Sticking with the Cloth Diapers

We are now a solid month into using cloth diapers, and so far we are sticking with it.  We better, I just bought our own stash of cloth diapers!  I ended up buying a combination of AIO and pockets.  I won’t say it’s been the easiest transition though.  We have only used disposables for Chloe’s first 18 months, and neither JJ nor I had any experience with cloth diapers.  In the trial that we received we got a variety of diapers like a few prefolds, a fitted, a few pockets, and one all in one.  I have to admit even after washing the prefolds the recommended three times before using them, we never even attempted putting them on Chloe once.  We stuck with the pockets and AIO. 

A side note…I think the cloth diaper class we went to was a must!  Especially for skeptical dads.  JJ wasn’t completely enthralled in the class, and used any excuse he could to go chase Chloe around the store, but it at least opened him up to the idea more than I ever would have been able to.  So that was a great way to start off. 

Since I work out of the house, JJ was going to have to pull a majority of the weight when it came to putting Chloe in the diapers.  There were several days when I’d come home to find her in a disposable, but even more days when I would come home and see her cute butt in a cloth diaper.  We never really set up a “station” per say in her room, just used gallon sized Zip.loc bags for the dirty diapers.  I didn’t want to spend any more money until we were sure we were sticking with it.  I think that made it more difficult though, trying to get into a routine of using them.  Since we only had six or seven diapers we were working with, we were doing laundry either every day or every other day.  And you guys…I actually kept up on it!  I didn’t mind it one bit!  Probably because I was only washing such a small load, but I’m pretty proud of myself for seeing it through.  I knew I needed to take on that responsibility to make it easier on JJ. 

What I like:

• How soft they are.  I just feel better about putting her in a cloth diaper than I do a disposable
• The cuteness.  Oh the cuteness! 
• The cost savings. I don’t feel like I’m saving money just yet because all I’ve been doing is buying diaper after diaper, but I know in the long run we will see the cost savings

What I don’t like:

• The dirty diapers.  I still haven’t gotten into a good routine with these.  Now that we have our station set up, it’s a little easier, but dirty diapers are still awkward.  Here’s what I do…we go back and forth on using cloth wipes, but I have a feeling we’ll continue to use disposable wipes for the foreseeable future.  So then I have to throw the dirty disposable wipes in the diaper champ, and I literally set the dirty diaper open on the floor while I finish getting Chloe changed.  Then I walk it down the hall to the bathroom, flush it, and put it in a medium wet bag we keep in there.  We also go back and forth on using flushable liners versus fleece liners.  If it’s a solid poop, I’ll flush and put it all in the wet bag.  JJ on the other hand usually just throws the fleece liners away, he doesn’t try to clean it off.  The one thing I held off on buying during our trial that I think is now a must is a diaper sprayer.  Once we get that installed, maybe I’ll feel better about the awkward dirty diaper situation…fingers crossed! 
• Leaking.  Chloe leaks in cloth diapers.  I know it’s just trial and error, but she rarely wet through a disposable, and we’ve had a good handful of leaks in the last month.  And it makes no sense to me why they happen.  No blowouts, just wet diapers that soaked through. 
• Rash.  We are still dealing with the never ending diaper rash.  It’s not as consistent as it used to be, but the coconut oil doesn’t seem to keep it at bay completely.  When it see it start to flare up, we put the regular diaper rash cream on her at night with a disposable diaper.  I’m pushing through this one though – after her doc appointment last week he didn’t seem too concerned about a little redness. 
• Her clothes don’t fit as well.  We’ve been lucky in the fact that Chloe can usually wear clothes for quite a while.  Many of her clothes are 12 months still.  But when we put her in a cloth diaper, those 12 month pants just aren’t cutting it anymore.  It wouldn’t be a big deal if we had an abundance of 18+ size pants for her, but we don’t.  So until the consignment sales come around again in a few weeks, I feel like her wardrobe has been slashed from what she can wear. 
• The station is a bit more cluttered than it was before in her room, but that’s not a huge deal.  Now we have a diaper champ (for disposables) and a trash can with a liner (for cloth).  We also have two baskets on the dresser; one with the diapers and one with the wipes, extra inserts, coconut oil, etc.  We probably could clear out the top drawer of her dresser and keep everything in there, but it’s just easier having it out and on top ready to grab. 

