Remember Me?

I haven't posted in ages. Not sure why. So I guess I better give some updates.

First of all, I'm sure there aren't a lot of people reading this because I changed the name of the blog to make it all a little more private. So if you are...Hi!

What have I been up to? Well...we're remodeling the kitchen. It started with me just repainting the cabinets. Then while I was doing that we ripped out the nasty carpet (carpet in a dining room-GROSS) with the plan of me just painting the subfloor until we can afford hardwood floors. Then we got a line on a granite sale and bought two slabs for the counters. Since we already tore out the flooring and were going to tear off the counters, we decided to move the cabinets around a bit. Instead of a U shaped kitchen we now have an island. So right now my kitchen is a total wreck, everything is out of the island cabinets and off the counters. Tomorrow we rip off the remaining counters and remove the sink. Wednesday we will be getting the new granite and a shiny new 9" deep stainless steel sink. I can't wait! Then I can finish painting the cabinets, put everything away, and start on painting the floor.

What else...well the monkeys are both in school all day now. I've been revelling in the time ALONE. It's nice to have them gone because when they come home I'm excited to see them and be with them. During the day I have been doing too much shopping. I've also been cleaning more. And I rejoined the gym and have been lifting weights with L (who is very strong and kicks my ass every single time) as well as going to Zumba classes. Love, love, love the Zumba classes. My friend S teaches some of them. She is a hoot and even though I suck at shaking my hips in any sort of rhythmic, intentional way, it is fun and I love going. I am getting better if I do say so myself. And I've been getting the yard ready for winter. I've also been volunteering at the school a bit and helping R with marketing. It all keeps me very busy but in a happy way. I love this phase of my life.

I've also been doing a lot of research on ways to help M with his OCD. He has also started having some tics which isn't unusual for people with OCD. Somehow they go hand in hand. Because there aren't really any good medicines for tics, and there really isn't anything that can be done with therapy to help them go away, I've been looking at alternative therapies, especially diet therapy and supplements and herbs. And there is a ton of information out there! So we've been tweaking our diet and taking more supplements and I can see some positive changes already. I think regardless of the effect it has on M, it is good for all of us to eat more whole foods, especially fruits and veggies, and to cut out the artificial crap. M's health issues have definitely made this a priority lately. So there is the silver lining I guess.

Freddy the cat went missing a few days back for just over 24 hours. We were all worried when he stayed out all night, but when the neighbor mentioned the HUGE coyote hanging out across the street, I was sure he was a coyote late night snack. By the time he did come home I had spent the morning bawling and feeling sick. Needless to say we were all soooo happy to see him when he showed up. He won't be going outside again until next Summer. He hates being stuck inside but that is just too damn bad!

I'm getting excited for P's baby girl to arrive! One more month. I seriously adore other people's babies. My new nephew C is soooo cute! I babysat last week and it was actually fun to cuddle, rock, walk and pat him when he was crying. So sweet! Babies are truly amazing and one of the great joys of life. Seriously. They are miraculous.

The boys are doing great. M is in 4th grade and doing well in school. His teacher says she really enjoys him and finds him very interesting. He is getting tall and more pre-teen every day. He barely ever wants to cuddle, which sucks because he has always been a world class cuddler. He seems to have a good group of friends in school that accept him, tics, OCD and all. He also has a few close friends that he spends quite a bit of time with. He is a purple belt in karate and has joined the tournament team. Two nights a week he spend almost 3 hours doing karate, which I think is awesome. I really enjoy watching him do his various events. He is also a Weeblos in the Boy Scouts and is pretty jazzed about it. I think scouts is a great way for boys to find self-esteem through emerging competence. He just thinks it's fun. He's gotten quite brave. I was really proud of him at Lagoon last week because he did every single ride he has been scared to go on. That has to feel good inside. And as always he is reading a ton, soaking up random facts, talking non-stop and cracking me up. He's awesome.

