Thrift Shop Score!

I have done my clothes shopping for years at thrift shops, Goodwill, and consignment stores.  You can usually find really great items for $1-$5, depending on where you're shopping.  The thrift shop in the town I just moved to is located at the town's community center, run by the town's women's club, and all the proceeds go back to the town in the form of scholarships and donations to local libraries, charities, etc. 

I went a couple of weeks ago to get some 3T clothes for Gavin and they were having a great sale.  You could fill a brown paper shopping bag for $10.  I filled a bag and also got a nice wool coat that was $8 marked 1/2 off for $4.  Not bad for $14, right?  Well today I went in to look for clothes for my husband and I, and they were having another sale....

We have too many clothes!

1 bag=$8

2 bags=$12

3 bags=$14

4 bags=$15

I couldn't believe my eyes!  I was determined to fill 4 bags, and I did it.  I rolled everything super tight and filled every bit of the 4 bags to the brim.  They told me I got the most into 4 bags that they had seen...LOL!  Here is how I did:

• 15 women's shirts
• 6 men's shirts
• 11 kids' shirts
• 7 pairs of women's pants/jeans
• 1 pair of men's pants 
• 3 pairs of kids pants
• 7 sets of kids PJ's
• 2 sets of women's PJ's
• 4 maternity pants (for my best friend)
• 1 maternity shirt (for my best friend)
• 3 belts
• 2 pairs of kid's sneakers
• 2 pairs of kid's sandals

That comes out to $0.23 each!!!  That just made my day....that and the fact that my husband watched the kids for me while I was shopping.  I got to relax and get bargains at the same time.  Does it get any better than this?

 

How do you pay off debt? Start with a plan.

Even before we made an effort to get debt free, my husband and I always paid our bills.  We never missed a payment, nor were we late.  But we only paid our scheduled monthly amount...no extra.  When we decided to make the conscious effort to PAY OFF our debt, we started with a plan.  Without a plan, it's difficult to stay on track.  Once you have a game plan, it's FUN to pay off your debt.  No, seriously...this CAN be fun!

*  The first step is to go over your budget and determine how much extra money you have a month to use toward your bills.

*  The next step is to identify all of your credit card debt and loans.  For example (purely fictional numbers)...

     Credit Card A - interest rate of 13%, balance=$5000, minimum payment $100/month
     Credit Card B - interest rate of 11%, balance=$7000, minimum payment $130/month
     Car Loan - interest rate of 5.9%, balance=$3,000, monthly payment $200/month
     Student Loan - interest rate of 6.5%, balance=$12,000, monthly payment $400/month


*  The final step is to identify your plan of action, and there are a couple of schools of thought on this.
   
     1)  One theory is that you should pay them off in order of interest rate.  Put them in order; highest interest rate to lowest interest rate.  Pay only the minimum balance on all of your bills except the one with the highest interest rate.  In this example, that would be Credit Card A.  Use the extra money every month and pay it toward the balance on the card.  Once this bill is paid off, use all of the money you were paying toward the first bill and put it toward the next in line.  Repeat.  This plan starts off slowly, but gains momentum as you go.  It also saves you money while you're paying off your bills by eliminating you highest interest rates first so you pay less interest as you get closer to your goal.

     2)  Another theory is to pay off your bills in order of lowest balance to highest balance.  In this example, you'd start with the car loan, put all of your extra money toward that bill every month and pay it off quickly.  Then you put all of the money you paid toward the car loan toward the next lowest balance.  Repeat.  In this scenario, you pay more interest over the long term.  The benefit to doing it this way is that you get quick gratification.  The first debt is paid off more quickly than any other would and it keeps you motivated to continue paying off the rest.


Whatever way you choose, it's important to stick with it.  It may take a while to be debt free, but if you keep chipping away, it will happen.  I'm a little weird...I've always loved paying my bills and seeing the balances drop.  That was enough incentive for me.  The way I got my husband go without extras in order to pay off our bills was a reward system.  Every time we started on a new bill, we agreed on the reward we'd get ourselves for reaching our goal.  Our first reward was a mini kegerator.  Our last reward was my husband's flat screen HDTV.  It kept us both very motivated and turned it into a game. :)

What do you do to motivate yourselves and each other to pay off your debt?

