This Little Piggy Bank Bought a House

Don't get it if you don't get it!

2010-04-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

In one of the Financial Peace University CD's Dave talks about buying things and the idea that you should never buy anything that you don't understand (i.e., electronics, gadgets, investments), but Army Guy and I decided to take that philosophy and start applying it to food. We've started trying to avoid buying anything with ingredients that we don't understand. If we don't know what it is and we don't understand how it works or what it does than we don't (usually) buy it. We've only just started switching our foods out in the last couple of weeks but I feel like I can already start to tell a difference. It's a little bit pricier and we're going to start making our own versions of a lot of things because the natural version is so pricey (spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, possibly yogurt, etc) but as my husband put's it "healthy eating might be kind of expensive, but so is diabetes, heart disease and cancer."

On that happy note... does anyone out there know how to make you're own yogurt? I'd love to hear your tips!

My Tantrum

2010-04-25T14:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I threw a great big monstrous enormous ugly gargantuan tantrum. I'm ashamed to admit it, but that's what I did.

It started with a cancelled 5K race. Army Man was going to run the 10k and I was going to try the 5k (my first) with the stroller. Army Man left to do the 10K but called and said that both races were cancelled. I already had the kids packed up in the stroller so we decided to run the 3.1 miles anyway, but run them together. I am not a fan of running, I never really have been. Army Man, on the other hand, is a Marathon runner who loves running 10 miles for the heck of it.

Since I would have been pushing the stroller in the race I decided that I wanted to push it the whole way, so I was pushing 100 lbs of kids, strollers, pillows, blankies, water, snacks, rain cover and toys.

We started running - er, um, well, jogging really, and immediately I was tired. After just five minutes my feet were sticking to the pavement and I started getting a little grumpy. Within the next five minutes I was all out furious that I felt so tired, knowing that this same type of run, with the same stroller, would be nothing to Army Man. In the insanity that was going on in my fatigue I was certain that the worse thing in the world was for Army Man to have to run as slow as me, when he could be flying off, miles down the road. He never did anything to make me feel that way. He was nothing but supportive, but I convinced myself that it was better to suffer alone than with anyone's help. I started yelling at him to just go, run ahead, run at the pace he's used to. It didn't work, I married a stubborn man and he stayed with my pace.

After throwing a tantrum through half of the route I was finally exhausted enough to give up on trying to get Army Man to run ahead of me and became quiet. We reached the 3.1 mile mark (the 5k mark) when all of a sudden all of the anger and frustration melted away and I made the decision to start enjoying the run and we kept going. We started talking, and joking around. I was laughing so hard that between the laughter and inability to breath I ended up making strange grunting noises. Before I knew it we'd reached the 4 mile mark. We stopped jogging and I gladly passed the stroller off to Army Man and we enjoyed the rest of the walk home.

I thought about the whole ordeal later and realized that my giant tantrum really stemmed straight from fear. I was afraid of feeling embarrassed, afraid of not being able to reach my goal that day. I have to admit that there was even a part of me that was afraid of succeeding. (how messed up is that?!)

I wonder how many times we (people in general) struggle with our finances out of fear. How many times do we avoid looking at the check book because we're afraid of the amount? How often do we avoid setting a budget because we're afraid of feeling constrained? How many fights do we get in because we're actually just really afraid of losing everything?

Courage is the ability to face our fears. Sometimes it looks really ugly, sometimes we throw tantrums, but sometimes we push through all of that and reach our goals and nothing can replace the satisfaction and peace that brings. I hope this blog can be a place of comfort and support to you when you're feeling fearful about your finances. Take heart, we've all been there, we've all had the shock when we've looked at our account balance, we've all felt the fear and dread when there's to much month left at the end of the money. Keep working through that fear, don't let it stop you from reaching your goals. It is possible to achieve financial freedom.

We have a winner!

2010-04-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

We have a winner! Woop Woop!

I wrote the names down on pieces of paper and then my poor kindergartner (who is home sick today) drew one name from our star basket.

The winner of her very own Financial Peace University kit is...

MONICA G!!

She found us through the LLNOE.com message board that's stocked full of Dave Ramsey fans (including myself). Congratulations Monica!

Listen to all of the great things that Monica would do with a million dollars:

If I had a million dollars, here is what I would do. We are just
now getting into BS5, but it is slow going for right now. So I would
probably park $200,000 per child in a mutual fund to be used for college
expenses. After that, I would pay off our mortgage. With the remaining $, I would make charitable gifts to our
church, my college alma mater, DH's college alma mater, a few other
charities and invest the rest. Then with our income, we could take our
girls to Disney World! :) ** this was edited slightly for privacy

For those of you who are not familiar with Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps, being at Step five is a HUGE accomplishment! This means that Monica's family has:
Step 1. Completed their Baby Emergency Fund of $1000 in the bank
Step 2. Payed off all of their debt
Step 3. Saved up a Fully Funded Emergency Fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses
Step 4. Funded their retirement (ongoing)
Step 5. Save for their kids college education

They only have two steps left to go!
Step 6: Pay off their mortgage
Step 7: Build wealth and give a lot of it away!

Way to go to Monica and your family - what an inspiration you are! Even though you are already so far in the baby steps there is a wealth of information that you will find in the Financial Peace University class - enjoy!

Of course, our son needed a turn at the drawing so we have a second winner!

Brian A!!

Here is the email that Brian sent me listing what he would do with a million dollars:

first, this is a very cool idea - giving an FPU kit away. i saw your post on LLNOE and linked out to your website.

second - we're in BS6 now, so if i won i would likely give the kit to our church, which offers FPU once or twice / year.

on to the big question what to do with [Dr Evil voice] ONE MILLION DOLLARS [/Dr Evil Voice]

first - and most important, make sure i put enough aside to cover the tax bill. no use going to jail! (and yes, i know you're not really giving $1M away in cash. just answering as if you were). assume $300K for this (will follow some good tax/fin planning advice to reduce the bill down to this level. i hope). $700K remaining

second - finish paying off the house. it will be a very "peaceful" time after we finish BS6 (currently about 10 yrs away), but WOW - to move that up to now! this will take appr $250K $450K remaining

third - put some aside for our 3 kids. maybe as a future home downpayment, or a college fund for (eventual) grand kids: $50K x 3 kids = $150K. $300K remaining

fourth: give some away, likely to church and a few other charities that we currently support. this would help getting the tax bill down as well. $100K, $200K remaining

fifth: big time "blow $ envelope." this would likely include a "trip of a lifetime," maybe to Australia or somewhere we'd likely never be able to afford (or justify). $50K, $150K remaining

sixth, and finally, the $150K would end up boringly be set aside for retirement. we're 15 years away, with plans on having a paid off house & $2M to retire one. not having a mtg would also give $$ to save for retirement over the next 10 yrs.

btw, my friends would encourage me to "buy some capital letters for my emails"

Congratulations Brian, especially on reaching step 6 - that's incredible! And thank you for passing along the FPU kit to someone who might need it!

We're going to make this giveaway a habit so even if you weren't a winner this time around you might be next time! In the meantime, make sure to check out Dave Ramsey's website for more information.

(I promise this drawing wasn't rigged to let LLNOE'ers win - it was purely coincidence)

You, Brick, are a JERK!

2010-04-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

Since we're giving away one free Financial Peace University Kit tomorrow I thought I'd share one of the lessons from FPU that really struck a cord with me. Almost all of the lessons strike a cord with me, over and over and over again, but this one did a lot to change my perspective on wealth.

The lesson was about bricks. Okay, really it was about money but Ramsey used a brick as an example.

See, growing up, I was one of those people that bought into the lie of the "Evil Rich People." I thought that every single rich person was evil and therefore I needed to avoid becoming rich at all costs. In fact, being in debt to gazillions of furniture stores, student loan companies and car dealerships sat better in my spirit than the idea of being rich.

It was so bad that when our neighbor said "You need to listen to this guy" (referring to Dave Ramsey) after hearing me lament about our money troubles, I let the borrowed FPU kit sit unopened in our closet for months simply because it had the words "wealth building" plastered across the front.

