We really did it! We paid off our car this morning! Boy did that feel good! :) It probably won't really sink in until we get the title in the mail in a few days.
So.... next up is our $1,000 Emergency Fund. I know, I know, we're supposed to have done that FIRST, but that thing was causing us a lot of problems, so we decided to skip ahead, pay off the car, and then do the $1,000 Emergency Fund before hitting the student loans extra hard. So... that's the plan!
We're also looking forward to a PAID FOR vacation, date nights and giving a little bit more money away. That's the plan for now anyway! :)
Oh... and Daniel is getting his wisdom teeth out in June, and his dental insurance should be covering most of that. That's the biggest reason why we were able to pay off the car, since we didn't have to hang on to extra to pay off the oral surgeon.
Showing posts with label budgeting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budgeting. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
I'm back!
Bet you all thought I was gone for good, didn't you! Well... I'm back now!
Life got crazy busy for us there for awhile. We were sick, which I why I wasn't blogging at first. And then my piano studio went crazy. I picked up a bunch more students (four last week alone) and now I have 16 students each week! Yikes!
The adventures in gluten-free, casein-free, egg-free eating continue. I just started a loaf of french bread in our bread maker. This is the first time I've used the bread maker since last summer. I'm hoping the loaf turns out okay. I'm still trying to figure out the best egg substitute for various items. I'm using Ener-G egg replacer in this bread mix. I guess we'll see what happens. :)
Our car is getting older. We're going to have to do some repairs on it next week. We're hoping that will be it for awhile, but it sure is discouraging watching our savings disappear into yet ANOTHER repair bill. :P
Speaking of savings... we're still trucking along, trying to get out of debt. I think it has helped that we're getting really close to paying off the car, so it's giving us that extra little bit of excitement that we've been missing. We'll probably have the car paid off by August, if not before. Then it's on to the student loans! :)
That's the update from us! How are all of you doing?
Life got crazy busy for us there for awhile. We were sick, which I why I wasn't blogging at first. And then my piano studio went crazy. I picked up a bunch more students (four last week alone) and now I have 16 students each week! Yikes!
The adventures in gluten-free, casein-free, egg-free eating continue. I just started a loaf of french bread in our bread maker. This is the first time I've used the bread maker since last summer. I'm hoping the loaf turns out okay. I'm still trying to figure out the best egg substitute for various items. I'm using Ener-G egg replacer in this bread mix. I guess we'll see what happens. :)
Our car is getting older. We're going to have to do some repairs on it next week. We're hoping that will be it for awhile, but it sure is discouraging watching our savings disappear into yet ANOTHER repair bill. :P
Speaking of savings... we're still trucking along, trying to get out of debt. I think it has helped that we're getting really close to paying off the car, so it's giving us that extra little bit of excitement that we've been missing. We'll probably have the car paid off by August, if not before. Then it's on to the student loans! :)
That's the update from us! How are all of you doing?
Friday, January 25, 2013
There's a First Time for Everything
Today I'm filing business taxes for the first time ever. *gulp* I'm a little nervous about it. I was REALLY nervous about it until yesterday when I called the Department of Revenue and a nice lady there walked me through the e-file process and helped me to figure out exactly what categories I needed to file under. I'm so proud of myself that it looks like I collected enough tax to cover what I owe! :D
So, yep, first time filing business taxes. Fun stuff. :)
Monday, November 26, 2012
Managing God's Money--Car Maintenance (Part 3)
If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, you can find them here and here.
This seems to be the overarching theme of our lives right now, but guess what we're going to attempt to do today? Yep, that's right... we're hoping to get our alignment and new tires! :) Daniel has the day off work, so in a few minutes we'll call the tire store and make sure they have our tires, and if they do, we'll call the mechanic and let them know we're on our way for an alignment and oil change!
How God provided the money for this is pretty spectacular. Last week, we received a newsletter from our mechanic which included a $15 off coupon for an alignment. Daniel did some website jobs and Wordpress training earlier in the fall, and we received the checks for those just before Thanksgiving. They were just enough, after tithing, to cover our new tires, with about $5 to spare. Then, I posted on Facebook about the good news, and mentioned we still needed some money for our alignment, and the next thing I know, one of my friends Paypal'd just enough money to cover our alignment. We also received a small check from the hospital since our insurance made a mistake that resulted in us overpaying for an appointment. That should cover half of our oil change. We're just in AWE of the way God has provided for this.
