Because if we won’t communicate with each other, they will!!!

One of the first things we needed to do to ease our cash flow issues was to adjust the due dates of some of our larger bills. So I contacted the finance company to apply to switch the due date for our car payment from the 4^th to the 24^th of the month. I was told by the representative at the finance company that this change would be effective for our April payment. (I was so proactive to call to confirm the change—I was kind of proud of that!) But alas! On April 6^th (the 4^th was a Saturday) I checked my email and discovered several iAlerts triggered by a low account balance in our checking account, then a few more letting us know about the ($24!!) courtesy pay fees that had accrued because 2 items had come through with insufficient funds in the account to cover them. I of course logged on to iBranch immediately to transfer money from our iSave account which holds our baby emergency fund. (This was an emergency, right?) Then went to the recent activity page to discover what could have gone wrong. I saw that the finance company had taken our car payment out on the old date. (Michael tried REALLY hard not to say “I told you so!”) I of course contacted the finance company and lodged a complaint, and requested a refund of the courtesy pay fees since the account was overdrawn due to their mistake. They complied after I sent a statement from FCCU showing the pertinent transactions. And we have already put the money back into our iSave account and have a full $1000 emergency fund again. YAY iAlerts! Without them, the situation could have gotten way worse while we waited for notices to arrive in the mail—we just wouldn’t have thought to check our accounts since we expected everything to be fine!

iAlerts saved the day again this week. I was just telling our coach Linda earlier this week how great it felt to sit down and pay the bills last weekend and actually have a considerable amount of money (like $900!) left after entering our receipts and matching up our transactions for last week. We knew there were some bills that were going to be paid from our account this week through the web bill pay system (love that, too—another blog!) and that we would be getting groceries and gas. I also authorized Linda to draw the appraisal fee for the refinance of our mortgage from our checking account this week when she needed it. All this still would have left us with about $200 left by this Friday when Michael gets paid again.

I had commented earlier on the Canty’s blog about how Michael had worked for a couple hours over the weekend to fix our color printer, when in another life (that’s what it feels like now, but it was just a few months ago—amazing how fast I feel adjusted to this new lifestyle!) we would have gone right out and bought a new one. He did this because we are working on printing graduation announcements (GO MICHAEL—I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!) Of course we needed ink ($60) and stationary ($30) and envelope seals ($11), and soon we are getting low balance iAlerts again!!! Remember how I said before that we wouldn’t stop spending money even if we didn’t have any? Well apparently old habits die hard, but getting those iAlerts made us AWARE of the problem before we overdrew the account, and we have decided that even though we could cut it close and be okay, we are waiting until Michael is paid on Friday before buying postage and mailing our invitations. I LOVE iALERTS!!!

I am one of those guys that likes my TV. HD, DVD, BluRay, THX, 7.1 Surround Sound, HDMI, SPDIF, FiberOptic.... the more acronyms the better. But here is my dilemma. Diana grew up without a TV and would never let me buy a TV. Basically I have never "bought" a TV in my life. That is not to say I have never owned a TV. I guess a little background is necessary.

This Friday Diana is inviting the women from the challenge over to our house for a little get together to pamper themselves. They will probably watch a movie, paint nails and other girly stuff (I didn't ask). Diana said I needed to blog about our TV. I think she does not want people to think she "let" me buy a TV.

Anyhow.. Back to the story.. TV#1
about 9 years ago we went to the FSU vs. Miami football game one Saturday. Of course we arrived early and wondered around on the south green. A Sony booth was giving away a cool keychain. I had to write my name on a card (I figured so they can annoy me with marketing) and drop it into a box. Long story short... At half time I heard my name on the PA. Ended up I won a Sony WEGA TV. I brought it home and set it up before Diana got home one day. When she saw it I think the words out of her mouth were "WHAT IS THAT!!!!" Of course I teased her and said I bought it from the store, on credit, and gave her a hard time for about an hour before I let her know I won it. I asked her that day if I would ever be allowed to buy a TV like this. Maybe it was not a good idea to ask after I played that little joke on her. The answer was a serious "NO".

