Saturday, January 12, 2008

I Can't Believe It!

So of course after such a low yesterday (and you don't know the half of it), I have hope. It seems when I am at my lowest, God lifts me high - high enough to see over the mountain and hope is restored. Today I will talk about just the financial part.

As I mentioned before, we have been watching Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. We have a plan now for our finances!

We will have the VISA paid off by Feb 16!!

We are also saving for the annual family reunion and will be able to pay cash for that! (Thankfully we have been given free room!!) We have not been since two years before I got preggers with AA (who is about to turn 8). And with this past year and all that happened with JJ, this is really important and has become a priority. Dave may disagree, but life happens and we will go and start saving and blow it on gas to get to see family. :)

We still have a second mortgage to pay off and will still be able to pay min payments and right now we are waiting to see how three months go before we start to plan to pay of that. But just running some numbers we know that God willing it will be paid off by the end of the year!!!

So by the end of the year we will have finished baby steps 1 and 2!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Also, I am so proud of my beloved. He had the courage to do what I would never have. Some how he had the receipt for over $30 worth of stuff at a local store. I won't mention the name, but it was a craft store and it is nationwide. He took some items back to return that he had bought over 2 1/2 years ago! The store policy is store credit if returned after 60 days and with receipt. They were SO MAD at my husband and yelled at him and huffed and puffed at him. But my beloved stayed calm.

Now you have to understand, my beloved kept the stuff in pristine condition. If you had brought something off the shelf, you would not have been able to tell which was which. And not only that, but my husband was HONEST! He had and showed the receipt. If he had not had the receipt, the store would have had to give him more money (which the store manager made sure "not to give him a penny more") and would never have known. But my beloved was a man of integrity and yelled at for it!

Then it was on to Walmart to return $40 worth of stuff. No problem there.

Then onto Target to return most of the stuff my husband had bought on after Christmas sales. People KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS! Even though he had bought it for 50% off and they were now at least 75-90% off, hubby got every penny back. Over $50 back on the credit card!!!

So where a typical day in the past would have had us spending over $100 on STUFF (food included), we actually "earned" $100!!! Some was on VISA (less to pay off) and some on gift cards (to be used to buy food and craft items to make things to sell to make money). :) WOOHOO!! Financial Peace, God willing, here we come!!!

3 comments:

Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads said...

That's so exciting! Congrats!!

Anonymous said...

Can you refinance for a cheaper interest rate? We put our 2nd mortgage into one 25yr. loan at 5.75%. The interest rates are going down. We would have been foolish not to.

Paula said...

Our rate for the second mortgage is already REALLY low (just above 5%). I do not think that it can get lower. :D At the time we got the loan we told them what we wanted and that we wanted the best rate possible. And that if they could not give it to us, we were sure we could find someone who would. :) Banks want your business. :) You can always get a lower rate. Even if it is only a tenth of a percent that can save you LOTS of money in the long run!! :)