First off, I realized I’ve been making a mistake in calculating our debt payments. I was including our total mortgage payment, not just the principle and interest. So that messed my numbers up, but I’m too lazy to go back and update my past posts. I’ll just start doing it right from now on.

In May we made a total of $1,853 in debt payments and reduced our debt by $1,075 to $177,840. Which would mean we paid interest of $778. Which seems about right because we pay about $700 a month on our mortgage and about $70 a month in interest on our car loans.

Here is the breakdown…

I also added a new section to my spreadsheet that keeps track of the interest I’ve earned. Which is pretty fun. I haven’t included our retirement accounts, I might someday but for right now it’s just our savings accounts. So in April we earned $38.66. Cool! It’s more than I was expecting to have made in one month.

My daughter surprises me the heck out of me sometimes. She gets money for doing certain chores around the house and sometimes she impresses me with how she spends it. Obviously, sometimes she heads blindly into the toy aisle and buys the first thing she sees, but usually she doesn’t. I’ve already mentioned how she saved up $76 to take to Disneyland and when she donated some of her money to her school.

Well, yesterday she came home from school and said she wanted to buy her teacher an apple as a present. I suggested buying a fake apple and painting it, that way she could keep it forever. My daughter really liked that idea. So we went to the craft store with $5 worth of quarters in a ziplock bag. She ended up picking out a wood box that looks like a book and an apple decoration to glue on the front. It cost a grand total of $3.50. I thought that was so sweet of her.

While we were at the craft store my son, age 2, fell in love with a teddy bear. It was only $7 so I just went ahead and got it for him. He was just so dang cute with it I couldn’t resist. I have a general rule that I don’t buy the kids impulse items at the store. I don’t think that sets a good precedence. But once in a while they come across something I just have to buy.

Well, apparently this upset my daughter quite a bit. This morning she burst into tears when I asked her what she wanted for breakfast. After some coaxing she told me that she is sad because my son got something brand new but she didn’t. I reminded her about this weekend when she got a new bathing suit and a new dress but my son didn’t get anything. That made her feel a little bit better.

I tried to explain that if she is going to be jealous every time someone else gets something she doesn’t she is going to be sad all the time. I don’t know if she really understood, but I hope she did. I know it’s hard when you’re six, but if this is an attitude she carries over into her adult life then she is going to be a creditor’s dream. I can’t let that happen!

I’ve had the awesome opportunity to be interviewed by David over at My Two Dollars. Please go check out answers and find out a little bit more about me. I know you’re dying to.

On a personal note, remember I got a job cleaning for an elderly woman? Well, she is doing amazingly well and doesn’t need me anymore. I’m bummed cause I really liked doing it, and the money was good for what I did. Oh well…

I made this recipe for my classmates on the last day of class and it was gone in about two minutes. I don’t even think everyone got some. It was delicious, super easy, and only cost $2.55.

Banana Nut Bread

• 1 cup sugar (19 cents)
• 1/2 cup shortening (27 cents)
• 2 eggs (32 cents)
• 2 cups flour (19 cents)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (81 cents)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (less than a penny)
• 3 soft, ripe bananas, mashed (96 cents)

Cream sugar and shortening; add eggs, flour, soda, bananas, and chopped nuts. Pour banana bread batter into 1 greased and floured loaf pan. I took some extra sugar and nuts and sprinkled them on top before putting it in the oven. Bake at 325° for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. This banana nut bread recipe makes 1 loaf.

One thing in my life I would like to change is my weight. I would like to lose 10 pounds, 20 would be awesome. It’s really hard. I’ve been frustrated with this 10 pounds for at least 6 months now. I have to admit I’m not working very hard at it. I make great plans, but at the first sign of ice cream I decide I will start tomorrow. I also know that there are not any magic “get skinny quick” schemes out there. Only hard work and less food will get rid of these extra pounds. It’s a simple math equation. I need to burn more calories than I eat. So if I want to lose weight I have to either to work out, or eat less. I’ll be stuck with these pounds until I feel like doing one, or both, of those things.

It’s amazing to me how easily I can change the above paragraph to describe getting out of debt.

One thing in my life I would like to change is my debt. I would like to pay off my cars, the house would be awesome. It’s really hard. I’ve been frustrated with this debt for at least 4 years now. I have to admit I’m not working very hard at it. I make great plans, but at the first sign of a sale I decide I will start tomorrow. I also know that there are not any magic “get rich quick” schemes out there. Only a higher income and less spending will get rid of these extra debts. It’s a simple math equation. I need to earn more money than I spend. So if I want to reduce my debt I have to either make more, or spend less. I’ll be stuck with these debts until I feel like doing one, or both, of those things.

Weird huh?

What changes are you trying to make in your life? Leave a comment or write a post on your blog and leave the link.

I’ve made the big switch from Blogger over to Wordpress.  This was done totally by Jonathan at Master Your Card. He did more than just help me… he did all the work for me.  I owe him so big.   So if you are loving the new site then please visit his site or even sign up for his RSS feed.  It’s always worth the read.

I have lots of looking around to do and changes to make to the site, so please bear with me while I get adjusted.

Hello everyone! Another weekend is upon us. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I hope you have a great one.

Master Your Card gave us five ways to teach kids about finances. Which is something of great interest to me.
Girls Just Want to Have Funds navigates the murky waters of the US health care system. I agree that it’s a mess. I’m sorry she has to deal with it. I’m sure she will share what ever she learns.

Blunt Money shares a trick to painlessly increase your 401(k) contributions.
Frugal Dad had the great idea of recreating his first date. How romantic… and frugal!
Remodeling this Life discusses why she likes being frugal.

I forgot to mention that we got our tax rebate the other day! Wohoo! $1,800. Awww yeah. It’s nice to check your account and it’s almost $2,000 bigger than you were expecting.

We are putting the money into our vacation fund. It’s more than enough to take us all to Disneyland for a few days. We think we might need the money for bills, but we are going to try not to spend it. We will plan our trip when we know we are in the clear. Until then we are just going to do our best to hold onto it. If it ends up that we need it then we just won’t go to Disneyland this year. Not the worst thing in the world, I know.

It’s a psychological thing to have a separate savings account for our vacations. By putting it directly into the vacation fund it’s like saying “We are going.” It will be a loss if we have to take the money out of that account. We will be willing to make sacrifices to keep what we have.

Our short term savings account is where we take money from if we are short on bills. We fund this account each year from our tax returns. We think this fund might be a little short because overtime at my husband’s job was very limited at the start of the year and we had to use more of the fund than we intended to. If we were to put the rebate in this account then it’s like saying “We probably aren’t going on vacation this year. We need the money for bills.” Then there is no loss if we don’t go and no need to make sacrifices to make it happen.

It reminds me of this one year at my dad’s job. His company gave annual bonuses for meeting performance goals. One year they gave the bonuses at the beginning of the period and told everyone that if they don’t meet their goals they have to give the money back. As you can imagine the percentage of those who met the goals skyrocketed. Although, I doubt it was very good for morale. But I’m using the same principle to trick myself into saving for our vacation.

Pic by: Miro-Foto

This article was inspired by Kristy over at Master Your Card and her post about how you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. She talked about how you can’t tell someone’s net worth by looking at them. A fancy car and expensive clothes don’t mean anything. I was just thinking today how if everyone had their net worth on the back window of their car it would really cut into the Hummer market. How embarrassing to have to display a negative net worth on your $50,000 vehicle.

Kristy’s article reminded me of my dad and his friends. My dad lives in a very ritzy town and has several successful businesses. He has a net worth of over a million but you would never know it by looking at him. He drives a rusty used minivan and dresses in jeans and sneakers.

One of his businesses is a lawn care company. One time he was mowing the grass of the local Albertson’s and a tourist stopped and said:

“Hey, I hear everyone around here is a millionaire. Are you a millionaire?”

“Yeah, actually, I am.” Replied my dad. The guy was just beside himself. Even the guy who is mowing the grass in front of Albertson’s is a millionaire! Amazing. Of course if the guy had asked how he became a millionaire it would have made more sense. My dad would have told him that he wasn’t an employee of the company. He was the owner.

One of my dad’s life long friends is even more a millionaire sleeper than my dad. He owns several apartment complexes in Los Angeles. This guy is very wealthy but the last time I saw him he had a piece of rope as a shoestring in his dirty old work boots. Not exactly something you would expect to see on a multi-millionaire.

There was another guy that my Dad used to work with who made good money. He was partner with my dad in one of his businesses. But this guy wasn’t interested in becoming wealthy, he was only interested in looking wealthy. He had drove a new BMW and spent every night after work at the bar buying rounds for everyone. He never had any money even though he lived in the back room of my Dad’s house for free. This guy had an opportunity to become truly wealthy but was too busy trying to impress people to spend the time and effort to take advantage of his situation. Too bad. My dad bought him out after a few years of watching him ruin his life and their business.

I definitely learned some of my money habits from my dad. I’m not interested in looking like I have money. I know that actual wealth is much more important than perceived wealth. I don’t need to have the best of everything. Good enough is… well… good enough.

If you enjoyed this article you might also like:

I deserve it

Getting off on the right foot (part 2)

Are hybrids cheaper?

I just noticed that my links yesterday were acting weird. My apologizes. They are now fixed. I’m sure that was annoying for everyone. I almost always check them after I post to make sure everything is working properly. Obviously yesterday I didn’t do that. So now I know… always always always check your links. Lesson learned.

I also got my Wii yesterday! I felt like a little kid waiting for Santa. Every time I heard a truck go by the house I peeked out the window to see if it was UPS. So if you don’t see me for a few days you know why.