I can hardly believe that it has already been one year since a traipsed around store after store with my mother-in-law on black friday.  Of course this year will be no different (sans mil).  Even though I vow every year I will never do it again, there is some sort of magnetic force that draws me back.  I just cannot stay away from Black Friday.

This year I’m getting an even earlier start.  I found this awesome website http://www.blackfriday.info/ that lets you browse the Black Friday ads and even make lists for the things you want to buy.  Then it organizes your list by store and has the stores hours listed right there so you can plan your morning accordingly.  Although, this year some stores are opening at midnight and others at 3, 4, and 5 a.m. so I’ll be lucky if I get any sleep at all.  Oh well, sleep is for losers right?

Who’s with me?  You better get started.

*photo credit: www.nataliedee.com

Well we are dealing with a small setback this month.  I was tempted to start this post talking about how we have failed this month but I couldn’t let myself admit defeat.  The reason is if I do that then I will just give up all together.  No, we are not defeated we are just having a small setback and we need to dust ourselves off and start right back up again.

What happened is I went back to school along with the fact that there is some pretty heavy stuff going on in my family right now and it’s taking some time to adjust.  I just haven’t been able to get it together enough to do my regular grocery shopping, so our fridge looks like a bunch of bachelors live here.  We’ve been eating out like crazy.  I swore I was gonna go grocery shopping today but that didn’t work out either so I’m gonna try again and go tomorrow.  Starting with getting a good nights sleep tonight so I can wake up early, take a shower and get my butt out of the house.

The school schedule has been rough because I go Monday and Tuesday night, and then my husband goes Wednesday night.  So it’s definitely taking some getting used to as far as cooking dinner and that sort of thing.  Going to school after you have kids is a whole new experience.  It’s  certainly interesting trying to do homework when a two year old is demanding your constant attention.

So, yes, we have spent extra money on eating out this month and there was the little incident yesterday where my car was towed and I had to pay $135 to get it out.  Yep, we all live and learn right? 

However, even though we didn’t follow our budget exactly we have still kept up with all our other budget cuts and we have not bought anything on credit.  That is major.  I am disappointed that we were not able to pay as much as we wanted towards are debt this month but I am so proud that we have gone the entire 6 months without charging anything to a credit card.  That alone is amazing and we plan to keep it that way.

We have been on our debt diet for almost 5 months now.  I really can’t believe we’ve made it this far.  It’s been a very difficult road and I’m a little embarrassed even to admit how difficult.  I thought it would be hard at first but then would get easier as we got used to it…but no.  It is really a daily struggle not to spend money.  Everyday I wake up in the morning I have to fight the urge to go shopping or take Eva to lunch, or something else that would require money.  Money is a lot like food.  You can be addicted to spending it, and you can fight that addiction but you can never cut it out of your life completely because you need it to live.  Unless your like this guy then that’s a whole different story.

These past 5 months I’ve learned a lot of things about myself and about money in general but I’ve really been thinking a lot lately about the 3 different reasons for spending money.

1. Needs – things like food, shelter, electricity, fuel.  There are really very few things that we actually need.

2. Wants – clothes, furniture, pedicures, getting my hair done.  Every time I want to buy something I ask myself “Is this a want or a need?”  It is always a want.  After the weekly trip to the grocery store, I have everything I need.  The hardest things not to buy are clothes for me, clothes for Eva, toys and books for Eva, and books for me.  However I REALLY struggle with the whole want vs. need thing when it comes to things like new furniture for Eva’s room.  I HATE the furniture in her room which we bought from craigslist when she was a baby to save money so that we could buy her something nice when she got older.  Well now she is older and I am so ready to get her the something nice.  We went to Ikea the other day to scope out some things, that was a BIG MISTAKE.  We found a daybed there with two overhead cabinets that would go PERFECT in her playroom.  Now it is taking everything in me not to just hop in the car and go get it, and it’s not even for her bedroom!  I have gotten my hair done once since we started this and I had to sell our fire pit to do it.  It’s been 8 weeks since then and just starting to get to the point where it needs to be done again.  I’ll probably wait another month or two and then see what else I can sell around the house.

3. Convenience – This sort of fits in with both of the two previous categories.  There are many things of convenience that we could argue are a need but really would just make our life easier.  Such as going to the car wash, or eating out.  It is a huge challenge everyday to wake up and try to figure out what I’m going to do with Eva that day to keep her entertained.  Since she doesn’t have anyone to play with (besides me) I always feel like I need to take her somewhere fun at least a few times a week.  Also, I’m the kind of person that needs to get out of the house or I’ll go crazy.  It would make my life so much easier if I could just take her out to lunch a couple of times a week or to the children’s museum or someplace like that.  But those things all cost money.  We are both dreadfully sick of the free places we’ve been going all summer like the library and the community pool.

