Man does time fly. We are so busy trying to earn money, save money, find ways not to spend money, that we hardly have time for anything else. This crazy thing called life is one big merry-go-round. The weeks fly-by like the weekends and the weekends fly-by faster than happy hour and before you know it......bills are due again. Pulling off that fishing tournament was huge! I spent less than $50 of the $500 winnings on more fishing gear and the rest went into savings. We have managed to sock away over $2,000 in savings after paying all of our monthly bills. Crazy! That is crazy for this family! Normally that money would be gone and we wouldn't even know where we spent it. Now, its a nice little security blanket just in case I happen to have a bad month. We are doing great, staying on course, reluctantly fighting this heat with some air conditioning, maintaining balance and composure. We have some additional great news that will be shared at the next meeting. Looking forward to it.

In an effort to curb my "miscellaneous" spending I am looking to lower my expenditures for gifts. That includes wedding gifts, baby gifts, etc. It seems like every time I turn around we have some sort of gift to buy or party to attend. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE giving gifts... I love shopping for gifts, I love wrapping gifts, I love seeing other people's faces when they open the 'perfect' gift. It really is a problem. My most recent goal has been to get creative and come up with some inexpensive ways to give nice gifts that don't cost an arm and a leg. I have come up with a few ideas and I thought I would share them with you.

First, baby gifts. Who doesn't love baby gifts?? Everything is tiny, cute and pastel colored. It always amazes me that things so tiny can be so expensive. Seriously, some baby clothes cost as much as full-size adult clothes that use much more fabric! :-) My new budget baby gift is personalized onsies. You can purchase printable iron-on paper at Michaels for about $7 and a 3-pack of onsies at Target/Marshalls/Wal-mart for around $5. Create a cute image on your computer with the babys name/initials/whatever, print on your home color printer, iron on the onsie and viola - instant baby gift for $4/onsie. And, they are super cute and durable in the wash - score!!

Next, wedding gifts. I love to buy dishes, linens and housewares for friends in need. The problem is that it can be majorly expensive. David always laughs that I buy things that we need at our own house and then give them away to friends for wedding presents. The solution?? The framed wedding invitation. I got this as a wedding present myself and I loved it. Our framed invitation is still displayed on a shelf in our house. So, next time you get invited to a wedding, keep the invite. Then, take it to Target and find a pretty frame that it fits in and viola - instant wedding gift for less than $20.

I am still working on inexpensive birthday gift ideas... any suggestions??

You can imagine my reaction when David told me that he had spent $60 to enter a fishing tournament that would take him away from our family for two whole days. Yeah, I was thrilled!! In reality I was pretty irritated. I reminded him that we were on this thing called a BUDGET and that $60 was not growing on trees the last time I checked. He insisted that it was a good investment and even for a worthy cause - raising money for a new dock in Panacea. I was still not convinced, but he is the head of our household so I didn't argue too much.

Well, as it turns out he was right!! David turned that $60 into $500!!!! He caught the prize winning Flounder and brought home a real live check for five hundred bucks!! Don't get me wrong, this does not mean that he will have permission to continue spending our $$ on fishing tournaments, this just means that he can say 'I told you so' this one time! Now the question is.... how is he gonna spend that money?? I'm sure he will make the prudent decision to spend it all on bills and waste none of it on fishing gear - right David?!?! :-)

We usually travel on Memorial Day weekend every year, and this year was no exception. The difference was the price tag!! We opted not to do our usual beach trip which involved renting a condo and eating out every meal. Instead, we traveled to my parent's cabin in North Georgia and spent the weekend fishing, hiking and cooking at home!! Our largest expense was the gas to travel there and back, but it paled in comparason to what we would have paid for a beach condo for the weekend. Plus, we enjoyed lots of bonding time with each other while we cooked our meals every night at the cabin. Overall, I did not miss the sand or the sunburns that we typically come home with. We loved the fresh water of the river, the thrill of catching fish, and the excitement of riding the river rapids in our kayak. The boys liked it so much that I think we'll make it our new Memorial Day tradition!! Save on!!