Z is in 1st. He is doing great. I expected him to be over it rather quickly, but the school work comes easily to him and I think he enjoys the social aspect. By the weekend though he is ready to be home, playing with his vehicles and doing his own thing. He has a group he plays with regularly at recess and a few friends in the neighborhood he plays with as well. The wonderful thing is that M and his friends have finally accepted Z and let him play pretty much all the time. Over all M and Z are doing really well together and we have almost no fighting. A year ago I wouldn't have believed it could happen. As always Z is way into tractor's and all things construction. For Christmas he would like a child-size forklift. Too bad they don't make them! He is always busy building something and quite happy to play alone, outside with his toys for hours. He is playing soccer and is really good at it. He played flag football last Summer and loved it. He is also such a great helper and a total sweetheart.

R is working his butt off and I think doing an amazing job in our economy and real estate market. While is total volume of sales has been lower this year, we have done much better about not going into debt and I'm proud of us for that. When the market recovers, I think he will really take off. He is still diligently working out almost every morning and mountain biking whenever he gets a chance. He looks really great. I can confidently say that he is in the best shape of his life. He is definitely aging very well! He has also really come into his own as a father and I am lucky to have him as my hubby! I think we balance each other very well.

So there is a bunch of stuff on Family V. Of course there is more, but I will save that for another day!

Recession Proofing our Finances

Well, it's official. We are in a recession. How bad will it be? How will affect us? Obviously no one can predict the future, so it's a good idea to plan for the worst while still hoping for the best. I admit, we were caught with our pants down. We went 6 months with $3000 income. Brutal is the best way to describe it. But as with all things difficult, we learned some really important lessons. We can weather the storm without killing each other. We might make each other pretty damn miserable, but we're all in this together. Buy less, buy quality. Used is often just as good as new. Travel is fun but not a necessity. Last, but certainly not least, (this might seem obvious) debt is bad, savings are good.
So how do we plan to get through the recession as well as make sure we are ready for another dry spell in income? Funny you should ask. Here is our basic plan.

1. Lower monthly payments. We lucked out. Our house has appreciated a considerable amount. When rates went down we did a refi. We took out enough equity to pay off our debt and still lowered out monthly payments. While I don't recommend this for everyone, and fully understand the consequences of out actions (trading equity to pay off past purchases, trading unsecured debt for secured) for us it really did make the most sense. We now have some much needed breathing room.

2. No new debt. If we don't have the cash for it, we don't get it. This is a hard one. For R it is because he is always tempted to take a line of credit and invest it. I finally had to tell him that it ain't gonna happen again. He still brings it up, I still shut him down. I'm sure a fabulous opportunity is going to come along and I will really have to stand my ground. NO NEW DEBT! I've canceled all but one card with a reasonable limit (for renting cars and such). For me it is hard when it comes to travel. We are planning on a Costa Rica trip this fall, but if we don't have the money saved by then, we aren't going. In the past I would have insisted that we still go for the experience of it, arguing that it is our life after all. I think the credit card companies had me snowed for a bit there with their feel good commercials. Well I'm wise to them now!

3. SAVE!!! I am passionate about saving up a six month emergency fund. A full year would be better, but I will determine if that is necessary when I hit the 6 month mark. R is also working on saving a 6 month buffer for business expenses. That way we won't be tempted to rob Peter to pay Paul. We currently have 1 month saved. It's not much, but it certainly is better than being 5 months in the hole!

4. Increase income. I've been a mostly SAHM for the past 5 years. I've done corporate America and I don't see that happening again for me in this lifetime. The benefits were great, but not worth the stress and time spent doing something I really didn't enjoy for someone else's benefit. I also can't imagine working 40+ hours and having 2 kids. I know lots of people do it, and that's great, I just can't imagine it for me. I don't juggle a lot of responsibilities well. So I've been helping R with his business a few hours a week. but that doesn't actually bring in any money. I have been trying to think of a part-time job that I could see me enjoying and bringing in enough to make having Z in daycare worth it. Well there really aren't any. Then I realized that if I work at his pre-school/daycare, his care is free and I am bringing in some money. Plus I think it would be fun. I have an interview tomorrow. They are looking for some permanent people as well as some subs. I think I may start out as a sub. More flexibility. But I will have to find out what benefits, if any, they provide. The other place I've considered is the rec center. They only pay about $8 an hour, but Z could go to their daycare for free, their shifts are short, and you get a rec center pass for free. Not a bad deal really. By bringing in some extra money each month I'm hoping to a) get that emergency fund built quickly b) take some of the pressure of R and c) give us some fun money for a few wants. It has been pretty lean around here lately.

