I started January with the goal to pay off two medical bills totaling $511.  I only was able to pay off the smaller bill which was $214.  I paid $28 towards the second medical bill.  Since then I have paid another $60 towards that debt, leaving $209 and some change.
I did win a contest at work that was held in December.  The $500 payout came at the end of January.  I could have put all of that money towards the second medical debt and perhaps I should have.  But instead I bought $200 worth of groceries completely wiping out our shopping list.  I about died in the check out line when the checker totaled the bill.  Without the coupons I used the bill would have been A LOT more.   I paid a couple of other monthly bills with that money and then it was gone.  (I may or may not have bought some yarn with that money...).

I have been arguing with the hospital over the second bill to no avail.  The bill is for an emergency room visit from when Miss C fell off of her bike.  The insurance is in Bryan's name and he is the one who took her to the emergency room.  I wasn't even in the state yet I am the responsible party.  I just like to argue with them, it makes no matter, we are still her parents and we'll pay it together.  I was just irritated that the bill came to me.  

Anyhoo, I was on vacation in January so my two February checks were small.  I can't even begin to explain our pay system from where I work (it would take several blog posts for that!).  Basically we get paid a month behind.  The first check is per diem from the previous month and the second check is overtime and bonus money.  So by working fewer hours in January, I got a much smaller paycheck in February because there wasn't as much of the extras.

I didn't drive as much for Uber and Lyft because my car tags expired at the end of January and I was waiting for them to come in the mail.  I don't drive all that often because of my work schedule and being home with Miss C.  However, that extra income is pretty nice.  I've paid some towards other bills and paid for my new car tags.  My plan is to drive quite a bit in March and knock out the medical bill by the end of March.  I've got my pepper spray within easy reach in my car and I've actually not felt like anyone so far was too scary to drive.

Thanks for helping me stay accountable.

So.  Our 31 days of spending zero wasn't exactly an epic fail, but we didn't save any extra money.  One thing I learned is to be more intentional with my money.  Like a lot of American's we live paycheck to paycheck.  I pay bills and necessities first and then save a little bit of money for gas and food for the next two weeks.

I had to ask myself several times while shopping if I really "needed" an item.  More often than not it was no.  I did need new tires and an alignment during October so we bought those.  The yarn I bought at Goodwill last week, not so much.  The money for my Rhinebeck trip was set aside in April and I actually came home with money!

I am thinking of driving for both Uber and Lyft in my off time.  Yes I probably make more money at my real job, but it also takes time away from my family.  And I do have to drive 30 minutes each way to work.   So if I work at extra 4 hours, it will take 6-7 hours out of my day.  So my thought is to drive during the day when C is in school to make a little extra cash to pay bills.  That way I don't have to decide which bill is more important to pay.

I didn't finish all of the daily assignments.  Some of them were organization and cleaning days and I can do that on my own.  I did clean out my closet and C's closet and dropped off a ton of stuff to Goodwill and the consignment store.

I also have done a much better job of meal planning and making meals with what we have on hand.  I organized and cleaned out the pantry.  It's much easier to meal plan with an idea of what there is to work with.  Who knew?! I'm still looking for great crockpot meals or casserole/hot dish type of dinners that I can pull out of the freezer and bake.

I would totally do a spending freeze again.  Would I do 31 days or just two weeks?  Not sure, but it was a good jumpstart to doing a budget.  (I know, I'm starting to sound like a broken record on doing a budget, but I swear we will start one day).

Week one of the 31 days of living well and spending zero challenge is in the books.  How'd we do?  I thought we did really well until I got home from work yesterday.  I didn't think it was too difficult this week to not spend any money.  But I worked seven out of the last eight days.

Like most people we live paycheck to paycheck so when payday rolls around we usually have most of the check already accounted for.  This week was no exception.  I got paid on Monday and paid the bills that were due from the 1st-15th.  I shopped at Target and Costco and bought ONLY the items that were on my list!!!  That was a major score for me.  Have you ever gone to Target and only bought list items?  It's difficult.

