Working together

Steve & I have been hard at work all weekend. We are putting together a budget for the first time. We are very excited that after four hours of eye crossing work, our budget is balanced. That is for February. The month is almost over so now we work on the March one. SHHHH I haven't broken that news to Steve yet. ;-)

Actually, we are both feeling good about it, calmer. Its hard work but so worth it. This is the first time in our married life that Steve has been really involved in our day to day finances. Its nice that he knows where we stand on everything now. And that he is helping too.

I did our taxes today too. That is a relief that its done. I always stress until its complete. We converted my MIL to Turbo Tax this year. She struggled through it, no being computer savy. But she is so happy its done and that she saved so much money. Steve figured it out and even though is took her five hours, she made $70.00 an hour tonight by not going to her accountant. Not to shabby.

We are enjoying this class we are taking. It is true, financial peace brings you closer together in unity and so freeing. I am glad we decided to take the class. I am going to save up and buy his kit for homeschooling and teach it to the kids. I believe it is valuable tool for them to have. We already got Shay a checking account. I am teaching her how to balance it and keep track of it all.

Shaylin had a big weekend. She attended a presentation 2 our church. Tony Dungee (sp) was part of it. There where 7 people to show up at our church for it and Shay was the only girl. But she really enjoyed herself. Than, she had her first youth workday for missions. They do work at peoples houses to help raise money for their mission trips. She has been saving her babysitting money for her trip. She is almost there. The ladies she babysits for slipped her a few extra dollars because they know she is saving up for it. She really has some nice ladies that she sits for.

She also learned how to mow tha lawn this weekend. She came in and told me she enjoyed doing it. I think the fact that she was doing something to help her dad made it enjoyable. There isn't much she can do for him and this was a huge help. She was black when she came in. But she felt satisfied with herself. She sure is growing up fast....

Zach got out of the work and was building a fort in the woods with his friends. typical boy stuff...

How was your weekend???

Changing it up

We are changing up the inside of our house. We have lived here for almost three years but have not made it our own. So, we are rearranging things to suit our needs. Steve is currently in the attic working on the wiring.

We are deleting our "living room" and moving our family room into its place. Than we are moving the kitchen table into the area that the family room was in. This make sense because we have an open kitchen and the family room was part of it. Now we will have a big kitchen/dinning area.

This will also give a homeschooling space. There will be enough room in the "great room" to put a table and a reading area for the kids. I am SUPER excited about this. I eventually want to get a cabinet that will hold my sewing stuff so I have a place to store it all too.

So instead of flowers or a wordy card, my husband is sweating for my Valentine's gift. Which I greatly appreciate!!! We even went yard sailing today & bought a nice table and chairs for the kids to do their school work at. It also doubles as a nice game table for the kids. :-) No more asking them to PLEASE clean off the kitchen table so we can eat at it.

Ok, I just had to share my excitement. This is the first day in a week that I have felt good and the work being done on the house is lifting me up more too. But I won't over do it. I don't want to spend another week on the couch to weak to even make lunch. YUK!!

Have a Happy Valentines Day!!!

Not Much

schooling going on here. I am very sick and have no voice. So it is hard to teach. I have been giving the kids items they can work on by themselves. I have decided to head to the doctors tomorrow. I figure that I have given this enough time to run its course and I feel worse not better. My back hurts and that worries me. Its different than the pain I live with. So I better go get it checked.

Have You Ever Heard.....

the saying that men an women have different amounts of words to speak in a day? It something like 40,000 - 60,000 for men and 60,000 to 80,000 for women. Well, if that is true, I should be going nuts about now. I woke up sick Sunday morning and had no voice. I still have no voice to speak of.

I have always disagrees with those numbers anyways. If you know my hubby than you understand. He sure blows those numbers away. And he is loud. I even bought him a t-shirt with a parent advisory on it for being loud. He proudly wears it.

Do I talk his ear off when he gets home? Sure, I spend my day with munchkins all day. I need the adult conversation. ;-)

Well, i gotta go. We are heading to Joann fabrics. It s closing in our area. :-(

Official FPU Members

Last week Steve and I started a class offered at our church, Financial Peace University. It is offered by Dave Ramsey. The one place Steve & I have struggled in is a budget. We have never been able to complete one so we have never had one. Well, we will now.

It feels good to know we are on the same page and want to work our way out of the hole we have created for ourselves. I know for a young family we have a small amount of debt. But for us it is HUGE hurdle. So now we are getting the tools we need to make our life as uncomplicated as possible.

I had a friend say to me, how can you do that when society dictates that you should shop at the mall for your clothes? He had a boss that he labeled as a "knucklehead" and the only good piece of advise that he had given him was this, if you shop at the mall you have 15 stores with what you want and several choices in color. If you shop at a "bargain" store it has one in your size, no color choice and is ill fitting.

I told him that my kids think it is fun to go shopping at the thrift store and to get a good price. Since they are spending some of their money now, they realize how much longer their money will last if we buy at yard sales and thrift stores.

Than he mentioned pride, I told him I am proud of my family. We don't need designer labels to define who we are. He gave up after that. I have furnished my home from yard sales and newspaper ads. No one would know it unless I tell them. The things we have are high quality and look nice. I just didn't pay full price for them.

It will be nice in a couple of years to say "WE ARE DEBT FREE!!" I am excited about and scared all at the same time. But I know we can do anything short term. We have in the past we can again. I just hate living pay check to pay check. It will be nice to have wiggle room.

Our first step is an emergency fund. We are 1/3 of the way there. Hopefully by this time next month we will have all of our fund in place.