What kind of ridiculous nonsense did she want me to be a part of? How dare she try to push me to become one of those evil old rich people?

After a while though, we finally got desperate enough to give it a shot and a year later we re-borrowed the kit for a couple of months before joining a Financial Peace Class sponsored by the Army and receiving our own kit for free (thank you taxpayers!!)

Then I heard the brick lesson and I realized how wrong I was about my "evil rich people" theory.

See, Dave says that money is like a brick. I can take a brick and do something evil with it like throwing it through a window. OR I can take that same brick and build a hospital, or a school, or a church.

The brick isn't a jerk, the brick is a-moral. I am not evil if I have bricks and I'm not good if I don't. It's what I DO with my bricks that displays my character, and the type of person I am. There are good rich people and good poor people, and there are evil rich people and there are evil poor people. It's not the money that makes the person evil or good.

You know the best part about the whole deal? Now that we're financial free and have a few more "bricks" we're finding out more and more how fun and exciting it is to give away our bricks. It's also fun to watch them grow into more "bricks" in our investments so that hopefully someday we really can build a hospital, or a school. One of our favorite things to do is to talk about what we will do with our money in retirement, the ways that we'll be able to help people. We would love to pay off mortgages, build homes, fund school programs (like Financial Peace school edition) and more. It's so much fun to dream together, and to know that now, with the track that we're on, there's a good chance that many of those dreams may come true.

**********

Don't forget that today is the last day to register for the Financial Peace University drawing tomorrow! Also, there is a good chance that we will do this once every other month or once a month since we've gotten so much interest in it! So even if you're not a winner this time you could be next month! Keep checking back and good luck tomorrow!

In Honor of Mom We're Giving Away ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!

2010-04-16T07:16:00.001-07:00

My Mom came to visit this weekend and it was SUCH a wonderful time! We sprayed silly string, rode around in the Jeep, planted lots of flowers and laughed until we couldn't breath and our eyes were filled with tears!

Growing up my mom taught me one of the most important financial lessons I've ever learned, one that stayed with me and prevented me from making thousands of useless impulse purchases.

The lesson was the 24 hour rule.

If I found a toy at the store that I wanted to buy then I had to wait 24 hours before buying it. If I still wanted the toy after that period then she was glad to take me back to the store to buy it. Most of the time I changed my mind and decided against the purchase.

So in honor of my Mom and the lesson she taught me we are giving away an extremely valuable gift. This gift is worth ONE MILLION DOLLARS OR MORE!

That is, if you use this prize...

Here's the scenario: you get out of debt in 2-3 years (or less!) then spend 34 years investing $500 a month at 8%. At that point you will have ONE MILLION DOLLARS! How incredible is that?! Think of all of the great things you could do with that kind of money - you could fund your grandkids' college education, travel, give generously to so many people and organizations, and retire with dignity!

That's where this prize comes in. Our giveaway this month is one FREE brand spankin new Financial Peace University Kit normally priced at $189!! We received our own Financial Peace kit for free from the Army and it has forever changed our lives, so we want to pass on this blessing to you, our beloved readers!

This is what you will receive

It all comes in this handy dandy carrying case. This makes it a breeze to transport the kit to Financial Peace class. Did I mention that you will now be able to attend the class for free for the rest of the life once you're a proud owner of your own FPU kit?

I keep the cd's in my minivan so that I can listen to it when I'm driving around - my five year old daughter has half of it memorized!

Our son wanted to model the kit for you

Even our kids are Financial Peace Fans.

"I don't think I want to listen to hours of financial talk - that sounds boring," might be the thought that's going through your head. Have no fear - you will laugh your tooshie off! (although I hold no responsibility for any problems that arise from your tooshie falling off from laughing hard)

"I already have a kit, so I can't participate." Wrong again! Even if you already have this kit, please feel free to participate! You can just pass it on to someone else, or you can opt to receive several other Dave Ramsey products, such as the Kid's Pack or a free ticket to his Total Money Makeover show.

In order to participate, just write an email to thislittlepiggyboughtahouse@yahoo.com or leave a comment below listing one thing you would do if you had a million dollars. Use your imagination! The winner will actually be drawn from a hat, so there's no pressure, I just think it would be fun for all of you future millionaires to get some ideas.

If you're wondering what all this highfalootin stuff is about, just click HERE for a preview of what you will experience during Financial Peace University.

You have until Friday, April 23 so tell you friends to make their way over here for the chance to discover true Financial Peace!

Our House Fund is Wearing Big Boy Pants!

2010-04-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, it finally happened.

Last night we took a huge step (for us anyway) and moved our teeny tiny baby House Fund from a playpen to the school yard. For the last year it's been cooing away in a money market account but last night we finally took the big step and invested it into a mutual fund. It didn't cry, it didn't even look back at us. It just jumped on that bus and off it went. I feel so proud, and so nervous. Our house fund was almost completely safe in that money market account, surrounded by electrical outlet covers and table corner bumpers. Now it's out there, in the real world, where it can get picked on by the big bad recession bully that's always lurking.

Good luck little House Fund. We'll get to watch you grow over the years and hopefully someday you'll graduate and get to turn the key into our first home.

Eating Out and the B-Word

2010-04-14T19:31:00.001-07:00

I have to apologize in advance for this post because I should have pictures and unfortunately I don't.

So today you'll have to use your imagination.

Yesterday I was craving a dinner in a restaurant but we've gotten back on a b-b-budget (that nasty B-word) and are trying to cut WAY back on our eating-out habits. So mid-morning I threw a frozen pound of hamburger in the crock pot and hoped it would turn itself into something delicious by dinner time. I left for a five mile hike through the woods with my two year old horsey-loving boy and my four-month-old crazy puppy. When I came home I found that the Crock pot gnomes had magically turned my pound of ground beef into a five course gourmet meal!

Okay... not really, but wouldn't life be better with Crock pot gnomes?

Or maybe life would just be creepier with Crock pot gnomes...

All of a sudden I had a brilliant idea - we would have a picnic by the river! We could keep in line with our budget AND get to eat out!

So first I want you to picture a colorful photo reel of the pound of hamburger being turned into a pot of chili with the wave of a magic can opener.

Now picture the chili cooking for a few hours - can you start to smell it?

Next image: I'm pouring it into four individual Gladware bowls and topping with twisty lids (which I thought was a brilliant way to transport our dinner - no pouring required at the picnic site and all we had to do was seal our bowls back up and take them home!)

Now comes the fun part - Army Man and I take the top off of his Jeep Wrangler and we load it up with dinner and kids and head out into the woods toward the river. We're lucky to live in Fort Lostinthewoods where nature and beauty abound right out our back door, so we have lots of great picnicking areas near by. The kids played in the playground, we ate dinner, looked for sea shells by the river, skipped rocks, swung in swings, and gained 15 years on each of our lives.

Can you see it? Can you just about feel the wind in your hair as you're driving around with out a roof or a care in the world? It feels like heaven doesn't it?

The humbling part of the whole evening was the thought that we would have missed out on that whole experience had it not been for our b-b-budget. Normally, when we're not being careful with our money, I just throw my hands up and say "I don't feel like cooking tonight, let's go out to eat." We'll sit at a restaurant and try to keep the kids from screaming through dinner before paying way to much for mediocre food and heading back home. Instead, I was forced to get creative and find a way to eat out that ended up being a great family memory.

It gave me just one more glimpse into what it means when people use the term "Financial Freedom."

I Now Have My Very Own...

2010-04-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

I now have something very, very special...

Something that few people have...

It's a treasure that I get to keep for the rest of my life...

My very own...

Marathon Runner!!!

He did it! Army Man completed his very first Marathon in only 4 hours and 30 minutes! He did great for the first 23 miles, staying steady at an 8 minute mile until a nasty leg cramp got the better of him - but even with a leg cramp his time was incredible!

Here is a "before" picture of Army man at 0-dark thirty, getting ready to head to the race.

And this is the "after" picture. He still managed to smile even though he was exhausted.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get any pictures of Army Man actually running in the marathon. I met a friend who lived near the half way point and we walked around for five miles trying to find him but with no luck. I didn't mind though because it was a great chance to catch up with one of my life-long best friends.

