Getting Started

 Getting started for me meant sitting down and figuring out what monthly recurring bills I have. Simple, I know. But for some reason I hadn't taken the time to write them down and things were falling through the cracks.

It took getting a disconnect notice to realize I hadn't paid my electric bill for 2 months. I'm pretty sure that I'll have a notice on my internet bill this next cycle.

I came up with the following list:

Rent, 5 credit cards (trying to build my credit score), Savings, Paying off debt, Emergency Fund, Car Replacement fund, Pedicure (trying something out so this has become a need), Electric company, Car Insurance, Storage Unit (which will become the clothing fund in a month), Internet, Spending for me, Car Repairs, Family Fun, Garbage, Verizon (for my oldest), Household supplies, Tires, and Gas.

Each of these has its own envelope with a sticky note on it stating how much it gets paid monthly. I also have a master list that states how much the item is paid weekly and monthly.

I was going to buy pre-done budget binders with nice zipper pouches but to get started I was looking at well over $100. When you're so far behind on the finances that you're getting shut off notices you make do with what you have.

What I had was a few books of scrapbook paper that I got on sale when I was going to be selling box openings for reborn dolls. I bought these to include hand written thank you notes with each package and then I started looking at how much money I could make off of the box openings. What I found was that I would make $2-5 per box opening and that it would get eaten up on supplies for shipping so I decided not to do that.

I used almost an entire packet of these papers getting my envelopes made. I cut out two pieces and used washi tape that I already had to put the envelopes together.

I still have a packet of solid color pages with designs on them that I will use once I get my zippy pouch binder inserts so that I don't have to pay someone to make me cricut vinyl cutouts of the words I want. I will just use black stickers on solid paper and put them inside the pouches so I can see what each pouch is. I thought about getting my own cricut and then I started pricing them and the vinyl and decided that this is the better option for me.

I made an envelope for each monthly expense and put it in my Month A Head section. The goal is at the end of the month to have 2 months of expenses in cash in my "budget binder". Really its a cardboard juice carton that I washed and dried and cut the top off of. Making do with what we have on hand is the theme for this journey.

Each month as I pay the bills any envelope that has money left over will get emptied. That left over will get put into the envelope for that category for the Month A Head. Obviously I won't have left over Rent, but I may not use all of the Gas envelope so that money will get put in the Month A Head. After the M-A-H envelope is full I will take any extra and work on stuffing other M-A-H envelopes. Once all of the M-A-H envelopes are full I will then start stuffing my Sinking Funds envelopes starting least to most money due. The absolute first envelopes that will be stuffed are my Savings and then the Emergency Fund. I am saving two emergency funds because if all I have is $2,000 and something major happens and we have to move I would rather have $4,000 that I can dip into to get us moved.

My sinking funds are the following: Birthday, Phone plan, Phone plan, Tires, Books, Shoes, Christmas, Phone Replace, Crafts/Planner, Clothes, Family Fun, Pets, Savings, Emergency Fund, Cruise J, Cruise L, Cruise K, Mom Car Repair, Emergency Fund 3 month, Car Replacement, Emergency Fund 6 months, Debt Payoff, and Emergency Fund 12 months.

The total of my sinking funds is $31,214.00 so obviously I will not have these done fast. But these are funds that I will be working to having fully funded.

But Kari, you're clawing your way out of Generational Poverty, why are you spending $12,000 on 3 cruises?

Great question. Totally valid question. Especially since this entire blog is about saving money and getting out of debt.

I have 3 daughters and I bribed them that whoever graduates high school without getting pregnant I would take on an all expenses paid cruise once the youngest graduates high school. As of right now I am going to have to pay out on that bribe. The youngest graduates in 2027 and I will start paying out cruises in 2028 because we are not going during the summer. Going in the off months is cheaper and they won't have to deal with 12 year olds who want to terrorize the older teens. They did ask what happens if they get pregnant after they graduate but the youngest is still in school and I told them the ONLY rules to the cruise reward is that they must graduate without ever being pregnant and that there is no cash equivalent payout. If you decide not to go on your cruise you are not going to get handed the cash equivalent. I did make a change this year now that they are in the 8, 11, 12th grades. If you don't want to go on a cruise you may go on an Amtrak trip instead. We watch a lot of disaster movies and one had made mention that she never wants to go on a boat and that the cruise reward no longer applied to her and it was not fair.

I have always done my best to be fair to them. We have always put house rules up to a vote and if they didn't like a rule that needed to be they were allowed to come to me with suggestions and we would put it to a vote. So since one has decided she will never set foot on a ship or boat it was my job to made an amendment to the reward so she could still be rewarded.

I know how hard it is to be a single parent. I can't imagine how hard their, and their children's lives, would be if they were a single parent without a high school diploma. I took it upon myself to come up with an incentive for them to succeed. I've been told by many that now that they are older to just tell them that I changed my mind and that they should understand that getting pregnant in high school is something that should be avoided at all costs anyway and that I shouldn't award them for doing the bare minimum.

I'm 38 and have never been on vacation. I've never been able to afford it. So this is not just to benefit them. This is also ensuring that I get to go on vacation and do something fun. Heck, we live by the "world's best zoo" and we've been once because I'm always working and don't take time off to go do things. Which is why I have a monthly, M-A-H, and sinking fund envelope for family fun. So that I can put aside $25 weekly and we can go do something fun because I'll finally have money for it.

I have Savings Challenges that I will start participating in January of 2023. I have a $1, $5, $20 challenge. Every month after I pay the bills out of the envelopes I will take the corresponding bills out of the envelopes and put them into the challenge envelope they belong to. When I am paying January bills the last week of December 2023 I will empty the Challenge envelopes and stuff as many Sinking Fund envelopes as I can. It's just an added way to save money and do a big stuffing all at once.

I have the Sinking Fund envelopes in order smallest to largest and as soon as an envelope is filled it will get moved to the back so that I always see what I'm working on. the only one that I will be stuffing that won't move is the Debt Payoff just because of how much I owe.

The only envelope that will constantly be changing is the Debt Payoff envelope. As soon as I get the first $1.000 put into it (December 2022) I will get in touch with my creditors on my credit report and ask for a payoff amount and get that paid. I will then build it back up to the $1,000 and proceed to do it with the next creditor. The amount on the envelope will change every time I do this. It is the next to last envelope so I don't see it moving early. As soon as I get any debt paid off the total amount due on the envelope will get updated with the new amount due.

Money saving tip: Toilet Bowl Cleaner is $2.27 for the cheapest cling gel I could find at Walmart. It is $2.27 for 24oz. I am a professional house cleaner and when all of my supplies jumped in cost I went to my groups of other cleaners and asked how to cut supply costs so I didn't have to raise client costs so much. I had many professional housecleaners tell me that they use dish soap to clean the toilet bowl and not toilet bowl cleaner.

I started doing this professionally and personally and have gotten many compliments that their toilet bowls shine now.

How I do this is I take the toilet bowl cleaner and open the top then turn it again and the top pops off. I use a bottle of dish soap to then fill it. It is slow going but the 15 minutes I spend doing it is well worth the savings and I'll never go back.

I buy my dish soap at Sam's Club for $5.98 for 1 gallon which is 128 oz. A bottle of toilet bowl cleaner is 24 oz. This means that I am paying $5.98 for 5 1/3 bottles. Which means I would spend $11.35 for 5 bottles at Walmart. This way saves $5.37 every time.

“Becoming Debt-free is about more than just paying off debt. It’s about discovering freedom, flexibility, and control over your life, your finances, and your future.“ -Unknown-

Total debt $26,339, Total Paid $0.00, Payoff Date July 2033