Why am I putting myself through such torture you might ask?  The progress we’ve made does make it all worth it.  So far we’ve paid $12,344 towards our credit cards ($6,000 of that was from our tax return) and we still owe $9,600.  I write down those numbers not for you but for me.  So I can see how ridiculously in credit card debt we let ourselves become.  Imagine what we could be doing with this money right now if we weren’t paying off our stupid cards with it!?  To help us get it paid off a little sooner Chris took out $1000 from a 401k he had at a previous job.  That will make it so we will have one more card paid off by November, then we can just focus on Christmas, and start up again on the last two cards totaling $4,600 after the holidays.  When I think about all of the sacrifices we are having to make just to pay off all these cards it makes me sick.

Can you believe how optimistic I was when this first started?

http://www.modernmommyblog.com/index.php/2009/03/25/my-debt-diet/

I don’t know where I was getting my math from in our 1 month post.??

http://www.modernmommyblog.com/index.php/2009/04/27/we-made-it-1-month/

What would a Modern Mommy do without a Modern Daddy?  I know I could not live without Eva’s Daddy aka my husband Chris.

• He set up this sight for me and maintains it.
• He comes home every night from a long day of work and for the most part takes care of Eva the whole night.  Usually even giving her a bath and getting her ready for bed.
• On top of that he cleans up after dinner every night.
• I’ve never had to touch a lawn mower or weed whacker in my life because he does all of it.
• He humors me as a I order him around outside telling him what shrub to cut and what not to cut while a lay back on a chair and get some sun .
• He takes Eva somewhere when I need a break.
• He loves our daughter and would do anything for her.
• He loves me and would do anything for me.
• He has an incredible sense of duty for his family and is a great provider.
• There are many more reasons why I love this man and could not live without him but I can’t list them all here.

We love you honey, happy early Father’s Day!

Did you hear that at Old Navy this Saturday you can get tank tops for $2 a piece?!

Hope you are having a Fantastical Friday as well! Remember to tell the Dad in your life how much you appreciate him!

Last Thursday was the official 1 month milestone of our debt diet.  We are doing great so far.  In fact I give us an A++.

We got our tax return and were able to put the entire $6000 towards paying off one of our cards.  Which then enabled us to transfer $7500 of a high interest card to the other card we just paid off for 0% interest for six months.  Then with all of the money we saved in April we were able to pay another $1500 towards that high interest card to pay it off completely.  You have no idea how much weight this takes off my shoulders.  We are making half mile strides in being credit card debt free instead of just teeny tiny steps paying a little bit each month and feeling like it will never end.

I am really proud that we have been able to follow through with this.  Each day is a struggle and each day is a triumph.  There have been many many times where it would have been easier to go out to dinner or when we just felt like taking Eva somewhere for the day that would have ended up costing us $100 after everything.  Instead we have to get creative and learn how to keep ourselves occupied without spending money and without feeling like we are depriving our child during her most formidable years.

Not having cable was a huge adjustment.  I swear Chris went through withdrawals that first day.  I couldn’t get him to leave the TV alone, he kept adjusting the antenna trying to get more channels.  I’m sure it didn’t help that it was the same day he quit smoking.  Yep, you heard right.  My 34 year old husband who has been smoking since he was in the womb has not had a cigarette for 16 days!  I am more proud of him than if he had become an astronaut and flew to the moon.

What keeps me going is knowing that this August we will have paid off two of our biggest cards and that in November we will have a third one paid off.  That will leave us with one final card with a balance of $2000 that we will have paid off in February.  We are taking a break from our debt diet for December and part of January as a reward for all the money we have been saving by doing without.  This Christmas is gonna be like Biggest Loser contestant big!

After the new year  it is back to business.  Once we get that last card paid off in February we are on to our next goal of building our savings up to 8 months worth of pay.  This debt diet has really opened up our eyes to just how much money we are wasting on things that we don’t need and how much we really can do without.

To read about how this all started click here:

http://www.modernmommyblog.com/index.php/2009/03/25/my-debt-diet/

and here:

http://www.modernmommyblog.com/index.php/2009/03/26/entertainment-on-a-tight-budget/

*photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chmurka/3053828420/