CABLE UPDATE...

So, it's been a week since we purchased the Roku streaming device for our TV.  We are very pleased with the programming offered.  I believe once we become adjusted to it there will be no looking back!

Our only drawback to the switch is that my husband is an Atlanta Braves fan & with the Roku we can access ESPN Go and it does have games on, but NOT EVERY GAME!  So we are trying to see if he can live a season without watching EVERY GAME...
This is not much of an issue, for me anyway.  :)

Looking forward to saving money!!!

Moving for Freedom...

So earlier this week we went to look at a house to rent.  We are currently in a large house that we are paying a large price for!  As we are trying to cut monthly expenses, this is an area that we can sacrifice for the greater good of becoming DEBT FREE!

So, I think we are going to make the move within the next month.  It will save us $200 monthly!  And luckily the man we rent from now is allowing us to leave a month early from our lease.  Just shows God working all the details out for our future and what he wants for us!

$Cutting Cost$

So today we have been discussing & researching how to cut costs of our monthly expenses.
Of course cell phone bills, cable, internet, etc. are the main areas we are looking at to try to trim down the budget.
We do use the internet A LOT for multiple different things. But the majority of our TV we watch is DVR'd...
So with my (BRILLIANT) thinking, I have researched the idea of streaming TV from the internet. I feel like we could save around $100 a month just with this change. And possibly get thousands of new viewing content.
In all the places I've looked I keep coming across the "Roku" device. This offers internet capability to ANY type TV. Even an old console model that I had when I was a kid! LOL! They have several options available depending on what type TV (age, HD, smartness, etc) you may have, that will allow you to stream 1700+ channels & movies. It also gives you the capability to access other streaming services like Netfilx, Hulu, & Amazon, to name a few, that will have additional content for under $10 monthly. I think that it is worth a shot when we are trying to sacrifice to pay off debt & maybe it wont be that much of a lifestyle change.
We will see what the verdict is!

Change is Coming!

As we start this journey and implement these drastic changes in our thinking, we are trying to teach our kids along the way.
This has been a rude awakening for them. As they are used to begging for things at every store that we visit!
Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom...
Can I Get? Can I Have? Can I Go? Can You Buy?...(you get the picture!)
Our first adventure to Walmart was fun when our oldest was asking for the usual STUFF...nothing in particular just begging for anything and everything...My husband and I gently reminded him that if he didn't have the money in his pocket to buy what he wanted that he would just have to wait until he saved up enough. Obviously this went in one ear and out the other! BOYS!
Because when we walked to the other side of the store there was something else he had picked up & started begging AGAIN!
We, again, reminded him that we would NOT be buying anymore junk. And we are being intentional with our spending and it was not in our budget to frivolously buy (whatever he was wanting).
By the end of our shopping trip I think he was getting the idea that he wasn't going to get anything other than the necessities we had come for.

He decided on the way home that he was going to start saving up his money to buy himself a desk for his room.
BREAKTHROUGH!!
Ash & I encouraged him & told him that he could do some chores around the house to help raise the money he would need for his purchase. More on the kids progress later!!

Proverbs 22:7

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender"
(Proverbs 22:7)

Debt is a curse! There is not one single verse in the Bible that says debt is good...As a Christian this makes it seem stupid to have debt if the Bible says it's not good...
My husband & I are smart, educated people who just got caught up in the "American Dream", which includes the price you have to pay for it.

Budgeting...What's That?

So, for our first task as "Mature Adults" we (I) planned our first EVER budget. Not that this was an EXACT look at our financial comings and goings, but it was a STEP!
First step to admitting your debt is by writing it all down in one place!!  OMG!
Not that we have a LOT of debt compared to others but for us it is a big number...Especially on one income, MINE!

So, using all the nifty tools that I got from PINTEREST and Dave Ramsey I made our First EVER Adult Budget!
All our monthly bills & debt compared to our income down to a ZERO...Every Dollar has a name and place to go, if it doesn't then it will disappear!

Obviously Ash & I have been magicians for 15 years!  Because we can't tell you where any of our money has gone!

(I use everydollar.com for our monthly budget!  It's FREE!)

Our Decision

About a month ago our cable & internet had been cutoff for non-payment.  At the time my husband was working out of town and I didn't really care if the kids and I had TV or not!

The kids needed to help around the house more than they were doing and keep up with their school work better than they do with the distractions for TV & WiFi.  That is when I went to the garage and dug around in
a box of old books to find something to read in my free time since I couldn't surf the net or watch something that I had DVR'd...

That's when I came across a book that we have had for about 10 years...Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover"

I started to read it...like I had started to read it so many years ago...but the difference this time was I was MOTIVATED!

As I read through the book I thought more & more about how our family could REALLY DO THIS TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER THING!  Just had to get my husband on board!

The very next week my husband came home and told me that he didn't know how to tell me this...but he had lost his job.
God had prepared me for this!  He set everything up for me to be on track for BIG CHANGES in our lives.

I finished reading the book and gave it to my husband to read.  I went online to daveramsey.com to find tools to help us on this Journey to Financial Freedom!