I’m glad JJ is somewhat on board with it.  I asked him if it’s what he expected, and he said it’s a little easier than he thought.  In all honesty, I think he’s just trying to appease me and he even said he had a feeling we’d stick with it no matter what.  I asked if that’s because I was stubborn and he said partly yes. J  I just refuse to pay for two little ones to be in disposable diapers when there is an alternative!  We haven’t ventured out of the house too much with the cloth diapers yet, but we are slowly working our way into it. 

After reading back through my post, it looks like I don’t like cloth more than I like it.  It’s not that, I really do – I just felt I needed to explain the reasons why I don’t like it more.  The pros are outweighing the cons in my book and I will continue to use trial and error to find out what works out the best for us.

Saying Goodbye to 2012

I did this last year, so thought I would do it again this year.  It's a look back on the highlights of the last 12 months in our world.  So much has gone on with having Chloe and there really isn't much I would change.  So without further ado, a look back on 2012. 

January:

• We debated...and debated...on whether to keep our restaurant open or not.  We ended up deciding to keep it open.

• We discovered someone had a good time shopping on our dime for Christmas presents.  Still pissed that nothing was done even though we took all the evidence to the police and they KNEW who did it!

• Chloe started sitting up and we enjoyed a nice weather day and went for a walk

• We took Chloe to a bar for the first time 

February:

• Chloe started saying mama.  How's she's forgotten now at 16 months is beyond me.

• We celebrated our first Valentine's Day as a family of three (this is still one of her favorite bears)

• Met up with Rachel for the first time and so glad I did.  We've been able to form a great friendship, both between us and our girls

• Went to the park for the first time...and might have ended the day with some frozen yogurt

• Joined PAIL - love you ladies for all the time you devote to such a wonderful site each week

March:

• Chloe got her first owie

• We took the pups to the dog park to let out some energy, and had a little photo shoot

• We also went to the zoo

• My grandma started to show she was ready to go 

• We found out our time with our sitter was limited...she was pregnant

April:

• We took LOTS of Easter pictures, even got live chicks

• We went to the petting zoo

 

•  Chloe started swim lessons

•  I reflected on how lucky I am to have such a wonderful partner and great daddy for our daughter

 

May:

• Celebrated Mother's Day as a new mom and remembered my own mom 

 

• Realized I'm old :)

• Went on our first family vacation to the Ozarks

 

June:

• Had family over for our annual BBQ

 

•  Celebrated JJ's first Father's Day 

 

• Got family pictures taken

 

• Planted our garden for fresh veggies

July:

• Celebrated our triatholon winner in our house

• Also celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary

 

• Talked about our plans for family building

• Started taking these pictures of daddy's attempt at dressing Chloe - oh it still cracks me up

• Chloe started daycare

August:

• Got a horrible phone call that my brother had been in a serious car accident

• Celebrated our sweet girl's first birthday and were surprised with wonderful virtual birthday wishes for her too

• Went away for a fun girl's weekend at the lake

• Chloe got a new do

September:

• Chloe went to her second show out at a bar

• I took some of my favorite pics of Chloe, in my favorite outfit

• Daddy daycare was back in business

October:

• Had a blog weekend and met some great families 

•  Went to an apple orchard, a first for all of us

•  We lost a very special lady

• We took control of our finances

• Took our annual trip to the local cider mill

•  Had another week of blogger meetups

•  And celebrated Halloween with our little pumpkin

November:

• Took our second family vacation to Chicago and met up with 9 amazing blogger families!! 

• Started our month of both Chloe and I being sick...boo.

