One Step At A Time

Lately, we have had some weird things happen at the house that has caused us to get a little off track with the budget. In spite of these things, we have not touched our emergency fund and have just found other ways around these emergencies. Our dryer and our stove are busted. We are renting and the land lord had us call a appliance warranty company but for both appliances they claim are unfix-able and not under warranty. We are waiting to hear back from the land lords to see what they want to do about it, but nothing yet. The dryer is a simpler problem to work around because we can take the clothes to our parents house and wash them while we visit, Felicia's mom will sometimes take a couple of loads and do them herself for us, or we can go to the laundry mat. The stove on the other hand is little more difficult especially since we don't like to cook anyway and now we have to learn to bake instead of cooking Hamburger Helper. I am kidding but when we cook it is pretty bas...

WE DID IT!!!! We have finished Baby Step 1!!! We have a $1000.00 Emergency Fund!!!! Right now, it feels good to have $1,000.00 in savings. Checking off this step has encouraged us to keep going and we are ready to tackle Step 2, which is to pay off our debt using the Debt Snowball. Felicia and I worked hard to accomplish this. We had to hold each other accountable to sticking to the budget we both agreed to. It is not easy, especially when you get invited to parties, dinners, and going out with friends, but we are doing good saying no when the money isn't there. Living on the envelope system is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. If the cash is there, we use it and if it is not, we don't spend it. We are working on taking this momentum and applying it to our debt snowball. Because we budget and stick to it, we knew what day we were hitting this goal and budgeted some celebration money. Felicia and I got her parents to watch the kids while we went to dinner at L...

Last Friday, I saw what Gazelle Intensity looks like when a spouse has it. I did not know what it was at first; I saw Felicia getting mad and frustrated and I tried to step in. Felicia and I were talking about not being able to go to the Taste of Dallas or not being able to buy something that we needed, and she got frustrated. What I was expecting from us was that we would temporarily lose our minds and do what we wanted to do. But before I could react, Felicia pulled out the envelope system and started placing cash in the right envelopes according to the budget. She was getting frustrated because she thought that the math was not working out, but she ended up being right on with the figures. I saw her saying that this was too hard to do so I took over the envelopes and checked the math. She had it right. I started to say something like "it's going to be tough but we need to keep at it" or something to that effect that could come off as encouraging or lecturing. I ...

This week, we do not have class due to the 4th of July. All this week will allow us to continue to put into effect some of the things we learned. Our budget is still on track, we have had to make some adjustments but not from under budgeting. There were a couple of categories where we budgeted too much money, so we re-allocated those funds. The thought behind the re-allocation is to not have money floating around, but to spend every dollar. I even got an extra $8 dollars in my paycheck that helped us with some of the 4th of July expenses. The nervousness I was feeling after we did the budget has helped us stay on track. We try to make sure every dollar is well spent and it feels good. The next time we get paid is 07/10/09 and we are pretty sure our money will last that long. I was really nervous about the grocery envelope, it is getting kind of low, but I just looked in the kitchen and we have enough food to last until payday. However, we still may need to get some bread, milk...

On the 24th of this month, Felicia and I sat together and had our first Budget Committee Meeting. We instituted Dave's rules and got through the meeting without an argument. The goal of the meeting was to produce a realistic budget for the month of July and we thought we did. One of the rules for me was to shut up and give the budget to Felicia. That was hard to do. My hands were actually shaking when I handed her the budget and had to watch her make changes to it. In the middle of our meeting, the part where she looks it over and makes changes, I had to run to the store to get diapers for the kids and when I came back she explained the changes and how she made the changes balance to zero again. Her changes were reasonable and we agreed to the budget. I am pretty sure we both felt good about the budget and were looking forward to putting into effect. The next morning while I was getting ready for work I realized we forgot to budget for some very important items. We actually...

