New vs Used Clothing

So Derrick will never want for a piece of clothes again.......but the older three boys will keep me shopping. We have three boys born within 3 1/2 years of each other. And the youngest of them was born looking like a football player and hasn't changed since. Needless to say, some years they all wear the exact same size shoe, pant, or shirt.

This past year, Michael grew 9 inches and NOTHING fits!

Corbin and Kohner now pretty much wear the exact same size everything......and there is a 3-size gap between Kohner and Derrick. I now have 4 bins of clothes in the garage that Derrick will inherit.

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Michael needed new clothes because the uniform changed for the charter school he is attending. It is amazing what you can find. We have some friends in the ward who dropped off clothes their son had grown out of. Kid-to-Kid is a fantastic place to find clothes. And who knew how much great stuff the D.I. has!?! I've shopped there over the years, but usually for knick-knacky things or cheap toys for the kids. But I got an awesome pair of shoes for Corbin and Kohner for $5 and $6, and a tie for Michael for $2. You can't beat that!

It's incredible what we were able to accomplish for ~$75. I have many friends who are incredible at shopping at thrift stores and finding bargains. I have to confess that, for many years, I had a hard time walking into stores let alone wearing clothes from them. I am TOTALLY over it now and I have a lot of learning to do!

It's been fun showing the kids the difference between our receipts. They are amazed at what we can get.

Budget Crunch

So, we have now had our first real budget crunch since quitting work. After repairs, real estate fees and marketing, and additional costs for the kids, we have been at the end of our pay check. Which is awesome! A few reasons why this is awesome:

1. This is now the exception to the rule.....we used to live like this all the time - when both of us were working opposite schedules and our marriage was falling apart (we are still grateful none of our kids were seriously injured or died during this time).
2. We were prepared.....I knew there would be a time that I would be between commissions and we would be very tight on our budget. I was just hoping it would be a little further out. BUT we have plenty of food in our freezer and on our shelves in the garage. So, it's really easy to cut back on our food budget to stretch our dollars.
3. I've received some great advise.....like Morning Moo's powered milk is probably some of the best powered milk out there. I got this from a random woman who happened to be shopping bulk supplies at Macey's one day. She graciously answered a barrage of questions from me when I started to think about food storage. My kids happened to agree with her recommendation.
4. This offers an opportunity for reflection and resolve.....If anyone knows me, they know that I'm constantly doing little mini-corrections. The next few days will be great for me learn a) what's missing from my pantry, food storage; b) what I have that the kids will actually eat; c) what they love and I will need to make sure we have on hand. This is pretty cool.
5. My resolve to make real estate successful will increase.....there's nothing like telling your husband that we will be okay if I quit my job because I'll bring in commissions. And then not doing it. :) Granted, not everything is in my control, but I have really not pushed myself. Time to kick stuff off - which is great timing now that the kids are getting back into school.

There you have it, we've started on this adventure and three months into it, have already hit our first major s t r e t c h. The key is what to take away from it. Right now, it's faith that there is a greater plan out there for our family. And when we are through this - how to set ourselves up to not repeat it.

Life is full of lessons to be learned. And as my brother would say, "You can pick your trials or the trials will pick you." I kind of like being more in control of my life and choosing the areas that we will struggle in.

New Budget

Now we have a new budget - is it working?

Reflection: How did we reduce it? We removed all daycare ($800) and reduced our grocery budget by nearly $500. That required Leon to not eat out as much, cut back on soda, and for me to cook homemade meals and cut back any 'extra' spending on little items here and there (which I have a weakness for). We also reduced our gas consumption by nearly half ($200) since I wouldn't be driving to work every day.

Back to the question, is it working? Well, that depends on our commitment. Mentally, yeah. We're pretty excited about it because we have significantly improved our spending. But we haven't quite hit each number each month. The discussions we've been having lately is a re-commitment.

Using Dave Ramsey's approach, we have standardize (equal pay) as much of our expenditures as possible and have most of them on automatic withdrawal. The cash spending is where we haven't been staying on target. So that is where we are 're-committing'. I'm even going to get envelopes out and I've proposed that we lock up our debit cards. :|

I love this quote (paraphrased) from Dave: 'Tell your money where it is going instead of it telling you.' We'll keep you posted!

Surviving on Less

The first step to coming home was determining if we could afford it. We have had a double income for 90% of our married life. And now I wasn't planning on bringing in a consistent income. Now when I said I quit working, I lied. I just quit one job - my day job. In my free time, I also sell real estate for family and friends. These commissions have helped us through tight times of paying medical bills, repairs on the car, catching up on bills, etc. And I still sell it. It is something that we can rely on as long as it is in savings. (Oh! and I LOVE to look at homes, so that's a bonus.)

Back to the budget....we had to reduce our income by 33% in order to make it. For starters, we don't have credit cards. We are both spenders and the combination didn't work well for us. So four years into our marriage, we got rid of them. And we've not regretted it one minute. Don't get me wrong, there are thoughts every year that 'we could just put that on a credit card.' But then we work through whatever financial crisis we are in and the temptation is gone.

A few months before I decided to quit, we were introduced completely to Dave Ramsey. A couple brothers and their wives had talked about it before, but we hadn't committed to it. This time I borrowed the CDs from someone and listened to it all. It made sense and it complements our religious beliefs. So, we talked about budgets and started committing it to paper.

And it worked! Once we went through everything on paper, we realized that we could do it every month. We might be shy a couple hundred each month depending on Leon's overtime, but that would come from the real estate savings.

Woohoo!!!! This just made the decision easier. And I was ready.