• Made our big, surprise announcement

•  Chloe got her first haircut

• And Chloe rocked her picture with Santa this year

December:

• We paid off a good portion of our credit card debt thanks to DR

• Posted my first vlog for PAIL

• Struggled with Chloe's sleep, but finally got back on track thanks to many of your suggestions

• Went to a fabulous North Pole play group

I'm excited to see what 2013 has in store for our family.  Happy New Year!!

A Revalation

Last night we went to our 7th Dave Ram.sey class.  We have two more weeks left.  I have to say even though it's hard dragging my butt up off the couch to go each week, once we are there, I really enjoy it.  Nothing about the class is a waste of time. Everything he says is important and makes sense.  I just can't believe I didn't "get it" until now.

With our trip to Chicago last month and the holidays coming up, JJ and I haven't actually implemented any of the things we've learned yet.  We plan to finish out this year and start fresh in January.  Plus, by then we will have completed the course and will have all the information we need to start moving forward.

That being said, I had an "ah ha" moment last night.  We were talking about the individual baby steps in our group session at the end of class.  The lesson of the night was about 401k's and college funds.  I asked the facilitator if we were really supposed to be taking these steps one at a time.  She said yes, at least steps 1-3.  So basically that means, even though it sounds like a great idea to start saving for college now, we have lots to do first before we get to that point.

The first baby step is to save $1,000 for an emergency fund.  Once you do that, you move to baby step two which is the debt snowball.  The third baby step is to save 3-6 months of your income.  Well, we I have been focusing on step three.  But what about step two, paying off debt?  I totally missed the ball here.  Why in the hell have we continued to pay crazy amounts of interest when we have the money sitting in the freaking bank??  And it's not even being invested, it's just sitting in a savings account!

That savings account is my security blanket.  I almost look at that dollar amount more than I do what's in our checking b/c I like seeing that number increase.  It's a hard pill to swallow to know that I'm getting ready to slash that amount, but JJ and I have come up with a number we are comfortable with leaving in our savings, and the rest is going to pay off our credit cards...this week! 

We still have a long way to go to be considered debt free.  We will have a fairly small amount left on one credit card, but according to our debt snowball, had we not decided to pay off a large chunk now, we wouldn't have had them paid off until 2016!!  This way, we should have the final balance of our credit card debt paid off in about 8 months.  That's a difference of almost three years people!  Then we will have my car and the mortgages left to pay off, but in the meantime, we will be able to start investing more into retirement and our children's college fund.

I know a few of you asked for updates as we went through the class, and up till now I didn't really feel like I had much to share.  But after last night, and my revelation, I was so excited to update you all!  We aren't done yet, but I highly recommend his course for anyone looking to change the way you handle money.  I'll continue to update once we finish the course and actually start to use his tactics too.  I got a fire lit under my butt now, so I'm ready to go! :)

Taking Control

JJ and I went back to school last night.  We started Dave Ram.sey's Fina.ncial Peace Univer.sity.  I really had no idea what to expect going in.  I've read some of his websites before, even did the zero balance budget for quite a while.  But to only get bits and pieces didn't get the results I wanted.  Plus it was just me doing the research, and asking JJ to follow along.  That doesn't work so well. 

We realized in order to pay off our credit card debt and start saving better, something needed to change.  What we were doing wasn't working.  I pulled up his website last week and sure enough there was a group starting near our house this week.  I asked JJ if he would be up to going, and how there were online classes too, but I thought we actually needed to go to class to understand it all, and he agreed.  So I signed us up.  I expected the class to be in the sanctuary of the church it was held at, a huge group, watching DR speak on the big screens.  Instead, we were in a small, I think child care room with a group of about 20 and a TV in front of us.  Besides the small TV, I liked the group size much better.

It is a 9 week class which meets once a week for 90 minutes.  I have to say, the first class went by pretty quickly.  I wasn't expecting all of the religious talk, but he is pretty funny.  He can relate. He's been there.  He stands on stage with an oak table and tells stories about all the stages in his life that centered around that oak table.  The first class we focused on the 7 baby steps, but we only got through two last night.  Most of what he says makes sense, but I want to see the bigger picture.

