The End is Nigh

Remember me?? I am sure if you are reading this (all 13 followers LOL) I most likely talk to you in everyday life, so you know that I have just been crazy as of late and neglected my poor, sad, little family blog. I don’t even know where to start on catching up. It is 2012 now and I have made my Resolutions, started a “lifestyle change” (it is not a diet  ) celebrated my baby girls ¼ year birthday and preparing for Porter to turn 2 (where the heck did that time go?) and returned back to work. Sigh. It has been hectic.

So, I decided, I will try and catch up my blog on our Resolutions and new pics and such but the place I really want to start is a place very near and dear to my heart (and my wallet). It is a new beginning of an entire different reality in Neil and I’s life, our marriage and our family in 2012. It has been 16 months in the making. I call it, Operation Smith family finance/budgeting. …… Here it is, within the next 30 days, we are going to be consumer debt free!! Can you hear me squealing through your computer…. Cause I am. 16 loooong, hard, hard months are finally paying off. The sacrifice was big but the reward is SO worth it.

Neil gave me permission to share our final pay off number, in hopes that it will inspire or encourage other families to stick with a commitment for a debt free life. What a guy huh?! He pulled his credit report this morning (which has gone up 50 pts or so) so we got the real digits as in how much debt we have paid down, as well as a current credit score. We have our tax return coming that will pay off the final bit. As I said before, we started 16 months ago and within 30 days from now, we will have paid off a whopping … drum roll please……$60,000 in consumer debt. Ugh. That hurts to see in black and white.

We started off what I thought to be a pretty typical American family. We had 2 car loans, we were paying off our wedding, we bought an appliance package, invested in a second home, etc. etc. We have never been the type of people to spend frivolously on credit cards. We always pay our bills, lived pretty comfortably. It was kind of a shock when we did the finally tally. How the heck did THAT happen?! How did we spend that much money and not put the big picture together?! Maybe because cars didn’t equal card card debt in our minds but it is still a monthly payment. Or maybe because we got 0% interest on lots of it, we never thought to question. I am not sure. All I know is….. we had a lot of leakage and something had to change STAT. With children in the mix it became pressing, we decided together on a debt free life (besides mortgages and student loans, that’s next!).

So, the lil accountant that I am, sought a system that would work for us and not allow us to “cheat” easily. I knew we would if we could. My friend Sarah introduced me to Dave Ramsey. I checked him out and for the most part I really liked his viewpoints and ideas. Some, I strongly disagree with but for the family finance stuff, it looked pretty good. I didn’t want to use his generic worksheets so I wrote one specifically for our family. I used his concept of a “0 balance budget” meaning at the end of every paycheck the final number is 0. Every dollar has a place. I created an Excel spreadsheet, wrote down every bill, looked at what we could afford each month as an “extra payment” and did the simple math. Whatever we had leftover each paycheck; we took out in cold, hard cash money, honey.  This was what we lived on. That money had to cover food, eating out, entertainment, clothes, haircuts, house stuff, Costco trips and the whole she bang. When it was gone, it was gone. Some pay cycles, not gonna lie, were really, really, really hard. Also, at the bottom of the spreadsheet, I tracked the balance of every credit card or loan and subtracted all the payments. This allowed us to see our monthly progress and always have a snapshot of what our total debt number was.

Sounds easy enough and on paper, it is. It is MUCH harder to put into action. But a modified cash system worked really well for us. We had to physically see the money leaving our hands. We thought twice about Starbucks, hated breaking $100 bills and sometimes would see how little we could get by on to roll over money for a present, a nice dinner out or a splurge. I sold things on Craigslist to fund things I wanted for the kids, we had a garage sale and we saved our change. It was sometimes tedious and frustrating. Did we slip up sometimes? Sure did. We are human. But not too often or so much we haven’t recovered. We took one vacation to San Diego and saved up to pay cash for that and we were so frugal while we were there, we came home with $200! Perhaps the biggest sacrifice was me continuing to work. It was really heartbreaking to put Porter in daycare. I had massive amounts of mommy guilt over it. But, when we started, we couldn’t make it work safely without my income. This was probably the biggest motivator to pay the MOST we could on each card every month. We had one (and along the way one became 2) HUGE reasons to stick with it. It was a 16 month sacrifice for my kids too. We spend pretty much every waking moment we are not working as a family, so in the end, it has worked out but it has been heartbreaking at times.

I really thought we would never get here. Stuff kept coming up. We had Scarlett, medical bills, car repairs, our water heater exploded and on and on and on. This was not without setback. Two steps forward and an inevitable step back. I couldn’t imagine the spot that we are at right now. I cannot tell you how freeing it feels. I am so grateful I could just burst. I am so thankful for our good jobs, good luck and willingness to both be on the same financial page and work like hell together. Debt free life is a reality that I have yet to live in, but I can’t wait. Before it has even begun, I think we both would tell you it is 100,000% worth it.