One of the challenges this week was a pantry clean out.  I dug through the pantry and freezer and made lists of what we had on hand and will try to meal plans around that.  I also went to the grocery store for perishables.  My grocery budget this week was $30.  I spent $33 and was impressed that I got everything I needed!

I got home from work yesterday to find that my husband had purchased a new bicycle.  Ugh.  So I'm a little bit frustrated.  Apparently he is not on board with the challenge.  We've also paid for a new tires and a hefty car repair bill.

I put money aside back in April for my Rhinebeck trip with the Dragons (Bryan calls our crafting group that because as he says we sit around and "spew fire").  My challenge for that will be to stick to the budget I set up!

I'm excited to see what week 2 has in store!

We had just save our $1000 baby emergency fund when Murphy showed up.  (which I'm learning is always the case).  My car needed a $600 repair.  Which we didn't stress over since we had cash to fix it.  But then I screwed up.  I had a rather large medical bill coming due (from my shoulder surgery last summer) but it came sooner than I realized so there went the other $400.  Now I need new tires, new brakes and the timing belt on my car is coming due.  Hello overtime!

While I was feeling incredibly stressed out over the amount of money I was going to need in a short amount of time, I decided that I needed a refresher course of Financial Peace University.  On the Dave Ramsey website I found a church right down the street with a class starting the next week.  I emailed the facilitator and she signed me up.  The beauty of FPU is that once you've paid for the kit, you can attend class again and again.  There is an option to buy an updated kit for a fraction of the price and this includes a log in for the website.  I used my kit and I don't need the website since I have a log in at www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com.

While it is hard for me to work as many hours as I used to and still see my husband and not have my parents watch C more than retired grandparents should (without feeling they are raising her), I am feeling a little less stressed.  The reason... I signed up to be an ambassador for Plexus Worldwide.  What?  Never heard of Plexus?  Neither had I.  But I had seen posts on friends Facebook pages about this pink drink they were drinking.  And they were losing weight and they felt great.  I watched for a while then finally bit the bullet and inquired what it was all about.

Plexus Slim is a powdered drink that is mixed in water.  It was originally developed for Type 2 diabetics as a way to help control blood glucose and lipid levels.  But it had an unexpected side effect in that it also helped them lose weight!  It is gluten free, vegan and vegetarian.  It is all natural and it tastes good!  Other benefits of Slim are better sleep and more energy.

I had decided to try Slim because I had been feeling run down.  I was at the doctor in July for a diabetes exam.  I thought I was feeling run down because my thyroid medication was off.  I was a little disappointed when she told me that it was fine.  I just couldn't figure out why I wanted a nap every day by 10AM.  That's when I decided that I should follow up on all of the FB posts I had been reading.  I ordered a 3 day trial pack.  And while I didn't feel any better after three days I didn't hate the way the drink tastes so I ordered a months supply.  Within a week it was a night and day difference in the way I felt.  I actually slept all night (with the exception of the nightly trip to the restroom) and didn't have any trouble falling asleep if I did wake up.  I have more energy every day.  I didn't try it to lose weight, that was never my intention, but it has helped maintain where I am at weight wise without longer & harder workouts, which I don't have time for.   It has also helped me reduce food (sugar) craving, which as a diabetic I shouldn't eat that much sugar!

There are a whole combination of products that Plexus sells.  There is a weight loss line, a detox line and a pain relief line.  For more information please see my website.* www.plexusslim.com/jenfeymiller

I go back to the doctor mid November.  I am anxious to find out what my blood sugar numbers are as well as what my cholesterol is.

*Disclaimer- I am a Independent Ambassador for Plexus.  I get paid a commission each month from Plexus Worldwide.  While I do get paid, I am not pushing Plexus...my intention is to inform the benefits of Plexus.  And what better way than my own testimony.  

In keeping with our "budget" (and I use that term loosely because we have yet to sit down to do a family budget.  Rather, I do my own individual budget) according to Dave Ramsey I use cash at the grocery store.  By using cash I am not tempted to make impulse purchases.  