Now.. Onto TV#2
Before Gabriel was born I started playing an online game called World of Warcraft. A very addicting computer game. I played it for almost 3 years and at some points I probably played 16 hours a day. Like I said, ADDICTING. When Jacob was about to be born and Gabriel was beginning to need more attention I decided that I needed to stop playing so that I could spend more time with the kids. However, breaking any addiction is not easy. I knew if I was going to really quit I would need to sell my account so that I would not be tempted to log in and play again. After 3 years online I had one of the best characters in the USA. So I put an ad up online to sell the account and within a couple days I had a bunch of offers. I ended up selling it for $1700. Now, that I had all this free time on my hands (remember I played 16 hours a day) and due to fealing a little depressed I wanted to buy something to fill that gap. $1700 at that time did not buy much of a TV (I wanted something HighDef). I started doing a lot of research and found that for a lot less money you can install a HighDef projector and screen. The advantage is you get a much larger screen then a flat screen TV, the negative is that in bright light the picture gets washed out. Well, we only watch TV after the kids go to bed so the light would not be an issue. So a couple months later we have a projector and screen in our house. Being the computer geek I am I built a Media Center PC to store all our movies, pictures and music. Since then, I don't think we have been to a movie theater in about a year. Before that we would go to a movie once or twice a month (at $20+) Now, we rent movies from netflix and watch movies in the comfort of our own home (plus we don't have to pay $30 for a babysitter). So for all the other contestants that are watching a movie at our house this friday, please don't give Diana a hard time for letting me have "my TV"

Noun: a settlement of a dispute in which two or more sides agree to accept less than they originally wanted

Verb: to undermine or devalue somebody or something by making concessions

If you’ve been paying close attention, you’ve heard these words from or about us before: Michael and I don’t fight about money—or at least we didn’t use to! We each believed there was a single reason for our less than desirable financial situation: I was certain everything would be just fine if only I could get Michael to spend less money! He insisted that I needed to make more money! (BTW, I have never not been employed.) Any time we tried to “discuss” it, we got just about this far and decided to end the discussion there, because fighting has always proven to be extremely unproductive for us…when no one gives an inch, no one wins, and what fun (or use) is a fight with no winner (or any kind of resolution)?! It eventually got to the point where there was an unspoken rule—if you don’t bring up how much money I spent on ____, I won’t give you too hard a time about ______. There was certainly no attitude of “we are a team, let’s consider all the information and make a decision together.” Every week (often longer, sometimes, much longer) when we would sit down to “do bills,” we would search for all our various receipts, subtract all the money we’d spent, and complain to each other that there wasn’t enough money to pay this or that bill. NEVER, even when we didn’t have enough to cover upcoming expenses, did either of us admit that we needed to STOP SPENDING MONEY until we got more. (I promise, we are educated, relatively intelligent productive people!) Saying (typing) this now, sounds SO ABSURD!!!

When applying to participate in this challenge, I think both of us recognized an opportunity to get some help from a neutral third party (you know, Jaime, Linda, Switzerland) to do a little mediation, to help us each see past the point of accepting responsibility for the ways we had contributed as individuals to our family’s little mess, all the way through to finding concrete ways to work together to fix the problems before they got too big! (I have asked Jaime if part of his training included marriage counseling!) Now that we have the common motivation of public accountability and friendly competition, we have both been able to discuss (yes, I mean ARGUE—isn’t it GREAT?!!!) ways that we can act as a team to achieve our common goal! (Not necessarily the $10,000 prize, but a considerably improved financial situation, with strong new habits and attitudes to sustain it for the long term.)