We made it back to the finish line and watched several of the half marathon runners for a while before deciding to make our way to the family area in case Army Man had already finished and we'd somehow missed him.

I did snag this adorable picture of a senior couple finishing the half marathon. I start to choke up a little every time I look at it.

There are a lot of similarities between marathon running and getting out of debt. Both are hard, usually painful, and often appear as acts of insanity to the masses. However they both have huge rewards that carry over into expected and unexpected areas of life. Once you've completed a marathon, or become debt free you start to believe that you are capable of accomplishing almost anything. My close friend, who got out of debt after finishing her first marathon said that completing one gave her the motivation and courage to complete the other. I like to think that there might just be a little marathon runner and debt free person inside each of us that's just waiting to come out. Although, don't tell anyone but I keep shushing the marathon runner inside of me. I think that I'll let that one sleep a little longer as I do not foresee any marathons in my near future.

I'll leave you with pictures of the view outside our window this morning.

What a perfect way to start a marathon day.

Marathon

2010-04-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

My husband turned 30 last summer and he's running in his first marathon tomorrow. I can't tell you how unbelievably over the top proud I am of him - that and a little freaked out. I mean... 26.2 miles? What on God's green earth would possess someone to do that? Especially when the first marathon runner keeled over dead?

"Well that activity killed a man... I think I'll give it a try!"

"Goodness gracious mercy me Mabel" is all I have to say to that!

That, and "I'm proud of you baby, you go get em!"

This marathon, in his thirtieth year got me thinking about my upcoming thirtieth year. I started thinking about what I want that year to look like and what I want to put in my life and take out. One of the prevailing items that my heart kept putting on the "add back in list" was this blog, my forsaken blog. I joined the ranks of the bloggers who deserted their readers and I regret that, but I long to come back because this blog is something that I loved, still love, and would love to continue.

What kept me away? Well, we decided to buy a house. We wanted to buy a duplex in our home town and rent it out to family. Instead of coming clean here with our change of plans I stopped writing and didn't remain true to my readers. I felt like we would let everyone down and didn't want to face the music. So I just stopped writing.

We looked at homes via our family and talked it over and seriously considered it before deciding against it.

After that decision was made we made another decision that we were only going to save up 20% toward a down payment and then go back to beefing up our retirement accounts.

Then we decided again to buy a house in our home town. We put an offer down and everything... then changed our minds again. (are you getting sea-sick from all this wishy washyness?)

We'd saved up a considerable amount at this point and once that house decision fell through all of that money was just sitting in an easy to access money market account. That's when my wheels started turning. Ideas started spinning in my head. I thought of all that money and all the things we could do with it and then I had it. I knew exactly what we needed to buy. We absolutely NEEDED an RV. I just knew it. We talked about it, looked at one, made some calls, talked some more... and decided against it.

Then I checked our neglected retirement accounts again and realized that we'd actually made quite a bit on the tiny amount that was in there and could have made a lot more if we'd invested that house money instead of playing around with it all year. So after nine months of swaying back and forth we moved the majority of our beloved house savings into our retirement accounts safe from my hair-brained schemes.

Now we're back down to a teeny-tiny house fund but we've also gone back to our original goal of paying for our first home in cash. However, this time our goal will be to do this in conjunction with funding our retirement account with 15% of our gross yearly income. It will take us an absurdly long time to do it, and I have a feeling I'll change my mind a million times in the process but hopefully continually change it back so that by the time my husband retires from the Army in 14 years we will be able to write a check to purchase our first house.

If you're still with me, and can forgive my past transgressions of leaving you all in a lurch, then I would love for you to re-join us in this journey of saving up to buy our first home in CASH.

The Pioneer in My Heart

2009-05-04T17:15:00.001-07:00

I've been contemplating a lot lately. A heck of a lot. It's all spinning and tumbling around in my head and... I just can't seem to get it all straight. I've been trying to write to ya'll for the last week and every time I sit down to write anything all of my thoughts seem to rush out at once and get stuck in my fingertips. It's like the party we were "volun-told" to throw for Army Man's Change of Command when he took command of a Basic Training Company. We looked all over the city for a punch bowl. I don't know why I was so set on having a punch bowl. I think it was because I had a two week old baby and the sleep deprivation caused me to focus in on little things and make them into great big stinking deals. Anyway, after combing the city we found a beautiful... well... I don't know exactly what you'd call it. I know there is a word for it but I can't think of it. It was a giant glass container with a spigot. I decided on my favorite punch made with Hawaiian Punch, Sprite, and a variety of frozen berries. Unfortunately the frozen berries all settled at the bottom and the spigot didn't work. Why was I telling you this story? Oh yeah! Because that's how my thoughts are. They're stuck like berries in my fingertips.

All of those crazy mixed up thoughts center around one theme. I'm trying to figure out how to take the qualities of "simpler times" and incorporate them into my here and now. I went to the library in search of the reality series filmed by PBS in 2001 titled Frontier House. It's about three families that are chosen out of hundreds of applicants to live like the pioneers in the Montana wilderness for five months. We ended up using that fast forward button a lot to skip over most of the bickering, so I'm going to warn you that you might have to do the same. But there was a lot of meat in that show. I'm also reading a book titled "See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America" by Logan Ward, a Manhattan resident who moves with his wife and young son to the year 1900 for one year. They choose to live for a year using only the tools available to people in 1900. He got the idea from reading a newspaper article about a similar show to Frontier House that was also put on by PBS. I'm not sure of the title of that one but it was about families that lived in 1900-era London for several months.

That takes me to my swirling thoughts. I don't live in 1900, and honestly I really don't want to because I love air conditioning and bug spray to much. I also love refrigeration, flushing toilets, vacuums, washers, dryers, and a host of other modern day conveniences. However, I don't like the fact that I have wasted away so much of my life in front of a screen, whether it be tv or computer. I also don't like that I don't know very much about my heritage. I want to learn more about where I came from. I also want to learn about the values and morals that our forefathers held. Granted, there were a lot of sins committed in our past, but I don't want to feel like I've thrown the baby out with the bathwater. I want to maintain many of the qualities of my history while living in the present.

I also love that I'm thinking this way now. Back when we relied on debt, it was like my need for stuff was almost all consuming and I would have poo-pooed the idea of going back to simpler times. The more we bought the more I wanted. We didn't go crazy with it all but there was a long list of "needs" (mostly all wants) that I wanted to purchase when we had some money freed up for new types of payments. Now I'm spending a year without most of my stuff. It's almost all in storage and I don't really miss it. I also don't feel a burning desire to add to it like I did before. It's like my diet. When I eat a lot of sweets I crave more sweets. When I eat a lot of fruits and veggies I crave more fruits and veggies. Right now, rather than craving more stuff, I crave fullness in my life. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with stuff, because it's fun to have some stuff. I just don't want my stuff to have me.

I've started making several changes to the way I live my life, but I'm always looking for more ideas and that's where you come in. Now I'm just trying to figure out the best way to phrase this question. I suppose it would be to ask you if you think of simpler times very often and of ways you can incorporate aspects of those times into your present life? Do you only watch t.v. on the weekends? Do you spend a lot of time reading? Do you set aside special time for family time? Share your ideas! I want to hear them. That's one of the beauties of technology, that I get to tap into your ideas and creativity with just a few taps on a keyboard.

Mind Candy and Mind Broccoli

2009-04-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll, I'm sorry it's been awhile since my last real post but I've been indulging in some mind candy lately and therefore I've been neglecting this blog.

The mind candy you're wondering about are the fiction books I've been devouring lately. I was a huge reader in elementary school, but the older I've gotten the more I've let the habit slide. However, since moving in with my roommate my love for fiction has been renewed as she is an avid reader. Instead of spending late nights on my laptop reading and writing blogs I've been spending hours and hours reading words on actual paper. It feels so good to get that soreness in my wrist from holding up the book, like the strange way a sore muscle feels good after I run.

