Guess what everyone! I'm going to New York City!!
My old voice teacher from high school (Sandra Andersen) invited me to come along with her when she goes from Feb 24-28th. She is going to have some lessons with her teacher, David Jones (who is AMAZING, btw) as well as have a lesson with the former director of the Metropolitan Opera (He's been working with her for a while now on what rep she should be singing, where she should be auditioning, etc.) and she's also singing for an agent. I will also be having a lesson with David ($100/hr....ouch, but worth it) and MAYBE getting to sing for the Met Opera guy, too!! In any case, it will be awesome to even get to see NYC, since I've never been.
In other news, I've been living with my boyfriend Dan since December and things are going really well. :-) Not sure what I'm going to do for him for Valentine's Day since I'm trying to save money for NY. Anyone have any good cheap ideas?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Hey Chris, I totally understand what you and Diane are doing as far as writing that stuff down and seeing where you can make changes with your finances. Terry and I did that in preparation for buying our home....scary isn't the word for what our finances looked like! I use a notebook and have for years to track what bills need to get paid and on what payday. This really helps me know what money will be available for things like groceries, etc. For example, this week I only have two bills going out on Friday (tomorrow) so I'll be more able to get some groceries and fill up the Escape with gas. Next Friday is when Terry and I both get paid (he gets paid weekly) and there are a lot more bills scheduled to go out due to the amount of funds that will be available. Send me that excel spreadsheet that you mentioned, I'm interested in taking a look and seeing if it's "Jackie friendly".
Monday, January 28, 2008
Road to Financial Peace (Week 2)
Wow, what an eye-opening week and a half! We're following Dave Ramsey's very simple steps and have created both a "quickie" budget and a more complex one. If you're interested just let me know and I'll e-mail you the Excel sheet we're using to plan our expenses. It's very eye-opening to put all this stuff down on paper and really see where our money goes. We approached it step-by-step: 1) income at the top so we know how much monthly income we have coming in 2) expenses listed underneath so we can see where it's all going today and how much is left (or not).
The excel document is a typical business style cash flow statement that many businesses use to track money and I really like this style of budgeting because I can see a 12-month plan at a glance. For instance, we learned that we should be able to easily put $200 into savings every month. We discovered this by listing every conceivable expense that we anticipate and have had in the past and then shifted dollars around after talking over what we REALLY need. For example, we asked ourselves, "do we really need to spend $50 every month on dining out?" Answer: no, let's put it into savings and not eat out for a few months. The KEY here is to put it all on paper (computer spreadsheet if your geeky like me) and then you can analyze what is really going on and adjust your behavior to meet your goals.
Our first goal (care of Dave Ramsey's "baby steps") is to get $1000 into an emergency fund. According to our plan, we'll have that in 5 months, however, since we are committed to sitting down together every month for a "budget committee meeting" I suspect that further adjustments will get made in the future to help us accelerate that. I'm also going to be a little more aggressive looking for freelance programming work to increase income so we don't have to cut more spending. That's another key. We are pretty much living our lifestyle on just my income so any additional income (Diane working at school, me getting more freelance work) can be used to accelerate our emergency fund.
Jackie, your description of how your family operates is exactly like what we were doing until we put all this on paper. I strongly encourage you to write down your income and the expenses you have just to start the learning process. Once you have real information to work with instead of emotions and stressful anxiety you will be able to understand the options and choices that can be made to set goals and take control. Trust me. It might sound like having real data in your hands is scary but, trust me, it is an awesome exercise in learning what is really happening with your dollars.
The other apprehension I had was that putting it all on paper would prove the stupid stuff I was doing. Did I really need to spend $800 to build my own computer? Did I really need to spend $400 on a really cool wide screen LCD monitor? Yup, I made some bad choices especially when I compare those expenses to having the security of that kind of money sitting in the bank and earning money. But, with Diane's help and teamwork, I'm now committed to this plan and changing my bad habits.
The excel document is a typical business style cash flow statement that many businesses use to track money and I really like this style of budgeting because I can see a 12-month plan at a glance. For instance, we learned that we should be able to easily put $200 into savings every month. We discovered this by listing every conceivable expense that we anticipate and have had in the past and then shifted dollars around after talking over what we REALLY need. For example, we asked ourselves, "do we really need to spend $50 every month on dining out?" Answer: no, let's put it into savings and not eat out for a few months. The KEY here is to put it all on paper (computer spreadsheet if your geeky like me) and then you can analyze what is really going on and adjust your behavior to meet your goals.
Our first goal (care of Dave Ramsey's "baby steps") is to get $1000 into an emergency fund. According to our plan, we'll have that in 5 months, however, since we are committed to sitting down together every month for a "budget committee meeting" I suspect that further adjustments will get made in the future to help us accelerate that. I'm also going to be a little more aggressive looking for freelance programming work to increase income so we don't have to cut more spending. That's another key. We are pretty much living our lifestyle on just my income so any additional income (Diane working at school, me getting more freelance work) can be used to accelerate our emergency fund.
