Week 5 of 52 - Living Intentionally

I knew this day would come.   My favorite TV channel is fuzzy.

When we decided to go gazelle*on our budget, we asked ourselves, “What could we live without for six months?”   As timing would have it, while we were asking that question, our TV was scrolling a message “this channel will no longer be available after January 11”.  Faced with the decision to upgrade our cable package, we decided to add No Cable to our list of weird things we could do for six months.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say we did keep our $8 Netflix subscription where Sponge Bob can stream into our home on-demand.  I am all for being weird, but I’m not crazy. I have moments when I need to park our 3-year old for a few minutes and catch my breath… or simply go to the bathroom alone.

The budget savings?   Sixty dollars/month between cutting the cable and switching the Internet to DSL. 

Some of my friends and family may wonder about this “eliminate non-mortgage debt” challenge.  Perhaps even some rumblings of what is REALLY going on with us?  Why are we doing this?  

The truth is a bit dull, but we want to live intentionally.  Whether it is our family or our finances – that we become better stewards of all we have been given.  For me, I realized that some days I had spent more time looking for the right purse than I had spent preparing for things that will matter a lifetime.

I also believe our resources are blessings from God.  Most of our world will never have the opportunity to live as we do.  I want to get to the end of my life and see how my time, resources, and abilities were used for a bigger purpose.   

It’s not about Dave Ramsey.  It’s not about a financial crisis.  It’s about being intentional. Purposeful.  Joyful.  It’s about being able to someday look these guys in the eye and know I did right by them. That’s all.

*Proverbs 6:5: Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Week 4 of 52 - Comparing prices

Ok, my odd behavior this week may land me in the People of Wal-Mart line-up but let me try to explain.  While we have an overall monthly budget, I realized I had no idea what we pay for many items we buy.  So I decided to go on a pricing mission.  

W suggested rather than take the time to record prices, I simply take photos instead - brilliant.  Up and down the aisles, my camera snapped at rollback prices while my eyes darted at unsuspecting blue-vested employees.  Fortunately, I completed my mission with some strange looks and questioning glances, but no Wal-Mart interrogation or demands to erase my memory card full of pricing information.  

Engergized, I continued my pricing mission at a local discount club.  One of my objectives was to price diapers, because as any mom knows, each sweet little baby bottom goes through a multitude of diapers each month.  My price comparisons revealed the Amazon Mom Subscribe and Save was a full $10 cheaper per box than the pre-tax discount club price!  Caveat: I’m positively addicted to the baby fresh smell of a particular diaper brand.  Perhaps a generic store brand would yield similar savings, but I admit I'm a sniffer of new diapers.

This week’s photo is S with the diapers he uses in a month.

My February challenge:  lower our grocery bill by 30 percent.   In preparation, my couponing friends took me on a field trip – it was a morning filled with new couponing actions and lingo: BOGOs, stacking, and even a rain check.  When I checked out and was a little too enthusiastic about my sales receipt savings, the cashier peered over her glasses and said, “You new at this?”  Yep, for now at least.

Week 3 Supplement - Learning to D.I.Y.

So in another eye-opening moment, we learned from Russ that our 12-year old car with 180,000 miles wasn’t really THAT old.  He didn’t even take a breath when I told him our 5-year old car has 120,000 miles. He calmly replied that he drives all of his cars to the 300,000 mile mark and it was very unlikely we would have to replace either of these cars, let alone BOTH of these cars in the next two years as we had planned.   

I’m sure I missed the next few comments about avoiding car payments.  Instead, I was thinking about how this put a kink in my “next car” plan!  It no longer mattered whether it would fit comfortably in our one-car garage.  My friends and I could debate something besides paint color – crystal black pearl versus glacier blue would no longer occupy our noon conversation.

Given it wasn’t going anywhere, we decided to fix the radio in the 12-year old car.  Doubtful that Russ intended for his remark to justify a bit of spending.  This time was different though.  Instead of spending hours researching features and deciding whether I also needed speakers and a satellite radio receiver, I sorted by price and chose the cheapest radio that fit.  

When it arrived, W asked when we would take it down to get the radio installed.  I reminded him the custom installation would cost twice as much as the total purchase.  He sighed deeply, procrastinated on the couch (until I found him), and then trudged out to the car as if on a death march.  

In no time at all (he made me say that) and with only two calls to Crutchfield tech support (at my insistence), he installed it with ease.  And we can now hear Dave’s podcasts and stay motivated to drive these cars for a very long time.  Maybe we’ll keep them long enough that we'll even be able to flash cash instead of dig for a pen to sign the finance offer.

Week 3 of 52 - Housebound

It’s been an unusual week, an ice storm kept us at home through Thursday.  These photos were taken while playing outside.

We did have a Craigslist buyer brave the elements to buy a nursing pillow. G didn’t quite grasp the concept and was concerned “the lady took S’s pillow”.  As for me, I love re-selling our unused random items and outgrown baby items for extra cash to save for the boys’ clothing and other random stuff I will later sell on Craiglist (just kidding, working on changing this behavior!).  

In other “weird” news, we’ve officially switched from cable to DSL internet.  This change should save us almost $30 bucks/month.  The jury is still out as to whether this will be a long-term change.  I can tell a difference in how quickly my pages load.  But W says most people don’t surf the web with 12 browser tabs open and he hasn’t noticed a difference, so Bill and Karolyn Slowsky will ramble on!

Week 2 of 52 - One baby step at a time

Week 2 has brought very few photo opportunities. Here’s one of S on his play mat.  Similar to us, he is taking baby steps… rolling over, learning to support the weight of his arms, and trying to crawl.

I had several baby steps this week including a conference call coaching session with Russ Carroll, Dave’s lead financial coach.  The meeting with Russ reminded me of why it’s so important to be better money managers – so we can be even better givers.  He commented we are made in God’s image and God is the ultimate giver, so we too should strive to be givers.

As for the couponing, it’s been a good first start, thanks to the help of my friends!  I have my coupons organized in a hot pink binder and even scored 3 jars of Peter Pan peanut butter for .44 cents each…which may come in handy during this snow storm.  W must be motivated too, he even said he would take the flashy pink binder to the store if needed.

Week 1 of 52 - Couponing!

I'm so not a coupon person.  Well I once was a coupon person and the relationship ended in the middle of an Ingles store.  I was pushing the cart with my hip, shoving a pacifier in the mouth of a crying newborn with one hand, and clutching my accordion-style coupon book in the other hand.  Long about Aisle 5, I tossed the coupon book aside and my left-handed scissors have been gathering dust ever since.

But I have some good friends who are impressive coupon ladies, not TLC Extreme Couponers mind you, but savvy enough that when they told me this week's Sunday paper had 5 coupon inserts, I decided to give it a whirl.

So here is my first shot of the year and hopefully the start of a new less-frustrating coupon adventure.  

As for the photography, it's a very noisy start!  I learned that I must always check my ISO before clicking... I didn't and the ISO was set at 6400!

Meanwhile, if you have any coupon tips that helped you save time and ease frustration, please share!

New Year's Resolutions!

I have 2 resolutions for this year that are relevant to this blog:

1.  Get out of non-mortgage debt with Dave Ramsey's baby steps plan.

2. Take at least 52 photos this year - one per week and blog about it.  

I chose my blog title because Dave Ramsey says Debt is Normal, Be Weird!!
Here are 11 Ways Dave says to be WEIRD in 2011.
So here's to 52 weeks of Weird.  Cheers!