Budget Box Reveal!!

Earlier this week I wrote a post that we were definitely starting our whole Financial Freedom/Dave Ramsey plan.  I am so excited about this.  Not because we are going to be sticking (hopefully) to a VERY strict budget, but excited for what it'll do for our lives and our future and even our happiness (good for a Happiness Project post maybe?!)  Dave R says "Live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later" we like that saying.  Yeah we want nice cars and stuff and tons of clothes and games and movies...but do we want that more than early retirement, having a lot saved when we are older, traveling all over?  Nope.  We don't want the stuff!!  In fact, I'm purging our whole house of the "stuff" so we can lead more organized, clutter free lives, inside and out!

So far I've paid off 5 of my credit cards from my early "adult" years.  Such a bad idea to give an 18 yr old credits cards.  I have one more card to go, the balance isn't that high so that will be gone in a month or so - it's been closed and I never ever use it.  Then we have Daves one card to pay off.  We still use this one, but we have started to cut down on its use, a lot.  Then theres my school loan.  Ugh.  Whoever says education debt is good debt, probably doesnt have a school loan, lol!  Anyways, the point is - we are trying to pay off all this debt FAST, so our budget is based around doing that, and having an good Emergency Fun, life needs like gas and food, and then "stuff" comes last if at all!

So, to help with all this money-keeping-together I linked up with a bowl full of lemons this week to create a budget box.  Our box will help us keep our budget and finances organized!!  Have a look-sy:

 I got the box and folders and envelope book all at Target.  Total cost $15.  I guess thats ok in the challenge to become debt free?  We finalize our budget tomorrow, lol, there won't be much "extra stuff at Target" room in that budget! 

 Using my label maker (aka an organizers BFF) I labeled tons of folders with the following labels:

Pay Now

Paid Bills (we usually keep a few months worth of paid bills, just in case)

Medical Docs

Bank Info

Pay Stubs

Budget

Budget Forms

Investments

Tax Info

House Info

Receipts (have to keep these to make sure we are doing well, budgetwise!)

....to name a few

 Um...yeah, we have a lot of...paper.  This is all the stuff Dave & I have both saved, now we are merging it all, throwing most of it away (uncluttering is lovely!) and if it's important it has a place in our budget box.

 Not the most glamorous package, but this baggie will, for now, hold our calculator, check book, a pen and pencil, envelopes and stamps.  This will live in the back of the box so it's a one stop shot to paying our bills.  It has everything we need!

 All labeled and stuffed up and ready to go!

 This little book will be our envelope system.  It's a Dave R system that helps with the budgeting.  Theres a little notepad with it to track our daily spending!

 All done!!  It feels good to be financially organized - paperwise.

See?  We will tuck it onto our wonderful Ikea shelf for safe keeping so when we need to work on finances, pay bills, we can just pull the Budget Box out and go to town! 

Tomorrow night Dave & I have a scheduled date to sit at the table, pull this box out and jump into finalizing our budget.  We are excited about it, in a weird way.  It'll be hard, but it'll be all worth it in the end! 

I've gotten a lot done today!  It feels good to feel BETTER and be productive.  More on that later....time to read!!

Becoming Debt Free!!

In wake of my finishing up Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover (I'm so close - I told you I was going to take my time on this one!!!) this week I am joining A bowl full of lemons weekly challenge (man, I love these challenges - they are life changing!!)  The challenge is becoming debt free!!  Now, that can't happen in a week of course, not with a mortgage and at $20K school loan (thanks Hopkins for my Master's degree!) but it can be STARTED.  So - I encourage everyone to read this book its financially life changing - we are going to be sitting down this week and coming up with our budget (Dave R calls it a zero-balance budget) and figuring out our road to financial freedom. 

FYI Dave R has a whole lot of free printables for budgeting on his website, a budget sheet and a debt snowball sheet (tackling each debt smallest to largest - it creates motivation and a I CAN DO THIS attitude) you can find those here.

Toni is giving away a Dave R package if you link up with her this week too!

See what my reading has motivated me to do?  Try to get out of debt!  Can't complain about that;) 

I'm more then halfway through Committed - it's not at all what I thought it was going to be but it's been a really good read!  More on that later...

I'm feeling a tid bit better - the fluish feeling is starting to go away which is great because I am NOT missing work again tomorrow.  When you are only working for 12 weeks it's rough to miss even one day, because there is so much to do and so many students to help, it's emotionally taxing to not be at school for a day!  I'm pumping my body full of water and OJ and vitamins today!  I may even venture out to the store today and soak up some Vitamin D while I am at it, its SO pretty out and feels springish and I think I need to experience that:)

I've missed a lot of cooking and cleaning this week, and my instinct is to get it all done today.  I can't do that.  So I am also really making using of my HM binder To Do lists today and spreading out all the things I desperately want to do TODAY over the next week.  I can't be superwoman when recovering from the flu - no matter how much I want to.  Yesterday I tried moving furniture and it almost killed me (yeah...I know, what a dumb idea!).  So learning how to slow down and spread stuff out is part of life this week, I always get myself in trouble when I do too much too fast.

