Living Debt Free Pt. 1

So I have never really understood how different my family is. We became debt free from everything in 2006, so I've just gotten used to the idea. That doesn't mean free from bills, just we don't owe anyone anything. So it gave me the idea that I could write about it and maybe somebody could find inspiration, tips, or something from my story. So I'm going to start at the only logical place and that is at the beginning.

My debt story starts where it starts for a lot of people. COLLEGE! I started college in the fall of 1993 having no idea how to pay for it. I had won a small $1000 scholarship but that wouldn't come close to covering the cost of a 4 year university. A friend I worked with told me about this payment plan option through a 3rd party company. It was awesome. I made monthly payments so I didn't have to take out a loan. Not sure why I was so averse to taking out a student loan, but I'm glad I was! It was interest free as long as I paid on time. Which I did. I lived at home and I worked 20 hours a week. So I thought I was doing okay.

One day I found an ad on a bulletin board for a student credit card from Citi Bank. The ad was pretty compelling and let's face it, I really wanted a credit card. It talked about building up your credit score etc. I was sold. I filled out the application and was soon sent my very own card. I was responsible with it at first, but it quickly turns into a slippery slope. This was the start, the moment, of my debt filled life.

During my Senior Year of college I got a job that increased my pay by quite a bit. I convinced myself that I now made enough to get a brand new car. Not just a new to me car, but a BRAND NEW car. I wanted a black Cavalier. It was a stick shift, cd player, CUP HOLDERS. I had an escort. It had a million miles on it. It had served me well, but I was ready for an upgrade... and a sporty one at that. So the payments were right at my limit of what I could afford, but I went ahead with it. I had the payments conveniently worked out so they automatically came out of my checking account. I was still living at home, so things were still going okay.

Now my dad had convinced me to join a couple of network marketing companies. The first one was a huge failure, and also a huge lesson moneywise. So I was super reluctant to join the second one. I finally did and it was great! I loved the products and I even managed to make a little bit of money with it. I then graduated from college and joined the salaried work force as an entry level programmer. So I was making pretty okay money.

Shortly after graduation, I moved out. My dad found a place for me that was pretty cheap and I was ready to move out on my own. It was after I moved out of that cheap rent place to an apartment that was quite a bit more per month that things really started to spiral out of control. I got a couple of store credit cards and somewhere along the line I decided it would be great to get another regular credit card. I also got a loan to pay for new furniture and to pay off some of my already accumulated debt. I had convinced myself that I deserved all those things. Anything less would mean that I was poor and I can't have anyone thinking that about me.

So things began to get worse and worse. The credit card balances weren't moving even though I was paying more than minimums. There were a couple of months I had to use credit cards to pay for groceries. I was still spending like crazy and not even on hugely expensive items. I didn't even own a computer at that time. I didn't understand how families could survive on less of a yearly salary than I was making. A single person! I just had a hard time saying no. Credit cards were easy money. I went to a few conventions for the network marketing company I was involved with and other trainings. I over-bought products, clothes, etc. I was getting into a bad spot. I even opened up a third credit card account.

THEN, hubby and I decided to get married. He had no idea about how much debt I had. He only had his mortgage. No credit cards and no other loans. Opposites attract! lol

Next up I'll start to cover our plan of attack becoming debt free.

In the land of the living

Now that I'm officially fever free for 22 hours... only 2 hours shy of 24, I think I can return to the land of the living. I am still weak and tired and not really sure I want to return yet. At least not until I've had my nap. But duty calls. The cupboards are bare and well the natives need something to eat before they turn on me. What better time to gather up food than when they are at school. I get to give other moms "that look" as they shop with baby or toddler in tow. Little do they know it's really a look of sympathy and not a look of "OMG control that little heathen".

I've kept up on most household chores while sick. But mostly just the putting things away jobs. Which I can safely supervise from the couch while snuggled up in a blanket. Major cleaning needs to commence soon so we don't end up with another "man down". As long as hubby doesn't get sick we'll be alright. Seems that men just don't handle being sick.

