Julie Gumm - Author

Keeping It Real

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I was inspired last week by my friend Angel’s post where she laid out all her faults lest other women think she’s got it all together.

We women do that don’t we?

Admit it, you can name one mom friend who makes you think “Wow. She’s got it all together. How does she do that? I so don’t measure up.”

I know I do (not naming names). She’s kind of like Martha Stewart but with kids.

So for fear that there MIGHT be someone out there who thinks I’ve got it all together let me tell you, I do NOT.

  • I am NOT a morning person. As in my husband knows not to talk to me until I’ve had a shower, dressed and have coffee in hand. Yes, it is THAT bad!
  • I pretty much have the same 15 meals that I cook on a rotating basis. Occasionally I try something new but I’m not that inventive. I’m sure my kids are tired of said 15 meals.
  • I have horrible self-discipline. Really good intentions – but total lack of follow through when it comes to habits like exercise, Bible reading, etc. I get on the bandwagon for awhile but am constantly falling off.
  • My kids constant questions drive me INSANE. Especially when they really should know the answer. I do not always maintain a calm tone when answering their questions. I’ve also been known to declare “That’s IT. I’m not answering ANY questions from anyone under 21 for the next 30 minutes.”
  • I hate being interrupted when I’m in the middle of something. This includes when I’m in the middle of something stupid like wiping the counters and my husband wants a hug. I’m working on that one.
  • I stay up late because I like being alone and that’s pretty much the only time that happens.
  • I suck at delegating and letting other people do things for me. I can always do it better and faster. Right? I’m gradually learning to let this one go (like not reloading the dishwasher after the 7 year old has done it).
  • Clutter in my house quite literally makes me freak out. Like right now, if I step foot in the boys room my blood pressure automatically rises 40 points. Makes me want to take a match to the place.
  • I could totally be a couch potato and watch random TV shows all day and night long. It’s probably a good thing that we don’t have cable any more…except for the fact that I can watch them all online.
  • I like to argue, have the last word, make my point, prove I’m right. Now that my 10 year old is exactly like that, I realize how annoying it is. Oops!
  • When the kids ask if they can do something my first response leans toward no and I have to stop myself and think why I want to say no. A lot of the time its because I just don’t want to deal with it. Working on this one as well.

I’m sure my dear husband and close friends could add a few more to the list.

China Window Decals Are Here!!!

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About a year ago when I couldn’t find an Ethiopian window decal that I liked I decided to design my own and get them printed. Inspired by the adoption of my beautiful niece Julia, I couldn’t leave China out, could I?

So the China window decals are here. They are made with the same all-weather vinyl that they wrap cars with and are made to withstand the heat and the cold. My decal has been on my car through two hot Phoenix summers and it looks great.


(The mysterious man in the photo would be my brother 🙂

They are 6″ x 5″
Cost: $6.00
Shipping & Handling: $1.50 for up to 3 ($2.00 for 4+)
AZ Residents must pay sales tax of 8.3% (their rules, not mine)

Clicking “Add to Cart” will open up a secure check-out window in PayPal. You can pay with credit, debit or PayPal account. You will also be able to change the quantity at that point.

If you want to order the Ethiopia decal, go here.

 


The “B” Word: B-U-D-G-E-T

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Part 5 of our Debt-Free Story

So Dave Ramsey lays out these 7 baby steps ($500-1000 in an emergency fund; pay off debt except house; 3-6 months expense in emergency fund; invest15%; college funding; pay off mortgage; build wealth – MORE DETAIL). (We’ve kind of adapted our baby steps/financial plan but that’s a different post.)

Well to get to any of those places there’s one thing that needs to be in place and that is a budget.

Preferably one that works. Our previous attempts had not.

We quickly realized that we were going about it all wrong. We were trying to come up some perfect one-size-fits-all budget in our nice yearly spreadsheet. Sure we accounted for things like Christmas but other than that life was supposed to be the same every month. Right?

Yeah, not so much. When we finally realized that the budget had to be a monthly thing it was like the light bulb went on. Sure, a lot of the expenses stay the same but there are always things to take into consideration.

  • Is it back to school time (school supplies, clothes)?
  • How many birthdays will you be celebrating that month?
  • School pictures?
  • Company coming (bigger food budget)?
  • Car registration?

The bottom line is this: You MUST tell every penny of your income where to go.  Add up your income, list your expenses. If you have extra put it toward your baby emergency fund or your debt. If you don’t have enough? Well, now we’ve got an issue don’t we. (We’ll come back to that.)

I will be the first to tell you that some of our first monthly “budget meetings” were not pretty. Not that they were screaming matches but there was much we disagreed on (why did I need a “misc” category; should golfing come out of his fun money or the general budget). But, we learned to compromise and we knew that if it didn’t work that month we would revisit the issue the next month. And the biggest thing is that we had an agreed upon goal that we were both excited about working toward – paying off our debt.

Dave has some great forms to get you started on his web site.

You might really be struggling to figure out what to put in some of those categories. If you’ve never tracked your spending before you may have no idea what you spend on groceries every month. Take your best guess (maybe look at old debit/credit card transactions) and then save EVERY receipt for the next month to track what you spend.

What if there’s not enough money? If you run out of money before you run out of expenses then there are two things to be done. ONE – cut your spending and TWO – pay the most necessary expenses first (in drastic situations).

The second one is a bit complicated to get into here but I will address the first one briefly. Sometime I’ll do a more detailed post on ways to trim the budget.

There are 3 main areas that seemed to be the first to go to when it comes to trimming the budget (not counting selling cars, etc that have HUGE payments).

1) Eating Out/Entertainment – The average American family spends $225 a month eating out. That’s incredible isn’t it. It adds up quick – a family meal out, some stops at Starbucks, run through the drive thru on the way to/from the kids activities, order a pizza in, lunch for the working spouse(s). One word for you: STOP. Brown bag your lunch, store some frozen pizzas in the freezer, keep a bag of snacks in the car to stave off hunger until you can get home. Budget a modest amount and stick to it. In our strictest budget days we allotted $30 to this category.

2) Groceries – $700. That’s the amount the Jonses (family of four) spend on groceries each month. We knew one couple (w/ no kids) that was spending $900 a month and had no idea that it could be done on so much less. I know families of four who spend $70/wk ($280 a month). I feed our family of six for about $400 a month. I do some coupon clipping but it’s mostly shopping the sales, stocking up when I can and cooking wisely.

3) Cable/Internet/Cell Phones – We’ve come to expect these things. We deserve these things. We need these things. Yes, some are necessary. We need high speed internet at home for our job. Can you downgrade or eliminate your cable package? Can you shop for a new cell plan that’s cheaper? Get rid of your home phone?

Ah, I digress – sorry I get excited about this stuff.

So once we figured out our budget the next problem was figuring out how to stick to it.

Dave Ramsey has a plan for that too. It’s called The Envelope System which I will introduce you to next week.