A little history: If you had asked me at the ripe old age of 6, what I would like to be when I grew up, the answer was the easiest of my life, and has always remained the same—a Mommy. (Michael knew this!) Kind of hard to study “Mommy,” at university, so I earned my degree in Elementary Education and got to practice for seven years on other people’s kids! After Gabriel was born in 2005, I took a one year leave of absence to care for him. Before it was time to go back to work, I was ready to make my leave permanent so that I could continue to stay home and raise our family. Even though he knew this was my dream, Michael disagreed, insisting that it was unrealistic for a family to live on one income. (Are we starting to see a pattern here? We are SUCH good communicators!) That fall I opened a home day care and took care of other children along with Gabriel, and then Jacob, for the next 3 years. I got what I wanted, to stay home with our children and Michael got what he wanted, which was for me to bring in an income.

I soon realized that, while I loved that the daycare allowed me to be with my children, it was not my calling. I am so grateful to every family that invited me to be a part of their little ones’ lives, and I have great respect for the many many awesome day care providers in this community, several of whom helped me tremendously during that time. During the daily routine of operating a home day care, I really missed adult contact! And I missed leaving the house! A person leaves the house to do one of two things, right? Spend money or make money! I looked for a way to get out of the house without spending a bunch of money that we didn’t have, and found the Pampered Chef!!! I began my Pampered Chef business and fell in love. I don’t consider myself a salesperson, but the educator in me loves teaching people new recipes, and the people person in me loves helping others gather with their friends and earn free stuff! And the mom in me loves cooking with all the great tools that now populate my kitchen. People ask me often, “So how are you doing with Pampered Chef?” This at the same time they have that look like I’m so sorry things must suck for you right now since you are in sales and the economy is crap and no one is buying anything… My answer is,”GREAT!” and that’s the truth! Of the last 6 months, 4 have been my highest in sales. People are hosting and coming to Pampered Chef parties—now more than ever, because people are cooking at home more, I’m teaching budget friendly recipes, and let’s face it, Pampered Chef is a cheap way to get together with friends! It’s fun!

There is another truth, though, and that is, as with any business, the more energy and focus I put into Pampered Chef, the more benefits I receive. Here is the nitty gritty: Last year I made an average of $700 a month income from Pampered Chef, varying from $400 to $1400. My biggest challenge is consistency…I tend to operate in waves of big months alternating with smaller ones. It is difficult to find uninterrupted time to work my business, for a lot of reasons, and often when I do have that time, I’m not as organized as I could be to use it well. I think Michael gets (justifiably) frustrated because we aren’t able to rely on a consistent income from my business. All that said, I refuse to give up on myself—I love my “job” and am determined to continue growing personally and professionally, so that my business thrives and provides as much income as I once earned as a full time teacher.

So where do compromise and COMPROMISE fit in to this discussion? You can probably tell from our previous blog entries that we have begun to compromise about the spending money/making money issues. Michael has done a fantastic job of cutting back spending on various categories that we previously just accepted as status quo. He has severely limited his spending on meals out, and we have cut unnecessary insurance and other household costs. As I’ve said before, probably the biggest change is our ability to resist the temptation of going to a store for an incidental thing and spending on whatever catches the attention.

Shortly after being accepted into the contest and our first coaching session, I started looking for some additional income. My first goal was to find something where I could spend as little time away from home as possible, and that was also a situation where I could work a structured amount of time, for a regularly expected amount of income. It seemed the best bet would be to capitalize on my skill and experience as a teacher, rather than try for a retail or office position. I looked up schools and tutoring services in the phone book and made a quick list of 8 businesses to contact. I ended up “interviewing” with 3 people and getting 3 offers! This was very affirming in this economic climate, I feel very blessed! So I have been working for a few weeks tutoring students in the afternoons. I work about 12 hours a week, for about $600 of extra income per month. Michael has adjusted his work schedule so that he can be home in the afternoons with the boys. My hope is that when we finally get settled into the new routine, I can carve out some of that precious uninterrupted time to continue growing my Pampered Chef business as well. (Need some new recipes? Great kitchen tools? I’d love to help you! dianag@thirdkind.com 850-894-0027)

So we have made a compromise: We are spending less money and I am making more money. But we haven’t COMPROMISED our family’s values because we still care for our children full time.

