This reminds of our first year together as newlyweds. Our an niversary is on Tuesday 9/28 13th!! We both had good, stable jobs and a home that I had purchased before marriage. My DH was fresh out of college and had a couple of thousand dollars of CC debt, student loans, etc...
A dear Motherly-type friend gave me a Pressure Cooker that she had bought somewhere for $15. It was heavy-duty and sturdy. She taught me how to use it. Man, that thing saved me the bucks! I made a weekly menu & always shopped with a grocery list. I would make whole roasts that I would make into sandwiches for lunch etc... chicken, beef veggies *good stuff. Our food budget for the month was less than $100 for two of us.
I would shop at a Farmers Market everyweek for fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked whole grain foods, etc... I limited our cash to $25 per week each. We had a cash drawer where we would keep a certain amount of money in for the whole month**easier to do this than to use a debit card or withdraw from the atm.
I used one type of cleaner for everything. Saved $$ there. Kept thermostat low during winter and higher in the Summer. Cut off cable TV. Didn't miss it. Zeroed in on paying off the loans. Attacked highest interest rate 1st, payed off the rest within the year. Refined the house once when interest rates dipped. Within two years, we had payed off every bill exept for our mortgage and was able to save a down payment for a larger house. When we sat down with the mortgage lender, he was surprised to see that we had no debt.
I learned other saving techniques since then, but now we have two children. We have lived large since they were born, have moved up a couple of times**thanks to low interest market and real estate demand. We are never too far from our budgeting ways though. After my last child was born, I haven't been working, so I find more ways for us to better use our money. We have helped people in the past too, given our resources generously and I think that we have been 'blessed' by this too. I did go through my house recently, and I was amazed by all of the 'stuff' that we have collected over the years** Keep getting rid of it like you're doing: ebay, garage sales** contribute (tax deductable) etc... And, I'm talking to myself here: don't add to it!
We had made drastic changes too. We had one car for a short time, but I only lived 3 mins from work then. I enjoyed the walk home. That didn't last too long. I also remember wearing sweaters in the house during the winter!
I love the ING accounts that pay 2.2% and I'm looking into the CDs for short-term investments. I'm thinking about putting our travel fund into a short term CD to earn the most interest on this budgeted money. We use one credit card that earns us Flight miles. We pay it off every month, but I'm trying to switch to a better CC that will pay us back some $$ instead. We put food, gas, large purchases on this card. Money management for a family these days takes a lot of time and research. We haven't found a 'financial' person who could do this better than ourselves so far. We keep looking! We do have a trusted CPA and real estate agent that we wouldn't trade.
You sound very open to taking in advice which is good. That is half the battle! I've tried to help friends in the past with budgets, advice, meal plans etc.... I've found that this old saying is soooo true: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink!"
Keep up the good work**Best Wishes!! I hope that a big payoff is in your future for taking care of this now**
