money and Dave R. 25 Jun 2007 12:54 pm
Grrr….getting gazelle intense all over again.
I don’t think Gazelle’s in nature growl, but this red-headed one does.
Dave never said step 3 would be even harder than step 2 but my fellow-TMMer over at the Monkey parade did….and honey, she was tellin’ the TRUTH.
Without debt bills coming in it was easy to allocate all that money to other stuff. Our kids needed dental work that insurance only partly covers, gas prices are soaring, and a bunch of activities we participate in kicked it up a knotch in May and June. Combine that with a bit of slack now that we don’t owe creditors, use of the debit card more than green cash, being too busy to meal plan in detail, and enjoying crab cakes, ice cream, and gettin’ a little crazy with the cell phone minutes and the nuts and bolts result is that while we are living off of what we make without debt, we are NOT SAVING, which means our TMM got a little derailed.
And I’m feelin’ frazzled, sometimes just as anxious as when we owed others and weren’t sure how we’d make it all stretch to keep ‘em all quiet. Which, in truth, is RIDICULOUS because it’s all “in house” now…we can’t blame anyone else for the choices we make and we are creating our own stress. Well, enough is enough before this gets outta hand.
I reworked our budget, ignoring my income (which will all go to savings), and taking into account a recent raise on David’s end. By they way….that is a real, vibrant red warning flag: when you get a pay raise and still feel anxious, there is something seriously wrong with your habits. It’s all on paper and we’re going back to cash and envelopes. No debit card for awhile until we establish new habits. Groceries are $600 a month FIRM, up $200 a month from our darkest TMM days in step 2, so I’ll not be gripin’. That means I also sat down and made a two-week meal plan and a list for the trip this week. I’ll be talking to the co-op about making bulk orders and hopefully reduce my trip to K-town from twice a month to once.
The good news: the great weather, cooling rains, and the little valley our house is tucked in means we still haven’t turned on our AC! Our power bill is right at $50 a month and I could still do a little here and there to painless bring it down. I’m getting Gazelle Intense with that cell phone too; it’s our only phone communication but we always go over our minutes due to the aburdly limiting plan we’re locked into. I can do better with it and bring that bill down.
Reality Check is in place. This is the first day of the rest of my life LOL…the day after my birthday. I want step 3 conquered by this time next year.
on 25 Jun 2007 at 3:24 pm 1.Beth said …
Well, happy belated birthday!! And for those of us who don’t know Dave-speak, what is step 3?
on 25 Jun 2007 at 4:45 pm 2.Tia said …
Step 3 is a “fully funded” emergency fund: 3-6 months of expenses. We have to revert to baby step 1 frequently because we use our basic emergency fund too often so sometimes the steps are blurred. But basically its: step 1- $1000 saved. step 2- get rid of all debt except for your mortgage. step 3- the fully funded emergency fund.
Thanks for the birthday wishes :-).
on 25 Jun 2007 at 5:39 pm 3.SmallWorld said …
Boy, I’m telling you, our TMM is about to suffer. I had big plans for R’s summer salary (read: extra $$)–it was mostly all going to debt payoff. But now we have a broken down van in Cherokee that looks to be more than the ER–WAy, way more. Sigh. BUT the good news is, whatever happens, it’ll all be paid in cash.
on 26 Jun 2007 at 9:34 pm 4.Kyra said …
I know the phone situation…I went bonkers trying to decide what to do. I found that I was spending a lot of time using minutes up on 1-800 numbers.
We are getting a land line for the specific purpose that there are times I DO NOT want to be reached…I give out that number, and I do not wish to spend all my minutes holding while waiting to talk to a human.
Have you thought about the combo? Some of these places offer combinations(landline, cell, internet, etc) …which I found after I sat and played with numbers the right combo for us….
Anyway…I think it is great what you have done so far…our savings plan dwindled a bit over the past few months…but we are back on track…always hard when you have a bad case of the “I wants…I needs”