It's so crazy here!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile! I have been so bust. With the accountants coming in for work, my business, 3 kids the list goes on and on!

Well C and I got our taxes done and we are getting back much more than we expected! This is great news seeing we will get our e-fund up to where we want it to be and we will be paying off some debt! And finally replacing our garage door that has needed to be replaced since we moved in (5 years ago).

We are well on our way. C is still job searching and I am hoping he gets SOMETHING in the near future...

Well off to do some things for the accountants... This job never ends :)

Well it is officially been declared. My husband I have decided we need to totally work on paying off our credit cards. I don't mean just paying them down and putting things back on them. I mean paying them off and cutting them up, and forgetting they even existed. We have been trying to do this for about 5 years and have gotten some accomplished, but nothing I am too proud of.

So we decided "snowballing" our debt was the best way for us. I know what you are thinking, "what the hell is snowballing?" Well I will give you a brief description. You pay the minimums on all of your cards except the one with the lowest balance or highest interest rate (which ever you prefer). You apply as much as you can to that credit card to pay it off the fastest. When that one is paid off, you apply the funds that would have gone to the card you just paid off PLUS whatever you can on that card and so on, until they are all paid off.

We are thinking we should have our credit cards and cars paid off in 3 years. I would love to be debt free before I am 30. We are going to stick to this as much as we can. I think we can do it... It is going to take time and discipline, but I think if we see the light at the end of this tunnel, we can do it!!

Here's to being debt free in 2012!

Trying to be money friendly Super Bowl Weekend...

That is right! It's that time of year again, Superbowl weekend. Chris and I love football. I am a HUGE Broncos fan and he likes the Patriots (Ew!). We actually spent our 1st anniversary at a Monday night football game. Broncos vs Partiots in New England. Although my team got SMASHED, it was one of my favorite things my husband and I have ever done.

We have a really awesome friend named Mark. When it is football season or LOST season, he is at our house weekly. He is really a great friend, was a groomsmen in our wedding and just someone you love to be around. Well, we invited him over last week for the Superbowl. Well seeing that we are trying to get money smart, I was just thinking... "We can't go crazy and spend a mess of money on food.. WTF am I going to do?"

So I got to thinking... And came up with a plan.

1. I am going to make wings. They are really in-expensive and I know I can master them.

2. I got 2 cases of Sam Adams for Christmas that is still in the garage! SCORE!

3. We have chips and dips in the closet from our last shopping excursion!

I am thinking maybe I will pick up burgers just so we have something for dinner. So all in all we will not be spending any crazy money, we will still be with our friends, and we can root for the team... GO COLTS!

The dreaded call to Comcast....

So this is what I thought about Comcast. I mean we have had NOTHING but problems with them since we got their service 2 years ago. Well around November - December, we had 11 days where we went without internet and our land line phone. Comcast would not refund us really anything but the $20.00 their commerical tells you you'll get if they are late to a call. Well seeing that our family needs to cut some things from our budget, this was one of the first things we needed to cut.

So I get on the phone with the Comcast rep. She is really nice. I ask her the options for cutting our cable/internet/phone bill. I tell her the only reason we still have a landline is when I was going to cancel it before they gave me a bundle deal of $129.99 for all 3. Well at this point, $129.99 is too much for these things, and honestly my bill was and still is over $150.00. She says the only way she can help me is to cancel the landline. I tell her this is fine and she transfers me to another department that handles that.

So I start talking to a SWEET lady who reminded me of my grandma. I explain a little of our situation with my husband not working and us needing to lower some bills. She takes my info and goes over so much with me.

Well here was the out come. We cancelled the land line, kept the cable the same, kept the internet the same and our bill went from $150.54 to....drumroll..... $92.00! This includes the extra DVR box we have, which we will be returning to save an extra $22.00 a month!

That means after all is said and done our bill will be $70.00. We cut it almost in 1/2!

This saving money thing really does feel good. This is the beginning of us being sooo smart with money!

This is me and my WONDERFUL husband. He really is the most amazing man I have ever met. We started dating in February 2005. We married in October of 2007.

We had the all-american dream. 2 great jobs, 3 kids, a house, cars, the life everyone wants to have! Well we still have this life, except the 2 great jobs. My husband lost his job in May of 2009. It was a huge blow to our finances, as well as our lives in general. Could it have been worse? OMG yeah, but we did what we could to make sure things would stay somewhat normal for the kids.

We were really doing well up till the last 2 months. Reality is setting in and my husband is still not having any luck in his job search. So I am going to start blogging about our progress to get rid of our debt and live a smarter life. Maybe going through this will make us so much more financially aware.

Seeing that I am an accountant, this should be easy... But it is easier with other peoples situations than it is with your own.

So here's to getting back to that perfect life we once loved so much... We will get there, not without some struggle and crying... But we will.

Wish us luck! We're gonna need it!