I'm sure everyone has heard of "extreme couponing."  I watching an extreme couponing marathon on TV one night in a random hotel room.  It was like a train wreck that I couldn't avert my eyes from.  I don't really get that behavior.  To me it borders on an obsessive compulsive disorder.  I mean, really, how many tubes of toothpaste does one person need?  The best episode I watched that night was of a pastor buying item for his churches food bank.  He bought some ridiculous amount of stuff to the tune of about $2000 and paid basically nothing for it- I don't remember the actual amounts.  It was amazing, but he donated all of it and didn't stock it in his garage.

Anyhoo, I like to use coupons but I find that most coupons are for food that I would never in a gazillion years buy let alone consume.  I've started using the Kroger app on my phone.  I can download digital coupons right to the loyalty card on my phone so there is no forgetting the paper versions on the kitchen counter...yep did that last week.

My budget for food last week was $65.00, it doesn't seem like a lot, but it's summer and we've got a garden full of goodness.  Armed with my shopping list (including a printed coupon list) and my calculator I set off to the market by myself (that is huge because when I shop with a certain little person it takes twice as long and I spend twice as much).  I ended up spending $115.00 but with my loyalty card and the few coupons I did manage to bring, I only spent $64.64.  That is my new personal best when it comes to grocery shopping.

I'm always looking for ideas too, when it comes to shopping, so if you have any let me know!

Dave Ramsey says in his Financial Peace University class that "if you live like no one else now, later you can live and give like no else."  If you follow a budget and pay off all of your debt after you build your wealth, you can tithe to your church or donate to charity.  Donating is the last and final baby step of the seven baby steps.  We are far from baby step seven, but each month in the budget there is a line for donating.  We keep it small right now, usually about $20.00.  In the month of May, there was no extra in the budget for a donation.

My parents and I have season tickets to CU Women's basketball and my tickets were up for renewal in June.  Along with the price of tickets was a service fee and a seat donation.  My dad called the ticket office, yes the seat donation was a requirement in order to renew tickets.  I'm not sure why they didn't just increase the price of the season tickets rather than "require" a $50.00 donation.  I probably wouldn't have grumbled as much over a ticket increase as I did over paying a set donation amount.

I'm currently researching charities for donating to in July.  There are so many worthwhile charities but I think it is really important that my small donation actually be used for good, rather than put towards overhead (which is a need, I do understand that).  I like to check out Charity Navigator.  Each charity is given a star rating and is scored based on financial, accountability and transparency.  It also breaks down the financial and accountability aspects.

One of the things we learned in our Financial Peace University class was to give money to charity.  If we start small now, when we are out of debt, it will be easier to give more generously.  The charity of the month for April was Rocky Mountain PBS.  

We watch a lot of Public Television in our house.  I DVR Cooks Country and Corrine watches much of the children's programming.  There are a lot of shows I would watch (Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey) except I'm very far behind and have to rely on Netflix until I catch up.  I love that there are no commercials because the station relies on public funding rather than advertisers for their money.  I'm not sure how other PBS station do it, but RMPBS does some wonderful funding concerts, one of my favorites is the Celtic Women.  

So today is tax day.  For the last couple of years we have done okay.  And by that I mean we have gotten a couple hundred dollars back from both state and federal taxes.  We like that.  It means that we haven't paid too much and the government is using our money and we haven't paid too little and owe money.

That is until this year.  We owe.   A LOT.  We sold Bryan's house last summer and the capital gains screwed us.  I'm not even sure how that works because we had to take money to the closing and we did not make any money on the deal.  The only thing I understand (and then only partially) is that we sold the house for more than he bought it for.   The accountant mentioned something about depreciation, but again, I don't get it.

I am seriously debating getting a second job that is in our neighborhood.  Something that I can take C with me like cat sitting or running errands for the elderly.  Both of which I've done before.  I can most definitely make more money by picking up hours at my current job.  But I don't want to be away from home more than I have to and driving back and forth to the airport is both time consuming and gas expensive.   Plus we'd have to either arrange for day care or Bryan and I would work opposite schedules and we really don't want to not see each other.

I know I'm freaking out right now and maybe just grasping at straws.  I kind of feel like just when we were finally getting a grasp on our financial future we get a huge bucket of cold water thrown in our faces. We will now have to sit down, re do our budget, see what we can eliminate (direct TV), and figure what our monthly payment to the IRS will be.  