However, in my reading glee I started hearing Dave Ramsey's voice interrupting my delicious fiction novels. "The average millionaire reads one non-fiction book a month... The average millionaire reads one non-fiction book a month... If you want to become a millionaire someday, then do what millionaires do..." I swear, as much as I'm grateful for that man, he can become a real nag inside my head!

So I glanced over to my bookshelf where "Thou Shall Prosper" was waiting patiently, with a toilet paper book mark set in the half way point where I left off. I finally picked it up again and when I did I really got a talkin to. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the author, was discussing the four major motivators in our lives and how to balance those four in order to "achieve maximum success in all aspects of your life" (pg 114 of Thou Shall Prosper). On page 109 he started with the first motivator: wisdom. He likened this need to our body's need for potassium or sodium chloride by saying

"You probably do not feel your body's need for potassium or sodium chloride, but you try to eat intelligently and control your diet so that your body's need for these minerals is satisfied. Similarily, you should regulate your reading and your exposure to intellectual stimulation so that you don't subject yourself to just the mind candy found in popular entertainment. You also need the mind nutrition found in regular solid and substantial material that will provide deep and vital satisfaction. Without it, your being is off balance."

I realized that I was getting fat and sassy off of my diet of pure fiction and "mind candy." There's nothing wrong with fiction, just like there is nothing wrong with watching the occasional sitcom. But I've been getting out of balance because I haven't been eating my "mind broccoli." (Okay, now that just created an image that made my stomach churn. Hopefully you're getting the point of this and I'm not making you turn green.)

I'm vowing to you today that I'm going to try to have a more balanced diet when it comes to what I'm putting in my brain. I'll make sure to share with you the things I'm learning. I'm excited to discuss another book with you that I just picked up at the library titled "House Lust" by Daniel McGinn. If you're interested in discussing that one, or Thou Shall Prosper, with me, head over to your local library and pick up a copy. I want to hear what think about these books, and others. I want to fill my head with valuable nutrition and thankfully I'm surrounded by some very intelligent blog readers with lot's of wisdom to share.

And if you're like me and your brain has started resembling a couch potato, then join me in vowing to get fit mentally!

-Amanda-

In the Meantime

2009-04-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a recipe post but it will take a while to get the pictures together.

In the meantime, my brother-in-law posted this and I HAD to share it with you. Let's see, the financial tie could be that you might end up paying stupid tax if you honk at an elderly woman. Stupid tax is the money you pay for... well.. doing something stupid. It's a Dave Ramsey slang term.

I promise you will laugh. If you don't, I will give up chocolate for a day.

P.S. I apologize for the videos that show up at the bottom at the end. I don't have any control over those. If anyone knows a way to change that please let me know!

PayCheck PigCheck #2

2009-04-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

It's Paycheck Pigcheck time! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip Hooray!

All of that hip hip hooraying is to keep me feeling positive. We added another 2% to our house fund, which is fabulous, but also frustrating. It's hard to think that we still have 93% left to go. I'm trying to think of ways to speed up the process. If anyone has any suggestions for good work from home type work, please, I beg of you, share them with me! I've thought of a couple but we're going to be on the move again in the beginning of the fall and I don't know if it will be worth it to start up a home business when there isn't much time left here. But then again, it might be just the right boost to get some traction on our house savings. So much to think about and so little brain power to do it with! I blame deployment brain. Has anyone else who's been through a deployment experienced deployment brain? Maybe that will be my next Deployment Thursday post. It's a lot like baby brain, only with a little more maniacal laughter and talking to yourself-ness thrown in. I was just getting over baby brain, and then deployment brain hit me and knocked me back into la-la land.

Okay, here's the pig at 7%!

Original Pig

Old Pig

New Pig

Deployment Finances: Cyber Tea Party

2009-04-16T08:06:00.001-07:00

Deployments are rough. There is no doubt about that. It's hard on everyone from the soldier to the baby. One of the difficulties is staying connected. Thankfully, we no longer have to wait for months on end to receive a letter from our loved ones. Thanks to modern technology we sometimes get to talk face to face. Here's one idea for keeping the soldier involved in the lives of your little ones if you have access to webcams and a laptop.

What does this have to do with finances?

Nothing really, I just thought these were adorable photos and wanted to share them with ya'll.

Although, you'll have to excuse the pant-less baby.

I wish we had pictures of our new favorite game, "Wak-a-Daddy" The kids hit the camera with a piece of cardboard. Then Army Man falls over as if he's been hit. I haven't seen them laugh so hard in a long time. They love it and Army Man seems to have a good time. I love that he's able to play games with the kids even from across the globe.

Have I mentioned that I'm crazy, madly in love with this man?

This is a picture of Army Man that I took with the "take snapshot" feature of my webcam.

It's been 23 weeks since the last time I planted a big wet one on that gorgeous face.

On the Road Again

2009-04-15T08:31:00.001-07:00

I've decided that I might be traveling a little to much. My toosh is starting to take on the shape of my mini-van seat. It's not good. I can just see it now... Army Man steps off the plane for his R&R and after smooching and hugging we turn to leave the airport and he takes one look at my backside and remarks "Why honey, your toosh has the striking resemblance of a mini-van seat!" (Don't worry, he would never actually say something like that)

I just returned from visiting most of my husband's side of our family. I wanted to share my trip with ya'll live and in progress, but I always have those darn OPSEC rules running through my brain. OPSEC is the list of guidelines that military and their families try to follow to keep the soldiers safe. My travels around the countryside wouldn't really be considered something that has to stay "Top Secret" but I figure I might as well make it a habit to try to keep things on the down low. That and I'm also a top secret agent for the Department of Frugalness and Financial Security and I have to stay very covert and never let on about my whereabouts. If that gets out the credit card companies might find me and try to stick a credit card in my purse - the horrors!

Anyway, I'm back now and exhausted, and feeling disappointed in myself. When I set out on my journey I was so proud and so excited to share my accomplishments with you. I made sure to pack meals for the day of driving and brought along cans of soda. I bought cups of ice for $.25 and filled them with my cans of soda rather than paying $1.50 for a fountain drink. I ate peanut butter and jelly. That first day my car never pulled through a drive thru. I was super traveller and I was positive that I would be able to come back with a detailed account of exactly how to pull off the perfect frugal trip.

It didn't quite go that way. I tried to spend less than I normally do when I travel, and I actually think that I did. But frankly, I started losing motivation on the second day.

Instead of being a how-to on perfect frugal travel, this post is a how-to on learning to assess your accomplishments and mistakes, learn from both and move on. It's a lesson in shutting up that feisty little frugal nag inside of you that wants to beat you up constantly for going through the drive through and ordering a happy meal instead of planning ahead with frugal fare. It's a lesson in learning to pat yourself on the back and look at the positives and say "Well hey, at least I only spent $8.00 on one meal for three people instead of $8.00 on one meal for one person." Sure, I could have been more frugal, but I still did better than I have in the past and for that I am proud.

Motivate

2009-04-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

This isn't my child.

But it could be.

We are HUGE Dave Ramsey fans over at our house. Our daughter loves to squeel "Weee'rreee Deeebbbttt Frrreeeeeee!" and our son echos by yelling "We Dab Meeee!" It's like music to my ears. During the year that we were working to pay off our debt we were constantly telling our daughter, "Sweetie, Mommy and Daddy are working hard and pretty soon we're going to call into the Dave Ramsey Show and yell 'We're Debt Free!' so we need to practice okay?" Almost every night before she went to sleep she'd say "Mommy, We're debt freeeee!" If you want motivation to pay off your debt, then teach your two year old (her age at the time) how to say "We're debt free!" Like all two year olds who've found a new favorite saying, she'll want to say it over and over... and over and over and over.

If we would have known at the time what it would be like to live debt free, we would have arrived here light years faster. Instead of taking us 14 months it would have taken us 7.

Which is why I'm sharing this with you. I want everyone to experience this feeling. There is nothing like it. But don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself! And while you're working your way there, here's a little motivation for you that I found over at YouTube.

I'm a Trend Setter!