One thing that he said that does not make sense to me, is how say you start investing $2,000 a year when you are 19.  By the time you are 27 it should be something crazy like $30K (or maybe it was even $70k I can't remember) and then after 40 years it should be $750K.  OK, I did start investing when I was around 20...$100 every month.  And I'll be damned if I only have about the amount I invested in my account.  So what am I doing wrong?  Why don't I have my $30K (or $70K)?  I hope to learn that soon.

Our goal with this class is to first pay off all of our credit card debt, build up our savings some more, and start a college fund for Chloe.  We also are thinking about moving into a bigger house in the spring, so going through this class will hopefully help us with that.  I have heard nothing short of amazing stories from anyone who has followed his program, so I hope we can soon be one of the success stories as well.  Have you gone through his program or know someone who has?  Have you read his book?  Did it help you? 

All for One Mr. Franklin

I never knew such a thing existed until about a month after having Chloe last year.  I saw a sign on the corner of an intersection near our house advertising a kid's clothing sale.  I thought I'd go check it out, see if it was worth my time.  Wow, was it worth my time!  I'm hooked!  I'm talking about the children's consignment sales that seem to be all the rage now.  At least in our area we have them in the spring and the fall.  So it's my go-to place for Chloe's wardrobe...I can't wait for the next sale each time!  

I've broadened my horizons this time around, and rather than only attending the one sale in the city I live in, I got all organized yesterday and pulled up all the local sales in the area and realized that one started yesterday about 2 minutes from my office.  I instantly knew what I was doing over my lunch break!  I had a feeling I was going to run short on time, and I did a little bit, but I still felt like I found some great things. 

I got:

10 pairs of jammies

7 pairs of pants

4 outfit sets (shirt and pants)

7 tops

2 dresses

3 pairs of shoes

All of this for a hundred bucks!  Can't beat that!  I estimated how much I would have spent retail for all of this stuff and came up to a very conservative dollar amount of $400.  It could very well be more than that, but since I don't buy many of her clothes new I don't have a great idea how much this stuff might cost.  I also got one toy for Chloe, but I didn't have much time to look through all the tables of toys - I'll save that for the next sale.

Ok, so these things can be overwhelming.  I thought the sale in my city was overwhelming, but this one yesterday was at the big convention center in OP and it was BIG!  Ki.d's Clo.set Conn.ection is the name of this sale, and it's the same one I've gone to before so I was familiar with how they did things which helped.  They are very organized with putting all the clothes out by size, and they try really hard to go through the clothes and not put anything out with tears or stains so you know pretty much everything on the rack is in good shape. You do have to set aside a good chunk of time when you go though because it takes a while to go through all the clothes and fight your way politely maneuver around all the other mom's. They also had tote bags at this sale for you to carry your stuff in (a major plus!).  Since I was able to get so many clothes, I'll probably only go to one more sale this season and call it good.  I could end up spending an entire paycheck at sales like these, and there really is no need for a ton of clothes for one season.

The new sale that I plan to go to is Rhe.a La.na.  Have you all heard of this sale before?  Jenn told me about it and I didn't even realize we had one in KC, but we actually have several different locations.  Not only do I plan to shop at that one, I also will be trying my hand at consigning for the first time.  I hope to make a little cash to put towards what I've already spent on Chloe's clothes.  They make it really easy and you get a great return on what you sell.  One of my friend's said it best "I always say I rent my daughter's clothes and trade them in every 6 months."  That sounds about right!

What are your favorite consignment sales?  Besides the two I've already mentioned, we also have He.re we Gr.ow Aga.in but I haven't been to that one yet. If you haven't been to one of these before, I highly recommend it! 

Work for your own money dammit!

