away. Just being real. It is a struggle for me. I really do ease stress by shopping and bringing in bounty for my family (and my self). With the Lord's help, I commit to stop.

The verse in my daily flip-over calendar on January 27th was: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7. I have been thinking a lot about this verse. God's word is powerful and living. By abiding in Him and allowing his Word to permeate me, I am able to walk in his will...peacefully, humbly, and righteously. Doesn't mean I won't struggle. He promises I will...it just means simply: Security. I ask the Lord everyday to help us get out of debt. I have NO doubt that He is doing just that because I have no other way to explain the increase in our income despite the economic down slide. He has been faithful to us and we have been faithful to Him. I praise the Lord with hands held high. Thank you, Jesus, for caring for us. Help us to continue to seek your will, get out of debt, live like no one else, so we can LIVE like no one else.

The Day Before Pay Day

2010-01-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

Why is the day before pay day so hard? I have items pressing on my mind that I would like to purchase. For instance, we have an 8 month old. I have about 2 diapers left. Is that gonna workout for him? I don't really think so.

Waiting on the 3rd Paycheck

2010-01-21T20:50:00.000-08:00

January and July are generally special months in our home...Jeremiah's birthday is in January and Hannah's is in July, but mostly it is because in these months, there are 3 paychecks! Yahoo! Therefore, we end up with an extra 2k (approximately) during January and July to do with whatever we please because our budget is based on 2 paychecks per month. So, these have proven to be terrific months for debt elimination.

While waiting for the 3rd check, it is easy to start daydreaming about all the other ways I would like to spend that 2 k. I think about clothes, shoes, TVs, entertainment centers, vacations, etc., although not necessarily in that order. Then, I have to remember the goal: GET OUT of DEBT. When we are out of debt, we will have an extra 2k EVERY MONTH and that is not exaggerating.

So, here we are, waiting on the 3rd paycheck with our eyes on the prize" FREEDOM from debt. What are you waiting for?

Do Not Be Discouraged

2010-01-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

When you embark on a long journey, the end goal may often seem out of reach. This was the verse for today in my "Power of the Praying Parent" flip over calendar:

"They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them." Isaiah 65:23

In context, this verse is about the New Heaven and the New Earth, but I found resonance with it this morning in consideration of what I do every day and our journey to get out of debt.

Every day I wake up with the awesome responsibility to be an adult. Sometimes I feel like I am pretending...that I am not really an adult and I don't really have these responsibilities. It can be overwhelming when you really think about it...a husband, 2 kids, dogs, a mortgage, a job, etc.

Every day, my husband and I labor to raise our children and develop young people who will know the Lord, walk with Him and lead productive lives.

Every day, my husband and I make decisions that impact our ability to get out of debt from purchasing groceries, to buying gasoline and paying bills.

How awesome it is to know that in light of eternity, these daily activities, this living, this LIFE, is not in vain. We are descendants of the blessed of the Lord and through our efforts with the Lord's help our children will be descendants of the blessed of the Lord and so on. What a relief to know that What We Do Matters on so many levels.

So, if you are feeling discouraged with your journey...take heart, the Lord is always with you and You Matter. "But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29.

Beginning 2010

2010-01-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here is what we have left to pay:

J Sallie: $8771.22

K Sallie: $11,979.18

Chase Card: $7062.00

Total: $27,812.40 compared to approximately $39,000 beginning in 2009.

Under 8k

2009-12-30T08:27:00.000-08:00

We are officially under 8k on our credit card, which means are under 30k on our overall debt. Bring on 2010! I pray that by the end of next year we will be well on our to have another 15k done!

Financial Peace University at Spring of Life starts 1/13/2010

2009-12-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah and I are faciliatating Financial Peace University (FPU) at Spring of Life Christian Church (Crismon and US 60) on January 13th. The course runs 13 weeks and it is $99 for supplies. We have been doing this program our whole marriage and recommitted about 2 years ago to seriously getting out of debt.

If our journey has been interesting to you or you want to learn more about how to handle your finances, I strongly encourage you to check this class out.

Live Like NO One Else!
"FPU us Dave's life-changing program that teaches you to achieve your financial goals by eliminating debt, saving for the future and giving like never before. More than 1 million families have attended FPU with amazing results. You will be challenged and motivated to make a plan for your money and change your family tree forever!" - from the Spring of Life Spring University catalogue.

Now if you are unsure about the whole church thing...I want you to know that while FPU uses biblical prinicples, is conducted at our church and other churches around the country, FPU is not a weekly class with Bible thumping and evangelical attemtps to get you to accept Jesus as your savior. While we would love for you to come to Christ if you are not a believer, FPU is strongly focused on practical application of biblical principles. You will learn how to budget, set up retirement, get life insurance, get a good deal when you shop for anything, buy a new car without financing, and get the ability to give generously...awesome stuff! It is a test of endurance!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are happy to help and we are passionate about getting out of debt!

Live like NO one else! Be weird! Remember the Tortise wins!

God Rocks and I Got My Tires CHEAP!

2009-12-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

I confess, sometimes, I have a crisis of belief. Often, I pray or think things about God and the Devil sneaks in with contrary thoughts. Then, the Lord in his goodness, gives me moments like Sunday when the Holy Spirit filled our church and baptized over 90 people OR moments like today where he provided just enough so I could get exactly what I needed for new tires on our Suzuki.

