Momma needs money!

I few weeks ago KayLynn's preschool teacher called me and asked if I could help her out by watching her kids over the next two weeks. Total of 6 1/2 days. I said sure...ummm...I forgot how busy 1 year olds can be!! So I will be watching a boy (4) and girl (1) and there older brother (5) but just for one day. It's going to be different and there won't be any down time, but I get $45 a day. I'll take it! I got wayyy less then that when I babysat a few years ago. They came over today to get to know me...they were so cute! It's also really strange to have little boys in the house. 

Getting out of Debt

Do you want to get out of debt? Start living on a budget? Be able to start saving? Some  use Dave Ramsey's method but please join me even if you're following someone else/your own plan. All are welcome!








Here's DR's plan:



Pre-Step 1: Get current on your debts and do a budget

0.1 No new borrowing. (We will still be trying to get a loan to finish the house)

0.2 Talk with spouse and get him/her on the same page as you concerning finances.

0.3 Do a written budget

0.4 Temporarily stop all retirement contributions (We still pay into Freds 401k)

0.5 Get current on all the basics (Shelter, Food, Utilities, Basic clothing)

0.6 Amputate "toys" (bikes, boats, ATV's etc) to help snowball

0.7 Cut lifestyle (Cut cable, cell, extras, eating out) and/or get a second job to raise $1000 EF.

0.8 Get current on ALL bills



BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund

1.1 Chop up/freeze CC's (You have an EF now)

1.2 Get Health insurance NOW if in the US

1.3 Get Life insurance NOW if you have considerable debt/your family couldn't make it financially if you died.

1.4 Amputate cars that you can't pay off within 24 months

We keep more then $1,000.

BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball

2.0 Do the debt snowball, paying all your debts from lowest BALANCE to highest.



BS3 Three to six months of expenses in savings

3.1 Start car replacement fund

3.2 Save up 20% for home purchase OR pay down existing mortgage to the point you can drop PMI.

3.3 Start furniture or other non-essential stuff replacement fund



BS4 Invest 15 percent of household income for retirement



BS5 College funding for children

If we have enough for us for retirement, then we will. If not we will try to help them anyway we can.


BS6 Pay off home early



BS7 Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate



Here's the link to Dave Ramsey's website: http://www.daveramsey.com or if you want a good DR discussion forum,http://www.llnoe.com is good but hardcore. Gail vax Oxlade's Til Debt do Us Part is great tv show, very motivating. Her website is:http://gailvazoxlade.com/blog Others like Suze Orman or Mary Hunt, really doesn't matter whose method you use, just start the process to getting out of debt.

  We are on babystep #2 We just sat down this last weekend and have a plan to have all debt payed off in 15 months...not counting our house. We also set up "Sinking funds".    The idea of sinking funds is to set money aside for things that will come up so that when they come up, you have the money and don't have to charge it or refigure your budget to pay for it.

Clothing Budget

Whats your clothing budget a month? I like to keep our clothes budget between $50-$100 a month. That may seem high to sum and it also might seem low to others, this just seems to work for our family. The last two months I have been spending the clothes budget on our youngest. This last month I found some pretty good deals for summer, spending $77.75.  Normally Gymboree is my go to store!! I love Gymboree!! Carters is also a nice store and these are perfect for mixing and matching. Plus if it comes with a matching bow or headband it's a winner!!! Some might want to ask why I'm not shopping secondhand??? There just aren't any good secondhand stores in my area. There is one for kids but will charge you the same price as buying something new.....it's crazy!! Also you might be saying, "She has two other daughters. Why Isn't she just having her wear hand me downs?". Here is the thing with hand me downs.....My oldest daughter is small for her age. She wears clothes for two years before she out grows them. Then we pass them down to our middle daughter, who DESTROYS everything!! Just today she killed her coat!! We also don't get hand me downs from anyone or ( my sister has in the past sent an outfit or shirt ) get clothes as gifts. This year for clothes will be $$$. My two older girls are wearing the same size clothes..FUN! They wore their summer clothes for the last two years and they don't fit this year. I like to start shopping early as you can tell...I'm a planner :O) Also I bought this at the beginning of last month before the crap really hit the fan. This months clothing budget will be spent on a new swim suit that MacKenzie needs and I'm also hoping for a good deal so I can also get Brooke one also...if not I run the risk of having Brooke try on MacKenize's and her finding out...HELLO WORLD WAR 3!! And while I don't bend to every whim of my children's, she will need one anyways. This just will save me the headache.



Two dresses




Tank tunic, short sleeve tunic, head bands (that will mix and max everything) skort and matching short sleeve shirt..the only thing she asked for.




Three tunics and 4 pack of bows.




Three tunics and 4 pack of bows.