Last Sunday was our 3rd class in Financial Peace University, and we talked about the the dreaded B-word, Budget. Since I read Total Money Makeover months ago, we have been doing the budget and have posted several times about it. Therefore, I am not going to go over every detail of this past Sunday's class, but will discuss some of the issues I have with budgeting so far. I believe if I keep honestly critiquing us and our money management, it will help us in the long run to win with money. Having a lot of money is not the desired result of this process, the results we are looking for are Financial Peace, retire with dignity, and pursue some of our dreams later in life. Below are just some of the things and habits that gets in our way of achieving our goals. One of the things that I do that absolutely does not work is create the budget and never look at it again. I work hard to make a zero based budget and making sure every dollar has a name, but never pull out the game plan to m...

This past Sunday was our 2nd class in FPU and it was about money and relationships. During the class, I could not help but look back at how Felicia and I have handled money and our relationship. We have always gotten along real well but when it came to money fights, we were seasoned fighters. Looking back, we had a lot of unnecessary fights. In a nutshell, it was her job to pay the bills and my job to complain about what happened to all the money. Honestly, that is how it was. I let her pay all the bills, then I would ask how much we had left and when I did not like the answer, I would launch an investigation into the matter. Understandably, she would take offense to the Spanish Inquistion and then the gloves would go on and 12 rounds later nothing would be solved. In hindsight, we both played a part in our financial mess. I chose to turn a blind eye to it and not deal with it; and she would deal with the financial stress with Ebay therapy. We have both gotten a lot better. I ...

A budget is not something you put off. When we do our budget, it helps us stay on track. In the past, I have written about getting off track but even during those times a budget kept us from going overboard. This time around we kept putting it off and putting it off and just kept spending without a plan. This laziness has hurt us and it pushes us further away from our goals. When we got paid on the15th, we did pretty good and had some extra cash in our envelopes at the end of the two weeks. This paycheck, I know we have spent more than we brought in and had to go tap into savings for non-emergencies. When this happens, it feels like I have let my family down. I am the one who is going to set the example for my children and their money. I could always just spin it and tell them that this is an example of what not to do. I know the habits that we are supposed to have that will make this work. It starts with making the budget. Duh! It needs to be done in order to make the money behave. W...

There are a lot of foreclosures in the Dallas area now and everyone is saying this is the best time for us to buy a home, but I am hesitant to do so. Listening to Dave Ramsey , I know it is the best time to buy if you have the money and I do not have the money right now. Felicia and I want to make sure our house is a blessing and not a burden. Currently, my job is to help people who are 5 to 6 months behind on their mortgage. Right now, the modifications are being pushed to lower interest rates and/or reduce principle balances so homeowners can get lower payments. I always try to be sympathetic to everyone's situation but for a lot of people I cannot put myself in their shoes. I understand having hardships because loss of income, medical bills, divorces, deaths in family, and things like this. But what gets me is when you start to go over their budgets, you start to see misplaced priorities. I tried to understand and help every client by putting myself in their shoes, I un...

We are still trying to get back on track with our money plan, and I am trying to remind myself what motivated me in the first place. Last June, we found out we were having our second child and that made me stop and evaluate where we were financially. Honestly, I did not like it. This is what I saw: no savings, renting a small house that would not be big enough for all four of us, knowing that Felicia would not get paid on maternity leave, and $20,000 worth of debt. Stressing out about our current financial status lead me to a billboard I kept seeing on my way home. This billboard had a picture of a bald guy on it and the words “Act your Wage”. I started to realize that we were not acting our wage and digging ourselves deeper into trouble. I changed the radio station to hear what this bald guy had to say and immediately realized this guy made a lot of sense, especially for people in our situation. I began to research the bald guy online, and found out that his name was Dave Rams...

I have not posted anything in awhile and so I am going to try and catch up on everything that has gone on. Starting To Turn It Around I feel like we are starting to turn our downward spiral around. The week before our son's birthday party we spent way too much money and still had to pay for a party. Initially, we had planned a low budget party and we kept to that game plan. I thought it came out nice and Anthony had a good time. I think Felicia has the gazelle intensity now because she got after me the other day. On my late day for work, I thought I did not have time to make my lunch so I decided to buy lunch and when Felicia found out she nearly hit the roof. She looked at me and reminded me of the sacrifices we need to make now to get where we want to be. At first I was offended, who is she to be getting after me for buying lunch? Later in the day, she looked at the bank account online and discovered that I also bought breakfast instead of making it because I thought I di...