Quick Story:

The Suzuki seriously needed new tires about 2 years ago. We put it off. Over the last week, I have felt a really strong impulse to finally get the tires changed. I shopped around and finally found a place that would do it for under $400. I had $374 in the bank. They quoted me at $345 without road hazard. They would do free tire rotations, but wouldn't cover the occassional nail in the tire repair or replace the tires if we botched them up somehow. The road hazard was an extra $40. I figured I would just forego it.

While waiting for my new tires, the presumable owner comes up to me and says, "You gave us the wrong size for your tire." I felt really dumb because he'd special ordered the size I told him the day before. I apologized. He told me the size I needed and then said, "The ones you need are actually cheaper at $323." With road hazard, the total was $363. Sweet!

Lessons learned:

1) God is in all the details.

2) The Lord must know that we are going to need that road hazard protection at some point.

3) Even when I doubt, he still carries me, he shows up, and he KNOWS me.

Debt-To-Date

2009-10-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Here is what is left to pay before we tackle the mortgage:

Sallie Mae: 12,100
Sallie Mae: 8,901
Credit: 9,984

Total: $30, 985

Under 10K on the Credit Card

2009-10-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

We are under 10k on our credit card with a balance of $9, 984.00. This is a huge deal for us. Now that we are in the single digits for this card (our only credit card), we are confident it will melt quickly. Lord willing and providing, we will bust off another $1k with the next paycheck. God is so awesome and we praise him for his help with our finances. Since November 2008 we have paid off about $7500 in credit card debt, $4000 in doctor bills, and $1000 on our air conditioner.

On my way home from the grocery this afternoon, I imagined what it would feel like not to have a credit card, then not to have school loans, and finally let my mind wander to the region of having the house paid off and staying in this house for much longer than I had hoped. To not have a house payment and just pay for daily living would be so awesome and in the world in which we live, I wonder if it is really possible...to live debt free. I think it is, but I think it is such a forgein concept that it seems impossible. The good news is...it is not impossible. It is totally possible. It is a test of endurance and ultimately, a test of belief. Do we believe God will take care of us? Do we believe he will protect us when we ask him? Does he hear us when we pray even if the voices of doubt creep in from the enemy?

Lord Jesus,

We commit our finances to you! Thank you for your faithfulness. Help us to continue to be good managers of our money. Help us to become debt free! Thank you for the momentum you have given us and help us to do our work with a happy heart. In your precious name, Amen.

Ethan is paid off!

2009-10-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

Just paid the last of the doctor bills for Ethan's birth! Yay! Happy dance going on right here!

Just about under 10k!

2009-10-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months, as you know, our debt efforts were put to the side. In the last month, we have recovered much of our momentum. In the last 45 days, we were able to put $1670 on our credit card. Therefore, the balance sits at $10, 186.00. Whoo-hoo! After the next paycheck, Lord willing, we will be able to get that baby under 10k. This is one of the moments I have been waiting for. We have never had less than 12k in credit card debt for our whole married life. Now, almost under 10k, I feel like the credit card debt will just melt away and we can hammer out those school loans.

Our church just began a new series on money, "Mad Money". Today, he spoke of our financial problems and the relationship of those problems with God. The take-away for me was this: God doesn't need our money. He needs our heart. When our heart beats for him and we make him first in every aspect, we will live in a way the pleases him and He blesses us. Jeremiah and I have made God first in our finances from the very beginning of our marriage. He has always received our first fruits. You can look at our bank statements/tax returns for the past 6 years and see it. God has been faithful. He has met us every step of the way and though we have made some dumb mistakes, we have not had to seriously struggle. It is all because of him. If you haven't tested him in your finances- Do it now! And do it with a glad heart because he will carry you as he does in all things. Amen.

Malachi 3:9-11 (New International Version)
9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.

Sanctus Studio LLC

2009-10-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to post that we are in the process of formalizing our sidework into a LLC, Sanctus Studio. Our paperwork is in the works and we should be legally ready to go by the end of the month. God has been faithful and we are excited about the next steps in our adventure to get out of debt. Stay tuned for the launch of our new website for Sanctus Studio!

Thoughts for the day

2009-09-21T13:42:00.001-07:00

1) All the money needs to be budgeted for the pay period, even if it means sticking it in the emergency fund. Extra unbudgeted dollars in the checking account is bad news.

2) Just because somethings is on sale and is a really good buy and I really want it and we sure could use it DOES NOT mean I should buy it. So, totally trying not to buy the comforter, gazillion pillows and 2 king size sheet set from Bed Bath and Beyond.

3) I have to plan snacks for my day, even if I am not currently hungry. Doing so will keep me from eating out when I should be eating in.

Remember this, Kim. :-) Yes, I know, Jesus loves me. :-)

Buyer's Remorse: $2.86

2009-09-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have buyers remorse over a mere $2.86!

The culprit: a Tall Iced Latte from Starbucks.

The circumstance: We had just finished watching the movie Up at the $2 cinemas - the first time for the whole family to go see at movie as a family. That was quite fun and well worth the $6. Since I am addicted to drinking coffee on a daily basis at work, I must have it on the weekends to prevent mid-afternoon headaches.

We're driving home from the theater, both kids have fallen asleep, and I decide to go to Starbucks and get something - a tall iced latte that came to only $2.86 - not too bad. Note, I don't do grande or venti...that's just overkill. Normally, I would get a hot latte, but this particular day, the sun was out and it was HOT, therefore, I decided to get the iced version.