(This is so long because I’ve been working on it for 2 weeks! I hope this counts as two blog entries!!!)

Another $45 a month saved.....

What is OOMA you ask? Well hopefully if you have a home phone line you will soon be in the know.

OOMA is a nifty little device that will let you finally get away from our "friendly" phone company. It is a VoIP (Voice over IP) device that lets you make calls over your broadband internet connection. Say bye bye to your monthly phone bill. Best of all its "FREE" (there is that f-word again). Well obviously its not 100% free, they are not totally insane. But once you buy the device there is ZERO monthly payments. For example. Right now, our home phone costs us about $45 a month. So after buying the OOMA($249.99) we will save $290 during the first year and a additional $540 every year afterwards. Its packed with a ton of really cool features like voice mail and an instant second line. Something Diana needed for her Pampered Chef business was the ability to keep her current phone number. OOMA supports transfering that number over from the phone company. I could probably keep bragging about what a great device it is, im grinning ear to ear right now thinking about how cool it is. But ill just let you go to their website and see for yourself http://www.ooma.com/

P.S. If you need any help deciding if this will work for you or help installing it let me know. mgrosh@thirdkind.com

Diana and I went out to eat for the first time in 2009 last Friday. No, we did not fall off the wagon... We had a gift card for Carrabba's that was whispering "spend me, spend meeeeeeee!" to Diana for the past month. So with an aunt babysitting (also free, thanks Patricia) we set off to a night out. I will be the first to tell you that "free" food tastes 150% better then non-free food. Which is why I guess I am known for distracting Diana and the kids and stealing one of their fries when they are not looking? <pointing> "is that Mickey Mouse" <chewing on a fry> "I guess not, must have been someone else." We had a wonderful night out. Try the Chicken Bryan it is easily our favorite meal at Carrabba’s. It is amazing how much more enjoyable it is to dine out when you rarely do it.

Since Diana has been working a new job and I get home earlier to take care of the kids, I get to spend more time doing fun stuff with them. This week has been mostly parks. Parks are free and it lets Gabriel and Jacob burn a lot of energy before dinner. Plus there are really a lot of different parks available to us in Tallahassee. So far this week we have been to the one on Shamrock, Killearny Way, A J Henry and Tom Brown. I think its fun to let them pick what park they want to go to. It gives them a little bit of choice in what we do that day. On most Saturdays we take them to either Lowes or Home Depot for the Kids Workshops. I love that both places offer this service to the kids for Free (there is that f-word again). I have been to some other stores (wont name names) that have similar kids activities but require a $5+ fee to participate. In my opinion if you are offering something to the public to get them into your store you should not also charge them for it. Especially kid activities.

We have also gone to a few FSU Baseball games this year. Thankfully all wins. My boss has season tickets and offers the games he is unable to attend to anyone in our building. We have been very good and decided this year to NOT spend any money on concession nor go out to eat afterwards. So in total, a trip to see a baseball game with the kids costs only the gas money. I think even paying for a ticket ($5 I think) is sure a lot cheaper then a movie out. Especially considering that a baseball game my be twice as long and a movie. That is another thing we have not done this year. No Movies. Well that’s on 100% true. No Movie theatre movies. We do pay for Netflix and watch movies at home and even that is going to get cut back a little bit this year.

So if you have any good cheap date Ideas please share.

Do we all agree that the longer we spend in the store, the more money we'll spend?

I went shopping for new clothes on Saturday afternoon!!! It was a VERY SUCCESSFUL trip! I went in (to Target--sorry Karen!) looking for a pink sleeveless top for under $10. And I came out about 20 minutes later with...a perfect color pink, great fitting sleeveless top for $8.60.

