The Dodge Family Blog » budget

Hey there, Delilah!

Mike — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:59:28 +0000

Yesterday Johanna and I went out and bought a car. A beater. A 1995 Ford Windstar, to be exact. For a while I have been predicting that we wouldn’t last very long in the BMW with this many bodies to haul around…and waddayaknow, I was right on the money. But the concern was finding something that was affordable. Yesterday, someone posted an ad on KSL Classifieds, and we got the car for $750. Not bad, actually.

Oh, and the title of this post? Johanna suggested we name the car Delilah, and I was happy to oblige. So there you go – a nostalgiaic name for our newest car. Pictures soon to come.

Oh, and one more thing. If y’all could say a prayer that the beater keeps running, I would appreciate it. Johanna just mentioned Murphy’s Law and the new car in the same sentance…and I am now scared for it’s well being.

My my my…Has it been THAT long?!

Mike — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:40:28 +0000

So it’s been at least a month since I last wrote something on here, probably more. There has been so much that has happened in that amount of time, and if I don’t get some of it written, I will forget it all forever, and you all will have no clue what is going on in. The sun will fall from the sky, clowns will cease to be funny, BYU will start losing football games, and from there it’s all downhill until the end of the world. So here’s a brief rundown of major events since my last post.

When I last wrote, gas prices were killing our budget. Now the cost to fill the car is going down, but there have been lovely car repairs to keep us feeling desperate.

Another big change that came through – I have been called as the new Ward Mission Leader. I had an inkling this was coming, but didn’t want to say anything in case Murphy was listening. I guess he has ESP, ’cause I was called anyway.

Actually, I am really excited about the calling.

Another huge event was when Johanna and I spent every weekend in September painting the downstairs room which is now OFFICIALLY FINISHED!!! It’s a project that has been over a year in the works, and it is soooooooo good to have it done! It looks great. See for yourself!

Aiden is doing very well in school. When he can focus on his work, he consistently does very well on math, and is getting better at wring. But his mind wanders so frequently, we have to do his homework in 5 minute segments, or else nothing happens.

James is pretty much potty trained. He still has accidents when we don’t invite him to use the potty, so I guess we’re 90% there, he just needs to get the ‘do it myself’ part down.

And finally, just this past weekend Johanna and I officially enlisted the help of a lawyer so that I can adopt Aiden and James. In June/July of this year, their biological father mentioned that if I wanted to formally adopt them, he would not be opposed – it would be better for the kids. We had to wait for a while because some legal requirement states that the kids would have to be living with me for 6 months before we could get started. Now that we have a lawyer, we will start getting things moving forward.

And so, life moves on and is generally pretty good to us. On Monday we will go to the Pumpkin Patch (one of our new favorite traditions) and choose pumpkins to carve. It is sure to be a blast, and will be well documented with more pictures to upload. Now, if I can just remember to keep this blog up to date…

Trying to be more domestic

johanna — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:20:43 +0000

As most of you know mike and I are in the process of getting out of debt. With this responsibility comes some changes. One that has really stuck out to me is cutting my grocery budget down to “rice and beans” I don’t really have a problem with it except this, ever since I have been on my own I have taken my grocery money supplied the family with the food we need and taken the leftover money and stocked up on food storage. Right now the food budget is such that I can’t really do that as well. What to do, what to do. This is the big question. I think I might just have to start living on rice and beans more, because I do believe it is possible.

As for the debt! We have so far paid off all my debt, (big deal it was $500.00 in over draft. and paid for with the government check.) put $1000.00 in an emergency fund, and paid off mikes over draft! now it is time to pay off the car!!! By the way we have decided to keep it. We put a for sale sign in the window, but decided in the long run we are better off just keeping it.

Ok now the domestic part. My mom is amazing. She is wonder woman and is such a good example to me. She is doing a garden this year, as usual, so it will be nice to have some fresh vegies from them. Ok here it really is. I am going to start building up a jar collection, so I can start canning some stuff for the food storage. I think the main thing i want to can is meat. I am going to be doing ground beaf and chicken to start with. We don’t have room for a freezer and caning our meat is the next best thing. So there you have it. Stay tuned for the result show/blog.

Plastic Surgery

Mike — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:43:59 +0000

Last night, Johanna and I went “under the knife” so to speak. Earlier this year I lost close to 40 lbs on a diet she helped me with (which I will be going on again soon ). Last night, we both decided that we need to lose a little bit more. So the gloves came off, we picked up the cutlery…and our debit card is no more. The “get out of debt” plan has begun.

Yes, in today’s world it might seem drastic, but it is possible to live without any form of credit card at all. I cut up my regular visa a couple of months ago, and it has been alright. But we can do more. With my new job, I am waiting to see what my take home pay is after insurance is taken out. But if it is anything close to what I hope it is, our budget will allow us to be completely debt free (except the house) fairly soon. When I did the math in January, we calculated 2 years to be debt free. It might take a little longer than that, but in the grand scheme of things, it still isn’t bad.

What does all this have to do with you? Well, more than you would think, actually. One of the reasons people find it so hard to get out of debt is that they want to spend time with their friends doing fun stuff. Fun stuff usually costs money. And they don’t have any money. So they “borrow” just a little, just this once…and the cycle starts again. We don’t want to get into that habit again.

As we begin the process of eliminating debt (blasted student loans!), we will likely decline to participate in any activities that are not in our budget. As of right now, that is pretty much everything. As we get our debt under control, we can start to make small allowances for other activities. Please be understanding and cooperative if you have a show or a sporting event you want to go to, as we will likely not be able to attend for a while…unless admission is free-ninety-five.

Why cut up the card, though? What will that do? Well, it helps in the discipline, keeps us on track. We will pay all of our utility bills online, and we will withdraw cash for groceries, household goods, and childcare expenses. We have actual envelopes that will hold all of our funds for the month, and if an envelope runs out…there is no “borrowing” from another one. We can evaluate how much is in each envelope at the end of the month, and if some categories are short and others are alright, we can shuffle the money around.

Here’s to getting debt free! WOOHOO!!!