My month long pantry challenge

I first read about the pantry challenge at www.gettingaheadblog.com but discovered many other blogs that mentioned it, even one where she had enough in her pantry to live off of for a year - I am a little envious of that. In GettingAhead she seemed to be trying to lower inventory, and get to some of those bottom of the freezer items. I had in the past tried to "eat myself out of house and home" and have tried repeatedly to do that since marriage but hubby was not interested.

We had listened to the first three Dave Ramsey CDs and made our first real budget, and it did not balance of course. We were short by only $300. That amount was an amazing thing for me to see, because as we talked through the budget, we set up line items without setting the balance, we added items in that we'd never planned on before - like car repair, and a monthly amount for propane and Christmas, things we had purchased in the past. It was eye-opening to see on paper; the clear reason we were going deeper into debt each month. I started looking to see what we could cut. There really was not much that we should cut, but it was necessary. We figured we could live without buying clothes for awhile, that we could go a little longer without saving for Christmas. Between the large debt payment minimums and the huge amount I drive to work (1 hour each way, 5 days per week), there wasn't much space left. I cut and I cut and I cut until the only expenditures were absolutely required, and that left only $39 for groceries.

Yes, you saw that right, $39 for a month of groceries for a family of 4 (family of 5 every other weekend). On the Financial Peace cds, he talks about the 4-wall planning. You pay your shelter, food, utilities, and transportation first. I did this budget backwards. I really wanted to keep paying at least the minimum on the unsecured debts. I was not ready yet to give up on my bill paying habits.

Thus began my pantry challenge. We made it with help from many sources. We had donations from friends, we picked up our WIC items, we took home bread from church. Friends who were aware came over and brought us dinner (and leftovers). We made goat cheese from our goat, and bread. Turns out that while a person can not live on bread alone, it does fill in a lot of gaps. We had bread most nights for dinner, and since I have a huge supply in the pantry, canned beans and corn most nights too. Now, I have absolutely no problem eating what we have in the house, on the other hand the husband was frustrated. He's at home during the day while I'm at work. He takes care of and feeds our two children for breakfast & lunch. He has for years had a routine, for breakfast box cereal and milk and raisins, for lunch, bread, lunch meat, and cheese, and 1/2 an apple (or other fruit), and fruit snacks. So when I stopped buying lunch meat because it runs more than $2 per pound, he wasn't sure what to feed the kids any more.

While perhaps not always the most balanced of diets, and not always varied. We made it completely and entirely within the budget. Well, except the required car repair bill which was covered by the bounce protection transfer that occurred last month, so technically no new transfers occurred.

Things I learned. It's good to stock up on things when they are on sale. A whole turkey will last more than a week - and can be fixed a variety of ways so that you don't get bored. It is extremely important to not be too prideful to accept help. It was really hard to be able to say yes to everyone who offered, really hard.

At the same time I am learning to say yes to help, I am learning to say no to extra expenditures. I can now go into Walmart without buying the whole store. I am learning to make lists and stick to them. I am learning to write all our purchases down and rely only on what I have on paper, not on the banks idea of how much money there is. I did trick myself into saving a little money last month by starting my balance sheet over when a new paycheck came in, but also made a few unnecessary purchases.

Our budget is very tight again this month because we are determined to get out of debt. "A borrower is slave to the lender." We did agree to 4 additional budget cuts and rewrote the budget from the top: 4-walls first! Now our grocery budget is $130 for a month. We have been applying for some financial assistance, and food assistance so that we will be able, in the next couple months, to take some good steps forward on our new "financial plan". I guess it is reassuring to see that I really am at an income level which needs assistance. HOWEVER, if I really had just kept to a budget from the beginning, I would not need the assistance. We could make it on our own, I think.

Next steps, "sell so much stuff, the kids thing they are next."

From the bottom and looking up

I am paying the consequences for my poor choices and mistakes.

1. my attempts at refinancing and consolidating debt have so far failed. (appraisal came back very low in value)
2. my attempts at taking advantage of my high credit limit credit card and transferring balances have failed. (credit card cut my credit limit)
3. my attempts at selling stuff to increase my income have failed. (no one has followed through in purchasing)

On the positive side, I've been able to keep our spending under control - well, except for the day when we had to get the cars repaired, and we didn't have any money to pay for it, so we put it on the credit card. sigh.

When every penny goes to bills. And what little is left is barely enough to cover groceries and gasoline. What do you do? I know the other expenses are going to come, but I just can't find the money to keep any savings around.

This weeks tasks include calling my insurance company to reduce my home insurance rate, calling my county to see if they'll lower my taxes based on the new appraisal, calling credit card companies to see if someone will consolidate and transfer balances. Things I'm considering - dropping our life insurance again or dropping the value, in the grand scheme of things I know it's not a good idea, but for the temporary I only have so many expenses I can cut. I should also try to find all my medical expenses and try to get reimbursed by my HSA card. hmmm. I wonder if there is a time limit on that.

On another positive note, I have not yet exceeded my "Official Holiday Budget" which is supposed to encompass all November & December events and gifts. I need to reevaluate tonight and go shopping tonight too. We have two parties to attend on Saturday, and some ideas of things to purchase at the big T. Also planning on taking V's Birthday Funds to purchase some fun new bedding for his new big bed. Wheee.