So far it has been a horrible start to the New Year as far as budgeting goes. I am not trying to make excuses, but we need to find out why we are doing so bad. I think I know...we are getting anxious about the birth of our daughter. Felicia has been feeling bad the last couple of weeks and this week she has been having irregular contractions. We keeping coming up with excuses not to cook or to buy something we really don't need. Deep down we know we are just trying relieve stress or make ourselves feel better at that moment. Now is the time to stop and tighten the ropes a little bit. Felicia has stopped working two weeks before we planned, but the good news is that we did so good in savings that we have enough in an emergency fund to survive. Thanks for the advice on that one, Dave Ramsey! We stockpiled some cash and now we need to be careful in how we spend it. It would be a shame to do so well and then manage those funds poorly. Even though we have done poorly this mont...

We did the budget and the breakdown by pay dates and thought we were all set. And BAM!!! We messed up. We did the budget put it away did not look at again to make sure we were spending the way we agreed. It's crazy we take 2 steps forward and one step back. I budgeted 150.00 for eating out for the whole month and in the first week we spent 183.00 by going to Olive Garden, P F Changs, Mickey D's, Bakery, and Donut Shop. We are not starting the year very good but hopefully we can get it turned around very quickly. On a happier note, we are counting down until our baby girl is born. She is supposed to be here Feb 2nd, I can't wait.

Felicia and I decided that when we become debt free and have a fully funded emergency fund, we are going on a debt free vacation to celebrate. A lot of listeners to Dave Ramsey call in to yell about being debt free and a lot of them talk about celebrating by going to Disneyland. We have never been and think it would be nice to take the kids when they are a little older. Right now, vacation is not in the budget, but we are getting started by adding in change that we get into a piggy bank that I made. All it is an old diaper wipes box that I painted green and wrote "Vacation Fund" on. I am thinking about updating the amount of the Vacation Fund once a month. We will see. Christmas was good for us. We did not buy any presents for any adults and stayed in our budget. My son got lots of presents from his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Felicia and I got the best present, not having to worry about how we are going to survive on December 26th. I do have to admit I was a ...

Babe, I know I complain a lot about the budget and your new leader, Dave Ramsey, but I wanted you to know that I really do want to learn how to live on a budget and get better with our finances. Being able to take a vacation and not having to worry about paying the bills would be really nice, and I know we can do it. Just give me a little time. It's hard to adjust to not getting the kind of food I want all the time, especially when I am pregnant and craving things all the time! Maybe after Maya arrives, I'll be better :) I love you!!! Email written to Andres a few days ago I had a wonderful dream last night. We lived in a big, beautiful house and had a few friends over for a party. One of our friends mentioned something about being strapped for money and was worried about losing his house. Andres and I took him into a room that only had one piece of furniture in it, a dresser. We opened one of the drawers and there was bundles of money in it, and when we took some out, more of...

Felicia looked at the bank account today and discovered we have not been sticking to the agreed budget. I know it was both of us. We both have been buying lunch, which is not in the budget. I think that was the big killer. We both feel really bad about it. We have been taking so many steps forward that I hate that we jumped back a little. These next two weeks we are going to try to keep a close eye on it. Knowing the problem now, we have to find a solution. For my part, I am going to ask around for ideas for easy brown bag lunches to take to work. We can't do a lot of lunch meat, because Felicia is pregnant and she can't have too much of it. I need to email mom, my aunt, and my cousin the chef to get ideas.

Man that was hard!!! The way we started budgeting was one pay period at a time. A day or two before we got paid I would sit down and figure out what needed to be paid, make a list and send it to Felicia to look at and review. She would tell me what she needed or wanted to buy and we would work it in. It has been working and it has allowed us to catch up on bills that we were behind on, but now it is time to move on to the monthly budget. Dave calls it the "Monthly Cash Flow Plan," I like that better. I sat down and went through every category and filled in what we needed to pay and what I thought we should budget and tried really hard to make sure our budget reflected our goals. Filled in our amount for monthly savings, rent, utilities, food, transportation, clothing, medical, personal, recreation (not much of that will be going on for awhile), and debt. When I was done I added it all up and plugged in our income and realized, it was still more than we make. Looked at ...