Finding Time for the Hustle

Like all the other Project Money participants we are looking for ways to increase our income. Of course we are reducing our spending, cutting debt and cutting coupons (I STILL hate coupons!) There have been some ups and downs lately. We had been seeing improvement and then Wham-o, we realized we over drew our account due to a mis-timing of paying a bill. Even though we went electric, we still need to be careful of when we move our monies. We were so excited to move $400 over into savings that we did it too early and brought our balance too low and a bill went out a day early. Dan took it very hard. He lost sleep over it because he thought that we would never be in this situation again. We tried to look at the positive and see that this was a bump in the road not a complete detour. We are STILL doing better than ever before, we are STILL communicating better but we STILL have room to improve.

How Did We Do That?

We are over half way through Project Money. We have met some of our goals and still have a long way to go on others. We have been primarily focused on savings and have yet to start the debt reduction part of our financial plan.

We were able to save money at a higher rate than I thought we would. How exactly did we do that? We first started tracking every penny we spent for a month. Then we looked at areas we were able to cut back spending. The two areas that made the most impact were groceries and going out for lunches/beers.

Mr. & Mrs. Cranky Pants

Whew – What a month! We’ve picked up hours, added extra gigs, bartered to reduce cash use and started several DIY home improvement projects. We don’t know whether we are coming or going most days! Max has started school. Let me tell ya’ - two full days of pre-K is a LOT of work for a little person – so we are all in the same boat of feeling overwhelmed, over worked and overloaded. We are all getting a little cranky and at one point or another ALL of us have deserved a disciplinary time out.

Keep on Trucking

Well, we are half way through Project Money. Things seem to be going pretty well. We have about a thousand dollars left to save before we start paying off debt. Hopefully it won't take too long to get there. One way we have been able to save at the rate we have is making extra money. I have done several side landscaping jobs and Sheila has done some massages for cash and done extra remote shows for Monkey Business. The down side to this is that we are EXHAUSTED! I work over 50 hours a week at my regular job and then I worked an additional 20 hours in a weekend to do a landscaping side job.

We're Half-way!

We are around the half-way point of Project Money and time to check in.

On the big picture we are really making changes that are making a difference. We’ve accomplished our top four goals out of ten and we are still working on the other goals, too. We have a little more breathing room, too. For example, we now have $1000 in our checking at all times – so we can now start to put a few bills on auto pay. In the past we didn’t want to use the auto pay because we needed to check and double check the amounts to be sure everything would be covered. Last month we were able to pay bills 2 weeks early and still put some away into savings – small amounts, but every little bit adds up!

The Gift of Travel

We are back into the swing of things! We had another vacation. Now…before you chastise us…remember, we have not been on a ‘real’ vacation for about 7 years. The fact that we did two in the same month seems a little crazy, I know. Sometimes that is how life comes at ya’!

Last Year was a Very Difficult Year

In December of 2009 my Dad, Rod Haines, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  No, he never smoked and yes, he did handle asbestos while in the Navy. 4 months later he was gone. Gone. We had time to say our goodbyes and love him lots while he was here – but – it still went so fast. Too fast.

Losing a parent is unbearable. Until you’ve experienced it is so hard to understand how it feels, what it brings up and how it shapes you. A year and a half later it can still hurt as much as if it were yesterday. Other days I can remember a funny joke (he was a hell of a joke teller) or a story (he was a hell of a story teller) or a song (he was pretty good at that, too) and enjoy the memory. It’s so hard to believe that he will never call me “His Baby” again.

How Far We’ve Come

I must have done a good enough job on my first blog that Sheila asked me to write another one this week. We are two and a half months into our seven month financial journey. It feels like we have already come a long way. Although we still have a lot further to go. So far we have reached several of our short term goals. We are communicating much better, we almost always have at least $1000 in our checking account, we are close to reaching our 3 month emergency fund in our savings, and most importantly, my stress levels have decreased.

Painting Rocks and Vacationing on the Cheap

So, we went on a vacation last week to Sleeping Bear National Park. It was awesome to get away and have some fun. We were VERY aware of our budget and we tried to get clever when it came to saving money while on the road. Here are a few things we tried.

Vacation, Time to Get Away!

It’s been a long time since we’ve been somewhere new, gotten out of town and had a vacation as a family. Our good friends Jodie and Kevin invited us LAST year to go THIS year (how’s that for thinkin’ a head for ya’?) to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, in Michigan. We hustled and bustled to scrape together some extra cash to make the trip happen – and we are so glad we did! Thankfully, because they asked us so far in advance we were able to plan and save up.