The remorse began as soon as the drink was passed from the window into my hands. Because I normally get the hot verion, the Tall (small) size is usually sufficient, about 8-12oz - I'm not really sure. But this particular drink definitely looked no more than 8 oz and had a ton of ice. I get the drink and say, "Yea, that's not gonna last long!" And it didn't. I drank it before getting home. Actually, the drink lasted from the Starbucks drive thru, down a half mile to the expressway and 1 mile east to the next exit. It was completely gone before the red light turned to green. I said, "that was the biggest waste of $2.86. I could have made 12 of my very own iced coffees for that price." I truly had buyer's remorse.

The significance: teaching me to get buyer's remorse before actually making the purchase. This is something we all need to do. Let me repeat.

We all need to get buyer's remorse before we actually make a purchase.

No matter how much something costs, we need to experience this "let down" before we've actually made a purchase and handed over money. How many people waste $3.50 or more every day going to Starbucks? Now, I'm not trying to convince people to stop going to Starbucks to get coffee or being hermits and never spending any money. I quite enjoy getting coffee from there and I have mentioned several times in other posts about spending money in your local ecoonomy.

I'm trying to make the point that we spend a lot of money on things we don't necessarily need or want after the fact, which inevitably leads to buyers remorse. Many people put things on credit cards that should never be put on credit - video games, cars, vacations, nice meals. The list goes on and on, and these purchases steal from us the ability to do things that are more important, such as, saving and investing, giving, building a proper emergency fund, and simply not going over on the monthly food budget. We've done that last one many times.

I also know the difficulty in this. I have been wanting to upgrade to a smart phone and get a data plan for several months now. I've research a lot of phones, weighed the costs and benefits of having one, asked other people about their experience with non-basic cell phones, and considered if having a smart phone would give me a better quality of life or make me more productive given my current life circumstance.

Just the other night, I actually went into the verizon store ready to spend some money on an upgraded phone. I decided beforehand to just get a phone that would allow me to text faster- something with a slide out or flip out full QWERTY keypad. I wanted to wait a year and save up some money for a really good phone before spending the extra 30 bucks a month for unlimited data. And I knew that I could get a phone for free by upgrading online. With all the knowledge,self-debating, and looking into the future, I forced myself to experience some remorse before making a purchase.

In the end, that remorse allowed me to be ok with not buying a more expensive phone now and to get the free one online. I have just saved myself $30-$300 on a phone and up to $360 a year by not doing the data plan.

I get a phone that will allow me to text quicker.

I didn't spend any money and I'm not sending out yet another monthly bill, which means I get to put more money on debt each month.

Life is good!

I encourage you all to get buyers remorse before making your next non-essential purchase (food,groceries, and gas are essential). Let everyone know how it's going by leaving a comment.

Prayer and Intentional Living

2009-09-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

Prayer and intentional living are essential aspects to our debt walk. Interesting thing happened over the last couple of days:

1) I did our budget for September yesterday. Jeremiah and I agree that we absolutely need to be putting $500 (at least) on our credit card every month even though the minimum payment is significantly less. Our budget has been cut back a bit since I didn't really have a decent income for the last 3 months due to Ethan's birth and the summer lag in enrollment. So, I decided to put the $500 into the budget to see how much I need to make at my job as a teacher for a community college to make that happen. Result...I need to make at least $500. This is the intentional living.

2) While taking a walk this morning, Jeremiah and I had a great chat about a bunch of different items for faith, to kids, to daily living and of course...our debt. I uttered a simple prayer out loud, "Lord, please help us to get out of debt." After the utterance, I thought, "Well, if you want to get out of debt, you're going to have to work more." I am pretty sure that was a Holy Spirit response. I love when that happens.

3) I logged onto my work email this morning at 8:55am. I received an email this morning at 8:48am...

"Just looking ahead to let you know that you will have access to your new section starting on 9/14 next week."

What?!?! I have no recollection that I was signed up to teach this class. None. I tell you, God is good! All the time!---All the time! God is Good!

Prayers are always answered, whether it be a "yes" or a "no" or a "wait". He hears us...even just our utters!

Saving for Annual Expenses

2009-08-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

When we got married we learned about the usefulness of saving for annual expenses such as car insurance, car registration, life insurance, schooling, Christmas, etc. For the past 6 years we have been saving for these items and the outcome has been amazing.

First, we never have to worry about making the annual payments ranging from $100-$400. They never sneak up on us and when they come due we pay them without any trouble. It is so comforting to just say, "Oh, that is due? Ok. Let's pay it." No questions asked. No combing through the budget to figure out how the heck it is going to get paid.

Second, God absolutely stretches our money and we end up with more saved than we actually needed. In January we created a budget for $392.25 to be taken out of our checking every month and put into a different account. This money comprises savings for car insurance, car registration, Ethan's birth, and misc. expenses like oil changes. When we put this budget together, we figured that when the bills came due we would have just enough to make the payments. Wrong. We had more than enough! Our car insurance was $50 less than planned and we somehow have way more saved than we need for the car registrations. These extras are terrific because they allow us to pay more on our hospital bills, which were significantly more than we thought they would be. God is good!

Planning our actions and seeking God's will is so important in all aspects of living. We when plan our lives (and our money) and we commit these plans to God through prayer and giving him our first fruits, his blessing is infinitely amazing.