5. Make every dollar count. It's times like these that you really start to think about what is important to you. When you only have a few dollars to spend, McDonald's because you're too tired to cook isn't as appealing. You start to think about travel vs. a newer car vs. a bathroom remodel vs. retirement or college savings. Some days I want to update my house SOOOOO BAD! And then I read an article about a couple who retired at 40 by being frugal and I realize my house is fully functional (mostly), just out of style and a bit worn. I shop and wish I could buy a million pairs of shoes until I realize my car is getting up there in miles. Or some friends travel monthly and I wish I could too until I realize that my dream career requires a master's degree. It's all about choices. Some people could never imagine letting their children wear hand-me-downs or used clothes. I don't mind a bit. When I score a Tony Hawk t-shirt for $2 instead of $20, I have $18 to put towards something else. Like organic food, which is pretty much non-negotiable for me. Everyone's choices will be different. But knowing what choices are important to our family makes managing the money a lot more simple.

Cutting Back

As much as I hate to say it, we have been living the very typical American life of living beyond our means. Faced with the state of the real estate market and our income level stagnating, it is time to make some much needed adjustments to our budgeting, spending, and thinking in general.

Yesterday I called our cable company and cut our services. About 6 months ago I bundled our services with Comcast. We received digital phone, high speed internet and cable for $99 a month. Of course after taxes it came to about $128 month. R really enjoys having cable. I quit watching TV for the most part around June, so it hasn't meant much to me. Yesterday I cut our cable to the basic limited service for $14.99. This gives us very few channels, but one of them is Discovery Channel, and accounts for the majority of our TV viewing. Keeping cable saves us $10/month on our internet. Why do we NEED high speed internet? I'll get to that in a minute. So total we will be paying more like $70 instead of $128/month. We both have cell phones, with long distance and voicemail, so we are planning on using those for our phone needs. Total savings = $58.

We then decided that I am going to work from home 2 days a week. Currently I am going into work every morning to do the administrative work for our real estate business. We let our assistant go in September, saving us approximately $1500/month. I have been paying $400 for daycare each month. By staying home 2 days we can cut that to $160. Total savings = $240. By working at home I will absolutely need high speed internet. I will also need a fax line which will cost me $11.00 a month. By switching back to Qwest I also get 3 free months. Total savings = $39.

I have also been having Winder Dairy deliver our milk each week. It's local, it's fresh and sooo convenient! I called yesterday to cut service. Turns out Z can't really drink milk so we only need 1 gallon of milk each week for M and R. I'm already drinking soy. So I've cut our milk bill from $11 each week to $2.50 a week. Soy bring that bill to $5.00 week. Total savings= $6 / wk.

I have decided to keep our Netflix subscription for now. It is $8.99/month. But it can always go to.

I've started keeping my price book again. I'm going to do my dangdest to buy things at rock bottom prices, effectively giving ourselves a raise. I've stocked up on canned goods, rice, potatoes, squash, onions and frozen vegetables. I'm trying to cook economical, healthy meals from home. My weakness is lunch. I hate making lunch so I end up eating out a few days a week. I am planning to cut out fast food for the next little while. This should save us around $15/wk, or $60/month.

We've gotten a home equity loan and put our high interest credit cards on it, lowering our interest rate and giving us a tax break.

And as a last resort we are talking about moving. We love our neighborhood and would really like to stay. We have one of the larger homes in the area with the most incredible view. We are looking into downsizing. The question will be what we can sell ours for and finding one that we are happy with. There would be some updating we would need to do to maximize our sale. It all sounds so tiring, however, I wouldn't mind the end result. I'd rather be totally out of debt and have a lower mortgage so we can save more and travel more. It's not worth it to me to pay for square footage that I don't need or use. Most houses in our area have a nice view, not quite as incredible as ours, but it isn't worth the money for me. It is for R though. So this remains to be seen. If we could sell for what we want, we could potentially reduce our mortgage by $400/month. We haven't been saving at all, including retirement. I'd like some extra money to give us some leverage. I'm nervous about the state of the economy and I'd like to put more distance between myself the financial edge.

So that's where we're at. Not fun, but that's life.