For those that don't know, I have a new job!!! I'll need to dress business casual this spring and summer, and my "wardrobe" is suspiciously void of nice, cool (temperature-wise) pieces.

So how is it possible? To give a little background: I have never been a very impressive dresser. I hated shopping for clothes, because mostly I looked for things that were CHEAP! I shopped the clearance racks and was lucky if I got home with anything. If I did find things that were in my price range, I was really lucky if I could wear them because I didn't buy "outfits" I bought "items" so I usually didn't have anything else to wear with the "items" that I was lucky enough to find. I was REALLY REALLY LUCKY if I liked them enough to wear them more than a few times, because I discovered that they really didn't fit quite right or look very good on me. I also accepted hand me downs from anyone who offered them, and wore them all...So needless to say I have never been the snazziest dresser in the room...

I've discovered a few key concepts that have changed my entire outlook, and have helped me be much more efficient with my time and money when shopping for clothes. A few are:

Dress for your body type. The right pants for me are midrise boot cut. So I don't even bother to try on anything else! The right tops have v-neck or some other detail at the neckline, and princess seams, or a bodice. The right skirt/shorts length for me is just below the knee. Knowing this helps me zero in on the right styles, and saves me the time and frustration of trying on a pile of clothes and walking out with nothing. I hate walking out with nothing--hence a lot of bad clothing purchases--in the past!

Buy basic pieces in basic colors. I know that I need 3 pairs of jeans, 1 dressy pant, a versatile pencil skirt, a LBD, 3-4 casual tops, layering pieces for the winter, 1-2 jackets, etc.

Add a pop of color with 1-2 new colors each season, that mix and match with your basic colors. Know what colors look good on you and pick 2 that go well with each other as well as with your basics.

Accessorize! I would never have said this even 3 months ago. I literally wore the same rings, earrings and necklace 24/7 for the last 15+ years. Now I’ve realized that I can change the look of an outfit with a different necklace or earrings. (I still only rotate about 3, but it's better than before!)

Every item 3 ways: If you can't think of three ways that you can wear a certain item (using pieces you already own), don't buy it!!!!

COST PER WEAR!!! If I spend $10 on a cute skirt from the clearance rack, that I only wear twice because it doesn't look right on me, or because I don't really have anything to go with it...it was MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE than the well chosen quality $40 skirt that I wear 1 or 2 times a week for 6 months, because it fits great, goes with everything I own, and is made well.

Know what hole in your wardrobe you are trying to fill before going out to shop: I knew I needed a top that would be cool enough for summer, dressy enough to be considered business casual, was my right style and color, and was within my price range. I had seen a sale flyer and saw a top that caught my attention. I went in to Target, found the tops I was looking for, tried it on in 2 different sizes and 3 different colors, picked the one that looked and felt the best and headed to the register. Don’t think that I wasn't tempted, and didn't touch 12 other things while I walked through the racks--I was and I did! But I had a mission and I completed it! It was easy to recognize that this or that wouldn't work for me, and leave it alone! I felt GREAT walking out with my one little top!!!!

And from Dave Ramsey: shop with cash...we all know why on this one!!!!!

Please don't think I magically figured all this out on my own! I must give credit where ALL the credit is due: Missus Smarty Pants! www.missussmartypants.com She offers personal profiles, shopping tips, color analysis, and even sends weekly sample ideas of outfits. Some of her services do cost money, but I have saved so much money by not buying stuff that I never wear!!! Plus the priceless added benefit of feeling great wearing clothes you love!

Anyway, I know this is long, but I was really proud of myself for my shopping accomplishment...thought I’d share...

The past couple weeks have been about finding the small leaks in our budget to fix. Diana touched on a couple of them. The first was $90 a month in unnecessary dental insurance we were not really using. The second was pest control that amounts to "if you report a problem we will come out to spray". For the amount that we were paying for the “once in a blue moon” treatments I can spend a Saturday once in a while treating the yard and house myself. I guess a lot of the savings I am going after are things that we use to pay more for that I can do myself (auto maintenance, plumbing, house repairs, etc..)