Proverbs 3:21-24 (The Message)

Never Walk Away 21-26 Dear friend, guard Clear Thinking and Common Sense with your life; don't for a minute lose sight of them.They'll keep your soul alive and well, they'll keep you fit and attractive.You'll travel safely, you'll neither tire nor trip.You'll take afternoon naps without a worry, you'll enjoy a good night's sleep.No need to panic over alarms or surprises, or predictions that doomsday's just around the corner,Because God will be right there with you; he'll keep you safe and sound.

Doctor Bills

2009-08-05T14:56:00.001-07:00

We have all but one of the doctor bills paid off after having Ethan. Of course, it is the big one. We have about $900 left to go. In sum, we will have spent about $3000+ to have this baby. The cost of healthcare is something to be hold.

Money Stress

2009-07-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here is the scoop as of late:

Handling our money has been stressful for me lately. With the birth of a new baby and an absence of income on my behalf, we have enough money on which to live. The stress comes from the influx of doctor's bills from all over the planet! Our budget is neat and tidy with one credit card and 2 school loans along with household expenses. We typically know what to expect each month. This month we have had such an influx of various doctor's bills, that it has been hard to keep up with who to pay and when to pay and how much, which also adds to the fact that there is no way we can possible put any extra on the credit card. For the last two months we have only been able to pay the minimums. In addition, there are random expenses and needs that have also surfaced. I have shuffled money in the budget at least a dozen times to create $$ where there weren't any allocated and make sure that we have enough money in the bank to cover the expenses. I feel very stressed.

On the positive side, though, I am incredibly thankful that we have enough money to care for our needs without having to rack up a credit card. The LORD has ALWAYS taken care of us...we have never had to suffer in that way and I pray that Lord will continue to protect our finances as well as give us wisdom to manage what He has given to us. We have been doing a Proverbs study lately with our small group and the #1 thing I have learned is that fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom. Fear does not equal being scared of God, but rather, realizing that He is in control of EVERYTHING. And when we get that, when we respect that and when we love that we will begin to have wisdom in the choices of our daily lives, that our choices will reflect His presence, give Him glory and provide an internal peace in our bodies, hearts, minds, souls and life that is profound. Gotta love that kind of security! Whew. Didn't mean to give a little mini-sermon there. :-) God is good!

Why I Love My Husband

2009-06-23T13:19:00.001-07:00

A post from Kim:

I don't know if it is recently having another baby or what, but lately I feel pressed to express how much love and admire my husband. So, I thought I would write it down here...as many of the reasons why I love him circle around his vision for our family, which includes getting out of debt.

Jeremiah dreams and calculates our future. He is constantly thinking about what he can do to make our life better, to ensure our future security and reach his goals. I love it that he dreams so big, even if his dreams scare me by requiring us to leap in ways that require me to trust him and ultimately, for us to trust God.

Jeremiah is concerned about my welfare. I so appreciate it when he calls to check in on me, asks how my day went, and hugs me.

Jeremiah talks to me. We plan our life together and we don't hide things. I love it that I can tell him when I have screwed up the budget or spent money that perhaps I shouldn't have without feeling condescension and judgement from him.

Jeremiah is a hero to our kids. Hannah adores him and Ethan is so content in his arms (unless he wants to nurse or is tired). I am so proud that he is engaged with our kids and stands up for me as the "back-talking" has already begun by our oldest.

These are just a few of the reasons why I love my husband...

Sliced and Diced

2009-05-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

I'll let you in on a little secret of ours - we have lots of credit cards, but we don't have any credit cards.

Well, that doesn't really make sense, does it?

In reality we have many open accounts with $0 balances, and only one card with a balance. We are actively paying that last one down.

We don't, however, have any of the credit cards...only the accounts. In fact, we couldn't even tell you the account numbers to any of them without a quick look in our files.

As you can see in the picture above, several weeks ago, we received 5 new cards in the same week - from 3 different institutions.

How funny is that? Well, not very funny if you ask me!

A similar couple who's in the same circumstances as we, but not on the same mission to be debt free, might have serious issues with that. Let me explain.

Between those 5 cards, I received $80,000+ worth of buying power in a single week. Ohh, how much fun I could have with that munch money at my fingertips. I won't even begin to tell you about the things I've been craving this year.

I don't believe anybody in their right mind would actually go out and max their credit cards in such a way, but for that couple or person without a plan and without a mission to be debt free could really do some damage to their financial situation with even a couple small, harmless purchases. And it's for all those people who are struggling with any amount of debt that I make this next statement.

Just check out the picture below. A picture is really worth a thousand words. And in this case it's PRICELESS!

Join us and become debt free!

We are responsible for ourselves!

2009-05-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

Lest we should forget...we are all responsible for ourselves. We cannot rely on others to necessarily follow-through or "take care" of our financial lives. Story:

When we bought our house, there was a miscommunication and we ended up paying for our first year of homeowner's insurance ($568). It was part of our contract that the seller would pay this sum. So, we thought that we would then always be responsible for it and it was not going to be paid from our escrow account. We saved from May 08 to January 09 for insurance. In December/January (I can't remember which), we found out that our mortgage holder was saving for our homeowner's insurance in the escrow account. In that event, we started putting those funds toward something else...Jeremiah's life insurance.

A couple of weeks ago, our mortgage carrier changed (not by our choice) and we also received a bill from our homeowner's insurance company. The insurance company called to do a courtesy call on their service a few days ago to inquire about their service. During the call, I inquired about "who" would be paying our bill. At this time, they sent the bill to our mortage carrier. I thought, "I should call our mortgage company and double check this..."