Remember when I mentioned my purse was stolen on Halloween?  And then I mentioned that my wallet was found, but still missing some things out of it.  Well I thought it was all behind us.  It wasn’t.  We don’t use our credit cards anymore, but we still have balances on a few of them.  I have automatic payments set up so honestly I rarely look at our accounts online.  Something prompted me to check one of our cards though Monday afternoon.  I saw a few charges for the previous statement.  Thought it was kind of odd, but not too unusual.  Then I went back to the last statement and saw a whole bunch of charges.  Now I know JJ wouldn’t use the card that many times without telling me.  I quickly realized that I was wrong in assuming that all the cards that were stolen along with my wallet were not active.  Clearly this one still was.  They had racked up about $1,500 in charges from 12/6 – 12/24.I got on the phone and reported it to my credit card company.  They cancelled the card and we are waiting for a claims form to come in the mail along with our new cards.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, I get a call Monday night around 9:00.  I answered it and it was the bank where our personal and business accounts are set up.  They asked if we had made a purchase for $4.95 around 6:15 that evening on our business debit card.  I knew I didn’t, but JJ was at the store and I couldn’t be sure that he didn’t.  I asked if I could check with him and call them back.  I called JJ and he said that he had not charged anything.  So we found out of two different accounts that were hacked all in the same day!  At least our bank caught it and the charge didn’t go through, nor did any further charges.  That card was also cancelled and we should be receiving those new cards any day now. 

Back to the credit card that was stolen, JJ was pissed.  We know it’s some punk kid that stole from a bunch of different cars in our neighborhood and he hasn’t been caught yet.  So JJ took it upon himself to do some detective work yesterday.  On our credit card printout of all the charges, each store has an ID number.  Some of the stores were Aero.postale, Jour.neys, Fam.ous Foot.wear, Ga.me S.top, just to name a few -obvious kid, right?  He started with Ga.me St.op and called a local store asking if they knew which location that specific store ID was.  They mentioned one that was about 8 miles from our house at a mall.  Then he started calling the other stores at the mall that the card was used at, and sure enough all the store ID’s matched.  Then he called the security department at the mall (I’m picturing Ma.ll Co.p now, ha!) and explained our situation.  The guy was really nice and helpful on the phone.  JJ gave him all the dates of the purchases and what stores they were at and the guy said he would call him back by 5. 

He called back with some news.  Apparently a girl (I assumed a guy had stolen my card, and still think that’s the case, but it makes sense that a girl would actually be making the purchases since my name was on the card) bought an expensive game system at Ga.me St.op.  As she was leaving, she decided to buy an extended warranty.  Why the hell not, it’s not her money she’s spending?!  A different clerk helped her this time.  I’m a little confused as to how it all went down, but I think when the girl went to pay for the warranty, the clerk asked for ID.  The girl obviously didn’t have ID to match the name on the card.  I think at that point the clerk kept the card and wouldn’t sell the girl the warranty.  Now here’s the funny part…when the girl filled out the warranty, she put her OWN damn name and phone number down!  Stupid!  I’m not sure what other information they have on this girl such as an address, but I’m guessing they might have it all.  So the security guy seemed pretty excited that it all went down the way it did.  I’m very impressed the Ga.me St.op employee had enough sense not to let the girl use it, but I don’t know why he/she would have kept the card and then not reported it.  Oh well.  The police went to the mall yesterday afternoon to pick it up along with the warranty info the girl filled out and they are supposed to keep us posted.  I hope we catch everyone involved in all the car thefts! 