Raising Babies is Expensive!

The expense of having babies is something that I planned for.  But, when I chose to go from working full-time to working 2-4 days per month, I had to get creative.

Before I went part-time, we paid off our debt (except for the mortgage).  We also did our monthly budget and figured out how much I would have to work to supplement my husband's income.  This way, we knew how much I had to work and how much wiggle room we'd have.  It turned out that in order to pay the bills, I had to work 1-2 days/month.  In order to continue to save a small amount towards our retirement, add to our "emergency" fund, and get settled into our new house, I work 4 days/month.  I don't want to work more than this since I have to work opposite of my husband in order to not use daycare.  Any additional work days would mean no family time and that's something I'm not willing to sacrifice.

Once we maximized our earnings (while maintaining our goal of having a parent home to raise the kids), the only other way to get more money for savings is to stretch your dollar.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have always been a thrifty person.  Many of the things that I do to save money now are things I did before I had kids.  Here is a list of some of the things I do on a regular basis to keep the costs of raising a family to a minimum:

1. I breast feed.  I can't think of any other thing that saves more money during the first year of a child's life.  I also can't understand why everyone who is able, doesn't do it.  I don't know off the top of my head how much formula costs, but I know it's freakin' expensive.  Plus, my baby gets the best nutrition possible, a strong immune system, and we get to bond in the most intimate way possible...skin to skin.
2. I make my own baby food.  It's so easy and saves a ton of money on packaged baby food.  I buy fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, steam or boil them, puree them, and freeze them in ice cube trays.  wholesomebabyfood.com is a great resource for this.  Not only are the foods cheaper than packaged baby food (even the generic), but there aren't any added preservatives or other ingredients that I may not want my baby to have.
3. I shop for clothes, toys, and other items at thrift shops, yard sales, and online at sites such as Craigslist and WilmingtonYardSales.com.  Most recently, I've gotten a wool women's dress coat for $4 and a brown paper grocery bag FULL of 3T clothes at the local thrift shop for $10 (they have a special: fill a bag for $10 and 1/2 price coats on Wednesdays).  I also got a 34 piece lot of 3T clothes on Craigslist for $15 ($0.44 per piece).  All of the clothes are then handed down to the little one, so I get multiple uses from all the kids clothes.  If they're still in one piece after that, they will get handed down to our best friend's baby (due in August).
4. I use generic diapers and wipes.  I know that I could save a TON of money by using cloth diapers, but I never could get my husband on board with that.  We use the Wal-mart brand and buy the value size boxes.  I can't see paying for name brand diapers (unless I have a coupon that makes them cheaper than the generic) as long as the generic works as well.
5. I'm potty training my 2 1/2 year old boy right now, and I decided to bite the bullet and do a potty-training boot camp with underwear only. I'm still in the midst of this, so I'm not sure if it will continue, but I'm trying my best not to spend money on pull-ups.
6. We try to go to free playdates with family friends and, of course, other moms in my mom's group.  These include storytime at the library (also a great place to borrow FREE books), park playdates, the beach playdates, backyard playdates, and walks around the neighborhood. 
7. I do any shopping that can't be done at thrift shops, including my grocery shopping, at Wal-mart.  It's not always the most pleasant place to be, but you really can't beat the prices.
8. We almost NEVER eat out at restaurants and rarely order in.

There are also a few things that I plan to add to my list:

1. My friend and I are going to get fresh food from our local CSA this growing season.  The cost is $250 for a large box of fresh vegetables per week for 10 weeks.  We are going to split the box and the cost.  This will cost me $125 for season or $12.50/week for 1/2 a box.
2. I'm planning to start my own garden.  It probably won't be this year, but we now have almost an acre of land and I'd love to have a small vegetable garden and grow (at minimum) some corn, peppers, onions, tomatoes, watermelon, and anything else that may grow in NC.
3. Instead of going on any expensive vacations, we bought a used and very well maintained camper for $1,500 from my parents.  The blue book value was at least $3,000.  We plan to take many fun and inexpensive camping trips with our boys in the years to come.
4. I am learning to sew.  I don't think I'll ever get to the point that I could make anything that anyone would ever want to wear, but I can hem and mend which extends the life of all of our clothing.
5. I'd like to learn about couponing.  This is amassing a ton of coupons and using them to stockpile during store sales in conjunction with doubling/tripling of coupons.