We also found a "leak" in our car insurance. A good site to start at is www.insweb.com which will tell you who provides auto insurance in your area (but does not give you quotes). I then spent a little time going to each company and searching for the best rate. Progressive and Geico were both about the same price. I was going to pick progressive until I realized that there quote had a special $50 off for the first 6 months. After that our insurance would go up an additional $8 a month. I ended up choosing Geico because they did not use any special tricks to lower their quoted rate. This will save us about $60 a month. I have also taken a look at our cell phones and I see at least $40 that we can immediately cut if we can find a plan that Cingular will let us drop down to. In the past dealing with the cell phone companies usually end up costing us more money in the long run.

I am also still trying to spend less for lunch each day. Since I started (about 5 weeks ago) paying with cash and cutting back I have saved $85 which will get deposited into our bank account this Friday and go towards our debt.

One of our biggest challenges that we are facing with our finances right now is that we are simply not bringing in enough money to cover our expenses. As Michael and I have started talking more about money, we have started really looking at areas that we can cut back. At the suggestion of our coaches, we have begun evaluating each of our expenses.

Mortgage is not changing

Car payment could be refinanced to reduce interest rate, and therefore payment, but it would mean in inquiry into our credit, which could reduce our score… (we are actually considering selling our van…wow…eliminate a huge chunk of our debt( $14,000), and free up a large amount of our income each month that now goes toward the payment($571)!)

As for utilities, we are turning off lights a lot more! Keeping certain doors closed to reduce escaping air, I turned the ac unit off last Monday and put a note over the switch…Turning computers off at night, (Can’t say I’ve taken a shorter shower yet though, sorry Dad!)

Insurance is a big area…Michael did lots of research on car insurance rates…apparently that lizard guy can actually save a person more like 60% on car insurance. (Thanks, Sweetie!) We were double covered on our dental plan, so I’ve dropped my individual policy, $90 a month!

We are still working on the phone/cable/internet situation. Hey Linley, how do have internet service with no cable or home phone line? Just curious…

I have started playing the “Grocery Game” and am saving quite a bit of money on groceries, and am starting to think in the stockpiling mode when things are on a super good sale. I’ve also started doing some experimenting with making some of our own convenience foods, like tortillas (thanks for the lesson, Bill!). Next I’m going to try our own refried beans, and pancakes…I’ve never been good at pancakes. I recently got an email from a list I belong to called “Beans and Rice Five Ways.” Let me know if you want it! Did you know the dollar tree has some great grocery deals (like breakfast bars, and wheat thins)? Be careful, though cause some things are more expensive there (like mac n cheese), and you have to watch the dates.

Pest Control: at the advice of a friend in real estate, we are keeping the termite bond, but will be cancelling the quarterly pest control. We’ll see how long that lasts once summer bug season hits! Michael has promised he can do the job himself with a few dollars worth of chemicals…

I think the biggest thing that has fallen out of our budget is our spending on random incidentals. Now that we have more awareness of our financial status, we just know better than to stop in and shop for stupid little things. To borrow an acronym from one of my favorite websites (flylady.net) FACE: Financial Awareness Continually Empowers. I think we’ve found the motivation we needed to FACE our finances!!!

The WeLiveFit challenge is only just starting and we are already trying to make some lifestyle changes to help us save money. I am really excited to see that some changes are already going to make an impact.

However, reality liked to show us this week that changes won't happen fast enough. As we settled down to do our bills again this week we were hit again with not having enough money to even pay all the minimums on our debts. Even after floating some bills till next week and adding in my salary for next Friday we are more than $600 in the red on our bank account. That is assuming that we don't buy anything in the next ten days (food, gas, etc...). I am really beginning to hate the prospect that cutting back on our expenses will not be enough to help us make the minimum payments on our bills each month.

