September 2013 Getting Out of Debt Update

Spending budget: $200/mo.
We bought $278.83 and made $238 selling misc items.
Total spent in September : $40.83

Current splurge $$ from coming in under budget car fund: $277.01. 

Our $400 $200 spending budget has to cover all groceries, household supplies, personal care products, gifts, clothes and other shopping purchases, as well as home improvement and entertainment.  It’s about 50% reduction to our spending budget.  Why $200 now?  As many of you know, my husband lost his job at the beginning of September.  Thankfully we’ve always lived below our means, so we can’t make any drastic changes to our lifestyle.  As an archaeologist there aren’t a whole lot of jobs out there that pay more than $10/hr without requiring 50% travel.  So for now we’ve opted to stay in Tyler and my husband has landed 2 part time jobs.  Together with my part time income we’ll be working about 70 hours a week and will make just enough money to pay all the bills. Because there’ll be no income left to buy things with, we’re attempting to reduce our spending budget to $200.  I’m not sure we’ll be able to actually spend that little, but by continuing to sell a few unneeded items each month I think we can stay within the $200 budget. Our spending budget will come from our savings each month and I’m very thankful that we have that to fall back on instead of going into consumer debt.

If you remember, we sold my husband’s personal truck last winter. His previous job provided a truck for him to travel with, and the 4 days of each 2 weeks that he was home we were almost always together, so the personal truck sat undriven.  Now we’re regretting that decision.  We couldn’t have known that he’d lose his job, but it sure would be easier now.  My husband will have the van to drive for his 2 PT jobs and I’ll be riding my bike with a bike trailer to get the kids to/from school a couple of days a week until the weather gets bad.  Now I’m so glad I didn’t sell that trailer this summer when I thought about it!  Our splurge money from coming in under budget has now become a new to us car fund.  <bye bye flat screen tv we’ve been eyeing> I’m dreaming hoping that we’ll be able to sell and save enough to buy a clunker by Christmas.  They still sell cars for $500 right?  (eye roll)

This also means we won’t be paying anything extra on the mortgages except the $25 that I built into our payment years ago.  Right now we’re just going to accept the  forward progress we’ve made in the past and know that both houses will still be paid off well before the 30 yr mark on their mortgages.  God has provided for our family and will continue to do so – whether or not we pay off the mortgages in half the typical time!