2009-04-11T07:34:00.001-07:00

I have never been a trend setter. Heck, I've never been a trend follower. Don't get me wrong - I've tried following trends before but I always failed miserably. Thankfully, most of my embarrassing attempts at being a trend setter or trend follower happened pre-picture cell phone. The only time that I have to be reminded of my failed attempts is when I get together with three of my life-long friends and they- I mean - we, laugh for about an hour about the time I wore... (HA! You didn't think I was actually going to share that little piece of juicy info did you?) (lets just say that it involved a backwards farmer style cap and fluffy bangs gone very very wrong) Had picture cell phones been around at that time I might have been forced to go and live alone in the mountains after my wardrobe choices were featured on Entertainment Tonight for ugliest outfit ever.

So I was completely floored when I found out that paying off debt and being frugal is trendy now! I'm actually, for the first time in my life, one of the cool kids! Okay, I, um, should probably use the term "cool" loosely because... well... ahem... I am writing a blog titled "This Little Piggy Bank Bought a House." That might have taken my "coolness level" down a few notches.

Thanks to the economic crisis I've realized a dream that I never even knew I had! To be "hip!" Woo hoo! Um... that "woo-hoo" was for being hip... not for the economic crisis... The economic crisis is not so much a woo-hoo as a waa-waa type of a deal. And I don't mean waa-waa in a mocking way, it just went with woo-hoo... Excuse me while I go try to do the Heimlich maneuver on myself. I'm choking on my foot.

Well, on that note, maybe I should just end this while I'm ahead - before my coolness meter goes back to zero.

Someone Won Something!

2009-04-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness ya'll, that was a TOUGH decision!

Rebecca - I wonder if one of the head-halters you made was used in the filming of Office Space? How cool would that be?!

Nan - What a sad story! I would have high-tailed it out of that job just like you did and never looked back. What type of artist were you? If you ever wanted to go back to it maybe I could use a piece in a future giveaway!

Miller Group - That's incredible that you were actually able to find such a loyal employer. That kind of loyalty is SO hard to find these days. I especially loved that they worked with you around your husbands military career.

PJ - When I read the end of yours I spent about five minutes saying "Oooohhhhh! That is SO NASTY!!!" over and over. My daughter came running to see what was the matter and I could only respond, "Oh nothing sweetie, someone just experienced something yucky at their job." I never would have thought that being a bank teller would be such a disgusting job! They should feature THAT on that disgusting jobs show!

Miriam - I had SUCH similar experience! In a similar type restaurant! It was horribly horrible and I SO feel your pain.

Sara - That was so sweet! It was perfect reminder of the great aspects of being a mom after spending a day chasing my two pterodactyls. I swear if my kids could get just one octave higher we'd have a whole neighborhood of dogs chasing us down.

Lori Myers - I just have two words: NO WAY! You have got to be making that up! I'm going to assume that you're not though and just say "No WAY!"

Briefly Stated - I would be a horrible Rent-to-Repossess- I mean - Own employee. I am WAY to nice for that job. And the too-fast pizza delivery story cracked me up!

Laura (abnsigoslady) - I LOVE the Mominator!! That should be a comic strip. I would pay to read that one!

Jolhh2 - I would love to try to find a job like Betsy's Bobbins where I could stay home but still earn some money. Are they still around?

And NOW for the WINNER! Drumroll please....

The beautiful purse goes to the lovely and talented ta-da girl - Lori Myers! Although I still say NO WAY!

And the beef jerky goes to my wonderful brother-in-law, Kevin AKA Briefly Stated! He actually won by default because his was the only entry for the jerky. So enjoy, Kevin!

Thank you everyone, so much, for taking part in our first giveaway. I promise there will be lots more to come, especially since there are still millions and millions of fabulous things in the world to share with ya'll. I'm looking forward to our next one!

Have a great Easter weekend!

Amanda

Frugal People Love Free Stuff - GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-04-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Frugalistas (frugal women) and Machos Frugalis (frugal men), as well as the non-frugal, welcome to our first fabulous giveaway!*

* insert lot's of cheering, jumping up and down and tears of joy here.

Let's go with the age-old "Ladies first" and start with the women's prize. Men, I know you don't like to waste time, so skip this part and head down to the section marked MEN: LOOK HERE.

I wanted to find something fabulous (of course) so I set out in search of a military spouse with a great home-based business. I headed to an Etsy team called the Homefront Team. It's a group of artisans who also happen to be military wives. It made my search so much easier.

PLEASE go check out their site here: Homefront Team

Are you back and ready to find out more about the giveaway? Fabulous!

I saw these military cube purses and fell in love. I contacted the seller, the talented Jen Eskridge and found out that she was the original creator of the design. I was floored! I am constantly trying to come up with ideas but they're always things like "a giant lint roller that you use on your floor." Nothing as beautiful and functional as her purses.

I've always loved the purses made out of old uniforms, but look at this unique twist!

I thought about offering this purse but wanted something something that would appeal to everyone, not just military wives.

So I saw this and decided it was perfect:

****ARGH. I can't get the picture to work. I wish I could insert it here but for some reason I can't. So instead look here:
CLICK HERE FOR PICTURE OF FABULOUS GIVEAWAY!****

While you're there, make sure to check out all of the other beautiful items in Jen's store!
If you want to see more of Jen's products and find out more about her talent look in these places:

http://www.reannalilydesigns.com This is her main website full of info, tutorials and wonderful things
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21895919@N02/sets/ Tons of pictures of her beautiful creations
http://llyrric.etsy.com Her Etsy shop
http://reannalilydesigns.blogspot.com/ This is her blog where you can get updates on what she's up to

Okay ladies, while you're enjoying the fabulousness of Jen's designs, I'm going to tell the men what they can win.

MEN: LOOK HERE

I asked Army Man what I should use as the men's giveaway and he recommended Pacific Gold beef jerky. He said that it's the best jerky he's ever had. You'll receive one bag.
Look here and start drooling:

TO WIN: Describe the best and/or worst job you've ever held. You can leave a comment below OR you can email your comment by clicking on the envelope below OR by emailing me at:

thislittlepiggyboughtahouse@yahoo.com

You have until Thursday at 2300 Central time. (or 11 PM for normal people) Make sure to include your name so that I can announce you as the winner. If you have a unisex name, you might want to specify your gender. I'm just sayin.

One entry per person please. There will be two winners, 1 guy and 1 girl and I'm the judge. I hold the power. I need to make sure I don't let this get to my head. muahh haa haaa

The best part about this giveaway is that I rarely have very many comments so your chances of winning are HUGE. If you're like me and never win anything, this might just be your big break!

(Please note: Thank you so much to those of you who have commented in the past - with all my heart I want you to know that that means a lot)

*** I'm not getting paid for anything on this blog. The giveaways are coming out of our own pockets. We just want to share the love with ya'll and get more people to join in our frugal, house saving fun. This house saving deal can feel a little daunting at times so we need to get as many people to cheer us on as we possibly can. Thanks for coming!

I Want to Make a Living Buying Chocolate

2009-04-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

I've used coupons off and on ever since we decided to give our finances a swift kick in the pants, but I've never really become one of those die-hard coupon fans that gets tons of stuff for free. Today, however, I learned the power of the coupon.

I have to cut out right here to say that I am fighting, with every ounce of my being, the urge to go into Star Wars quotes and relate them to this coupon thing. I'm not even a huge Star Wars fan! (please don't throw stones) However, I live with three young, die-hard Star Wars fans who have brain warped me into thinking about things in terms of Star Wars. So I'm not going to go there with the quoting. I promise, I won't... I really shouldn't break a promise... especially after already breaking the one about cuteness... but it's just to hard to resist. I'm going to sit on my hands.

Well, that's a boring blog, if I just sit on my hands. Since I have to type I'll just stay strong and not give in.

Cut back to coupons: The other day I stopped at the commissary (military grocery store) after picking my kiddos up from the CDC (Army's Child Development Center, or day care). As a spouse of a deployed service member, I get 16 hours of free childcare per child a month thanks to the Army Family Covenant. (I think that's what it's called but correct me if I'm wrong). I LOVE that! On my way to the checkout I glanced at the Starbucks display and noticed that they actually had $1.00 coupons hanging in front. I grabbed one and it said "Enjoy $1.00 off of Starbucks Chocolate." I grabbed the cheapest chocolate bar I could find. It was $.88. I went to the register and put the coupon on the chocolate bar and hoped with all my heart that the coupon would be valid with my purchase.