Well, I called this afternoon and I AM SO GLAD I CALLED. The money was being saved in escrow, but there was an incorrect label on our account and the homeowner's insurance would not have been paid! Thank you, Lord, for prompting me to get this call made. I have been assured that the payment is being sent right away by a guy named, Mike. Afterall, it due on May 20th.

Lesson: Ultimately, it is our job to make sure what we want to happen, understand to happen, or needs to happen with our finances DOES HAPPEN. (and I think the same could be said for many other parts of our lives...but that is an entirely different blog...LOL...stepping off the soap box now.)

Still here, still trying to get out of debt

2009-04-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for a while because there really hasn't been much to share. March was a great and easy month. We put another $850 on the card and Jeremiah has gotten a total of 3 side jobs that will be helpful in payments to come. Now that we are into April, we are preparing for the birth of our son in May. So, I don't know if we will pay much over $500 on the card this month as we prep for his arrival. Among the preparations, we also bought tickets to go home to KY in July so all the rest of the Ware Family can meet him.

On a Budget and Broke

2009-02-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

No matter how long one does a budget, it's not that fun having to stick it out until the next paycheck with no more money left. That's where we are now - broke and anxious for this coming Friday.

All in all, everything is fine. We are in fact on a budget - every dollar we make has a place where it's supposed to go. But everything is paid for that supposed to be for this pay period and we spent all of our food, gas, and blow money - we're officially broke.

Being broke this weekend is teaching us again to live on what's in the house and not drive all over the place in order to pass time. We've still done our fair share of driving today because we had to do one last grocery shop to get us through the week and we're trying to finish the bathrooms, which required a couple trips to Walmart and Lowes. But Sunday is going to be different...one trip right after church and then we stay home the rest of the day until we go to a friend's for dinner. That's one less meal that we had to come up with ourselves, so we'll make an exception and drive a 1/2 mile for a free dinner with friends!

We did manage to find some money, although it was money that was supposed to be spent on a light fixture. I found out that the builder of the house put the mounting box for the light fixture waaaay off center making it impossible to mount the light fixture we had just bought. We decided to put the old one back up and return the new one. We considered that a sign from God that He always takes care of us. It gave us $70 to get a few more groceries and some other things for the bathrooms that we were waiting to purchase next month.

We'll stay home all day tomorrrow and finish cleaning the house. To break up the monotony a couple walks around the neighborhood will be in order. That will help us save money and enjoy time with each other. Maybe we should all try to stay home more on the weekends...

Paid the Bills Again...

2009-02-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

This pay period we paid:

89 on J's Sallie.

106 on K's Sallie

$500 on B of A

We are getting a decent tax return and hope to heap that on B of A near the end of the month.

In other news, we have a little left over this month and going to try to paint the bathrooms. As part of this process, we are certainly compromising by buying only extreme clearance items, decor that may not be our first choice, recycling previous decor, and using coupons...Hello Bed Bath and Beyond. Anything will be better than what we currently have and the last 2 pieces of our house update will be complete. Yes!

Total Debt Left w/o Mortgage

2009-01-31T19:08:00.001-08:00

Here is what we have left to pay:

J Sallie: $9,500

K Sallie: $12,750

B of A: $14,500

Total: $36,750

WE CAN DO IT!

January Was Good

2009-01-31T19:03:00.001-08:00

January has been an incredibly blessed month for us. We are beyond thankful. With our last pay check, we were able to put another $1650.00 on Bank of America. That makes a grand total on Bank of America for January of $2575.00. Wow. We really give all the praise to God. He is so faithful and we look forward to seeing what February will hold as we strive to get out of debt.

Still truckin'...

2009-01-25T20:50:00.000-08:00

We are still on our get-out-debt journey. Since we are in babystep #2 (getting out of debt), the progress is slow. It is a test of endurance. The holidays are over and January is certainly going to be a banner month for us. So far, we have paid $925 on Bank of America along with our usual monthly payments on school loans and the mortgage (of course). The best part about January is that there are 3 pay dates in this month. This means we have paid all of our bills with the first 2 checks and have a third check coming to do with what we please. So, if all goes according to plan, we should be able to put about 2k more on Bank of America for the month of January (give or take a couple hundred). We will need to take out enough to tithe and allocate for food, gas, and blow for the month of February.

We have definitely learned and re-learned the value of meal planning. If we don't plan our meals, this is most likely where our budget goes awry. Albertson's and Frys have turned out to be our key shopping places along with the Superstition Ranch Market for vegetables and fruit. We bought terrific blackberries and cherries there today!

Jeremiah is going on call for Papa Johns and we have elected to refrain from putting him on their weekly schedule. He has put about several thousand in bids for side work and we are praying at least one of these jobs will come to fruition. When seeking to get out of debt, we agree that gazelle-like intensity is key...so we have tried by getting Jeremiah this second job and I am so proud of him. The trying isn't over, but I miss him so much when he is gone and the weekends are miserable. I desperately need him home after working a 40 hour work week, even if we aren't necessarily interacting. I am so thankful for my husband and I am glad he has elected to continue to pursue his side work while not burning bridges at Papa Johns so that he can be home and available to his family.

So, that is that. Jeremiah can add whatever he thinks should be added. If you are following our journey or seeking to become debt free as well, we would love to hear from you!