And as if that wasn’t enough (yet again), today I got another call from our bank.  I thought it was just a follow up call from two days prior, but no.  They asked if we had made a purchase at a Safe.way grocery store in Maryland for $201.70 on our personal card.  Um, unless my husband is running around on me in Maryland, we definitely did not make a purchase there.  Now I was really confused because we both had our personal cards in hand, so how was someone able to go into a store and use our account?  Apparently people can get a credit card and load a new number onto it, so when it’s swiped, it’s actually pulling from our account.  So that account was cancelled also and we have to go to a local branch to get our new cards printed.  We did figure out that the hacking is tied to Restau.rant De.pot which is where we buy the food for the restaurant, and have used both our personal and business debit cards there.  Apparently there was a press release that went out late last year about 100,000 customers info being compromised, and according to it, RD sent a letter to all of its customers.  If I remember right, when we signed up for membership at RD, we put the apartment address down which obviously we don’t have anymore, so I’m guessing that’s why we never got a letter.  But come on people!!  Work for your own money and don’t spend others' money who basically work paycheck to paycheck as it is!  And with a baby at home no less.  You don’t want to cross this new mom the wrong way; it’s not like I enjoy leaving my daughter every day to go to work so we can afford to live!

Ways to save with coupons

Obviously over the last 6 months or so JJ and I have tried to get a better handle on our finances and paying off our debt.  We are in a pretty good place now, but I'm still always looking for ways to save a few extra dollars.  Through all my research I found several blogs and websites that preached how you can save hundreds of dollars at the grocery store and even make a profit when shopping.  I didn't have the interest to learn more about it - it sounds like all these people do are clip coupons and scheme ways to save the most money.  We weren't going hungry or losing our house or anything, so I thought that seemed a bit extreme.  Until this past weekend...

Something made me look it up again.  I can't remember the last time I saw coupons in the newspaper; maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place.  I see store ads all the time, but not manufacturer's coupons.  So I found another blog (and darn it I can't remember what it was) and it broke down deals for the week from several different stores.  Usually they are not for grocery stores we have around here, but they will also include Walgreens, CVS, and Target.  There are pictures of all the products they bought and then list how much it would have cost, how much they paid for it, and how much they saved.  It's unreal!  Not to mention they talk in code and I have absolutely no idea what any of it means.

So I decided to try and decipher it this weekend and see what happens.  I saw an ad for Walgreens - who thinks to do their grocery shopping at Walgreens?  The weekly ad said that if you spend $20 on Pepsi products, you get $10 in Register Rewards (RR).  I had no idea what RR, but after deciphering that I realized they are basically free money coupons that you get to use on future purchases.  So I had it in my mind that ok, I'll spend $20 and then get $10 in coupons for later, so that's like me spending $10 total on all this stuff right?  Not a bad deal.  Then there was a link to a promotion through Coors that if you spend $20 on Pepsi products, you get a $7.50 Mail In Rebate (MIL).  So that's like getting all of that stuff for $2.50!!!  This was starting to sound better to me...I drove on up to Walgreens, picked out my Pepsi products, checked out, and my RR didn't print.  Already I was having issues with this whole coupon-saving-money scheme.  I wouldn't have bought 8 2-liters of pop, 2 bags of chips, and 2 dips if I wasn't getting my deal.  So the lady was nice and called a manager over.  He said the reason my RR didn't print was because the Dr. Pepper wasn't a Pepsi product.  I said it was right next to all the other Pepsi products in the display so I just grabbed it too.  He was really nice about it too and worked his magic so that my RR printed off.  Success!! 

When I got home, I told JJ you're gonna think I'm crazy but don't freak out on me.  He didn't know what I was going to say, but was actually very receptive to what I had done.  I told him I wasn't gonna go crazy with coupons or anything, but I would keep my eye out for deals like this and then I told him what I had done and how much it all cost me.  He was blown away!  Not to mention all for me doing it again.  So I guess the coupon craze isn't such a scheme after all.  That said, I am not going to be clipping coupons every Sunday, or printing coupons off the internet every day.  But I will be watching the Walgreens, CVS and Target ads and checking blogs periodically to see if there are any have-to-have deals.  Why not save that money and spend it on things we actually enjoy rather than food/house supplies we need?

