The beginning

Hi All!

Welcome to my journey. I have been blogging for a couple years now. First in Yahoo 360 and currently at Multiply. I have decided that after years of being in debt and watching the debt grow while the money in my pocket continuously shrinks, to reverse that trend.
I have been reading about frugality for awhile now. Years really. I have read books by the Economides family, books on budgeting, saving money, spending money, the works.

I am finally ready to change my and my family's lives.

I have taken a lot of suggestions that the Economides family wrote in their book to get myself started. I have broken down my bills into categories, set goals, created a budget, and for the months of September and October have created a simple, easy, healthy, cheap meals list.

All told my bills, with mortgage, future emergency savings account, and window replacement savings account total - are you ready for this - $180,970.65!!!

This amount includes the mortgage of about $122,000.00, future emergency savings account of $18,166.02, savings for new windows to replace the 30 yr old windows in our house $3000.00, past due bills, and current bills projected out over a year.

I have taken all of these amounts and broken them down into monthly and weekly payments.

We were lucky enough to have paid off our car a few months ago. That saved us $311.11 a month. We bought the car used (it is a 99) BUT the car is now in the shop for new front axles, brakes, new O2 sensors (our Nissan Maxima has 4 of the silly things) and will cost close to 800.00-1000.00. My dad is my mechanic so I lucked out in the fact that if I get charged labor it will be very little. Parts I pay for. Our truck (also used) is a 98 and needs new struts/shocks or something in the front end. That will go into the shop once we get the car back. I think the truck also needs a new exhaust.

Since I started this journey 2 weeks ago I have managed to pay off one bill of $140.00. I took some unused vacay pay (without taking the time off) and used that to pay off the bill this week. I have 40 hours of vacay left for emergencies that I can either take the money or the time off if needed.
I have been at my current job almost 11 years (with a 9 month break - no, no baby was born lol). I also have a medical condition called Ulcerative Colitis. On my best days I can function almost 100% normally. On my worst days I am stuck at home in the bathroom for days on end. So while the money I earn is pretty decent I never know how or when a recurrence of the UC will happen which means that my paychecks can either be very good or slim to none.
My husband, J, works at the hosp here in town. He had lost his job at Home Cheapo last November. His income was literally cut in half but we are making do.


My family:
I have 4 children, 1 grandchild, a husband, and 6 cats (3 of which will be adopted out when they are old enough). My oldest son is 20 and lives on his own, my oldest daughter is 18 and lives in Florida with my grandson and her boyfriend, the youngest son (16) and youngest daughter (11) live at home with me.

In later blogs I will outline some of the changes I have made and more changes to come. I will also post a copy of the spreadsheets I have completed for our budget, goals, etc.

I welcome all input - good or bad - and hope others out there will be inspired to tackle debt the way I am.