Would you believe it was?

Can you believe that I actually MADE $.19 by eating Starbucks chocolate? How incredibly wonderful is that? Who says that the world is coming to an end? I just made money by buying chocolate! This is one of my longest life dreams being realized! Then I started thinking, "How many of these would I have to buy to live on the earnings?"

I figured that if I could live on $1500 a month I would only need to buy 7,894 Starbucks chocolate bars a month to make a living. Who needs to work when you can buy chocolate bars!

That is the power of the coupon, the ability to get discounts on things you were already going to buy anyway, and at times even receive things for free. Better yet - sometimes you can even make money on your purchases! I am now a believer.

If you want some more ideas on using coupons, visit this blog: "Saving Less and Living More" She features a great deal every day and it's an easy way to start out with coupons. There are a lot of other great sites out there about using coupons, but it's easy to feel overwhelmed, which is why I'm recommending Jen's site. It's like a "tip-a-day" but with deals and coupons!

To end, I would like to say that I'm very proud of myself. I got through this whole post without ("Luke... use the") using any Star Wars ("power of the") quotes, cliches or ("coupons") analogies.

Become My Follower and I Will Give You Free Things

2009-04-03T05:35:00.000-07:00

I want to do a giveaway to bribe- I mean- encourage people to read and comment on my blog. I thought about telling ya’ll, “Once I have 15 followers, I will do a giveaway!” Then I started feeling all David Koresh-ish, “If you follow me I will give you things… If you follow me I will give you things…” and it gave me the heebie jeebies.

So instead I’m just letting you know that at some random moment in the not so distant future I will give away something absolutely fabulous. I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but I do know that it will be fabulous, AND that there will be two different prizes. One for the men, and for the women.

Make sure you’re reading and keeping up because you don’t want to miss out on the frugabulous fabulosity that is about to come your way. Who knows, it might not even be something frugal! It might be something that our inner frugaltator (for frugal dictator if you didn’t catch that one) (not frugal tater) (although taters are a very frugal food) won’t let us buy. Unfortunately, I don't yet have the means to give away things like this: Kitchenaid Mixer Giveaway, BUT, when we finally have this house thing in the bag we'll be able to do all kinds of great giveaways! Who knows, maybe we'll top the Kitchenaid Mixer! Maybe we'll giveaway a car! Okay... maybe not (I'm not Oprah), but I'm looking forward to uping the anty in the giveaway department. In the meantime, I have a feeling you'll enjoy our first official giveaway.
Who knows? It’s all a mystery. But one thing is for sure, you do NOT want to miss out on this one - and neither do your friends. So invite them over for a good laugh and a little frugalisdom here at the Little Piggy.

Be watching! The giveaway is coming soon!

Deployment Finances: Doing Life Together

2009-04-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago I was told, "Get out of the house. Go somewhere, alone, even if it's just to the store."

Before you turn me into Child Protective Services for leaving my children, let me tell you that the person ordering me out of the house was my friend and roommate, Rebecca, not some person living in my head. I was cleaning up the dishes and started feeling like the house was closing in on me. I have two young children (four and almost 2 years) and I've become one of those moms who thinks it's easier and cheaper to stay in than go out. It's not healthy, I know. And she knows that to. I commented that I hadn't really left the house in over a week, except to take my daughter to preschool and back. I was starting to feel a little depressed. That was when she forced me out of the house.

"But - wait, I need to do the dishes first! It was your night to cook and my night to clean!"

She blocked me from the sink.

"No. Right now, you need to get out of this house. Leave. Go to Wal-mart and pick up a paper shredder."

She handed me the cash for the shredder and pushed me out the door.

I can't tell you how grateful I was for that. I cried all of the way to the store and all of the way home, but it was one of those cleansing cries. It was the "I just miss my husband and I wish he was home with me" cry that gets all of the junk out of my system so I can carry on with another month.

This was all possible because Rebecca and I agreed to spend our deployments together. We are doing life together. We are helping each other through a difficult year. Most of that help comes in the form of laughter. I don't know if I've ever laughed so much in my entire life. And it is so comforting to know that when I feel like I'm about to lose it, there is someone there to force me out of the house.

The icing on the cake in all of this is that we get to save money in the process. I pay rent, which provides a little extra money each month for Rebecca, and I get to save some money on BAH (basic allowance for housing). However, I want to make it very clear, here, that our motivation to become roommates wasn't financial. We spent time praying about this decision beforehand. We knew that our personalities would mesh well and that our kids would get along. This wouldn't have worked if our money was our only motivation.

If you're going through a deployment, or about to go through one, you might want to consider the possibility of living with a friend who is going through the same thing. Even if you don't get a roommate, make sure you have people in your life who help you out when your insanity meter starts to spike. By surrounding yourself with a strong support network, you are helping yourself financially because you're less likely to turn to other coping mechanisms such as food and shopping therapy.

My friend, Tiffany, wrote on the topic of "doing life together" in her blog: The Life and Times of a Busy Mom. While you're there, make sure to read the post titled, "Because it Matters." That post has had a profound effect on my view of the constant moving we do in the military.

Deployments are hard. We all know that. Thankfully there are things we can do to make it easier on ourselves. If you've experienced a deployment, share some tips on making it more bearable. You can click on the comments button below and either use your Blogger account, or click on the other options such as "anonymous." Or you can email me your ideas at thislittlepiggyboughtahouse@yahoo.com.

Thanks for reading!

Amanda

P.S. - 21 weeks done! Woo hoo!

Paycheck Pig Check

2009-03-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

I promised my friend, Rebecca, that I wouldn't go over the top with cuteness. I'm going to have to break that promise with this one.

I'm here to reveal to you, the amazing, the mystical,

Paycheck Pigcheck.

Every time we get a paycheck we put more money into the house fund. Using technological wonders, I've come up with a clever way to track how much closer we are to buying our first home. Okay, so I didn't really come up with this idea, Disney did. I saw something similar on a show about their Disney Cruise Line. One of the cruise restaurants features changing paintings on the walls that start out as sketches and slowly turn into full color illustrations over the course of the meal. Now, every time you look at my Paycheck Pig Check you can daydream that you're on a Disney Cruise Ship. Just make sure you take something for that sea sickness.

Here is the original pig:

This is the pig now that we've completed 5% of our goal:

*Please note: We've been saving for a house for a few months already, so this is a combination of this week's paycheck and a few months worth of savings.

You can't see much of a difference yet, but over time it will start to look more and more like a photo of a piggy bank.

If you're sick and tired of all of this cuteness, you can watch this:

Budgets Make Me Sick

2009-03-30T10:14:00.001-07:00

Okay - that's not true. Budgets don't make me sick. It's just that I am sick right now, but I need to do the budget because Army Man's paycheck gets carried into our account by the paycheck elves tomorrow.

This is where I let out a really loud, giant, groan.

And a little whine, "But I don't wwaaaannnnaaaa do the budgeeeeetttt!"

I'm afraid that if I do it right now, my medicine head will take over and it will come out looking something like this:

* Clothing: $50
* Spa Treatments: $1600
* Godiva Chocolate: $750

* Food: $30 (they say dark chocolate is good for you don't they? So who needs food?)
* Red Box (those nifty video rental vending machines) $350 for sappy love stories and a couple of macho action flicks to balance things out
* Chocolate Covered Strawberries: $11,000, because I could eat these for breakfast, lunch and dinner and every minute in between. I think every military wife who is going through a deployment should be issued a monthly shipment of chocolate covered strawberries. They should have put that in the Army Family Covenant. I'm half tempted to list my address here just in case anyone wants to help out an Army wife in need and send a box of those life sustaining little treats, but that might take away from the purpose of this blog...

Obviously this budget won't work because Army Man's paycheck isn't quite that big. That, and I left out a couple of things like "phone" and um, "gas" and other apparently necessary things.