Okay, so I LOVE online banking. One of my worst offenses in my previous financial life (before weLiveFIT) was making late payments. It wasn't that we didn't have the money to pay the bills, it was that I would either forget the due date, lose the bill, or think David had taken care of it. Even as I type this I can see how pathetic those excuses are. Truly it was disorganization and scatterbrained-ness that was the crux of the problem. Well, problem solved!! We are now signed up for automatic bill pay through online banking and my days of forgetting to mail bills are over!! Now I can easily send out our bills from one place and be sure that they arrive on time and all this without paying postage!! Yes!! Another fantastic feature is iAlerts. I am now signed up to get an email or text message is my account goes down too low. Sweet!! The online service now remembers everything for me AND tells me if I still manage to screw up!! Let's hope that we will be watching our credit scores grow over the next few months, and never have to pay a late fee again!
~Linley

I fell off the wagon this weekend. Ugh! When you get in a hurry and need groceries it is hard to get the best deals. We were out of town last week and got home Saturday to an empty refrigerator. Sunday I went to the grocery store and had about 15 minutes to get in and out. The boys were home napping and we had somewhere to be as soon as they woke up. SO... I ran up to Publix and grabbed our usual - milk, juice, bread, pb&j uncrustables, fruit, waffles, etc. The bad part was that I had no coupons, and I didn't even look to see what specials Publix had going. I left (after spending $100) and felt terrible. It turns out that you have to really plan ahead and be prepared for trips to the grocery and that takes time. Time is a commodity that I have little of these days. Working full-time, managing two little boys and sharing a car with my husband does not afford me much free time. I learned that I have got to utilize every minute of my day and be sure that I am not put in the position to spend without proper preparation. If only there were more hours in the day - surely I would use them to clip coupons and scour the newspaper for grocery store deals! :-)

~Linley

Alright, although I am the Captain of this team and I am in full participation of this challenge, I am not a "blogger". Don't really plan on becoming one either, so don't expect to see pictures or cool logos with my post. However, my co-captain urged me to post something on our blog, and after enough persistance......"poof" a blog post from the Paske family Dad. What was it that overcame my lack of desire to post a blog...? It was the pure relief I feel in the wake of our debt consolidation/home equity loan. THANK YOU FCCU! That credit card debt that we have been trying to negotiate a settlement on for over 4 months was begining to take its toll on my mental state. It has already done its damage to our credit and we now can begin the mending process. As you can see our credit is awful, we are in the lowest of low in credit scoring and not many people would be willing to loan us the money needed for the settlement. FCCU not only loaned us the money for the settlement, but we got enough to pay the IRS and consolidate two other credit cards that had 30% interest rates. Hoo-ray! So this is how it feels to be unafraid to open the mail or answer a phone call from an "unknown" number, actually scratch that, to no longer receive phone calls from "unknown" numbers. Wow is this what it is like to be normal? Normal....? I'll come back to that.

At this point it has sunk in that we cannot hide our personal income/debt information from this small town (thanks to the WLF challenge). I have accepted my stupidity and lack of financial responsibilty and I am ready to face the awful music. It's funny though, this experience has opened my eyes to a world that I had never seen and never planned on seeing. But as Corey Smith says, "The Lord works in a strange way", (great song, look it up). While I was living my dream, making good money in the real estate business, married to the perfect woman and making wonderful memories traveling, having fun in the sun, fishing, golfing..... (whatever and whenever) I was also setting myself up for one of the biggest tests of my life and didn't even know it. After going into business for myself and starting parenthood, the bottom fell out of the real estate market and I was like a Cirque de Sole trapeze artist with a very loosely tied safety net. Yeah we had some savings, but not the kind needed to withstand what followed. The optimist in me kept saying, "It'll turn around soon, next month will be better." Well that "next month" turned into "next year" and "next year" turned into "the next year" and before we knew it, here we are in what has proven to be the biggest challenge of my life and career, not to mention being personally humiliating.

Now, back to what is normal. It is strange to see, hear and now know, that there are thousands of Americans that are struggling just like us, even long before this recent bubble burst. It is scary, that in this day and age it is likely more "normal" to be afraid to open the mail or answer the phone. There are thousands of people in financial trouble and credit card debt, just like this TV commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5EP9StlVA (okay, okay, so I know how to paste a website) This is one of my personal favorites:) It is a true testament to keeping up with the Jones'. Our new lifestyle is truly a hard pill to swallow when some of our best friends are very successful professionals and/or were blessed with wealthy parents. When I was growing up in this town, my parents owned a meat market that went bankrupt, my mother fed and clothed 7 children on a librarians salary and somehow God provided the rest. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for my childhood, it has made me who I am. However, I find myself wishing sometimes that the Paskes were "Old Tallahassee" with a beach house and a "good name". Alright, enough excuses, time to turn on the Rocky theme song and start pounding on that debt.

Geez, I did not mean to write this much. It is time to wrap it up... Thankfully I am now enjoying a new sense of awareness and empowerment when it comes to our finances. It is hard to live on a budget and it sucks, but I know that everything happens for a reason. We have been put in this situation for a reason that is unclear to me right now, but I am seeing a picture of my family experiencing financial peace taking shape and I am excited to the walk the paths necessary to get us there. That'll do for now. Regards, David

What's a budget Mommy??
~Palmer, age 2

Can we have a toy section in the budget, pretty please??
~Peyton, age 3.5

Sometimes I get frustrated, or even a little down in the dumps about our strict budget. Luckily, I have my boys to keep a smile on my face!! Peyton and Palmer are always good for a laugh or a hug, whichever I may need!!

