Money, Money, Money, Money

Did you sing that title, or did that little ditty fall flat? 

I've been thinking this tune all day because that's what life around our house has become...money for this, money for that. Not really money for necessarily fun things. Actually there's been no fun things! 

Back in the spring, there was this big scare that we were going to miss a paycheck or two because the government couldn't seem to agree on a budget. Come to think of it, they still can't or haven't agreed! Yikes. At the time, I joked that this was probably a good time for our family to tighten the purse strings and start living on a real budget. If you know me at all, you know that I'm pretty tight or cheap or frugal if you're being kind. I have no issue being cheap! Okay, maybe I have no issue being a cheapskate - that sounds more PG, doesn't it? I don't buy name brand clothing. I have a very small limit to what I'll pay for any one particular item of clothing. The biggest splurge I do is a Vera Bradley purse once a year or so and even then, I only buy if it's on clearance! Seriously, this is how I live.  My mom trained me at a young age to go to the back of the store because that's where the clearance racks were.

One of the first books I got for my Kindle app on my tablet was Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. I read this book fast and furious. I got excited and was ready to get our money under control. Now, when I say under control, I really mean figure out where we're spending money and where we can save a little here and there. At the time, we had already paid off both of our cars because we had some money from the last deployment saved up and we got the new homebuyer's credit from the IRS. The biggest issue we had was just blowing money on silly things, not realizing how many silly things we were paying for! Most of you know that I coupon so I try to save as much as I can wherever I can.

In September or October, I finally caved and converted to using cash as Dave recommends. It's been a hard challenge, but it's made me think more about what I'm buying and whether or not things are needs or wants or can be put off until the end of the month when I have extra left from somewhere else. Doing this has allowed us to start contributing to two IRA's - not maxing them out, but doing more contributing than we've ever done - and to up our contributions to the kids' college accounts. There's no way on earth we'll save enough to pay for 3 kids to get through college, but we're trying to prepare as well as we can. As I look back, I wish we had practiced more restraint since the beginning of our marriage! We'd be in much better shape as far as our retirement savings is concerned. We were young and dumb and now are trying to get caught up. 

Taking better control of our cash has allowed us to pay for some major expenses without dipping into our savings! One of the benefits of deployment is that soldiers can make a little extra money because they get some special allowances for being in a combat zone and all of their income is tax free. This is a great way for military families to get ahead. That's been our goal with both deployments. This one, though, we've not gotten any further ahead. These 2 paid for cars and this crazy set of neglected teeth in my mouth have cost us every bit of our extra pay that we've made since the beginning of this deployment. For that I'm grateful, but it's frustrating to think of all the extra money we've had, but instead of saving for fun things like vacations or toys, we've bought 2 sets of brakes, a compressor for an a/c system, 2 big expensive tires, rods and labor for a suburban door that's about to fall off, a root canal and a filling! The kicker is that the month I think we're finally going to get out of this big expense rut, we have a much bigger escrow payment than I imagined we were going to have. It truly is always something! Without a budget and knowing where we were going to use the extra, I'd be scrambling and probably a lot more worried about writing these big checks.

We have been blessed beyond our imaginations financially. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that we'd live in the beautiful home that we do or that we'd have the lifestyle that we have now. We've come a long way from our $434 a month 2 bedroom condo in a retirement community! I'm not saying any of this to complain. I'm grateful that the Lord knew I would need to be wise with the finances because we'd have all of these crazy car expenses and teeth expenses.  I'm also sharing as an encouragement that there really is blessing and freedom in having a plan for your money! Dave Ramsey says a budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. I love that because there have been so many times when I've felt so poor, but the truth is I just had no idea where I had spent so much of our money! Those lattes really add up.

If you haven't read Total Money Makeover, I highly recommend it! It's a great read and he gives a very practical, baby steps plan to get control of your money before it controls you. It's never too late to start!