Okay, time to reign in my inner child and put my fingers to the grindstone and try to think like an adult and get this budget put together.

This is our first "save for a house" budget. Before now, we were living on less than half our monthly income, but we're going to tighten things even more. At the end of the month we'll see if I'm curled up in the fetal position in the corner sucking my thumb and repeating "Rice and beans, rice and beans, rice and beans" over and over.

Wish me luck!

Tree of FIRE

2009-03-29T22:33:00.001-07:00

For your viewing pleasure.

I found this on You Tube.

I love You Tube.

enjoy.

The Suspense is Over!

2009-03-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

I know ya’ll have been dying in suspense for the last couple of days. Your palms are sweaty, you keep checking my blog hoping beyond hope for it. You stay up late at night thinking about it, and sneak down to the computer at 4 AM to see, “Has she posted it? Is it there yet?”
Well, my dear, sweet friends, the wait is finally over. Here it is, the blog you’ve been waiting for.

Da da da DAAA!! THE DEBT SNOWBALL!

Whoo hoo! Clap clap! Let the party begin!

This is the key to that proverbial hot rod that you drive into debt freedom. Mine is green (my daughter’s favorite color) and old-fashioned looking. It’s a convertible hot rod with a great big engine that goes really really fast. Um… what was I talking about? Oh yeah – the debt snowball!

Here are the rules to the game. Write down the balances of all of your non-mortgage debts, along with the amount of the monthly payment (or MP).

For example:
Wells Fargo - $200 MP: $20
JC Penney - $32 MP: $5
Hot Rod Payment - $20,000 MP: $450
Victoria’s Secret - $12,000 MP: $140
Mean ‘ol Sallie Mae (student loan) - $10,000 MP: $250

Hmm… I just realized that in this example I spent more at Victoria’s Secret than on college. Something seems out of balance here…

Okay, now list them in order of balance from smallest to largest:
JC Penney - $32 MP: $5
Wells Fargo - $200 MP: $20
Mean ‘ol Sallie Mae (student loan) - $10,000 MP: $250
Victoria’s Secret - $12,000 MP: $140
Hot Rod Payment - $20,000 MP: $450

First off, make sure that chubby little baby emergency fund is still fat and happy in your account with a full $1000. Is he there giggling at you? Okay, good, now you can play the game.

A great way to start this whole process is with a yard sale. Sell everything. Sell that ugly old picture frame your Aunt Ida gave you for your wedding 20 years ago. Sell that unused exercise bike in your garage. Sell your kids! Just kidding... depending on the kid. Just kidding again. I, in no way, advocate selling your children.

Continuing with my example, I just sold my bungee jumping equipment, Thighmaster, and an old dresser and I have $100 in my hands. I use that $100 to pay off JC Penney. Now I have $68 left to throw at Wells Fargo and my list looks like this:

JC Penney – GONE! : $5 payment now goes into next debt
Wells Fargo - $132 MP: $20
Mean ‘ol Sallie Mae (student loan) - $10,000 MP: $250
Victoria’s Secret - $12,000 MP: $140
Hot Rod Payment - $20,000 MP: $450

The next month I use that $5 from JC Penny toward the Wells Fargo payment so that I’m paying $25 a month to Wells Fargo. Once I have that debt paid off I take the $25 a month payment and combine it with the payment from the next smallest balance - the student loan. I get that paid off and tell Sallie Mae where she can stick her student loan. After that’s gone I’m able to pay $415 toward the Victoria’s Secret bill. Once that one’s gone my husband cries a bit until he remembers that they take cash and that once our debt is gone we’ll be able to buy a lot more from there. So after Vicky’s out of the way we have a whopping $865 to pay on my imaginary hot rod each month. During this whole process I'm only paying the minimums on everything except for the debt with the smallest remaining balance.

See, it creates a snowball of payments each month because as the debts get paid off, you can apply more money to the next one. At first it makes a person dizzy, but once you start to see the debts fall off you begin to feel lighter in your step.

It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Frugamantic Dates: 10 Seconds to Romance

2009-03-27T22:55:00.001-07:00

10… make sure the picture is centered
9… try not to trip over tripod
8… 7… 6…. 5… 4… Get into uncomfortable position, wipe hair out of face
3… stick out lips and try to make kissy face
2… look into the camera with smoldering eyes
1… Achoo! *click*
0… Pickle Nickles. Gotta start all over again.

Whoever said that romance had to be all “trips to Rome for the weekend” or gourmet dinners in Paris? Romance can be found with that snappy little digital camera that every mom has at the bottom of her purse. Most of them come with a self-timer setting that can come in very handy - and not just for those family photos by the Christmas tree. I think that nearly every husband out there would agree that some flirty photos with that “Come and get me, Baby” look would top the charts in the romance department.
So ladies, find a time when you can sneak away with your camera, throw on that lingerie that’s hiding in the bottom of your underwear drawer and set the 10 second timer. Send those pictures through your printer and wa-la! instant romance that will make your husband crazy for you all over again. And if you already own the camera equipment, this won't cost a dime!
Just promise me that you’ll ignore the imperfections that we all know we have. Your husband is completely blind to them. He thinks you're beautiful and sexy and no matter what you look like, the confidence that you’ll show in this one gift will make him want you like never before.

Here are examples of how NOT to pose for your pictures:

Obviously I'm not going to post pictures of me in my fancy under-roos,

because my sweet husband is a soldier, with access to very large guns,

and if he found out that some guy saw a picture of me in my fancy under-roos,

I don't think an ocean or a deployment would stop him from finding said guy and opening up a can of whoop ____ (fill in the blank) on that poor bloggie's patootie

Baby Stepping

2009-03-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Before I get too far into this blog I wanted to share the Baby Steps that transformed our lives. These are common sense steps that were put together into an easy to follow format by Dave Ramsey. They are almost so simple it hurts! I always thought that finances were supposed to be complicated but once I saw these steps I realized just how easy this stuff is to understand. If only it was as easy to implement them as it is to understand them.

7 Baby Steps to Financial Peace

1. Save up $1000 in a "Baby" Emergency Fund. Set this money in a separate account and don't touch it. This is the one and only time that you neglect the baby. The one and only time. Neglect that baby emergency fund. Don't listen to it when it starts whining for attention "OOoooo pppuuulllleeeeaaassseee can we go on a weekend trip to the beach??!!" Just tell that baby to shut the heck up and then go for a walk. Don't even look at that money in your account. I know, it's tempting. You feel bad neglecting that cute cuddly baby of an emergency fund. But you've got to.

2. Pay off all of your non-1st mortgage debt using the debt snowball. This includes all of the "good debt" (what an oxymoron!) like cars and student loans, as well as home equity loans, credit cards, 0% finance deals etc. I'll detail the debt snowball in a later post. (now I'm creating suspense! muah ha ha! I bet you're just dying to know about that snowball huh? Well... you'll just have to wait)

3. Save up your Fully Funded Emergency Fund (FFEF) of 3-6 months worth of expenses. The key word here is expenses, rather than income. Once your debt is gone your expenses are a lot lower than before so you can get by with less. This is the step that we got stuck on for a while. We were able to fill it 3 days after we were debt free when Army Man received his retention bonus, but after 14 months of working so hard to pay off our debt we thought we deserved some sort of reward. So we spent a year spending half of the money. Don't do what we did!! Looking back we wish that we had left that money alone and moved straight into step 4.

4. Save 15% of your gross (pre-taxed) income toward retirement. This is an ongoing step until you reach retirement.

5. Start saving for your kids college funds. This is also an ongoing step. I know most of us want to do this step before all others, but if you don't have a solid retirement account set up than you'd better make sure that your kids end up being doctors and lawyers because chances are they'll be the ones funding your retirement. Unfortunately, we can't write essays and get scholarships for retirement (if only it were that easy!) so make sure you do these steps in order.