Recent happenings in the Paske household:

• we made it through April 15th and wrote a fat check to the IRS

• we got a home equity loan to consolidate our debts

• we paid off our credit card settlement for $.50 on the dollar - woo hoo!

At this point we are hoping to sit back and watch our credit scores grow. Hang on - let me clarify that statement. By "sit back" I mean: live on a beanie weanie budget, buy nothing that we don't absolutely need, work second jobs to make extra money, and continue to pay all of our bills early or at least on time (whew!). We are hoping to see a pretty significant increase in our scores over the next several months since we have just cleared up all the boogers and blemishes on our credit reports by settling that debt.

I can tell you that I will NEVER, ever have a credit card for miscellaneous purchases again. I have a weakness for all things retail and my best medicine is abstinence - repeat after me: Stay out of the mall!

Hello out there!!

Have you missed me??

I have been so busy that I have been neglecting my blog - but no worries, I am back in full effect!
So, what have you missed since my last entry?

We have:

• Joined Sam's Club
• Lowered our Utility Bill
• Increased our Savings Account
• Paid off a Credit Card

And on top off all that, I started a second job in my copious spare time. ;-)

First up, Sam's Club

We were graciously given a membership to Sam's by the FCCU staff which we were quick to cash in on! David and I hurried to Sam's with the kids in tow to stock up on groceries and whatever else we could buy in bulk. The verdict - we left Sam's with a box of diapers and a case of wipes. That's it. We were so overwhelmed with the amount of food in that place that we were paralyzed into buying nothing. We decided that we can't go in there without a meal plan and a budget in hand. If you don't have a game plan it is just too tempting to buy the carton of cream puffs and 24 pack of salmon fillets. We also managed to have our first fight about money in the parking lot. I wanted to look for a new computer monitor while David totally disagreed and accused me of not being "on the team". Huh?? Me... not on the team? I conceded that we could wait on the monitor and again became a team player - yay!

Next, the Utility Bill

Okay, don't even get me started about the Smart Meters. (Not too smart in my opinion.) We have been making a major effort to be aware of our energy consumption in spite of the new meter and it turns out that our efforts paid off. David did a little dance of joy when he opened the bill - we used HALF as much electricity this month versus last month. That resulted in about $80 in savings - yippee!! Now to decide where that $80 will go.... ?

Don't Worry, the Pig Won't Starve

If you have looked at our stats you know that we had a whole $5.00 in our savings account when this competition began. Well, not anymore!! We added $1000 this month as "baby step one" of Dave Ramsey's total money makeover instructs. That $1000 is for true emergencies and should be replaced if it is ever spent. We hope to stick to this advice and keep adding as much as we can every month. David and I are both spenders and we have never been good at saving anything - we both have holes burned in our pockets from the extra money that we spend when we have it! :-) This is going to be an exercise in restraint for us both as we try to ignore the positive balance and not come up with "emergencies" that require spending our tiny nest egg. Wish us luck!!

Another Credit Card Bites the Dust

As I mentioned above I have started working a weekend job which has afforded me with a little extra money. I used the money that I have been making to pay off a retail credit card that I have been meaning to get rid of for 2 years. I opened it to buy equipment for my second job/hobby and then I never used any business proceeds to pay off the card until now. I am such a procrastinator (in more ways than one). Even though I promised myself that I would immediately pay off the account as soon as I made money with my side job, in reality it has taken me TWO years to make good on that promise! Geeze!! I have no excuses for myself, just "playing ostrich" I guess. Playing ostrich is what I like to call it when I ignore problems, debts, tasks, etc. by putting my head in the sand and hoping that the issue will just go away. So far it hasn't worked for me.

Can you guess what my second job is??

No, I'm not a professional bride - that's me with the camera in the back behind the groomsmen. Luckily my second shooter (otherwise known as my Mom) got a shot of me in action. I have been taking pictures forever and I am finally going to market my services for weddings and portraits - Photography by Linley is born. I have been doing children's portraits for a while now and I have done lots of weddings for friends and acquaintances but I am hoping to pick up more steady business. I did a wedding this month for a close family friend who was kind enough to pay me for my services although I had offered to do it as a wedding gift - sweet!! Here are a few images from the event:

I had such an amazing time at the wedding and it got me jazzed to start putting more into my photography business. We need the extra money and I love to do it. The only problem of course is that there are only 24 hours in a day. I work full time which means I have to do photo editing at night, correction, LATE at night. Over the past two weeks I have been up until 3 and 4 am working on wedding pictures. Luckily it is a labor of love and I am willing to sacrifice sleep to get great images and help our family financially.

