Week 156

Feb 22-28

"Waste Not, Want Not"

I'm going to take this blog to speak candidly about a taboo topic.

Money.

It is time for major changes in this household! So as you all know we have had a number of significant life transitions in the past year. Getting out of the Navy, moving back home, a pregnancy, welcoming a new baby into the world, Ed starting a new career path and thus a new degree, and of course a new job for me. Have you ever taken one of those tests that have common life stresses (good and bad)? You are supposed to check off the ones that have happened to you in the past 12 months...our score is off the chart. Normally that would be bad, but luckily we are super strong and tend to thrive in a challenging situation.

Due to a number of these life events we are finding ourselves in a whole new financial mindset. Just a year ago we had two regular incomes flowing into our bank account. Just to give you an idea of our "financial picture" we are fairly conservative spenders. We have some debt, but not on a credit card. We owe a little on one car and then we are still paying off my school. No big deal. We typically pay off debt in an aggressive manner. About two years ago we knew we were probably getting out of the Navy and could potentially lose half of our income. Just to be safe we started attacking our debt and also saving up money as a backup.

After going through our bank account we found places we could save and tightened the purse strings a little bit. Just last year we paid over $20,000 towards our debt while also putting away $1,000/month into our savings account. On top of that, we still pretty much did things that we wanted to do. We were still eating out at restaurants a good bit, buying "things" that were not necessary, doing fun things that cost money. We thought we had cut back, but now that I look back we were still much better off than we even realized and didn't have to worry much about finances.

Fast forward to now. I stopped working in July, therefore there went half of our income. Ed stopped getting paid from the Navy in October. No income. Thank goodness we saved for the past couple of years!!! I started back to work the end of December and so we have revived our income a little bit. Ed went back to school which gives him basically a BAH (basic allowance for housing) that is supposed to cover our rent but doesn't. We seriously live in one of the cheapest areas in the Columbia area and still don't cover our rent with the BAH.

The last two months I have been carefully tracking our money to determine what needed to happen in order for us to not keep eating away our savings. Despite cutting back a lot of things we are still going over our budget by $1,000 a month. We were both shocked at the numbers. Together we agreed on a plan and we are going to start seriously cutting wasteful spending. One thing I love about our marriage is that when we are both on board to tackle a challenge, we tend to be successful in the task. I think I am going to blog about our new financial adventures to give people a glimpse into how we do. I also know that if I do it publicly on here I will be more determined to take on the challenges.

I would really like to take the time to research some financial plans offered by experts. I have the Dave Ramsey book that I have been meaning to read for the past two years. I guess now is as good a time as ever. Until I accomplish that I decided that we are in crisis mode financially and something needed to give now. This is what Ed and I came up with last night on our own.

Challenge 1: only use the debit card for gas and groceries

Yep, that's IT. No clothes, no gifts, no restaurants, NOTHING. This is another reason I figured I would blog about this topic. When all of our friends think that we don't love them anymore and we stop hanging out it's just because we are on a strict budget.

Along with the new budget we have decided that this is also a good time to get back into our workout and diet. I think we both felt like we needed to gain some sense of control over things. Other things that I would like to accomplish is getting not only our budget under control but also the excess "stuff" in our lives. You know that feeling when your closet is overflowing and you don't even know what is in there anymore...then you sort through everything, purge some of it, organize the rest of it...and you feel so much better?? That is what we are doing with everything. Purge. Organize. Simplify.

So hang in there as the Storch Family gets creative in ways of saving money. Any advice would be welcome. Maybe I will find a professional plan to follow, but for now we are doing what we think we need to do. It's a challenge, but we have big plans for the future and to dream big you have to work hard and sacrifice. :) Happy saving!