A New Year, A Full 1k In The Bank

2009-01-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

We are starting 2009 strong at the Ware home. For the first time in months, dare say, years, we have a fully funded 1k in the bank for emergencies.

Jeremiah is working his second job at Papa Johns and trying to get side work to keep from doing that gig. I hate having him gone and my heart sinks when I see him in his uniform. I understand the necessity, though, and I hope God will honor our diligence as we seek to honor him by becoming debt free. I am doing all that I am able at Rio Salado and loving every minute with my Hannah-girl. Our baby boy, Ethan, is expected to arrive in May. He kicks constantly and I know he will be a busy little man.

We pray the Lord will bless you and us in the New Year with the ability to manage our money well, stay healthy, and live strong for him. We definitely screw up from time-to-time. Hopefully, that will be minimal this year. As we continue to take Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace for the 2nd time...we gain more and more conviction that we can do this. We can get out of debt. We will out run the cheetah!

A second job begun

2008-12-13T15:37:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah started his job with Papa Johns this afternoon. I find myself grinning and bearing it. I wanted him to stay home and forget it so badly this afternoon, but I know this is the right thing to do. Doing the right thing, sometimes, doesn't mean that it is enjoyable, I will tell you that. Please keep us in your prayers that our family life will handle this change well and the Lord will reward Jeremiah generously for his diligence.

Tid-bits including budget, a new washer, and financial peace

2008-12-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

We got paid today. It was glorious. Those few days before pay day are hard...it doesn't seem to matter how much I organize and prepare the $$. The budget was done in about 10 minutes and the bills paid in about 20 minutes. What a blessing. I praise God for our income. The end result is a couple hundred to put back in the emergency fund for the new washing machine that moved in on Wednesday!

Last Saturday, our washing machine broke. Upon making a few calls, we found out the machine is the original to the house (about 10 years old) and the cost to fix it was definitely more than the worth of the machine and about half of a new machine. We opted to use the emergency fund and buy a washing machine.

As I have mentioned previously, we are doing financial peace university again by Dave Ramsey. Before going to one of the last sessions, I was trying to talk Jeremiah into going ahead and buying a minivan. After the meeting, I looked at him and said..."We aren't buying a minivan, are we?"

"No, we aren't."

I love doing this series and as a result I look forward to the changes coming in our daily life such as a second job for Jeremiah as a pizza delivery guy for Papa Johns. I am really hoping for some free pizza. In all seriousness, though, we have always been proponents of walking through open doors with discernment and allowing God to close them. Jeremiah picked up the application several weeks ago and turned it in on Monday to find they are hiring all over for delivery people. He goes to orientation on Tuesday. Please keep us both in your prayers for this one.

And the washer is broken.

2008-11-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

Our washing machine broke yesterday. It won't spin or agitate. I told Jeremiah that since we are doing Dave Ramsey's class again and trying get right with Him that we will probably experience a fair bout of financial trials. Every time we get closer to God, the enemy fights hard. The cool thing is that I got all the really important laundry washed before it went on the fritz such as our bedding, jeans, underwear, a few shirts, and some workout clothes. I imagine the devil said, "Hey, I want to break their washing machine..." And the good Lord said, "Ok, just let Kim get a couple of loads washed first." Thank you, Lord!

So, tomorrow I will be calling whirlpool to determine if we will be fixing or buying. I am braced to buy. We have been reminded that when you have an emergency fund (which we do) when emergencies happen, they don't seem so bad. This is true. We don't feel particulalry stressed, but it is just more money to spend that we would rather use else where, you know?

Left Overs

2008-11-30T18:21:00.001-08:00

With our strides to get out of debt and save money we indulged in a round of left overs that I NEVER would have eaten prior to this big push. Today we had...left over chicken parmesean, garlic mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and frozen pizza for lunch. Nothing like some starches, huh?

Somethin' from Nothin' or Where There...

2008-11-23T15:06:00.001-08:00

Somethin' from Nothin' or Where There's a Ware There's a Way: You Decide!

Okay, Kim doesn't get all the credit for saving money at the grocery store. Props to me too, sometimes. Like today! Just now...10 minutes ago.

I just spent $8.38 at Fry's and saved an astounding $11.87. Let's do the math...
$8.38 plus $11.87 is $20.25.
11.87 divided by 20.25, carry the 1, divide by zero, amortize over 30 years, i before e, except after c...

That's an amazing 58% savings!

But how did I get there?

Problem:
We need breakfast food, mainly milk and OJ for tomorrow morning. Kim
asked if I would go get some so we could just relax tonight when she
got back in town.

I have to go to the store, buy 2 items and feel pooey because I wouldn't have saved very much money.

Background:
I was bach'ing it this weekend because Kim and Hannah went to San Diego.

We have almost no food in our refrigerator.

Friday was also pay day, which is when we normally plan our meals for the next 2 weeks and go grocery shopping.

If you paid attention to our recent post, you may have noticed that we like to shop at Fry's and save a ton of money. And usually the more you buy the more you save with manufacturer coupons and competitor coupons.

These two staples that I was commissioned to go get would most likely be on sale, but buying them now would lessen the chance to save money on our big grocery shop.

Solution:

Find a way to save as much money as possible on this small shop.

I stand up from the desk chair and sitting in front of my face is a Fresh and Easy coupon - Save $2 with the purchase of $10 or more. Light Bulb!