I'm getting excited for our Christmas cards to be finished. This year I had the kids write Merry Christmas, and then hold their words while I photographed them in front of our wood pile, and then we'll put them in the black paper with silver marker drawings they've been doing. I can't wait to see them put together.

Other things I'm hoping to do this Christmas: Cookie baking on the 20th. For unexpected gifts, I'd like to put together gift "baskets".

Financial Stress

I understand money. I've chosen to ignore it for most of a year. Well, not really so much as only let myself be stressed by it twice per month when I sit down to pay the bills. I do periodically sit down and try to make a budget. I do check my bank balance most days to be sure I'm not overdrawn...

All that being said, I've come to the point where I'm tired of living in denile. I HATE DEBT! It is exactly what everyone says, the evil thing that drags you down. I am up to my eyeballs in it. All those things that just couldn't wait, and now I'll be paying on for the next who know how many years.

My major problem is that I am not currently bringing in enough income to cover everything. That is, the normal day to day, expected expenses - no problem. But as is evidenced by the past few months, I don't have any room for unexpected expenses. Not to say I don't expect them, it's just I keep hoping they won't show up. Like car repair. I plan my gasoline and oil changes, but anything beyond that goes on the credit card because i don't have the money for it. Then there are the weeks I forget to pull my $20 allowance, or the husbands, and one of us wants to get something, and it happens a couple times, and without the cash only restriction, it goes above the planned amount, and I find myself $10 short, and another autotransfer of $300 "richer" from my bounce protect loan. So to keep myself from stressing, I leave it there, and end up with another month of debt accrual.

So here is the plan today, I will call my insurance company and try to reduce my homeowners insurance. This will in turn reduce my mortgage! I will also talk to the tax office to see if they'll agree to use the appraisal value for my taxes instead of the tax value. This should reduce taxes, and reduce my mortgage. I've already switched to slower internet, and smaller trash can. I'm trying to remember to turn off electrical sources - but I need to try harder. I did request the electric budget plan - where it's the same amount each month - hopefully that helps a little.

We currently have listed our vehicles online for sale. I am hoping to find somewhere or someone to buy my stuff - whatever that is, so I can increase income a little. I'm pondering a 2nd job, but don't know how we'd fit it into our current schedule, unless I never sleep, or we get childcare - which would most likely cancel out the income.

My refinance didn't come through the way I hoped. Instead it said my home value was WAY lower than expected. Also learned that the lovely government programs don't apply to me either. So I continue on dragging my head and praying for miracles.

The reason for this slump down instead of the last posts positive tone: It's only the 3rd, and I'm already out of money until next weekend, so all my gasoline, and anything else we need has to come off the credit cards. No way around it because I didn't get to evaluating the autopay bills in time to stop any of them from clearing my account, and ended up over budget.

Ain't life grand.

My many hats

Accountant Hat:
I am an accounting assistant for this year's conference. I am working with FilemakerPro. It is our database. We have in the past sent out invoices from it, but generally we send them out one person at a time. Well, having learned a little more about reporting this year, I included a grand total at the bottom of my invoices! Invoice 6000 has 3 attendees on it referenced with a school district PO#123456. The invoice itself lists one attendee's detail, with a subtotal at the bottom, I think included a sheet listing all the people included with that invoice. Well, I had one schools district who sent 10 attendees on 5 POs, and two without PO numbers. Their invoice says one invoice per PO. So I wrote up Invoice 6001 on PO 123457 with one attendee at $10, and invoice 6002 on PO 123458 with three attendees at $30, etc. I sent the 6 invoices, with their 5 POs and a list of all their attendees which included that PO number and Invoice number. Well, they sent back a check with their own PO numbers listed, but only paid for one attendee on each PO/invoice. When I called to clarify, she said it was because my invoices listed two amounts, and I didn't include a po number. sigh. They are not my only payee, yet so far, no one else has been confused with my system. Despite this set back I have managed to so far collect on 1/3 of my invoicees!

Photography, renaissance, mama hat:
In today's photo is Lily during the 2007 season playing with the wood blocks provided by the lovely panini's after parade. This will be her last year with this dress. Actually, it might not even make it - it just fits her now. So we are seeking out the next phase of her costume. We have to find some way to keep her in a hoop (as long as she'll allow it). She is my hoop baby after all!

Mama hat:
Since we first moved into our new home Vincente has periodically mentioned wanting the phone port in his room removed. I pulled the port itself, but kept the small white wire curled against itself in the hole in the baseboard. Vincente wasn't quite satisfied with it, and I kept forgetting to check with Seth to see if we needed it. The other night I discovered why he keeps bringing up the silly cord that sticks out of the wall. It is a "scary". (The kids don't usually have monsters that scare them, they have Scaries. Monsters we generally like! Well, as Lily puts it, we like the little monsters, not the big ones, because the little ones sleep with us, but the big ones don't always want to go to sleep.) Seth got to be the hero this time, and remembered to ask Vincente about it, and removed it! Now all is well in Vincetne's room!