We are pretty committed to it now. We aren’t 100% out of the woods. We still have a mortgage and some student loans. We are so into it now, we want those gone too. Can you imagine living with NO mortgage?!?! When I started this, I could never conceive of such a thing. Now, I have seen what we did in 16 months and even if it takes 10-15 years, we will get there. Neil and I both crave the freedom of owning nothing to nobody. What different choices we would make if we could support our family on $1,000 a month?! Money compounds fast with no bills! I am hoping someday, that will be our reality.

Where do we go from here? Our debt goals now become savings goals. Save, save, save is the name of the game now. The economy scares me. I want an emergency fund saved. While we have paid of a lot, we have saved nothing. But first, we are rewarding ourselves (cash only though, tee he). We have decided to finally take a honeymoon and we are thinking of going to Spain. We have saved some cash back rewards on the credit card Neil uses for business travel and he won fantasy football last year and we saved that too, specifically for this very thing. We are going to use points, miles and discounts to do it, but it is our final reward and a send off into a new chapter in our life. It has been a dream of mine since I was little to travel to Europe and it is finally coming true! Neil and I are already brainstorming ideas and ways to be “cash only” in Europe too. I guess we are just used to it now. It is finally all compounding together and the results are becoming real.

So, this is where I end/begin this lengthy post! It is most certainly our biggest achievement other than getting married and having kids and a helluva way to start off 2012. This will be an amazing year. I cannot wait to give back some of our good fortune and I feel more blessed than I ever have in my life. Dave says “live like no one else so that you can live like no one else” and we are certainly gonna give it our best shot.

Gallery Walls

I have grand ambitions for a lot of things around our house. I am getting the itch to paint and do more decorating than I have. And a new color scheme.... I have something in mind for every room. Sigh. Hopefully I will get there bit by bit in 2012. I am all about the DIY. Just gotta rope the hubby in for some projects (he is running away as he reads this I am sure).

First, I really want to do a gallery wall. I wanna do one up our staircase and above our couch. They are all the rage now and so neat. I have all the frames, I just need to do it.... but I have no Earthly clue where to begin! They are harder than you would think to line up and get together. It gives me anxiety so I stop before I start but I just LOVE them. And how do I get the right mix of frames and styles and make it look effortless?

I may paint some frames and I want to wait for our new pictures but this is a task I hope to accomplish. Has anyone ever done something like this?? Tips, trick or opinions? I am afraid my spacing will be off and I am OCD about that stuff and I will have to start all over. But, I cannot wait to display our new family pictures and I want to finally put some of our wedding pictures up. I think I will have to just bite the bullet and try it.

The Second Time Around

I get asked a lot (by people with pained looks on their faces) about how I am doing with two kids so close in age. It is only natural I suppose. My kids are 20 months apart. I got lots of warnings before I had Scarlett about the exhaution, the inability to get anything done and the overwhelmingness and frustration I would feel now that my life was so "busy".

Sure, some days I experience those feelings. I have had some long nights and frustrations with my obstinate toddler. But really.... not half as bad as I thought or was made to think. Now, I know that I am a whopping 3.5 weeks into the business but so far so good. I really enjoy being a mom. I love, love, love being home with my kids. Do I get annoyed... sure. But I remind myself I used to sit in a quiet cube all day and play accountant.

Now, I get up every day and think about what fun things I can do with Porter. There are morning snuggles, giggle fits and the inevitable tantrums. There are walks in the gorgeous weather, park trips and sunshine. Truth be told.... it is bliss (most days). And the little one... she comes along for the ride. I realize now how easy newborns are and how easy I had it with one. But we do stuff and go places. The second child doesn't have the luxury of sitting around the house for 6 weeks. Nope, we get up and go every day.

There are a couple things I think helped me. One, natural childbirth post partums are UH-mazing. Thanks to no drugs and my short labor, I felt great pretty much right away. I was completely physically healed in about 8 days (those that have had a baby can read between the lines on that one). So that helped a lot. Two, BABYWEARING. I kinda, sorta got into it with Porter but with Scarlett, it is a lifesaver. I am not sure how parents have multiple kids and not wear them! I wrap her daily. She loves it and I have two hands. Three, I nurse. This (and running after Porter) has allowed me to lose all my pregnancy weight in two weeks and best of all, you can nurse anywhere! It is easy, always with me and fast. I struggled with nursing with Porter and after the first week, nursing has been great with the lil bug.

I am for sure not trying to brag or paint a picture of perfection. Trust me, you won't find any of that around here. More like a picture of reality. I am sitting in a room scattered with toys and there are two piles of laundry that need to be put away. My house isn't HGTV ready and I have not a lick of makeup on but mostly, I am in heaven. I decided it is all about perspective. If I concentrated on different things (like the toddler that has said "mama" 10 times in the past 5 seconds but doesn't need anything) then I would get more swallowed up. But for now, I concentrate on the kids, doing at least something around the house every day, getting a shower in and cooking yummy meals. And I can handle that much.... for now.