Money, Money, Money, Money....MON-EY!

We have been very busy around here! We are doing everything we can to save money and pay down our debt! We want to move into Tanque Verde Manor, debt free! Here are a few ways that we have been saving money:

1. No cable. Does it suck? Yes. As bad as I thought? No. My dad bought us this super cool antenna which gives us all the local channels and PBS. I can still watch Good Morning America, the kids watch Curious George and we can still watch Wipeout and Extreme Makeover, Weight Loss. We have Netflix which is okay. We stream it through our Blueray player. I am sure we will be spending lots of time at my parent's house come football season! 

Direct TV bundle in old house= $160.00mo.  
TV bill in current house= $8.00/mo.

2. No phone. Yep- got rid of the home phone. It was bundled in our old house and here we were paying $20- and never used it. Just made sense. Hasta la vista baby!

Savings of $20/ mo

3. Thermostat. We keep the thermostat set t 78 degrees during the day. Yes, it's a little warm, but it's worth it to pay less! We only turn it down to 75 at night!

4. We quit buying juice. We were going through a lot of juice and we never gave the kids a full glass of it! Really, it was flavored water, but still- lots of juice. Instead, I saw on one of my awesome Shaklee team member's blog (Erin @ Healthy Branscom's) that she was using Shaklee's Performance instead. I thought that was such a great idea that I totally copied it! The kids love it and so does Eric and Daylen!

5. We are selling our stuff! Right now we are paying for a storage unit and it's $75 a month! It pains me to pay that bill each month. Eric and I are doing the War On Debt right now and Dani Johnson totally inspired us to get rid of our junk! We sold our big, huge, spacious king bed (mattress and frame), we are selling our 70 inch TV (that one hurts a bit- Brian Urlacher's booty was lovely on that screen) , we are selling our desk, bar stools, and any other BIG thing in the storage unit. The plan is one more month and all the rest of the boxes will just be reorganized in the garage! Not only will we make money by selling our stuff, but we will not have the storage unit rental fee each month. Yahoo!

Savings of $75.00/month

6. We are clearing out our pantry, fridge and freezers. Again, Dani Johnson encouraged us to eat what we have try not to go to the store until it's all gone. I thought this was crazy, but when I actually looked around, we have a TON of food just being wasted! We have gone to the store for milk, produce, bread, and cereal, but not much else! We have not bought any type of meat in over a month! And I still have shrimp, a bag of chicken, a huge pork tenderloin, and fish in the freezer. Our plan is to empty the big freezer and then sell it! It uses electricity and we don't need it!

7. Getting mega organized! Being organized is essential in saving money! Knowing where everything is makes it easier to see what you need. Plus, doing something like menu planning forces you to spend less. 

8. Only buying what we need and only doing it when it's on sale!!  

9. We only use Shaklee cleaning products. It's no surprise that I would put that one, right? The cleaning products (such as the Basic H) are super concentrated so they go a long way! Plus, Basic H is used for so many things that we don't need to spend money on individual products. I can use Basic H to clean my floors, wash my car, get out stains, on my windows, to dust my house, as an all-purpose cleaner...just to name a few. So yeah, WAY less money then buying Pine Sol, Armor all, Oxy Clean, Windex, Pledge, Method, etc. Just sayin'.

10. We have learned to "live without". I know that may sound bad, but it's really not. We just buy what we need.... I don't NEED another pair of sweat pants, the kids don't NEED another toy, we don't NEED to go out to dinner.... we are learning to simplify. 

And ya know what??? Simple is good. 

If you are interested in Dani Johnson's War On Debt program, please click on THIS link! You won't be sorry!

{PS...If you live in Tucson, I will be holding a War on Debt class- FOR FREE...email me if you would like to come. It's Saturday, August 18th at 1:00 pm. }

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What Do You Mean By Save?

First of all, Happy 2010 to everyone! We started the year off by tearing down Christmas crap decorations and then ended the day at the park with all the cousins while they drove their awesome new HUGE power wheels. My mom was nice enough to make dinner for us and what better way to end the start of the New Year than with Mexican food? I am supposed to be trying to think more positively this year so I am not going to think about the fact that the year started with my camera breaking (8 months old thank you very much-awesome) but I am going to focus on what Eric and I are going to be doing differently this year to help our 'money situation'. So here is a list of things that WE are going to be doing:

• Starting yesterday, we are going to be tracking what we spend everyday for a month. The spread sheet that we have is broken down into a bunch of different categories that range from utilities to fast food or sodas. This way we can see what we aren't remembering when we sit down and try to figure out where the money went.
• We will be transferring account information onto a budgeting website called The Mint. It will track our spending when we are finished with the spread sheet and show us whether we are on budget or not.
• We will start a budget. This one is the hardest for us-not because we can't stick to it, but because Dave Ramsey says that you need to be current on all your bills first, we are not quite there yet ;)
• We will be getting rid of the movie channels. First of all, they suck. Second, they suck!
• We will be tranferring our bank accounts to USAA. No more stupid bank fees from B of A
• We will be menu planning on a regular basis. This used to save us so much money and I am not entirely sure why we got away from it.
• I will get back into the Grocery Game.
• I will be working from home at night and starting an at home business sometime soon. I will also get back into studying to do medical transcription from home.
• I will be getting rid of the newspapers-every day but Sunday.
• We will try to only run the dishwasher at night.
• I will try to stay on top of the laundry (once I am caught up) and ya know only wash a load once instead of like 3 because it sat for so long.

I know they say money doesn't buy happiness and I do get that. I know that I am blessed in so many ways, but money does buy peace of mind in some ways. Eric and I pray that this year will be better money wise, and we are going to live by the motto-"Don't wonder where your money went, TELL it where to go."


P.S. Hopefully I will figure out to get the pictures off my camera- I hate not having pictures!