Trying to Budget - Part 2

Now that we have our big monthly expenses cut in half (internet, cable, and phone), we wanted to keep the momentum going.  I have looked at Dave Ramsey's website before and printed off his budgeting worksheets, but I couldn't ever understand his theory.  He says that every penny you make needs to be spent somewhere.  Huh?  How does that help you budget and get out of debt?  What he means by that is you need to come up with a zero-balance budget where you allocate all of your money to a specific category.  I still wasn't quite understanding that, but I came across a blog that finally helped me get through this concept.  Here is the initial post I found.

I decided to make my own zero balance budget, but found that once I had done that, I was stuck.  I didn't know what to do next.  I normally keep track of a few key spending areas - mainly Wal-Mart (where we buy everything; groceries, household products, entertainment items for JJ and I, etc) and gas stations (where we buy gas obviously, but also drinks, snacks, etc).  The problem with this though is I do the budget AFTER we have already spent the money.  I'll do it at the end of the month rather than the beginning.  So budgeting before actually spending the money was a new concept for me.

So back to my zero balance budget - I was stuck, so I decided to email the author of the blog with a few questions.  One of the key points to his theory is to make sure and have an equal personal budget for both spouses.  That way you each are free to do what you want with your own money and the other person can't hound you for it.  That is a problem that I have - JJ will buy a drink or snack at the gas station, and I'll gripe at him for not buying it at the grocery store where it's half the price.  I feel like I don't really have a place to hound him since he makes more money than I do, but yet we are in this as a team and need to know how our money is being spent as a whole.  So that was one question I had for the author - first of all, how do you control the personal budgets?  And also, how often do you track your spending throughout the month?

He wrote me back right away and asked if I would mind if he answered my questions in another blog post.  He said my questions were very common and he thought it would be helpful to answer them so all of his readers could benefit.  I told him I didn't mind at all and he said to be looking for a post the following week.  Well, I checked back and not only did he make a post about my questions, he did his first ever podcast.  And it was all about my questions!  He used my name and direct quotes from my email to him and answered everything I asked.  It was so nice to get help from someone like that and to have it relate directly to me.  The podcast is a little long, but if you are interested in starting a zero balance budget of your own, check it out here.  There are a lot of helpful tips.

Update from 4/29/10:

I have also gotten into using coupons.  There are tons of blogs out there that break down the coupons each week and give you ideas of how to use them.  Two that I use are www.thecouponhigh.net and www.thecouponproject.com.

Another way we've cut back on spending is by getting rid of our cable/internet/phone package.  We changed to Dish (which I don't necessarily recommend) and we went with Magic Jack for our phone service.  Have you heard of Magic Jack before?  It's awesome!  Only $20 a YEAR!  You still get free long distance, free voicemail, free caller id (#'s only) and other things. 

This post was originally written back in December and I am still doing the zero balance budget every month.  It is really interesting to see exactly where our money goes. 

Trying to Budget

JJ and I have been trying to knock out the credit card debt that we have accumulated since our wedding.  We have done a good job so far and are now trying to figure out other ways to cut down our monthly expenses.  When the time comes that we have kids I want it to be an option for me to stay home with them for a while and not go back to work.  At this rate, I don't see how any family can live off of one income, but I know there are lots of SAHM's out there. 

The biggest area that I feel we are getting ripped off on is our cable/internet/phone service.  Currently we are with Time Warner and have been paying $165 a month for those three services.  We got a notice in the mail last month that our contract was up and we could continue with the same services for just an additional $4 a month.  That extra $4 a month finally got me to start doing some research to see if there was a cheaper route we could take. 

I had talked to a friend a few weeks back and she was telling me about her dish that she uses for cable.  I've never liked the dish - I have never had one before, but I just knew I didn't like them.  I heard that local channels aren't included, I expected service to go out when the weather got bad, plus I just didn't want an ugly dish attached to my house.  And oddly enough, that same day our doorbell rang and it was a salesmen for Dish Network.  He sparked my curiosity and an hour later, JJ and I were signing on the dotted line for our new service. 