I look through the Fry's ad again. Milk and OJ are both on sale. $1.87 for a gallon of milk. OJ - 2 for $5...that's pretty good. But that's not even 7 bucks.

I run to the fridge and look for items that me might be missing and run back to my desk and search the ad one more time.

Hmm...50% bacon sale...ehh...we already have some...

There it is! 50% off Kroger Shredded or Bar Cheese. We, read Hannah, go through cheese like crazy!

So, I'm out the door. My plan...2 gallons of milk, 2 cartons of OJ, a bar of cheese, 2 'five' dollar bills, a Fresh and Easy coupon for $2 off, and my Fry's V.I.P. card to get the savings at Fry's'.

Salvation!

But not the Jesus type of Salvation. I encourage you to read about that here or here if you don't already know about that.

I paid my $10 and my change was $1.62 - enough to run to Quick Trip and get a 32 oz. Frozen Cappuccino for the second day in a row. I'm in trouble now!

So how many times does it take before something becomes a habit?

Back to the Baby Steps

2008-11-23T12:30:00.001-08:00

Caution: This has been in draft mode for a couple weeks. Some of the dates/days may not make sense now.

With all that has been going on with the economy, housing market, and the bailout - I thought it was time to hear what Dave Ramsey had to say about it all. I admit that I hadn't listened to Dave for almost 2 years. I still have a hard time believing that it has been that long, but I was about 100% sure that Dave wouldn't have changed a bit in his thinking and advice. And I was correct!

So last Thursday at work I downloaded Dave's 3 most recent podcasts (which are always one day behind) into iTunes and began to listen. It was refreshing. All 3 editions were about the bailout and his position on the economy and he took calls from people who were frantically worried about losing all their money. In true Dave Ramsey style, he 'virtually' slapped them across the face, told them to grow up, stay put with their finances/investments and to quit making big financial decisions with their emotions.

In addition, he helped his listeners understand sort of, how and why all this craziness is happening.

I have now gotten back in the habit of listening every day and hope to keep it up for a while, even if it means I'm a little less productive for 30 minutes while listening to him.

What this brings me back to, though, is the 7 Baby Steps that Dave lives by and instructs his audience to live by on a daily basis - to get out of debt, become wealthy and change the family tree.

With housing prices so low right now, it would be really easy for me to buy some investment properties. But I would have to take out 97% mortgages (if that's even possible with the tightening restrictions) on these just like my primary residence,because I am still heavily in debt and have no savings to make a proper down payment. Some financial people think this isn't a bad idea as long as the properties have an income that covers the mortgages and generates positive cash flow. But...

But Dave, who agrees that this is the best time to buy houses since the great depression, does not suggest doing the above. It's foolish, and one of the reasons there are so many foreclosures in the first place. He says get out of debt, have your 3-6 months of living expenses and retirement savings fully invested, make sure you have a significant down payment, and only a 15 year (or less) fixed mortgage. Basically, don't veer off of the baby steps even though now may be the best time to buy.

What are the 7 Baby Steps anyway?

1. $1000 Emergency Fund

2. Debt Snowball

3. Fully funded emergency fund with 3-6 months living expenses

4. Retirement savings (15 percent of your income)

5. College savings

6. Pay off house early

7. Build wealth.

Unfortunately for us, we're still on baby step 2. So I'm not buying investment properties for us right now. But this is the attitude and behavior that I was mentioning in my previous post. I'm taking control of my finances and not letting the emotion of "buying while its hot and on sale" lure me into making bad financial moves. If I want to buy some investment properties, I need to be debt free!

Please pray for us as we prepare to take the necessary steps to accelerate the debt snowball in 2009.

And make a commitment to get out of debt with us. Let's change the course of our country's economic future one baby step at a time.

Gift Cards and Government Bailouts

2008-11-20T05:32:00.000-08:00

I am posting a snippet from an email forward about something that is going on in the retail business sector. I'm sure most of you have heard about it on the new, because they are talking about it every night it seems.

I'm talking about the gift card issue that is a result of many businesses closing some or all of their stores as a result of the current economic situation. Before I post I want to get on my soapbox for a minute...

The title of this post includes 'Government Bailouts', but I'm not actually talking about those. I'm only including it because it has become this overarching, kind of sentiment or line of thought. It's hard to describe, but it mostly has to do with thinking that the government is responsible for the current economic crisis and YOUR economic situation. It's a fear that "times are really bad right now and I need the government to help me out or I'm going to lose everything." And this fear/emotion is running rampant in business as well, because humans are in control of businesses, therefore, their [humans] fears come with them into the workplace.

Please STOP allowing this fear/emotion to run your life and ruin many peoples' lives in the process. The government cannot fix your economic situation - only YOU can. Take control of your own economy!

Ok, so back to the gift card issue. It does relate to bailouts you see. GET OUT OF DEBT, work your job like you love it, get an extra job (I'm doing that very soon), save for your future, and start spending money at your favorite retail establishments.