Maybe now that my brain is slowly starting to function beyond sleep mode, I will have more in depth topics to talk about.

No sick days for mom

I haven't been seriously ill in years. The last time I had the flu I was 18 and once I got over it, I was then sick for two straight months with doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Finally after many tests, they came up with a diagnosis of Crohns disease. The very next day I landed myself in the hospital for two weeks on a liquid diet, 20 pounds lighter, had a feeding tube inserted into my chest, and missed my high school graduation. Talk about a bummer. But that was all before kids and I still had my mom to take care of me. That's another story for another time.

Flash Forward too many years than I care to count. Time for the flu round 2. At least according to my symptoms it is allegedly the flu. It hits me hard on Friday afternoon. Body aches all over the place, fever, coughing, fatigue. You name it. I can still function, but anything beyond turning the channel on the TV is a bit much. Let alone trying to figure out what to feed two kids who aren't old enough to make their own dinner. And since we now have an operational wood stove I have to keep stoking the fire and adding wood. Since I'm freezing my butt off with chills I get the temp. up to 75 degrees. Oh and did I mention I had to bring more wood inside at least twice......

Saturday roles around and hubby takes B to his cub scout hike. They are gone all morning, leaving me alone with Grainerd. Taking care of one child with a very active imagination is pretty easy. She just plays with baby dolls while mommy sleeps... or tries to. B's cub scout shirt was dirty so I had to do the kids' laundry. The floor needed to be swept, dishwasher emptied, things put away... and you guessed it, more wood brought in. If I don't do it then who will? and to what standards? Oh, and did I mention that hubby just had to go out and hunt later in the afternoon? leaving me with two kids to take care of and feed dinner to. He's great about taking over when I'm sick, but give me a break. We won't starve if you don't get that elusive deer.

Sunday comes around and I get out of bed feeling great! That feeling is fleeting and within an hour or two of waking I'm feverish again and all I want to do is sleep. At least the body aches have gone away. Since I didn't get to hubby's laundry on Friday or Saturday, I feel I must get his done so he has clean underwear.

Monday shows it's darling face. Hubby is working on a special project at work so he is working 1st shift. Which means that mom has to get B and Grainerd ready for school. Getting B on the bus is no big deal. But Grainerd I have to drive to school. Which also means I need to at least look presentable. We get on the road and I'm sure that I'm not fit to drive but we are already at least halfway there, so I press on. I sleep while she's at school until it's time to pick her up. Maybe I'm a bad mom because I took her to school when I was sick. But she wasn't so why should she suffer. I take the easy way out for lunch and run through the BK drive thru. At least she wanted apples instead of french fries. Still had to make dinner for the family since hubby who normally does the cooking doesn't get home until 4:30 and we are having chili.

So here we are at Tuesday. I'm still tired but at least there is no fever... yet. And we aren't talking a high fever either. Only like 99.5 but it knocks me out for the count. I'm left wondering how kids can still act "normal" when their fever is 101 and sometimes higher? My kids seem to do okay until it hits 102.

I've also been trying to quarantine myself this whole time hoping that nobody else in my family gets sick. Time will tell if that works. So far so good. At least this time around with the flu things seem to be pretty mild.

School Project

B came home last week with a "family" assignment. As a "family" we were suppose to use materials found around the house to make a turkey. Now I absolutely HATE doing these projects. My son has never liked doing them either. So I was dreading this project. I hate craft projects and try to keep that kind of stuff to a minimum. Not sure why, I think it's the mess that it makes and the magical clean up fairies never show up.

After a week of avoiding the project, I decided that what I needed was a plan. B wasn't super keen on using one of our small pumpkins, or a potato. Things that were suggested in the note sent home. So a quick search on my favorite tool... the internet... we found a couple of projects that we could really get behind.