Ah,  fun times. NOT!  It will all work out, it just doesn't feel like it right now.

One of the topics in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University is about insurance.  Specifically life insurance.  Dave has some pretty strong feelings on life insurance and since he is the professional and I have heavily in debt, I'll follow what he says.  Dave says get term life insurance for ten times your annual salary and not a cash value plan.  A term plan is for just that, a term.  A cash value plan is an insurance plan and a savings plan all wrapped into one.  However the returns on a cash value insurance plan are horrible.

After the lesson I went home and checked out my life insurance policy.  Yep, sure enough I had a small universal life policy.  Upon further checking I had actually lost several hundred dollars over the years.  I immediately cancelled the policy (which by the way Dave says don't do until you have another policy in place).  I just couldn't stand the thought of losing more money.

Dave recommends a company in Nashville (where he is headquartered) to shop for insurance.  The company Zander Insurance will look for quotes for all kinds of insurance...life, auto, health, disability, etc.  I got on line and got a quote for a term life insurance policy and the original quote was $350 a year.  Not a bad amount.  I filled out the application and they sent a nurse to do the medical exam.  Six weeks later I got the news that due to my type 1 diabetes my insurance rate would instead be $1900 a year (that did include a $50 child policy).  WHAT?!?

OK.  So they didn't outright deny my application for life insurance.  But they certainly made it impossible to afford.  It was a very frustrating setback.  We are only on baby step one- saving a $1000 baby emergency fund.  There is no way at this point in time to spend $1900 a year for life insurance.
And I'm sure as I get older it will only get more expensive.

I will have just to settle for the time being with the life insurance that I have through work.  The company has a policy in place in case I die in a fiery plane crash.  My family will receive a payment equal to my annual salary.  I also took out a supplemental policy through our benefits program.  That will have to suffice for now.   This getting our debt thing is difficult and I know there will be lots of setback along the way.  I just need to learn to take it in stride.

I have been meaning to write about this for a couple of months now.  Debt, it seems is the American way.  I am 45 years old and still live paycheck to paycheck.  I signed Bryan and myself up for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University last fall.  Too say he was not happy would be an understatement.  A co-worker had gone through these classes and she and her husband are debt free except for their house and that will be paid off in less than five years.  My friend and I had many discussions about being in debt and I had always just gone with the flow and figured everyone was in debt so it was okay.

The straw that broke the camels back came in July 2013.  It was the day before the closing on our rental house.  The title company called and told us we had to bring $5600 to closing.   Who had that kind of money just laying around?  Not us.  Luckily the buyers had a paperwork issue and the closing was pushed back a couple of days.  We scraped together the money, mostly with a loan from my 401K (which later I found out Dave said do no do!).  At that moment I decided we needed some serious help.
Financial Peace University is a nine week series of classes.  They feature a DVD of Dave speaking about that weeks topic which he calls the Seven Baby Steps (some weeks are two parts).  The seven baby steps are:

1. Your $1000 emergency fund 
2. Your debt snowball.  Pay off the smallest debt first and then when that is paid off put that payment with the next smallest debt and so on until it's all paid off.
3. Finish funding an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses.
4. Maximize retirement funding.
5. Save for college.
6. Pay off the home mortgage.
7. Build Wealth and give 10% of your income to charity.  

Like I said earlier, Bryan was not happy about attending the classes at first.  He is more on board with the program now, but I think he is still dragging his feet.  We have yet to sit down and make a budget.  I do a partial one for my paychecks, but we haven't combined anything yet.  Part of that is because we have really worked a lot of opposite schedules for the past couple of months since our babysitter quit and we don't want to rely to heavily on my parents. I hope we get to it soon.  I would really like to have a grasp of this soon.

I debated for a while on whether or not to write about this.   Although I finally decided a while ago, it has taken me a couple of months to actually sit down to write this post.  I figured that while sharing publicly about our debt struggles might be humiliating, it will also be energizing and we will be held accountable for updates to said struggles.