Then the search was on to find a cable and phone provider.  I have always put my foot down when it comes to a home phone.  I didn't want to feel like roommates with JJ and for some reason, in my mind if we did not have a home phone, we were roommates - regardless of the fact that we had rings to show for our relationship. :)  And of course we needed internet access.  I started to realize though that out in the boonies where we live, it's hard to find service providers.  There is one to choose from and that's good old Time Warner. 

I came across another product though called Ooma.  I was all ready to spend the $250 to get the equipment and never have to pay a phone bill again, and then I came across MagicJack.  MagicJack is this service where you plug a small device into your phone, plug it into your computer, and start talking away.  Local and long distance calls, directory assistance, call waiting, voicemail and caller id is all included - FREE!  The catch?  nothing - all you do is pay $19.95 a year.  A YEAR!  And the equipment is a whopping $39.99 which is a one time charge.  We are in our 30 day trial period right now and it seems to work just fine so I think that is the route we will go for our home phone.

The internet is a bit trickier.  I thought I had it all figured out with Comcast and then at the last minute found out they don't service our area.  Even though I had been putting in our address as soon as I logged onto their website to show what rates were available in my area.  That obviously didn't work.  I think we will have to stick with Time Warner for the internet, but for the first year they are giving us a pretty good deal. 

So we are now spending less than half of what we were before and still getting the same three services.  I feel much better about cutting down this monthly expense because it just seemed too extreme.  Now if I could just learn how to operate that darn DVR from Dish Network I'd be good.

Growing Up

I have been happy at my current job for over 3 years now. I was hired right out of college and even though my first manager was not the greatest, I love who I work for now. My schedule is very laid back, I am my own department, and my job is pretty easy. There is virtually no stress with my job. JJ on the other hand, has a very stressful job - or had. With the fall of the economy, hundreds of people at his job were laid off. JJ had been working as a yardmaster for just over a year when he was demoted back to his old position. Since everything is based off of seniority for him, he didn't have a choice. It wasn't like he was performing poorly or anything, just a numbers game. At first we thought this was going to be good since he would now have a set schedule rather than working on call. It hasn't been as great as we thought. His schedule is Saturday and Sunday mornings, Monday and Tuesday afternoons, Wednesday night and off Thursday and Friday. Working Wednesday night means he gets off the morning of his first day of the "weekend" and usually stays up all day so he doesn't waste the day away. That leaves him tired and feeling like he doesn't have much time off before heading back to work to start another day. Not to mention the near $20k pay cut he took when this all happened.

I didn't really realize how much less he was making until recently. I am the one that is in charge of the finances and I obsess about it sometimes when I'm slow at work. I'll analyze our spending and try to figure out ways we can save money. JJ and I talked about it yesterday and I realized for the first time how much his pride has been hurt by this demotion. He's upset that he's not making what he should be and that there are guys sitting next to him at work every day that are still yardmasters making good money and could care less about their job. They complain and moan all day long and JJ just wishes he could trade places with them.

Now that I have my masters degree I am torn between staying at a job I am comfortable at with no stress, or moving on to something that pays better so I can give more of a contribution financially to the two of us. JJ always says for me to work in a place where I am happy so he is all for me staying where I'm at. I just feel guilty. Do I need to have more motivation to get out there and look for a new job? Is it worth it? The only thing that makes me feel better about this situation is that I have started teaching online courses so I am bringing in a bit more income than my regular salary. It's nice to have that as an option, I just wish I could be teaching courses every month to bring home a significant pay check.

We have been trying to set a plan in place to pay off all our debt in the next two years so that whenever we do have a baby we are in a good place financially. We are doing well and we don't have much debt, just those damn credit cards make me crazy! I wish we had never opened one up (except for helping with our credit). Once we get those paid off I will feel better and maybe by that point I will be teaching more. I don't see how families can do it with one or more kids at home and only one parent working. As much as I would like to, I don't see it being an option at this point. The only good thing is that if JJ's schedule stays the way it is, we wouldn't need daycare because our schedules are pretty much opposite and that one of us would be able to be home with a baby at all times. Ugh, the stresses of growing up...