No business should go 'out of business' as long as people are still buying their products. Don't wait until the store is going out of business and discounting everything 90%. Every store I have every been in has had clearance sales and other great sales through the years. By all means, take advantage of the sales, don't ever pay full retail price for something, and only buy it if you can pay cash for it. Then we won't have to worry about the follow:

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankrupcy Planning. Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

Circuit City - (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor - 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's - to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer - to close 27 stores and more after January
Cache - will close all stores
Talbots - closing down specialty stores
J. Jill - closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear â€“ closing all stores (also owned by Talbots)
GAP - closing 85 stores
Footlocker - closing 140 stores more to close after Januaryr>Wickes Furniture - closing downr>Levitz - closing down remaining stores
Bombay - closing remaining storesr>Zales - closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall - closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda - closing all stores
Disney - closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot - closing 15 storesr>Macys - to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things - closing all stores
Movie Galley - closing all stores
Pep Boys - closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel - closing 133 storesr>JC Penney - closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen - closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather - closing down all stores
Sharper Image - closing down all stores
K B Toys - closing 356 stores
Loews - to close down some stores
Dillard's - to close some stores

The Effect of Pregnancy on the Grocery Budget

2008-11-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

I am not a big believer of using pregnancy as an "excuse" for much, however, I adamantly argue that pregnancy has taken a huge toll on our grocery budget. We have done well with our budget and generally stayed within our limits, but darn it...I want to eat out every SINGLE day! I don't feel like cooking, I don't want to eat fruits and vegetables handled by my hands, I want to eat delicious steak, french fries, sandwiches, yummy salmon and greens, and all other kinds of deliciousness prepared by the hands of another...in another's kitchen...in a atmosphere that is not my kitchen.

And so goes my life...sigh.

Accountability

2008-11-09T05:45:00.000-08:00

Well, you are probably wondering what we have decided to do about going to the wedding. Now that it is November 9th, it seems that we should have made a decision. We did. It isn't ideal and it certainly doesn't align with our mission to get out of debt. As a Christian couple, we are sinners and though we strive to always do the right thing...a lot of times we don't...consiously and not consciously. This isn't an excuse, but we do want to be transparent. This is a tough time for many in the land of $$. We weren't prepared for an expense like this and we have thus learned a significant lesson.

Here is the decision: We took out a 0% loan on our credit card in the amount of $1700 plus an additional sum for expenses. This sucks. The silver lining, however, is that it has a 0% APR until August 2009. To keep our travel expenses as low as possible, I (Kim) am flying out with our daughter on 12/17 and Jeremiah is following on 12/24. We are all returning together a few days later. Taking this route saved us a good $500. We told our family, that we can't really pay for anything while we are in KY...so I hope they plan on feeding us. ;-)

The outlook for 2009 includes Jeremiah taking a second job. We now have about 17k on one credit card at a 0% until August 2009. This includes the car loan. Then we have about 28k on student loans at a low rate through Sallie Mae. We are going to wrap the credit card up for sure in 2009!

Our church is starting a financial peace workshop on 11/18/08 by Dave Ramsey. Love him! We are also considering taking that again. Since we have already taken it, I believe we can take it again for free. If you have never taken a Dave Ramsey course, it is worth the investment for the materials (about $100). It will change your life and your money.

The big lesson we have learned is about being prepared and why it is so important to be out of debt. I pray the Lord will forgive us for taking on more debt and help us get out so we can stop being slaves to the lender. I am thankful because I know the Lord hears this prayer and I know He is with us. Praise God!

Alluded by $1300 need, make that $1600

2008-10-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

I am writing to ask for prayer and discernment. I do have a lot of people in my class at Rio, but I haven't seen it come through as I thought it would.

We still need over $1k to fly to KY for the wedding. We don't have it. I don't feel anything so much about it as I want to know how it is all going to shake out. Prices continue to soar. I know it will all work out as it should.

My specific prayer is thus: We are waiting on $558 dollars to come through. Should it come, I am praying that a DING will come through southwest with flights for $99 each way from PHX to Louisville departing on 12/24, 12/25, or 12/26 and returning on 12/28. Right now DINGs have shown up until 12/20. So, I am guessing within a week or so, they should start to exceed that.

We will see...if this doesn't shake out, I pray the Lord will just show us what to do.

We tag teamed Fry's Grocery Store.

2008-10-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we decided to shop for most of our groceries at Fry's. Since they are now accepting competitor's coupons, we thought we would use Fresh and Easy's buy $20, get $5 off. So, we had two coupons. We shopped together and then divided the groceries to pay separately. I can't make up my mind if this is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do since one is technically only supposed to use one coupon at a time, right? I am not sure.

End of story: We bought about $40 worth of groceries (beautiful (on sale) New York Strip steaks included) and saved about $50 total. We saved more than we bought!

Lord? We need $1300.

2008-10-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah's youngest brother is getting married Dec. 27th 2008. Congrats! We couldn't be more pleased for them. Our project now is to come up with $1300 so we can get to the wedding. These are the cheapest tickets I have been able to find for the 3 of us.

In a passing prayer I said, "Lord, please give me a bunch of students in my next class so I can make more money." It really was a quick, nonchalant prayer.

Well, yesterday while I was working I noticed a bunch of alerts that students had been put into my class starting on 10/13/08. I thought, "Holy moly, how many students are in there? This has to be a system error." I checked the roster. No error. I have 25 students enrolled in my class. Praise the Lord! This is a pretty big class. My work load is going to increase I will probably whine about it here and there...but GOD is so good. I should see the monetary increase by the end of the month and hopefully, we will be able to purchase the tickets.

Lesson- God hears everything, especially what say and think directly towards him. He knows our hearts and he can do anything he wants in and with our lives. We just have to ask and wait for the answer. Over the past few weeks I have found myself remembering and proclaiming the promise: He makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him.