House quotes & stuff

We have been working on getting quotes on the things that we need to finish up this house..hmmmm...What eight years hasn't been long enough?? HA! I'm a little bitter, I admit it!

List of things that still need to be done on the house......Just off the top of my head.

Kitchen:
Flooring- We know that we want heated flooring running though the high traffic areas of the kitchen. We did see the price of the rolls $189 but I'm not sure of how many we will need. I'll look into that. We have decided on tile and we know which one we want but need to get a quote. Our brother and sister in law have also been redoing their house and have done a lot of their own work (looks good too!) so they have agreed to help with the kitchen!

Cabinets- we got a price on these last spring. I hope they are around the same price. $3000.00



This is what it will look like..sorry about the water marks :O)

 Pantry- On the side of the fridge, the one close to the front door. There is a pantry set in the wall. If I had to guess off the top of my head the price of the shelving I would say $500??? I will also look into that. Pantry door??? No clue, I haven't even thought about it until now. Our electrician is always bringing us lights from jobs...so I'm sure he might have something for us..lol...They are ones that get thrown away.

Counter tops- I also got this quote last spring. About 2k We changed what we wanted the flooring to be sense last year, so this might also change. That is for laminate with gloss. I would like to put in corion but the price jumps to $3397.00 and I got the "I don't think so look" from Fred.....

Sink- the sink that we have picked out is $200 and the faucet is $200
Island- Fred's sister and husband made their own and Fred loves it! So they are going to help us makes one as well....not sure on the price??

Lights- We have all the top hat lights already in, which were free. We just need a main light to go over the table. I don't want to spend over $400 on it and even that seems high.

We are having someone make all the trim and that for the whole house is 1k about.

If you can tell by the pictures there will be a breakfast bar that will be able to seat 3-4 people and the island will be able to seat 2....I'm super excited about more seating!

The price for the carpets that we are only having up stairs will be $3276.87.

Base board heaters for a few of the rooms- No clue. I need to ask our electrician the sizes we need.

We need to work on getting the rest of the quotes.....we spent 3 hours in home depot for the carpet and just looking and staircase spindles!! This will take a few more trips. We need to have all of them by spring, because that's when we need to have all of them for the bank.

Other uses for glad press and seal!! Fred had the idea to use press and seal so the floors would be ruined...and it worked! BAHAHA! There was so much cold air coming threw the bottom of the walls! Again we used our friend great stuff! Fred didn't get a chance to trim the extra off...lol..so it still looks like that. Once the the base boards go down you won't be able to see any of the great stuff but you will feel the difference.

Roof- About two years ago we had a hunter green metal roof put on the garage roof. Last spring we had our old contractor give us a quote for the roof on the house $5600.00 We are also getting a quote from our new contractor...this well take a few weeks because he is also getting quotes for other parts of the house. too.

GOODBYE FEBRUARY!

There aren't even words to describe how happy I am that it's March! February was a bust in all aspects of my life, most of all my budget. I can  tell you right now that I don't have plans to look  at my online banking...nope...none. I know that we went over on every. single. thing! This last weekend Fred's work truck broke down. It broke down three hours away from home. His mother picked him up, so that was gas $50 and I didn't even look to see what he paid for lunch for the four of them (her boyfriend too). Fred's mother also took him back...and it would have been around the same price....again, I'm not looking.  So we had that money going out and also he only gets paid when he works so the next few paychecks will be small. Fred also took the car in that will be $700. I can't even remember what he said was wrong with it..my eyes started to glazed over! It's not something that needs to be fix right this very moment so I'm going to wait a couple of weeks. I guess I should be happy that I have had the same car for over 8 years and it's paid for and I haven't had to do a lot of work on it. Fred says that the older and more miles it gets the more problems it will have. I do realize that, I just want it to last for 2 more years!! We haven't heard anything from our tax lady yet. So Fred will need to give her a call this up coming week sometime so we know whats going on. The just of it all is that we didn't make any head way on our debt this month..which I'm sad about...but life happens. I really want to make a budget for March, but I'm really not sure how?? I'm not sure what our checks will look like and I just have so many things that I need to fix in it now. ugh..... Well I can say that I want to get the food budget down. I don't plan on buying any Easter outfits for the girls. We don't go to church (OK sometimes..normally on holidays) for one and two I can already tell you it will be at least $100 for three complete outfits for three. Bash away. MacKenize will need a new swimsuit by the end of the month, her grade will be doing swimming. I have everything to go in their Easter baskets except for the candy...they will get very little candy....oh wait I need to get them tooth brushes to but in their baskets :O) Really the plan for this month is to not go into debt for anything..lol...get the car fixed and get MacKenzie's expander put on....those to will be a lot just on there own.