We ARE still praying though, because I've heard that some vehicles need an extra part added to them in order to be able to have the correct alignment. We don't know yet if our car needs that extra piece. If it does, we won't be able to get our alignment today, and we'll need to save some more moola. But, we know that God knows, and He will take care of His car, on His timeline.
Have you seen God provide for your needs in any extraordinary ways recently?
This seems to be the overarching theme of our lives right now, but guess what we're going to attempt to do today? Yep, that's right... we're hoping to get our alignment and new tires! :) Daniel has the day off work, so in a few minutes we'll call the tire store and make sure they have our tires, and if they do, we'll call the mechanic and let them know we're on our way for an alignment and oil change!
How God provided the money for this is pretty spectacular. Last week, we received a newsletter from our mechanic which included a $15 off coupon for an alignment. Daniel did some website jobs and Wordpress training earlier in the fall, and we received the checks for those just before Thanksgiving. They were just enough, after tithing, to cover our new tires, with about $5 to spare. Then, I posted on Facebook about the good news, and mentioned we still needed some money for our alignment, and the next thing I know, one of my friends Paypal'd just enough money to cover our alignment. We also received a small check from the hospital since our insurance made a mistake that resulted in us overpaying for an appointment. That should cover half of our oil change. We're just in AWE of the way God has provided for this.
We ARE still praying though, because I've heard that some vehicles need an extra part added to them in order to be able to have the correct alignment. We don't know yet if our car needs that extra piece. If it does, we won't be able to get our alignment today, and we'll need to save some more moola. But, we know that God knows, and He will take care of His car, on His timeline.
Have you seen God provide for your needs in any extraordinary ways recently?
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
*UPDATED* 11/6/12 Managing God's Money--Car Maintenance, Take 2!
A few weeks ago, I wrote about looking for new tires. Well, yesterday morning... our car died.
Daniel left for work but came back almost immediately, reporting that the car wouldn't start. He was positive he didn't leave the lights on, and all our neighbors were already gone to work. He had about two minutes to get back out the door and catch the bus.
We think it may be the battery (hoping!), so we're just going to move the new tires and alignment up to today, and get everything done all in one shot. But, here's where things get really fun.
Once I realized the car would need to go to the mechanic before we could get the new tires put on, I realized that the Discount Tire in Pasco (our original plan) was now further away from the car's location than the Discount Tire in Richland. So, I called the Discount Tire in Richland, to find out if they had the tires we want in stock. The man who answered the phone turned out to be the husband of a friend of mine from church. When I explained the situation, and which tires we want, he said he didn't have them in stock, but he could give us better tires for the same price. So, instead of 40,000 mile tires for $430, we're getting 65,000 mile tires for $422.04. Did you catch that? That's 25,000 more miles, for $8.00 less than what we'd expected to pay.
And shortly after I got all that arranged, a lady who just moved to town from Arizona called to see if Daniel could design her a website. I'm not sure how that's all going to pan out, but I'm choosing to take great solace in the fact that God had that lady call on the very day our car died. :)
*UPDATE* 11/6/12
We got the car towed to the shop this morning, where we found out it was indeed the battery, and the starter. $700 later, our emergency fund is empty, and we had just enough miscellaneous cash to cover the rest. So... no new tires or alignment for us today. I'll call Discount Tire tomorrow (the guy I talked to wasn't going to be in today) and let them know it may be awhile before we can come in for tires.
We're just amazed that we were able to pay for today's repairs without having to go on a payment plan. We'll just keep being faithful and frugal, and trust that God will provide the funds for the tires and alignment when He decides it's time to do them!
Daniel left for work but came back almost immediately, reporting that the car wouldn't start. He was positive he didn't leave the lights on, and all our neighbors were already gone to work. He had about two minutes to get back out the door and catch the bus.
We think it may be the battery (hoping!), so we're just going to move the new tires and alignment up to today, and get everything done all in one shot. But, here's where things get really fun.
Once I realized the car would need to go to the mechanic before we could get the new tires put on, I realized that the Discount Tire in Pasco (our original plan) was now further away from the car's location than the Discount Tire in Richland. So, I called the Discount Tire in Richland, to find out if they had the tires we want in stock. The man who answered the phone turned out to be the husband of a friend of mine from church. When I explained the situation, and which tires we want, he said he didn't have them in stock, but he could give us better tires for the same price. So, instead of 40,000 mile tires for $430, we're getting 65,000 mile tires for $422.04. Did you catch that? That's 25,000 more miles, for $8.00 less than what we'd expected to pay.
