Day 83 - Sorry I've been a stranger...

Ugh. Life. It has been getting in my way of doing things. Things like this blog and searching out coupons and having fun.

I have a lot to recap for you. Lets start with February. Mid-February I got off of my game to some extent. Three weeks in a row I forgot to get the Sunday paper. That meant few new coupons for me to use. I was still searching out deals at the grocery store. I bought some canned vegetables for pretty cheap a couple of times, but nothing like the barn burning "Cantastic" sale of January. I continued to use food that I already had on hand to make meals, and make those meals stretch. There were a lot more trips to the grocery store, though. I didn't plan as well as I could have.

Also, with February being a short month, and the weather being horribly bad at times, we had a little less income coming in on my husbands end. That's not his fault, just the way it goes sometimes. I was only able to pay off 3% of our mortgage with the payment that was due in the beginning of March. Three percent is still something, but I know I could have done better had I done a better job keeping my eye on the prize.

March brought us a new home improvement project: new carpet for the second story of our house. The old carpet was the same as was there when my husband bought the house 14 years ago, and wasn't great back then. The kids also switched rooms at the same time. This meant that we had to repaint the walls, freshen up the trim and purchase a few incidentals to make the switch successful. Before you roll your eyes, I did a really stellar job (in my opinion) of keeping costs down during this big project. I gave my son a headboard I had been hoarding in the basement for years and repainted a desk and dresser to match so he would have a fresh "new" bedroom set. I used paint we already had leftover from the living room to paint the walls in his room. I gave him a comforter we already had but is still in great condition and is super comfy. I made new art for his room and recycled a lamp from the basement too. For my daughters room we bought paint and a new bed frame for her which I got for cheap from Craigslist.  I repainted another dresser we already owned for her new closet/dressing room. I also made some new decorations for her room which cost me a total of $15.

All in all, I think we did the best job we could have not spending extra money on the whole shebang, and, we got a huge bang for our few bucks. It looks really great up there now! Oh, one more thing, a majority of the money we spent came out of our savings which won't impact our plan to pay off the mortgage.

At the end of February/beginning of March we also had to spend some money getting an old car we own up and running again for our oldest. Thankfully, it was a fairly cheap fix! And my husband got to have the opportunity to teach him how to drive a stick shift. I'm surprised we didn't incur some medical expenses in that process. :)

So now that everything in my house is back in it's place I can focus on the task at hand. Today's Sunday which means I need to remember to get the paper.... ;)

Our Story

It hasn't always been an easy road for my husband and I, financially speaking. In the early years of our marriage we struggled to make ends meet. To be honest, there were times that I never thought it would get better. But it did. We haven't always made the best financial decisions but we've gotten better over the years.  We've gotten to a place that I never thought I'd ever be considering where I came from. For the four years after our daughter was born I didn't work. It was hard on me, not since childhood had I been financially reliant on another person. It scared the crap out of me. We muddled through though. I went back to work and when I decided to quit that job for another lower paying position, my husband stood behind me and supported my decision. I can't say I've always been so supportive of his decisions where money is concerned, but he's always made it work out for the better, just like he said he would.

As you may have deduced from reading the past two posts, my husband and I come from very similar circumstances, but have taken different paths in dealing with it. Sometimes this causes issues to arise. I am a spender, he is a saver. I don't understand why it doesn't matter to him if the table matches the chairs, he doesn't understand why I care if they do. He'd rather look at the cash in his hand, I'd rather look at the pretty shiny thing I probably spent too much money for.

Taking into consideration the lives that we have both lived, and the fact that like most other parents, we want our kids to have a better life than we did, we have been careful in our messages about money to our kids. We have been fortunate enough to be able to give our kids everything they need and some of what they want. We could have given them more, but we think it's important for them to learn early on that they need to work for luxuries in life, just as we did. We are so open about this that our older two kids know we can afford to buy them what they want, but don't, and it's for their own good! Yeah, I'm sure they hate us for that. We talk to them about what things cost and how we budget our money. When we make big purchases we explain how we saved our money to do so. They are well aware of why we have made the decision to never buy things on credit if we don't have to. We have spoken frankly with them about why we decided to get rid of cable tv and why we aren't eating out and the other sacrifices we are making to be able to accomplish our goal. We've talked to them about why it's a smart decision at this time in our lives. I hope someday they will take what we have said and what they have seen, apply it to their own lives, and do a better job of it than we have. That's the American Dream, isn't it?

Being able to pay off our mortgage in the short term means that we will have more freedom. We need to start planning for our future and paying off a big hunk of debt will free up some money for us to do so. We aren't getting any younger. The time is now. If we don't start being proactive about our retirement we won't have one.

Paying off our mortgage also takes a huge weight off of my shoulders. My husband has an extremely dangerous job and I am a lunch lady. Should the worst happen to him, at least I won't have to worry about bringing home as much bacon as he does just to get by. Should I kick the bucket the money I make would probably hardly be missed. The cleaning and cooking I do sure would be though. ;) Not having the burden of a mortgage means that my husband won't have to work so much, which means his body will be in better shape for longer, which is good for our family. I'd like him to be around as long as possible so he can talk me to death every night between 10 and 10:30 pm.

If we don't manage to be able to pay off our mortgage in the near future, it won't be the end of the world. We aren't special. We aren't any better than anyone else, but, we are determined. We are resilient. We are strong. It's what we're made of. :)