Update/bragging

Cyndi and I are doing really, really well with debt right now, thanks in large part to Cyndi's uncle Jeremy lending us a book by Dave Ramsey that talked about budgets and managing money. We started doing a budget in December by taking all our financial statements from the past two months and adding up all the transactions into their different categories. We came to find out that:

1. We were spending nearly 4x the amount on travel than we thought we were with a high guess


2. We were spending more on large, "one-time" buys that were happening on a fairly regular basis (ie "once we get that bookshelf/console/computer part, we won't need to buy another, so it's okay just this one time!")


3. We were growing our credit card debt by a much larger amount than we thought we were.


4. Most of the things that were sucking up our money were things that we could largely do without or cut back on

Here we are, 4.5 months later and we're one month away from our only debt being one car loan and our mortgage. I thought it would take until July or August to pay off this last credit card, but with some tricky accounting we're on track to pay off the last one in mid-May. We have a savings account with a small emergency fund, we both have personal money to spend which is more than we really need anyway, and we're a lot happier with money. After some quick calculations I figure we'll have paid off half of our car loan by the time that next December comes around.

I'm very luck to have Cyndi helping me out with the budget. Even though I do most of the actual number crunching, she's the one who's been able to take the cutbacks in stride so that we (or at least I) haven't even noticed a drop in our quality of life. Also, she's found a way of making chicken alfredo that will send me to an early grave a very happy, heart disease riddled man.

Not much

Not a whole lot has been happening. We're going to hold off on the house and garden improvements. We want to pay more debts off first. We've already paid off a few credit cards and the Rio (we own one of our cars!). Now we're working on paying off the Discover card, the Honda, and our house. Speaking of our house, Jeff and I just refinanced at 5%. We'll be saving almost $200 a month on our mortgage payment!

Since nothing else is going on, here's a video of my cats when they were kittens and (more) entertained by trash (don't bother with sound- I'm on the phone with my little sister):





Oh! One more piece of news! I got a 50 cent raise at work!

An Amazing Man

I forgot to mention with my last post that when I moved the oven out to try to find the mouse, I broke it. I'm still not exactly sure what happened even though Jeff explained it to me, but my handyman fixed it. He had to pull out the oven and take off the back paneling to do it, but that also gave me an opportunity to clean the floor where the oven normally sits (where what looked like a dog's rawhide chew had been hiding from before we moved in).

My husband is, in short, amazing. He is so patient with my shortcomings and gives me attention when I need it even if he's barely gotten any time to himself. He is incredibly handy around the house- fixing things (see above) and soon he is going to install ceiling fans and dimmers and we're going to start a garden! Also, he handles things that I know I would not be able to competently take care of (the budget). That's a lot of responsibility and stress, but Jeff handles it wonderfully. I know I mess up, but he's always willing to forgive me and then he tries to make things easier for me.

Best Husband Ever! I love you, Jeff!

Mus musculus

There was a mouse in my house.

Technically, it was mouse number three. The first two had made a home in our shed out back, but Taffy and Sadie found them and killed them. Then they left them on our stairs as gifts. Such sweet cats.

The third mouse was first discovered by Taffy. I saw her playing with something underneath the kitchen table but I thought it was only a dead leaf stuck under the table leg. A minute later, the small brown "leaf" sprinted away from the table with Taffy hot on its heels. It escaped behind some boxes (which belong to a friend! I've unpacked all of mine!) next to our couch. Both Sadie and Taffy prowled around the couch for the rest of the night.

When I got home from work the next day, both cats were crouched in front of my oven. I tried to move the oven to scare the mouse out from under it, but no luck. I got bored way before the cats did and left them to their stalking so I could cook dinner. Hearing a noise in the oven drawer, I opened it for Sadie and she lept into the drawer to triumphantly remove the mouse from under a grill.

Holding her prize high in her mouth, Sadie trotted to the living room to play with it. I suppose she got overconfident and released it too close to the couch. Needless to say, the mouse escaped. Once again, the cats lurked around the couch the entire night.

Today, they were (finally) victorious and caught the pest. They left it on my kitchen floor instead of my stairs. My carpet thanks them. While I do not approve of the gift giving method, I am very proud of my hunters and I gave them both treats for their hard work.

My mousers: