Thanks, son!

You know you’re doing something right with the budget plan when you drive by Burgerville and your son says, “Mom can we go to Burgerville?  We used to go there all the time and now we never go there!”

Funny too how last night we went to a gymnastics meet (for free) and the kids asked if they could get food and stuff when we get there and I said, “well if you want to spend your own money you can.”  They decided they didn’t want it that bad.  Lots easier to spend mommy’s money than their own.

In other budget news, we finalized it yesterday for the month of February.  We have our baby step one done and one credit card paid off!  Wow.

Unfortunately we got our RV license renewal in the mail ($200+), a huge electricity bill, and Jake spilled coffee on his iPhone.  Ha ha.  That’s life.  Stuff to add to March’s budget.

Blessings: We’re good, we’re happy, we’re just fine.  I can’t complain.  As Dave would say, “I’m better than I deserve!”

Budget and Whisfam Update.

Phew…just spent 2 overwhelming hours working on the Feb. budget.  It’s not written in stone yet but if all goes well by Feb 01st we’ll have our $1000 in savings and one credit card paid off!  It’s staggering to me that this is actually happening.  I’m praying over it and over it.  Just thanking God but also giving it to him because He alone knows the future and knows if some big hardships are around the corner.  We’re just doing our best each month and giving the rest up to him.

It’s somewhat depressing, on the other hand, to imagine what life would’ve been like had we been doing this from day one.   But the best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago and the second best time is TODAY!  So just gotta keep focused.

Amazingly after preliminary calculations the budget has kept, screw ups and all, within a couple dollars. I’m taking a little break now.  Jake gets paid Friday so I’ll go over with him tonight what I’ve done today and see if I’ve forgot anything.  I did remember dog food and the garbage bill this month ha ha.

In other news I went on a women’s retreat last weekend with my little church.  We went to the coast and it was uncharacteristically sunny and not windy.  Temperatures were mild and the waves were beautiful crashing on the shore.  It was the best retreat I’ve been to in years as I feel personally I’m coming out of a fog and finally again feel like fertile soil for God to cultivate.  Sweetly God confirmed this through a Godly woman on Sunday with a word he gave her for me.  It brought me to tears and just sat in awe of God’s love for me.  An adding blessing was knowing the retreat was budgeted and paid for and I could enjoy it without worrying if we’d pay for it another way later on in the month.

I signed my daughter up for gymnastics yesterday.  I think she’ll do well and she really likes it.  It is budgeted which feels nice!  We may even get to borrow a leotard from a her aunty so that will be a blessing.  I prayed about what to put my son into as he’s just finishing up wrestling.  The answer–private swim lessons!  So God willing he’ll be starting that in Feb. and I think it’ll be a confidence booster for him when he learns as most of his friends know how already.

The man of the home as always is involved in work, wrestling, and church.  Last night he was caught quite off guard when our son said, “Dad, you’re the best dad in the world!”  Jake sometimes feels our boy is a bit of a mama’s boy and sometimes feels a little put out.  So this affirmation was definitely a kiss from Heaven and an encouragement for him to keep doing what he’s doing.

I think that’s about it for now.  Now I must conquer goal number 2 for the day which is folding my laundry. You know you hate folding laundry when doing budget stuff and paying bills sounds like a much better idea.

Onward!

Mousecapades!

Two mornings ago Jake wakes me up at 5:30 am to tell me that the mouse is IN the couch.  He leaves the room saying I must buy poison today and that he’s going to start vaccuming the couch.  I lay there pondering all this in my sleepy state.  Curious I stumble out of bed, throw on my bathrobe and head out to the living room.  ”Wait, don’t vaccum yet, I’ll grab a blanket and we’ll try and catch it.”

Our couches, one a loveseat, are in an L formation, and so he starts to lift up the big one.  When he does I notice the mouse poke his out from under the the love seat, close to where I’m standing.  I’m standing there ready with a throw blanket in hand.  ”There it is!!”  But of course it saw and heard me and went back under.  Jake lifts up the love seat and it’s not there.  We then hear it beyond the couches by the fire place.  So then Jake goes over there.  A few seconds later it pokes it’s head out from under the love seat again!  ”There it is!!” I yell again.  And it goes back under.

“Go around the corner!” Jake loudly whispered.  I obeyed.  I got in my ready athletic stance with the blanket over my feet so it can’t get passed me.  We know it’ll head in this direction because I’m now in the kitchen and it lives behind our stove and cupboards.

Jake goes over to the fireplace again.  Soon after here the mouse comes running right at me.  ”Here it comes!!” and I throw the blanket over it.  Trapped!  I now have a broom in hand.  Jake’s on one side of the blanket and I’m on the other.  But the little rodent slips out of an opening by Jake’s feet.  ”It’s getting away!” I yelled.  It round the corner to the other side of the island and I do the same on the opposite side of the island determined to cut if off at the pass.  By this time I’m frantic and ungodly shrieks are escaping from my mouth.

It’s running at me again and this time I take the broom and smack it across the kitchen.  It comes scurrring back as fast as it’s little feet will take it and I sweep it again back across the floor.  ”Give me the broom!” Jake’s now by the kitchen table where I flung the mouse.  Jake tries to keep it running from my direction beating and swishing and it keeps escaping.  I grap a big plastic bowl to try and trap it.

Again it comes running at me having broke through the broom defense.  Involuntarily a piercing, high pitched scream escapes from my throat as the rodent is now at my feet and I’m trying to trap it under the bowl.  And just like that it out maneuvers my quivering hands and high tails it under the dishwasher.  By this time my whole body is shaking. I back up into Jake, who I didn’t know was there, and another scream escapes out of me.   It takes me a bit to regain my composure and for my heart to stop beating so wildly.  And then I can’t stop laughing and the whole scene that just played out so early in the morning.

So I bought poison later that day.  But I haven’t heard or seen the rodent since.  I’m thinking either we injured in the great broom fiasco or he’s too scared or he’s getting more sneaky.  But either way I’m hoping he’s got into his food and dies soon.  I do kind of feel bad killing him.  But then again… the thought of a mouse infestation makes me not feel so bad about doing it.

Hopefully that’s the last of the mouse chronicles.

This Old House

Our house has a lot wrong with it, it’s old, ugly, and in need of a facelift, but our house truly is our little home sweet home.  I have a love hate relationship with our house.  I hate it because of all the above, and much more.  But I love it because it is our little nest, I see it’s potential, it’s humble, and it IS, where God wants us.

When we first looked at this house we saw no flaw.  We thought we had found a little treasure.  We thought they put the wrong price on it.  ”We’ll take it!” we said after about ten minutes upon entering.  But after about 10 minutes after moving in, I couldn’t believe how I didn’t see everything wrong with it.  Yes we did say we’d take it after ten minutes but we continued to look at the house and we visited it again on another occasion.  Still dandy in our eyes.

After living anywhere about a year and a half I get the itch to move.  There was no exception to this place.  I wanted to move.  Problem was we couldn’t.  We bought our home in June 2007 and a month later the housing boom busted.  So while we could sell it for what we bought it for we had financed our closing costs which put our house above what it was worth in the new housing economy.  That, in addition to some work that needed done before we could even sell (that required money we didn’t have) meant we were stuck.

Now I knew one purpose though about why we were so blind when we first bought our house.  God wanted us stuck.  Being stuck here forces me to face challenging situations and not run from them. Being stuck forces face unwise choices and creatively overcome them through prayer, hard work patience.  God had lessons for us to learn with this house and staying in one place for a while.

While I do think God’s plan played apart in us moving here I don’t blame him for our choices.  I think it’s just the way he uses our dumb choices to bless us and teach us.  I’m not sure how it all works but while I think we did make some poor choices, God allowed them and is using it in our lives.

Here are some examples of our blindness before we moved in: the mossy roof, the popcorn ceiling, the messy paint jobs, the ANTS (they did have traps around the home which I shrugged off!?) the out-of-control ivy in the back yard that had completely taken over one side of the garage to where you couldn’t walk between the garage wall and the fence. It was also starting to grow inside the garage, and attach itself to the front of the garage.  The nasty carpets in the bedroom which once moved in I wouldn’t step on with bare feet.  The aluminum windows covered in mold.

In a somewhat weak defense we were desperate.  We needed a place to live because we had to move out of our townhouse by a certain date and didn’t want to rent first and then move again.  We looked at lots of overpriced, stinky, old dives prior to finding this place so this house, with all its blooming hydrangea and rhrodie’s out front, the wood floors inside, huge garage, and recently remodeled kitchen shone like a beacon in the night.

So this old house has grown on me.  I really want to see it bloom.  A new roof, siding, and paint job would do wonders and are first on the priority list but there’s so much more we could do to this place.  There’s so much wasted space begging for efficient, purposeful use.  An extra bathroom will someday be built.  A breeze way between the garage and house… we are storing up the ideas and will save up for each one as God allows.

Since we’ve lived here we have replaced the carpet in the bedrooms and the windows, got rid of the ivy and the ants (!) and replaced a broken window in the garage with a sliding glass door.  So we’ve done some.   But as our money makeover gets our finances in control we will begin to do more!  I’m excited for all the things we’ll learn from this house and all that we’ll see it transform into.

Good News About Haiti

What’s happened in Haiti is so sad.  When I think of the people, especially the children my heart breaks.  So this post is about the good that’s coming out of it.  When tragedy strikes the world steps up and that warms my heart.

Here’s a link to an article from CNN that tells about the Red Cross text messaging fund raising efforts.  I knew this would go over well because it’s so simple and convenient.
Click here

Here’s a blogger I read a lot, The Pioneer Woman.  She has great give-a-ways regularly but this one had a twist and a wonderful outcome.  Instead of winning something a donation was given to a charity of choice to help the people of Haiti.
Click here

Here’s a blog I recently subscribed to.  She’s the wife of Pastor and author John Piper.  Her name is Noel and she’s bringing attention to the orphans of Haiti.  Sometimes I wish I could be the mama to every orphan.  Just the word brings tears to my eyes.  Babies without mommies and daddies is heart breaking.
Click here

And this is just three references to the good in the world.  I like Good News.  I think I’m going to keep an eye out for good news and post it on my blog.  There are more stories and if you read this post and come across some let me know, I’d love to hear them!  Of course the greatest news of all being Jesus giving his life for us on the cross, so our sins could be forgiven and we can have eternal life… and oh so much more.

In the mean time continue to pray for the people of Haiti and give if you can.  Of course I don’t have to tell you this I’m sure you’ve done it already.  :)

Seriously?

We have a mouse (mice?).  We’ve lived here over 2 years and have never seen a mouse here.  There are cats outside everywhere so I’m sure they get a lot of them but this little guy has found a home in our walls.  Every once in awhile he gets brave and shows his face.  Ugh.  Well I guess it’s good we over estimated on a bill because now we have some extra money to buy a mouse murdering device.  Sorry buddy buy you’re going down.

___

In other news, my blog template won’t let me put links on my side bar, so hopefully in a day or two I’m going to put up a link page at the top of the blog.  That way I can link to all my online blog buddies.  What I love about all my blog buddies is that they are all so unique and talented and interesting.  I’m sure I’m the most boring of the bunch but I read from mom’s who are missionaries, homeschoolers, designers, pastor’s wives, and believers in Christ.  Some I know, some I don’t but I read about their lives because in one way or another they inspire me or just make me laugh or teach me something.

I better get to work on that page.

A New Week

All month I’ve been listing items that I’ve missed on the budget.  Here’s the list so far:

• dog food
• date nights
• postage
• kid’s activities (sports, scouts, etc)
• the garbage bill (!)

This month dog food came from last month’s paycheck, we’ve used our blow money and other categories for dates.  I used my blow money for postage.  We adjusted categories for a scout event.  And the garbage bill is every other month so we lucked out on that.

We do weekly grocery shopping on Sundays.  (For any monthly shoppers out there be patient with me, baby steps )  I loathe grocery shopping.  I’m just not good at it.  I go to one place, our local WinCo.  I need to keep it simple.  I’m not good at remembering prices and finding deals.  I really don’t know how people can spout off, “well at Safeway tomatoes cost this, and at Costco they cost this but if you buy them at Winco on a Saturday while the moon is full you can get them for  2 cents per pound!”  Or people will say hey Safeway has turkey’s for such and such a pound that’s such a good price.  I wouldn’t know a good price if it kicked me in the teeth.  I admire those who’ve got it all together in this area.

But honestly before I never really cared.  It seemed like too much work.  But now I’m sort of getting it.  I still hate grocery shopping but going every Sunday I’m learning what we eat and how fast we eat it how much and how to make it last.  I’m finding the brands I like and paying attention to prices.  So I’m learning, slowly, but I’m learning.

My goal is to someday monthly grocery shop and know where to get what at the best price.  But until then as Dave says, baby steps!

Update:  On one of my categories that I thought I messed up on it turns out that I read the bill wrong and it was less than I thought it would be!  So that money will get put back in the categories I swiped it from. That’s a nice feeling.

The State of the Whisfam Address

So this is technically a “M.M.A” post… but I am not liking the acronym thing.  I may just discard it.  I think I just did.

Preface

This is not a “poor me” post or a cry for charity.  I promise. I pinky swear.  This post candidly shows how far we’ve let ourselves go, poor choices, our ignorance, and why good financial planning is necessary. It’ll shine the light on the bad but someday when I give another “State of the Whisfam Address” it’ll highlight just how far we’ve come.  That’s the purpose of this post.

On with it.

Anyway as we venture out on the unfamiliar road toward “good steward/budget conscious/debt free” living we find ourselves in a precarious place.  I said it before that if a *thing* goes wrong life could get really interesting really fast.  As I look out on the horizon I see the potential for many things to go wrong.  They might, they might not, but, they might.

Case in point:

Our home.  I pray my way through every winter that the roof won’t leak.  It’s looking pretty shabby.  I sometimes pray a tree will fall on it while we’re not home.  You’re will be done Lord, you’re will be done.  I pray often that the mold in the attic won’t get worse before we can fix it.  And we live in Oregon… nuff said. Our fridge is from the early 90′s.  I know that because this fridge is exactly like the one my parents bought brand new when I was in high school.

Our Truck: It’s a 2002 with new tires (one of those debts we’re paying on) but it’s almost got 200,000 miles on it.  It makes funny sounds…

Our loner car:  It’s not ours, it’s free, but if we break it we have to fix it.  It’s a 92.  Currently, it’s sitting in our drive way.  The window has fallen inside the door for the 4th time.  It’s raining. I can’t get it in the garage because the garage door is broke. (forgot to mention that in the home part).  Jake can lift it but I can’t.  I can’t get ahold of Jake.  I have to leave in 5 minutes to go pick up the kids at the bus stop.  It has a history of breaking down.

Update: This was Friday.  It now has plastic protecting the interior until Jake can fix it.

Misc: RV, RV, RV…

Our needs.  I wear the same jeans every day.  Every day. (I do have 2 other pair but I think the dryer shrunk them–at least that’s what I tell myself. Jake’s clothes are dated, old. People at work give him clothes… They say they just bought the wrong size but sometimes I wonder if they just feel sorry for the guy. The kids are growing and need clothes a lot. Our dog has needs all the time.  Thank goodness for left over medicine with far out expiration dates.

So here’s the deal.  This stuff actually excites me most of the time.  I do have days where it all seems so heavy and it’s a little frightening, but mostly I see it as a challenge.  I see it kind of like hiking up a mountain.  It’s so hard but the view from the top and feeling of accomplishment makes all the sweat and sore legs worth it.  I also see it as an amazing opportunity to watch God work!  I can’t wait to see how He helps us figure this all out.  I can’t wait to see how He provides as we brainstorm ideas and pray for provision.  I can’t wait to see him “restore the years to us the years that the locust has eaten.”  I look forward to our personal growth and to be an example to our kids.  I focus on these things as I stare up at this huge mountain before us.

Update:  With Christmas money I bought two shirts today for $13 bucks.  They were on sale.  :)  I also used part of my designated $15 “blow” money for breakfast today (at Pine State Biscuits).  Our gas and grocery money that we budgeted for last week lasted all week (*just* made it on the gas).  We had about $10 of grocery money to carry over to next week.  We ate our free turkey Jake won for winning a race this week too.  We had somebody ask about our RV… not getting our hopes up but it was a bite.  Hmm… what else… oh yes my dad said he’s sending me a present.  I think it has to do with coffee.  Ha ha.

Looking ahead: With Jake’s overtime this month and not having to pay for the RV till next month we hope to finish our $1000 emergency fund (given no actual emergencies rear their ugly heads).  Jake gets to go on a trip for work in a couple of months and stay at a pretty nice place, and it’s paid for so that will be a blessing for him.  It’s over his birthday, so Happy Birthday to him.

Budget Fibs + Other News

Like taking 10 bucks from the grocery budget and buying Blizzards…

Even so, it was so worth it.

Extra Bonus:  Finding husbands half eaten Blizzard in the freezer the next day.  Score.

___

In other fabulous news.  I’m headed to Stumptown Saturday morning with a friend to eat biscuits and gravy at Pine State Biscuits.  I LOVE biscuits and gravy.  Me and her go out on girl’s days once a month or so and we like to try new places.  She saw this place on the Food Network.  There were also 3 or 4 other places featured we intend to sample between now and summer time.  Not only that I have a Starbucks card I got for Christmas that I plan on diminishing by about 4 dollars.  Life will be so good.  I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am for biscuits and gravy.  (I should mention I have $15 designated “blow” money for the month plus some Christmas money I’m using for this breakfast )

___

Update:

I wrote this post the other day and forgot to publish it.  We went to Pine State Biscuits today!  Here’s the scoop.  I ordered the biscuits and sausgae gravy.  D-lish!  The first bite was amazing.  Rich, soft, and fluffy. Buttery, savory, heaven in a biscuit.  I had high expectations and they did not disappoint.

The down side…(for others not us, I’ll explain) the place is tiny, small!  When you read reviews the biggest complaint will be the line, the wait, and the lack of seating.  And I can see why.  There are probably 4 tables and 5 barstools.  But here’s the divine thing about our little visit today.

We prayed.  :) We were in Portland and missed an exit.  I don’t know Portland all that well so I prayed a silly yet I was serious prayer, “Lord help us get back on I-84 and help up get a seat at the biscuit place.”   We get there and we’re probably 3rd or 4th in line.  We waited maybe 10-15 minutes.  We order with no tables available.  Right as we order the whole bar opens up and all 4 of us get seats.   It was sweet.

So tonight I came home and read reviews, which I had not done prior, and read stories of waiting 30 minutes in the rain, and not finding a seat etc.  So I felt quite blessed by our little fortune today.

Now in all fairness I do pray for things like close parking spots and such and don’t get those answered but sometimes just sometimes I get a little kiss from Heaven and it’s so fun.  Hee hee.

One other downside is that you sort of feel rushed because it’s expected that you pretty much eat and leave so other’s (who are standing at your back waiting) can have a spot.  Honestly though none of these negative really bothered me today but I’m sure they would some.

I just enjoyed my yummy biscuits and gravy that I’ve been craving for months now.

And I would go again.

M.M.A-The Budget Learning Curve.

January will be take 1.  We’ve learned a few things so far regarding the budget and the envelopes we are to use for different categories.  It’s only January 5th.  Sheesh!

There’s this envelope system where certain categories like groceries and gas and others use envelopes.  Well when we got paid we were going to just withdraw all the cash and fill the envelopes.  First of all I gave Jake the wrong amount and didn’t correctly figure out the right amounts of 5′s, 10′s, and 20′s I needed.  I really didn’t want to go back with another large amount.  (I was way off, I think I forgot the grocery category.)  So I thought this was for the birds.  So we finally figured the more sensible approach was to pull out the cash when we needed it and put the change in the envelopes.  For example weekly we take out $100 bucks for groceries and go shopping.  What’s left goes in the envelope for the rest of the week.  We also established 3 change jars to put our loose change from this as well for fun money when it gets full.  The kids have their own and we have a bigger family jar.  It’s been fun ‘catching’ all the loose change.  And we may still pull some out at the beginning for the smaller categories.  We’ll see.

So we had our nicely balanced budget but I was just a little apprehensive about my math working out.  I was waiting for all the bills to roll in.  So far this week we’ve got a few.  We were nearly $50 bucks off on our utility bill to the bad. Two bucks off on another and then our life ins. increased this month too.  (Still need to check on that…).  Then a budgeted expense we thought was going to be $75 turned out to be $175.  So tonight I sat down and tweaked a bunch of categories and and worked it all out.  A few categories got completely wiped out.  Then after that was all done I found one expense that we actually overestimated  by $22.  So I’m saving that for any future mess ups.

Like I said it’s only the 5th…

I like learning from all this though.  Jake and I should’ve done this years ago.  It really is no wonder we are where we’re at.  It’s only the first month.  The very beginning of the incline of the learning curve so I’ll keep a positive outlook and keep praying for guidance.  And learn as I go.