If anyone out in the blogosphere is looking for family pictures, wedding photography or children's portraits, please help team blue and give me a call!!
*Enter shameless plug here for my website: http://www.linleypaske.photoreflect.com*

Or view a slideshow of wedding images at:
http://www.linleypaske.com/preparation
http://www.linleypaske.com/ceremony
http://www.linleypaske.com/reception

So, that's all for my March round-up. Oh, and did I mention we won the lottery??
April Fools!! :-)

Okay, I have to answer to a comment made on my blog... No I am not kidding. Yes, we eat macaroni for dinner, and sometimes even generic spaghetti o's from a dented can. Tuna-nuda is my personal specialty and it is really cheap to make: just tuna, noodles and mayo. (OK, if you ask my friends they may tell you that tuna-nuda is the only thing that I know how to make.)

All joking aside, I would like to address the part about what we are personally sacrificing for this competition. For our family, there is more to this than just a local competition and the chance to win some money. This is about a lifestyle change - a big one. I tried to be light and witty in my first blog post, but maybe I missed the mark by not communicating exactly how hard this is for us, and how much we are truly sacrificing.

First of all, sacrifice is relative. I appreciate that we are blessed, really I do. We have a home, a car, food on our table every night and we are both employed. I thank God every night for our many blessings - especially in these times. We did make a lot of money when the real estate market was good, and we did lead a somewhat indulged lifestyle because we could afford to. I can admit to being spoiled to a certain degree (did I metion I am an only child?), but we had very few debts and plenty of money left over every month after the bills were paid.

The truth is, we didn't manage our money well when we had it, or we wouldn't be in this situation right now. The fact that our children were born and I started working part-time during the real estate downturn only added to our financial troubles. I am hoping that we will learn to manage our money NOW in the down economy with our low and uncertain cash flow. That way, when the market turns around (which is already happening somewhat, at least from David's perspective) we will make smarter decisions and save big when we make big. In turn, we will be better prepared to survive when the next "real estate bubble" bursts.

We live in Southwood (which is far away from everything) so walking to work is not an option. Neither of us work downtown, so the StarMetro bus is not an option either. We share a car, and I have to tell you that it is a major sacrifice when you have two working parents and children in two different schools. We spend hours in the car every day with our young children and don't get home until nearly their bedtime. Sure, we could have gone out and financed another car with a huge interest rate and extended term, but we made the decision not to buy another car until we could do it the right way - with cash.

This weekend we got up at 5am Saturday morning (and I was sick, wah!) to unload years of built up "stuff" only to make $353. I can't even image what we spent originally on the stuff we sold, but I will forever look at my purchases with the filter of "is this a future garage sale item"? We will be taking our $353 and paying it directly towards our debt - no cheating. We look at our budget every day, we are getting into the habit of writing down *every* penny that we spend on a daily basis, and finding new places to scrimp. I have to say that this is NOT fun for someone who is organizationally challenged, but I am learning.

We are not doing this for the publicity. Honestly, I find it a little (well, a lot) embarrassing. In my mind, the billboard reads: Hello, my name is Linley and I am financially illiterate. And meet David, who is a financial whiz at work, yet has a hard time applying the same principals at home. Let me tell you, he is less than thrilled to air our finances with anyone, much less everyone. After our initial interview for the competition I asked David, "which part do you think they'll publicize, that we're broke or stupid?" Turns out it's both.

I would much rather do this privately without any of my friends, family or community watching, but I sadly lack the discipline or know-how to do it alone. I need the watchful eye to keep me on track and accountable. David could do it alone, he is brilliant with numbers and generates complex cash flows on a daily basis, but he has me to mess him up (thus he holds the only debit card). He is a loving and wonderful husband and father, and I know he would fix this alone if he could, but the turn in the real estate market was out of his control and he is gradually learning how to tell me NO.

If we were kidding, this would all be a waste. We would have put ourselves out there to be scrutinized, criticized and judged and would have gained nothing in the process. At this point, we have stopped caring what other people think, and have started caring about our future and the lessons we will leave with our boys. Is it that we put on a good show, drove a fancy car, ran with the Jones' and everyone thought we were rich? And then in reality we leave our boys with debt and poor personal finance skills?? No, I choose to be transparent - judgment or not - and learn how to live well within our means by making better decisions based on fact and not fiction. Are we weak because we needed a competition to get us to this point, maybe. But I can live with that... no kidding.