Jackie, your description of how your family operates is exactly like what we were doing until we put all this on paper. I strongly encourage you to write down your income and the expenses you have just to start the learning process. Once you have real information to work with instead of emotions and stressful anxiety you will be able to understand the options and choices that can be made to set goals and take control. Trust me. It might sound like having real data in your hands is scary but, trust me, it is an awesome exercise in learning what is really happening with your dollars.
The other apprehension I had was that putting it all on paper would prove the stupid stuff I was doing. Did I really need to spend $800 to build my own computer? Did I really need to spend $400 on a really cool wide screen LCD monitor? Yup, I made some bad choices especially when I compare those expenses to having the security of that kind of money sitting in the bank and earning money. But, with Diane's help and teamwork, I'm now committed to this plan and changing my bad habits.
Hello!
Hi everyone! I finally got my invite and took the time to set up a Google account! This is pretty neat and I'm excited about being able to keep in touch with everyone....Chris, this was a great idea! Well I just got done reading your last entry Chris about the financial peace stuff and I got to admit that I had a conversation with Terry about that very subject this morning! We are able to pay our bills (Thank God!) but then there isn't a whole lot left over for things like groceries, gas, what have you. We have been trying to keep money in savings each payday, but something always seems to come up - either we need to pick up medications for Jessica or Madeline, or the kids need money put into their lunch accounts, or we need food or gas! It's crazy making! We make a fair amount of money between the two of us and thinking of having a thousand dollars in savings seems like an unlikely dream! I have to admit that I've been praying more just to keep myself calm and not go completely nutso about the whole thing...watching the news every morning certainly doesn't help when all they seem to talk about is how terrible the economy is and how much worse it's gonna get! AGHHHHHH! Terry was actually looking a car ads in the paper this morning, with the thought that if we get a new car that is more fuel efficient than the Ford Escape, we'll be better off...I have to admit it made me look at him a little funny since that way of thinking is completely the opposite of where my brain has been going, but I can understand his reasoning. So we went out to about two car dealerships "just to look" and I think he was surprised at the prices that they are asking. I think he though that since the economy is not so great right now that dealerships would be dropping prices to get people to come in, but apparently they haven't dropped them enough to get us inside the building, much less to want to test drive anything! This will be our first year doing taxes with the new house and I'm nervous about how that is all gonna work out, Terry isn't worried, of course not! That's my job! But anyway he is confident that we'll be fine and he already has our government "bonus" checks spent (on bills of course, what else is there these days?). Work for me is going well and I will find out in a week or two what percentage of a raise I can expect to receive, hopefully it's a decent one since I've been working my butt off! On a different note, Terry's brother, Dan has invited us to join him and his wife, Amy to go to Tennessee in March to see a NASCAR race. I am looking forward to the "vacation" but it's another thing that I have to find money for since we'll have to pay for our tickets ($300.00 per couple) and we'll be driving the Escape (gas hog). Terry's boss has basically given him permission to borrow one of the pop ups from work to take down and use so we won't have to worry about getting a hotel room anywhere. Dan has gone to several races before and has a plan in regards to saving money on groceries, beer, etc. It should be fun, if everything goes well financially and we actually get down there! Well, I'll sign off for now as this blog thing apparently is no different for me than speaking to you guys face to face -a long and drawn out conversation that doesn't seem to really go anywhere! Love you all!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Road to Financial Peace (Week 1)
Diane and I have been listening to the Dave Ramsey radio show for almost a year now and we have been using some of his advice such as budgeting our dollars (well, Diane has been doing this part) and putting cash into envelopes for specific purposes (dining out, groceries, clothes, etc). This has been helpful and we have become more conscious about how we spend our money (when the cash in the dining out envelope is gone then that's it, no more McDonald's) but we still weren't able to meet our savings and gifting goals and we certainly weren't closing out our debts (credit cards, student loans, etc) nearly as fast as we would like. Our church started offering the Financial Peace University classes a couple months ago and we missed the first 2 sessions but when they announced a third session we jumped on it. That it happens to coincide with New Year's Resolutions making might have been planned...
Tonight was the first class: Super Saving. In the DVD presentation, Dave talked about the peace that comes from having an emergency fund and the importance of setting aside $1000 as soon as possible for "God Only Knows." He pointed out that this is an important first step because it signifies not only the ease of saving up $1000 but also the commitment that it represents by taking this step. He also told a story about a lady who came to one of his book signings. Apparently, when she arrived, she was distraught that her car broke down on the way and now she was worried about paying to get it fixed. Turns out she had been following Dave's plan and had already saved $12,000 in her emergency fund so her reaction to the car trouble was just a reflex and when reminded that her emergency fund was for just that kind of situation she instantly calmed down. That's the kind of peace I want for our family. Every little thing seems like a crisis now since we don't have a cushion of savings to fall back on when the unexpected happens.