And shortly after I got all that arranged, a lady who just moved to town from Arizona called to see if Daniel could design her a website. I'm not sure how that's all going to pan out, but I'm choosing to take great solace in the fact that God had that lady call on the very day our car died. :)
*UPDATE* 11/6/12
We got the car towed to the shop this morning, where we found out it was indeed the battery, and the starter. $700 later, our emergency fund is empty, and we had just enough miscellaneous cash to cover the rest. So... no new tires or alignment for us today. I'll call Discount Tire tomorrow (the guy I talked to wasn't going to be in today) and let them know it may be awhile before we can come in for tires.
We're just amazed that we were able to pay for today's repairs without having to go on a payment plan. We'll just keep being faithful and frugal, and trust that God will provide the funds for the tires and alignment when He decides it's time to do them!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Managing God's Money--Grocery Shopping
Previously I've talked about the importance of getting out of debt, and making wise, educated consumer decisions. Both could be (and probably should be) considered important line items in a budget.
Another important item in a budget is groceries. Everyone has to eat something! Grocery shopping is something that I've struggled with for awhile. In my opinion, it's a necessary evil. We have to eat, so we have to shop. But, if I develop a plan before we go to the store, it generally goes a lot better, and we stick to our budget.
When I was in college, I lived off-campus for two years, so that was when I figured out how much it cost to feed one person for a month. I found that it's about $100/month to feed one person, so when Daniel and I got married, I just multiplied that by two. We've always tried to spend about $200/month on groceries, which for us includes all our paper products, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. Generally, we've been able to stick fairly close to this amount, unless we had to stock up on a bunch of staples all at the same time.
When we were first married, we generally shopped at WinCo, which is one of the cheapest grocery stores in town. WinCo doesn't offer store coupons, but I found the prices to be reasonable, and we were pretty much always able to stick to our budget when we shopped there. Two years into our marriage, we moved across the river, and our shopping pattern had to change. We tried shopping at Wal-mart for awhile, but it was pretty expensive, so we worked out a way to get back to shopping at WinCo.
Then, this summer, we found out about all of Daniel's food allergies, so our plan had to change a little bit. Now, we can still get most of our shopping done at WinCo, but we also pick up a few things (like gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free cheese; egg-less mayo; and bulk quinoa) at Yoke's, which is much more expensive than either WinCo or Walmart. I was worried that this would increase our budget significantly, but to my surprise, it hasn't! In fact, we're pretty much done our shopping for the next two weeks, and we still have some money left over for more produce.
Trying to maintain a "normal" diet while going GFCF is very expensive. By choosing to eat naturally GFCF foods, we cut down our budget. A good example is GF pasta. Daniel and I can both eat rice, so at first, we had been buying the specialty labelled GF pasta. But, then I was over at the MTHFR family's house, and discovered that they eat rice pasta. We were in WinCo a few days later, so I decided to check the Asian food section, and sure enough, I found white rice pasta in the Asian food section for much cheaper than the labelled GF noodles!
I know most of my readers probably don't have to worry about eating GFCF, so, in conclusion, I would just encourage you to think about what you're eating, what you should be eating, make a meal plan, and stick to it. I think you'll find that it makes a big difference in how much you're spending on groceries!
How do you manage your grocery spending?
Another important item in a budget is groceries. Everyone has to eat something! Grocery shopping is something that I've struggled with for awhile. In my opinion, it's a necessary evil. We have to eat, so we have to shop. But, if I develop a plan before we go to the store, it generally goes a lot better, and we stick to our budget.
When I was in college, I lived off-campus for two years, so that was when I figured out how much it cost to feed one person for a month. I found that it's about $100/month to feed one person, so when Daniel and I got married, I just multiplied that by two. We've always tried to spend about $200/month on groceries, which for us includes all our paper products, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. Generally, we've been able to stick fairly close to this amount, unless we had to stock up on a bunch of staples all at the same time.
When we were first married, we generally shopped at WinCo, which is one of the cheapest grocery stores in town. WinCo doesn't offer store coupons, but I found the prices to be reasonable, and we were pretty much always able to stick to our budget when we shopped there. Two years into our marriage, we moved across the river, and our shopping pattern had to change. We tried shopping at Wal-mart for awhile, but it was pretty expensive, so we worked out a way to get back to shopping at WinCo.
