The estimated median household income for our county is
2.5 times what husband's income is, if you include his housing allowance. If you count only our taxable income, that number jumps to 4.5. We have to budget. We don't have another choice, except financial ruin. We were well on our way down that path before husband was able to find a new job. In the past I have been too overwhelmed and discouraged by what seemed insurmountable to even be involved in making a budget. I was difficult. Last year I refused to let husband put me on a cash budget, fearing that I would spend the cash unwisely, or lose it, or be robbed. It sounds silly I'm sure, but I was genuinely fearful and I thought I was doing just fine. 
Through God's grace we have been able to stay on track none the less, like a lonely ant slowly eating the proverbial elephant. We have been paying down our overall debt load, which is encouraging. Towards the end of 2011 I had a significant change of heart and finally felt the
whole weight of my own contributions to our financial situation. Over course of a few months husbands explained our situation, our budget, his plan, and his goals. I have been able to lend some organization to his methods and we set some goals together. After reading about the envelope system on several blogs I follow, I asked to be put on a cash budget. Sadly, because of my overspending, we couldn't do that until our tax refund came in. The very day Husband's W-2 came in the mail I sat down and filed our return.
Finally, our direct deposit payment arrive! This morning, while Husband made a very large online payment, I wrapped our cursed
credit cards in several plastic bags and weighted them down with a stone
and froze them in a jar of water. I think it would have been more fun
to wizz them up in my handy dandy food processor, but my more rational,
financially savvy spouse told me that wasn't a good idea. I'm still not
so sure about it. But I guess those cards can't hurt me where they are. The jar is labeled simply "debt". I don't want to thaw that out!
The rest of my life starts today.
Congratulations! It is SOOOOO hard to look your bills in the face and come to grips with them. It took Larry and me wayyyy to many years to do this. When Larry was a spec/4 and we lived in housing at FT Meade I applied for WIC and the lady asked me bluntly "how do you live? you are $300.00 below the poverty level!" I wish that we had sat down then.
ReplyDeleteWow. I don't know if we qualify for WIC or not, maybe we would. The crazy thing is, his coworkers are always shocked when they find out an E-5 can afford a stay at home wife. His peers are complaining about never having money and being in debt but they don't have any kids and their wives work!
DeleteI didn't really work until the kids were in school. Who can afford daycare??
DeleteExactly!
DeleteGood for you! It is hard digging out from under debt and hard staying on a budget. My husband and I dug ourselves out a number of years ago, what a great feeling it was! But we have to stay very vigilant now to stay out of debt. We budget and track every single dollar we spend. If I buy one thing at the dollar tree I have to write it down in the budget book, it really does help a lot. It is not easy living within your means, especially when you aren't making a lot but there is a lot of peace to knowing you are being good stewards of your money! Have you read Dave Ramsey's books? We didn't know about him when we started getting out of debt but we used a lot of the similar methods. Best wishes to you, it is a hard process but so rewarding!
ReplyDeleteI've heard of DR and it was his envelope method that inspired me to go for a cash budget. I tried to get DH to do some of his
Delete(Ramsey's) things but DH had his own ideas and they obviously worked well because we are succeeding!
I went grocery shopping with cash for the first time today. Owie! I had all this cash in my pocket for less than an hour then it was gone. Then I was paranoid about being in a car accident and losing all our groceries. I'm a nut!