Like a Gazelle: Family of Five in 1000 sq ft

     We're doing the Dave Ramsey thing to the best of our ability.  Life circumstances make that difficult at times but we're getting our momentum back. I think. We're always looking for ways to improve; ways to save.

     "Date" nights are still watching a favorite movie on Netflix or grabbing a $1.20 Redbox rental (preferably for $0 when we get a free code via text message). We used to play more board games. Sometimes we just chat.

     We do our best to keep other costs down. We keep luxuries like cell phones* and internet but we definitely get our use out of them between communicating with family, friends, and coworkers, couponing, paperless billing, swagbucks*, school, budgeting, and banking*.

     We made the decision to sell our second vehicle almost 3 years ago. It gets iffy sometimes after being so used to having a car to myself all the time but we make it work. Our current van is definitely solidly into clunker territory. We hope that when we do finally add a second vehicle (soon? maybe?!) again that we can pay 100% crispy, cold cash.

     When we did eventually replace our awesome luxuries like the TV, computer, or what have you we waited until what we had was literally not even appealing for parts. Then we find the sales or the unexpected deals. Do you know how much I'd love a new camera to upgrade from my Nikon d40x? A LOT! D you know how I drool when I see the kitchenaid mixers and dyson vacuums? (Hold on a second. I sound like an adult person. When did I start drooling over mixers and vacuums??) All in due time, as they say. Right??

     My husband has worked 2-3 jobs at a time and he's donated plasma. We've sold off a lot of junk and even some well loved items to shrink our debt. We rarely buy games or movies new. If we happen to rent and LOVE something then we typically trade-in some stuff for store credit. We've also done  the same with the kid's clothes and toys. Soon, I'll step into the world of consigning with the Rhea Lana event coming up this spring. We've got the hang of eBay and craiglist now too.

   But, our biggest, craziest leap thus far has been to extend our lease in a <1000 sq ft apartment. Oh, we idealize moving out, having our own yard, owning our own home. No doubt. For now, for just this short time, we can do this though. Five people: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, no walk-in closets. We'll make it work. I'm determined NOT to rent some storage unit for our extras. I'm slowly figuring out how to make the most of our space with its limitations. We'll donate or sell what doesn't fit. When new things come in old things will go out. We could move into a bigger space with a yard and a garage. We have the ability. It's an option. We just aren't taking it.

      I'm starting to think we're insane. Hopefully soon we can be crazy AND debt-free.

  


*Referral links
- Virgin Mobile 
- Swagbucks
- Capital One 360

A Few Things for Your Travels

Here's a bunch more things I found to share! This goes along with the last post about road trips but there's plenty you might want to check out whether you have travel plans or not.

#1

Spotify! (referral link) If you don't all ready use this awesome application you should try it. There is a great selection of music. You can get a free 30 day trial of premium so you can listen to music without ads and offline. Who doesn't love listening to "What Does the Fox Say?" 30 times on a road trip?! (my goobers certainly will)? *

#2

Audible.com The modern version of books on tape. Click the link to make your way to a free download! You just need an amazon account. There's a free 30 day trial and one free book each month. *

#3

Dave Ramsey Audiobooks for $5 or less! 

We <3 Ramsey. His advice has saved our poor, greedy butts lots of times. We hope to be debt free by continuing to follow his methods. There are even some MP3s oriented towards kids like "Battle of the Chores" and "A Special Thank You" recommended for ages 3-10.  These are regularly $10-20.

#4

From iTunes for the Kiddos:

Baby Animals (free)

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (free)

Beefing Up the Budget

     We're in the middle of trying to cut and trim and shape our budget. We want to get the heck out of debt. Amazingly our greatest expenses aside from housing are food, household misc, and gas (ugh it's always freaking gas).

     We have the best phone deal on the planet (IMHO) via Virgin Mobile. I've looked and looked to make sure we're getting the best deal. If anyone knows of anything better please don't let me continue on thinking we're doing well here. No contract, unlimited data, unlimited texting, and the ability to change our plan minutes every month is exactly what we need right now. They have lots of different plans and there's a ton of flexibility so we don't have to worry about crazy fees or unexpected things. Our phones don't suck and if we wanted to pay near full price we COULD get iPhones if we wanted too. (But we don't. I mean, I do . . . but I'm trying to know better.)

      We only pay for the internet plan we "NEED"(that's a first world need in case you were confused). It's enough to run Netflix if we want too and make sure our internet isn't dropping out in the middle of an important online assignment. We're about to cut it down and save $15-20 a month too. We don't have cable TV. We use Netflix and Hulu as we please. We can change our plans or put them on hold anytime. Right now we've got Hulu on hold for the summer since all our beloved shows are over. 

     The hard part is coming up with our monthly "blow money" (as many Dave Ramsey fans call it), our general household budget for food and toiletries, and freakin' gasoline. 

     So for the blow money: my hubby tends to want to cut it all out and do nothing. I gently (haha) remind him that I'm at home ALL the time 24/7 with no car (we only have one vehicle, another post for another day) and if he likes my sane version of me he'll help me find a way to set aside like $20 to go OUT and do something as a family. That money can be used for the extra gas to take a day trip to the state park, to go to the mini golf place down the street one weekend, or to snag a good deal on Living Social for food or an activity. Discussions are still underway. We're pretty good about not spending too much on these outings. We're NOT so great at avoiding fast food. That is something we ARE planning to cut out completely and it will be rolled in with the blow money. Instead of full-priced icecream from coldstone we might go for $1-2 shakes or slushies some night. 

   For the gas: Bane of my existence. Fo'realz. We do have a Sam's Club membership this year. We decided to try it out. So, we get a discount at their gas station. Sadly, that's on the other side of town so it's actually an out-of-the-way drive to get gas from there UNLESS we're on that side of town for one of three things (school, Sam's, or hubby's softball games). I've yet to find a great solution for cutting gas prices all the time. There's no way we're getting some gas station credit card. We have talked about getting hubby a bike since he only works 1 mile down the road but it's not your average road and there are NOT any bike lanes. He also has to drive a couple hours away at least once a month. It's a temporary solution anyway because we have no idea how far we'll be once our lease is up. I do tend to overestimate (both the cost per gallon AND the amount we'll need) what we'll need to avoid surprises.

    Then there's the food: THIS is a major work in progress. I think we do pretty well. We could definitely use Aldi's more often. I could also be more diligent about coupons. I'm working on some recipes that are cheap and healthy. This isn't so easy since by healthy I actually mean HEALTHY and not mac n cheese with REAL cheese or turkey corndogs. Although, I won't deny it if those things end up on our menu. I'll have to get back with what I come up with for this. It's definitely a challenge. 

P.S. I hope everyone has a wonderful memorial day!