Then, this summer, we found out about all of Daniel's food allergies, so our plan had to change a little bit. Now, we can still get most of our shopping done at WinCo, but we also pick up a few things (like gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free cheese; egg-less mayo; and bulk quinoa) at Yoke's, which is much more expensive than either WinCo or Walmart. I was worried that this would increase our budget significantly, but to my surprise, it hasn't! In fact, we're pretty much done our shopping for the next two weeks, and we still have some money left over for more produce.
Trying to maintain a "normal" diet while going GFCF is very expensive. By choosing to eat naturally GFCF foods, we cut down our budget. A good example is GF pasta. Daniel and I can both eat rice, so at first, we had been buying the specialty labelled GF pasta. But, then I was over at the MTHFR family's house, and discovered that they eat rice pasta. We were in WinCo a few days later, so I decided to check the Asian food section, and sure enough, I found white rice pasta in the Asian food section for much cheaper than the labelled GF noodles!
I know most of my readers probably don't have to worry about eating GFCF, so, in conclusion, I would just encourage you to think about what you're eating, what you should be eating, make a meal plan, and stick to it. I think you'll find that it makes a big difference in how much you're spending on groceries!
How do you manage your grocery spending?
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Managing God's Money--Car Maintenance
On Tuesday, I blogged about managing God's money and getting out of debt. Another facet of managing God's money comes in taking care of the material things He has blessed us with. One material thing that is causing us to stop and think right now is our car. We've known for a few months that we need to buy new tires and get an alignment before it starts to snow. I've heard that we're supposed to have a particularly bad winter this year, so as the daily high drops, my anxiety about bad tires goes up.
We think we may be nearing a place where we'll be able to buy new tires and an alignment for our car soon, so I thought yesterday, a surprise day off from work, would be a great opportunity to do some research about where we should get our tires and alignment done.
Our car is a 2002 Ford Taurus LS sedan. The tires we need are P215/16R60. Our budget is roughly $500, including the cost of the alignment.
I called eight different businesses yesterday afternoon, looking for the best deal. As you would expect, the cost per mile went DOWN as the number of miles the tire is good for went UP. In other words, 100,000 mile tires are cheaper per mile than 40,000 mile tires, even though the 40,000 mile tires' price is lower.
I won't bore you with ALL the numbers. Here are the tires we can actually entertain the idea of buying. These aren't necessarily the best deals I came across, just the ones in our price range.
The cheapest option in our price range is 50,000 mile tires from USA Brake and Auto Repair for $487.15, including a free alignment for being first time customers. However, my friend Heidi responded to my Facebook comment about that, and said that they were not impressed with the tires they got there a few years ago, so I'm not sure we're going to go that route after all. I wasn't overly impressed with their customer service anyway.
The next option is to get 40,000 mile tires from Discount Tire (Pasco), and an alignment from Custom Alignment (Kennewick). This should run about $491.00. I was pretty impressed with the customer service from both Discount Tire (Pasco) and Custom Alignment. A friend's husband works at Discount Tire in Richland, so of course, she gave Discount Tire a glowing review.
The third option is to get 40,000 mile tires and an alignment from Big O Tires in Kennewick for $529.93. I wasn't extremely impressed with their customer service, but their price is pretty competitive, which is a good thing for us right now. However, I think they were the only ones who quoted me the alignment price including tax.
The fourth option is 50,000 mile tires from Discount Tire (Pasco) and an alignment from Custom Alignment (Kennewick). This should cost about $531.00. So, about $2.00 more for 10,000 more miles than we could get at Big O.
All that being said... I think what we're going to do is get the 40,000 mile tires from Discount Tire, and then get an alignment done by our regular mechanic, Meyer's Auto Tech. This will run a little more expensive than getting an alignment from Custom Alignment, but Meyer's Auto Tech knows our car, and we trust them not to take us for more than what the work is worth.
We think we may be nearing a place where we'll be able to buy new tires and an alignment for our car soon, so I thought yesterday, a surprise day off from work, would be a great opportunity to do some research about where we should get our tires and alignment done.
Our car is a 2002 Ford Taurus LS sedan. The tires we need are P215/16R60. Our budget is roughly $500, including the cost of the alignment.
I called eight different businesses yesterday afternoon, looking for the best deal. As you would expect, the cost per mile went DOWN as the number of miles the tire is good for went UP. In other words, 100,000 mile tires are cheaper per mile than 40,000 mile tires, even though the 40,000 mile tires' price is lower.
I won't bore you with ALL the numbers. Here are the tires we can actually entertain the idea of buying. These aren't necessarily the best deals I came across, just the ones in our price range.
The cheapest option in our price range is 50,000 mile tires from USA Brake and Auto Repair for $487.15, including a free alignment for being first time customers. However, my friend Heidi responded to my Facebook comment about that, and said that they were not impressed with the tires they got there a few years ago, so I'm not sure we're going to go that route after all. I wasn't overly impressed with their customer service anyway.
The next option is to get 40,000 mile tires from Discount Tire (Pasco), and an alignment from Custom Alignment (Kennewick). This should run about $491.00. I was pretty impressed with the customer service from both Discount Tire (Pasco) and Custom Alignment. A friend's husband works at Discount Tire in Richland, so of course, she gave Discount Tire a glowing review.
The third option is to get 40,000 mile tires and an alignment from Big O Tires in Kennewick for $529.93. I wasn't extremely impressed with their customer service, but their price is pretty competitive, which is a good thing for us right now. However, I think they were the only ones who quoted me the alignment price including tax.
The fourth option is 50,000 mile tires from Discount Tire (Pasco) and an alignment from Custom Alignment (Kennewick). This should cost about $531.00. So, about $2.00 more for 10,000 more miles than we could get at Big O.
All that being said... I think what we're going to do is get the 40,000 mile tires from Discount Tire, and then get an alignment done by our regular mechanic, Meyer's Auto Tech. This will run a little more expensive than getting an alignment from Custom Alignment, but Meyer's Auto Tech knows our car, and we trust them not to take us for more than what the work is worth.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Managing God's Money--Getting out of debt
On Sunday, our pastor talked about how everything we have belongs to the Lord, and so we need to be good stewards of our money, our time, etc.
While I do struggle to be a good steward of the time that God has given me, I think it can be even more difficult to remember that the money we have is God's. Not just a little bit, but all the money we have. I believe that God's desire is for us to not be in debt to anyone. I'm not really sure how having a mortgage fits into that, because we haven't gotten to that step yet, but we do have a small car loan.
As a one-income family which strives to live very simply, it can be challenging to see how we can pay off our car loan faster. So, this week I've been trying to focus more on the fact that the money we do have is a gift from the Lord, and it's our job to be wise stewards of it, and use it in ways that honor Him. While I still do think that buying our car was a good decision at the time, I do believe that it is our responsibility to pay off the car as quickly as we can, so we can free up that money to do more (like sponsor 3 more World Vision children) or support more missionaries, or save for a missions trip of our own.
Because I've shifted my focus off of "Oh dear, we have this bill and that bill coming due, and how are we going to pay for them", and on to "We want to be able to do more to honor God with the money He has given us", I believe He is blessing that. It's been eight months since we've put any extra on the car loan, and I was able to move a small amount over there yesterday. (Yay for less interest in the long run!)
Have you seen God bless you for being obedient to Him? Please leave me a comment and share your story!
While I do struggle to be a good steward of the time that God has given me, I think it can be even more difficult to remember that the money we have is God's. Not just a little bit, but all the money we have. I believe that God's desire is for us to not be in debt to anyone. I'm not really sure how having a mortgage fits into that, because we haven't gotten to that step yet, but we do have a small car loan.
As a one-income family which strives to live very simply, it can be challenging to see how we can pay off our car loan faster. So, this week I've been trying to focus more on the fact that the money we do have is a gift from the Lord, and it's our job to be wise stewards of it, and use it in ways that honor Him. While I still do think that buying our car was a good decision at the time, I do believe that it is our responsibility to pay off the car as quickly as we can, so we can free up that money to do more (like sponsor 3 more World Vision children) or support more missionaries, or save for a missions trip of our own.
Because I've shifted my focus off of "Oh dear, we have this bill and that bill coming due, and how are we going to pay for them", and on to "We want to be able to do more to honor God with the money He has given us", I believe He is blessing that. It's been eight months since we've put any extra on the car loan, and I was able to move a small amount over there yesterday. (Yay for less interest in the long run!)
Have you seen God bless you for being obedient to Him? Please leave me a comment and share your story!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)