6. Take all of your extra money and throw it at the house. Literally. Take it all out in cash and then just have a moneyball fight with your house using dollar bills and change. Okay - maybe that's not what Dave Ramsey meant by "throw it at your house." It could be that you're supposed to put it into the mortgage. Yes, I believe that makes more sense. But man, wouldn't a moneyball fight be fun? When you're rolling in the dough after doing these steps then invite me over for that moneyball fight. Just don't check my pockets when it's time to go. (okay, just kidding again, I would never steal someone's money) (alright, now I'm really stating the obvious but you just never know with these blog things) (someone might actually have a moneyball fight but then be afraid to invite me to it because they're afraid that I'll take their money home with me) (I should probably stop with the parenthesis huh?) (but this is just to much fun, it's like we're sharing a secret) (isn't that how you feel when you read things in parenthesis? Like the writer is telling you a secret?) (this is what happens when your husband is deployed and you stay up too late blogging) (you get focused in on weird things like parenthesis)

7. Build wealth and give tons of it away. This is the step I daydream about all the time. Like when I watched John Q and thought about how incredible it would be to find a family in that situation and say "Oh, you need $20,000 to keep your child alive? How do you spell your last name so I can write out the check?" Or to find a family that's just gone through a job layoff and help pay the bills until they can get back on track. I would love to be that Secret Santa they talk about who goes around to low-income neighborhoods at Christmas time handing out $100 bills. Or to find a waitress who's trying to put herself through school and pay her tuition.

**One quick comment on step 7 - don't wait until you get to step 7 to start giving. Make sure that you're giving 10% of your income, whether to a church or charity throughout this process.

So those are the simple steps to financial freedom. They're easy to understand but difficult to implement. If you have trouble finding the motivation, just start daydreaming about all of the things that you can do when you reach step 7.

In fact, why don't you share some of those daydreams with the rest of us? Leave a comment below so that we can all be inspired.

Deployment Finances: Investing in Our Marriage

2009-03-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Thursday has become my favorite day of the week ever since Army Man left for his 12 month deployment. I said good-bye to him on a Thursday twenty weeks ago, and every week that passes is one week closer to the day that he's back in my arms. Now that we have this blog set up I'll use Thursdays to discuss deployments and finances.

Last week, when Army Man and I made the decision to focus in on saving for our first house I asked him about the flowers. This might make a few of you roll your eyes, but I am spoiled senseless by my sweet Army Man. Before he left I dropped a couple of hints of ideas that I thought were absolutely over the top romantic. I heard both of them at the floral shop when I was buying flowers for a friend of mine. The florist told me about a deployed soldier who sent his wife roses every month that corresponded to the number of months left until he returned. So the first month she got 12 roses, the second she received 11 and so on and so on. The florist followed that sweet story with one that had my eyes leaking like faucets. A deployed soldier ordered a Father's Day bouquet of flowers and balloons for his wife with a note attached that read "Thank you for doing such a great job of filling my shoes while I'm going. Happy Father's Day." Do you need a kleenex? I know I do! That one gets me every time.

Okay - back to our discussion and the flowers. After hearing those stories Army Man decided to send me a bouquet of flowers with chocolates or a teddy bear every month. I know - I'm spoiled! I know how much he spends every month because it shows up in the account, so of course I asked "Should we stop doing the monthly flowers and put that money toward the house?" He adamantly replied "No! I consider that an investment in our marriage. That one is non-negotiable!" I'm so crazy about that man.

Here are pictures of the flowers I've received over the last four months.

November (the month he left)

December

January "Happy Heart"

February "PS I Love You" (because that's my favorite movie)

March "Together Forever"

Though we have financial goals, our most important goals are to stay close and connected as a couple and as a family. The beautiful flowers that my Army Man sends me every month are just one of the many ways that he shows me how much he loves me, even from the other side of the world.

What are some things that you do, whether it's for free or costs money, that you consider an investment in your marriage and your family?

Would You Like a Piece of Pie?

2009-03-25T17:38:00.001-07:00

After a lot of thought, prayer and "I don't know, do you really think we could pull this off?" discussions, my husband, "Army Man" and I have come to a decision: we're going to buy our first house in cash, hopefully (fingers crossed) within four to five years. After this decision came a second, not quite so major decision: we have to chronicle this. Then I thought, "What better way to chronicle this, than by sharing this little slice of insanity pie with the two or three people who might just happen upon this blog?" to think of saving up cash for our first home really makes me wonder if they should send us off to the loony farm. We are not trust fund babies. We don't bring home a six-figure income. Adding to the "ship them away - this is just to crazy" evidence is the fact that we are a one-income family living on a soldier's salary with two kids in tow.

Yet we're going to do it. We're determined. We're ready. Honey - we're Army strong. Let's do this thing! (said in tomboy voice with hefty arm pump for added effect). So if one of the two of you readers is a skeptic, well than just read along and see if you're right. See if it can't be done, if it's just to hard. And if the other of you two readers is a hopeless optimist, then please feel free to comment as much encouragement as you possibly can. Because when we're eating Ramen Ala Hot Dog, we're going to need it.

In case you want to know how we got this crazy, here is a little back-story. If back-stories bore you then feel free to skip this part and start wandering around our happy little cyber home. Grab a cup of cheap coffee and make yourself at home here. Our cyber-home is your cyber-home. Just don't forget to wipe your fingers on the mouse-pad before stepping inside.

So on with the back-story I promised you. Army Man and I started out our marriage in debt. We each had student loans totaling $6000 and a car loan with a remaining balance of $5000ish. After a while I decided that I was a princess, and a princess needs a proper bed, complete with a headboard and a footboard. One shopping trip and signature later we waited for our 0% financed bedroom set to arrive. It barely fit in our bedroom but in 11.3 months it would be ours, baby. Every year we bought another large item and every year we paid it off. After a while our car started throwing tantrums and refused to take us where we wanted to go. So as a punishment we traded it in for a brand new adorable little Saturn Ion with that toxic new car smell and only 11 miles on the odometer. A few months later Army Man was getting ready to graduate college and start active duty and we realized that we had zero dollars to get us to our first duty station. We did what any other smart, sophisticated young military family would do, we took out a "Personal Military Career Starter Loan." Yada, yada, yada, bought a brand new truck because my Ion needed a friend, yada, yada, yada, $33,300 worth of debt later, we were broke. We tried to buy a house but were denied because our debt to income ratio was too high. No one ever mentioned anything about a "debt to income ratio" before. What did they mean we had too much debt? We were just like any other normal red-blooded American family. It's un-American not to have debt, right? We scratched our heads and told our neighbors our plight and they told us about some guy named Dave Ramsey who advocated debt free living. They said something about a baby emergency fund and a debt snowball. We smiled politely at their advice but inside we were rolling our eyes.

We knew for sure that they were discussing some kind of crazy man who was out to take our money. We dismissed that unsophisticated, un-American way of life and went on about the business of paying the bills. Before long though, we hit a snag in our finances (translation: neither of us were balancing the checkbook and when Army Man wanted to go out of town to a football game there was no money in our account). We decided to give that weirdo, Dave Ramsey, a chance.

We read his materials and were hooked almost immediately. Suddenly it was like flood lights were going off in our brains as we started to understand the intrinsic value of living debt free. We started Ramsey's Baby Steps in July of 2006 and were completely debt free on October 1, 2007. Since then we have completed our fully funded emergency fund of six months worth of expenses and started retirement, college, Christmas, car and vacation funds. But now we're going to change all of that for a short time. We're going to *gasp* pause our retirement fund, and (this is where you might want to close your eyes and skip to the next paragraph) pause our college funding, as well as every other fund except for the car fund, all in the name of paying cash for our first house. That brings us to today, and to this little cyber home of ours.

You may not agree with our decision. You might call us bad parents for holding off on our college funds for a while. You might think we're back-woods idiots without a clue. Or you might be inspired by our story, and by our journey. You might decide that you want to join us and pay off your debt. You might even want to eat a little slice of that insanity pie and save up to buy your own house in cash, or work toward paying off your mortgage so that you own your home out-right. Whatever your reason for being here, we welcome you into our home. We are glad that you are here and we hope to have a chance to get to know you a little over the next several years. Hopefully, if we can pull this off, after a few years I'll be able to write to this blog from our, read it, our house.

Thanks for Coming!

Mrs. A.