Have a wonderful, sunny, BLESSED Sunday!

How to Bake a Perfect Life, an apron, and Book 10!

Whoa it's been a busy busy weekend!  Where to start?  Lets see, I finished Book 9 which was How to Bake a Perfect  Life by Barbara O'Neal.  I loved this book!!  First of all, you'll want to bake tons and tons of bread while reading this...I really wanted to, but I was so swamped this weekend with stuff to do - I just couldn't fit it in.  But I will get to it, I need to bake so badly after reading this!  It's about a 40-year old woman (a baker) whose very-pregnant-daughter has to fly to Germany to see her wounded soldier hubby, leaving the main character with her 13-year-old stepdaughter.  The girl was living on her own, in a homeless neighborhood after her bio mom was arrested for drugs.  The book is all about the main characters life and background, with a splash of the 13-year-old and the pregnant daughter's lives as well.  Its really good.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  It has love and laughter and baking and heartache...its a good time, I promise!

Then, after finished that I retreated to my new craft room to make an apron out of Book 8, the Martha Stewart book.  Here is it all finished, with a wonderful model, known has my husband;)

 Isn't he cute;)  LOL.  I thought it would be much more entertaining if he modeled it.  I was right.  Thanks babe!

 I made this all by myself!  I love it!  Technically it's for Ashley, but I think we'll share it.  She picked the colors which are pretty sweet together, if you ask me!  I made it by the step by step directions in the Martha book.  I gave this book a 4, since it was easy to read and came with patterns!

 I made these strappy straps! 

This took me about 2.5 hours from start to finish, including printing the pattern, cutting it out, cutting the fabric and sewing & ironing.  Good times!  Not bad for my first sewing project in a while, right?

So that brings me to Book 10 which is Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  I am going to be brutally honest here, I don't think I'll FINISH this book by tomorrow night. I'll start it for sure, but it's not a book I want to speed through just to beat my deadline...I figure since it's month with 28 days, I can afford to go over a day or too.  I'm not going to beat myself up about it, I'm still reading 10 books! 

I can't wait to pick out my March 10!!  I can't believe it's time to pick 10 new books already!?!?  Where is the year going?

Stay tuned for pics of our new shelf in the dining room, and some IRISH decor, and a project brewing for this week.  I have to go and get ready for WORK tomorrow!  I have a job!  Yay:)

Night

10th book!!!

BOOK 10 FOR FEB:

Alright, I've chosen my 10th book!!!  It's Dave Ramseys Total Money Makeover!!  The whole point of this challenge is to help myself be a better person, to expand my knowledge and to just learn so why not try to be better, financially?  I've read parts of Dave Ramseys TMM before...but this time I plan to LEARN it and APPLY it to our lives - Dave (my husband) and I both want to. 

We've been trying to figure out what is the best thing, financially, for our family.  With me not working and trying to pick a job (I've been on 5+ interviews...have potentially accepted one job that I'm not sure I really want, have hopefully landed one that I def want but haven't been offered yet...) and trying to figure out where we want our life to go...we need help figuring it all out.  We want to be in control of our money, super control over it!! We've been very blessed lately, with borrowing cars and help with some major expenses that we weren't expecting...we've been making it work but that is not to say it hasn't been hard, we really appreciate all the blessings!  Anyways, Dave Ramseys TMM will help us on our way to "financial freedom" and hopefully shed some light on where we want to go from here.

It's been nice being a housewife, both in the summer and over the past two months, and I can definitely SEE myself doing this...maybe when I have a baby...which we don't know when we want that either.   But on the other hand, I just got done my Master's degree, and I do NOT want to waste it!!  Why did I put myself through school?  To be a school counselor.  That is what I really want.  Really!  I know I may have to make sacrifices or take a different job until the right one comes along...I loved my time at Bo Manor in the fall, and maybe I have a chance at another job like that in the spring...but only God knows. 

The point of all this rambling is that we need to get our life together...not completely but at least thinking and praying about what we want and what is the best thing for us right now.  I think reading Dave R TMM will help that a little.  Unfortunately, money is what makes the world go round...I wish it didn't, I hate money!  But, we've got to figure out the best way to use the resources that God has blessed us with!!  Dave has a great job...I may or may not get a great job...and with that comes the responsibility of what to DO with our money:)  So let's sort it all out!!

So Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover is Book 10....yay!  Month 2 is well under way:)  I'm more than halfway done with The Mysterious Benedict Society...I love it.  It's so cute.  If you have a young reader...maybe 11 or up that likes to read (Ashley is 11 but the book is 480 pages long...it's a little much for her since she doesn't like to read books that big...) they will absolutely love it.  I'll rate it tomorrow and also give you a brief synopsis of the story.  I'm really enjoying it.  I'm really enjoying the Challenge over all.  It's so fun!!

Oh by the way, do you think Frodo feels that he isn't getting enough attention now that I am reading so much???  He is laying over top the book I'm reading right now....you decide???  LOL!