We also have many things that we've decided we DON'T want to do without (for now) that could be cut out if necessary:

1. We pay approximately $150/month on Cable with HD and DVR as well as cable internet and cable phone.  We're considering cutting out the home phone, but haven't taken the plunge yet.
2. We pay about $195/month on our cell phone plan.  I KNOW!  That's embarrassing to even admit!  But, my DH wanted internet/3G and it's very helpful for him at work.  I got mine too, but really could have lived without internet on my phone, although it's pretty cool.
3. I think we could adjust our thermostat (we keep it at 68 degrees in the winter and 75-76 degrees in the summer), switch to energy saving light bulbs, take shorter showers, and countless other things to save money on our electric bill.
4. We could buy less pre-packaged foods and cook from scratch more using in-season fruits and vegetables.

Do you use any of these money saving ideas?  Do you have any that I missed that you'd be willing to share me?

Financial Planning for a Pregnancy

I am so blessed with the ability to stay home with my kids.  This didn't just happen.  It took a lot of planning on our part.  People thought I was obsessing over my preparations and told me that "you can't plan for a baby.  If you wait until the time is right, the time will never come."  Well, I didn't agree.  Here is how I was able to stop working full-time, stay home with my kid(s), and live within our means (on a Paramedic's salary.)

After we got married, I wanted to start my family.  We had paid off our credit card debt and paid for our wedding in cash.  The only debt we had left was our mortgage and our vehicle payments, along with our monthly expenses, such as utilities, insurance, and groceries.  What we had to figure out was how we would work out child care.  My husband and I both work in healthcare doing critical care transport.  We are scheduled for 12 hour shifts, but could have to work for as many as 14-16 hours without the advanced notice to plan for the difference in hours.  If our services are needed before our relief gets there, we go.  There is no daycare in town that would accommodate for those hours.  We came to the realization that we would either need to work opposite shifts (and not need daycare, but never see each other) or one of us would need to stop working full time.  In order for us to be able to afford for me to stay home, we'd have to pay off our vehicles.

For the next several months, we worked as much overtime as possible, dropped our 403b contributions to 4% (just enough to get the match), and used every extra penny saved to pay off our Tahoe.  We also had our minivan almost paid off by the time our oldest son was born, 16 months after we got married.  I made about $10 more/hour than my husband, so I took a 3 month paid maternity leave, but went back to work full-time afterwards.  That's when he went part-time, worked 2-4 days/month, and stayed home with our son.  About 5 months later, the minivan was paid off.  Our net savings after paying off both vehicles was about $1100/month.  I was then able to go part-time and my husband went back to work full-time.  We were both thrilled!

When I first went part-time, we only needed for me to work a minimum of 1 day per month to pay the bills.  Since then, we sold our old house and bought a new, larger, home and property for $300 more/month (including taxes and insurance).  I now need to work 2 days/month to pay our bills, but usually work 4 days/month in order to save some money in our emergency fund and retirement fund as well as some money for miscellaneous expenses that may come up.  I work the extra days for more reasons than just paying the bills.  It's also "me" time away from the kids.  I get adult conversation and a chance to use the rest of my brain.  It also allows me to keep my license and many certifications (required for my job) current, which keeps me marketable when I decide to go back to work full-time. 

I am a planner...to a fault!  I do realize that, but I feel that the financial planning we did before we got pregnant made our lives secure.  So many people plan to have their families but don't plan for the financial responsibilities that go along with them.  Thanks to all the planning and sacrifices that we've made, we've been able to weather one of the worst economic downturns in recent history without having to make any major changes in our lives.  Our new house is 2500 sq. ft. and our yard is almost an acre.  Not only am I a SAHM, but we have a home where I'll be happy to raise my boys and I hope that they'll have a childhood that they remember fondly one day, just like I do.  How many people can say that?