B settled on a turkey napkin holder. Basically, a strip of construction paper with a head, wings and feet cut out. We folded another piece of paper accordion style for the tail feathers. He added a beak, some googly eyes and some poms. He's very proud of his turkey and thinks it's cute. His words. lol

So I'm pretty proud of myself and of B since he took an interest and did most of the project himself with only little help from me. Well, we had his parent teacher conference last night. BTW, he got rave reviews from the teacher. As we are sitting there listening to all of his 1st grade accomplishments, I notice that some kids have already turned in their turkeys. It's OBVIOUS that the parents of some of the kids DID the project themselves with little help from their child. It's FIRST grade not some commissioned piece of art that will be hanging in some gallery in New York and needs to be super elaborate.

Why do parents feel they need to get so super involved in a craft project? They don't get the grade anymore. They already had their turn in the sun. Let you child take the lead and do the bulk of the project. I know it said FAMILY on it, but I believe that your child was suppose to take the lead and do the bulk of the work with little guidance from mom and dad. I'm all for helping B with his homework, but as a parent I also need to take a step back and let him pass or fail on HIS efforts. If he has to suffer the consequences of a frown face then so be it. Maybe he'll work harder next time for that smiley face and learn to put his best efforts into his work.

Since he's only in 1st grade, I'm thinking I've got a long hard road of projects ahead...

Am I an addict?

So I think I may have issues. I'm not an addict in the traditional sense like smoking, drinking, illegal drugs, etc. I don't even know if there IS a 12 step program to help me. But are you even considered an addict if you don't want to stop?

So what is this addiction that I speak of. Well, let me tell you what happened today. I'm at the grocery store and enjoying the time to myself. I use to hate getting groceries, but when I can go by myself it's heavenly. I am going through the self checkout, click on finish and pay and swear under my breath. I FORGOT to scan a fountain drink cup. UGH! So instead of just shrugging it off and moving on, I purchase the cup all so I can get a little bit of the brown fizzy stuff.... COKE! A habit that I really need to give up but am not all too excited about. The addiction was only made worse by a certain fast food restaurant chain that had game pieces included on their medium sized drinks. So every time I drove past said chain I would have to pull in to get one via drive thru. I was making up excuses to go places that just happened to be near one. My oh my am I ever hooked. Why is it so easy to feed into my $1.47 habit.

Oh and that's a whole other rant. Does it really cost $1.47????? I mean just two weeks ago it was $1.37 and over the summer it was only a buck. What is up with that?!! I guess at least it's cheaper than souped up coffees.

I do have other addictions but I am so in denial. Like the facebook one. I avoided it for months, finally stepped a toe into the waters of facebook and within a month I'm hooked! Heaven forbid if they have issues or I call down the powers that be to curse them in one breath and take it back in the next... just in case "they" can hear me and decide to mess with my profile some more. What's a girl to do? At least on facebook I'm interacting with people instead of the TV. That's what I tell myself anyway.

I think I'll keep the rest of my addictions to myself... for now. Until it's time they rear their ugly heads. Why can't I be addicted to healthy things like running, exercise, or even just fruit. lol Maybe I'll try turning over a new leaf and find some new and improved addictions, but then again.... coke just tastes so good.

What is this blogging thing??

There are so many people who are blogging these days. A good friend of mine just started a blog. So I thought I would give it a shot. I have not a clue what I'm doing, but I love to rant and rave about things that bother me. I'm tired of only talking out loud to myself. LOL. Maybe if I put my rants online I'll have an audience.

So a little bit about me.....

I have two kids. My son B is 7 and my daughter Grainerd is 4. So lots to talk about there. Lots of comedy and drama and new parenting issues that I have NOT a clue on how to deal with. Where is that manual? I must have misplaced it at the hospital before I brought them home. Even if they did have one, I'm not sure it would be in a language I understand. Not sure how I am old enough or grown up enough to have a 7 year old. Where did the time go?

I've been happily married for almost 10 years now. He is my rock. It's been a wild ride and I wouldn't change any of it. It's all helped to shape me into the... dare I say it... woman I am today.

Not sure how much I'll be posting. We'll see where this takes me. Between being wife, mom, business owner, chef, chauffeur, judge, jury, executioner, pardoner, friend, sister, daughter, aunt, decision maker, accountant, facebook addict etc. we'll see how much time I have to post. I'm sure I'll have a rant very soon. Us redheads usually do! lol