New Year Resolutions

It's New Year's Eve!  This year we are hanging out at home. My sister and her family are visiting from Michigan and we were planning on getting together but they have colds and they shared with my mom and dad. No fun!  We did spend some time together this afternoon as we celebrated my grandpa's 89th birthday but everyone was pretty wiped out after the party. So, I'm sitting here in my PJs blogging. What a start to the new year, hun?

I was just collecting my thoughts on what I want to resolve to do this year. One thing came to mind quickly. I have a LARGE cross stitch that I started years ago and never finished so finishing that is going on the list. (It's a big Amazing Grace hymn page with the music score and a big floral border.) I'm not sure how I want to resolve to make progress in our debt snowball plan, but it is definitely on the short list. I think I will resolve to be intentional with money. We will continue to set goals for specific cards as we plug along, but I'm not sure how to set a reasonable goal for the whole year. I'd love to resolve to have at least half of our debt paid off by the end of 2014 but I'm not sure that's attainable. So, resolving to be intentional with money will work. That will include bi-weekly budget meetings, using cash for purchases, not borrowing any more money, setting short term goals and paying down on debt with gazelle intensity. 

I'm sure I'll come up with some other goals for the year but I haven't thought of them yet. :) I have two extra boys here tonight and Mrs. Puff is fired up and dashing across my bedroom floor. She's excited for the new year, I guess! :P (Mrs. Puff is my six month old siamese mix kitten.) :)

Here is Mrs. Puff hanging out on my guitar case. :) I rescued her this fall from my grandparent's house. Her parents were feral and she was one of two litters they had living under their house. Brady caught her when she was about five weeks old and she's been a close friend ever since. I love my Mrs. Puff - definitely a highlight of my year!! :)

Our First Emergency......!

We knew it was bound to happen. Dave Ramsey says it'll rain. When people tell him he has to stay positive, he tells them, "I am positive. I'm positive it's going to rain!" That's pretty funny.....until it happens!  ;)

My car has been squeaking for awhile so we new a repair was coming, but I had no idea that it would take $400 to fix it. The squeaking was the AC belt, however the bigger problem was a "thump, thump, thump" that I kept hearing. After some quick Internet research, I realized that driving a 'thumping' car was not wise. We took it to our mechanic and sure enough, it was a doosey!  

Aaron seemed almost giddy about going to the bank and taking out 40% of our emergency fund to pay for this repair. He was glad it was there and said it wasn't stressful at all. I get what he's saying...really I do. However, I found the whole ordeal bothersome. I know that we can build back up the emergency fund but I'd rather be paying down on debt!  Now that I've realized we CAN and WILL get out from under debt, I'm just in a hurry to get it over with. :) I keep reminding myself that it took years to spend my way into this mess and it's going to take time to get out. Patience is not my strong point. ;)

After doing the bills lat paycheck, I had almost $200 leftover that was supposed to go to the debt snowball. I still wanted to send it to the visa and deal with the emergency fund over the next two paychecks, but Aaron wanted it replace what we took from the emergency fund. So, we decided to ask my parents what they would do. They had a split vote, too!  My mom agreed with Aaron (as usual) ;) and my dad agreed with me. I even asked about a 50/50 split: half to the emergency fund, half to the debt. No go. So, that $200 still sits in our checking account waiting to be issued to the debt or the emergency fund. At this point, we're decided to wait until next payday to decide where to put everything. I think by then, thanks to some overtime and holiday pay, we can replace what's missing in the emergency fund and still have a chunk to pay on the debt snowball.  So, this story is to be continued. :)

Kip's Homemade Christmas Present

Here is an original design Aaron and I came up with for Kip. It's a quilted Tic-Tac-Toe board with wooden X's and O's, a 'can't say no' card and a Velcro pocket to keep them in. 

Cosmetic Bags and Tissue Pouches

Here's a look at the gifts I made for the ladies in my family. I followed Noodlehead's Open Wide Zippered Pouch tutorial for these.  My mom' sis in a Mickey Mouse fabric because, well, she loves Mickey. (Don't we all?) :)

I bought a keychain in Disney that had several fobs on it and repurposed it for the zipper pulls on these cosmetic bags. Here's a look at a couple others:

They were pretty simple to make and I really enjoyed the process. I'd definitely recommend the tutorial from Noodlehead.  The tissue pouch was from a different blog. I'll list the links below. :)

http://www.noodle-head.com/2012/06/open-wide-zippered-pouch-diy-tutorial.html

http://patches.typepad.com/notes_from_the_patch/2012/08/ihave-absolutely-no-idea-what-got-into-me-i-guess-its-that-potato-chip-thing-again-but-i-couldnt-stop-in-just-an-hour.html

Old Navy and Dr. Dube are PAID OFF!

Our last paycheck was quite a bit bigger than normal so we were able to say goodbye to Old Navy, which we owed about $43 on. That card had only been used a couple of times to buy jeans for the younger two boys and an outfit for Aaron. It was a small balance to begin with (>$100) but it felt great to pay off yet another card!  We also were able to pay off our dental bill which was $80.60. That frees up $75 for our debt snowball because each of those, along with QVC, were paid $25 each month. It's crazy how quickly the debt snowball grows!

We also had about $138 leftover to pay towards our next debt, which is a Bank of America Visa with a balance of just over $3,160. The main thing on that Visa is a replacement AC unit that we bought three summers ago. We've always made the minimum payment but never really got anywhere because my monthly Planet Fitness membership was also billed to that card. (Of course, that membership is cancelled now, but it was $19.99 a month.). With the gym membership being billed to it, along with the monthly interest charge, my payment of $60 a month barely made a dent in the original AC purchase. Not anymore!  Our debt snowball has picked up steam so we will be paying a minimum of $135 to that card from now on. We'll also put any extra money on it as it appears. I'm hoping to have it paid off within a few months (by Aaron's birthday on April 16th) but that might be pushing it. We'll see. :)

Merry Christmas!

A couple weeks ago I found this video on Dave Ramsey's Facebook page that gives the idea of making a Christmas mosaic ornament out of your old credit cards. I couldn't resist. My mom and I got together the other day and each made one. Here's the video link: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fBbJn6cDE_k

And here's my ornament:

I wrapped it up and gave it to Aaron as gift. 

So just to recap, Aaron received this crazy ornament, a bed pocket for Tums, and a tub of cashews that I got at a gift exchange. Laugh. Out. Loud. 

We are no longer normal.....  ;)

Super Silly Present: A Bed Pocket :)

So, you know we're not spending any money on gifts this year. I am making each of my family members a home made gift and today I made Aaron's. Almost every night he gets heartburn during the night. He doesn't have a bed stand on his side so he has to get up and walk to the dresser to get Tums. I had the idea to make him a bed pocket to hold his Tums so he wouldn't have to get up. I think this is so silly, but I think he'll love it. :)

It will stay in place as the long fabric top will be between the mattress and the box spring, like this: