Paid off the last consumer debt!

Today we paid off our Discover Card. The final balance was $1687.08. We are now down to only student loans. We no longer owe money to family, we have no car payments, no furniture payments, and no credit cards!!! And most importantly, we will NEVER again have any of those payments!

We also have enough left in the budget to throw a good chunk at Michael's Sallie Mae loan.

In honor of Valentine's Day

I have to share a letter that we received from Capital One many months after we'd paid off the balance.

At the top is a picture of a broken heart shaped cookie with "Love" written on it.

The top of it says:
"You never write. You never call. You never charge.
What did we do? Or (gulp) not do?"

Dr. Michael E. and Shirelle E.,
No holding back. Here it is. This relationship is not working. But it's not you, it's us. So let's talk. Call us and tell us what you need to make your card better."


This truly made my day. Seriously.

Experimenting with Container Gardening

I have absolutely no gardening experience, but I've decided to try some container gardening this year. I really have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm determined to learn. We're going to try growing tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce. On Monday, the boys and I started our seedlings in paper cups.







I don't really know if this will really end up being a frugal experiment. The start-up cost was about $25 for the soil, fertilizer, and seeds. I used containers that I had around the house, and bought one extra at the dollar store. I figure that at the least, I might learn a skill that could eventually save us a lot of money.

Am I the only one who is optimistic right now?

There is so much negativity everywhere I look right now! Every single day the news is more about how the economy is crashing in around us and in every mundane conversation I have with a friend someone mentions something about "this economy". Yesterday I decided not to listen to talk-radio to avoid hearing more negativity, and I flipped to the top-40 station. A girl had called in to request a song and the DJ asked her where she was headed today. "To a job interview", she said. He laughed and said, "Wow, you must have one of the four interviews in this country right now!" Okay, so top-40 is out now, too, I guess.

I don't mean to sound like I don't care about people losing their jobs--I really do. I know that some families are hurting right now. It's just that the truth is, that most people that I personally know, still have their jobs. I actually have a job interview next week, and one other potential one in the works. I feel like people are being told by the news and that stupid DJ guy, that their lives are being dictated by forces that they cannot control (the economy), and when people feel like they have no control, they lose hope.

I have no reason to be filled with fear right now, other than the fact that everyone is telling me that I SHOULD be filled with fear. Back when the economy was great, we were so incredibly broke. In our case, I can clearly see that our choices made us broke--not some unseen force that I couldn't control. Right now, our choices are turning us more towards prosperity. I can't say that someday we won't have hard times. I know that we will probably have some point where we will struggle, but during these times when we are doing well, we are doing everything we can to prepare for those inevitable times of struggle. If we have no debt, live below our means, and have plenty in savings, we will be more prepared if hard times hit us.

So, even though it is really unpopular, I am choosing to be optimistic about my family's future. We are still in control of our own situation, and I have no reason to be anything other than hopeful.

Family Math Night=Free Dinner

Ethan's school hosted a "family math night" last night. My kid is not at all interested in playing basketball or going to the zoo, but a night devoted to math is the equivalent of giving him an unlimited supply of ice cream. He was WAY excited. I was pretty excited, because they were going to feed us, and I didn't have to make dinner. We had a thoroughly unhealthy dinner of hot dogs, chips, and cookies at the math night "tailgate party". Then the kids played math games for a couple of hours, and we finished up with prizes for everyone who stayed the whole night, and a raffle for a grill and a ski ball game. All the kids who came got their name called out to get prizes, and Ethan was the first one who got to go get his prize of a Chutes and Ladders board game. He attributed his status of first to his being the "goodest" of all the kids. I was eyeing the grill, but sadly, we will have to keep using our kid-sized one. I was pretty excited for the third grader who won the ski ball game--apparently it had been sitting in the auditorium for a few days in preparation of math night, and all the kids in the school really wanted to win it.

45% of income for debt payoff -- January Wrap-up

Just double-checked my January budget to make sure everything is finished up for the month. Here's how the month shaped up:

I generated $62.50 in extra income by selling a textbook and rolling coins.

We spent $355 on groceries.

My one non-necessary expenditure was $100 on a pair of running shoes. NOT frugal, but after months of heel pain from my cheap shoes, I broke down and bought some good running shoes for my flat, ugly feet.



And the biggie:
In January, 45.1% of our income went for debt payoff.

Tax Refund

Between education credits and that tax rebate correction, we are getting right at $2,000 back on our taxes. That is going to pay off our Discover card (our LAST consumer debt!!), and get us started on the first student loan snowball. It's going to be deposited around Feb. 13. I am pumped! We've decided that we're going to close that account completely. We've kept some of our other lines of credit open since we plan to buy a house sometime in the future. This one's line of credit is only $7,200, and we've only had it for about a year (we did a balance transfer), so it needs to go. Not to mention, those people are really annoying. They call me constantly trying to sell me credit monitoring, some crappy life insurance policy, and other stuff that I don't stay on the phone long enough to hear about.