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.... ;)

Day 53 - His Story

Hmm....I guess I'm supposed to tell "my story". I don't know what I really think of this blog. It's somewhat outside of my comfort zone in terms of privacy. That being said, I suppose I'd rather tell my own story than have it told for me. I'll be as brief as possible....maybe.

My mom didn't drink. She wasn't a drug user. She probably didn't deserve to be in the place she was in life back then but that's where she found herself and I had no choice but to be there with her. As a young child I obviously didn't understand that we were poor. I was used to my life and I think my mom did her best to make sure that me feeling loved was the most important thing. So there we were...me, her and my brother. We moved...a lot. When we moved it was usually in a hurry. We normally didn't get to take everything we would have liked to take. I originally typed out what I thought was a long story and decided to delete it. Instead, I will just say that I know what it's like to not have utilities, the newest toy or even a place to live. At a young age I realized that nobody was going to give me anything more than I already had. If I wanted something I would have to figure out how to get it for myself. You may think that this reflects negatively on my mom in my own mind but it doesn't. In fact, it's probably the greatest thing she ever gave me and she didn't even realize it at the time. I grew up with very little, around people who had very little but always had enough to share and enough heart to want to share. I lost "everything" enough times that I learned the most valuable things can't really be lost or taken.

I moved to Iowa to live with my dad after my freshman year of high school. It was the 13th time I had transferred schools since 1st grade. I had made many friends along the way but always knew that those friendships would be short lived. We would move again soon enough. That was the way things were. In Iowa everything was different. I found friends who are still friends today. I found stability that I always knew other people had. That's great but I didn't lose my view of possessions. I don't live or value my life based on what I have. To me...a table is just a table. It's nice if it matches everything else but it's not something I worry about very much. Perhaps the table will fall apart and I will have to get another one...if I want to. It's only a thing and it's a thing I probably can live without.

As a young adult I started to find financial success. Looking back, I was kind of amused with my purchasing power. I had never been in that position. As fate would have it, I met a man who was very wealthy...and when I say wealthy I mean the kind of money that you don't even get winning the lottery. I knew him for almost a year before I realized how much money he had. You would never know it if you met him. He drove a plain truck with no AC and just a plain radio. He dressed just like everyone else. He was as humble of a man as you could meet. He would go out and work with my tree crews and keep up with the young guys. He surely never had to but he did. I also know that he gives away more money to charity in 6 months than most people make in a year or two...or even three. Those are the kind of charities that helped me have a decent meal when I was a kid. I bet he will never know how much on an influence he was on me at that age. I never expected it myself. He is someone who never forgot where he came from and his attitude probably ensured that I never would either. I've probably never said it but that old man is one of my heros and if I ever grow up I hope to be like him.

So here we are. I can't go buy some piece of shit from the mall that I didn't want anyway. Big deal. It just means that I don't have to waste the gas driving over there and an afternoon walking around looking at nothing. After proofreading this post, my wife thinks that this last paragraph is an abrupt change. Fair enough. People may be happier if abrupt change didn't bother them so much.

Day 42 - The first big payment

Ok, first of all, sorry this is so late. I have been mulling over how much additional principal to send along with our January mortgage payment. To be honest, I've been a little scared to send the money. I keep thinking something catastrophic will happen and we will need that money. In reality, before this experiment I would have spent it all away by now anyway. I probably could have sent a little more than I did. Hopefully I'll get over this fear in the coming months.

I am proud to announce that we have paid off 7% of our mortgage this month! While I had been hoping for more, I'd still consider that a victory. I know that I'm going to have to work a little harder to be able to meet our goal by the end of the year. I've learned some things in this last month I can apply going forward. I didn't expect that I'd do it all perfectly from the get-go. I'm hoping to be rocking it by the fourth month. Kind of like  pregnancy, but easier. Ha!

I was lucky to be able to apply some coupons at the grocery store today to food items that were already on sale, thus reaping a greater savings. I've been working on trying to look for those types of opportunities.

This month we have done an excellent job of not eating out and not buying clothes or things for the house. I was recently invited to a makeup party and declined (sadly) because that does not fit within "the rules". I have been using products that I am not in love with until they are all gone in an effort to not have to purchase a replacement.

Honestly, I can say that I have not felt like I was missing out on anything by not spending money. I have had a weekend or two where I would have loved nothing more than to go to Target and get some "retail therapy", but I did not. And guess what? I'm still here to tell you about it! I am not as well dressed, however. ;)

Thanks to everyone out there who have shared tips and tricks! Thanks for reading. Thanks for being in our corner, silently or not. :)