After the presentation we broke up into smaller groups to talk about what we learned. There are nine of us in the smaller group and we talked about the stupidity that we all shared when it comes to choosing not to save and relying too much on credit cards. It was refreshing to hear that we are not alone but also eye opening that our "instant gratification" culture has led us all down a dark road toward constant debt. I explained to the group how frustrating it is to make a fairly good salary and still be living paycheck-to-paycheck. This first class has given me the resolve to change and I'll try to post here as we proceed through the learning process. The funny thing is that the lessons all appear to be things we already know so it's really re-learning and applying the common sense lessons that we were raised with.
Tonight was the first class: Super Saving. In the DVD presentation, Dave talked about the peace that comes from having an emergency fund and the importance of setting aside $1000 as soon as possible for "God Only Knows." He pointed out that this is an important first step because it signifies not only the ease of saving up $1000 but also the commitment that it represents by taking this step. He also told a story about a lady who came to one of his book signings. Apparently, when she arrived, she was distraught that her car broke down on the way and now she was worried about paying to get it fixed. Turns out she had been following Dave's plan and had already saved $12,000 in her emergency fund so her reaction to the car trouble was just a reflex and when reminded that her emergency fund was for just that kind of situation she instantly calmed down. That's the kind of peace I want for our family. Every little thing seems like a crisis now since we don't have a cushion of savings to fall back on when the unexpected happens.
After the presentation we broke up into smaller groups to talk about what we learned. There are nine of us in the smaller group and we talked about the stupidity that we all shared when it comes to choosing not to save and relying too much on credit cards. It was refreshing to hear that we are not alone but also eye opening that our "instant gratification" culture has led us all down a dark road toward constant debt. I explained to the group how frustrating it is to make a fairly good salary and still be living paycheck-to-paycheck. This first class has given me the resolve to change and I'll try to post here as we proceed through the learning process. The funny thing is that the lessons all appear to be things we already know so it's really re-learning and applying the common sense lessons that we were raised with.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Packers vs Seahawks in Playoffs
Well, I just couldn't wait for Saturday's playoff game between the Packers and Seahawks so I fired up the Playstation with Madden '08 to see how it might play out. It was a very close game. The first quarter of play was all about defense. The Seahawks started with their first drive going three and out then punting to the Pack Attack who couldn't keep their drive going and ended up punting as well. In the second quarter the Pack was able to drive the ball down into Seahawk territory but couldn't punch it into the end zone and settled for a field goal. The Seahawks offense continued to struggle and couldn't even get into field goal range.
Then in the second half, the Packers took advantage of excellent field position after a good kickoff return and scored the first touchdown of the day. Seattle answered with a drive of their own that ended up sputtering out and resulted in a field goal.
In the fourth quarter of play, the Pack scored another touchdown after allowing Seattle to throw over their heads and score one too. Holmgren called for the two-point conversion attempt and was successful and, late in the 4th quarter the score was at 17 - 14 with the Pack ahead by only a field goal.
The Packers last drive of the game ate up a lot of clock time as they drove the ball into Seahawk territory and fizzled out at the 2-yard line threatening a touchdown. So it's 4th and goal at the 2-yard line and the fans are calling for them to go for the touchdown but McCarthy decides to try for the field goal instead which would force Seattle to require a touchdown to have a chance to win. Well, the attempt failed as Raynor hooked the attempt to the left so the score is still 17 - 14 with about a minute left giving Seattle a chance to tie things up and push us into overtime.
After a good kickoff and minimal return the Packers were doing all they could to keep Seattle out of field goal range. The Seahawks, with no timeouts remaining, tried a couple short passes into the middle of the field and moved the ball to within 20 yards of field goal range but time just ran out on them and the Pack ended up winning the game.
Then in the second half, the Packers took advantage of excellent field position after a good kickoff return and scored the first touchdown of the day. Seattle answered with a drive of their own that ended up sputtering out and resulted in a field goal.
In the fourth quarter of play, the Pack scored another touchdown after allowing Seattle to throw over their heads and score one too. Holmgren called for the two-point conversion attempt and was successful and, late in the 4th quarter the score was at 17 - 14 with the Pack ahead by only a field goal.
The Packers last drive of the game ate up a lot of clock time as they drove the ball into Seahawk territory and fizzled out at the 2-yard line threatening a touchdown. So it's 4th and goal at the 2-yard line and the fans are calling for them to go for the touchdown but McCarthy decides to try for the field goal instead which would force Seattle to require a touchdown to have a chance to win. Well, the attempt failed as Raynor hooked the attempt to the left so the score is still 17 - 14 with about a minute left giving Seattle a chance to tie things up and push us into overtime.
After a good kickoff and minimal return the Packers were doing all they could to keep Seattle out of field goal range. The Seahawks, with no timeouts remaining, tried a couple short passes into the middle of the field and moved the ball to within 20 yards of field goal range but time just ran out on them and the Pack ended up winning the game.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Happy New year!
Just bored and thought I'd wish everyone a Happy New Year! Oh, and happy birthday to Debbie on Monday!
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