I guess that is the bad news so now is the time for a little good news.
One of our most obvious expenses that needed to be cut is dining out.
Most of that is my fault since I work and usually eat out for lunch. We figured that I spend at least $8.50 for lunch each day. I also take both the boys to the hardware store every week to build crafts for free (isn't FREE a wonderful word). Afterwards I take the kids out to eat with my dad and niece. Normally that costs me an additional $18 for chic-fil-a. So on average I spend around $52 a week on dining out. So the plan is that instead of paying for all my meals on a debit card I take out cash at the beginning of the week and pay for it all in cash.

I wasn't sure that would make much of a difference but now I can tell you it's a lot harder to part with real money than it is to sign a receipt. Instead of getting a combo meal with a drink and fries I now just get the sandwich. That usually saves me $2-$3. Water is better for me anyhow. Also this last weekend I cut up some fruit and took it with us to chick-fil-a so instead of buying two kids meals I just ordered the chicken and saved almost $8 between the three of us. I think I might have to pick up some stickers or some (Very) cheap toys to bring with us because, of course, they were both wondering where the kids meals toys went to.

The last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind! Michael and I have really started to understand how far apart our income and expenses are. We are still figuring lots of things out.for instance we made our first budget a few weeks ago. We added up all of our expected income for February, and then started subtracting the expenses we had for the month of February.

With just paying the minimums on all accounts, we were barely able to cover everything. We originally had budgeted $30 for Michael to buy supplies to fix a leaky pipe under our kitchen sink, and $40 for co-pays for the kids to get their shots. Both of those were postponed, but we also realized that there were probably other things that could have been cut instead. And we set a certain budget for groceries, diapers, and supplies, but I'm not even sure if we came in within budget for that because I haven't gone back to count up receipts.

One thing I'm discovering is that creating and sticking to a budget is going to require much closer monitoring of our money than what we are used to.
Planning is going to be really critical, too. And not just planning our expenses, but planning in other areas to avoid unnecessary expenses, like ordering a pizza because I forgot to get dinner out of the freezer this morning!

We have made some cuts. I have decided that I will completely forgo all eating out. Michael still has money in the budget to eat his lunch out on the days he works, and he will still take the kids out to lunch on Saturdays after they go to the hardware store for their weekly kids' workshops. But we are cutting back there, too. Yesterday, Michael took fruit from home for the kids, and they spent about half the usual amount. Neither of us ever gets soda out nor home. Juice is only orange juice and only if someone is sick and needs the extra vitamin C, and I am watering it down, so it goes farther. I was getting into a coffee habit, but since I can't stand to actually drink coffee, I was buying cappuccino mix to the tune of 4 dollars a week-that's gone. I have started going online to print out the sale paper from the grocery store before I plan the menu for the week, to be sure I am using mostly ingredients that are on sale and so that I can plan to stock up if any of our staples are a really good price. A few months ago, I would have said our typical weekly grocery bill was $120, including diapers. In January and February I have been able to spend about $60 a week. Yesterday I bought our week's worth of food for $32.15. GO ME!!!

Another challenge that we are facing is the timing of our income versus due dates of our bills. Michael is paid weekly, and I get paid my commissions on the 8th and 22nd each month. Right now our three biggest bills (mortgage, car payment, and utilities) are due the 4th, 5th and 6th of the month. Both of our credit cards are due on the 9th, and our phone and cable bills are due around the 20th. So we have a big concentration of expenses at the beginning of the month, but our income is spread out. Needless to say, we haven't been setting aside money from each check to cover the big ones, so when we paid bills today, we realized that we are about $600 short until Michael's second paycheck on March 13th. We have already applied to have several of our due dates changed, but they won't be effective till April. I guess we know what the topic of our next coaching session will be!!!

Michael and I are both looking for second jobs, but that is another entry!...